Talk about your blasts from the pasts. Luke Winn at SI.com was writing about Patrick Patterson finally choosing Kentucky and how recruiting (and rankings) is as much about hope as anything else. Then he lists the top-10 recruiting classes from 2003 according to Rivals.com, as evidence that a top recruiting class means nothing:

9. Pittsburgh

Key recruits: Chris Taft, Aaron Gray, Walter Waters, Dante Milligan

A decent class, in that it produced two quality Big East big men (even if Taft was underwhelming at times) and three 25-win seasons … but the Panthers never made it past the Sweet 16.

This, of course was technically Ben Howland’s final recruiting class. Milligan transferred to UMass and is their 6th man. Walters never even came to Pitt (or academically qualified), and was released in August. His scholarship was given to Antonio Graves by Coach Dixon in August. Walters couldn’t even handle the academic workload at Cleveland State before disappearing. Aaron Gray was not a major recruit as Pitt battled Rutgers for his services. Taft was the only major recruit and his positive impact was his freshman year. His sophomore season, well…

Hard to imagine that was a top-ten recruiting class. Of course, looking over the rest of the top-10 they list, I almost believe it to be a joke. FSU? Oklahoma? Maryland? That was the top-3? Looking at the other classes, well, it’s astounding.

So, um, in light of that ESPN.com (Insider subs) has Pitt listed with the 20th best recruiting class for 2007 after the late signing period.

Coach Jamie Dixon had no spring signees, but his deep fall recruiting class made the top 20.

USC, Syracuse, Florida make the top-3. DePaul is #10 and Cinci is #14 according to this list.

ESPN.com rotates through the conferences on a 1- to 2-week period. Ultimately, a lot of it is rehashing the same stuff but by different writers or putting it in convenient list or capsule format. Most of the attention in the latest gimmick “Three things I can’t wait to see this fall…” hits the Big East. Most of the attention is on WVU, Louisville and Rutgers. You know, teams that were ranked at the end of last season. Oh, but Mark Schlabach does get to Pitt with the obvious.

Syracuse’s Greg Robinson and Pittsburgh’s Dave Wannstedt, two former NFL coaches, need to turn their teams around quickly. Robinson is 5-18 in two seasons at Syracuse and the natives are restless. Wannstedt hasn’t taken his alma mater to a bowl game yet, with an 11-12 record in two seasons. Both teams must replace their starting quarterbacks. Wannstedt has recruited exceptionally well at Pittsburgh, but it’s time for that talent to translate into victories.

That would be nice, but I almost feel conditioned to add to the end of that “… in 2008.”

In the capsule recaps of the past recaps  of spring, I’ll summarize Pitt’s. Receiving corp — good; Nate Byham — awesome; d-line — looked good; O-line — has experience, needs center; secondary — not bad; starting QB — who knows for sure; running game — unknown; linebackers — oh, boy; punter Dave Brytus — used to be good at Purdue; freshmen playing time — might be a good idea.

I’ve always been mildly intrigued by fan-created websites that call for the firing of a coach. It started with sites like FireRonZook.com which gained all kinds of attention from media outlets including SportsCenter and Pardon the Interruption. Zook ended up getting fired from Florida and the idea was put into every fan’s mind that they could oust a coach by buying a domain name and putting up a website. There’s even a “company” out there that sells some of these domain names.
There is, in fact, a FireDaveWannstedt.com — in operation since his days as head coach of the Miami Dolphins.

OK Pitt’sters— ya gotta agree with me that this year is kind of a little tiny watershed year for your boy Dave. All I heard the year before is how Pitt had one of the greatest recruiting years in the history of the planet. oooooK. Well–as someone once said— “It’s the Coach Stupid!”

As always—I wish you guys the best of luck…I’m sincere in that because I feel that were kind of brothers—much the way Bears fans are Brothers with us Phin fans. Sitting with a Bear fan in a bar is a hoot because boy oh boy we have something in common. I suspect that someday I’ll be throwing back a few with some Pitt fans and I’m pretty sure we’ll be ranting in harmony. Wouldn’t be a riot if a Bears fan joined us?

If you think you’ve had enough of Wanny and want to turn in into a protest of his time here at Pitt, feel free to buy it. Only $1,000.

There is no “Fire Jamie Dixon” website out there except this petition (that looks like it’s from a few years ago) that was signed by all of 51 people. If someone were to make a Dixon-based site, they’d have to be pretty crazy. You don’t call for a coach’s head over the internet when he’s put up this kind of record. You can say he’s not coaching at the level we want him to but he’s definitely not reached his coaching potential yet. In 10 years if we still haven’t made it past the Sweet Sixteen then we can start talking about said website.

As far as I know, there’s somehow not a “Fire Paul Rhoads” page out there and yet more people seem to be against him than any other coach on either the football or basketball staffs. FirePaulRhoads.com is still availible — I know there’s someone out there who wants to buy it.

One thing that the Pitt Athletic Department has yet to do it take a page from Iowa and buy the domain name to fire one of their own coaches. Not a bad idea to help spare your coaches a little.