There are 3 conferences that have no teams bowl eligible, Conference USA, the Sun Belt, and the Big East. Surprising? Yes. But shocking? Not the way things have gone this season. The Big East could send a 5 loss team to the BCS game and I doubt anyone would be surprised. The Big East didn’t get the chance to feast on non-conference foes, so they are going to feast on each other. So far, it’s happened with regularity. Let’s look at my world famous rankings.
1) Pittsburgh Panthers 4-3, 2-0
Those Panthers are not celebrating a sack, they are celebrating the fact they are number one in the power rankings. The Panthers annihilated Rutgers in the second half on Saturday, on their way to a 41-21 romp. The Panthers rolled up 512 yards of offense, and held Rutgers to 202. Tino Sunseri was once again sharp, going 21-27-303-3 TDs-1 INT. Jonathan Baldwin was the top recipient with 5-139-1 TD. The TD was a 45 yarder that put the game away early in the 4th quarter. Dion Lewis had his first 100 yard rushing game of the season, with 17-130-1 TD. Who thought his first 100 yard game would game come this late? No one that’s who. The Panthers had 7 sacks, and Dom DeCicco got his second INT of the season.
2) Syracuse Orange 5-2, 2-1
The Orange defense has been a completely different unit on the road. In the 19-14 win in Morgantown, the Orange kept WVU scoreless the whole game outside the first quarter. They forced 3 INTs by Geno Smith, who had thrown 2 all season. The Orange ran the ball down WVU’s throat, with 183 yards. Antwon Bailey had 19-94, and Delone Carter 9-75 before leaving with an injury. Ryan Nassib was awful, going 5-15-63-1 TD. The TD was a 29 yarder to Van Chew, who had 2-46-1 in the air. Doug Houge had 2 INTs, and Phillip Thomas 1. All the INTs turned into field goals. Ross Krautman hit 4 on the day.
3) West Virginia Mountaineers 5-2, 1-1
The key to beating the Mountaineers this season has been to run the ball. The run defense was hammered against Marshall, an OT game, LSU and Syracuse, both losses. What didn’t help was a very subpar game by Geno Smith. Smith went 20-37-178-1 TD-3 INTs. It was his worst game since, you guessed it, the LSU game. Noel Devine had a big game, with 24-122 on the ground. Jock Sanders had 3-53 receiving, while JD Woods added 4-52. West Virginia is going to have to get something going with the run D, because the Big East is loaded with quality running backs.
4) Louisville Cardinals 4-3, 1-1
The Cardinals looked absolutely dominant in their 26-0 win over Connecticut. The Cardinals defense held UConn to under 200 yards and forced 3 turnovers. Adam Froman continues to play very solidly, 18-30-195-1 TD, and that’s what Louisville needs from him. Especially since they have the 4th leading runner in the nation, Bilal Powell. Powell had 27-105 against UConn, and didn’t want to leave the game until he got over 1,000 yards. While I don’t agree totally with leaving him in in a blowout, you have to give it up for the senior leader. Andrell Smith had 3-62 to lead the Cardinal receivers. Doug Beaumont took a punt 74 yards for a TD. Johnny Patrick got his 3rd INT of the season. Chris Philpott was the Big East special teams player of the week, going 4-4 on FGs, and hitting 2 extra points. That’s the first time a Cardinal has been honored with an Big East player of the week performance this season.
5) South Florida Bulls 4-3, 1-2
I wrote about the Bulls win over Cincinnati here.
6) Cincinnati Bearcats 3-4, 1-1
I couldn’t justify putting Cincinnati over South Florida this week. Beat Syracuse and things will be different. Losing to a team at home means you have to be under them if you have the same number of conference wins and a worse record. Them’s the breaks Johnny.
7) Rutgers Scarlet Knights 4-3, 1-1
The Eric LeGrand story is the main thing swirling around Rutgers football, and it’s got to be hard to put that behind them. On the field, the hardest thing has been moving the ball in front of them. 202 yards isn’t going to cut it. Chas Dodd was brutal against Pitt, 8-19-62-1 INT. He was sacked 6 times. Tom Savage came in and was 2-3-46-1 TD, so maybe there will be a Savage start coming up. Joe Martinek had 13-52-1 TD to lead Rutgers in rushing, while Mark Harrison had 3-52-1 TD. The best thing for Rutgers would be to put this game in the rear view mirror.
8) Connecticut Huskies 3-4, 0-2
Pretty much everything that can go wrong for UConn is going wrong for UConn. Dave Teggart missed a 29 yard FG, Taylor Mack muffed a punt that lead to the first Louisville TD, and the Beaumont return highlighted the special teams disasters. Michael Box was 4-12-35-1 INT in his first start before leaving the game with an injury. Zach Frazer was 6-8-52 in relief. Jordan Todman was held to under 100 yards rushing for the first time this season, but did have 102 total yards. Ryan Griffin was the leading receiver was 4-40.
Big East Schedule
Friday
West Virginia at Connecticut 8pm
Saturday
Syracuse at Cincinnati 12
Louisville at Pittsburgh 12
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