In case you didn’t catch it, Scout.com is doing an open-house for the weekend. So you get to see all that juicy recruiting stuff, you are too cheap to pay for (like myself). Some of the stories of note, include one on Aaron Berry, the cornerback from Bishop-McDevitt.

“Minnesota, Michigan State and Pittsburgh, “Berry said. “I’ve already visited Minnesota, back a whlie ago, and I’ve got two other visits to take. I got Pittsburgh on the 6th (of January) and I’m set to go to Michigan State, the following week (Jan. 13th).”

Another on Andy Miller, the OT/TE from Washington, PA. For amusement, compare that version to the version on the Indiana site. Nicely tailored.

All season long there have been stories about Pitt great, Bobby Grier, the 1955-56 Panthers and the ’56 Sugar Bowl. Here’s another story. This one from a paper in the town where Grier grew up and played his high school football — Massillon, Ohio.

“Joe Smith, who was the team captain at Pitt and later played and coached in the NFL, was a strong supporter of Bob’s when he first got there,” Ed Grier said. “He was one of Bob’s biggest allies. Smith stood up for him and confronted some of the guys who were opposed to Bob being on the team.

“Once they found out Bob was a regular guy who was there to play football and get an education, he was accepted.”

Bobby Grier admits he may not have appreciated the historical significance of becoming the very first black athlete to play in the Sugar Bowl, until years after he graduated from Pittsburgh.

What touched him the most, he says, was his teammates’ decision to stand by him and risk missing the biggest football game of their lives.

Grier, who bypassed the National Football League to join the Air Force and become a missile officer, gets back to Massillon several times a year to visit his sister, and says he kept close tabs on the Massillon Tigers’ run to the 2005 state championship game.

For whatever this is worth, the Eastern College Athletic Conference announced its 2005 All-ECAC team for Div. 1-A (PDF), and 3 Pitt players made the list: H.B. Blades, Josh Lay and Greg Lee.

As has already been documented Pitt has a week off, then face two difficult games to end the non-con before the start of Big East play. Can you guess what the story in the papers is today?

From the Trib.

If Pitt, off to a 9-0 start for the eighth time in its history, is concerned about facing a tougher schedule the rest of the way, the Panthers aren’t showing any signs of it.

“I already know we’re for real,” senior guard Carl Krauser said.

There are no more games against teams such as St. Peter’s, Vermont and Coppin State, whom the Panthers defeated, 77-51, on Wednesday night at Petersen Events Center.

Following a Christmas break, Pitt will begin preparations for only its second road contest of the season, at South Carolina on Wednesday. The Gamecocks (7-2) played at Temple on Thursday night.

Oh, and South Carolina lost to Temple 63-50.

And over at the P-G.

Of the 15 remaining teams the Panthers will face, only one does not have a winning record. Together, those teams are a combined 104-35 (74.8 percent).

The Panthers will find out a lot about themselves over the next 10 days. After a break for the Christmas holiday, they will travel Wednesday to South Carolina (7-2) for their first game outside the city limits this season. Three days later they’ll face No. 23 Wisconsin (9-1), their first ranked opponent of the year.

“We’re definitely excited,” junior forward Levon Kendall said. “It’s something you play for. We’ve done our best to stay up and motivated for these games. It’s a matter of pride. We want to prove ourselves and show people what we can do. We’re pretty confident about it. We get to go down to South Carolina, see what we can do, maybe surprise some people or show them what we’re made of.”

The team appears quite eager to play some tougher opponents. Not necessarily to “prove” themselves, but to just play better games.

The South Carolina game will be a night when the Gamecocks retire the jersey of their all-time leading scorer, B.J.McKie. Their players will have the winter break to stew over losing to Temple and only mustering 50 points.