Coach Bill Lewis

On Tuesday morning, a literal dark cloud hovered above the building that houses the office of University of Tulsa athletic director Derrick Gragg. At the same time that the TU campus was soaked with rain, and as Gragg provided a fairly startling revelation about his department, there seemed also to be a figurative dark cloud above Golden Hurricane sports. Not true, Gragg said. TU’s current budget situation is a difficult circumstance, he acknowledged, but not a crisis. What would qualify as a startling revelation? Specific numbers aren’t known, but recent budget cuts have affected all aspects of TU’s operation. In an effort to avoid a reduction in services for student-athletes, Gragg said, Hurricane football coach Philip Montgomery, men’s basketball coach Frank Haith and Gragg himself all have accepted pay cuts. At the major-college level, this could be unprecedented — that a football coach, men’s basketball coach and an AD simultaneously and willingly absorbed salary reductions for the sake of the greater good of a money-starved school’s sports programs. “Basically, the budget reductions to me are a microcosm of what’s going on, not just at TU but across the country at a lot of different places,” Gragg said. “We’re like a lot of other athletic departments — we’ve been asked to tighten our belt. Full article link: https://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/tusportsextra/bill-haisten-derrick-gragg-philip-montgomery-and-frank-haith-accept/article_833b8a0b-9b60-5982-be6d-ecda78465987.amp.html?__twitter_impression=true

BOCA RATON — After months of searching, Lane Kiffin has finally found his graduate transfer quarterback. Former Arkansas and SMU quarterback Rafe Peavey has officially joined the Owls as a grad transfer and is immediately eligible to play. Peavey was cleared shortly before Tuesday’s practice and took reps with the first, second, and third-teams. “We’re always looking for people,” Kiffin said, “and we had looked for a while for the right fit of a quarterback due to numbers once Jason (Driskel) left.” Peavey, 22, was a perfect four-of-four for 116 yards and a touchdown in three games last season. A former three-star recruit from Missouri, Peavey transferred to SMU in 2016 and mainly served as Ben Hicks’ backup last season. Redshirt junior De’Andre Johnson is currently battling redshirt freshman Chris Robison for the starting quarterback job. Kiffin said the addition of Peavey is “not any reflection upon” Johnson and Robison’s performances. LINK: http://faufocus.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2018/08/07/florida-atlantic-adds-former-arkansas-quarterback-rafe-peavey-as-graduate-transfer/

Here are some projections for CUSA standings in 2018 WEST Overall Conference UAB 9-3 6-2 North Texas 6-6 4-4 Louisiana Tech 6-6 4-4 Southern Miss 6-6 4-4 UTSA 4-8 4-4 Rice 4-9 2-6 UTEP 2-10 0-8 http://mikedropsports.com/cfb-records-conference-usa/

So so sad what is happening to this game!! http://www.espn.com/college-football/sto...t-one-game

Saying that it is tougher becaus they have to play Memphis and UCF instead of C-USA programs.

Most of you could care less about CUSA (I don’t blame you), but I’m a nerd and this conference fascinates me this season. I touched on how good the East is above and the top teams in the West are not too far behind. I could see any of the top 3 winning this division. UAB, fresh off it’s death sentence by Alabama/Bear Bryant’s ghost (look it up), will build off their magical season in 2018. The Blazers return the 10th most production in the country, I am just a bit concerned with their secondary. QB Mason Fine returns for North Texas and may score 75 points a game. Skip Holtz’s (shout out to Lou, the greathest college football analysth off all thime) Louisiana Tech will look to top both North Texas and UAB (play them in back to back weeks, tough!) to return to the CUSA championship game. Holtz has spent a lot of time at LT and a good season will help his resume to potentially get a shot at a better G5/low-teir P5 school. Southern Mississippi will have to find a QB if they want to threaten anybody. UTSA, a favorite of mine in 2017, is going under an overhaul, returning the 4th least production in the country. Frank Wilson, a name that was thrown around at a few P5 schools looking for coaches, has recruited incredibly well for the Roadrunners, so he will have the talent. I love the hire of Mike Bloomgren, the former Stanford DC, by Rice. He has first hand experience in dealing with a school with high admission standards and recruiting. His rebuild of Rice will take a few years, but I am excited to see if he can make Rice the Stanford of CUSA. As I mentioned above, UTEP is going to be god awful. Full link: https://bars.tl/P0QoXilvIO

C-USA West will have their media day starting at 2pm central on ESPN3.

Attendance from the 2017-18 season for NCAA hoops is attached: http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_basketba...ndance.pdf

Another rule change to ponder during the off season. It seems to me this one favors the bigger conferences but certainly that is up for debate. All teams will get to play more of their players which is a positive. Thoughts? https://247sports.com/college/texas/Article/Texas-Longhorns-Football-New-redshirt-rule-hottest-Day-1-topic-of-2018-Big-12-Media-Days-119850103/

C-USA title odds from Lost Wages: FAU 5/6 Marshall 9/2 La Tech 8/1 Middle Ten 10/1 North Texas 12/1 UAB 20/1 Southern Miss 30/1 Old Dominion 35/1 UTSA 50/1 WKU 80/1 FIU 100/1 Charlotte 300/1 Rice 500/1 UTEP 750/1

Good article on behind the scenes! https://deadspin.com/a-college-basketbal...1826990796

The ever-widening gulf between the haves and have-nots of modern day college athletics hit UAB like a punch in the gut last month. The athletic department was forced to cut or eliminate 12 positions before the start of its new fiscal year in July. The estimated savings are about $400,000. Caught in the middle of the sudden layoffs was Zac Schrieber. Schrieber was a sports information director at Samford University for 14 years. Last month, he was offered a position by UAB to be the Blazers' new SID for men's basketball. For a father with two young children, it was a major step for his family and his career. Then came the call from UAB's human resources. Just before the end of business on Friday, June 15, and two days before the start of his new job at UAB, the university's human resources department informed him the position was no longer available. Schrieber said the call came at 4:29 p.m. Samford's human resources department closed at 4:30 p.m. "If I would have been told just four hours earlier, I could have most likely stopped everything on the Samford end of things and kept my job there," Schrieber said in a text message. Schrieber is now unemployed for the first time in 23 years. https://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2018...om#article

Some good bits in there. https://www.underdogdynasty.com/2017/6/2...a-football

It is called th Alliance pro team. Will share space at Alamo dome with UTSA. Positive for UTSA to be closely aligned with a pro squad. Link to article: http://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/n...ral-season

2 million buyout. He is going rule the roost for a long time there! http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/a...09544.html

https://swcroundup.com/news/2018/6/10/se...eview-utsa

Kia Locksley their QB transfer was the national JUCO MVP last year. Now they add the best fullback in the market. http://www.indexjournal.com/sports/natio...a5b7c.html This UTEP squad is going to surprise some people this season folks.

Proud of FAU for making this list and representing C-USA. We need more like FAU. http://larrybrownsports.com/college-foot...018/448127

Looks like FAU and Marshall have the most showings. Some pretty good game tho. Saturday, Sept. 1 at Noon, Houston at Rice Saturday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m., Indiana at FIU Saturday, Sept. 22 at 3:30 p.m., Virginia Tech at Old Dominion Saturday, Sept. 22 at 7 p.m., NC State at Marshall Friday, Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m., Middle Tennessee at Marshall Friday, Oct. 26 at 6:30 p.m., Louisiana Tech at Florida Atlantic Friday, Nov. 2 at 8 p.m., Western Kentucky at Middle Tennessee Thursday, Nov. 15 at 9:30 p.m., Florida Atlantic at North Texas Saturday, Nov. 24 at Noon, Western Kentucky at Louisiana Tech Saturday, Dec. 1, TBD, Conference USA Championship https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...mpionship/

Impressive. Kiffin is representing C-USA In a big way. Deserves a ton of credit for what he has accomplished in such a short time. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nc...568834002/

FAU Sept. 1 at Oklahoma; Sept. 8 vs. Air Force; Sept. 15 vs. Bethune-Cookman; Sept. 21 at UCF Lane Kiffin led the Owls to their first Conference USA championship last season but duplicating that feat could be difficult especially with a treacherous nonconference schedule that features road games against a pair of conference champions in Oklahoma and UCF. The good news is FAU went 1-3 in nonconference in 2017 and still managed an 11-win season. Middle Tennessee Sept. 1 at Vanderbilt; Sept 8 vs. UT Martin; Sept. 15 at Georgia; Nov. 17 at Kentucky The Blue Raiders open up the season on the road for the first time since 2011 as the team travels to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt. Middle Tennessee has split the series (3-3) but all three wins have come on the road. MTSU has lost 12 out of its last 13 meetings with teams from the SEC with the last win coming in 2016. The program is a combined 0-3 all-time against Georgia and Kentucky. UTSA Sept. 1 at Arizona State; Sept. 8 vs. Baylor; Sept. 15 at Kansas State; Sept. 22 vs. Texas State UTSA is one of just two CUSA schools to play three teams from Power 5 conferences this season (Middle Tennessee). The Roadrunners won three games out of conference in a single season for the first time since fully joining CUSA in 2013 including the program’s first win over a P5 school in Baylor. North Texas Sept. 1 vs. SMU; Sept. 8 vs. Incarnate Word; Sept. 15 at Arkansas; Sept. 22 at Liberty North Texas put together just it’s second winning season since 2005 when the Mean Green won nine games in 2017. The good news for Seth Littrell’s program is they’ll face one of the easiest schedules in the conference with an FCS foe (Incarnate Word) and a program transitioning into the Football Bowl Subdivision (Liberty). http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/co...story.html

http://www.collegebaseballdaily.com/2018...of-season/

I think this makes it clear that ODU is tops in the CUSA for facilities and they already had a jump on budget/academics. They seem to be preparing for entry into AAC. http://odu.edu/news/2018/4/stadium#.WtoNxUEpDDt

http://www.richmond.com/sports/college/s...90d61.html