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…and Auburn went 24-2 in 2004 and 2006, including an undefeated SEC with an SEC Title in ‘04 with a loaded team. This year’s Auburn isn’t near that good, but they should be pretty solid yet again, and with the mystery of the QB situation at LSU and Alabama being very young this year, honestly it’s tough not to have the Warring Tigereagles as the SEC West favorite.
That said, the Tigers at #10 is a little high for a team replacing both coordinators and with questions of their own at QB. The big story down on the Plains is obviously the implementation of the spread, thanks to the hire of Troy’s offensive coordinator Tony Franklin at the end of last year. The Trojans averaged 34 points/game and 453 yards/game in Franklin’s second year, so there’s obvious reason for excitement for Auburn fans.
Honestly, Auburn has had anemic offenses since the Campbell/Cadillac/Ronnie Brown days, especially the past two seasons with the inconsistent Brandon Cox running things, not 100% most of the time. Kodi Burns made an impact as a freshman as more of a running option to counter from Cox, so the obvious question is can he handle throwing the ball looms.
Enter junior college transfer Chris Todd. Todd played under Franklin in high school in Kentucky, and played in five games for Texas Tech in 2006. Todd already knows Franklin’s offense, and I would expect Burns and Todd to split time running the offense, that I have dubbed (though not my own creation) the “Spread Eagle” offense.
The only other question on offense I see is playmakers at the receiver position. Rod Smith and Montez Billings led the way last year, but neither incite a great deal of fear. The group of running backs does though – Ben Tate, Brad Lester, and Mario Fannin, who will be featured as a receiver as well. All three have some ability to make big plays, and the general assumption is that the new offense will automatically improve the QB play – why that is I’m not exactly sure.
Last year the offensive line, with three true freshman, was a liability and most responsible in Cox’s struggles – he had no time to throw and forced things at times. This year, things are a bit different. All five starters return on the OL, which should bode well for the QB combo and group of talented backs.
Of course, Auburn’s strength under Tommy Tuberville has always been defense, and this year looks to be the same. Don’t discount the loss of Will Muschamp to Texas though, though Paul Rhoads, the new defensive coordinator, had Pitt #5 in the nation in terms of yards/game (including the stifling of West Virginia).
Up front there’s Sen’Derrick Marks, one of the most talented DTs in the nation, and Antonio Coleman, who had 8.5 sacks last year and will have to make up for the loss of Quentin Groves. The LBs, always a position of strength for the Tigers, features Tray Blackmon, Merrill Johnson, and Craig Stevens. Those guys average 214 lbs, so you know that can cover some ground.
The secondary took a hit when likely starter Aairon Savage tore his knee completely. CB Jerraud Powers and SS Zac Etheridge are still back there, but the depth is a question with Savage’s injury.
And lately the Auburn practice fights have been getting some pub, and who knows how much stock you can put into those minor scuffles and how they effect team chemistry. Although when a kid transfers, especially to Memphis (that was just too easy…kidding though, I love Memphis), maybe it’s more. I don’t think anyone will even remember those in a couple months.
With all that core group returning back, there’s reason to see Auburn winning the West. The new coordinators could be canceled out by the favorable schedule in the SEC. Auburn gets LSU, Tennessee, and Georgia all at home, where Auburn seems to always win the big games. The road trips are to the Mississippi schools, Vandy, and Bama, where Auburn is going for win #7 in a row against the Tide. There’s also a little Thursday night trip to Morgantown, where Auburn’s going to demonstrate the SEC strength against West Virginia.
Auburn could very well continue it’s good string of even-numbered year success in 2008.
I gotta be honest: I just don’t think very highly of the Big East. It just seems to me all the beef – Miami, Virginia Tech, and BC – has now moved “up” to the ACC.
Virginia Tech probably has benefitted the most from the shift, but more on that in the ACC preview. The next beneficiary has clearly been West Virginia, the league’s most notable and consistent team since the “Big Three” left. Obviously since then the Big East has more or less been the Mountaineers’ to lose.
Many, myself included, thought the league had fallen into the mid-major/not-deserving-of-its-automatic-bid-to-a-BCS-bowl situation. Pitt being rocked by Alex Smith and Urban Meyer’s undefeated Utah team in the Fiesta Bowl following the ‘04 season didn’t help, but something happened the next bowl season…
West Virginia, with Pat White and Steve Slaton, stunned the powerful SEC champion Georgia basically in their own backyard. That was a great win and has more or less given the league some credibility, but how long can that be used? Of course, now WVU’s rout of an Oklahoma team many thought deserved a shot at the national title in the most recent Fiesta Bowl will likely take its place.
The league actually had 7 wins over BCS teams in the non-conference schedule (tied with the MWC and SEC for the second most), but a closer look at those wins takes the luster off that stat. The wins were over: Maryland, Mississippi State, Auburn, North Carolina, NC State, Oregon State, and Duke. I should point out that more chances for respect come this year though: West Virginia plays at Colorado and hosts Auburn, USF hosts Kansas, Pitt plays at Notre Dame, Louisville plays Kentucky and Kansas State, and Cincinnati plays at Oklahoma.
Other than USF’s OT win at Auburn, Cincinnati’s 34-3 rout of Oregon State might have been the best out-of-conference regular season win for the Big East in 2007
In reality they should call it the “Thursday Night” league because of the almost dominance of ESPN Thursday night games the past three seasons or so. I guess it’s good for the exposure and that’s great and all, but to me college football is meant for Saturdays and Saturdays alone – maybe I’m just old-school. I just think if you have to play your games on nights when you’re the only option for a football-hungry nation to be seen and noticed, then you must not be that important in the whole scheme of things. NOTE: Big East teams play 25 non-Saturday games this year, including games Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday.
In addition to WVU, Louisville has also carried the Big East’s respect with QB Brian Brohm and a lesser BCS Orange Bowl win over ACC Champion Wake Forest. But the Cards fell to 6-6 last year and were absolutely atrocious on defense (#113 in the country against the pass). The worst? the 38-35 loss to 40+ point underdog Syracuse, winner of two Big East games the past two years. In an effort to improve the defense, UL coach Steve Kragthorpe brought in former Michigan defensive coordinator Ron English.
Back to WVU, the image that sticks out to me that makes me think of the Big East in such a negative light, is Pat White nursing his thumb injury while his WVU offense sputtered against a Pitt team whose coach Dave Wannstedt was likely on his way out. I can’t imagine the injury was that bad, but of course what do I know.
I’ll put it this way: Tim Tebow played the last half of the year with a bum shoulder and won the Heisman with his performance against Florida State with a broken hand. Even Erik Ainge, who most Vol fans consider the most contact-shy, fragile Tennessee QB ever played ALL of last year with a pinky-on-his-throwing-hand injury and a bum throwing shoulder.
Yes, WVU could have gone to New Orleans last year, and honestly I would not have watched them play Ohio State because I believed LSU fully healthy was better than both. That said, I would have liked the Mountaineers chances because of Ohio State’s problems with the spread (see their loss to Illinois). But Pitt ruined that…
West Virginia still controls the Big East, with Pat White returning and speedy HB Noel Devine to take the place of the departed Steve Slaton. The offense will have new WRs that will need to emerge, but the offensive line will be one of the best in the country. The ‘Eers will have a whole new secondary to develop and have questions on the defensive line. Also, how will new coach Bill Stewart fare in his first full year? The bowl win was stirring, sure, but will that carry over?
Because of the upset of WVU, Pitt is viewed as a challenger in the Big East this year. Wannstedt is still the coach, and the Panthers seem to be a popular darkhorse Big East champion pick behind WVU and USF. Pitt lost just 13 letterman and have 15 starters back, most notably stud HB LeSean McCoy and last year’s top three tacklers (LBs Scott McKillop, Shane Murray, and Adam Gunn). Pitt shut down WVU in that upset, and they allowed just over 3 yards/carry on defense last year. At the least, Pitt should make their first bowl since that Fiesta Bowl blowout in 2004, or Wannstedt will be looking for a new job.
A recent episode of College Football Live on ESPN had the USF Bulls as a “breakthrough” team of 2007. However I think it’s much more accurate they had a couple of breakout wins. One was this…
…the other was beating West Virginia on ESPN on (surprise surprise) a Friday night. The Bulls climbed to #2 in the polls before a Thursday night loss at Rutgers, followed by a loss at UConn, and a home loss to Cincinnati. Their season then ended with this thud…
USF pretty much may be the reason Jonathan Stewart was the first RB taken not named McFadden (I jest, Stewart should be a solid NFL HB). If the Bulls broke through last year, then expectations should be higher this season, with 17 starters back (10 on offense), including QB Matt Grothe. The offense has the potential to put up lots of points (the Florida speed should help), and the defense, while having to replace leading tackler LB Ben Moffitt and two NFL CBs in Mike Jenkins and Trae Williams, should be solid again this year. USF actually could run the table, and the league might be decided December 6 when they visit Morgantown.
Cincinnati, under first year head coach Brian Kelly quietly finished 10-3 and in the top 20 last year, but the Bearcats suffered a blow when QB Ben Mauk was denied a 6th year of eligibility. You could see Notre Dame transfer Demetrius Jones win the job, but the strength of Cincy should be the defense, which gave up 19 points/game last year. The only question there is the DL, but offensively Cincy will need to find a QB to throw to one of the better WR groups in the league.
Cincinnati CB Mike Mickens will be one of the defensive leaders for the Bearcats this year
Little do people know that Connecticut split for the Big East title last year with WVU. Simply put, the Huskies caught some breaks – there was the Temple game, and then there was this play…
…that ultimately turned the game and allowed UConn to win. UConn lost 17-16 at UVa, but the best three teams they played (Cincy, West Virginia, and Wake Forest in the bowl), beat the Huskies by a combined 117-34. Ouch. While the entire offense pretty much returns and the only question defensively is the secondary, I think UConn will be hard-pressed to reach 9 wins again. They can make a bowl certainly, but really how good were the Huskies last year?
Can UConn and HB Andre Dixon build off last year’s Big East “co” championship?
Then there’s Rutgers, who had a little fall back to the reality of being Rutgers last year going 8-5. Sure there was the good Rutgers…
…but losses to Maryland (24-34), Cincy (23-28), and WVU (3-31) at home and at UConn (19-38) and Louisville (38-41) dampered the feelings from 2006. The Scarlet Knights return 15 starters, but one of them is not 2,000-yd 24 TD HB Ray Rice. That and special teams are the questions for coach Greg Schiano this year, as pretty much everyone else – QB Mike Teel, WRs Kenny Britt and Tiquan Underwood, FS Courtney Greene, and LBs Kevin Malast and Damaso Munoz – returns. However Rutgers has trips to WVU, USF, and Pitt, so a fourth-straight bowl game should be a respectable goal for this team.
Last but not least, there’s Syracuse. The Orange have won 7 total games the past 3 years, and only 2 league games (UConn in 2006, UL last year). While Syracuse has 14 starters back, they were just awful last year – outscored by 20 points/game in Big East games – and there’s quite the gap between them and the rest of the league.
Syracuse’s Greg Robinson is just 7-28 in his first three years as head coach
Again in 2008, the Big East is West Virginia’s to lose.
2008 “Replacements”: West Virginia’s explosive HB Noel Devine replaces the departed Steve Slaton and Louisville QB Hunter Cantwell, who led the Cards’ 31-7 win over Miami in 2006, replaces Brian Brohm
I think it’s safe to say that the East Division was much better overall than the West Division in C-USA in 2007. Proof: in the regular season, the East was 13-5 against the West, with four of the losses being by Marshall and UAB, the last-place teams. League champ UCF, along with East Carolina and Memphis, went 3-0 vs. the West.
A closer look somewhat furthers this notion: six of the East’s wins were by 7 points or less. At the same time though, Marshall lost by just eight at Tulsa and just a TD at Houston, and UAB lost at Tulsa by just 8 points (30-38).
The East Division was 13-5 against the West Division of C-USA in 2007, thanks to the departed Kevin Smith and UCF, who were 4-0
The East also had four bowl teams – UCF, ECU, Memphis, and Southern Miss – to just two – Tulsa and Houston – from the West (C-USA was just 2-4 in bowl games last year). Also, UCF beat Tulsa in the C-USA Title Game.
Will this continue to this year? I will say not to the same extent – look for a more even intra-divisional record in ‘08. Here’s the East…
EAST CAROLINA
Last Year: 8-5, upset Boise State in Hawaii Bowl – 2007 Schedule – 2008 Schedule
ECU FS Van Eskridge, here returning a fumble for six at UTEP last year, leads a stout Pirates defense into the C-USA East title hunt in 2008
In 2007, ECU closed the season winning 7 of 9, and set a school-record for points in a season (403). However they were outgained by 30 yards/game in conference games, and lose speedy HB Chris Johnson and his nearly 2,000 yards of offense and 23 total TDs. Two QBs – the running threat Patrick Pinkney and pocket passer Rob Kass – alternated last year, and should do so this year as well.
At the HB position, Sr. Dominique Lindsay has plenty of experience, and So. Jonathan Williams has sub-4.4 speed and averaged nearly 7 yards/carry last year. Leading WR Jamar Bryant is back, as is So. Dwayne Harris, who had nearly 800 all-purpose yards (he returned punts too). With 4 starters back, ECU may have the best OL in the conference.
ECU was OK on defense last year, showing glimpses (the opener at Virginia Tech and first 3 quarters of the bowl game) of being really good, and they return 9 starters this year. Three top tacklers return – FS Van Eskridge and LBs Pierre Bell and Quentin Cotton. The entire DL is back, potentially the best in the league, so this should be a pretty good defense. The Pirates play a tough non-C-USA schedule – VT in Charlotte, West Virginia, at NC State and at Virginia – but get their tougher C-USA games – outside of UCF and maybe Southern Miss – at home. With possibly the best lines in the league, ECU might be the East favorite.
UCF
Last Year: 10-4, League Champs, lost in Liberty Bowl – 2007 Schedule – 2008 Schedule
‘07 C-USA Champ UCF returns their entire secondary, including SS Sha’reff Rashad, who led the Knights with 103 tackles last year
Even-numbered years have not been good for UCF so far under George O’Leary: 0-11 in 2004 and 4-8 in 2006. The Knights went 18-9 in 2005 and 2007, including last year’s C-USA Championship run, led by departed 2,500-yd, 29 TD HB Kevin Smith. They also will have a new QB, likely Jr. Mike Greco, who attempted just 45 passes last year. At HB you’ll see Jr. Phillip Smith and incoming Fr. Latavius Murray. WRs A.J. Guyton and Kamar Aiken combined for nearly 900 yards and 7 TDs as freshman last year, and leading WR Rocky Ross is back as well. Seven of the top 10 OL return.
Nine defensive starters return for the Knights, including the entire secondary – CBs Johnell Neal and Joe Burnett, SS Sha’reff Rashad, and FS Jason Venson. The 3 starters at LB from last year – Derrick Hallman, Chance Henderson, and Cory Hogue – return and the backers may be the best in the league. The top two DL are gone, though. UCF has in-state bragging right opportunities with USF and a trip to Miami on the schedule (also a trip to BC). They get ECU at home, but travel to UTEP, Tulsa, Marshall, and Memphis. Nevertheless, UCF should be bowling again and could very well defend their title.
MARSHALL
Last Year: 3-9 – 2007 Schedule – 2008 Schedule
FS C.J. Spillman led Marshall with 131 tackles last year, leading a defense that had just a total of 4 INTs
Marshall started off 0-7 last year before salvaging the season with wins over Rice, ECU, and UAB – long gone are the days of Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich setting school records. Marshall should be better this year, however, with 17 returning starters, including 2006 C-USA Defensive Player of the Year DE Albert McClellan, who tore his ACL last summer and missed ‘07.
QB Bernard Morris is gone, but the RBs and WRs return with experience and the OL losses should be replaced with some talented JUCO and redshirt freshmen. Nine defensive starters return, including the top four tacklers, including FS C.J. Spillman and MLB Maurice Kitchens. Marshall intercepted only four passes last year (2 were by DE John Jacobs who returns). The Herd will have to win a couple tough home games against Memphis, Houston, UCF and Tulsa in conference, because a 1-3 non-conference record is very likely with games against Cincy and at Wisconsin and at West Virginia.
MEMPHIS
Last Year: 7-6, lost in New Orleans Bowl – 2007 Schedule – 2008 Schedule
Memphis returns their top 7 receivers from last year, including the tall (6-foot-8), lanky Carlos Singleton
The hometown (I won’t say my) Tigers were 2-4 the middle of last year with losses to Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee before close wins over Rice and Tulane propelled Memphis into bowl eligibility with a 3OT home win over SMU. They were outscored in conference despite going 6-2. The top passer (QB Martin Hankins) and rusher (HB Joseph Doss) are gone, but the entire WR corps return. Head Coach Tommy West, entering his 8th season, has also said this year’s OL may be the best he’s had while Memphis.
Eight defensive starters return, including FS Brandon Patterson. Three DL return, so there should be improvement there, and two starting LBs return, along with 3 in the secondary. The East may very well be a four-team race, and Memphis should be a contender this year. They get UCF at home and travel to ECU, but they draw Rice, SMU, and Tulane out of the West (that’s favorable). They open up at Ole Miss, and look who’s back on the schedule again! Yes, the hated Louisville Cardinals visit Memphis October 10.
SOUTHERN MISS
Last Year: 7-6, lost to USF in bowl – 2007 Schedule – 2008 Schedule
HB Damion Fletcher looks for his third-straight 1,000-yd season, though Southern Miss returns just 10 starters and (inexplicably) has a new coach
Rant time: Southern Miss was just plain stupid for forcing out long-time head coach Jeff Bower. What did Bower do in Hattiesburg? He built USM into football respectability: the Golden Eagles have been to 10 bowls the last 11 years, and Bower led USM to 14 straight winning seasons. To put that into perspective, only Florida, Florida State, Michigan, and Virginia Tech have that current distinction. Tough spot for new coach Larry Fedora.
To add to the change, Southern Miss has just 10 starters back. HB Damion Fletcher and leading receivers WR Torris Magee and TE Shawn Nelson return, but the OL returns just 45 career starts and the interior line must be replaced. C-USA’s Defensive Player of the Year last year MLB Gerald McRath returns (139 tackles last year), but the Eagles have to replace seven starters, including the entire D-Line. LB Tokumbo Abanikanda, who has one of the coolest names in college football in my opinion, does return too. Continuing their ambitious non-conference scheduling, USM plays at Auburn this year and host Boise State. With the losses and the new coach, don’t be surprised if that 14-year streak comes to an end in 2008.
UAB
Last Year: 2-10 – 2007 Schedule – 2008 Schedule
FS Will Dunbar led UAB with 122 tackles last year and is one of 9 returning starters on defense for an extremely youthful Blazer team in ‘08
When discussing the powerful offenses in C-USA last year, remember not to include the Blazers – UAB averaged 19.6 points/game last year, and allowed 35 to add on all that. A tough first year for coach Neil Callaway, UAB has just 4 senior starters and just 7 overall seniors on the listed two-deep charts.
Dual-threat QB (Darrell Hackney, part II?) Joseph Webb saw a fair share of action last year, and he enters this year as the likely starter (Webb had 30 receptions and 3 TD catches last year too). The revolving door at HB continues: Rashaud Slaughter led in rushing last year, but moves to WR, Mississippi State transfer Brandon Thornton had 63 carries last year but was dismissed, and Aaron Johns, after failing to qualify last year, returns. Three OL starters return, two of whom started as freshmen last year.
Nine defensive starters are back for UAB. UAB was atrocious against the run last year, allowing 291 yards/game in C-USA play (257 overall). The entire DL returns, and all but one LB and one DB return, so huge improvements are expected for the Blazers defensively. Trips to Florida Atlantic, Tennessee, and South Carolina could spell trouble, as UAB is another year away from seriously contending for a bowl bid.
