Big East Breakdown: Big East season winding down

It’s crunch time, everybody. No Big East team is bowl eligible yet, but Pitt, Louisville,… It’s crunch time, everybody. No Big East team is bowl eligible yet, but Pitt, Louisville, South Florida, Syracuse and West Virginia can all clinch eligibility with a win. We are coming down to the nitty-gritty part of the season, with only four weeks left. On that note, let us begin.

Power Rankings

Pittsburgh — The Panthers are sitting pretty with a two-game conference lead and the possible return of last year’s Big East Co-Defensive Player of the Year, defensive end Greg Romeus, for last night’s game against Connecticut. Throughout conference play, their offense has been extremely balanced and consistent and the defense has been lights out.

Louisville — Coach Charlie Strong coached the Cards to a 28-20 upset over the second place team, Syracuse, last week with a back-up quarterback and running back. Big East leading rusher Bilal Powell will be back for their game against USF this week, but quarterback Adam Froman might not. They won once with a backup quarterback and can do it again. If they win this week they clinch a bowl berth, which is far more than anyone predicted of them.

South Florida — The Bulls won a one-point squeaker (28-27) over Rutgers last Wednesday — seriously, whatever happened to primetime weekend games? — and look much improved from their offensive futility of a few short weeks ago. They have a big matchup with Louisville this week — let’s see if quarterback B.J. Daniels can keep the heat turned up.

Syracuse — The Orange stumbled a bit this week following their home loss to Louisville, but are still in good shape. At 6-3 they own the best overall record in the conference and are sitting in second place with a 3-2 league record (half a game up on Louisville and USF). They are proven road winners but struggle at home, which makes this week’s game at Rutgers all the more easy to pick.

West Virginia — The Mountaineers are way too talented to be doing as badly as they are. Cincinnati’s defense will provide the free points that could jump start Noel Devine and friends. The Mountaineers have lost two straight in this series and Bill Stewart needs a win here to keep his Big East hopes — and job security — alive.

Connecticut— The Huskies have been very one-dimensional on offense and have had trouble scoring in conference play (scoring 24, 0 and 16 points the past three games) going into last night’s game with Pitt. Running back Jordan Todman is dangerous, but Pitt’s run defense is tough. The Huskies — whose season looked like it was in jeopardy a short while ago — are still bowl-eligible.

Rutgers — The Scarlet Knights suffered bad luck last Wednesday when they lost by one point in a game in which an offensive lineman had the game-winning score. Talk about a bad season. They can right the ship with a big home win against Syracuse this weekend in their first home game since the Eric LeGrand tragedy.

Cincinnati — With two straight losses at home and a shoddy defense, it’s no wonder the Bearcats are sitting in last place. Maybe the return of quarterback Zach Collaros can spark this team to continue its win streak over West Virginia. The Mountaineers’ defense provides a stiff challenge, but their offense is in a funk — which is great news for that terrible defense.

This week I will make a Big East Bowl Projection. The Big East has ties with six bowl games, but remember — if a team is not bowl-eligible, it doesn’t get to participate.

BCS (Fiesta) — Pittsburgh. The Panthers are the clear favorite to land the Big East’s automatic BCS bowl berth this season, which looks to be the Fiesta. The Fiesta picks last among the BCS bowls this year, and the Big East this season has made sure they are the least-favored of the conferences.

Champs Sports — Syracuse. The Champs Sports Bowl will go to the conference’s second-place team, and with only Rutgers and Connecticut left, the Orange look like they are in position to snag the conference’s No. 2 spot.

Meineke Car Care — West Virginia. The Mountaineers already have two conference losses as well as a remaining schedule that includes the Backyard Brawl and Louisville, and they’ve already suffered a loss to Syracuse. Third place and the Meineke Car Care Bowl is their likely destination.

BBVA Compass — Louisville. The Cards can clinch bowl eligibility with a win, but with South Florida and WVU as two of their last three games, nothing is certain. The outcome of this week’s showdown with South Florida will determine if they slide in at No. 4 or No. 5 in the conference.

Beef ‘O’ Brady’s — South Florida. You’re right, I’ve never heard of the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl either. But apparently it’s here for the fifth-place team. The Bulls’ remaining schedule — Louisville, Pitt, Miami and Connecticut — is not easy. They only need to win one game to clinch a bowl bid, but it will be tough.

New Era Pinstripe — Connecticut. The Huskies need to win two out of their last four games (including last night’s) to clinch a bowl berth. If they do, I don’t see them getting anything better than the Big East’s last spot. The New Era Pinstripe Bowl — held in the new Yankee Stadium — would prefer this team be Rutgers or Syracuse, but hey, you don’t always get what you want.

In what has become sort of a tradition, I will once again hand out prestigious hardware to end my column. Since there were only two Big East games last week, the pickins were slim.

Defensive Player of the Week: Jacquian Williams, linebacker, South Florida

Williams registered 11 tackles and 1.5 sacks in the Bulls’ win over Rutgers.

Offensive Player of the Week: Jacob Sims, offensive tackle, South Florida

The man experienced the dream of possibly every offensive lineman and recovered a fumble in the end zone in what proved to be the game-winning score. ’Nough said.