Relax. It’s for his senior year and he’s severely upgrading his competition.

Patterson will transfer to St. Benedict’s, a college preparatory school located in Newark, N.J., for his senior season, the New Era has learned.

“I wanted to go to a school that would get me better prepared for Pitt,” Patterson explained from his home Sunday night. “St. Benedict’s is a great school, and it has one of the best basketball programs in the nation. It felt like the right place for me.”

Patterson, who gave a verbal commitment to Pitt last fall, is ranked 15th in the nation among players in his age group by Rivals.com.

…

Patterson expects to split his time between shooting guard and small forward with the Gray Bees — the same positions he’s likely to play at Pitt.

He said he’s spoken to Pitt coach Jamie Dixon, who supports the move.

He’ll be playing for Dan Hurley — who Coach Dixon has twice tried to lure to Pitt as an assistant.

You can bet the folks in Lancaster won’t be thrilled, but this is great for his development as a player. It also means a lot more attention and coupled with the high recruiting ranking he has, Pitt is going to have to make sure to stay close to Patterson.

Can’t resist. I’m sure it’s just an aberration. Noting indicative about the community, the school or the team.

A University of Akron basketball player is accused of firing a gun at police following a traffic stop this weekend.

Rydell Brooks, 20, was arrested following a foot chase with Akron police just after midnight Sunday. Police said Brooks fled from the vehicle and fired shots at the officers in pursuit.

No other details of his arrest were immediately available. UA coach Keith Dambrot was not immediately available for comment.

Brooks, a sophomore at UA, is in the Summit County Jail pending an appearance in Akron Municipal Court.

A 2006 Buchtel grad, Brooks has yet to play for the Zips after transferring last season from Niagara University.

Sometimes local kids should just never come back home to play.

A local Fox station in Memphis reported that Memphis and the Big East were hot and heavy in negotiations to have the Tigers join.

Ever since the Memphis Tigers got left behind in the Great Bum Rush to leave Conference USA– also known as the Big East expansion in 2003– Tiger fans have had one singular goal. To follow their old rivals from Louisville, and Cincinnati to the greener pastures of the Big East.

And here’s where it gets interesting.

Sources have confirmed to FOX13 Sports that University of Memphis officials have been in serious talks with the Big East about joining the conference.

Of course the Big East is denying this story.

…Big East spokesman John Paquette to track down these rumors that Memphis might join the Big East and he categorically denied them.

“No truth,” Paquette said by phone from Rhode Island. “I saw the clip. It’s a TV report with no named sources. No one from the University of Memphis. No on-the-record sources. We’ve been down this road. We are not talking about expansion with any institution.”

Repeat after me, there won’t be any expansion until there is a split of the conference between the football schools and the basketball only schools.

So in one of the latest too soon to be taken seriously pre-season rankings, Pitt came in at #19 by Mark Schlabach at ESPN.com.

Bill Stull, who injured his thumb in the 2007 opener and missed the rest of the season, moved ahead in the battle for the starting quarterback job. Stull came back with a stronger arm and better mobility. If the Panthers can establish a passing game to balance LeSean McCoy’s running, the offense could be pretty explosive. Linebacker Scott McKillop, the top tackler in Division I-A in 2007, leads a defense budding with confidence after upsetting West Virginia 13-9 in last season’s finale.

Which he essentially repeats in his list of things to wait and see with the Big East this season as counter point to Ivan Maisel.

Can Pittsburgh parlay its stunning 13-9 upset of West Virginia at the end of 2007 into a bowl appearance this coming season? Dave Wannstedt hasn’t led his alma mater to the postseason during his four-year tenure, but the Panthers might be among the country’s biggest surprises. If Bill Stull can produce a consistent passing game, Pittsburgh will be well balanced with LeSean McCoy running the football.

Um, it’s only 3 years so far.

In a quickie review of all the BE teams, Pitt is listed as having answers at QB (Bill Stull), the O-line (with Malecki moving to Right Guard form the D-line and Joe Thomas over to Right Tackle), and the Defensive End (well one side with Greg Romeus anyways).

The questions remain at linebacker depth, experience at QB and whether Pitt can continue the momentum.

Is there nothing else right now?

Not sure why there is still more new stuff on basketball than football these days.

I’m sure the Pitt coaches are working on this. As are the strength and conditioning and nutritional consultants.

With PF Sam Young set to return for his senior season, Pitt’s priority is ensuring that 6-10 C Gary McGhee has the kind of offseason that turns him into a consistent rotation player. McGhee reached double figures in minutes only three times as a freshman, including in a solid game against South Florida when the Panthers were just beginning their recovery from injuries to SF Mike Cook and PG Levance Fields. McGhee will need to be better conditioned and more assertive to expand his role, but if he can play 12 to 15 minutes per game, the Panthers will be able to show opponents a different look.

It would be good not just to spell DeJuan Blair but also allow Pitt to throw a bigger look at teams with Blair and Young being able to slide to the 4 and 3 spots on the court, respectively. Getting McGhee more minutes and in the rotation consistently seems to be likely so that he can step in as a starter in his junior year.

Mike Cook (with Coach Dixon and Pitt’s help) formally submitted his appeal to the Big East for a 6th year of eligibility on Monday. The Big East then passes it on to the NCAA which will rule on it. A decision isn’t likely until sometime in June.

The NCAA has gotten a little more lax with medical waivers, but one question remains: where’s the available scholarship if he gets the clearance? Either Pitt knows that one of the present recruiting class is going to miss qualifying or there’s another transfer/player quitting coming soon.

Aaron Gray was back at Pitt and PittsburghPanthers.com has a Q&A.

What brings you back to Pittsburgh for the week?

“I love it here. It is a great situation for me. I am able to come back and work with the strength and conditioning coaches. I can work with players like DeJuan Blair and Austin Wallace and help them improve.”

…

Do you still try to stay in contact with your former teammates and coaches?

“Absolutely, I use them for advice and help all the time. Coach Dixon came out to training camp last year too. They have continued to be great teammates and coaches since I have been with Chicago.”

Were you able to catch any of Pitt’s Big East Championship run this spring?

“Oh yes, they had me on speakerphone the whole time. It was as if I was celebrating right there with them.”

Via NBE Basketball Report, this bit on a possible Pitt recruit having issues.

A St. Raymond high school basketball player was arrested Tuesday afternoon after an altercation with a coach during a team meeting at the school, according to a police source.

A witness said junior Kevin Parrom punched Ravens head coach Oliver Antigua in the face after the two had a brief argument in the locker room.

A person close to Parrom said the player was provoked by Antigua.

No charges have been filed and Oliver Antigua is the brother of former Pitt player and present (for a little longer) assistant coach Orlando. The small forward has offers from Pitt, Rutgers, WVU, Xavier and others.

The meme on how loaded the Big East will be in basketball for 2008 continues to worm its way around. Per Jay Bilas at ESPN (insider subs.)

It’s still too early to put together a coherent Top 25 for next year, but it is not too early to determine that the Big East will be the best league in the country.

By October, expect the backlash. At the first stumble of an expected top team in the Big East there will be the “ah-ha, see the BE isn’t that good!”

One of the stories I have always been fascinated, because of the consequences and that shows how effed up college sports can be has been the Baylor-Dennehy scandal. This was where a Baylor basketball player was shot by one of his teammates in the off-season. As the investigation was getting underway, the then coach, Dave Bliss, wanted to cover-up how he was secretly paying the way for walk-ons who had transferred — including Dennehy. That included trying to mislead investigators that Dennehy was shot because of a drug deal — despite Dennehy having no involvement in that. He even wanted the assistants to help with the cover-up. One young assistant and former Baylor player was so disturbed by this, he taped one of the conversations.

He went to see a lawyer who eventually leaked the tape, and helped blow the whole thing up. In the fallout, Abar Rouse became blackballed in D-1 because he “betrayed” his head coach. This long piece on what has happened to him is a hell of a read.

Many coaches, including Hall of Famers Jim Boeheim and Mike Krzyzewski, have said that Rouse had crossed the line. “If one of my assistants would tape every one of my conversations with me not knowing it, there’s no way he would be on my staff,” Krzyzewski told “Outside the Lines” in 2003. The rank and file has fallen in step.

Despite beating down seemingly every door and mailing out countless résumés, Rouse has had only one basketball job in the past five years, a graduate assistant position at Division II Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. In October he made the agonizing decision to quit, unable to survive on the $8,000 annual salary.

…

Assistant coaches are basketball’s Secret Service, there to step in and take a bullet when one is fired at the man in charge. Indiana’s Senderoff was sent packing long before the NCAA’s tentacles reached Sampson; Dwane Casey took the initial heat for Eddie Sutton at Kentucky in 1989. Taking the fall is an act of honor, despite the fact it usually means some sort of violation occurred.

Turning a coach in, deservedly or not, is viewed through an altogether different prism. Among coaches who pontificate about integrity and ethics — the NABC, then headed ironically enough by Sampson, called an emergency summit the fall after the Baylor scandal to discuss the very thing — there is a hypocritical silent code: Thou shalt not drop a dime on one another. Or at least get caught doing so.

And in a career in which networking is critical for job placement, those who go against the silent code are exiled, left to scrap their way back or wait in hope that someone offers a lifeboat.

Bliss, by the way, got to coach in the NBDL for a year and actually felt like he has re-habbed enough to start showing up at the Final Four once more. Read it all.

East Carolina desperately has wanted in to the Big East since the re-formatting a few years ago. They still want to find their way in. Even if just in football.

OK, but what if a deal too sweet to beat existed? Just for kicks, let’s put one on the table in the form of, say, a job application. The school should be willing to:

• Play a conference football schedule with zero compensation from the Big East so current members don’t have to give up any of their share of revenue.

• Be responsible for negotiating a television contract for home games until the league wants the school to be a part of its package.

• Not expect any of the league’s BCS revenue until earning a BCS bid of its own representing the conference.

• Come in as a football member only. Other sports would play in another league in order to not interfere with the league’s current 16-member setup for all other sports.

• Show a solid track record of putting fans in the seats at home, on the road and at bowl games — all on a trial basis for a few years.

The Big East still won’t bite. They don’t have to. As much as it makes things difficult to schedule in football,  even a provisional, part-time new member would likely upset the delicate balance with the basketball schools. Until the conference realizes it has to split, ECU has no chance.

Finally, congrats to Dick Groat and Pitt great Don Hennon on being included for induction into the WPIAL Hall of Fame. That they weren’t been inducted years ago is more of a shock than anything else.

I definitely would prefer Pitt gets in the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament, but it may not be as sure a thing.

Giles also said that the Duke, UCLA and Michigan are set as three of the four hosts for the Coaches vs. Cancer. The other host will likely be either Pittsburgh or Rutgers.

The third preseason event that Giles organizes is the Legends Classic. If Pittsburgh isn’t in the Coaches vs. Cancer, look for Jamie Dixon’s team to play in the Legends.

I guess I could see them choosing Rutgers as a way of nearing certainty of having a Duke-UCLA Final.

Assistant Coaching rumors continue. This time with Orlando Antigua.

Sources with knowledge of the situation have told CBSSports.com that Calipari is considering completing his staff — now missing Derek Kellogg (new head coach at UMass) and Chuck Martin (new head coach at Marist) — by hiring from a group of candidates that is headlined by Pittsburgh assistant Orlando Antigua and Georgetown assistant David Cox.

I could see Antigua leaving. Yes, he’s a Pitt alum and is comfortable. At the same time, he has ambition to be a head coach one day. He will need to have broader experience at other schools and working for Calipari would be a big building block.

As for Cox. He’s become a fast-rising name in just a few years. He spent one year at Pitt as Director of Basketball Operations before Thompson III hired him as an assistant a couple years back.

Ashton Gibbs was a big performer at the IS8 Playoffs.

Best individual performance of the day: Guard Aston Gibbs, a Seton Hall Prep star and Pitt recruit, went off for 41 in a 105-93 loss to the powerful Gauchos, making nine straight 3s at one point.

Travon Woodall was also playing and did well.

Pitt has apparently offered NJ PG Isiah Epps.

“Tommy Herrion told me that after he saw him work out,” [Plainfield High School Head Coach Pete] Vasil said Saturday by phone. “They’re offering him a scholarship.”

The 6-2 Epps already holds offers from Maryland, Rutgers and Seton Hall, with Maryland head coach Gary Williams telling Vasil he’s targeting Epps as his guard of the future out of the Class of 2010.

Epps is apparently a rising prospect. The ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. profile (Insider subs.) puts him in the Juan Dixon mold (which would explain why Maryland is pursuing him).

Epps is lightning quick, shifty with the rock and just flat out explosive at both ends. With range on his 3-point shot and a tremendous amount of body control in the lane, Epps is a nightmare to guard. His will to win is never questioned, has ice water in his veins and has earned the nickname Mr. Big Shot.

He’s also a lefty.

There’s also a write up on an AAU Tournament in DC with some Pitt targets.

Andy Katz of ESPN.com has made no secret in the past that he is on good terms with Coach Jamie Dixon. That sure helps in doing a story like this that has been on the front page of ESPN.com’s college basketball page all weekend.

The coaching carousel tried to scoop up Dixon yet again this spring. And, for the third year in a row, Dixon turned down all the suitors. Stanford, Cal, Oklahoma State, LSU, Arizona State, Indiana and Arkansas have all tried to get Dixon interested when they’ve had recent openings. But he won’t bite.

“He is so loyal to us and if there are three to five suitors every year, that would not surprise me at all,” Nordenberg said. “He doesn’t dangle that in front of us and doesn’t advertise it or try to take advantage of it.”

“Every time his name circulates with a job, Jamie shuts things down fast,” said athletic director Steve Pederson, back for his second stint as AD.

The Arizona State job was the only one that reached anxiety levels. I’d say there were a couple reasons for that. First, it was the first time he had been so actively pursued by another school. The year before the Pitt team really faded in the back end and there was a lot of sniping about Dixon’s performance. Finally, the difference in salaries at that point was a big difference that had to make anyone listen.

After that, it has been quiet or quickly rejected without much dancing. As a fan I appreciate that. As a blogger looking for material to write in the off-season, it’s damn frustrating. Mindless speculation of will he-won’t he and possible replacements can fill weeks of blogging if drawn out correctly. But no, that keeps being denied to me.

And still Dixon is doing it at a place where elite players in the area are virtually nonexistent. So with the help of his assistants from former aide Barry Rohrssen (now the head coach at Manhattan) to current assistant Orlando Antigua, he continues to make Pitt a familiar name in New York City. The Panthers can call Madison Square Garden their home away from home, too, going 23-8 in the building since 2000, which is better than what UConn, Syracuse and St. John’s can boast.

“He put Pittsburgh in a position where it’s an upper division team in the Big East,” said Florida associate head coach Larry Shyatt, a former assistant in the Big East at Providence under Rick Barnes and a former head coach at Wyoming and Clemson. “That’s the way it’s thought of outside and in the Big East. That’s the best compliment I can give.”

And now, Pitt has made inroads into Maryland and Philly.

I know that feelings are mixed on Dixon. I do understand that. I am one of those in his corner.

A big reason why is that I feel he has done a lot to build Pitt’s program overall. Not just the winning — which is huge. It’s the effort in helping to support the summer league in Pittsburgh. Something that never existed. Giving the players a chance to stay in the ‘Burgh over the summer to play together and against each other. To be able to keep improving, hit the weight room with direct supervision and guidance, and to take classes to stay up on the academics.

All of that is vital to making Pitt a basketball program a growing and strengthening entity. And it pays off in that the former players in recent vintage are still eager to be around the city and the program. We also see more connection with past players renewing ties to the school. Re-connecting and supporting.

The summer program also gives the more talented high school kids other options on playing and connecting with present Pitt players. Western PA will never become a hotbead of basketball talent, but the more connections made into the area can only encourage and make sure that kids feel some local ties and desire to play there one day. It’s something that Pitt has still fought to overcome.

All of that has happened with Dixon here.

It’s a curious choice by Zeke Marshall to say the least.

“He committed to Akron last night,” confirmed his mother Nicole Bozeman. “Maybe the main reason was because he developed such a great relationship with the staff. He really liked them all a lot. Secondly, it was for academic reasons. He loved their computer program and that’s what he wants to major in.

“I always said that it’s his life and he has to go where he fits best,” she said, citing the fact if her son turns into an NBA quality player, the league will surely find him in Akron “And if he isn’t good enough for the NBA some day, he will still have a chance to have his own software company, which is his goal.”

…

“He was not a fan of Pitt’s campus,” Bozeman said. “He wanted a campus feel, in the city, but not right in the city. Akron was just a good for him. Pitt’s campus didn’t fit his personality.”

His mother has long maintained that Marshall planned to stay close to home, and Akron is short two hours and fifteen minutes from McKeesport.

First off, it’s only May and he can’t sign until November at the earliest so I don’t think the door is closed if Pitt really wants him. Just a week earlier, Pitt seemed like a lead dog. Things change.

Especially according to Marshall himself, who apparently made the verbal a few weeks earlier.

“I know people are going to be surprised [by the Akron decision],” Marshall said. “Most people think I should be going to the biggest school. But they don’t know what really goes on when you’re talking about players going to bigger schools. A lot of players who go to big schools are benched.”

Marshall said he never seriously considered Pitt because “I don’t like their campus. I don’t like a city campus. If they had a better campus, I would’ve considered them.”

Yet, he’s going to Akron. While the school can be happy, the city of Akron can take pride in the fact that they aren’t considered much of a city.

I can’t get too worked up over this even if he doesn’t go to Pitt. It’s Akron. It’s not like Marshall chose a major-conference school or Penn State. Wherever he went, he would be a project needing to bulk up. As you would expect at this point with a gangly 7-footer he has an inconsistent game. Without bulk, a 7-footer in the Big East these days is just meat. Chewed-up and spit out banging inside. Marshall seems to want early playing time. He’ll get that at Akron, but not any major conference or even the high mid-major schools of the A-10.

This is the final day of annoying solicitations. I’m happy to write that it looks like all costs will be covered for the next two years with a final round of contributions. A couple of the checks have already arrived.

Yesterday I wrote about no political ads for this election. One other ad-related note that you won’t see. Any of the ad-sense programs. You know, those little text ads at the bottom of posts on other sites. I’m not a big fan of them, and with the support received, I see no reason to plug those in and create more clutter.

That’s one of the things I am very happy to with this site — keeping it relatively clean, uncluttered and simple.

Thanks to the support of everyone, it gets to stay that way.

I think some cautious skepticism about the football team is still warranted. It’s hard with so many pieces starting to look like they are coming into place.

The defense looks strong overall — even if there are some areas with thin depth. The defensive line appears to finally be a point of strength. The linebackers have a hard-nosed, aggressive guy in the middle with more depth than at any point in years. Safety, while not deep, has talent.

On offense there is a stud running back. The receiving corps while not flashy is deep and talented. The QB situation looks a bit better. Even the offensive line has some hope with players coming back from injury, a center that looks like a great find from JUCO ranks and a blue-chip freshman who should be able to grab a starting job immediately.

The coaching staff was overhauled, and seems to be on the same page.

Add in the strong finish from last year that raises the optimism. As further proof of how close Pitt might be, I have seen many cite that Pitt lost 4 of its games by 7 or fewer points. That just a couple bounces, a couple less injuries (or better officiating *cough* Rutgers *cough*) and Pitt would have been at least 6-6 or even, possibly 8-4. Suggesting how close Pitt might be.

On the flip side, though, Pitt also won 3 games by 7 or fewer points. Meaning that a 3-4 record in tight games suggests Pitt was very close to where they should have been, record-wise.

I was thinking about that as I kept coming back to this look at the Big East and team’s schedules.

Two things struck me right away. First, how unsure people are about the Big East after the assumption that WVU will be good and Syracuse will suck. Second, upon reflection I can’t disagree.

The eyeballing of schedules where you pick out almost certain losses or wins for the Big East teams yields a lot more toss-ups than usual. In large part because the teams in the Big East have improved and there is more parity.

UConn had a great season last year, and they didn’t lose much. USF and Rutgers have shown stability and are establishing themselves as consistent top-25 or right around there teams. Cinci is on their way there with Kelly as coach and especially if Mauk gets that 6th year at QB. Louisville is just a big question mark — they could implode with all the JUCOs brought in or could gel like a K-State team.

Then there’s Pitt.

This might be the strongest Panther team yet under Dave Wannstedt, but the schedule could make it a challenging year. There’s a chance for a big start with a home win over Iowa in mid-September, but the Big East slate starts out with two road games against Syracuse and South Florida. Going to Navy and Notre Dame will make it four road dates in a five-game span, and then there’s the finishing kick. After getting a mid-November week off, the Panthers have to play at Cincinnati, West Virginia, and at Connecticut. That could be just tough enough to ruin Big East title hopes.

They don’t give Pitt any “Likely losses” but after the two MAC warm-ups there are also no other “near certain wins” either. And I can’t argue too hard against that. Even the Syracuse game being in Syracuse does make that closer to a toss-up than a lock right now.

Some sad news, Dennis who has been contributing to PittBlather for the past year is leaving.

Dennis will be entering his senior year of high school (which, given the quality of his writing was a startling revelation to me) and has a crush of the usual issues including a summer job and working on college choices and visits. How he had the discipline, time and interest to post at all is a stunner. Especially when I think back to that increasingly dim memory of my lack of drive in high school.

He passed this along, though, an e-mail from DPJ of Cat Basket about trying to improve the gameday atmosphere at Heinz Field.

I was at a meeting with Steve Pederson and Dave Wannstedt where they challenged myself as well as other student leaders to improve the gameday atmosphere. While others were arguing that free t-shirts and hotdogs were the only way to get people to come, I argued that making the in game experience better was the real key for improving attendance (other than winning of course). Some people on SGB and other organizations felt I was crazy. Luckily Dr. Kathy Humphrey, Chris Ferris, and some other fellow student leaders agreed.

During the conclusion of the meeting, I along with our SGB president and Program Council Lecture Director was placed in charge of trying to figure out ways to make the in game experience better. One thing we all agreed upon was that there doesn’t seem to be anything engaging the fans to make them feel more included in the game. Sure we want to have a beach ball in the student section and to incorporate other ideas to make the entire stadium seem like one cohesive unit. However, we felt that there was one big thing that Pitt hasn’t used to our advantage yet. We have that massive jumbotron that usually is one big advertisement the entire game. Have you ever notice how excited people get when the Heinz ketchup flows??? That is why we decided that one of the most effective ways to improve the atmosphere is to use the jumbotron to get the crowd involved. Have you ever been to a Pens game and seen how they use a small outdated jumbotron to get the crowd fired up? Well, why can’t we use our state of the art equipment to get our fans fired up?

They are looking for more suggestions about improving the gameday atmosphere. So head over there with any thoughts.

This seems to be an ongoing process to try and figure out ways to get people to not only come to the games, but be engaged. You may recall the letter AD Pederson sent to season ticket holders after the 07 season. Cutting ticket prices will help sell more tickets, but the issue is getting the people to actually use them and not just sit on their hands.

Obviously the effort alone is a welcome step. Making an effort to get others to throw ideas out there. Rather than just act without actually talking to others who might be closer to the situation or have a better feel.
Here’s one for the jumbotron when the moment calls for the crowd to get fired up or make noise. It builds off the “shave the ‘stache” concept (yeah, I’m going to keep pushing this). I’m thinking Mike Ditka standing next to a cardboard cutout of Wannstedt. Ditka stroking his own mustache then speaking to the camera, “Hey Panther fans, I want to see this thing shaved as much as you do,” pointing to the Wannstache, “so how about some noise?!”

Just a couple more days of slightly annoying pledge posts.

One of the things I hate about election years are political ads when I’m watching sports. Drives me nuts. Watching sports is part of the escape from the daily crap. Partisan stuff just wears on me.

So, with everyone’s support for this site, I will get to be more picky about what I accept for blogads on this site. I’m making a promise now, that for this Presidential election there will no political ads on PittBlather.com. No pro- or anti- anything regarding the candidates (including non-Presidential) or “issue” ads. It’s going to be nasty enough, probably by September.
Essentially I’m promising a politics-free safe-haven.

Just click one of the begging buttons on the right sidebar and make sure this can be a reality.

After a while, you do have to convince yourself of that. I mean, otherwise, yet another revised top-25 list for college football in May would be, well, filler or just a waste of time. That — that just can’t be.

From the Viacom empire, Dennis Dodd at CBS Sports revises his top-25 and moves Pitt down a spot to #22.

The feel good vibe from the West Virginia win hasn’t diminished yet. Dave Wannstedt might finally be putting it together. Tailback LeSean McCoy was a freshman All-American who surpassed some of Tony Dorsett’s freshman numbers. Linebacker Scott McKillop led the nation in tackles.

From the Big East, WVU #9, USF #19, UConn #21, Cinci #25.

Then there is CSTV.com (another online arm of Viacom). Their college football editor moved Pitt from #24 to #20 in his revision.

The pressure is on Dave Wannstedt. He keeps bringing in these highly rated recruiting classes, but doesn’t have much to show for it on the field. But off of that impressive win over West Virginia in the season finale, and the duo of LeSean McCoy and Pat Bostick leading the offense, there’s reason to be very optimistic. Panthers’ defense should be strong.

Of course, no one else actually thinks Bostick will be the starter (or see playing time) this season (hello, redshirt). A fact even most national writers who paid any attention to things were aware.

“The question with Billy Stull was could he come back full speed after his thumb injury?” Wannstedt said. “He has proven that he can. With the year off and all the lifting he did in the weight room, his arm looks a little stronger to me. Right now, he is probably the most advanced of the group.”

Stull, a homegrown product of Pittsburgh, said his thumb injury might have been a blessing in disguise. Stull said he gained about 10 pounds and now weighs 212. “It’s definitely one thing I noticed when I was able to start throwing,” Stull said. “My arm strength is better.”

…

Still, it appears to be Stull’s job to lose. “He’s tough as far as reading the defense and hitting the targets,” McCoy said. “It’s going to help out the running game tremendously. It was tough last year because there were so many guys in the box. Everybody knew we were going to run the ball.”

McCoy isn’t the one calling the shots on offense, but it doesn’t hurt to have him speak with confidence on the likely starting QB.

Not sure how Chris McKillop’s tryout with the Jets went over the weekend. The former Pitt DE was trying out at Linebacker. It’s as much about making an impression to be invited back in the summer and to maybe create some additional interest from other teams.

That seems to be the result for Mike Phillips after his Browns’ tryout. He didn’t get invited back.

“It was a great opportunity to be in front of a lot of scouts,” Phillips said. “I think it opened some doors for a lot of things to happen. I have to keep working and go from there.”

Phillips has no intention of ending his dream. He’ll confer with his representation at the DeBartolo Co. and see if he can get a chance with another team.

“I’ll have to talk to my agent and look at the rosters of other teams and what they really need,” he said.

…

One possible destination for Phillips is Chicago. He and his agent weighed offers from the Browns and Bears before deciding on the Browns.

’’When I talked to my agent, we felt like the Browns were the better situation,” he said. “Things didn’t work out the way we thought.”

Which of course, does go back to taking advantage of the educational opportunities at Pitt. Just ask Ben Pryor.

Pryor, a highly sought Western Pennsylvania high school football player in 1976 who played in four college bowl games, is enjoying his career in education. He received his degree in elementary education in 1998 and his Masters in 2000.

“It’s going well in this change of careers, and I enjoy what I am doing,” said Pryor, who previously worked in the steel industry.

A focus of Pryor’s daily responsibilities is working with ninth graders entering Roosevelt High, a school of approximately 2,800 students in Prince Georges County, a Washington suburb.

On May 17, Pryor will be one of eight inductees during the A-K Valley Sports Hall of Fame’s 39th banquet at the Clarion Hotel in New Kensington.

Pryor had tremendous success in both high school football and basketball. He was named first-team all-state, a Parade Magazine All-American and an adidas All-American in 1976, and played in the 1977 Big 33 all-star football game.

There are always other things after football.