It’s week six of the college football season, and there’s still six Sun Belt Conference teams without a conference loss.
Two — Georgia Southern and UL Monroe — are off to 2-0 starts, and three have yet to play a conference game.
That all changes Saturday, when 10 teams find themselves in league play and two are guaranteed to suffer their first losses in the conference.
“Everybody in our league is plenty capable of winning on a given Saturday,” Arkansas State coach Blake Anderson said.
Georgia Southern (3-2, 2-0 Sun Belt) and New Mexico State (2-3, 1-0) face off in a battle of conference unbeatens Saturday as well as Arkansas State (2-2, 0-0) and Louisiana-Monroe (3-1, 2-0).
The matchup between ASU and ULM features the teams with the Sun Belt’s two non-conference marquee wins. Monroe beat Wake Forest, 17-10, to open the season, and ASU took down Utah State in overtime last weekend.
“The schedule in the preseason is what it is,” Anderson said. “To come out of the preseason 2-2, we feel like, was successful. We would have loved to find a way to be 3-1 but we’re not there yet.”
UL-Monroe visits Arkansas State for a 7 p.m. kickoff Saturday.
New Mexico State will have its hands full trying to stay perfect in the Sun Belt when it hosts Georgia Southern at 8 p.m. Saturday.
The Aggies have the nation’s worst rushing defense, allowing 312 yards per game on the ground. The Eagles, on the other hand, boast the nation’s best rushing offense at 367 yards per game.
Having completed its non-conference slate — including option teams in Cal Poly and New Mexico — the Aggies begin a stretch of seven-straight Sun Belt games.
“It’s all Sun Belt games from here on out, and we’ve got a good Georgia Southern team coming here this week for a home game,” NMSU coach Doug Martin said. “They’re one of the hottest teams in the Sun Belt. This will be a major challenge for our players on both sides of the ball, particularly on defense. I think Georgia Southern has one of the fastest, most exciting quarterbacks I’ve seen in a long time.”
GSU quarterback Kevin Ellison, who earned his second SBC Offensive Player of the Week honors this week for his work last Thursday against Appalachian State, is 14th in the country with 7 yards per rush. Running back Matt Brieda leads the nation with 9.4 yards per carry and is tied for fourth in the Football Bowl Subdivision with eight touchdowns.