2010 Big East Football Preview: Pittsburgh Panthers seem the early favorite
Bluntly stated, up front: the Big East is a basketball conference. When you think "Big East," you think basketball. Georgetown, Syracuse, even Cincinnati in their heyday of Bobby Huggins. UConn? Until three years ago, it's quite possible you didn't even know UConn had a football program.
Here's the thing, though: the Big East is also a football conference. There are eight teams in there, and it's actually fairly competitive. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, UConn, and West Virginia all have legit talent this year; Rutgers and South Florida seem to emerge from the weeds periodically and record impressive seasons, and former Florida Gators D-Coordinator Charlie Strong is now the head man at Louisville, anxious to prove himself with a program that was ranked in the top-five as recently as late 2007.
This is a website dedicated to bars, conversations at bars, finding bars, etc. -- it's not, per se, a website dedicated to informing you about college football. We'll keep the basic themes of the conference brief in each of these previews. Five seems like a brief, but agreeable, number of points to present. For the Big East, it would be thus:
1. Can Cincy stay elite without Kelly?
This has been the Bearcats' conference, especially since Rich Rod left WVU for Michigan. But with Brian Kelly leaving Cincy for ND -- and Tony Pike now a pro -- can the Bearcats hold on?
2. How sick is Noel Devine?
Pretty sick. (Video evidence below.) As a Heisman candidate, though, he might be behind conference rival Dion Lewis of Pitt.
3. How sickly is Syracuse?
Pretty bad. Good thing they have hoops over there. Author of this post lives in Astoria; at a bar four blocks from his house, every Saturday, like clockwork, a few 'Cuse alums turn out for their game (almost invariably at noon, on some odd ESPN feed being televised on the MSG Network). These guys also invariably get wasted and rant about how bad Syracuse is. The next Saturday, you see them and they say something like, "Man, last Saturday killed me. I tried to go out after that. I shouldn't do that again." Then they do. Cycles are interesting things.
4. Can Rutgers be legit again?
Greg Schiano was all the rage like 36 months ago -- some people think he could have gotten the gig at Miami or Michigan -- but Rutgers has faded a bit from "prominent storyline" area. Their QB, Tom Savage, is pretty legit. (Video evidence below.) They could do some things this year.
5. Jordan Todman
Want to win friends and influence people? The surest way to do that is to know things they don't know, and not sound smug when you present it. (Easier said than done.) Todman plays RB for UConn. He's nasty. Last year, he split time -- and still rushed for 1,200 yards and 14 TD. He opens against Michigan. You know Michigan's rank against the run last year? No. 91 in the country. Gulp.
And Now, Onto Bars
So, where do you watch these teams, assuming you're not into getting drunk at noon in Queens? The Big East is, after all, the most centrally-located major conference to New York City. You can find all teams via our appropriately-titled "Teams"page(updated throughout the summer and fall as we get intelligence on cool places to watch 'ball). Cincinnati, for example, had been watching at Village Pourhouse. Theoretically, that's now a good place to go bash Notre Dame. West Virginia contingents had been watching 'ball and hoops at The Ainsworth; Louisville fans head to The Hill (one of the last times we were there, we lost our wallet, although we can't necessarily fault the bar for this fact). We've spotted 'Cuse fans at Stout -- that's predominantly a Texas bar, though, and ain't no one gonna throw 'Cuse football on ahead of Longhorn football in this day and age -- and also at Bar None.
If you're a Big East alum, Big East fan, general mid-20somethings drunkard, or any other category of humanity and want to tell us a little bit about themes we missed, bars we should discuss, or anything else, well... hit us up or go crazy in the comments.
Next Up: The ACC.
Join the Discussion