The Big East had a mixed weekend with some nice wins (Cincinnati over Oregon State, Connecticut over Baylor, Pittsburgh over Navy and Syracuse over Northwestern) coupled with near misses against SEC teams with Louisville losing to Kentucky and West Virginia blowing a 14-pt lead at Auburn. No one ever seems to credit the Big East when they do beat teams from the other BCS conferences, but at least splitting against the SEC would have helped a conference desperately searching for some news worth promoting. The play of Louisville and Syracuse make it evident that the Big East will not have any embarrassing bottom feeders this year. The conference race should be highly competitive this fall.
South Florida suffered the biggest loss of the weekend as QB Matt Grothe, the Big East’s career leader in total offense, was lost for the season with a torn ACL in his left knee. RS frosh QB B.J. Daniels (10-13/149y, TD; 8/105y, 2 TDs rushing) played well off the bench in the 59-0 romp over Charleston Southern, but his opponent for this week presents a bit of a talent upgrade over the Bucs as South Florida travels to Tallahassee for a highly-anticipated first-ever meeting with Florida State. The game will be a homecoming for Tallahassee native Daniels, but that will probably just add some extra pressure.
The conference’s biggest winner—with all due respect to coach Doug Marrone’s first-ever win at the helm of the Orangemen—remains Cincinnati, who impressively beat the Beavers on the road by 10, 28-18. QB Tony Pike had another brilliant game, completing 31-49 for 332y and 2 TDs with 1 INT. The Bearcats moved up to no. 14 in the current AP Poll.
South Florida suffered the biggest loss of the weekend as QB Matt Grothe, the Big East’s career leader in total offense, was lost for the season with a torn ACL in his left knee. RS frosh QB B.J. Daniels (10-13/149y, TD; 8/105y, 2 TDs rushing) played well off the bench in the 59-0 romp over Charleston Southern, but his opponent for this week presents a bit of a talent upgrade over the Bucs as South Florida travels to Tallahassee for a highly-anticipated first-ever meeting with Florida State. The game will be a homecoming for Tallahassee native Daniels, but that will probably just add some extra pressure.
The conference’s biggest winner—with all due respect to coach Doug Marrone’s first-ever win at the helm of the Orangemen—remains Cincinnati, who impressively beat the Beavers on the road by 10, 28-18. QB Tony Pike had another brilliant game, completing 31-49 for 332y and 2 TDs with 1 INT. The Bearcats moved up to no. 14 in the current AP Poll.
Cincinnati 1-0; 3-0 overall
Pittsburgh 0-0; 3-0 overall
South Florida 0-0; 3-0 overall
Connecticut 0-0; 2-1 overall
West Virginia 0-0; 2-1 overall
Louisville 0-0; 1-1 overall
Syracuse 0-0; 1-2 overall
Rutgers 0-1; 2-1 overall
Pittsburgh 0-0; 3-0 overall
South Florida 0-0; 3-0 overall
Connecticut 0-0; 2-1 overall
West Virginia 0-0; 2-1 overall
Louisville 0-0; 1-1 overall
Syracuse 0-0; 1-2 overall
Rutgers 0-1; 2-1 overall
It will be a tough year for the Big East considering nobody gave the Big East any respect when they had 3 one loss teams in December(Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers).
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