Big East Feast, Nov. 23

Posted Nov 21, 2006 by Brett McMurphy

Updated Nov 21, 2006 at 10:13 AM

If you’re looking to make your postseason plans, the PapaJohns.com bowl in Birmingham, Ala., still appears the University of South Florida’s likely destination. We won’t know anything official until Dec. 2 or 3. Even with the dozens of remaining scenarios - Big East gets two BCS teams, Big East only gets one BCS team, Boise State falls out of the BCS, etc. - the Bulls should be in Birmingham Dec. 23. Since Thanksgiving Day is Thursday, I thought I would get your Big East Feast of notes posted a couple of days early. Enjoy Turkey Day.

LOUISVILLE (9-1, 4-1; at Pittsburgh, Saturday)

The Louisville Cardinals – once seemingly headed to the BCS Championship Game, then bounced from major bowl consideration – are back in the BCS picture. Louisville defeated the South Florida Bulls 31-8 at home, but the bigger result was Cincinnati’s 30-11 win against previously unbeaten Rutgers. That sent the Big East into a three-way tie – Louisville, Rutgers and West Virginia are all 9-1, 4-1 in the Big East.
If there’s a two-way tie between Louisville and Rutgers, head-to-head results decide things and Rutgers gets the BCS bid. Likewise, Louisville would win a two-way tie against West Virginia. If there’s a three-way tie, and nobody has swept the other two teams, the bid goes to the highest-ranked team in the BCS standings.
“We knew if we just kept winning, something good would happen,” Cardinals DE Zach Anderson told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “Thank you, Cincinnati.”
CRANK CALLS: Cardinals freshman RB Anthony Allen, a native of Tampa, scored twice against South Florida (his hometown school) and improved his season total to 10 rushing TDs. Even though he was still a high-school senior last season, Allen still enjoyed some revenge. He watched from the stands as South Florida stunned No. 9-ranked Louisville 45-14. Allen already had committed to Louisville.
“After the game, I got a call from every USF coach saying, ‘Did you see what we did to your team?’  ” Allen told The Tampa Tribune. “This time, I’ll make a couple calls, no coaches, but to a couple of their players I know.”
BOUNCING BACK: Louisville coach Bobby Petrino, coming off a 28-25 defeat at Rutgers, improved to 8-1 after a loss. Louisville has won 17 consecutive home games (second nationally to USC’s 32 straight at the L.A. Coliseum).

RUTGERS (9-1, 4-1; home vs. Syracuse, Saturday)

Coming off the most important and emotional win in school history (beating Louisville on national television), riding a wave of massive publicity, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights were scorched on the road at Cincinnati 30-11, ending their unbeaten season.
“We had a good week of practice and usually when that happens we play well,” Rutgers FB Brian Leonard told the Newark Star-Ledger. “I don’t know how to explain this.”
Rutgers coach Greg Schiano moved quickly to quell the disappointment. Rutgers still can win the Big East title and reach a BCS bowl.
“We still have big stuff out there [to play for],” Schiano told the Newark Star-Ledger. “If someone said in August we’d get to this point of the season and have a lot of things to win except the national championship, I think people would have signed on for that. I think I would have.”
NOT GETTING DEFENSIVE: Rutgers, allowing just 10.9 points per game, surrendered 30 points to Cincinnati. Rutgers’ defense, which had led Division I-A in sacks, had none against Cincinnati QB Nick Davila. “We weren’t very good tonight,” Schiano said. “But we will be again.”
  BAD NIGHT FOR TEEL: Rutgers QB Mike Teel tossed four interceptions (all in Cincinnati territory, one in the end zone). Overall, Teel was 21 of 42 for 238 yards. “I let the rest of the team down,” Teel told the Newark Star-Ledger. “I have to learn to be smarter with the ball.”
RICE RECORD: Knights sophomore RB Ray Rice, despite being held to a season-low 54 rushing yards at Cincinnati, broke the school’s single-season record. Rice now has 1,388 rushing yards, beating the 1,353 of J.J. Jennings in 1973.

WEST VIRGINIA (9-1, 4-1; home vs. South Florida, Saturday)

West Virginia’s 45-27 win at Pittsburgh was part of the ongoing rushing showcase for sophomore QB Patrick White and sophomore RB Steve Slaton. White rushed for 220 yards and passed for 204 more. White has 1,057 yards in 10 games, making him the first Mountaineers QB to rush for more than 1,000 yards.
“If he’s not a national player of the week, somebody had a really, really big game,” Mountaineers coach Rich Rodriguez told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I’ve been coaching a long time, and that’s as good a performance as I’ve seen by a quarterback. It’s hard to imagine a quarterback playing any better than he did tonight. Outstanding.”
White tied the school record for total offense (Marc Bulger at the 1998 Insight Bowl) – and no Mountaineers combined for more than 400 yards in the 93 games since. Slaton rushed for a career-high 215 yards and had a career-high 130 yards in pass receptions. He scored four TDs, rushing for two and catching two TD passes.
“Those boys were taking off,” Mountaineers safety Eric Wicks said. “I was watching the scoreboard, and I just kept seeing Pat and Steve running. You just saw [yard] lines going by … legs moving.”
Slaton’s 345 all-purpose yards ranks second all-time in WVU history (Garrett Ford Sr., 356 vs. Pittsburgh in 1965). It was the first time two Mountaineers gained 200-plus yards rushing in the same game. They got close in 2002 – Avon Cobourne had 260 and Quincy Wilson had 198 against East Carolina.
HERE’S THE KICKER: West Virginia PK Pat McAfee booted a 51-yard field goal into the closed end of Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field, setting a stadium record for longest field goal (college or NFL). The turf and wind are reasons why Heinz Field is known as a burial ground for place-kickers. Not this time.
“Pretty exciting, huh?” McAfee told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I’m elated. Is that a word. I heard it in a movie. All the rumors I heard about that place were absolutely true. It got to where I was scared to plant [my foot]. It was nasty.”

SOUTH FLORIDA (7-4, 3-3; at West Virginia, Saturday)

Last season, the South Florida Bulls had a 31-point home victory against Louisville, putting the program on the national map. This season was a different story – Louisville 31, South Florida 8 – but at least one Bull wasn’t impressed with the Cardinals.
“They weren’t as good as I thought they were going to be,” Bulls redshirt freshman QB Matt Grothe said.
The Cardinals held Grothe, one of the nation’s top dual-threat QBs, to 18 rushing yards on 15 carries (including six sacks). Grothe’s running has been a major factor in South Florida’s seven victories this season. Against Louisville, it was largely non-existent.
“We knew we had to put pressure on the young quarterback and give him some different looks,” Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said.
“We didn’t block very well, and we didn’t give Matt near enough time,” South Florida coach Jim Leavitt said. “We dropped too many passes. We can’t play like that and win.”

CINCINNATI (6-5, 3-3; at Connecticut, Saturday)

The Cincinnati Bearcats climbed into the Big East’s bowl-game picture – and made plenty of national waves – with a 30-11 win over the previously unbeaten Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
“It made a statement that we belong in the Big East Conference, that we can compete in this conference,” Bearcats coach Mark Dantonio told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Because the conference has an automatic BCS bid, it means that those things are possible. I hope people across the nation and recruits saw this and want to be part of something like this.”
Cincinnati is eligible to play in its fifth bowl game in seven years.
“There were statements earlier in the season that we weren’t going to be able to compete for a Big East title for another five years,” Bearcats junior free safety Haruki Nakamura said. “But you know what? I think this shows right there that with the type of players we have on this team, we can do anything.”
Senior QB Nick Davila, who made his first career start in place of sophomore Dustin Grutza (shoulder injury), was 11 of 15 passing for 277 yards. The Bearcats rolled up 402 yards of offense against Rutgers.

PITTSBURGH (6-5, 2-4; home vs. Louisville, Saturday)

The Pittsburgh Panthers lost their fourth straight game – 45-27 against West Virginia – and suddenly a bowl bid is not a certain thing. If the Panthers can’t defeat Louisville on Saturday, they will be 6-6 and losers of five straight. If Cincinnati wins at Connecticut, the Big East could have six bowl-eligible teams (and only five designated slots). Pittsburgh will stay home because of a new NCAA rule (6-6 team can’t be selected for a conference tie-in bowl game if a seven win team is available).
More bad news: Pittsburgh has been torched for 1,122 yards and 91 points in its last two games. The Panthers are ranked seventh in the Big East in total defense (350.7 yards per game) and last in rush defense (183). Louisville QB Brian Brohm is the Big East’s leading passer (257.5 per game) and the Cardinals rush for 190 yards per game.
“What can you do but pick yourself up and try to get it done the next week?” Panthers linebacker H.B. Blades told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “You try and do the best you can do every time you take the field and that’s what we’ve done. We have one game left, against a team with a great offense, to get it right. We’ll show up and play our best game.”

CONNECTICUT (4-6, 1-4; home vs. Cincinnati, Saturday)

The Connecticut Huskies, coming off a double-overtime win against Pittsburgh that was painted as a season-saver, were deflated with a 20-14 loss at Syracuse. UConn must win vs. Cincinnati on Saturday and vs. Louisville (Dec. 2) to become bowl eligible. No easy task.
“We thought we had a good opportunity to get another win and get to .500,” UConn offensive lineman Matt Applebaum told the Hartford Courant. “We didn’t take advantage of it. I don’t know if I can compare it to the high of last week because it was pretty high last week, but it’s pretty low right now, too.”
“The Pitt victory means nothing now,” UConn running back Donald Brown said. “We had to win this week for [Pitt win] to mean something and we didn’t.”
UConn’s defense allowed 306 yards to Syracuse, the Big East’s worst offense.

SYRACUSE (4-7, 1-5; at Rutgers, Saturday)

The Syracuse Orange won a Big East game for the first time since 2004 (Boston College) by defeating Connecticut 20-14, ending a 12-game losing streak in the league. “People try to say we’ve got nothing to play for,” Orange QB Perry Patterson told the Syracuse Post-Standard. “The coach [Greg Robinson] has a vision. The seniors, we still have a vision for this program. We’re just trying to be part of it and just try and get this thing turned around.”
Robinson’s reaction was more subdued. “This was our fourth win,” Robinson said. “Now we have a chance to get five.”