Around the Conference Week 3

The Big East is currently sitting at 14 wins and Syracuse for the year. This week marks another step up in competition for the conference as a whole except for Rutgers who continues the march of the cupcakes. Last week included wins over Auburn and Oregon State for the conference and more BCS teams are on slate this week starting with Maryland on Thursday vs. WVU. The rest of the conference is as follows:

Saturday UConn continues their brutal non-conference schedule, in basketball as the Huskies take on Temple. UConn has wins over Duke and Maine in the previous weeks while Temple has lost to Navy and then were beaten 42-7 last week by Buffalo. After two games Temple has 38 yards rushing (ranked 116 in the nation) on 50 carries and has thrown 4 interceptions. The Owls are giving up 292.5 rushing yards per game. Leading UConn rusher Donald Brown II is so excited he may need a few sixers to call down.

Pitt steps up the competition level this week with a trip to Michigan State. In the first week the Panthers lost QB Bill Stull during a win over Eastern Michigan and last week the Pantehers lost DT Gus Mustakas for the season with an ACL tear versus Grambling State. Pitt may be a few weeks away from asking fans to play, which would mean a lot of yellow seats on the field. Michigan State has wins over UAB and Bowling Green to start the season. Sparty is led through the air by Brian Hoyer with 451 passing yards and on the ground by tandem Javon Ringer and Jehuu Caulcrick each with around 150 yards.

Syracuse takes the freak show on the road again this week with a tilt at Illinois. The Orange have been outscored 77-12 in losses to Washington and Iowa (neither of which are ranked). Some numbers. The Cuse are 117 in rushing offense, 106 in passing offense, and 118 in scoring offense. Nice. They are also getting outgained by an average of 155 yards to 426 yards. Illinois is 1-1 with a win over Western Illinois and a loss to Missouri. This game will be extremely orange, but only one team will look like they are on their way to a rollerball final with an S on their helmet you can see from space.

Cincinnati is coming off of a big win over Oregon State in which they held the Beavers to 3 points and only 36 rushing yards. This week the Bearcats face Miami (OH). The Redhawks have a win over Ball State and a loss to Minnesota. Leading rusher Brandon Murphy is averaging 6.5 yards per carry which should be going down this week. The game will be the first non-Thursday game for Cinci all year and could be a problem for the all-black uni's in daylight.

Rutgers continues to play name that team with a game versus Norfolk State this weekend. Rutgers has wins over Buffalo, Navy, and a high school journalism group trying to sell magazines door-to-door. Norfolk State ran up almost 500 yards of offense in their only game vs. Virginia State with 44 passes and 49 rushing attempts. On Saturday they may be attempting 45 punts. Ray Rice already has 62 carries in two blowout wins. Ray's mother is busy filing an injunction before the conference games start and he carries the ball 75 times a game.

The final game of the week (USF has the week off to participate in victory orgies rest after the win over Auburn, except for kicker Delbert Alvarado, he gets no poon is going to keep practicing) matches Louisville at Kentucky. Last year Louiville edged the Wildcats 59-28 and lost Michael Bush for the season. This season should put a hurt on the scoreboard as Kentucky has Andre' Woodson matching Brain Brohm pass for pass and Rafael Little and Tony Dixon to run with Anthony Allen and George Stripling of the Cards. So far Louiville has scored 131 points to Kentucky's 106. Louisville is averaging almost 700 yards a game while Kentucky is averaging a more sane, but still impressive 526 yards. Vegas has tried to calculate an over for the game but so far this has killed four oddsmakers.