Nov. 29, 2008

Tulsa will host the 2008 Conference USA Football Championship Game on Saturday, December 6. The Golden Hurricane earned the right to host with a 38-35 victory at Marshall, along with Rice's 56-42 win over Houston. Tulsa will face East Division Champion East Carolina on ESPN 2 at 11 a.m. CST. Elsewhere in C-USA on Saturday, Memphis and Southern Miss earned their tickets to bowl games with victories over Tulane and SMU, respectively, while UAB closed out its season with its first-ever shutout in C-USA play, blanking UCF.

TULSA 38, MARSHALL 35
Tarrion Adams ran for 123 yards and three touchdowns to lead Tulsa past Marshall 38-35 to clinch Conference USA's West division on Saturday.

Adams scored from 1, 1 and 6 yards out, and Tulsa finished with 516 total yards to Marshall's 437.

Tulsa (10-2, 7-1 Conference USA) came into the game needing help to reach its second consecutive conference championship game.

The Golden Hurricane, which will be making its third appearance in the conference title game, benefited from Rice knocking off Houston 56-42 and then defeated Marshall (4-8, 3-5) to earn the right to host East Carolina next week.

Tulsa's David Johnson was 21 of 33 for 313 yards and two touchdown passes.

Courtney Edmonson was on the receiving end of Brian Anderson's first career touchdown pass midway through the first quarter to give the Thundering Herd a 7-0 lead.

Anderson, who started for the injured Mark Cann, was 14 of 19 for 177 yards and three scores.

Anderson found Darius Passmore for a 42-yard touchdown pass to tie the score at 21 just before halftime.

Chubb Small, Darius Marshall and Terrell Edwards combined for 237 rushing yards for Marshall. The trio also combined for two touchdowns, highlighted by a 69-yard scamper by Small to tie the score at 14 midway through the second quarter.

Tulsa took a 38-35 lead with 3:42 to play in the fourth quarter on Jarod Tracy's 22-yard field goal.

Marshall had an opportunity to tie or take the lead, but Small was stopped on fourth-and-1 at the Thundering Herd's 49-yard line with 1:56 left in the game.

RICE 56, HOUSTON 42
Chase Clement threw for 381 yards and five touchdowns for Rice in a 56-42 win over Houston on Saturday to deny the Cougars a chance at the Conference USA championship.

Needing a win to clinch the West in Conference USA, Houston instead quickly fell behind and lost to the Owls (9-3, 7-1) for the first time in the series since 2004.

The loss by Houston (7-5, 6-2) means that Tulsa and East Carolina will play for the conference title next week. Tulsa got the nod over Rice after beating the Owls head-to-head.

James Casey caught three touchdown passes from Clement, scored another on a 1-yard plunge and threw a 3-yard touchdown pass for the Owls. His 104 catches this season are a single-season conference record.

Houston's Case Keenum threw for 494 yards and five touchdowns, and set a Football Bowl Subdivision record with 25 straight pass completions. Keenum finished 30-of-54, and he is one game shy of tying the NCAA record of 14 consecutive 300-yard passing games.

L.J. Castile led Houston with five catches for 144 yards and three touchdowns.

C.J. Ugokwe rushed for 110 yards on 18 carries for the Owls.

MEMPHIS 45, TULANE 6
Steven Black ran for three touchdowns and Memphis capped a wild season with a 45-6 win over Tulane in the Conference USA finale for both teams on Saturday.

The Tigers' (6-6, 4-4) win made them bowl-eligible for a fifth bowl trip in six seasons. Tulane (2-10, 1-7) finished with eight straight losses.

Memphis started 0-3 this year, and then had to win while weathering midseason injuries to three of its top four quarterbacks to clinch postseason play.

Black, a receiver, took six direct snaps out of the "wild" formation for 38 yards and scores of 36, 2 and 1 yards. Tailback Curtis Steele ran for 135 yards and a score, giving him 1,175 yards for the season - the fourth best one-year effort in school history. The top three were turned in between 2003-05 by current Carolina Panthers running back D'Angelo Williams.

Wideout Maurice Jones opened the scoring with a 13-yard touchdown run off a direct snap for Memphis, who stretched its lead to a 31-0 lead midway through the third, and freshman Brandon Ross scored on a 1-yard run in the final period to cap the scoring. The Tigers rolled up 379 of their 488 total yards on the ground. Arkelon Hall, who returned last week after being out with a broken thumb suffered at East Carolina on Oct. 18, hit 10 of 12 passes for 109 yards.

Memphis' defense limited Tulane to 222 yards and forced three turnovers, a fumble recovery by Brandon Patterson and interceptions from Greg Jackson and Michael Grandberry. The Tigers also blocked a field goal try.

Tulane's only score came on an 8-yard run by Casey Robottom late in the third quarter. Ross Thevenot missed the extra point, his first miss since early in the 2006 season.

SOUTHERN MISS 28, SMU 12
Austin Davis threw for 212 yards and two touchdowns and Southern Miss won its fourth straight game to earn bowl eligibility with a 28-12 win over SMU on Saturday. The Golden Eagles will be making their seventh straight bowl appearance.

Southern Miss (6-6, 4-4 Conference USA) scored 21 unanswered points in an eight-minute span to bury SMU by the fourth quarter. Damion Fletcher had 59 yards and a touchdown, and V.J. Floyd had another TD run for the Golden Eagles.

One bright spot for SMU was Jessie Henderson, who set an NCAA record with 2,945 career kickoff return yards. The previous record was 2,922, set by Tulane's Jeff Liggon from 1993-96.

Southern Miss set a single-season school record with 5,220 yards of total offense, breaking the previous mark set just last year.

SMU's Bo Levi Mitchell was 26-of-49 for 253 yards, throwing one touchdown and two interceptions. Justin Willis, SMU's former quarterback, caught 11 passes for 88 yards.

UAB 15, UCF 0
Swayze Waters kicked five field goals and UAB recorded its first shutout in a Conference USA game in school history with a 15-0 victory over UCF on Saturday. The Blazers closed the season with two wins in their last three games, both coming on the road.

The Blazers (4-8, 3-5 C-USA) limited UCF (4-8, 3-5) to 209 total yards offense in recording the first shutout in a conference game in 10 seasons in Conference USA.

Blazers quarterback Joe Webb did everything but get his team into the end zone, controlling the action throughout the game with option runs and accurate passes. Webb was 20-of-28 for 244 yards and rushed 22 times for 80 yards as UAB had more than twice the possession time - 41:36 to 18:24 - than UCF. He also helped the Blazers convert 11-of-19 third-down conversions.

Webb also became UAB's second 1,000-yard rusher in school history, joining Carl Sanders who rushed for 1,154 yards during the 1996 season. Earlier this year, Webb shattered the C-USA record for rushing yards in a season by a quarterback.

UCF's Rob Calabrese was 2-of-8 for 6 yards and was yanked at the end of the first half and middle of the fourth quarter.

Joe Weatherford replaced Calabrese and had early success, but he floundered in the second half. Weatherford was 12-of-26 and was intercepted twice, including one by Kevin Sanders that stopped a drive at the UAB 12-yard line with 2:08 left in the game.

For Sanders, it was his conference-leading seventh interception of the season and the fourth for the senior in UAB's last three games.

UAB cruised to a 9-0 halftime lead, holding the ball for more than 21 minutes on their way to converting seven of 11 third-down situations and outgaining the Knights 199-84.

The second half was more of the same with the Blazers grinding out long drives that stalled deep in UCF territory. Waters booted field goals of 36 and 28 yards, the last one coming with 7:05 left in the game.

Waters finished the season with 19 field goals in 24 tries (79.1 percent). He concludes his Blazer career with 50 field goals, which ranks second in school history to Nick Hayes who had 57 from 2001-04.