Pitt released some more quotes that you can expect to show up in Friday’s articles. Comments from Greg Lee, H.B. Blades, Kellen Campbell and Josh Cummings. Nothing that spectacular.

One more prognostication via an ESPN.com chat with Todd McShay — another member of ScoutsInc.:

Todd McShay: Alright, before I take off here’s my breakdown of the USC/OSU national championship Orange Bowl. WIth both defenses ranking in the top-5 in the nation versus the run I think it comes down to QB play. I know White has more weapons at WR, but Leinart has more versatility with Bush, Smith, Jarrett, Holmes and Byrd to throw to. I also think that Chow and Carroll will out-coach Stoops & Co. just like Saban did in the Sugar Bowl last year.

Other BCS bowl game predictions:

Michigan in an upset over Texas

Pitt keeps it a lot closer than the “experts” think but lose to Utah in the Fiesta

Auburn in a “woodshed beating” over Va. Tech in the Sugar Bowl.

For what it’s worth.

So Neuheisel can’t even get a sniff for a job. Can’t say I’m surprised. The other “tarnished” coaches cited in the story — George O’Leary and Mike Price — committed sins of personal failings. Neuheisel’s sins impact a program. Here’s what I have said of Neuheisel:

Of course, when talking of compliance and NCAA violations, there is no one that knows it better than the man that leaves a trail of slime wherever he goes, a man who causes other attorneys (like myself) to say about him, “sure he went to law school, but he’s not really a lawyer. He’s not one of us.” I’m speaking of course of Rick Neuheisel.
…
It’s consistent with Neuheisel’s violations of recruiting and ethics at Colorado and Washington. Skate up to the razor’s edge of the line, and maybe fall over it just a little, but not so much that it can’t be argued that there was a gray area — thus precluding major penalties, only continual paper cut, minor ones.

I’ve always thought that was in part because of Neuheisel taking the wrong lessons from law school (the majority of it is because Neuheisel is a slimy, corrupt, and doesn’t think the rules apply to him kind of guy) — the line can be blurry and as long as you don’t go over a clear line, you can wriggle free.

Any school that would take a chance on him, even as a coordinator, would be inviting the NCAA to put the entire program under an ongoing microscope. Not many ADs prepared to take that chance.

I’m starting to wonder if that is Bo Pelini’s problem. He can recruit. He has the backing of Bob Stoops. It seems he has the backing of another big college coach.

The rumor mill worked overtime around USC’s hotel Wednesday. The subject: that offensive coordinator Norm Chow would become Syracuse’s next head coach. But a far more likely choice is Oklahoma co-defensive coordinator Bo Pelini, according to sources.

Pelini is a close friend and protege of USC coach Pete Carroll, who in the past year has pushed Pelini for several jobs, including Nebraska and Pittsburgh. Carroll also has recommended Pelini for the Syracuse job, sources said.

Everyone thinks he will make a great head coach. Yet, he apparently tanked his Pitt interview so that he wasn’t a finalist even though the AD had him tabbed early in the season. Maybe a similar thing at Nebraska last year.

Won’t that be something if he gets the Syracuse job?

As I write this, I’m psyching myself up for the trip to the Fiesta Bowl by listening to some classic Public Enemy.

[It reminds me of the late ’80’s in the towers, when the guy in the pie-shaped room next door to me was a devotee of all things anti-whitey, includinig my favorite rap group, PE. He used to play recordings of Farakhan’s speeches, and almost never spoke to anyone on the floor – including the black guys. I suspect he was too black, AND too strong.]

I fly out to Phoenix (via Detroit and Milwaukee) on New Year’s Eve.

To prepare myself for next couple of nights in Tempe–Scottsdale–Phoenix, I’ve done some internet research about the area. I’m meeting up with an assistantMaricopa County Attorney (prosecutor – like the District Attorney in PA), which is good since I don’t want to end up in the tent-city jail system imposed by America’s toughest Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, if things get out of hand. It’s always good to party with law enforcement in a strange city. 911? A joke?

As an aside, I’m pleased to see such a growing county has several county-wide elected officials, or “row officers” as we call them in PA. In Maricopa, they elect the County Attorney, Sheriff, Assessor, Clerk of Courts, Recorder, Treasurer, as well as a county Superintendent of Schools, 23 Constables, and 5 members of the Board of Supervisors (elected by-district). And yet, with all these elected officials, their population grew by 50% between 1990 and 200. Mabye those who advocated row-office consolidation in Allegheny County should check that out!

It seems there is an active night-life in the area, as well as activities associated with the game itself. I will do my best to document our activites and report back, and I will Bring the Noise in Sun Devil Stadium. For those who will watch on TV, remember to Give It Up for the Panthers.

No, I Don’t Believe the Hype about Utah; I believe Pitt will Fight the Power, Shut Em Down; and refuse to lose!

Yes, I am BOLDLY predicting a Pitt victory on Saturday.

Signing off now. Going, going, GONE…

A few articles I found late or forgot to include where appropriate.

First person with H.B. Blades talking about being in Tempe. Click the article just for the photo. The cheap, and possibly crude comments that come to mind…

A bit more on Utah QB Alex Smith on his development and what how his departing coach is starting to hint that Smith shouldn’t go pro.

A piece from the Arizona Republic questioning the Big East in the BCS.

Both teams are expected to be rusty, but Utah has to be especially concerned. They haven’t played since November 20. That’s a 6 week layoff. Pitt had a month, break since walloping USF — yet another break from the postponement of the season opener. The players say they aren’t worried, but considering the precision with which their offense operates, it is hard to believe the coaches aren’t concerned. The players at least admit that they are tired of just practicing. They want to play.

Brent Musberger thinks Pitt will be tough, of course he is also trying to help get interest/ratings for ABC, so take that for what it is worth. Should be a lot of fun to watch the game with Lee with his favorite announcer calling the game.

After all the exuberance and borderline overconfidence from the paper, you are seeing the Salt Lake Tribune writers starting to hedge a bit on how the game will go. Some other writers are still a bit cocky about what they expect.

A “5 Keys to Victory” pair for Pitt and Utah. The first and last on the list for Pitt shows how little each side’s writers know about the other. Point 1, ignores the reality that Pitt will give up a ton of yards no matter what. It is just a given. The final point regarding turnovers seems clueless that outside of the early games, Pitt just doesn’t turn the ball over too much.

That huge turnout from Utah fans may not be as big as expected.

Though tickets to the New Year’s Day event are hot items, three days before kickoff they’re easier to obtain than get rid of in some cases — despite University of Utah faithful coming out in full force, gobbling up 27,000 of the 73,000 Sun Devil Stadium seats and making some ticket sales staff put in 142 hours in eight days to keep up.

Factors that caused the rush to return: Some fans simply got too many — or “freaked out” and bought a bundle without thinking who’d actually go, said Erica Monson of the U. of U. ticket office. A few hoped to cash in, then realized that idea was a “fantasy” because supply exceeded demand, admitted one fan who did that.

Others didn’t arrange their travel plans very wisely. Some realized the whole ordeal was out of their budget. And several have resorted to saying they have a note from their doctor in an effort to ditch their ducats, including a man who claimed he couldn’t go because his wife was suffering pregnancy complications.

“We’ve gotten a lot of medical excuses,” Monson said.

The most unfortunate one?

“A brain tumor,” she said. “I got that (excuse) yesterday.”

The woman, for the record, did receive a refund — “I wasn’t going to call them on that (and say), ‘You’re lying,’ ” Monson said — but that was the rare exception. The U. stopped doing returns/exchanges last week. It’ll stop selling today at noon.
…
Ticket brokers from Macon, Ga., to North Chelmsford, Mass., might end up with the same memento (minus the trip memories). A Google search for Utah Fiesta Bowl tickets revealed 175,000 online sites and as of Wednesday, 37 sets of tickets were up for grabs on eBay but only three had actually received bids. The cheapest was one buck (the catch: $20 shipping and handling) — a steal compared to the $2,000 asking price in one newspaper ad. Prospective buyers needn’t hurry for another auction, which doesn’t end until 5:18 p.m. Wednesday — four days after kickoff.

Hey, you can always bid afterwards for the souvenir aspect.

Then there is the fact that road conditions might be a problem for a lot of fans heading to Arizona.

Storms in southern Utah and northern Arizona are expected to subside a bit Thursday before picking up again Friday when there is a 60 percent chance of rain and snow on southbound travel routes. Today would be the best day to travel, said Gene Vancor of the National Weather Service office in Salt Lake City.

Have fun in Tempe, Pat.

Utah is definitely making money from the Fiesta Bowl.

One of the media’s major storylines for this game, is definitely on the coaches, no matter how they try to say it’s about the players. They knew of each other before, but wouldn’t talk about offense until this game:

Meyer and Harris clearly agree on that point, but the two haven’t always worked in harmony. It was only a few years ago that Harris refused to assist Meyer after the latter was named quarterbacks coach at Notre Dame.
…
“I had great respect for Walt, and I had heard him speak at a couple of clinics over the years,” Meyer said. “His reputation around the coaching fraternity is that he’s the guy as far as technically coaching quarterbacks. I did what people typically do, and I went to the best. I called him and I said, ‘Do you mind if I spend a couple days with you.’ ”

Meyer didn’t get the answer he’d wanted.

“He said we play each other, so it’s probably in my best interests if we don’t do that,” Meyer said of Harris, who’s been instrumental in developing quarterbacks such as Tony Eason, Bobby Hoying, Rod Rutherford, Joe Germaine, Boomer Esiason and current Panthers starter Tyler Palko. “So, he declined it.”

Harris was asked to explain himself yesterday.

“It wasn’t quite like I said, ‘Go get lost,’ ” Harris said. “I just said that it would be very hard when we’re playing you — and he had better players than we did. I felt that was enough of an advantage for him. But I respect what he’s accomplished and he’s done it a lot faster than me as a head coach.”

Although Meyer has yet to pick Harris’ brain — five years after the fact — he still hopes to get a 10-minute sit down with the Stanford-bound coach to learn more about grooming quarterbacks. This time, Harris will oblige.

“I’ll give him 10,” Harris said. “I’ve always learned to give 10 and get 90. That’s the old Coach (Johnny) Majors-ism. When you talk to other coaches, give 10 percent and get 90 percent. I’d love to talk to him about what they’re doing.”

There are some really tasteless comments I could make here regarding Major-isms that I’m going to skip. A pretty good piece on Harris developing QBs. It practically came out of nowhere since he was a coach for defenses until hired to the Illinois staff in 1980 as the QB coach.

Then there is the fact that Utah’s Defensive Coordinator, Kyle Whittingham, is taking over the program from Meyer after he leaves for Florida. He turned down the job at his alma mater (BYU) to stay. Interesting to learn that he was actually the only holdover from the previous coaching regime, and was up for the head job before Meyer was hired (is Paul Rhoads paying attention?).

A surprisingly preachy column from Joe Starkey about student athletes and education. Part defending both programs which have been attacked for being deficient in graduating football players according the latest NCAA figures from 97-98. The problems with those numbers are well documented, so look at some more recent unofficial numbers

Under departing coach Urban Meyer, the Utes said they graduated 11 of 18 seniors last season (though their media guide says 14 of 15), and have 14 of their 18 seniors this season on track to graduate by the spring.

Pittsburgh? Same thing. Eighteen of 19 seniors graduated last season under coach Walt Harris – the lone holdout is playing in the NFL – and each of the current crop is on pace to earn a degree.

“I value our education so much, and graduating our football players,” Harris said. “I don’t think you have a football program if you’re not graduating players.”

Today’s repeated profile story focuses on Senior Utah guard Chris Kemoeatu, who has some anger issues.

With one swift and vicious kick, Utah guard Chris Kemoeatu damaged his college football career and nearly ruined someone else’s.

The incident occurred Oct. 18, 2003, at UNLV’s Sam Boyd Stadium, after UNLV nose guard Howie Fuimaono lost his helmet at the end of a play.

Before Fuimaono could get up, Kemoeatu kicked him flush in the face.

Fuimaono escaped with blurred vision and a brief visit to the hospital, only because Kemoeatu’s cleats landed just inside his left eye socket instead of on the eye itself or the bones surrounding it.

Kemoeatu was suspended for all of one game for that. He was also ordered to attend anger management classes that he said did nothing for him. To be fair, he hasn’t had an incident since. And lets face it, Kemoeatu is an All-American player and potential first round pick in the NFL draft. You hate to have him not playing for your team. Of course this comment in response to going to the NFL just has to make the Andy Katzenmoyer Academic Achievement list:

“I hope so,” Kemoeatu said. “Football is all I know.”

So much for progress in the academics at Utah.

Tons of stories today. Kind of expected as yesterday was media day. That allowed the sportswriters to collect quotes to sprinkle into articles they had been writing or already written. The result is that I’ll have to do about 3 posts to cover everything.

Let’s start with a Smizik column declaring when the turning point for the Pitt season came:

Many people, including some of the Pitt players, will tell you it was the Temple comeback, after which the Panthers won five of their final six. Other players say it was no one thing but rather the maturation of an inexperienced team.

Here’s my vote:

The Hit!

There have been more ferocious hits during Pitt’s season but few with the implications of this one.

The Hit took place a week after the win against Temple. It came when the Panthers were in the midst of a lethargic performance against Boston College, a game in which there was scant indication the team, particularly its offense, had turned anything around.

On a first-and-10, late in the third quarter with Pitt ahead by four, quarterback Tyler Palko — who threw for 16 yards in the first half — scrambled out of the pocket and down the sideline. He was in the sights of Boston College cornerback Pete Shean. Most quarterbacks would have stepped out of bounds. Not Palko. He steamrollered Shean, who ended up on his back minus his helmet.

And so a season was made. And so a quarterback was made. Neither Pitt nor Palko were the same again.

Well, this was a big play. No doubt. All the fans and I’m sure the players loved it. It will be on his Pitt highlight reel, forever. It’s part of why Palko is a team leader. By example. It did not change the season, though. Or even the game. In fact, though, that drive resulted in 1st and goal, Pitt had to settle for a fieldgoal. Reveiw what happened: Pitt’s defense then gave up a long drive that led to a goalline stand for nothing, but Pitt then went 3 and out. Despite a massive punt (79 yards), BC then marched right down the field to tie the game and send it to OT. Pitt won, but it was not a game or season changing moment.

The players were right, this was a team that slowly improved all season. There were missteps and setbacks, but it was a progression. There was no “leap” or point where things really changed.

The smarter view actually came from a Utah columnist in his puff piece on Palko:

His Pittsburgh teammates love to talk about the play when he ran over a Boston College defensive back, knocking off the opponent’s helmet. And even Palko’s use of a particularly bad word in a live television interview after the Panthers’ victory at Notre Dame – for which Palko quickly apologized – impressed Utah quarterback Alex Smith.
…
Scrambling along the sideline during the third quarter of an eventual overtime victory, Palko plowed into cornerback Pete Shean.

“He just crushed him,” Pittsburgh offensive tackle Rob Petitti said this week. “The best thing was it was right on our sideline, so there were about 30 players surrounding this one kid. . . . [Palko] got everybody going. It was unbelievable.”

Tom Freeman, the Panthers’ offensive line coach, knows his players love blocking for Palko, because his passion for football makes him like a smaller version of a lineman at 6-foot-2, 220 pounds.

The collision with Shean “may live to be a signature play,” Freeman said. “That pretty well summarizes what Tyler means to the offense. He’s driving the bus, make no mistake about that. He’s an emotional kind of guy, and that’s the way he plays the game.”

It may have symbolized Palko and his drive, and maybe even something about this team. It was not about the entire Pitt season. It demeans the improvements and efforts of the entire team.

Coach Walt Harris actually put the turning point to the season at a week earlier. Their comeback against Temple in the 4th quarter.

“Despite all the adversity, we were able to concentrate and get better. Our kids were able to pull us through. We were 2-2 going into Temple. A lot of people might not respect Temple, but that’s our sister school. Winning that game in the fourth quarter gave our kids the confidence to start climbing the mountain.”

Check out the press release for other player quotes. Vince Crochunis seems to be having fun:

On preparing against Utah:

“There are so many responsibilities with this team. You can’t blitz and attack with a spread offense. If you miss, they gain 5 or 6 yards. You canÂ’t miss.”

On the bowl experience:

“It’s pretty amazing. I never thought I’d be in a national spotlight. I like being a media darling.”

Joe DelSardo got some love from some of the other papers.

Coach Harris talks about Greg Lee, and raves about how well he developed this year. Greg Lee thinks he is going to have a big game. Utah CB Ryan Smith, disagrees.

That’s what the second half came down to. Pitt getting the ball inside and low to Troutman and Taft. The first half, part of the reason for the turnovers was that Pitt had trouble with South Carolina’s zone defense, and could not pass the ball inside.

In the second half, Pitt scored 28 of its 47 points from inside and held South Carolina to 14 from the paint.

“All this other stuff is window dressing,” South Carolina coach Dave Odom said, holding up a stat sheet. “That’s the game.”

And when a team is effective at denying Pitt the ball inside, then they can win. USC was only able to do that for one half.

Chevon Troutman and Pitt’s inside game was the theme for all stories. It wasn’t just the points. USC was not able to get rebounds against Troutman and Taft. South Carolina’s frontcourt duo of Powell and Wallace combined for only 8 rebounds. Troutman had 12 on his own.

It was a frustrating outcome for USC who had lost on the road to Kansas by 4 a couple weeks ago.

“They are the No. 10 team in the nation,” Gonner said. “They are going to find a way to win. We’ve got to find a way to win at some point.”

USC did plenty of things to keep the game close. The Gamecocks shot 50 percent despite making just 2 of 11 3-pointers, and they used their trapping, full-court defense to force the Panthers into 17 turnovers.

Pittsburgh point guard Carl Krauser, after scoring 31 points in a 69-60 win over Richmond last week, made just 2 of 11 field goals to score 14 points.

Still, USC heads into Friday’s game with Wofford, its final nonconference game of the season, lacking a killer instinct against top competition.

“As a coach, the thing I’ve got to be very, very careful about is not allowing them to stick their chests out and say we came close again,” Odom said. “What we’ve got to do is push them where they are not quite ready to go themselves. We’ve got to push them to win on the court of a top-ranked program like Pitt. We’ve got to push them to that. They don’t understand that they are capable of that.”

Pitt made adjustments to what they were facing from the first half. There was not stubbornness of just trying to do things their way. Pitt always wants to get the ball inside — whether for the shot in the paint or just to kick it out. Passing along the perimeter is not what Pitt wants to do. Pitt did that by adjusting to the defense and finding the weak spots.

Ramon and Demetrius hitting open 3s was huge in creating the openings. As long as Pitt can make 35-40% of its 3 point shots, the inside game will be available. This doesn’t mean taking 20 3s in a game. It means taking the clean shot when given. Teams are going to sag inside on Pitt a lot this year. It is still the most effective defense against Pitt, until the team shows real consistency on the outside and mid-range shots.