However, conference rival Louisiana-Lafayette put an end to that and took over the top spot in the conference. This week, ULL has another key conference game, while it’s the SBC against C-USA in two other games.

Last week, the Ragin’ Cajuns traveled to the tropics and ended FIU’s dream of a perfect season with a 36-31 victory. ULL head coach Mark Hudspeth surprised the team before the game by bringing out black helmets and pants before the game, and it must have helped the team. Also, ULL quarterback Blaine Gautier also had an impressive performance that earned him SBC Offensive Player of the Week.

Gautier, in only his fourth start, totaled 307 yards of total offense, 221 passing and 86 rushing and three touchdowns passes. The key play was a 41-yard touchdown pass with 50 seconds left in the first half on a fourth-and-one.

“You could tell that he was very confident, made some great decisions,” Hudspeth said in the team’s weekly press conference this week. “He didn’t execute the first two plays of the game very well, but after that I thought he managed the game extremely well. He was 14-of-26 passing, but had eight drops. He threw the ball well, ran the ball well, and went the entire game without a turnover. If you do that you’re going to have a chance to win a lot of games.”

This week, ULL faces a Florida Atlantic team that is looking for its first win of the season after playing a non-conference schedule that included two SEC teams and a Big Ten school. However, Hudspeth told his team do not play attention to its opponent’s schedule.

“I told them not to look at the schedule,” he said. “And if you do, look at the teams they played. All three teams they played at one point this year were in the Top 25. They have played the hardest schedule by far in the Sun Belt Conference. This is not a typical 0-3 team coming into Cajun Field.”

Kickoff is set for 6 p.m.

The other intra-conference match up pits two SBC teams, Arkansas State at Western Kentucky that are opening up its conference portion of the schedule. The Red Wolves are coming off a victory last week against Central Arkansas, while WKU had the week off. The Hilltoppers are looking for its first win of the season, but knows that they could still win the SBC title.

“Our goals are still attainable,” WKU senior running back Bobby Rainey said during the team’s weekly press conference. “It is conference play. It is time to get it. Everybody knows what is on the line. There are no more excuses. Everybody has to be accountable of their actions.”

While for the Red Wolves, sophomore kicker Brian David was named SBC Special Teams Player of the Week after kicking a perfect five-for-five on extra points and also was six-for-six in field goals. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. on the SBC network, which locally it will be shown on CSS.

Also this weekend, the SBC faces Conference USA in two games: North Texas at Tulsa and UAB at Troy. North Texas and Troy are both coming off wins last week. North Texas upset Big 10 member Indiana 24-21, while Troy escaped with a 38-35 win against MTSU.

Troy sophomore defensive back Chris Pickett was named SBC Defensive Player of the Week after returning a MTSU fumble 63-yards for a score.  This week the Trojans host in-state rival UAB at 6 p.m.

As for the Mean Green, it faces a Tulsa team that has opened the season against three nationally-ranked top five teams. Since the two schools are located in neighboring states, people look at it as a rivalry. However, new UNT head coach Dan McCarney does not see that way, yet.

“You love to see a rivalry develop between the two schools,” he said in the team’s weekly press conference. “You have to get some wins to call it a rivalry. There is no rivalry. That is a joke. When one team dominates another team that is no rivalry, we have a tremendous challenge and great opportunity this week.”

North Texas last beat the Golden Hurricane 42-16 in 1969. Also, Tulsa will be playing with heavy hearts after one of its former teammates, George Clinkscale, died after an unsanctioned boxing match last week. Clinkscale played at the school from 2005-2009. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. on Saturday.

The other match up pits FIU hosting Duke at 5 p.m. Saturday on ESPNU.