Middle Tennessee led 13-10 early in the third quarter Saturday at AmFirst Stadium. Garrison Rippa tied it with one of his three made field goals, Caden Creel threw a 38-yard touchdown to Deondre Johnson for the lead, and a fourth-quarter kick finished a 23-13 Jacksonville State win in the Conference USA opener. Middle Tennessee managed 13 points and 319 total yards, and its ground game fell back to roughly 103 yards.
That is the version of this team that goes into an open week. It is dominant in yardage, clean in the fourth quarter, and still without a takeaway. Jacksonville State is 3-2 (1-0 CUSA), a record that already includes nonconference losses at North Dakota State and a 29-27 four-overtime defeat at Ohio, and the win extended streaks of 11 straight home conference victories and seven straight Conference USA openers won.
The takeaway that never came, and the rematch ahead
Jacksonville State held Middle Tennessee down for a full game and never forced a turnover, and the next opponent is the team that made exactly that distinction decide a championship. There is no game this week, and what sits on the other side of it is October 7 at Kennesaw State. The same team that ended last season's Conference USA Championship Game with a touchdown with 52 seconds left to win 19-15. That loss closed a 9-5 season and a second straight trip to the title game, and it is the sharpest reminder of what this program has come to expect of itself, which is nine wins and a bowl in each of its first three FBS seasons, a bowl win in the 2023 debut year, and the 2024 league championship. The model gives the Gamecocks about a 59% chance in Atlanta's suburbs, and the November 14 trip to Western Kentucky, where the last three regular-season meetings were each decided by a field goal in the final minute, waits behind it. Both pressure points are road games.
Brian Williams' defense is the reason to feel decent about that. It was his 2025 unit that led Conference USA in fumble recoveries and drove the league's best turnover margin, and he returned for a second season. Against Middle Tennessee the front and the coverage were terrific and the ball never came loose. In a one-score game against Kennesaw State, the difference between a good stop and a takeaway is the difference between punting and killing a drive at midfield.
Depth is the live question during the bye. Linebacker Walker O'Steen left in the first quarter with a left leg injury and did not return, later appearing on the sideline in street clothes. He is the same linebacker who piled up 13 tackles against Georgia Southern. The defense held Middle Tennessee down without him, which is real evidence about the backups, but an extra week of rest before Kennesaw State matters more than it would in most Octobers.
The offense answered its own question. Lucas Farrington's 94 yards led 276 rushing yards at 7.1 per attempt, the clearest sign yet that the ground game survived Cam Cook's departure, after a committee, a Creel-heavy load and a modest shared effort in the first three weeks. Creel added 360 total yards and two scores. An early red-zone flag wiped out a touchdown and turned seven points into three, leaving a 27-yard field goal. Against a Kennesaw State team that won the title game in the last minute, settling for three inside the 20 is how a rematch gets away.
Liberty at Delaware: root for Liberty
One league game is worth an hour Friday night on CBSSN. Delaware is a Conference USA opponent Jacksonville State visits in the regular-season finale, and every Blue Hen conference loss is one fewer team in the way of a title-game berth. Liberty is heavily favored, roughly an 85% chance to win, and the payoff is modest in size but direct in mechanism. A Liberty win leaves Jacksonville State's chance of reaching the Conference USA Championship Game near 52.7%, while a Delaware win leaves it near 47.9%, a swing of about 4.8 percentage points depending on Friday's result.
That is the whole board. Watch the injury report out of Jacksonville and the CBSSN score, then start counting down to October 7.
The Week 5 guide has the full picture, and the methodology explains how the numbers are built.