Big East football schedules: Week 4- “Showtime”

Maybe it really is all about “The U”…




The final weekend in September is the premier weekend for college football for the Big East. This week presents the conference with a chance to prove itself against the biggest guns of college football, and once again prove that the Big East is definitely worthy of its automatic BCS bowl bid.

The Big East’s best teams play marquee opponents from the ACC, SEC and Big 12 in four matchups during the final weekend of the season’s opening month. Without further delay, here’s a peek at “Showtime Week.” Note that Louisville has the weekend off.

Week 4 Big East Schedule
Thurs., Sept 23- Pittsburgh vs Miami (FL)
Sat., Sept 25-Connecticut vs Buffalo
Sept 25-Cincinnati vs Oklahoma
Sept 25-USF vs Western Kentucky
Sept 25-Rutgers vs North Carolina
Sept 25-West Virginia at LSU
Sept 25-Syracuse vs Colgate

AN: Jake, the Panthers start with the most recent Big East conference team to play for a national title, “The U”, Miami of Florida, in primetime on Thursday night.

JM: Miami leads the all-time series between these two former Big East foes 21-9-1, with the last meeting a Hurricanes victory in 2003. The last time Pitt beat Miami was in 1997, when Miami was reeling from NCAA sanctions received for the program’s conduct during the Dennis Erickson era.

While this Miami team is not as talented nor as intimidating, they are still a good football team, and were the preseason favorite to win the ACC and considered a dark horse national title contender. Miami is in the heart of a tough non-conference schedule, highlighted by its last game in Columbus against Ohio State. But the Hurricanes lost that game and now sit at 1-1 and are looking to bounce back.

Meanwhile, Pitt finds itself in a similar situation. High preseason expectations had Pitt fans thinking Big East title or maybe even a national title shot. While the Big East title is still very much in reach, that long-shot national championship dream is gone following an opening night, overtime loss. The Panthers’ record now sits at 1-1 as well following a week two win over FCS New Hampshire.

Needless to say, this is a huge game for both teams as each tries to get its season back on track. A win for either team would go a long way toward building momentum heading into the conference slate. This should be a very hard-fought and entertaining football game.

Another big opportunity for the Big East to net a marquee win takes place two days later down the Ohio River in Cincinnati.

AN: Bob Stoops brings his Sooners to Cincinnati, and all I can hear is, “Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain.” This is a return game for the 2008 trip that saw Oklahoma lay a 52-26 whipping on the Cincinnati Bearcats in Norman. Thankfully Sam Bradford and Jermaine Gresham have left the Sooner squad, but Landry Jones and DeMarco Murray are still around wearing the crimson and cream.

It’s practically impossible to pick against the Sooners, and through one half in Norman two seasons ago the Bearcats hung with Oklahoma. But in the end, Oklahoma is Oklahoma and they’re pretty darn good. It’ll take a nearly perfect game from the UC Bearcats to defeat one of the nation’s premier programs. And even then, the chances of winning aren’t horribly high.

Ah, "Ginormatron", what a sight. That thing is big folks...real big

That being said, this Oklahoma team has struggled at home against Air Force and Utah State. So if the “right” Oklahoma team shows up, UC could keep it close for a little while. Even though everyone chalks this game up as a loss, the “any given Saturday” rule says Butch Jones could get his biggest win this weekend by defeating the Sooners.

Jake, the ACC isn’t done with the Big East after your Thursday night game. Rutgers invites North Carolina to Piscataway, and West Virginia travels to Baton Rouge to play the LSU Tigers in “Death Valley.” So, which game is more intriguing to you? The ACC/Big East battle or the chance to prove the Big East is a big boy against an SEC power?

JM: I’m really looking forward to that West Virginia matchup. As the only undefeated team in the Big East to have beaten another BCS conference team (last week’s win vs. Maryland), West Virginia has to be considered the favorite to win the Big East. While West Virginia will not be favored to win, they do have the talent to pull off the upset—a win the Big East desperately needed.

This is also a big game for LSU, which had a sub-par year last season and head coach Les Miles may be on the hot seat if he can’t return the “Bayou Bengals” to the top-10. I like LSU in this one, but WVU will give them a game.

AN: Six weeks ago we could have argued that the Rutgers/North Carolina tilt would have been interesting on paper, but thanks to the NCAA, that game might not be as exciting. It’s tough to disagree with the West Virginia/LSU matchup though, and I agree with you Jake, the Big East needs this win.

West Virginia beat Georgia in the 2006 Sugar Bowl, and not to brag or anything, but Butch Jones was coaching for the Mountaineers in that game. Maybe West Virginia will come out in “Death Valley” and play like they did last week in the first half against Maryland. That’d make it a fun game, and a competitive game if you ask me.

Also of note, former UC offensive line coach Jeff Quinn, who is now head man in Buffalo, leads the Bulls into the place where Quinn last lost a regular season game—Hartford, Connecticut to play the UConn Huskies. Quinn and numerous other former UC assistant coaches will be the focus of our next Big East weekly schedule preview.

Beautiful Hartford, Connecticut

Week four has the potential to be a big week for the Big East, but it also has the potential to be embarrassing for a league that needs to still prove itself to the outside world.

Check back for week five of the Big East schedule preview a little later next week. Thanks for reading as always.

Carter Finley Stadium: The Best in four seasons

Oh what a night.

In four seasons traveling across the country, I’ve been everywhere, man. But if I was asked to pick a favorite road venue in those four seasons, it would be tough to pick against North Carolina State’s Carter-Finley Stadium.

Between the first and second quarter the NC State crowd took part in some card tricks. It was pretty cool

I loved Oklahoma’s atmosphere, and 85,000 screaming “BOOMER, SOONER” was an awesome time, but 55,000 screaming “WOLF…PACK…WOLF…PACK” was also pretty impressive. The stadium was also beyond impressive.

It was military appreciation night and everything was great from the huge American flag, to the flyover to the fireworks...everything was top notch in Raleigh

I’ve been to at least five pro football stadiums, and none of them are as nice as Carter Finley Stadium if you ask me. The pressbox was top notch, and the pre game meal was fantastic. Although the game didn’t turn out quite as UC fans would have expected, I couldn’t have been more pleased with the stadium. I can’t say it enough, it was amazing.

This is the wide view from up above...where the eyes in the sky watch the game

The pressbox and luxury suites as viewed from my endzone filming area

And where was I stuck, and I use that term loosely, filming the game in the endzone, was part of NC State’s football facility. The building with coaches’ offices, a weight room, and a lot more was one of the best football facilities I’ve ever seen. Not that I’ve seen a lot, but this place was very, very nice.

Right above the NC State logo is where I was stationed for the national butt whooping the UC Bearcats received. I was right outside the NC State coaches' suite, and it was pretty sweet

And that wolf howl you heard probably 150 times if you were watching on ESPN was one more added reason that Carter Finley is one tough place to play. Especially on a Thursday night in front of a very hostile crowd.
On Saturday night at 6 p.m. it’ll be the 1-2 Cincinnati Bearcats down on the riverbanks of the Ohio River taking on the Oklahoma Sooners. For more about the 2008 matchup between the two schools, check back later this week. I’ve also got a few more posts cooking up for this week, so come on back and check it out.

Expansion? Who cares?

All the rage in college football these days is talk of Big Ten expansion. In fact, without it, I’m relatively sure ESPN would be looking for actual stories to cover right now in college football. Instead, everyone is talking expansion, and the probable demise of the Big East conference.

I’m not having any of it. And neither is Pittsburgh head coach Dave Wannstedt.

He met last week with in-state comrade Joe Paterno to discuss Pennsylvania high schools adapting a new practice policy and announcing that the two schools would be hosting high school coaches for clinics.

According to the AP report, “Wannstedt declined comment when asked afterward of rumors that Pitt is a possible Big Ten target. Wannstedt said he has had ‘zero’ discussions about the issue and that any talks would be taken up by school administrators.”

This weekend Tom Luicci, of the New Jersey Star-Ledger wrote an in-depth piece about Rutgers joining the Big Ten. Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano took the same route as Wannstedt. “I hear the talk just like you do,” Schiano told Luicci. “But I don’t know anything more. A lot of powerful people are making statements that would lead you to believe maybe. I don’t know.”

On ESPN’s “College Football Live” on Friday afternoon analysts debated hypothetical expansion situations. Four teams from the Big East—Connecticut, Rutgers, West Virginia and South Florida—were wrapped up into a larger Atlantic Coast Conference. Two, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, left for the expanded Big Ten. Cincinnati and Louisville were the only two Big East teams to not make a new “super conference” according to the show.

Pat Forde, ESPN.com analyst spoke via phone on the show and noted that Cincinnati and Louisville own three of the past five Big East BCS bow berths, and felt it a little odd that the two schools would be left out of expansion of any kind. Boise State was another perennial contender that would be left out of a “super conference”.

Why should Big East schools want to stay in the eight-team league? Easy, just ask Notre Dame head man Brian Kelly, who, numerous times during his three-year tenure at Cincinnati, noted that the Big East was the easiest conference to win. In order to win and go to a BCS bowl, he’d note, all you had to do was win seven games, and there was no conference title game.

So, why should schools from the Big East want to jump ship to go to a conference where they’d have to play seven games and a conference title game? Money, money, money.

Big Ten teams earned an enormous sum of $22 million per team last season. The Big East earned $33 million by itself, and $20 million of that came from basketball deals. So, for Rutgers, Pittsburgh and other schools named in the hypothetical Big East expansion talk, money literally does talk.

Who will bite? Who will remain in the Big East? Will the Big East fold? Where will UC end up? Where will West Virginia go?

Want my thoughts? Who cares? A poll on UC’s student-run newspaper, The News Record, wanted to know where UC would end up after the Big Ten raided the Big East and the Big East ceased to exist? Four options: the ACC, a redesigned Big East/Other, the Big Ten or Conference USA.

Forty percent of those who voted (59 students) say Conference USA. Thirty percent said a redesigned Big East or other, and 27% said the ACC. Apparently the sky is falling down in Bearcat land.

Just don’t tell Athletic Director Mike Thomas that. “It’s difficult to speculate on what will happen,” he told the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Bill Koch a few weeks ago. A lot of “experts” think college football is headed to four 16-team “superconferences” to decide the national title. Thomas thinks UC would be one of those 64 teams.

If you came here looking for my opinion, well, you already got it: Who cares? When a co-worker of mine came into the office and said, “Bring back Rick Minter, we’re going to be in Conference USA,” I was shocked. I asked, “What the heck are you talking about?” He responded, “The Big Ten is going to raid the Big East and we’re done.”

Well, glad to know people who work on BCS level football teams are thinking the same thing. Hey, call me back when things actually happen. Maybe then we’ll do some talking. Until then, let’s sit back and talk about football—not hypotheticals.
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Sooner or later I’ll begin looking at the Big East football schedules. This year I have decided to offer last year’s guest blogger, and WPTS Sports Director, Jake Meyer another shot at looking at Big East football. We’ll be looking at each team here shortly. When I have the dates, you’ll know. Thanks for reading.