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FanHouse Big East writer Brett McMurphy empties his reporter's pad every week with the latest news from the league in the Big East Notebook.

While the majority of college football programs are utilizing the spread offense, Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt proudly admits his club's offensive philosophy has gone the way of the dinosaur.

So far, so good for Tyrannosaurus Dave and his Panthers. Forget extinction, the Panthers are thriving in their prehistoric offense.

The Panthers are 8-1, lead the Big East in rushing (187 yards per game) and second in the Big East and 16th nationally in scoring offense (34.56 points per game).

"I think there are a lot of different ways to win," Wannstedt said. "Right now everybody's in the spread offense. We're probably one of the dinosaurs left that are lining up with a fullback and a tailback and trying to pound people and play-action pass.

"But that's what I believe in. And the Super Bowls and national championships I've been associated with, that's what we did. You have to go with what you know and what you believe."

A day after saying that Cincinnati senior Tony Pike would be his starting quarterback when "100 percent" healthy, Bearcats coach Brian Kelly told Cincinnati radio station WEBN-FM that back-up Zach Collaros would start Friday against West Virginia.

Collaros started for Pike the past three games, and has completed 80 percent of his passes. Saturday against UConn, Collaros set a Big East and school record with 555 yards of total offense, including 480 yards passing.

Despite Collaros' impressive showing the past 3 1/2 games, Kelly said Pike would regain his starting position when healthy. Kelly's announcement means that Pike still hasn't fully recovered from his left arm injury.

Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and West Virginia won as expected last week, but it wasn't quite as easy as the experts predicted.

All three clubs were heavy favorites between 17 and 21 points, yet only Pittsburgh won easily. PItt was the only one of the trio that didn't almost lose. The Panthers disposed of depleted Syracuse 37-10, but Cincinnati and West Virginia had a lot more difficulty.

The Bearcats outlasted a resilient UConn club 47-45, while the Mountaineers held off Louisville 17-9.

Last week's results shows that the league remains divided into three tiers: the best (Cincinnati, Pittsburgh), the worst (Louisville, Syracuse) and everyone else (South Florida, West Virginia, UConn and Rutgers).

While the top and the bottom of the league is pretty well set, it should be interesting to see how the middle four teams shake out in the next few weeks. It will start Thursday when USF visits Rutgers.

Unfortunately, we have to wait another four weeks for the Cincinnati-Pittsburgh contest.

TAMPA, Fla. -- The demand for a college football playoff could break up the BCS after the 2013 season, but instead of adding a playoff, the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) would likely just revert back to the old bowl system, Big East commissioner John Marinatto told FanHouse.

"It [the BCS] is such an entity where there's so many diverse things that come together that make it work," Marinatto said. "I don't know if all that will continue to go on the way it is. If they're pressured to create a playoff, they would simply go back to what the system used to be like and have it as an at-large, free-for-all where people can go [to whichever bowl] they want.

Halloween in Eugene began with Oregon coach Chip Kelly disguised as the Duck mascot and ended with USC masquerading as Cal. Pete Carroll's Trojans are not exactly immune from defeat in the Beaver State (0-4 since 2006) but they never lose to a fellow highly ranked Pac-10 foe and they most certainly never get waxed.

That's Jeff Tedford's domain.

Hands continue to wring in the Southland -- the Orange County Register declared that "USC's complete dominance of the league, a dominance unmatched in conference history, is over" -- but I believe that Pete Carroll, much like Michael Myers, will haunt the Pac-10 for many Halloweens to come.

Also, I'd like to suggest a more salient reason for Troy's desultory play of late, one that has nothing to do with the freshman QB, the eight defensive starters lost, or the two new coordinators: jet lag (and that's not a Mark Sanchez reference).

And then there were two.

Cincinnati and Pittsburgh are now the lone undefeated teams in Big East play after last weekend's action.

The No. 4 ranked Bearcats and No. 14 Panthers continue on a collision course for the de facto Big East championship game on Dec. 5 in Pittsburgh. By the way, whatever Nick Carparelli, the Big East's senior associate commissioner for football, is making, he deserves a raise.

Carparelli is in charge of the league's schedule and his philosophy is having the league's top games played later in the year. That's easier said than done, but the Big East could have a pair of Top 10 teams playing for the league title if the Bearcats and Panthers don't stumble.

Stumble is exactly what West Virginia did -- again -- at South Florida. Playing in Tampa, Fla., on a Friday night for the second time in three years, the Mountaineers' league title hopes took a big hit with the 30-19 loss to the Bulls, who had lost their previous two games to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh by a combined margin of 75-31.

Just three weeks ago, we called Pittsburgh the Pitts-ophrenic Panthers after their up-and-down performances earlier this season against Buffalo, N.C. State, Louisville and UConn.

Uh, is it too late to take that all back?

As impressive as Cincinnati has been all season, Pittsburgh might be playing the best overall of any Big East team. The offense is balanced and the defense gets more dominating each week. Saturday, the Panthers (7-1, 4-0 Big East) scorched South Florida 41-14.

Since allowing 505 yards at N.C. State, the Panthers have improved their defensive numbers in each of the past four games. Pitt allowed 305 yards to Louisville on Oct. 2, 303 to UConn on Oct. 10, 286 to Rutgers on Oct. 16 and 212 to USF on Saturday.

CINCINNATI -- A few days ago, a former long-time resident of the Queen City was asked if he ever could have imagined that the University of Cincinnati's football team would overshadow the Bearcats' tradition-rich basketball program.

Without hesitation, Bob Huggins replied: "Not in my lifetime."

These are strange days indeed in Cincinnati, where the football team -- not the basketball program -- is a legitimate national title contender.

On Saturday, coach Brian Kelly's big, bad Bearcats kept steamrolling through the Big East with a 41-10 seal-clubbing of Louisville in the battle for the Keg of Nails.

TAMPA, Fla. -- ESPN announcer and former Tampa Bay Bucs coach Jon Gruden, who was attending Thursday night's Cincinnati-South Florida game, declined comment about media reports linking him to college and NFL coaching positions.

"I'm just here to support the Bulls," Gruden told FanHouse.

Gruden has been identified as the top choice at Louisville if current coach Steve Kragthorpe is fired after the season, the NFL Network reported.

A report that Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe has been informed he will not return next season is "absolutely not true," Louisville senior associate athletic director Kenny Klein told FanHouse.

The report, from Louisville Sports Buzz, indicated "sources very close to the situation" said "a meeting took place between the respective camps" of athletic director Tom Jurich and Kragthorpe on Monday, where Jurich reportedly gave Kragthorpe "the option to resign before or following Saturday's game with Southern Miss or ride out the season (as) basically a lame-duck."

Klein said the report, which indicated an announcement would be made no later than next Monday, is "completely wrong information."

"Tom Jurich and Coach Kragthorpe didn't even speak on Monday in person or by phone," Klein said.