Around the Conference Weak Week 2

The Big East started off 7-1 as a conference last week with the only L coming in the Carrier Dome as Syracuse continued to hurt the eyes of viewers with both playing ability and uniform design. The biggest marquee win for the conference was probably WVU beating Western Michigan as they are the only one of the losing teams that may see a bowl this year. The rest of the victims were Buffalo, Southeast Missiouri State, Murray State, Duke, Eastern Michigan, and Elon. Not a lot of star power there. That trend continues in week two.

Louisville kicks off the week with a game tonight versus Middle Tennessee. Middle Tennessee opened the season with a hard fought 27-14 loss to FAU which is a school and not a fraternity. The loss drops Middle Tennesse to the bottom of the Sun Belt Conference, but the Blue Raiders never stay down for long. Although if they are going to keep it interesting they may want to average more than 1.5 yards per carry for their leading rusher versus Louisville as that is what DeMarco McNair had versus FAU.

Also playing tonight is Cincinnati versus Oregon State. Cincinnatti pummeled SE Mo State last week 59-3 and this week face a I-A team. For the Bearcats Butler Benton had over 100 yards rushing and Jacob Ramsey added 76 yards and 2 tds. Ben Mauk threw for 244 yards and 2 touchdowns last week. Oregon State opened up with a victory over Utah. The Beavers attempted a very un-Pac 10 like 19 passes in that game while Yvenson Bernard (must be from Sweden) carried the ball 29 times for 165 yards and caught 4 of the 8 passes completed. Cinci may want to keep an eye on him.

Friday night Rutgers will be the construction workers as they host the Navy. Ray Rice had 184 yards and 3 touchdowns versus Buffalo last week and Tiquan Underwood had 10 catches for 248 yards. That is a career game for Underwood unless you count NCAA Football stats when he uses himself. Navy beat Temple 30-19 behind 361 rushing yards. Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada is the quarterback whose name will be butchered all night, but not on passing downs as he only threw the ball 7 times against Temple.

After WVU-Marshall there are still plenty of Big East games on Saturday. Pittsburgh continues to try to save the 'stache by scheduling lightly. Last week Pitt beat Eastern Michigan, but lost bill Stull to a thumb injury. BTW Michigan had a rough week as a state in football. Michigan, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Central Michigan all lost. Michigan State did win to keep the state from going hockey only. This week the Panthers take on Grambling State. Grambling State beat Alcorn State last week behind 303 yards passing from Brandon Landers and 143 yards rushing from Frank Warren. The Tigers will have problems with depth during the game, but not with their band as they should have plenty of room to roam around an empty Hines Field.

UConn showed that they would not be a doormat in the ACC with a 45-14 spanking of Duke last week. Now they are going to show that they could still win some I-AA games as they take on Maine. Last week the Huskies got a big game from Tyler Lorenzen as he threw for 298 yards and 2 touchdowns while Donald Brown II ran for 99. As for the Black Bears they rushed for 278 yards and passed for 64 yards in a 21-14 victory over Monmouth.

Syracuse continues the Greg Robinson farewell tour with a stop in Iowa this week. the 'Cuse got beat 42-14 last week in a game that wasn't as close as the score showed. They may have quit for the season earlier than any other team in history. Washington rushed for 302 yards and threw for 142 with a quarterback making his first start. As a team the Orange rushed for 8 yards. Good God. Iowa slipped by Northern Illinois 16-3 last week behind 250 yards rushing which is almost 32 times as many yards as the Orange managed. The Hawkeyes also held NIU to 21 yards rushing on 21 carries and forced three interceptions. This one could be ugly; orange, yellow, black, blue and Syracuse offense. Don't drink or eat anything 1 hour before watching.

And finally the week wraps up with an actual big game. South Florida travels to Auburn Saturday night. The memo Rutgers sent about how to win 10 games by scheduling must have arrived too late for USF. South Florida is coming off of a 28-13 win over Elon. Freshman Mike Ford had 83 yards and two touchdowns on only 6 carries for the Bulls while Matt Grothe attempted 39 passes and completed 23 or 238 yards. Auburn looked ugly against Kansas State for most of the game, but scored the last 17 points of the game to win 23-13. Protecting Brandon Cox as Cox got beat around all night and not just at Vice Versa. The Tigers held Kansas State to 316 total yards and forced 3 turnovers in the win but managed just 291 yards themselves.