2011 Conference USA football season explained

2011 Conference USA football season
Color:	193980
Color Text:	FFFFFF
League:	NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision
Sport:	Football
Pixels:	250px
Duration:	September 1, 2011 through January 7, 2012
No Of Teams:	12
Tv:	ABC, Fox Sports, CBS Sports Network, CSS, CST
Draft:	2012 NFL Draft
Draft Link:	2012 NFL Draft
Top Pick:	DT Dontari Poe, Memphis
Picked By:	Kansas City Chiefs, 11th overall
Season:	Regular season
Season Champ Name:	Champions
Mvp:	QB Case Keenum, Houston
Conf1:	East
Conf1 Champ:	Southern Miss
Conf2:	West
Conf2 Champ:	Houston
Finals:	Championship Game
Finals Link:	2011 Conference USA Football Championship Game
Finals Champ:	Southern Miss
Finals Runner-Up:	Houston
Finals Mvp:	RB Tracy Lampley, USM
Seasonslistnames:	Football
Prevseason Year:	2010
Nextseason Year:	2012

The 2011 Conference USA football season was an NCAA football season that was played from September 1, 2011, through January 2012. Conference USA consists of 12 football members separated into two divisions: East Carolina, Marshall, Memphis, Southern Miss, UAB, and UCF make up the East Division, while Houston, Rice, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, and UTEP comprise the West Division.

The 2011 football season marked the 17th season of the conference's existence and 16th of football competition; although C-USA was established in 1995, it did not begin football competition until 1996.

Previous season

See main article: 2010 Conference USA football season. UCF won the conference championship for the second time, defeating the SMU Mustangs 17–7.

Preseason

Coaching changes

• Bill Blankenship replaced Todd Graham at Tulsa.^[1]

Preseason polls

No Conference USA teams were ranked though Houston, Southern Miss and UCF each received votes in the Coaches Poll, and Houston, Southern Miss, Tulsa and UCF received votes in the AP poll.

Coaches

Team	Head coach	Years at school	Overall record	Record at school	C-USA record
East Carolina	Ruffin McNeill	1	7–7	6–7	5–3
Houston	Kevin Sumlin	3	23–16	23–16	16–8
Marshall	Doc Holliday	1	5–7	5–7	4–4
Memphis	Larry Porter	1	1–11	1–11	0–8
Rice	David Bailiff	4	40–45	19–30	15–17
Southern Miss	Larry Fedora	3	22–17	22–17	14–10
SMU	June Jones	3	92–64	16–23	12–12
Tulane	Bob Toledo	4	91–103	13–35	7–25
Tulsa	Bill Blankenship	–	0–0	0–0	0–0
UAB	Neil Callaway	4	15–33	15–33	11–21
UCF	George O'Leary	7	97–77	45–44	33–23
UTEP	Mike Price	7	169–167	40–45	20–28
Statistics are through the conclusion of the 2010 NCAA Season.

• Tulane head coach Bob Toledo resigned on October 18 after starting the season 2–5 and was replaced for the rest of the season by interim head coach Mark Hutson.^[2]

Regular season

Index to colors and formatting
Conference USA member won
Conference USA member lost
Conference USA teams in bold
Rankings from Coaches' Poll

Week One

Date	Time (EDT)	Visiting team	Home team	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 1	8:00PM		Memphis			L 14–59	33,990
September 3	3:30PM		Tulane		–	W 47–33	15,912
September 3	3:30PM		Houston			W 38–34	31,114
September 3	7:00PM		UCF			W 62–0	39,752
September 3	7:00PM	Rice				L 9–34	101,624
September 3	7:00PM		East Carolina			L 37–56	58,272
September 3	8:00PM	Tulsa				L 14–47	85,260
September 3	9:05PM		UTEP		–	W 31–24 OT	28,752
September 3	10:00PM		Southern Miss			W 19–17	22,356
September 4	3:30PM	Marshall				L 13–34	60,758
September 4	7:30PM	SMU				L 14–46	86,951

Week Two

Date	Time (EDT)	Visiting team	Home team	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 10	3:30PM		Rice			W 24–22	25,317
September 10	3:30PM	Southern Miss	Marshall			MRSH 26–20	24,247
September 10	3:30PM	Tulsa	Tulane			TLSA 31–3	19,752
September 10	3:30PM		East Carolina			L 10–17	49,404
September 10	7:00PM	Houston				W 48–23	28,075
September 10	7:00PM	Memphis			–	L 3–47	29,872
September 10	7:00PM	UAB				L 0–39	87,473
September 10	7:00PM	UTEP	SMU			SMU 28–17	26,691
September 10	8:00PM		UCF			W 30–3	45,671

Week Three

Date	Time (EDT)	Visiting team	Home team	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 17	4:00PM	Tulane	UAB			TULN 49–10	17,658
September 17	6:00PM	UCF				L 10–17	20,205
September 17	7:00PM	Houston				W 35–34	24,628
September 17	7:00PM	Marshall				L 7–44	24,244
September 17	7:00PM		Memphis			W 27–6	18,808
September 17	7:00PM		Southern Miss			W 52–6	27,433
September 17	8:00PM		SMU			W 40–7	20,083
September 17	8:00PM	UTEP				W 16–10	19,751
September 17	10:00PM		Tulsa			L 33–59	24,563

Week Four

Date	Time (EDT)	Visiting team	Home team	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 23	8:00PM	UCF	BYU			L 17–24	59,874
September 24	12:00PM	SMU	Memphis			SMU 42–0	16,748
September 24	3:30PM	Tulane				L 27–48	20,138
September 24	3:30PM	UAB	East Carolina			ECU 28–23	50,023
September 24	3:30PM	Southern Miss				W 30–24	43,220
September 24	3:30PM		Marshall			L 10–30	34,424
September 24	7:00PM	UTEP				L 24–52	39,628
September 24	7:00PM	Rice				L 31–56	40,088
September 24	8:00PM	Tulsa				L 21–41	34,019
September 24	8:00PM		Houston			W 56–0	32,005

Week Five

Date	Time (EDT)	Visiting team	Home team	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 29	8:00PM	Houston	UTEP			HOU 49–42	24,111
October 1	12:00PM	Tulane				L 6–45	31,235
October 1	3:30PM	SMU				W 40–33	35,632
October 1	3:30PM	Marshall				W 17–13	53,267
October 1	7:00PM	Memphis				L 31–38	20,098
October 1	7:00PM		Tulsa			W 41–24	21,240
October 1	7:00PM	UAB				L 23–24	18,044
October 1	8:00PM		East Carolina			L 20–35	50,610

Week Six

Date	Time (EDT)	Visiting team	Home team	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
October 8	12:00PM		UAB			L 3–21	28,351
October 8	12:30PM	Memphis	Rice			RICE 28–6	14,179
October 8	3:30PM	Southern Miss				W 63–35	33,462
October 8	7:00PM	East Carolina	Houston			HOU 56–3	30,126
October 8	7:00PM	Marshall	UCF			UCF 16–6	24,750
October 8	8:00PM		Tulane			L 34–37	23,188

Week Seven

Date	Time (EDT)	Visiting team	Home team	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
October 15	3:00PM	Rice	Marshall			MRSH 24–20	27,509
October 15	3:30PM	UCF	SMU			SMU 38–17	22,932
October 15	3:30PM	UTEP	Tulane			UTEP 44–7	16,690
October 15	7:00PM	East Carolina	Memphis			ECU 35–17	17,975
October 15	8:00PM	UAB	Tulsa			TLSA 37–20	21,494

Week Eight

Date	Time (EDT)	Visiting team	Home team	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
October 20	8:00PM	UCF	UAB			UAB 26–24	8,872
October 22	3:30PM	East Carolina				W 38–35	34,612
October 22	3:30PM	Memphis	Tulane			MEM 33–17	25,158
October 22	4:30PM	Marshall	20 Houston			HOU 63–28	32,107
October 22	7:00PM	Tulsa	Rice			TLSA 38–20	17,314
October 22	8:00PM	SMU	Southern Miss			USM 27–3	32,685
October 22	8:00PM		UTEP		Time Warner El Paso	W 31–17	31,797

Week Nine

Date	Time (EDT)	Visiting team	Home team	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
October 27	8:00PM	Rice	18 Houston			HOU 73–34	32,112
October 29	12:00PM	UAB	Marshall			MRSH 59–14	20,735
October 29	3:30PM	Tulane	East Carolina			ECU 34–13	49,410
October 29	3:30PM	SMU	Tulsa			TLSA 38–7	21,261
October 29	4:00PM	Memphis	UCF			UCF 41–0	37,683
October 29	8:00PM	25 Southern Miss	UTEP			USM 31–13	24,906

Week Ten

Date	Time (EDT)	Visiting team	Home team	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
November 3	8:00PM	Tulsa	UCF			TLSA 24–17	36,712
November 5	3:00PM	Tulane	SMU			SMU 45–24	20,106
November 5	3:30PM	UTEP	Rice			RICE 41–37	14,372
November 5	4:00PM	24 Southern Miss	East Carolina			USM 48–28	50,345
November 5	8:00PM	14 Houston	UAB			HOU 56–13	13,909

Week Eleven

Date	Time (EDT)	Visiting team	Home team	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
November 10	8:00PM	11 Houston	Tulane			HOU 73–17	17,657
November 12	12:00PM	Rice				L 6–28	26,886
November 12	12:00PM	Marshall	Tulsa			TLSA 59–17	17,672
November 12	3:30PM		SMU			L 17–24	21,080
November 12	4:15PM	UAB	Memphis			UAB 41–35	17,848
November 12	8:00PM	UCF	23 Southern Miss			USM 30–29	32,925
November 12	8:00PM	East Carolina	UTEP		Time Warner El Paso	UTEP 22–17	25,571

Week Twelve

Date	Time (EDT)	Visiting team	Home team	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
November 17	8:00PM	Marshall	Memphis			MRSH 23–22	15,101
November 17	8:00PM	20 Southern Miss	UAB			UAB 34–31	14,103
November 19	3:00PM	Tulsa	UTEP			TLSA 57–28	23,849
November 19	3:30PM	SMU	10 Houston			HOU 37–7	32,207
November 19	3:30PM	Tulane	Rice			RICE 19–7	15,461
November 19	7:00PM	UCF	East Carolina			ECU 38–31	50,277

Week Thirteen

Date	Time (EDT)	Visiting team	Home team	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
November 25	12:00PM	7 Houston	Tulsa			HOU 48–16	29,015
November 25	7:00PM	UTEP	UCF			UCF 31–14	21,127
November 26	12:00PM	Rice	SMU			SMU 27–24	14,442
November 26	3:30PM	East Carolina	Marshall			MRSH 34–27 OT	22,456
November 26	4:00PM	UAB				L 35–38	12,044
November 26	4:00PM	Memphis	Southern Miss			USM 44–7	26,347
November 26	11:00PM	Tulane			Oceanic PPV/ESPN3	L 23–35	27,411

Week Fourteen- C-USA Championship Game

See also: 2011 Conference USA Football Championship Game.

Players of the week

Week	Offensive		Defensive		Special teams
	Player	Team	Player	Team	Player	Team
1 – Sep. 5	Case Keenum, QB	Houston	Cordarro Law, DL	Southern Miss	Robert Kelley, KR	Tulane
2 – Sep. 12	Patrick Edwards, WR	Houston	Ja'Gared Davis, LB George Carpenter, LB	SMU Marshall	Kase Whitehead, P	Marshall
3 – Sep. 19	Case Keenum, QB Ryan Griffin, QB	Houston Tulane	Korey Williams, LB	Southern Miss	Nick Adams, KR	UAB
4 – Sep. 26	Reggie Bullock, RB	ECU	Jamie Bender, S	UAB	Danny Hrapmann, K	Southern Miss.
5 – Oct. 3	Darius Johnson, WR	SMU	Tyson Gale, LB	Marshall	Kase Whitehead, P	Marshall
6 – Oct. 10	Austin Davis, QB	Southern Miss.	Phillip Steward, LB	Houston	Marques Wheaton, DB	Southern Miss.
7 – Oct. 17	J.J. McDermott, QB	SMU	Vinny Curry, DE	Marshall	Richard Crawford, PR	SMU

Rankings

See also: 2011 NCAA Division I FBS football rankings.

Legend

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
		Not ranked previous week
align=center style="width:20px; border:1px solid #aaaaaa; background:white;"		RV	Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll
т		Tied with team above or below also with this symbol

Ranking Movement

	Pre	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Final
East Carolina Pirates	AP	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
C	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
HAR	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
BCS	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Houston Cougars	AP	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	25	21	18	14	11	11	6	7	20	18
C	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	22	20	18	14	11	10	7	6	17	14
HAR	Not released	24	22	18	14	11	10	7	6	17
BCS	Not released	19	17	13	11	11	8	6	19
Marshall Thundering Herd	AP	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
C	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
HAR	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
BCS	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Memphis Tigers	AP	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
C	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
HAR	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
BCS	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Rice Owls	AP	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
C	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
HAR	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
BCS	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Southern Miss Golden Eagles	AP	RV	RV	–	–	–	–	RV	RV	RV	RV	25	22	RV	24	22	20
C	RV	RV	–	–	–	RV	RV	RV	25	24	23	20	RV	23	21	19
HAR	Not released	RV	RV	RV	RV	23	20	RV	23	21
BCS	Not released	–	–	25	22	20	–	24	21
SMU Mustangs	AP	–	–	–	–	–	RV	RV	RV	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
C	–	–	–	–	–	RV	RV	RV	RV	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
HAR	Not released	RV	RV	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
BCS	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Tulane Green Wave	AP	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
C	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
HAR	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
BCS	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Tulsa Golden Hurricane	AP	RV	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
C	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
HAR	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
BCS	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
UAB Blazers	AP	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
C	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
HAR	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
BCS	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
UCF Knights	AP	RV	RV	RV	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
C	RV	RV	RV	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
HAR	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
BCS	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
UTEP Miners	AP	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
C	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
HAR	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
BCS	Not released	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–

Records against other conferences

Conference	Wins	Losses
ACC	2	4
Big 12	0	5
Big East	1	3
Big Ten	1	1
Independents	2	3
MAC	0	1
Mountain West	2	1
Pac-12	1	0
SEC	0	4
Sun Belt	2	5
WAC	3	1
All FCS	7	0
Overall	21	28

Bowl games

Bowl Game	Date	Stadium	City	Television	Matchups/Results	Attendance	Payout per team (US$)
2011 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl	December 20, 2011	Tropicana Field	St. Petersburg, Florida	ESPN	Marshall 20, Florida International 10	20,072	$1,000,000
2011 Hawai'i Bowl	December 24, 2011	Aloha Stadium	Honolulu, HI	ESPN	21 Southern Miss 24, Nevada 17	32,630	$750,000
2011 Armed Forces Bowl	December 30, 2011	Gerald J. Ford Stadium	University Park, Texas	ESPN	BYU 24, Tulsa 21	30,258	$750,000
2012 TicketCity Bowl	January 2, 2012	Cotton Bowl	Dallas	ESPNU	19 Houston 30, #22 Penn State 14	46,817	$1,200,000
2012 BBVA Compass Bowl	January 7, 2012	Legion Field	Birmingham, Alabama	ESPN	SMU 28, Pitt 6	29,726

Bowl Eligibility

Bowl Eligible (5)

• Houston (12–1) became bowl eligible on October 8 after defeating East Carolina.
• Southern Miss (11–2) became bowl eligible on October 22 after defeating SMU.
• Tulsa (8–4) became bowl eligible on November 3 after defeating UCF.
• SMU (7–5) became bowl eligible on November 5 after defeating Tulane.
• Marshall (6–6) became bowl eligible on November 26 after defeating East Carolina

Bowl Ineligible (7)

• UAB (3–9) lost the ability to become bowl eligible on October 29 after losing to Marshall.
• Tulane (2–10) lost the ability to become bowl eligible on October 29 after losing to East Carolina.
• Memphis (2–10) lost the ability to become bowl eligible on October 29 after losing to UCF.
• Rice (4–8) lost the ability to become bowl eligible on November 13 after losing to Northwestern.
• UCF (5–7) lost the ability to become bowl eligible on November 19 after losing to East Carolina.
• UTEP (5–7) lost the ability to become bowl eligible on November 25 after losing to UCF.
• East Carolina (5–7) lost the ability to become bowl eligible on November 26 after losing to Marshall.

Attendance

Team	Stadium	Capacity	Gm 1	Gm 2	Gm 3	Gm 4	Gm 5	Gm 6	Gm 7	Total	Average	% of Capacity
East Carolina	Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium	50,000	49,404	50,023	50,610	49,410	50,345	50,277	—	300,069	50,012	100%
Houston	Robertson Stadium	32,000	31,114	32,005	30,126	32,107	32,112	32,207	32,413	222,084	31,726	99.1%
Marshall	Joan C. Edwards Stadium	38,019	24,247	34,424	27,509	20,735	22,456	—	—	129,371	25,874	68.1%
Memphis	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium	62,380	33,990	18,808	16,748	17,975	17,848	15,101	—	120,470	20,078	32.2%
Rice	Rice Stadium	47,000	25,317	14,179	17,314	14,372	15,461	—	—	86,643	17,329	36.9%
Southern Miss	M. M. Roberts Stadium	36,000	22,356	27,433	28,656	32,685	32,925	26,347	—	170,402	28,400	78.9%
SMU	Gerald J. Ford Stadium	32,000	26,691	20,083	22,932	20,106	21,080	14,442	—	125,334	20,889	65.3%
Tulane	Louisiana Superdome	72,968	15,912	19,752	23,188	16,690	25,158	17,657	—	118,627	19,771	27.1%
Tulsa	H. A. Chapman Stadium	30,000	24,563	21,240	21,494	21,261	17,672	29,015	—	135,245	22,541	75.1%
UAB	Legion Field	71,594	17,658	28,351	8,872	13,909	14,103	—	—	82,893	16,579	23.2%
UCF	Bright House Networks Stadium	45,301	39,752	45,671	24,750	37,683	36,712	21,127	—	205,695	34,283	75.7%
UTEP	Sun Bowl Stadium	51,500	28,752	24,111	31,797	24,906	25,571	23,849	—	158,986	26,948	52.3%

Notes and References

1. https://www.espn.com/college-football/news/story?id=6022979 Bill Blankenship named Tulsa coach – ESPN
2. Web site: Tulane Head Football Coach Bob Toledo Resigns Post. Tulane University Athletics Department. October 18, 2011.