First off, am I the only person out there who has always disliked the Walt Disney Corporation? My wife and I just got back from a two week vacation in Orlando, Florida where a significant portion of her family lives. Her sister is a successful gift shop manager in one of Walt Disney World’s four Orlando parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and MGM), and she got us into Epcot for free. Not surprisingly, I found Disney to be as preachy, arrogant, and vaguely threatening as ever. For instance, before they would let us see their cheap little aquarium in “The Living Seas” exhibit, they made us sit through a seven minute movie narrated by Kathleen Turner that explained to me how the seas were formed, how wondrous they are, and how it is my personal responsibility to make sure that they survive even though I live about 1,900 ft. above sea level on a Central Pennsylvanian mountainside (and of course, there was a “Finding Nemo” sculpture at the end). Goddammit, all I ever wanted to see was one freakin’ Manatee. And you should have seen their absolute sermon of a fireworks display. Message after message about world unity, brotherhood, economic progress, and taking care of the poor.

I mean, I’m a good liberal and all. And these were mostly all good messages from my personal political perspective. I guess I just resented having them jammed down my throat while I was just trying to enjoy a few overrated amusement park rides. I mean, I damn near walked out into the parking lot and re-registered Republican. It was all a little too Big Brotherish for me, I guess. But I’ve always found Disney’s movies to be a little preachy, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Incidentally, just in case anybody at Disney ever actually reads this (as if anybody other than Chas EVER reads this blog), my sister-in-law is a completely loyal employee… er, “cast member”… who was honestly appalled that I didn’t think Epcot was the greatest place on Earth. She would absolutely condemn this post if she could actually operate a computer.

OK, I’m done venting. Thanks for hearing me out. Now on to actual Pitt sports.

I actually posted to tell everyone that ESPN.com’s Bill Hodge released his latest ranking of the 2004 college football recruiting classes (as they currently stand) on the Official College Sports Network today. Because Pitt didn’t pull in as many recruits as some other schools did lately, we fell from #14 two weeks ago to #18 here. Elsewhere, Ohio State moved up a spot to #6, Penn State stuck at #8, and USC and Michigan stormed past LSU and Texas to claim the top two spots. Here’s the whole list.

No. 1 Southern California (Top JCs)
No. 2 Michigan
No. 3 LSU
No. 4 Oklahoma
No. 5 Texas
No. 6 Ohio State
No. 7 Miami-Florida
No. 8 Penn State
No. 9 Georgia
No. 10 Maryland
No. 11 Alabama
No. 12 Texas A&M
No. 13 Missouri
No. 14 Florida
No. 15 Tennessee
No. 16 UCLA (Top JCs)
No. 17 Florida State
No. 18 Pittsburgh
No. 19 Washington
No. 20 Texas Tech (Top JCs)
No. 21 Kansas State (Top JCs)
No. 22 Michigan State
No. 23 Boston College
No. 24 Nebraska
No. 25 Iowa
Tie No. 25 Oregon
Tie No. 25 Purdue

Is it just me, or has the once threateningly cool Snoop Doggy Dogg sold out both faster and to a greater extent than any rapper in history? Damn, Dogg, get off my TV. And no amount of schnizzle’s and izzle’s will ever make AOL popular in Long Beach, Watts, or Compton.

Hail to amusement parks just being amusement parks and not trying to save the world.

I’ve had a week to let the fiasco that was the Continental Tire Bowl work its way out of my system. I’m no longer thinking that wholesale changes need to be made to the Pitt coaching staff — there’s a lot I agree with in this Mike Pirusta column, but I disagree with his conclusion — though Harris and the Pitt coaches need to take a hard look at their in-game coaching and adjustments.

Walt Harris has been at Pitt since the 1997 season. I’d say after this year, it’s a safe bet that Walt won’t be lured away within the next couple of years. That’s fine, because he should have about 2 more years to make some more corrections and see how much further he can take Pitt football.*

As is oft repeated, he came here when it was seriously debated about dropping the program to Division II. Harris with AD Pedersen, the new facilities and much support from the administration helped to bring the program back. 1998 to 2000 saw the true rebuilding as the team started working its way out of the Rutgers and Temple district. The program took a step backwards when Harris tried to implement the spread offense on a team that was built for the pro set; and seemingly not aware that it usually takes a full year before a team actually functions effectively in the spread (see, West Virginia in 2001 versus 2002). Harris learned, though, and has not tried to reimplement the spread. 2002 saw the team make real progress and led to real expectations for Pitt.

This year, clearly, the team took a step backwards. This was a down year in the Big East (as evidenced by the bowl performances), and Pitt had the position talent to compete. (Actually, and excuse the digression, this was a down year in college football. I mean, this was parity hell. Is it any wonder the MAC looked so good this year? There proved to be no truly unbeatable teams. This has been a rather bland year for college football.) What no one realized was that the offensive line was so weak, and the defense was no where near what it had been. This exposed a real weakness for Harris — failing to recruit and develop linemen. No one noticed until this year, because Pitt had so many other areas to develop, and the expectations weren’t there. This year it bit them on the ass. Pitt didn’t come close to matching anybody’s expectations. But for Virginia Tech, Pitt would have been the most disappointing team in the Big East.

Harris prizes his reputation as an “offensive genius.” Sadly, for him, you can’t be much of a genius if the line doesn’t give you a chance to execute the plays; if your quarterback is running for his life and has no chance to look downfield; if the line can’t give any penetration or open a hole for the running game.

Harris now knows he can’t scheme and work around weak line play. He needs to make improvements there. He needs to make it a vital recruiting area and have very strong coaching and teaching for the position.

The plain fact is that Pitt can’t make another change right now. In 2003, the school lost its AD and basketball coach. Not to mention the whole ACC raid on the Big East crap. The AD and b-ball coaching searches were completely botched and embarrassing to watch. There has been enough turmoil that some relative calm would be recommended. Besides, new AD Jeff Long, probably doesn’t have the juice or the stones to fire Harris right now — especially with what appears to be a very, very good recruiting class coming.

* I reserve the right to change my mind on this come the 2004 season if I see no changes in the team’s approach to line play, tackling, and game adjustments.