Halftime Report

Show Me

Tennessee finds itself trailing 13-3 to Appalachian State at the half. In my earlier post, I demanded that Tennessee show me that they deserved all of the hype that they were being given. Through the first 30 minutes of play, I am disappointed. App State has controlled the momentum since this game kicked off. Tennessee has caught several bad breaks though. On their first full offensive drive of the game, Tennessee had a touchdown overturned when a receiver dropped the ball while going to the ground. Instead of seven points, they settled for three. Not long after, the Vols' defensive leader, Cameron Reeves-Maybin was ejected on a targeting foul when he lowered his head into a Mountaineer who had signaled for a fair catch on a punt. After all of this, Tennessee found itself having the ball with under 5:00 to go in the first half. Josh Dobbs connected on a pass to Josh Smith over the middle for about a 25-yard gain. Dobbs then rushed the offense to the line to set off another play, which they got off. After Hurd's run up the middle, the play before was reviewed and determined that the ball hit the ground before the receiver caught it. Now, I have always been led to believe that if the next play gets off, the previous cannot be reviewed. It would appear that the rules have changed.


Butch Jones better give the speech of his life in the locker room. In most cases, when a team that is favored finds itself behind, they mount a ferocious comeback. From one half of play, I haven't seen an ounce of the type of fight that UT will need. The Mountaineers have a legitimate shot of pulling this off if something doesn't change in a hurry.




Let's take a look at other games going on right now. Early in the third quarter, Louisville leads Charlotte 56-0. Lamar Jackson has had a hand in all eight of Louisville's scores.


Two minutes before halftime, Vanderbilt is ahead of South Carolina 10-0.


7:00 left in the second quarter, Western Kentucky is on top of Rice 30-7.




Check back later for more updates.


-Dug
@chansm1th

College Football Thursday

Finally!!

A new season of college football will kick off tonight. Predictions and talk will now turn into reality as is is time to make the statements on the field. It all begins tonight as we have 16 games on the schedule. Here are three things to watch for, along with predictions for each of tonight's games.

1.) Tennessee Starts the Season with High Expectations

This is by far the most hyped team that Rocky Top has fielded in the last 15 years. Butch Jones might have finally turned the train wreck he inherited into a title contender. Most polls have the Volunteers in their Top 10, and consider them to be the odds on favorite to win the SEC East. Now all they have to do is produce. Too many times has this team been talked up only to under perform. You want me to take you seriously? Show me. Don't overlook Appalachian State though. The Mountaineers like to run and put up a lot of points. If Tennessee does take them seriously, they should win convincingly. If not, State will keep this one close and put a scare into the Tennessee fans. 

Tennessee 38, Appalachian State 24

2.) Vanderbilt/South Carolina will Control the SEC East after Tonight

Scary, isn't it? One of these two teams will be leading the nation's strongest conference, and control their own destiny. Last season, the two combined for a 3-13 record in the SEC. Expectations this year seem to point toward a similar scenario. Take nothing away from either though. THEY WILL BE LEADING THE SEC AFTER TONIGHT! Let the victor have their moment of glory seeing as it will only last for a week as multiple teams open up conference play in Week 2.

Vanderbilt 17, South Carolina 9

3.) Western Kentucky Begins it's Quest for the Top 25

You read that right. The Hilltoppers are a legitimate threat as a mid-major program. Tonight will be the first of their many runovers as I firmly believe they will be ranked this season. WKU is going to win the Conference-USA, and they could very easily only have one loss on the year going into the conference championship game. A year ago, the Hilltoppers averaged 44.3 ppg and 526.4 ypg, both stats good enough to have them in the Top 10 nationally. Their opponent tonight, Rice, ranked near the bottom of the nation in all major defensive categories. Kickoff is at 8 PM, but this one will be over by 8:30.

Western Kentucky 63, Rice 17

Other Games Tonight:

Central Michigan over Presbyterian

Louisville over Charlotte

Wake Forest over Tulane

Cincinnati over UT-Martin

UConn over Maine

North Carolina State over William & Mary

Florida International over Indiana

Utah over Southern Utah

Utah State over Weber State

Minnesota over Oregon State

New Mexico over South Dakota

Idaho over Montana State

UNLV over Jackson State

Check back later for quick reactions to the games. Tomorrow morning, we'll look at where I was wrong. 

-Dug

@chansm1th

Conference USA Preview: Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

 
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

Last Year: 12-2 (8-0)/1st East

2015 was very good to WKU and Conference USA Most Valuable Player Brandon Doughty. Doughty was the nation’s #1 passer throwing for 5055 yards and 48 TDs. The #25 ranked Hilltoppers defeated South Florida 45-35 in the Miami Beach Bowl. In conference play, the only team to sniff at a win was Louisiana Tech in week 2, but other than that, no C-USA team got within 14 (FAU was the closest at 35-19). Doughty wasn’t the only producing weapon on offense. Anthony Wales was the league’s 2nd leading rusher with 1091 yards and 9 TDs.

Players to Watch in 2016

RB Anthony Wales

WR Taywan Taylor

LB T.J. McCollum

The biggest question coming into 2016 will no question be, who replaces Doughty at QB. Sadly, Nelson Fishback will not be the guy. Fishback injured his right pectoral tendon and will miss the season. The others in contention for the starting job includes SR Tyler Ferguson, JR Mike White, SO Drew Eckels and incoming FR Steven Duncan. Ferguson seems to be the front-runner, but it’s way too early to speculate. But whoever wins the starting job, they’ll be throwing to WR Taywan Taylor, a lot. Taylor set the single-season mark for receptions in a season with 86 and caught a school-record 17 TDs. RB Anthony Wales will look to follow up a spectacular 2015, and will run with the help of Conference USA 1st Team selection Forrest Lamp.

On defense, LB T.J. McCollum leads the list of the 4 returning starters. He lead the team with 106 tackles. This defense from last year does lose 7 starters, but this defense isn’t as star driven. Overall, this was the 6th best defense, they were top 5 in both rushing and passing defense, and most importantly, lead the league in Turnover Margin at +14. There’s a lot of depth for this defense.

Total Offense	9th/1st (526)	Total Defense	60th/6th (405.1)
Passing Offense	4th/1st (372.2)	Passing Defense	82nd/4th (234.5)
Rushing Offense	90th/9th (154.1)	Rushing Defense	50th/5th (156.0)
Scoring Offense	3rd/1st (44.3)	Scoring Defense	54th/3rd (25.9)

Big Games in 2016

Oct 6     Louisiana Tech

Oct 15    Middle Tennessee State University

Nov 26    Marshall

Prediction

8-4 (5-3)/ 3rd in East

This may be the biggest shocker of my previews. WKU was so good last year behind the arm of Brandon Doughty, and with his loss, the team will suffer. And, suffer is such a harsh word for a team that I have winning 8 games, but that comes from being 3rd in the division. The East Division is the overall strength of the conference this year, and the Hilltoppers have to battle through both MTSU and Marshall, who both will be improved from last year. WKU should breeze through their non-conference schedule, well, obviously against anyone not named Alabama, but the Miami (OH) game could be tricky on the road with a new QB. There’s been so much progress in this program since the addition of Jeff Brohm, and this will seem to be the first rebuilding season for the Hilltoppers.

   

College Football Preview: Conference USA

As we continue our look into each conference in the FBS, we turn to the most patriotic conference in all of College Football. Conference USA. Here you'll find high octane offenses and some new players to the FBS world. 

13 schools currently make up (UAB will rejoin in 2017) the conference in 2 separate divisions. 

East

Western Kentucky

Middle Tennessee State

Marshall

Florida International

Florida Atlantic

Old Dominion

Charlotte

West

Southern Miss

Louisiana Tech

UTSA

UTEP

Rice

North Texas

During this week we'll dive into each team and what to keep an eye on. Here's how the schedule looks like:

Monday:

Charlotte

Florida International

Florida Atlantic

Tuesday:

Rice

North Texas

UTSA

Wednesday:

UTEP

Old Dominion

Middle Tennessee State

Thursday:

Louisiana Tech

Marshall

Friday:

Southern Miss

Western Kentucky

Be sure to comment! On Friday I'll also have a wrap up post where I pick the standings in a more complete sense, pick the conference awards, and preview to our next conference.