There might be a starting quarterback or two in Conference USA who has more athletic ability than Tulsa senior Paul Smith.
But when it comes to showcasing accuracy and making good decisions under pressure, there’s none better than Smith.
Smith was billed by some as the league’s next great signal-caller before the season began, and so far he’s lived up to that expectation.
After 10 games, Smith has thrown for 3,496 yards and 32 touchdowns (both career-highs and Tulsa single-season records) and rushed for 10 touchdowns. He’s completed 61.1 percent of his passes and has a passer rating of 160.1 (sixth-highest among all Football Bowl Subdivision passers).
If there’s one knock on Smith, it’s the large number of interceptions he has thrown this season. He’s already thrown a league-high tying and career-high 15 picks. That’s 11 more than thrown by last season’s C-USA Offensive Player of the Year and All C-USA first-team quarterback, Houston’s Kevin Kolb.
Still, Smith has been good at nearly everything else this season.
His biggest performance came in the Golden Hurricane’s 56-7 thrashing of Houston on Saturday. Smith threw for 313 yards and five touchdowns and rushed for another score to propel Tulsa (7-3, 5-2 C-USA) to its third straight victory.
"He’s a poised competitor. He just made the plays and we didn’t," Houston head coach Art Briles said following the game.
Because of Smith, Tulsa is in the driver’s seat to claim its second C-USA West Division title in three seasons. A victory over Rice two weeks from now would give the Golden Hurricane the West Division crown and a berth in the C-USA Championship Game on Dec. 1.
Without a doubt, Smith is C-USA’s best quarterback.
And if you believe Tulsa head coach Todd Graham, he might be even better than that.
"I think we’ve got the best quarterback in the country, I really do," Graham told NewsOK.com on Oct. 16. "There’s not anybody I would want taking the snap other than him when the game’s on the line or we need a big play."
Agreeing to disagree
Southern Methodist fell one second short of claiming its first C-USA victory against Rice on Saturday. And it was a somewhat controversial second.
The Mustangs fell 43-42 after Rice sophomore kicker Clark Fangmeier connected on a 31-yard field goal as time expired.
But the game-winning field goal attempt almost didn’t happen.
With the Mustangs (1-9, 0-6 C-USA) leading 42-40, Owls freshman running back Justin Hill rushed for six yards to the SMU 14-yard line and was stopped with time close to expiring. Believing that time had run out, the Mustangs rushed the field in celebration.
However, officials ruled that Rice managed to call a timeout with one second left and told SMU head coach Phil Bennett the play could not be reviewed. The Mustangs were herded back to the sidelines, where they watched Fangmeier’s kick sail through the uprights.
The ruling left Bennett, who was fired Oct. 28 and allowed to coach the remainder of the season, miffed.
"The clock ran out; you watch," Bennett told the Dallas Morning News. "The guy kept running. The play went longer than they thought. They thought the kid was going to go down. That’s my opinion. It doesn’t matter. The final score was Rice 43, SMU 42."
Rice first-year coach David Bailiff disagreed, saying that more time should have been left on clock after Hill’s run.
"It wasn’t even where I was even sweating no time was there," Bailiff told the Dallas Morning News. "I was shocked that they gave us only a second."
Everything gets by these teams
Where’s the defense? Apparently not in C-USA, which has churned out some of the nation’s worst defenses this season.
Eight C-USA squads rank in the bottom 25 of 119 Football Bowl Subdivision schools in total defense. Rice (508.3 yards allowed per game) checks in with the second-to-worst ranking at 117th, followed by Texas-El Paso (116th), Southern Methodist (115th), Alabama-Birmingham (114th), Tulsa (103rd), East Carolina (102nd), Marshall (101st) and Memphis (94th).
And to top that off, many of these teams are notorious for giving up points in bunches. Seven C-USA squads rank in the bottom 25 of the FBS in scoring defense.
Rice (42.2 points allowed per contest) again leads the way with the next-to-worst ranking at 118th. Following the Owls are SMU (112th), UTEP (104th), UAB (102nd), Marshall (101st), Tulsa (99th) and Houston (tied for 96th).
The school that receives the honors for top defensive squad in C-USA: Southern Miss.
The Golden Eagles are ranked 43rd in the FBS in total defense (358.4 yards per game) and 45th in scoring defense (24.3 points per game).
300 yards? No problem
Rushing for 300-plus yards seems to be the rare for prominent C-USA running backs this season.
Well, at least for Central Florida junior Kevin Smith, East Carolina senior Chris Johnson and Tulane senior Matt Fort’eacute;, who have all recorded at least one 300-plus yard rushing performance this season.
Smith was the latest back to pull off the feat, rushing for 320 yards and four touchdowns in Central Florida’s 45-31 victory over Alabama-Birmingham. It was the first career 300-plus yard rushing outing for Smith, who was named C-USA Co-Offensive Player of the Week on Monday.
Johnson reached the milestone with a 301-yard, four-touchdown outing in East Carolina’s 56-40 trouncing of Memphis on Nov. 3.
Fort’eacute; has pulled off the feat twice this season, rushing for 303 yards and five touchdowns against Southeastern Louisiana on Sept. 22 and a C-USA record 342 yards and four touchdowns against Southern Methodist on Oct. 20. Tulane won both games.
