The 2022 Conference USA football season was the 27th season of college football play for Conference USA (C-USA). The season started on August 27, 2022, and is ended on January 31, 2023. The conference consisted of 11 members and was part of the

2022 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2022 NCAA Division I FBS football season will be the 153rd season of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at its highest level of competition, the Football Bowl Subdivision ( ...

Previous season

The

Western Kentucky Hilltoppers The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and Lady Toppers are the athletic teams that represent Western Kentucky University (WKU), located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the NCAA Division I ranks, competing in the Co ...

won the East Division, while the

UTSA Roadrunners The UTSA Roadrunners is a collegiate athletic program that represents the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). The UTSA Roadrunners are also commonly referred to as "UTSA", "Roadrunners", "Runners", “The Meep Meeps”, or simply “The B ...

won the West Division. In the

2021 Conference USA Football Championship Game The 2021 Conference USA Football Championship Game was a college football game played on December 3, 2021, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. It was the 17th edition of the Conference USA Football Championship Game and determined the champ ...

, the Roadrunners defeated the Hilltoppers 49-41.

Conference realignment

Prior to the 2022 season, Conference USA shrank to 11 schools, as previous members

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, an i ...

Old Dominion Old Dominion most commonly refers to: *The Old Dominion, a nickname for the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia ** Colony of Virginia *Old Dominion University, a public university in Norfolk, Virginia **Old Dominion Monarchs, the athletic teams represe ...

, and

Southern Miss The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, ma ...

all departed to join the Sun Belt Conference as full members. The move was first announced with the release of the Sun Belt's football schedule on March 1, and confirmed on March 29 when C-USA and the three departing schools reached a settlement of a legal dispute over their departure date. The 2022 season is the last for six schools in the conference.

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, Florida Atlantic,

North Texas North Texas (also commonly called North Central Texas) is a term used primarily by residents of Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas to describe much of the north central portion of the U.S. state of Texas. Residents of the Dallas–Fort Wo ...

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

, UAB, and UTSA will all leave Conference USA in July 2023 to join the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

New Mexico State New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public land-grant research university based primarily in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in New Mexico and one of the state's tw ...

, Jacksonville State, and Sam Houston will join Conference USA in 2023 to replace departing members.

Preseason

Recruiting classes

Conference USA media day

The 2022 Conference USA is scheduled for July 27, 2022, at

Globe Life Field Globe Life Field is a retractable roof stadium in Arlington, Texas. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers. It is located just south of Choctaw Stadium, the Rangers' former home ballpark. History Background On Ma ...

in Arlington, Texas.

Preseason poll

The preseason poll was released on July 25, 2022.

Preseason player awards

Preseason player awards were announced on July 26. *Offensive Player of the Year:

Frank Harris Frank Harris (14 February 1855 – 26 August 1931) was an Irish-American editor, novelist, short story writer, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to the United State ...

(Redshirt Senior, UTSA quarterback) *Defensive Player of the Year: Rashad Wisdom (Senior, UTSA safety) *Special Teams Player of the Year: Brayden Narveson (Redshirt Junior, Western Kentucky kicker)

Preseason awards

The following list contains C-USA players who were included on preseason watch lists for national awards.

Head coaches

*On November 10, 2021,

Butch Davis Paul Hilton "Butch" Davis Jr. (born November 17, 1951) is an American football coach. He was most recently the head football coach at Florida International University. After graduating from the University of Arkansas, he became an assistant co ...

announced that he would not return to FIU after the school declined to extend his contract. On December 9, 2021, FIU announced

Mike MacIntyre George Michael MacIntyre (born March 14, 1965) is an American football coach. He is the head coach at FIU. MacIntyre served as the head football coach at San Jose State University from 2010 to 2013 and the University of Colorado Boulder from 2 ...

as the school's new head coach. MacIntyre had previously been a coach in various position both at other collegiate schools and at the NFL level, including being head coach for a time at both

San Jose State San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

and

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. *On November 26, 2021, Louisiana Tech announced that they were firing head coach

Skip Holtz Louis Leo "Skip" Holtz Jr. (born March 12, 1964) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Birmingham Stallions of the United States Football League (USFL). Previously, he was the head coach for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (201 ...

. Holtz was allowed to coach the final game of the season before being dismissed immediately after. The school announced on November 30, 2021, that

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

offensive coordinator

Sonny Cumbie Sonny Jack Cumbie (born August 8, 1981) is an American football coach and former quarterback. He is the head football coach at Louisiana Tech University, a position he has held since the 2022 season. Cumbie previously served as the offensive coord ...

would take over as the new head coach. *On June 24, UAB head coach Bill Clark announced that he was retiring from his position effective August 1 due to chronic health issues dealing with his back. Offensive coordinator Bryant Vincent took over as the interim head coach. ''Note:'' All stats shown are before the start of the 2022 season.

Mid-season changes

*On October 23, Charlotte fired head coach

Will Healy William Livingston Healy (born January 16, 1985) is an American football coach. He was the head coach at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in Charlotte, North Carolina from 2019 to 2022. At the time of hire on December 4, 2018, he wa ...

after a 1–7 start to the season. Offensive line coach

Peter Rossomando Peter Rossomando (born April 7, 1972) is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the eleventh head coach at NCAA Division I FCS member Lamar University, named on December 10, 2022. He served as the interim head coach at Uni ...

was named the interim replacement at head coach. On November 15, Charlotte announced that

Biff Poggi Francis Xavier "Biff" Poggi (; born June 6, 1959) is an American football coach and former player. He is the incoming head football coach at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. An investment manager, Poggi coached for over twenty years ...

would take over as the permanent head coach beginning in 2023.

Post-season changes

*On November 26, Florida Atlantic announced that they had fired head coach

Willie Taggart Willie Author Taggart (born August 27, 1976) is an American football college coach. He has held the head coach position at five NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision programs: Western Kentucky (2009 to 2012 seasons); South Florida (2013 to ...

. Taggart had posted a record of 15–18 over three years at the school. On December 1, Florida Atlantic announced that former Texas head coach

Tom Herman Thomas Herman III (born June 2, 1975) is an American football coach and head coach of the Florida Atlantic Owls. He was the head football coach for the Texas Longhorns at the University of Texas at Austin from 2017 to 2020. Prior to that, he se ...

would take over as head coach at FAU for the 2023 season. *On November 30, UAB announced that they had hired

Trent Dilfer Trent Farris Dilfer (born March 13, 1972) is a former American football quarterback and analyst who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He is best known as the starting quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens during their Su ...

as the new permanent head coach, replacing interim coach Bryant Vincent. Dilfer would begin coaching the team on December 2. *On December 4. North Texas announced that they had fired head coach

Seth Littrell James Seth Littrell (born July 24, 1978) is an American football coach and former player. He was the head coach of the North Texas Mean Green football team from 2016–2022. Early life Littrell was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and attended Musk ...

. Littrell had posted a 44–44 record with the school in seven years at the school. Defensive coordinator

Phil Bennett Philip Bennett (24 October 1948 – 12 June 2022) was a Welsh rugby union player who played as a fly-half for Llanelli RFC and the Wales national rugby union team, Wales national team. He began his career in 1966, and a year later he had taken ...

took over as interim head coach for the

Frisco Bowl The Frisco Bowl is an annual National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sanctioned post-season Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football bowl game played in Frisco, Texas, since December 2017. The bowl has a tie-in with t ...

. On December 13 North Texas announced that Washington State offensive coordinator Eric Morris would take over as head coach.

Rankings

Schedule

All times Eastern time.

Week 0

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Conference USA Championship Game

Postseason

Bowl Games

Rankings are from AP Poll • All times Eastern Time Zone.

Selection of teams

*Bowl eligible (6): Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Rice, UAB, UTSA, Western Kentucky *Bowl-ineligible (5): Charlotte, FIU, Florida Atlantic, Louisiana Tech, UTEP

Conference USA records vs other conferences

2022–2023 records against non-conference foes:

Conference USA vs Power 5 matchups

This is a list of games C-USA has scheduled versus power conference teams ( ACC, Big 10,

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...

, Pac-12,

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

, Notre Dame and SEC). All rankings are from the current AP Poll at the time of the game.

Conference USA vs Group of Five matchups

The following games include C-USA teams competing against teams from the American, MAC, Mountain West, or Sun Belt.

Conference USA vs FBS independents matchups

The following games include C-USA teams competing against FBS Independents, which includes

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from ...

, or UMass.

Conference USA vs FCS matchups

Awards and honors

Player of the week honors

Conference USA Individual Awards

The following individuals received postseason honors as chosen by the league's head coaches.

All-Conference Teams

The following list contains players selected as members of the 2022 All-Conference Teams. ''* Denotes Unanimous Selection'' All Conference Honorable Mentions:

All-Americans

The 2022 College Football All-America Team is composed of the following

College Football All-American The College Football All-America Team is an honor given annually to the best college football players in the United States at their respective positions. The original use of the term ''All-America'' seems to have been to the 1889 College Football ...

first teams chosen by the following selector organizations:

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

(AP), Football Writers Association of America (FWAA),

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

(AFCA),

Walter Camp Foundation The Walter Camp Football Foundation (WCFF) is one of the organizations whose College Football All-America Team is recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The organization also presents various awards. It is named in honor of foo ...

(WCFF), ''

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'' (''TSN''), ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'' (''SI''), ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

'' (USAT)

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...

(CBS),

FOX Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

(FOX) ''

College Football News ''College Football News'' (''CFN'') is a magazine and website published by College Football News, Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. News coverage includes scores, statistics, rankings, and reports on college football games. Analysis includ ...

'' (''CFN''), Bleacher Report (BR),

Scout.com Scout Media is an integrated sports publishing company that produces Internet content covering hundreds of professional and college teams across America. The company was founded in 2001 and was acquired by Fox Sports in 2005. In 2013, Fox Sports ...

Phil Steele Phil Steele (c. 1960) is an American sportswriter and analyst who focuses exclusively on college and professional football. He is considered a "highly respected prognosticator" within the sports media. His company, Phil Steele Publications, pr ...

(PS), SB Nation (SB),

Athlon Sports Parade Media (previously known as AMG/Parade and Athlon Media Group) is a publisher founded in 1967 that is based in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville's Spencer Hays was its majority stockholder. It was purchased by The Arena Group in 2022 and now ...

Pro Football Focus Pro Football Focus (also written as ProFootballFocus, and often referred to by its initials, PFF) is a sports analytics company that focuses on thorough analysis of the National Football League (NFL) and NCAA Division-I football in the United Sta ...

(PFF) and

Yahoo! Sports Yahoo! Sports is a sports news website launched by Yahoo! on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc. It employs numerous writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American major sport. B ...

(Yahoo!). Currently, the NCAA compiles consensus all-America teams using a point system computed from All-America teams named by coaches associations or media sources. Players are chosen against other players playing at their position only. To be selected a consensus All-American, players must be chosen to the first team on at least half of the five official selectors as recognized by the NCAA. Second- and third-team honors are used to break ties. Players named first-team by all five selectors are deemed

unanimous All-American The College Football All-America Team is an honorific college football all-star team compiled after each NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) season to recognize that season's most outstanding performers at their respective positions. ...

s. Currently, the NCAA recognizes All-Americans selected by the AP, AFCA, FWAA, ''TSN'', and the WCFF to determine consensus and unanimous All-Americans.

NFL Draft

The following list includes all C-USA players who were drafted in the

2023 NFL Draft The 2023 NFL Draft will be the 88th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players. The draft is scheduled to be held in the plaza outside of Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, on April 27–29, ...

Notes

References

{{2022 NCAA Division I FBS football season navbox 2022 Conference USA football season