By Jeremy St. Louis (@jrstlouis)

I can’t believe we are more than halfway through the college football season. So far, it has been a tremendous season for us at beIN SPORTS and O.J., Ki-Jana, Donovan and myself are having an absolute blast talking football and covering C-USA. Now that we’re into Conference play, every week is exciting at has something at stake - and as we’re seeing, there are a number of teams in the fight for the title.

With that, lets get to what we learned this past weekend…

La Tech WR Carlos Henderson is one of the best in CFB

Ryan Higgins & company have scored less than 28 points just once this season - and that was in the opener. Since then, this has become one of the most high-powered passing offenses in all of college football. Last week, WR Carlos Henderson led the nation in receiving yards with 326 yards on 12 receptions and 5TDs - that’s 27 yards per catch! Ok, it was in a 56-28 win against UMass but it is still impressive.

The NCAA certainly think so - Henderson is the NATIONAL Player of the Week. In the past two weeks, Henderson has racked up an impressive 558 yards on 20 receptions and 8TDs (27.9 yards per catch). Need some more numbers on Henderson? He leads the NCAA in All-Purpose Yards in a single game (362) and all-purpose yards per game this season (205.33). He also leads the country in receiving yards per game (147.3) and is third in receiving yards total (884).

FIU are 3-0 in C-USA play!  But wait…

The turnaround at FIU has been phenomenal under Ron Cooper. A team that looked like it would be lucky to finish 1-7 in conference play is now atop the league with a perfect 3-0 record. But while that is something to celebrate, get the festivities in now because some serious storm clouds are moving in. 

Looking at the schedule for the Panthers, things are about to get nasty with La Tech coming in this week, then Middle Tennessee the following week.  After those two games, they then travel to Western Kentucky.  If they can pull off an upset in just one of those games, that is a major success - but don’t be shocked if in three weeks I’m sitting here talking about FIU and their 3-3 record. 

It was a bad week for Owls

Both FAU and Rice needed wins this past week and there were times late in both their games where it looked like they might just pull off an upset. But no.

Leading 21-19 late in the 4th, FAU allowed Marshall to march 80 yards down the field in 14 plays to set-up a go-ahead TD. They then surrendered a 2 point convert and lost 27-21.

For Rice, after UTSA went for it on 4th and goal with three minutes to go - and were stuffed - they then marched down the field but missed a 42 yard FG to win it.  They were given another chance shortly after, marched down to the UTSA 27yd line but couldn’t get the clock stopped fast enough and ran out of time. Now, Rice could very well have forced OT had they not missed the XP on the opening drive but instead lost 14-13. 

Rice are the only team in C-USA yet to win a game this season (they are among three teams yet to win in conference play).

If ‘Defense’ wins games, Kickers lose them

This is more about kickers in ALL of college football and not just tied to C-USA - but we saw it on display in the league this week: kickers unable to hit critical FG or extra points. Above I mentioned the Rice/UTSA game - Rice could have forced OT had their kicker not slammed the opening drive extra-point off the crossbar. Hayden Tobola also missed a 50 yard FG and a 42 yard FG in that game. Perhaps Tobola had watched NC State Kicker Kyle Bambard miss a game-winning FG earlier that day versus Clemson. The Tigers won in OT because of it. A couple weeks back, I was at the Big House in Ann Arbor when not one, but two Michigan Kickers missed three FG between them. Luckily for Harbaugh’s guys, they still won the game. Now, I’m not trying to say kicking is easy but when its the ONLY thing you have to do in a game (versus reading a defense, evading coverage, finding the hole, not getting sacked) and your participation is anywhere from 6-10 plays per game, you should be able to nail it more often than not - especially in pressure situations.

If you’re a QB, you want to play in Conference USA

If you know - or are the parent of - a High School QB who has aspirations of going pro, get them into Conference USA - seriously.  As of the close of week 7, there is at least one C-USA QB ranked in the top-5 in each of the following NCAA categories:

Pass yards per game - 2nd

Pass Yards overall - 2nd

Pass Efficiency - 5th

Total Offense - 3rd

Longest Pass Completion - Single Game (SG) - 1st

Pass Efficiency SG - 1st & 5th

Pass Completions SG - 4th

Pass Yards SG - 1st & 5th

Conference USA is a ‘passing league’ and in some of these offenses, it is like being back on the playground.  And man, is it fun to watch some weeks!

Our game this week has (1-2) Charlotte traveling to Huntington, W.Va. to take on (1-1) Marshall. The Thundering Herd snapping a four game losing skid this past weekend with a nail-biter over FAU.  Charlotte lost a heartbreaker to FIU 27-26.  Kickoff is set for 5:30p ET with our coverage underway from Huntington at 5p ET.