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

2009 CFN Big East Picks, Schedules & More

By Staff

CollegeFootballNews.com
Posted Nov 3, 2009

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

2009 Big East ... Week 10

	CFN EXPERT PICKS	Fiu	Rich	Matt	Michael	Clucko	PICK
12;00	Conn. at Cin. -12	CI*	CI	CI	CI	CT	CI
12:00	Syracuse at Pitt -20.5	PI*	PI*	PI	PI	SU	PI*
12:00	Louis. at WVU -19.5	WV*	WV	WV	WV*	WV	WV
	Straight Up	41-9	43-7	42-8	40-10	21-29	42-8
	ATS	21-19	21-19	22-18	18-22	19-21	21-19

Big East Standings
	Conf.		Overall
Cincinnati	4	0	8	0
Pitt	4	0	7	1
W. Virginia	2	1	6	2
USF	2	2	6	2
Rutgers	1	2	6	2
Conn.	1	3	4	4
Syracuse	0	3	3	5
Louisville	0	3	3	5
Players of the Week 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 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 at South Florida 30 West Virginia 19 - South Florida & Daniels get past WVU - West Virginia can't handle Daniels in loss CFN Prediction: West Virginia 28-20 Line: West Virginia -3 Rutgers 28 at Connecticut 24 - Connecticut loses heartbreaker - Rutgers & Brown beat UConn in final seconds CFN Prediction: Connecticut 24-16 Line: Connecticut -8 Cincinnati 28 at Syracuse 7 - Cincinnati & Collaros roll in win over Orange - Syracuse can't keep up in loss to UC CFN Prediction: Cincinnati 35-16 Line: Cincinnati -15 at Louisville 21 Arkansas State 13 Louisville banged up, but beats ASU CFN Prediction: Louisville 27-23 Line: Louisville -4

GAME OF THE WEEK

Rutgers 28 … at Connecticut 24
In an emotional game, it was UConn’s first game back home after the death of Jasper Howard, the storybook ending appeared complete as Jordan Todman gave the Huskies the lead on a two-yard touchdown run with 38 seconds to play. But Rutgers managed to pull out the win with an 81-yard pass play to Tim Brown for the win in the final seconds. Brown also caught a 37-yard touchdown pass and Tom Savage, who finished with three touchdown passes, connected with Mark Harrison for a 20-yard score. Devin McCourty gave the Scarlet Knights an early lead with a 98-yard kickoff return for a score, but UConn got a big special teams play of its own with a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown from Robbie Frey in the second quarter.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Rutgers WR Tim Brown caught five passes for 162 yards and two scores in the win over Connecticut.

CONFERENCE ROUNDUP

Cincinnati … Cincinnati 28 ... at Syracuse 7 ... Tony Pike is a better quarterback than Zach Collaros, but even when Pike returns, it’ll be important to keep both options involved. Collaros adds another dimension to the attack with his mobility and his ability to make things happen to keep plays alive, and he came up with touchdown passes against SU that Pike wouldn’t have. The team keeps on rolling and hasn’t been touched over the last several games, and now getting the next three games at home will be a big help. It only gets tougher from here on starting with UConn next week and with West Virginia coming in the week after.

Connecticut … Louisville 28 ... at Connecticut 24 ... It’s been a rough emotional few weeks for UConn off the field, and it’s been hard on the field as well with two straight crushing losses coming in the final moments. There’s also the problem of the opening kickoff, giving up scores in each of the last two games, and the offense has had to scramble. The Huskies came up with 481 yards of total offense against Rutgers, but four turnovers, no takeaways, and ten penalties proved to be a major problem. The team has an excuse to be unfocused, but if it wants to get to a bowl game it needs to pull off an upset in one of the next two games at Cincinnati or at Notre Dame.

Louisville … at Louisville 21 ... Arkansas State 13 ... It’s all about survival right now for Louisville. Top two quarterbacks Adam Froman and Justin Burke are hurt, and the team’s best weapon, RB Victor Anderson was also out against Arkansas State. Will Stein didn’t do anything crazy and he kept the passes short and conservative, while Bilal Powell ran well in place of Anderson. However, to have a shot at beating West Virginia, the offense will have to take a few more chances and will have to get more creative.

Pitt … Didn’t Play This Week

Rutgers … Louisville 28 ... at Connecticut 24 ... Very quietly, Rutgers has positioned itself for a possible No. 3 slot in the Big East pecking order. Any shot at the title is gone with losses to Cincinnati and Pitt, but with the big win over UConn, the Scarlet Knights now have two tough games left, South Florida and West Virginia, and they’re both at home. The team is getting the job done with timely plays, good play from QB Tom Savage, and turnovers. Rutgers is first in the nation in turnover margin, forcing four and not giving any away against the Huskies.

South Florida … at USF 30 ... West Virginia 19 ... After a few rough outings, B.J. Daniels showed that he’s not only a playmaker to count on for the rest of the season, but a player to build the offense around for the next few years. The defense did a fantastic job of bottling up Noel Devine and the West Virginia running game, and while there were a few problems on third downs, this was the type of win that should set the tone for the finishing kick. Now the team can’t blow the positive momentum by losing next week at Rutgers.

Syracuse … Cincinnati 28 ... at Syracuse 7 ... Syracuse did a great job of getting into the Bearcat backfield and made several tackles for loss, but it struggled to get to QB Zach Collaros to throw him off his game. While Greg Paulus is still the main man at quarterback, it’s smart to get Ryan Nassib more and more work. At this point, he needs the time for next year and playing Paulus isn’t a help in any way. As rough as this was, it’ll only get tougher with three road games in the final four. SU will be lucky to get a win the rest of the way.

West Virginia… at USF 30 ... West Virginia 19 ... You’d think that West Virginia, of all teams, would be used to defending a mobile quarterback; it does it every day in practice. It couldn’t handle B.J. Daniels as both a runner and a passer, and the offense couldn’t take control of the game. There were chances late, but Noel Devine was bottled up for most of the game and Jarrett Brown couldn’t make up for it with the passing game. All is not lost; the Big East title is still in range with Cincinnati, Pitt, and Rutgers still to play.

Saturday, November 7
Connecticut at Cincinnati
Louisville at West Virginia
Syracuse at Pitt

Thursday, November 12
USF at Rutgers

Friday, November 13
West Virginia at Cincinnati (ESPN2)

Saturday, November 14
Syracuse at Louisville
Notre Dame at Pitt

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