CENTRAL FLORIDA'S NEAL NOMINATED FOR FEDEX ORANGE BOWL COURAGE AWARD

DALLAS (FWAA) - Central Florida's Johnell Neal is this week's nominee for the 2008 FedEx Orange Bowl/FWAA Courage Award, to be announced at the end of the season. Neal, a senior cornerback from Baton Rouge, La., returned to play this season, less than four months after he was shot four times.

Last May, six days after Neal graduated with a degree in criminal justice - becoming the first person in his family to earn a college degree - he was ambushed outside the family's home in Baton Rouge. Neal, his brother and a cousin had just returned from his brother's R&B concert when they were attacked. Three people have been charged in connection with the shooting.

The alleged shooter apparently was angry with Neal's cousin for a long-ago incident. Neal was shot twice in the arm and twice in the chest.

"We ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time," Neal told the Orlando Sentinel. "We didn't see it coming." Neal underwent surgery to repair a punctured lung, but was able to start rehabilitation within two weeks. His goal was to return in time for the start of football season.

"All I could think about when it happened was I wanted to come back to Orlando and be with my team," Neal told the newspaper. "I'm better when I'm with these guys. I wanted to work hard to be back stronger than ever for our first game."

Neal achieved that goal. He has started 41 games, including 16 straight. He has two interceptions this season to share the team lead. In 2007, he shared the Conference USA lead in interceptions with six.

For the third straight year, the Football Writers Association of America and the FedEx Orange Bowl will announce a weekly nominee each Wednesday during the season. A blue-ribbon panel will determine the winner from all of the nominees. The winner of the FedEx Orange Bowl/FWAA Courage Award will be announced in December and be presented with the trophy.

The Courage Award was created by ESPN The Magazine's senior writer Gene Wojciechowski, also a FWAA member. A select group of writers from the FWAA vote on the winner each year. The requirements for nomination include displaying courage on or off the field, including overcoming an injury or physical handicap, preventing a disaster or living through hardship.

Previous winners of the FWAA's Courage Award are Navy's Zerbin Singleton (2007), Clemson's Ray Ray McElrathbey (2006), the Tulane football team (2005), Memphis' Haracio Colen (2004), San Jose State's Neil Parry (2003) and Toledo's William Bratton (2002).

CFI PREVIEW: CONFERENCE USA

BY NEIL BISMAN
CONFERENCE USA INSIDER

State bragging rights are on the line…It’s just that Tulsa doesn’t stand much of a chance. Oklahoma has come out smoking in the early part of the season, blowing out North Texas, Miami and Utah State. Things appear to be working on both sides of the ball for the Sooners, as the defense has given up just 26 points on the season and the offense has scored no less than 51 in any contest. Tulsa’s offense appears to be off and running after a slow first half the first week against Louisiana-Monroe, but the defense has been shaky at times. Shaky will not do it Friday night under the lights at Skelly Stadium. Home field advantage or not, Tulsa just doesn’t have enough to take down the big boys from Norman.
Prediction: Oklahoma 56 – Tulsa 24

Why isn’t Rice on the schedule…Thing’s never seem easy for East Carolina. After opening the season at Virginia Tech, they have had to play North Carolina, Southern Miss and now perhaps their toughest test, a trip to Morgantown to take on West Virginia. There isn’t any light on the other side of the tunnel as after this one they have to travel to Houston and then get UCF at home. At that point, ECU may be the best 1-5 team in America. As you can guess, ECU doesn’t stand much of a chance this week. The Pirates will go out and play hard as they always do, but Steve Slaton, Pat White and freshman sensation Noel Devine are just way too fast and way too talented for the Pirate defense to contain.
Prediction: West Virgnia 44 – East Carolina 21

Second time is a charm…Central Florida gets its second shot at winning its first ever home game at Bright House Networks Stadium but should have a much easier time this week as they take on Memphis. The Tigers were able to right the ship a little bit last week in their win over Jacksonville State but the running game, on both sides of the ball, is still an issue for Memphis. With all due respect to Jacksonville State running back and one time second-stringer Cedric Johnson, UCF running back Kevin Smith is just a little bit better and should have a field day against the Tigers’ defense.
Prediction: Central Florida 31- Memphis 13

Battle of the underrateds…Don’t let the records fool you when Colorado State travels to Houston to take on the Cougars. Both teams have had tough early slates. As a matter of fact – look for the Rams to steal one on the road.
Prediction: Colorado State 27 – Houston 24

It’s kind of like a bye week…Rice gets rewarded for its brutal early season start by winning a trip to Austin to take on Texas. Yes, the Longhorns haven’t looked that strong thus far but that should not be an issue on Saturday. Rice wide receiver Jarrett Dillard deserves better than this.
Prediction: Texas 56 – Rice 7

If you can’t beat New Hampshire…Following last week’s embarrassing loss to New Hampshire, Marshall has to shake the cobwebs and play a red-hot Cincinnati Bearcats squad. Don’t expect Cincy to cool off this week, either.
Prediction: Cincinnati 38 – Marshall 14

Somebody in the conference has to win, right?...Tulane and UTEP both represent the conference’s best chance at avoiding an unacceptable winless week for the conference. The Green Wave and Miners get Football Champion Subdivision teams Southeastern Louisiana and Texas Southern, respectively.
Prediction: Tulane 34 – Southeastern Louisiana 14
UTEP 31 – Texas Southern 10

DFW Duel Sponsored By Statefarm…Don’t look at me, that’s what they call it when TCU takes on SMU.
Prediction: TCU 41 – SMU 13

CFI PREVIEW: CONFERENCE USA

BY NEIL BISMAN
CONFERENCE USA INSIDER


Clear the schedule for…Texas at Central Florida: With Southern Miss taking on East Carolina this weekend as well, this game may not be the most important in the conference race but it may be more important in the grand scheme of things. A win for UCF would give them two big-time scalps in just two games and would also give the conference a much-needed boost in respectability. Texas has looked anything but dominant thus far, struggling at home against Arkansas State and then needed a big second-half to knock off TCU. Now Texas must take its act on the road in what should be a tough environment as UCF opens up its new on-campus stadium. If Kevin Smith is able to run amok against a big Texas front line as he did against North Carolina State than an upset may not seem as far-fetched as it was once previously thought to be. Either way, expect this one to be close.
Prediction: Texas 34 – UCF 24

Don’t forget about…Southern Miss at East Carolina: The winner here takes a huge step in their quest to claim Conference USA’s East Division. East Carolina comes into this game on a huge high after knocking off in-state rival North Carolina while Southern Miss comes in licking their wounds following a 39-19 loss at Tennessee. Things may have gone a little bit differently though for Southern Miss had they not been without star running back Damion Fletcher for most of the second half. Fletcher is expected to play though and could cause big problems for the East Carolina defense. Southern Miss is a slight favorite according to Las Vegas but with East Carolina’s two impressive showings against the big boys and having the home-field advantage makes them the favorite in my humble opinion.
Prediction: ECU 20 – Southern Miss 17

Why isn’t more attention being paid to…BYU at Tulsa: This is a match-up of two great non-BCS squads who should be receiving more attention on the national level. BYU smoked what was supposed to be a much-improved Arizona team in their first game and lost to a talented UCLA team last week. Tulsa was able to shake off a slow start against Louisiana-Monroe in their only game thus far but has been waiting around idle since then. The layoff combined with running back Courtney Tennial being out for the year could spell trouble for Tulsa.
Prediction: BYU 27 – Tulsa 21

Also on the slate…Texas Tech at Rice: Rice has looked abysmal in their first two games and there is no reason to expect anything different in their third game.
Prediction: Texas Tech 56 – Rice 7

New Hampshire at Marshall: New Hampshire quarterback Ricky Santos may be one of the best players in the Football Championship Subdivision but he will have his problems against a Marshall team that played West Virginia very tough a week ago.
Prediction: Marshall 45 – New Hampshire 21

Alcorn State at UAB: UAB looked much improved a week ago in their loss against Florida State and should build on some of that momentum as they take on a bad Alcorn State team.
Prediction: UAB 49 – Alcorn State 10

SMU at Arkansas State: Arkansas State is a better team than most are giving them credit for and SMU is not as good as people are giving them credit for, which isn’t much to begin with.
Prediction: Arkansas State 28 – SMU 20

Houston at Tulane: This game comes down to once question, can Tulane stop Houston running back Anthony Aldridge? The answer is no.
Prediction: Houston 35 – Tulane 14

UTEP at New Mexico State: Which UTEP team will show up is the question on everybody’s mind. Is it the offensively-inept team that showed up against New Mexico or the one who put points on the board against Texas Tech? We’ll go with the former.
Prediction: New Mexico State 24 – UTEP 14

Jacksonville State at Memphis: Memphis may show signs of rust after having last week’s game at Arkansas State canceled due to weather but luckily for them they get a weak Jacksonville State team to shake it off against.
Prediction: Memphis 31 – Jacksonville State 13

THERE’S SOMETHING BREWING IN CENTRAL FLORIDA

BY NEIL BISMAN
CONFERENCE USA INSIDER

You’ll have to excuse me for a second as I violate the essential rule of journalism in this paragraph and use the “I” voice. While looking for a school to transfer to in 2004, I narrowed my list of schools down to two, the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida. In the end, I decided on the University of Florida and in all honesty, it was not even close. Florida offered an on-campus environment that I had never seen before with its large, sprawling athletic facilities, a sense of community and just a buzz in the air that could not be explained. While Central Florida was by far the much nicer campus, the general feeling was that it was just a bunch of people who just so happened to be going to the same school. It was a commuter campus in every sense of the word.

You could make the argument that a football team is the backbone of any major university and at Central Florida; they may as well have not had a team. The school played at the off-campus and outdated Citrus Bowl and it seemed like a chore to attend a football game.

Fast forward three years and things have changed quite dramatically on the beautiful Orlando campus. With a brand new on-campus stadium set to open this Saturday and the addition of the school’s first on-campus housing, the little commuter school that couldn’t is suddenly becoming the little football power that could. Fresh off of a season opening victory on the road against North Carolina State, the UCF Knights are looking to open up their new digs in style by knocking off a storied football program in the University of Texas.

“We are only going to be a better team after that Texas game,” head coach George O’Leary stated while addressing the media this past Wednesday. “I like good non-conference games, it gives us an opportunity to see an elite program and see how we match up with them and see how far we have to go and what we have to do to get to that level.”

Surprisingly enough, Central Florida does not have all that far to go on their road to respectability. The win over North Carolina State certainly helped and a win over Texas would obviously do wonders for the program but nonetheless, the future does appear very bright for the student-athletes who don the black and gold. The school has a major advantage over many other schools around the nation who are in similar situations because they are located right in the middle of one of the country’s most fertile recruiting grounds. Add that to the fact that the school is likely to have a tremendous increase in support for the football program thanks in part to the new stadium and it appears as though Central Florida is ready to take the next step.

Coach O’Leary, for one, is excited about what the new stadium will bring.

“I think there is a lot more interest and there’s an increase in the fan base and enthusiasm, no question about that,” says the fourth-year coach. “This school has just been waiting for this stadium to get on campus, a place to call home, a place to tailgate and enjoy themselves. And now the student body doesn’t have to travel 30 minutes to go to a game every Saturday. The new stadium is going to change the whole dynamic of the campus. They’ve never had a venue like this and there was no reason for an alumnus who graduated 15 years ago to come back on campus. The only thing they’d see of UCF was the Citrus Bowl.”

With a victory over a BCS opponent already in the bag and the potential for another one this coming weekend when they open up their new stadium in what should be a frenzied, raucous atmosphere, the time is now for UCF to take the next step.

“I always thought it [UCF] was a sleeping giant that was just waiting to wake up at some point,” said O’Leary. “We are getting to where we should get a lot quicker.”

THE C-USA REPORT

BY NEIL BISMAN
CONFERENCE USA INSIDER

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains. Those aren’t just the words of Tim Robbins’ character in the movie “Bull Durham,” it’s a perfect summary for the conference this week. There were good wins, there were bad losses and a game was canceled due to unplayable weather conditions.

Team of the Week- East Carolina: The Pirates were able to improve to 1-1 against ACC foes this season with a 34-31 victory at home against the University of North Carolina. East Carolina gave Virginia Tech quite the scare last week but was able to walk away with a victory following a game-winning 39-yard field goal off the foot of Ben Hartman as time expired. East Carolina quarterback Patrick Pinkney turned in a monster game in his first career start, throwing for 406-yards and three touchdowns. East Carolina gets one more shot against the ACC on October 20th when they get a visit from North Carolina State.

Team of the Weak- Rice: There are two things you never want to do as a member of the Football Bowl Subdivision and they are A) lose to a team that plays in the Division formerly known as 1-AA and B) get blown out by Baylor. The season is only two weeks old and Rice has already “accomplished” both.

Player of the Week- (tie) Patrick Pinkney (ECU) and Justin Willis (SMU): This one was too close to call as Justin Willis racked up 435 yards in total offense and three touchdowns in SMU’s victory over North Texas while Patrick Pinkney had 428 yards total offense and three touchdowns in the Pirates’ “upset” of North Carolina. Pinkney, a former third-string quarterback, was making his first career start while Willis set a career high with his efforts.

Player of the Weak- Sam Hunt (UAB): For the second week in a row Sam Hunt was extremely inefficient in a loss for Alabama-Birmingham, completing only 17 of his 35 passes for 226 yards. The Blazers did a great job of putting their blowout loss at the hands of Michigan State behind them and led for most of the day in Tallahassee. Florida State seemed ripe for an upset but UAB just could not put them away. If Hunt cannot right the ship against Alcorn State this coming Saturday, Coach Calloway may want to contemplate other options for the conference opener at Tulsa.

If only…sophomore stud running back Damion Fletcher (pictured above) of Southern Miss were at full strength for their game at Tennessee. Fletcher was plagued by cramps and forced to sit out most of the second half, which coincidentally is when the Southern Miss offense went flat.

At least they didn’t lose…Hopefully Memphis enjoyed their stay in Jonesboro, Arkansas because they get to do it again on September 27th when they will make up their game against Arkansas State. The game was canceled due to lightning in the area.

If only they stopped the game at halftime…West Virginia played at Marshall for the first time since 1915 and for a while it appeared as though the Mountaineers may not want to return for another 92 years. The Thundering Herd defense kept the two-headed monster of Pat White and Steve Slaton in check early on, leading 13-6 at the half, but was unable to contain them after the half as West Virginia exploded for 42 second-half points.

Will the real Miners please stand up? UTEP followed last week’s 10-6 pitcher’s duel of a victory over New Mexico with a 45-31 loss to Texas Tech. The Miners allowed a ton of yardage by the opposition, which was not much of a change from last week, but were able to finally gain some yards themselves. What we do know is that New Mexico State is up next for the Miners, what we don’t know is which offense will show up…

Maybe they should have taken this week off as well…Tulane opened their regular season a week later than most schools and apparently forgot that the NCAA requires that teams play two halves of football. Tulane entered the locker room tied at 17 with Mississippi State but was outscored 21-0 en route to a 38-17 loss. The running game was non-existent and it showed as the Bulldogs held the ball for nearly two-thirds of the game. If new head coach Bob Toledo cannot figure out something with the Green Wave running game, it is going to be an awfully long season in New Orleans.

Houston, Tulsa and UCF all had off this past weekend and there were quite a few teams in the conference who wish that they had off as well. With Texas traveling to UCF on Saturday, Conference USA gets a chance to knock off a BCS foe for the third week in a row. Also on the slate are BYU traveling to Tulsa and Southern Miss at East Carolina. It should be a great weekend and we’ll have more on those games and then some later this week.

THE CONFERENCE USA REPORT

BY NEIL BISMAN
CONFERENCE USA INSIDER

Nobody expected much out of Conference USA this season but this past weekend was just downright ugly for the league’s members. The combination of a few blowouts and a loss to a D 1-AA school not named Appalachian State is not going to do much to doubt the naysayers. Tulane was the only member of the league to not have played a game.

-Tulsa kicked off their season with a win Thursday night at Louisiana-Monroe but did not look all that impressive in doing so. Tulsa struggled for most of the first half but had a nice second half to ensure they did not leave without a victory. Tulsa should be cut some slack though – they are trying to break in a new spread offense. The Golden Hurricane were unable to come up with an answer for Louisiana-Monroe running back Calvin Dawson but they are not alone as not many schools have had trouble stopping the underrated back.

-Former Georgia assistant Neil Calloway has the unenviable task of turning around a once-proud UAB program and appears to be light years away from doing so. UAB was forced to compete, and I use the term loosely, against Michigan State with a mere 67 scholarship players, 18 below NCAA requirements. The Blazers had no answer for the Spartans offensive attack and it probably won’t be the last time that they cannot stop an offense this season. Calloway did have his squad playing hard though, which is all you can really ask for at this point.

-As abysmal as UAB looked, East Carolina did the conference proud with its 17-7 loss against Virginia Tech. The popular thing to do was blame the close score on the emotion that filled the field in Blacksburg, and that may have been the case, but East Carolina deserves some credit as well. The defense looked solid in shutting down the Tech attack but there remains a lot of work to be done on the offensive side. It may almost be beneficial for them to open up against the tough Hokies’ defense because all others will look weak by comparison.

-The Marshall offense is a mess and it showed in the school’s 31-3 defeat against Miami (FL). Ahmad Bradshaw’s surprising early departure for the NFL left a major hole in the offense and it is one that they have not been able to fill. The rebuilding continues but the conference may be weak enough that they are able to become bowl eligible.

-The post-Todd Graham era did not get off to a good start as Rice joined Michigan in losing to a foe from the Football Championship Subdivision with a 16-14 loss against Nicholls State. Putting up 218-yards of offense couldn’t cut it against the Nicholls State Colonels and it certainly won’t get it done against stronger opponents.

-Houston kept it competitive against Oregon in the first half but the Ducks’ offense proved to be too much for the Cougars to handle. Senior Anthony Aldridge looked extremely impressive, running for 205-yard on just 22 carries. Houston gets another chance to restore their national credibility with an October 6th trip to Tuscaloosa to take on the Alabama Crimson Tide.

-The UTEP offense failed to show up and the defense surrendered 383-yards yet somehow managed a 10-6 victory over New Mexico. The “bend but don’t break” defense kept the Lobos’ offense out of the end zone and was able to escape with a victory that they may not have deserved.

-Southern Miss was able to overcome a disappointing performance by quarterback Jeremy Young and proved to be too much for an inferior Tennessee-Martin squad. Damion Fletcher continued to run amok over defenses by putting up 156-yard on just 19-carries.

-Five turnovers for the Memphis Tigers, including a 99-yard interception returned for a touchdown, did them in at home game against Ole Miss. Quarterback Martin Hankins had a monster game statistically but much of it goes for naught due to his four interceptions. If he can keep his turnovers to a minimum, Memphis could be much closer to a bowl game than the 2-10 record they put up a season ago.

-Last and certainly not least, UCF held on and held on for dear life after all but blowing a 25-3 halftime lead before defeating North Carolina State 25-23 for the only win by a Conference USA school over a BCS school. The Knights got a monster game from Kevin Smith who ran for a career-high 217 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown run on the first play of the game. Going into Raleigh, North Carolina and knocking off one of the big boys may be just what this program needs to get back to a bowl game.

Not the best of weeks for the conference and with a tough schedule up ahead for the league’s members, things may continue to get worse before they get better.