By J.P. Girouard
From the folks who brought you the remote-controlled lawn mower and the Best Big East Week Ever, it’s the Big East's Key Games of 2008. Available in Spanish where available.
COMING SOON: Best Big East 2008 Awards Ever
COMING SOON: Best Big East Bowl Previews Ever
Five games which defined the 2008 Big East season…
Mike Teel Goes Crazy … For the first half of the season, “going crazy” for Rutgers quarterback Mike Teel meant throwing punches at well-intentioned teammates and getting booed out of his home stadium. So it’s no surprise that the fifth-year senior took out his rage and frustration - the surprise was that he took it out on a nationally-ranked, red hot, Pittsburgh team – throwing a career-high six touchdown passes in a 54-34 upset win. The victory started a ridiculous five-game stretch for Teel, where he threw 20 touchdown passes against just five interceptions, leading the Scarlet Knights from the abyss of a 1-5 start to their fourth straight bowl appearance.
Syracuse Doesn’t Quit On Greg Robinson … The entire 2008 season was one, slow, painful death march for Syracuse head coach Greg Robinson. Thrown under the bus early in the year by his athletic director, Daryl Gross, it was clear that it was not a question of if Robinson would be let go, but when. So it was no surprise the day after a disappointing 39-14 loss at home to UConn that the axe fell. But an interesting thing happened: a Syracuse team that had played hard for him all year rallied on the road the very next week to stun Notre Dame. Greg Robinson got his signature win, but in a most ironic way.
USF Is Who We Thought They Were … Remember 2007, when the Bulls started off 6-0 and got to number-two in the national rankings? Of course, that all came crashing down when South Florida lost three straight to fall out of the top-25. Well, USF started out 5-0 this year and cracked the AP top-10, only to come up short in yet another prime-time showdown. The Bulls had their chances against Pittsburgh, rallying in the second half to take a 21-20 lead only to see the Panthers score a minute later to seal the win. The loss started a horrible 1-4 stretch for USF, and the back-to-back midseason collapses have suddenly left head coach Jim Leavitt with a lot of explaining to do in Tampa.
It Was Nothing But A Tease … Connecticut started off 5-0 in 2008 behind the red-hot play of running back Donald Brown. Of course, the hot start - built on the back of a soft schedule – masked serious offensive woes. That’s why in retrospect, the 38-12 whipping the Huskies received at the hands of North Carolina on October 4 shouldn’t have been a surprise; it ended up being the precursor to a 2-5 finish. Meanwhile, Louisville teased a return to greatness after upsetting South Florida to get to 5-2 on October 25. But the Cardinals laid an egg the next week against woeful Syracuse, kicking off an ugly five-game losing streak that kept Louisville out of the post-season while turning up the temperature on head coach Steve Kragthorpe.
The Changing Of The Guard … Admit it; when West Virginia rallied from 11 points down in the final two minutes against Cincinnati to send the game to overtime, you thought they were going to finish the job, didn’t you? After all, these were the Mountaineers – the beasts of the new Big East. Yet somehow, the Bearcats did what they did all season. They rallied in the face of adversity and got the win.
But this was more than just a gutty team winning a hard-fought game. That November night in Morgantown felt a lot like the changing of the guard in the Big East. No longer was West Virginia the team with the unstoppable rushing attack - the Mountaineers didn’t crack 100 yards on the ground. And unlike past years, the coaching advantage belonged to someone other than a West Virginia head coach. This one game may be remember for years as the moment that Cincinnati moved into the inner circle while the Mountaineers came back to the pack.
J.P. Girouard blogs about the Big East for CollegeFootballNews.com. You can email him here.
Best Big East Week Ever Archives:
Best Big East Week Ever – 11/19/08
Best Big East Week Ever – 11/12/08
Best Big East Week Ever – 10/22/08
Best Big East Week Ever – 10/8/08
Best Big East Week Ever – 10/1/08
Other Articles By J.P. Girouard:
The Real Problem At Notre Dame
Greg Robinson Fired As Syracuse Head Coach
Down The Stretch In The Big East
Nine Pivotal Days For The Big East
The Big East Expectations Game
Is This Going To Be Ben Mauk's Legacy?
WVU Runs Away In Big East Media Poll
Rutgers' Strange Stadium Bargain
The Coach Who Stayed
The Big East Manifesto