Get ready for some Wednesday night football.

The landscape of college football has changed over the last decade, from traditional Saturday afternoon games to televised weekday games. With growing television deals and expanding exposure, college football is no longer relegated to weekend afternoons. Nighttime kickoffs and Thursday night affairs have become regular.

Wednesday night football is relatively new, but if you are a Big East fan, get used to it. Tonight, Connecticut will take on West Virginia in a midweek showdown. ESPN broadcaster Sean McDonough – on the Syracuse campus last week – said that Wednesday night appearances may become a regularity.

‘We have already talked about it at ESPN,’ McDonough said. ‘If the Big East wants national exposure, they are going to have to move their games. The Big East is really a step below the major conferences right now, and if they want to play on national TV, don’t be surprised to see them playing on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.’

Tonight’s game – which will be played in Storrs, Conn. – features two teams coming off a combined 24 days of rest. The Huskies (4-1, 1-1 Big East) last played against Pittsburgh on a Thursday night before having a bye week. The Mountaineers had a week off after dropping their first loss of the season, 19-14, to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. In fact, WVU (4-1, 0-0) hasn’t played on a Saturday since Sept. 25 and will not have a weekend matchup until Oct. 30.

‘It throws you off,’ WVU head coach Rich Rodriquez said. ‘You have to get in a different mindset, but we have had plenty of time to prepare.’

UConn also has some wacky scheduling. The Huskies have already had a Friday night game and, along with this Wednesday game, they will play at Rutgers on Thanksgiving – a Thursday.

UConn head coach Randy Edsall agreed with Rodriguez, saying that as long as there is enough time to prepare, the odd scheduling isn’t a problem.

‘We are treating this Wednesday as a Saturday game,’ Edsall said, ‘and then we just back everything up. We had enough days where we needed to prepare. The problems come when you play on a Saturday and then turn around and play the next Thursday. The difference for us is we were practicing on Saturday and Sunday and thinking it is Monday and Tuesday, telling the kids to get to class, when it was actually the weekend.’

Rutgers (3-2, 0-1) had its biggest comeback in school history last Saturday. At Vanderbilt, the Scarlet Knights fell behind, 27-3, with 11:16 to play in the third quarter. Rutgers, however, was far from finished. Rutgers would score five touchdowns in the final 23 minutes of the game to turn the 27-3 deficit into a 37-34 victory. The final score – a 1-yard run by Brian Leonard – came with a minute left and gave Rutgers its first lead of the game. It was also Leonard’s fourth touchdown of the day.

‘To be on the road and be down 24 and not throw it in,’ Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano said, ‘shows the real character of our team.’

Also showing some character was quarterback Ryan Hart. The junior signal-caller was 31-for-40 passing with 244 yards and a pair of touchdown passes. His second half performance (16-for-24, 211 yards) earned him Big East Offensive Player of the Week honors.

Prior to the win over Vanderbilt, the biggest comeback in school history came in 1992. Then, Rutgers came back from a 20-point deficit to beat Virginia Tech, 50-49.

Homecoming is Saturday and Rutgers will welcome Temple. Even with a shot to move to 4-2 overall (1-1 in conference), Schiano is keeping perspective.

‘I think Temple is really talented,’ Schiano said. ‘Right now we’re an inexperienced team gaining experience, so I don’t know how much longer we are going to be inexperienced for. We have been, thus far, consistently inconsistent.’

Boston College’s Will Blackmon is leading the nation in kick-return yardage. The Boston College cornerback is averaging 35.8 yards each kickoff return. … Pittsburgh looked up at the scoreboard midway through the third quarter last weekend, and what the Panthers saw wasn’t good. A 16-3 tally was bad enough, but this was against Temple. Insert Tyler Palco. The junior quarterback, who has tossed for 1,115 yards this season, led the comeback. Palco was 9-for-9 passing in the fourth quarter with more than 100 yards and a 50-yard touchdown pass. … Mountaineer running back Kay-Jay Harris has amassed just 85 yards on 29 carries his last two games. Nursing a sore knee and ankle, Harris is doubtful for tonight’s game.

Published on October 12, 2004 at 12:00 pm