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University of South Florida senior Carlton Williams will make his first start of his career at linebacker when the Bulls play UConn SUnday.
Williams, who has started seven games at strong safety and three games this season at nickel back, will start at strongside linebacker with senior Tyrone McKenzie to move from strongside to weakside linebacker. Junior Kion Wilson will remain at middle linebacker.
“He’s going to start at sam (strong) linebacker for us,” USF defensive coordinator Wally Burnham said.
Williams has 44 career starts. He leads the Bulls with three interceptions this season.
SELVIE NOT A ‘VILLE FAN: ESPN.com’s Ivan Maisel has a short item on USF DE George Selvie and Alabama OG Mike Johnson, who were high school teammates at Pensacola Pine Forest.
In it, Maisel reports how Selvie and Johnson remain in touch and that Selvie will attend the Alabama-Auburn game over the Thanksgiving weekend. Selvie also attended the Florida-LSU game during another USF off week.
Maisel said Johnson told him he called Selvie during last week’s Cincinnati-Louisville game to see who USF needed to win to improve its chances to win the Big East.
“I was watching the game,” Johnson said, “[between Cincinnati and Louisville last Friday] and I called him [Selvie] and said, ‘Who do you need to win right here?’ He said, ‘I think we’re out of it regardless but I’d like to see Louisville lose.’ I said, ‘All right, we’re cheering for Cincy.’”
BOWLS LOVE IRISH: In an earlier blog post, I touched on the Big East’s bowl situation concerning USF. Part of the equation involves Notre Dame and if it is selected by the Gator or Sun.
In case you actually doubted the appeal of the Irish to bowl folks, check out these quotes in an Associated Press story.
“At 7-5, they’re still Notre Dame. We’ve never taken a five-loss team in our history, so there would be a lot of discussion,” Gator Bowl President Rick Catlett said. “But I think with a victory over Syracuse this week Notre Dame is still very high on our list.”
If the Gator Bowl passes on Notre Dame, Bernie Olivas, executive director of the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, is ready to invite the Irish even if they lose their last two games.
“Notre Dame is coveted by everybody, including by us,” Olivas said. “We’d probably be excited by a 6-6 Notre Dame team. El Paso is like 80 percent Catholic, 80 percent Hispanic, and you wouldn’t believe how many calls we’re getting here: ‘Is Notre Dame coming? Is Notre Dame coming?”
Supposedly a 6-6 Notre Dame team could not be selected by the Sun Bowl if a nine-win Big East team is available, but like I mentioned in the previous bowl blog item, there’s nothing in writing, so the Sun Bowl technically could select the Irish.
Posted by Brett McMurphy, on 11/20 at 08:14 PM
Don, the St. Pete Bowl just started this year - and most every bowl is in the third-year of their four-year agreements - so to get an ACC team, the St. Pete Bowl would have to taken the ACC’s No. 10 team. Do you really want to see a bowl game featuring the ACC’s No. 10 team? When the current agreements expire, you’ll probably see some movement of conferences from one bowl to another.
Posted by Don G, Madeira Beach, FL on 11/20 at 07:46 PM
Chris, I’m not certain about every year, but I’d say you have a pretty good point for this year. Although, Cincinnati is a pretty good team, but I think Pitt & WVA would have their hands full with Ball St, Central Mich & Western Mich. I’m impressed with the top teams in the MAC’s West Division and they played very well last night. Now, how about the Mtn West Conference’s top 3 or 4 teams? It seems that the Mtn West is the best non-BCS conference. Too much offense there for current BE teams this year!
Posted by Chris, Florida on 11/20 at 07:39 PM
Simon i think the only way O’Leary gets the boot from UCF is if the pending lawsuit finds him directly responsible for negligence in the Erick Plancher tragedy. As for Tribble, i seriously doubt any fallout will affect him..the only way he will be leaving is for a better job…and the Big East just recently passed over him for the commissioner’s spot.
Posted by Don G, Madeira Beach, FL on 11/20 at 07:38 PM
Re: this Sunday night’s game, not sure why college is now playing on Sunday nights, but due to an 8PM start, much cooler weather and wanning interest in USF due to losses, I had 5 tkts to UCONN game just dumped on me. I’m trying to find takers (club access seats), but haven’t heard from anyone as yet. I may be putting those 5 tkts up for anyone wanting them. I’m trying to get at least $25.00 each and they come with one parking pass (lot 6).
Posted by Chris, Florida on 11/20 at 07:33 PM
What Risk….all that you’ve pointed out is that the Big East is comparable to the other two conference with the exception that they only have 1 crappy team instead of 4 or 5 in the other 2, in a much smaller league. If you look at only the top 8 teams in each conference(as the BE only has 8), the top 8 avg. rating is as follows: MAC 59.9,BE 48.1,CUSA 70.6. Obviously the BE is a better conference, as it should be, but not by leaps and bounds indicative of a BCS conference. In addition, given the fact that BCS schools often get more credit than they deserve in comparison to non-BSC schools, i would say that if the top 8 schools from each conference played each other it would not be a certainty that the BE would come out on top or even 2nd.
Posted by Don G, Madeira Beach, FL on 11/20 at 07:14 PM
Thanks Brett, that’s good data for comparison purposes. As I suspected, the top 4 teams in the MAC were ranked higher than C-USA’s top 4 teams with an average BCS ranking of 33.50, while the top 4 in C-USA averaged 53.25. So, having St. Pete Bowl choose C-USA as competition for I guess what is the BE’s #6 team, is pretty weak. I guess having a MAC team would have been better competition, but I suspect that a regional team from C-USA had more appeal. Question: couldn’t they have found another ACC team to play in the St. Pete Bowl?
Posted by What Risk?, Tampa on 11/20 at 02:41 PM
What is there to compare? Aside from Ball State being two spots higher than Cincinnati, what is there that questions the Big East being the best of the three?
- Nine of 13 MAC schools are 78th or worse.
- Eight of 12 C-USA schools are 81st or worse.
- One of 8 Big East schools is lower than 71st.
You have two leagues where teams can build up winning records against bad teams. I don’t see much room for comparison, especially as Conference USA is involved.
Posted by Brett McMurphy, on 11/20 at 11:25 AM
Don, here are the current BCS rankings for MAC, C-USA and Big East. Compare at your own risk
MAC: 17 BallSt, 30 C.Mich, 32 WMich, 55 Buffalo, 78 Akron, 83 BGreen, 85 NIll, 99 Temple, 105 Toledo, 108 Ohio, 109 KentSt, 110 Miami(Oh), 111 EMich,
BE: 19 Cincy, 20 Pitt, 33 WVU, 35 UConn, 53 Rutgers, 54 USF, 70 UL, 99 Syracuse
CUSA: 34 Tulsa, 52 Rice, 58 ECU, 69 Houston, 81 UTEP, 86 SoMiss, 91 Memphis, 94 Marshall, 103 UCF, 107 UAB, 114 Tulane, 118 SMU
Posted by Brett McMurphy, on 11/20 at 11:14 AM
Simon, I am not close to the UCF situation so I have no idea what may or may not happen. They’ve obviously had a tough season - on and off the field.
Posted by Simon, on 11/20 at 10:58 AM
Brett: I have heard rumblings that O’Leary and the AD at UCF are going to be out at the end of the season. Mostly due to the mis-handling of the Erik Plancher situation and also for some other issues internally. Have you picked up any of the same vibes on your end?
Posted by Simon, on 11/20 at 10:55 AM
Don G: You are correct a lot of good BCS/BE coaches came from the MAC/mid-majors. Brian Kelly at Cinci came from Central Mich, Kragthorpe who is at Louisville came from Tulsa etc. There are a lot of very good coaches at mid-majors who would be very successful at BCS schools. Given some names that are out there (Laine Kiffen, Tommy Bowden, Phillip Fulmer etc) I think they would be able to recruit head to head better in state than a coach from a mid-major. I would throw this name out there, Skip Holtz, he can certainly coach and the name will help in recruiting as well.
Posted by Nabeel Mulla, Dayton, OH on 11/20 at 08:29 AM
CMU coach Butch Jones was of course a former Rich Rod assistant at WVU. So if anyone wants to bring him in to replace CJL because the MAC is stronger than the BE, they’d be bringing in a former BE assistant. It’ll be interesting to see how the BE does against the MAC in the International Bowl this year. I’m thinking it’ll be UConn for the Big East, with Cincy in the BCS, Pitt in the Meineke, WVU in PapaJohns, and USF in the St Pete. Notre Dame in the Gatore.
Posted by Don G, Madeira Beach, FL on 11/20 at 07:57 AM
Brett, while watching the Ball St-Central Michigan game last night, it struck me how well those two teams played and how well-coached those teams were. The MAC seems to have an endless supply of very good head coaches and this year is no exception with those two previously mentiond teams and Western Michigan. If I’m a struggling 1-A team in need of a coaching change, I think I’m looking to the MAC. Question: based on overall BCS rankings, how well does MAC rank in comparison with C-USA? I think the MAC is much stronger - especially with their top tier teams? BTW, did everyone notice that Central Michigan runs the same offense as USF?
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Posted by Don G, Madeira Beach, FL on 11/20 at 09:55 PM
Brett, I didn’t think about the multi-year deal bowls currently have with various conferences when I threw out my question. It just seemed to me that why would a new bowl like St. Pete take a C-USA #5 or #6 (or worse?), rather than at least make ACC their first choice with C-USA as next choice if #10 ACC wasn’t bowl eligible. Right now, please correct me if I’m wrong, I think if no C-USA team is bowl eligible, then St.Pete Bowl selects from the Sun Belt Conference? Geez, that’s not too impressive either. Sine you mentioned #10 ACC, well, after a review of the current ACC standings, yep, I think I’d take a 6-6 Clemson or Virginia over a 7-5 or 6-6 Memphis or UTEP.