Top Dogs
October 30, 2006 07:25 PM | General
October 30, 2006
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| Rich Rodriguez |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – You have to go back to Nov. 4, 2000, to find a pair of Top 5-ranked Big East teams that have faced each other on the football field. On that day, No. 3-rated Miami knocked off No. 2 Virginia Tech, 41-21, in the Orange Bowl.
It was the only time in the 15-year history of Big East football that that has happened.
It is going to happen once again this Thursday night when No. 3-rated West Virginia travels to No. 5 Louisville for a prime-time game that college football fans from coast to coast will be watching with great interest.
“The beauty of some midweek games and particularly the Thursday game is that everybody has a chance … whether you are a high school prospect or a college football fan you’ve got the attention of the entire audience,” said West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez during his Monday morning Big East Coaches’ teleconference. “We’ve played one Thursday and a Friday and we’ve got another Thursday coming up. It’s like our own reality show and I just hope they don’t throw me off the island.”
The Mountaineers and the Cardinals have been nationally ranked all year and come into the game one of six remaining unbeaten teams. It’s a far cry from two years ago when the league was still trying to find its bearings after enduring the losses of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College.
“I think it’s kind of neat that we’ve got two teams in the Top 10, three teams in the Top 15 and one in Pitt that is right on the cusp,” said Rodriguez. “It speaks well for the commitment of the league and the institutions individually.”
The Big East isn’t the biggest conference in the country, but this year from top to bottom it has been one of the most competitive. It is the only football league in the country to boast three undefeated teams; four of the eight Big East members are already bowl-eligible and the conference finished the year 32-8 against non-league competition.
The most recent Sagarin ratings have the Big East third behind the Pac 10 and the SEC and ahead of the Big Ten, ACC and Big 12.
“We’re a small league but one through eight our league has been as strong as it’s been in a long, line time,” said Rodriguez. “All of the talk of the demise of the Big East should be gone by now.”
On Thursday night, the conference will showcase two of its brightest, up-and-coming programs.
“It’s a big game for the league and for both schools,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a great challenge. They’ve got a great football team -- especially at their place. They’ve got a lot of great athletes, their coaches do a great job of putting them into a position to make plays and our guys understand that this is going to be a tough environment and we’re going to have to play well to have a chance.”
Louisville coach Bobby Petrino says big games like the one Thursday night are all relative.
“When I was coaching at Carroll (Mont.) College, Montana Tech was a big game. When I was at Jacksonville when we played the Titans for the AFC championship that was a big game,” Petrino said. “This is just another one of those.”
Except the winner could very well have a clear path to reaching the national championship game once the winner of the Ohio State-Michigan game is determined. USC probably eliminated itself from contention by losing at Oregon State last Saturday.
“I did watch the end of the USC game just because we had the weekend off and I’m a college football fan,” Rodriguez said. “But as far as the implication for this game I don’t think it changes it at all.
“I said a few weeks ago that in the BCS people were questioning what was going on and it usually works out in the end,” Rodriguez said. “It’s hard to go undefeated, particularly with a 12-game schedule. There won’t be a lot of teams going through a 12-game schedule undefeated.”
Rodriguez is a firm believer that the BCS will get it right at the end of the year.
“Because there are so many more games left, when people talk about strength of schedule I don’t know how you can compare strength of schedule until the end of the year and see what all the teams did,” he said. “Everybody says our non-conference schedule wasn’t that difficult. Well, look what Maryland is doing: they beat Florida State and they’re doing very well. If you’re undefeated and you’re in a BCS conference and there are only two of you – I believe those two will play for it all.”
“The rules have been set, the BCS works, and I have no complaints with it,” added Petrino. “We’re trying to teach our young men to go by the rules and be able to deal with things you don’t like and not complain about it. I’m certainly not going to complain about the BCS.”
