A trend to live by in college football: A proficient run defense will get you into a BCS bowl (unless you’re Boise State*—I can’t help you there). All 10 teams in BCS bowl games this year are ranked among the top 20 in the country in stopping the run. Seriously, here they are:
Texas, No. 2
Alabama, No. 4
USC, No. 5
Penn St., No. 8
Cincinnati, No. 13
Utah, No. 14
Florida, No. 16
Oklahoma, No. 18
Virginia Tech, No. 19
Ohio State, No. 20
*In case you’re curious, and I know you are, Boise State is ranked No. 15.
I don’t really want to get into why the above statistical rankings seem to prevail in getting teams into BCS games; that’s neither here nor there. What I would like to do is examine the implications that rush defense (now that we’ve established that it could very well be a trumping stat) may have on games involving Big East Conference teams.
Today, I’m focusing strictly on the marquee bowl for the Big East: the Orange Bowl. As you’ll see above, Cincy has a better rush defense than its Orange Bowl opponent, Virginia Tech, so notch a point for the Bearcats.
Virginia Tech does, however, grab the edge in rushing offense (No. 42) over Cincy (No. 93). What does this mean? Well, if you ask me, it’s a push because Cincinnati’s superior run defense will marginalize Tech’s solid rushing attack, and vice-versa.
Where things will get interesting is in the passing attack. Frank Beamer’s pass defense is incredible (No. 15). Brian Kelly can’t say the same for his pass defense (No. 68).
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