With only a week left before national signing day, the Altoona Mirror included a overview of local college football recruiting in today’s paper. Reflecting local sentiments, Penn State was portrayed as finishing strong and aggressively — in the running for five star recruits Anthony Morelli and New Jersey linebacker Brian Toal. The fact that Morelli had previously committed to Pitt and that Toal has usually listed Miami and Boston College before PSU was not reported until well into the second page of the article.

Pitt, meanwhile, was portrayed as desperately trying to hold on to what little it had.

Living around here, I’m more than used to the pro-Penn State/anti-Pitt sentiment in the Central Pennsylvania media. So all of this didn’t really interest me much. However, the following quote from Harry Psaros of Pantherlair.com regarding Morelli raised my eyebrows a little.

“I hate to say it, but I have a bad vibe about it as far as Pitt is concerned,” Pitt recruiting expert Harry Psaros of Pantherlair.com said. “I think that he began to think about the chance for early playing time… Morelli is probably going to end up at Penn State.”

This being a case of “your own man says so,” I’m officially worried about Morelli now. Has anybody else read anything on Morelli’s leanings? Furthermore, did Morelli ever visit Ohio State? I’m assuming that the Buckeyes have left Morelli alone (like they did Andrew Johnson), but I have no confirmation on that.

Losing Morelli to Penn State would suck huge.

Speaking of things that suck, Pitt has quietly dropped three places to #25 on the Official College Sports Network (by ESPN.com’s Bill Hodge) 2004 recruiting class rankings since yesterday. Ohio State remains at #5 and Penn State remains at #16.

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

Hail to a good end to the recruiting season.

Back in football season, I noted how little attention BC got from the local media. That doesn’t change come basketball season. The Boston Globe’s lone article on the game was really just part of a notes article listed under women’s basketball.

Eagles are pitted against a tough foe: Skinner is wary of seventh-ranked Panthers

The Boston Herald isn’t any better.

Skinner wary of Panthers

Apparently the word of the day is “wary.” How about the word of yesterday?

BC wary of a Pitt fall: Eagles face revitalized opponent

Oh. Well, wary on then.

Over to the Pittsburgh papers. Two columns on Pitt. One repeats the meme: Dixon was the right choice. Look, I’m not trying to hate on Dixon. The guy is doing more than you could hope in his first season. The team is obviously playing hard and well under him. I’m just saying that there needs to be a little perspective before you just declare that this was the right choice. What if the team flames out in a first round upset in the NCAA Tournament (I can’t believe I get to type that — the presumption, the arrogance)? Or what happens if they don’t make it past the first or second round of the Big East Tournament? It really will take a year or two to get to the point where you can better evaluate this.

The other is from radio guy Madden. Madden talking Pitt hoops? Madden talking hoops at all? I guess that is what happens when the NFL draft is still 2 1/2 months away, the Penguins are trying to hang on until the lock out/strike and the Pirates just suck. Well it’s a piece about how this team is better than last year’s team. I think a compelling case could be made, but his reasoning isn’t particular compelling.

Cook has a lazy columnist crutch — the one liner grab bag with a few things to say about Pitt. And one cheap shot for all the Penn State haters

What has it been? A month since a Penn State football player has been arrested? I’m not sure, but I think that’s a record.

A couple nice articles on Jaron Brown and his realistic expectations for life after Pitt (hint, not the NBA).

Both beat reporters for the Pittsburgh papers lead with the story of Craig Smith of BC and the fact that he came from California because USC and UCLA weren’t interested. I think everyone is just about sick of the winter weather.

This may be nitpicking, but I’d say 2004 has been a bad start for the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll. There was, of course, the BCS mess. Now, I’m looking at the Coaches and AP Writers polls for this week.

Last week Pitt moved up significantly in both polls. Six spots in the coaches from #15 to #9; and five spots in the writers — #13 to #8. I thought that was a little high. In the past week Pitt played 2 big road games on national TV. A close loss to UConn, and a blowout win against Syracuse.

I figured Pitt would likely rise 1 maybe 2 spots in the ranks. The writers moved Pitt up a spot to #7, with UConn falling to #6. The Coaches, though, moved Pitt up 3 spots to #6.

I don’t quite get it. Pitt went 1-1 this past week. I’m all for Pitt getting props and the attention, but it’s hard to understand how going .500 for the week justifies the big bump.

What it points out, in my view, is how little attention the coaches actually pay to other teams unless they are on TV. The first 6 weeks or so of the schedule, Pitt had a hard time moving in the coaches poll. Pitt gets on TV, and in 2 weeks they suddenly jump 9 spots. By some coincidence, Pitt has 3 of its 4 games on ESPN and ESPN2.

Sad that I find the writers more accurate than the coaches.