Looks like Pitt will be in a position to find another prominent person for their athletic department. First it was the coaches; Dixon, then Wannstedt. Now, it’s the guy who hired/kept those two.

Pittsburgh athletic director Jeff Long will replace Frank Broyles in the same position at Arkansas, a person with knowledge of Long’s decision said Monday.

Broyles is retiring as the Razorbacks’ athletic director at the end of this year, and a person familiar with Long’s decision said he will leave Pitt to take over at Arkansas. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made.

Arkansas would not confirm Long’s hiring, but spokesman Tysen Kendig said a news conference was set for Tuesday afternoon regarding the athletic program.

Arkansas’ search had been a secretive one until last week, when Stanley Reed, chairman of the school’s board of trustees, confirmed that Long was “a strong candidate.” (The WWL)

It was looking more and more apparent that this was going to happen, but the press conference that Arkansas will hold tomorrow will probably confirm it. ESPN doesn’t usually put up items that turn out to be untrue (except saying Mike Vick wouldn’t plead guilty) so to me, this is a done deal. The AP story mentions that Long has few ties to Arkansas, a point echoed by a writer in that area. The question that matters — who’s the next Pitt AD?

Update: Two more stories from the local TV stations down there.

It’s Michigan State week, and not only am I pumped because we finally play a real team, but I’m also heading up there to see it. This will be my first time in a Big Ten environment and the first time in a (probably) full stadium since going down to WVU in 2005. The game will be on ESPN with Dave Pasch (play-by-play), Andre Ware (color) and Quint Kessenich (sideline).

Unless you dropped off the face of the Earth and didn’t see how the Grambling game unfolded, you’re aware that Kevan Smith is going to be starting under center. Coach Wannstedt, your thoughts…

On things that Kevan Smith needs to improve on:
As simple as this sounds, just hitting open receivers and taking what the defense gives him. He needs to work on those little things. It’s not sitting back there and reading the defense, that’s not the problem. He made some great throws on his deep balls. He had a great throw to Nate Byham. I think he just needs to continue to work on the little things, and he will.

On preparing Kevan Smith for his first game in a hostile environment:
We’ll bring noise out there on Wednesday and Thursday. That will benefit not just the quarterback but our entire football team, particularly the offense. He’ll be fine. We’ll continue to practice Pat Bostick. He’ll take half the reps in practice and we’ll continue to get him ready just in case we would need him.

On playing Pat Bostick:
We’ll play him if he’s needed, but we’ll have to see how the game unfolds.

There are some people out there who think Smith is even more talented than Stull, but I don’t see how any type of comparison can be made seeing them each in one game. Then taking into account the type of teams we played, and it’s nearly impossible right now to say one is more skilled than the other. Get used to Smith though, he’s going to be leading us through the next few weeks because Bostick didn’t look nearly as great as we expected.

How did the Spartans do last week? Saturday Sound Offs gives them a B letter grade.

Michigan State-They looked alright out there against the Falcons. Brad Hoyer was efficient through the air and the MSU ground game was the difference. The run defense also didn’t let Bowling Green do too much.

Pitt was graded as a B+.

EDSBS doesn’t buy or sell MSU at this point, but merely holds on them.

Michigan State Held off Bowling Green. Simmering until the inevitable collapse at some point over the next month. At the point the Spartans really start to look like a ‘buy,’ unload them. Fast.

Last year, after running all over Pitt (by using the same 2 plays — a RB dive and a RB stretch), MSU looked like a team to “buy”. They then proceeded to throw away their season by blowing a huge lead against Notre Dame. As Stuart said in the comments, “Can MSU please vomit away their season 1 week early this year? We all know they’re going to fold, its just a question of when.”

Here’s what the draft of the ballot this week looks like. It’s a little different this season with Dennis putting a draft version and then I come in and tweak a little. After that, it’s open for comments and I have time to change it a little more before the due time.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	—
2	LSU	—
3	Oklahoma	2
4	West Virginia	1
5	Texas	5
6	California	1
7	Florida	1
8	Louisville	4
9	Wisconsin	3
10	Ohio State	2
11	Rutgers	2
12	UCLA	2
13	Penn State	2
14	Georgia	5
15	Nebraska	1
16	South Florida	9
17	Georgia Tech	6
18	Boston College	4
19	Texas A&M	1
20	Hawaii	3
21	Clemson	3
22	Oregon	4
23	South Carolina	3
24	Virginia Tech	13
25	Auburn	7

Considered/getting close: Cinci, Missouri, Tennessee, Washington, Alabama

Dennis dropped USC down to #3 on their bye week, but as good as LSU has looked, I’m not totally convinced on them yet. They have faced two teams that are offensively challenged, with horrible QBs. I am very impressed by their defense and this time they came out fired up on offense. I just want to see a little more — that and Les Miles doesn’t scare me as a coach.Oklahoma looked fantastic to move past WVU and the concerns about the ‘Eers defense appear legit.

Texas moved up more than maybe they should, but a couple other teams slipped to give them a bigger boost then I actually feel about them.

Like Louisville (again no defense) and Wisconsin (no offense). By all rights Cal shouldn’t have moved up a spot for their weak win, but really there feels like a huge gap in who to put in the second half of the top-ten and where.

That gap is what kept Georgia from slipping further, though I’m still considering putting them lower.

Right now Rutgers and USF look like legit BE contenders because they can play defense. Of course, USF is going to have to hold open tryouts for a kicker.
The last 8 or 9 spots on the poll are just a mess.

GT shouldn’t have moved that high, but no place else seemed quite right either. Texas A&M even moving up a spot is inexplicable even as I look at the blogpoll. Expect them to drop when I think about it a little more.

Dennis completely dropped the Hokies from the poll, but I had to leave them back in. If beating the Hokies that badly was such a statement by LSU that they deserve #1 consideration, then there has to be a belief that VT is at least a top-25 team.

Auburn hangs in by a thread because their defense is excellent, as are special teams and even their running game — yet another reason why Tuberville is so conservative. That will get them some quality wins in the SEC even when they shouldn’t. The QB, on the other hand…

Whether Jeff Long will take the Arkansas AD job or is still merely considering it is unclear. It seems salary issues aren’t nearly that big a difference. Long makes somewhere around $200K at Pitt and it’s likely that Arkansas would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $250K.

I found this amusing old school rant on how retiring icon and AD Frank Broyles has been frozen out of the hiring of his replacement. Not to mention the next guy not being a Razorback

Long and Dickson have more in common than not being from the Broyles tree. Both have strong connections to private schools.

And none to the Razorbacks.

Dickson hails from Tulsa, played football there and was the AD there, but who knows if he has ever been in the state ?

Or if Long’s entry and exit by jet was the first time he had seen the Boston Mountains up close and personal.

Maybe the new tradition at Arkansas is to hire folks for athletic positions who have never called the Hogs.

No offense intended to either of the men, but do they know anything about the history of the Hogs ?

Or the passion that once seized almost an entire state every Saturday in the fall?

Those are things that guys like Scott Bull, Bill Montgomery and Chuck Dicus know personally, but if they got anything more than a courtesy interview, they are the only ones who know it.

It appears that to be a candidate for one of the most significant hires in recent history, you have to be null and void of Razorbacks red blood.

I’m trying to figure out Long’s “private school” connections since it isn’t at Pitt. It wasn’t at Eastern Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Michigan. I’m guessing old Wally believes Pitt is a private school, and has no idea what Long’s resume says. But dammit, he knows Tulane is a private school.

This leads to the issue of what do schools want from a modern Athletic Director. Broyles is the last (or one of the last) of the “old school” ADs in major college athletics. That is, a former coach who moved up to the AD position.
I’m sure many of you won’t be shocked to learn there is actually a dissertation related to ths matter by a doctoral student (PDF).

(more…)

Here’s the way things are looking right now:

• Derek Kinder — WR — ACL, out for year
• Chris Jacobson — OL — Dislocated kneecap, out for year
• Dan Matha — OL — Shoulder injury, out for year
• Bill Stull — QB — Torn thumb ligaments, out for about 6 weeks
• Elijah Fields — S — Team rules violation, suspended for the year
• Gus Mustakas –DT — ACL, out for year
• Kevin Collier — RB — Broken wrist, out for year

Then there are the walking wounded. Players who are playing with nagging injuries (already).

• John Pelusi — TE
• Aaron Berry — CB
• Joe Thomas — OL
• LaRod Stephens-Howling — RB

I’m not blaming it on the strength and conditioning program — at all. This stuff happens. Just feel it needs to be noted from the Pitt website for irony purposes:

A significant portion of the S&C training load is dedicated to drills that serve to reduce the possibility of sustaining an injury. In this regard, a great deal of special exercises are performed during the advanced stage of the warm up, which precedes the primary phase of the workouts, that target the muscles that articulate the neck, shoulders, hips, and knees.

Anyways…

3 starters and 23 others who were expected to be on the 2-deep all season. Only Matha would have been a question mark for the 2-deep, though with the play of the O-line so far, not as much of a stretch.

Some may point to this as yet another reason to say that this is why the coaches should just be looking at this season as getting ready for 2008. No. This is the reason you don’t count on a particular season as when things happen. Injuries happen, then everything changes. The team and program can’t assume.

First it was Derek Kinder’s ACL, now it’s DT Gus Mustakas. He was injured during yesterday’s game against Grambling State and will miss the rest of the season. The injuries that this team has seen are disheartening, with out top QB, WR, and DT out for either a long period of time (Stull) or the whole year (Kinder, Mustakas). Mustakas was the second leading tackler for the Panthers this year before he went down.

“We are incredibly disappointed for Gus,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “He was off to an outstanding start this season and had been playing like an all-star caliber defensive lineman since the spring. Fortunately, Gus can receive a medical redshirt. I know he will show his trademark dedication during the rehabilitation process and get himself ready for action next year.” (Trib.)

Losing a player for the whole season in a game against a 1-AA team definitely stinks. Even though injuries will happen in a sport like football, having all of these happen before we even play a tough game are really hard to swallow.

I didn’t see the second half. I brought my daughter to the game, and between the game being well-in hand, the effort in keeping the 5-year old from trying to get down to the field so she could hug the mascot, and the ongoing rain/drizzle I decided it best not to stay longer. I was able to listen to the entire second half on the radio, so that was nice.

I’ll echo what everyone else has already said about LeSean McCoy. He is a tremendous talent, and he is generating way too much of that yardage with very little help from the O-line. That reason alone, is why he should be somewhat limited. His yards are seemingly all hard yards. That takes a bigger toll. This game may have served as his coming out, but he needs some blocking or it will be a very hard season.

Kevan Smith came in and did a good job for the game. It was already known that Stull was the better QB at this point. Smith, though, went with the conservative game plan and stayed with it. He appears to have the support of his teammates and frankly there isn’t a choice. Bostick isn’t ready.

Bostick getting playing time was fine with me. Get the experience in mop-up time and I hope they keep doing that in games well in hand (one way or the other).

I think Kinder being out for the season is a bigger deal with Stull out. Kinder is a team leader and would be fighting hard to make receptions and help the confidence of Smith. It’s not that the receivers are doing badly, but Smith is not going to be as accurate and the receivers have to be going harder to try and make the catches.

The defense did fine, but it was still a 1-AA team of undetermined ability and talent. No clue how that will translate against even slightly below average BCS conference teams.

The O-line was better in pass protection but just can’t seem to run-block. Same story.

It was a bit disturbing to see the team struggle to put together drives. Definitely a readjustment with a new QB.

“It takes a little bit of your positive feelings away from what happened,” Wannstedt said. “It was the penalties and turnovers that bothered me today. We’re nowhere close to where we need to be to beat Michigan State (next week). I give Grambling a lot of credit. They came in here and played hard. They played to the final whistle.”

Despite having a 321-239 edge in total yards, Pitt (2-0) managed only three drives longer than 31 yards. The first went 71 yards in 10 plays, as McCoy turned a lateral into a 25-yard gain, caught a slant pass for 17 yards and scored on a 5-yard run at 8:18 of the first quarter. Pitt scored again after Brian Kaiser’s blocked punt set up McCoy’s 7-yard run for a 14-0 lead. Eric Thatcher intercepted a Brandon Landers pass at Grambling’s 31, and after an 18-yard pass from Smith to tight end Darrell Strong, McCoy scored from 13 yards for a 21-0 lead.

“We just capitalized on the field position we got early,” McCoy said. “There wasn’t really a big drive. We just took what they gave us. They gave us short yards.”

Pitt’s offensive numbers only told half the story. The Panthers were bailed out by their defense against a Division I-AA opponent that was overmatched but not outworked. Grambling (1-1) came up empty in four possessions inside Pitt’s 20.

McCoy will get plenty of touches against Michigan State — that is assuming they don’t bury Pitt early and force a lot more passing.

“LeSean just needs to play some more,” Wannstedt said. “The way he started off, I really expected him to break a couple of big ones, but they started ganging up at the line of scrimmage and they were sort of begging for us to throw the ball. But we were trying to give it away by turning the ball over. I thought overall LeSean did a nice job, and we’ll need him next week against Michigan State, that’s for sure.

“I’m ready for [McCoy to become the Panthers’ featured tailback] and I think LeSean is ready for that. He had 19 carries today but he’s ready for more, he’s ready to ‘expand his role’ as we say.”

McCoy downplayed his first 100-yard game. He also talked of this being just the start of something much bigger.

“It is all in the game plan,” McCoy said, “but whatever they give me I’ll take, whether it is running the ball or catching screens, I just want to help this team win. It is all about working as a unit, as a team. It was nice to have 100 yards, but I’m not really concerned about the yards and touches. I thought the line executed extremely well today, and the receivers blocked well.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely pumped, I’m excited and all, but I just don’t want to get too happy because we have Michigan State next week, and they are a good team. I felt like I was real close to breaking a few big ones, but they made a few shoestring tackles, so it is another week of not breaking one but I’ll get back to work next week and try again.”

Again, he’s not going to bust one without the O-line doing more. He has to expend so much energy just getting through the first wave of tacklers and around the defense that it’s hard to turn things up after that.
Penalties, were a problem for Pitt. 10 for 91. Yeep. Not good.

Really, this game marked the end of the easy stuff. Now it gets harder.

Nothing confirmed unless you wish to stake things to the Scout.com-affiliated Arkansas site’s story.

Pittsburgh athletic director Jeff Long is expected to accept an offer from University of Arkansas Chancellor John White to be the school’s new athletic director, a university source told Hawgs Illustrated publisher Clay Henry on Friday night.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said White’s tight-lipped search to find Arkansas’ next athletic director has come to an end.

Long confirmed his interview, but not much else.

“I went to Arkansas and had a conversation with them about their athletic director’s position,” Long told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review before his radio show, “First and Long” aired on Fox Sports Radio 970 (WBGG-AM) prior to Pitt’s football game against Grambling State at Heinz Field. “We had a visit and really, beyond that, there isn’t much more to say.”

Right now, it’s up to Pitt to decide what they want to do. Even if Long hasn’t been offered by Arkansas, this is the last year of his contract and other schools are showing interest.

Noon home game. That means on the road very early. So just to summarize the stories.

Untested QBs for Pitt. Expect the run.

App. State fallout — “can’t overlook Grambling.”

Tune in at noon to find out who starts at QB.

Grambling had 479 yards of total offense last week. Good chance they’ll be more of a challenge to the defense than EMU was.

Idle wondering what Kevan Smith would do if he doesn’t get to be the QB over Bostick. I agree with Zeise, the coaches can’t even worry about that.

Another article about Long and the Arkansas AD job. Listing some of what he’s done while at Pitt.

I dunno. Maybe.

Pitt athletic director Jeff Long is one of three finalists for the same position at the University of Arkansas, according to sources.

An Arkansas television station has footage of Long and his wife Fanny, getting off of a private plane in Fayetteville, Ark., at about 11 a.m. today.

My first question was “who are the other two finalists?” I don’t know for sure. Since the local station wasn’t ID’d and none of the stations in Fayetteville have any footage on their site. Best I can find is mention of Tulane AD Rick Dickson being near the top. Terry Don Phillips, the Clemson AD, and former Assistant AD at Arkansas previously took his name out of the rumors. I’m stunned that Long would be up for the Arkansas job. That’s a really tough gig and a high profile/pressure job considering its nothing but Razorbacks in the state.

I was surprised to learn that Long and Pitt never signed/finished working out that extension from back in May. Seems to be a bit of a problem for Pitt and Chancellor Nordenberg with those things. Remember how long he let interim AD Marc Boehm twist in the wind? Finally Boehm didn’t want to wait any longer and rejoined Pedersen in Nebraska.
Any time I write about AD Jeff Long, it’s with a sense of “ehh.” He has done a lot of stuff in trying to bring the entire Athletic Department and its facilities up to spec. Still, he does enough other stuff that just plain misses.

I know it is reported/said that he is the reason Pitt hasn’t gone back to the script Pitt. As much as the older colors and the script matter, that wouldn’t be enough to can him and I’m not sure that it’s enough to want him gone.

From all observations, stories and rumors, Chancellor Nordenberg is very involved and cares greatly about Pitt Athletics. That is very good considering the years of neglect before him. The downside is a Chancellor being too involved and wanting to run things or (as the older fans may recall from the end of the Posvar years) putting a crony in charge of the Athletic Department. In both the basketball and football coach hirings in the last 5 years, Chancellor Nordenberg was very involved.

In basketball, with an interim/weak AD in charge, it was a poorly run search with only one actual candidate seemingly dictated by the Chancellor and a cheaper fallback. Things worked out for Pitt, but that seems more by luck. Football had Long running the search and process more and was able to look at a lot more candidates. While the jury may still be out on how that one goes, there was a better sense of order and that Long was in charge of it (even if Nordenberg also really wanted Wannstedt).

So, I’m a little concerned about losing AD Long, if for no other reason than the replacement. That’s two straight guys as AD (Boehm and Long) where the contract was never finished. Other candidates may view that warily and it might cost Pitt in trying to find a replacement.

UPDATE: Here’s the report from (apparently) the local TV Station.

Trib has a few more details from the tv vid.

KHBS-TV in Fort Smith, Ark., has video footage of Long and his wife, Fanny, arriving in a plane bearing a logo of the school’s Razorback mascot and N88UA on its tail.

Have to love obsessive details.

It seems like the “State” in Grambling State is optional, which it sort of mystifying. You can just call them Grambling and people know what you’re talking about. Or you could plug “State” on the end — yet, I digress.

GSU beat Alcorn State last week, but first-year head coach Rod Broadway thinks they should have caught more balls.

Seems Broadway can’t stop thinking about the ones that got away.

GSU quartertback Brandon Landers’ 53 percent completion rate he went 19-of-36 was only slightly better than the Carroll product’s 51 percent rate of a season ago.”We had six drops during the course of the ballgame,” Broadway said. “We can’t afford to do that, if we are going to throw the ball.”

You might recall that an Eastern Michigan player was wide open and dropped a sure touchdown that could have changed the complexity of the game. If Grambling drops some of the few golden opportunities they get, things will be that much easier for Pitt.

Broadway also did something Dave Wannstedt wouldn’t do — call out one of his players.

“We can’t have Clyde, one of our best players, drop the ball,” Broadway said. “For a player of Clyde’s ability, dropping those balls is unacceptable.

The Tigers are using Saturday’s game as a measuring stick for their program. To them, Pitt, even in our current situation (coming off a poor year last year, having a ton of injuries, etc.) is a “big time” team.

“It’s always a challenge to play up,” said Broadway, once a longtime assistant to Steve Spurrier at Duke and Florida. “It gives us a chance to measure ourselves, in order to get a better idea of what kind football team we have. It will let us know what we need to work on to become a top-level program.”

GSU’s student newspaper, The Gramblinite, predicts a Pitt win with a score of 41-17. What do they need to do to win?

Landers must continue to take what the defense gives him, and the receivers cannot drop balls. The offensive and defensive lines must be at their best on Saturday. If Grambling can establish a running game and keep Pitt’s offense off the field, it could be a little closer than many think. I just don’t think it will be.

Pretty much play perfect to win it seems.

And interesting bit on the Tigers not being scared playing in huge stadiums.

While some teams get caught up in the hoopla of playing in an NFL Facility, it’s almost second nature to Grambling State as the Tigers are guaranteed of playing in at least one NFL venue per year.

Annually, GSU plays in the Louisiana Superdome in the State Farm Bayou Classic against rival Southern University on Thanksgiving weekend. In 2005, GSU played at Qwest Field in Seattle, Wash. against Washington State in addition to Reliant Stadium in Houston versus Southern.

From the Grambling State athletics website.

No one’s said much about the defense because, well, the defense did fine. It also helped that they were playing a team with very little to offer in terms of offense. And, quite frankly, last year the defense did fine in the first half of the season against offensively inept or inferior teams (Virginia, Cinci, Citadel, Toledo, ‘Cuse, UCF — 55 points), but as the season progressed or against a team that understood the concept of the forward pass or had a running game (MSU, Rutgers, USF, UConn, WVU, L-Ville — 219 points). So, I’m not going to be reading too much into the performance.

Just a thought, I realize the release of Pitt’s basketball schedule was something dictated by the Big East, but couldn’t Pitt have had a waiver to delay for a few days. Think about this extra promotional incentive. Attend the Grambling game and be the first to get the Pitt basketball schedule. It couldn’t have hurt. Couple that with Wanny not revealing who will be the starting QB until Smith or Bostick runs out with the offense on the first series and it would be some great reasons to go to the game.
Mike McGlynn is eager to get back to playing.

McGlynn did his best to show Pitt coaches what they were missing in his cameo last Saturday. He replaced sophomore Jason Pinkston for one play at right tackle, and promptly unleashed his frustrations on an unsuspecting Eastern Michigan defender by driving him backwards 15 yards.

“I was excited and I took it out,” McGlynn said. “I definitely left it all out there on that play, that’s for sure.”

McGlynn is expected to replace Joe Thomas on the line who gets a bit of a defense from Zeise’s Q&A.

Q: Joe Thomas seems to be everyone’s whipping boy for the OL troubles, but why does C.J. Davis get a free pass? He hasn’t exactly dominated the competition these past two years, and versus Eastern Michigan he was whiffing on blocks and late on his assignments. Maybe Bokor should get some reps versus Grambling.

Zeise: I disagree about Joe Thomas taking more criticism than the other guys on the line. Are you going to tell me he has taken more flack than Chris Vangas? And Thomas was not singled out at all last year because people understood he was a true freshman. But I think one thing you need to remember is Thomas has had a number of nagging injuries that have slowed his progress this training camp. He hasn’t been healthy yet and coaches understand that, they aren’t down on him, they aren’t giving up on him, but at the same time, this coaching staff understands it has to win games now (like I said in my opening). He’s got a lot of talent and will still have a great career, but even he’ll tell you he’s struggled a little this year so far. C.J didn’t light it up either, but he’s been a consistent performer for two years so he gets a little slack. And if he has a couple more games like that, you might see Bokor, or even a guy like John Fieger, getting a few more reps at that spot. Believe me, this won’t be the only lineup change this year — the hook will be quicker for everyone because Dave Wannstedt is going to put the 22 guys out there who he thinks give him the best chance to win.

Thomas is catching more flak this year for two reasons: 1) his potential is greater than most of the other players on Pitt’s O-line, so more is expected; and 2) he hasn’t shown it — whether because of injuries or not — which means no progress from last year.

Kevin Gorman posts that he thinks it should (will) be Kevan Smith starting if for no other reason, that the players on the team seem more behind Smith at the moment.

Those of you at the game on Saturday who sat on the visitors side or the bleachers (or who saw us on the jumbotron in the last minute or two of halftime) maybe have noticed the “Oderick’s Crazy 8’s Crew” sign hanging in section 530 — I take some credit for that one.

My friends and I have always wanted to make a huge banner. We were thinking of ideas when someone threw out the possibility of playing off of Turner’s number, 88 — thus the “Crazy 8’s”.

The Specs:

• Length: 29 feet
• Height: 3 feet
• Letter width: 3 inches
• Letter height: 2 feet, 8 in.
• Colors: Blue inside of black outline with yellow background
• Awesomeness: Immense

We hope to be in the same spot this coming week, so be sure to check it out.

(Lack of image quality due to pictures being taken with my cell phone…errrg. Next week I’ll have the digital camera with me for better shots.)

After the jump, a look at where to find us and how it was made.

(more…)

“Overall we will face one of the nation’s most challenging schedules,” Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon said. “This is the most demanding non-conference schedule we will play in my nine years here. When looking at strength of schedule and our road games last year, our schedule was considered the nation’s most difficult. Once again, we have positioned ourselves to have the highest rated strength of schedule in the country.”

Coach Jamie Dixon, on the the Pitt 2007-08 basketball schedule.

“This will be the most challenging overall schedule we will play in my eight years here,” Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said. “The Big East will again pose a tremendous challenge. I’m excited about our non-conference schedule as well. Last year our strength of schedule was ranked 30^th out of 327 teams in the country. We have put ourselves in a position to have one of the toughest, if not the toughest overall schedule in the country.”

Coach Jamie Dixon, on the Pitt 2006-07 basketball schedule.

Someone in the Pitt Athletic Department really needs to look at past press releases before they draft the statement for Coach Dixon.

I didn’t do this last week, but I’m hoping to make this a weekly thing.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Middle Tenn. St. vs. (8) Louisville, 7:00 pm EDT
MTSU gave up over 400 yards in last week’s loss to Florida Atlantic, while Louisville’s offense picked up 655 over Murray State. Brian Brohm will tear this defense apart.
Pick: Louisville

Oregon St. vs. Cincinnati, 7:30 pm EDT
Oregon State’s running back Yvenson Bernard looks good this year, and although Cincy beat up on Directional Missouri, I’m not completely sold on them.
Pick: Oregon State

Friday, September 7, 2007

Navy vs. (18) Rutgers, 7:00 pm EDT
ESPN’s Friday night game is an interesting one for Pitt fans since we play both teams. Rutgers beat up on Buffalo while Navy beat Temple 30-19. I have Rutgers for the win because of their evolving, multi-demensional offense.

While Ray Rice rushed for 184 yards and three touchdowns, the Scarlet Knights showed there is more to the team than just their senior running back – who’s rushed for 2,914 yards in his previous two seasons. Junior quarterback Mike Teel was 16-for-23 for a career-best 328 yards and two touchdowns, and junior receiver Tiquan Underwood caught 10 passes for a school-record 248 yards and two TDs.

Pick: Rutgers

Saturday, September 8, 2007

(3) West Virginia vs. Marshall, 11:10 am EDT
Five words: Pat White and Steve Slaton.
Pick: West Virginia

Grambling State vs. Pitt, Noon EDT
Watching Michigan lose to a I-AA (or whatever they call it now) team puts the smallest slice of doubt in my mind. In reality, I expect us to win by at least 3 touchdowns — even with Smith or Bostick starting under center.
Pick: Pitt

Maine vs. Connecticut, 7:00 pm EDT
UConn quarterback Tyler Lorenzen (any relation to Jared?) threw for 298 yards and a pair of touchdowns against Duke. In my book, Duke and Maine are comparable.
Pick: UConn

Syracuse vs. Iowa, 8:05 pm EDT
The ‘Cuse managed to make people feel embarrassed for them last week. Iowa, while not amazing, managed to receive one vote (one whole vote!) in the AP poll. If the Orange manage to keep the loss to 16 points or less, we’ll call it a moral victory.
Pick: Iowa

South Florida vs. (16) Auburn, 9:00 pm EDT
Everyone’s Big East sleeper team will have a tough test playing War Eagle on the road. One guy who can make a difference for USF is freshman RB Mike Ford, a former Alabama recruit. Meanwhile, Auburn’s ground game was nonexistent (62 yards) against Kansas State. Matt Grothe and his great passing accuracy helps the Bulls knock off the ranked Tigers for the upset.
Pick: South Florida

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(Rankings used are from the BlogPoll.)