What kind of sick world are we living in, when you have to legitimately consider whether Rutgers should make the list?

1. Southern California — Big wheel keep on turning…
2. Texas — Dismantled a good, but overrated Texas Tech team
3. Virginia Tech — If they beat BC to avoid the late October collapse that plagued them in the Big East, I will have to believe in them
4. Georgia — At the beginning of the season, I never dreamed I would write that they look shaky without Shockley.
5. Miami — DNP
6. Alabama — A defense that just might carry them
7. Notre Dame — I don’t want to be impressed and admiring of the Irish, but…
8. UCLA — Still unbeaten
9. Louisiana State — Survive and advance in the SEC
10. Florida State — Beat-up on Duke, yippee
11. Ohio State — Beat-up on Indiana, yippee
12. Auburn — With an average field goal kicker, they win at LSU
13. Boston College — DNP
14. Texas Tech — Welcome back to reality
15. Penn State — Oooh, Illinois and Ron Zook
16. West Virginia — DNP
17. Wisconsin — Strong defense, and the offense is doing it through the air?
18. TCU — Sure, why not
19. Oregon — For now, but they lost their QB
20. Northwestern — They can score. Only a late choke by their D kept them from undefeated to this point in the Big 11
21. Fresno State — I guess
22. Florida — DNP
23. Colorado — I’m open to other suggestions
24. Michigan — Well, they won 2 in a row
25. Stanford — I’m impressed with their performance so far

In: Stanford, Michigan, Colorado and Northwestern
Out: Tennessee, Michigan State, Nebraska and Oregon State
Standing By: Texas A&M, Missouri and Rutgers?

Hope everyone is ready to start shifting gears a little bit this week. With Pitt’s bye and the Big East Basketball Media “Slam” kicking off tomorrow, there will be a bit more b-ball blogging.

Coach Jamie Dixon will be doing the NYC/ESPN2/Big East Coaches media scene tomorrow.

BIG EAST coaches also have a variety of other shows built into their busy media day schedules.

On Wednesday morning, Notre Dame’s Mike Brey, Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon and Villanova’s Jay Wright will be on ESPN’s “Cold Pizza” (8-10 AM, ESPN2). The two-hour, weekday morning show is hosted by Jay Crawford and Dana Jacobson.

Following the media day festivities, Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun will be a guest on “Mike and the Mad Dog”. Hosted by Mike Francesa and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo – “Mike and the Mad Dog” is a daily sports radio afternoon drive show on WFAN in New York, 660 AM.

Five BIG EAST coaches – Calhoun, Dixon, Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, Georgetown’s John Thompson III and Providence’s Tim Welsh – will appear on ESPN’s “Quite Frankly” (Wednesday, 6:30-7:30 PM, ESPN2). The show is hosted by Stephen A. Smith.

This may be a silly hope, but I am praying that somehow, some way, someone in the Pitt Athletic Department sat Coach Dixon down over the summer and convinced him to loosen up — just a little. Don’t become a mute who only speaks in coachspeak cliches. Be a little more candid, show some humor (that rumors suggest he has) and try to be somewhat engaging. The whole first year, he was a coach, all we ever heard was that he had some minor commercial acting experience growing up and in college (a Bud Light commercial). Use a little of it.

And for God’s sake, please don’t say that this year will be a “challenge.”

At the Backyard Brawl, this year, WVU will be retiring the first number of a player in school’s history. The #75 of Sam Huff, a player from the 50s who played guard and tackle. He is already in the college and pro football hall of fames.

Amazingly, the school never retired basketball great Jerry West’s number. They will retire his #44, 2 days later when they play LSU.

The Hoopies have also halted sale of tickets for the Backyard Brawl. Looks like the sellout is official.

Freshman RB LaRod Stephens-Howling has become the darling of Johnstown, PA this season. Often Pitt stories they run are courtesy of Dale Grdnic who’s pieces also run in the Harrisburg paper. The difference in comparison, though, is in the copy for the Johnstown paper, which will often include extra emphasis on Stephens-Howling.

Stephens-Howling gets slurped again, in this piece about area kids in college programs.

There is already a noticeable buzz in the air every time the 5-foot-7, 165-pound speedster from Johnstown gets the ball. Pitt fans have learned quickly that Stephens-Howling has the explosiveness to make a big play any time he touches the ball.
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But statistics tell only part of the story for Stephens-Howling. The most impressive play that the freshman made on Saturday had more to do with quick thinking than quick running.

Stephens-Howling burst through the line on his way to a 35-yard gain during the second quarter. Realizing that he would be caught by a Syracuse defender with an angle on him, Stephens-Howling covered the ball with both hands.

It was a heady play for a freshman. The move may have cost him a step — and ultimately a yard or 2 — but it ensured that he held onto the ball. And while the woman in the second level might not have noticed it, you can bet coach Dave Wannstedt did.

Hometown love.

The Pitt News has a list of some Pitt players in the NFL, presently. It includes what, if anything, they did this past week. It isn’t a complete list.

There is also an interview with Mark May talking about Pitt — today and yesterday.

Three weeks ago, on national television, ESPN college football analyst Mark May picked Pitt as the most disappointing team in college football this season. However, the former Pitt offensive lineman still sees a bright future for his alma mater.

May, who was recently inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, was honored at halftime of Pitt’s 34-17 win over Syracuse Saturday at Heinz Field. In an interview Thursday with The Pitt News he defended his assessment of the Panthers.

“Nationally, if you are pre-season ranked in the top 25 in just about every poll,” May said, “and then you proceed to lose to Rutgers and Ohio, what does that say?”

Considering Pitt’s current winning streak, May acknowledges that they have turned the corner on their season.

Pitt hasn’t necessarily turned the corner. All they have done is applied the brakes and stopped skidding.

We are back to crime and punishment. Steven Walker, if you can dimly recall the beginning of August, was the former Pitt player charged with murder in Canton, Ohio of a 17-year old.

His trial is underway. No one is innocent.

His trial began Monday in Stark County Common Pleas Court. Testimony is expected to conclude today.

The first day featured conflicting statements by three of the prosecution’s eyewitnesses. But their testimony was consistent that Walker shot Cheek.

Two of Cheek’s friends, 17-year-old Aubrey Williams and 18-year-old Julius Edwards, testified that they saw Walker shoot Cheek. And store clerk Hussin al-Muzerwi said he watched Walker pull something from near his waist and chase after Cheek. He said he then heard gunshots.

The weapon, believed to be a 9 mm pistol, was not recovered.

Defense attorney Wayne Graham said in opening statements that his client didn’t shoot Cheek.

According to the testimony, Cheek and three friends went to the store July 29 to buy white T-shirts so they could go to a bar, even though they were well below the legal drinking age of 21. Cheek and Edwards were wearing tank tops that weren’t allowed in the bar.

When they arrived at the store, there was a confrontation between Cheek and Walker, who was upset that rival gang members were there, according to testimony. Cheek punched Walker because he wouldn’t shut up, Edwards said.

The question is whether the jury will believe the witnesses, given their conflicting testimony. For example, Williams testified that he, Cheek and Edwards were gang members. But later, Edwards testified that Cheek and Williams weren’t gang members.

Williams also admitted he possessed crack cocaine at the time and said he intended to “distribute” it.

Sad story, looking for a sad ending.

That’s a big topic today. What is up with Pitt’s hideous starts to games?

Pitt has gotten off to sluggish starts in four of its past six games, making blunders and falling behind early against Nebraska, Rutgers, South Florida and Syracuse.

The upside is the Panthers (4-4, 3-1 Big East) were able to recover in time to beat USF and Syracuse, two key victories that have put them in the hunt for the conference title.

Coach Dave Wannstedt will take a comeback win any day, but he would prefer to see his team dominate from the start.

“We’re after perfection here,” Wannstedt said. “That’s the challenge we have as a football team and I have as a head coach — to really get our team to eliminate those mistakes that put us in a hole early.”
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“It’s not a physical thing,” Wannstedt said. “Is it that we’re overconfident? I would hope not. Is it that we’re not focused? Our practices were great (last) week.

“I think it might be a little bit of that whole mental maturity thing, of being mature enough to … not become stressed, like, ‘I’ve got to make the play,’ rather than just being poised. We’ve got to find a way to come out and play poised football from the beginning.”

I think a lot of it is mental. I’m not so sure it comes from trying to make the big play. Honestly, the play calling makes that kind of difficult — usually short passes and runs. It seems more from fear of screwing up. The offensive line, especially, doesn’t seem to pick things up in its protection and blocking until it gets burned badly. It just seems to have snowballed, so that everyone on offense comes out tight and with the mentality, “don’t screw-up.”

It isn’t just starting slowly, it is the way the offense has given up field position and the ball.

Pitt was fortunate that it was able to battle back and beat the Bulls and the Orange, but the hole was too deep against the Scarlet Knights, despite a furious second-half rally.

A common thread in all three games has been penalties, turnovers, bad execution and poor special teams. With Louisville’s offense, a slow start by the Panthers could mean a 30-0 hole instead of a 10-0 deficit.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said yesterday that he doesn’t think the slow starts are a reflection of not being prepared. He said the opposite might be true — the team is too excited and tries to force big plays instead of playing within their capabilities. He said the biggest issue has been consistency, and that’s what he’ll focus on in the days leading up to the Louisville game.

“The whole thing is the mentality to be consistent and let the plays take care of themselves,” Wannstedt said during the Big East coaches weekly teleconference. “We don’t need to force plays. We have to take what they give us. We are focused, we are ready to play but the word to our players is that we need to be more consistent and consistently good. We just need to let big plays take care of themselves.”

In the first quarter this season, Pitt has been out-scored 51-29. Take out the YSU game and it is 51-20.

Here are the scoring numbers by quarter:

1 — 2 — 3— 4 —- Total
29 – 61 – 69 – 51 —- 210 — Pitt
51 – 62 – 28 — 9 —- 156 — Opp

Oddly enough, only the Rutgers game resulted in a loss from the really bad 1st quarter start. Still the chances for Pitt coming storming back on the road against Louisville would not be particularly encouraging.

Well, the players have a few days to just work out and get healthy. The coaching staff is out on the recruiting trail and practices won’t resume until Thursday. From a recruiting standpoint, the late-season bye would appear to have been a good thing. It would have been a little harder to sell a kid on Pitt and Coach Wannstedt in the middle of the slide.

Meanwhile, down in Louisville the focus is on getting healthy and working on the fundamentals during their bye week.

“I think we need it,” U of L coach Bobby Petrino said Monday during his weekly press conference. “It’s been a pretty good grind, so I like the fact we have a bye week now.”

Petrino gave the players Sunday and Monday off, then plans hard work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. He said about half of each practice will be devoted to individual technique and fundamentals, with the other half dedicated to preparations for Pitt. The Cards will start their normal game week preparation on Saturday.

Their wide receiver Mario Urrutia looks to still be out, though, for the game with an injury.

Louisville, in the wake of their loss to WVU had shaken up the secondary for the following game. The younger players got the start. The competition in their secondary appears to be wide open at this time.