MAC-Tracking: Faster, Gopher, Kill Kill!

Here at Hustle Belt we understand that in order to have perspective on where you are going, you need to occasionally look back at where you've been. In this vein, we bring you another new feature where we do a little backtracking by keeping track of those who have left the conference since the start of last year (because we have to draw the line somewhere).

Think of it as your weekly look at what might have been...or couldn't have been...or shouldn't have been? Oh hell, just keep reading after the jump.

Al Almost Golden Enough: The Miami (FL) Hurricanes came out minus their eight suspended players and played a winning football game for 56 minutes. Then karma fought back and deservingly gave a loss to a team whose defense gave up 499 yards to Maryland's offense. Coach said it best: "We had the talent to win tonight, we just didn't do it."

Gill Gets Going: On the bright side, Turner Gill is already 33% of the way to his win total from last season. On the down side, the Jayhawks gave up 420 yards and 24 points to McNeese State, so lord knows how badly they'll get whipped by NIU, let alone Oklahoma or Oklahoma State.

Keeping Up With the Jones: Butch is doing just fine at Cincinnati, doing exactly what he should against lowly Austin Peay. Zach Collaros completed 12 passes for 134 yards and four touchdowns and then sat the second half. 'Nuff said.

Kill or Be Killed: Jerry's Gophers allowed Lane's Trojans to put up 202 yards and three touchdowns in four first-half possessions. In the second half, they allowed 129 yards on 43 plays, allowed zero points, and almost came back to win. This ignores the fact that Lane Kiffin is a moron and the Trojans shouldn't have started the season ranked, but this Gopher team could be good faster than anyone expected.

Tune in next week for: how badly can the Gophers destroy New Mexico State, can the Bearcats embarrass the SEC, can the Jayhawks avoid being embarrassed by the MAC, will Al Golden upstage Luke Fickell in any category other than wardrobe, and can Michigan be the second team to make the Irish look bad?