Back in the Spotlight
July 17, 2007 09:13 PM | General
July 17, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Three years ago when Big East commissioner Michael Tranghese was about to preside over his football conference’s press day he wondered just how many reporters were going to show up. Today, he spoke before a packed room littered with national reporters at the Hotel Viking in Newport, R.I.
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| West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez talks with a television reporter at Tuesday's Big East media day in Newport, R.I.
AP photo |
“I think back three years ago when we stood here and there weren’t nearly as many people as we have here right now,” Tranghese said. “I think the restoration of the so-called football playing image of the Big East was really due in large part to the efforts of our eight football coaches.”
Two of those eight – West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez and Rutgers’ Greg Schiano – guided their teams to 11-2 records and Top 12 finishes in 2006. Both coaches also turned down offers from other schools to remain in the Big East.
“I think opportunities present themselves and you just need to make sure that everybody at your current institution still has the same vision and desire to do what we initially set out to do,” Schiano said of his decision to turn down the Miami job.
Rodriguez had a chance to go to Alabama but he said he couldn’t turn his back on 6 ½ years of hard work at West Virginia turning the Mountaineer program into an annual Top 10 contender.
“Any time a school calls a head coach or an assistant coach it’s flattering and it’s nice to think that maybe someone wants you,” Rodriguez said. “At the same time we’ve worked hard for 6 ½ years to put our program up to where it is. I’ve got a great group of young men, a great staff, and the support I got from our own community and our boosters was overwhelming. I’m happy to be at West Virginia.”
Mike Tranghese is happy these two coaches chose to remain in the Big East. The conference’s dramatic resurgence three years after Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College left was nothing short of remarkable.
“Last year was what I call Cinderella,” Tranghese noted. “It all started on January 2nd in Atlanta when West Virginia upset the SEC champ Georgia. That was the first step and then I don’t know how to describe last season.
“For those of us who live and die with what our conference does, we get to November and we have three undefeated teams,” Tranghese said. “Through the efforts of Nick Carparelli and Tom Odjakjian they had somehow scheduled us to have back-to-back Thursday night games in primetime with undefeated teams. They were two great games and I think all of the sudden the country took a hard look and said these people are pretty good.”
Tranghese pointed out that the conference champion and BCS bowl representative wasn’t determined until the very last play in overtime when West Virginia knocked off Rutgers in Morgantown.
“That’s how competitive our league was,” Tranghese said.
This year expectations are even higher. West Virginia, Louisville and Rutgers are being mentioned as legitimate national title contenders and the conference boasts four of the top 10 Heisman Trophy candidates in West Virginia’s Steve Slaton and Patrick White, Rutgers’ Ray Rice and Louisville’s Brian Brohm.
“That’s unheard of in the history of our league and we’ve been playing football since 1991 and we’ve had a lot of great players,” Tranghese said. “I think it’s an unusual year.”
Tranghese has been asked many times since last year if his conference can replicate what it did in 2006.
“I’m not certain that we can because I think this league is a lot stronger than it was a year ago,” he said. “Somehow trying to get through this league right now undefeated is going to be very difficult.”
Tranghese points out that all three top teams must go on the road to face each other. West Virginia goes to Rutgers on Oct. 27, Louisville travels to West Virginia on Nov. 2 and Rutgers has to play at Louisville on Nov. 29.
“In order to get through our league and win a championship you’re going to have to go on the road and beat some really, really good football teams,” Tranghese said.
As many as half of the eight teams in the Big East could be ranked in the preseason Top 25, according to Tranghese.
Briefly:
“I wanted to come back for my senior season and I kind of made that decision before Coach Petrino left,” Brohm said. “Once he decided to go I kind of had to re-think about it. I got to meet Coach Kragthorpe as soon as he was hired and that made it a lot easier and a lot smoother.
“I really fell in love with the ideas he had for the program and what he wanted to do,” Brohm said. “I can’t wait for the season to get started.”
Brohm is considered a Top 10 draft pick next spring and is coming off a 3,049-yard, 16-touchdown season in 2006. Brohm said much of what Louisville did under Petrino will continue under Kragthorpe.
“We’re going to run our offense similar to what we ran last year,” he said. “There are going to be a few new wrinkles but we’re going to keep a lot of the old stuff.”
Brohm, a leading Heisman Trophy candidate, says he isn’t concerned with posting big numbers to impress voters this year.
“Individual goals they really go hand in hand with our team goals,” he said. “I want to win the Big East. I want to go undefeated and I want to go to the BCS bowl for the national title.”
“He’s a special player,” Schiano said. “He’s one of the elite players in the country and we’re blessed to have him. He’s going to have a great year … God willing he stays healthy.”
Rice was content with his performance last year.
“I felt like I pushed myself to the limit last year and this year is just another push,” he said. “Coming into the season you don’t know what to expect but I can’t wait to put all of the chips together and actually get out there and play again.”
South Florida, 9-4 last year and an upset winner at West Virginia, was predicted to finish fourth. Cincinnati, which won its bowl game last year under new coach Brian Kelly, was picked to finish fifth. Pitt (sixth), Connecticut (seventh) and Syracuse (eighth) round out the rest of the conference.
