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1) Ron Turner and/or Steve Shankweiler will directly cost their team a win at some point.
They would have already done so last week had UCF's coaches not outdone them at the very end of the game. With more than nine minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Panthers scored to cut UCF's lead to 14-9. The decision was made to attempt a two-point conversion.
This is the wrong decision; yes, if you are down by 11 points, you will need to attempt a two-point conversion so that a field goal can tie the game. But it was the third quarter; there's no reason to be playing strategies as though your goal is to erase an 11 point deficit that couldn't possibly change over the next 25 minutes of game time.
To nobody's surprise, the attempt failed. The other reason the conversion attempt was a poor choice was that most of the offensive success FIU was having to that point was on plays that needed time and space to develop - plays tht don't work when you're trying to gain two yards.
Of course, because of that initial failed attempt, whenever the Panthers scored again early in the fourth quarter, they now had only two choices - successfully convert a two-point attempt to make it a one-possession game, and every other possible outcome. They failed again, for the same reasons, and were left to needing UCF out-coaching themselves into an impossible field goal attempt in order to pull out a win.
Not a great start, guys.
2) FAU won't survive if they repeat their fourth quarter against Tulsa.
3) Old Dominion has found a suitable replacement for Taylor Heinicke in Shuler Bently.
Bonus) Woah, is Southern Miss going to be...good?
While it may not have been the best game of the CUSA week one slate, one of (if not the) most enjoyable games of the weekend was Southern Miss hosting Mississippi State. Not just because it was the big, bad SEC in a CUSA venue, but because the game was actually pretty damn good and enjoyable. The only reason the Eagles scored 16 points is because they got too aggressive at the goal line on fourth-down situations, which in a big game to open up the season, most everyone in the conference will do. Southern Miss showed up and it was awesome to watch. Hopefully the confidence they had against the Bulldogs carries over, and USM is a fun team to watch all year.