I like what the Big East has been doing since they were “robbed” of all their football powers by the ACC.  To me, this is a very exciting conference.  There are some good offenses and good defenses.  As far as I can tell, I don’t see a clear-cut dominant team in the conference.  I love that fact.  The level of competition is very respectable across the board. 

This is the fifth installment of my grades for out-of-conference (OOC) schedules.  Links to the other four are here:  ACC, Big XII, Big 10(+1), PAC-10, SEC.  There are eight teams in the Big East and they all play each other every year.  That leaves five open dates for OOC games.  Right off the bat, I am going to cut them a little slack because they have to schedule an extra game.  The criteria I am basing my grades upon are as follows:  FCS teams (Div=1AA), BCS conference teams, current successes of scheduled teams, and the recent success of the Big East team.

West Virginia – Villanova, East Carolina, Colorado, Marshall, Auburn.  This is a very good schedule.  With the exception of Villanova, all of these teams are pretty good.  Going to Colorado is never taken lightly.  The ball bounces really funny in Boulder.  You are taking your fate in your own hands when you go out there.  The Auburn game is late in the season and will be a marquee match-up.  I don’t think there are but a handful of teams that would be so bold as to have both these teams on the OOC schedule.  The ECU game is on the road.  What I have noticed about ECU is that when they have a national audience, they give as good a fight as anyone.  The Marshall game is a bit of a rivalry game and those are always scary.  Grade: A+ (I’m going to ignore the Villanova game)

Connecticut – Hofstra, Temple, Virginia, Baylor, North Carolina.  I really like this schedule for UCONN.  Sure Hofstra is a stinker, but the rest is very respectable.  They have a tune-up game with Temple.  In years past, this may have been a hard fought game, but unless Temple has vastly improved from last year, this is a tune-up for UCONN.  The rest are all BCS conference teams.  The Virginia game will be tough for UCONN, but they have a probable win with Baylor.  By far, going to North Carolina will be the toughest OOC test for the Huskies.  They have the chance to play the spoiler to a Tar Heel team that many think will have a break-out year.  For UCONN, this is a very respectable schedule.  Grade: A (I’m going to ignore the Hofstra game)

Cincinnati – Eastern Kentucky, Oklahoma, Miami (OH), Akron, Marshall.  Cincy has the honor of scheduling a BCS giant in Oklahoma.  There is no team in the land that would schedule Oklahoma in Norman and think that they have a better than 50% chance in winning.  In years past, Cincy may have had less than a 5% chance in winning.  Recently, Cincys stock has been rising.  They have a quality team that has handled some decent teams recently.  I am giving the Bearcats a chance, not a big one, but they do have a chance to be in a position to win that game late.  Cincy had no problem at all with Marshall or Miami (OH) last year, so there is no reason to think differently this year.  The Akron game is a tune-up.  Grade: A (I’m ignoring the Eastern Kentucky game)

Syracuse – Northwestern, Akron, Penn State, Northeastern, Notre Dame.  Syracuse has not been the same since McNabb.  So, they get a little slack on the OOC schedule.  They don’t really need any though.  Penn State is a monster who will be dining on Orange dudes that day.  Northwestern is another BCS conference team.  I like that game as well as the Akron game.  It really is too bad that Notre Dame is doing so badly.  It is not the fault of the teams that have them scheduled, and usually the Domers will be pretty good.  I didn’t even know Northeastern had a football team.  Grade: B+

Rutgers – Fresno State, North Carolina, Navy, Morgan State, Army.  Ok, I give them credit for the North Carolina and Fresno State games.  Those are two quality OOC games.  If you listen to the pundits, they will tell you the both those teams are ready to explode.  As for the rest of the schedule, you can’t get on Rutgers too much because they always play Army and Navy.  It’s a rivalry thing.  I can’t be too harsh on those.  So, that leaves Morgan State.  I’m not paying any attention to that one.  Grade: B

South Florida – Tennessee-Martin, Central Florida, Kansas, Florida International, North Carolina State.  South Florida is not going to sneak up on anyone this year.  The biggest test on the OOC schedule is going to be Kansas.  Was KU a one year wonder?  This game will probably tell us volumes on each of these two teams.  NC State is a good scheduled game for the Bulls.  CFU and FIU are a couple in-state rivalries.  (if that is even possible with such a young team.)  CFU may put up a fight, but FIU is bad.  I’m ignoring the TN-Martin game.  Grade: B-

Pittsburgh – Bowling Green, Buffalo, Iowa, Navy, Notre Dame.  There is one redeeming quality from this OOC schedule…All FBS (Div-1) teams.  This is the only team in the Big East that has done this.  For that, I cannot fail them.  The FBS teams that are scheduled are the bottom of the barrel.  Iowa and Notre Dame are the toughest teams on the schedule.  Navy and Bowling Green have a small chance in beating Pittsburgh this year.  That leaves Buffalo.  With the way Pittsburgh has played recently, except for the WVU game last year, I am going to give them a break.  Grade C+

Louisville – Kentucky, Tennessee Tech, Kansas State, Memphis, Middle Tennessee State.  How disappointing was Louisville last year?  Very.  My first thought of this schedule was that it was very disappointing from Louisville.  Then, I remembered that Louisville was just as disappointing.  According to my grading criteria, I must take that into account.  The Kentucky game is an in-state rivalry.  That may be a good game if Kentucky can keep up the level of play from last year.  The Kansas State game may be a good test for this Louisville team.  KSU has a ton of JUCO transfers coming in.  By the time the Wildcats play Louisville, those JUCOs should have their feet under them.  Memphis is a decent team and will certainly put up a fight.  Who can forget that Louisville/Middle Tennessee State game from last year?  What a defensive coordinator’s nightmare.  Should get good.  Grade: C 

How does the coach’s son playing first string quarterback affect a team?  The head coach for Colorado is playing his son, Cody, at starting quarterback.  Cody has had some limited success at the position this year.  How does a father evaluate his son’s talent against others competing for the same position without bias?  It would seem to be a near impossible task.  Is it worth all of the second-guessing to Coach Hawkins to have his son running the show on the field on Saturdays?

It seems a daunting task to be a head coach for a Division-1 football team.  It seems even more stressful if the team you are coaching is in a big conference like the SEC or Big 12.  Now take that amount of pressure and stress and add to the equation that you are coaching at a school that has had enjoyed the highest level of success for the last 20 years.  Only until recently has Colorado taken a turn for the worse.

Enter Dan Hawkins.  He is a young and energetic coach that can light a fire under his players.  Coach Hawkins is a great motivator and one heck of a head coach on game days.  He has assembled a team of assistants that has taken a talented, underachieving team and turned them into a giant killer in less than 2 years.  This Colorado team may not be the most consistently good team, but if they give you their best shot you are in serious trouble.  Just ask Oklahoma.  Coach Hawkins would seem to be on top of the world right now.

Enter Cody Hawkins.  Cody is a good quarterback.  Cody seems to have a decent enough grasp on the offense and at times has shown brilliance at the position.  He is a sophomore and is a team leader on offense.  Cody is mature beyond his years and can be capable of leading a “big –time” college team throughout a season.

As a sophomore, is Cody that good?  Does he give his team the best chance to win this year?  I understand that by the time he is a senior, he should be considered one of the nation’s elite quarterbacks, but as a sophomore does he deserve to start?  

Did Coach Hawkins want to start his son?  What kinds of problems would it start at home if he didn’t?  Would his wife think that Dan was choosing the game of football or the Colorado program over her boy? 

Wouldn’t starting your son at quarterback hurt your recruiting efforts?  Why would a stud quarterback want to play for a coach that is playing his son at quarterback for the next 3 years?  What about the other quarterbacks on the team?  Are they getting a fair shot at starting?  What about the friends of the other quarterbacks?  Do they have a loyalty to their friends who are getting shafted by the coach and his son?

The situation does not make any sense to me that Coach Hawkins wants his son to play for him at this level.  Even if Cody is the best quarterback on the team, there will always be these kinds of morale killing questions by the media and players. 

I really want to hear some opinions on this matter.  Please let me know what you think.

This Rutgers controversy has really rubbed me the wrong way.  Maybe it is because I was a Corpsman.  Maybe it is because I am a Nebraska fan, and I know how to act.  Maybe it is because it is coming from a school that is not very rich in football tradition.  Maybe it is because I am trying really hard to understand what is wrong with us when we are in mob-mentality mode.

First off, I have to comment that I hate the excuse that is being thrown out there right now.  “It was just a few fans.”  That is a crock of ####.  If I were in the crowd at that time, I would take it upon myself to make sure those hooligans shut their big, fat yaps.  I know that if we were in Nebraska, I wouldn’t have to do it by myself.  Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t grab anyone by the hair and proceed to smash their face into oblivion.  That is not the way I operate.  That is not the Nebraska way. 

To try to say that berating the Midshipmen from the Naval Academy is not that big of a deal is being an ignorant fool.  I don’t have to say how much the military means to everyone in the United States.  It is a big deal.  A very big deal indeed.  I had been stationed in some not very “military friendly” places stateside, and I can tell you that I took some of the disrespect people showed the military very personally.  I was single and I had no children.  I was thinking why in the hell am I doing this for these ungrateful jerks. 

I know that if a Nebraska fan starts to get unruly towards a visiting teams’ fan, it won’t last long.  There will be many other Nebraska fans to cool the situation down.  I have seen it happen more than a couple times.  Being hospitable hosts is taken very seriously in Lincoln.  There are going to be drunk students at a football game.  There is no way to get around that.  But, there doesn’t have to be problems if we police ourselves. 

It is truly a shame that the crowd at Rutgers couldn’t control the situation.  Rutgers is coming off of a fantastic season and looking forward to another great year.  This is a real black-eye for the image of the University. 

I have been to every venue the Big XII has to offer except Baylor and Texas.  I will be visiting Austin later, but that is another blog.  I have been treated well at every venue to some degree.  I have only been scared for my health at 2 of the venues.  Colorado and Kansas State were scary places. 

In Boulder, my friends and I were chased out of the parking lot by an angry mob.  I thought that was kinda rude, but Nebraska won so I was OK with it. 

Manhattan was a different story.  Nebraska lost that one and I was heading out of the stadium with my girlfriend at the time.  It was like running a gauntlet.  We were verbally assaulted almost the entire way out.  People were hurling drinks and food at us.  We had to drive back to the hotel covered in dried soda and mustard.  I couldn’t understand why people would act like that after winning.  It doesn’t make sense.

The mob-mentality is such a weird thing to me.  It just proves that many people are no better than a bunch of lemmings.  Just because someone is chucking food at people, it makes it ok for you to do the same?  Why is a mob always angry?  This mob in Manhattan had every reason to celebrate, yet they were determined to take out years of frustration on Husker fans.

That brings me back to the horrible thing the Rutgers fans did.  In a time where Rutgers fans should be celebrating and feeling good about their team, they are acting like classless a-holes who are too stupid to know any better.