That noise you heard this morning? That was UConn, Cincy and West Virginia collectively licking their lips after Big East favorite Pitt lost to Utah in an OT thriller in the season-opener.
In retrospect, how did we not see Pitt losing this game? So much hype for so much Wannstache. It was practically predestined to happen. Pitt Blather tries to look at the game from a glass half-full perspective but spends most of their time looking at it glass half-empty.
Here’s the deal in college football. This isn’t the NFL. There is no playoff. If you want to play on the national stage, you have to win. You have to win all of the time.
Maybe that allows justification of the fact that aside from Notre Dame in 2008, Pitt has not won a non-conference game where they were the underdog. Right now Pitt is a decent to good team, but not much more than that.
Personally, I prefer Cardiac Hill's response to the game the most.
Rutgers hosted Norfolk State last night and although the final score was 31-0, it took a while to get there. The Knights led only 6-0 at the half before the offense finally woke up in the second. A pattern is emerging with Rutgers football, one of early-season lags and missteps. Schiano usually finds a way to right the ship but if the program really wants to take itself to the next level, they need to be a complete team the entire season.
With Pitt's loss, that means the chances are good the Big East will not have a team in the Top 20 of any poll. West Virginia is the only ranked team and they sit on the cusp. Not to mention that Pitt just lost to a MWC team and the implications that sends to the nation. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.
The Big East has a chance to redeem itself tomorrow. Syracuse travels to Akron, West Virginia hosts Coastal Carolina, Louisville hosts hated rival Kentucky, Cincy travels to Fresno State and South Florida hosts Stony Brook. And of course there's the big one, UConn at Michigian. If the Huskies can win, it will erase the pain of the Pitt loss and catapult them into the rankings. If they lose, the Big East continues to be what everyone else thinks we are.