Along with some lemon juice into the open sores of BC. Possibly the best quote from a losing coach trying to explain what happened. BC Coach Tom O’Brien talking about how his BC defense — formerly #19 in the country against the run — could allow 309 rushing yards by Syracuse:

“I never suspected that we wouldn’t be able to stop them the way we didn’t.”

Remember sentence diagrams from English class? I would hate to see how that sentence would look.

Guess what? BC feels it has suffered a lot in its last year in the Big East — unfairly, no less — so it will not schedule any games against Big East opponents in the future. Man, that’s rough.

You know, I mentioned it last year, that BC got no love or attention from the Boston media. And when they noticed after Pitt beat them for the 3rd straight time it wasn’t very positive. But now, as they had a chance for the BCS, both the Boston Globe and Herald were paying attention. This meant sending their top columnists. The Herald sent Steve Buckley (paid subscription), and the Globe sent the venerable Bob Ryan. Odds are, that maybe they’ll return for their first ACC home game, but not for much else.

There may have been gloomier, more depressing, and costlier days for a Boston College athletic team in the past 40 years, but I can’t think of one.

“Not a good day for BC football,” sighed an embarrassed Tom O’Brien. “We did not perform up to our expectations.”

Translation: “I never saw these kids before in my life.”

All BC had to do to get into a lucrative BCS Bowl — their first such game since the days of Flutie — was defeat a Syracuse team that wasn’t good enough to beat Temple, a team the league has decreed is not good enough to remain a member. The Eagles even had the added motivation of revenge, since all they seemed to be talking about this past week was how much they wanted to make amends for a 39-14 defeat at the Carrier Dome last year.

It was all there: revenge, the chance to make serious money for the school, and the prestige attached to playing in a BCS Bowl as the Big East champion in their farewell season before defecting to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

So how bad was this fiasco at The Heights yesterday? The 43-17 final score only hints at the true discrepancy between the teams. Syracuse, loser of 10 straight Big East road games, was admirable and efficient. Boston College, playing before a sellout Alumni Stadium crowd of 44,500, was lifeless and sloppy. Syracuse deserved this glorious victory. The BC players should have been sent to bed without their suppers.
…
With this game, BC is done with the Big East. There will be no future nostalgic friendlies, at least as long as O’Brien is around. “I am not going to play anybody in the Big East, for what we went through,” O’Brien hissed.

Obviously, there are scars from this regrettable conference switch that never will heal.

“I’m just glad it’s over with the Big East,” O’Brien continued. “It’s been a tough year and a half. It didn’t have to end this way . . . But, for whatever reason, there’s a lot of animosity toward Boston College.”

There sure is, but you’d like to think that no one this morning could loathe BC more than BC itself. A performance like this in a game like this is inexplicable. And inexcusable.

Heh. The coverage wasn’t very flattering from the regular reporters, either. Oh, and BC may need to find a bowl outside of the Big East tie-ins.

Pitt is ranked. I’m still mildly surprised. It’s like I’m waiting for someone to tell me that it was a mistake. Pitt made it to #21 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll and leaped all the way to #19 in the AP Writers poll. Kind of stranger is that WVU remained in the coaches poll at #24, but dropped out of the writers poll. Then BC dropped out of the coaches poll but remained in the writers poll at #23. In a way, it kind of makes sense.

While most are focusing on the “undeservedness” of the Big East with a BCS bid — whatever — most are ignoring (or perhaps waiting to write about it until later) that Coach Walt Harris is on the verge of being this year’s Tommy Tuberville. Well, most:

Can you fire a coach who takes your team to the BCS? While Steel City columnists spent much of the season writing Walt Harris obituaries, the eighth-year coach was quietly leading a remarkable in-season turnaround that, barring a loss next week to South Florida, will culminate in a Fiesta Bowl berth for the Panthers. Granted, it’s a joke that any team from this year’s Big East will be playing in one of the four major bowl games, but that doesn’t diminish the importance of Pittsburgh’s 16-13 Thanksgiving night win over rival West Virginia.

The Mountaineers came into the season as the overwhelming conference favorite, but the Panthers’ come-from-behind win, combined with Boston College’s loss to Syracuse, leaves Harris’ team at the top of the heap. They beat the Eagles in overtime earlier in the season and, despite losing to Nebraska, Connecticut and Syracuse, should wind up the highest-ranked team among the four tied for first. The key to Pittsburgh’s improvement has been the play of QB Tyler Palko, who was brilliant in the Panthers’ Nov. 13 win at Notre Dame. Palko struggled much of the night against West Virginia, but he led a 14-play, 73-yard fourth-quarter drive, culminating in a 2-yard touchdown run, to give Pittsburgh the lead.

Palko’s emergence gives Panthers fans no shortage of reasons to be optimistic about the program’s future. Now, will AD Jeff Long feel the same way?

I am starting to think that a lot of the vitriol towards the Big East is based on all the writers who picked WVU as the sleeper pick to be considered for the national championship. Or at least not to look so bad.

Anyways, before we can punch Pitt’s ticket to Tempe or New Orleans, there is still unfinished business in Tampa. While the game may no longer garner hyperbole from the local Tampa press of the game being, “Arguably the biggest home game in school history between future Big East rivals.” It will still be important to them. The gear they had on sale earlier is still available.

Pitt wins this game and the debate over Harris should be over. The debate over Pitt in the BCS would be over. Pitt not only has the opportunity to make its statement, but it can close off a lot of meaningless discussions.