Phinally Philly

Tonight the Temple Owls will line up against the Villanova Wildcats in the inaugural Mayor’s Cup at Lincoln Financial Field. The Owls are on the rise since head coach Al Golden took the unenviable position. After being booted from the Big East Temple has found a good fit in the MAC and appears on the verge of making a serious run at a division crown and a possible bowl berth.

The Owls suffered the agony of late game heart breaking losses last year and if they can address a couple concerns at some key positions (like quarterback), they should be able to make some noise in the MAC in 2009.

The Villanova Wildcats have high expectations entering 2009. Returning 15 starters from a team that went 10-3 last season can do that for you. Andy Talley’s team from the Main Line enters the season ranked fifth in the nation and a national championship game appearance is not out of the question.

I want to question why the Mayor’s Cup is a good idea for Temple. I personally do not think a program on the Football Bowl Subdivision level should pursue and promote a rivalry with a Football Championship Subdivision opponent, even if they are from the same city. But who am I to judge?Villanova has the talent to make a run in this game, but Temple, at this point, should have the better athletes and I think Temple will pull one out in this interesting match-up.

Which leads us to Penn State.

Can the Nittany Lions put together their own national championship run? As much as Big Ten critics would hate to see it they would just as much love to see Joe Paterno  go for one more national title. Penn State should have the offense and defense to make a run at an unbeaten regular season, which would make it difficult to be left out of the BCS Championship mix. Penn State opens up this weekend against Akron. Akron features a mildly dangerous passing game but their defense was lacking a year ago. Penn State should muscle their way to victory by rushing the ball left, right and up the middle.

Any Rutgers fans out there? Ahh, yes, I see you. Guess what.

I am picking Rutgers to win the Big East this season.

The Big East does not have one team listed in any of the major top 25 polls as the season gets underway. I say that proves that the Big East is both an inferior conference and is wide open for the taking. Whoever fights their way to the top will gain a much scrutinized automatic BCS berth. I like head coach Greg Schiano and although his team has come up short recently, he may have the best team in the conference this season.

As someone who has been covering Penn State football I will personally be interested to see if freshman corner back Darrell Givens will see much playing time. The corner back originally committed to Penn State but failed to meet the academic requirements (commence Rutgers jokes now).

We’ll find out if Rutgers has what it takes in the Big East right away. The Scarlet Knights open their season on Labor Day with a prime time game at home against defending Big East champion Cincinnati.

For many in the Philadelphia region college football season has already started. Division two teams such as West Chester, Bloomsburg, Kutztown, and Shippensburg started last week. If you are looking for a gut prediction for the PSAC title game, I’ll say California (Pa) beats Bloomsburg.