Welcome everyone to another edition of Around the Sun Belt! It was a wild one for a couple of teams in Sun Belt matchups and one coach appears to be on the hot seat four games into the 2017 season.
Appalachian State Mountaineers:
Appalachian State had the week off and will travel over to New Mexico State this Saturday with kickoff set for 2:30 pm.
Arkansas State Red Wolves:
Arkansas State had the week off and will open up conference play in a midweek primetime game against Georgia Southern.
Coastal Carolina Chanticleers:
The Chanticleers’ kept it extremely competitive in their first Sun Belt matchup against UL Monroe. However, the Warhawks were able to come away with a 51-43 victory after a 15-yard fumble recovery by Caleb Tucker as time expired.
Coastal Carolina will return to Conway, South Carolina to take on Georgia State with kickoff set for 5:30 pm.
Georgia State Panthers:
The Panthers had last week off and will hit the road to take on Coastal Carolina to open up Sun Belt Conference play. Kickoff is set for 5:30 pm
Georgia Southern Eagles:
Georgia Southern had last week off and will host Arkansas State in a nationally televised matchup on Wednesday at 7 pm.
Idaho Vandals:
Idaho Had the week off and will play host to the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns this Saturday with kickoff set for 4 pm.
New Mexico State Aggies:
The Aggies had a rough showing on Saturday afternoon when they were dominated by the Arkansas Razorbacks by the score of 42-24. New Mexico State’s run game was shut down in the loss with Larry Rose only getting 25 rushing yards off of eight carries.
The Aggies will now travel to Boone, North Carolina to take on Appalachian State with kickoff set for 2:30 pm.
South Alabama Jaguars:
The Jags kicker Gavin Patterson may have been the lone highlight on Saturday night with three made field goals to get them within one point against Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs dominated in the fourth quarter with 17 unanswered points en route to a 34-16 victory.
South Alabama will have the week off before having a midweek matchup against the Troy Trojans. Kickoff is set for 7 pm.
Texas State Bobcats:
Texas State traveled up to Wyoming and got dominated in War Memorial Stadium by the score of 45-10. The Bobcats offense continued to underwhelm with 262 total offensive yards on the evening.
Texas State will return to San Marcos this Saturday when they play host to UL Monroe
Troy Trojans:
The third was the charm for the Trojans on Saturday after they pulled off the huge upset against the LSU Tigers. A lot of Troy did on Saturday revolved around Jordan Chunn who racked up 191 net yards and one touchdown. That performance earned him Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week honors.
UL Monroe Warhawks:
The Warhawks got some conference honors with Marcus Green’s special teams performance that included an 82-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. The junior wide receiver was the first player to return a kickoff for a touchdown since Courtney Davis did it against Grambling State in 2013.
-Clint Domingue