The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • C8

Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: OS DESK: SPT DATE: 10-16-2005 EDITION: FLA ZONE: FLA PAGE: C8.0 DEADLINE: 21.51 OP: ahuff COMPOSETIME: 00.00 CMYK C8 Orlando Sentinel SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2005 SOUTHERN MISS 52, UCF 31 THE BUZZ C-USA looks into adding ninth conference game College football's Division l-A teams will go back to a 12-game regular-season schedule next year, and Conference USA members have had preliminary talks about adding another league game to the schedule instead of adding a non-conference game. Athletic directors in the conference brought the subject up at a recent league meeting, UCF Athletic Director Steve Orsini said, but the group has not made any formal proposals. In an e-mail to the Sentinel, C-USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky said he was open to the idea and is primarily concerned about the quality of games his teams add. He said the league probably would have more discussions about a ninth conference game. Most Division l-A conferences play eight league games, although the Pac-10 voted this summer to add a ninth game starting in 2006, making league play a full round-robin.

Of C-USA's 1 2 members, all but Southern Miss have added a 1 2th game for next season. UCF recently signed Division l-AA Villanova to come to Orlando as its additional opponent for 2006. Israel plays, loses redshirt Kyle Israel will not get his redshirt back this season. Israel came on in relief of Steven Moffettin the fourth quarter with UCF trailing 52-14. Israel scored his first career touchdown on his first drive, a 1 -yard sneak.

It was his first game action of the season, and it ended any possibility that he could get his year of eligibility back. Israel, a sophomore from University High, played as a freshman, got hurt in the spring and left fall camp at No. 3 on UCF's depth chart. Although Ed Marynowitz was listed as Moffett's backup, Israel recently moved past Marynowitz in the depth chart. 2 new faces UCF tried a pair of new safeties against the Golden Eagles, plugging in FS Anthony Willis and SS Breon Rogers.

It was the first career start for both players, and Rogers became the seventh freshman to make a start this season. Rogers started ahead of Jason Venson, who had started the previous two games but was left back in Orlando because Coach George O'Leary said he "needs to become a better practice player." Willis moved up because the Knights also left Sha'reff Rashad at home because of an unspecified injury. Saturday's backup safeties were Renford Parkes and Travonti Johnson. Etc. UCF is 0-for-2 in conference road openers.

It also lost its first MidAmerican Conference game on the road in 2002, falling at Marshall The 42 first-half points by the Golden Eagles were the most surrendered by UCF in the O'Leary era Saturday was homecoming at Southern Miss on Saturday and it was family day for Moffett. Although he grew up in Orlando and played at Winter Park High, Moffett said 75 percent of his family lives in Hattiesburg, including his father Moffett's 35-yard scoring pass to WR Mike Walker in the first quarter pushed his consecutive-games streak of touchdown passes to nine. ALAN SCHMADTKE rnuiuo jj i STEVE COLEMAN 1 nr, njouiii jzjv ivdoS Southern Mississippi's John Eubanks gets loose from UCF's Anthony Willis during an 72-yard kickoff return. The Golden Eagles rolled 52-31 Streak snapped UCF USM RECAP 23 19 35-96 31-73 260 278 24-41 24-39 1st downs Rush-Yds Passing C-A Int. Return Yds Punts-Avg.

Fumbles Pen-Yds Time 26 6-42 4-4 6-53 67 4-46 1-0 6-44 30:29 29:31 And before an appreciative crowd of 26,366, Southern Miss did score. And score. And score again. Only one other opponent in UCF history Florida in 1999 scored more points in a half (48) than Southern Miss did on Saturday night. Dustin Almond tied a Southern Miss record with five touchdown passes.

He was 23-for-37 for 277 yards with an interception. "I don't ever remember having that many short fields," Bower said. "That's a part of the game. That happens when you play with great effort." UCF coaches no doubt will pick out a few X's and O's to correct this week, but UCF was undone Saturday by something less tangible: instant replay. It happened early in the second quarter, and a call that went the other way deflated the Knights.

Trailing 21-7, the Knights marched from their 20 to midfield. Moffett caught Southern Miss in a blitz and threw deep down the right sideline. Brandon Marshall caught it for an apparent 48-yard score. The score didn't make it beyond a referees' huddle. Officials ruled correctly, replays showed that Marshall had stepped out of bounds and come back into play before the catch.

O'Leary debated the other part of the replay, whether Marshall was forced out of bounds by a cornerback while the ball was in the air. In other words, whether there was pass interference. No. UCF punted two plays later, and the Eagles never looked back. "We fought as hard as we could, but it seemed like we were out there a lot," UCF linebacker James Cook said.

"Maybe we weren't, but it seemed like we were." Alan Schmadtke can be reached at aschmadtkeorlandosentinel.com. Old habits returned as UCF was plagued by bad field position and turnovers in getting handled by USM. By ALAN SCHMADTKE SENTINEL STAFF WRITER HATTIESBURG, Miss. So much for a winning streak, and so much for UCF controlling its destiny in Conference USA. The Golden Knights are back to fixing flesh wounds.

Running into angry, unsettled Southern Miss on homecoming was one thing. Helping the Golden Eagles so generously was another. Feeding off UCF's five early turnovers and a handful of mistakes on special teams, Southern Miss scored a school-record 45 points in the first half, then dispatched the Golden Knights 52-31 at M.M. Roberts Stadium. "Five starts inside our 20.

You can't do that against anybody and expect to win," UCF Coach George O'Leary said. "We killed ourselves." Added receiver Mike Walker: "That was a good team, but tonight we helped them be good. We helped them a lot." A week ago, Southern Miss was reeling from a stunning 17-point loss here to Tulsa. Today Jeff Bower's team (3-2, 2-1) wakes up still never having lost two Conference USA games in a row at home and as one of four teams sitting atop C-USA's East Division. That group includes UCF, but the Golden Knights (3-3, 2-1) have more pressing concerns than studying standings.

Their first road trip in their new conference brought back too many bad memories. It looked too much like one played FIRST QUARTER USM FG McCaleb 24, 11:15. Drive: 0 yards, 4 plays, 1:23. Key play: Faulk 47 punt return to UCF's 7. USM Courington 16 pass from Almond (McCaleb kick), 6:31.

Drive: 16 yards, 1 play. Key play: Dai-gle recover punt muff by Burnett at UCF's 16. UCF Walker 35 pass from Moffett (Prater kick), 4:25. Drive: 80 yards, 6 plays. Key play: Johnson 19 pass from Moffett to USM's 39 USM FG McCaleb 20, 2:07.

Drive: 20 yards, 6 plays, 2:02. Key play: Eu-banks 78-yard kickoff return to UCF's 22. USM Courington 15 pass from Almond (Causey pass from Johnson). Drive: 1 8 yards, 3 plays, :48. Key play: Denley recoverfumble byWilcoxatUCF's18.

SECOND QUARTER USM Almond 1 run (McCaleb kick), 9:02. Drive: 3 plays, 19yards, 1:18. Key plays: Eubanks recover Joachim fumble at UCF's 19, Barnes recover Hull's fumble at UCF's 1. USM Johnson 48 pass from Almond (McCaleb kick), 5:11. Drive: 76 yards, 6 plays, 1 :43.

USM Johnson 3 pass from Almond (McCaleb kick), 3:18. Drive: 19 yards, 2 plays, :19. Key plays: Sumrall interception of pass from Moffett, pass interference penalty on Ellis in end zone. USM FG McCaleb 38, Southern Mississippi defensive lineman sacks UCF's Steven Moffett, who finished the game 1 5-of-24 passing for 1 52 yards. amid a recent 17-game losing streak and nothing like one produced in the three-game winning streak that ended here.

The Knights lost four fumbles. They gave up seven sacks. They surrendered a long punt return and a couple long kick-off returns. There was an interception. A summary shows five turnovers leading to 22 points.

"Any game you play, you turn the ball over like that it's going to kill you," said UCF quarterback Steven Moffett, who was 15-for-24 passing for 152 yards, two touchdowns and an interception in three quarters. "We put the defense in bad situations and it came back and bit us. You turn the ball over inside your 15-, 20-yard line, sooner or later the other offense is going to score." :21. Drive: 53 yards, 8 plays, 2:13. Key plays: Johnson 17 pass from Almond, plus 15-yard face mask penalty on Ellis, put-ting ball on UCF's 24.

THIRD QUARTER UCF Walker 6 pass from Moffett (Prater kick), 6:17. Drive: 64 yards, 12 plays, 5:09. Key plays: Moffett passes to Marshall and Walker for third-down conversions FOURTH QUARTER USM Carter 25 pass from Almond (McCaleb kick), 13:08. Drive: 78 yards, 11 plays, 5:19. UCF Israel 1 run (Prater kick), 8:52.

Drive: 80 yards, 10 plays, 4:16. Key play: Turner 29 pass from Israel to Southern Miss's 7, Israel 4-of-6 passing and 4 rushes for 24 yards. UCF FG Prater 36, 3:37. Drive: 33 yards, 9 plays, 2:53. UCF Johnson 15 pass from Israel (Prater kick), :05.

Drive: 59 yards, 8 plays, 1:45. Key play: Jackson 14 pass from Isra-elto 15. USM INDIVIDUALS RUSHING UCF INDIVIDUALS RUSHING Southern Miss cashed in a slew of UCF turnovers and special-team blunders to score 45 first-half points and cruise to a 52-31 win in a homecoming game at M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg, Miss. Dustin Almond tied a Southern Miss (3-2, 2-1 record with five touchdown passes.

UCF (3-3, 2-1 coughed up two fumbles, muffed a punt, threw an interception and gave up a long kick return and punt return in the first half. Turning Point UCF had an apparent touchdown a 48-yard pass from Steven Moffett to Brandon Marshall erased when officials ruled Marshall stepped out of bounds, then came back in before catching the ball. UCF ended up punting in a 21 -7 game and gave up 24 unanswered points the rest of the half. Unsung hero Tough call, but FS Anthony Willis gets the nod. Willis made his first career start.

He struggled in a few coverage situations but made his presence known with hard hitting against the run. Key injuries MLB Ronnell Sandy was helped off with a left leg injury at the start of the third period and did not re-tu rn. OLB Jordan Richards tweaked an already sore left shoulder. CB Joe Burnett is nursing a sore right ankle. Looking ahead The Knights come home this week for the third of four home games.

Tulane (2-3, 1-2) is the opponent, and UCF will use the game as fund-raiser for the Green Wave. Final word "We're not done. We're going to step back onto the field on Monday and go right back to work. We'll make our corrections and go right back to work." UCF DE Chris Welsh ALAN SCHMADTKE Player Atl Yds Avg Thomas 13 38 2.9 Hull 8 22 2.8 Almond 3 5 1.7 Young 1 4 4.0 Weakley 2 4 2.0 Miner 3 0 0.0 Mason 1 0 0.0 PASSING Player A I Yd Almond 23 37 1 277 Young 12 0 1 RECEIVING Player Atl Yds Avg Johnson 8 113 14.1 Courington 4 47 11.8 Barnes 2 33 16.5 Carter 2 33 16.5 Nelson 2 18 9.0 Thomas 2 6 3.0 Hull 1 19 19.0 Williams 1 5 5.0 Perine 1 3 3.0 Miner 1 1 1.0 DEFENSIVE STATISTICS Player UT TT Int. Sck Check.

Wednesday Good ding 3eciw "for recipes and coding ip3, as well as pdry ideas and cooYJbooY Orlando Sentinel Player All Yds Avg Smith 15 69 4.6 Israel 9 56 6.2 Wilcox 4 16 4.0 Moffett 7 8 1.1 PASSING Player A I Yd Moffett 15 2401 152 Israel 9 17 0 108 RECEIVING Player All Yds Avg Walker 8 109 13.6 Smith 4 25 6.2 Turner 3 50 16.7 Jackson 3 25 8.3 Johnson 2 34 17.0 Marshall 2 22 11.0 James 1 6 6.0 Joachim 1 -11 11.0 DEFENSIVE STATISTICS Player UT TT Int. Sck Willis 4 7 0 0 Parkes 4 7 0 0 Shologan 4 5 0 0 Neal 4 4 0 0 Burnett 3 4 0 0 Nelons 14 0 0 Richards 3 3 0 0 Reid 3 3 0 0 Hogue 2 3 0 0 Crrngtn 2 3 0 1 Cook 2 3 0 0 Sandy 2 3 0 0 Barr 2 2 10 Ellis 12 0 0 Douzahle 12 0 0 1 tackle: Malatesta, Rashad, Wallace, Walker, Welsh, Howard, 5 12 0 2 6 9 10 Orlando Sentinel com 7 0 6 0 K. Co ley Sumral Johnson Hardy Hendrix Webb T. Coley Ford Faulk Archie Eubanks Wllnghm Abnknda Denley 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 Manning Check ow Friday's Calendar section -for wovie reviews And listings, as Well as dining reviews And event 'nxQarvnaixon. 1 tackle: Henderson, Cha-nove, Moore, McGee, Chatelain, Lockett, Prince Orlando Sentinel Orlando Sentinel COLORSTRIP: I.