I feel I have to. From this piece that is otherwise unquestioning acceptance of everything Paterno said as to why Penn St. is unable to play Pitt, you get some quotes from PSU players. You know, the ones whom Joe Pa is always so concerned:

For Thursday’s festivities at the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh, Paterno brought along with him a few of his players, including linebacker Paul Posluszny of Hopewell and center A.Q. Shipley of Moon.

Both Posluszny, one of the Nittany Lions’ three co-captains, and Shipley would welcome a chance to play Pitt someday, although neither are optimistic of that happening any time soon.

“I would love to see Penn State play Pitt again, just to renew the rivalry,” said Shipley, who redshirted last season as a freshman. “I’m hoping that before I graduate, I’ll get to play Pitt at least once.”

“We’d all like to see it happen. It would be great for both schools,” said Posluszny, who’ll be a junior next season. “But it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen … not at least while I’m at Penn State.”

And in the heart of Penn State country, Ron Bracken takes his shots at Penn St. for not playing Pitt.

You knew, you just had to know, that when the NCAA voted to allow its Division I-A football playing schools to add a 12th game to their seasons, Penn State would go looking for its long lost friend and doormat to fill that opening.

Instead of breathing life into the dormant rivalry with Pitt, or going after an attractive inter-sectional opponent, Penn State looked eastward where it found a willing partner in Temple.
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And doesn’t that just make you want to whip out your checkbook and double your contribution to the Nittany Lion Club so you can get choice seats for those showdowns?

Assuming the 2006 Temple game is slated for Beaver Stadium on Nov. 11, which is currently an open date, that would give the Nittany Lions a home schedule of Akron, Louisiana Tech, Northwestern, Michigan, Illinois, Temple and Michigan State.

If this was the verbal part of the SAT test, the question would be which one of those schools does not belong with the others? Hint: Think helmets. Or better yet, think frequency of Rose Bowl appearances.

Can anyone, being in good health and sound state of mind, actually say that Penn State football is better served by playing Temple instead of Pitt?

OK, there is the risk of losing to Pitt to consider. But isn’t that what makes a game entertaining instead of one where the Nittany Lions pull the wings off another MAC fly?

It’s time to put away the tired old complaints about how Pitt used to demand that Penn State play every game in the series in Pittsburgh, about how Pitt’s fans treated visiting Penn State fans shabbily when they ventured to old Pitt Stadium.

Those bleatings are deader than good intentions. In the period from the 1930s through the 1950s, Pitt was the stronger program, had the bigger stadium and more national championships than Penn State. So it had the leverage to demand an unequal number of home games in the series.

And for every Penn State fan who complained about how he or she was treated at Pitt there is a Panther fan who was treated equally shabbily at Beaver Stadium. Remember the “S–tt on Pitt” T-shirts or the “Under the arm, Pitt” chants?

And while it’s those types of things that make a rivalry what it is — you have to have some good old fashioned animosity toward the other guy — there also has to be someone who can see the issue clearly and understand that raw emotions and petty jealousies should never be allowed to cause the demise of something as special as the Pitt-Penn State rivalry once was.
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Myopic Penn State fans take the stance that Pitt is in trouble with the demise of the Big East and can see no reason why the Nittany Lions should help the Panthers by playing them.

Let’s turn that around. Why shouldn’t Penn State play Pitt and help itself by playing a better opponent than Temple, which almost lost its Division I-A status for failing to draw an average of 15,000 fans per game? Temple’s last winning season was in 1990. Pitt went to a bowl game last year.

You would think that Penn State would have learned its lesson during the 1970s when too many Temples, Rutgers, Ohio Universities and Kent States on its schedule cost it national respect and at least one, if not more, national championships.

That last part is kind of hard to buy right now, PSU just wants to get back to a winning record.

He’s here. He’s there. He’s everywhere.

As mentioned earlier, he’s been in Florida. Here’s another update (hat tip to Patric for e-mailing me the story).

Dave Wannstedt has been crisscrossing Florida in a little red car for days.

He’s cramming in visits to 24 high schools and shaking the hands of countless players, coaches, principals, superintendents, janitors and anyone else who knows of an athlete who may be interested in playing for him at the University of Pittsburgh.
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On Thursday afternoon, Wannstedt took in a Hialeah-Miami Lakes Trojans spring practice. In the morning, he roamed the halls of the school.

“Oh, there were all kinds of rumors floating around,” Trojans coach Jerry Hughes said. “That our best players were going straight to the Dolphins and all that stuff.”

Wannstedt, who stepped down as Dolphins coach in November after a 1-8 start last season, is recharged.

He looks tanned and rested, remarkable considering his hectic schedule.

With the help of Pittsburgh receivers coach and former Florida Gator Aubrey Hill, Wannstedt listed the schools he visited Thursday morning: American, Carroll City, Pace, Miami Central, Booker T. Washington and Miami Northwestern.

“I love it,” Wannstedt said. “I enjoy the interaction with the players and coaches. There are things about this that are refreshing to me. The alumni, academics, all the things on campus. It really has been a nice change of pace.”

While he spoke, Wannstedt was monitoring the workout of Trojans quarterback Thaddeus Lewis.

“See that No. 1?” Wannstedt said. “We’re offering.”
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“Yeah, LSU offered,” Lewis said later. “And Duke. And West Virginia. And now, Pittsburgh. This coach seems like he means business. He lets you know he really wants you. He came all the way down here for a reason.”

He came to see Lewis in person, to stand within arm’s length of him, for a reason.

“I’ll tell you what, I haven’t seen a coach of Dave Wannstedt’s stature around here this spring,” Hughes said. “I haven’t even seen, believe it or not, some of the Florida coaches, which is surprising considering what we have to offer.”

And next week he’ll be in the Eastern half of Pennsylvania.

Wannstedt and his staff have been busy spring recruiting most of this month. However, he also wants to reach out to fans, alumni and coaching colleagues in Eastern Pennsylvania. Wannstedt will be hosting three events next week for that purpose. They include:

Havertown Coaching Clinic (Tuesday, May 17): Held at Barnaby’s on 1901 Old West Chester Pike in Havertown, Pa. Coach Wannstedt and Pitt offensive line coach Paul Dunn will host a football clinic from 6 to 8 p.m., followed by a social. Cost is $15. To register, call (412) 648-8700 or e-mail clasala@athletics.pitt.edu.

“Meet Coach Wannstedt Night” (Wednesday, May 18): Held at the Marvin Comisky Center, located at One Logan Square, 18th and Cherry Sts. in center city Philadelphia. Coach Wannstedt will meet and greet members of the Pitt Alumni Association and Panther Club from 6 to 8 p.m. Admission is free. To attend, contact the Pitt Alumni Association at (800) 258-7488 or e-mail alumnievents@ia.pitt.edu.

Hershey Coaching Clinic (Thursday, May 19): Held at Hershey Italian Lodge on 128 Hillcrest Road in Hershey, Pa. Coach Wannstedt and Pitt offensive line coach Paul Dunn will host a football clinic from 6 to 8 p.m., followed by a social. Cost is $10. To register, call (412) 648-8700 or e-mail clasala@athletics.pitt.edu.

Exciting. Isn’t it?