Big East Conference Roundup (Week 7)

One cannot talk about Big East Football this week without starting with Rutgers junior defensive tackle Eric LeGrand. During Saturday's game against Army at the New Meadowlands Stadium, LeGrand ran down the field on kickoff coverage with 5 minutes and change left in the game and delivered a tackle to the Army return man Malcolm Brown. He laid on the ground motionless and was carted off the field.

Yesterday, everyone's worst fears became reality when they announced that LeGrand underwent emergency spinal cord surgery and it was determined that he is now paralyzed from the neck down.

In a sport as violent as football its a wonder more serious injuries don't occur every day. However, when it does its always a shock. Eric LeGrand, a 6'3" 263 pound junior from Avenal, New Jersey is currently in the Intensive Care Unit at Hackensack University Medical Center.

Fans who wish to send Eric LeGrand a message can do so by clicking here thanks to a website set up by Rutgers University. I'm not sure what one says to a young man who loved the game of football as much as he did, and who now has now has to make sense of this tragedy, but for those of you who are able to find the words you can click here and send them directly to him.

Scores from around the Big East:

West Virginia defeated South Florida 20-6 in a Thursday night match up. BJ Daniels followed up his awful performance against the cuse with an even worse one. Daniels threw 3 interceptions on 20 of 30 passing for just 119 yards. He ran for 4 yards as well. West Virginia is now 5-1 overall (1-0 Big East) and ranked 20th in both polls. Next week West Virginia will host Syracuse at 12 noon on ESPN2. South Florida (3-3 overall, 0-2 Big East) will travel to Cincinnati for a Friday night game.

Speaking of Cincinnati, they won a shootout against Louisville 35-27 on the road. Zach Collaros threw for 5 touchdowns (and 2 interceptions) on 18 of 28 pasing attempts for 275 yards for Cinci. Isaiah Pead ran for 145 yards on 21 carries for the Bearcats, and Bilal Powell ran for 209 yards and 2TDs for Louisville. Armon Binns caught 8 balls for 175 yards and 3 TDs for Cinci as well. Louisville will host UCONN at home Saturday at 3:30PM on ESPNU.

Finally Rutgers defeated Army in overtime 23-20 in East Rutherford, NJ. Rutgers will travel to Pittsburgh on Saturday for a noon kickoff.

Current Big East Standings:

1. West virginia 5-1 (1-0)

2. Rutgers 4-2 (1-0)

3. Cincinnati 3-3 (1-0)

4. Pittsburgh 3-3 (1-0)

5. SYRACUSE 4-2 (1-1)

6. Connecticut 3-3 (0-1)

7. Louisville 3-3 (0-1)

8. South Florida 3-3 (0-2)

Syracuse's loss drops them from 1st place down to 5th place in the Big East standings.

Big East Roundup (Week 6)

Now that the dust has settled on an outstanding Syracuse weekend and we all begin to dry out from what was surely two nights of celebration, we can sit back and look at how the rest of the Big East did this weekend.

The first game on the slate this weekend was the Friday night game UCONN at Rutgers. Rutgers freshman QB Chas Dodd starting in place of Tom Savage threw for 18/29 322 yards and 2 TDs. Rutgers scored 10 straight 4th quarter points to edge the Huskies in Piscataway, final score 27-24. Rutgers kicked a 34 yard field goal with just 13 seconds left to give them the edge on this night. Rutgers will host Army at the New Meadowlands stadium this Saturday at 2PM while UCONN will be enjoying a bye week.

Louisville absolutely destroyed Memphis at home, 56-0. Louisville quarterback Adam Froman threw for 235 yards on 12 of 16 attempts with 4 TD passes. Bilal Powell, Cardinal running back, tallied 204 rushing yards of his own to go along with 2 rushing scores. The Cards defense held Memphis to just 39 rushing yards on the day and it was the program's first shut out since beating Temple 62-0 in 2006. Louisville will face off against Cincinnati at home this weekend to open up their conference schedule.

Pittsburgh traveled to South Bend this past Saturday and lost to the Fightin' Irish 23-17 in a contest that was hardly ever in doubt. Pittsburgh would jump out to an early 3-0 lead, however Notre Dame responded with 20 unanswered points. The loss drops Pittsburgh to 2-3 on the year. It was Notre Dame's first win over Pitt since 2005. Additionally, they haven't beaten Pitt in South Bend since 2002. Pittsburgh will travel to Syracuse next week.

Elsewhere in the conference West Virginia topped UNLV at home 49-10 and Cincinnati dominated Miami of Ohio 45-3. Geno Smith of WVU threw three touchdown passes, all to Brad Starks, and Noel Devine rushed for two scores of his own in this lopsided victory. Cinci would jump out to a quick 28-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Zach Collaros threw for 3 TD passes and 216 total yards and Isaiah Pead rushed for 197 yards on 10 carries with 1 TD. Next week Cinci will travel to Louisville in a Big East match up, and West Virginia will host South Florida on ESPN Thursday night at 7:30.

Through six weeks of Big East play, the conference standings are as follows:

1. SYRACUSE 4-1 (1-0)

2. Rutgers 3-2 (1-0)

3. West Virginia 4-1

4. Louisville 3-2

5. Cincinnati 2-3

6. Pittsburgh 2-3

7. South Florida 3-2 (0-1)

8. Connecticut 3-3 (0-1)

[UPDATE: Senior Max Suter named Big East Defensive Player of the week. Suter recorded 8 tackles, six of them solo three for a loss, and a sack. Suter was a 2007 Big East Special Teams Player of the week in 2007 after a 93 yard kickoff return for a touch down in Louisville.]