Conference USA Football was back in action this weekend. Here’s the latest from the teams on the gridiron in Week 7.

Team	Week 7	Result	Week 8
Charlotte	— OFF —	—	vs FAU (Thrs)
FAU	— OFF —	—	at Charlotte (Thrs)
FIU	— OFF —	—	vs WKU
LA Tech	at UTEP	L, 19-3	vs UTSA
Marshall	at North Texas	W, 49-21	— OFF —
MTSU	— OFF —	—	at UConn (Fri)
North Texas	vs Marshall	L, 49-21	vs Liberty
Old Dominion	vs WKU	L, 43-20	— OFF —
Rice	at UTSA	L, 45-0	at UAB
Southern Miss	vs UAB	L, 34-0	— OFF —
UAB	at Southern Miss	W, 34-0	vs Rice
UTEP	vs Louisiana Tech	W, 19-3	— OFF —
UTSA	vs Rice	W, 45-0	at Louisiana Tech
WKU	at Old Dominion	W, 43-20	at FIU

Notable Week 7 results – Standings

The cream of the crop

If we’ve learned anything from the first half of the season, we now know for certain that UTSA and UAB are the best of the West, and likely the top two teams in Conference USA. Not only did both teams find the win column this week; they blasted inferior opponents in an emphatic fashion. If you haven’t circled Nov. 20 yet, get it on your calendar. These two teams are going to put on quite a show.

Watch out for Western

Although they weren’t able to top UTSA the week prior, Western Kentucky looked quite capable on Saturday against Old Dominion. Bailey Zappe continues to be as good as advertised and Conference USA defenses don’t have any answers for the Hilltoppers’ signal-caller. This team is going to drop 40+ every game. The only way to top them is to outscore them, something that probably won’t be happening too often.

Miner Mania

UTEP was expected to be better this season, but even some of the Miners’ own supporters were skeptical of a bowl berth coming by the end of the year. Turns out, it only took seven weeks for UTEP to accomplish that feat. Not only will UTEP be bowling this offseason, they’ll enter their bye week deadlock atop Conference USA West with UTSA and UAB, all of which own 3-0 conference records.

Looking ahead – Key storylines

Intrigue in the East

If it’s not going to be Western Kentucky who emerges in the East, it might be one of Charlotte or FAU, who meet on the field next week following bye weeks for both programs. Each squad enters next week in the top half of C-USA in scoring defense and scoring offense. If they have hopes of winning their division, a win in this game would be a great place to start.

Mean Green Free Fall?

After winning their season opener against Northwestern State, North Texas has lost five consecutive games and only one of them was particularly close. The task won’t get any easier this week as they close out non-conference play against Liberty — who were upset by 32.5-point underdogs Louisiana Monroe on Saturday — but they need to show some sign of life after a rough month of play.

Tech in trouble?

Under head coach Skip Holtz, Louisiana Tech has been a perennial contender in Conference USA, and despite falling short of that elusive conference title, they’ve played in bowl games in each of the last seven seasons, winning six in a row prior to last year. Now sitting at 2-4 with UTSA on deck, the Bulldogs are in danger of getting uncomfortably close to missing that regular postseason trip they’ve become so accustomed to each winter.

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Conference USA Football was back in action this weekend. Here’s the latest from the teams on the gridiron in Week 6.

Team	Week 6	Result	Week 7
Charlotte	at FIU	W, 45-33	— OFF —
FAU	at UAB	L, 31-14	— OFF —
FIU	vs Charlotte	L, 45-33	— OFF —
LA Tech	— OFF —	—	at UTEP
Marshall	vs Old Dominion	W, 20-13 OT	at North Texas
MTSU	at Liberty	L, 41-13	— OFF —
North Texas	at Missouri	L, 48-35	vs Marshall
Old Dominion	at Marshall	L, 20-13 OT	vs WKU
Rice	— OFF —	—	at UTSA
Southern Miss	vs UTEP	L, 26-13	vs UAB
UAB	vs FAU	W, 31-14	at Southern Miss
UTEP	at Southern Miss	W, 26-13	vs Louisiana Tech
UTSA	at WKU	W, 52-46	vs Rice
WKU	vs UTSA	L, 52-46	at Old Dominion

Notable Week 6 results – Standings

CharLIT catching fire

With wins under their belt over Duke and Middle Tennessee, Charlotte had already gotten off to a strong start. Taking care of business against FIU in Week 6 boosted their record to 4-2 (2-0), putting them in first place in the East. The 49ers struggled to a 2-4 finish last year among several COVID-related challenges. So far, they look like they’ve quickly moved past that.

POINTS!!!

UTSA and Western Kentucky was an absolute barn burner. The two teams combined for more than 1200 total yards and 98 points with Hiltoppers’ gunslinging quarterback Bailey Zappe somehow throwing for 523 yards and five touchdowns in defeat. Sincere McCormick was fantastic. Frank Harris played one of his best games ever. UTSA is 6-0.

Marshall escapes

Old Dominion has been a tough out in recent weeks. They lost to Buffalo by a point, UTEP by a touchdown and fell on Saturday to Marshall in overtime. The Monarchs might be feisty, but Marshall was expected to win comfortably at home. Sitting at 3-3 this team doesn’t look anywhere near the level of a conference title contender. Not yet.

Looking ahead – Key storylines

Time for a break

The bye weeks are here in earnest. Four conference teams won’t play in Week 6, a prequel to another quartet of open weekends for C-USA schools in Week 7. That means fewer intraconference matchups, but fortunately still a handful of notable pairings, several of which could have conference title implications. For those in action, the stakes are as high as ever.

Rice in waiting

UTSA’s Week 6 matchup with WKU was a highly anticipated C-USA bout, but the Roadrunners won’t have much time to recover. Next week they draw a Rice squad they haven’t seen in two seasons, and a lot has changed at South Main over that time period. Winners of six of their last nine conference games, Rice will be eager to return to the Alamodome on Saturday.

Bowling Miners?

Perhaps not one of the games circled as a must-watch entering the season, UTEP vs Louisiana Tech has the makings of a sneaky-good game, with significant ramifications for both programs. UTEP can win their sixth game, the most in any season since 2014 and maintain top position in the conference standings. Meanwhile, if Louisiana Tech has true C-USA title aspirations, they’ve got to win this one, too.

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We’re roughly halfway through the 2021 Conference USA football season. Here are a few highlights from the first half and some musings on what’s to come.

As is always the case, it’s been an eventual year for Conference USA football. While realignment rumors swirl around the sport and teams jockey for position on the field, there have been several intriguing results. With approximately half the season in the books, here are some of the top moments and storylines from C-USA.

1. Power 5 upset No. 1 – Charlotte knocks off Duke (Week 1)

It was a tough 2020 for Charlotte and head coach Will Healy. The up-and-coming star in the coaching ranks lost some luster as his team struggled through the season. But any signs of trouble were vanquished immediately upon the start of 2021. Not only did Charlotte beat Duke — their first win over a Power 5 program in school history — they engineered two go-ahead fourth quarter drives to do so.

2. Power 5 upset No. 2 – UTSA upsets Illinois (Week 2)

Not to be outdone,  UTSA and Jeff Traylor doubled C-USA’s Power 5 win total the next weekend. The Roadrunners were so impressive early that ESPN FPI gave them better than a 50 percent chance of winning with the score tied 0-0 in the waning minutes of the first quarter. Frank Harris and Zakhari Franklin would go on to seal the deal.

3. Outlook on title contenders

The West seems fairly straightforward at this point, even though five teams sit at 1-0 in C-USA action. UTSA is 5-0 on the season and 1-0 in C-USA action so far with a highly anticipated matchup against Western Kentucky looming. UAB is 3-2 with losses to Georgia and Liberty, which can largely be written off as understandable. UTEP is 4-1 (?!?) but their four wins have come against opponents with a collective record of 4-17.

In the East, things are significantly more muddled. Charlotte and FAU are the lone unbeaten in C-USA play and the only teams on the season with records above .500. Preseason favorite Marshall is 2-3 (0-1) and Western Kentucky hasn’t played any conference games thus far. At this point, the race is completely wide open.

4. Early conference MVP favorites

To date, only three players have repeated in the three weekly conference awards. Charlotte quarterback Chris Reynolds and Western Kentucky quarterback Bailey Zappe are two-time Offensive Player of the Week recipients. UTSA punter Hunter Duplessis has taken home the Special Teams Player of the Week on two occasions. He’s probably the front-runner for the season-long aware at this point. No defensive players have repeated yet.

More: Week 5 Conference USA Football roundup

It’s only a matter of time before UTSA running back Sincere McCormick takes home an Offensive POTW award. He leads the conference in rushing attempts and rushing yards. No singular pass catcher has emerged as truly dominant, although there have been some flashes and elite play from UTSA’s Joshua Cephus and UTEP’s Jacob Cowing, among others. Right now, it’s probably a three-way race between Reynolds, Zappe and McCormick with room for others to enter down the road.

Things are much more wide open on the defensive side of the ball. MTSU’s Reed Blankenship leads the conference in tackles with 46. Josh Carr from Southern Miss has four sacks, with a host of other players tied with three apiece. Others like UTSA’s Rashad Wisdom and Rice’s George Nyakwol have had less to show on the stat sheet, but very productive performances on this field.

5. Conference USA as we know it

Realignment has been at the forefront of the 2021 college football season. Reports have tabbed UAB as a heavy favorite to earn an invitation to the AAC, at the very least. UTSA could be in the running as well. Meanwhile, just about every program in the conference has their hopes set on getting to green pastures, somewhere, anywhere. All of that to say we could be nearing the end of Conference USA as we know. Soak up every ODU/UTEP matchup while we’ve still got it.

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Conference USA Football was back in action this weekend. Here’s the latest from the teams on the gridiron in Week 5.

Team	Week 5	Result	Week 6
Charlotte	at Illinois	L, 24-14	at FIU
FAU	vs FIU	W, 58-21	at UAB
FIU	at FAU	L, 58-21	vs Charlotte
LA Tech	— OFF —	L 34-27	— OFF —
Marshall	at MTSU	L, 34-28	vs Old Dominion
MTSU	vs Marshall	W, 34-28	at Liberty
North Texas	— OFF —	—	at Missouri
Old Dominion	at UTEP	L 28-21	at Marshall
Rice	vs Southern Miss	W, 24-19	— OFF —
Southern Miss	at Rice	L, 24-19	vs UTEP
UAB	vs Liberty	L, 36-12	vs FAU
UTEP	vs Old Dominion	W, 28-21	at Southern Miss
UTSA	vs UNLV	W, 24-17	at WKU
WKU	at Michigan St.	L, 48-31	vs UTSA

Notable Week 5 results – Standings

Marshall takes third straight L

Marshall was a popular pick to win the Eastern division. Through the Herd’s first five games, they’ve beaten just one FBS team and dropped their three most recent contests. Saturday’s loss to Middle Tennessee was particularly disheartening. They outgained MTSU 493 to 314 but committed six turnovers.

Louisiana Tech, masters of heartbreak

You couldn’t make this up if you wanted to. Once more, Louisiana Tech has found a way to lose in the most painful of ways. Trailing by seven with three minutes to play, Austin Kendall marched the offense the length of the field into the redzone only to be intercepted in the endzone on the final play of regulation with the clock expiring. Ouch.

Honorable mention: UAB opened Protective Stadium with a loss to Liberty. It was a tough outing, but at least there was no fourth-quarter dagger to amp up the pain even further.

Hot rice

Rice football dropped its first three games in non-conference play to Arkansas, Houston and Texas. Then Jake Constantine took over at quarterback and the Owls rattled off two consecutive home wins, capped off with their first conference win of the season over Southern Miss. They enter the bye week tied for first place in Conference USA West, righting the ship after a rocky opening stanza.

Looking ahead – Key storylines

Cross-divisional fireworks

Two of the most significant divisional crossover games of the season are set to take place in Week 6. Frontrunners in the West, UAB and UTSA, are set to take on FAU and Western Kentucky, respectively. It wouldn’t be stunning to see one or possibly two of these four teams represented in the conference championship game, making these matchups some of the best we’ll see in the conference this year.

Way-too-early bowl watch

UTEP is off to one of its better starts in recent history and the Miners’ aspirations of postseason play seem more believable now than perhaps any other time in Dana Dimel’s tenure. Southern Miss is far from the top-dog in the West, making this a key matchup for UTEP if they want to stay on track and reach that coveted six-win (or more) season.

Nonconference nightcaps

Week 5 marks a notable shift toward conference play, but there are a handful of programs that won’t face a Conference USA foe. North Texas will have their work cut out for them against Missouri, while Middle Tennesee will make their best efforts to knock off a feisty Liberty squad that faced off with UAB the weekend prior.

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