Big East: Week Eleven

Dustin Grutza may soon return for the Bearcats, but he’ll have trouble beating out Tony Pike under center. Meanwhile, Brian Kelly’s name is getting hotter as the coaching carousel continues to spin. Kelly openly pined for the Michigan job last year, and I also have reliable second-hand info that he is very ambitious. He doesn’t have a bad situation in Cincinnati, so it would need to be the right job. Kansas State? That would be up in the air, but he’d probably leave for Tennessee. The Bearcats have made two straight excellent hires; can they make a third?

CardChronicle looks back at what went wrong against Syracuse, as Louisville gets ready for Pitt.

It’s up in the air which Pittsburgh team will show up on any given week.

The local media in Tampa is starting to ask questions.

So what has gone wrong with the University of South Florida?

Too many penalties. Poor clock management. Players yelling at coaches; coaches yelling at coaches. And that was just what transpired during the second quarter of Thursday’s loss at Cincinnati.

That’s absolutely right. Teams go through rough patches, and if you look at the achievements of even the best teams, you won’t find many sparkling resumes. That’s how college football is today; teams play weak OOC schedules that leave them little margin for error. Leavitt of course has overall done a good job at USF, despite any failings. Don’t expect him to leave for Kansas State any time soon.

Following Tajh Boyd’s decommitment, the Mountaineers are scrambling to find someone who will…well, scramble for them for the next few years.

Only football

According to Scout.com, Rutgers has received a commitment from 2010 Secaucus lineman Betim Bujari.

Syracuse corner: “I kind of fell asleep” last week.

Jabu Lovelace is back at practice.

Keep repeating this mantra – OL, OL, OL. I think for Rutgers to be a winning football team, it needs to get back to dominating at the line of scrimmage. Pass protection has taken a step back, but is still passable. It’s run blocking that’s the big problem.

Forget that Teel was sacked three times, the bigger indictment is that the o-line paved the way for 71 rushing yards, marking the fifth straight game in which Rutgers failed to record at least 100 yards on the ground.

The starting lineup against Pittsburgh had a true sophomore, a redshirt freshman, a redshirt junior, a true freshman, and a redshirt junior. The question at this point is: when does the lightbulb go off?

“Last in the league in rushing, I think I take offense to that more,” Haslam said. “Sacks can be fixed with blocking techniques and things like that. But rushing offense, that’s on us as a whole.”

Obviously, the linemen feel the same frustration that the fans do on this subject. It’s good to see that kind of candor from Haslam, as he appeared to have poor technique on several blown assignments in the passing game against Pittsburgh.

This is a great summation of Tiquan Underwood’s prospects in next year’s NFL draft.

6. WR Tiquan Underwood, Rutgers
Underwood had more receiving yards in his first game last season (248) than he has in eight games this season (247). He is a long, angular target who needs to add more muscle and girth to his overall frame. He is an explosive athlete who gets up to speed quickly for his size (6 feet 2/185 pounds), but he needs to become a more consistent receiver. Underwood lacks concentration and has yet to become a natural pass catcher. He has had at least one “bad” drop in every game he has played during the past two seasons. The talent is there, but in order for Underwood to become more than simply a speedy vertical threat, he needs to improve his concentration level and hands.

The revolving door at KR may be over – with Jason McCourty entrenched as a starter.