Training camp for Pitt football is Monday. It appears the local media in Pittsburgh has decided to start looking at the Panthers a bit more. The Post-Gazette does two player pieces. One on QB Rod Rutherford. The article basically credits the successful recruiting of Rutherford to Pitt over Penn State and Michigan State in 1999 as being the key to resurrecting Pitt as a good football program.
Rutherford’s decision helped to change the perception of Pitt for other top high school players. Every year since then, the Panthers’ recruiting classes have gotten better. Not coincidentally, the team also has improved each season and has reached the brink of college football’s elite.
“Rod’s decision was a landmark decision for this program,” Pitt offensive coordinator J.D. Brookhart said. “You can’t begin to quantify the intangible benefits that we’ve reaped. To be able to sign a blue-chip local player with Joe Paterno sitting in a restaurant across the street waiting for his decision put us on the map. After that, a lot of other top players began to consider us. That was a big day for us and one of the most important days in this program’s modern history.”
Rutherford’s decision re-energized the Panthers and gave their fans, who had suffered through one of the worst decades in the school’s history, reason to believe better days were ahead.
There is no question that when Rutherford announced he was going to Pitt, it was big — for the fans. I tend to discount how much an individual player has on recruiting other players.
Success and connecting with the players and promises made during recruiting visits are the keys.
Michael Jordan didn’t get big free agents to the Wiz as people predicted when he went there to oversee b-ball ops. and then play again. What key free agents signed with the Detroit Lions when and because of Barry Sanders? How are the Texas Rangers doing with Alex Rodriguez?
No, Rutherford coming to Pitt showed how quickly recruiting by Pitt had improved.
The rest of the piece just talks about how Pitt is set up for a great run; and that Rutherford is looking forward to the season and being a leader, yadda, yadda, yadda.
The other puff piece is on running back, Brandon Miree. This is basically, your standard “this is a true student-athlete, the rare exception in this corrupt age of college football.” An especially common topic I’m guessing this year, in light of Ohio State’s Maurice Clarett.
It talks vaguely of Miree’s political bent, only in a political celebrity context — not in any actual discussion of where he stands.
But that’s the story of dozens of college running backs. It’s what Miree does off the field that sets him apart.
Like driving a van in the Presidential motorcade when President Bush came to Pittsburgh recently to speak to the Urban League. Miree got his spot behind the wheel through a friend’s connections. Once there, he made the most of it.
“I thought I’d be driving the media,” he said. “Instead, I got some top advisors. Karl Rove was one of them. So was the new press secretary and the presidential nurse.”
A lot of college students would have shut their mouth, been in awe and just driven the van. Not Miree. “I wanted to soak up as much as I could,” he said. “If I wouldn’t have said anything, I wouldn’t have got as much out of it.
“When everyone got into the van, I was joking and I asked if they have any musical preferences. One of the women said, ‘Karl, why don’t you have him play your favorite Norwegian folk music.’
“After that, he was cracking jokes. You could tell he was the man of the hour.
“They found out I was a football player and that I had been at Alabama. Karl Rove asked, ‘What were you doing down there?’ It turns out he spent some time in Alabama. We talked about restaurants we’d been to.
Miree is interesting, in that he has his undergraduate degree, and is already in GSPIA. He is a fifth year senior on the team — he transferred from Alabama after his three years, but with two years of eligibility remaining.
Miree is one of the keys to Pitt having a great year. If he goes down to injury, or doesn’t play well, Pitt’s BCS hopes are shot.
