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.

From Monday the Walt Harris quotes (PDF version). General coachspeak about putting the full gear and some scrimmaging. Actually some real news passed along.

Josh Lay, cornerback, has rejoined the team for practices. He has apparently cleared the problem of “academic work to do.” Jawan Walker, however, has not.

Princell Brockenbrough will have surgery on his knee tomorrow. Could be out for only 6 weeks or the full season. A little bit of wiggle room.

Monday is full gear practice, the first of the fall practices. There are several minor injuries, so it won’t be likely the dinged guys will do much in full gear. The beat writers don’t think Harris is going to say who the starting QB will be for a while. Both are now saying that Palko is looking better in practices.

I still think he’ll name a starter by the end of the week — there is a full scrimmage on Saturday. If Palko has a good scrimmage, Harris will probably pull the trigger to name Palko.

Greg Lee has looked great as the #1 WR. With Brockenbrough out, for who knows how long, the hardest thing for Lee may be dealing with all the Fitzgerald comparisons.

Two player pieces today. The almost forgotten tough position player to replace, Kris Wilson at TE. Erik Gill, a junior, has that difficult task. He’s bigger and possibly a better blocker, but he lacks Wilson’s speed and hands.

And the other is JUCO transfer kicker, and our new R.J. English — Josh Cummings. Check out the photo. Not like the English photo they would put on the jumbotron, but…

The quotes from his Sunday post-practice press conference (PDF version)has a good deal of news contained in them. Not necessarily good news. RB, Marcus Furman and OL, Mark McGlynn suffered injuries in practice — no word yet as to the severity. WR Greg Lee has had some undisclosed injury so far, but nothing too major. Keep thinking about issues of depth may be the killer for this season (and the excuse we will hear a lot).

Looks like Harris may be naming a starter at QB sooner than thought. At least, you have to think that with this:

On evaluating the quarterbacks:
“I think I mentioned at the press conference that they are both (Tyler Palko and Luke Getsy) good leaders, but I think they both had their hands tied behind their backs because they are not the starter. We’ll improve our leadership once the starter has been named. They are both trying. Yesterday they were a little too concerned with everyone else and started making some mistakes themselves, but today they were much, much improved.”

Sounds like he’s itching to pull the trigger. My bet is he names a starter by the end of this week.

There were a lot of good articles today, but I couldn’t get to them. Visiting family meant coping with dial-up and Windows 98 instability. Not conducive to getting a post out with lots of links.

Anyways, this is late, so I’ll dispense with my usual attempts to weave the various articles into a semi-coherent narrative. I’ll just give you the gist and you can go read it if it interests you (if you haven’t already).

Horse’s mouth — Official quotes from Walt Harris after Saturday practice (PDF version). Highlights: Kirkley is looking best at RB; Furman has talent, but not believed to be able to handle the ball 20-25 times in a game.

Always Look on the Bright Side — Sure, this year’s team has less star talent — and talent period — but they are more unified. Yes, that’s right, last year’s team underachieved because of a lack of… leadership. See the title to this book, for my thoughts.

Player Puff Piece, Part 1 — Big things on defense are expected from Clint Session, and not just because he shaved the dreads. Don’t worry, he still has the gold teeth, “The bling-bling in my mouth had to stay, though, because I always have to represent south Florida. ” A very polite gloss over his legal issues.

Player Puff Piece, Part 2 — Actually an interesting backstory behind WR Jason Gaffney, the JUCO transfer and cousin to former Florida star WR Jabar Gaffney. He contacted Pitt when Fitzgerald turned pro because he figured they could use the help at WR.

Beat Columns — The short bits, both beat writers lead with Marcus Furman trying to win a running back role in the offense. Both noted that CB, Josh Lay is still practicing away from the team and WR Brockenbrough didn’t practice on Saturday. Additional notes suggest Palko had another good practice, and that the offense is actually making progress.

Not Directly Related, but a Good Read — What walk-ons go through. It’s not easy, in fact it’s harder than I thought. Can’t even eat at the training table? Geez.

Rebuilding Defense — One bad year for the defense after several good years does not make the defensive coordinator an idiot. It does, however, tarnish his rising star status. Paul Rhoads gets a puff piece via Chuck Finder. Turns out Rhoads wasn’t doing a lot of teaching last year. He’s back to the basics this year, and that includes actually teaching the players to tackle. I will now bang my head against a wall.

That’s 2 Lined Up in the Anti-Walt Camp — Smizik was first out of the box. Now Goose Goslin takes his whack. A little more fire and populist in tone. His issue, Harris is too preoccupied with the QB when he should be paying more attention to the line play on both sides of the ball. Looks like it could be a long year for Coach Harris with the media.

Writing from a city with only one daily, I really appreciate the fact that Pittsburgh manages to support two. A lot of what is reported at practices can be duplicated, but you also can see the biases and different perceptions from the writers. Take the all important QB Derby.

The view from P-G beat writer, Paul Zeise.

In the competition for starting quarterback, the main attraction in camp, Palko had his second strong performance in two days. He has outperformed Getsy so far.

Now the Trib’s Joe Bendel take.

The quarterback derby between Tyler Palko and Luke Getsy was not especially eventful.

I think you could get a clearer idea of where things stand by reading cat intestines.

Zeise’s beat report starts with a bit on Freshman QB Darrell Strong’s big arm. I guess we know who asked about him to Harris yesterday. He’s expected to redshirt. Assuming Tim Murphy goes to tailback fulltime, there is a battle for the fullback position between Kellen Campbell, Justin Acierno and Tyler Tipton. Jawan Walker, the RB with “academic work to do,” was no where to be seen. Rampant speculation is that he is going to transfer or be academically ineligible for the season.

The Bendel report from above is not that different from Zeise’s but there are more details concerning WR Princell Brockenbrough practicing for a little bit, but in some obvious pain and having to sit for the last 2 hours of practice. Cornerback, Josh Lay, also with “academic work to do,” was at the practice facility working out individually with the new strength coach. It’s not clear when he will be able to begin practicing with the team. Pitt starts practicing in full pads on Monday.

Bendel has another beat report, with notes on 3 players. Senior walk-on kicker Gibboney is a “pure country kid” and class clown; Larry Moore is not surprisingly inconsistent in his transition from CB to WR; Marcus Furman, the forgotten man in the RB battle looks good to Bendel — might be one of Bendel’s favorites. As a side note, Pitt has 10 players at 6′ 5″ or taller (the biggest is 6′ 8″ and 315 pounds).

Bendel has two more articles on the running back battle. It looks like a battle between Kirkley and Murphy. Kirkley built himself up more over the offseason, but Murphy is a bit faster. Both are 5′ 10″, and there is only 10 pounds difference between the two. Murphy appears to be in a can’t lose situation. Even if he doesn’t win the job for tailback, he will still see plenty of action back at fullback.

The question, though, is whether there will be any holes for them to run through. One big Pitt player is trying to help as he moved from defensive tackle to the offensive line. Charles Spencer seems to be doing decently with the move. Spencer is 6’5″, 330 pounds. If he can make the change successfully, he could be a huge help as the left guard. Rob Petitti raved about him in the story.

Not a transcript, but the official Pitt release of quotes from Coach Walt Harris after the second day of practice (PDF version). What can be gleaned from them?

Well, it looks like freshman QB Darrell Strong has a live arm that has been wowing the media, but Harris keeps dousing their ardor. On a larger point, it suggests that Harris would never want to start a freshman QB. He feels there is too much to learn and absorb in his system to ever consider starting one. It’s probably true for Harris, and it may be what keep him from getting a top blue chip QB recruit until he sends one to the NFL in the first or second round. I see that as yet another reason why Harris will want Palko to win the starter’s job.

Fullback Tim Murphy will see a good amount of time at the tailback position because of the loss of Walker because of academics. This suggests that Harris doesn’t see Walker making up the academic problems in time for the season.

Let the hate mail to Stewart Mandel at SI.com commence. His Big East preview is now out. He has Pitt tied with Syracuse at 5-6 (3-3 in Big East) at #5 in the conference. UConn and Rutgers at 3 and 4 Not a lot of details on the why and how he thinks this way. Here is one of his 3 burning questions.

Is Walt Harris’ job in jeopardy?
Despite taking the Panthers to four straight bowl games — they were 11-34 the four years prior to his arrival — the ninth-year head coach took some serious heat last season when a team with preseason BCS aspirations finished 8-5. Things won’t get any easier this fall having to replace 13 starters.

I would say Paul Pasqualoni at Syracuse is on a hotter seat. I think, even if Harris finishes 5-6 he gets one more year (especially if recruiting improves over this past year) . Side notes that may only interest me: they still used the Carrier Dome logo for Syracuse, rather than the interlocking SU. Pitt’s logo is just a blue-gold blob.

First day of practice and media day for the team. A couple articles summarizing a lot of what was said at Coach Harris’ press conference yesterday. Except for Greg Lee, it is wide open at the WR position. Even the freshmen have a shot. And while he may only be the kicker, superficially it looks like we have found the guy to take over for R.J. English as the one to get the fans to say, “Dude.”

It was surf on turf – or so it seemed – when junior college kicker Josh Cummings
removed his helmet at the indoor practice facility. Cummings is a California kid
and he sports long, blonde locks.

Tez Morris looked good in practice. Even the freshman QB looked good in practice today. As if Palko v. Getsy wasn’t enough for some.

As said, this was media day, and the one chance this pre-season for the media to actually get to talk to Palko and Getsy. Well, at least Palko.

Microphones and tape recorders surrounded Palko as soon as he became
available. No less than 15 reporters swarmed the redshirt sophomore from West
Allegheny High.

Getsy, meanwhile, stood 20 yards away, by himself at the outset.
Several minutes went by before a reporter talked to the redshirt sophomore from
Steel Valley High.

Think the local media has picked a favorite? Apparently there were a lot of questions asked of each trying to get them to critique the other’s game. Kind of a cheap way to generate more controversy. Thankfully, neither took the bait.

Another article played up their similarities. Right down to the same score playing golf together. Getsy insisted, though, that he isn’t leaving for Akron if he doesn’t get the job. Isn’t togetherness swell?

Of course, Coach Harris dismissed the idea that he likes having a QB controversy. Everyone is thinking about the 2000 season, when he yo-yo’d Turman and Priestley around from week to week. In fact, Harris’s QB issues are the subject of Smizik’s column. And Smizik looks to be going after Walt this season:

He is not, he insisted, a serial quarterback manipulator.

During a 34-minute interview session, for which he was 12 minutes late,
Harris steadfastly maintained he does not stay awake at night plotting ways to
jerk around quarterbacks.

His life’s mission, he said, is not to make miserable the players at
the very position he most cherishes.

Could have fooled a lot of people.

A 12 minute delay is worth mentioning? I think you can call that petty nitpicking. Smizik all but declared in the column that this is 2000 all over again for the QB position. Quite honestly, this article seems more than a little premature. The plain fact is, neither Palko or Getsy has been able to create much separation to make the clear case for starting one over the other. It would be nice, but it hasn’t happened.

While I want a clear starter decided before the USF game, I sure as hell want to make sure the back-up actually gets playing time. That is one of my biggest beefs with Harris over the last couple years. He never took Rutherford out of games. That meant not giving Palko in 2002 or Getsy in 2003 any real game experience — even when the games were clearly decided. That is part of why no matter who gets the starting nod, game experience is a major issue.

Final piece, a column from Starkey at the Trib. On the subject of Harris’ press conference, what a “downer.”

By the time the half-hour session ended, you wanted to flick on the local
news for a quick pick-me-up.

Harris started by labeling the coming season a “challenge.” He got that
right. It’ll kick off with five games in 25 days, hardly the ideal itinerary for
a club that’ll be greener than The Incredible Hulk.

The coach then spoke sadly of receiver Princell Brockenbrough, who might
miss the season with a knee injury. Speedy receiver Terrell Allen will join
Brockenbrough on the sidelines.

Furthermore, Harris explained, heralded recruit Craig Bokor is off to prep
school, and potential starters Jawan Walker (tailback) and Josh Lay (cornerback)
are having academic problems and “working on their eligibility,” whatever that
means.

No clarification was needed on the heavy losses Pitt has sustained. Larry
Fitzgerald, Brandon Miree, Kris Wilson, Shawntae Spencer and Rod Rutherford —
not to mention Anthony Morelli and Andrew Johnson — all have moved on.

Any more good news?

After recapping all the negatives, Starkey pointed out that Pitt could still end the season with 8 wins. It’s the schedule, baby. Starkey then notes that Pitt could just as easily end up 4-7 as 8-3. Somewhat along the lines of what I noted that the schedule isn’t difficult, but it isn’t necessarily going to be easy for Pitt this year. Of course, if Harris goes 4-7, he is toast.

First day of practice, and the first Walt Harris press conference (PDF version). As expected, no answers on the starting QB position, other than Harris hopes to have a starter named a week or so before the USF game on September 6. No new injuries to report, but there are casualties — starting from the end of Harris’ opening statement:

“…We have a few things that we need to clean up. First of all, we had some young men that didn’t make it. We had Craig Bokor- he’ll be attending prep school. We have two other guys that were in the process; they’re in the clearing house right now, and our challenge will be to try and figure out their eligibility. We have Jawan Walker, who didn’t practice, and was not there today. He’s working on his eligibility and Josh Lay still has some academic work. He did not practice today. Any questions?”

Q: What does Jawan Walker need to do to become eligible?
A: “He just has some academic work to do… I’m not able to tell you exactly what he has to do. He’s got academic work to finish.”

Q: Do you expect Walker and Lay to eventually be eligible?
A: “I don’t know. That’s up in the air.”

With Jawan Walker now even questionable to be on the team this year, it looks like Kirkley at RB by default. At a minimum it is his job to lose. Marcus Furman will be his main competition.

The loss of Lay at the cornerback position will be huge if he doesn’t get qualified in time. He was the most experienced returning corner (even if he was a bit inconsistent) depth is looking like a big, big issue right now.

Bokor is a defensive lineman. Again, it is a depth thing.

There was also this howler of coachspeak:

Q: Is it fair to label this a rebuilding year for Pitt?

A: “We don’t think that we rebuild, we’re all about reloading. We do have some guys, like I mentioned, that graduated, but that’s the fun of it. We’ve got guys that have played in a backup role and now’s there a chance for them to play.”

I dream of the day when I hear pundits say “Pitt doesn’t rebuild, it reloads.” I mean, with a straight face.

Football practice officially began this morning. And a Panther Nation turns its curious eyes to the quarterback position. Or at least they will try. Coach Walt Harris has declared that he has no clue who will be the starter, and that he will be shielding Getsy and Palko from media scrutiny. I’m sure this will be frustrating to some extent as we and everyone else will try to analyze every throw, every rep, and every facial tic of Harris to see who is the leading candidate.

I’m not sure it is a bad thing, though. We know Harris is very hard on his QBs as he tries to get the most out of them. Keeping them from speaking to the media after every practice and talk of how they think they did and whether they think they will be the starter would get old after a few days. Imagine it for almost 4 weeks straight.

Of course who will be the QB starter may be the hot topic, but it isn’t the only position battle. You have the O-line, D-line, Running Back, Cornerback and Kicker position battles. Not to mention a new Punter, new coaches, new TE. So many questions, and according to Post-Gazette beat writer Paul Zeise, these are the top 5.

Coach Harris sees the glass as half-full despite last year’s turmoil and the loss of talent. Not that I’d expect him to be saying otherwise. At the end of the story, Joe Bendel makes this comment:

Harris will need to have his team ready for a treacherous stretch that has the Panthers opening on Labor Day and playing five games in 25 days. That relatively short period could go a long way in determining how the 2004 season unfolds.

Hmmm. I noted before that this isn’t the toughest schedule, but there isn’t an easy patch in here. The first half of the schedule has one difficult opponent (Nebraska) , two expected gimmees (Ohio and Furman), and two that I just don’t know how good or bad they will be (USF and UConn). That short time frame for the games could make a difference, at least with regards to the UConn game.

Then there is the Temple game, and then the remaining 5 games are all question marks. Each game looks like a toss-up at this point.

Final note, the WVU-Pitt game on Thanksgiving day has now been moved from 7:30 to an 8:00 kickoff.

A big recruit for Pitt’s 2005 class is in academic trouble. Mike Davis appears to be on the verge of getting kicked out of Xaverian High School in Brooklyn. Apparently he didn’t show up much or test well during summer school. Important to emphasize that he did not get in any other kind of trouble. It looks more like a case of laziness.

The questions are now: how quickly can he get into another school, and will it delay his graduation and qualifying academically (will he have to go to a prep school for a year); and what does Pitt do?

As to the latter question, Davis has given a verbal, but NLI day isn’t until November. Will Pitt revoke the offer? I would guess no, but he may not be wearing blue and gold until 2006.

A couple articles in the Tribune-Review regarding Pitt. Fall practice kicks off on August 12, and this is the first thing from either of the dailies in a week (if you include the press release news that Fralic joins the broadcasting booth). I’m hoping this means both papers are planning some supplement section for Friday and Saturday with lots of articles about Pitt.

The first is a glance backward to say that this year the attitude is different. I love the opening to the story, though,

The terms “smashmouth” and “Pitt football” were oxymoronic last season, as the
Panthers lacked physicality on both sides of the ball.

Physicality as a descriptive term has now jumped the shark.

There were some still-defensive comments from Walt Harris about how there were more injuries and losses of key players than the team disclosed last year to account for the poor line play on offense. Defensive line play, though, was just an “aberration” — for the entire year.

Otherwise, there was some fairly optimistic talk about how the lines will play this year in a brief article.

Now on the more depressing news, the WR position keeps getting thinner. First Terrell Allen went down for the season after a wrist injury in spring practices. Now starter Princell Brockenbrough may be out with a knee injury.

Now I’ve said some less than kind things about Brockenbrough’s propensity to drop passes because he is trying to run before securing the ball, but he was still the only returning starter at WR. Greg Lee, who I think will be a stud, was still only the 3rd WR last year and may take a little time.

The two players likely to take over for Brockenbrough are Joe Stephens, a junior who had one catch last year, and Jason Gaffney, a JUCO who missed all of last year with his own knee injury.

Hard to imagine a Walt Harris/Pitt team worried about depth and productivity at WR.

Panther Report has its preview of Pitt up. Rob Lichtenfels thinks the defense will rebound this year. Hope so.

In his key losses section, he doesn’t mention the coaching losses (4 assistants). The biggest was offensive coordinator J.D. Brookhart leaving for the Akron job. Considering Brookhart was the also WR coach, and while no one can be completely sure of how much input he actually had, he was helping to call the offensive plays. Now Harris hired a new WR coach, but has decided to retake full control of the offense. That means no possible dissenting voice for the play calling. I’m not a big fan of that.

Lichtenfels sees the potential for an 8 win season if things go right. Between 6-8 wins is about the expected number it seems for Pitt. That’s the thing. No matter how many coaching and player losses Pitt had from last year, you look at the schedule and it is reasonable to say that none of these games are sure losses. Only a limited number of sure wins (Furman, Ohio and Temple), but Pitt can still make some noise this year.