I noted at the beginning of the season that Pitt was making the video of Coach Harris’ Monday press conferences available on their site, and a little later they would post an abbreviated transcript. In light of the loss to UConn, and an almost complete condemnation of Harris’ decision at the end of the 1st half — and the conclusion that Harris is as good as gone after this season — that this would be a tense press conference. Odd thing. There is no streaming video of the press conference available. They do, however, have the abbreviated transcript. Even that, though, has some pretty brutal and stilted questions compared to the past.

What seems to be the problem with the offensive line?
“We weren’t pleased with the way we played against Connecticut. The early game probably didn’t help us perform up to the level we needed to in order to have a chance to be consistent in that game. I thought Connecticut played very good up front. I thought they were very physical. We had trouble blocking their linebackers and when we did we didn’t do it very well.”

How have you felt about the criticism of late?
“You guys are going to write and say what you want. That’s your job. I’m trying to do the job the best way I know how. In the area of football I think that’s fair game. I haven’t been on top of the criticism because I don’t read the papers or listen to sports radioÂ…I’m naïve or ignorant of what you guys think.”
…
When can you get past Tyler Palko being young?
“I think as he grows and matures and the other people around grow and mature and improveÂ…He’s just one player of the eleven guys that are out there and I didn’t want to (lose) our chance of going into halftime in a position where we would have trouble kicking a field goal and going in tied.”

Would you make a similar call in the 2^nd quarter with any previous QB?
“I think 3^rd and 12 from the 12, whether you’re Rod Rutherford, Pete Gonzalez or whoever you want, that’s a tough call, with everything around them at this age and the development of everybody else. When you make a decision you make it based on everybody not one guy. That’s what I’m responsible to do; make a decision based on everybody.”

Would have Tyler grown up faster by making another call?
“You guys don’t see it the way I see it and you don’t have to coach it and you don’t have to deal with it. I thought the reward of going into halftime (tied) after playing not very well in the first half was worth it. Unfortunately that didn’Â’t happen; we went in down by three.”

I want the streaming video for this up on the site. Right now, I will assume it is a technical glitch, but if it isn’t available in the next day or two… Well then I have to assume this was done to put a muzzle on things.

Any ways, the game central press release is out with roster info for both teams. The Game Notes for Temple are also out (PDF). Nothing appears to jump out from the depth chart or anything else.

You know what I don’t enjoy, Lee. A dishonest argument. I conceded I was wrong about about WVU from preseason (and that is where all of this started) and up to the loss to VT:

I am perfectly willing to admit I let myself believe WVU might actually be good enough to merit being in the top 12 of the BCS standings.

[Emphasis added.]

Clearly a statement that belongs in the past tense about what I thought. And you make it part of your counterpoint, by selectively quoting it so your strawman argument to rebut, is that I still believe it:

Go ahead and let yourself “believe WVU might actually be good enough to merit being in the top 12.” Nobody else does. At least, nobody at the Associated Press or the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll anyways.

Pathetic. We both know that preseason polls are not terribly accurate (read: Pitt and Auburn in 2003). Their true importance for the teams, is that it is easier to stay in the polls than to crack the polls. And with the polls accounting for a greater portion of the BCS formula, they take on more importance.

Then there is this bizarre — well, I’ll call it a point:

And how am I supposed to hypertext something that Herbstreit said on a television show or that Kiper said on a radio show. Show me how to do that, and I’ll gladly start today.

Here’s what I wrote:

Of course since you were so willing to call upon the statements of Fowler, Corso, Herbstreit and Kiper, Jr. to justify your position, then surely you must do the same when my original posts that sparked this was a mention of articles trumpeting the potential BCS postition of WVU.

How do perceive that to be some complaint on my part that you didn’t hyperlink it? The point, if you wish to be that obtuse, was that the articles in preseason that I cited gave some credibility to the possibility that WVU might be a BCS contending team.

The truly insulting thing, though, is accusing me of shutting you out of the blog? You know I have never and would never do such a thing. You also know the past blogger posting problems, and how I have worked to fix any problems — even going so far as to contact blogger for you to get them resolved.

Get over it.

I’m not the one who’s getting emotional and taking things personally, Chas. What was so emotional about my last post? I merely pointed out, in a logical fashion, how you misread my post from Saturday. Sorry if you can’t take a joke about reading comprehension.

And besides, how much more personal can one get than making fun of somebody else’s digestive problems? Does anybody really want to read about porta-johns?

Go ahead and let yourself “believe WVU might actually be good enough to merit being in the top 12.” Nobody else does. At least, nobody at the Associated Press or the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll anyways.

Nobody who loses to an unranked team deserves to be in the top 12, not even Ohio State. But beyond that, I — unlike you, apparently — actually did watch the entire WVU/Virginia Tech game on Saturday. And in all honesty, WVU was really not all that impressive. I’ll readily admit that Rasheed Marshall is a good quarterback… although he obviously needed to work a little more on his ball control, didn’t he? And I do like Chris Henry. But those lines were thoroughly average on each side of the ball. I mean, did you see all of the penalties in the trenches? Can you really call those lines “solid?”

And how am I supposed to hypertext something that Herbstreit said on a television show or that Kiper said on a radio show. Show me how to do that, and I’ll gladly start today.

This isn’t the first argument you’ve lost to me. No need to start making fun of personal problems.

Ah, Lee. Your problem is you take things too personally, and you forget that most of the “crap” you took was not on this blog. It was in the parking lot — in between your runs to the port-a-john — so it is understandable how you have excreacted with such emotion. A small post in September hardly constitutes “crap,” and that is the extent of your evidence presented.

I am perfectly willing to admit I let myself believe WVU might actually be good enough to merit being in the top 12 of the BCS standings. They have solid lines on both sides of the ball, an excellent secondary, a stud receiver in Henry, a workhorse RB in Harris and a decent QB. Clearly, though, their offense is not firing. Just like last year, where they sputtered through the first half of the season. This may be a legitimate criticism of Rodriguez — who we both agree is a really good coach — that his team does not get out of the gate well. Unfortunately for us, Pitt and WVU play at the end of the year, when they are on track.

Of course since you were so willing to call upon the statements of Fowler, Corso, Herbstreit and Kiper, Jr. to justify your position, then surely you must do the same when my original posts that sparked this was a mention of articles trumpeting the potential BCS postition of WVU. Something that I would say made you see scarlet, but I’m guessing has you seeing purple this week.

It’s quiet in the dailies. Too quiet. I realize Monday is reserved for lots of articles on the Steelers, but the lack of swift and active critiques of Pitt and Walt Harris all weekend has to be unnerving for him. It’s a bad thing. It means the knives are being drawn a lot slower and the cuts will be deeper when they come. Like what? I’m thinking timelines, lists blunders and missteps. Maybe even a well thought out and reasoned column from Smizik — okay, I may be reaching a bit on the last. The Monday press conference should be a very tense event.

Guy Junker’s weekly scattershot column leads with the obvious: the Big East sucks in football. Hell, I don’t think there is a person following college football, not employed by the Big East or member institutions, who disputes that. There’s a reason that Big East officials are already mentioning the success of Louisville despite the fact that they won’t be members until next year. Junker also takes his shot at Harris,

That is a losing mentality. First, how can Palko get game experience when he runs a give up play? What happens the next time he’s facing a third and goal late in the half or late in the game? Wouldn’t it have been better to let him tryfor a touchdown, even if for no other reason than to learn? He says all the politically correct things, but how do you think Palko really feels about Walt Harris showing no confidence in him at all?

Yet, he was allowed to throw out of his own end zone even though he wasn’t allowed to throw into UConn’s. How about a fade or a screen or something fairly safe. And if UConn was expecting a pass, how about a draw play?

Now, I asked myself this question: If the Huskies don’t return the ensuing kickoff to midfield and complete a quick pass before kicking a field goal as time expired to retake the lead, would I think differently?

No, because you can’t play scared. You can’t play not-to-lose football. The message sent to that entire Pitt football team in the last minute of the first half last Thursday was that “we aren’t good enough to compete.”

Essentially along the lines of what Collier said.

The beat writers are doing their job, trying to look to the Saturday game at Temple. Zeise, though, appears to be at then end of his tolerance for the same starting with the very first sentence of his notebook.

Pitt’s running game — and this is an old story — is having a hard time getting out of the gate.
…
If Pitt is to have any chance of finishing with a winning record and making a bowl game, it will need far more production from its running game. With a better running game, Palko, who has been sacked 13 times and is under enormous pressure most of the time, would have a better chance of being successful as well.

Of course, that would mean the offensive line would have to open up an occasional whole or actually push forward, rather than be driven backwards.

The Temple game is seen as Pitt’s “get well” game. Both physically and mentally. Pitt, oddly enough, may feel even more pressure in this game. MAC power Bowling Green decimated Temple this past Saturday by 54 points. That’s harsh. If Pitt doesn’t win by at least 20 after that, then Pitt will look even worse.

Talk about paranoid… OK, here’s Chas‘s latest charge…

What I wrote:

“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.”

If Lee can find where I wrote WVU should be a top 10 team, I’d love to see it. My point all along, has been that Pitt and the Big East needed WVU to step-up this year and finish in the top 12 of the BCS rankings. This ham-handed attempt to distort what I said, is at the Joe Lockhart or even Chris Lehane level. At least I could be accused of reaching Rove-ian heights.

Now, Chas, read what I actually said very carefully…

“Remember all of the crap I took for even suggesting that West Virginia might not deserve to be ranked in the top ten?”

Where in that sentence did I accuse you of writing that WVU should be a top ten team? All I said is that I took crap from you for suggesting that they DIDN’T deserve to be a top ten team.

And you passed the bar exam with reading comprehension skills like that?

Besides, the real point of all of this is that you disagreed with my assertion that WVU was overrated. You were proven wrong this weekend. Deal with it, Rove.