I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least take note of this.

First Pitt. Then Kansas. Now Syracuse.

Beating the big teams is getting to be old hat for Bucknell, which used its slowdown offense to rally past the 17th-ranked Orange 74-69 on Tuesday night.

“We never take the underdog role,” said Kevin Bettencourt, who led Bucknell with 20 points and keyed a late 13-2 run that decided the game. “We think we can win every game.”

And why not?

Last January, Bucknell handed 10th-ranked Pittsburgh its first loss of the season, also snapping the Panthers’ 48-game home winning streak against non-conference teams. Then in March they shocked the third-seeded Jayhawks 64-63 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

On this night, it was the Orange’s turn. Bucknell (2-0) won for the first time in nine meetings with Syracuse (3-2) and sent the Orange to their second straight loss.

Bucknell returned most of the starters from last year. It still doesn’t remove the sting, but it is interesting considering how Syracuse absolutely destroyed Texas Tech a few days ago.

Looks like Pitt definitely won’t be the only up and down team in the Big East this year.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least take note of this.

First Pitt. Then Kansas. Now Syracuse.

Beating the big teams is getting to be old hat for Bucknell, which used its slowdown offense to rally past the 17th-ranked Orange 74-69 on Tuesday night.

“We never take the underdog role,” said Kevin Bettencourt, who led Bucknell with 20 points and keyed a late 13-2 run that decided the game. “We think we can win every game.”

And why not?

Last January, Bucknell handed 10th-ranked Pittsburgh its first loss of the season, also snapping the Panthers’ 48-game home winning streak against non-conference teams. Then in March they shocked the third-seeded Jayhawks 64-63 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

On this night, it was the Orange’s turn. Bucknell (2-0) won for the first time in nine meetings with Syracuse (3-2) and sent the Orange to their second straight loss.

Bucknell returned most of the starters from last year. It still doesn’t remove the sting, but it is interesting considering how Syracuse absolutely destroyed Texas Tech a few days ago.

Looks like Pitt definitely won’t be the only up and down team in the Big East this year.

The job of the scout team.

Simulating it at practice, however, has been a much different story because one of the Mountaineers’ greatest assets — and Wannstedt’s biggest fear — is their team speed. He said watching West Virginia on film and breaking down its plays is one thing — trying to get scout-team players and backups to provide the starters with an idea of how fast they are is another.

“They are as fast as anybody we’ve played at almost every position,” Wannstedt said. “Their running back, their cornerback makes as many big plays as anybody we got. They’ve got speed at receivers, they have speed on the defensive side of the ball, they’ve got speed everywhere.

“That ties in with Rich Rodriguez’s whole philosophy. The things they do on offense are predicated on making big plays, and they have the athletes and speed to do it. That makes it tough because you try to simulate that in practice and it’s very difficult but that’s the only way you can halfway get our guys prepared.”

To simulate the Mountaineers’ speed, Wannstedt has used a number of players at different positions on the scout team .

“We really emphasized to those [scout-team] guys in practice the speed thing,” Wannstedt said. “It is what we’re going to try and see at practice. We have some guys who are fast enough that I think we’ll get a good picture but we’ll have to be ready early.

“The first series or two is always important from the standpoint of setting a tempo and not going out there and being fooled by the pace of the game.”

Wannstedt said the Mountaineers’ talent is evident in the way they’ve been able to attack teams on offense and defense. They are very aggressive on both sides of the ball, and even if they make a mistake, they are able to compensate for it with their quickness.

Pitt has had trouble with team speed, well, for a couple of years. Nothing that can be changed right away.

What might work to slow WVU down a little may be some nasty weather.

“We’ll see how the game unfolds,” Wannstedt said. “We’ll see what the conditions are. They’re talking about bad weather, some snow, some wind, sleet, whatever. I think you have to be aware of that in advance and talk about it, which we have, and be ready to make some adjustments.”

Though, the nasty weather would appear to be hitting tomorrow and only into the AM in Morgantown. It means, their astroturf should be fine.

Still more shaking up and out. Painful, very painful to do this one.

1. Southern California — That game was why no one wants to play Fresno State
2. Texas — DNP
3. Louisiana State — Very good
4. Penn State — I’m jamming a pen into my leg after typing this
5. Ohio State — That is 2 years in a row now, that Tressel remembers to take the gloves off the offense after playing so conservatively cost them a couple games
6. Notre Dame — Surprisingly not as impressive against a very, very bad Syracuse team
7. Virginia Tech — Do they have one more choke job in them?
8. Auburn — Possibly playing the best football in the SEC
9. West Virginia — Songs banned in Morgantown this week include: “Under Pressure”, Queen with David Bowie and “Pressure Drop” as sung by many including The Maytals, The Clash and The Specials.
10. Oregon — Yeah, yeah, we know. No one respects the PAC 10
11. Miami — Damn hard to play football with both hands wrapped around own throat
12. Georgia –Great, you beat Kentucky
13. UCLA — DNP
14. TCU — DNP
15. Louisville — DNP
16. Fresno State — Not quite as impressive a loss as ND had to USC, but scary
17. Florida — DNP
18. Alabama — No offense left
19. Florida State — DNP
20. Wisconsin — DNP, running out of choices again
21. Michigan — Part of the reason they still stay in
22. South Carolina — Ditto
23. Georgia Tech — And for their next trick, they will get blown out by Georgia
24. Boston College — Typical BC
25. Iowa State — This is the team, the dart landed on

OUT: Oklahoma, UTEP, Northwestern,
IN: Iowa State, BC, Georgia Tech
Games seen whole or in part: OSU-Mich, PSU-MSU, Syr-ND, Aub-Ala, BGSU-Miami (OH)

Pitt has a commit from Jovani Chappel out of Ohio (hat tip to Neil). Chappel had taken a visit to Pitt during the UConn game. The visit and his comfort with Coach Wannstedt and the staff led him to change his mind on a previously soft verbal to Purdue.

According to the e-mail from Chris Dokish of Pittsburgh Sports Report,

An excellent student with a 3.6 GPA, Chappel is planning to graduate in December and enroll at Pitt in January. It is a new strategy used by more and more players so they can participate in spring practice, and thus have a much better chance to start as a true freshman.

I’m not sure of how the rules work, but I think he also doesn’t count against Pitt’s recruiting class limit for 2006. Instead he would count in the class of 2005. I’ll have to check on that.

In this latest version of the Big East, there is no doubt that the Keg of Nails Backyard Brawl is the big rivalry game.

Take a close look at the revamped Big East and you’ll see one glaring void in the conference: The absence of a handful of intense and storied rivalry games. But there is one, and no one has to explain to Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt or Rich Rodriguez, his counterpart at West Virginia, what Thursday night’s “Backyard Brawl” in Morgantown means.

Wannstedt was a three-year starter at tackle for the Panthers from 1971-73. Rodriguez was a defensive back for the Mountaineers from 1981-84.

It’s the first time since 1965 that a Pittsburgh graduate is coaching his alma mater and a West Virginia guy is at the helm for the Mountaineers in the game.

Though the Hoopie head coach is trying to downplay the head coaches as former players angle a bit.

“I remember walking around campus and the ‘Beat Pitt’ shirts — or things more colorful than ‘Beat Pitt,’ ” Rodriguez said. “But, being honest with you, I don’t think it’s any different if I wasn’t an alumni. I think too much has been made of this. Maybe the fact I experienced it as a player makes good copy.”

Rivalry games, though, mean that fans have strong memories of games attended for good — 1997, triple-OT win in Morgantown — and bad — the shellacking the following year at 3 Rivers. So do the players memories of the games they were in.

Former Pitt quarterback Rod Rutherford stopped by Monday to see some of his former teammates and to spin tales about recent Backyard Brawl games against rival West Virginia.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt wondered if, 20 years from now, Rutherford will be telling the same stories.

“Everyone’s got a Backyard Brawl story, and they get better as the years go on,” Wannstedt said.

Like the one Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko can tell about last year’s 16-13 Pitt victory over No. 21 West Virginia, a Thanksgiving night game televised nationally. The Mountaineers lead 10-0 and 13-9 only to lose on Palko’s 2-yard scoring run with just over five minutes remaining, putting Pitt into the BCS bowl berth that West Virginia seemed to have secured.

Wannstedt, a Pitt player from 1970-73, can tell stories himself about the Pitt-West Virginia series — now, with Penn State gone, the only remaining rivalry on Pitt’s schedule that has been played every season since World War II.

Wannstedt, as a freshman linebacker, was around for one of Pitt’s most improbable victories in the series, a 36-35 decision in 1970 in which Pitt trailed 35-8 at Pitt Stadium.

I just don’t see the comparisons to NFL playoff games.

West Virginia Coach Rodriguez agrees that these are the games the players remember.

“I tell our players that the rivalry game is one they’ll remember the most after they’ve graduated,” he said. “They’ll recall all of them 5, 10, 15 or 20 years hence.”

When he was a student-athlete in the early 1980s, the head coach recalled, there was more talk about the rivalry games on campus and less media hype.

“At that time, we were not in the Big East,” he said. “There were no talk shows or the Internet. So it was a little bit different.

“There are so many experts now, and they can tell you what you could or should have done. Everything is under more scrutiny now.”

Ah yes, the lament of media saturation.

Apparently losing to Pitt by around 21 points every year for the last 24 years is taking a toll on the psyche of Robert Morris.

The Pitt trip is a money-maker for Robert Morris. A short bus ride. No overnight stay involved. Perhaps another $40,000 in the bank to help fund RMU athletics.

But there are indications Robert Morris is restructuring its budget so that the Pitt game won’t be financially necessary any longer. Or the trip to play Iowa Dec. 22, for that matter.

“I’m not exactly saying we have to do it to fund our team,” RMU athletic director Craig Coleman said of the Pitt game. “It helps. It’s helpful to have that revenue. But there’s a limit. I wouldn’t say to Mark, ‘Let’s go out and play five or six of these games because that will bring in more revenue.’

“I don’t want to do anything that will be harmful to his program and his kids’ morale. I think you can make a case that a couple of those games a year is probably a good thing to do for reasons other than the revenue. Many more than that, I think, is probably a mistake.”

Last season, the Colonials played four “buy” games — for which they received money — against Ohio State, Virginia, Pitt and Northwestern. They lost all four by a total of 113 points.

Don’t believe it. RMU will keep playing this one. Guaranteed money and no travel expenses make this game too financially valuable to give up.

The Colonials are healthier for this game than their opening loss to St. Bonaventure.

Pitt is planning to go about as deep in rotating players as they did on in the previous game. Expect 10 or 11 players to see time.

Apparently losing to Pitt by around 21 points every year for the last 24 years is taking a toll on the psyche of Robert Morris.

The Pitt trip is a money-maker for Robert Morris. A short bus ride. No overnight stay involved. Perhaps another $40,000 in the bank to help fund RMU athletics.

But there are indications Robert Morris is restructuring its budget so that the Pitt game won’t be financially necessary any longer. Or the trip to play Iowa Dec. 22, for that matter.

“I’m not exactly saying we have to do it to fund our team,” RMU athletic director Craig Coleman said of the Pitt game. “It helps. It’s helpful to have that revenue. But there’s a limit. I wouldn’t say to Mark, ‘Let’s go out and play five or six of these games because that will bring in more revenue.’

“I don’t want to do anything that will be harmful to his program and his kids’ morale. I think you can make a case that a couple of those games a year is probably a good thing to do for reasons other than the revenue. Many more than that, I think, is probably a mistake.”

Last season, the Colonials played four “buy” games — for which they received money — against Ohio State, Virginia, Pitt and Northwestern. They lost all four by a total of 113 points.

Don’t believe it. RMU will keep playing this one. Guaranteed money and no travel expenses make this game too financially valuable to give up.

The Colonials are healthier for this game than their opening loss to St. Bonaventure.

Pitt is planning to go about as deep in rotating players as they did on in the previous game. Expect 10 or 11 players to see time.

It seems just about every year, when the Steelers and Browns are scheduled to play, there is some stupid/stock feature on Youngstown, Ohio as the dividing city between the 2 teams. It isn’t that it is a lie. I lived there, and it is fairly evenly divided — though, between the continued suckitude of the Browns and their absence in the 90s, it has tilted further to the Steelers. The problem is the story has been done to death. It’s a boring predictable piece.

So, naturally with the Backyard Brawl there was an attempt this past weekend to find a similar place between Pittsburgh and Morgantown.

ON THE ROAD BETWEEN LABORATORY AND LONE PINE — Among the modest, split-level houses and the occasional church or home business, U.S. Route 19 wends to and fro underneath Interstate 79, where the next exit south is the road to Prosperity, of all things.

Here, tucked inside this stretch of highways past and present, is the middle ground of local college-football fandom this week. It is precisely halfway to the site of old Pitt Stadium and halfway to the grounds of new Mountaineer Field. It is the center between the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh and the Evansdale campus in Morgantown, W.Va.

“We’re equidistant,” chimed in Critter from behind his beer at the Pancake Inn, just off I-79 Exit 30 in the Pancake Township also known as the east-Washington suburb of Laboratory.

Problem was, the majority of the area was pro-Pitt. The story still published. It took up plenty of space for no apparent reason, except that the reporter had come up with the story and spent the time researching and writing it, and the editors had decided to run it.

The days of major bulletin board material for one side is generally nonexistent these days. Mostly gone are the days when you can find someone talk about WVU players as “Western Pennsylvania garbage.” (read the article just to find out how much effort had to go into getting that material in the days before widespread dissemination)

Now, the best there anyone can do are H.B. Blades comments.

“They consider us the city boys,” Blades said. “They think we’re arrogant.”

Then, came the bulletin-board material, as Blades responded to the obvious follow-up: If the Panthers are the city boys, what are the Mountaineers?

“They’re the country boys,” he said, laughing. “They’re out in the middle of nowhere. There’s nothing in Morgantown, really.”

The Hoopies aren’t even biting on that. They got burned too much last year.

The only other thing that came out this week was during Coach Wannstedt’s press conference in relation to recruiting.

“West Virginia comes up here and recruits Pennsylvania,” Wannstedt said at his weekly news conference. “We know that. They always have. I think they have 16 players from Pennsylvania. But in my opinion, we don’t have much competition here [in Western Pennsylvania] — Penn State, every once in a while, Notre Dame or someone, but there shouldn’t be and there won’t be much other competition.

“The best players are going to come to Pitt.”

WVU actually has 23 players from PA (14 from Western PA), but it is also true that none of those 14 received scholarship offers from Pitt.

Okay, apparently Johnny Majors is still good for taking potshots at his former assistant.

On Monday at the Little Rock Touchdown Club, Majors said he still has fond memories of Tennessee – but he drew a laugh from the crowd full of Arkansas fans when a took a small dig at Fulmer.

“I don’t pull against those players up there,” Majors said. “But I don’t have any regard for Judas Brutus, who’s coaching up there.”

Heh.