Big East Conference: College Football Betting Preview

Welcome to Morgantown, West Virginia, where it's already 2012 and the Big East Conference battle in 2011 didn't even take place!

No, West Virginia University hasn't solved the mystery of time travel.  If that was so, you can bet former Mountaineers head coach Bill Stewart would venture back to last December and put the kibosh on the hiring of Dana Holgorsen as Stewart's heir-apparent following the upcoming 2011 season.

Officially named as the coach-in-waiting by WVU athletic director Oliver Luck just seven short months ago, Holgorsen is no longer waiting.  He stepped into the Mountaineers head coach position this past week after Stewart resigned amid allegations of running a smear campaign on his successor. 

The former offensive coordinator at Texas Tech, Houston and Oklahoma State, Holgorsen is expected to win immediately.  West Virginia shares the co-favorite slot in the Big East with South Florida, both schools priced at +250 to represent the conference in the BCS Bowls. 

New coaches abound in Big East 

Holgorsen's closet isn't skeleton-free and he's not alone in the Big East when it comes to new coaches.  Stewart himself had only been on the job in Morgantown since the start of the 2008 season.  Todd Graham at Pitt and Paul Pasqualoni at UConn join Holgorsen as rookie coaches in the conference. 

Doug Marrone is starting his third year at Syracuse with Butch Jones (Cincinnati) Charlie Strong (Louisville) and Skip Holtz (South Florida) in their second seasons. Greg Schiano, beginning his 11th season at Rutgers, is the longest tenured coach in the conference. 

Maligned last season as the weakest of the six conferences with automatic BCS bids, the recent upheaval in the coaching ranks only adds to this being a transitional year for the Big East.  The conference is set to welcome the TCU Horned Frogs in 2012 and assuming Gary Patterson doesn't get lured away to a bigger school before then, TCU figures to instantly become the top dog in the Big East. 

UConn a long shot to defend conference crown 

Until then it's quite possibly wide open for top-dog honors, with the possible exception of last year's top dogs, the Connecticut Huskies.  The longest shot on the college football betting board at 25/1 to win the Big East, UConn will be trying to find the right mix for a majority of the skill positions on offense.  That includes quarterback where redshirt soph Mike Box is at the top of the depth chart coming out of spring practice. 

Competition in the backfield will extend into preseason practice and possibly beyond.  USC transfer DJ Shoemate is the frontrunner at tailback, but he could get pushed by a pair of incoming freshmen. 

If the Huskies upset the college football odds and defend their Big East title, it will likely be due to a strong performance by a defense that returns eight starters. Trevardo Williams at one end anchors a line that includes tackles Twyon Martin and Kendall Reyes. 

Bulls, Mountaineers could decide it at the end 

Co-favorites WVU and South Florida don't have to find a new quarterback like Pasqualoni does at UConn.  The Mountaineers and Bulls each possess highly-touted signal callers Geno Smith and B.J. Daniels respectively, and it's the shoulders of those two young men that carry most of the burden for their teams. 

Smith could be in for a huge year running Holgorsen's pass-oriented offense.  The junior threw 24 TDs against seven INTs last season, ranking second in the Big East in total offense.  Smith also has three of his top targets from 2010 back in receivers Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey and Brad Starks. 

Daniels, a redshirt junior, didn't progress like Holtz and his coaching staff hoped in 2010.  Off his '09 freshman campaign, Daniels experienced two really bad contests at Florida and West Virginia early in the season and was injured late in the year, missing the season finale against UConn. 

The Tallahassee native did rebound with a nice performance in the Meineke Bowl vs. Clemson. 

Should the conference come down to a Bulls, Mountaineers battle, we'll have to wait until the final game of the season when West Virginia travels to Tampa for a Thursday night ESPN clash (Dec. 1). 

Pitt leads list of WVU, USF challengers 

Like Holgorsen at West Virginia, Todd Graham is expected to add pizzazz to the Pitt attack on both sides of the ball.  Tino Sunseri is back at QB and tailback Ray Graham (no relation) is off a fantastic season that saw him run for over 900 yards as Dion Lewis' backup. 

The Panthers, +350 as the third choice in the Big East betting board, do have some questions to answer on defense after losing safety Dom DeCicco and defensive end Greg Romeus who was a 7th-round selection by the New Orleans Saints in this year's NFL Draft.  Pitt has a tough early road trip to Iowa just before back-to-back home tilts with Notre Dame and South Florida in a 5-day span. 

Butch Jones' second year at Cincinnati can't be any worse than his first, right?  The 8-loss campaign saw just three highlights, and one of them was a loss to Oklahoma that was only close because the Sooners allowed it to be.  The other two games worth mentioning were a road win at Louisville and a 69-38 roller at home over UConn. 

The Bearcats (+500) do have a strong nucleus returning on offense, led by junior QB Zach Collaros, but it will be up to the defense which returns 10 starters from a weak unit, to prove its worth if Cincy is going to contend.

Just as surprising to see Cincinnati drop eight games, Louisville's 7-6 season that ended with a bowl win over Southern Miss was also a bit of a shock. It could've been even better had a few bounces gone the Cardinals' way in close losses at home to South Florida and West Virginia. 

Strong and Louisville (+800) scored big this past offseason according to most recruiting experts, and Teddy Bridgewater might be getting his feet wet at QB as a true freshman. But the defensive side of the ball is going to be breaking in new corners on defense where just five starters return. 

Rutgers (+1200) and Syracuse (+1300) are sort of in no-man's land in this conference, both capable of going bowling but still a lot to prove.  Schiano's reign as the senior coach in the Big East could be in trouble if the Scarlet Knights can't improve off a 4-8 campaign that saw them go 1-6 in conference, all six defeats coming in succession at season's end.  Rutgers' defense is a work in progress while the offense can't go anywhere but up. 

The Orange saw their season die off at the end with home losses to UConn and Boston College, but still finished with eight wins courtesy of a 36-34 win over Kansas State in the New Era Bowl.  The offense could be a sleeper behind QB Ryan Nassib, but like Rutgers there are many questions on the defensive side. A September trip to Los Angeles against USC could provide some of those answers.