Otherwise, there are portions of Smizik’s mail-it-in-not enough-for-a-full-column piece, with which I could actually agree. The problem is it comes from a guy who has made it a very personal mission to see Harris gone this year. From his opening column where he actually needed to be petty and bitch about Harris being late to the press conference.

I swear, reading Smizik at times makes me almost hope Harris returns for another year in the off chance that Smizik would suffer a coniption.

Having said that, I have to say that Smizik is on the money with his final paragraph:

If Pitt fires Harris, we can only hope the university does not shrink from the task of finding the best possible successor. That’s what it did when Ben Howland resigned. The subsequent hiring of Jamie Dixon might prove to be a stroke of genius, but Pitt’s failure to scour the country for the best candidate was the wrong way to handle a job search. Such searches can get messy, and Pitt clearly had no stomach to get its hands dirty.

The search for a new basketball coach was pathetic. I am in deep fear that Pitt will focus on one guy a little too early and let everyone else fall off the board. When that happens, you better be right and you better get your 1st choice.

The rest of the news is about the game this afternoon. I won’t see it, and both Temple and Pitt do the pay-to-listen internet broadcast, so that’s out. Actually, I’m on the road tomorrow with the family to see the brother-in-law and his family on the other side of Ohio. So this will likely be the last post from me until Monday night.

I hope the players are getting up for the game because I’m not. It’s frickin’ Temple. It’s a no win game. You win, the only question is did you cover? (Pitt by 13 1/2? Wow. I’d take Temple.) You lose, and that is just pathetic. Can’t even get excited that it is for the final time.

If Temple is lucky, there will be a massive crowd of nearly 20,000. Problem is, Lincoln Financial Field holds almost 70,000. There is a note about how much Kirkley should be looking forward to running against Temple. He may run a bit, but I’m betting he splits time with Mason.

Predicted final score: Pitt 30 Temple 23

There’s been some noticing that Coach Harris’ tenure at Pitt is just about over. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it seems like there is some sense of bewilderment over the turning on Harris. From Stewart Mandel at SI.com:

PITTSBURGH: Eighth-year Panthers head coach Walt Harris has been the subject of unrelenting criticism from the local media this week following Pittsburgh’s 29-17 loss at Connecticut. He’s taking particular heat for his decision to have QB Tyler Palko down the ball on third and goal at the Huskies’ 12 late in the first half and settle for a field goal. There have already been several articles calling for his head, and one columnist — assuming Harris’ firing to be inevitable — went as far as to write a column analyzing potential replacements. “To be honest, I haven’t been on top on the criticism because I don’t read the papers, I don’t listen to sports radio,” said Harris, “so I am naive or ignorant about what you guys are saying.” Harris has led the Panthers to three straight bowl games, but last year’s 8-5 finish, after starting the season in the top 15, was considered a disappointment, and this season is shaping up to be a rebuilding year.

I find this somewhat surprising since Mandel was one of the few to note back in August that Harris was on the hot seat. (I can’t believe I really believed only a couple months ago that Harris might get another year with a 5-6 record, in my after the fact defense of that, I guess I presumed there would be signs of improvement in the team and recruiting.)

Meanwhile Tom McShay of Scouts, Inc., via ESPN.com (insider subs. req’d) puts Harris in the underachieving/say good-bye group.

Things have gone from bad to worse for Harris. The team underachieved in 2003, losing three of its final four games. A home loss to Nebraska, a “near miss” against D-I AA Furman and a 12-point loss to Connecticut has turned the situation into a virtual witch-hunt. Harris will be lucky to survive the season.

The other coaches on the list include: John Bunting, UNC; Paul Pasqualoni, Syracuse; Gary Crowton, BYU; Keith Gilbertson, Washington; Ron Turner, Illinois; John Thompson, East Carolina; and Rich Brooks, Kentucky.

See, here’s the thing with the now very loud cries to fire Harris. There was rumbling/complaints about the way Harris coached by the fans after both 2001 and 02. It was muted though, because he had earned it by rebuilding the program and bringing in some great recruits. Most of that good will was spent after last season. It was his team, all his recruits, all the talent was at its peak. And the team never played up to their potential. He was given a little more slack because he did have a great recruiting class — which then went poof while Harris was no where to be found.

This was to be a rebuilding year, and what was expected (at least by me) was more like the 1997 team that wasn’t that good, but played hard and with enthusiasm. The team just improved as the season went on, and Harris was the leader. Instead, the team has played without passion, energy and doesn’t look like it’s getting any better. Harris has to take the blame and ultimately the fall.

There are some must reads in the papers today. The first is an almost great piece by Shelly Anderson. It would have been a great piece, except she gets bogged down in her own personal recollection from being the only beat reporter at Pitt practices in the Johnny Majors II era to Harris’ first year. The point was to show how little interest remained in Pitt football at the time and how Harris was responsible for helping to save and resurrect Pitt. She just spent a little too long on it.

Despite some obvious flaws, he didn’t become a bad guy overnight. In fact, he has never been a bad guy and in years to come should be remembered as one of the more important coaches in Pitt history.

It has been mentioned at various times that Harris deserves immense credit for salvaging a program on the brink of death. That is as true as the sky is blue, although it’s probably not a strong enough attribute to salvage his job.
…
Things should have peaked last year, with a talented, experienced team and a preseason ranking. For me, last year’s 28-14 loss to Miami at Heinz Field was the definitive indicator that Harris had reached his ceiling as a major-college coach. As talented as they were, the Panthers were not competitive with the Hurricanes.

Now, at a disappointing 2-2, the warts seem exaggerated.

Harris overextended himself as the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. He outthinks himself at times in play-calling. He separated himself too much from the defense for most of his tenure. He has been too loyal to some assistants. He doesn’t express himself well in news conferences and other public group settings. And recruiting hasn’t escalated the way it should have.
…
Harris probably is best suited to be an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in the NFL. He would make more money than he is at Pitt. He wouldn’t have to sweat the myriad details that go with being a head coach, including news conferences. And he would have a head coach to provide some checks and balances with his play-calling.

Only myopic fools and bandwagon jumpers would not appreciate the work Harris did at Pitt. Anderson is mostly dead on, and this is a must read.

The other is PG Pitt beat reporter Paul Zeise’s Q&A for this week. Possible replacements, slide right, can Pitt get 6 wins, coaching decisions and recruiting.

Q: Four false starts in one series? With the crowd screaming its head off, Pitt is out there screwing around with long snap counts. What is coach Harris’ motivation for this?

ZEISE: This has been one of the most disturbing things of the Walt Harris era – this incessant need to try and “trick” other teams instead of just lining up and playing football. I can’t understand how any coach with an offense with nine first-year starters, that can’t line up right, doesn’t know all the plays yet and is still just searching for itself would think it is advanced enough to try and incorporate hard snap counts into the plan. That’s just plain silly. Every time they’ve tried the hard snap counts, it is Pitt – not the defense – that is usually fooled and ends up getting penalized for illegal procedure. To me, it would be much easier just to line up and worry about getting the play called in a timely manner and make sure everyone can get to where they are supposed to be.
…
Q: Why do you think Pitt whiffs on most local “blue chip” recruits? Why do so many not even have Pitt on their short lists any more?

ZEISE: It is a combination of a lot of things. Pitt has been slow to offer some of the top players in their own backyard. Pitt did not capitalize when it had some momentum a few years ago and it has snowballed. Also, Walt Harris has lost a lot of credibility among many coaches in Western Pennsylvania, and I’m not sure if this can be fixed. The opportunity was there for Pitt to really clean up in Western Pennsylvania, but they slip away. One other thing – it is hard to fault a kid for wanting to go to Michigan or somewhere big-time like that given what they have to offer versus Pitt. I mean, Michigan has 100,000 fans every week, they play on television almost every week, they play a lot of meaningful games and go to New Year’s Day bowls – it is hard to compete with that.

I think what is the most disappointing thing about Pitt is not so much the big-timers from Western Pennsylvania that get away – although Pitt should get a few more of those guys than they do – it is the number of great players from this area – including a number of offensive linemen — that Pitt won’t even look at that go on to have excellent careers elsewhere. The list of those kinds of guys is too long to recite. It is one thing to lose blue chippers in your backyard to big-time schools, it is another to lose so many of the next level of quality guys simply because you aren’t doing your homework.

[Emphasis added.]

Lots of things you will find yourself nodding your head at while reading.

Right Guard, John Simonitis, will make his first start of the season after an ankle injury just before the season started.

Puff piece on Kicker Josh “Sunshine” Cummings dealing with playing in the cold.

Back-up QB Joe Flacco is from NJ, but very close to Philly. A sort of homecoming for him — or at least a chance to grab a Geno’s cheeseteak. Mmmm.

Some notes on how bad Temple is.

I criticized the decision by Pitt to cancel Midnight Madness. I stand by my primary criticism — that they took away one of the few events geared almost entirely for the students. But there is more detail than given in the Pitt press release. Seems that attendance at Midnight Madness has not been much higher than around 1500. Of course, reading a quote like this makes me think that the reason for the problem is that Pitt doesn’t have a frickin’ clue as to who they should be trying to get to come to a Midnight Madness.

“The thought behind this is that Midnight Madness is a tough event for families,” said Jim Earle, associate athletic director for business and fan development. “We thought we could cater to all fans, families as well as students, by doing a Fan Fest.”

No s**t! It’s at midnight on a Friday! This should almost be a student only thing. You need to make it a student event. It doesn’t have to be that long. A little time out before they go back to the bars and the parties. Yeesh.

Finally, a somewhat amusing, contrived Question and Answer column.

Q: Who would win a game of Texas Hold’em poker between Walt Harris, Joe Paterno and Rich Rodriguez?

A: West Virginia coach Rodriguez, because in poker as in life, youth and aggression are rewarded. Harris, when faced with a tough call that would require him to slide his chips into the pot, and lacking the option of ordering his quarterback to slide, probably would slide under the table at showdown time. Paterno’s problem would be an ever-dwindling stack, a result of him spending too much time rehashing how close he had been to winning previous hands.

Heh.

No question in my mind that Midnight Madness is a bit on the silly side. A contrived event to open the start of college basketball practices at the stroke of midnight on the first day. That’s the negative. On the positive, since it is at midnight it is almost all students — and therefore one of the few sports events at a university that is really for the students. Where they can have fun and the rich alum and boosters are not so obviously seen.

Seems like a great year for it at Pitt. The football team is down, way down. The basketball team is pre-season top 20 or so according to most people. Krauser is a pre-season Wooden award candidate. It’s Chevy Troutman’s senior year. Probably Chris Taft’s as well if he has the monster season everyone seems to expect. A strong incoming class. Lots of positive feeling about this team.

So, Pitt is not going to have a Midnight Madness. Instead it will have a “fan fest” on Saturday, October 30.

Basketball Fan Fest is designed to be a combination of PittsburghÂ’’s annual two preseason events: Midnight Madness and the Blue-Gold Scrimmage.

Great plan. Make it a family event. Take it out of the students interest as much as possible.

Who cares if the students on their own initiative created the “Oakland Zoo?” Who cares that the students who attend the b-ball games have done their damndest to make the Pete a great homecourt advantage for Pitt?

Pitt takes away Midnight Madness and the chance to make sure the students feel appreciated right away — and maybe give Pitt students something to feel good about before the BC football game that will be played about 12 hours after when Midnight Madness would happen.

I’m sure the students will be out in force. After all, who in college wouldn’t want to see “members of the women’Â’s basketball team will judge the Halloween costume contest for children age 12 or younger.”

Other things kept me tied up all day. Not that it really matters today. Slow news day.

A linebacker switches to fullback. The USF game has officially been rescheduled for Saturday, December 4 at 7pm. No deal with ESPN at this time (and I’m not sure there will be).

Temple struggles on.

Article on freshmen WRs Kevin Chandler and Darrell Strong.

I’m watching the Harris press conference, finally. Harris is hardly a sparkling speaker, but from the get go, he sounded and looked defeated. Not angry or defensive. Just subdued and defeated. Like he realized, that the way Pitt lost, was all on him and he was going down for it.

Even as he spent, well over 5 minutes answering questions over the sequence leading to “slide right.” It wasn’t angry over having to keep defending it. It came off as more pleading, “Come on guys, you understand, or you should.”

At around 13 minutes, he all but begged to have questions about Temple, not the UConn game.

After watching the press conference, I almost feel sorry for Walt. Of course, then I think about the slide, and the feeling goes away.

Let me state a clear bias on my part. I prefer a guy who is a head coach at another school over most assistants. Just because they are a top assistant at a hot program does not make them necessarily head coach material. Some coaches are not meant to be the head man (see, Paul Hackett).

I also don’t care if they may have their eye on getting a better job — bigger program or the NFL — someday. Getting someone ambitious is not a bad thing. That means they will be looking to win. So what if they initially view Pitt as a stepping stone. Right now, it is. Until Pitt is winning and in the top-25 consistently, how can it be anything but?

Presently College head coaches:

Fantasy Picks, Probably Overreaching
Urban Meyer, Utah — Won at Bowling Green and now at Utah. Clearly doesn’t need to recruit from one specific location to get kids. Likely, though, to be one of the biggest targets by a lot of schools looking for a new coach (UNC, Syracuse, Washington, Illinois, BYU and Texas if Mack Brown gets blown out again this weekend by Oklahoma). He would cost a lot, and you still have to wonder if Pitt will pony up for his salary and assistants.

Jeff Tedford, Cal — Another hot pick, with a really low buyout if Cal can’t get financing in place for a new stadium and facilities by December. Already rumored to be a guy the NFL is eyeing. Considering he made Cal relevant as something other than the highlight with the Stanford band, that is saying something about the job he has been doing.

The Next Level
Dan Hawkins, Boise St. — The fact that this team is now known for something other than that blue field, should tell you what kind of job he has done with a program no one ever heard of a few years ago.

Pat Hill, Fresno St. — He is pretty comfortable there, or he already would have a better job. The guy knows how to coach and can recruit. Think Palko wouldn’t mind playing for a guy that made David Carr the #1 pick?
MAC Attack
Speaking of ambitious coaches, the MAC may be where it is at. These are guys that have to coach, and scrounge for real diamonds in the rough players if they want to succeed.

Tom Amstutz, Toledo — We all know the job he did to Pitt last year. The guy has found talent and coached it. I think he could do a great job at Pitt. He’s 27-11 in his 4 years at Toledo. The one con in trying to hire him, is that he is actually a Toledo alum, so he might feel some loyalty to the school. Would suck to be turned down by a guy in the MAC.

Terry Hoeppner, Miami (Ohio) — A “cradle of coaches.” Red Blaik, Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian and Bo Schembechler all were coaches at Miami. People in Pittsburgh, of course, know Miami right now for producing Ben Roethlisberger. Miami won the MAC last year and actually finished #10 in the AP poll at the end of the year. Hoeppner has been there 5 years with a 40-20 record.

Joe Novak, Northern Illinois — An early mid-major darling of the pollsters from last year after beating Maryland and Alabama. Novak has been there 8 years building a program from nothing. Lost by 3 to Maryland this year. May not be a perfect fit, since Pitt doesn’t need to rebuild so much as take another step.

Greg Brandon, Bowling Green — This is only his second year as head coach, so this might be something of a reach. Still, he didn’t let the team falter at all when Meyer left for Utah. This year, they went into Oklahoma and lost by only 16. And of course they just hung 70 on Temple.

Assistant Coaches with Juice:
Not a lot to go on at this point. These are guys that get the job either with mid-majors first, or they are hot picks and ace the interviews. Back in August (and noted here in September), Scouts, Inc., via ESPN.com listed a bunch of potential guys. Only 2 guys from the list, do I think could be good hires for Pitt.

Randy Shannon, defense, Miami Hurricanes
Shannon has the unenviable task of replacing six members of his 2003 defense who were drafted into the NFL, but he did a pretty good job with last season’s group that had lost five members to the NFL draft from the previous season. If Shannon can reload rather than rebuild once again in 2004, he will be one of the hottest head-coaching candidates in the land.

Chuck Long, offense, Oklahoma Sooners
Head coach Bob Stoops is the front man for the Sooner offense, but Long has been his coordinator for four of the five years that Stoops has been in Norman, and the experience has been invaluable. With each passing season Long gets more control of the offense. Soon enough, another school will swoop in.

NFL Guys:
After the success of Al Groh (Virginia), but especially Pete Carroll (USC), there is a minor groundswell of interest in trying to find the next guy who wasn’t cut out to be a pro coach, but was meant for college. I have a bad feeling about this. In part because there have been two straight successes. Seems like one is due to fail. Still these 3 are likely to be names tossed about, because they are Pitt alumni.

Dave Wannstedt, Miami Dolphins — Everyone and their dog knows that this is Wannstedt’s last year coaching the Dolphins. The team has gotten worse every year under his control (like Pete Carroll at New England). This is his second failed head coaching gig (like Pete Carroll — Jets and Patriots). Wannstedt is well liked by people and gets along well with them. The thing that makes me most nervous about Wannstedt is that he has had significant input and say in the Dolphin personnel — he’s shopped for some of the groceries. His talent evaluation skills are a huge concern for me.

There are already rumors that when the Dolphins fire him, he’ll all but have an offer waiting from Pitt. Assuming Pitt doesn’t make a bowl game, the season ends on December 3. The Dolphins season is over on January 2. If Pitt fires Harris and nothing seems to happen for the first couple weeks, then you have to assume this could be the way it goes.

Russ Grimm, Assistant head coach, Pittsburgh Steelers — A finalist for the Bears job that went to Lovie Smith this past year. Hard to say at this point. I really don’t know anything about his coaching skills or personality. I wonder if this is just wishful thinking from local alumni.

Matt Cavanaugh, Offensive Coordinator, Baltimore Ravens — I know, Baltimore has an offense? He was at one point, their QB coach. Given the failures at QB for Baltimore to date, that is hardly a ringing endorsement.

Hire Any of These, And I Cancel My Season Tickets:
Do I really need to explain what I mean by that?

Mike Ditka, Pitt alum and legend, Levitra spokesman, former head coach Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints — NO! NO!NO! NO! I’m sure some drunk at Brewski’s may think this would be a great decision, but there is no way.

Norm Chow, Offensive Coordinator USC — I don’t think I could handle another QB guru/offensive genius at Pitt for a while.

Paul Rhoads, Defensive Coordinator/Secondary Coach, Pitt — Sunk as a hot assistant last year. Isn’t getting any better this year. If he even interviews for the job, it is panic button time. It means Pitt is looking to go cheap or Rhoads has incriminating pictures of Chancellor Nordenberg.

The Walt Harris press conference from Monday is now available as streaming video (Windows Media). I probably won’t be able to watch it until later this afternoon. Anyone who has the time is welcome to post their thoughts in the comments.

Actual Pitt information is limited to the notebook columns today. Imagine this, Pitt will try to improve its pass protection. Good plan. In Pitt’s practices to get ready for Temple, they are preparing to face the athletic Washington and the more traditional McGann at the QB position. And that’s it.

The Trib. today, focuses on the Big East as a whole. No question, it’s a bad year for the Big East. We all knew that, but we didn’t know it would be this bad. Joe Bendel focuses on the right now, and how bad it is. Joe Starkey, by contrast, looks longer term and sees reason for optimism. Mainly in the fact that Mike Tranghese, the Big East Commissioner, has kept the Big East in the BCS. There is no small truth to the fact that it was a lot of Tranghese’s personal efforts and connections with the other conference commissioners that kept the Big East in the BCS for now. Starkey feels that having Tranghese at the helm is a good thing for the future as well. I’m not so optimistic. Unless the Big East has a big turnaround in the next 2 years, we will either find ourselves sharing the bid with the MWC or on the outside. The money will only be bigger and the pressure on the other conferences greater.

Finally, we have a Bob Smizik column to state the obvious: Pitt needs to get the hire of its next coach right. Wow. That’s insight. To be fair, he does make a point I totally agree: the next head coach does not need to be one with a lot of Pitt connections.

I recall the hand-wringing and insane desire to find a Pitt basketball coach with Pitt or Pittsburgh roots after Howland left for UCLA in basketball. This led to a very poorly executed search that really only interviewed Skip Prosser and Jamie Dixon. After a very public pursuit of Prosser, Prosser stayed at Wake Forest and Pitt looked stupid and like it was forced to “settle” on Jamie Dixon. They never even interviewed Bobby Gonzalez of Manhattan, and the only other names raised were other coaches with Pittsburgh roots — John”one-step-ahead-of-the-NCAA” Calipari and Herb Sendek. All because Pitt had a good coach and he left.

It happens. If it isn’t for a bigger college job. Then, eventually the pros start sniffing about. Butch Davis left Miami for the Browns. Oklahoma and LSU are sweating every year that this could be the time that Stoops and Saban will go to the NFL. That’s just the way it is. If Pitt hires a guy and a bigger program or the pros come sniffing around, then the positive is that means Pitt is doing well. Continuity is nice, but I prefer winning.

Smizik has a partial list of candidates with their pros and cons. I’m going to try to get a list of my own out later.

Just a couple articles to pass along.

This one from last year about coaching compensation after being fired. Why bring it up? Oh, no reason.

You think Pitt fans were the only ones in shock about “the slide?” Not even close. From Manchester, Connecticut comes one of the better pieces that pretty much nails what the play meant.

If you’ve watched football for 50 or so years, maybe you’ve seen a worse play call. Then again, maybe not.

If it had been a bang-bang, sliding play at second base, Pittsburgh’s quarterback Tyler Palko would have been ruled safe. Because it wasn’t, he was ruled down on Connecticut’s 13-yard line, which brought up – are you ready for some real football? – fourth down and goal. That’s right. On third and goal from UConn’s 12, after a timeout during which the critical call no doubt was discussed on the sidelines, Pittsburgh and head coach Walt Harris ordered their QB to slide right for a better angle on an ensuing field goal attempt.

Can’t you just hear the Panthers on the bench screaming, “Slide, Tyler, slide”?

They didn’t exactly raise a white flag, not on the spot anyway. But from that moment on, or before anyone could say, “No guts, no glory,” UConn took firm control of its first Big East game en route to a 29-17 victory over one of the country’s more well-established programs…

Let’s go back to the play that changed the game. Coaches will argue, of course. You know the drill. Football is a 60-minute game and players must execute on every down or pay the price. The game is founded on structure, discipline, and most any other word you’ve ever seen written on a locker room wall. But sometimes, one call can change a game and this one unquestionably did.
…
Through all the years, a lot of premier Panthers have called a lot of plays, but until Thursday night, “Slide right” probably wasn’t among them.

By tipping his hand, Harris handed the game to UConn, which was smart enough and good enough to take it.

One call changed everything.

One call that will be Harris’ epitaph on his Pitt coaching tenure.

The hot seat. That which Coach Harris firmly is sitting upon. Yet there is really nothing about it in the national media. That’s depressing. That means, that Pitt, for all the climbing back into respectability has very quickly slipped below the radar. Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni’s own precarious position is really the only hot seat in the Big East, and this despite being one of only two games this past Thursday.

Even Joe Bendel in his ESPN.com inside the Big East doesn’t actually put Harris on the hot seat — he just notes that he his being killed in Pittsburgh radio.

The point of contention centered around Harris’ decision to have quarterback Tyler Palko slide for field position on third-and-goal from the UConn 12 with 57 seconds remaining in the first half, instead of taking a shot at a touchdown. Palko said he would have preferred to have gone for a score, but added he didn’t want to question his coach or he’d get benched. Harris, whose team (2-2, 0-1 Big East) plays at Temple (1-4, 0-0) on Saturday, responded to the sophomore signal-caller’s comments.

“I think that’s probably a comment that if asked, he’d probably like to have it back,” Harris said. Harris should have taken a shot at the end zone. Palko is his biggest recruit in years and his players needed a jolt of confidence. The decision not to go for it gave the impression that he’d rather retreat — to a fledgling conference member, no less — rather than attack.

The Pitt defense, thought to be the strength of the team, faltered against the Huskies. It yielded 185 yards to tailback Cornell Brockington and failed to record a sack. A week earlier, Furman nearly upset Pitt by amassing 423 yards and 38 points before losing in overtime. Temple might provide a short-term elixir, but that’s not even guaranteed. Owls quarterback Walter Washington threw for 278 yards in the Panthers’ closer-than-expected 30-16 victory last season at Lincoln Financial Field. “We’re learning,” linebacker Clint Session said. In 2003, Pitt’s defense was the primary reason for a late-season free-fall and a disappointing 8-5 record, which turned the critics against Harris.

Palko is emerging as Pitt’s only true offensive threat, particularly since the running game has been held to less than 100 yards the past three outings. He’s thrown for a combined 647 yards the past two games and led the Panthers with 49 rushing yards against the Huskies. Problem is, Palko is running for his life every time he drops back to pass. The offensive line got dominated by UConn, which recorded four sacks, and is proving to be a severe weakness. Harris says the road to a national championship is paved by a great offensive lineman, yet he’s had only one lineman drafted in eight years. By the way, that player wasn’t taken until the seventh round.

Pitt better be drawing up their list to move fast after the season. Theadministration will need a new coach, and they better not be overestimating their attractiveness right now.

By the way, the video of Walt Harris’ press conference is still not available on the site.

I really want to see video of the press conference. No reason they shouldn’t put it up on the site. The press conference gets shown on Fox Sports Pittsburgh at 1 pm today. Of course, for those of us who live outside of the region, that doesn’t help. Why do I mention it so soon? Well, today the stories really started, and there is no question that the press conference got tense at points. The media had lots of questions:

Pitt coach Walt Harris was hoping to look ahead to the Panthers’ next opponent yesterday when he sat down with members of the media for his weekly news conference.

Instead of discussing Temple, however, he spent much of the time explaining and defending his play calls from the Panthers’ 29-17 loss to Connecticut Thursday. He also spoke at length about some of the Panthers’ deficiencies and how they were magnified against the Huskies.
…
Harris continued to be grilled about his decisions and his relationship with his players until it was stopped by Pitt sports information director E.J. Borghetti, who said the subject had run its course and that it was time to discuss the Pitt-Temple game.

In the line of questions, there were plenty about whether he was losing the team — not reaching them any longer, not being respected. Apparently there was some wondering about what he thought of what Palko (accurately and truthfully) said.

Palko said he would have preferred to have gone for a score.

“You would like to go for it, but he’s the guy that makes the play-calls,” Palko said of Harris, moments after the game. “Heck, I’m not going to question his calls. If I do, I’d find my tail on the bench.”

Harris, whose team (2-2, 0-1 Big East) plays at Temple (1-4, 0-0) on Saturday, responded yesterday to the sophomore signal-caller’s comments.

“I think that’s probably a comment that, if asked, he’d probably like to have it back,” Harris said. “He’s a coach’s son, and I think that had something to do with it. And I think in the heat of the battle and just getting done with a hard-fought game, you know, I’m sure that was a little bit of frustration.”

Asked if Palko tried to talk him into a different play during a timeout, Harris said, “No, he didn’t.” Then, without prompting, Harris offered an explanation for the third-and-goal call.

“I’ll explain it to you, if you guys are interested in it — after the fact,” he said. “We turned the ball over down there early … We hadn’t played very well offensively. We had third-and-12 from the 12, which, to me, is not a great situation to be in.

“We’ve had trouble getting open at wide receiver and protecting the passer. We have a good field-goal kicker, and I thought going in at halftime, 10-10, considering the way that we played and the hostile atmosphere, I thought it was probably a pretty good deal.”

You know, all of that seems almost rational and defensible, except for some key flaws: that would require Coach Harris to make halftime adjustments and the O-line would have to play better. Since those are few and far between events (and I’m not sure if both have ever happened in the same game), that really does no good. It’s also amusingly noted that the women’s basketball coach “attended the conference to support her colleague.” Bringing out the big guns for support.

As predicted here, there is a list of blunders piece of Harris’ best coaching gaffes of the last 4 years. The ever creative Ron Cook is all over it. Yet somehow, he manages to leave the whole 2001 spread offense experiment out of the piece. No list of mistakes is complete without that.

The notebooks try to look ahead. Well, Paul Zeise leads with the struggling O-line:

It could be a long week of practice for Pitt’s offensive linemen.

The line, which has had its ups and downs over the past two years, is back in the line of fire, only this time the criticism is coming from Pitt coach Walt Harris.

Harris said the line wasn’t the only unit responsible for the Panthers’ lack of pass protection and run-blocking in their 29-17 loss to Connecticut, but it should shoulder most of the blame.

Yes. Yes it should. Former QB and TE and now WR, freshman Darrell Strong, is still not ready enough to play according to Harris. This, despite his height (6′ 5″) and natural ability. If he doesn’t get in the game this weekend, they should go ahead and redshirt him rather than waste him for a year. Oh, wait, they did use him in the Nebraska game. I guess he regressed.

On subject of wasting the year, Freshman RB Brandon Mason is expected to play more behind Kirkley. Mason was hurt in training camp, but his thumb is apparently all healed. It looks like Harris wants to use Mason more, and Kirkley will see his carries drop further.

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.