Coach Wannstedt’s weekly press conference seemed like a more upbeat affair than in previous weeks. The only real injury is a twisted knee for Junior Defensive Lineman Charles Sallet. He’s day-to-day.

He talked a bit about LaRod Stephens-Howling as the change of pace, exciting back who should get more touches. At the same time he pointed out that Stephens-Howling has a skill at avoiding taking direct shots while running, and how good running backs with long careers have that ability. I was a little bothered that he seems to think that Rashad Jennings and Ray Kirkley are that similar in running styles. I don’t see that at all, but it unfortunately may explain why Kirkley keeps getting run up the middle lately.

There was praise for the offensive line, especially the tackles. He says he still wants to keep getting more players in to the game including John Bachman, Marcel Pestano, Darrell Strong and Bill Stull.

On the subject of Syracuse, he called them a veteran team.

The Pitt game notes (PDF) are available regarding the Syracuse game. Oddly in the game notes, there is no mention of the fact that it is homecoming and that at halftime they will be honoring new College Football Hall of Fame inductee Mark May and the 1980 Pitt football team. I’m guessing there might be a few of his teammates on hand.

Pitt received a verbal (via Big East Basketball Report) from Austin Wallace.

Austin Wallace knew what he wanted. First off, the 6-9 power forward from LaSalle wanted to go straight to college, not to prep school like some colleges wanted him to. He wanted a campus out of the city, but not too far. And most of all, Wallace wanted a team that had players he was comfortable with.

Wallace, it turns out, wanted Pittsburgh.

Saturday night, Wallace called Panthers head coach Jamie Dixon and gave him a verbal commitment.

“They told me to come with my toughness and they would help me get to another level,” Wallace said. “They said they would make me a better player. I was comfortable there. I didn’t want to go to a school because of a head coach or a coach, because what if he leaves? I wanted a school where I liked the players and the school.

“I wanted Pittsburgh. They had one scholarship left and I didn’t want to wait and have to go to a second choice.”
…
Louisville had shown some interest in Wallace early in the summer, but wanted him to go to prep school. Wallace, a B student who is on track for freshman eligibility, did not want to wait. Other schools – Florida Atlantic, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Marquette and Purdue – wanted him right away. The difference came when Wallace visited Pitt last weekend.

Most indications had him choosing between Pitt and Florida Atlantic (where former ND & UNC Coach Matt Doherty is now coaching).

Wallace appears to be something of a project, to judge the recruiting sites evaluations. He isn’t highly rated at the moment, but is considered to have a lot of room to develop very quickly. He recently had a growth spurt to go from around 6’7″ to 6’9″. He needs to get stronger, though. He’s still sticklike at around 210 pounds.

Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News has a post on Krauser coming back to Pitt and advice to him if he wants to raise his stock: involve the rest of the team.

Last year, there frequently weren’t many options that seemed more appealing than Krauser trying to get himself a shot. It might change this season. Inside, 7-footer Aaron Gray is a better pure post-up player than predecessor Chris Taft, who relied almost exclusively on his athleticism. Power forward Levon Kendall now is best-known for scoring 40 points in Canada’s upset victory over the U.S. national team at the U-21 World Championship. The team’s wing players still are young, but in their second seasons instead of their first.

If Krauser works to involve them all, his own shooting percentages should increase as the quality of his shot attempts improves. Scouts’ views of his ability to manage a game could be enhanced. He has played for teams that have made three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, two of which reached the Sweet 16. He could make it four in a row, five for the program. That’s not guaranteed, but this is: Krauser will complete his degree requirements in December. That cannot be a bad thing.

Krauser will have to remember that. Shoot-first point guards are a dime-a-dozen in the NBA. The ones that distribute and make the players around them better are the special point guards.

Season tickets went on sale to the general public today. These are tickets with out the blind/priority “donation” requirements.

The Athletic Department also announced a new program for student tickets. The previous system was apparently plagued by problems and glitches that caused a lot of hard feelings amongst students in the way the system (didn’t) functioned. Hopefully this will work better.

Amazing what winning 2 straight can do for your optimism.

Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko is starting to get that old feeling again, and that’s good news for the Panthers, whose offensive struggles early in the season have cost them a chance to win at least two games.

Palko played his best game of the season Saturday in the Panthers’ 31-17 win against the South Florida Bulls at Heinz Field as he completed 15 of 21 passes for 203 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Not coincidentally, the Panthers’ offense was more efficient than it had been all season.

Palko’s performance, in fact, was somewhat reminiscent of the way he played down the stretch last year when he led the Panthers to six wins in their final seven games and a berth in the Bowl Championship Series Fiesta Bowl. He said the reason he and the offense have played increasingly better each week is simple: Experience.

“I’m still learning things but I am getting more comfortable,” Palko said, “and we as a team are getting more comfortable. I know people don’t want to hear excuses, but we’re in a new system with new coaches, and sometimes it takes a little bit of time to settle in and get a good feel for what we’re trying to get accomplished on offense.

“You have to remember, I am almost like a rookie in this after playing three years in a different system. I’m starting to settle in, though, so it won’t be long before that guy you remember from last year is back.”

Isn’t it startling the difference when the offensive line gives him a little more time to throw? Palko was still sacked 5 more times — bringing the season total up to a conference worst 24 — but on about 3 of them they were more the result of him holding the ball too long then simply the O-line getting run over.

Next, is Syracuse. Last year was the legendary “Lame Duck” game, which exceeded my expectations as both teams lost coaches. I always worry about Syracuse. I feel like I’m channelling Lou Holtz with on of his “Temple scares the hell out of me,” type pronouncements in the week leading up to the game.

Sure they are 0-3 in the Big East and have only a win against Buffalo. Still, I did see them play a good, close loss against UVA. I just see a very desperate team that Pitt, far too often has not put away when given a chance.

They are, though, struggling horribly in the first year under Greg Robinson. They are still trying to adjust to a West Coast Offense. And how desperate is Robinson for trying to excuse the bad performance? He’s actually using Pitt and Coach Wannstedt as a positive model in a press conference yesterday.

Robinson on keeping the team confident:
“That’s probably the biggest task of all. I like our players. They’re resilient. I’m not going to take that lightly and I’m not going to assume that it’s all huggy-kissy and all that. No. We all have to dig in. I talked to our team. Pitt was 1-4. They were 1-4 and one time ranked 23rd in the country. They hung in there, now all of the sudden, they won two in a row. I guarantee you they didn’t feel very good. I think that we have those kinds of people. Like I say to you, it’s an issue; one that we’re sensitive to.”

That’s inspiring. And sensitive, and very tender.

Syracuse has their game notes available (PDF). A simple tale of the tape comparison:

SU OFFENSE — UP DEFENSE
15.3 ——- Scoring ——– 19.9
264.5 — Total Yardage —- 322.6
117.3 — Rushing Yardage — 158.6
147.2 —Passing Yardage — 164.0
63.6 —– Total Plays ——- 69.7
36.5 —- Rushing Plays —– 42.1
27.2 —– Passing Plays —– 27.6
4.2 —— Avg. Per Play —– 4.6
3.2 —— Avg. Per Rush —– 3.8
5.4 —— Avg. Per Pass —— 5.9
11.0 —– Avg. Per Catch —– 12.1
2.3 ——– Turnovers ——— 1.2

SU DEFENSE ————— UP OFFENSE
22.8 ———- Scoring ———– 25.1
339.7 ——- Total Yardage —— 347.7
168.2 —— Rushing Yardage —- 121.1
171.5 ——- Passing Yardage —- 226.6
68.3 ———- Total Plays ——– 69.1
41.8 ——— Rushing Plays ——- 37.0
26.5 ——— Passing Plays ——- 32.1
5.0 ———- Avg. Per Play ——– 5.0
4.0 ——— Avg. Per Rush ——– 3.3
6.5 ———- Avg. Per Pass ——– 7.0
12.4 ——– Avg. Per Catch ——- 12.9
2.5 ———– Turnovers ———- 2.0

According to the numbers, ‘Cuse isn’t particularly good on offense or defense.

And for the Big East, according to conventional wisdom, that isn’t a good thing.

You can excuse the commissioner for perhaps not sharing in the euphoria.

West Virginia, which is without a marquee player and is under the radar nationally, has the inside track for the Big East’s automatic BCS bid.

Louisville, the preseason favorite and the team the Big East was counting on to be its showcase program, is yet to win a league game. Three weeks ago, it was embarrassed in a 45-14 loss against USF.

“Short term, it probably wasn’t the best result (for the Big East),” Tranghese said. “But long term, I think it was the first indication of what we believe — that South Florida’s got a chance to be very good.”

On second thought, maybe not.

On Saturday, USF was hammered by Pitt. And USF barely showed a pulse in losses against Penn State and Miami.
…
The Big East has an 18-12 record against non-conference foes this season — but only 12 of those wins came against Division I-A programs. The league has gone 0-5 against ranked teams and is 4-9 against teams from other BCS conferences.
…
“We still have our ups and downs, in terms of wins and losses,” Tranghese said. “But at least we know who we are, what we are and what we’re trying to do. I think this is the first step in that whole process.”

Just about everyone (aside from Syracuse) is still alive for winning the Big East. I mean, Pitt is still under .500, but is now 3rd in the Big East. More disturbing, Rutgers is 2nd.

Mediocrity pervades all of college football this season.

Go ahead, pick the best team in the Big 11. Michigan State has lost to Michigan and OSU. OSU has lost to Penn St. Penn St. has lost to Michigan. Michigan has lost to Wisconsin and Minnesota. Minnesota has lost to Penn St. and Wisconsin. Wisconsin has lost to Northwestern. Northwestern has lost to Penn St. Iowa lost to OSU. There are a bunch of good teams, but have any of them looked like they will be top-10 teams by the end of the season? Which one are you that sure of what to expect from game to game?

One entire division of the Big 12 is a crap shoot, and after Texas and maybe Texas Tech the rest of the conference is easily dismissed.

The SEC is tough as always, but after Georgia it’s starting to look like “any given Saturday.”

In the ACC, VT looks like the best but they have consecutive games coming in late October — their traditional collapse point — versus BC, Miami and then at UVA.

It is more acute for the Big East because this is the first year of the new alignment, and the schools have not represented well outside of the conference. The only team to look even decent out of conference was Louisville with big blowouts against Oregon State and North Carolina. But they tanked against USF and choked the game away versus WVU. Pitt — well we know that deal.

WVU is about the closest to having any credibility, but no one actually is sure. They beat Maryland — who may be improving — but then struggled to hang on against East Carolina. The VT game seems to be looking better, even though they lost, but that is contingent on the Hokies continuing to dominate.

So while all of college football seems to have taken on an NFL-esque flatlining, parity look for the season, the Big East hasn’t been able to provide even a Cincinnati Bengal illusory team.

This is how you know expectations for USF have risen. The performance against Pitt was not viewed as a positive event.

All week the Pittsburgh Panthers repeatedly said they were worried about the University of South Florida’s speed. They couldn’t stop talking about the Bulls’ overall quickness.

They meant it as a compliment.

On Saturday afternoon in their first Big East road game, the Bulls showed speed in an unwanted area. After controlling the opening quarter, USF collapsed in a rapid-fire meltdown of turnovers and missed tackles, handing Pitt a 31-17 victory.

“I thought we played horrible,” USF coach Jim Leavitt said. “I didn’t think we battled adversity very well.”

USF Coach Leavitt was apparently really pissed about the way his team played.

Rarely, if ever, has Leavitt been so angry after a game. He let his team know how he felt, and he is likely to reinforce that when it is time to review the tape of this debacle.

“You can’t win with turnovers and missed assignments,” running back Andre Hall said.

And then he shook his head.

“We had a 10-0 lead on those guys — we slowed down, rolled over,” he said.

The Bulls faced neither a hostile atmosphere nor a daunting opponent in this one, but they weren’t up to the job. These are the kind of losses you look back upon with pain when the season is done. The Bulls should have won here, no question.

Horrible. Just horrible.

Anyone care to argue?

Sadly, it’s true with respect to the environment. Pitt fans just did not show up for this game. We got to the lot a little later than anticipated — it was around 11:20am as we came in sight of the stadium and the lots surrounding Heinz Field. They were disturbingly thin. It was an absolutely perfect fall day. In the mid-60s, sunny, a bit windy — but not biting. No excuses, and no people. More students than last weekend with Cinci, but the overall turnout was very disappointing.

To some degree I understand bad fan support the last couple of games. Pitt didn’t just get off to a bad start, it got off to a pathetic, humiliating beginning resulting in national humiliation. Really there is no other way to put it. All 4 of Pitt’s losses came on national TV exposure. The three Pitt wins have come with no TV broadcasts at all. This has hurt.

Still it is disappointing and frustrating for Pitt fans who support the team. I know I was a little pissed that I make the 150 mile trek and see that people within 5-30 miles can’t be bothered.

Sorry about the digression. Back to the Tampa area meida pissing on their team.

South Florida had a 10-point lead on the road against a team that isn’t very good. The Bulls had blocked a punt, forced a fumble, and were basically kicking Pitt’s butt. They had only to put the Panthers away and stay undefeated in the Big East.

That’s what championship teams do.

Alas, instead of putting their foot on Pitt’s throat, the Bulls grasped their own windpipe and didn’t let go until a marvelous opportunity was squandered — oddly fitting, since it’s about the only thing they held onto with regularity all day.

Yeesh. The media really hammered the QBs.

We tend to focus on the quarterbacks, and, lordy, they were bad. …

Look, Pat Julmiste is a great young man and a standup guy, and we don’t mean to be overly harsh. But there was an opportunity here that doesn’t come along that often, and the Bulls — particularly their quarterback — let it vanish in a wave of mistakes that, frankly, shouldn’t be happening this late in the season.

“We’re halfway through the year. We should be sound on our assignments,” Julmiste said.

No argument there, either.

What is strange, is I didn’t think Julmiste was that bad. He wasn’t great, but his receivers were really bad. Yet no one down there is talking about the dropped passes, the alligator arms and the lack of effort from the WRs to help. Instead, the blame is just getting heaped on the QBs.

Julmiste, by the way, seems to be a little sick of being the whipping boy by the coaches and the media for the teams mistakes on offense.

“After a few turnovers and dropping the ball, what would anybody do?” Leavitt said about replacing Julmiste. “That wasn’t a hard decision and then Courtney can’t come in there and do what he did.”

What Denson did was throw an interception on third-and-8 from USF’s 10. Pitt’s Bernard Lay returned the interception 11 yards to USF’s 8.

Pittsburgh scored on the next play to make it 31-17.

Julmiste said he wasn’t surprised he was replaced for the second time in as many games.

“I don’t go against Coach’s judgment to put Courtney to in,” Julmiste said. “Obviously he [saw] when I was in, we didn’t get anything going so he tried to get a spark with Courtney.

“I don’t want to accept [getting pulled], but at the same token that’s the way it is around here. Coach expects perfect play out of his quarterbacks and they were looking for somebody else to find it.”

After Denson’s interception, Julmiste returned and finished the game. Julmiste completed 18 of 35 for 222 yards and one touchdown. He also had 20 rushes — several were avoiding sacks — for 58 yards.

There were some attempts at finding positives — like the fact that Greg Lee was from Tampa.

“It’s exciting to play against guys that I played with or against in high school and this is the only time this year I get to do that,” said Lee, who registered his fourth 100-yard game of the season and the 10th of his career, which leads all active receivers in the Big East. “I wouldn’t mind playing these guys every week.”

Even as he likes to further twist the knife on the Bulls.

“Of course it’s satisfying doing it against a team that didn’t recruit you out of high school,” Lee said.

While on the subject of poor fan support, USF only had 500 or so fans attend the Sun Dome where they were showing the ESPN360 broadcast on screens there. With the Sun Dolls providing additional entertainment.

Fans that attended blamed it on insufficient advertising.

Finally, USF shares Raymond James Stadium with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers like Pitt shares Heinz Field with the Steelers. Well, apparently not nearly so nice a relationship.

Like USF, Pittsburgh shares its stadium with an NFL team, but Heinz Field is much kinder to its college tenants than Raymond James Stadium. Even with the Steelers playing a home game today, Pittsburgh had its name in the north end zone, and the Panthers have their name prominently displayed around the stadium.

It’s an understated, sometimes underappreciated thing, but it is where Pitt plays and there are full-time representations and signage for Pitt all around and in the stadium.

I’d call the perspective from the local papers mixed but towards the positive. Gene Collier was probably the roughest with an analogy that he worked hard to jam in there.

Though it had been evident for more than a month, Pitt and South Florida got together yesterday to demonstrate beyond all contradiction that they are two teams who have no idea what’s going to happen when the ball is snapped.

They’re both the offensive equivalent of those claw-drop amusement games. You might hit it just right and come up with a stuffed animal, but probably not. Better luck next time.

Combining for five turnovers, a blocked punt, a half-dozen dropped passes and three giveaways in their own half of the field in the first half alone, the Panthers and Bulls strung together 147 supposedly offensive plays, some of them even swerving toward competence.

But somehow, despite using something like 27 different offensive line combinations, Pitt stalked out of half-empty Heinz Field with a pivotal, 31-17 Big East Conference win, pivotal in the sense that it’s the win that gives them a reasonable shot at legitimate mediocrity.

But even he seemed to think that there was some progress.

… Generally, the Panthers’ most notable accomplishment was the one Wannstedt described rather aptly. They were “able to mentally not come apart.”

Well, that’s something.

Beat writer Paul Zeise was far more upbeat about what he saw.

There have been times this season that Pitt, despite losing four of its first six games, has shown glimpses that it could be a good team. The Panthers would play well in spurts, for a quarter or a half, but never had they put together a complete game.

That is until yesterday, when they met the South Florida Bulls, a team that came into the game as the Big East Conference’s darling because it had knocked off Louisville a month ago.

Pitt played its best offensive game of the season, beat the Bulls in every phase and came away with a 31-17 win that was, if not a thing of beauty, highly satisfying.

I wouldn’t go that far. The first quarter was shaky to be kind. The offense by committing 2 quick turnovers put the team in a real hole. Special teams in this game was anything but. A blocked punt, some unremarkable return efforts and lousy coverage (covered up by some dumb penalties by USF).

Still, the offense did enough and the defense executed the game plan it should against a one-dimensional offense like USF: stop the run and make them throw the ball. I admit freely to being unsure that Pitt would follow that plan or execute it. They did. USF got one big play from Andre Hall on a short pass that he blew by everyone for 76 yards — about 1/3 of USF’s total passing yards.

Hall was mostly neutralized by Pitt forcing USF to throw. He had 75 yards on the ground on only 18 carries. He had 145 more yards on 8 catches. Hall had 220 of USF’s 368 yards of offense.

Minimizing those big plays and tackling well were among the Panthers’ top priorities yesterday, and it showed as they shut out the Bulls in the second half and held the speedy Hall, the conference’s second-leading rusher, to 80 yards on 19 carries, including a long run of 9 yards.

“We’ve played pretty solid on defense the past few weeks, but we’ve been hungry for turnovers.” said Blades.

“You saw how they can change the game in an instant, and that’s why we, as a defense, feel it is our job to create them. We just needed to change the momentum of the game, and turnovers are an easy way to do that.

“Then to have the offense score touchdowns, that just made us even more hungry.”

Wannstedt’s summation was succinct.

“We didn’t make many mistakes,”

“I thought our tackling was, for the most part, good. We gave up one score, the quick slant to Hall, but, other than that play, I was really pleased with our defense today.”

113 of USF’s total yardage came in the last 5+ minutes. Aside from those, USF had only one sustained drive of more than 7 plays and 30 yards. That resulted in a missed field goal.

LaRod Stephens-Howling made his return noticeable ripping off 92 yards on 13 carries — 41 on one play.

“It felt real good to get back out there,” Stephens-Howling said. “I feel real good now. You don’t think about injuries when you’re in the game, only on the sideline, so I just want to be in the game as much as possible. I think I was in more pain sitting on the sideline, so I’m happy to be back.

“I think I did pretty well in my first game back, but I expect to get better every week. Hopefully, we can continue to improve as a team. It was encouraging to keep running, even when we got down, and that worked out pretty well for us. All of the running backs were glad about that.”

Pitt had a couple chances in the game to put the game completely out of reach but either stalled out the drive or in one case Kirkley had a bad fumble early in the 4th quarter. Pitt was inside the USF 20 and had driven 58 yards quickly when Kirkley just dropped the ball. He was being tackled from the other side, and the ball simply fell out of his hands.

Pitt never seemed to get stressed in this game. The fans were edgy — especially in the 1st quarter — but the team was confident in the way it was playing. Considering the way games have gotten away from Pitt at times this year, that is impressive and props need to be given to Coach Wannstedt for keeping the team even-keeled.

“We’ve just matured,” defensive end Chris McKillop said. “We kept our spirits up and did our jobs they way we’re supposed to.”

“A lot of young guys have grown up now,” linebacker H.B. Blades said. “We came into this game confident. Once you give a young guy confidence, he’s going to go out and rip it up.”

It began to slip away for South Florida on the first play of the second quarter. Palko tossed a screen pass to Lee, who burst 69 yards untouched for a touchdown.

South Florida’s next drive ended after just four plays when running back Ricky Ponton fumbled. Cornerback Darrelle Revis recovered the ball for Pitt at the 44-yard line.

It was the first of three turnovers by the Bulls, and the Panthers converted all of them into scores.

During film study sessions last week, Pitt’s defensive braintrust pointed out that USF had plenty of speed playmakers — but they often were careless when carrying the ball.

Josh Lay ran his mouth the most during the week.

Pitt defensive back Josh Lay, who earlier in the week said he wasn’t concerned about the Bulls’ receivers because they aren’t very physical, said he made sure to back up his talk with his performance. Lay intercepted a pass, was excellent in pass defense and had two tackles for losses.

“Coach told me he didn’t have a problem with what I said, I just needed to go out and back it up,” Lay said.

He was accurate in the statement, and backed it up — holding on to an interception this time.

“Last week, I started running before I caught the ball. This time, I definitely made sure I caught the ball first and then ran,” Lay said with a smile. “I wasn’t going to make the same mistake two weeks in a row. I heard about what happened last week too much from my teammates in practice all week.”

That series was the first and only appearance for USF back-up (and Auburn transfer Courtney Denson).

Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese was in Pittsburgh rather than Morgantown for the game.

More from Florida media later.

Despite spotting USF 10 points and looking like the team was going to do its damnedest to give the game away early, I am cautiously willing to say Pitt showed something today. The Panthers didn’t panic and they played a solid game. The offensive play calling was actually aggressive and it seemed much more friendly to using the pass to set up the run. You know, using the skills of the players, playing with the strengths.

The defensive strategy was solid, straight-forward and smart. Stop the run and make USF beat Pitt with the pass. USF’s QB, Pat Julmiste gets something of a bad rep. The plain fact is that he does not have particularly good receivers. Several drops killed their drives. Johnny Peyton should be a stud for them given his size, speed and apparent strength — all the tools; but he plays very soft. No aggression or passion it would seem.

Palko seemed much better in the pocket — getting some better protection — despite an early turnover and a slightly shaky start. This article by the way, shows why sports writers shouldn’t try to do math.

Palko, whose statistics have dropped off appreciably following the changeover from former coach Walt Harris’ quarterback-friendly West Coast offense to Wannstedt’s more traditional, run-heavy system, finished 15-of-21 for 203 yards and no interceptions. He came into the game with 1,366 yards passing — barely one-third the 3,067 yards he finished with last season.

[Emphasis added.]

Ummm… that’s about 44% of what he had for the season. Barely 1/3 would be around 1050 yards. Considering Pitt was halfway through the season before today’s game, and the emphasis on the run, that total isn’t horrible. Not necessarily what was expected, but not nearly as bad as described.

USF was quite disappointed with its performance.

“I thought we played horrible,” coach Jim Leavitt said after his Bulls lost their fifth road game in a row. “I want to give Pittsburgh credit because you always do that. But I didn’t think we played a very good football game. I’m very disappointed. There’s really no excuse today. None.”

Reads like he really doesn’t want to give Pitt much credit.

I was surprised during the game at the lack of speed from USF. I was expecting a much faster team on both sides of the ball from what I had read and heard. Instead, they were sluggish and not particularly quick.

Hopefully this link will work. This should be a way to see some of the highlights from ESPN Motion.

Heading out in a few minutes, here’s the final news round-up and summary.

Pitt worried about the team speed of USF — especially on defense. On offense they are mainly concerned with RB Andre Hall. Averaging 100+ yards/game and around 5 yards per carry.

With this spread offense and the way Pitt has been burned by mobile QBs, I’m more than a little worried about QB Pat Julmiste. Not sacked much, and has 171 yards on 44 runs — he could end up killing Pitt with his feet. Not being mentioned as an issue in the stories, though.

USF’s offensive lineman Frank Davis is from Panama and likes wearing shoes that fit.

When USF was upsetting Louisville, Greg Lee’s father kept calling him with score updates. Totally disrupting his dinner at the Olive Garden.

Finally, the Bulls are out for revenge. USF Head Coach Jim Leavitt’s quote about having “the dog beat” out of them is used again — or he just likes that phrase a lot.

As always, Zeise’s Q&A is a full read. He starts by unloading on Chicago Bears fans who are still blaming Wannstedt. A spectacular blast, insuring that he will not be taking a job in Chicago any time soon.

The proof is in the pudding. In the past 40 years, the Bears have had 14 winning seasons – and seven of them came with Ditka and another two came at the end of Halas’ career. That means the reality of your Chicago Bears is that they have had five winning seasons in the past 31 years without one of their two legendary coaches in charge. And two of those other five winning seasons came with Wannstedt in charge. And in the six seasons since he’s been gone – the Bears have had just one winning season and given the way they’ve started this year, is there any doubt that we’re witnessing a sixth losing season in eight years?

That tells me the Bears are a bad organization, one of the worst in the NFL, and their track record in the year’s since Wannstedt was fired prove it (did you see the Redskins-Bears game earlier this year? I think that set football back 50 or 60 years to the days of the single wing).

I mean, have you watched your team this year? The only difference between the Cubs and the Bears is one organization is known as the lovable losers the other is simply known as losers

Again, the problems with that organization go way deeper than the coach, so please, spare me the “Dave Wannstedt ruined this organization” drivel because you can’t ruin something that is already in ruins and if you think the Bears are worse off for having him as their coach, you are kidding yourself.

He missed making the obvious point that Wannstedt is also the 3rd winningest coach in Bears history.

The Q&A explains why the game is a 2pm start, what he thinks Pitt has to do to beat USF, a very detailed explanation as to which of the young kids are getting action now — and defending the decision, and ideas for shuffling some players on the O-line.

On the subject of the USF game, the scary thing to me, is that they appear to have a lot of speed on the defense. Pitt has not dealt well with speed this season (on either side of the ball).

According to this article, one of the keys to beating USF is to get ahead early. Don’t make mistakes to give them extra opportunities. Eventually force them to go to the passing game — their weakness. If they are able to get a lead, they will just ride the running game. That was what they did against Louisville. They were able to jump early, take advantage of turnovers and just force Louisville to play catch-up. In the losses to Miami and PSU, they got down early and eventually lost patience and went to the pass — and turnovers followed.

Revisionism is one of the things that really pisses me off. Not going back and admitting you were wrong. No, trying to pretend you knew something no one else seemed to know. Surprisingly Joe Starkey engages in it with Pitt as he does some more looking at the teams in the Big East for ESPN.com (Insider subs.).

Nobody expected the Panthers (2-4, 1-1) to struggle this badly, but Pitt was clearly overrated at the beginning of the season. It was obvious early in camp that this team lacked speed, quality linemen and a go-to running back.

Now, I’ll give him the running back issue. That was a known problem. The other two are BS. That was why Pitt shuffled the players on the line, and had them slim down in the offseason conditioning. To generate speed. Remember? I looked back through August archives and there was nothing from anyone about this team being too slow. Plenty of questions about the line, but more about depth and getting off the block for the running game. No one was claiming that Pitt was not a fast team or that a lack of speed was a problem. If, perchance, the people observing the team thought that, but didn’t write anything about it, they don’t get to now claim they knew it then.

Here’s the rest.

Freshman tailback LaRod Stephens-Howling has the makings of a star, but he’s been out with an injured ankle. The Panthers have some impact players — linebacker H.B. Blades, cornerbacks Darrelle Revis and Josh Lay, wide receiver Greg Lee and quarterback Tyler Palko — but without improved play up front, those guys cannot flourish. Lee also needs to quit dropping passes.

The good news is that coach Dave Wannstedt has reeled in what appears to be a high-quality recruiting class, the first of what he promises will be many. Panthers fans will need to exercise some patience, though this season is far from over.

Midseason MVP
It would be no shock to see Revis, a sophomore, leave for the NFL after his junior year. He has the size (6 feet, 190 pounds), speed, toughness and smarts to cover NFL receivers. “He’s special,” Wannstedt said. Some teams don’t even bother throwing toward Revis, who also is a dynamic punt returner. He ranks 16th in the country in that category (14.6-yard average) and returned one 79 yards for a touchdown against Cincinnati.

What’s next
This week’s game against visiting USF is critical if Pitt plans to win the conference or qualify for a bowl. Two rough Thursday road games loom (Nov. 3 at Louisville, Nov. 24 at West Virginia).

Revis has been great. My midseason MVP, though, would have to be H.B. Blades. He’s been the rock on an otherwise listless D-line. He leads the whole Big East in tackles, made the position switch to Middle Linebacker, and has been playing hurt since the Rutgers game. I shudder to think what Pitt’s defense would be like without Blades in the middle.

Tony Barnhart of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution posts his biggest surprises and disappointments.

*Pittsburgh (2-4): Where do you start? The Panthers had a 3,000-yard passer (Tyler Palko) and an all-conference receiver (Greg Lee) returning this season, the first under new coach Dave Wannstedt. The Panthers have been worse than bad under a guy who is supposed to take them back to national prominence. Some of the problems can be written off to transition pains, but there is still something fundamentally wrong in that program right now.

And in the ongoing, sick attempt by the AOL-Time Empire to return Pauly Shore to glory (did anyone watch TBS’ Minding the Store?), this SIOnCampus.com piece on Pauly Shore movies in college football.

5) Bio Dome

Pittsburgh

Having just been dumped, a man attempts to find redemption by thriving in a highly controlled environment. With all eyes on him, he must try and survive a whole year. College isn’t that easy, Dave Wannstedt.

No one wants to be compared to Pauly Shore.

Finally, if there is any silver lining in the Penn State win (other than their fans’ behavior finally removing the sanctimonious claims of being classy), it’s the reaction from Ohio State fans.

DantheMan (Oct 13, 2005 11:30:01 AM)
This is a deep philosophical question, perhaps better posed to a professional counsellor, Steve, but after seeing such offensive talent being “coached down” to mediocrity during the entire Tressel era, why should I continue to be a fanatic about this team, i.e., go to the games, look forward to possible MNC’s, and paying 100/yr to follow these guys in their recruiting more avidly than they do themselves (vis Aaron Brown)?

SteveHelwagen (Oct 13, 2005 11:32:37 AM)
Great questions, all. It doesn’t not seem to be a real cracker jack operation over there right now. You lose your defense next year and have to go to Texas, you lose your QB in 07 and have to go to Washington, then to USC in 08. I admit, it looks kinda bleak for the next few years. Nothing seems set up for them to automatically be a top-5 team each year. On our end, we are going to continue to make covering this stuff as interesting as we can. Our premium board — which showed this week that even it is not meltdown proof — is the best place to discuss OSU sports on the planet. That’s why I’d stick around.

buckgrad (Oct 13, 2005 11:33:01 AM)
Steve, sorry I am late. Just wanted to say that I am really down on Tressel. Yes he did win a NC, but this was the year, all of his guys and his 1st great recruiting class are now seniors. I may be a little too hard on him, but he has got to hire a young energetic o-coordinator and give him the reigns. Think this will happen or is he too stubborn? Thanks

SteveHelwagen (Oct 13, 2005 11:35:12 AM)
As of today, I don’t see it happening. I imagine they will finish 8-3 or so and it will be just good enough of a finish that they’ll convince themselves that status quo is the way to go. But there just seems to be a stagnation of ideas — 4-1 run/pass ratio on first down, running effectively early and going away from Pittman in the second half, great underneath passing game early to White, Hamby and Pittman, then none of that when the game was on the line. You point to so many factors. The fact is one-third of the plays last week were for no gain or a loss. They had second-and-7 or longer something like 13 or 14 times. You can’t win a Big Ten title like that. …

Comparisons to Earle Bruce are underway as well. Maybe this is just a bonus for Pitt fans living in Ohio, but it is amusing.

As practice officially starts today, the only positions I personally feel should be set for starters is Carl Krauser at Point Guard and Aaron Gray at Center. Everything else should be expected to be wide open for competition.

Competition will be keen at every position except for Krauser’s point guard slot. The competition at shooting guard and small forward will be particularly close with six players vying for playing time.

Freshman Levance Fields is scheduled to be Krauser’s backup, but Krauser could play shooting guard, too. Ramon, once he is healed from offseason thumb surgery, and Keith Benjamin will compete with Graves for playing time at shooting guard.

The guards appear to be the team’s strength, and they could force Dixon to play a three-guard lineup more than he has in the past.

“We’ve always played three guards in certain instances over the years,” Dixon said. “A number of programs do that. Oftentimes, your smaller players are your better players. Last year, our bigger guys were our better players.”

Except for Fields, the guards can play multiple positions.

“All five of us can play,” Fields said. “We have different combinations we can use.”

Freshman small forward Sam Young, who is 6 feet 6, is expected to make an immediate contribution and perhaps start. He is competing with senior John DeGroat, although Benjamin could play small forward in a pinch.

DeGroat, 6-6, said the competition in workouts is different from last season when most players knew their roles.

“You’ve got a lot of new blood out there, a lot of fresh legs,” DeGroat said. “Everyone is going for it. Every day, it’s been battles and battles.”

Dixon must replace Chevon Troutman and Chris Taft at power forward and center. They combined for 28 points and 15 rebounds a game last season.

Kendall (6-9) and freshman Tyrell Biggs (6-8) will compete at power forward. Kendall played out of position last season at small forward and is looking forward to playing at his more natural spot.

Dixon is going to have a challenge and pressure in figuring out the rotation and crafting a starting line-up. This is the first season in several years where Pitt is almost a completely unknown quantity. This is not a veteran team. It does, however, have highly touted talent.

There’s a reason why Pitt is being projected for middle of the pack in the Big East and a bubble team for the NCAA. No one is sure about this team. It can go either way. That is why this season will also be crucial for Coach Jamie Dixon.

After a great first season that saw them finally go down to a very good Oklahoma St. team in the Sweet 16. Last season was a disappointment. Inconsistency all year long, the failure to develop any sort of rotation or bench, flat, horrible starts, and questionable coaching. This season will go a long way to determining not just Coach Dixon’s future at Pitt, but his overall reputation in coaching. Is he is a very good assistant and recruiter or can he be a good head coach?

This season, Pitt can get off to an average start, but the important thing will be for it to show noticeable and continual improvement over the course of the season. Players have to develop and roles defined for some.

Dixon, at least seems to recognize that the talent is there. He doesn’t seem willing to say much about expectations and goals — beyond the stock and obvious.

Relaxed NCAA rules have allowed coaches more time with their players leading into the start of formal practices today, and Dixon noted that the team’s short, informal workouts in recent weeks have revealed a sense of purpose.

“We’re excited about where we’re at,” he said. “Counting spring, summer and fall workouts, it’s by far the best offseason we’ve had in my seven years here. I’m really impressed with the guys in what they’ve done overall, and that’s everything — conditioning, workouts, academics.

“We’re excited about the young group, the new group that we have, I should say. It’s the best group that we’ve brought in in my seven years that I’ve been here.”

Dixon, indeed, would rather not describe his latest team as being youthful — three freshmen and one junior college transfer figure to challenge for playing time — but rather he labeled it as “a unique group.”

Yesterday was media day for the players, so over the next several days stories about Pitt basketball will be trickling out of the papers.

Alan Robinson, the AP sportswriter in Pittsburgh previews the USF-Pitt game with a look back at 2001.

Only a few of Pitt’s current players weren’t around for South Florida’s previous visit to town, one of the most memorable games — if for the wrong reasons — of former coach Walt Harris’ eight-season tenure.

Those who were there might want to share their memories with their younger teammates, if only because the game offers a classic example of the dangers of overconfidence, skimpy scouting, an inability to make in-game adjustments and, again, overconfidence.

Hmm. Sounds like something that should have been shared before the start of this entire season.

Pitt WR Greg Lee is expecting to face a much different type of coverage and defense than last year.

“I think the one key to that game was they were a young secondary and we took advantage of that,” Lee said. “But you can see they are much more experienced and more mature and they are much better players. Plus they have all kinds of speed. You see a lot of plays where they are beat and they run people down from behind and make the tackle anyway — that’s how you know they are fast.

“We won’t be able to count on them making some mistakes in coverage this year, so we’ll have to find the best matchups that favor us on each play and try and make big plays as a team.”

One reason Lee was so good in last year’s game was he had plenty of motivation. A Tampa native, he was playing in his hometown in front of his friends and family against a team that didn’t offer him a scholarship. Lee and the Panthers were also playing for a BCS berth that day.

Another reason Lee had such a big day was the Bulls blitzed a lot, which meant he was one-on-one with a corner most of the afternoon. Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko said he doesn’t expect to see as much man-to-man coverage tomorrow.

“They aren’t very complicated in what they do, they just do it very well,” Palko said. “They do play some man-to-man but they also use some zone coverages, especially when they are trying to pressure the quarterback. I think we’ll have some opportunities to throw the ball over the top, but we will have to pick our spots. They are playing with a lot of confidence so we’ll have to be on our game.”

Their speed on defense will be a big concern for the offensive line. The coaches will probably know very early how much the speed is disrupting the offensive line based on how well they get to Palko (with or without blitzing) and how many holding penalties on the O-line. If they are getting past and through the line based on speed there will likely be attempts to grab the player as he’s going by.

Not that it is terribly important, but it is still unclear as to whether it will be Rashad Jennings or Ray Kirkley actually starting in the backfield. Jennings will still see a majority of the touches.

When USF has the ball, everyone knows they will be running Andre Hall — a lot. You can expect (or at least they better) Pitt to bring up the safeties in or close to the box. That also means the safeties can’t just try and hit Hall — I’m looking at you, Tez Morris — but wrap him up.

The USF weakness on offense — their passing game — will only encourage Pitt to stuff the box. Pat Julmiste will start and thinks he has gotten too excited at times. Julmiste isn’t a particularly good passer, but in the spread offense he is a good runner. Pitt has had a hard time with mobile quarterbacks. Still, if Julmiste struggles, it won’t be a surprise to see Courtney Denson in the game.

And finally, playing a team from Florida is a chance to talk about recruiting and the success Pitt has had in getting kids from there the last few years.

Pitt roundball alum Sean Miller, arguably the best point guard in Pitt’s history, received some some good news from Xavier, namely:

Miller has agreed with Xavier on an extension that will keep him under contract through the 2009-10 season, the school announced Wednesday [October 5th].

The article goes on to reveal, if inadverntantly, that Coach Miller is a skilled impressionist. Specifically, he does a great “Dixon”, as demonstrated by his response to Xavier’s decision:

“I am excited about the future of our program and I very much look forward to continuing our great tradition,” Miller said.

As I said, an uncanny impression.

I just whish he’d have made the anouncement while spinning and dribbling about eight basketballs, but that’s just me pining for the “old school.”

Halfway through the college football season or so. That means “season so far” pieces:

Biggest Disappointment
Pitt came into the season ranked No. 23 and picked to finish second. Then it went a month without beating a Division I-A team.

Today, the Panthers are 2-4 overall, 1-1 in the Big East and with victories only against Division I-AA Youngstown State and freshman-laden Cincinnati. Two of those four losses were to Ohio and Rutgers, teams Pitt had traditionally beaten like piñatas.

New coach Dave Wannstedt’s biggest dilemma is lack of experience and talent on his offensive and defensive lines. Most players on both lines are in new positions, which has caused Pitt to be manhandled at times by opposing offenses and unable to protect quarterback Tyler Palko.

Wannstedt has taken to playing several true freshmen, a wise move, and this team still has some star power. In this conference, it would be no surprise to see Pitt turn things around. The first step would be a victory over a decent opponent.

Stewart Mandel at SI.com reviews some of his predictions so far.

“[Dave] Wannstedt could wind up being one of the best hires of any school this offseason.” (7/12/05)

I can’t even bring myself to talk about this one. Next …

What? Anyone expecting glowing reviews for Coach Wannstedt and Pitt to this point?

Still, the news isn’t all doom and gloom, on the subject of the future.

One visit to Heinz Field and Davie (Fla.) Western defensive tackle Jared Martin remains clear about favoring the Pittsburgh Panthers.

Though the 6-foot-2, 285-pound defender was scheduled to visit Minnesota weeks after his Panther official, a scheduling conflict has pushed that back. Both the Gophers and Arizona State are possible for his next trips, but he is still high on the Big East team.

“The Panthers are still my leader and I’m still very high on Pittsubrgh,” Martin said. “I just want to compare Pittsburgh to another school. I see big opportunity at Pitt. They are rebuilding on both sides of the line and I could get some early playing time there.”

Though a 2-4 season is not the start that coach Dave Wannstedt was looking for, it appears that uncommitted and committed prospects alike are both chomping at the bit to come in and make an early impact.

Both Rivals.com and Scout.com have him listed as a 3-start. So far, Pitt is the only school where he has taken an official visit.

Another player Pitt is recruiting broke Pennsylvania High School single game rushing record with 488 yards. The record had been set in 2000 by Marcus Furman with 455 yards. Of course, Pitt is recruiting Stephen Blose as a kicker.

This is just strange. Homecoming is next weekend. The theme or whatever you want to call it is “Remembering Pitt.”

Huh? What does that mean? Isn’t that the point of homecoming for alumni every year? Remembering their days at Pitt. It almost sounds like they are marking the anniversery of a death or something.

Perhaps they are planning a lot of estate planning seminars to help people put gifts to Pitt in their wills?

As has been the “tradition” for a while there will be the laser stuff and fireworks around the William Pitt Union on Friday evening. But wait, it gets even better this year.

The outdoor show is followed by Pitt’s free annual Homecoming Extravaganza in the WPU at 10 p.m. There will be video games, the dance machine “Dance Dance Revolution,” individual performers, and more.

I’m old. I know this. I’m not particularly hip to what the young’ins are into, but really. A dance machine? The same thing that they have in the game rooms at miniature golf courses? That Ronald McDonald is all over in some commercials? That South Park mocked?
This is what college kids want? Now, I’m worried about the future.

I think this would be hilarious.

[Baltimore] Ravens quarterbacks coach Rick Neuheisel said he has not been contacted about the Temple head-coaching job, which will be open at the end of the college season. He is rumored to be high on the list of potential candidates.

Talk about the hard road back. This would just be absolutely fascinating.