ESPN Independents and Others Blog

Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

Ball State will host Navy Friday night in what Greg Fallon of the Muncie Star Press is calling the opening of the Cardinals' season.

Ball State defeated Northeastern with ease last weekend, but Navy is a nationally respected team with a talented offense and could give Ball State their first taste of what it's going to take to be a national player.

• Since Louisiana-Monroe's win over Alabama last season, the teams in the SEC are sitting up and taking notice of the Warhawks. That includes Arkansas, which travels to ULM this weekend.

• Alabama-Birmingham is hoping Saturday's game against Florida Atlantic will give the Blazers secondary a chance to regain some confidence after allowing 361 yards and three touchdowns in the air to Tulsa.

• Joe Henderson of the Tampa Tribune writes a nice obituary for the Central Florida/South Florida series which ends after Saturday.

• Western Michigan wide receiver Jamarko Simmons has a nagging leg injury, but he's not letting that affect his senior season.

• Utah can't wait to avenge last year's loss to UNLV. The loss happened early in the year and was one of only two wins the Rebels had all season.

• Members of the 1987 Wyoming Holiday Bowl team will be honored during Saturday's game against Air Force. The Laramie Boomerang has a nice story about how that season unfolded and the people who made it one of the best in Wyoming history.

• The Bleacher Report takes a stab at why Notre Dame will be BCS bound this season. Obviously, it's the schedule and the really bad teams on it.

• The Monroe News Star writes that if Louisiana Tech hopes to pull off another BCS upset over Kansas this weekend, it will need to slow the Jayhawks quick-strike offense.

• Miami-Ohio athletics director Brad Bates is looking forward to Saturday's game against Michigan because he was a former walk-on and graduate assistant for the Wolverines.

• Marcus Nelson of the Palm Beach Post writes that UAB fans should know Florida Atlantic quarterback Rusty Smith because the Blazers recruited him and then yanked the scholarship in favor of current quarterback Joe Webb.