Oh Big East, how I’m going to miss your dysfunctional ways.
With Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia all destined to leave at some point in the next two years, there’s a good chance I won’t watch you quite as much.
But you certainly have been entertaining…even if not for the best of reasons.
I’ve struggled for years to come up with a way to explain you to other college football fans. I’ve tried to defend the level of play, but I just can’t any longer.
Not since Miami and Virginia Tech left for the ACC has there really been a dominate team. West Virginia comes the closest to claiming that title, but Cincinnati could give them a run.
So when South Florida, which had not won a conference game, came into the Carrier Dome Friday night and spanked Syracuse…well, no one should have been shocked.
But this is the same Orange team that pounded preseason favorite WVU just a few weeks ago.
It would seem with that win, Doug Marrone and Syracuse would have built on that night and become a top tier Big East team (well, at least before it leaves for the ACC). Instead, the Orange are in last place.
South Florida is in last as well, but it took a step forward Friday night because of B.J. Daniels. The dual-threat quarterback kept plays alive by moving around in the pocket and turning it up field for big gains. This was impressive because the Syracuse defense kept WVU quarterback Geno Smith bottled up and hit him all night in the big win in October.
The Orange may get to a bowl game, but they have not progressed as far as Marrone had hoped his team would at this point.
“It makes us last in the Big East. Obviously, that’s not our goal,” said Syracuse center Macky MacPherson in an AP story. “Just making a bowl game wasn’t something we were trying for — we wanted to take it a step higher. We’re a talented enough club to do that and we’re a good enough team.”
South Florida probably feels the same way. After opening the season with a huge upset of Notre Dame, the Bulls opened conference play with four straight losses. This was a USF team that was supposed to challenge WVU for the championship.
Instead, USF hadn’t won a game in six week (two of those bye weeks). So Friday night reminded us the Bulls still play football. Daniels looked like an elite player again, and Demetrius Murray flashed some skills Friday night.
But it was just a battle of Big East bottom feeders, so who really cares?
Oh, Big East I am going to miss thee.
