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North Texas (1-0) at Ohio University (0-1), 7 p.m. Peden Stadium: OU is favored to win the MAC East, but opening 49-7 loss at Louisville showed no signs of that. OL injuries may slow the Bobcats, but an expected full house should still inspire a winner. Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/sports/college/index.ssf/2013/09/mid-american_conference_footba_5.html

Coming off a 49-7 thrashing at the hands of Louisville, Ohio plays host to the North Texas Mean Green Saturday evening. A defense that was thoroughly exploited a week ago looks to stop a Mean Green attack that scored 40 points in their opener vs. Idaho. North Texas, led by the former longtime Iowa State coach Dan McCarney, managed only 20.9 points per game a year ago. But the team's opening week onslaught of offense against Idaho has to be an encouraging sign. The Mean Green's 591 yards were the highest total for them in McCarney’s three-year reign. North Texas comes into the game with three linemen who have made at least 23 career starts, and a quarterback in his third season as a starter in Derek Thompson. The dual-threat Thompson passed for a career-high 349 yards and completed 85.2 percent of his passes a week ago. Senior linebacker Zach Orr leads a defense that looks to stop an Ohio squad that failed to appear in Week 1. Orr was named Conference USA's defensive player of the week for his performance against Idaho. He finished the game with 11 tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss, along with forcing and recovering a fumble, and braking up a pass. As far as the Bobcats’ struggles go, head coach Frank Solich talked in his Tuesday press conference about the fact that some things were set to change in practice this week. "We're regrouping, looking at doing some things differently. Obviously, some guys performed very well, some guys didn't," Solich said. "We are going to make some changes. We're forced to make some." Read more: http://www.hustlebelt.com/2013/9/6/4697888/ohio-looks-forward-to-turnaround-in-week-2

Three down • Tulsa: On Saturday, this didn’t look like the team USA Today’s Paul Myerberg ranked 26th in his annual preseason countdown. It could be that Bowling Green is just that good, or it could be that Tulsa laid an egg on the road against a team it was supposed to beat. The Golden Hurricane won 11 games in 2012, and this is their final season in Conference USA before they move to the American in 2014. Coach Bill Blankenship has plenty of issues to address, starting with the running game, which averaged just 2.1 yards per carry. Tulsa will work on that against Colorado State before traveling to Oklahoma on Sept. 14. • Ohio: The advanced numbers were on Ohio’s side entering its matchup with Louisville, but a couple of suspensions and an absolute buzzsaw of an offensive performance from the Cardinals buried the Bobcats out of the gates. This was as bad a performance as Ohio could have possibly had, and it’s likely not indicative of what we’ll see from the team in league play. The Bobcats were simply overwhelmed by a superior opponent: Still, Sunday’s effort was not a good look for Solich’s team, which upset Penn State to open the season a year ago. • Boise State: Maybe Washington really is that improved in 2013. If so, the Pac-12 race just got a whole lot tougher. Regardless, a lot of eyes were on Boise State after it beat Washington in the Las Vegas Bowl in ’12 and won 10-plus games for what felt like the 20th straight season, and the Broncos flopped: The Huskies rolled them 38-6. Boise looked thoroughly outmatched. Quarterback Joe Southwick was inaccurate even when he did have time to throw the ball, and the running game was held in check. This was the worst loss Chris Petersen has suffered as Boise’s head coach, and it actually seemed worse than the lopsided final score.