CollegeFootballNews.com has gone way out on a limb to start projecting bowl bids — and I mean all of the bowl bids — now (hat tip to Chris for the e-mail). I guess, what’s the fun of speculation if you don’t go really far out. They put Pitt in the Sugar Bowl against Tennessee. This means, as of July, they have expectations for Pitt to win the Big East over Louisville.

While on the subject of the BCS, they have a new poll put together by Harris Interactive.

Called the Harris Interactive College Football Poll, it will rank the top 25 teams on a weekly basis, starting Sept. 25, the BCS said Monday. Plans call for 114 voters.

The BCS has said it wanted to eliminate preseason polls, which some believe give highly touted teams an unfair headstart in the rankings.

The poll doesn’t actually start coming out until a month or so after the season begins.

I guess now would be a good time to state that I have been a long-time participant in Harris Interactive polls. I now have enough points to get the first season of the Simpsons on DVD (or better yet, Dawson’s Creek). Should tell everyone, all they need to know about the poll.

In case you missed it over the weekend, there was another entertaining recruiting update Q&A from Rob Lichtenfels at PantherReport.

I don’t do video games. It’s one of my character flaws. Just don’t have the patience. But I love the alternate covers (via Fanblogs):

Genius. Pure genius.

Of a slightly less interesting visual attraction, the college football helmet map of the US (also via Fanblogs).

A nice Q&A with Pitt football and basketball (and, oh yeah, Steelers) radio play-by-play guy Bill Hillgrove.

Who is the best Pitt basketball player you have covered?

Hillgrove: I would have to say Billy Knight and for a lot of reasons. First of all, I’m prejudiced because he’s a local kid. And he had that performance at UCLA when he scored 37 points against that benchmark UCLA team. The old man [John Wooden] came over and shook his hand after the game. I don’t think he did that for a lot of players. He took that program to heights that maybe Buzz Ridl didn’t even envision. Plus, he played 11 years of pro ball.

Pitt has not been to a Final Four since 1941. Which recent team had the best chance of going?

Hillgrove: The Charles Smith team that lost to Vanderbilt was a Final Four team. They just didn’t take care of business.
…
Can the Pitt football team win the Big East again this season?

Hillgrove: I think the schedule is favorable. I think Tyler Palko will win two games by himself. It’s up to Wannstedt and the rest of the team to win those six or seven other games.

In Guy Junker’s weekly briefs column, he commends Pitt’s football scheduling sort of.

In an era where the nonconference schedules of a lot of college football teams are a joke, Pitt should be commended for adding games against teams like Iowa, Virginia Tech, Miami and even N.C. State. Who knows what kind of progams Pitt and Iowa will have when the Panthers travel to Iowa City in 2015? But scheduling has to be done in advance, and athletic director Jeff Long has added a lot of quality games over the next decade.

Miami and Virginia Tech are included there, but personally, they can go pound salt, for all I care for their defections from the Big East.

While some of those games were part of the agreement to settle lawsuits over those defections, I would rather Pitt move on without them.

Uh, actually of the defectors, only the Miami game was from the settlement. The VT games were negotiated separately, and are so far off; that even someone like me who has more distaste for VT’s actions than Miami’s is willing to let it go.

I know it’s early, but I had to point this out. Over at the Unofficial Home of Notre Dame, they already have their Pitt game preview going.

In it, they recap last year’s fantastic game. Here’s a snippet:

Despite all this, Notre Dame had a chance in the end after tying the score at 38 with a little over a minute to go. Poor pass coverage and poor officiating let Pitt march down the field and kick the winning field goal with 1 second remaining.

I’m trying to figure out what the poor officiating was on the final drive, since no penalties were called. Last year, after the game, Domers were whining about the officiating (among other things). Apparently they aren’t going to let go of that.

I’m hoping when the boys at Blue-Gray Sky get to their Pitt preview, they are a little more honest.

Worth noting, that Pitt hasn’t beaten Notre Dame in back-to-back games since 1986 and 1987 — Lou Holtz’s first 2 years.

That is what Chris Taft has become from the 2005 draft. They guy/story cited for the dangers of underclassmen going to the draft. From a puff piece on Duke’s Sheldon Williams not going pro.

Williams watched the 2005 draft with his teammates in the Duke locker room and was struck by the unpredictability of the selections. He said he is confident that he is better than some players who were chosen high in the first round, but added that the draft is risky for underclassmen.

“You can think you are lottery and end up slipping to the second round like (Pittsburgh power forward) Chris Taft did,” Williams said. “There are a lot of crazy things and nothing is guaranteed.”

This has been a common thing in stories. Of course, Taft was drafted and has been playing for the Warriors Summer League team, backing up Ike Diogu. In the 2 games played (pdf) so far, he averaged 15.5 minutes, 6.5 points (6-9 shooting) and 5.5 rebounds. He also averaged 3 turnovers (all 6 came in the second game). Reports are that he is doing what is asked of him, despite not much playing time available.

Chris Taft played really well too despite the fact that our abundance of big guys limited him to only 12 minutes. In that time, he converted two hoops inside and made 1 of 2 free throws. He grabbed four boards and was a solid defensive presence. His defensive game is more refined at this point than his offense, but today and in our practices it is clear why he had been projected as a first round pick. He has a good defensive mind and has been well coached in fundamentals that will help our team at this end of the floor.

“Well coached in the fundamentals…” He just needs to remember them.