Three Things We Learned From Week 11 in the Sun Belt Conference
The 11th week of Sun Belt plays saw the first big puzzle piece of the conference title race laid down, the continuing decline of the Peach State, an expected-but-still-surprising team get to six wins and much more.
Troy Makes Sun Belt History, But a Wolf Lurks Nearby
Troy cemented themselves as the class of the Sun Belt on Saturday in a hard-fought 28-24 win over Appalachian State. The win moves the Trojans to 8-1 overall and 5-0 in the Sun Belt, good enough to be #25 in the latest AP Poll, the first such ranking in Troy and Sun Belt history. Add on the ground breaking on a new football facility, everything’s coming up Trojans right now.
However, the high of the weekend is quickly dispelled by a short week and a Thursday night match-up with Arkansas State, who is 5-0 in the Sun Belt as well. The Red Wolves dispatched New Mexico State 41-22 in Jonesboro on Saturday to set up another Sun Belt title game.
It would be just like the Red Wolves to spoil Troy’s moment and steal the Sun Belt title after an 0-4 non-conference start. It would be a bad look for the league as Troy is the posterboy this season.
The Fall of Southern and State
The third annual meeting of Georgia Southern and Georgia State this Saturday has a different mood than the previous two seasons. In the last two years, the Eagles and Panthers looked like programs on the rise, albeit in different ways. This season, it’s looking more like two programs on the decline.
Georgia Southern fell to 4-6 on the season with a 33-26 loss to UL-Lafayette last Thursday night. The loss has serious questions being asked about the coaching staff and discontent is the highest in 10 years.
However, Georgia State is doing just as badly. The Panthers lost 37-23 at home to UL-Monroe on Saturday, dropping to 2-8 on the season. Not long after the game, the Panthers fired head coach Trent Miles, later citing a need for a more positive direction.
So that’s how two bitter in-state rivals go into the last-ever meeting at the Georgia Dome. Both teams might want the Dome to be destroyed while both teams are playing, just to avoid watching them play again this season.
Idaho is Bowl Eligible
That’s all that needs to be said, right?
The Vandals dispatched Texas State 47-14 in San Marcos last Saturday to move to 6-4 on the season. Paul Petrino’s bunch becomes the third bowl-eligible team from the Sun Belt and unless something completely wonky happens, appears headed to the Arizona Bowl in Tuscon, Arizona.
It could be Idaho’s last bowl appearance before dropping to FCS with a number of seniors leaving plus scholarship numbers going down. And they’ve deserved it, going from 2-21 in Petrino’s first two seasons to 4-8 last season and now poised for a winning record in 2016.