I wrote this, Friday, August 8, 2003:

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

Let me now amend that to say:

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

Pitt is the only “sleeper” BCS team left from the ESPN preseason predictions.

There is no understating the importance of this game for Pitt.

Strictly speaking, this Pitt-Miami game Saturday isn’t all-or-nothing for the Panthers. It just seems that way.

A season that began with great expectations, ends with two of the Panthers’ bigger goals still out there for the taking, those being getting a Big East championship and a Bowl Championship Series berth.

These are things that a torpedoing in Toledo, a Heinz humbling at the hands or Notre Dame, and even a Morgantown meltdown have failed to render unattainable.

Of course Coach Walt Harris is trying to downplay it.

But Pitt coach Walt Harris said he is not going to get caught up in the significance of the game.

“The focus is to win the Big East and whatever happens after that is great,” Harris said yesterday at his weekly news conference. “And, in order to win the Big East, we have to beat Miami. They are a challenging team. When you watch their athletes and study them, you see they had a couple of games where turnovers got them [or they’d be undefeated].

If Pitt wins, the Orange, Fiesta or Rose Bowl.

A loss and Pitt could fall all the way to San Francisco.

Here are the Pitt Game Notes.

The corresponding Miami Game Notes (both in PDF).

Sweet Joy. Looks like the Pitt-Miami game will be shown in Cleveland (and 74% of the country).

The depth charts don’t indicate that Miami Center, Joel Rodriguez, is out after breaking his leg against Rutgers.

Right now, I haven’t completed any real analysis of the teams and the match-ups.

I feel cautiously optimistic about the game, and find myself absolutely terrified at the prospect of Pitt being in control of its own destiny. A completely unnatural situation for Pitt. To be honest, Pitt has yet to show that they can step up, and win in this kind of game.