It may not shock anyone, but AOL has no Rutgers blogger. As the lead for the Big East, it fell to me to do a lot of Rutgers blogging this week. Some things about the Rutgers game.
Greg Schiano made some astounding halftime adjustments to the defense (remember, he’s also the DC) — and there must have been one hell of a halftime speech. One of my fellow Fanhouse bloggers, Brian Cook (Michigan) came away suitably impressed by what he saw from the Scarlet Knights. Schiano recruited speed — high motor guys — for the defense, and even if the players were undersized and/or not major prospects he coached them. Taught them fundamentals. Utilized their talents in the best possible ways with some great calls and schemes.
Made the whole unit more than the indvidual players. Much in the way West Virginia and Rich Rodriguez does with the O-line. Louisville has a tremendous offense. It is balanced. They can run, they have great receivers, probably the best pro-ready QB in the Big East (and top-3 in in the country), and rather good O-line. Rutgers’ defense made Louisville’s offense in the second half look like Pitt when they faced Rutgers. You can’t tell me, there weren’t moments when you thought it was Pitt not Louisville getting swarmed. Like when they played Pitt, they compensated for the disadvantages in the secondary against receivers by keeping the QB off balance and under pressure.
Once can be an aberration. They’ve been doing this all year. It is a quality defense that isn’t afraid of any team or situation.
The offense for Rutgers did what it does. It runs. It runs a lot. Mike Teel is not the worst QB, but he definitely gets little help from his receivers. Those drops. Ugh.
For this year, it is a blow to the Big East as the odds of a Big East team making the BCS Championship are just a step above the ACC. Long-term, the Big East just demonstrated some significant depth is happening in a conference with only 8 teams.
Success for Rutgers makes recruiting there that much tougher for schools that have had a lot of good times poaching talent — BC, PSU and Maryland are going to find the going much harder. Of course, it also means, the price to keep or hire Schiano just went up.
If BC wanted back in to the Big East, would they be (select only one):
a)welcomed with open arms
b)permitted in but only on double-secret probation
c)deep-sixed like tea in Boston Harbor
I remember when the punkass schools defected to the ACC and Big East proponents would say, “Now it’s time for Rutgers, (etc.) to step up”. Well, team, now they have, and it’s nearing the time for Pittsburgh to step up.
RU made me proud last night – and I could care less about their stinkin’ football program. I was proud to see that a team that was SO bad for SO long could achieve national recognition and earn a place at the CFB dinner table.
We can forget the topic of “will the Big East keep their BCS bid?”… after last night, every fan for any team in the Big East should set their seasonal expectations a little bit higher.
When the BCS was created right before Walt Harris was hired I believed that it was possible for Pitt to play for a national championship. 10 short years later Rutgers is playing their way into the national title picture. I don’t like Rutgers, but their story is one that pretty much every Big East team can take something from. To me, Rutgers’ improbable undefeated run validates my thought that Pitt can become a factor in the national title mix. Personally, I used to think “It could be Pitt.” I will not wait another full season before I’ll be saying, “It should be Pitt.” I’ll say it and I’ll mean it, because it’s true.
Someone tell me the last time BC was relevant?
I tunred on the radio and heard these boneheads trash the Big East once again.
I mean it’s ESPN, but they are in charge of most of the unenlightened people’s conception of sports.
But, if Rutgers beats WVU and then they all win out we could have as many as three teams in the Top 10 at the end of the season. Could look like this…
RU = 11-0
UL = 10-1
WVU = 10-2
Remember that the end of the season is when the BE strength of schedule kicks in for computer rankings.
If the BE wins their Bowl games would make it even better, but certainly we can finish strong.
Actually the worst thing that could happen was for the BE to field a team in the Nat’l Championship and have it blown out (since hind sight is 20/20 could you imagine Louisville going up against OSU or UM considering what we saw last night?).
What I was left with after those thoughts were that all that goes well only if you have coaching that gets the best out of the players, and have players that can believe in that coaching and have the character not to toss in the towel as soon as the other team get a decent lead. It seems to me that that has been a hallmark of PITT teams over the years; they can’t seem to understand that the game is played for 60 minutes. Correct me if I’m wrong – but have there been many come from behind victories in the last decade where we had to make up a large deficit in the second half – and did it?
There has been a lot written lately about PITT, the coaching staff and what needs to be done in the future – and if it even can be done. I don’t have a coaching background, but I do know this… if DW can’t take some of the approach he saw Rutgers so successfully use against Louisville, and at least try to apply it in our game, then we are in trouble.
“Not the interstate to Columbus, Ohio, or Norman, Okla., or Austin, Tex, and certainly not to Chestnut Hill, Mass., where three years ago Boston College bet its competitive future on the belief that Rutgers was genetically incapable of hosting such a festive and meaningful football occasion. That there would never be a night where the ESPN trucks would be out en masse, alongside the giant satellite dishes, with the smell of enhanced ratings, cooked meat and major bowl hopes in the air.
Robert Mulcahy, the Rutgers athletic director and chief football enabler, had the figurative knife pulled from his back, spiked it defiantly onto his desk and vowed never to schedule the B.C. deserters in any sport, ever again.”