Scout.com: 2009 CFN Big East Picks, Schedules & More

2009 CFN Big East Picks, Schedules & More

By Staff

CollegeFootballNews.com
Posted Nov 15, 2009

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Big East 2009 Game of the Week, Player of the Week, Roundup & Standings

2009 Big East ... Week 12

	CFN EXPERT PICKS	Fiu	Rich	Matt	Michael	Clucko	PICK
12:00	Louisville at USF -12.5	SF	SF	SF	SF	SF	SF
2:30	Conn at No Dame -6	NS	ND*	ND*	ND	CT	ND*
3:30	Rutgers -8.5 at Syr.	RU	RU	RU	RU	SU	RU
	Straight Up	47-10	50-7	48-9	48-9	46-11	49-8
	ATS	25-22	24-23	23-24	23-24	24-23	24-23

Big East Standings
	Conf.		Overall
Cincinnati	6	0	10	0
Pitt	5	0	9	1
W. Virginia	3	2	7	3
Rutgers	2	2	7	2
USF	2	2	6	2
Conn.	1	4	4	5
Louisville	1	4	4	6
Syracuse	0	5	3	7
Players of the Week 11/14 Isaiah Pead, RB UC 11/7 Zach Collaros, QB UC 10/31 Tim Brown, WR Rut 10/24 Noel Devine, RB WV 10/17 Dion Lewis, RB Pitt 10/10 Bill Stull, QB Pitt 10/3 Noel Devine, RB WV 9/26 B.J. Daniels, QB USF 9/19 Tony Pike, QB Cin 9/13 Jarrett Brown, QB WV 9/5 Tony Pike, QB Cin. Games of the Week 11/14 Cin 24, WVU 21 11/7 Cin 47, Conn. 45 10/31 Rut 28, Conn 24 10/24 WV 28, Conn 24 10/17 UC 34, USF 17 10/10 Pitt 24, Conn 21 10/3 WVU 35, Col 24 9/26 NC St 38, Pitt 31 9/19 SU 37, NWest 34 9/13 UNC 12, Conn 10 9/5 Minn. 23, SU 20 OT Scoreboard Thursday, November 12 at Rutgers 31 USF 0 - Rutgers sacks USF in dominant win - South Florida gets no O in loss to Rutgers CFN Prediction: USF 23-17 Line: USF -1.5 Friday, November 13 at Cincinnati 24 West Virginia 21 - Cincinnati not sharp, but gets 10th win - West Virginia & Brown come up short vs. UC CFN Prediction: Cincinnati 37-23 Line: Cincinnati -8.5 Saturday, November 14 at Louisville 10 Syracuse 9 - Louisville gains 151 yards in win over SU - Syracuse loses to Cardinals on late TD CFN Prediction: Louisville 23-17 Line: Louisville -7 at Pitt 27 Notre Dame 22 Pitt & Lewis hang on to beat the Irish CFN Prediction: Pitt 31-24 Line: Pitt -7

GAME OF THE WEEK

at Cincinnati 24 … West Virginia 21
Tony Pike threw two touchdown passes and Isaiah Pead barely crossed the goal line on a two-yard run, which was reviewed for being a fumble, as Cincinnati held on to beat the Mountaineers. The Bearcats weren’t sharp, but with a 38-yard Jake Rogers field goal with just over two minutes to play, they had a ten-point lead and appeared to be set. But West Virginia rolled down the field in just over a minute getting a three-yard Bradley Starks touchdown catch with 39 seconds to play, but Cincinnati recovered the onside kick. West Virginia’s first score, a run from QB Jarrett Brown, came off a fumble. It was UC’s first lost fumble of the season.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Cincinnati RB Isaiah Pead ran 18 times for 175 yards and a score, and he caught two passes for 13 yards in the win over West Virginia.

CONFERENCE ROUNDUP

Cincinnati … at Cincinnati 24 ... West Virginia 21 ... Cincinnati wasn’t its sharpest, it actually lost a fumble, which is a huge event considering there haven’t been any giveaways on the ground all year, but it came though when it had to helped by the fantastic defensive pressure that helped on a key fourth down stop and two Tony Pike touchdown passes. But now what does Cincinnati do with its quarterback situation? Pike was fine for his limited time, but Zach Collaros was fantastic again and can’t be pushed aside. Now the team has a few weeks to rest up and get ready for the final finishing kick against Illinois and Pitt, and while there’s no real chance of getting to the BCS Championship, the game against the Illini doesn’t matter. It’s one game against the Panthers for the BCS.

Connecticut … Didn’t Play This Week

Louisville … at Louisville 10 ... Syracuse 9 ... It might have been a win and it might have broken an ugly streak, but the Cardinals can’t be happy with 151 yards of total offense, just 34 rushing yards, and 1-of-12 third down conversions. For a team that has had such a hard time in Big East play, it’ll take what it can get, and even with all the problems and all the issues, there’s still a shot at a bowl bid by beating South Florida and Rutgers. However, with no offense, it’s going to take a special miracle to pull off a win in either game.

Pitt … at Pitt 27 ... Notre Dame 22 ... The Pitt skill and talent came through. Dion Lewis had a big game, and until Golden Tate went crazy for the Irish, Jonathan Baldwin was the star receiver on the day with several great plays. Now at 9-1, the Panthers are making a strong case for an at-large BCS bid if they don’t win the Big East outright. This was a splashy win on the big stage, and while the team didn’t close as easily as it probably should’ve, it was an impressive performance that showed that Dave Wannstedt has created a nice team playing at a high level.

Rutgers … at Rutgers 31 ... South Florida 0 ... It was one of the team’s most dominant performances of the season. The defense was swarming all over B.J. Daniels and the USF running game, didn’t respect the passing attack, and forced the big mistakes and turnovers that have helped make Rutgers the nation’s leader in turnover margin. While the Big East title is out of the question, there’s no reason to not shoot for a 10-2 record with road trips to Syracuse and Louisville coming up and a home game against West Virginia to close. Tom Savage only hit on half of his passes and he threw a pick, but he’s growing into the starting role while Joe Martinek is doing a great job of carrying the offense.

South Florida … at Rutgers 31 ... South Florida 0 ... Seven first downs, four turnovers, 159 yards of total offense … this was a total disaster in the team’s third loss in four weeks. The defense had its moments, Kion Wilson made 18 tackles and a tackle for loss, but with B.J. Daniels not getting any room to breathe against the Rutgers offensive front the attack didn’t go anywhere. With home games against Louisville and Miami coming up, there’s still time to turn things back around, but at this point, if the Bulls don’t beat the Cardinals, a bowl game isn’t a lock. The two games against Wofford and Charleston Southern means that USF needs to win seven games.

Syracuse … at Louisville 10 ... Syracuse 9 ... Syracuse dominated Louisville everywhere but on the scoreboard. The defense did its job until the final minutes, keeping the Cardinals to just 151 yards, and Delone Carter ran extremely well, tearing off 129 yards, but there’s no downfield passing game without Mike Williams as Greg Paulus completed 12-of-16 passes for just 89 yards. With 26 points in their last three games, the Orange lost any pie-in-the-sky dream of going on a late run of wins for a bowl. Now that a losing season is assured, there’s no reason to play Paulus. It’s all about working towards 2010.

West Virginia… at Cincinnati 24 ... West Virginia 21 ... Jarrett Brown is fantastic when he can simply let it rip. When he’s able to get on the move and make plays with his athleticism and creativity, the offense moves much better. The coaching staff appears to be doing more and more to help do more to be a baller, and doing less to try to restrict him and make him into a pocket passer. He held up well against Cincinnati’s pressure, and he was terrific on the final scoring drive in the last few minutes, but it wasn’t enough. There’s still time to pull off a ten-win season, and there’s still a chance to play the spoiler role with Pitt and at Rutgers to close.

Saturday, November 21
Louisville at USF
Rutgers at Syracuse
Connecticut at Notre Dame (NBC)

Friday, November 27
Pitt at West Virginia

Saturday, November 28
Syracuse at Connecticut
Rutgers at Louisville
Illinois at Cincinnati
Miami at USF

Saturday, December 5
Cincinnati at Pitt
USF at Connecticut
West Virginia at Rutgers