CUSA Bowl Season: UTSA and Southern Miss

Earlier this month we looked at the CUSA bowl game schedule and made the point that if we want good things for NT, we should want good things for the Conference. To that end, we are rooting for all CUSA teams this bowl season. If for some reason you have lots of sports hate for a particular team and that cannot be put aside for mere conference greater good, that is understandable and forgivable. I am referring to UTSA, and the good number of NT fans that were rooting for New Mexico in the New Mexico Bowl.

The Conference can have success with one loss.

Saturday Bowl Recap, CUSA division:

New Mexico Bowl: UTSA 20 New Mexico 23

• ESPN Highlights
• Various reports indicate UTSA brought a nice contingent. This is good, as it bolsters the reputation of the conference as a Good Traveling Partner. UTSA held the Lobo rushing attack below their average, but UNM never really was threatened. UTSA had some miracle scores late, but UNM controlled this game throughout. If you are a long-time college football fan you have to be happy for Bob Davie. He turned around a junk program and earned two bowl berths, including this first UNM bowl win since 1961. Good times in ABQ.

New Orleans Bowl: Southern Miss 28 ULL 21

• ESPN Highlights
• When you watch Allanzae Staggers, Nick Mullens, and Ito Smith play the way they did last night, or when you see the Southern Miss defensive line make plays, you wonder how in the hell they dropped games to North Texas and UTSA. Then you remember the injuries, and the let-down, and the coaching change before the season. Life is Plinko, man. Louisiana is a good Sun Belt team, and if we CUSA elitists want to hold ourselves superior to the other G5 teams, we have to start by beating the good Sun Belt teams consistently. Southern Miss was the 4th-best team in CUSA and they beat the 4th-best Cajuns. Southern Miss still was stagnant on offense too often for them to feel really great about this, but Mullens nearly cried after capping his career with a bowl win. USM will lose Mullens, and three of the starting five offensive lineman.

Next up:

• WKU v Memphis in the Boca Raton Bowl, Tuesday December 20.
• ODU v EMU in the Bahamas Bowl and La Tech vs Navy in the Armed Forces bowl, Friday December 23.
• MTSU v Hawai’i in the Hawai’i Bowl, Saturday December 24.
• North Texas vs Army in the Heart of Dallas Bowl, Tuesday December 27.