ESPN College Football

The good and the bad of B.J. Daniels was on display in South Florida's opener Saturday night.

The senior completed 17-of-26 passes for 265 yards and had four total touchdowns, but he also threw an interception and fumbled on a sack, which led to 10 Chattanooga points.

It was still more than enough in a 34-13 Bulls win over the Mocs, as USF built an 18-point first-half lead and took it from there. But Daniels will have to be more careful offensively next week when the Bulls travel to Nevada, fresh off an upset of Cal.

Sterling Grffin and Terrence Mitchell were the receivers of choice Saturday, with Griffin catching two passes for 83 yards and a touchdown, and Mitchell adding five catches for 78 yards and a score.

Kicker Maikon Bonani became the school's all-time leading scorer with his extra point following Mitchell's second-quarter score, which put USF up 21-3.

The Bulls' defense was stifling, holding the Mocs to just 151 total yards and recording six sacks on the night.

It's time to look at some interesting tidbits for this weekend's Big East games. Thank yous are in order for each school's sports information department, along with ESPN Stats & Info.

• Teddy Bridgewater led all returning Big East quarterbacks with 22 completions of 25-plus yards last season.
• Louisville allowed 42 rushes of 10-plus yards, tied for eighth fewest in FBS last year.
• Temple finished 2011 among the nation’s Top 25 in 10 categories, including: No. 3 in scoring defense (13.92) [behind Alabama and LSU], No. 7 in rushing offense (256.54), No. 8 in kickoff returns (25.42), No. 12 in total defense (311.77), No. 14 in net punting (39.39), and No. 15 in pass defense (187.85).
• Pitt, which faces Youngstown State, is 10-0 against FCS opponents, most recently topping national-playoff qualifier Maine last year at Heinz Field, 35-29. YSU, meanwhile, is 19-25-1 against FBS teams. But the Penguins are 0-9 against FBS schools since 2001. Last year they lost at Michigan State, 28-6.
• For only the third time in 143 seasons of football, Rutgers, which plays Tulane on Saturday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, opens the season with three road games in September for just the third time in the 143-year history of the program. The Scarlet Knights and Miami are the only two BCS teams nationally to have three road games in 2012 in September.
• Scarlet Knights defensive tackle Scott Vallone has started 38 straight games, the most of any active Big East player. The senior has started every game for Rutgers since his redshirt freshman campaign.
• Syracuse's game against Northwestern marks the third time in the last five years, and ninth time overall, that the Orange open against a current Big Ten school. They are 1-6-1 all-time in openers against Big Ten teams, the only victory coming in the 1997 Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium against Wisconsin, which they beat 34-0.
• USF is 11-4 in season openers and a perfect 10-0 in openers at Raymond James Stadium. The Bulls have never faced upcoming opponent Chattanooga.

We're finally here. UConn gets it going against UMass at 7:30 tonight (on ESPN3), kicking off what is sure to be another fun-filled Big East season. Here's what's worth keeping a close eye on during the first weekend.

1. Chandler Whitmer's debut: Whitmer is the only first-time starter for a Big East school this season, and he gets to go first. The Butler Community College (Kan.) transfer will face a Minutemen team making the transition to the FBS this season, and the Huskies are the first of many BCS programs on its 2012 slate.

2. Other debuts: By "other," we mean "coaching." Paul Chryst (Pitt) and Kyle Flood (Rutgers) are making their head-coaching debuts this weekend, and each has every reason to feel that his team has a shot at the conference title this season. Steve Addazio is also worth watching, as the second-year Temple coach is new to the conference this year.

3. Final Mayor's Cup?: And speaking of the Owls, they will face Villanova on Friday night in what might be the finale of their annual "Mayor's Cup" rivalry. Here's hoping for the sake of the sport and Philadelphia that the schools can find a way to it keep going, but the possibility that this is it for them makes it more intriguing.

4. UK-UL: Speaking of rivalries, what better way to cap off the opening weekend than with one of the more hostile ones featuring a Big East team? The Cardinals, for once, will be favored when they host Kentucky on Sunday, but the trash-talking has been alive and well throughout the offseason. (Rumor has it the schools played a fairly big hoops game this past spring, too.)

5. Cuse kicks off tough slate: The Orange are the only Big East team other than Louisville that will open against a fellow BCS-conference school, as they host Northwestern at noon Saturday. The Wildcats (yes, that's the third different "Wildcats" squad facing a Big East school this weekend) will hardly be it for Syracuse in the heavy nonconference slate, as the Orange will face USC in Week 2 before games against Minnesota and Missouri.

6. Rutgers-Tulane: The status of this game has been anything but solid all week with Hurricane Isaac on its way to the Louisiana area, but it looks like these two will give it a go Saturday night. The atmosphere for that one should be interesting.

7. Will Ray Graham play?: It will be essentially a game-time decision for the Pitt running back. When healthy, he just might be the best at his position in the country, though the Panthers should be just fine against Youngstown State on Saturday regardless.

8. Will B.J. Daniels put it all together? USF's Big East title hopes may rest on the arms and the legs of the four-year starter, who is on the cusp of multiple school and conference records. His farewell tour kicks off Saturday night against Chattanooga.

9. Four straight days of football. Yup. Starting today, continuing Friday and Saturday, and concluding Sunday, the Big East will have games on four consecutive days. The SEC is the only other big-six conference that can say the same. Enjoy the weekend, folks. I know I will.

10. But what does Cincinnati watch? Butch Jones' team is in the odd spot of spending the season's opening weekend at home before it kicks off its season next Thursday against Pitt. And he doesn't like it. TCU's departure for the Big 12 made this scenario seemingly unavoidable. Odds are the Bearcats will keep a close eye on that 6 p.m. Panthers-Youngstown State tilt.