Thanks to Glenroy Lee for the pic. For anyone keeping count, even DePaul and USF now have Big East conference wins.
It looks like the new receivers coach is P.J. Fleck from Northern Illinois. He's rather young, to the point that I actually remember having him on my Madden franchise roster a few years ago. Seems a strange geographic fit if he's from Illinois, although Fleck is a complete mystery otherwise beyond the cool name of course. Interestingly enough, he was coached at NIU by George McDonald.
"They've got a young group of receivers, talented but young," Fleck said. "It's a challenge to leave my close-knit ties and uproot and go further myself and learn more and grow more and challenge myself more.
"I think that's a chance I've got to be willing to take, and working for a BCS program and [coach] Greg Schiano. That's one of the main reasons. He works his staff hard and I want to get better and learn and grow."
Kenny Britt should pay his parking tickets. That's not a big deal, but news broke later on Wednesday that Britt posted bail for a friend facing serious charges in Jersey City. Kenny's explanation is that he was helping out a childhood friend. Keith Sargeant has more.
Here's an interesting story on the Big East and SEC's ongoing negotiations with the Pizza Bowl. It's stunning to see how far Liberty has fallen in the national pecking order, to the point where a trip to Birmingham would be more prestigious. Really, the BE couldn't have gotten involved earlier? There may be some kind of consolation prize though.
The Liberty, which currently matches the SEC against Conference USA, has explored the possibility of adding the Big East as a shared pick in certain years.
It's a big week for Kevin Haslam at the Shrine Bowl practices in Orlando. The official heights and weights are out. Even more important than the game itself are looking good in the week's practices and drills, and Haslam has as much at stake as any player in attendance. While I've never been much of a fan of Kevin's game, his skill set probably matches up at better at left tackle than at guard or right tackle. He could earn a lot of money with a good showing this week, and with good workouts. The NFL is always desperate for linemen, which is why Anthony Davis has a chance to go in the top 10 in April. Now, grain of salt here, because these reports are notoriously unreliable, but the only article I could find on his performance gave Kevin high marks. By the way, George Johnson's listed on the TEST Sports Club website, which means he's training there.
Check out Shawn's Q&A with a Villanova blog. Doesn't include nearly enough anti-Nova scorn for my liking.
Tim Pernetti conducted a second round of interviews with the two soccer finalists, and a final decision is expected soon.
The Deborah Hospital Foundation just awarded Coach Schiano its humanitarian award. He was also in Newark Tuesday for Gov. Christie's inauguration.
Put the Colorado and Rutgers rumors to rest, as New Brunswick's Brandon Smith is transferring from Michigan to Temple.
The New York Times is introducing an article paywall to its website.
There was a brief but interesting piece in the New Yorker this week on cable bundling (check out the companion piece too). Why's this important an relevant? We wouldn't be even having any discussion about the Big Ten if a la carte packages were ever available. The end result would probably be fiscal armageddon, considering the Big East's conferences deals with ESPN/ABC and SNY. Never mind the business model for pretty much every professional sports team. I guess the end result would be "bad" on those ends, but I can't help but think it seems intuitively right and fairer, nevermind the whole rooting for chaos aspect.
More solar panels are coming soon to New Brunswick.