By the time we hit Labor Day morning, we’ll know if UCF – or any other AAC team – will have a legitimate chance to play for the national title.
For the past two regular seasons, UCF won every game it played and did not come within shouting distance of the four-team college football playoff. Though UCF claimed a mythical national championship in 2017 when it beat the team that beat Bama, the 2018 team had no real shot. They lost their starting quarterback in the regular season finale and played valiantly while coming up short to LSU in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day.
That one loss seems to have erased the 25 straight wins that preceded it.
However, as we enter the start of the 2019 college football season, no league is poised to make as much noise on opening weekend as the American Athletic Conference. A lineup of big non-conference games could mean that the AAC will come out on Monday smelling like a rose, or even a Peach. On the flip side, a weekend of losses could doom UCF, and the league, before we hit Week 2.
In chronological order, let’s review the AAC’s big games, and the potential:
UCLA at Cincinnati, 7pm Thursday, ESPN
I am personally shocked by the lack of hype around this game. Have we really forgotten about Chip Kelly? He starts year 2 of his massive rebuild at a fading power versus a Cincinnati team coming off a 10-win season and a Top 25 finish. It’s typical of the media’s disdain for the Group of Five that a 10-win team returning a whole bunch of starters can’t sniff the Top 25.
It’s also the first game of the first real weekend of college football, so all eyes will be on Nippert Stadium come kickoff – even if ESPN will desperately try to get people to watch Clemson obliterate Georgia Tech on the new ACC Network.
Simply put, this is a game Cincinnati should win, and a game the AAC needs them to win. They rarely get Power Five teams at home. When you get one with a name like UCLA coming off a 9-loss season, you have to win the game. Even if Chip Kelly is coaching the other team.
Wagner at UConn, 7pm Thursday, ESPN3
Oh come on, I’m kidding. Even UConn doesn’t care about UConn football anymore.
Tulsa at #18 Michigan State, 7pm Friday, FS1
If someone could explain how Michigan State is a preseason Top 20 team, I would greatly appreciate it. While their defense was tremendous last year, their offense was unfathomably bad, concluding in one of the ugliest bowl games ever versus Oregon. The game did not get New Year’s Eve off to an exciting start.
Still, Tulsa was much, much worse. So why am I mentioning this game? Because Tulsa just needs to compete. The national spotlight of FS1 means people will be watching. If the team predicted to finish last in the AAC West can keep up with a supposed Big Ten power, that will speak to the AAC’s quality from top to bottom. An expected butt-kicking will further the narrative that the AAC, from top to bottom, isn’t on the Power Five level.
#19 Wisconsin at USF, 7pm Friday, ESPN
On October 27, 2018, USF was 7-0, ranked #21 in the country and getting ready for a road game versus Houston that was airing on ABC. They gave up 57 points and have yet to win since. It’s been a shocking fall for a program that had excelled initially under Charlie Strong and seemed to be able to compete with UCF for AAC superiority.
On October 27, 2018, Wisconsin was 5-2, ranked #20 in the country and getting ready for a road game at Northwestern airing on Fox. They lost by two touchdowns and stumbled home to finish the season with five losses.
Despite having similar disappointing seasons, Wisconsin is back in the Top 20 with a Heisman Trophy candidate running back, while USF has been ignored.
There are few things more intriguing than a decent college football team being a double-digit underdog at home. This is a game USF can win. If they pull it off, it will become an instant story across the college football world and further bolster the credibility of the AAC.
Or USF will reveal itself to be the team that failed last November, and hurt the conference with a poor, nationally televised performance.
East Carolina at NC State, Noon Saturday, ACC Network
When these teams played last December, NC State won 58-3 as East Carolina played out the string after firing its coach. ECU made an intriguing hire in Mike Houston, former James Madison head coach, as they desperately try to recapture their status as a quality football program.
As with Tulsa, there is no realistic expectation that East Carolina can win this game. But if they can compete in the first game under their new coach, it would be another signal that the depth of the AAC is better than people think. Besides, it’s not like NC State is Clemson.
Ole Miss at Memphis, Noon Saturday, ABC
This game is a must-win, for Memphis and the conference. Memphis is nearly a touchdown favorite at home against what might be the worst team in the SEC.
If Memphis wins this game, there is a very, very real chance they will be favored in their first 9 games before finishing with Houston, USF and Cincinnati. Could Memphis be this year’s UCF? They could, but they need to win this game.
Northwestern at #25 Stanford, 4pm Saturday, Fox
Yes, this might be the important AAC game of the weekend. On Sept. 21, Stanford travels cross country to play UCF to finally, potentially give UCF a Top 25 Power Five team to play during the regular season. But before Stanford makes that trip, they must play Northwestern and USC. Not a fun way to start the season.
Stanford needs to win their first two games for the UCF game to truly matter. And they need to win their first game to ensure it has any meaning at all, because a loss means Stanford could very well be 0-2 for their game at UCF.
Every UCF fan will be rooting hard for the Cardinal on Saturday. If you want to see college football go crazy in 2019, you should too.
Houston at #4 Oklahoma, 730pm Sunday, ABC
The Sunday night game of Labor Day weekend has become one of the sport’s signature nights, ever since Texas beat Notre Dame in 2016 and the game was watched by a whole lot of people.
This doesn’t seem like it’ll be close, right? I think it might be. We know Oklahoma will score. But Houston, especially with new coach Dana Holgorsen calling the shots, will score too. It feels like we’re headed toward a 56-42 type of game.
As with the other underdogs, if Houston can keep the game competitive past halftime, that will raise eyebrows across the country. And if Houston could do the unthinkable and win… well, okay let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
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For the past two regular seasons, UCF won every game it played and did not come within shouting distance of the four-team college football playoff. Though UCF claimed a mythical national championship in 2017 when it beat the team that beat Bama, the 2018 team had no real shot. They lost their starting quarterback in the regular season finale and played valiantly while coming up short to LSU in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day.
However, as we enter the start of the 2019 college football season, no league is poised to make as much noise on opening weekend as the American Athletic Conference. A lineup of big non-conference games could mean that the AAC will come out on Monday smelling like a rose, or even a Peach. On the flip side, a weekend of losses could doom UCF, and the league, before we hit Week 2.
In chronological order, let’s review the AAC’s big games, and the potential:
UCLA at Cincinnati, 7pm Thursday, ESPN
I am personally shocked by the lack of hype around this game. Have we really forgotten about Chip Kelly? He starts year 2 of his massive rebuild at a fading power versus a Cincinnati team coming off a 10-win season and a Top 25 finish. It’s typical of the media’s disdain for the Group of Five that a 10-win team returning a whole bunch of starters can’t sniff the Top 25.
It’s also the first game of the first real weekend of college football, so all eyes will be on Nippert Stadium come kickoff – even if ESPN will desperately try to get people to watch Clemson obliterate Georgia Tech on the new ACC Network.
Simply put, this is a game Cincinnati should win, and a game the AAC needs them to win. They rarely get Power Five teams at home. When you get one with a name like UCLA coming off a 9-loss season, you have to win the game. Even if Chip Kelly is coaching the other team.
Wagner at UConn, 7pm Thursday, ESPN3
Oh come on, I’m kidding. Even UConn doesn’t care about UConn football anymore.
Tulsa at #18 Michigan State, 7pm Friday, FS1
If someone could explain how Michigan State is a preseason Top 20 team, I would greatly appreciate it. While their defense was tremendous last year, their offense was unfathomably bad, concluding in one of the ugliest bowl games ever versus Oregon. The game did not get New Year’s Eve off to an exciting start.
Still, Tulsa was much, much worse. So why am I mentioning this game? Because Tulsa just needs to compete. The national spotlight of FS1 means people will be watching. If the team predicted to finish last in the AAC West can keep up with a supposed Big Ten power, that will speak to the AAC’s quality from top to bottom. An expected butt-kicking will further the narrative that the AAC, from top to bottom, isn’t on the Power Five level.
#19 Wisconsin at USF, 7pm Friday, ESPN
On October 27, 2018, USF was 7-0, ranked #21 in the country and getting ready for a road game versus Houston that was airing on ABC. They gave up 57 points and have yet to win since. It’s been a shocking fall for a program that had excelled initially under Charlie Strong and seemed to be able to compete with UCF for AAC superiority.
Despite having similar disappointing seasons, Wisconsin is back in the Top 20 with a Heisman Trophy candidate running back, while USF has been ignored.
There are few things more intriguing than a decent college football team being a double-digit underdog at home. This is a game USF can win. If they pull it off, it will become an instant story across the college football world and further bolster the credibility of the AAC.
Or USF will reveal itself to be the team that failed last November, and hurt the conference with a poor, nationally televised performance.
East Carolina at NC State, Noon Saturday, ACC Network
When these teams played last December, NC State won 58-3 as East Carolina played out the string after firing its coach. ECU made an intriguing hire in Mike Houston, former James Madison head coach, as they desperately try to recapture their status as a quality football program.
As with Tulsa, there is no realistic expectation that East Carolina can win this game. But if they can compete in the first game under their new coach, it would be another signal that the depth of the AAC is better than people think. Besides, it’s not like NC State is Clemson.
Ole Miss at Memphis, Noon Saturday, ABC
This game is a must-win, for Memphis and the conference. Memphis is nearly a touchdown favorite at home against what might be the worst team in the SEC.
If Memphis wins this game, there is a very, very real chance they will be favored in their first 9 games before finishing with Houston, USF and Cincinnati. Could Memphis be this year’s UCF? They could, but they need to win this game.
Northwestern at #25 Stanford, 4pm Saturday, Fox
Yes, this might be the important AAC game of the weekend. On Sept. 21, Stanford travels cross country to play UCF to finally, potentially give UCF a Top 25 Power Five team to play during the regular season. But before Stanford makes that trip, they must play Northwestern and USC. Not a fun way to start the season.
Stanford needs to win their first two games for the UCF game to truly matter. And they need to win their first game to ensure it has any meaning at all, because a loss means Stanford could very well be 0-2 for their game at UCF.
Every UCF fan will be rooting hard for the Cardinal on Saturday. If you want to see college football go crazy in 2019, you should too.
The Sunday night game of Labor Day weekend has become one of the sport’s signature nights, ever since Texas beat Notre Dame in 2016 and the game was watched by a whole lot of people.
This doesn’t seem like it’ll be close, right? I think it might be. We know Oklahoma will score. But Houston, especially with new coach Dana Holgorsen calling the shots, will score too. It feels like we’re headed toward a 56-42 type of game.
As with the other underdogs, if Houston can keep the game competitive past halftime, that will raise eyebrows across the country. And if Houston could do the unthinkable and win… well, okay let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
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