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Big East Media Day Recap
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The Big East was on display yesterday during the annual Big East Media Day in Newport, Rhode Island, and the recent success of the conference was evident in the statements of nearly every conference representative present. And why shouldn't it be? The conference that was left for dead by the defections of Virginia Tech, Miami, and Boston College to the ACC is riding a wave of success many didn't think would be possible again. A conference that only two years ago was seriously under question for its BCS Bowl Berth has proceeded to win its last two BCS Bowls and swept every bowl in which it participated last year. A conference that, a few years ago, representatives from the Mountain West Conference suggested should have to play for the right to have a BCS Bowl bid now has 3 legitimate national title contenders in its ranks.  Last year's very successful Big East coaching line-up. (How successful? After last year, five of the guys in this picture were offered jobs either at Alabama, Miami, Michigan State, or the Atlanta Falcons.) So it's understandable that commissioner Mike Tranghese would be beaming right now, as evident by statements like this one from an article in the New York Times, “Who knows, maybe we’ll be lucky enough to send someone to [the BCS Championship Game in] New Orleans this year.” (That article argues that the Big East's success recently is partly based on its lack of a championship game like that of the SEC, ACC, and Big 12. This argument makes little sense, as unlike those leagues, every Big East team plays every other conference team every year. The Big East season is a de-facto playoff.) As they do every year, the Big East media members voted in a preseason poll to determine the top teams in the league. As this article from the Louisville Courier-Journal notes, West Virginia received 20 of a possible 24 first-place votes, Louisville received 3 first-place votes, and Rutgers (somehow) received 1. "The rest of the order of finish in the media poll was South Florida, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Connecticut and Syracuse." (Previous link.) That same story notes that a big part of the excitement surrounding the Big East this year comes from the return of 4 legitimate college football superstars in Rutgers' Ray Rice, Louisville's Brian Brohm, and West Virginia's Steve Slaton and Patrick White. The story quotes White as saying, "From top to bottom this is as good of a league as there is out there. "I think the fact that there are four of us getting mentioned as Heisman candidates from this one league says a lot about the type of football that's played in this conference. There isn't an easy game, ever."  Heisman, anyone? Brian Brohm and Pat White give side-by-side interviews. (Stew Milne, AP Photo) This article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes that the recent Big East success has come despite the absence of two of its most storied programs, Pitt and Syracuse, in the national spotlight. Tranghese noted there that "Those are two programs with incredible tradition, with a lot of history -- the kind of tradition you can recruit off of and build a program around. "I think both have a chance to be good soon and I think Dave [Wannstedt] and Greg [Robinson] are doing a good job of building them back to where they need to be." (Previous link.) So despite the less-than-stellar play of two traditional football powers in Pitt and Syracuse, each representative of the Big East is proud in boasting the return of four Heisman-calibur superstars, at least three teams that will be ranked in the Top 25 (possibly four, if South Florida is included), and a host of national championship talk surrounding several of its programs. And why shouldn't they be? |
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| Poster | Thread |
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| majorfan | Posted: 7/18/2007 9:27 pm Updated: 7/18/2007 9:27 pm |
Makin' it Rain   Joined: 1/4/2007 From: sunset beach, nc Posts: 2915 |
 Re: Big East Media Day Recaplook at Pornstache's dumbass! Is he the only one out of all those guys that doesn't own a suit. It's probably a joke the rest of the coaches played on him..what a douche!
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| sbcx3wvu | Posted: 7/18/2007 9:42 pm Updated: 7/18/2007 9:42 pm |
Pitt Hater   Joined: 2/19/2007 From: St. Albans/Morgantown, WV Posts: 2358 |
Re: Big East Media Day Recap ha I didnt notice thatuntl you pointed it out Major lol.
Look at Coach Rod, looks mean as hell, he means business. |
| WVUfaninlex | Posted: 7/19/2007 10:18 am Updated: 7/19/2007 10:18 am |
Pitt Hater  Joined: 9/1/2006 From: Lexington, KY Posts: 1319 |
Re: Big East Media Day Recap I'd be happier about the fact that the coaches were offered jobs... if some of them hadn't left. We kept RR, and Rutgers kept Schiano, but Petrino moved on... as did D'Antoni. (to Michigan State).
How awesome would it be if the White, Slaton, Brohn and Rice finished 1-2-3-4 in the Heisman? (other than for McFadden, who would have to be injured for that to happen) |
| Bryan1202 | Posted: 7/19/2007 10:05 pm Updated: 7/20/2007 6:49 am |
Noob   Joined: 5/15/2007 From: Louisville, KY Posts: 7 |
Re: Big East Media Day Recap courier-journal.com > Sports > U of L
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 E-mail this | Print page UPDATED: 9:52 AM big east football Cardinals are not as good as Mountaineers, media say By Brian Bennett bbennett@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal NEWPORT, R.I. --- West Virginia is the media's pick to win the 2007 Big East Conference football title, with the University of Louisville pegged to come in second. The preseason media poll was released this morning at the Big East football media day. The Mountaineers, who finished 11-2 last season and tied for second in the Big East, received 20 of a possible 24 first-place votes. They return a pair of Heisman Trophy hopefuls in quarterback Pat White and running back Steve Slaton. The Cardinals, coming off a 12-1 season and Orange Bowl victory, received three first place votes. The only other first place vote went to Rutgers, which is picked to finish third this season. The rest of the order of finish in the media poll was South Florida, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Connecticut and Syracuse. |
| MichaelJLucasWV | Posted: 7/20/2007 8:12 am Updated: 7/20/2007 8:12 am |
Grant Ave. Warrior   Joined: 8/22/2006 From: Spartanburg, SC via Boone County WV Posts: 1071 |
Re: Big East Media Day Recap Poster: WVUfaninlex Posted: 7/19/2007 9:18:19
How awesome would it be if the White, Slaton, Brohn and Rice finished 1-2-3-4 in the Heisman? (other than for McFadden, who would have to be injured for that to happen) heres a partial list of some of the other players that I think should be included in the list of frontrunners and others who could be added to this list later in the year: John David Booty USC Chad Henne Michican't Mario Manningham Michican't Mike Hart Michican't Eric Ainge Tennessee whoever gets the starting job at RB for USC And here are some others who i think may be added to the list during the year: Mike Ford South Florida Juice Williams Illinois Colt McCoy Texas Darius Reynaud West by-god Virginia Tim Tebow Florida Anthony Morrelli Penn State Noel Devine West by-god Virginia if i think of more, ill add them in later |
| BeastoftheEast | Posted: 7/21/2007 12:16 am Updated: 7/21/2007 12:50 am |
WMITC   Joined: 7/21/2006 From: Boone County, WV Posts: 12832 |
Re: Big East Media Day Recap Quote:
look at Pornstache's dumbass! Is he the only one out of all those guys that doesn't own a suit. It's probably a joke the rest of the coaches played on him..what a douche! Yeah Wannstandt looks as bad with the rest of the Big East coaches as he does with the rest of the Big East football teams. He looks like a bigger jackass than usual in this picture. To me it would be extremely hard to justify taking the auto-bid away from the Big East unless something goes really bad. We had more success last year than a lot of the other conferences (Definitely better than the ACC..douchebags that they are) And when they can't blast us anywhere else..they talk about our damn 8 team conference without a Conference Championship game. As I recall the Pac-10 doesn't have one either..but they don't talk about them quite as much. The media has always hated the Big East and always will. |
| msaul37 | Posted: 7/22/2007 5:21 pm Updated: 7/22/2007 5:21 pm |
  Joined: 7/27/2006 From: Alkol, Lincoln County Posts: 20287 |
Re: Big East Media Day Recap guys that picture is from last year, notice petrino and cincinnati's coach.
pitt won't do anything this year, i'll be surprised if syracuse doesn't beat them. |
| BeastoftheEast | Posted: 7/28/2007 5:25 pm Updated: 7/28/2007 5:25 pm |
WMITC Joined: 7/21/2006 From: Boone County, WV Posts: 12832 |
Re: Big East Media Day Recap I knew that already...so what..Wannstache still looks like a fool no matter what season it is.
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| msaul37 | Posted: 7/28/2007 8:31 pm Updated: 7/28/2007 8:31 pm |
Joined: 7/27/2006 From: Alkol, Lincoln County Posts: 20287 |
Re: Big East Media Day Recap by the way that's going.. the 2 people beside mike trangese are gone, now its syracuse's robinson and greg shiano that will leave next.
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