American Conference

I love the weekend.

Next up, a battle in the American Conference.

USF laying 7.5 points at home versus UAB.

Look, obviously there's some home field advantage here for USF, but also a team that maybe has surpassed some of the preseason indicators of how this team would do in Brian Hartline's first year.

Bill, we talked back in July.

Navy was coming off back-to-back double-digit win seasons and was the preseason favorite to win the American Conference.

We even discussed the possibility of two undefeated teams meeting on Halloween.

But instead, Navy is 2-5.

If you go back and look at each game, there's been something different.

But if there is a prevailing issue for Navy in the big picture, it's the secondary slash pass defense issue.

And in the American Conference, they face a lot of teams that throw the ball around.

UTSA, North Texas, high-powered passing attacks.

But he had a coach, Eric Morris, and that was a kind of funky, wide open offensive scheme, pass happy.

And he was playing against American Conference at American Conference competition.

So I was a little concerned moving up to the P4 level.

Even though it's the Big 12, Oklahoma State is a much bigger jump in competition.

But then again, if he didn't play quarterback in high school, then yeah.

It's amazing.

Yeah, but he's just – so really we're looking at one superstar level in what the American Conference last year and then a half season of leading the Big 12 in passing so far this year.

Yes.

Part of it because it was a lighter week.

But on ESPN tonight, a big one in the American Conference race.

FAU, they head on the road to North Texas and shout out to North Texas.

I really didn't expect them to have this good of a season so far.

The total is 77.5, which is just unreal to look at.

And yet, I think we go over.

This has the makings of just a classic American Conference shootout.

FAU has one of the more fun receivers in the country, Easton Messer, just a little 5'9 dude from Kentucky.

It's actually the Mountain West conference offices that they've built a command center for replay.

This weekend I'll be at the American Conference, and they do theirs at the same site of where DV Sport, which is the national replay vendor that is used.

And so I'll be going to Pittsburgh to see that.

So those are good experiences for me to see how replay is done at the individual conferences, as well as meeting the coordinators and administrators for the various conferences.

So hosting us brings economic impact, brings fans, and certainly when you come here, you're going to play in front of an amazing environment.

Your opponent tonight, JMU, has been in the Sun Belt for a little while and done well, but they've already announced they're moving on to the American Conference.

How do you describe your big-picture view of the future of App State Athletics when it comes to, I'm sure you're not going to insult the Sun Belt Conference, but are you open-minded about the possibility that App State could make a jump to a wealthier league the way JMU is doing right now?

Well, yeah, and I think it's...

I'm not saying no one knew anything about you the year before when you go on a deep run, but certainly there's that expectation obviously on your shoulders going, hey, we've got to go out there and perform, but others are going to go, that's the team we want to beat.

If we have a terrible year, if that's the team we want to beat, I'm sure the guys who are on this team for this year probably feel a little bit of the same way with that preseason number one ranking in the American Conference.

It's a dual-edged sword, right? Yeah.

In my experience, you go to the Final Four, so now you've got the national spotlight, but then also you go to the preseason conference meetings, and you can just feel the aura around your table at those luncheons.

Would I watch them? Yeah, it wouldn't be torture.

But North Texas is 5-2 and FAU is 5-2, so they're both in the running for the American Conference.

Then we also have Troy and James Madison.

JMU lost their last game.

FAU enters off a 51-49 win over Rice.

North Texas beat Navy 49-39, their fourth straight win, 3-0 the American, and they're receiving votes in the coaches' poll right now.

FAU offensively 17th in scoring.

North Texas second in scoring, 37.3 and 43.1 points per game, respectively.