There are now less than 3 days before Pitt finally kicks off the new season of college football. It’s basically sucked to have waited an extra week longer than most of the country before the first game. Still, the tailgating assignments have been made.

Soon we will gather. We will drink. We will grill meat products. We will verbally abuse one another. Can’t wait.

There are questions for the season:

Will Pitt really make a run at the BCS?
Will Harlan make it back to the ‘Burgh for a game this year?
Who will miss more games due to family responsibilities, John or me?
How strictly will they be enforcing the parking lot restrictions?
Will the dance and cheerleading teams ever get their own web site?

Has it really been almost 4 years since that final game at Pitt Stadium?

We need a new picture.

The Congressional Hearings on the BCS will be held tomorrow. And even the people who are pushing for the hearing don’t actually want Congress to do anything. They just want the publicity (big surprise). Hardly the stuff that would cause the BCS conferences to take their balls away from the Non-BCS conferences.

Apparently, the loyal members of the Big East Conference will now wait until November to decide if they should split into a everything-but-football conference and a separate football-only conference.

NEWARK, N.J. — The Big East hopes to decide by November whether its football-playing schools will split from the non-football programs. Representatives from both groups met Wednesday with commissioner Mike Tranghese to discuss the conference’s future makeup… Among the options being considered: the schools with football programs would depart and form a new league; or football schools would remain in the conference, and possibly expand the federation to 16 teams.

I think that Chas’s previous rants more than address our opinion.

Hail to Less Lee Posts (Jeez, even I’m getting sick of myself)

At the risk of sounding as obsessed with bad college football uniforms as some people were with the proposed Cleveland Convention Center, I’d like to nominate two additional teams for the Oregon Award: the University of Wyoming and Purdue University. Thus, our four candidates so far for college football’s worst uniforms look like this.

Wyoming’s Brown and Yellow Ode to What’s Floating in my Toilet

Purdue’s Old Gold Tribute to the Little Chunks That are Still Floating After the First Flush

Oregon’s Painfully Bright “Lightening” Yellow Disasters

And Illinois’s Salute to Western Pennsylvanian Winter Wear

Additional nominations will continue to be accepted (or just made up by me) throughout the season. And once again, the Oregon Award is being given in protest of our own alma mater’s decision to give up what were once the best uniforms in college football so that we could look more like Notre Dame with a snarling doberman pinscher on our helmets. Heck, I should nominate ourselves…

Hail to Script Pitt

Neil Rudel is the Sports Editor of the Altoona Mirror. He is also one of the most read, respected, and published commentators on Penn State sports. He is frequently heard on the Penn State Football Radio Network during the season. As has been noted on this site before, he understandably has issues with Pitt and its current renaissance.

In today’s Mirror, Neil picked Pitt to go 9-3 and suffer under the weight of sudden expectations to win. Apparently, Penn State is the only team around here who knows how to win.

Good luck with Boston College, Neil. The line just dropped to 9.5.

Hail to Pitt Winning At Least Ten Games

Apparently the Pitt men’s soccer team is now nationally ranked. I still don’t care, but Pitt decided it was worth a press release.

First off, I would like to enthusiastically second Chas’s condemnation of Ron Cook’s column in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Cook is almost as light on the facts as the New York Times was when they accused Maurice Clarett of academic fraud (as opposed to the lying to the police and the NCAA investigators about the car theft, which justifiably earned Maurice a suspension). Of course sensationalist hacks never have let the facts get in the way of a chance to accuse somebody else of hypocrisy. I entirely blame the one-too-many-bong-hits journalism school professors for this.

Seriously though, you suck, Cook.

Now, on to putting my 3-1 record against the spread from last week on the line. Unfortunately, this is a rather boring week coming up in college football. Only three games really interest me…

Kent State (+30.5) at Pittsburgh: OK, so this game doesn’t actually interest me (or anybody else) beyond the fact that I’ll be there and have to find a parking spot near the suddenly sold out Heinz Field (bandwagoners). I’m not quite sure how to pick this blatant of a sucker bet. Let me try playing a quick round of rock-paper-scissors with the pair of scissors laying on my desk.

Damn. I took paper and lost. So I’ll take the points here. Pitt always starts out slow, Rod Rutherford will probably be at least something of a distraction, and 30.5 points is a @#*% of a spread.

Boston College (+10) at Penn State: Jeez. I don’t know which one of these teams disappointed me more last week… Oh wait. I do know. Boston College disappointed me a lot more.

Penn State’s offensive line and running game, featuring the intriguing Austin Scott, will be too much for Boston College over four quarters. Likewise, Penn State’s defense, especially its secondary, should slow the Eagles unreliable passing attack to a near halt. I think that the Big East is gonna take another one on the chin thanks to the Chestnut Hill gang. I’m regrettably taking Penn State and giving the points (and hoping that I turn out to be wrong).

Florida (+14.5) at Miami: This will be the big game of the week nationally. What I saw of Florida’s offense last week looked a little more impressive than last year’s version. And underdogs are always tough in the Florida cross-state games. So for no real defensible reason, I’ll take the Gators and the points here.

Hail to Only Having Four Days Left

Pitt starting QB Rod Rutherford was only accused of assault, not actually charged (yet). He may still be charged, but right now it is a he said/she said thing. No real injuries reported, though there is apparently a broken car window.

Not that this hasn’t stopped the Ron Cook of the Post-Gazette from deciding that Rutherford should immediately be suspended.

If ever there was a night for a Pittsburgh athlete to stay in and avoid the risk of trouble, it seemed as if it would have been Sunday night. But there Rutherford was, at a Station Square establishment late Sunday and in the early hours of Monday, perhaps in violation of Pitt’s team rules. An incident with a woman allegedly took place. A car window was said to be shattered. The police were notified.

Suddenly, Rutherford was in the jackpot and had joined Porter in the headlines for all of the wrong reasons.

Pitt Coach Walt Harris should suspend him if for no other reason than sheer stupidity.
…
Harris has to suspend Rutherford at least for the Kent State game, doesn’t he? This involves more than just the one player. It involves the team. Harris has to send a message that he won’t tolerate that kind of behavior from anyone, not even the star quarterback. If being involved in an incident at a bar in the early-morning hours during a game week doesn’t qualify as conduct detrimental to a college team, it should.

Oooooh. Sounds reckless and lurid. Shame, though that Cook couldn’t be bothered to read his own paper.

The incident took place outside Philthy McNasty’s in Station Square, where Rutherford and several other Pitt football and basketball players attended a private party Sunday night.

[Emphasis added.]

Oops. That does not exactly sound like he was out drinking and carousing without a thought. Of course, facts never interfere with a chance to complain about how college athletes are out of control and coaches need to crack the whip.

WTAE-TV (Channel 4), Pittsburgh, just reported that Rod Rutherford was questioned by police today about an assault that he was involved in Saturday night.

Of course, my always positive self is tempted to throw up my hands and yell “There goes the @#%*@#! season. GO BULLS!” But, of course, we don’t know if Rutherford is guilty yet. And we don’t know how much this will distract him. And we don’t know how much the Panthers would miss him if he did have to leave. My other alma mater lost its star running back, and has remained dominant so far.

Still, this ain’t good. I ain’t looking forward to having to face all the Penn State fans at work tomorrow. Thanks, Rod.

What we really need now is some perspective… perhaps from a defense attorney or even a public defender…

Hail to Tyler Palko