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

Anthony Morelli, highly recruited QB from Penn Hill High School, annouced that he will attend the University of Pittsburgh next year. He made a verbal committment this morning.
Oh, yes!

What does this mean for Pitt? It means we went after, and got, one of the top QB’s in the country in spite of the Big East debacle. Pitt beat out Notre Dame, UCLA, Tennessee, Florida State and Ohio State to win this kid. According to Rivals.com, Morelli is #2, with Theinsiders.com listing him at #3 in the country. It also means Walt Harris has been doing a better job of keeping the local stars home.

This committment follows Pitt’s other local recruiting coup, North Hills RB Andrew Johnson. Johnson is also highly touted nationally.

Penn State has landed some local linebackers and defensive linemen, but other than their “linebacker U” reputation, PSU has missed the boat on most of the top PA recruits – especially the skill positions.
Good news all around.

This was phoned into me on my way out the door Shawn, but now that I’m back I can confirm. Anthony Morelli, one of the top HS QBs in the country has made a verbal commitment to Pitt.

Morelli was part of a heated recruiting battle that saw the superstar QB receive an amazing 43 scholarship offers. He chose Pitt over Notre Dame in the end. Morelli had offers from schools such as Florida State, Ohio State, Tennessee, Notre Dame, and UCLA, among others.

The “others” included a late in the game run at him by Penn State after their targeted QB, picked Michigan.

Depending on which recruiting site and/or “expert” you look for this sort of information, Morelli is either the #10, #14 or #41 (subs. req’d for this one) overall recruit in the country (ranking as the #2, #3, or #9 QB in HS).

It’s still a great commitment for Pitt… when he actually signs the letter of intent.

Remember when Jimmy Johnson stomped all over a box of “Flutie Flakes” after the Dolphins beat the Bills? It was a double bonus for me. I found the action amusing and childish, and well deserved after seeing way too many Doug Flute “10-10” commercials; but then I got to watch Johnson — who I intensely dislike — squirm as he was berated for being insensitive because the proceeds of the BC legend corn flakes were going to autism research and treatment. Well, now members in the Big Eleven can line up to stomp some cereal boxes.

Penn State coach Joe Paterno will join the legions of sports heroes who have been honored with one of the sports world’s most recognized awards — the front of the Wheaties cereal box.

I can only imagine the carnage if Pitt and Penn State actually played against each other.

In light of the injury to Mike Vick of the Atlanta Falcons, there is a good question being asked: what happens to Pitt if QB Rod Rutherford goes down?

The highly anticipated 2003 season could quickly dissolve, unless backup quarterbacks Luke Getsy or Tyler Palko proved capable of leading a team that some project as a BCS contender.

“Rod can carry us,” senior wide receiver Chris Curd said Monday, the eighth day of training camp. “We just hope the other guys can do the same thing.”

It would be difficult for sophomore Palko or redshirt freshman Getsy to duplicate what Rutherford did last season in leading the Panthers to a 9-4 record and No. 18 ranking. He passed for 2,783 yards, ran for 398, and amassed the third-highest combined total in Big East history.

It was his emergence that prompted many preseason prognosticators to deem the Panthers national championship contenders.

With Palko or Getsy at the controls, those aspirations might be far too ambitious. That’s not to discredit either, but Palko has thrown only three college passes, completing two, and Getsy has thrown none. He’s never even played in a collegiate game.

This is where I worry. Harris never seems to give the back-up much work. Even in mop-up duty. This leaves them ill-prepared to do much when they do get into games. Looking back on the 2001 season, a season of much frustration. Harris would make a big show, of subbing out the starting QB (David “Jason” Priestley) for Rod Rutherford. The problem is everyone in the stands and the field knew that Rutherford was out there to run the ball. Rutherford was the second leading rusher on the team in terms of carries (81) and yards (255). He only made 59 attempts the entire season (completing a paltry 19 and 4 interceptions). Rutherford was never given more than 2-3 plays in the offense before he was yanked back out of the game. You could hear audible groans from the fans the minute he started running — because everyone saw it coming. It took Rutherford a couple starts in 2002 before he really started getting comfortable in the game situations.

Now Palko (a much heralded recruit) has gotten practically no game experience — despite a couple games that Pitt had complete dominance and would have been perfect scrub time. Hopefully, Harris will have figured out the importance of giving Palko or Getsy some real playing time before it becomes necessary.

So Pitt has decided to host a basketball tourney this December. Forgive me if I’m not exactly overwhelmed with the teams competing.

Florida State, Murray State, Eastern Michigan, Chicago State and Wagner. I see at least two teams where the net effect of playing is to drag down Pitt’s RPI (Chicago State and Wagner). There are two teams that have been good mid-majors, thus being a risk to play; and don’t hurt/help the RPI (Murray and EMU). Then there is the name school, but in the wrong sport — Florida State — does anyone know if there are any expectations for FSU this year?

Couldn’t Pitt have wrangled an invite to a better tournament, rather than hosting this dink?

Greetings from Meadville, Pennsylvania and the 58th annual Crawford County Fair — the largest agricultural fair in Pennsylvania (including the State Farm Show). That, alone, should make this the most interesting post since Chas wrote us from the highest point in Indiana.

The relevance to Pitt? Only that at practically all of the novelty crap places across the Fairgrounds, there is — for the first time ever — more Pitt junk on the tables then Penn State junk. In an agricultural county like Crawford, this is a shift in popularity of seismic proportions.

Heck, for all I know, all the Penn State junk may have already sold out. But it cheered me up a little. My hometown could possibly be coming around.

Hail to Meadville

Thanks for the ECU Cheerleading Team link, Chas. Matt and Biff are really hot, but I think my favorite is Jake …

An ongoing concern at this blog will be the reformatting of the Big East and beyond. This is something we’ve been arguing over since May.

Basically, it’s a given that the Big East will raid at least two schools from Conference USA for football. Most likely Louisville and Cinci. Of course other members of C-USA that play both football and b-ball are looking to get in on it.

Schools are positioning themselves for another shakeup of the conference landscape once the Big East completes its expansion plans, which could happen as soon as late October. C-USA member East Carolina is interested in joining the Big East, and it took a serious step toward making that happen when it hired former SEC commissioner and BCS czar Roy Kramer as an athletic department consultant.

I don’t care who they freaking hire. East Carolina would be a pathetic choice to include in Big East survival expansion.

I have nothing personal against ECU. I don’t even know ECU — but what are they, the sixth choice for North Carolina kids (Duke, UNC, NC St., Wake, UNC-Greensboro). The last thing Big East expansion needs is another team that really pines to become a part of the ACC. On the plus side, they actually have a real site with pictures for their cheerleaders (pay attention, Pitt).

Besides that, they bring absolutely nothing to the basketball side of things. Football wise they have been better than I thought, but they are a poor fit. No name recognition; no cache; nothing. The Big East would be better served keeping Temple.

It used to be that a fan of Pitt would only get to glance at the team media guide, unless you knew somebody in the athletic department or won a free copy on a local sports radio show. Then, it evolved to where you could buy your own copy — which still seemed unfair since the media and the entire athletic department got the propaganda free.

Now, the entire Pitt media guide is available for free download in PDF. It’s great to actually have all the historical information and present roster and coaching information easily available. The 386 page media guide is broken up into separate sections, with the 386th page containing the vital information “NCAA Guidelines for Panther Boosters.” Maybe it’s related to reading too much about Maurice Clarett and OSU out here in Cleveland, I just like that at the end of the media guide.

I don’t know if other schools do this, but it makes a lot of sense.

There may be a silver lining to losing recruit Walter Walters, a 6’9″ center from Detroit. Since Howland left for UCLA, and took assistant coach Ernie Ziegler with him, Walters changed his mind about attending Pitt. Our loss? Sure, although he has yet to qualify academically.

The up side for Pitt is we already have 3 other big men coming to Pitt next year – Chris Taft, Dante Milligan and Aaron Gray, all top 100 center/forwards in their own rights, AND all academic qualifiers. New coach Jamie Dixon didn’t have any scholarships to spare, but now he can go out and try for a backup point guard. Carl Krauser will start now the Brandin Knight has graduated, but as of now there is no adequate backup PG. Maybe we can get a JUCO transfer?

Not to kiss anybody’s butt, but great post, Chas. I don’t know how you ran across that website, but I couldn’t agree more with 90% of what they said (the main thing that I disagreed with them about being the coolness of Penn State’s uniforms).

The weird thing is that when Pitt first changed its unis, I remember mostly being happy about it. I mean, I definitely liked the old colors better (Vegas gold? What, are we in Nevada or something?). But I used to think that the old script Pitt was so gay looking that the new unis were positive in the balance. Now, I love the old script Pitt. I don’t know what changed. Maybe I just got old.

Incidentally, as the self-appointed Fashion Critic of College Football, I will hand out my first annual “Oregon Award” for the worst dressed team in Division I-A later this year. My only nominations so far are Penn State, Pitt, Purdue, and, of course, Oregon (Has anybody seen their new home unis yet? They’re even worse than last year’s. The jersey is a shocking, bright yellow with John Deere green trim. It’s appalling.). Any other nominations?

Also, I will be handing out a “Princeton Award” for the best unis. Nominations are, once again, welcome. So far, we have Oregon State and Princeton (keep in mind that you can’t be nominated for just copying somebody else’s uniform, Michigan).

And damn, I wish that I had bought a Billy West jersey before it was too late.

Hail to Increasing the Number of Posts that This Site Can Hold to Over 25

First off, we have to watch bragging up Pittsburgh too much. Remember that most of America thinks that Pittsburgh — as much as Cleveland or Detroit — is a rusted-out, half-abandoned, polluted, depressing, terrible place to live. Pittsburgh is still a joke at the national level. While visiting my little cousins last week, I overheard a Pittsburgh joke on “The Fairly Odd Parents,” a Nickelodeon cartoon of fairly recent vintage.

And you know what? Most of Pittsburgh IS rusted-out, half-abandoned, and somewhat depressing. Who could say that the Mon Valley, the South Side, or even the North Side is an uplifting, cheery place? Look at all the grey hairs. Look at all of the young people moving away. Didn’t Maxim or some magazine like that just rank Pittsburgh as the worst place in America for young, single people to live? We have to be realistic here. Pittsburgh, and all of Western Pennsylvania, has some serious long-term problems.

Columbus, on the other hand, is new, clean, post-war, demographically young, and the fastest growing city in the Northeast quadrant of the United States. Does it necessarily have the character or architecture of Pittsburgh? Of course not. But I can understand why so many people, including both my own fiance, do prefer it to Pittsburgh. Oh, and does everybody remember Richard Florida? He ranked Columbus way over Pittsburgh.

Now I’m not really sure how to respond to you guys’s definitions of what really is a city, as opposed to a sprawling suburb. But Columbus is classified as a Metropolitan Statistical Area by the Department of Commerce. Ergo, it is a city.

And it does have a skyline, a dense urban core, and suburbs. Yes, the suburbs make up a larger proportion of the MSA than Pittsburgh’s suburbs do. But that’s mostly because most of Columbus was built after World War II. And not everything about post-war development is bad. Don’t each of you want a driveway and a garage? Personally, I would never want to live where Pat lives. I could never have a nice car there. Hell, I don’t like parking my mediocre-at-best Pontiac there now.

I would suggest that what makes a university urban is the physical campus itself and where it is located within a city. Pat seems to suggest that what makes a school urban is who attends it. I would suggest that everybody look up the word “urban” in Webster and see if it refers more to physical geography or demographics.

But arguments about America’s Rust Bucket vs. A City That People Actually Move To aside, this is allegedly a sports blog. So lets compare Pitt and Ohio State on the football field. Win a national championship or actually sell out your stadium this side of the Ford Administration, losers.

Hail to Cities, Regardless of their Style

Columbus is Washington DC minus the DC, Tampa minus the beach, Dayton plus a few hundred thousand more suburbanites, Boise minus the urban funk.

If the blackouts had occurred in Columbus, nobody anywhere else in the country would have bothered to turn the lights back on. What would be the point? Does anything ever happen in Columbus? Has anything ever happened since the day it was founded in 1976? You would think that something, sometime would have happened in a place that so many humanoids clustered in their pod-like housing tracts call home, for lack of a better word. (Sorry, I’m excluding that exciting period when they built all the malls.) The local newspaper is an excellent reflection of this homogenous suburban wasteland.

Columbus is not a city. Granted, it is a region. It is an economic enterprise zone. It is a humongous planned community for active adults. But it is NOT a city. Cleveland, a place I truly hate, is ten times the city that Columbus is.

On the plus side, Columbus is not Morgantown. But as bad as it is, when you’re driving into Morgantown, at least you know you’re in Morgantown. If you woke up in Columbus with no knowledge of how you got there, you’d need a Global Positioning System to tell where you were. You certainly couldn’t tell from any local dialect, topography, architectural characteristics, etc.

But Columbus does have Ohio State (little-known fact: when TOSU was founded in 1982, it was called Penn State-Columbus). And Columbus is growing, spreading ever larger. But so is the irregularly shaped black mole on my ass. And, as with the mole, more Columbus is not a good thing.

First of all, I have been on TOSU’s campus (it sucked, by the way), and I have dined at a restaurant that featured one of Archie Griffin’s Heisman trophy’s.

And since I have seen Columbus from both the ground and the air, I can assure you that in MY universe, a giant suburb-of-itself is not a city. If Pittsburgh were to somehow waive a magic wand and annex Mt. Lebanon and Upper St. Clair, they would still be suburbs – they would happen to pay taxes to the city, but they would still be suburbs. Any city who has gained such a large percentage in its population since 1980, consisting of quarter-acre-per-lot house farms and melrose-place apartment complexes called Hampden this or Summerglen That or Orchard the-Other-thing, is not a city. Phoenix at least gets our homeless people in the summer time – what does Columbus get (other than the tax dollars of the rest of Ohio)?

As for the second largest county spewing TOSU students being Cuyahoga, NO S**T! Once you clear the post-apocalyptic wasteland that is Cleveland, the rest of that county is suburbs (which I included in my rant, if you read closely). And for the record, the fact that a land grant school is more than a regional school in its enrollment patterns DOES make it less urban. Shit, you might as well call BC a city school (granted it is across the city lines in Newton) or Case Western. They may be technically in the city limits of large cities, but are they as urban as Pitt, Temple, Cleveland State, etc? No.

As for most of us attending HS outside of the metropolitan statistical area of Pittsburgh, I suggest to you that we are freaks – the products of a recent aggressive attempt to make Pitt less of an urban commuter school and more like a big 10 school (by the way, I was born and lived in the City before moving to Indiana, PA). We all hung out with each other because we had those connections to each other that non-townies tend to have at colleges – we weren’t going home to do laundry at mom’s house each Friday night, and we tended not to drink at our hometown bar with our friends from HS. A lot of our fellow Pitt students, many of whom we rarely encountered because they were taking night classes or CGS courses, were on a different cultural schedule than we were.

Naturally, I would not want anyone to go to a big ten school, especially myself. I chose Pitt because it is a city school without the rah-rah-sis-boom-bah bullshit of the big ten. I like the fact that there are few fraternities, and the favorite pastime is not seeing how many frat boys we can stuff into a phone booth. I like the fact that our football fans are foul mouthed, demanding, and bitter. Better than sitting in a Nuremburg like stadium singing the good-ol’-college cheer the same way my grandfather did along with the other 80,000 drones. Pitt doesn’t have an annual battle for “Ye olde Crusty Puke Buckette” like all those big ten schools do, and I’m glad of it.

But lets face facts – Columbus is a backwater state capital with a HUGE state university in it, which only experienced economic growth in the post-urban office-park-ization-of-America era that we are unfortunately experiencing right now. It is NOT a city. It is certainly more populous than State College, but IT IS A SUBURB!

[By the way, if you realized that English and Scottish teams played each other, why did you cry out for Celtic to beat Man U just once? I guess you assumed, incorrectly, that in all the past meetings of these teams, that Manchester United won or tied in all those games?]