Heading into week 5 of the '14 season the 'Belt has got a nice mix of conference and non-conference games on the agenda.
My Game of the Week:
South Alabama @ Troy
Amazing how adding a sweet looking championship belt, along with talks of "back and forth twitter disputes...(
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/...ver)...Can really intensify a once mundane match up. The Jaguars, sitting at 2-2 overall, look to get above the .500 mark and get back-to-back victories over the men of Troy for the first time ever in this young series, while Troy is hoping to even their record (1-2) and protect home field before making a daunting trip to Starkville next week. On one side, USA looks to be a little bit more of a productive team, with Cody Clements nearing the 1,000 yard passing mark on the season along with 5 TDs thrown (granted he's also thrown 5 picks), and RB Xavier Johnson who's been averaging over 7 yards a carry and 3 touchdowns so far. However, despite only winning against Charleston Southern, Troy has been much more battle tested with games at NC State and Wisconsin, which I feel may pay dividends for this game.
Both teams should be amped for the game, I bet it'll be an exciting back and forth affair but I'm gonna go with Jags to win in a tight one.
USA-24
Troy-21
Remaining Games:
Georgia Southern @ ULM
The Eagles sputtered a bit but was able to get things clicking and eventually pulled away from the Vandals, 44-20. Georgia Southern is sitting mighty pretty once, 3-1 overall and 1-0 in conference play. However, I feel the Eagles are going to get their REAL test in conference play for the first time this season as they travel to Monroe to take on ULM. Despite their 1-2 record the Warhawks have a played a brutal early schedule (@ Georgia and @ Alabama). What maybe the most surprising is when you take the average rushing yards given up in ULM's three games so far, the Warhawks have only given up around 179 yards and obviously the big time match up will be Georgia Southern's always impressive triple option versus Todd Berry's extremely aggressive 3-3-5 defense.
It's homecoming for Louisiana Monroe with seemingly perfect football weather and defending conference champs coming into town; the ULM faithful should show up in large numbers; however, I think the Eagles are a more balanced team and will pull away in the 4th to continue their unbeaten streak in SBC Play.
Ga Southern-35
ULM-20
Wyoming @ Appalachian State
This one is short, sweet and simple; the Mountaineers are the far superior team at the moment and have been playing solid football. Wyoming is the complete opposite, reeling from losses to Eastern Michigan, North Dakota and just last week New Mexico (keep in mind all three of those losses were at home). The Cowboys have been struggling to average 21 points in 4 games and since 2011 have only won 8 of their last 18 road games.
Mountaineers should have no problem cruising to a 3-1 record.
App State-38
Wyoming-20
Louisiana Lafayette @ Louisiana Tech
The Cajuns, after a near victory in Lexington in week 1, have quickly had a gigantic drop-off. Louisiana was absolutely stunned (and crushed) at home last week against a seemingly lowly Akron Zips squad. Mean while, transfer Jeff Driskel has looked phenomenal at the reigns of the Bulldog offense and Tech looks to be a strong contender for the CUSA crown. Anyone that knows SBC football and more specifically Cajuns Football knows Lafayette always starts out of the gate a little slow in past football seasons and Hudspeth has just as quickly been able to get the squad together into a very solid, cohesive unit. I think that'll happen again-just not in Ruston.
Bulldogs will continue chugging right along.
La Tech-45
ULL-28
Idaho @ Arkansas State
The Red Wolves in much the same as the New Orleans Saints had much preseason hype coming in '15 about their offense. And the two are very similar with one another in that after September both have shown almost no signs of a competent offense. The injury bug that extremely hampered Arkansas State midway through their '14 season onward decided to strike starting in game 2 and with QB Fredi Knighten sidelined the offensive production has been a huge struggle. While the defense has shown signs of improvement, penalties are still way too high as are the turnovers. Fortunately for Arkansas State, Idaho is in the exact rowboat as the Red Wolves! The lone exception is the Vandals have shown a bit better offensive production but their defense has been prone to giving up humongous plays.
It also appears Idaho will be without their starting QB Matt Linehan so this will turn into the battle of the back ups. Quite frankly this could be the UGLIEST game of the week in the Sunbelt as all around both teams are looking mighty rough around the edges. Call me a homer, but I'm gonna lean toward Astate to win an insanely stupid, horrendous mistake riddled homecoming game.
Astate-30
Idaho-28
New Mexico State @ New Mexico
Once again it's time for the Rio Grande Rivalry! One of the longest running college football rivalries in all the land, the reeling Aggies travel to Albuquerque to take on the Lobos. Both New Mexico squads have had pretty horrendous starts to their seasons, but the Lobos did manage to score a road victory at Laramie last week-NMSU has not been able to figure out how to win despite some impressive numbers being posted by Tyler Rogers (60-111, 886 yards, 7 TDs) and Larry Rose III (319 yards, 6.3 yards a carry, 3 TDs).
Despite the impressive individual performances, once again NMSU can't turn those stats into victories and with horrifically daunting games @ Ole Miss, @ Georgia Southern and an improving Troy all forthcoming, the Aggies are virtually in do or die mode now. Unfortunately, I think Lobos are the squad that's trending and improving upward; I haven't seen that in NMSU yet.
UNM-38
NMSU-28
Liberty @ Georgia State
In the dull, who gives a flip game of the week we have the Panthers hosting the Liberty Flames for homecoming in the dome. And at last word I had heard Liberty had requested more tickets for their fans coming into Atlanta so this may actually turn into a Flames Homecoming as well. Panthers once again are looking much like their '14 form; horrible first game lost, better 2nd and 3rd game performances (lone difference being actually winning against NMSU this time). I don't know much about the Flames, but just based on their '15 results so far they don't look too impressive, with victories against Deleware State (0-3 so far this season) and a 1-2 SIU team (both of those squads combined for only 8 wins last season).
I wouldn't be surprised if the Panthers choke this game and lose and I wouldn't be all that surprised and Georgia State pulls out the 'W'. For the sake of the conference, I'll go with GSU.
Georgia St-27
Liberty-23