ESPN College Football

Time to take a step back before we move forward in the Big East. Press rewind.

Best Game: The Louisville-Memphis game was nothing if not entertaining. The Tigers tried lots of trick plays, and scores came on a kick return, a blocked field goal and a fumble return. Plus, the two teams totaled for more points than the two Saturday Big East contests combined.

Biggest play: Noel Devine's 92-yard touchdown run came as West Virginia was pinned in the shadow of its own goal post and holding onto a slim 10-6 lead over Syracuse in the fourth quarter. Devine intervention, indeed.

Big Man on Campus (Offense): About half his total came on that one play, but Devine rang up a career-best 188 yards rushing for a Mountaineers club needing a spark without injured Pat White.

Big Man on Campus (Defense): Cincinnati's Connor Barwin was our special teams Big Man last week, and he grabs the defensive honors after notching two sacks and a pass breakup in the Bearcats' 13-10 win over Rutgers.

Big Man on Campus (Special Teams): Cincinnati punter Kevin Huber showed why he was a first-team all-American last year by booting six of his nine punts inside the Rutgers 20, including a career-best 64-yarder.

Worst Hangover: Rutgers and Syracuse. True, it's been a season-long hangover for these two teams (actually, a three-and-a-half year hangover at Syracuse), but Saturday's results were especially headsplitting for both. Rutgers held Cincinnati to just 13 points on the road but still couldn't come up with enough offense to pull off its first FBS win. The Orange had a similar problem, driving inside West Virginia's 10 late in the fourth quarter with a chance to take the lead, only to turn it over on downs and watch Devine sprint past them.

Now let's look ahead to Week 8. Another light week with only six teams playing, but some interesting matchups are on tap. Games listed in descending order of significance.

Pittsburgh (4-1, 1-0 Big East) at Navy (4-2): For Pitt to prove it's really turned a corner, exorcising last year's excruciating Navy loss is a must. The Middies won 48-45 in double overtime at Heinz Field as the Panthers had no answer for the triple option. They've had two weeks to prepare for it this time around.

Connecticut (5-1, 1-0) at Rutgers (1-5, 0-2): This might be the Scarlet Knights' last stand this season against a Northeast rival that has surprisingly zoomed past them as a program.

Syracuse (1-5, 0-2) at South Florida (5-1, 0-1): The Orange have hung tough against their last two Big East opponents, Pitt and West Virginia. Can they do it again against a Bulls team that's had two weeks to stew over its first loss?

Middle Tennessee State (2-4) at Louisville (3-2): The Blue Raiders gave Louisville all kinds of fits last year and beat Maryland to open this season. But they've been pretty bad ever since.

Byes: West Virginia, Cincinnati