"In 27 seasons, Conference USA has produced 29 champions or co-champions. The conference's nine current members have accounted for ... two of them. Western Kentucky won in 2015 and 2016. That's the entire list."
SP+ projects four teams within 1.4 conference wins of each other atop the league....WKU's Tyson Helton made his team a league favorite by deciding to air out the football. Louisiana Tech coach Sonny Cumbie doesn't mind going vertical, Middle Tennessee's Rick Stockstill has saved his job multiple times with a relentless horizontal passing game and UTEP's
Dana Dimel just wants to push you over. Florida International's Mike MacIntyre? His approach has shifted at times, but he's won 10 games at both Colorado and San Jose State -- he's fearless and willing to try just about anything."
Dana is an offensive genius. He finished last in his class behind, sack of hammers, stump, and Kugler. He loves to fool you with his play calling. Nah!! He just tells his guys to push harder. Hardison has to beat the other team's defense and overcome his head coach's half-a-brain offense. You know, the same one that damned near killed Metz, and don't forget what Dimel's genius did for Kai Locksley, who like I said before was quite a dual threat quarterback before learning to adjust to Dimel ball-pushing hard(my words), "...PRIOR TO UTEP: Named the 2017 Spalding? NJCAA Offensive Player of the Year and earned first-team All-America honors following a stellar sophomore season ? guided the Reivers to an 11-1 overall record and a victory in The Graphic Edge Bowl ? accounted for 40 total touchdowns in 2017 ? threw for 2,238 yards on 176-of-265 passing (66.4 percent) with 20 passing scores and only six interceptions ? rushed for 705 yards on 112 attempts (6.3 avg.) and a team-best 20 rushing scores ? threw for a season-high 274 yards on a season-best 31 completions with four passing scores, while adding a rushing TD in Iowa Western?s bowl victory over Northwest Mississippi Community College ? tossed four touchdowns on eight completions and rushed for another score against Highland Community College (Kan.) ? hit 100-plus rushing yards in three different contests ? rushed for a season-high 128 yards and three scores at Coffeyville Community College ? rambled for 115 yards on 10 carries and three touchdowns against Dodge City Community College ? put up big numbers at College of DuPage, finding the end zone six times and rushing for 118 yards ? redshirted at Texas in 2015 while being switched from quarterback to wide receiver prior to the 2016 season ? played at Gilman High School (Baltimore, Md.) and was a two-time All-State and a two-time All-Metro second-team selection ? during senior season..."
"2022 recap
WKU was fun, explosive and just about the most pass-happy team in FBS but stunk in the red zone, couldn't create enough disruption and allowed 36 points per game in five losses. Middle Tennessee rode a nonstop roller coaster -- it got blown out by James Madison, won three in a row (including a 45-31 humbling of Miami), lost three in a row, then won five of six -- while UTEP's ride, which included a stretch of four wins in six games and an upset of Boise State, needed one more upswing and fell short of the postseason."
2023 projections
TEAM SP+ RK OFF. DEF. AVG. W CONF. W
Western Kentucky -6.9 (84) 28.7 (54) 35.6 (117) 7.5 5.5
Liberty -7.8 (87) 24.1 (78) 31.9 (96) 8.2 5.3
Middle Tennessee -12.8 (104) 19.3 (104) 32.2 (98) 6.0 4.3
Louisiana Tech -13.8 (108) 28.1 (58) 42.0 (133) 5.6 4.1
UTEP -16.3 (117) 18.2 (108) 34.5 (111) 5.1 3.6
Sam Houston -17.4 (121) 10.7 (131) 28.1 (70) 4.6 3.4
New Mexico State -17.5 (122) 17.9 (112) 35.4 (116) 5.9 3.4
Jacksonville State -18.2 (123) 21.5 (92) 39.7 (132) 4.6 3.2
Florida International -18.5 (127) 18.7 (105) 37.2 (121) 4.7 3.2 |
Sis, for you!
"This is one of the proverbial "pushing a boulder up a hill" programs, though: The moment your momentum stops, the boulder tends to roll all the way back to the bottom, flattening you along the way. Sean Kugler went 12-13 in 2014-15, then 4-20 from there. Mike Price went 8-4 in both 2004 and 2005, then finished with seven straight losing seasons. Neither of those guys coached in the portal era, either, where a school like UTEP can lose its stars awfully easily.
Dimel must rebuild momentum without the help of all-conference tackle Jeremiah Byers (Florida State).
The solution? For Dimel, it's doubling down on a reliable source of UTEP talent, a source that's now neglected a bit nationally because of the portal: jucos. By my count, Dimel signed 25 junior college transfers in this signing class, most of whom are in for spring practice. Twenty-five! ..."
and
"The Miners are projected to drop in SP+, in part because a lot of the juco signees were unrated, but experience levels are high. They're projected underdogs in 11 of 12 games, but seven of those games are projected within five points. Exceed expectations by just a little bit, and a bowl run is possible. The boulder might not be back at the bottom of the hill just yet."
