When Syracuse annihilated Wisconsin in the Kickoff Classic, it looked as if the Big East might not be as laughable as everyone assumed.
Then again . . .
The Orangemen followed up by losing to North Carolina State, Oklahoma and Virginia Tech. And they needed a last-second goal line interception Saturday to slip by Tulane, possibly the worst team in Conference USA, and maybe the whole USA.
Temple, which barely survived a push to evict it from the league, has proved an equal-opportunity punching bag, losing by 20 to lowly Western Michigan and by 42 to mighty Penn State.
The Big East is 1-4 against ranked non-conference opponents.
But the most distressing sign for the Big East is at Miami. Arizona State whipsawed the Hurricanes in the Orange Bowl, a result that looked all the worse when the Sun Devils lost to Brigham Young at home. Then the ‘Canes lost an ESPN Thursday night game to Pitt.
The last thing the Big East needs is for its longtime glamor team to take a nosedive. Miami coach Butch Davis has been a staunch defender of his conference, but this week he’s more concerned about his own 1-2 team.
“We’ve got to worry more about the University of Miami and make sure that we start playing better football,” Davis said.
“Certainly Arizona State and Pittsburgh played well,” Davis said. “But by the same token, we had mental mistakes, we had penalties, we had turnovers. We are not physically gifted and talented enough to keep from beating ourselves.”
That’s evidence of the widening gap between the Hurricanes and defending national champion Florida, its Sunshine State rival. The top-ranked Gators made numerous mental mistakes on offense Saturday and still ran Tennessee out of the stadium.
“It’s hard to figure out losing to Pitt and Arizona State,” West Virginia coach Don Nehlen said. “(But) they’re still Miami.”
Not really. In years past, Miami had so much talent it didn’t have to worry about the ones that got away. But last week the ‘Canes couldn’t contain Pitt quarterback Pete Gonzalez, a Miami native.
The galling part for Miami is Gonzalez wanted to stay home but didn’t have the board scores coming out of high school.
“Pitt took a chance on me and waited until I passed my SAT,” said Gonzalez, a senior.
The Big East formed as a basketball league, but when it started playing football in 1991 Miami was seen as its flagship. In some ways, it still is.
“I think every season presents its challenges and adversity,” Davis said. “Certainly, we’ve had a tremendous amount of it in three years.”
The Hurricanes in 1995 received three years’ NCAA probation for a variety of offenses, including Pell Grant fraud. A year later, Boston College kicked two players off the team and suspended 11 others in a gambling scandal. And at least a dozen former and current Virginia Tech football players have been charged with crimes.
The Big East does have a few bright spots, beginning with Virginia Tech, the best team no one ever has heard of. The Gobblers are the lone ranked Big East team–they’re 14th in this week’s AP poll–but last weekend they sweated out a 23-13 victory over Temple, which Penn State clubbed by six touchdowns the previous Saturday.
And there are feel-good stories taking shape at Pitt (3-1) and Boston College (2-1), which are talking about making bowl appearances under new head coaches Walt Harris and Tom O’Brien, respectively.
“We represent ourselves (well),” Gonzalez said. “It’s growing. It’s a league in transition right now. Different teams are pushing up.”
But conferences often are judged by their strength at the top, not by improvement at the bottom. There remain questions about the long-term viability of the conference. Indifferent fan following in many cities plagues the Big East and it needs its most nationally visible teams–Miami and Syracuse–to be strong.
Perhaps the greatest blow to the Big East came when Penn State joined the Big Ten. The move helped the Nittany Lions solidify their vast Eastern recruiting empire and exposed East Coast television audiences to Big Ten football.
As for the Big East, it merely has been exposed.
FSU is back: Lost in the shuffle of the Nebraska-Washington and Florida-Tennessee showdowns was a pretty big victory for Florida State. The fourth-ranked Seminoles marched into Death Valley, otherwise known as Memorial Stadium, and emerged with a 35-28 victory over Atlantic Coast Conference rival Clemson, ranked 17th.
The ‘Noles, who have lost only one ACC game since joining the league in 1992, rallied from a 14-10 third-quarter deficit and didn’t lock up the game until Tay Cody picked off a pass at the final gun.
On a day the swarming Tigers limited FSU to 31 rushing yards on 20 carries, the Seminoles needed help from the passing game. Enter wide receiver Peter Warrick, who made eight catches for 249 yards, the most ever by a player against Clemson.
Warrick scored on passes of 48 and 80 yards from quarterback Thad Busby. Warrick also returned a punt 90 yards for a touchdown.
“The only time I’ve seen anything like that is on football video games,” Seminole safety Dexter Jackson said. “He was All-World.”
Bowl bid: In an unprecedented move, the Fiesta Bowl bought the Copper Bowl Tuesday. Actually, the Arizona Sports Foundation, which runs the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, purchased the Copper Bowl, played at Arizona Stadium on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson. The Dec. 27 Copper Bowl will match the No. 6 Big 12 team against the runner-up from the Western Athletic Conference.
Fourth and inches: Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer can set the school record with his 65th career victory Saturday against Arkansas State. “For a guy who has grown up with Virginia Tech football, it’s really quite an honor,” said Beamer, a 1969 alumnus of the school. . . . Southern Cal ranks 112th among 112 Division I-A teams in rushing. With apologies to Traveler, old SC simply doesn’t have the horses. . . . Things certainly have changed in Boulder, Colo. Former Colorado coach Bill McCartney went out of his way to make Nebraska into a bitter rival, going so far as to ban red from the Buffaloes’ offices the week before the game. McCartney’s successor, Rick Neuheisel, watched the Cornhuskers defeat Washington last weekend. His reaction? “I was proud of Nebraska carrying the Big 12 flag,” Neuheisel said. . . . Chicago-based Conference USA named the Cincinnati defense its Defensive Player of Week when the Bearcats overwhelmed previously unbeaten Kansas 34-7. After conceding 55 points in its first two games, Cincinnati limited the Jayhawks to 53 total yards, and minus-46 rushing. . . . Two weeks after its 66-3 loss to UCLA, Texas finds itself in the uncomfortable position of visiting Rice, fresh off its victory at Northwestern. The Longhorns lost their last trip to Rice Stadium, in 1994. The extra time off will help Texas prepare for the Owls’ devilish option attack, but head coach John Mackovic said the Longhorns spent their bye week working on basics. “When you get beat like we did, you’d better be addressing everything,”
