Here at Green, Gold and Bold, we naturally focus on all things related to South Florida. However, we also keep a wary eye on other American Conference teams because the Bulls will face many of them as the season winds on.
So, here are some snap judgments after Week One of the new football season.
Memphis, as usual, looks pretty good.
Tulsa's two-touchdown win over Oklahoma State was an eyebrow-raiser.
East Carolina may eventually be good, but the Pirates sure didn't look the part in a blowout loss at Alabama. And Florida Atlantic was the perfect choice to get the Jon Sumrall era off to a good start at Florida.
Here's a closer look at what went down.
Memphis 42, Arkansas State 24
The Bulls better have some special mojoe planned for Tigers running back Jaylin Carter when Memphis visits Raymond James Stadium on Thursday November 12. He ran for 183 yards and four touchdowns, including one for 74 yards, in the win over Arkansas State.
That's on top of his 93 yard, one-touchdown game in the Tigers' Week Zero win at highly touted UNLV.
New head coach Charles Huff became the third coach in program history to start 2-0.
Florida 66, Florida Atlantic 21
Either the Gators are really good or FAU is really not. It's probably a little of both.
The Owls began Year 2 under head coach Zach Kittley with a non-competitive blowout loss at The Swamp. Florida had 624 yards of total offense and picked off Owls' quarterback Caden Veltkamp twice. Not much more to say about that game.
USF travels to Boca Raton on November 21.
Tulsa 24, Oklahoma State 10
Very nice win for the Golden Hurricane, even if Okie State has now lost 12 straight games dating to last season.
It spoiled the debut for new Cowboys coach Eric Morris, who came from North Texas and brought quarterback Drew Mestemaker with him. Tulsa intercepted two of Mestemaker's passes as the second year for head coach Tre Lamb got off to a good start.
Damari Alston ran for two touchdowns for Tulsa and quarterback Baylor Hayes passed for another score,
The Bulls don't play Tulsa this year.
UTSA 45, UT Rio Grande Valley 16
The Roadrunners piled up 525 yards of offense in the blowout win. Quartervack Owen McCown threw for three touchdowns.
McCown was 22 of 27 for 275 yards.
When the Bulls travel to San Antonio on Thursday, October 8, they'll need to be on guard against giving up the big play. UTSA had three touchdowns of over 50 yards in this game: A 75-yard sprint by Will Henderson III, a 62-yard screen pass to DJ Allen Jr. and an A’Marion Peterson rush for 53 yards.
Alabama 48, East Carolina 10
It's not surprising that the Pirates lost this game in Tuscaloosa, but it was attention-grabbing that they weren't competitive.
A lot of pundits tabbed East Carolina as a darkhorse in the American, but Crimson Tide quarterback Keelon Russell, a sophomore making his first career start, made a mockery of that. He ran for 86 yards and a score and threw for 249 yards.
Alabama had five consecutive scoring drives to start the game.
OK, it's Alabama, but in keeping with our "way too early" snap judgment approach, maybe the Pirates miss their former defensive coordinator Josh Aldridge -- now with USF -- more than they thought.
Duke 17, Tulane 3
It's tough to read too much into this one.
The loss spoiled the debut of new Green Wave coach Will Hall, but it was on the road and the start was delayed by weather.
Tulane was scalded on the ground by Duke running back Nate Sheppard, who ran for 227 yards and two touchdowns.
Hall, who came to Tulane from Southern Mississippi, switched from starting quarterback Zeon Chriss-Gremillion to Kadin Semonza at halftime. It didn't help.
In other news....
North Texas was blown out by defending national champion Indiana 52-16. No surprise there.
Charlotte lost to The Citadel 43-41 in triple overtime. Ouch!
Rice cooked Houston Christian 31-3. Well, I would hope so (shrug).
Navy ran (of course it did) for 506 yards in a 42-15 win over Towson. I'm surprised it was that close.
Temple cruised past Rhode Island 38-14 as Keveun Mason rushed for 158 yards.
Army mowed Bryant 59-3, which is exactly what it should. USF will take note that the Black Knights rushed for 569 yards.
UAB hung with Illinois for about a half before falling 42-23.
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