Number eight West Virginia came into their game against East Carolina today with their sites on going to a national championship game. But the Pirates had other ideas. From the first possession of the game for East Carolina, it was obvious that they were going to be able to move the ball on the Mountaineer defense. The first drive went for 80 yards and they chewed up over six minutes on the clock. From there, it was all East Carolina. The Mountaineers were able to break a couple big plays, but for the most part the Pirate defense tackled well all day long. They forced the Mountaineers into third and long situations and kept everything in front of them.

On the flip side of that coin, East Carolina was able to break tackles consistently and convert third downs. They held on to the ball and kept Pat White and Co. from getting in anything resembling a rhythm. Final score, East Carolina 24-3.

This marks the third straight ranked team that East Carolina has defeated going back to the bowl game last year against Boise St. Expect the Pirates to slide way up in the polls and West Virginia way down. Nothing is a guarantee, but the rest of the schedule looks much easier and much more BCS busting friendly for the Pirates. And I probably gotta write a song about this...

Brent Musberger is calling a game featuring Tim Tebow at quarterback. Count me in, though I'm sure to be fully annoyed within the first six plays.

On the bright side, there are a few other good matchups to discuss tonight, including another potential ACC embarrassment (Maryland at Middle Tennessee), another potential Tim Brewster embarrassment (Minnesota-Bowling Green), and a potentially entertaining matchup of directional Florida teams (South at Central).

It should be a fun night of football, and you can chat with us right after the jump, starting at 7pm Eastern.

Prop Bets for the College Football Junkie is a weekly post that cares not for your silly point spreads. If you have the money and the gumption, we'll lay down a weekly gauntlet of propositions that'll take you from the penthouse to the outhouse faster than you can guess the number of times Lee Corso will say "not so fast my friend." As always, this is for entertainment purposes only.

- We kid because we care, and if Notre Dame is able to win this weekend against San Diego State you can expect Lou Holtz to remind the world that he predicted the Irish to win 11 games this year. We put the over/under for this at five, provided Notre Dame wins. Also, we put the over/under at three for the number of times Mark May will remind Holtz that it was San Diego State. We would say five, but we're sure at least a couple of those times there will be a producer on the set with a look on his face that says "just let him enjoy this moment."

- The punt block that sealed East Carolina's victory over Virginia Tech was poetic justice for all the times the Hokies have won games like that. We're sure it will be replayed multiple times during the game with West Virginia this weekend. But that's now what we're looking at. No, the over/under for this one will be the number of Tech fans actually cheering for West Virginia, and we put that number at five. If you don't know, the catch is that Tech and West Virginia were hated rivals in the Big East days. Being a West Virginia fan, I find it comforting that any Hokie would stoop so low as to cheer for the Mountaineers. Even funnier is that I know of at least one already. Unfortunately, I had to delete his comments on this because he had some derogatory phrases about the Pirates in his comments. I guess it must be my picture.

The ACC grabbed the major headlines over the weekend for bad football. What with two of the teams expected to be among the best of the conference losing in high profile games. NC State was completely shut out on a primetime Thursday night ESPN game as well. Add in North Carolina and Maryland having to struggle just to get past 1-AA opponents by eight points or less. The ACC went 2-4 in games with 1-A opponents. A disturbing number.

The Big East, though, was worse. An 0-4 performance against 1-A foes. Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville and Rutgers not only lost, they mustered a grand total of 36 points. Admittedly it wasn't a couple of the teams expected to be the best in the conference, but it was still a complete humiliation.

Both conferences remain inextricably linked by the common geography and of course the raid of Big East by the ACC five years ago. The two conferences have been annually competing for the worst BCS conference. This year, it looks like more of the same.

An ugly weekend of football for two conferences which only further cements their reputation as basketball conferences. The problem for them is, basketball practice does not start for another 6 weeks.

It was missed among the numerous inconsequential 1-A-1-AA FBS-FCS match-ups over the weekend. Cinci had its season opener on Thursday versus Eastern Kentucky. Amidst the pregame festivities, having the Bearcat mascot parachute into the stadium.

Watch out for those low hanging wires.



Yes, you can laugh. He was unhurt.

Fresno State made its first trip to the East Coast to play Rutgers. It wasn't a direct flight. They had to stop in Kansas along the way. For the first half, they played that way (even if they did get to New Jersey on Saturday). Sloppy, ragged and just off.

Luckily for Fresno State, Rutgers felt like being a generous host. The score was still 0-0 at halftime as the Scarlet Knights blew chances. Twice inside the 10-yard line with nothing to show for it, plus two missed field goals.

In the second-half, the Bulldogs got on track. Running back Ryan Mathews began wearing down the Rutgers defense, like Ray Rice had done for Rutgers the last couple years. Mathews piled up 163 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Rutgers was opening up a partially completed expanded stadium, and laid an egg. The questions about the Scarlet Knights without Ray Rice to carry the load loom larger. QB Mike Teel could move the ball well between the 20s, but threw costly interceptions -- including one in the endzone. His touch wasn't quite there, and there was no running back to take the pressure off of him -- Kordell Young may have had 94 yards but it took 26 carries (and 13 yards came on one run) to get there.

Fresno State now has a week off to get ready for a visit from Wisconsin.

One of the many staples of Louisville Cardinal football for the past few years has been high octane, statistically fueled 50-plus point games. Tonight, in a super-special, happy-fun-time Sunday afternoon football game, they scored ... two.

Yes, two. Hint to Coach K-Thorpe: if I have to type your team's score out in letters, you are doing a poor job with your offensive scheming and gameplanning. Work on that. Quickly.

Kentucky wasn't exactly the Andre Woodson-inspired offensive juggernaut for most of the game either, racking up 17 of their 27 in about the time for me to say "____ this boring ___ ____" and go take a shower. (In actuality, it was a field goal, a touchdown and a defensive touchdown in the span of seven minutes).

Hunter Cantwell, no Brian Brohm he, went 20/43 for 135 yards and three interceptions. Hard to imagine a scenario where Louisville fans would ever want/take Bobby Petrino back, but, yeah, this is it. (Aside: or do they even really hate him? I probably would, but then I have a soul.)

With almost 14 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Villanova had 283 yards of total offense, while West Virginia had 282. The final stats and the final score of this game don't tell the story of how well Villanova played. Or maybe how poorly West Virginia played.

Villanova was able to grind out long drives for most of the day and keep the ball away from Pat White and company. But when West Virginia did get the ball, White was on fire passing the ball. White ended the day 25/33 for 209 yards and five touchdowns. The most touchdowns in a game for Pat White. Arlic Arnett, the juco wide receiver shined for the Mountaineers in his first game with two touchdowns. But, and I can't believe I'm going to type this, West Virginia only rushed the ball 22 times for 148 yards and no touchdowns.

There's absolutely no reason for West Virginia to panic about the running game, but it was certainly odd to see them pass more than run in a game. The final score was 48-21 West Virginia, but Villanova won the day in total yards and had the ball for almost 15 minutes longer than the Mountaineers. Certainly, that is a problem for the young Mountaineer defense as it doesn't get any easier next week. Next weeks opponent, East Carolina was able to push the Virginia Tech defensive line around for most of the day.

This was to be the year that Pitt and head coach Dave Wannstedt got over the hump. Many, including me, had them in or near the top 25 and contending for the Big East title. It was a pretty picture that was easy to believe in after the upset of West Virginia last December. But the 2008 campaign got off to a bad start as the Panthers dropped their home opener to Bowling Green 27-17.

Pitt dominated the stat sheets, outgaining Bowling Green 393-254 in total yards. But the Panthers also led in turnovers 4-1. Turnovers are correctable in most cases, but the pressure that Pitt quarterback Bill Stull was under all day is something that might not be avoidable. He was sacked four times in the game.

LeSean McCoy had a hard time getting on track today as well. He only averaged 3.1 yards per run on 23 carries and one touchdown. The Pitt defense played well enough, but the turnovers by the offense gave Bowling Green a short field to work with too many times. The offensive line needs to get better quick, because this was supposed to be the easy game on the schedule for the Panthers.

College football season officially started Thursday night, and it really gets going today.

There are a ton of games on the docket, starting with LSU and Appalachian State at 11am Eastern. If you didn't hear, they moved that game up six hours because of the threat of Hurricane Gustav, which is rapidly strengthening in the Caribbean and causing evacuations in Louisiana.

We'll be covering that game, along with all the other early games, in a CiL chat that begins promptly at 11am Eastern time. That's 10am Central, and 7am Alaska time.

For future reference, we'll be chatting every Saturday throughout the season. Please do make a point of joining us for our first Saturday chat of the season, after the jump.