Creating some enthusiasm

With each game Paul Peterson plays, and each game he wins, the comparisons to another playmaking Boston College quarterback -- some guy named Flutie -- seem inevitable.

After all, when was the last time the Eagles could boast of having a quarterback who can create something out of nothing, who can turn a broken play into a winner? Who makes those around him that much better? Who worries opponents with his passing and scrambling ability?

Listen to Connecticut coach Randy Edsall, and you'll swear it was the same thing opposing coaches said of Doug Flutie:

"Paul Peterson, as I said going into the game, he was the guy I was very concerned about. He does a lot of things for them back there. He's very smart. You can see he's an intelligent quarterback and he knows where to go with the ball.

"Then the other thing he does, he buys himself some time with his athleticism. He can also create plays out of nothing. You can put a rush on him and he finds a way to escape. He's undefeated as a starter. He's done an outstanding job in what they're asking him to do, and again, he's won every game he's started."

Peterson, now 6-0 as a starter, earned a share of Big East Player of the Week honors after guiding the Eagles to a 27-7 triumph over the Huskies Friday, completing 14 of 23 passes for 193 yards and 2 touchdowns, while rushing 10 times for 25 yards. BC is off to its first 3-0 start since 1999, when it started with four wins.

"It's great he was Co-Player of the Week," said BC coach Tom O'Brien, whose team travels to Wake Forest Saturday. "He did a tremendous job. He threw for a high percentage once again [60.8] and was able to create some situations for us and made some great throws.

"More importantly, he pulled the ball down a couple of times and made some key runs and got us a couple of key first downs in the football game."

While the Eagles have had to sort out some issues on offense -- such as the cohesiveness of its young line, and settling on a (healthy) starter at running back -- Peterson has proven to be the "glue guy" of the squad.

Listen to what O'Brien said yesterday about his 24-year-old quarterback and you'd swear it was the same thing Jack Bicknell said about Flutie in his first year at the helm.

"The toughest thing for an offense is to break in a quarterback that's inexperienced," O'Brien said. "He's won. He's a very confident young man. He has good football instincts and good football ability. He's a natural leader. He can make a bad play into a good play and that's probably been the best thing about our offense.

"He's taken bad things and made them good, and that's kept us in games."

Take a message
West Virginia's 19-16 overtime triumph against Maryland seemed to send an emphatic message to the Atlantic Coast Conference. "I think the Big East is fine," said coach Rich Rodriguez, whose seventh-ranked Mountaineers improved to 3-0 by scoring their first win over a ranked opponent since a 17-14 triumph over fourth-ranked Miami Nov. 20, 1993 (the same day BC knocked off top-ranked Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.). "Our Big East administrators have a great plan for the future and they've done a great job in keeping our league together." . . . BC will get an interesting glimpse into its future as an ACC member when the Eagles travel to Winston-Salem, N.C., to face the Demon Deacons, who were 42-3 winners over North Carolina A&T last weekend. "We're not looking at it that way," O'Brien said. "We're looking at it as a game we have to go win. Next year or the future has nothing to do with this game Saturday. We're going to go down and represent the Big East playing an ACC team, so it's incumbent upon us to play well and to win a game for our conference." . . . Syracuse will travel to Charlottesville, Va., to face Virginia in another Big East-ACC Challenge game. The Orangemen improved to 2-1 with a 19-7 win over Cincinnati, which will join the Big East next fall. It was Syracuse's 100th victory in the Carrier Dome, which opened in 1980 . . . Temple quarterback Walter Washington proved a dual threat in a 38-7 victory over Florida A&M, passing for 222 yards and 1 TD and rushing for 119 yards and 2 TDs, to help coach Bobby Wallace notch his 100th career victory. It was the Owls' first win in their new digs, Lincoln Financial Field . . . Pittsburgh, coming off a 24-17 loss to Nebraska, and West Virginia, on the heels of its win over Maryland, face trap games against 1-AA opponents. And don't think Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris or West Virginia's Rodriguez won't point toward New Hamphshire's 35-24 upset of Rutgers Sept. 11 or Maine's 9-7 upset win at Mississippi State Saturday night as prime examples of taking a 1-AA opponent too lightly. The Panthers will host Furman of the Southern Conference and the Mountaineers will host James Madison of the upset-minded Atlantic 10. "I think the Atlantic 10 is starting to become like the MAC last fall," Rodriguez said. "Maine had a tremendous win on the road, then New Hampshire beat a very good Rutgers team. And William & Mary took North Carolina down to the wire, and we all saw how good Carolina was after what they did to Georgia Tech. So the Atlantic 10 is having a few statement games early this season."