Not necessarily what I want to hear from Pitt, but not unexpected. They are saying they “not looking at all at leaving the conference.” Despite the loss of VT and Miami, but it doesn’t say they won’t listen or consider an offer (link via Derek Willis at Big East Fanblogs). It also points out that Harris is already using Pitt’s strength compared to the rest of the Big East, coupled with the BCS as a selling point to recruits. In the short term, that has to help.

ESPN.com is doing conference previews this week. The Big East is up. Basically, it is saying that this is probably the most competitive and balanced the conference has ever been — in its final year in present form. It also pushes the fact that the Big East has been a hell of a good conference for a while in other ways.

Whether or not supporters of the SEC, Big 12 or Big Ten will admit it, the Big East, pound for pound, is as good as any of them.

Check the facts:

The eight-team Big East finished last season with half of its members ranked in the Top 25. No other conference — all of them bigger than the Big East — had more than four. Big East schools also won six games against ranked opponents, a number surpassed only by the Big Ten which registered seven victories.

In the past three seasons, Big East schools have won 73.3 percent (11-4) of their bowl games. The Big 12 comes in a distant second with a 52.2 winning percentage (12-11).

Since 2000, the Big 12 and SEC have won 12 bowls games. The Big East has 11 victories despite playing nine fewer postseason games than the SEC and eight fewer than the Big 12.

It picks the Miami-Pitt game at the end of the season as the game of the year, and DE, Claude Harriott, of Pitt as pre-season defensive player of the year.

The headline for the capsule summary of Pitt

Anything short of a BCS bowl may be disappointing

is very similar to what I said a couple days ago (though with less ambiguity)

Anything less than winning the Big East will be a disappointment this year.

There’s also a companion article on whether the hard feelings of the remaining Big East schools fans at Miami and VT bolting for the ACC after this year will affect the games. It ends with moronic coachspeak from Walt Harris:

Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris thinks all the talk about Big East teams possessing added motivation for games against Miami and Virginia Tech is silly.

“We just want to play football,” Harris said. “There is no extra incentive to beat Miami or Virginia Tech or no animosity because what happened had nothing to do with the players or coaches. It was beyond our control. We want to beat those teams because we want to win the conference.”

I suppose Walt, feels a need to say these things publicly, but —

BULL-F***ING-S**T

The thing about college football is the fans help drive the intensity more than in pro football. The fans will be so juiced for these games, that if it doesn’t carry over to the players, then there is a real problem with the players and the coaches. I want the coaches to have to be scrambling on the sideline reining in the smack and the woofing from the players when Pitt plays VT and Miami. I want an ugly, angry mood in the stands. I’m not talking soccer riots; but I am talking waves of intense passion and hatred cascading down from the stands.

Lee, you ignorant slut. Soccer does not suck, and the last time Manchester United played Celtic was in 2002 at Old Trafford in Manchester, with Celtic winning 4-3. Bitch.

Also, in spite of the academics of most of the Big11 schools being over-rated, even THEY can see that Syracuse is not a top academic institution. Syracuse is a playground for whiny Long Island brats who couldn’t get into a real school, but insist on having their parents pay $35,000/year tuition. That way, they don’t look bad at Thanksgiving break when comparing college choices with their HS friends over a few lines of quality Columbian powder cocaine.
That being said, if any school goes from the Big East to the Big11, it will likely be Pitt. Of course, the Big11 will likely not expand unless to admit Notre Dame.

As for whether Penn State sucks more or less than Miami or Virginia Tech, clearly the answer is more. Is this even up for debate? This is one of those “off the table because it has already been decided” issues – Penn State sucks more than any other school in the universe. The only school that comes close is Notre Dame (and it is close, by the way).

Pitt’s old uniforms and colors are better than the new ones. WTF can’t Pitt come out of the tunnels in its old uniforms for like one game a year… you know, like Joe Montana and Notre Dame in the green jerseys… just for us old guys…

Hail to Pitt anyways.

In my first post, I’m going to avoid the temptation of discussing (1) Maurice Clarett (like Herbstreit says, just slap him with the standard NCAA one or two game suspension already), (2) Trev Alberts’s moronic comments regarding Clarett on SportsCenter last night, (3) Ron Jaworski’s immediate rebuttal of said moronic comments (Youngstown State guys apparently still stand by Tressel), and (4) the idiot who put a 12 gauge shotgun blast through a local Target store’s sign last night (yes, he hit the bullseye… I have no idea why I find that so funny… at least he could read the sign) because we have more important business right now. And that is educating whatever readers we have (I’m not convinced that we have any) as to what points our little group has already argued to death and come to some kind of an agreement on.

1. Penn State sucks. Whether Penn State sucks more or less than Miami or Virginia Tech these days is open to argument. But Penn State definitely sucks. And I don’t care if half of my household’s income comes from there.

2. The loss of Miami and Virginia Tech from the Big East Football Conference admittedly means that in a few years, the remaining six conference members may be in danger of losing their automatic bid to the BCS bowls. This is why any idiot (thank you Joe Starkey of the Tribune Review) would argue that it is important for either Pitt, West Virginia, Syracuse, or Boston College to win the Big East Football Conference this year. But beyond that, I have my doubts as to whether the BCS would ever toss the Big East out. The BCS needs the remaining six Big East Football Conference members to maintain its slim majority over the Division I-A membership. Thus, if the Big East were to get tossed out, they’d have to find a new conference to take its place. And marketshare wise, I doubt the Mountain West could compete — as good of a conference as it admittedly is.

3. It is probably in Pitt’s best interest for the Big East to survive the loss of Miami and Virginia Tech and to re-invigorate itself with the addition of several new football playing members. I, being an alumnus of both Pitt (undergraduate) and Ohio State (graduate), would personally like to see Pitt skip off to the Big Ten. But that’s just for my silly little selfish reasons. Even I will admit that Pitt is probably better off in a revitalized Big East than it would be in the Big Ten… as much fun as it would be to see Lloyd Carr have to deal with Larry Fitzgerald…

4. Pitt has the potential to be the Iowa of 2003. We are the dark horse of the NCAA more than anybody else except maybe Auburn. There. As Chas noted below (I still need to learn how to cite, by the way), that’s been done to death. Pitt’s good. Everybody knows. Now shut the hell up. Besides, the Hoopies (local Pittsburghese for people from or related to West Virginia) beat us last year, and they didn’t lose much talent.

5. The American Film Institute is a bunch of idiots. We’ve argued every manufactured list that they’ve ever come out with to the same conclusion. AFI sucks.

6. Soccer sucks. We all agree on that. Glasgow Celtic, in particular, really sucks (beat Manchester United once, fer chrissakes).

7. We personally doubt that the Big Ten will ever expand unless Notre Dame is involved. Everybody said as much at the Big Ten pre-season press conference earlier this month. That being said, I am not at all convinced that if they did expand, they would look at Pitt before Syracuse. Yes, Pitt fits the academic profile of a Big Ten school better. But the Big Ten is already in the Pittsburgh marketplace. New York State is new territory. All I know for sure is that the Hoopies are entirely out of the mix. Being a party school finally caught up with them.

That being said, I’m hoping that it doesn’t come to that and the Big East is revitalized.

8. We’re praying for a @#%*@#! blizzard to hit Pittsburgh on November 29th. Let the Hurricanes finally play in the cold. By the way, I hope that either Syracuse, Boston College, or West Virginia beats the ‘Canes too. And smack Traitor Tech around while you’re at it.

9. Damn. We can’t wait for college football season to start.

Hail to Pitt!

There seem to be some glitches with blogger’s invitation system that has kept the other members of Pitt Sports Blather from signing on. Hopefully, they will be able to get through soon and join in the fun.

Reading this, really, really pisses me off.

A month ago at Big East media day, Commissioner Michael Tranghese said a decision on the matter would be made by early September because it was the conference’s first step toward rebuilding after the loss of Miami and Virginia Tech to the Atlantic Coast Conference. At the time the split was widely thought of as being inevitable.

“I’m not sure that is still the timetable because [a split] is a much more complicated issue than anyone would think,” Long said. “And let me say this split is not a foregone conclusion. The discussions now are more about perhaps the possibility of [the Big East] staying together and all the schools working together to becoming a stronger conference.”

Long did not comment on whether or not he or the university was in favor of a split but said that Pitt’s status as one of the top remaining football programs in the conference gives it a position of strength within the negotiations.

I was heartened when I first read that the Big East was going to do what it had to do. I mean even Smizik in the Post-Gazette can realize it. As soon as the ACC raid started, I was saying this. And I realize, this could merely be posturing and soothing hurt feelings of b-ball only ADs in the Big East, but so what. If they even try to go to some 16 team monstrosity with 8 football/b-ball schools and 8 b-ball only schools it will be the ugliest, worst thing for Pitt.

As it stands now, Pitt has to wait and hope the Big 11 comes calling for Pitt fans to actually feel any real long term hope of the program thriving. Right now, every month brings a new fear that the BCS will push out the Big East and Pitt.

In a statement of the obvious, a column declaring the need for Pitt to win the whole Big East for the good and future of the Big East after this season. Of course, for some, this has been readily apparent for a while.

I’d like to declare that the terms “sleeper” and “dark horse” are no longer applicable to Pitt this football season, after something like the 50th article mentioning them as a possible BCS team.

Pitt will not be playing Penn State until Paterno is gone.

As state politicians got involved in Virginia Tech’s ACC romance, Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris could use similar help with the disappearing Pitt-Penn State rivalry. “They should be forced to play us,” he says. Penn State recently added games against Central Florida, Cincinnati and Notre Dame to future schedules, but it continues to duck rival Pitt, which it last played in 2000. In some instances — the annual Florida-Florida State game is a prime example — schools are bound by state law to play every season.

I remember around the final time Pitt played Penn State — Pitt won 12-0 in 2000 — I think some state legislator proposed a requirement, but it failed. I did not know that Florida has that law.

Even the editor of the PSU bible concedes that Paterno is an idiot for not playing Pitt (of course he would still, rather blame Pitt).

Neil:
Speaking of non-conference rivalries, it’s a shame that Pitt and PSU don’t hook up in a season like this. While both schools play the Central Florida types every year anyway, there is simply no excuse not to continue the old rivalry for the benefit of both schools as well as for greater Pennsylvania.
Alan Saltzman
Atlanta

Alan:
Second. In the end, being able to wipe out the Pitt series will be a black mark on Joe’s career. At the same time, Pitt arguably should have followed PSU’s lead toward an Eastern Conference in the early ’80s.

Even Neil Rudel, has to admit the series ended because of a unilateral Paterno decision.

The other part of puffing a team, is puffing up the coach. That’s what this piece on Walt Harris is all about. It talks of Harris’s personal growth and changes since he came to Pitt. Harris claims that this year will be different. This year he won’t be micro-managing the QB. He won’t be breathing down the guy’s neck each time. It doesn’t say whether Harris will finally figure out how to make halftime adjustments and change things that aren’t working when the other team adjusts to them.

I’m still having mixed feelings about Harris. He has done a lot of positives. He has rebuilt the football program. He is a hell of a good recruiter. He does a great job with the QB and WR. He has let the defensive coordinator do his job, and do it well. As far as his coaching, though. Er, um. I’m still not sold. He does not like or appear willing to make adjustments to his game plan once the game starts. It is a certain inflexibility that can cost games, or make them much closer than they should be.

The article talks about the 2001 season, when Pitt had a 1-5 start after high expectations for the year. It lets Harris downplay the whole thing.

“We lost to a South Florida team that, if people did their research, was a good one. Then it was Miami, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Boston College. It was a tough road to travel. We were affected emotionally by the South Florida loss, but we faced some tough teams afterward.”

I was at or watched these games. It wasn’t that Pitt lost. It was how badly Pitt was beaten in these games. They were all embarrassing losses. Not truly close. It was because Harris had decided to go with the latest offensive fad in college football — the spread offense. The problem was, the players had no clue. It was painful to watch: delay of games, false starts, wasted time-outs, predictable play calling, ugh. But Harris was sticking with it, come hell or high water. Finally after the 45-7 drubbing by Boston College, Harris dropped the spread offense and they went back to a pro set offense. The result was a big win over a top 15 Virginia Tech team.

I’m hoping he makes me eat my words.

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.

Oh, this is great. A Syracuse alum living in Virginia filed a state version of the Freedom Of Information Act to get emails from Virginia Tech officials regarding joining the ACC (link via the new Big East Fanblog). He excerpted some of the juicier comments. The best/worst

June 19, 2003, after rumors of a VT offer from the ACC

Email from Ralph Byers[, the VT Director of Government Relations,] to someone in the Virginia legislature, probably by the name of Phil Leone: “Obviously if we have a serious offer to join the ACC it would be tough not to do it, even with what’s happened. We all have demonstrated what this is about anyway, and it ain’t integrity.”

My feelings about VT ‘s actions are quite clear.

Looking over the preseason rankings at Athlon Sports, there was a link to “Cheerleaders” There I found this:

Please take some time to look over some of the very best in College Football Cheerleading.

Be sure to vote for your favorite one using the poll on the far right of the screen.

There are six head shots of cheerleadrs, with their name and school. Clicking the image only gives you a bigger picture. Wonder how they chose these six as the best.

Here was a past poll (no pictures) but the comments below are hilarious.

This is the TV schedule for college football, 2003. Guess which team you cannot find on the schedule?