ESPN College Football

Back in Big East country -- figuratively, at least -- for another day.

Here's what we're cooking up today:

• The performance of running back Savon Huggins headlines Rutgers' big questions entering the spring. New Scarlet Knights coach Kyle Flood is anxious to get practice started.
• TCU's snub of the Big East forced Cincinnati to add a second FCS team on its 2012 schedule.
• Connecticut should get immediate contributions from a group of transfers that includes quarterback Chandler Whitmer.
• Syracuse coach Doug Marrone has ditched his depth chart for the start of spring ball.
• A spring practice primer on South Florida.
• Some nuggets from Louisville's practice Monday. Cardinals coach Charlie Strong and Guy Fieri will be breaking bread together in May.
• Pitt's offense remains a work in progress midway through spring drills. After being shifted back to quarterback, Pitt's Anthony Gonzalez might face another move.

Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti says he already has a short list of candidates to become the next head coach of the Scarlet Knights.

So what exactly is he looking for?

“I think there are a lot of criteria," he said Thursday. "No. 1, we want the right kind of person. Understanding and being able to have your arms around the culture of the tri-state area I think is critical to being successful at Rutgers. So much of it has been built around being able to recruit on a somewhat regional level, that I think not only having a great understanding, but having really deep and strong relationships in the tri-state area. I think those are two very critical factors in this whole thing.”

Who fits the description? Here are a few possibilities:

Temple coach Steve Addazio. In his first season as the head coach at Temple, Addazio went 9-4 and brought the Owls back to a bowl game. He has ties to the tri-state area, having grown up and coached in Connecticut. He also served as an assistant at Syracuse in the 1990s and he clearly has established ties in the past year in the Pennsylvania area. That state has been a huge recruiting area for Rutgers, particularly given what has happened to Penn State.

Florida International coach Mario Cristobal. One of the brightest up-and-coming coaches in the country, Cristobal has done for FIU what Schiano did for Rutgers. He completely resurrected a program mired in misery, taking it to its first-ever conference title and back-to-back bowl appearances for the first time, too. FIU is obviously a much younger program, but Cristobal has got the coaching and recruiting chops. Plus, he worked under Schiano at Rutgers from 2001-03, so he has a familiar with the recruiting area. Cristobal was also a candidate for the Pitt job before ultimately deciding he wanted to stay in the South Florida area. What could Rutgers say to change his mind?

Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco. A defensive mastermind like Schiano (who also served as defensive coordinator this past season), Diaco is from Cedar Grove, N.J., and has some coaching experience in the Big East. He was an assistant at Cincinnati under then-coach Brian Kelly before leaving to join Kelly with the Irish.

With a little less than a week to go before the Big East kicks off bowl season, I figured I would give you some updated ticket sales numbers for each school.

Cincinnati: The Bearcats have moved about 9,000 tickets for their game against Vanderbilt in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Dec. 31 in Memphis, Tenn. Doug Mosley, associate athletic director for external and media communications, says: "Sales continue to be steady. Our student trip package did well and our fans have responded generously to the One Team, One Ticket offer, where they purchase tickets for students and spirit groups. Overall, we're very pleased with how UC fans and our community has stepped up to support the Bearcats' trip to the 53rd Annual AutoZone Liberty Bowl."

Louisville: The Cardinals are approaching 10,000 tickets sold for their game against NC State in the Belk Bowl on Dec. 27 in Charlotte, N.C.

Pitt: The Panthers have 2,100 tickets out for their game against SMU in the BBVA Compass Bowl on Jan. 7 in Birmingham, Ala.

Rutgers: The Scarlet Knights have passed the 10,000 ticket mark and counting for their game against Iowa State in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 30 at Yankee Stadium. If you need to be reminded, Syracuse sold around 8,000 tickets for its Pinstripe Bowl appearance last year. Who is New York's team again?

West Virginia: At last check, the Mountaineers had sold a little over 6,000 tickets from their allotment for the Discover Orange Bowl against Clemson on Jan. 4. WVU sports marketing director Matt Wells told the AP last week that the midweek slot had impacted sales because the game was after the holiday break. The Tigers are not burning up ticket sales, either, with about 8,000 sold.

It is important to remember that these numbers only count tickets sold through the university. There are lower-priced options available at other places, and that is a contributing factor in some cases to sluggish sales.

Cincinnati Bearcats (9-3) vs. Vanderbilt Commodores (6-6)

Dec. 31, 3:30 p.m. ET (ABC)

Cincinnati take from Big East blogger Andrea Adelson: Most everyone expected the Bearcats to be better this season, with veteran players returning at key positions on offense and defense. But just how much better was the big question. Cincinnati answered that early, jumping out to a 7-1 start to the season behind vastly improved play from its much-maligned defense. Then the season turned.

Quarterback Zach Collaros broke his ankle early against West Virginia and was lost for the regular season. All of a sudden, a team that controlled the Big East was no longer in control at all. The Bearcats lost to the Mountaineers and dropped one to Rutgers the following week, dealing them what would be a death blow to their BCS chances. What perhaps hurts most was this team had a lead on West Virginia in the fourth quarter and could not hold on for the win.

But the Bearcats can still call themselves Big East champions for the third time in four seasons, so that should help take the sting away. Running back Isaiah Pead had another terrific season, becoming the first Cincinnati back in 25 seasons to post back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons. The defensive front played outstanding all season, stuffing the run and getting great pressure on the quarterback with 44 sacks and 106.5 tackles for loss. Defensive tackle Derek Wolfe was a load to handle inside, and linebacker JK Schaffer had 100 tackles for the third straight season.

This was also a team that made a complete turnaround when it came to turnover margin. Last year, the Bearcats were last in the Big East at minus-15 in this category. This year, they led the Big East at plus-11. The good news for Cincinnati is that Collaros is expected back for the bowl game, but he might remind everyone what could have been for the Bearcats this season.

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Vanderbilt take from SEC blogger Chris Low: James Franklin vowed when he took the Vanderbilt job that he was unconcerned about what had or hadn’t happened in the past there.

Never mind that the Commodores had been the rest of the SEC’s punching bag. Franklin saw to it that they punched back, and they’re headed to a bowl game for only the fifth time in school history.

Vanderbilt earned that trip by going to Winston-Salem, N.C., on the final weekend of the regular season and routing Wake Forest 41-7 for its sixth win of the season.

The Commodores were agonizingly close to being an eight- or even a nine-win football team. They lost in overtime at Tennessee and lost three more close games to Arkansas, Florida and Georgia by a combined 13 points.

Vanderbilt leaned on its veteran defense early in the season. The Commodores intercepted 17 passes, which is tied for second in the SEC.

But where they made the most improvement was on offense, especially after Jordan Rodgers took over at quarterback in Week 7. He had plenty of help, too. Junior running back Zac Stacy set a school record with 1,136 rushing yards. The offensive line made major strides, and sophomore receiver Jordan Matthews became one of the SEC’s premier big-play threats in the passing game.

Cincinnati committed secondary violations in its football program when coaches made impermissible recruiting phone calls, the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions ruled Thursday.

The women's basketball program committed a major and secondary violations. As a result, Cincinnati must go on two years' probation. The school self-discovered and self-reported the violations.

In regards to football, the school and NCAA found that members of the football coaching staff placed 20 impermissible recruiting calls to 12 prospective student-athletes.

As a result, the football coaching staff was prohibited from recruiting telephone contact during four different time periods in 2011; and three assistant football coaches were prohibited from making calls to prospective student-athletes during varying time periods in the summer of 2011. Both were university-imposed sanctions.

Cincinnati officially announced its signing day class of 22 prospects, with 15 of them coming from Ohio.

Butch Jones' first class with the Bearcats contained several players who committed to the team and Brian Kelly last summer, with a few late additions such as quarterbacks Cody Kater and Munchie Legaux.

"We’re committed to building a wall around the Cincinnati area,” Jones said.

The entire class, as well as video from Jones' press conference, can be found here.

Cincinnati coach Butch Jones has tapped his former Central Michigan staff again, this time for his offensive coordinator.

Mike Bajakian (pronounced buh-JAY-key-in) comes to the Bearcats after being passed over for the head-coaching job at Central Michigan. He will also coach quarterbacks at Cincinnati.

Bajakian's Chippewas offense ranked in the MAC's top five in most offensive categories in 2009, including scoring (33.9 ppg) and passing efficiency (146.96). CMU's scoring offense was ranked 15th nationally, while its passing efficiency mark was 14th overall.

Bajakian also has coached with the Chicago Bears, Rutgers, Sacred Heart and Michigan.

Jones hired several former Central Michigan assistants to his staff Friday night.

New Cincinnati coach Butch Jones has hired seven assistants, most of them coming from his previous staff at Central Michigan.

Jones added co-defensive coordinators Tim Banks and Jon Jancek, assistant head coach/defensive line coach Steve Stripling, running backs coach/recruiting coordinator Mark Elder, tight ends coach/special-teams coordinator Phil Zacharias and offensive line coach Don Mahoney. In addition, Dave Lawson will head the football strength and conditioning program.

Banks, Elder, Lawson, Mahoney, Stripling, and Zacharias served under Jones at Central Michigan this past season. Jancek was co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach at Georgia from 2005 to 2009. He has also coached at Central Michigan and Grand Valley State, where Brian Kelly cut his teeth.

Jones had previously announced that he was retaining Kerry Coombs from Kelly's staff to coach defensive backs.

Not surprisingly, new Buffalo coach Jeff Quinn is taking several former Cincinnati assistants with him.

Quinn, who was the Bearcats' offensive line coach/offensive coordinator, before serving as the interim head coach for the Allstate Sugar Bowl, has hired Greg Forest and William Inge off this year's Cincinnati staff. Also joining the Bulls are Mike Daniels, Ernest Jones and Marty Spieler, all of whom worked for the Bearcats in administrative roles.

Brian Kelly has taken four of his former assistants -- Bob Diaco, Charley Molnar, Mike Elston and Tim Hinton -- with him to Notre Dame. The only holdover Bearcats assistant is defensive backs coach Kerry Coombs.

So now all we need is for Butch Jones to announce his staff, and the cycle will be complete.

Senior Bowl invitations continue to roll in, and three members of the Big East champion Cincinnati Bearcats will be taking part in the showcase game in Mobile, Ala.

Quarterback Tony Pike, receiver Mardy Gilyard and long-snapper Mike Windt have all been invited from Cincinnati. It's no surprise to hear about Pike and Gilyard, both of whom are intriguing NFL prospects who had prosperous careers.

But how neat is it to see Windt get some recognition? Long-snappers only get noticed when they mess up, and it's a tribute to Windt that you never heard his name in three years while he was snapping for a Ray Guy Award semifinalist (Kevin Huber) and a Lou Groza Award semifinalist (Jake Rogers). That's because he did his job flawlessly, and he's going to the Senior Bowl as a result.

It was the kick that saved Texas -- and broke hearts at TCU and Cincinnati

Hunter Lawrence's 46-yard field goal on the final play sent Texas to a 13-12 win over Nebraska in the Big 12 title game. A Longhorns' loss could have propelled the Bearcats into the BCS title game.

Instead, Texas is going to go to Pasadena to play Alabama. Cincinnati will most likely go to the Sugar Bowl and face Florida, which isn't too bad of a consolation prize.

Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly said after his team's win against Pittsburgh that he didn't think the Bearcats deserved to get in over Texas. Really, though, Cincinnati's résumé is as good if not better than the Longhorns.

But it's not going to be good enough.

Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly is one of three finalists for the George Munger Award, which is given to the nation's coach of the year.

Kelly is joined on the finalist list by Temple's Al Golden and TCU's Gary Patterson.

Kelly has the Bearcats at 10-0 despite losing 10 starters on defense from last season. Patterson has TCU at 11-0 and ranked No. 4, one spot ahead of Cincinnati. Golden has engineered a remarkable turnaround at Temple, which is 9-2 this season.

I don't know how you choose, since all three would make excellent choices for the award. I suspect Golden will win, because voters for these kinds of awards tend to favor those coaches who lead major improvements from the previous year, and TCU and Cincinnati were both strong teams last season.

1. Cincinnati (10-0, 6-0 Big East): The Bearcats have been No. 1 in these rankings ever since Labor Day and did nothing on their bye week to change that status.

2. Pittsburgh (9-1, 5-0): The Panthers didn't play last week. They could take this week off if they wanted to and still play for the Big East title on Dec. 5.

3. West Virginia (7-3, 3-2): The Mountaineers -- yawn -- were off last week, too. But they move up after the Rutgers fiasco. A 9-3 finish with a win over Pitt would look a lot better than 8-4 or 7-5 at this point.

4. UConn (5-5, 1-4): The Huskies have only one league win, but nobody would want to play them at this point. The oft-quoted statistic is that UConn's five losses came by a total of 15 points; three of its wins came by a total of 18 points.

T-5. Rutgers (7-3, 2-3): What exactly was that on Saturday, Scarlet Knights? You had worked so hard to establish a small semblance of credibility, which is now gone after an 18-point loss at Syracuse.

T-5. South Florida (7-3, 3-3): Yes, Rutgers thrashed South Florida 31-0 less than two weeks ago. But these two teams seem very similar, in that you'd trust them at home but would never bank on them beating a good team on the road.

7. Louisville (4-7, 1-5): One thing you can say for the Cardinals this year: they haven't been truly blown out of any game except those against Cincinnati and Pitt, who are both in the Top 10. It's not enough to save Steve Kragthorpe's job, however.

8. Syracuse (4-7, 1-5): I thought the ceiling for this team at the beginning of the season was five wins. The Orange are one upset of UConn away from bumping their heads on that.

Lurking behind the Big Three of Florida, Alabama and Texas are two interesting undefeated teams: TCU and Cincinnati. The Horned Frogs jumped over the Bearcats in the BCS standings a couple of weeks ago, but Cincinnati's strength of schedule down the stretch may reverse that again. One of the two would be in line for a BCS title game appearance if Texas was to lose.

So which one is more deserving? Only a blogger debate can settle such a weighty issue.

Brian Bennett: OK, Graham, I admit I haven't seen TCU all that much, because most of their games are on channels that my cable provider laughs at whenever I ask for them. Sell me on why the Horned Frogs are better than Cincinnati and why they're a legitimate national title contender.

Graham Watson: TCU is the most complete team right now. The Horned Frogs are playing at a high level on offense, defense and special teams, and just embarrassed a Utah team that had lost just one game in the past two seasons. The 55 points the Utes allowed were the most they’ve allowed since 1990. And Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said after the game that TCU was the best team he’s seen in his five years as a head coach. Yeah, that means he thinks they’re better than Alabama.

For years, TCU has been dominant on defense and now the offense is starting to come around. The Cincinnati and TCU offenses are almost even statistically and TCU’s defense blows Cincinnati’s out of the water. Punt returns are even, and TCU has a slight margin in kick returns. I don’t think the schedules are all that different, either, because let’s be honest, Rutgers was a disaster to start the season. With the exception of Pitt, which the Bearcats haven’t played yet, the schedules are pretty comparable.

TCU might not play in an automatic qualifying conference or play on some of the more brand-name stations, but you can't deny how well it has performed. Now make Cincinnati's case.

BB: TCU has been impressive, but in examining its wins I wonder how impressive. Yes, TCU beat Clemson, but the Tigers are always inconsistent early in the year (they lost to Maryland, for crying out loud). I think BYU is vastly overrated (hello, Florida State) and Utah is not nearly the same team it was last year.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati won at Oregon State, which may wind up claiming the Pac-10 title, and if the Bearcats win out, they will have beaten a top-10 team in Pitt. And the Big East, from top to bottom, is much tougher than the Mountain West overall. Running the table in an auto-bid conference ought to count for something. Agree or disagree?

GW: I have a hard time with your assertion that the Big East is “much better” than the Mountain West. Yes, the Mountain West has its terrible teams, but I think the top and middle are about equal. I’d put Air Force’s defense up against Rutgers, no problem. And honestly, I think New Mexico might give Syracuse a run for its money. It’s easy to dismiss a bunch of teams you’ve never seen play just by looking at their records.

I agree that running the table -- period -- should be rewarded. I also think doing it in style should be rewarded. TCU has won its games in style. TCU obliterated the weak competition that you say it plays. During the four games prior to the Utah game, TCU outscored its opponents 178-25. It allowed just two touchdowns during that span. And Utah might not be the same as it was a year ago, but it was still good enough to give Oregon a run for its money on the road and put more points on TCU than any other team this season (and more points than the previous four games combined). Also, the 55 points TCU put on Utah was as many points as the Frogs had scored on the Utes since 2005 -- combined.

To me, that sounds like a team that’s learned to be dominant this year and that should count for something. Can you honestly say that Cincinnati has had the same dominance?

BB: Graham, I salute you for defending the league you cover, but you can talk up San Diego State, UNLV, Colorado State and New Mexico all you want. I'm not buying it.

And, yes, I can definitely say that Cincinnati has been dominant. The Bearcats are among the nation's leaders in virtually every statistical category. They were beating teams senseless -- winning by an average of nearly 27 points per game -- before two recent close calls against UConn and West Virginia. While people may wonder about those games, they were against two good conference opponents who were fighting for their season.

Cincinnati let up a little bit in the second half against UConn and was uncharacteristically sloppy at times against the Mountaineers (who were ranked coming in), but in the end it got the job done. And let's not forget the Bearcats have been playing with their backup quarterback for more than a month. They still managed 711 total yards against UConn.

I think we both agree that these are two really good, entirely worthy BCS title contenders. So here's my next question: Assuming that neither gets a title shot, in a perfect world would it be better for a 12-0 Cincinnati and 12-0 TCU to play each other for the shadow championship? Or would each be better served by playing a big boy like, say, the SEC runner-up to prove themselves?

GW: I wouldn’t mind seeing these two teams play each other since there has been so much debate about which is more worthy of a shot at the national championship game. As you mentioned, Cincinnati is near the top of every statistical category, but if you look, TCU is either above or right there with the Bearcats. I don’t think you could find a more evenly-matched game.

While both fan bases might want their teams to prove their mettle against an SEC team, the Mountain West already has conquered that mountain. A game between the Big East and Mountain West might continue to stoke the fire regarding which conference is most deserving of the automatic bid.

Orange Bowl here we come!

BB: Well, the ACC might have a problem with that. To me, the Fiesta Bowl looks like the only possible venue for such a matchup. I think the Big East would much rather prove itself against the SEC than play the Mountain West with very little to gain. Who knows? At the end of the year, maybe both TCU and Cincinnati will be 13-0 with their own legitimate claims to the national title.

The Cincinnati Enquirer is reporting that quarterback Zach Collaros is due in court on Thursday to answer to charges stemming from his attempted use of a fake ID back in May.

Collaros was given the chance to have the charges wiped away by entering a diversion program, a judge ruled on Oct. 5. But the story says Collaros failed to contact officials from the diversion staff. If he does not offer a good explanation of why he failed to do so, he could face a misdemeanor charge that carries a maximum sentence of 180 days in jail.

The quarterback was originally charged with using a Tennessee driver's license to enter a bar on May 5. Collaros didn't turn 21 until August.

It's not the world's worst crime, but this is the kind of headline Cincinnati doesn't need as it tries to stay undefeated. Luckily for the team, this news broke during a bye week, minimizing the distractions. There's a good chance it will all be cleared up by the time the Bearcats and coach Brian Kelly are made available to the media again next week.

Collaros has been magnificent filling in for the injured Tony Pike, but he may be heading back to the bench. Kelly said Pike would start next week's Illinois game if no complications arise from his left arm injury.