Pitt has gotten 3 more games with sort of TV coverage.

The Panthers’ new television dates include:

*The Sept. 2 season opener against Virginia, which will be a 7 p.m. ESPNU telecast at Heinz Field.

*The Sept. 16 Michigan State game at Heinz Field, which will be an ABC split-national telecast (with Miami-Louisville) at 3:30 p.m.

*The Nov. 4 game at South Florida, which will be the Big East Game of the Week and produced by ESPN Regional.

The Panthers’ other TV contests include the Sept. 8 game at Cincinnati (ESPN2), the Oct. 13 game at Central Florida (ESPN) and the Nov. 16 West Virginia contest (ESPN) at Heinz Field. Additional television clearances are expected to be added as the season progresses.

Well, for me at least the game on ESPNU isn’t a problem since that’s a home game.

Excepting the 10 other people who get “The U” that may as well be a blacked out game. Nothing worse for most fans to have a game aired on ESPNU. No one seems to carry the station, and it means that it won’t be part of the pay-per-view options that week either. Worst of both worlds.

It’s a point of pride to come across the obscure. Not necessarily finding pages on “Dr. Shrinker” and hearing the old theme song as done by The Osmonds.

Can you believe he had drug issues?

I mean finding stuff that is somehow related to Pitt. So the Ohio AP Broadcasters Hall of Fame banquet was held last month. A posthumous honor for a former Steubenville sports anchor.

THE LATE Red Donley was a fixture on Ohio Valley television sets as viewers tuned in nightly to hear Donley’s descriptions of that day’s sports stories.

Born in Wellsburg and a 1941 graduate of Wellsburg High, Donley crossed the Ohio River to begin his broadcasting career at WSTV-AM in Steubenville as sports commentator and play-by-play announcer for area games.

By 1955, Donley had joined the Pittsburgh Steelers as part of their broadcast team. He remained in that capacity for six years before becoming the “Voice of the Pitt Panthers” in 1961.

That same year, Donley joined Pittsburgh’s WIIC-TV as sports director. His TV tenure in the Steel City earned Donley no less than five “Golden Quill” awards, presented to outstanding journalists in western Pennsylvania.

Donley would return to his native Ohio Valley in 1970 as news director at WSTV-TV. His outstanding work earned additional accolades, including the first President’s Media Award presented by the then-College of Steubenville.

Donley retired from television in 1988 and passed away 10 years later.

Let’s just say that Donley wasn’t calling games during the halcyon days of Pitt football. Outside of the spectacular 9-1 season of 1963, Pitt never had a winning record in the time he called games. This includes the Dave Hart era of 66-68 when Pitt went 3-27 over those 3 seasons. A record that makes every subsequent Pitt coach secure in the knowledge that he could never be considered the absolute worst coach ever in school history.

It’s that time of the off-season. You keep seeing lists of one sort or another. The true sign of the off-season doldrums. Some have more value than other. Bob Lichtenfels at Scout.com ranks the top 55 prospects in Pennsylvania. Each player has a quick comment by Lichtenfels about him. 10 have already given verbals, with Pitt having 3 of them:

#1 — Pat Bostick
#5 — Chris Jacobson
#31 – Jared Williams

Penn State has 2 and 1 each to ND, WVU, UVA, ‘Cuse and Mich. St.

Numbers are cruel. Especially when they don’t go your way.

Preseason polls are vital because they establish expectations and give those chosen schools a decided head start in the race for a national championship. And if Behemoth U. is getting a perennial lofty ranking because of its reputation and national notoriety, well, that’s cause for a closer look. There’s little debate that biases exist in the rankings, but until preseason and postseason polls are compared side-by-side, it’s difficult to truly and tangibly know which schools have been overrated and which have earned their station on the charts.

For this exercise, we’ve sampled AP rankings from the last 35 years and are only evaluating schools that have been recognized in 10 or more preseason polls. Trying to cull some meaning out of, say, Kansas, Indiana or any other school that makes a once-every-decade cameo in summer rankings would prove fruitless.

Composite score represents the average annual number of spots a school’s final ranking fell below its preseason ranking since 1971.

The 31 teams that have been at least ten preseason AP polls …
…
4. Pittsburgh – Pitt was far more relevant to the rankings in the 1970s and 1980s, when players like Hugh Green, Tony Dorsett and Dan Marino called the Steel City home. Over the past two decades, however, voters have tabbed the Panthers just five times in the summer, and considering their performance, the lack of respect was warranted. In four of those years, they failed to remain in the polls, marked by a pair of 3-7-1 disasters in 1984 and 1990. Dave Wannstedt’s first Pitt team began 2005 No. 23 in the country, but only managed five wins in a forgettable return home for the coach.

*Composite Score: -11.71

There’s not a lot to say about this that skews this positive. When the expectations were there, Pitt has underachieved. It is worth noting that Walt Harris had company in producing Pitt teams that didn’t meet the expectations.

I’m not saying Aaron Gray is cheap or anything. It would appear he and his family are highly pragmatic. While everyone, including plenty of other underclassmen who haven’t hired an agent, has been holding private workouts to show that they deserve to be a first round pick Gray has yet to do so. Now, it looks like he has put it off to the point where he won’t do the private workouts until he gets down to Orlando for the NBA pre-draft camp.

Scratch the NBA workout Aaron Gray was planning somewhere in the Northeast.

The Pitt center, who completed his junior year by averaging a double-double in his first college season in a starting role, apparently will wait until after he arrives this week at the NBA Pre-Draft Camp in Florida.

Gray is contemplating leaving school early to enter the NBA Draft, and while he will not take part in the camp from Tuesday through Saturday at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, near Orlando, he will undergo a physical and is expected to participate in private workouts.

It’s been somewhat amusing. In a mindless speculation thing to read how Gray is or isn’t a definite player to remain in the draft. All this when he hasn’t spoken to the media, hasn’t worked out for anyone, and hasn’t hired an agent.

I just don’t know right now. His (in)actions suggest someone who isn’t that serious this year. Alternatively, he could be working out really hard trying to get into great shape and show some more skill for the workouts. But, again, no one knows.

I think there might be a clearer idea after the camp when almost all of the private workouts are complete. There will be a better sense of where the top 5-10 picks will be. Key issues regarding Gray’s potential status in the draft are how high O’Bryant is expected to go; does the kid Sene move past Gray based on his raw potential; how about Hilton Armstrong; and which teams attend the private workouts?

If the teams attending are more in the mid-range (14-23) than in the end of the draft picks, that would push me towards thinking he would want to stay. It would suggest that the interest in him is sufficiently high enough to assure him to be a first round pick.

Very important week for Gray (not to mention Pitt).