Unstoppa-BULLS

If there is any team in college football that i love the most right now, its gotta be the USF Bulls. I really didn't think there was a team in the Big East that could even play with the Mountaineers in Morgantown. They had scored over 40 points in every home game this season. In fact they had scored over 40 points in every game this season except for the 37-11 romping they gave to UConn and the loss to Louisville. But you have to give a ton of respect to USF after a win like the one they earned yesterday by shocking WV 24-19, dropping them out of the Big East title contention. Even if West Virginia wins next saturday, Louisville has to lose to UConn in order for a three way log jam at the top of the Big East standings, between the Mountaineers, Louisville and Rutgers. And dont count on West Virginia having it easy against the Scarlet Knights. Yesterday USF practically wrote a how to book on how to beat West Virginia. They made a two Heisman candidates look like the one-two punch at a Div. 1AA school. Pat White only picked up 178 yards through the air and threw 2 interceptions. Steve Slaton on the other hand rushed the ball 18 times for a whopping 43 yards, and Pat White picked up 17 yards on 15 carries. USF coach Jim Leavitt just gave himself a little boost while recruiting the Florida hotbead this season. With Miami and Florida state finishing at or below .500 and sitting in potential coaching transitions, two teams will be standing high, the #4 Florida Gators, and the 8-4 bowl bound Bulls.

This has been a crazy season in the Big East. 4 teams have been ranked at some point during the season. Three have been inside the top 10. 2 inside the top 5. We have seen the rise of Rutgers and Cincinnati. Huge upsets, with Rutgers beating Louisville, Cincy beating Rutgers, and USF knocking off WV. I definitely think this conference has grown a lot this season. With the ACC and Big 12 conferences finishing at record lows, i think that the Big East is climbing into the top conferences in the NCAA. USF, Rutgers and Cincinnati should have huge recruiting seasons, and Louisville and West Virgina should continue to mature. This season is just a preview of things to come, and its not even over. Don't think UConn isnt going to show up next week, I'm sure they are preparing to play the roll of heart breaker when they meet up with Louisville. They aren't a great team but they know how to play with the great teams. They proved their toughness by playing a really close game against Cincinnati yesterday and they have played pretty well this season despite only winning 4 games. Im not saying they are going to win, I learned the lesson of not predicting against Louisville, but i do think it wont be easy. But the game of the Big East season is Rutgers at West Virginia. I can't wait to see how this season unfolds next week. Rutgers wins, and its theirs. West Virginia wins, and its very interesting. Only six more days.

Perspective

This is the exact same thing I said about Pittsburgh in my last post. Rutgers played their Super Bowl last thursday when they knocked off Louisville at home. I'm sure the players breathed a sigh of relief friday morning and then went on to celebrate, looking forward to Dec. 2, when they make the trip to Morgantown for the Big East title. They had the opportunity to show the whole country that they were for real, and as the whole world was watching Ohio State vs. Michigan, and USC vs. California, they were softly playing a team that has been waiting for this opportunity all season. Cincinnati was no 5-5 team I've ever seen. To be honest i wasn't surprised that they took the Scarlet Knights to the woodshed tonight. Mike Teel isn't a big time quarterback, and when you are playing your tenth game of a so far perfect season, why would you think that you are suddenly a passing football team when you have a top ten rushing offense? Teel happened to be a below average quarterback on an above average offense that makes a name for themselves on the backs of Ray Rice and Brian Leonard. I don't know what they were thinking. The Bearcats had lost 5 games to teams that are far superior. They lost Sept. 8 at home against Pitt, The next two games on the road against #1 Ohio State, and #11 Virginia Tech. The other two losses were no big surprise then they fell to #7 Louisville on the road (10/14) and to #10 West Virginia last saturday in Morgantown. I saw how good the Bearcats were when I watched them dismantle a hot USF team at Nippert Stadium on Sunday Night Football Oct. 22. The South Florida Bulls were coming off a tough home loss to Rutgers and two big wins against UConn and North Carolina. Cincy allowed only 220 yards and forced 3 turnovers rolling them 23-6. And USF's lone score was with a minute left on the clock. I knew they were tough, but I didn't know how tough. Obviously, neither did Rutgers.

Let me talk about the National Championship Game for a minute. For those of you who are routing for a Ohio State-Michigan rematch.....why? I thought Ohio State was weak coming into this game, but i saw them prove their worth by beating the #2 Wolverines convincingly. I know people some people don't think anyone but Michigan is capable of beating Ohio State, but take the Buckeyes out of the Horseshoe in Columbus and I think there are a handful of teams that can beat them. I think any team in the top 10, outside of Rutgers, has a shot at taking the trophy in the Fiesta Bowl. But Ohio State won today. Fair and Square. After the opening drive, The Wolverines did not look like a National Champion. When USC lost to Oregon State, they did not look like a National Champion. When Notre Dame lost to Michigan, they did not look like a National Champion. I wish we could just crown Ohio State the National Champion right now and get everything overwith. But since the folks in Glendale must pick a team to contend for the title, I just pray that they select a team that has hasn't already proven that they can't beat the Buckeyes.

The Big Big East

The #8 West Virginia Mountaineers took all their frustration from seeing Rutgers stomp all over Louisville (a team that beat WV two weeks ago today), out on the Pittsburgh Panthers tonight. Pitt played very well. In fact went into the locker room up 3 at halftime, but I dont think there is a better tandem in any NCAA backfield than that of Pat White and Steve Slaton. I think of these two, as seeing a young Michael Vick in his Virginia Tech days and Reggie Bush from last season reincarnated and playing together in Morgantown. The Mountaineers who blew the critics away by putting up 540 yards against a tough Louisville defense, took it one step further for tallying 641 yards of offense tonight. To put how good these two are into perspective, Slaton (a realistic Heisman candidate) had 215 yards rushing and ran in two touchdowns. Now if I am Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt, I am furious. I would be throwing chairs. I would be slapping players. I would do things that would make Bobby Knight blush. But Slaton finished only second in his team in rushing. White, overshadowed him by rushing for 219 yards and a pair of touchdowns himself. White also passed for 195 yards (130 to Slaton) and 2 td's (1 to Slaton).

It was a tough loss for Pitt who have picked the worst year to blossom. At the beginning of the season I looked at Pitt to be in the running for the Big East title. Tyler Palko and H.B. Blades coming into their senior seasons, and building off of last year, i figured my team Rutgers would be in serious trouble. But I heard a story about how Blades used a Rutgers t-shirt to motivate his teammates during the off season by saying that they shouldnt have lost to Rutgers and that they cant let it happen again. I thought it was a great way to motivate his teammates. Until a 6-1 Pittsburgh team lost another tought game to Rutgers on Oct. 21. It seemed as if that game was their Super Bowl. After falling 20-10 at home, they traveled to Tampa and hardly even showed up for the USF game losing 22-12, and the following week lost a heartbreaker to a weaker UConn team. I feel like Wannstedt could have been a better leader. A strong team, a easy top 25 team at the beginning of 2006 just fell apart after suffering a little setback with the second straight loss to the Scarlet Knights. They only have one game left. Next Saturday they play an extremely emotional game at home against Louisville. I think Wannstedt has a whole lot riding on this game, and seeing as thought its the final collegiate game for the future pro's Palko (QB), Blades (LB), Clint Session (LB) and Steve Buches (TE), I think that Pitt will beat a unsuspecting Louisville team.

Rutgers is 9-0?!?

Im sure everyone knows it by now, but my beloved Scarlet Knights are undefeated. I was lucky enough to be sitting in the stands with disbelief as we rolled over Louisville. Its extremely exciting to be doing well at this point. Im not ALL that suprised though. At the beginning of the season i got into a slighty heated debate with my friend, who is a Georgia fan. I am from Florida so I, by nature, hate Georgia. But whatever, we were talking about Rutgers as we tailgated before the home opener against Illinois. I said something about how I was excited about the game and he said something to the effect of "I would be more excited if we were watching a real Division I football game". I got slighty offended and said that Rutgers, in case he missed last season went way above and beyond expectation and did really well in the Big East and i expect them to build on that and do better. He then made fun of how weak the Big East was. I casually reminded him that a Big East team (West Virginia) thrashed his Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl last season. Before the conversation was over I made a couple bold and foolish predictions. I said that 1: "Rutgers will be undefeated when they play Louisville Nov. 9" and 2: "Rutgers will probably be ranked higher than Georgia when the season's over". Yeah, i was just talking trash, and i honestly didnt think these statements would come true, but somehow they did. Sitting here Nov. 14th, about a week after a huge conference win over Louisville, Rutgers is 9-0 and ranked #7 in the country in the AP poll, and #6 in the BCS rankings. And Georgia is not ranked inside the Top 25. I may have been the only believer in the country that Rutgers would be fighting (keyword "fighting") for the national championship.

About that, West Virginia (a Big East team) was #3 when they lost to a #5 Louisville team 44-34 on Nov.2. Then Louisville (also a Big East team) moved up in the polls to #3, and lost to #15 Rutgers 28-25. Both WV and U of L were just waiting for the Michigan-Ohio State game so that they would have a bid to the National Championship game. But when Rutgers (another Big East team) beat Louisville, they moved to #7 and barely have a fighting shot at the National Championship game. Im not saying they deserve it, by any means, but if Louisville and West Virginia were in if they won out, and Rutgers beats both of those teams, shouldn't Rutgers deserve to play in the National Championship game? The game against WV isn't until December 2, but if they manage to beat Cincinnati on the road on Saturday, and win at home against Syracuse the following week, and still have enough gas in the tank to beat the Mountaineers in Morgantown, they will have beaten two teams that were top 3 teams at some point this season and were well on their way to one of the sidelines in Glendale in January. That is a stinking good argument for why Rutgers deserves a chance, just one chance (think Braveheart) to prove them selves. Rutgers may not be as good as a Michigan or Ohio State, but they did destroy Illinois 33-0 in Piscataway in early September, the same Illinois team that gave the Buckeyes a nailbiter just last saturday. Ohio State held on to win 17-10, but never-the-less Rutgers defense dominated a team that gave Ohio State trouble. The Scarlet Knights will have to prove it on the field of course, but im just saying they deserve a shot. Nobody gave West Virginia a shot last season and they proved themselves by upsetting Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Just keep an eye on Piscataway.

Sports Blog

I have always wanted to blog about sports. Just sports. However i see it, and whatever i choose to write about. My teams of interest are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Lakers, and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. So most of my topics will deal with those teams but i will definitely hit on other topics. But this is my sports blog, like it or not.