It wasn’t in the Pitt section of the on-line version, but the HS section of the Post-Gazette ran an article about Aliquippa HS star Darrelle Revis committing to Pitt – in football AND basketball. [The article also mentioned that Anthony Morelli will be eligible next year, as he passed his SAT’s in November. Revis has yet to do so, and may attend Valley Forge Military Academy next year before enrolling at Pitt.]

Revis, 6’0″ 175lb., normally WR/DB (occaisional QB and KR) had a monster game in Hershey as the Quips won the AA State Championship. Less than 72 hours later, he led the Quips to victory in the basketball court by scoring 35 points against Beaver Falls. Last season, Revis led the WPIAL in scoring as a Junior (averaging 25.4 points a game), and was named to the PG Fabulous Five.

In football, Revis is the WPIAL AA Player of the Year, and a member of the PG Fabulous 22. The Tribune-Review named him their all section Player of the Year, and to their Terrific 25.

As an aside, the PIAA is re-classifying the four divisions of HS football due to the addition of the Philadelphia Public Schools. This will drop 5 WPIAL teams from Quad-A to AAA – most notably Indiana, PA which is the smallest of the current Quad-A WPIAL teams.
Just thought I would share.

With Brookhart to Akron, the loss of a lot of key seniors, the simple fact that his value may never be higher, it really is a no brainer that Larry Fitzgerald is going to look at getting an exemption to enter the NFL draft in 2004. The only reason we want him to stay is purely selfish — it helps Pitt, and we get to see him play live and in person for one more year. There is no doubt he is physically and mentally ready for the NFL.

I mean, he has been lauded all season on ESPN. An All-American for the AP and ESPN. He won the Walter Camp and Biletnikoff, and was the runner-up for the Heisman. Really, it will be almost impossible for him to top this season in college football.

I guess it is considered to be something of an honor since Nick Saban, LSU head coach, and Bob Stoops, Oklahoma head coach, were supposed to be the coaches in the East-West Shrine Game. Saban and Stoops had to pull out since they will be coaching in the Sugar Bowl on January 4. The East-West game is on January 10. Walt Harris will coach the East, and John Robinson (UNLV — how the mighty have fallen) will coach the West.

The East squad will have two Pitt seniors — defensive end Claude Harriott and fullback Lousaka Polite.

Both Pittsburgh dailies start their recap of Pitt’s squeaker win with head coach Jamie Dixon exhaling:

Post-Gazette:

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon walked off the court, puffed out his cheeks and breathed a big sigh of relief. It was likely the same feeling a lot of Pitt fans had after the No. 18 Panthers’ 79-74 nail-biting victory against NAIA Georgetown last night in the Pittsburgh Holiday Hoops Tournament.

And the Tribune-Review:

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon closed his eyes and let out a long exhale as he walked off the Petersen Events Center floor Monday night, moments after his 18th-ranked Panthers escaped with a 79-74 victory over NAIA Georgetown (Ky.) in the opening game of the Pittsburgh Holiday Hoops Tournament.

22 turnovers, 21-38 from the free throw line (.553), 6-21 from 3-points (.286) are some numbers from the game. Of greater concern for the Pitt athletic department is this number — 6234. The official attendence at the Peterson Center — which holds some 13,000+. The numbers are dropping.

Today is the last day to sign up and play ESPN’s Bowl Mania. The number of participants is up to 4.

As mentioned last week, Pitt’s offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach, J.D. Brookhart, has been named head coach of the Akron Zips. He will stay with Pitt through the Continental Tire Bowl.

Let’s see: Offensive coordinator and WR coach — gone; QB, Rod Rutherford — graduating; TE, Kris Wilson — graduating; RB, Brandon Miree — graduating. Yeah, plenty of incentive for Larry Fitzgerald to skip trying to get an exception from the NFL.

Right now Pitt is playing Georgetown College (not Georgetown University, this Georgetown is in Kentucky) to kick-off Pitt’s “Holiday Hoops Tournament”. Georgetown College is a power in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Excuse me, if I lack excitement about playing a team that is a non-division I school — even if that school is considered “among America’s Best Christian Colleges for 2001-02.”

This is just embarrassing. I’m not saying Pitt should be playing Michigan State’s non-conference schedule, but they need to play somebody. And don’t talk about scheduling in advance. This isn’t college football where they do it years in advance. Pitt made this schedule within two years for most of the teams, and they are clear patsies. It just looks bad, and others notice.

Pitt puts together a cowardly non-conference schedule every year. That certainly hasn’t ruined the program, but it does put a damper on the excitement for unfortunate Panthers fans, who deserve better.

Preceeding that damning statement, is a list of the teams presently in the top 25 with a basic ranking of their non-conference schedule. Pitt’s is dead last, and is the only team that has not one single top-25 team in their non-conference schedule. He’s also right about the dampening effect on the fans. “Official” Attendence at these pathetic games are dropping, even before finals and winter break.

First off, I’m actually OK with Oklahoma quarterback Jason White’s beating out Pitt wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald for the Heisman Trophy last night. Sure, Fitzgerald is the better player. But you can’t expect a sophomore to get a fair shake for that award, even if seniority really shouldn’t matter. Still, it would have been great for recruiting if Larry had won.

Second, let me pick six bowl games against the spread, like real men do. So far this season, my record against the spread is 23-24-1. In chronological order, the bowls that I’m most interested in this year are…

THE GMAC BOWL (December 18), LOUISVILLE (+13.5) AT MIAMI OF OHIO: This game is being billed as a battle of quarterbacks: Miami’s future NFL star Ben Roethlisberger vs. Louisville’s mobile Stefan LeFors. I think that anybody would take Roethlisberger over LeFors anyday. But it is Miami’s significant advantages in receiving and tough defense that should make this game get real ugly, real fast. I’ll take another dose of the MAC attack and give the points, please.

THE CONTINENTAL TIRE BOWL (December 27), VIRGINIA (-3) AT PITTSBURGH: I only got to watch the Virginia Cavaliers once this season, and only then while being constantly interrupted by my wife and mother-in-law. So take my analysis for what it’s worth. On November 29th, the Cavaliers pasted Virginia Tech 35-21 by scoring 21 unanswered points in the second half. What really stood out to me about that game was Virginia’s line play and short/underneath passing game. Tech couldn’t get off the line to pressure Cavaliers Quarterback Matt Schaub at all. Schaub, subsequently, went 32-for-46 for 358 yards on the day — usually in front of the safeties and in the flats, and frequently (13 times for 145 yards) to tight end Heath Miller. Josh Crockett has a much more knowledgeable and in-depth analysis of this game here. In any case, if Tech’s defense couldn’t stop Virginia, I sincerely doubt that ours can — especially given our inability to pressure opposing quarterbacks or to stop short, underneath passes (remember Toledo?).

So what happens when our offense is on the field as opposed to Virginia’s? Well, Josh Crockett gave us this insight in a comment under here.

One advantage you guys will have against Virginia is the presence of a vertical passing game. They didn’t even bother covering the deep ball against us, because (a) the VT coaching staff doesn’t trust Randall to throw it, (b) he’s inconsistent on the rare occasions they do, and (c) our receivers can’t catch it anyway, with the occasional exception of Wilford. Pitt, with Rutherford and Fitzgerald, doesn’t have that kind of problem. Stacking the box, they held Jones to 25 for 75, and I partially blame predictable playcalling for that (we lost a ton of yardage on stupid-ass delayed handoffs). With a balanced offense, you guys should get your points.

Given what little I saw of the Virginia-Virginia Tech game, Josh’s comment makes sense. So on offense, I do think that we’ll do better against Virginia than Virginia Tech did (given our more balanced offense and deep threats). But I just don’t think that we’ll be able to keep within three points of the Cavaliers with our porous defense. Remember Al Groh, all you have to do is run Wali Lundy… a lot…

I’ll take Virginia to cover, and hope to be wrong.

THE TOYOTA GATOR BOWL (January 1), WEST VIRGINIA (+3.5) AT MARYLAND: I still don’t understand how Maryland just destroyed West Virginia 34-7 way back on September 20 (no, I didn’t see that game… I was busy getting married). In any case, that was a different Mountaineer team than the one that completely destroyed Pitt last month. By New Year’s Day, Rich Rodriguez will have had more than enough time to make his typically high quality adjustments (you know… adjustments… those things that Walt Harris DOESN’T do), and he will have the Mountaineers nicely pissed off over the asskicking they took when the leaves were still on the trees. Even though I got burned by this same pick back in September, I’ll take the Rodriguez-coached, red-assed, revenge-seeking Hoopies again. Gimme the 3.5.

THE ROSE BOWL (January 1), MICHIGAN (+6.5) AT USC: Pete Carroll is too good of a coach to let the Trojans overlook the toughest opponent that they’ll see this year. The way I see it, Michigan and USC have equally dominating defenses, but USC has a slightly better offense and a much better quarterback. So I’ll take the Trojans to barely cover the 6.5 (if the spread were 7.5, I’d probably pick the other way).

Besides, Ohio State and Michigan always suck in the Rose Bowl.

THE TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL (January 2), KANSAS STATE (-7) AT OHIO STATE: As I’ve said before, nobody gets overrated as frequently as Kansas State does — not even Virginia Tech. That being said, the Wildcats match up particularly well against the also overrated (without Clarett, anyways) Buckeyes. Sure Ohio State has one of the best run defenses in the country… but not against speed backs like Chris Perry and Darren Sproles. Add in a good dose of Ell Roberson’s mobility and quick-release arm, and I think that the Wildcats can paste at least seven over OSU’s lethargic offense.

THE NOKIA SUGAR BOWL (January 4), LOUISIANA STATE (+6) AT OKLAHOMA: Bob Stoops humiliates opposing teams when he has the motivation (see Oklahoma State and Texas A&M earlier this year). Bob Stoops now has more motivation to humiliate LSU than he has ever had before: nobody, not even me, thinks that a team which didn’t win its conference deserves to be in the “official” national title game. Better grab an NFL job while you can, Saban. I’ll take the Sooners to cover and share the national title with USC.

So for the 2003-04 bowl season, I got the Red Hawks, Cavaliers, Mountaineers, Trojans, Wildcats, and Sooners: five to cover and one dog. Hopefully, this will put me over .500 for the year.

Real men also make quiche, not chili.

Hail to me stopping the flood of junk mail that I get every day from Sonic’s hamburger joint now… well, from there and from penis enlargement scams…

Apparently Lee, is having trouble figuring out how to sign-up and play the Bowl game. I’m shocked, because it is so simple, but I’ll take the time to explain it for Lee’s sake

1. Go to the ESPN Bowl Mania page.

2. If you have ever played one of ESPN’s games, you sign in using that name and password — your ESPN.com membership. Otherwise you create one.

3. Make sure you opt out of receiving all newsletters, ads, and crap from Sonic. It’s all there.

4. Once you are logged in, you create your entry. Choose a team name, and select a group to join. You can find our group in the directory, “Pitt Sports Blather.” Just type “pitt,” and you will get a list of Pitt groups, including PSB.

5. Make your picks, and express your level of confidence. You can go back and make changes.

So far just myself and Kevin have signed-up. Have I mentioned, Lee, that Kevin is a Michigan native. He was able to figure it out.

Conspiracy theorists in Oklahoma and Mississippi were likely going nuts over the ESPN college football awards show last night. Pitt legends Hugh Green and Tony Dorsett were on hand to present awards, helping to convince some that ESPN has been biased towards Larry Fitzgerald winning the Heisman over Jason White and Eli Manning (why else would they have Pitt greats to present?).

No great shock that Fitzgerald won the Biletnikoff Award (outstanding wide receiver). Fitzgerald also won the Walter Camp Award as the top player in the nation earlier in the day — joining Green and Dorsett as Pitt players who won the award. Eli Manning won the Maxwell Award as the nation’s best all-around player . Michigan RB, Chris Perry, won the Doak Walker (top running back). Jason White took home the Davey O’Brien Award (top QB) to go with winning the AP Player of the Year the day before. All are Heisman finalists. Perry will probably finish 4th in the Heisman balloting, but it is interesting that the top overall player honors were split evenly.

It was a very good night for Fitzgerald. The bigger winner, though, might also be Pitt’s offensive coordinator J.D. Brookhart — who Fitzgerald singled out for his success in accepting the Biletnikoff. Brookhart is a leading candidate to get the head coaching gig with the Akron Zips (Akron? That’s a job with failure built in to it. How can that be a win? Rejoinder — Pacific didn’t end Harris’ career. You still make more money as head coach at Akron than as offensive coordinator at Pitt. Besides, with “offensive genius” Walt Harris calling plays, it’s not like there are tons of opportunities.).

As for the Heisman, well we can hope, but don’t hold your breath.

On the issue of whether Fitzgerald will seek and receive an exception to go early to the NFL. Well, I would love for him to stay one more year, but I couldn’t say he would be wrong to leave now if he could.

As I noted yesterday, at least one official Heisman Trophy voter from the Nittany Lion Nation did not vote for Pitt’s Larry Fitzgerald. However, an almost equally respected voice in the world of Penn State sports did: Ron Bracken — the Sports Editor of the Centre Daily Times (State College’s newspaper). Read this from today’s edition.

[Oklahoma Quarterback Jason White] owns a truckload of credentials, probably the most impressive of which is his touchdown-to-interception ratio of 40-8. His 64 percent completion percentage and 3,744 yards passing are also Heisman caliber. There is also his recovery from two serious knee injuries to reclaim his job. If he wins it, no one can really complain that he’s not worthy. He is.

But he was listed second on my ballot. Fitzgerald was first.

In a comparison, his numbers are right there with White’s — 87 receptions, 1,595 yards, 22 touchdown receptions. If anything, they may be even more impressive since he has so little control over how many times he touches the football while White gets it on every snap. Moreover, defenses came up with all sorts of radical schemes to shut Fitzgerald down, rightly figuring that to stop him was to stop the Pitt offense. And still he caught a touchdown pass in every game, made highlight film catches look routine and impossible catches seem rather common.

What’s more, his own human interest story is maybe even more compelling than White’s, given the fact that he lost his mother to cancer in the spring and one of his best friends, wide receiver Billy Gaines, to an unfortunate accident in the summer.

But the Heisman Trophy should not be awarded out of sympathy.

It’s awarded to the player who is deemed the single most outstanding college football player in the country each season. Both White and Fitzgerald fit that description. So why did Fitzgerald occupy the top spot on my ballot?

Read this paragraph from a recent story on him in Sports Illustrated in which he explains why he hands the football to an official after catching a touchdown pass: “Officials have enough to do without chasing the ball after somebody tosses it,” he was quoted as saying. “I’m a receiver, I’m supposed to score touchdowns.”

And the fact the he does it regularly and does not punctuate each score with some sort of end zone gyration or proclamation of his greatness, is a wonderful departure from the norm. [brackets mine]

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that the most eloquent argument that I’ve seen for Larry Fitzgerald’s deserving the Heisman Trophy came from State College, Pennsylvania.

Hail to my wife NOT seeing Bracken’s article.

(P.S. Bracken is usually a lot more fair to Pitt than Rudel is. That, obviously, is why I almost never quote Bracken on this blog.)

I can’t believe that I haven’t even mentioned Neil Rudel (Sports Editor of the Altoona Mirror, Editor of the Penn State Bible, a frequent guest on the Penn State Football Radio Network, and one of the most read, respected, and published commentators on Penn State sports) since September 15, 2003. Neil’s frequent cheap shots at Pitt — commonly born of jealousy these days — are usually more than blog-worthy.

In any case, Mr. Rudel is an official Heisman Trophy voter. In today’s Altoona Mirror, Neil makes sure to clearly point out to the half-dozen-or-so Pitt fans that actually read his crap that he did not vote for Panthers Receiver Larry Fitzgerald this year.

I must confess: I voted Pitt’s Larry Fitzgerald second behind Oklahoma quarterback Jason White. Much as I wanted to vote for Fitzgerald, it’s impossible to ignore White’s incredible numbers of 40 touchdowns against just eight interceptions… Had Fitzgerald played a little better against Miami, it would have helped, and if he were an upperclassman, provincial sentiment would have tugged a little more.

I did vote for Larry Johnson last year on the basis that he gained 2,000 yards, was a senior, played a position more physically demanding than wide receiver, and broke a 100 year-old Big Ten record. At the risk of providing fodder for Pitt fans, that’s my story.

I appreciate that fodder, Neil. Say, the Heisman Trophy is to go to college football’s best player, period. Whether a candidate is a senior or not has nothing to do with it. Whether a candidate plays on what was once the nation’s number one team or not has nothing to do with it. And most of all, whether a candidate just so happens to go to your alma mater (e.g., Larry Johnson) or the program that is in danger of supplanting your alma mater as Pennsylvania’s strongest college football program has nothing to do with it.

Winning a Heisman Trophy is a major boost to a program’s recruiting. Just look at what John Cooper pulled off recruiting-wise in the late 90s after Eddie George brought one back to Columbus. If I bled blue and white as much as Neil does, I wouldn’t have voted for Fitzgerald either. Penn State is far enough behind Pitt in recruiting as it is. Still, you have to admire the regional solidarity there.

Finally, who says that playing running back is more physically demanding than playing wide receiver? Have you ever had to go up for a catch at full speed, Neil? And how many touchdowns was Fitzgerald supposed to score against Miami when he (1) was used as a decoy for most of the game, and (2) was double and triple covered even then?

If this piece came from anybody other than Neil Rudel, I might have taken the stated admiration for Jason White as sincere (after all, White is a legitimate Heisman candidate). But given Rudel’s long-standing agenda of belittling every little advance that Pitt and Walt Harris make on his beloved Nittany Lions, I can’t help but snicker a little.

Hail to the Heisman going to the best player in college football Saturday night, period.

P.S. Charlotte sucks. I wouldn’t go to a bowl game there if Michael Jackson was playing the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s office.

Raise your hand if you are surprised to find that Pitt’s allotment of tickets (12,500) are lagging in sales. Liar.

Pitt has sold only 3,000 of its allotted 12,500 tickets for its Continental Tire Bowl game Dec. 27 against Virginia in Charlotte, N.C.

The low number probably indicates that Pitt fans are disappointed because the Panthers failed to live up to preseason expectations.

Probably? I would say definitely. If you want to hedge, maybe “apparently” or “strongly.” Pitt didn’t even live up to mid-season expectations. Going 2-2 over the final four games tends to suck the life out of any fan, especially when you lose the final game, at home, on national TV.

By comparison, UVA sold 20,000 tickets and has asked for an additional 10,000. No great shock considering that Virginia is adjacent to North Carolina, and the alumni of UVA tends to be more diffuse through the state — not concentrated near Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh is 447 miles from Charlotte. Charlottesville is 304 miles from Charlotte.

Someone at the Post-Gazette was not fact-checking the driving distance.

Charlottesville, Va., is closer to Charlotte than Pittsburgh, but only by about 75 minutes.

I’d love to know how they calculate drive time.

Here’s the site for the Continental Tire Bowl. There are separate parties for the ACC and the Big East the day before — following the pep rally?

Both head coaches and several players will address the fans and get them pumped. Cheerleader and band
performances will also get the hype going. Special guest speakers include WWE Superstar Ric Flair and NFL Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure.

The ACC party will be at a bar called Dixie’s Tavern, while the Big East version will be at the two local branches of Bar and Have a Nice Day Cafe. Glad to see, the local Charlotte flavor won’t be lost.

The UVA athletic site has a good collection of information regarding the bowl for its fans. Pitt’s bowl info site, is less so.

The Big East announced its All-Big East teams and various players of the year. No shock that Larry Fitzgerald was named Big East Offensive Player of the Year, and was a unanimous selection for the first team, All-Big East Squad. Punter, Andy Lee, was named Co-Special Teams Player of the Year with Punt Returner, DeAngelo Hall of Virginia Tech.

On the All-Big East first and second teams Pitt placed QB Rod Rutherford and P Andy Lee were unanimous choices for first team and Offensive Tackle, Rob Petitti, made the first team (mind boggling to think that a member of Pitt’s lines made either the first or second team). Tight End Kris Wilson was a second team selection. Any other conference, he would have been first team, but he had the misfortune to be in the same conference as Kellen Winslow, Jr.

There were 8 unanimous selections for the first team. Pitt had 3, Miami had 3 and WVU and VT each had 1.

Looking over the choices for first and second team, I’d say the only surprise was that West Virginia’s Quincy Wilson beat out Syracuse’s Walter Reyes to join Kevin Jones of VT in the backfield of the first team. I wonder if the fact that Reyes actually seemed to be held in check by the Pitt defense as opposed to Wilson and Jones was the difference?

Larry Fitzgerald was also named a first team All-American by The Sporting News. Believe it or not The Sporting News named a member of Pitt’s defensive line and offensive line to some of its all- teams.

Redshirt freshman linebacker Brian Bennett, the Panthers’ second-leading tackler (118), was named second-team freshman All-American and the freshman defensive player of the year in the Big East. Redshirt freshman offensive guard John Simonitis was named to the publication’s Big East All-Freshman team.

These are nice things, but it also reminds me why this season was such a disappointment.

Just noticed that Pitt dropped a notch to #23 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll — Marquette leapfrogged Pitt because they actually played and won a meaningful game — despite a 6-0 start. Meanwhile, the AP Writers Poll has Pitt moving up to #20.

The polls are meaningless, and as I have said, no one really has an idea about whether this Pitt team will be as good, better or worse until the conference play begins. The only thing that does have me worried about the Coaches Poll, is that there isn’t much Big East representation this year. Something that doesn’t help in getting votes, because there won’t be much attention paid to Pitt.

The Board of Coaches is made up of 30 head coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The 2001-02 voters: Dana Altman, Creighton; Eddie Biedenbach, UNC-Asheville; Jim Boeheim, Syracuse; Rickey Broussard, Nicholls St.; Barry Collier, Nebraska; Dick Davey, Santa Clara; Fran Dunphy, Pennsylvania; Jessie Evans, Louisiana-Lafayette; Rob Evans, Arizona State; Steve Fisher, San Diego State; Patrick Flannery, Bucknell; Tom Green, Fairleigh Dickinson; Dan Hipsher, Akron; Bob Huggins, Cincinnati; Gene Keady, Purdue; Jim Kerwin, Western Illinois; Mack McCarthy, Virginia Commonwealth; Bobby McKillop, Davidson; Joe Mihalich, Niagara; Ron Mitchell, Coppin State, Dave Odom, South Carolina; Oliver Purnell, Dayton; Rick Samuels, Eastern Illinois; Joel Sobotka, Portland State; Kirk Speraw, Central Florida; Bob Thomason, Pacific; Perry Watson, Detroit Mercy; Davey Whitney, Alcorn State; Gary Williams, Maryland; Willis Wilson, Rice; Dennis Wolff, Boston University.

Emphasis and Italics added. Cincinnati joins the Big East in 2005.

If Pitt stumbles in the non-conference, they could easily fall out of the polls and have a more difficult time climbing back into it. Just my paranoid thought for the day.