6-6 overall is starting to look really good.

Reports are, that Luke Getsy is going to transfer. No official confirmation yet. (Shouldnt’ that be coming from the others of PSB who actually live in Pittsburgh?) Crap. I don’t begrudge him. It’s his call, and his right to do so.

It is purely selfish, as a fan. I don’t trust the O-line to keep Palko healthy throughout the season. That means Joe Flacco is the back-up, and I guess Strong is the emergency QB.

Other things

Coach Harris’s press conference regarding USF is posted. In a great moment in evading the question and its implications:

South Florida runs a scheme that has given Pitt challenges in the past.
They play a spread offense, no huddle. They gave us problems before. They are well conceived and that’s difficult to play against. We played against a couple of them in our conference, and some of them gave us a challenge; West Virginia has, and Temple has as well. That will add to it and the fact that there is no huddle will make the execution harder on our defenses. That’s why we have to make the plays, execute the calls, and get off the field.

Uh, “given Pitt challenges?” Try burned our asses. I’m not even going to say anything about his comments regarding the loss in 2001. It still burns me to this point, that he won’t admit that it was his @$^&* mad scientist attempt to impose a spread offense on a team and QB built around a pro set style that cost Pitt that game and several others that year.

Pitt B-Ball: Roadtrip to Toronto

The Pitt basketball team, is taking a roadie to Toronto this weekend. They will play some really early exhibition games up there. The NCAA allows “schools to take one foreign tour every four years and permits 10 practice days prior to the date of departure.”

Practice for the 2004-05 season officially begins on October 16. No mention of the present schedule, especially the non-con. Though, they do reveal what they will be stressing in trying to sell it — that Pitt has the best winning % of any school over the last 3 years.

Under/Over Achievers
General college football info. The lead question from SI.com’s Stewart Mandel’s mailbag concerned overrated teams in polls.

Trying to find pre-season and final rankings on the Net is a lot harder. I actually looked once — just going back 5 years — and finally had to give up, so I wish he could have placed the raw data out there.

With the help of Lexis-Nexis, I went back and found the first and last AP poll from every season and counted each time a team finished at least seven spots lower than predicted. Why seven? I don’t know, It just sounds more dramatic than six.

Ladies and gentlemen, the nation’s most overrated program, with eight such occurrences in 14 seasons, is … the Washington Huskies. Not far behind were — here’s a shocker — Notre Dame (seven), USC (seven), Auburn (six) and Texas (six).

While I’m a little surprised at Washington, overall the results aren’t too shocking. With the exception of USC and Texas’ recent resurgences, these are all teams far removed from their heyday (with the Huskies peaking right at the beginning of the period in question), yet many voters have a hard time looking at tradition-rich teams objectively. On paper, Notre Dame could have the exact same qualifications as, say, Iowa, but nine out of 10 times the voter is going to favor the Irish. It’s something I try to make a conscious effort to avoid myself. Case in point: Minnesota finished 20th last season and returns nearly its entire team, yet is starting the season five spots lower, while Auburn, which finished last season unranked, is suddenly 17th.

Anticipating what your next question was going to be, yes, I compiled the same data for teams that finished at least seven spots higher than predicted. Teams didn’t make nearly as many regular appearances in this category, probably because after exceeding expectations a few times voters got the message and started picking them higher.

The leaders, with five instances each, were Ole Miss, Iowa and Alabama, followed by LSU, Washington State, Virginia Tech, Kansas State and Texas A&M at four. The Rebels, Hawkeyes, Crimson Tide, Tigers and Cougars are textbook examples of teams whose breakthroughs have been sporadic enough so as to catch voters off guard when they happen. I was surprised, however, to see Alabama on the list. You’d think, with their tradition, voters would be more likely to err on the side of optimism.

There seems to be a flaw in the reasoning for Kansas State and VaTech to be considered underrated.

The Big East football notebook on ESPN.com (subs. req’d) this year will be written by Joe Bendel of the Trib (must somehow be a part of the vast-right-wing conspiracy between Scaife and Disney). Considering the last couple of years have seen beat writers for Miami and BC do the notebook, this can’t hurt. His comments in the notebook on Pitt:

Here’s a name to remember: Clint Session. He’s the bone-jarring sophomore middle linebacker who has taken it upon himself to revitalize a Panthers defense that got humiliated in 2003. Session, a Florida product, is counting the days until the Labor Day opener against South Florida. “Watch and see what happens,” he said. “Our defense is going to be flying. I’ll make my presence felt right away.” The most recent time South Florida faced Pitt, the Bulls threw the ball 65 times and pulled off a monumental upset at Heinz Field in 2001. The Panthers are still stinging from that one. Session could be a difference-maker on Monday.

Sophomore Tyler Palko won the starting quarterback position at training camp and could eventually upgrade a position that was exceptional last season. Graduate Rod Rutherford was a unanimous All-Big East first-team pick and set the league standard for all-purpose yards. Palko, a lefty with unwavering confidence, was the school’s biggest recruit in a decade.

If the Panthers get behind against South Florida, forget about it. Palko has just two career completions, and six of his seven top receivers have yet to catch a pass in a college game. Scary.

Preparations for a game, from a blogging sense, must include the other team’s media and resources. This is the USF sports site. John Edwards is now working for USF. The football page doesn’t have a lot at this time — not even advance game notes. Here are the Bulls’ fan site. An article talking about Pitt refers to the offense as “young kitties.” USF is also selling this gear:

Also in regular t-shirts and buttons. I think it’s important to understand just how juiced the fans down there are trying to get for this game. Just as their win over us in 2001 showed that they were deserving of being in Division 1-A football, they are essentially looking at this game as the unofficial beginning of their membership in the Big East.

Now for the media coverage. Not much yet. They still have 3 other major college programs in Florida that garners most of the focus. Apparently USF has had a few injuries in training camp, but is getting better.

This preview of USF from the beginning of August, suggests that they have solid lines (especially the O-line), but QB and RB are big question marks. Their secondary is also a concern. The survey of C-USA coaches picked the Bulls to finish 7th.

Looks like the planned move to the Big East keeps paying dividends for USF. They got a blue chip QB to commit. The Tampa Tribune is the only media to have a page just for USF. You might want to look over their special report, a multi-part piece about college recruiting.

Another late night…

Unlike most schools, Pitt doesn’t play until Labor Day. This allowed the fans and pundits an extra day to explore the madness of JoePa.

Now, the stories and articles begin on the team and preparing for USF. The opener will be Pitt’s first road opener since 1993 — Pitt’s first year under the Johnny Majors, Back to the Future plan — when Pitt upset Southern Miss. 14-10; and the first road opener for Harris.

This game is considered an immediate test. Pitt under Harris is 7-0 in openers, “but they lose most of their luster because of the teams the Panthers have beaten: Southwest Louisiana, Villanova (Division I-AA), Bowling Green, Kent State, East Tennessee State (I-AA), Ohio and Kent State.”

In the game notes, you can find the depth chart for Pitt (page 3). Depth has emerged as a huge concern during training camp. Overshadowing to some degree concern over how the lines will play. The depth chart is examined here.

Most notable were the eight walk-ons on the two-deep list, including starting wide receiver Joe DelSardo.

Of the seven wideouts listed, only one has caught a pass in a college game. The tight end has two catches and the starting quarterback owns all of two career completions.

The top three tailbacks accounted for 79 yards in 2003. Junior starter Raymond Kirkley took a redshirt.

The question is: Can the Panthers get it all together in six days, when they open at South Florida in sunny Tampa?

Can you say, “Gulp?” The depth chart also reveals that Freshman Darrelle Revis will start at right cornerback ahead of Reggie Carter and Josh Lay. The last true freshman to start at corner was Shawntae Spencer, now with the SF 49ers, in 2000.

Along with Revis starting, another mild surprise is that converted Offensive Left Guard, Charles Spencer will start. JUCO transfer, Josh “Sunshine” Cummings, has won the starting kicker job.

Two column pieces, both concern Tyler Palko. Ron Cook focuses on the Texas A&M game in 2002 when Rutherford layed an egg for 3 quarters, leading to chants of “We want Palko!” and “Put in Palko!” from the stands. Showing a bit of cluelessness from where he actually sat in the press box, he says the chant was “We want Tyler!”

I missed that game, as per the “annual Pitt home game to fall right on a High Holy Day” (this year’s model is only the Furman game on Yom Kippur so it isn’t so bad). Maybe Lee and Pat can share their memories of that game and the chant.

In a bit of revisionism Cook considers the calls “absurd.” Up to that point, it hardly was. Rutherford had not looked good in his first couple games and all through the first half against A&M. It just seemed that Rutherford couldn’t handle the job until he finally found the switch.

Me on August 27:

No reason for Getsy to transfer yet. If the O-line is as bad as last year, he’ll be starting because Palko will be out for at least a game with a concussion.

Cook on August 31:

Have you looked at that Pitt offensive line? …

If I’m new fan favorite Luke Getsy, I’m not thinking about transferring just yet. I’m thinking about maybe playing against South Florida Monday after they carry Palko off.

Advantage, PSB.

The other column from Mike Pirusta focuses on Palko’s confidence. I’ve already said that I like having a cocky, arrogant QB. I think Pitt needs that right now. Leave the negativity to the professionals.