Bruce Feldman at ESPN.com has lots of love for Pitt and Coach Wannstedt, but will likely piss off the Domers after this chat session (Insider Subs. req’d).

Bryan (Fayetteville): Can Notre Dame finish in the top10 this year?

Bruce Feldman: (3:10 PM ET ) no..I think the D, especially the pass D, is terrible. They’ll score points but not enough.
…
Brian (Heinz Field, PA): Can Wannstedt get Pitt to the next level…which was a criticism of Walt Harris?

Bruce Feldman: (3:21 PM ET ) yes, I think that was a very good hire. He’s doing very well recruiting in the pitt area something walt didn’t do very well
…
Michael (Colorado Springs): Who was the best off-season hire and why?

Bruce Feldman: (3:40 PM ET ) Wannstedt as HC I think although I am a big believer in mark snyder and think he will revitalize marshall
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Brian (Lake Worth, FL): Is it fair to say that the winner of Pitt/Louisville in early November will win the Big East?
Bruce Feldman: (3:42 PM ET ) yes!
…
TJ (LA): Wannestadt better than Weis?

Bruce Feldman: (3:44 PM ET ) Yes.
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mark (tennessee): dave has had zero sucess as a head coach, and i understand the jury is stillout, but why such a cut and dried yes hes better than charie?

Bruce Feldman: (4:05 PM ET ) I think he’s a better fit for that program. I think Weis will have a harder time recruiting. The expectations are too high and it sounds like he is coming in there convinced he is just going to outsmart all these other coaches. I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.

About the only thing I’ll say in defense of Charlie Weis is that his confidence may be overblown by the media. It could be argued he is trying to bring back the Irish swagger, and the fans and media coverage are convinced that he can outsmart everyone else.

One way or the other, in a week Pitt or ND faithful are about to have expectations tempered.

Paul Zeise’s Q&A came up late today, but it is a complete must read. This one is just outstanding for so many reasons. He gives some solid opinions and complete thoughts on the team and positions. Not just easy answers.

Q: What is your best guess at who of the true freshmen will be most important to the team’s success and also could you name an additional five that will be important over the next four or five years?

ZEISE: The true freshman most likely to play and contribute this year are Tommie Campbell, Rashaad Duncan, Rashad Jennings, LaRod Stephens and Gus Mustakas. If Tyler Palko goes down, well, then the most important of them all is obviously Bill Stull.

As for the long term – the most important ones are John Bachman, John Brown, Craig Bokor, John Brown, C.J. Davis, Duncan, Derrell Jones and Mustakas. I mean, face it — the difference between Pitt and the elite in college football is the offensive and defensive lines. These two areas are where Pitt needs the biggest upgrades. All of these guy have talent, but they need to develop into real players in order for Pitt to get to that so-called “next level” or even take a step forward.

[Emphasis added.]

Zeise’s notebooks are very good during the week, but I’ve actually become a fan of his over the last couple of years because of his Q&As. They let his personality and something of his humor shine through a lot more in his responses.

SI.com is listing 15 games to watch this season.

#14 Pitt at Louisville. Shockingly, the ND-Pitt game isn’t on the list. I suppose in the scheme of games that mean something for the BCS it isn’t that important. For intrigue, curiosity and hype though, it is huge.

They also do a thing on the five “guttsiest” and “wimpiest” non-con schedules (subs. req’d). Pitt doesn’t break either, but another school from Pennsylvania ranks #2 on the wimpy scale.

There’s an easy explanation for the Nittany Lions’ scheduling three cupcakes at home: Penn State has gone 0-5 in nonconference road games over the past five seasons.

Go Bulls! Go Bearcats!

No one, though can top Texas Tech with Florida International, Sam Houston State (I-AA), Indiana State (I-AA). Wow. If I’m a Red Raider season ticket holder, I’m more than a little pissed about having to pay for those games.

Other thing to note, Mike Phillips gets a puff piece on his move from Cornerback to Strong Safety. Phillips plays it humble.

“Camp’s been going pretty good, but there’s a lot of learning for me,” Phillips said. “So, I’m just coming out here and trying to put everything together for the first game. The spring really helped me a lot, because I learned everything I needed to know to play safety at this level.

“In camp so far this summer, I more or less learned how to put it all together. I’m just glad I was able to help the team by moving to safety, and now I have a chance to start. I’m happy to get that chance, and I’m looking forward to more playing time this season.”

While Phillips’ presence should make Pitt’s secondary a strong point, he quickly dismissed his role in that. He preferred to give just about everybody else credit.

“It’s like a committee,” Phillips said. “It’s not just me back there or Tez, because we have Eric Thatcher, Tommie Campbell, a great group of guys. And the cornerbacks, Darrelle, Josh, Kennard Cox and Reggie Carter … everybody plays a part. So, it’s not a one-man show out there.”

Pitt defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads said that the transition for Phillips has been so seamless that he hasn’t given it a second thought.

“It’s just been so smooth by Mike,” Rhoads said. “He had just a handful of days in spring practice and picked it up very quickly because he’s an intelligent young man, and he’s very conscientious. So, he’s with the No. 1 unit right now, and he’s done very well there.”

The article also notes that Coach Wannstedt mentioned off-handedly that he had been approached from other college programs before about being their head coach. That’s not exactly a shock. He’d been rumored for LSU, Miami and others in the past.

And here’s today’s Kendall fix.

No box score that I could find. But Kendall scored 18 or 14 points — I don’t know why the reports vary — but Canada went down to Venezuela 100-91.

This is a problem for Canada to make it out of the preliminaries, and thus have a shot to compete in the 2006 World Championships. They face the US, Panama and then Brazil. The US, by the way, upset the favorite Brazil the other day.

UPDATE: Box score found thanks to Agent Smith who e-mailed it to me. Kendall had foul issues picking up 4 in his 20 minutes but was very effective. It lists him with 14 points on 5-7 shooting and 4-4 on free throws, along with 7 rebounds.

The Post-Gazette lists the 30 best college prospects in Pennsylvania, at least according to them. It’s a list, you take it for what it is worth.

But just for fun:

6 have committed to Pitt (Byham, Dickerson, Pinkston, Webster, Tkach, Loheyde)

1 has committed to PSU (McEowen)

8 have committed to out of state schools (Devlin, Frazier, Ricker, Neubert, Herzlich, King, McKenzie, Neely)

9 are undecided without Pitt seriously in the mix (Odrick, Hunter, Maddox, Lyons, Minemyer, Carter, McBride, Kanuch, Womack)

6 are undecided with Pitt in the mix (McCoy, Walls, Berry, Smith*, Kates, Fields)

* Aaron Smith will announce tomorrow between Pitt and Maryland

This just keeps staying strange.

The mysterious AAU coach who asked Herb Pope to check out a private high school in Florida is now talking.

Also, Pope’s AAU coach said Pope has opened up his recruitment and is no longer verbally committed to Pitt. Pope committed to the Panthers as a sophomore.

“He wants to explore all his options, including high school and college,” said J.O. Stright, who coaches Pope on the Pittsburgh JOTS.

Stright, who speaks with Pope regularly, said Pope has not made a decision where he will attend high school.

“My recommendation is that he needs to go to a private school with a good academic program,” Stright said. “He needs academic help. He thinks he’s good enough to make the NBA someday. But he has to go to college for a year to do that. He could really benefit from a private school.”

He wants to explore his options for high school? Now? Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t school start for most in the next week or even on Monday? How much exploring can he be doing at this point?

I know he’s a huge talent, and teams will be falling over themselves to try and get him (or in Pitt’s case, re-snare him). Still, the multiple high schools were a red flag before, the fact that it continues does not encourage. Far too often it seems these kids just start bouncing from school to school (just page down for some examples) without knowing what they actually want. It seems they are listening to too many voices trying to do and please everyone.

UPDATE: According to this story, Pope is back in and at Aliquippa, but he is reopening his college recruitment.

But Pope, a 6-foot-9 forward who is one of the most sought-after prep players in the nation, said from his home in Aliquippa on Thursday night that those reports were false.

“I’m home right now and I’m staying in Aliquippa,” Pope said.

Arlington Country Day coach Rex Morgan, who led the school to a Florida state title last season, told the Florida Times-Union that Pope was registered at the private school and was attending classes, an assertion Pope denies.

“I was just down there to explore my options, but I never enrolled.”
…
While Pope confirmed his return to Aliquippa, he did say, however, that he is reconsidering the verbal commitment he made to attend the University of Pittsburgh earlier this year.

“I decided I want to keep my options open,” Pope said. “There are still some things I want to explore.”

Double-edged sword.

Coach Wannstedt seems quite happy with the prospect of opening the season against Notre Dame, because the team, fans and media have all zeroed in on that game.

In perfect world, Wannstedt said, the Panthers would have an exhibition game to get ready for the season. But because there is no preseason in college football, he’d much rather open against a tough opponent than a team that might be easily overlooked.

“My experience has been this, the media and fans have a tendency to talk about the biggest game you have on your schedule,” Wannstedt said. “One year when I was at Miami, we played Florida like the third game of the year, and nobody cared about our first two opponents. We did as coaches, but all any one could talk about was Miami playing Florida.

“By opening up with Notre Dame, this has been a target for our guys all through the offseason, the national television and the whole bit, so I think it has been good.

“Would I like to have a warm-up game? Yes, because it is what I am used to in the NFL. But, under the circumstances, I like having a big game right off the bat because it does keep you focused.”

The Fan Fest at Heinz Field was apparently well received. The team worked on the kicking game and special teams primarily. It was the 4th time in camp that they worked out under the lights.

The team has practice this afternoon and Saturday. The team is taking Sunday off, then the week of work for the Notre Dame game begins in earnest.

H.B. Blades gets a piece today. Kind of odd, because he was held out of practice to get some rest and kept away from the media. Given Blades’ willingness to talk and being one of the more quotable members of the squad, it makes the piece awkward.

He was named to the Butkus Award Watch List to go with being on the Charles Bednarik and Bronko Nagurski Watch List. Definitely getting to be ridiculous with the awards — I think there are now around 20 — but I digress.

As the Panthers prepare to enter their final week of preseason practice before the regular season begins, Wannstedt appears comfortable in talking about Blades now as a middle linebacker, a switch that was put into motion in spring camp.

“When we moved him to the middle linebacker spot in the spring, I knew he was our most experienced linebacker and I could see after two days that he was a very instinctive player,” Wannstedt said. “I was hoping he would be the type of leader in the huddle that everyone said he was in the past and he’s really done a great job.”
…
“In every scrimmage that he’s been in there — and they’ve had equal time — he’s led us in tackles,” Wannstedt said of Blades, referring to the Panthers’ current training camp. “Our middle linebacker should lead us in tackles. If he’s not leading us, then we’ve got a problem.”

You know, it just occurred to me that we have barely heard a peep from defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads this season. Usually by this time there is at least one piece puffing his defense and he is regularly commenting on how the defense is doing. Not this year.

As part of SI.com’s College Football Preview, they have a column on newcomers to watch.

Rashad Jennings, RB, Pittsburgh
6-2, 239 pounds
High school: Lynchburg Christian Academy, Forest, Va.

Pitt’s rushing attack was ranked 105th in the nation last year, but with this Eddie George-like bruiser, the Panthers won’t be averaging 97.75 yards a game on the ground this season.

Originally part of the Panthers’ 2004 recruiting class, Jennings was academically ineligible to enroll at Pitt after graduating high school. He regained his eligibility after taking summer classes, but by that time, preseason camp had already started. Jennings took ’04 off, trimming his fullback-sized, 265-pound frame to a lean, powerful 239.

Now he’s making up for lost time. After running for 118 yards on 19 carries in the Blue-Gold scrimmage, Jennings appears poised to start in the Panthers’ Sept. 3 opener against Notre Dame at Heinz Field.

“He’s definitely a power back,” Dave Wannstedt said of Jennings in the Pittsburgh Tribune. “He’s a tough guy who holds onto the ball.”

And in short burst from last year, Rob Petitti — the only Pitt player drafted last spring — is having a great camp. How great?

“My goal is to start,” Petitti said, some four months ago. “I’m not here just to make the team as a backup or something. I want to start.”

And while it was never out of the question, considering the Cowboys’ needs at right tackle, the declaration was rather unrealistic for a sixth-round pick to even dream of stepping right into the starting lineup.

However, here we are, just more than two weeks away from the season opener, and Rob Petitti, that sixth-round pick from Pittsburgh, is closing in on winning the starting right tackle job.

Kind of also indicates that Dallas may be a little thin on the line.