Brendon Kay will have to be the man at QB in Cincinnati's offense now that Munchie Legaux is out for the year. (Bradley Leeb-USA TODAY Sports)
If quarterback wasn’t a question mark in the AAC heading into the season, it sure is now.
That’s somewhat ironic, given the strength at the top of the league. Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater is a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate. Garrett Gilbert for SMU may have just one touchdown pass through two games, but has moved the ball between the 20s as well as anyone. Gary Nova has justified his coaching staff’s faith in him with a pair of nice games.
But there are also plenty of teams that, even at this early date, look like their aspirations for title contention may evaporate because of the play under center.
Start with Cincinnati, since anyone with a college football highlights package likely saw footage of the gruesome leg injury suffered by Munchie Legaux. He’s out for the season, and Brendon Kay now looks to get the Bearcats back on the rails after a 45-17 loss to Illinois.
South Florida wasn’t expected to contend, but nor was its offense supposed to look as bad as it has through the first two games. Bobby Evald replaced Matt Floyd as the starter against Michigan State, and the offense still got outscored by the Michigan State defense.
Connecticut’s Chandler Whitmer struggled against Towson, and probably will have a hard time keeping his job if that continues. Even 2-0 Houston made the switch to true freshman John O’Korn in the victory over Temple.
It looks like one of those seasons where opposing defenses won’t be able to tell the opposing starters without a program.
FIVE BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS FROM WEEK 2 IN THE AAC:
1. The bottom half of the league could be really weak. Southern Methodist nearly gave the AAC its third loss of the season to an FCS team, needing a touchdown pass with 12 seconds left to slip past Montana State. South Florida couldn’t move the ball at all against Michigan State. Memphis collapsed late against Duke, Temple couldn’t make a kick against Houston, and while Connecticut had the week off, it is still smarting from the opening loss to Towson.
2. Louisville is officially at a point where blowing out an opponent at home isn’t good enough. The Cardinals were legitimately unhappy with some parts of its performance against Eastern Kentucky despite the 44-7 score. Or perhaps, the unkind words could simply be motivation heading into this week’s grudge match against Kentucky.
3. It’s amazing how quickly fortunes changed in Cincinnati. After the preseason, many questioned the quarterback situation and whether the team had the right players on its roster to contend in the AAC. The first week saw a blowout of Purdue, a nice game from Munchie Legaux and talk of a potential 9-0 start. Now, with the big loss to Illinois and Legaux’s injury, it’s back to the drawing board again.
4. This is a huge week for Connecticut. The Huskies enter at 0-1, with a week off to stew over the opening loss to Towson, set to welcome Maryland and former coach Randy Edsall on Saturday. Maryland has played weak competition in Florida International and Old Dominion, but is putting up huge offensive numbers. The Huskies won in College Park a year ago, but if Edsall returns the favor at UConn this season the calls for a coaching change are only going to get louder.
5. Few recruits have come to Rutgers with the hype that Savon Huggins did three years ago, but he seems to be snake-bit in his attempt to have an impact on the field. For the first two years, he got beaten out for playing time by Jawan Jamison. Now, it’s sophomore Paul James who’s stealing his thunder. James had three more touchdowns and 119 yards in Saturday’s 38-0 shutout of Norfolk State.
