Big East Excess Poll (as of 9/14/11)

Some “experts” feel obligated to eliminate all ties in their rankings (unless, of course, you are dealing with two highly popular teams and you don’t want to piss off readers). Me? I don’t care. This week’s poll will show where everyone is at this point… which is, after all, only two games into the season.

1. USF (1)
2. West Virginia
3. Pitt
3. Cincinnati
3. Rutgers
6. Syracuse
6. UConn
8. Louisville

Thoughts after the jump.

Starting at the bottom and working our way up. Louisville sucks. If all they did was lose to FIU, then I might be forgiving, but they also looked like garbage against Murray State. They have two solid running backs, but with no real passing game, teams can load up to stop the run. Louisville’ running game isn’t good enough to overcome that and their passing game has no big play ability. Any win that Louisville gets from here on out is a bonus for the Big East because, right at this point, I would make the Cardinals underdogs in every single game left, including Marshall.

Hold your breath: UConn has a good defense and zero offense. How many teams can you say that about in the Big East? (Not rhetorical: UConn, Louisville, and Syracuse).

I only caught five minutes of UConn‘s game with Vanderbilt and, in that time, UConn appeared to have a solid offensive line and good running game. This was apparently wrong because UConn finished with 89 rushing yards (and only 193 total yards). One of UConn’s touchdowns came off a blocked punt. UConn will probably win a couple Big East games, but they’re terrible. Unfortunately for the Big East, UConn plays Iowa State, Buffalo, and Western Michigan, which means UConn has winnable games . . . but it will be all the more embarassing when they lose them.

Syracuse beat Wake Forest solely because they knocked Wake’s quarterback out of the game and Wake’s backup was dreadful. (Quick prediction: At the end of the season, Syracuse’s win over Wake Forest will be one of the five best non-conference wins by any Big East team, this season. And we will have forgotten that it came because of the injury to Wake’s quarterback… but, in my opinion, a win’s a win). Syracuse then beat Rhode Island by a whopping 7 points. ‘Cuse has no offense and a solid defense. All of a sudden, to me, Syracuse versus Toledo on September 24, looks like a loss. The only game I see left where Syracuse is a clear favorite will be October 8 at Tulane. Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician correctly points out that USC barely beat Minnesota (who lost to New Mexico State) and barely beat Utah… so there’s that. I still see USC winning this one easily.

If you’re scoring at home, that’s three Big East teams that I don’t see more than a combined eight wins from for the rest of the season.

This is Paul Pasqualoni, immediately after being told that this blog has UConn tied for sixth place with Rutgers.

Rutgers losing at UNC by two is encouraging, but does it surprise you that a Schiano-coached team did just enough to lose the game by two? I finally looked at the stats on this game and they are . . . typical. Guess how many rushing yards Rutgers had against UNC. (I will put it at the end of this paragraph so you can make a valid guess and then check it with the correct answer). Chas Dodd’s numbers are very un-Rutgers-like… 47 passing attempts, 2 TD, 0 INT. However, he averaged less than 10 yards per completion, which is usually my bright line rule for whether you’re actually throwing the ball or basically just rushing to the outside and calling it a pass play. Superman Savon Huggins’ name does not appear anywhere in the game recap. How can that be? Looking at the stats he had seven carries for zero yards. Mohamed Sanu might be the best player in the Big East, so there’s that. One.

Cincinnati only gave up 531 yards, 405 through the air (yet no interceptions), 34 first downs. On the plus side, Tennessee did fumble twice. Numbers-wise, Collaros was solid and Isaiah Pead was good. I caught part of this game and couldn’t believe that Butch Jones elected to run up the middle on two, separate fourth-and-inches plays against an SEC defensive line. You can believe in your guys all you want, but that is NOT going to work. It’s just not. This will be known as the game where I lost confidence that Butch Jones is going to be a good coach. It’s also the game that convinced me that Cincinnati is not a legitimate contender for the Big East title.

I have not seen one second of a Pitt game this year. (Neither have Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, Chris Fowler, or anyone else on television, but they would never admit it). I have seen the final scores, and they’re bad. How does this stat make you feel: Maine put up 290 yards and 28 points against Bryant University (“I don’t even know where that is!”). Against Pitt, Maine put up 371 yards and 29 points. Once the Pitt offense turned to shit and the home crowd “showered them with boos,” they put in walk-on (!), true freshman (!) quarterback Trey Anderson, who promptly led them to a touchdown. Pitt Blather has the quarterback controversy covered. I’ve never thought much of Sunseri or Pitt’s passing ability since Walt Harris was fired. Surely, Pitt will get better . . . or it’s going to be a long season. Pitt’s next three games are at Iowa and home against Notre Dame and USF. That may be the toughest three-game stretch for any Big East team, this season.

Everyone knows the story with West Virginia‘s offense; however, the defense has been quite good. In fact, the defense has not given up a touchdown yet. Marshall’s only touchdown was on a punt return and Norfolk State kicked four field goals, including a 50-yarder. While it didn’t exactly come against a murderer’s row, Marshall did score 26 against Southern Miss. Also, of note, West Virginia has not turned the ball over yet. If a Big East team plays against West Virginia and you know ahead of time that A) the Mountaineers defense will play well and B) that WVU won’t turn the ball over, how confident are you that any Big East team beats them? Of course, those are the variables that turn a lot of games.

Finally, USF is in first by virtue of having the most impressive win (at Notre Dame) and blowing out an FBS team, which – in all truth – is probably something like the fourth most impressive win for the Big East, this season. How sad is that? Against Ball State, USF put up over 500 yards of offense, mostly through the air, and B.J. Daniels only threw one interception… but Daniels typically waits to turn the ball over in crucial situations in big games. USF’s rushing game, while not particularly dominant, appears solid enough to keep a defense honest, which is more than can be said for West Virginia.

One thing jumps out at me as a potential problem. Against Notre Dame, USF only amassed 254 yards of offense. Michigan put up 452 yards on Notre Dame. I don’t think this is a concern, as most of Michigan’s yards came once they were in desperation mode… and came from Denard Robinson simply lofting deep passes against Notre Dame’s man-to-man coverage. USF never had a reason to do that because the Bulls were up 16-0 before I could get a bartender to find what channel NBC was on.

Have I mentioned that WVU vs. USF is the last game of the season? It’s amazing how the Big East randomly does that, every year.