# 2014 Conference USA football season

The 2014 Conference USA football season was a part of the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season and was played from August 2014 through January 2015. The 2014 football season marks the 20th season of the Conference USA's existence and 19th of football competition; although C-USA was established in 1995, it did not begin football competition until 1996.

## Previous season

Rice won the conference championship for the first time, defeating Marshall 41–24.

## 2014 season
### Before the season

Conference USA football added two new members in 2014 (Old Dominion (transitioning from FCS) and Western Kentucky (from the Sun Belt Conference)) and lost three from the previous season (East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa) to the American Athletic Conference.
In preseason polls, Marshall was favored to win the East Division and the 2014 conference title followed by North Texas to win the West Division. Marshall was also the only team in the conference to have received votes from the AP and Coaches' Poll Preseason Rankings before the season.

### East Division

In the first East Division game of the season, Middle Tennessee defeated Western Kentucky 50–47 in triple overtime, bringing the Blue Raiders to the top of the division and the Hilltoppers to the bottom. A week later after the Blue Raiders defeated the Hilltoppers, newcomers Old Dominion defeated the last year conference champions Rice, putting the Monarchs to first in the east division surpassing Middle Tennessee. In the following week, Old Dominion received its first conference loss against Middle Tennessee, bringing the undefeated Blue Raiders back on top on the East Division standings. After winning 3 conference games, Middle Tennessee then lost for the first time in conference play to the undefeated Marshall Thundering Herd, the projected winner of the conference. Marshall would go on to become East Division champions after defeating the defending conference champions, Rice, and after FIU defeated Middle Tennessee to put the Thundering Herd into the conference championship for the second time in back to back seasons.

### West Division

In the first conference game of the season, the projected division winner, North Texas lost 21–42 to Louisiana Tech, bringing the Bulldogs to the top of the division and the Mean Green to the bottom. Louisiana Tech would go on to win the West Division 7–1, with wins over North Texas, Southern Miss, UTEP, UTSA, Southern Miss, Western Kentucky, UAB, and Rice and with a loss to Old Dominion.

### Championship Game

At the conclusion of the 2014 regular season the tenth C-USA championship game was played at Marshall on December 6, 2014 where the East Division Champs, Marshall, defeated the West Division Champs, Louisiana Tech, 26-23 to claim the conference championship.

### After the season

On December 2, 2014, UAB announced that the school will be cutting their football program after the 2014 season.

## Bowl games
### Bowl eligibility
#### Bowl eligible

* Louisiana Tech
* Marshall
* Middle Tennessee
* Rice
* UAB
* UTEP
* Western Kentucky

#### Bowl ineligible

* Florida Atlantic
* Florida International
* North Texas
* Old Dominion
* Southern Miss
* UTSA

### Results

Conference USA bowl games for the 2014 season are:
| Bowl Game | Date | Site | Television | Time (EST) | C-USA Team | Opponent | Score | Attendance |
| New Mexico Bowl | December 20 | University Stadium • Albuquerque, New Mexico | ESPN | 2:20 p.m. | UTEP | Utah State | L 6–21 | 28,725 |
| Boca Raton Bowl | December 23 | FAU Stadium • Boca Raton, Florida | ESPN | 6:00 p.m. | Marshall | Northern Illinois | W 52–23 | 29,419 |
| Bahamas Bowl | December 24 | Thomas Robinson Stadium • Nassau, Bahamas | ESPN | 12:00 p.m. | Western Kentucky | Central Michigan | W 49–48 | 13,667 |
| Hawaii Bowl | December 24 | Aloha Stadium • Honolulu, HI | ESPN | 8:00 p.m. | Rice | Fresno State | W 30–6 | 25,365 |
| Heart of Dallas Bowl | December 26 | Cotton Bowl • Dallas | ESPN | 1:00 p.m. | Louisiana Tech | Illinois | W 35–18 | 31,297 |
All times Eastern Time Zone.

## Individual conference honors

2014 Conference Player of the Year and Coach of the Year awards
| Award | Player | School |
| Most Valuable Player | Brandon Doughty | WKU |
| Offensive Player of the Year | Rakeem Cato | Marshall |
| Defensive Player of the Year | Neville Hewitt | Marshall |
| Special Teams Player of the Year | J.J. Nelson | UAB |
| Freshman of the Year | Ray Lawry | Old Dominion |
| Newcomer of the Year | Cody Sokol | Louisiana Tech |
| Coach of the Year | Doc Holliday | Marshall |

## All-Conference players

Coaches All-Conference Selections
| Position | Player | Class | Team |
| First Team Offense (Coaches) ||||
| QB | Rakeem Cato | SR | Marshall |
| RB | Devon Johnson | SR | Marshall |
| RB | Jordan Howard | SO | UAB |
| OL | Chris Jasperse | SR | Marshall |
| OL | Mitchell Bell | SR | Louisiana Tech |
| OL | Clint Van Horn | JR | Marshall |
| OL | Josh Mann | SR | Old Dominion |
| OL | Cyril Lemon | SR | North Texas |
| TE | Jonnu Smith | SO | FIU |
| WR | Tommy Shuler | SR | Marshall |
| WR | Antonio Vaughan | SR | Old Dominion |
| WR | Lucky Whitehead | SR | Florida Atlantic |
| First Team Defense (Coaches) ||||
| DL | Brian Nordstrom | JR | Rice |
| DL | Rakeem Nunez-Roches | SR | Southern Miss |
| DL | Diaheem Watkins | SR | UAB |
| DL | James Rouse | SR | Marshall |
| LB | Neville Hewitt | SR | Marshall |
| LB | Derek Akunne | SR | North Texas |
| LB | Andrae Kirk | SR | Florida Atlantic |
| DB | Richard Leonard | JR | FIU |
| DB | Kevin Byard | JR | Middle Tennessee |
| DB | Xavier Woods | SO | Louisiana Tech |
| DB | Darryl Roberts | SR | Marshall |
| First Team Special Teams (Coaches) ||||
| K | Corey Acosta | SR | Southern Miss |
| P | Tyler Williams | JR | Marshall |
| KR | J.J. Nelson | SR | UAB |
| PR | Richard Leonard | JR | FIU |
| LS | Matt Cincotta | JR | Marshall |
| Position | Player | Class | Team |
| Second Team Offense (Coaches) ||||
| QB | Brandon Doughty | SR | WKU |
| RB | Kenneth Dixon | JR | Louisiana Tech |
| RB | Aaron Jones | SO | UTEP |
| RB | Leon Allen | JR | WKU |
| OL | Brian O'Leary | SR | UAB |
| OL | Jerell Watkins | SR | UTEP |
| OL | Isaiah Anderson | SR | Middle Tennessee |
| OL | Cameron Clemmons | SR | WKU |
| OL | Darius Johnson | JR | Middle Tennessee |
| OL | Nico Carlson | SR | Rice |
| TE | Kennard Backman | SR | UAB |
| WR | Jared Dangerfield | JR | WKU |
| WR | Trent Taylor | SO | Louisiana Tech |
| WR | Jordan Taylor | SR | Rice |
| Second Team Defense (Coaches) ||||
| DL | Arnold Blackmon | SR | Marshall |
| DL | Michael Wakefield | JR | FIU |
| DL | Houston Bates | SR | Louisiana Tech |
| DL | Robert Singletary | SR | UTSA |
| LB | Jake Ganus | JR | UAB |
| LB | T.T. Barber | JR | Middle Tennessee |
| LB | Jermaine Holmes | SR | Marshall |
| DB | Triston Wade | SR | UTSA |
| DB | D'Joun Smith | SR | Florida Atlantic |
| DB | James Jones | SR | North Texas |
| DB | Bryce Callahan | SR | Rice |
| DB | Wonderful Terry | JR | WKU |
| Second Team Special Teams (Coaches) ||||
| K | Sean Ianno | SR | UTSA |
| P | Dalton Schomp | SO | Florida Atlantic |
| KR | Autrey Golden | JR | UTEP |
| PR | J.J. Nelson | SR | UAB |
| LS | Jesse Medrano | SR | UTSA |

## Attendance

| Team | Stadium | Capacity | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 | Game 5 | Game 6 | Game 7 | Game 8 | Total | Average | % of Capacity |
| FIU | FIU Stadium | 20,000 | 14,053 | 9,981 | 10,147 | 10,826 | 12,544 | 13,163 | 12,097 | 12,917 | 95,728 | 11,966 | 59.8% |
| Florida Atlantic | FAU Stadium | 29,419 | 14,112 | 13,928 | 10,915 | 17,724 | 9,566 | — | — | — | 66,245 | 13,249 | 45.0% |
| Louisiana Tech | Joe Aillet Stadium | 27,717 | 26,004 | 18,157 | 18,071 | 20,011 | 18,029 | — | — | — | 100,272 | 20,054 | 72.4% |
| Marshall | Joan C. Edwards Stadium | 38,227 | 25,106 | 31,710 | 30,210 | 27,236 | 30,680 | 23,576 | 23,711 | — | 192,229 | 27,461 | 71.8% |
| Middle Tennessee | Johnny "Red" Floyd Stadium | 30,788 | 15,605 | 24,911 | 14,022 | 18,717 | 18,952 | 12,243 | — | — | 104,450 | 17,408 | 56.5% |
| North Texas | Apogee Stadium | 30,850 | 22,398 | 16,998 | 21,323 | 19,127 | 20,957 | 14,824 | — | — | 115,627 | 19,271 | 62.5% |
| Old Dominion | Foreman Field | 20,118 | 20,118 | 20,118 | 20,118 | 20,118 | 20,118 | 20,118 | — | — | 120,708 | 20,118 | 100.0% |
| Rice | Rice Stadium | 47,000 | 17,558 | 17,465 | 18,430 | 19,464 | 18,164 | — | — | — | 91,081 | 18,216 | 38.8% |
| Southern Miss | M. M. Roberts Stadium | 36,000 | 26,448 | 21,836 | 24,756 | 23,343 | 22,949 | 17,103 | — | — | 136,435 | 22,739 | 63.2% |
| UAB | Legion Field | 71,594 | 27,133 | 29,604 | 16,133 | 20,365 | 9,457 | 28,355 | — | — | 131,047 | 21,841 | 30.5% |
| UTEP | Sun Bowl Stadium | 51,500 | 35,422 | 32,979 | 25,509 | 24,673 | 24,222 | 27,455 | — | — | 170,260 | 28,377 | 55.1% |
| UTSA | Alamodome | 65,000 | 33,472 | 30,419 | 25,318 | 31,956 | 20,281 | 24,012 | — | — | 165,458 | 27,576 | 42.4% |
| WKU | Houchens Industries–L. T. Smith Stadium | 22,113 | 17,215 | 14,923 | 17,886 | 18,472 | 16,819 | 12,518 | — | — | 97,833 | 16,306 | 73.7% |
| Total | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1,587,373 | | – |

## Membership

East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa left Conference USA, and joined the American Athletic Conference, the football-sponsoring offshoot of the original Big East, on July 1, 2014.
Old Dominion, which had moved five of its sports from its former home of the Colonial Athletic Association to C-USA for the 2012–13 school year, moved the rest of its athletic program to C-USA. ODU has an established FCS program that played as an FCS independent in 2013, and will join C-USA football as a provisional FBS member in 2014, and become fully bowl-eligible in 2015. Also Western Kentucky will join the conference from the Sun Belt Conference on July 1, 2014. Charlotte, which is a football team, that is initially provisional FBS member in 2014 and will bring football to C-USA in 2015. The 49ers joined from the Atlantic 10 Conference.
With Old Dominion and Western Kentucky makes the conference at 13 teams which will be both in the East Division, while Southern Miss moves from the East Division to the West. The East division consist of 7 members while the West division consists of 6 members.
| East Division | West Division |
| Florida Atlantic | Louisiana Tech |
| FIU | North Texas |
| Marshall | Rice |
| Middle Tennessee | Southern Miss |
| Old Dominion | UTEP |
| UAB | UTSA |
| Western Kentucky | |