Don’t worry, the blog hasn’t abandoned football. We are still aware that there are a few games left in the season. You’ll excuse me if I don’t fantasize that Pitt will get to a bowl or even reach bowl eligibility. Rutgers, of course, is bowl eligible but wants to get beyond that point.

How successful this season ends will essentially revolve around Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh, and to a lesser extent the results of remaining Big East games. With the conference guaranteed five bowl bids, Rutgers remains in good shape to be playing in a warm climate in December.

A win over Pitt should put a lock on a happy ending. A loss would put all the pressure on the final game at Louisville, where the home team could also be playing for a bowl bid.

It’s unlikely the Big East will be sending anyone to the Gator Bowl this season.

If you thought one-win Notre Dame would have no effect on the bowl selections this year, think again. The lure of a recovering Fighting Irish team in 2008 or 2009 might convince the Gator Bowl to take 7-5 Texas Tech this season. Here’s how the Gator Bowl’s trick box works:

The Gator Bowl is in the second year of a four-year contract with the Big East and the Big 12. The Gator will take a team from the Big East in two seasons and a team from the Big 12 in two seasons (an ACC team will be on the other side of the bowl). Keep in mind that when Notre Dame does not make the BCS, it participates in the Big East’s bowls.

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The Gator could return to the Big East, where the second pick could be Cincinnati or UConn, both of which are 8-2 and must play Syracuse and No. 6 West Virginia in the next two weeks. But if the Gator takes, say, a 9-3 Cincinnati, the bowl is committing itself to the Big 12 for the next two seasons and precluding itself from access to Notre Dame and the Big East.

If you think Notre Dame is in too deep a hole to get back to eight or nine wins in the next two years, then you take the Bearcats this season. If you want to keep your options open, you take the Red Raiders. Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett said he would consult with CBS, which televises the game, and make his decision.

WVU went last year, so the scenario makes sense. It is also better for Pitt. Even if Pitt were to run the table and go 7-5, there’s no way Pitt would be headed to the Gator this season.
Pitt doesn’t even know for sure which QB they will be facing from the Scarlet Knights.

Anyone who saw Mike Teel zipping the ball around at practice yesterday at Rutgers Stadium would have had a hard time knowing the Scarlet Knights’ starting quarterback was still bothered by a thumb injury to his throwing hand.

The tipoff, though, was obvious: Backup Jabu Lovelace took the majority of the repetitions, with Teel limited in his work.

But after pulling himself from last Friday’s game at Army after seven snaps because he couldn’t feel his thumb, Teel got off to an encouraging start for a week that leads into Saturday’s home finale against Pittsburgh.

Asked to put a percentage on his chances of starting against the Panthers, Teel listed it as “99.9.”

“I’d say it felt pretty good — the best it has felt in a while throwing-wise,” he said. “I was able to really throw the ball like I wanted to for the first time in a while.

“It’s just a matter of being smart with it and giving it rest when you can.”

Head coach Greg Schiano wasn’t ready to declare Teel healthy and ready to go just yet, however.

“He can’t do too much. It gets sore quickly,” he said. “He did a little bit. We’ll just play it by ear.”

So, it is likely that Pitt will get plenty of Jabu — a very mobile QB. The Rhoadsian kryptonite. The other kryptonite for Pitt’s defense — Ray Rice.

Rice eclipsed the century mark in the second half alone against Pitt last season, gaining 85 yards in one backbreaking drive while rushing for a career-high 225 yards in a 20-10 victory at Heinz Field.

And he’s only gotten better.

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“He just torched us in the fourth quarter last year,” Pitt fifth-year senior defensive end Chris McKillop said. “He was just running people over. He’s tough to bring down. He runs the ball really hard. He comes at you just as hard in the fourth quarter as he does in the first quarter. He was running like someone stole something from his mother.”This season, Rice is running that way early. He is averaging 53.6 yards and 5.6 yards per carry in the first quarter, proving he can start just as strong as he can finish.

In the past two games between Rutgers and Pitt, Rice has 339 rushing yards (Insider subs.).

Of course, Pitt has had a bye week to prepare for Rutgers. To get healthy. Something that has, um, not been great for Pitt.

And extra time off hasn’t translated into better results in recent years. The Panthers are 2-4 in games when they have had more than a week to prepare for a game under Wannstedt. They had 10 days to prepare for Navy’s triple-option offense and ended up with a 48-45 double-overtime loss.

Last year, the Panthers had one true off week — after the Rutgers game — and came out and played one of their most lackluster games of the season in a 22-12 loss at South Florida. Wannstedt is obviously hoping that is not the case this week.

“I think you need to do enough full-speed work during the course of the week to stay sharp,” Wannstedt said about using the extra time wisely. “If you are working just against the scout team where the pace isn’t what it will be on Saturday, you might have a tendency to come out and start slow. We have it structured so that we have enough first-team vs. first-team [offense vs. defense] full-speed work to try and keep our edge that way.

“I do know we can’t afford to come out and start slow, we can’t afford to be flat and our players need to understand that. Coaches, players, everybody needs to understand the urgency of this game and come out and play as good as we can play.”

And for good measure, Coach Wannstedt feels that he will be ready to return to the sideline for this game.