Miami looks to continue streak with a win over Rutgers

This weekend features several key head-to-head matchups in the Big East Conference.

During… This weekend features several key head-to-head matchups in the Big East Conference.

During the next few weeks, some separation should occur in the conference, as there are three teams that are still undefeated.

One team will be dropped from this list, as Pitt and Virginia Tech are two out of the three teams. The two squads are preparing to square off Saturday, while Miami is the only remaining undefeated team in the conference.

Miami prepares for Rutgers after beating West Virginia

Miami (7-0 overall, 3-0 Big East) outplayed West Virginia in the fourth quarter and was able to pull out a 40-23 victory.

Larry Coker was glad to come away with a victory at West Virginia, but feels the Hurricanes defense needs to improve.

“We are elated to come away with a win against West Virginia. They had an excellent football team. There are some areas that we obviously have to improve in,” Coker said. “We went into the West Virginia game with the goal of stopping the run. We felt like they ran the ball awfully well, which was obvious and we didn’t achieve it. I think we had some players who tried to do too much.”

Miami dropped to No. 2 in the Bowl Championship Series polls and will play Rutgers on Saturday, but the Hurricanes are not focused on the BCS polls.

“We are excited about the opportunity to go into Rutgers undefeated in the conference,” Coker said. “I don’t find myself rooting for [teams Miami has beaten], but I find myself saying is it advantageous for us that for this team to win or that team to win because of strength of schedule. That’s part of the system and I think you have to do that.”

Miami already beat Florida State and was hoping for some help in polls from the Seminoles as they lost to Notre Dame last weekend.

“For us it probably would have been advantageous for Florida State to beat Notre Dame,” Coker said. “You do look at the formula and realize what it takes to get to where you need to be; of course the bottom line for us is that we have to win.”

Rutgers (1-7, 0-4) is coming off a 45-14 loss to Syracuse.

“It was a disappointing loss; there were some great moments. It is an honor for Nate Jones to be representing the Big East as the Big East co-Player of the Week on special teams,” Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said. “Now we move onto Miami, which is obviously quite a challenge and something that our kids should be excited to get involved in.”

West Virginia prepares for Temple

After a heartbreaking loss to Miami last weekend, the Mountaineers will travel to Temple (3-5, 1-2) on Saturday. West Virginia (5-3, 2-1) was close with the Hurricanes for three quarters, but Miami was able to pull away in the final quarter to secure the victory.

“I was proud of the effort that our men gave and I think that for three quarters we executed well in all three phases, but in the fourth quarter they executed better than we did and they came away with the victory,” head coach Rich Rodriguez said.

The problem that Rodriguez feels needs to be addressed is putting together a complete game.

“There are some positive things from the game that we can take out of it and try to get better to play a Temple team that I think has improved tremendously over the past few years,” Rodriguez said. “We are going to have to play for four quarters and execute for four quarters in order to win.”

Temple lost 20-10 to No. 3 Virginia Tech last Saturday. Head coach Bobby Wallace chalked the loss up to missed opportunities.

“We were disappointed to lose the game to Virginia Tech. We played an outstanding football team. We played with a lot of heart and played really tough defense, Wallace said. “Offensively we missed a few opportunities. We had a couple of chances to score and we didn’t get it in. It was kind of disappointing because we knew that we would not get many shots, so when we got them we had to take advantage [of them].”

Temple will host West Virginia on Saturday.

“West Virginia is a really improved football team from last year,” Wallace said. “The team that led the nation in rushing defense is the team that leads the nation in rushing now.”

In hopes of winning six games this season and becoming bowl eligible, Temple has to kick things into high gear.

“We are in a situation now, which I guess most teams are in at this time of the year. We have Big East games the next four weeks, which will determine any success we have this season in reaching any goals,” Wallace said. “We basically have to go 3-1 in those four games.”

After beating up on Rutgers, Syracuse goes to Central Florida

The Orangemen’s offense and defense finally came together last weekend. Syracuse (2-6, 1-3) held Rutgers to 16 yards rushing and had eight sacks. The Orangemen’s dominant performance resulted in a 45-14 victory over the Scarlet Knights.

“Saturday I felt that we played, offensively and defensively, probably our most consistent game,” head coach Paul Pasqualoni said. “We are getting ready to play Central Florida, which is a very talented team and is a veteran team. They played Penn State and Arizona State tough; they play everybody tough.”

After an overtime loss, Boston College visits No. 6 Notre Dame

Boston College (4-3, 0-3) plays at Notre Dame this weekend. The Eagles suffered a 19-16 defeat at the hands of Pitt in overtime on Saturday.

“It was an extremely tough loss for our football team,” head coach Tom O’Brien said. “We had a tremendous effort and put ourselves in position in the fourth quarter to win the football game, but was not able to do it.”

Notre Dame is one of the best defenses in the country, known for producing turnovers. The game will be a challenge for the Eagles.

“Now we have to turn our attention to Notre Dame. Obviously they are on a roll and are playing great football right now.” O’Brien said. “It’s another top five or six football team in the country, which is the third one we have had to play this year and we look forward to going to Notre Dame to play them.”