Pitt WR, Larry Fitzgerald continues to be a top candidate for the Heisman Trophy (though, it is probably Oklahoma QB, Jason White’s to lose). He is on everyone’s list. (By the way, if you get Sporting News Radio, listen to Peter Brown do the Heisman watch on Thursday at 2:45 pm, just because he plays each candidate’s school’s fight song. Talk about getting fired up for the Saturday game — Let’s go Pitt!)

The Maxwell Award, given to the most outstanding college football player, has placed Fitzgerald on its 15 player watch list. Fitzgerald is the only sophomore on the list. This award has also been won by Pitt legends Hugh Green and Tony Dorsett.

Fitzgerald has been named a finalist on the watch list for the Biletnikoff Award. an award, that he already appears to be the clear winner. No other receiver in the country has received as much attention as Larry Fitzgerald. Former Pitt WR Antonio Bryant (now with the Dallas Cowboys) won the award in 2000.

The Pitt Athletic Department has really started to pick up the pace in pimping Larry Fitzgerald — excerpting (but failing to link to the article).

I used to think Pitt got a raw deal in the level of coverage it receives in the Pittsburgh media, then I tried looking around for stories on Boston College. Pathetic, and it will probably get worse with them playing teams that have no geographic connections — UConn basketball coach, Jim Calhoun, has stated that his team will never play BC because of the way they bolted the Big East — I hope Pitt does the same. I mean the Boston Globe and Boston Herald sites don’t even bother with providing a section on BC (or even Boston area colleges in general). This is the extent of the notes on BC the day before.

So it’s hard to glean much about the team. There are practically no stories the day before, other than their kicker trying not to miss another field goal that could win the game.

One interesting note contained in a brief article about BC trying to win enough games to be bowl eligible is a note about the problems BC is having trouble with long snappers. Something that times out well with Pitt’s new emphasis on special teams and blocking punts

Here are the BC Game notes (I can’t say I’ve looked at them though. They seem to be overly graphic and large PDF files that are choking my piddling dial-up).

By the way, just to throw this in, a little snippet from the ESPN chat with college football columnist Ivan Maisel

Wade (San Diego, CA): Hey Ivan, Do you think the demise of the Big East will be good for the BCS? Also, do you agree that the problem with the Big East is that they still view themselves as mainly a basketball conference?

Ivan Maisel: I just don’t believe that the Big East will lose its automatic bid. I think that, in the next contract (2006), if not sooner, that access to the BCS games will be increased for the MWC, C-USA, etc. I don’t think the other conferences have the gumption to throw the Big East out.
…
Matt (Chicago): Will Pitt beat B.C.?

Ivan Maisel: I think so, and they scold us when we say Pitt. They want to be Pittsburgh now. Go figure.

It’s still Pitt, dammit.

Final note, the game is not being televised. The internet audio for Pitt games is through Yahoo!, so you have to pay. But… BC has free audio broadcast (but also through Yahoo! WTF?)

For this Saturday, FOX Sports/Sporting News‘s Fearless Predictions include picking Pitt to beat (and cover against) Boston College, Virginia Tech to upset Miami, Michigan to beat (and cover against) Michigan State, USC to beat (and cover against) Washington State, Oklahoma to beat (and cover against) Oklahoma State, Notre Dame to upset Florida State, and most importantly to my household, Ohio State to beat (and barely cover against the 6.5 spread) Penn State. They agree with three of my four picks for Week 10 (including Pitt-BC). However, we disagree on the Miami-Virginia Tech outcome. That being said, a lot more pundits agree with me than with them… for what that’s worth…

Hail to watching the sun set, from my office desk at 4:30 PM.

I admit, it’s hard to pay much attention to college basketball with football season hitting the conference crunch time. But more pre-season rankings have appeared. The least I can do is check out what they say. Actual analysis will come later.

The top-half of the Big East is loaded this year. Pitt, coming off it’s first Big East Championship (I still love to type that) is in the upper-echelon of teams, but with a top-heavy Big East that only has them picked to be 4th in the Big East this year. UConn, Syracuse and Notre Dame are considered better. Considering Pitt lost its head coach and 3 starters, it is understandable. Here’s a decent, though a bit inaccurate preview of the Pitt team from Sports Illustrated and Athlon Sports (One of the incoming freshmen listed, Walter Walters, was released from his scholarship at his request and signed with Cleveland State after failing to qualify academically).

Of course the big poll came out yesterday. The ESPN/USA Today coaches poll. Pitt is listed at No. 22. The 4th team listed from the Big East (UConn #1, Syracuse #7 and ND tied at #19). Of minor note, 3 teams from Conference USA that are expected to join the Big East Mega Mess are also ranked (Louisville #16, Cinci tied at #19 and Marquette #23).

I only point this out because of my distaste for the mega conference plan. If the Big East just split apart as it should, the football/basketball conference would still be better than the remaining basketball only schools. It just becomes more apparent how much the b-ball only schools are not providing much (other than Madison Square Garden, via St. Johns, for the Big East Tournament). But I digress.