Pre-Saturday Opinions

I thought I’d get started early this Saturday and make some comments before the games even begin. There has been some interesting action already. South Florida, who many felt was the second best team in the country, fell on Thursday night to Rutgers. Now I don’t want to say “I told you so,” but I told you so. I haven’t been sold on the Big East in quite sometime. The signature win for South Florida was against a Big East team, West Virginia. So logic states that if the conference isn’t that great, then a big win against a conference opponent isn’t that big of a win. I do credit teams for winning conference games, and I did think that it was a big win for South Florida when they beat West Virginia, but it didn’t sell me on the Big East. South Florida still may be the best team in the Big East, and it is remarkable what has been going on down in Tampa. This team has been in existence for 10 years, only. They are definitely a top 25 team, and before their loss on Thursday, I felt they were a top 10 team, but not the #2 team. It just took a loss to a good Rutgers team for the rest of the country to catch up with me.
Friday night there was another game in the Big East. Louisville played UConn, and of course Louisville should win that game, right? Wrong. Alright, so the game was played in Connecticut, and the Huskies have lost only one game this year so far. But we are talking about Louisville. They have a NFL quality quarterback, and they have been fantastic over the past 5 years scoring points comparative to MAC teams, but against better quality opponents. But this year the Cardinals are in real trouble. They have fallen to 4-4 on the season and still need to play Pitt, Rutgers, West Virginia and South Florida. Louisville is going to be extremely lucky to be Bowl eligible at the end of the season. Most likely they won’t be.
But the real story isn’t how bad Louisville has become, but where in the world did UConn come from. Connecticut is already Bowl eligible this year. They have had somewhat of an easier schedule, but they have still won. Their sole loss came at the hands of Virginia, who has proved to be a good team, despite their early season loss to Wyoming. They Huskies quarterback, Tyler Lorenzen, has some big shoes and shoulder pads to fill, and I do mean big. His older brother is Jared Lorenzen, who plays back-up for the New York Giants, and made a big name as that giant quarterback that played for Kentucky. He hasn’t been great, but he’s been good enough to win 6 of their 7 games. How far can these Huskies go?