Big East football makes 'strong statement'

[TyBull]

Big East football makes 'strong statement'

Jacob Messer

Daily Mail sportswriter

Tuesday September 05, 2006

MORGANTOWN -- Some college football experts have called the Big East Conference weak since Boston College, Miami (Fla.) and Virginia Tech departed for the Atlantic Coast Conference in the past two years.

But the league looked anything but in the season's first week.

The Big East opened the season with a 7-1 record, including a 2-1 mark against the ACC. Syracuse, which fell at Wake Forest, 20-10, was the only Big East loser.

"It's great for the league," said Rutgers Coach Greg Schiano, whose team won at North Carolina. "Hopefully, that trend continues."

"It makes a very strong statement," Cincinnati Coach Mark Dantonio said of the Big East's season-opening success.

That goes especially when it is compared to the ACC's 7-5 opening weekend, including Florida State's 13-10 ACC win over Miami (Fla.) on Monday night. Virginia, UNC, Georgia Tech and Duke also lost.

The Big East went 2-1 against the ACC, with Pitt pasting Virginia 38-13, in addition to the Syracuse loss at Wake and Rutgers' win at North Carolina.

"When you go out and play the games, you let your actions speak louder than your words," Connecticut Coach Randy Edsall said. "That's kind of what we have done."

Dantonio said the holes left by the departure of Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech are only temporary ones.

"When those other teams left the Big East, a void was going to be left," Dantonio said. "But that void is going to be filled. You are starting to see that happen."

"The Big East will continue to improve," West Virginia Coach Rich Rodriguez said. "People will see that in the next few years."

The Big East, which Louisville Coach Bobby Petrino expects to be ultra-competitive this season, is the only conference in college football to send all of its members to bowl games in at least one of the past two years. The Providence, R.I.-based league sent half of its members to bowl games last year.

"(When) you combine how we ended last season along with how we started this year," Pittsburgh Coach Dave Wannstedt said, "I don't even see it being a topic of conversation, to be honest with you."

Neither does South Florida Coach Jim Leavitt or Syracuse Coach Greg Robinson.

"People pretty much have seen the league is awfully strong," Leavitt said.

"It's pretty obvious to me that (the Big East) is a pretty solid league," Robinson added.

Furthermore, Wannstedt said, the Big East doesn't have an inferiority complex.

"I don't think you would find anybody in the Big East, from the commissioner to the athletic directors to the coaches to the players, who would all of a sudden if we are going to play somebody from another conference are going to look at it from a standpoint that we're inferior or this is going to be a challenge that we don't see on a week-to-week basis," Wannstedt said. "That's not the case at all."

Although he agrees with his counterparts who say the league is improving, Edsall thinks the Big East must continue to prove itself -- and the best way to do that is with wins.

"That was one week," Edsall said. "In this business, you are only as good as your last week. Now, we have to go and do the same thing this week."

Contact sportswriter Jacob Messer at jacobmesser@dailymail.com or 348-1712.

[bulls96go]

...and the next week and the next...

git er don