American Athletic Conference Recap & Power Rankings

Power Rankings:

1. Louisville

2. Cincinnati

3. UCF

4. Rutgers

5. Houston

6. SMU

7. Memphis

8. UConn

9. USF

10. Temple

Louisville took care of business against Ohio just like they were supposed to. If you watched the game, more than likely you had to watch it on mute. The Bridgewater and Cardinal lovefest was in full force, Teddy threw 5 TD's for UofL on the way to a 49-7 rout of the Bobcats. While watching the game it occurred to me that I had never heard or seen so many people want to hand a guy the Heisman based on his results against a MAC defense, but I guess this is where we're at. I'll be interested to see how he looks this season when his receivers don't have 5 yards of separation from defenders immediately after the ball is snapped.

Cincinnati handed Purdue its worst non-conference loss since 1983. It seemed like it took a little bit of time for the Bearcats to get used to temperature on the field (hovering around 130 at one point) but after that this turned into a beatdown; or a meltdown in Purdue's case. The Cats effectively put it out of reach in the 3rd quarter when Rob Henry threw a pass that was apparently meant for a wide receiver who was at least 11 feet tall. The airmailed pass ended up in the hands of Bearcats safety Adrian Witty and he promptly returned it for a touchdown. It put UC up by 21 and it never got closer. 42-7 final.

UCF did what pretty much everyone has done to Akron the last couple of seasons. It didn't take them long to get rolling either. Blake Bortles went up top to Breshad Perriman for a 91 yard touchdown just 58 seconds into the game. Bortles and the UCF offense then continued to pour it on effortlessly on their way to a 38-7 win.

Rutgers and Fresno State played one of the best games of the entire college football week. Rutgers took a 20-7 lead in the 2nd quarter. After that it didn't seem like either defense really had any interest in stopping the other one. Rutgers would take leads at the end of the 3rd quarter and then twice again in the 4th, but they just couldn't hold off Derek Carr and the high-powered Bulldog offense. Once this game went into overtime things really got interesting. Fresno State scored first on a 25 yard pass. Rutgers then put it into the endzone on the following overtime drive. Kyle Flood, who I'm assuming figured he wasn't going to ever stop Fresno, went with the ballsiest play of the weekend when he opted to go for the two point conversion instead of the tying extra point.

Fresno State Stops Rutgers' 2-pt Conversion to Win Game (via ESPN)

52-51 final.

I'm still keeping Rutgers at #4 this week. They lost to a pretty good team on the road and... Oh who am I kidding? There was no one to move above them anyway.

Houston rolled over Southern 62-13. They had 627 yards of offense and forced 4 turnovers on an easy day for the Cougars. They move up to #5 this week as they look like they might be the last competent team in the conference.

SMU and Texas Tech wasn't nearly what we thought it would be. We expected long throws, open receivers, defenders needing oxygen on the sidelines and quarterbacks arms falling off from overuse. Instead we had a 13-9 game at half that had viewers contemplating a nap. The game would pick up a little bit in the 2nd half. Near the end of the 3rd quarter Garrett Gilbert ran for a touchdown to pull the Mustangs within 4. All hope was quickly lost when Texas Tech scored 3 unanswered touchdowns, putting the game out of reach. 41-23 Red Raiders. SMU stays the same in the power rankings.

Memphis HAD A BYE AND JUMPED 2 SPOTS. THAT'S HOW BAD THIS WEEK WAS.

UConn lost to Towson. TOWSON. One of two AAC teams to lose to an FCS school this weekend. Let me sum up this loss for you:

via blackdcc.net

USF: Remember when I was on the bus? Just a short week later I'm pulling the emergency stop cord and trying to kick the back door out. Even if it means jumping into traffic, it’s still better than going down in a fiery heap of melting metal and broken dreams... McNeese State wins 53-21. By far the worst loss of the week for The American and rivaled only by San Diego State losing to Eastern Illinois 40-19 for the worst loss by anyone in FBS. Not a good day to be a Bulls fan. Expecting relief? Sorry, none in sight. They'll head up to East Lansing this weekend.

Temple: As much as I wanted to move them out of the last spot, I just couldn't do it. I didn't expect them to do much against Notre Dame and well, they obliged. 28-6 Irish roll.

In college football, how you're perceived by fans and media can last an entire season, sometimes multiple seasons. The perception of this conference after week 1 is just all sorts of awful. One bright side is that eight FBS teams lost to the mighty FCS this weekend, so fans of UConn and USF can ease their minds with that.