Anthony Morelli’s verbal commitment to the University of Pittsburgh is indeed huge, especially since Penn State made such a significant run at him in the end with such an attractive package.

According to the Altoona Mirror, Penn State had been chasing Chad Henne for years, and had refrained from recruiting any other blue chip quarterbacks to practically insure Henne of a starting job in Happy Valley. After Henne — like all too many other Pennsylvanian prospects — turned down a Pennsylvanian university for Michigan, this package — guaranteed starting quarterback job and all — was thrown at Morelli.

Despite the fact that nobody would have been in front of Morelli on the depth charts at Penn State (Tyler Palko is still in his way at Pitt), despite the fact that the Big East and Pitt’s link to the BCS are both in turmoil, despite the fact that Penn State sells out a 105,000 seat stadium every Saturday, despite the fact that Penn State allegedly has the most legendary college football coach ever, Morelli chose Pitt.

Lion fan, that’s gotta hurt.

Incidentally, I just overheard on Sports Radio 1460, WBNS, Columbus that Rich Rodriguez will be using a constant hurry-up, two minute style offense this year. The consensus on Herbstreit and Fitzsimmons was that WVU was getting little desperate to distinguish itself from the other Big East schools — and especially Pitt.

Finally, has anybody seen any early rankings of recruiting classes yet? I’ll bet Pitt is in the top 15 now.

Hail to Pitt, and Mr. Morelli, beware of the ball tee retriever guy