Malcom Postell earned Big East Co-Defensive Player of the Week honors. Ray Henderson of BC shared the honors. Congratulations.

Pitt has its game notes and updated stats (PDF) for the Nebraska game released. Here is Nebraska’s “Game Day Central” for Pitt. Not only will this game be on national TV, but it will be broadcast on the “College Football Radio Network, which includes nearly 100 affiliates nationwide, Sirius Satellite Radio and the American Forces Network.”

I’ll come back to this a little later, but here’s a good start on finding information and fan views on Nebraska, despite being a bit out of date, there are plenty of links.

The Journal Star has its Nebraska section and a blog written by the various columnists.

Here is the site of “Pennsylvanians for Nebraska.”

This is the school paper, The Daily Nebraskan.

Finally, the official Nebraska sports website and the head coach’s site.

Some little things from the day, that don’t relate to the on the field activity, but are part of game day.

Saw a lot of “retro” Pitt t-shirts. Royal blue with yellow lettering of the script Pitt; and the other way around. Didn’t see them in the gift shop in Heinz Field, and I didn’t make it to Oakland to know if the official gear store is carrying them. Still good to see someone has realized the pent-up desire for the old school stuff. Have to look into getting one for myself.

Should have taken my camera into the game for a couple shots. They have Banners on one corner of all the Big East football teams, including the new kids coming in next year. Will try to snap a shot this weekend.

The new lot isn’t that bad. The big positive, is they will let you pitch a canopy in the grassy portions. You need to be parked along the edges, so we may have to arrive earlier to take advantage.

One of us needs to get one of those grill-and-go things for tailgating.

Dance team and cheerleaders were pleasant in appearance again. They are just a little out of shape. Each could really stand to lose 5-10 pounds — I’m sure they will be getting toner as they perform more. Of course, this is also a good time for me to issue my usual plea for them to get their own sites and/or update the photos on the Pitt website.

And for the dance team, the “America” medley has run its course. You’ve been using that for a year or two and it is kind of old. Plus, it is really hard to tolerate even a snippet of that pathetic Madonna version of “American Pie.” Please. That was the song (the original version) we used to hear at closing time at Caleco’s. Stop trying to ruin those wonderfully drunken memories.

Shawn? Pat? Anything to add?

I’m not going to recap every article from Sunday. You can check them yourselves. I will single out a couple that I think were interesting or even disagreed with me.

Joe Bendel’s notebook, totally disagrees with my thoughts that the punting wasn’t bad. He did have a couple that weren’t great, but I think Bendel may be overstating it a bit. Look at the drive chart and consider from where he was punting. Most of the game he was punting from near the 40 yard line. He was hanging most of them high, as evidenced by the fact that OU could only return 3 of the 11 punts. The notebook asked the more important question of where was Joe Flacco? Harris had promised he would play, but he never did much other than hand the ball to Furman for the final series.

Joe Starkey did a refreshing piece on Sunday. It was partially to reign his own impulses in, but mostly to remind Panther-nation not to panic over Palko’s first game.

It might have been the shakiest opening-night performance since Lisa Guerrero’s on Monday Night Football.

But I won’t do it. Not again.

I won’t bury a quarterback after his first college start, especially not when Pitt went into its opener Saturday against Ohio University with nine new starters on offense. I sat in this seat two years ago and ripped Rod Rutherford after he was intercepted three times against Ohio U. in his first start.

To my beyond-eternal regret, I called for freshman Tyler Palko to start the following game. The next day’s headline — “It’s Palko Time” — is branded onto my psyche like some horrendous tattoo.

So, even though Palko’s first start made Rutherford’s seem worthy of the College Football Hall of Fame, you won’t see an “It’s Flacco Time” headline today. Nor would there be an “It’s Getsy Time” headline if Luke Getsy had stuck around.

Rather than just tell the fans they need to chill, he uses himself as the example. It comes off very effectively in making the plea for a little patience.

Gene Collier had some fun with the sloppiness of Pitt’s play, pointing out that Lehigh-Villanova was televised but this game wasn’t — and that was probably a good thing.

Now for todays stories. The troubles on the offense. Some key numbers to make you cringe: the wide receivers had 3 catches for 35 yards; Pitt was 2 for 15 on 3rd down; and 49 yards passing was the lowest passing yardage since a 44-0 humiliation against ND in 1993. Kirkley was the only positive, and Greg Lee gets singled out.

The only bright spot was the running of junior tailback Raymond Kirkley, who might be the focal point of the offense until Palko finds his rhythm and sophomore wide receiver Greg Lee (two catches for 24 yards with a score) proves he can be a go-to guy. Lee failed to hold onto a 30-yard sideline pass early in the game and later had the ball ripped from his hands for an interception.

Lee is considered the Panthers’ top offensive playmaker, but he failed to meet expectations on Saturday night.

I didn’t think I was the only one that saw that, but when I was looking over the Sunday stories there wasn’t much mention of Lee’s disappointing play other than allowing the cornerback to rip the ball from him on the first pass of the second half. Pitt and the passing game, need Lee to step up his game. Without him leading the WRs the team has no chance on offense.

The defense, though, did a good job. There was one warning, that should chill the blood a little.

Ohio managed just 88 rushing yards, but it should be noted that Kent State ran for only 73 in the 2003 opener before the run defense suffered an epic meltdown, allowing 2,332 yards the ensuing 12 games.

Pass the Maalox, please.

Darrelle Revis, gets some additional praise. The freshman cornerback earned a start and played very well. Revis was expected to be the biggest impact freshman on Pitt, and it looks like he will meet those expectations.