He scoffed at South Florida.
My friend and former YMCA coworker, who we will call Peter (name changed to protect the hopelessly optimistic), was as big a Notre Dame fan as you can find amongst the non-Catholic, non-Irish-alumni on the east coast. "This is the year they're back," Peter said. "This is the year Notre Dame is back." He wasn't alone in his prognostication; media pundits and poll voters across the country put their faith in Brian Kelly's Irish Offense 2.0. Who was South Florida, perennial third place finisher of the Big East because of their inability to play well down the stretch, to come into South Bend and overthrow one of the most storied college football programs of all time in the year of their big comeback?
"Just watch and see, Peter. Notre Dame is back? Not quite yet they aren't, not until I say they are. And I'll tell you one thing, Peter- South Florida will shock Notre Dame in the opener. Your Irish will start 0-1." I don't think he liked that very much, as he kind of laughed at me. Peter knows that I am a sports guy- he even reads my blog avidly and will brag about me to just about anyone- but he just couldn't believe that South Florida would beat his revamped Notre Dame team. The bulls? A major AQ conference resident for not even ten years. They've never won a Big East title, never been to a BCS bowl game. Sure, they've made headlines a couple times for matching up well and upsetting the Pat White-led West Virginia squads of the mid 2000's, but they are a relatively unheralded team.
In short, they were scoffed at. They were scoffed at by the media who were only too desperate for the story that could have been a resurgent Notre Dame football team. They were scoffed at by my very own readers when I listed South Florida as my twentieth best preseason team. They were scoffed at by the Peters of the world.
Scoffing be damned.
South Florida was a notable storyline that was part of a larger perfect opening weekend for the Big East, a conference often billed as the weakest of the AQ conferences. Assuming WVU wins this never-ending, delayed-for-over-four-hours-now-because-of-weather game against Marshall (they are currently up 21 points with only 30 seconds or so elapsed in the fourth quarter), the Big East conference will have gone 8-0 this weekend. Sure, some of those games were against FCS squads, but those types of matchups have become more and more regular in this college football landscape. Power conference teams aren't guarenteed to pick up wins against FCS teams, either- ask the Pac-12 and Oregon State. WVU will most likely be getting a win against C-USA. USF picked up the aforementioned win against independent but ranked foe Notre Dame. Syracuse staged a dramatic, fourth quarter comeback win over Wake Forest. Which leads me to...
The ACC. Most twelve-teamed conferences average around 1 loss on opening weekend. The statistic is slightly skewed because of the Monday night conference game between Miami and Maryland, but still: only 8 of 12 Atlantic Coast teams will manage wins in week 1. As mentioned above, Wake Forest lost to Syracuse. FCS Richmond upset Duke. Boston College could never really get it going against Northwestern. All in all, the ACC goes 1-2 against nonconference FBS foes this weekend, with the lone victory coming against lowly Troy.
I'll continue to follow out of conference matchups closely through the month of September. If you are still craving more college football after four nonstop days of it, check out Al Golden and Randy Edsall's head coaching debuts tomorrow night when Miami visits Maryland. For the record, I like Maryland to win. And speaking of records...
This weekend: 22/23
This season: 22/23
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