The game is officially sold out. Some standing room only tix will be on sale on Tuesday.

So, what’s the word on the team residing in a state that looks something like a dripping, spent phallic representation?

The same but different. While Pitt has a new coach who is considered long on personality and inspiring players, but short on actual game coaching; ND’s new coach is considered an X-O guy who has needed to prove himself in the personality/charisma department.

Obviously both coaches will need to prove themselves again on the field with what they do, but for now everyone around the program believes in Coach Charlie Weis and what he has done with the attitude of the team.

No, the only thing Weis, a 1978 Notre Dame graduate, seems concerned about at the moment is changing the attitude of the entire program. He’s a demanding coach in the mold of Lou Holtz — minus the endless bluster — who won’t settle for anything less than restoring the Fighting Irish to national prominence.

“It’s a fair question if you’re worried about what people are thinking,” Weis told reporters during media day in South Bend, Ind., earlier this month. “I’m not really worrying about it. Mind you, the object is to win as fast as we can.”

Weis inherits a program that finished 6-6 last season.

It has been 16 long seasons since Notre Dame won the last of its 11 national championships — equaling the longest draught in school history from 1950-65.

The master plan under Weis is based on instilling faith.

“The first message we’re trying to teach the players is, ‘You have no chance of winning if you believe you’re not going to win.’ If you have games you’re already thinking, ‘Well, this team is a lot better than us,’ you really have no chance.

“If you go into a game thinking anything other than you’re going to win that game, you can count on losing it,” Weis said.

“The sooner we can get more people thinking that way, the better our chances are,” he added. “There are not many games where I’ve looked at the schedule and said, ‘Well, we’re losing that one.’ I’ve tried not to do that.”

In fact, that was the overwhelming theme of stories today on Weis and the Domers.

But Charlie Weis needed more than four Super Bowl rings and a proven playbook to win over his new team.

He needed to push. He needed to teach. He needed to inspire.

And, perhaps most important, he needed to relate.

Maybe it’s the outgrowth of the “one voice” theory from Bill Belichick that Weis is adhering to that creates a uniformity of stories. I’ll have some more thoughts on that theory later in the week, from someone who got to observe it in action in Cleveland under Belichick.

The players, of course, in their interviews are positive, but it is already causing media people to look for tells —

When the subject turns to Charlie Weis, as it always does, Notre Dame football players offer variations on the same reaction.

A chuckle suggests their responses will be edited for sensitive tastes.

Then maybe darting eyes, or a thumb and forefinger tracing the corners of their mouths, some kind of tic to buy time.

Wary, weary expressions developed over three weeks of the Weis treatment, a persistent drumbeat of criticism and instruction and perpetual unhappiness with their performance, as promised.

“It’s hard to describe,” serves as a common throat-clearing remark from Notre Dame football players asked to explain the tactics and intensity of their new coaching staff.

Goading questions about comparing them with their predecessors go nowhere — they have been trained — but their words reveal more than the usual preseason anticipation.

Exhaustion and excitement on their faces illustrate their current state of mind.

Sounds like the first couple weeks while dating a crazy chick. But then, I may just be projecting.

Pop open a Saranac.

Kevin Collier, the running back recruit from upstate NY, has apparently committed to Pitt. This recruit gets credited to RB Coach David Walker. Scouts, Inc./ESPN has Collier ranked as the 26th best RB in the country (Insider Subs.).

Evaluation: Collier has the potential to become a special player and is a very natural, explosive runner with excellent vision and instincts. He is what you would call a darter type back, with superb quickness and explosiveness. He shows great burst to the hole, can pick and slide to avoid contact and can really make people miss. Has smooth hips, can swerve and slash and is very difficult to get a beat on. Is certainly fast enough, but not a burner. Question level of competition as he is a man amongst boys in his conference. He is surprisingly effective as an inside runner, has some power, runs low and can avoid taking on big hits. Will bounce plays outside and this is where he is at his best. He does not have great size, but he is well built, and he has excellent change of direction skills and the ability to create in space. He shows some suddenness, he can bounce it to the outside, and he has the ability to get to put it into a second gear. He catches the ball naturally out of the backfield and he is a threat in space when you get him on the perimeter or if you can line him up in man-to-man coverage on a linebacker. He is very effective on dump offs and screens, and he can give you a lot of big plays.

The optimism for the future is on the verge of unbridled at this point.

ND debuts it’s 2-deep depth chart out (PDF).

Pitt has the game notes available (PDF). The depth chart is on page 3.

Study them. Learn them. There will be a quiz later.

According to our spiritual and base leader for tailgating, Pat, we got our parking passes. We are back in Green 23 which is fine, as long as they maintain or increase the number of port-a-johns. The bright side, we don’t need the feelings of inadequacy of our tailgate that came from being in the lot that had S.H.A.T. Now this is organization for games (not to mention a pretty good menu).

We’re a little more basic. Just burgers and dogs each week with some snack foods. Yuengling lager (though occasionally something from Penn Brewing thrown in) and some Makers Mark. To a degree it’s necessitated because over a third of our group comes in from out of town1-3 hour drives. After that, no one wants to put that much effort into the food.

Plenty of media stuff for the coming week. FSN Pittsburgh will be airing a Pitt preview show at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, followed by a story on Coach Dave Wannstedt coming back to Pitt called “Homecoming.”

Just to conflict with both, the Dave Wannstedt Radio Show airs that night at the exact same time. Don’t you think someone might have coordinated this a little better? A little cooperation? I mean the radio show airs on Fox Sports Radio 970.

Can’t radio and tv under the same corporate parent get along?

The College GameDay site needs a bit of updating.

Here’s the information on Pitt’s site about going down for the AM GameDay show.

LOCATION
Heinz Field Great Lawn

FREE PARKING AND SHUTTLE BUS SERVICE
FREE parking is available in the Posvar Hall parking garage located in Oakland off of Roberto Clemente Drive from 8:30 A.M. – 12:30 P.M. Click here for parking map.

FREE shuttle bus service from Oakland to Heinz Field for all ESPN College GameDay fans will also be available from 8:30 A.M. – 12:30 P.M. Shuttle buses will board and drop-off from Bigelow Blvd. located in-between the William Pitt Union and the Cathedral of Learning.

Event parking is available on the North Shore (rates may vary).

I like the free shuttle service for both students and fans. The free parking is very cool.

Pitt Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations, E.J. Borghetti helped me find the link (now, that’s just shameless namedropping). He also added the following in an e-mail:

Due to the Pirates game attendees in the a.m. will have to pay for parking. However, if you have a Pitt park pass, you can hang it up upon arrival and then just stay the rest of the day. You won’t get booted.

In contrast, people who attend the Pirates game for noon that day will get the boot at the conclusion of that game. Let me know if this explains it.

Well, it makes sense to me. It also makes the shuttle service that much more attractice.

Capsule pieces abound in newspapers this weekend trying to find something else to talk about regarding college football. The most popular subject has been new coaches. Lots of little, mostly useless 1 to 2 line pieces on each new coach and their potential impact.

This story from Louisiana is a little more, but it is also very familiar to Pitt fans.

And sometimes the coach comes to the school with a ready-made body of knowledge of the institution, if not his new position.

Wannstedt spent the past 15 years in the NFL, most recently five seasons as head coach of the Miami Dolphins, but he is a native of Pittsburgh with two degrees from the school.

“We thought Dave would be a great fit, and he’s done nothing but prove us correct,” Pittsburgh athletic director Jeff Long said. “With our current and former players, with the community and with all of Pennsylvania, Dave has served notice that Pitt is back in a major way on the college football scene.”

Wannstedt has declared Western Pennsylvania “our back yard” and has 12 early commitments, 11 from the Pittsburgh area. Rival Penn State has only two.

He’s also related well to the locals, bringing up his college summers working alongside his father in the Jones & Laughlin steel mill. That’s a stark contrast to Walt Harris, his aloof predecessor, whom the school didn’t try to hold back when he took the Stanford job last December.

“Everybody cares about their own, but Pittsburghers love and embrace them in a way I’ve never seen before,” Long said. “Dave’s strong faith and integrity resonates extremely well in this community. He’s forged in steel.”

Now, anyone who lives or has lived in Chicago knows there is not exactly a lot of love for Coach Dave Wannstedt. So, this very positive, practically glowing story on Coach Wannstedt taking over at Pitt is stunning — and probably caused more than a few in Chicagoland to mutter and curse.

His moment of anonymity lasted only as long as a few rings of a cellular phone, “Unknown Name” and “Unknown Number” concealing his identity ever so briefly.

But the moment Bill Stull answered the phone, the voice, with its unmistakably “Pittsburgh-ese” cadence and pronunciations, gave away the caller.

“I usually don’t answer ‘Unknown Name, Unknown Number,’ but I answered it,” Stull said. “He said, ‘I was just calling to make sure you were safe on your commit.'”

Stull was so stunned by the call, so stoked to finally get a look from his hometown school, that he stammered out an unconvincing yes.

Stull, a star quarterback at Pittsburgh’s Seton-LaSalle High School, had made an oral commitment to attend Kentucky in the fall of 2005 on a football scholarship.

But . . .

“I’ve always wanted to play here,” Stull said, standing on the University of Pittsburgh’s practice field last week. “I knew deep down I was going to wind up here.”

Stull was not the only one. The 2005 season has yet to begin, and Pitt already has a dozen oral commitments for the class of 2010 from western Pennsylvania high school stars looking to follow in Stull’s footsteps.

Because when it’s Dave Wannstedt doing the asking, few people in these parts will turn him down.

It also touches on the loyalty and fondness former players have for him.

Wannstedt knows the key to successful recruiting is spotting the best players, reeling them in and maximizing their talent. Though he hasn’t been involved in college football for more than a decade, he has a track record.

“A lot of people figured I was a little bit small as a linebacker, but he believed I was a player and thought I could play at Miami,” former Hurricanes linebacker Maurice Crum said.

Crum justified that faith by leading the Hurricanes in tackles for three straight seasons, from 1988 to 1990.

On Saturday, Crum’s namesake son, Maurice Crum Jr., will start at linebacker for Notre Dame.

“Maurice called me the other day and said he is going to be starting,” Maurice Crum Sr. said. “I told him to tell coach Wannstedt thank you, because all the things I was taught by coach, I taught him.”

Any other game, any other team, and he would be rooting wholeheartedly for his former coach, Crum said.

“I think Dave will work hard enough to get the team to a national championship,” Crum said. “He’ll do whatever it takes.”

Bennie Blades played safety for Wannstedt at Miami, and he is more than happy to have his son, H.B., starting at middle linebacker for the Panthers.

“Dave had such an aura about him,” Blades said. “When you pick a guy who has played the game, who knows how to coach the game, you can take everything he says and basically lay your hat on it.”

Read and enjoy it all.

Finally, I’ve always enjoyed stories of how one event can impact so many, so tenuously connected. Here’s a good one about coaching changes starting with Wannstedt resigning from the Dolphins.

We’ll work our way into the meat for this one then fade back.

With a puff piece that borders on an unhealthy man-crush, Ron Cook plants a juicy one on Tyler Palko. As happens with revisionism, all credit for his development and emergence last year stays with Palko.

He made himself a great quarterback after picking himself up out of that Nebraska mess and playing the kind of fabulous football that had longtime Pitt people mentioning his name in the same sentence with Dan Marino’s. The proof is that he somehow found a way to get an otherwise ordinary, three-loss Pitt team to the Fiesta Bowl. It’s also that he’s on the fringe of the early Heisman Trophy talk, a tremendous achievement for a player on a team that finished last season No. 25 in The Associated Press poll and starts this season No. 23.

“It’s nice, but it’s not like I wake up in the morning trying to win the Heisman,” Palko said. “I wake up thinking about getting to practice and trying to get better and trying to help this team get better.”

This week, Palko will wake up thinking about beating Notre Dame, Pitt’s opponent Saturday night in the nationally televised and much anticipated season opener at Heinz Field.

He is Pitt’s best chance.

It doesn’t matter that Harris and his pass-happy offense are gone, replaced by a more balanced offense under new coach Dave Wannstedt and offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh.

The only references to former Coach Walt Harris, who Palko has credited and was not happy to see leave, is how Palko saved him from immediate firing by winning against Temple at the end and in passing above.

I don’t mind puff pieces, but revisionist history pisses me off. Elevating Palko (or Wannstedt) does not mean you need to tear down or ignore Harris. Other wise it is worth a look.

Darrelle Revis gets the game-type puff piece. It talks a lot about his development from basically playing on pure athleticism to understanding the game and the position.

“Last year, I played off of raw talent,” Revis said. “This year, I’m learning more about offenses and what they want to accomplish in certain situations.

“The game really has slowed down for me. If you relax and take your time, the game will come to you. Last year, it was crazy. My head was everywhere. Now, I’m comfortable.”

Revis reached his comfort zone with the help of some excellent teachers. Rhoads is a rising star in the collegiate coaching ranks. Wannstedt was the guru who, as the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive coordinator in 1992, molded the NFL’s youngest defense into the league’s most dominant unit.

And, every week during the season, Revis has a skull session with his uncle, Sean Gilbert — who had a standout career as a defensive tackle at Pitt and in the pros.

“After every game, we talk about a lot of things — what I did wrong, what I did good, what I can do better,” Revis said. “I’m thankful for having an uncle who cares about me and supports me in that way. It’s a family thing.”

The secondary should be so much better this year (Pitt was 100th against the pass, how much worse could it get?) with Lay and Revis playing much tighter and aggressive coverage. Plus, with Morris and Phillips at the safeties big things have to be expected.

The other reason why the secondary needs to be good is the fact that the defensive line is one of Pitt’s question marks for the season.

The defensive line is inexperienced, though. Thomas Smith is the only starter with extensive playing time, but he is learning a new position and has been hurt for most of camp.

The defensive line has plenty of speed, though, and that alone is an upgrade from a year ago.

“Our defensive line isn’t big, but they get to the ball quick, a lot quicker than in the past,” Blades said. “You can tell because it seems like our D-line is making a lot of plays and that’s really what is the most important — just make plays. That goes for all the rest of us as well.”

The running game and offensive line are expected to be improved (Again, they really only had one direction they could go.).

The only other big question regards the Wide Receivers. After Greg Lee and Joe DelSardo, Derek Kinder has been the most consistent receiver to claim the 3rd spot. Then it is more of an ongoing audition with Marcel Pestano presently leading.

The kickers and punters have been getting extra practice at Heinz Field rather than at the practice facilities to refresh their recollection regarding the winds.

The kickers and punters practiced twice last week at Heinz Field while the rest of the squad worked out at the South Side facility.

Because of swirling winds, kickers have a notoriously difficult time kicking toward the open end of Heinz Field. Those conditions affected the outcome of at least one game last season, when Furman’s Scott Becker missed a 37-yard field goal attempt in overtime.

“Right before he went out to kick it, I said, ‘He’s going to miss wide right,’ ” Pitt kicker Josh Cummings said. “And, yes, he did.”

Before every game, the Panthers kick toward the open end of the stadium, so they have an extra chance to gauge the wind. Opponents kick toward the enclosed end of the field.

“There’s definitely a big difference,” Cummings said. “For the most part, I’m not sure if (other teams) are aware of it when they come in here. Maybe if they were, they might think about it more — which could be bad for them. So I don’t know if ignorance is bliss or if it’s better to know what you’re getting into.”

Finally, a little on Pitt’s latest verbal:

Aaron Smith got a big cheer from the crowd last night during pregame warmups.

Smith, a senior at Gateway, announced on the public address system that he had made a verbal commitment to the University of Pittsburgh. The announcement came on the field before Gateway’s season opener against Cleveland Benedictine. Smith’s news also was carried live by FSN Pittsburgh.

Smith (6 feet, 180 pounds) plays quarterback and defensive back for Gateway, but he was recruited by Pitt to play receiver. Smith had more than a dozen scholarship offers from Division I colleges, but had narrowed his list to Pitt and Maryland.

“Pitt’s close to home and they wanted me to play receiver,” he said. “Maryland wanted me to play defensive back. Receiver is where I feel more comfortable.”

It’s going to be a long week of anticipation.