Selected quotes from Coach Harris‘ Monday press conference after practices (PDF version).

Greg Lee looks great in filling the WR spot previously held by Fitzgerald. Lee, though, has tweaked his hamstring. This bears watching closely.

Still nothing on the quaterbacks, let’s try not to read anything into everytime he gives a response.

Brockenbrough’s surgery went well. “They didn’t have to do a complete reconstruction.” No timetable on when he might return.

Since the topic of the week seems to be WVU (and because I feel guilty for not contributing since about week two of PSB), here’s a missive from Morgantown. All over the country, WVU is being inexplicably touted as a top-dozen team (which has gotten Lee all hot and bothered, since WVU is not a Big Ten team, where being perennially overrated is a birthright).

Yet here in hoopieland, the thing that strikes me is how little it seems to be affecting the Mountaineer faithful. Now maybe I don’t hang out with the rabid football fanatics here. Or maybe the town is in the grip of that end-of-summer, I-can’t-believe-twenty-some-thousand-kids-are-descending-next- week-upon-our-sleepy-little-town haze. But the buzz seems to be at a minimum, considering this is apparently the highest pre-season ranking ever for WVU. The local rag has dutifully reported the rankings, of course, and pondered on them in a column or two, but nobody seems particularly curious or fearful or even excited. As far as I can tell, it seems about as unexpected as today’s front-page headline: “WVU Ranked #4 Party School in Nation.”

Last year, when the Panther expectations were so high, the hue and cry in Pittsburgh seemed much greater.

Maybe it’s some kind of West Virginia mindset, a lack of trust in those outsiders in the national media combined with a lack of self-esteem. Or maybe it’ll all change when school starts next week and football season feels like more of a reality.

I can’t believe I have to defend WVU, but Lee said,

“Nobody goes from unranked and bitchslapped-by-Maryland to #10 in one year, especially with their vanilla recruiting.”

I’d love to have found a website that lists the preseason and final rankings in a poll for the last 5 years, but nothing came up on Google. If anyone knows, pass it on.

Lee keeps throwing up the Maryland loss as his justification. That any team that got pounded by a top #20 team at the end of the year like that shouldn’t be ranked very high. As I recall, they were ranked before the loss, and deservedly fell out of the top #25. I also don’t know why Lee cares so much about preseason rankings that are mere predictions and expectations of teams. Reality is only tangentially related.

As I said, Maryland was the only team that completely destroyed WVU (twice) last year. They inexcusably gave away the Cinci and Wisconsin games. Right now, it just looks like Maryland is in their head

So, let’s take a look at the top 25 in pre-season.

Hey, look at #10: Florida. Finished last season at #25 (barely), after losing 37-17 to Iowa.

#11 WVU. See above. Considered to have the 9th best offense in the country. The #6 offensive line (and we all know how important that is).

#15 California. Finished unranked after winning that wild shootout with Virginia Tech, with an 8-6 record.

#18 Auburn and #19 Virginia both finished their seasons strong after disappointing most of the year, but still ended unranked.

#22 Wisconsin. Ended the season losing 5 of 6. Do that over the last 6 games, and ranking that team anywhere in the top 25 seems like a more egregious sin than putting WVU too high in the polls.

#25 Oregon. 5-3 in the Pac 10 without facing USC last year. Had a stretch where they lost 4 of 5 including a 59-14 drubbing to 5-7 Arizona State (also 55-16 to Wash. St. and 42-10 to Washington).

So that makes 5 teams, unranked at the end of last season in the top 25. Plus one that barely made it in the top 25 at #10. Explain the outrage again?

For the life of me, I don’t know why Lee just doesn’t make it a post when he actually has enough of a rant to fill 2 comments.

The same team that had Miami almost beaten before a couple great catches on a last minute drive kept Morgantown from burning to the ground.

I’m not going to try and explain the Maryland game, because I can’t. They laid a frickin’ egg. About as close as I can come, is that Maryland has their number. They’re in their head. Much the way Pitt had gotten in the head of VT the last few years.

I gave my reasons why a couple weeks ago (also see the comments). You disagreed. Great. Their offense looks very good (and with a good o-line); their bigger question will be the defensive line. They have a shut down corner in Jones. They have some depth and a veteran team.

Re-read the post, the point is, we actually need them to be good for the security of Pitt and the Big East. I don’t like it. It’s more fun to root for them to crash and burn, but because of the present situation, there is more a need for esprit de corps among the survivors in the Big East.

If the Big East can keep a team in the top 12 of the BCS for the 4 year probation, then the Big East isn’t at risk. In the bigger picture, that would help Pitt on several fronts.

Of course the story in the papers is the return of Josh Lay to team practice. He appeared to look good in scrimmages and was hitting hard. Lay is Pitt’s most experienced cornerback, so he is very important to Pitt’s defense.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of optimism about WR Princell Brockenbrough playing this season. Brockenbrough undergoes exploratory surgery today to discover the extent of the damage to his knee.

Shorter versions of those stories are in Zeise’s notebook column, along with a list of who didn’t practice with what ailment and NCAA eligibility issues.

A focus piece on picking a starting running back. Zeise seems to like Murphy for the position because of his speed, but says the job is probably Kirkley’s to lose. Pitt has only had one 1,000 yard rusher in the last 7 years. I don’t think that will change this year, because I think Kirkley and Murphy (along with Marcus Furman and possibly freshman Brandon Mason) will split the load. Unlike the QB position, it isn’t so bad to split time.

Some quick hits from Bendel’s notebook column. Freshman CB, Darelle Revis, has opened eyes with his play so far. He looks to at least get some playing time at corner and do some kick returning. Charles Spencer, the subject of a glowing story on his conversion to the offensive line, is not going nearly as well as the earlier piece suggested. “Charles is swimming right now.” Bendel has written off RB Jawan Walker as rejoining the team this year.

More good news for WVU. They made it to #10 on the list of party schools.

I know Pat and Lee have their doubts about seeing the Hoopies ranked in the top 15. I think they are at least worthy of the #15 ranking, probably higher.

Here’s what really sucks. We have to hope that WVU really is that good.

I’m not kidding. We all breathed a little easier when the Big East was kept in the BCS. I know I didn’t look closely at the fine print at first. Well, here’s a reminder contained in the Sportsline Big East Preview.

The clock is running. Big East champions will have to average a final No. 12 ranking in the BCS ratings over a four-year period or the conference’s BCS status will be reviewed.

Think the other 5 BCS conferences will be so nice after a little time has passed? With more dollar signs to push away any remaining lingering guilt? After they had to crack the door open a little wider to the other non-BCS conferences? Think the MWC and WAC won’t be complaining a little louder?

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have take my couch outside and set it on fire.