Midnight Madness commences at many schools in less than an hour, but not at Pitt, which I may have mentioned once or twice. So, pre-season rankings galore. For Pitt, the best ranking received was #15 from Dick Vitale. ESPN.com’s top 10 and then 11-25 puts Pitt at #21.

What we like: Coach Jamie Dixon, point guard Carl Krauser and sophomore forward Chris Taft are all winners. Krauser, who always marks the sign of the ‘X’ when he hits a 3 to represent his native Bronx, gives the Panthers a chance in every game. He was not a heralded recruit, yet he came in and made the Panthers a better team. A year ago, he was the stud that pushed this team to a 31-5 record. Krauser is money at the free-throw line and isn’t afraid to take a late-game shot. Taft is developing into one of the top forwards in the country. He’s being billed as a possible lottery pick. He’ll get even more touches this season and could be a double-double player on a regular basis. Chevon Troutman is a glue guy who can board, pass and defend. Troutman will pick up the slack left by physical wings Julius Page and Jaron Brown. He brings the experience of multiple Sweet 16s and, like Krauser and Taft, is a winner. That will rub off on the newcomers, who are expected to come in and contribute.

Causes for concern: This team could use another lock-down defender and tough-guy. Troutman can serve in that role but the Panthers got so much out of Brown and Page. Their experience is hard to measure in simple numbers. They were the intangible pieces to this team over the past few seasons. There is room for another player like them to step up and become an enforcer, especially on the perimeter. Pittsburgh made a living of being physical at guard. The more they can repeat that, the more apt they are to keep their reputation as a physical team.

Keep an eye on: Mark McCarroll. He’s the least known of the Pitt returnees, but still could be a special talent. He’s incredibly long and could be disruptive, especially on the defensive end. His offensive game hasn’t been tapped that much, yet, but he has the potential, through putbacks, to double his production from five to 10 points a game. If he can do that, the Panthers have a shot to move up in the standings.

Non-conference nightmare: Dixon isn’t going to like this but there isn’t too much that should keep him up at night. The only truly difficult game is against Memphis in New York in the Jimmy V Classic. Playing South Carolina won’t be a walk in the park, but the game is at home. We’re not saying Richmond is a guarantee, either, but once again the game is at home, where Pittsburgh loses lately about as often as you would break out the suntan lotion in January.

Best-case scenario: The Panthers lost two key players but they are still a team that could be a very tough out come March. They play as hard as any team in the Big East and won’t give up their home court. Don’t sleep on this team and expect them to exit early out of the NCAAs. An Elite Eight visit, though, likely is one step out of reach.

Seth Davis at SI.com gives his top 20, but only in alphabetical order. Not by his guestimated rankings. Way to be bold, Seth. Pitt isn’t in his list. I can’t believe he thinks Wisconsin and Washington are top 20 teams.

I guess the bright side, is that expectations aren’t huge for Pitt, but respectable.

With Pitt’s abysmal non-con, they have to enter the Big East play undefeated or maybe(just maybe) one loss.

You know, with the heaviest rumors being Dave Wannstedt, I find myself looking more and more at the pro-football rumors. Wanny is a dead man walking in Miami, so the question becomes do the Dolphins fire him a few games early — in December — to get a jump on their coach search and let him get his own head start. Keep in mind, that Wannstedt via Jimmy Johnson is on very good terms with Dolphins owner Wayne Huzinga. Well, what does Pittsburgh native and ESPN columnist Paul Pasquarelli has to say?

In Miami, owner Wayne Huizenga visited the Dolphins complex last week, talked football with Wannstedt, but left no tacit indication of the wholesale housecleaning that is to come. As cited here last week, there is always the possibility Wannstedt will force the issue at some time, and end up departing early, as did Reeves in 2003, if the Dolphins owner tells him he won’t be back for the 2005 season.

Truth be told, such a scenario might be the NFL equivalent of a mercy killing, since Wannstedt is too good a guy to continue suffering through the current mess. Wannstedt is keenly aware that his record could be tarnished by the events of ’04 and might impact his ability to land a job (like at the University of Pittsburgh) in 2005. Don’t discount the possibility that, if Huizenga opens the door, Wannstedt, who has two seasons remaining on his contract, won’t bolt through it.

Like I said, I’m not sure how I would feel about Wannstedt being the Pitt head coach. I’m still sorting that out in my mind. Also in the article, it seems Pasquarelli thinks Butch Davis is on thin ice. He would be a hot commodity back in college if fired. I still doubt he gets the axe this season. He has control over all football decisions. If he’s fired, then whointerviews and hires the next coach? The owner would need to find a GM first. He has to let Davis back for another year.

Oh, yeah. Noon, ESPN2.

Just like last year, Pitt has to be worried about protecting the quarterback from BC’s star defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka. Pitt’s a question mark against any defense, so it’s hard to be more worried about protecting Palko and opening up holes for the run more than any other week.

Junior walk-on Kellen Campbell will be the back-up fullback behind Kirkley again this week.

Pitt RB, Brandon Mason, is looking forward to getting more playing time, and the rest of his career at Pitt.

BC’s own talented freshman RB, Andre Callender, appears healed from his groin injury and will play against Pitt. BC’s biggest recruit, Brian Toal — 2003 All-American for both USA Today and Parade, plus the 2003 Gatorade Player of the Year in New Jersey and the Newark Star-Ledger’s Defensive Player of the Year — has been living up to the hype.

Final note, Larry Fitzgerald seems to be adjusting well to the NFL. Big shock.

I have to wonder if other colleges where it is all but a foregone conclusion that the coach will be fired after the season have it get this ugly? I think it does, but when it is your school, your team, it just seems that much worse. Still, the fact that we could be heading to a rarity in football — the firing of the coach during the season is more than a little jarring and unnerving.

After the very public statements from Harris’ agent and the non-vote of confidence from AD Long, it has become crystal clear that Harris will not return to Pitt in 2005. The issue really is does he finish the year?

LaMonte’s calculated attempt to publicly force the university’s hand left little room for interpretation. By calling out the administration in the newspapers, LaMonte clearly was trying to either secure a contract extension for Harris (which he has to know by now is the unlikeliest of scenarios) or get this over and done with so all parties involved can move forward. Long’s response, the first from a Pitt official since it became open season on Harris among alumni and media (for the record, that commenced right about the time Tyler Palko hit the deck in Connecticut) was to acknowledge the contentiousness of the situation but put off dealing with it.
…
By declining to defend and support Harris, by offering only a not-so-cryptic “after the season we’ll sit down and talk,’ Long confirmed on Wednesday what many have long suspected.

Harris’ situation at Pitt is no longer tenable.

He hasn’t quit on his players, and they haven’t quit on him. But that’s not enough, and Harris knows it. Outside of the sideline and the practice facility, he’s clearly lost his passion to represent the university, to provide leadership. And on the field, whatever he has left, isn’t measuring up to the required standard, not unless collapsing quarterbacks, OT against Furman and the need to score 21 fourth-quarter points at Temple are considered acceptable.

If that’s the case, Pitt has bigger problems than how to solve the Harris issue.

I don’t think I’m the only one who remembers when Pitt fired Mike Gottfried in mid-season. The team did rally and backed the interim coach leading to him being given the job which was announced just before the Sun Bowl. This was how the Paul Hackett era at Pitt was born. I do not want to see a repeat of that. Harris is toast, but he needs to finish the season.

Change will come despite the questions, but the search for the next coach has to be done carefully. I am assuming that Pitt is quietly working on its list of candidates, and maybe even putting out feelers through surrogates. At least I hope so. Early termination of Harris puts everything out in the open way too soon.

Some, though, want Harris to jump. Yes, it’s Smizik.

Bob LaMonte, Harris’ agent, unleashed a series of charges at Pitt, one of which called for his client’s firing, and almost all of which made little or no sense.

But it wasn’t the intent of LaMonte, who represents NFL big-timers such as Jon Gruden, Mike Holmgren, John Fox and Andy Reid, to make sense. He was trying to better what he considers a poor situation for Harris, whose team is off to a poor 3-2 start that includes a loss to Connecticut and narrow wins against Furman and Temple. If LaMonte has to speak gibberish to get it done, so be it.

The most absurd charge leveled by LaMonte was that Pitt has Harris “hanging out to dry.”

Wouldn’t we all like to be hanging out to dry in such a manner? Harris’ contract calls for him to make about $600,000 through the 2006 season. Which means in the next three years, he’ll earn more than most Americans make in a lifetime, which makes it pretty hard to work up much sympathy for him.

The stupid, populist argument. Like it or not, coaches get extensions all the time and it is standard to have 4 or more years to sell recruits that they’ll be there for the full time of their collegiate career. Harris only had two more years on his contract beyond this season. It was hardly the outrageous statement Smizik pretends it is.

As a way to not leave Harris hanging, LaMonte suggested, “If they’re going to fire him, they should have fired him before the season.”

At the start of this season it was not, as LaMonte suggested, a foregone conclusion Harris would be fired at the end of it, although there probably was some sympathy for moving in that direction by the important people at Pitt. Today it is a virtual certainty he’ll be fired because of the way his team has underachieved this season.

Not that Smizik wasn’t leading the charge to get Harris fired from the start of the season. Taking shots wherever he could.

Based on their play in the first five games, the Panthers are badly coached, wildly under-talented or both. In every case, most of the fault rests with Harris.

There was no reason to fire Harris at the start of the season and if he is fired at the end of it — or sooner — it will be because he has earned it on the basis of his coaching performance.

LaMonte would have preferred Harris being fired after last season so his client could pick up about $1.8 million for not coaching as opposed to the $1.2 million he’ll walk away with if he’s fired after the season.

No disagreement here. No s**t on the last point.

If Harris is as miserable on the job as LaMonte suggests — and we can only assume Harris was aware of and approved of his agent’s comments — here’s a solution for him.

Quit.

That’s right, walk away from this miserable job. And if life is so unbearable, don’t wait until the end of the season. Do it today.

That might present a hardship for Pitt since Harris, as head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, is the only man who knows the offense. Regardless, no one should be made to suffer so.

That sound you hear is me banging my head against a wall. This is what Smizik is wasting his column space arguing? Shut up about your situation or quit? Harris is taking abuse from all sides. We are openly drawing up lists of possible replacements for him. Everyone is just waiting for the axe. So, the Harris camp finally fires back, and Smizik wants to go self-righteous about it? Give me a break.

The notion put forth by LaMonte that Harris is unable to recruit because he has only two years remaining on his contract is total nonsense.

Harris’ contract did not stop two of the best high school prospects in recent Western Pennsylvania history — quarterback Anthony Morelli and running back Andrew Johnson — from making verbal commitments to Pitt last year. Both eventually backed off those commitments but not because of Harris’ contractual situation.

It’s a fair point, not “total nonsense.” It is very easy to make that negative point to a recruit. The problem has more to do with the local coaches being alienated by Walt, and not winning when expected. That was why Johnson bailed. He saw an underachieving program and went to Miami where he might never get off the bench instead. Not winning takes it’s toll, and it costs you recruits. No matter who you are.

LaMonte also had a warning for Pitt. He said, “There aren’t that many good coaches out there to be had, especially for what Pitt wants to pay.”

If he is upset with Harris’ pay, he should look in the mirror at the man who negotiated the contract.

You may want to speak to your paper’s beat reporter about Pitt’s pay rates. It isn’t just the head coach, it’s his staff.

As for Pitt not being able to attract top candidates, that is more nonsense.

Any Division I-A job will attract good candidates. A Division I-A job at a school with a BCS affiliation, which is the case at Pitt, will attract a plethora of quality candidates.

Attract? Sure. Get? Another issue. There are going to be a lot of coaching changes at programs with better reps than Pitt, and others looking to move up in reputation. Got to love the consistency from Smizik. One week he spends an entire column stressing how important it is that Pitt get the hiring of Harris’ replacement right, the next week it is just like throwing a dart with the eyes closed to find a guy.

As for pay, there’s no question Pitt will have to pay more to Harris’ successor. It would have paid more to Harris, if it had been merited.

Harris’ long list of game-day blunders might have escaped the notice of some ardent Pitt fans. But those with their eyes open — and most certainly the Pitt administrators — are well aware of his coaching limitations.

Pitt will have to pay close to $1 million per year for its next coach. It’s not afraid to do that. That kind of money was dangled in front of basketball coach Ben Howland when he considered — and eventually took — the UCLA job.

Harris has done a lot of good things at Pitt. But he is in his current predicament because of his — and his agent’s — own doing.

Pitt didn’t act pre-emptively with Howland, and nearly lost Pitt’s top recruiter and assistant Barry Rohrssen over the summer because they were slow to react (and even then, still offered less money). While Pitt did make a good offer to try and get Skip Prosser, it has never stepped up with the money and gotten its man. You have to worry.

Harris has to finish the season.