Well, the Walt Harris press conference selected transcript is up. Fairly interesting in that read-between-the-lines kind of way. Especially the comments after the question about the way the team has grown this year. It was about as close as Coach Harris could come to calling out the media for questioning his judgment and decisions.

For the last few days I’ve been mentioning how important this USF game should be for Pitt. And how important it should be to Coach Harris, after the 2001 debacle. Looks like Harris isn’t shying away from that.

What do the past events of the weekend mean to you and your team?

“I don’t think we’ve talked much about that stuff yet until we’re done honestly. Maybe I’m not smart or maybe I just like to do it step by step. I don’t really want to talk about all that stuff. I want our players to focus on what we have to do to get it done against South Florida. I think if we start pumping ourselves up, I think we’ll get our eye off the bull’s-eye. It’s not that I don’t trust our players; I think it’s a natural tendency when some good things have happened to start feeling too good. We don’t want to put too much air up our dresses so to speak. (Laughs) Let’s just focus on South Florida. Obviously, it’s a big game for our team and it’s a big game for our seniors. It’s a big game for all those who were here in 2001. It’s a big game and it’s on the road against a team that would like nothing more than to spoil our opportunity that we have built for ourselves in the past ten games.”

Will you use the 2001 South Florida game as motivation?

“Yes, I talked to our team yesterday and we spoke a little bit about that. Quite honestly, they were one of the better teams that we have played here. They were really good. They had a lot of good football players and they had a lot of Division I-A bounce backs and a lot of non-qualifiers; they had some guys that could play. Their quarterback played outstanding in that game and we beat ourselves a bit. A lot of our players weren’t there except for most of the seniors and juniors and of course the coaches.”

Just what I hoped to read.

Harris’ opening statement gave a lot of the credit to individual players. In fact he didn’t take much personal credit for the game. He did give the defense as a whole credit but I still found this interesting, “I thought our defense played their best game this year, maybe their best game in a couple of years.” Now I’m not disagreeing with that, but in the subtext of it, you have to wonder if he was really tired of having to pretend the defense was simply just a couple blown assignments and some missed tackles. Not just a group that has not played well at all. Something that goes back to the coach, especially Defensive Coordinator Paul Rhoads.

Coach Harris was also on ESPNRadio for Gamenight. You can here the interview here (I hope. If not, got the Pitt page and you will find an audio link.). He apparently has a past with Utah Coach Urban Meyer. He wouldn’t speculate much beyond USF. As for the Big East in the BCS, he makes the dubious claim that the Big East has been highly competitive as indicated by the logjam at the top. Not the greatest defenses.

By the way, according to the newest BCS Rankings, Pitt is now #23.

Well, another week of patsy basketball games in the books and more moving up in the rankings. Up one spot to #14 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, and a whopping three spots to #13 in the AP Writers Poll. All for beating the snot out of Robert Morris and Loyola-MD. This week, St. Francis-PA (Wednesday, Dec. 1) and Duquesne (Saturday, Dec. 4). That leads up to the first big challenge, Memphis on Tuesday, December 7 at MSG.

On the bright side, Pitt has used the weak foes to find out which players will be starters or earn big minutes off the bench. Even Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News seems to approve of that:

Pittsburgh was using its soft early schedule to discover which players would best fit as replacements for SG Julius Page and SF Jaron Brown. “You don’t replace seven years of starting experience in 25 practices,” coach Jamie Dixon says.

Though he’s just 6-1, freshman Ronald Ramon has been starting at shooting guard. He’s the team’s best long-range shooter, and his skills complement junior playmaker Carl Krauser. Senior wing Yuri Demetris also has been starting. He played little before this season but is the type of player who can scrape up several extra possessions by diving for loose balls and picking up stray rebounds. The key is whether he’ll maintain his confidence on offense; Demetris frequently passed up open shots last season but was 4-of-8 on 3-point attempts in Pitt‘s first three victories. The Panthers also will use Antonio Graves and junior college recruit John DeGroat on the wing. . . .

The other good thing has been giving the set starters (Krauser, Taft and Troutman) lots of rest in these games. The better to save them until they are needed to do more. The same column noted that ND has been having trouble giving some of its key starters much of a rest because of tougher than expected games from predicted cupcakes.

The Post-Gazette has a puff piece on Senior Guard Yuri Demetrius who, early in the season, has been a defensive spark plug. Though, he has suddenly seemed to have a bit of a scoring touch this season.

Like most right thinking Americans, I abhor the BCS system and await the day when a playoff system is implemented in College Football.

Today, the sports commentators attack the BCS and to some degree Pitt.

First, though, a little love to some of our regular commentators. Guys like JFC who having long abandoned his own brief attempts at blogging, is a reliable commentator and staunch defender of partying in Arizona — and as Lee said, e-mail us with your insider view on why Pitt fans should make the trip to Tempe (as that appears more and more to be Pitt’s destination) for the Fiesta Bowl. Another regular contributor (more commonly during b-ball season), B.B. who made a smart observation that most sports commentators happily forget:

Isn’t it true that prior to the BCS, the major bowls picked from conference tie-ins, so under that system Pitt would likely be headed to the Orange bowl this year (that’s not a rhetorical question, but I think its true)? So why all the fuss about them getting in this year? I don’t think the BCS was ever designed to pick the top 8 teams, I thought it was designed to pick the top 2 teams to avoid a Nebraska, PSU type situation like back in the day (seem like forever ago). I’m sure the power’s the be would never have created the BCS if they thought there was a chance that their conference would be left out.

The BCS was all about the 2 best teams playing each other. The other bowls in the BCS mix ponied up the huge cash just to be in the rotation to host the big battle at the end. The rest of the BCS bowls are there to reward (give big paychecks to) the best of the big conferences and/or the best teams. Even without VT and Miami and before Louisville in the Big East, looking back and forward, which of these 3 conferences would you expect to be consistently better: Big East, C-USA or Mountain West?

Anyways, the national sports media is having its fun. Dennis Dodd at Sportsline gives the typical blast.

Only the Sun Belt, among I-A’s 11 conferences, has performed worse than the Big East this year. The Sun Belt’s top two teams (North Texas and Troy) each had four losses. BC, West Virginia and Pittsburgh each have three losses. Syracuse has five. Fledgling I-A member Connecticut (7-4, 3-3) actually finished with a better overall record than Syracuse, beat Pittsburgh and finished a game behind the mediocre logjam.

Going forward, the outrage shouldn’t be directed at any mid-majors that get to BCS bowls. Like Utah, they will have to achieve a certain amount of excellence to qualify. The Big East’s only qualification is that it knows the right people.

The commissioners cut the Big East a break allowing it to keep its automatic bid through the 2005 season. After that, all bets are off. In fact, the Big East’s status is one of the touchiest subjects among the commissioners now that the new TV deals have been signed.

It’s clear that even with newcomers Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida replacing Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College, the Big East is a notch below the other five major conferences. For example, what’s to differentiate that lineup from, say, the Mountain West?

Dodd conveniently ignores that ND essentially shares the Big East BCS bid, and is he prepared to throw them out too? Sure. Right.

Or this piece complaining from CollegeFootballNews.com/Fox Sports. Thow even here, they had to give some props to Pitt:
The best moment was the pure joy on the Pittsburgh sideline after beating West Virginia. With the turmoil the program has gone through and the rumors of Walt Harris being on double-secret probation, Tyler Palko and the rest of the Panthers came through when they had to and are now a win away from the BCS.

Matt Hayes at the Sporting News/Fox Sports places the blame on TV money and greed, not Pitt. Of course two weeks ago he had been calling for the Big East to have its automatic BCS bid ripped away (after previously saying the Big East should be happy with the current situation). Matt, baby, you’re one of my favorite college football columnists, but a little consistency, please.

In a shock to Lee, Trev Alberts is no longer blaming Pitt and the Big East for the BCS issues — as much as he despises the outcome.

The real loser is Utah. The Utes have struggled all year to gain some legitimacy but are now in line to play the Big East champ in the BCS, which puts them in a no-win situation. They will be expected to beat Syracuse or Pittsburgh by 25 points, and a loss would brand Utah a fraud. What’s good about that?

That said, don’t blame the Big East for this mess. Neither commissioner Mike Tranghese nor anyone else should be held accountable for the two best teams in the league deciding to leave. The Big East might not be deserving of that automatic bid, but it’s not the fault of Tranghese or the teams still there.

The system is what it is. And in one of the only columns that echoed B.B.’s comments you have John Walters at SI.com:

The ABC, CBS and ESPN announcers (as well as many a sportswriter) like to use the example of B.C. (before the Eagles lost to Syracuse) and now Pittsburgh or Syracuse playing in the Fiesta Bowl as proof that the system has failed us. Um, no it hasn’t. If Pitt were playing in the Orange Bowl this year, then yes, it would have failed us. But as long as we can be assured that arguably the two best teams throughout the season are facing one another for the national championship (Read that again — that’s a promise that NCAA basketball cannot make), then how has it failed us?

Because, after the Orange, all of the other bowls are just bowl games. From a fan’s perspective, the three other bowls have no more relevance than the Insight.com Bowl or the Humanitarian Bowl.

When it comes time to discriminate between which of the 573 bowl games I’ll watch, I choose the most compelling matchups. I don’t care if a bowl has the BCS stamp of approval on it. Case in point: I attended the Cal-Virginia Tech Insight.com Bowl in Phoenix last December. It was a lot more exciting than the Kansas State-Ohio State contest played a week later in the Valley of the Sun.

I’m not going to apologize for Pitt getting a BCS bowl/big money payout. Any more than I heard Oklahoma fans apologizing last year, Kansas State fans for getting a BCS bid last year, or any other program that didn’t “deserve” to go.

Here’s a random thought to toss out there regarding the future of the BCS.

ABC will no longer have the BCS games (except for the Rose Bowl) in a few years. Starting in 2007 it will be on Fox. ABC has been a staunch defender of the BCS. ABC and ESPN are part of the same company, and while individual commentators and personalities at ESPN have blasted the BCS, they have also essentially toed the line and not really gone hard after the system (ask an Ohio State fan about the difference).

Arguably it wasn’t in ESPN’s corporate interests to do so. Without the business concerns constraining them, and in fact it now works to their business interests, they might really try to take down the BCS. ESPN is the 800 pound gorilla of the American sports world. Plain and simple, there is no other entity that can drive and direct sports news and interest like ESPN and its power broker — Sports Center (hockey, arguably, being the exception to prove the rule).

Time to look to the game on Saturday. One of the best things I’ve read, is that the Pitt players are looking to keep their foot on the gas. Regardless of whether they need to or not.

Pitt (7-3) needs to beat the South Florida Bulls (4-6) Saturday and it will win the tiebreaker for the Big East championship and head to either the Sugar or Fiesta Bowls. There is a backdoor into the BCS party, however, as Pitt likely can still earn the berth with a loss.

Under that scenario, the Panthers’ fate would rest with pollsters and computers.
According to Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko, the Panthers aren’t interested in allowing others to determine their fate. They’ve been down that road before and didn’t like it.

“It is all in our hands now, we are back to where we were at the beginning of the season, it is all on us,” Palko said. “We need to have a great week of practice and guard against any kind of letdown. We hate to lose and we’ve played those what-if cards too many other times this year, you know, sort of hoping on someone else. We didn’t take care of business and had to put our hope in Syracuse.

“We need to take care of this business. We’re not going to hold anything back. This is going to be an intense week. We don’t want to have to rely on anyone else, we don’t want to have to wait around to figure it out, we want to know, we want to do it ourselves, for ourselves. That’s the way it has to be.”

Interestingly, Kicker Josh “Sunshine” Cummings has been to a BCS bowl before when he was still with Oregon.

During the week, I want to read stuff about how seniors like Petitti, Crochunis and others still remember that loss to the Bulls in 2001. Maybe even some recollection of the humiliation of losing at home and being booed by their own fans. More to fire them up. Remind the other players of how important it is to win this game.

With being ranked this week, it’s the first time in about a year since Pitt was in the top 25. Seems longer.

Joe Bendel has a good piece about the criticism of Pitt being BCS bound.

Some might say it is unfair that a 7- or 8-win team gets the lucrative berth. Others, though, could argue that Tranghese is a savvy commissioner, considering he retained the league’s BCS affiliation even after the defections of powers Miami and Virginia Tech to the Atlantic Coast Conference this past year.

For Pitt’s part, it took advantage of a situation that will earn the athletic department up to $4.5 million when all the bowl money in the Big East is distributed. The BCS tie-in sends up to $17 million into league coffers, which is then distributed among league members.
…
Truth be told, Pitt cannot control how the conference is viewed, but it could certainly improve appearances by winning at South Florida (4-6). By doing so, the Panthers could climb into the mid-teens of the Top 25 poll. The Panthers will have won 6 of their last 7 games going into the BCS game if they defeat South Florida, with three of those victories coming against Boston College, West Virginia and the Irish. The latter two were ranked when facing the Panthers.

Pitt could enter its BCS game the way LSU did in 2001. The Tigers were ranked 13th and had three losses, but they upset then-No. 2 Tennessee to gain the SEC’s BCS berth, then went out and beat Illinois, 47-34, in the Sugar Bowl.

Let’s face it, winning trumps most criticisms.

Meanwhile, down in Florida…

They are saying the game is not important anymore for any reason. Apparently they are a little bummed with how the Bulls have performed this year, but especially down the stretch.

This is a column about the University of South Florida’s football game Saturday against Memphis. If you have followed the Bulls throughout this forgettable season you know what’s coming next, but please bear with us.

The Bulls were beaten 31-15 by the Tigers, although it seemed more one-sided than that. Memphis, a superior team anyway, was helped along its merry way by USF’s own maleficence – just like the Bulls have done too many other times against too many other teams. That’s how you trudge off the field with a 4-6 record and the promise of only the second losing season in eight years of USF footBull.

There were the usual missed tackles, dropped passes, mediocre quarterbacking, a missed field- goal try. There was the failure, failure, failure – three times – to convert on fourth down. There was some joy in the gloom and props to USF running back Andre Hall, who gained 134 yards. But give bigger props to Memphis tailback DeAngelo Williams, who ran for 263 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

You already know this, but we have to say it anyway.

“We’re just not playing very well,” Bulls coach Jim Leavitt said.

We won’t argue with that.

And to top it off, they have their annual concern that they could lose their head coach. There may be interest in Leavitt from Illinois this year. I have to admit, after reading this portion of his post-game press-conference, I kind of like Leavitt. A bit caustic, but funny.

Nothing up on the South Florida Athletics site. Nor at a fan site.

Looking at some of the numbers for USF, offensively they bare a bit of similarity to WVU on offense, in that they run the spread offense but are very much a running team. They have the 24th ranked rushing offense, but are a bad 106th passing. There is only a little more than 30 yards difference between their average yards per game passing versus running. They have the 9th leading rusher in the country in Andre Hall. Looks like Pitt should expect to be putting 8 or 9 in the box again. Their defense is not that good. Only 83rd against the pass and 68th against the run.

For Pitt, the WVU game actually made the defense look statistically better against the pass. Moving them up, 11 spots from 109th to 98th on pass defense.

You have to expect Pitt to put the ball in the air a good amount of time early to try and salt the game away quickly. Greg Lee could have another big game (he only needs 7 yards to retake the Big East lead in total receiving yards for the season).