A pair of Friday night games begin the week two action in C-USA. Rice plays the fi rst of its seven home games when Wake Forest comes to town, while Marshall makes the trip out west to battle Boise State.

The 11-game Saturday schedule features the first C-USA league game of 2019 as WKU makes the trip to Miami to face FIU and also contains the conference’s first game on NFL Network when Grambling visits Louisiana Tech.

Road games at four power 5 in-state opponents are on the docket with Old Dominion making the cross-state trip to Virginia Tech, Southern Miss going up the road to battle Mississippi State, UTSA moving up I-35 to take on Baylor and west Texas rivals UTEP and Texas Tech tangling in Lubbock.

A pair of games against defending conference champions are on the agenda, with Charlotte visiting defending Sun Belt Champion Appalachian State and Florida Atlantic hosting back-to-back American Athletic Conference champs UCF.

UAB will visit Akron for the first time on Saturday morning, North Texas will play at Metroplex rival SMU on Saturday night and Middle Tennessee will host Tennessee State in the Blue Raiders home opener.


FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6

Wake Forest at Rice (CBSSN)                       8 pm
Marshall at Boise State (ESPN2)                   9 pm

 

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7

Old Dominion at Virginia Tech (ESPNU)         12 pm
UAB at Akron (CBSSN)                                12 pm
Charlotte at Appalachian St. (ESPN+)           3:30 pm
Grambling at Louisiana Tech (NFLN)              3:30 pm
Southern Miss at Mississippi St. (ESPNU)       3:30 pm
UTSA at Baylor (FSN)                                  4 pm
WKU at FIU (ESPN+)                                   7 pm
UCF at Florida Atlantic (CBSSN)                    7 pm
Tennessee St. at Middle Tennessee (ESPN3)   7 pm
North Texas at SMU (ESPN+)                        7 pm
UTEP at Texas Tech (FSN)                             8 pm

How bout' the Herd early on?

So far, looking like the well coached team they always are against the #24 Broncos…up 7-0 with 6:00 to go in the first half.

Boise pulled out a win. But the Herd looks real good.

Their D was ok (gave up 437 total yards) but the O got really dominated by Boise D! Only made 9 first downs and 172 total yards (56 passing!!!). Held 'em to 14 though.

Marshall had 0 yards in the second half.  And I don’t mean they struggled - I mean literally and figuratively zero.  If Boise doesn’t turn the ball over a couple of times they probably score some more, and of course they could have easily scored at the end but went into the “victory” formation the last couple of snaps to run the clock out.

The Herd looked great on D for the most part, and it took some very good QB play for Boise to start moving the ball.  But this is a case where the scoreboard didn’t really show how much better Boise was.  All that said, Marshall having a very good D is not a surprise and they will be a handful for C-USA teams. 

And Rice???  After giving up only 14 to the triple option and a ranked Army in week 1, they give up over 500 yards and 41 points to Wake Forest and lose by 20 at home. 

FINAL:

Rice 21  Wake Forest 41

The loss was enough in itself, but the other Owls may have also lost their starting QB Wiley Green after he took a nasty shot to the head and was carted off the field for a CT scan afterwards.

FINAL:

Marshall 7  #24 Boise State 14

The Herd's lone score comes in the first quarter, as they are shut out (and down) in the 2nd half altogether.

FINAL:

Akron 20  UAB 31

FINAL:

Old Dominion 17  Virginia Tech 31