2010 Conference USA Preview

> Check out the entire 2010 College Football Preview

Conference USA is in for a shakeup in 2010, as two time defending champion East Carolina finds itself rebuilding with a new coaching staff. With room open at the top of the league, there are a lot of candidates who could emerge this fall. What makes things even more interesting is that each division has a very unique style of play.

In the West Division, offense reigns supreme. No team in the country embodies that concept more than the Houston Cougars, who are led by Heisman Trophy candidate Chase Keenum. But the Cougars aren’t the only team in the division with a big time passing game. Both Tulsa and SMU are capable of firing the ball all over the field with great success and even Rice and UTEP boast strong offenses. However, Houston’s attack might be the best in the country and they appear to conveniently have the division’s best defense, making them the heavy favorites in the West.

In the East Division, there are a lot of teams that are defensively stout but offensively challenged. The best two defenses in the league belong to Central Florida and Southern Mississippi and those are the two favorites to win the Division Title. However, Central Florida’s strong running game and home field advantage in their head-to-head showdown seems likely to be the difference in a close race.

One other unique aspect of Conference USA is in the championship structure: The team with the better regular season record actually hosts the title game! That means that home field advantage will turn its head on Central Florida and force the Knights to travel to Houston for the championship showdown. While UCF is certainly a dangerous threat to Houston with their time-consuming running game and excellent secondary, Houston is overwhelming on offense, especially at home. I think that Keenum will be the difference in leading the Houston Cougars to the 2010 Conference USA Championship on home turf.

Read each school’s in-depth preview by clicking below!

C-USA West Division

• Houston (7-1)
• Southern Methodist (6-2)
• Tulsa (5-3)
• Rice (4-4)
• Texas-El Paso (2-6)
• Tulane (0-8)

C-USA East Division

• Central Florida (6-2)
• Southern Mississippi (6-2)
• Marshall (4-4)
• Memphis (3-5)
• Alabama-Birmingham (3-5)
• East Carolina (2-6)

Matt Baxendell is collegesports-fans.com’s college football guru. He has an opinion on every team, even lowly Western Kentucky, so feel free to email him at matt.baxendell@gmail.com if you want to talk football, comment on an article, get added to his mailing list or just feel like telling him how foolish he for thinking that WKU is in for another terrible season.