The Southern Miss Golden Eagles have kicked off with Boise State on the “smurf turf” from Boise, Idaho, and the Golden Eagles have not started off well. Boise State took the opening kickoff to near mid-field and just a few plays later were in the end zone for a 7-0 early lead.

Boise State comes into the game 2-1 on the season and 15-1 over the past two seasons. Southern Miss, a staple of consistency in Conference USA @ Southern Miss, has been as USM for 17 years.

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As Tulsa began the first weekend of football for Conference USA teams on a positive note, the tough out-of-conference games took their toll on Tulsa’s C-USA mates on Saturday. While East Carolina gave #9 Virginia Tech all they could handle on a emotional day in Blacksburg, the Pirates fell 17-7 in the end. UAB’s travels to face Michigan State were quite disappointing thanks to a 55-18 thumping by the Spartans, and Marshall’s visit to Miami and subsequent 31-3 loss was not what Thundering Herd fans were hoping for. Houston had high, but reasonable hopes, heading into a match-up @ Oregon, and while they trailed just 20-17 at the half, Oregon’s offense could not be stopped in a 48-27 loss. After a terrible 2006 campaign, Memphis fans should feel better about their team after a narrow 23-21 loss to Mississippi, but Rice’s loss to Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) member Nicholls State must have brought back memories of Rice from just a few short years ago.

The highlights for C-USA football programs came as the night wore on; UCF’s 25-point 1st half proved to be enough, barely, to fend off the NC State Wolfpack 25-23 and Southern Miss easily handled Tennessee-Martin, another Football Championship Subdivision member, by a score of 35-13. In the nightcap, UTEP and New Mexico had a defensive battle in a game that the Miners held on to win 10-6.

In then 10 games played thus far, C-USA team have picked up 4 wins (Southern Miss, UCF, Tulsa & UTEP) with SMU facing Textas Tech later today.