WVU is overwhelming favorite

The Mountaineers have back most of the starters from last year's team.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The path to the Bowl Championship Series never has been smoother for the Big East champ.
Miami and Virginia Tech, who have dominated the conference for years, are gone -- lured away by the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida will give the league a boost next year when they relocate from Conference USA and Boston College joins the Hokies and Hurricanes in the ACC.
For now, though, seven teams remain, and among them only defending conference co-champion West Virginia enters the season in the Top 25. And even the 10th-ranked Mountaineers aren't viewed as unbeatable.
"We have seven programs here who all think they can win this league," Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said. "The beauty of it is that the winner of this league is going to represent this conference in a BCS game."
Or as Boston College tight end Dave Kashetta put it, "There's no one team that the road to the BCS goes through."
Believe otherwise
The folks in Morgantown believe otherwise, and with good reason.
Coach Rich Rodriguez enters his fourth year at his alma mater with a 12-2 conference record over the past two years. Last year, the Mountaineers came within the length of Kellen Winslow's outstretched arms of upsetting the Hurricanes and getting their first BCS bid.
The Mountaineers return most of last year's starters, including dual-threat quarterback Rasheed Marshall, speedy receiver Chris Henry and one of the best offensive lines in the country. They are the league's overwhelming favorite.
"We're definitely going to have to work harder because when you're that team that everybody wants to knock off to make a name for themselves, you're going to have to be on your 'A' game every week," Marshall said.
Rodriguez's job is to make sure the Mountaineers don't buy into the hype.
"We can't control what people are saying to them or what they're hearing outside of our little circle," Rodriguez said. "We've got to bring them back down to earth. It makes it more difficult in some respects, but it's a better problem to have than always trying to pump them up."
Mediocre defense
The Mountaineers' defense was mediocre last season and needs to plug some holes for West Virginia to do better than just Big East champs. All-American linebacker Grant Wiley is gone, so fellow linebackers Adam Lehnortt and Scott Gyorko need to step up.
Boston College looks like West Virginia's main competitor with the league's best defensive player, 6-foot-8 sack master Mathias Kiwanuka. The Eagles shouldn't expect a fond farewell from the Big East.
Boston College is being sued by Connecticut, West Virginia and some of the other holdovers, who allege that BC and Miami conspired to weaken the Big East.
Fair or not, the Eagles, original members of the league, are viewed as traitors by most Big East fans -- and will be treated accordingly.
"We talked about this last year," coach Tom O'Brien said. "We went through it when we went to Connecticut and Syracuse. The players understand. The media might add to some of the hostility. "We're used to it and able to ignore it."
Pittsburgh is coming off a disappointing 8-5 season and has to replace the best player in the league in receiver Larry Fitzgerald along with most of its offense.
"I think we will forever be trying to replace Larry Fitzgerald," Walt Harris said. "His is a rare commodity."
Replacing Fitzgerald got even harder when the Panthers lost Princell Brockenbrough, who caught 35 passes for 616 yards last year, for the season to a knee injury.
Syracuse has won only 10 games the past two seasons, putting Orange coach Paul Pasqualoni in need of a turnaround in his 14th season.
Running back Walter Reyes (Struthers), who set a school record with 21 touchdowns, will get plenty of opportunities as Pasqualoni sorts through inexperienced quarterbacks.
The Big East is counting on big things from UConn, which became a football member a year ahead of schedule to fill the holes left by the ACC departures. The Huskies have won 15 games in their first two seasons playing Division I-A and have a pro prospect in quarterback Dan Orlovsky.
There is hope at Rutgers after a 5-7 season, but the same can't be said for the league's other perennial cellar dweller, Temple. The Owls are also in their last season in the Big East, but unlike the other defectors, they were asked to leave.