A see-saw weekend in C-USA with plenty of back-and-forth action, this is your C-USA weekend recap.
FAU 24, UMass 2
-James Posey has officially established himself as QB1 in the FAU offense here late in the season.
-Posey had his best game through the air (13-27, 203 yards) and also added a 70-yard TD run in the third quarter to put an early dagger in the Minutemen.
-UMass was forced to punt 10 times and finished with 142 yards of total offense (80 passing, 62 rushing).
-Leighton McCarthy added another sack to his total on the year to bring it to 8 as he and the Owl defense got after all three UMass QBs relentlessly last Friday night.
WKU 38, FIU 21
-WKU's defense continued to play lights out, this time by propelling the Tops to their first 30-plus point performance of the season after defensive touchdowns by cornerback Roger Cray on a Deangelo Malone forced fumble and an Eli Brown pick six.
-The Panthers started hot after an opening drive touchdown ending in a 28-yard strike to JJ Holloman from Max Bortenschlager. In the second quarter EJ Wilson Jr. would return a WKU kick end zone to end zone to make it 13-3 FIU.
-Gaej Walker got going Saturday as well for the Hilltoppers, the senior back rushed for 100-plus yards the first time all season.
-Outside of a late touchdown drive by FIU, the WKU defense held the Panthers to 2 punts, the two turnovers for touchdowns and three turnover on down drives.
North Texas 27, Rice 17
-Mike Collins and the Rice offense were humming early in this one, up 10-0 at the end of the first.
-Mean Green QB Jason Bean turned in a 66-yard scamper and a 25-yard score through the air to Jaelon Darden to give UNT a 14-10 halftime lead.
-This season special teams mistakes had haunted North Texas, but on Saturday the Mean Green didn't miss a kick, muff a punt or have a kick blocked.
-The difference in this one was third down conversions: Rice finished just 3-of-12 and North Texas finished 7-of-15 on the money down.
UTSA 23, Southern Miss 20
-Star tailback Sincere McCormick returned to the lineup this past weekend for the Roadrunners and it paid off big time. McCormick turned in a performance of 173 yards and 2 TDs in the narrow victory at Hattiesburg.
-USM QB Tate Whatley also returned and regained his spot behind center as he finished 22-39 for 272 yards with 2 TDs.
-After a 50-plus yard TD reception from Frank Gore Jr. to cut the UTSA lead to three, the Golden Eagles never saw a chance to tie/go ahead after punting with 4:36 to play on their final drive.
MTSU 20, Troy 17
-The script definitely flipped when you look at the box score from the last time these two played eachother.
-MTSU was boat raced in Murfreesboro when these two met for the Trojan's season opener, 47-14.
-A weekly key for MTSU that I typically always have is that Alex O'Hara cannot be reckless with the football. On Saturday he was turnover free and finished with nearly 300 yards of total offense.
-MTSU dominated time of possession in this one (37:21 to 22:39 for Troy) in order to keep Gunnar Watson and co. off the field so that they couldn't blow this game open in the same way they did earlier in the season.
