Post by rainman on Oct 2, 2007 6:07:02 GMT -5
Big East Notebook
By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
October 1, 2007
SYRACUSE GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – After two weeks of league play this isn’t the way everyone thought the Big East was going to shake out. West Virginia was predicted to win the conference but starts the year at the bottom of the league standings after its 21-13 loss at South Florida on Friday night.
Louisville, the other preseason favorite, is 3-2 after Saturday’s victory at North Carolina State. The Cardinals were knocked out of the national championship picture at Kentucky on Sept. 15, and then were knocked out of the Top 25 a week later following a stunning 38-35 home loss to Syracuse, which began the year with three straight losses to Washington, Iowa and Illinois by a combined score of 118-32.
The Orange followed up that big road win with a 17-14 loss at Miami, Ohio on Saturday.
West Virginia’s name was removed from the national championship picture last Friday night at South Florida. The Mountaineers (4-1) committed six turnovers in a repeat loss to the Bulls. Like Louisville two weeks ago, Syracuse once again gets to face a team in West Virginia this weekend with diminished expectations.
“Our goal every year is to play West Virginia football each and every time out there and compete for championships,” West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. “The first goal is always the Big East championship and obviously we’re behind on that because we’re 0-1 in the league. There are a lot of games left in the league in a very, very competitive conference and we’ve still got over half of the season to play.”
Rutgers, another dark horse BCS title-game contender, saw those hopes evaporate Saturday afternoon when Maryland defeated the Scarlet Knights, 34-24. Rutgers had a soft schedule to start the season with Buffalo, Navy and Norfolk State, and will play seven of its first eight at home. A home game this weekend against Cincinnati looms large for the Scarlet Knights.
To give you an idea of how wacky the first month of the season has been for the Big East the conference was promoting four Heisman Trophy candidates and all four of them are playing for teams with losses.
The real surprise has come from the middle of the league, where South Florida and Cincinnati have produced impressive early season results. The Bulls went from unranked three weeks ago to No. 6 in the Associated Press poll after victories against Auburn, North Carolina and West Virginia.
The 4-0 Bulls are in the catbird’s seat now and have two more non-conference tune-ups against Florida Atlantic and Central Florida before getting into the meat of their Big East schedule. USF plays a pair of October road games at Rutgers and Connecticut, and has red-letter home games against Cincinnati and Louisville in November.
“They’ve got good athletes. They play extremely hard and it was an environment that we knew was going to be pretty tough,” Rodriguez said of South Florida.
Remarkably, South Florida’s home game against Cincinnati on Nov. 3 could have major national implications.
Cincinnati has the Big East’s other marquee non-conference victory against Oregon State on Sept. 6. The Bearcats are nationally ranked for the first time since 1976 and are 5-0 for the first time since 1954. Brian Kelly, who coached Cincinnati’s Motor City Bowl victory over Western Michigan last year, has yet to lose on the Cincinnati sidelines.
The Bearcats cleaned up the non-conference portion of their schedule Saturday night at San Diego State by blowing out the Aztecs 52-23. It’s the fourth time in five outings Cincinnati has scored more than 40 points in a game this season.
UC jumps into the fire this weekend by traveling to Rutgers for a rematch of last year’s game in which Cincinnati ruined the Scarlet Knights’ Big East championship hopes.
“We’re obviously a very young league as far as who is in it right now,” Rodriguez said. “These eight football schools have only been together a couple of years so I think it’s showing that we are growing rapidly and the potential is there to get better.”
Connecticut (5-0) is one of 15 remaining undefeated teams following its 44-10 victory at home against Akron last Saturday. The Huskies show wins against Duke, Maine, Temple, Pitt and Akron, and the rest of the country will get a better read on how good UConn is this Saturday when it travels to 4-1 Virginia. The Cavaliers are coming off a 44-14 victory over Pitt and lead the ACC Coastal Division with a 3-0 record.
Pitt played Michigan State tough in a 17-13 loss in East Lansing on Sept. 15, but the Panthers have had back-to-back bad performances against Connecticut and Virginia to slip to 2-4. Five of Pitt’s remaining seven games could come against teams ranked in the Top 25.
The Big East looks to have six legitimate bowl contending teams this year making folks at the Gator/Sun, Meineke Car Care, PapaJohn’s.com and International bowls very happy. And two more losses by 0-5 Notre Dame will remove the possibility of the Irish taking one of the Big East’s bowl spots this season.
Briefly:
Hidden beneath all of the upsets last weekend was Louisville’s 29-10 victory over North Carolina State. That win was significant to Big East boosters because it guarantees the conference another regular-season winning record against the Atlantic Coast Conference no matter what happens this weekend when Connecticut plays at Virginia. The Big East will be 5-2 against the ACC with a Connecticut victory and 4-3 with a Husky loss.
Including bowl games, the Big East was 7-3 against the ACC last season.
By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
October 1, 2007
SYRACUSE GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – After two weeks of league play this isn’t the way everyone thought the Big East was going to shake out. West Virginia was predicted to win the conference but starts the year at the bottom of the league standings after its 21-13 loss at South Florida on Friday night.
Louisville, the other preseason favorite, is 3-2 after Saturday’s victory at North Carolina State. The Cardinals were knocked out of the national championship picture at Kentucky on Sept. 15, and then were knocked out of the Top 25 a week later following a stunning 38-35 home loss to Syracuse, which began the year with three straight losses to Washington, Iowa and Illinois by a combined score of 118-32.
The Orange followed up that big road win with a 17-14 loss at Miami, Ohio on Saturday.
West Virginia’s name was removed from the national championship picture last Friday night at South Florida. The Mountaineers (4-1) committed six turnovers in a repeat loss to the Bulls. Like Louisville two weeks ago, Syracuse once again gets to face a team in West Virginia this weekend with diminished expectations.
“Our goal every year is to play West Virginia football each and every time out there and compete for championships,” West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. “The first goal is always the Big East championship and obviously we’re behind on that because we’re 0-1 in the league. There are a lot of games left in the league in a very, very competitive conference and we’ve still got over half of the season to play.”
Rutgers, another dark horse BCS title-game contender, saw those hopes evaporate Saturday afternoon when Maryland defeated the Scarlet Knights, 34-24. Rutgers had a soft schedule to start the season with Buffalo, Navy and Norfolk State, and will play seven of its first eight at home. A home game this weekend against Cincinnati looms large for the Scarlet Knights.
To give you an idea of how wacky the first month of the season has been for the Big East the conference was promoting four Heisman Trophy candidates and all four of them are playing for teams with losses.
The real surprise has come from the middle of the league, where South Florida and Cincinnati have produced impressive early season results. The Bulls went from unranked three weeks ago to No. 6 in the Associated Press poll after victories against Auburn, North Carolina and West Virginia.
The 4-0 Bulls are in the catbird’s seat now and have two more non-conference tune-ups against Florida Atlantic and Central Florida before getting into the meat of their Big East schedule. USF plays a pair of October road games at Rutgers and Connecticut, and has red-letter home games against Cincinnati and Louisville in November.
“They’ve got good athletes. They play extremely hard and it was an environment that we knew was going to be pretty tough,” Rodriguez said of South Florida.
Remarkably, South Florida’s home game against Cincinnati on Nov. 3 could have major national implications.
Cincinnati has the Big East’s other marquee non-conference victory against Oregon State on Sept. 6. The Bearcats are nationally ranked for the first time since 1976 and are 5-0 for the first time since 1954. Brian Kelly, who coached Cincinnati’s Motor City Bowl victory over Western Michigan last year, has yet to lose on the Cincinnati sidelines.
The Bearcats cleaned up the non-conference portion of their schedule Saturday night at San Diego State by blowing out the Aztecs 52-23. It’s the fourth time in five outings Cincinnati has scored more than 40 points in a game this season.
UC jumps into the fire this weekend by traveling to Rutgers for a rematch of last year’s game in which Cincinnati ruined the Scarlet Knights’ Big East championship hopes.
“We’re obviously a very young league as far as who is in it right now,” Rodriguez said. “These eight football schools have only been together a couple of years so I think it’s showing that we are growing rapidly and the potential is there to get better.”
Connecticut (5-0) is one of 15 remaining undefeated teams following its 44-10 victory at home against Akron last Saturday. The Huskies show wins against Duke, Maine, Temple, Pitt and Akron, and the rest of the country will get a better read on how good UConn is this Saturday when it travels to 4-1 Virginia. The Cavaliers are coming off a 44-14 victory over Pitt and lead the ACC Coastal Division with a 3-0 record.
Pitt played Michigan State tough in a 17-13 loss in East Lansing on Sept. 15, but the Panthers have had back-to-back bad performances against Connecticut and Virginia to slip to 2-4. Five of Pitt’s remaining seven games could come against teams ranked in the Top 25.
The Big East looks to have six legitimate bowl contending teams this year making folks at the Gator/Sun, Meineke Car Care, PapaJohn’s.com and International bowls very happy. And two more losses by 0-5 Notre Dame will remove the possibility of the Irish taking one of the Big East’s bowl spots this season.
Briefly:
Hidden beneath all of the upsets last weekend was Louisville’s 29-10 victory over North Carolina State. That win was significant to Big East boosters because it guarantees the conference another regular-season winning record against the Atlantic Coast Conference no matter what happens this weekend when Connecticut plays at Virginia. The Big East will be 5-2 against the ACC with a Connecticut victory and 4-3 with a Husky loss.
Including bowl games, the Big East was 7-3 against the ACC last season.
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