Tulsa, ECU chance to exit Conference USA with another title

[Harry]

Five Things to Watch

1. Welcome — and stay awhile

There are four first-year coaches in Conference USA, and all are at schools set to still be in the league next season. Sean Kugler is a Texas at El Paso alum and former assistant (1993-2000) who then coached for three NFL teams before getting his first head coaching job as Mike Price’s replacement. Former Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Todd Monken takes over at Southern Mississippi, which was the only winless FBS team last season at 0-12, coming a year after the Golden Eagles were 12-2 and C-USA champs. Southern Miss next season will be the only team remaining from the original 1996 C-USA lineup. Skip Holtz spent the last three seasons in the Big East with South Florida. Ron Turner is in his first season at Florida International after working for three different NFL teams since his stint at Illinois’ head coach from 1997 to 2004.

2. Lot of Lone Star

Four of the league’s 14 teams are in Texas — North Texas, Rice, UTEP and Texas at San Antonio. That should help build some regional rivalries, especially with all of them in the West Division. “You look back at the Southwest Conference days, all the great rivalries existed because of the locations of the universities,” Rice coach David Bailiff said. And Louisiana Tech, which had been in the WAC, isn’t too far away. “All of a sudden you’ve got car-ride trips for your fan base, where people get in the car and put the flag in the window,” Holtz said. “Their fans can also come to our place, which I think is going to be a completely different atmosphere for Louisiana Tech. Because being in the WAC, every trip’s been a plane ride.”

Read more: http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/magnolia/sports/football-tulsa-ecu-chance-to-exit-conference-usa-with-another/article_74a8b0ba-0074-11e3-a5a1-0019bb2963f4.html