Honestly, given Coach Wannstedt’s present reputation as a coach — especially after the way things ended with the Dolphins and the first 3 games of the season — if he wasn’t our coach, this story on Rutgers Coach Greg Schiano’s relationship with Dave Wannstedt would just cause you to start laughing (or if you were a Rutgers fan, weep).

“He’s been a mentor of mine that I’ve looked up to for a long time,” Schiano said Sunday. “Dave is a great person and has treated my family really well. I think he’s a great coach.”

Greg Schiano is 14-35 at Rutgers and has never had a winning season.

Hmmm. The other team showed up. Guess we still have to play.

Unfortunately, this would appear to be one of those themes you can bet the ESPN2 D crew calling the Friday night game will be banging.

Wannstedt and Rutgers coach Greg Schiano have a history. “If you coach long enough and you’re around good people, good people are going to end up in head coaching positions,” Wannstedt said. “Greg and I are good friends, but I keep the business part of it separate from the personal.” In 1996, when Wannstedt was head coach of the Chicago Bears, he hired Schiano as an assistant. Wannstedt also recommended Schiano to Butch Davis at Miami, where Schiano was defensive coordinator from 1998-2000. “(Wannstedt) has been a real mentor to me,” Schiano said. “I learned a lot (about) football and about handling players from him. I think that’s one of Dave’s strengths.”

There was an article on struggling coaches in their first year, especially when overhauling the system.

Trying to install a power running game with personnel suited for the West Coast offense is akin to mixing oil with water.

Go ahead and ask Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt, who is having trouble adjusting his system to the personnel he inherited from former coach Walt Harris.

Wannstedt is a believer in old-school football — get a tough defense and a good running game and you’ll be successful. It’s the system in which he has used all of his life, with varying amounts of success, at his several coaching stops.

But trying to run block with smaller linemen who were recruited to pass block and identifying running backs and receivers that best fit his system has produced disappointing results through the first month of the season.

The article has comments from other coaches who had a less than perfect first year. At least Bucknuts called it right when OSU Coach Tressel was asked the question on his weekly teleconference.

Tressel was also asked by a Pittsburgh newspaper reporter about being a first-year coach and the types of roadblocks that can occur (the question may have been influenced by University of Pittsburgh first-year head coach Dave Wannstedt’s rough start). Tressel, who first arrived at OSU in 2001, talked about some of his experiences during his first season.

“I think it’s more of a (case of) you haven’t had the time to develop relationships,” Tressel said. “Teams and families and communities or churches or whatever are built on relationships, and if you got in there in January and you run around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to make everyone happy from the alumni to the booster clubs to getting to know your players and putting a new staff together, you just run out of moments to develop relationships. One thing you feel better about when you’re in year two is that you know everyone so much better, and they know you and you know one another’s needs and expectations, and so that first year is really a grind from a standpoint of if you really want to get to know one another, that takes time, and time is the one thing you don’t have much of.

“I really think it has a lot to do with the personnel that’s returning and just how much experience you have coming back. You see some people take over teams that were very experienced and had showed that they could win, felt that they could win, and the relationships would be developed when you were doing that. Then other times, you take on situations where you don’t have quite as much experienced personnel, you have quite a transition as to who’s going to play, and you throw that together with the lack of time to build as strong of relationships you’d like to have, that makes it a difficult year. Really, it still comes back to the personnel involved.”

Pitt would appear to be somewhere in between those.

Once more, via Fanblogs, Athlon Sports has the next batch of cheerleaders for whom you can vote.

Click on the photo of the Indiana cheerleader and you will see two good reasons why she is the leading vote getter at this time.

This one is being hosted by ParadigmBlog (another Michigan blogger).

1. We are now 1/3 of the way through the season and things are starting to shake out. With that in mind, who are your picks to win each of the BCS conferences, as well as your choice for an at-large berth from a non-BCS league (none is an option)?

Big East: Louisville
ACC: Miami
SEC: Florida
PAC 10: USC
Big 11: Ohio St.
Big 12: Texas
At-Large: ND

Not particularly exciting, but that’s the way it seems to be shaking out in my view. Shakiest pick would be Miami. I can still see VT gakking some time in October. Too many years of doing it, especially when they get this high in the rankings and bandwagon.

Alabama would need luck in staying healthy to win the SEC. They lack depth for the whole season.

Louisville may have blown that game to USF, but after seeing the Hoopies struggle with East Carolina they aren’t ready.

2. What team currently out of the Top 10 (AP or Coach’s, doesn’t really matter), has the best chance of ending up in the title game?

I hate to type this, but Notre Dame. This is the title game. Not just getting into the BCS. Since I doubt Alabama can do it, and Michigan State arguably has the same problem with concerns about injuries and depth, that leaves the Domers. They have the schedule to allow them to rise all the way to the top. To do it, they’d have to beat Tennessee and USC, but then there’d also be no argument that they deserve to go.

3. When you’re watching a game, what type of fan can you absolutely not tolerate being around?

You know, this year I’ve got a new entry for the bottom of the list. The “State the Obvious” guy (SOG). Encountered this freak breed at the ND-Pitt game. Guy was a ND fan a row behind me. After every play, when they announced the yardage gained or lost on a play, he’d repeat it to his buddy like it was unique news.

PA Voice: Darius Walker for 4 yards on the carry on 1st down. 2nd and 6.

SOG: (Clapping and turning to his buddy) We got 4 yards! Only 6 more for a first down!
…
PA Voice: Palko’s pass complete to Gill for 3 yards. 3rd and 2.

SOG: They got 3 yards. They only need to get 2 yards for a first down! Stop them D!

Imagine that for an entire game.

Bonus: A sizable portion of Michigan fandom is in full meltdown mode (myself especially). Some have chosen to sequester themselves for this weekend’s game against MSU to avoid scaring children, causing long-term psychological damage to those in the near vicinity, and most especially to avoid jail (I’m not saying this is me per se). Anyways, we need some help. Give us some ideas for replacements for LLLyd Carr (3 L’s for the number of losses per year, and no O this year either). Assistant coaches, head coaches elsewhere, etc. Please, give us something to look forward to.

Paul Hackett. He’s an offensive and QB Guru, you know. Joe Montana and Curtis Martin like him. Pitt and USC fans can guarantee that you won’t have 3 losses in a year. 3 wins, you have a shot.

This will be a game to test the defense. They were treated harshly by Notre Dame , and have claimed to have made strides and improvements. While the raw numbers may suggest they have improved — 19th ranked D and only 1 offensive TDs in the last 3 games — they came against the 102nd (Ohio) and 107th (Nebraska) offenses in Div. 1-A and a Div. 1-AA team ranked 60th in offense. (In fairness, ND is presently the 13th ranked offense.) Coach Wannstedt actually can state this with a straight face.

“In my opinion, behind Notre Dame they are the second most talented offense we’ve faced,” Wannstedt said.

Rutgers has a good offense and balance on it. In Brian Leonard, the teams leading rusher, there is a power back that is tough to bring down.

“He’s a very, very underrated player,” [H.B.] Blades said. “He’s the best running back we’ll face this year. In fact, he is the best running back I’ve played against since I’ve been in college. That combination of power and speed is amazing. Some of the runs he makes in the open field, he can cut like a tailback. He jumps over safeties when they try and cut him, but then he runs over linebackers and defensive linemen — his combination of power and speed just makes him the best at what he does.”

He’s 6′ 2″, 235 pounds and plays at the fullback position even if he gets the majority of the touches. He has averaged 100 yards/game. Leonard rushes behind a good offensive line. A line that also protects the QB — allowing only 3 sacks this year.

That improved offensive line is part of the reason, historically errant, Rutgers QB Ryan Hart has only tossed one interception this year. Hart has TE Clark Harris and WR Tres Moses, best TE and the second or third best WR in the Big East, as a targets. Hart, though, is looking at this game as one of his last chances at redemption.

His two previous games against Pittsburgh are pretty much microcosms of his career. He set his career-high with 384 passing yards against the Panthers in 2003, doing so in large part because Rutgers faced a 42-7 halftime deficit in a 42-32 loss.

He was 31-of-57 for 351 yards against the Panthers last season after overcoming a stomach virus that nearly kept him out of the lineup, but again accumulated big numbers playing catch-up against a zone in a 41-17 loss. Rutgers faced a 38-3 halftime deficit in that game, in large part because the ailing Hart threw four interceptions and lost a fumble.

This goes with the corners yesterday talking about their own hope for redemption. Call me crazy, but I’m sensing a theme.

Rutgers also had a bye week that they used to work on the “fundamentals.” (Doesn’t every team with a bye week always claim that they worked on the fundamentals? Why doesn’t any team claim they were working on gadget plays and goofy crap. Claim that you practiced with Defensive Ends taking handoffs or something.)

Rutgers defense, though, is suspect. It is never a good sign when your leading tackler is a safety. That would be Freshman Courtney Greene. Greene, by the way, tweaked his hamstring in practice this week but is still expected to play. One of their CBs, Senior Corey Barnes, is only 5’8″.

Pitt needs to use their size advantage with Lee, Kinder and Strong in the passing game. There are those, who think Lee’s talents as a deep threat are not being used (gee, you think?).

Pitt may have to use the passing game more, regardless. The depth at RB is definitely shrunk with injuries to Brandon Mason and Marcus Furman (last week he was switched back to RB) making them still unlikely to play and LaRod Stephens-Howling questionable after missing 2 straight days of practice. Rashad Jennings should be back, but it is unclear how much work he can handle. Kirkley and Murphy should see the bulk of the running plays.

Of course, that still requires the offensive line to play better. 14 sacks allowed in 4 games. No other team in the Big East has allowed more than 8.

On special teams, Pitt’s punt returns have improved — not that that would have been particularly difficult — with Darrelle Revis handling them.

The Friday night game makes it something of a short week, but it isn’t that bad.

Forgive a little self-promotion, but what the hell.

As some of you are aware, I also do blogging regarding politics and events in Cleveland and Ohio. I do this under the aegis of Cleveland.com.

The editor of Cleveland.com, Denise Polverine, apparently nominated me for an Online Journalism Award for “commentary.” No one ever bothered to tell me, but it’s probably just as well.

Well, the finalists were announced a couple days ago. Turns out, I’m a finalist in the category of “Online Commentary (Medium).” The “Medium” means the size of the overall website in terms of monthly hits.

Apparently this is the first time in some 7 years that Cleveland.com has had anyone or anything make it to the finalist stage.

The only negative, is I don’t get to go to NYC for the awards show.

I should also mentioned that the awards are sponsored in part by the Annenburg School of Communication (i.e., J-School) at USC. So until the awards are announced some time at the end of October, I’d appreciate it if the Trojans continue to win so I don’t have to take them from the #1 spot in my blogpoll ballot.