Beyond the tailgating, of course, I’m not entirely looking forward to this season of Panther Football. That being said, sticking with your team through the tough times is what makes you a real fan.

There wasn’t much in the Post-Gazette over the weekend. Our secondary will be inexperienced (d’uh), Paul Rhoads still hasn’t been fired, we’ll have to devise something else to yell after interceptions other than “SHAWN-TAY,” Luke Getsy is still outperforming Tyler Palko in spring practices, the offensive line still sucks, and Walt still needs to work on his poses when the press is around.

Regarding our schedule, FOXSports.com has designated South Florida (our opener) as our 2004 “landmine game” — that is to say, the game in which we are most likely to get upset. Given that Pitt always starts slow, even USF is beating us in recruiting these days, and this game will be on the road, in the heat, in Tampa, would this really be an upset if we lost? I mean, can I just predict this one right now?

Imagine. Losing two in a row to the Bulls… Get ready, John.

Heck, let me glance over our schedule and highlight what I feel are our likely losses right now…

Sep 4 at South Florida 7:00PM
Sep 11 OHIO 7:00PM
Sep 18 NEBRASKA (Need I explain?)
Sep 25 FURMAN
Sep 30 at Connecticut (This may be my riskiest pick. But hey, they’re supposed to be tough this year.)
Oct 9 at Temple
Oct 16 BOSTON COLLEGE (We lost a lot more than they did this winter, especially on offense.)
Oct 23 RUTGERS
Nov 6 at Syracuse (We’re more than due for an asskicking at the hands of these guys.)
Nov 13 at Notre Dame (I just love watching my teams get crushed by Notre Dame on NBC.)
Nov 25 WEST VIRGINIA (This one’s gonna hurt worst of them all.)

There you go. My first and earliest inklings have us going 4-7 in 2004. Like I said, sticking with your team through the tough times is what makes you a real fan…

Hail to the Hoopies getting blasted with some kind of a recruiting/sex scandal before Thanksgiving or something… and hail to Daylight Savings Time.