By Lucas Owens
Week 2 was never going to be the most exciting week for the American Athletic Conference, but there was at least one game that ended up coming down to the wire in Tulane and South Alabama. However, whereas the AAC was ho-hum, the Sun Belt took all their magic away from them and went on a tear Saturday. The Sun Belt had not one, not two, but three wins against Big 12 teams last weekend, including one absolute drubbing of a ranked Iowa State team. With that happening, I must talk about what happened in those three games, so I will be including the Sun Belt this week in the recap.
South Florida 27 – 6 The Citadel
USF beating The Citadel on Saturday is no shock in any way. The fact that they did it with only 68 yards passing from Quarterback Jordan McCloud is. USF took an interesting approach to the game on Saturday and relied heavily on their run game, as the Bulls had 302 yards rushing. That was mostly a team effort, but Kelley Joiner did have 87 yards rushing and one touchdown as the Bulls’ leading rusher. The key to the Bulls win was a great defensive performance, including a blocked punt returned for a touchdown, but all facets showed up Saturday and USF heads away with their first win of the season.
Tulane 27 – 24 South Alabama
I certainly did not think Tulane was going to end up needing a big rally in the fourth to come from behind and beat USA, but they did behind two huge touchdown runs from Cameron Carroll. Even though the Green Wave won, for much of the second and third quarters they were spiraling hard in the wrong direction. South Alabama was manhandling their defense, and USA Quarterback Chance Lovertich did so to the tune of 247 yards passing and two touchdowns. The Green Wave have a lot of kinks to work out on both defense and offense if they want to compete in the American Athletic Conference this year, but for now, they go home from Montgomery with a good win.
Pow6r Team(s) of the Week: Did I hear “Fun Belt” or what?
It is no secret that if you watched football Sunday in the Big 12, looking for your teams to have fun wins over Sun Belt teams, then you ended up a bit disappointed to say the least. In what ended up as a historic day for the Sun Belt, teams from that conference went a crazy 3-0 over Big 12 opponents. Top of the line was Louisiana’s special teams destroying No. 23 Iowa State with two touchdowns to run away with a commanding victory, but do not overlook Arkansas State’s close win over Kansas State or Coastal Carolina’s dominant win over Kansas (for the second year in a row, might I add). Overall, aside from two out of conference losses in other games, this week was a fantastic one for the Sun Belt.
Edited by Emma Moloney