College Football Preview: Big East
Posted by at 7th July, 2009
The next major conference on our list is the Big East. This is a conference that has been struggling for national respect for years. Every year it seems they may finally earn it, and then they find a way to lose it.
Where they stood
The Big East is very hard to assess from a national scale. In the past few years, they have shown extreme talent, and in their bowl games they have beaten respected teams. They had so much individual talent the last few years, it seemed like this was a conference on the rise, a conference that until recently, had been reeling since Miami, VTech, and BC left for the ACC. They have shown plenty of solid talent like Ray Rice, Steve Slaton, Pat White, George Selvie, Brian Brohm…..the list keeps going. Last year, they boasted the NCAA’s leading rusher in UConn’s Donald Brown. This conference deserves respect for what it has accomplished.
Where they stand
Last year’s champion, Cincinnati, wound up losing to Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl. Virginia Tech is now considered a title contenter, and Cincinnati seems to not be poised to repeat as conference champions. This year, the league has some rebuilding to do. All of those great players I mentioned above are no longer in the conference (except Selvie). There is really only two key veteran players remaining on any of the top teams, Matt Grothe, USF QB, and his teammate George Selvie. Other than that, this conference needs to usher in the next line of stars. In the end, I don’t think there is any legit title contenders in this league, this is an average conference with some solid teams.
Team by Team Breakdown
Cincinnati – The Bearcats return QB Tony Pike and a good portion of experienced players on both offense and defense. Nobody will look at this team and be blown away by their explosiveness on offense or defense. This team is a time management, ball control, well coached team that grinds it out chips away the opponents intensity as the game wears on. This year should be no different. It is this style of play that makes it unsexy to pick them to repeat as conference champs. They should be a solid club that contends for the league title. Prediction: 7-9 wins.
Connecticut – Last year, the Huskies had the best running back (numbers-wise) in college football. Donald Brown rushed for an NCAA leading 2083 yards (averaging 5.7 ypc, not bad at all). He set the tone for that team. This team is very similar to Cincinnati in that they play ball control and grind it out by running the football. Problem is, that is all UConn could do. Now that Brown is playing on Sundays, this team needs to fill that enormous gap. It will take a year to replace that kind of talent so look for the Huskies to slide a bit this year. Prediction: 4-6 wins.
Louisville – This is a team that has really fallen from grace. With Brian Brohm and Bobby Petrino , this team had a high scoring passing attack that was fun to watch and really changed the football culture in Louisville. Steve Kragthorpe has had trouble transitioning his style of play to the field. There isn’t much talent on the field, and it will take time for Kragthorpe to get this team winning again. The question is, will Louisville fans have the patience for this team to turn it around. The slide will continue this year. Prediction: 4-5 wins.
Pittsburgh – This is a team that really is difficult to figure out. Last year they had a super talent in LeSean McCoy at RB. He is in the NFL now and Coach Dave Wannstedt needs to find a replacement for him. QB play had been an issue over the last three years, and they need more playmakers on defense. This team still has plenty of talent and came up just short of a BCS bid last year. They should be pretty good this year, but still come up short of the league title. Prediction: 7-8 wins.
Rutgers – This is another team that was in the national spotlight not to long ago and is now beginning to fade away. Since Ray Rice left, this team has lacked a go to running back. In my opinnion, Coach Schiano is to blame because he didn’t try and develop a second running back. Ray Rice ran the ball about 35 times a game. Now Schiano is paying for that. Still, this team had talent elsewhere on the field. But now with QB Mike Teel and leading pass catcher Kenny Britt gone, this team really needs to develop young talent fast. This will be a rebuilding year for Rutgers. Prediction: 4-6 wins.
South Florida – This team just might have what it takes to be a legitimate contender for the big east title this year. It isn’t a matter of the team being better than last year, but its more of a case of the rest of the teams have taken a step back this year and USF has suffered the fewest personel losses. They still have 5th year senior starting QB Matt Grothe, and they still have future NFL stud George Selvie on the defensive line. This team has some playmakers and could challenge Cincy for the title. This team won’t get much respect on a national scale, but in conference they have a shot to be on top. Prediction: 7-8 wins.
Syracuse – This team has been searching for years to find its groove on the field and can’t seem to make anything work. They have gone through some coaches and some quarterbacks and still can’t turn anything into wins. New Head Coach Doug Marrone is a stand up guy with some good coaching experience and should be good enough to make noise in the conference…..in a few years. This team will be bad this year, and probably next year also. Prediction: 2-3 wins.
West Virginia – This has been the most consistent team in the conference over the past few years. The reason for such consistency? Pat White. He is a true leader on the field and will be missed greatly this year at WVU. He is the only QB to go 4-0 in bowl games. He gave the conference huge credit points by orchestrating a blowout victory over Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl two years ago. Anyways, back to this year. They still have a supreme running back in Noel Devine, and they have plenty of talent on defense. This team has two more years of success left if Bill Stewart doesn’t bring in any more talent. Prediction: 7-8 wins.
Overall, this conference is mediocre. There isn’t a team that stands out as the dominant team in the conference. Reigning champs, Cincy should be the favorites to repeat, while USF and Pitt are their best competition (Cincy will still win the conference). Nationally though, this conference is mediocre.
Conference Standings:
1st to Last – Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, USF, WVU, Rutgers, Louisville, UConn, Syracuse
Conference Champs – Cincinnati
Related posts:
- College Football Preview: Big Ten
- College Football Preview: Pac Ten
- College Football Preview: ACC
- College Football Preview: Big Twelve
- College Football Preview: SEC
3 Responses to “College Football Preview: Big East”
Follow Us on Twitter- @dwadeofficial Cowherd joins the haters at ESPN, said if the playoffs started today and heat/hawks is the matchup, the hawks would sweep
Hi,
I will only speculate on Rutgers, so here goes……..
I agree Schiano does not develop skilled players enough. Consequently, the unknown quality will always exist.
But, don’t be fooled this is a very good team.
1. Top rated Oline
2. Top rated Dline, equal if not better then the 06 team
3. Many skilled players, highly ranked coming out of High School, but like I said no experience.
4. The QB is still a 5th year Senior and highly sought ofter when graduated HS. Switched schools, got hurt, then Teel happened.
5. They learned from last year and that horrible start. This program is still growing and that includes the coaching staff.
6. VERY conducive schedule, if they beat Cinci in the first game the rest should be cake.
This team is poised to take the lead in this conference and stay there!
2 points:
1) I think your team predictions don’t have enough wins. I think if you look at the schedules, unless UNLV or SE louisiana state turn out to be bcs busters, there are enough wins to get most teams to 4-5 wins. Because of the 5 game non-conference, aside from 1-2 games, most BE teams have extremely weak non-conf schedules.
And someone is going to have to win conference games. So there will be one or two teams with 8-10 win seasons. Weather or not they are filled with quality wins, is subject to debate. But there will be some higher win totals.
2) Coincidentally, your win totals may be too high for louisville. This team has no depth, so we’d need to be most of our way to a bowl in the first 4-6 games. Unfortunately, aside from the div II warm up, we’re at UK, at Utah, then have pitt and Southern Miss at home before a trip to cinci. 1-5 is a legitimate possibility to start the year.
This is a coach that hasn’t beaten syracuse since he was hired. Kragthorpe’s nickname is SPT: Syracuse’s Play Toy… We’ve had 6 different coordinators and the major roster and assistant coaching turnover every season he’s been here. He’s thrown everyone from players, to assistant coaches, to fans, to administrative assistants under the bus to explain his constant failures on and off the field.
We’re essentially on probation at this point, or as we call it Krag-bation, as we our roster is down to 64 recruited scholarshop players.
Louisville fans don’t need to be “patient so kragthorpe can implement his system on the field.” We’ve seen what he can implement: the wholesale destruction of the program.
You have a good point on the win totals. I probably missed the mark on that, I think had I predicted double digit wins for the top 3 teams, it would level out the win totals.