Big East was a beast during bowl season

By Darrell Laurant  |   Friday, January 12, 2007  |  Comments( 1 )

College Football
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If anything came out of the '06-'07 football bowl season, it was this, from the Big East: "Don't hand us any of that 'mid-major' stuff any more."

It appears that this much-maligned conference is now, like that character in "Catch 22," Major Major.

The Big East went 5-0 in bowls, beating two ACC teams and a Big 12 team. OK, it also beat MAC and Conference USA opponents, but those still count.

Louisville outclassed everybody's darling, Wake Forest, in the Orange Bowl; West Virginia topped Georgia Tech in the Gator Bowl despite a hobbled Steve Slaton; Rutgers hammered Kansas State in the Texas Bowl (after four days of learning rodeo skills); Cincinnati blew a 24-point lead but prevailed over Western Michigan in the first International Bowl; and South Florida delivered in the Papa John's Bowl, 24-7 over East Carolina.

Not bad, especially for a conference considered to be sinking fast after Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College manned the lifeboats and escaped to the ACC several years ago.

(By the way, Virginia Tech lost to Georgia, Miami beat Nevada by a point and BC struggled mightily to edge Navy in their bowls).

Nor did the Big East fare that badly in the annual coaching carousel. It was a major ego prop for the league when Rich Rodriguez decided to stay at West Virginia instead of opting for the riches, prestige and pressure at Alabama. Steve Kragthorpe is not a bad replacement for Bobby Petrino at Louisville, and Brian Kelly should do fine at Cincinnati. Elsewhere, the league has some up-and-coming coaches in Connecticut's Randy Edsall, South Florida's Jim Leavitt and Greg Robinson of Syracuse, as well as an ex-NFL big name in Dave Wannstedt. And, of course, Greg Schiano of Rutgers.

Pitt, considered the third-best team in the league before the season, was one of three Big East programs not to get a bowl bid. But given its location smack in the middle of prime high school football country, there's no way the Panthers shouldn't get better. Ditto USF, which wound up as the second-best Florida college team this past season.

Connecticut is still feeling its way as a relatively new program, and Syracuse has too much football history to stay down for long.

At the beginning of 2006, the conference was viewed as the Big Two (West Virginia and Louisville) and the Little Six. But things turned out to be much more competitive than that, thanks in large part to the continued emergence of Schiano's Scarlet Knights.

Three years ago, who would have thought that Big East coaches would one day be wooing top recruits by telling them: "Just think -- you'll be able to play against Rutgers on TV."

Petrino's exit for the Atlanta Falcons cost Louisville the services of star RB Michael Bush (out through most of '06 with a broken leg), who said he would have stayed had Petrino reenlisted. But Kragthorpe is known for his passing offense, and that might be enough to keep QB Brian Brohm around another year. If not, backup Hunter Cantwell has shown flashes of excellence in relief roles.

West Virginia will offer one of the nation's most exciting teams in '07 with All-American tailback Slaton and elusive QB Pat White. Meanwhile, the best quarterback you've never heard of might be Matt Grothe of South Florida, who threw for 2,495 yards and ran for another 607 as freshman.

Other Big East offensive stars next season will include Heisman Trophy candidate Ray Rice of Rutgers, rising sophomore running backs Donald Brown of Connecticut and Delone Carter of Syracuse and Cincinnati QB Nick Davila.

It will be interesting to see if the Big East's bowl record will tip the balance with many on-the-fence recruits. You know they were watching.

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