The start times first three games of the football season have been announced.

Sept. 1 — Eastern Michigan — 6 pm

Sept. 8 — Grambling (1-AA) — 12 pm

Sept. 15 — @ Michigan St. — 12 pm

The Michigan State game will be televised on ESPN, so that’s some good news. No regional broadcast issues or blackouts.

Hilarious that Grambling will be a noon start. They really want to guarantee no one shows up for that game, don’t they?

Evening start for the first game. Whoo-hoo! Extended tailgating. Spending the night in the ‘Burgh.

In the last GrayWatch post, I noted that Aaron Gray went out to Vegas for a specific conditioning program and 1-on-1 service. The intense (and expensive) program really made a noticeable difference. Reducing his body fat and making him look more defined. Joe Starkey did a column on Gray’s draft status and condition that takes a slight shot at Gray being in great condition.

Pitt was hoping Gray would whip himself into that kind of shape for his senior year, after eschewing the 2006 NBA Draft. It didn’t happen.

See, he didn’t directly say he expected Gray to be in this kind of condition for the past season. Nor did he make a direct allegation that Gray was out of shape. Just that others had hoped that Gray would be able to get to this kind of condition, and maybe implying that because Gray wasn’t in NBA draft shape he wasn’t in shape. He’s merely taking note of what others hoped.

For example, the rest of the article is simply a rehashing from other stories on Gray’s draft status, the Orlando camp, and quotes from other papers and web sites. At that point I could say something like, “a more paranoid blogger would think Starkey merely skimmed the links and quotes from prior posts to do his own article.” That way I’m not actually saying I think he did it. Merely making an observation, and making it appear like a slimy action of stealing my work.

In all honesty, I think Starkey probably did. And that’s good. There’s nothing wrong with that. That means he’s reading (considering the daily referrer logs contain hits from Trib computers I already knew some were reading) and taking advantage of one of the things I do with this blog — aggregating the information.

Plus Starkey added some quotes from Gray’s agent doing a bit of spinning on Gray’s conditioning.

“He’s finally healthy,” Zanik said. “Nagging injuries didn’t allow him to condition properly. Also, he can concentrate on basketball every day now. It’s not anything Pitt didn’t do, it’s just having more time to focus on conditioning. I’m excited to see what he’s going to look like six months from now.”

Pretty much what you would expect the agent to say.

Put this under waste of talent.

One time Pitt recruit and former USF receiver, Johnny Peyton, was arrested and charged with possession of crack cocaine.

Coming out of HS for the 2004 recruiting class, Peyton was an solid receiver with tons of potential. He was supposed to be a good recruit for Pitt, and on signing day was considered a big score for USF. He set receiving and TD marks at USF as a freshman. His sophomore year wasn’t as good and shortly afterwards he either left the team or was kicked off of it — depending on who you ask.

I joked about a curse on 2004 recruits who reneged on verbals to Pitt. This, though, is Peyton’s own doing and own bad decisions.