By Paul Sykes
All eight Big East football teams were in action, including three conference match-ups and two playing elsewhere. The good thing about the Big East standings for Louisville is that teams with identical conference marks are listed in alphabetical order, with Syracuse at the bottom.
- No. 5 Cincinnati jumped on Louisville early with 21 points and never looked back in a 41-10 drubbing. U of L may have lost running back Vic Anderson for several weeks with a separated shoulder. UC travels to Syracuse next week while Louisville hosts Arkansas State.
- No. 22 West Virginia scored last in a see saw 28-24 win over Connecticut in Morgantown. Noel Devine took a 62-yard run to the house with 2:10 remaining for the win (Think he read my recap last week where I put him behind Dion Lewis?). 171 rushing yards for WVU in the second half. WVU (6-1) goes to Tampa for Friday night action vs. USF. UConn (4-3) plays host to Rutgers Saturday.
- No. 20 Pitt rolled past visiting South Florida, 41-14. Bill Stull threw for two touchdowns and Dion Lewis rushed for two others in the rout. The Panthers (6-1) take the week off. USF (5-2) is the most penalized team in the Big East and has not won a conference game north of the Mason-Dixon line since the Civil War. USF will host WVU.
- Rutgers rolled past Army Friday 27-10 at West Point. Sophomore running back Joe Martinek ran for two scores and 147 yards in the rain to improve the Scarlet Knights to 5-2. Rutgers next travels to UConn.
- Syracuse managed 14 fourth-quarter points in the Carrier Dome to put away Akron 28-14. They sacked Zips QB Patrick Nicely five times and Cuse all conference receiver Mike Williams sat out the game on suspension.
Pitt, WVU and Cincinnati all remain undefeated in Big East play. South Florida and UConn sit at 1-2. Rutgers, Louisville and Syracuse have yet to win a conference game.
Some in Syracuse would argue that they, too, qualify for MIA status in Big East football. Since the Cards have nothing to lose the rest of this season, they might go the route of the Orangemen and insert a former hoops star in at the controls. A suitable “Greg Paulus” type for Louisville? I like the toughness of Peyton Siva, cockiness of Edgar Sosa and grit and determination of Preston Knowles. This combine could be known as Peyton Edgar Preston and we’ll just ship the current Louisville QB’s over to Jeff Walz for a little retraining and conditioning. If you can survive a Walz conditioning regimin and tutorial, you can consider yourself Ironman participation ready.
I beg your pardon, there are only seven Big East football teams as UofL is officially listed as MIA.