You know we're slowly working our way through the summer months when the preseason college football magazines start hitting the shelves. Today, Phil Steele released his preseason All-Big East teams. It's slightly humorous to have four full all-conference teams from a league with only eight teams, but that won't matter after this year. Just a couple of notes on his selections.
- Nobody (including myself) is pegging Connecticut as a contender for the Big East in 2012, but the Huskies have seven players on the first team.
- Rutgers and South Florida have the most selections at 19. Louisville has 14. Temple has the fewest with 7.
- It's interesting to note that of Louisville's 14 selections, only two are seniors (Mario Benavides and Adrian Bushell). The Cardinals are a talented team that has been admirably made over by Charlie Strong, but they remain a very young team at number of positions.
- If the selections are any indication, Rutgers should field the best defense in the Big East next year with four first team players and another on the second team. Additionally, Phil Steele lists true freshman Darius Hamilton as a third-team selection despite not having played a game yet. High praise for the signee.
- The lack of Temple players highlights 1. the personnel loss from last year's team 2. the trouble the Owls will likely have in year one in the Big East.