(1) Greetings and salutations from Jacksonville, Arkansas. I was
unable to attend the game this weekend due to work obligations but I've
talked to our staff and others in the know about it. From what I was
told, despite the hype from Saturday, neither Shaun Rutherford nor Tyler
Arndt knows who is going to be the starter against UCA. There is going
to be more plays in Arndt's packages that are more suited to his
abilities from this point forward. Don't be surprised if there's some
missing assignments, bad routes, or miscommunication in Conway if
Arndt's playing under center.
Even if Arndt becomes a monster and
forces his way into becoming the starter somehow, Shaun Rutherford is
not expected to see time at wideout or in the return game the next two
contests. For this season he is a quarterback.
Despite Sam
Houston's ranking and undefeated record, as well as UCA's winning season
so far this year, these games are both considered winnable and the team
is being challenged to close out the season on a three game win streak.
These aren't games to test out Arndt's abilities, Rutherford's
development, or see how the team faces adversity. It's been determined
that the Bobcats need to focus and play a complete sixty minutes,
something they haven't accomplished yet this season. If and when they
do, the feeling is that they can beat both the Bears and the Bearkats to
close out FCS play in style.
(2) Missouri is gone to the
SEC and if you haven't noticed, the proposed merger of CUSA and MWC for
football hasn't gone through. I was told early this morning that perhaps
it wasn't going to happen, as the MWC has received around twenty
applications for membership and CUSA is in the process of identifying
potential new schools. I was told that both Texas State and UTSA have
applied to each by three separate sources. The Sun Belt remains a
possibility if they are hit hard by a CUSA/MWC raid but I was told Texas
State would prefer a depleted WAC over the Sun Belt.
Speaking
of the WAC, Air Force hasn't made their mind up about leaving the MWC
with Boise. The commissioners of the MWC and CUSA will meet in Colorado
Springs today and tomorrow. SDSU has spoken up about being a Western
partner for the Big East with the Broncos but the league isn't very
interested. If Boise winds up being the only MWC team to leave, it's
looking like Memphis will be asked to join the Big East along with
Houston, SMU, and UCF. This will drop CUSA to 8 football teams - the
MWC will have nine. The WAC will have seven and is already in the
regional footprint of the MWC. Could the band get back together, ie the
16-team WAC from the late nineties? It's doubtful, but it's being
discussed.
Finally, something I was told about a week ago and
just now got permission to share as it may out someone that doesn't
want to be identified. UTSA's Hickey and Romo get a lot of praise for
being proactive and media-friendly toward their aggression promoting the
university, especially in the matter of realignment. Texas State is
perceived as weaker and not as hardcore about finding a potential home.
That's not the case at all. Texas State is happy with the 7/10 WAC and
supports Karl Benson in his quest to find two more football schools,
and if the Sun Belt is fleeced by CUSA, Texas State believes he can
bring Louisiana-Lafayette and North Texas into the fold. If the WAC
gets raided, it's believed that Franchione is an advocate of playing in a
depleted conference to build his program off of and the administration
will use having a solid bowl-eligible team as reasoning behind deserving
a future invite or to serve as a Texas-centric league. In the
meantime, their advocate is working behind the scenes to make sure Texas
State has a chair if the WAC's music does indeed stop playing. They
don't believe this will happen.
(3) Around the Top 25:
Stanford 42, Oregon 37
Georgia Tech 31, Virginia Tech 27
Nebraska 25, Penn State 21
Georgia 38, Auburn 28
Around the state:
Texas 35, Mizzou 27
Oklahoma State 51, Texas Tech 31
Baylor 49, Kansas 12
Kansas State 38, Texas A&M 35
Houston 63, Tulane 14
Northwestern 27, Rice 19
SMU 45, Navy 42
East Carolina 48, UTEP 24
Boise State 48, TCU 31
Troy 21, North Texas 13
Around the WAC:
Utah State 34, San Jose State 24
LA Tech 28, Ole Miss 25
Fresno State 34, New Mexico State 27
BYU 28, Idaho 24
Hawaii 38, Nevada 28
