Big East Football
It was an impressive week for Big East football last week when
Louisville put a beat down on Miami. There is also good news with two
teams being ranked in the top 10, and this is a conference that has gotten
little to no respect by most of the nation.
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For Bobby Petrino's Louisville Cardinals, it was the good and
the bad last week.
Now it's going to get ugly.
Louisville trounced the then-17th-ranked Miami Hurricanes, spotting them seven
points and then taking the Canes to the woodshed by scoring 31 in a row.
However, it came at a cost. Senior QB Brian Brohm dislocated his thumb in the
third quarter and will be out 3-6 weeks. The great one-two punch of Brohm and
Michael Bush is currently extinct.
Filling in will be Hunter Cantwell, a walk-on who threw for over 7,000 yards in
high school, as well as a guy who put the dagger in Miami by throwing a 45-yard
bomb to Henry Douglass to set up the game-clinching touchdown.
The Cardinals head to Manhattan, Kan., for a hungry Kansas State team, which
would like to get its first big-time win for new coach Ron Prince. We'll find
out this week if Louisville's success has been because of great players or
because of great coaching. The Cards are favored by 14 at
WagerWeb against
KSU and with our free college
football predictions we are going to take Louisville.
Recap: Overall, the Big East went 5-3 last week. The conference could have
asked for better performances from Pittsburgh and UConn, which both lost at
home in winnable games. Syracuse matched its win total from a year ago with a
31-21 victory over Illinois.
In Good Company: The Big East has two teams ranked in the AP Top 10: Louisville
and West Virginia. Only two other conferences in college football can claim at
least that many: Big Ten (2) and SEC (4). The Big East always wants respect,
now it is are getting some. It doesn't hurt to go 17-7 as a conference through
three weeks to warrant that respect.
Good On The Road: So far, West Virginia is 3-0 ATS. And so far the Mountaineers
have played all their games at Milan Puskar Stadium. Rich Rodriquez brings his
circus on the road this week as WVU faces East Carolina (WagerWeb line: WVU
-21). The Mountaineers were moneymakers on the road last year, going 5-0 ATS.
But beware: the Pirates gave West Virginia a scare last year by only falling
20-15 in Morgantown.
The New Rutgers: After opening up the season by defeating their first ACC
opponent in 21 tries (North Carolina), the Scarlet Knights have cruised to a
3-0 record. Part of the reason for Rutgers' success is running back Ray Rice,
who is turning into a household name. After rushing for more than 1,100 yards
and 5 touchdowns last year, Rice already surpassed his touchdown total with his
sixth score in Saturday's game, and he is averaging 166 yards per game. He was
a workhorse last week, carrying the ball 29 times for 190 yards and two
touchdowns in a 24-7 win against Ohio.
A Look Ahead: Cincinnati's treacherous schedule moves on. After facing off
against No. 1 Ohio State, the Bearcats get Frank Beamer's Virginia Tech Hokies
in Blacksburg this week (WagerWeb line: Va. Tech -26.5). Could Syracuse
pass its win total from all of last year? The Orange host an 0-3 Miami of Ohio
team that has looked atrocious (WagerWeb line: SU -6.5). South Florida and
Louisville have the ability to knock out both Kansas schools this week as those
teams head to Kansas and Kansas State, respectively.
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