Pitt
Is It in the Big East
By David
Williams
For Outsports.com
The future is starting to look rather glum for the
Big East Conference football programs. No one can
argue that the Big East fields one of the most
competitive conferences in basketball, but
basketball does not start until November. With the
Big East losing Virginia Tech and Miami to the ACC,
and possibly losing Pittsburgh to the Big 10, about
the only schools left that can actually field a
decent team will be Boston College, West Virginia,
and Syracuse.
While Syracuse was less than stellar last year, West
Virginia and Boston College were among the five Big
East teams to play in bowl games in the last year.
While the Big East went 3-2 in last year’s bowl
games, the Big East has thrived in bowl games
recently, going an amazing 11-3 in the three years
prior to last years season. The Big East has
repeatedly been mocked by the other five “super”
conferences, but you may want to take a look again
this year. This is how I see the teams falling into
place come November 2003.
#1 Pittsburgh Panthers: So many of
football’s prognosticators are so used to either
Miami or Virginia Tech owning the top spot, they
just automatically pick one of the two teams to win
the league. Sure, those are the safe choices, as
both Miami and Virginia Tech will field excellent
teams this year. However, the power of the football
schedule is a mighty thing, and Pittsburgh has both
of those teams at home this year. Pittsburgh will
host Virginia Tech one week after the Hokies play
Miami, and Pittsburgh hosts Miami in their season
finale in late November. Miami is a lot like the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL; neither team plays
well when the temperatures drop below 40 degrees.
Pittsburgh can be way below 40 degrees in late
November. While the schedule favors Pittsburgh, you
have to have great talent to win games, and Pitt
definitely has their share of talent. Senior QB Rod
Rutherford really came on strong last year after a
shaky start, finishing with 2,783 yards passing, and
759 yards rushing. He was named second-team Big
East, second to only Miami’s Ken Dorsey. Pittsburgh
is also starting this year with a proven leader at
the RB position, the first in three years. Brandon
Miree came into the Pitt lineup against Boston
College last year, and he never looked back, rushing
for 161 yards against Virginia Tech, and 118 yards
against Miami. Pittsburgh WR Larry Fitzgerald is
being heralded as possibly the best WR in the
country this year, and all of these offensive stars
have a very talented veteran offensive line to
protect them. Combine this with a defense that
finished No, 2 in the Big East last year, and Coach
Walt Harris has a great chance of winning his first
Big East Title, and Coach of the Year honors.
#2 Miami Hurricanes: Hurricane fans
are probably cussing me out right now, but let me
explain why I see Miami falling to the No. 2 spot in
the Big East. They are lacking veteran leadership at
key positions this year. There is no doubt that
Miami is loaded with talent, and they really do have
great potential to go 12-0 and play for another
National Championship. But to do so, they will
require veteran leadership from players that will be
starting for the first time in their college
careers. QB Brock Berlin and RB Frank Gore will be
expected to carry huge loads this year. Gore was
expected to start last year, but he tore his ACL and
was red-shirted. Willis McGahee went on to set
Miami’s single season rushing record. QB Brock
Berlin only played one game at Florida before
transferring last season to Miami. During Berlin’s
playing time at Florida, he threw for 849 yards,
with a 12-4 ratio. Those are impressive numbers for
only one start, and minimal playing time as the No.
2 QB at Florida. But he has huge shoes to fill,
following in the footsteps of Ken Dorsey. WR Kevin
Beard moves into the top WR position, and he only
has to fill the shoes of Andre Johnson who was
drafted by the Houston Texans in the off season. One
true proven leader on the team is TE Kellen Winslow,
who surprisingly moved into the starting TE position
last season, and went on to break Jeremy Shockey’s
single season records. Miami’s defensive line was
also heavily depleted in the post season, but they
do have some great looking talent moving in to fill
the holes, while the Hurricane’s linebacking corp
should be the best in the league this year. If all
the new talent steps up and produces according to
expectations, and they can catch Pittsburgh napping
in late November, Miami could very possibly go
undefeated this year. But, those are a lot of ifs.
#3 Virginia Tech Hokies: Hokie fans
are probably not to happy with me either, as more
that one of the preseason polls have the Hokies
picked to finish atop the Big East. They are
returning a powerful, and balanced offense. QB Bryan
Randall is expected to remain the starter, after
taking over the position after starter Grant Noel
tore his ACL last year. Surprisingly, Randall
finished the season with the Big East’s highest
completion percentage in the conference. But look
out for a QB name Vick waiting in the background.
No, not Michael, but his brother Marcus, who is
expected to seriously challenge for the starting
job. Their RB corps could possibly be the best in
the country, being led by one-half of the
“untouchables,” Kevin Jones. There is strong talent,
but little experience in Tech’s WR corp, but look
for WR Ernest Wilford to shine, and the No. 2 WR
Richard Johnson to blow past defenders with his 4.37
speed. Their offensive and defensive lines all
return several veteran starters, as well as a very
experienced linebacking corp. The big weakness of
this team will be their defensive backs. They lost
most of the starters last year. They do have
talented replacements, but they have no experience,
and that could prove costly this year. I need not
point out the strength of Tech’s Special Teams, as
they have dominated the conference and national
rankings for the past eight years. Tech’s schedule
is rather tough, facing West Virginia, Pittsburgh,
and Virginia on the road, while hosting Miami, and
an early season test against Texas A&M. Virginia
Tech is basically in the same position as Miami. If
all their talent produces according to expectations,
Tech could pull out a conference title. But I expect
Tech to finish with a 10-win season, placing them
third in the conference.
#4 Syracuse Orangemen: Syracuse was
not my original choice for the #4 slot. I came into
the pre-season with Boston College as my original
pick. But after looking at the fact that 14 starters
were returning for the Orangemen, compared to BC’s
11, with all of the Orangemen’s veterans filling key
positions, I consider Syracuse a slightly stronger
team. Despite the Orangemen’s dismal 4-8 record last
year, they maintained a potent rushing attack, led
by Sophomore RB Walter Reyes. Reyes ran for 1,135
yards last year, and set a school record by scoring
17 rushing touchdowns, while averaging an
outstanding 6.2 yards per carry. The Orangemen are
hoping that QB R.J. Anderson will return to his 2001
form, in which he went 10-2 in his 12 starts. But
last year, he lost his confidence, starting the
first 7 games, but threw eight interceptions to only
four TD’s. Backup QB Troy Nunes stepped in and
finished the season. Head Coach Paul Pasqualoni has
made it clear that he has the confidence in
Anderson, but look for him to not hesitate to put
Perry Patterson into the game if Anderson falters.
Patterson has a very powerful arm, and does not
hesitate to let the ball fly, whereas Anderson is
more conservative in his throwing style. But the
weakness of the Syracuse team is their WR corp,
which easily had the most dropped passes in the
conference, and maybe the whole country last year.
Projected starting WR James Riddle is on academic
suspension from the spring of 2003, and is
questionable at best. WR Johnnie Morant has been in
constant trouble with the law the last several
months, and he faces possible dismissal from the
team. If these 2 WR’s can get their acts together
and be available for playing time, the Syracuse
offense might stand a chance of surprising people
this year. Syracuse’s defense looks much stronger
this year, and returns veterans in all key positions
on defense. I look for Syracuse to be bowl eligible
at the end of the year, but not much else. Syracuse
has a relatively easy non-conference schedule, with
the exception of Notre Dame, who they close out
their season with. This team will be improved no
doubt, but Pasqualoni needs to go out and bring in
some much needed talent at QB and WR positions
before Syracuse will challenge for the conference
title.
#5 Boston College Eagles: I am only
ranking Boston College as the No. 5 team because
West Virginia has a killer non-conference schedule.
West Virginia definitely has more talent than Boston
College. Boston College has been bowl eligible for
the last 4 years, but they made it there by
maintaining a very weak non-conference schedule.
Boston College does a great job of whipping up on
the weak teams, but they do rather poorly against
ranked teams, with the exception of beating Georgia
in the 2001 Music City Bowl, and knocking off Notre
Dame last year. Junior QB Quinton Porter will get
his first career start this year, although he did
play sparingly last year backing up Brian St.
Pierre. On top of the limited playing time, Porter
injured his throwing shoulder in spring practice, so
he has only been able to participate in six spring
practices. This inexperience at QB could cause
serious problems for Head Coach Tom O’Brien. Derrick
Knight is expected to start at RB, after playing the
role of back-up RB last year. Knight is only 5’9”,
and weighs around 205 lbs, but this kid has speed,
and lots of it. Horace Dodd, a Penn State transfer
will back Knight up, and these two could pose
serious problems for defenses this year. BC lost a
lot of talent at WR last year, but veteran Grant
Adams has stepped forward, and looked great in
spring scrimmages. TE Sean Ryan returns this year,
and he poses a serious threat to any defense. Ryan
finished second in the league last year, being kept
out of the top league spot by Miami’s Kellen
Winslow. Boston College’s defensive line and
linebackers are the strength of this team, but they
lost most of their starting defensive backs last
year, and look shaky at best in that position this
year. If BC had a more competitive non-conference
schedule, I would not give BC a chance at a bowl
game this year. But with the easy non-conference
schedule, BC just might sneak in another bowl
eligible season this year.
#6 West Virginia Mountaineers: I
really like the talent on this West Virginia team,
but they have seriously challenged themselves in
non-conference opponents this year, facing
Wisconsin, Maryland, and Cincinnati in
non-conference games, not to mention facing Miami at
Miami. They do face Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh at
home, but those games will be very tough to win,
even at home. Junior QB Rasheed Marshall was faced
with an injury depleted offensive line and WR corp
last year, so most of his success came from rushing
the ball. Look for Marshall to show vast improvement
in the Mountaineers passing attack, with WR’s Aaron
Neal and Miquelle Henderson returning, along with
last year’s Big East Newcomer of the Year Travis
Garvin. The Mountaineers also have tremendous talent
at the TE slot, with Tory Johnson returning to lead
a corp of players that is three-deep, with all
capable of starting. RB Quincy Wilson has some
serious shoes to fill, replacing Avon Coburne, who
set the Big East Career Rushing record. Wilson saw
considerable playing time last year, finishing with
901 yards, and those were all earned coming off the
bench. FB Moe Fofana will return to lead block for
Wilson, just as he did for Coburne last year. The
offensive line is returning seven out of 10 superb
linemen from last year. West Virginia is most
vulnerable in the defensive line and linebacker
positions, two positions in which most of the
starters from last year’s great squad graduated. I
would call the talent at these positions as good,
but not great. The strength of the defense will be
the defensive backs, in which three of the four
starters on last year’s team return. West Virginia
has the talent to surprise a lot of teams this year,
just as they did last year, finishing 6-1 in
conference play. While the chances of the team
repeating that success remains small, this team
could pull it off. I do look for West Virginia to
make a solid case for post-season play again this
year.
#7 Temple Owls: This Temple program is
desperately trying to make a case to the Big East
that this school deserves to remain in the
conference. The Big East had voted to kick Temple
out of the league in 2001, but granted an extension
until 2004, at which time the school is expected to
be replaced with UCONN, who just started their
football program. Head Coach Bobby Wallace is not
only fighting to keep the program in the Big East,
he is also fighting for his job. Temple is very
excited about Sophmore QB Walter Washington, a top
recruit who turned down Nebraska to play at Temple.
He is built like a fullback with speed, and
completed 62% of his passes last year in Junior
College. Temple also tapped into JUCO talent to fill
key positions at WR, Offensive Line, and RB. Running
Back Jamil Porter has electrifying speed, and rushed
for more than 1,500 yards last year. But he will be
running behind an uncertain offensive line, so just
how much of an impact Porter will have remains to be
seen. Temple’s defense is the strength of this team,
as they totally shut down the run of just about all
their opponents last year. They are returning
several starters at defensive line and linebacker
positions. The weakness of this Temple defense is
their defensive backs, as they have only 1 returning
starter there. So watch for teams that can’t run the
ball against Temple to put it in the air, and do it
often. Temple’s schedule has 8 bowl teams from last
year on it. Coach Wallace will see some good
improvement this year, but Temple is at least
two-three years away from becoming a bowl-eligible
team.
#8 Rutgers Scarlet Knights: Perhaps
the most formidable part of this football team, is
its’ name. This team has been in the cellar of the
Big East so long, I do not believe the team even
knows what winning feels like. This team has not
defeated a ranked team since 1988, and I do not see
any of that changing this year. One bright spot for
Rutgers is their QB Ryan Hart, who made his national
debut last year against the Miami Hurricanes, in
which he led the Rutgers team to an almost-upset
victory. He is very athletic and smart, and is a
very mobile QB, which one needs to be behind Rutgers
very weak offensive line. The team only rushed for a
combined total of 620 yards, the lowest total in
Rutgers’ history since 1946. Head Coach Greg Schiano
went out and brought in Craig Ver Steeg as his
Offensive Coordinator. Steeg is well known for his
strong running attacks, so look for Rutgers to show
vast improvement in this area. I expect Rutgers to
double, or possible triple their win total from last
year’s 1-11 season.
In closing, I must say that if the Big East expects
to improve it’s image in regards to college
football, they will need to go out and actively
recruit marquee coaches, so that they can attract
better recruits. The Big East will also need to try
and recruit some successful programs to enter their
league. Who those teams may be, I do not know. But
for the immediate future, I think that the Big East
could have one of the more exciting conference races
this year, a very pleasant surprise indeed. While
college polls all have Miami, Virginia Tech, and
Pittsburgh all projected to do great things this
year, Syracuse, West Virginia, and Boston College
could all surprise a lot of people by rising up to
beat one or two of Big East powerhouse teams this
year.
It really is sad that, just as the conference is
starting to show some parity, two or three teams
have already decided to leave the conference. Will
the Big East rise to the occasion, or will it simply
crumble? Stay tuned to find out, as only time will
tell.
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