The news of Syracuse and Pittsburgh accepting bids to join the Atlantic Coast Conference shook the college sports landscape during the weekend. It was no different on Monday, as the eight current Big East football coaches spoke in the weekly Big East football teleconference. Each of the eight coaches were asked, in some form, about the moves made by SU and Pittsburgh during the weekend.

And each responded. Here’s a review of what each coach said during the teleconference today.

Doug Marrone, Syracuse head coach

‘This is really going to be my only talk and my only saying about it. Not because I’m not excited; I’ve told everyone I’m excited for the university and our athletic programs and our student-athletes.

‘I’ve told my coaches and I’ve told my players not to comment on it. … After the season I’ll be more than happy to open it up, and we can talk about it as much as anyone wants to talk about it. But right now I hope to be the head coach carrying our team into the future. And we have to win football games, that’s what’s important.’

Todd Graham, Pittsburgh head coach

‘I’m very grateful to our chancellor, Mark Nordenberg and (Pittsburgh Athletic Director) Steve Pederson for their leadership and solidifying our program for the future. And we’re excited for the opportunity in the future.’

Paul Pasqualoni, Connecticut head coach

‘Obviously, this came on very, very quickly. We’ve been so busy getting ready to play football games that I haven’t really had a chance to meet with any of the officials here. My feeling on it would be to really assess if in fact Syracuse and Pitt are going to the ACC, are the Texas and Oklahoma schools going to the Pac-12 and what are the remaining Pac-12 teams going to do? What would be the landscape of, let’s call it, the new Big East? Does that bring in Baylor and Missouri? Could that be worked out with the remaining Big East teams? Or is there opportunity to go to another conference? These are things that are going to have to be discussed here very quickly in the very near future, and decisions are going to have to be made.’

Charlie Strong, Louisville head coach

‘I can’t determine the future. But I know this, and I’ll say it again, our president and our athletic director make the right decisions for us.’

Skip Holtz, South Florida head coach

‘(Athletic Director) Doug Woolard put out a statement from the university here, and there’s so much speculation about what’s going to happen and how big are all these conferences going to grow to be and who’s going to be where. And I just think the landscape of college football is very unstable as far as who’s going to be in what conferences.’

Greg Schiano, Rutgers head coach

‘I’m going to stick to just coaching our football team and taking care of our players and coaches, and I’m going to defer all those comments to our athletic director.’

Dana Holgorsen, West Virginia head coach

‘I don’t have an opinion. We’re in the capable hands of (Athletic Director) Oliver Luck and (WVU President) Dr. (James P.) Clements, and I’m going to worry about X’s and O’s.’

Butch Jones, Cincinnati head coach

‘I think it’s undergoing a major change right now, and everyone has their own motivations and motivating factor, and they’re looking at taking care of their own interests. So I’ve been so focused on football, but I think it just shows you where we’re at in today’s society with the importance of athletics and the nature of the spotlight that everyone has on us.’

Published on September 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm