Big East Power Rankings: Week 8

I can’t believe it’s October 20, seems like the month has flown by. I could have been in New York today for the Big East media day, thanks to a certain car promotion that some of you may have seen on twitter. I quickly fell in love with the idea of going to New York on the company dime and just being around the media day. There was a second part of the agreement that I didn’t really care for, or have the time to do. They offered to have a guest blogger, but fuck that shit. If anyone is going to write shit articles on here, it’s going to be me. I told them I passed, and best wishes and that nonsense, and they didn’t write me back saying the same. No, “Too bad it didn’t work out, good luck with the blog.” No, “That’s a shame, best of luck mate (they are Australian)” Nothing. So fuck them. I hope the bloggers doing it have a great time, but no one buys the shit car that the company promotes. Spoiler alert: it’s Volvo. Yeah, you weren’t buying a Volvo anyway because chances are, you aren’t in your mid 60s or incredibly stupid. Chances are, I’m going to regret this. Not the last sentence that will have no one offer me anything ever again, but for not going to New York. I really want to go. But sometimes the things you want are not things that need to do at that time. Passing up sweet deals is not very fun. Or easy. Having just ripped on the company that offered to fly me to New York for free for basically no reason, let’s move on to the Big East rankings.

1) West Virginia Mountaineers 5-1, 1-0
West Virginia is back on top after a week at 3. The Mountaineers defense dominated the South Florida offense last Thursday. The game was 10-3 right before the half. Then Robert Sands baited BJ Daniels into a throw that Sands returned 24 yards that led to a Noel Devine TD catch to pretty much ice the 20-6 victory. Geno Smith had a very nice game, going 24-31-219-2 TDs. Devine only had 13-29 on the ground, with the 12 yard TD. Tavon Austin had 5-47 receiving, but Brad Starks topped him with 2-45-1 TD. The TD was from 31, and is the 4th TD of the season for Starks, all coming in the last 2 games. Brantwon Bowman had his first career INT. Keith Tandy got his 4th of the season, all 4 coming within the last 3 games.

2) Pittsburgh Panthers 3-3, 1-0
The Panthers romped Syracuse 45-14, looking like the team everyone thought they would be. They started the domination early, getting a 79 yard TD pass to Devin Street (3-82-1 TD) a minute and a half into the game. Syracuse answered, but Pitt scored 21 more to close out the half, and then Ricky Gary took an INT 80 yards to put it away to start the second half. Tino Sunseri was off the hook,  17-24-266-4 TDs. Dion Lewis had 15-80-1 TD, while Ray Graham chipped in 11-53, 27 receiving yards and a TD. Mike Shannahan had 4-64-1 TD receiving as well.

3) Cincinnati Bearcats 3-3, 1-0
I wrote about the Bearcats 35-27 win over Louisville here.

4) Rutgers Scarlet Knights 4-2, 1-0
First off, all good thoughts and prayers and best wishes to Eric LeGrand. As for the game, Rutgers trailed Army 17-3 at the half. Chas Dodd threw 2 TD passes in the 4th quarter to force OT. Army got a field goal, but Rutgers marched the 25 yards behind a Mohammed Sanu 12 yard run, a Sanu 4 yard run, and a 3rd down conversion pass from Dodd to Keith Stroud. Joe Martinek ran for 2, and then ran for the final yard for the 23-20 win. Dodd was 18-30-251-2 TDs-1 INT. Dodd had -78 rushing yards. Sanu had a team high 33 yards on the ground. Jeremy Deering caught 4-76 for the victors. The Scarlet Knights managed only 250 yards total.

5) Louisville Cardinals 3-3, 0-1
Just because.

6) Syracuse Orange 4-2, 1-1
The loss to Pitt was so bad that I couldn’t justify ranking Syracuse over Louisville.  The Orange managed 308 yards, but had 4 turnovers. They only managed 4-13 on third downs. Ryan Nassib was 25-46-231-1 TD-2 INTs. Alec Lemon had 6-108 receiving, while Van Chew had 5-50-1 TD. Delone Carter was held to just 13-38-1 TD. Syracuse has come a ways the past couple years, but this was a reminder that there is still work to be done.

7) Connecticut Huskies 3-3, 0-1
The Huskies trip to Louisville should see a lot of rushes, with the top running backs in the conference meeting up. Jordan Todman gets 152 yards a game, while Bilal Powell gets 149. Todman and Powell are also the scoring leaders in the Big East. It’s also worth noting that last week was the anniversary of the tragic Jasper Howard death.

8) South Florida Bulls 3-3, 0-2
The Bulls seem like a team in flux. The defense was pretty solid, holding WVU to 298 yards, 79 on the ground. But the offense is pretty bad. They gained only 202 yards against WVU, with 3 turnovers. BJ Daniels was 20-30 for somehow only 119 yards and all 3 INTs. It takes a hell of an offensive gameplan to complete 20 passes for 119 yards. Daniels got pulled before the last series, Bobby Eveld came in and went 2-3-18. It wasn’t a controversy, it was a mercy pull of Daniels, who is up to 10 INTs this season. Mo Plancher had a nice game, getting 63 on 11 carries.  Dontavia Bogan caught 11-98.

Friday
South Florida at Cincinnati 8

Saturday
Syracuse at West Virginia 12
Rutgers at Pittsburgh 12
Connecticut at Louisville 3:30