IMO, Marshall's surprising 31-26 victory over Miami (OH) was CUSA's best win in Week 1. Marshall edged out UNT's surprisingly easy 59-14 victory over instate school Lamar University. Yes, I expected UNT to win the game, but wow....59 points is quite a day at the office for the Mean Green.

Congrats to Marshall and UNT for their Week 1 wins.

The WORST loss for Week 1 belongs to the Rice Owls. Sorry guys, but even though there were some miserable performances throughout CUSA during week 1, Rice still managed to disrespect CUSA by getting donkey-stomped by Stanford during a worldwide TV broadcast from Australia. Nice....



Week 1 Results:
Thursday, August 31:
FIU @ UCF L 17-61
Friday, September 1:
Charlotte @ EMU L 7-24
Navy @ FAU L 42-19
Saturday, September 2:
UTEP @ #7 Oklahoma L 7-56
Alabama A&M (FCS) @ UAB W 7-38
Kentucky @ USM L 24-17
Albany (FCS) @ ODU W 17-31
Miami, OH @ Marshall W 26-31
Lamar (FCS) @ UNT W 14-59
NW ST (FCS) @ LaTech W 24-52
EKU (FCS) @ WKU W 17-31
Vandy @ MTSU L 28-6
Postponed:
Houston @ UTSA

Marshall for sure was the best win.

Disagree about Rice, Stanford is a legit top 10 team while FIU and FAU got demolished by two G5 schools that aren't ranked. While Navy and UCF are probably top 50, to lose that badly to G5 doesn't bode well

(09-04-2017 04:03 PM)Dawgxas Wrote:  Marshall for sure was the best win.

Disagree about Rice, Stanford is a legit top 10 team while FIU and FAU got demolished by two G5 schools that aren't ranked. While Navy and UCF are probably top 50, to lose that badly to G5 doesn't bode well

And that's why we're doing this thread.

I do disagree with you about the worst loss. Most folks don't even know that FIU and FAU played this past weekend, much less know that they are in CUSA. But Rice......the stinkin Rice AD had to schedule the Owls for the very first nationally (or internationally) televised football game of the year. While Stanford may indeed be legit, Rice certainly didn't have to lay down a big ole turd on national TV. That's just wrong. They should have at least put up a fight.

For sure the most embarrassing and most watched. I felt sorry for the Australian fans that get 1 chance to watch live college football and had to endure such a blow out.

I think maybe a better question might be who had the worst win, with WKU, ODU, and LA Tech all in the running for their less than sterling performances against FCS competition. For me, all could be deserving of the honor, but after LA Tech came on strong late in their game, I suppose it comes down to WKU and ODU, who were victorious by identical 31-17 scores. I give the worst win to the Toppers because -- (1) they clearly should have done better because they are the preseason favorite for the conference championship, and (2) besides, they are more accustomed to being in first place.

Clearly not strong showings from our two division favorites and the Monarchs.

(09-04-2017 04:18 PM)ODU AGGIE Wrote:  I think maybe a better question might be who had the worst win, with WKU, ODU, and LA Tech all in the running for their less than sterling performances against FCS competition. For me, all could be deserving of the honor, but after LA Tech came on strong late in their game, I suppose it comes down to WKU and ODU, who were victorious by identical 31-17 scores. I give the worst win to the Toppers because -- (1) they clearly should have done better because they are the preseason favorite for the conference championship, and (2) besides, they are more accustomed to being in first place.

Clearly not strong showings from our two division favorites and the Monarchs.

Good point. I wasn't impressed with our defensive secondary and our O-line play. If Tech and WKU play like that on Saturday, both will lose. ODU will still win though because UMass is horrible

(09-04-2017 04:37 PM)Dawgxas Wrote:  

(09-04-2017 04:18 PM)ODU AGGIE Wrote:  I think maybe a better question might be who had the worst win, with WKU, ODU, and LA Tech all in the running for their less than sterling performances against FCS competition. For me, all could be deserving of the honor, but after LA Tech came on strong late in their game, I suppose it comes down to WKU and ODU, who were victorious by identical 31-17 scores. I give the worst win to the Toppers because -- (1) they clearly should have done better because they are the preseason favorite for the conference championship, and (2) besides, they are more accustomed to being in first place.

Clearly not strong showings from our two division favorites and the Monarchs.

Good point. I wasn't impressed with our defensive secondary and our O-line play. If Tech and WKU play like that on Saturday, both will lose. ODU will still win though because UMass is horrible

Hah I hope you are right but I fear you may be wrong. I smell a loss at umass. :-(

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I'm gonna disagree with Rice being the worst loss of week 1.
Not cause of the top 10 opponent, not cause we played like koalas.
But because we played in week 0, not week 1.
:)

I agree Marshall's win was the best of the week, but I don't think Rice's loss was the worst. More then a few of our C-USA programs would have been taken to the wood shed by a #14 Stanford.

I think Middle Tennessee's loss to Vandy was worse. MT has been a top program in this conference over the last few seasons. I expected a much closer contest.

Best win = Marshall
Worst loss = FIU

After 1007 days I'm going with UAB being the best win

best win: Marshall w/ a runner-up mention for UAB - just being back on the field is a win, but it was also an actual W on the field

worst loss: FIU took a shellacking on Thursday night to an in-state AAC team

(09-04-2017 03:56 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  IMO, Marshall's surprising 31-26 victory over Miami (OH) was CUSA's best win in Week 1. .

Why would Marshall's win be described as surprising? Vegas ended the week with the Herd as a slight favorite, and virtually everyone was saying that Marshall had them out-talented... it would have been slightly more surprising if Marshall started the year letting his one slip at home or if we should similar distinction already symptoms as last year.

(09-04-2017 04:03 PM)Dawgxas Wrote:  Marshall for sure was the best win.

Disagree about Rice, Stanford is a legit top 10 team while FIU and FAU got demolished by two G5 schools that aren't ranked. While Navy and UCF are probably top 50, to lose that badly to G5 doesn't bode well

I agree with Dawgxas about best and worst but also with Hogdawg about NTs honorable mention.

What about worst win? I mean a win is a win but some should have come easier than they did, including my Monarchs.

The FIU loss and the Charlotte loss were tied for worst in my view. FIU due to the margin, Charlotte due to the opponent.

(09-04-2017 06:03 PM)MonarchManiac Wrote:  

(09-04-2017 04:37 PM)Dawgxas Wrote:  

(09-04-2017 04:18 PM)ODU AGGIE Wrote:  I think maybe a better question might be who had the worst win, with WKU, ODU, and LA Tech all in the running for their less than sterling performances against FCS competition. For me, all could be deserving of the honor, but after LA Tech came on strong late in their game, I suppose it comes down to WKU and ODU, who were victorious by identical 31-17 scores. I give the worst win to the Toppers because -- (1) they clearly should have done better because they are the preseason favorite for the conference championship, and (2) besides, they are more accustomed to being in first place.

Clearly not strong showings from our two division favorites and the Monarchs.

Good point. I wasn't impressed with our defensive secondary and our O-line play. If Tech and WKU play like that on Saturday, both will lose. ODU will still win though because UMass is horrible

Hah I hope you are right but I fear you may be wrong. I smell a loss at umass. :-(

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I think we'll still win. We've been ready to write our team off in past years based on ho-hum victories over FCS teams on opening weekend but I don't think you can put a lot of stock in those games. We used a very vanilla playbook and tried out a lot of personnel. Still not what I wanted to see.

edit: There's a reason why you schedule these games to start the season.

^ ya. We played down on many levels. I hope it was a huge wake call and the leaders of the team raise some hell. Lots of mental mistakes but even playing ho hum still out talented quite easily a top 20 FCS team.

Best win = UAB
Worst lost = Rice

And in "other" worst losses of this young season-

1. A & M leading UCLA by 34 points into the 4th quarter, and lose the game!! What an embarrassment.

2. High tech, $10K football lockers for the players, and Texas loses their opening game against Maryland. Another embarrassment.

Best win:

Marshall & UAB both basically must win games for 2 programs that did not play football last season. Would hate to think about UAB losing this game in front of 44k and what it would mean for them. Marshall win was just as important for different reasons. CUSA needs a healthy Marshall program . A win can be a jump start to getting Marshall back to just that.

Worse Loss:

Middle for about the same reason as Marshall's win. When your fanbase thinks you have a outside shot at a NY6 game and you get stomped at home. It bad for CUSA. We have to win these games for the CUSA champion to be in the pictures for a NY6 bowl. For those same reasons...Western's loss to Vandy last year was one of the worse in CUSA. S. Miss loss to uk at home would have been 2nd worse for the same reasons.

All the other losses were expected and score does not really matter...bottom is not as important if you are strong at the top. A strong top 5 to 6 is needed every year. If I was doing a power ranking it would be different but this should be what win and what loss helps and hurts the conference the most.