Seems only fair that since my adopted team has the first bowl game of the season (a mere nine days away!) that they be the first to have their exploits previewed.

A peek past the basic statistics shows a game that is unlikely to be as close as surface skimming might indicate, but then *insert "that's why they don't play the games on paper" cliche here*.

The only other time these two teams ever played each other was a 38-23 victory for the Pokes back in September of 1990, so I decided to go retro and use the 1990 helmets below the fold this time - which, interestingly enough, means essentially the current helmet with a center stripe for both teams.

Now, about the actual football...there are many questions to be answered, so lets race past the jump to see what we can divine from what has happened thusfar this season - aka "Fun With Bullet Points."

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There is still another weekend of games for our various ex-MAC coaches, but I am calling today's installment the final in this season's MACtracking - Jerry Kill and Turner Gill's seasons have been over since they started, Butchie's Boys have slid far enough that they may not play again after Saturday, and even Miami has put a cork in it - on purpose - which is our lead story this week.

The U announced this week that they are placing themselves on a bowl-game ban this year in an attempt to soften the potential NCAA infraction-related sanctions they eventually receive. We have no way of knowing yet whether that will actually be effective, but I would like to think that proactivity of any kind would be rewarded in some way.

Saturday was a low scoring affair that earned them now-meaningless bowl eligibility, and I do mean low-scoring; after South Florida kicked a field goal with 13:48 left in the first half to tie the score at 3-3, zero points were scored until Miami's game-winning field goal as time expired. At least Al has some defensive talent to build with

This mean's that Friday's afternoon game at home against Boston College will be the 'Canes de facto bowl game - not like they really needed help taking down Boston College though. This young team will mostly return next year, save for the equally amazing and frustrating Jacory Harris under center, so they should be a legitimate contender in the ACC. You know, unless they get crushed by sanctions.

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Some minor shuffling in the order this week, as I pay proper tribute to those who have succeeded (Ohio, your 2011 MAC East champion) and those who have failed (CMU, who is finally done).

With one week of games remaining, there is a little bit of drama in the West as to whether Toledo or Northern Illinois will wind up in the title game against the Bobcats, though I personally am rooting to see the Huskies, if only because I want to fully anthropomorphize my title experience.

Beyond the jump we go!

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Sure, there were a number of impressive performances, including another huge output from Chandler Harnish. However, Harnish had his week to shine, and it was against a defense well-known for being significantly below average, records be damned.

Instead, I am going with the man of the weekend, Ohio kicker Matt Weller. Tyler Tettleton may have put in another "Harnish Junior" performance, but Weller kept the Bobcats putting points on the board when drives stalled out, and drilled home the field goal that clinched the MAC East championship for the Bobcats. Besides, how could I pass up the chance to use that photo over there?

I'll give Harnish a second place nod here for his record setting 519 yards from scrimmage, and third place will be awarded to the impressive display put on by Buffalo's Branden Oliver, who despite the year the Bulls have had was able to rack up 273 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns, making him the MAC's leading rusher (1,253 yards) heading into the final week of play.

Honorable mention: Adonis Thomas 21 carries for 131 yards and 2 TD; Terrence Owens - 24 of 32 for 275 yards and 2 TD, 8 carries for 63 yards and 1 TD; Alex Carder 36 of 57 for 429 yards, 3 TD and 1 INT; Jordan White 9 catches for 106 yards and 2 TD; Zac Dysert 42 of 54 for 413 yards 3 TD 1 INT; Nick Harwelll 14 catches for 138 yards and 3 TD; Tyler Tettleton 18 of 27 for 194 yards and 1 TD, 23 carries for 128 yards and 1 TD

Not too much change this week, outside of a small drop for the Broncos (towards the middle - what a shock!) The Rockets have a better conference record than the Eagles, but I am not promoting a team through the rankings when they surrender 63 points in consecutive weeks (and, for all I know, might do it again this Friday night against Central).

After the jump, you will find all of the lack of changes you desire.

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I guess I owe cmadler and any other Eastern Michigan fans an apology for my earlier comments about Alex Gillett and the passing game never being responsible for an Eagles win this season. 

In his last two games (last Saturday's near-miss against Ball State and today against Buffalo) Gillett 22 of 32 passes for 430 yards and eight touchdowns, plus another 37 carries for 215 yards rushing. He has been passing just enough to keep defenses honest and been very efficient at it, thus earning this week's honors.

We'll see if he can keep this up, since both Ball State and Buffalo's defenses are garbage, especially against the run, but Ron English has to be happy with these last two performances.

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There are few surprises heading into the women's basketball season. Bowling Green, fresh off their seventh consecutive MAC title, is looking to reload, while the Rockets are looking to put together the right coordinates out of Toledo in order to succeed in knocking the Falcons off their perch.

Wow. I need a break for how amazingly, metaphorically cliched that sentence was.

Anyways, there are few surprises now, but that does not mean there won't be any at all during the course of this season. Follow after the jump for a rough idea of the lay of this year's land. My apologies for some teams being a bit more detailed, but these team's media guide info are painfully scatter-shot.

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Paint yourself a picture in your mind. (I would say "close your eyes, but that would remove your ability to read, so scratch that.) You have a good friend, someone you have known since you were younger. For the past ten, fifteen or twenty years, the two of you have lived near one another, done everything together, and folks often joke that the two of you are practically siblings because you are so close-knit.

Now keep picturing: someone comes to you and says that this friend of yours, whom you've known practically your whole life, has done something blatantly and morally reprehensible, something flat-out (or even just borderline) illegal. How would you respond? Wouldn't you just be in disbelief, at how diametrically opposed this news is to everything you know (or think you know) about this friend from all the time you have known each other? Wouldn't your reaction, since this is a person you have known forever and trust, be to go to them, ask them whether rumor was truth, and possibly even take their word for it if they passed it off as rumor?

It doesn't matter whose yard you're in - if you dig long enough, you're going to find a skeleton, even in the well tended, long-standing yard that is Penn State head coach Joseph Vincent Paterno.

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Figured I would wait til midweek to pump out the power rankings so that everyone aside from Eastern would get another game under their belts. Yes, a week disappeared in there somewhere, just shut up. Tuesday and Wednesday night confirmed what we already suspected in preseason - Ohio and Temple are probably the two best in the east, and NIU and Toledo are probably tops in the west, pimples and all.

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Nothing like a showstopping Tuesday night game to throw a wrench into my Player of the Week plans. Chandler Harnish gets the nod this week after a ridiculous offensive performance in which he completed 17 of 26 passes for 265 yards and six touchdowns, plus another 133 yards rushing th ball.

Miami's Zac Dysert gets runner up since he was in line for the award prior to Tuesday night. Dysert went 9 for 9 for 187 yards and three touchdowns in the first quarter against Buffalo. He may have eventually thrown an interception, but he racked up 313 yards and had as many touchdown passes (5) as he did incompletions.

An honorable mention this week to Temple's potential sophomore sensation Chris Coyer. After Chester Stewart played Temple's first two offensive drives and attempted three passes for six yards, Coyer came in. He was all over the field, throwing for 124 yards and three scores on only eight completions plus another 175 yards rushing. He actually passed Ohio's Tyler Tettleton to become the conference's third leading rusher among QB's tonight.

Many other nominees after the jump.

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An interesting weekend, wherein Miami showed they're just as mediocre as they appeared last weekend (the ACC makes no sense to me).

Minnesota found a way to beat an Iowa team they probably shouldn't have despite two ill-advised two-point conversion attempts.

Kansas...got their asses handed to them again. Let's all sit around the bonfire and discuss, shall we?

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Lots of shuffling this week, at least partly because of how I am ranking the teams from now on (and how I should have been doing it the last couple of weeks.

Teams are ranked by overall record, then conference record, and then tiebreakers (i.e. this weeks 2/3/4 teams) are my own subjective opinion. Works for me, and I gives a poopy if you commenters like it.

NIU, EMU, Temple and WMU make what on the surface are large jumps but are indicative of their rise in the actual conference standings. Hopefully this next week or two doesn't do too much to screw all that up.

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What on earth do I mean by that? Well, when I sat down to watch football Saturday, my initial reaction (being someone who chooses to enjoy the free cable that was there when he moved in rather than fork over extra cash) to my non-MAC viewing options was "hey, cool, I'll get to watch both Jerry Kill and Turner Gill today!"

Then I remembered that they were playing top 20 teams and thought "oh god, this is all I get to watch right now?" But, this is the feature I write, so I sat through it anyway. Want to guess what happened? Let's discuss after the jump.

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Another week in the books, and we have not just an upset, but a standout defensive performance within that upset that I am choosing as the stud for the week.

Bowling Green defensive lineman Chris Jones gets the nod for recording six tackles and three sacks for a total of minus-16 yards in helping the Falcons finish the season-long demonstration of how incredibly reliant Temple is on their running backs and not their quarterback.

Jones and his teammates may have allowed 226 yards rushing to Bernard Pierce and Matt Brown, but they only allowed them across the goal line once, and in the end that's all that matters.

Runner up this week is a tie between two Eastern Michigan teammates: last week's winner Javonti Greene and his 50 yard touchdown run and 50 yard touchdown catch, plus safety Bryan Pali, who tied for the team lead with 10 tackles, including a split of the fourth-down stop that kept Western out of the end zone and kept EMU's 14-10 final margin intact.

Honorable mention: Chazz Anderson, Keith Wenning, Ryan Radcliff, Zurlon Tipton, David Blackburn, Jack Tomlinson, Brown, Pierce, Anthon Samuel, Tyler Tettleton, Lavon Brazill, Donte Harden, Dawon Scott, Toledo's Yardage-By-Committee

Getting into the meat of the season, and it sure seems like an appropriate metaphor for the conference. Some teams are looking rather carniverous (Temple, Toledo in conference play), while others are looking like rather toothless, frail vegan waifs (Akron, Kent, BGSU since conference play). The Falcons make the big jump this week, and everyone else just shuffles around a bit.

After the jump, ye find yonder rankings treasure.

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Our first co-players of the week, and deservedly so. We are past the halfway point of the season, and Eastern Michigan has yet to dip below .500 heading into their matchup against WMU. As poor as they looked in their loss against Toledo, they have managed to hang in this year in large part thanks to their running game, and Javonti Greene and Dominique White are a very large part of that equation.

Since I couldn't decide if 161 yards and one score or 96 yards and three scores was more impressive, I shall combine them for one monster line of 257 rushing yards and four touchdowns. After two easy games of sharing in the rushing rampage with the now injured Dominique Sherrer, Greene disappeared for a while and just now resurfaced (hopefully for good) with this past Saturday's performance.

White has stepped in as the next Dominique in line and after a bit of a shaky start has now racked up 377 yards and five touchdowns in three conference games. It appears the Eagles' running game has hardly skipped a beat this season, as they now have at least an outside shot at two tailbacks finishing the year with 1,000 rushing yards.

Runners up after the jump, people.

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I can only assume that'swhat Mark Mangino is doing right now watching this Kansas Jayhawk team from the...oh, what's that? That massive tub of jelly isn't dead yet? Well, if he was dead, that's what he'd be doing. But we'll come back to Turner and company after we discuss our other good buddies, Butch and Al.

Butchie's Boys played a weird one. With 27 seconds left in the first half, Isaiah Pead had only gained 43 yards on 10 carries, and the Bearcats - despite Zach Collaros' 91 yards passing and a score - had the ball at midfield down by two points. Three plays later Collaros tossed a pick-six, and Cincinnati was in the locker room trailing 16-7. This was new ground, for sure.

Not to fear, because the Bearcats finally awoke in the second half. The Cardinals opened the second half with a drive that reached the Cincinnati 40 yard line before an interception snuffed the drive. The next time they crossed midfield was on a fourth-down conversion with under a minute to play and no timeouts remaining, leaving them stuck behind a 23-16 loss.

The Bearcats appear to be at least a little more mortal than first thought, but so are the USF and Pitt squads they face on the road in their next two matchups. Keep on truckin', Butchie. More mayhem after the jump.

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I am aware of the fact that my weekly Player of the Week posts are rather offense heavy. Surely you all can understand to some extent - all i need to do is pull up a box score to find an impressive offensive performance. In order to take note of a solid defensive performance, I need at the very least a recap from the MAC website.

Tahir Whitehead out at Temple (32 tackles, 10 for a loss, four sacks, four forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries) and Khalil Mack (42 tackles, 12 for loss, 3.5 sacks, four forced fumbles and an interception) have each had a pretty impressive season - definitely leading the pack for the conference's defensive player of the year, maybe even an outside shot at overall player of the year (with the important voters, not just here at Hustle Belt).

That being said, I wanted to show a little love to a few other impressive players this  season. To the jump!

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Another impressive performance from the Temple Owls has them one win away from bowl eligibility and continuing their stay atop the conference - and yet all another dominant win has me thinking is "what the hell happened against Toledo?"

The Owls held Buffalo's Branden Oliver to 13 carries for 43 yards in the first half, while Bernard Pierce ran for 85 yards and a score in the first quarter. Chester Stewart completed his first five passes, while Chazz Anderson completed half of his in the opening half.

Pierce finished the game with 152 yards and two scores despite not playing the last quarter and a half, which sufficiently sums up this game as far as I'm concerned. More impressively, since that hideous showing against Toledo, Temple's last two games have seen their opponents cross midfleid four times and reach the red zone zero  times in 21 offensive possessions. That is crazy good. Outside of the Toledo game, they have outscored their opponents 166-10 in the first three quarters. They now get to face a Bowling Green team that has allowed 979 rushing yards in their last three games. I think I know how this one might go...

Now that we have reached the halfway point of this season, I thought it would be prudent to take a look at the individual performances so far this season - not just those who have shined in any given "of the week" nomination, but those who are in the running for the end of season award.

Let's sort it out by position (more or less) shall we?

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We're six weeks in. Most the teams have played six games, so this is the perfect time to dole out some midseason grades. All grades are final but protests may be submitted to the instructor, although this rarely helps.

Here we are, six games into the season, and Temple is going strong. A 4-2 record has them near the top of the conference and in contention, and Bernard Pierce is 7th in the country in rushing yards (692) and first in rushing TD's (15). Sure, there may be some issues, like having a quarterback that is even capable of intimidating himself, but hey, nobody's perfect, right? Follow after the jump for some grading. Harsh grading, in red pen. Ahhhh middle school....

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Looks like the good teams are rising to the top of our rankings - and the divisions. There are minimal moves beyond Western, Toledo, and Miami making climbs that coincide with their continued and/or newly discovered momentum.

The Broncos jump to the top of the line on the strength of consecutive wins, while the RedHawks' offense pulls them back up off the bottom of the pile (with winnable games in sight).

There definitely appears to be some momentum building for a lot of teams, though not all of it is good (Kent, Eastern).

Follow after the jump for details about each team.

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Richie Who? A man so obscure there's no photographic proof of him! (That's right, MAC Digital Network's highlight reel doesn't go past 24-17 for some reason). Yes, there were certainly some more impressive offensive performances, but Smith had the most impressive play that I saw (that's right, folks, I've decided to actually start watching these MAC games online).

Clinging to a one point lead, the Bulls had Ohio down to their last gasp, and Smith broke through for a sack of Ohio's Tyler Tettleton that resulted in a forced fumble and a change of possession that nailed the Bobcats' coffin shut due to a lack of timeouts. Kudos to Richie (since this may be his one moment to shine all season).

Runner up status to MIAMI quarterback Zac Dysert, who completed 24 of 37 passes for 342 yards and three scores in leading the RedHawks to their first win of the season over Army, and Nick Harwell, the team's leading receiver who caught two of those scores as well as eight other passes for 186 yards in total.

Head past the jump for the rest of this week's close-but-not-quite performances.

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This sure was an ugly week. Yeah, Al Golden and his boys put together another impressive near-win, but that was about as bright as it got this weekend for recent former MAC employees. Turner Gill and Jerry Kill both struggled mightily for another week and have no real end in sight to their struggles. Lets head past the jump and discuss this mess, shall we?

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We are hitting conference play with avengeance this weekend, so what better time for your local Hustle Belt writers of Ball State (Phil) and Temple (myself) to discuss this Saturday's key matchup between the Cardinals and the Owls? Phil and I took a few minutes to rattle off those ideas that have been passing through our minds since last weekend, and after the jump you will find an incredibly riveting and educated discussion about football, strategy, and man-love.

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After the jump, ye shall find my pearls of wisdom. Which may or may not still be "buried in the sand in a clam" quality.

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My apologies to Al Golden for forgetting all about him in this column (in my defense, I at least knew I was forgetting someone). Lamar Miller posted his fourth straight 100-yard game in the Hurricanes 45-14 win Saturday against FCS Bethune-Cookman and now is on pace to take a shot at 1,600 yards if Miami can get to a bowl game - which may be in doubt at the moment given their rollercoaster play thusfar.

After their near miss at Maryland, they followed with a convincing home win over Ohio State for a good start. Then they lost at home to Kansas State and got to rebound this week against FCS Bethune-Cookman. We'll see how they manage next week against an angry Virginia Tech team on the road. Given their current up-and-down, they'll probably get smeared, but I'll reserve judgement until then.

As for your other favorite former employees, kee reading after the jump.

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Yeah, I guess since the dude threw for almost five hundred yards and five touchdowns (37 for 51, 479 yards, 5 TDs) in pretty much single-handedly leading his team past UCONN, I can give this week's award to Alex Carder. Granted, his performance was dictated in part by a defense that struggled to keep the Broncos in the lead, but this award is all about individual performance, regardless of how you got there, right?

Honorable mention this week to CMU's Paris Cotton, who helped the Chippewas take down an unimpressive NIU squad with 20 total touches (carries and receptions) for 225 yards and 3 TDs.  As for third place, those bums get buried below the jump.

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A little shakeup at the top, but not too much. Miami continues to fall because they continue to be winless, and Ball State makes another jump with another victory. (I initially moved them higher but didn't think WMU's near loss deserved dropping them a slot).

Next week things start to get interesting with more regular conference play, and the top of the conference might start shaking out...or at least getting some separation.

Berate in the comments as you please.

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