Here’s a blast from the past as there’s a piece on one of the few bright spots from the Ralph Willard era — Vonteego Cummings back home in Georgia.

The 32-year-old Cummings returned to his childhood playground last Saturday to kick off the Vonteego Cummings First Annual Community Day. The event was attended by more than 150 people – many of them youth and teens – who celebrated the occasion with games, including shooting hoops and eating hamburgers, hot dogs, and enjoying cold drinks.

“This was their day – a day of celebrating with them and giving back a little of what this community has given so much to me through the years,” said Cummings, a 1995 graduate of Thomson High School, where he was a star basketball player. After graduation, Cummings, the son of John David and Carri Mae Cummings, of Thomson, went on to become an outstanding basketball player at the University of Pittsburgh.

At Pitt, Cummings, who played point guard, averaged 17 points per game during his four-year career.

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Today, Cummings plays for the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team in the European League. The team is the second-best in the European League.

It’s still a rough go, however for another Pitt alum. Clyde Vaughan appeared poised to finally land an assistant coaching job with New Mexico State — where Herb Pope still plays (Insider subs.). But, no.

New Mexico State has decided against hiring former Connecticut, South Florida, and Long Beach State assistant and one-time Pitt forward Clyde Vaughan as an assistant coach. Vaughan resigned from his position at UConn after he was arrested in 2004 on a solicitation charge. That arrest continues to haunt him. Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg has long been a proponent of giving Vaughan a second chance, but Greenberg said he hasn’t had a recent opening on his staff for Vaughan.

Of course, Greenberg was the one who recruited Vaughan to Pitt when he was an assistant.

I feel bad for Vaughan. I really do. On the scale of crimes, it’s pretty low. Guys with DUIs get more chances.

There are two things working against Vaughan, though, in this instance.

It’s not the severity of the crime, but the type that drags him down. It’s not easy to picture Vaughan going to a recruit’s family and telling them how he will be looking out for the kid, helping him to grow. All the while he’s got to answer questions about his solicitation charges — and the fact that it means he betrayed his wife. Something, I don’t think Vaughan has ever grasped.

The other thing, and this is probably worse for his chances, is that it wasn’t his first offense. He has a history of this.

According to the report, Vaughan was arrested and charged in July 1992 in Long Beach, Calif., just prior to joining the staff at Cal State Long Beach. He also was arrested, charged and convicted in Tampa of approaching an undercover police officer and offering her $20 for sex while he was an assistant at the University of South Florida in 1999. The Long Beach charges, details of which were not available, eventually were dismissed, according to the paper.

You can’t be worrying what your assistant coaches will be doing in their spare time, on top of worrying about the players.

DeAndre Kane out of Schenley is headed to prep school in New Hampshire. I wonder whether he’ll ever make it into a college uniform. I also can’t help but wonder if he’s got a learning disability. No one questions that he has talent, but no one can commit a scholarship until they can see that he will be able to survive the academic side. It’s too big of a risk, especially with the Academic Progress Rate and potential penalties.

This reads like it is just a matter of when for Tom Droney to commit to Pitt. Droney is only junior, and will be part of the 2010 recruiting class.

Droney, from Sewickley Academy, just twelve miles northwest of Pittsburgh, has not even begun his junior season yet, but he already knows he has had enough of the recruiting process.

“I plan on committing in September,” says the highly mature Droney. “I want to make sure that there is a spot open for me at the school I want to go to. I talked to (Pitt assistant coach) Tom Herrion and he said they were recruiting a lot of guards in my class and that it was best not to wait. I love Pitt. I’m not saying I’m going to go there, but if that’s my choice then I have to do it now. My high school coach and AAU coach agree with me.”

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While you won’t see Droney yet on many top 50 lists that will change when more people see him. He has played in obscurity somewhat this summer, playing offsite in Las Vegas and playing in the 16 and under league in West Virginia. But one out of state college coach who saw Droney play in West Virginia had no doubts about Droney’s talent, saying, ”He’s definitely top 50 and could be higher when he becomes a more consistent three point shooter”.

The other school he is considering is Wake Forest.

Another guard for the 2010 class that Pitt has been after for some time is Isaiah Epps.

Currently, Maryland and Pitt are in the lead to land the talented Garden State star. Saturday night at the Summer Shootout at Allentown (NJ) High School, Epps actually wore Pitt basketball shorts.

“My cousin goes to that school, Travon Woodall,” said Epps when asked if wearing Panthers’ gear indicated anything in particular. Does Jamie Dixon’s squad have an advantage over Maryland and others because Woodall is already in the fold?

“Oh no, I just like the school,” Epps told Alex Schwartz. Isaiah is high on Pitt “because they [are in the] Big East and I want to start. They told me I can start as a freshman.”

Epps, who is being recruited by former Pitt star and NJ Playaz alum Brandin Knight for the Panthers, would likely be fine coming in and starting right away, as he is older than his grade would indicate.

Epps is already 18. Right now, the combo guard is 6’2″, but apparently there are expectations of another growth spurt to put him closer to 6’4″ in a year or two.

Pitt wants to add another big man for the 2009 class, and apparently this one has been getting a lot of attention.

Talk about a kid whose stock has risen in the last month or two. Jordan Williams, a 6-foot-8 power forward/center from Torrington High (Conn.), has offers from Villanova, Marquette, Maryland, Georgetown, Providence, Pittsburgh and Penn State. Wake Forest is also in the mix.

It must have. WIlliams is only a 1-star PF on Scout.com. Rivals.com has 3-stars by him. ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. (Insider subs.) hasn’t updated their point score for him but does seem to note that he has a lot of potential.

Williams has good size and strength, which he uses to wreak havoc in the post on both ends of the court. He uses his size to carve out deep position in the post for rebounding and scoring close to the basket. Williams, despite his size, runs the floor reasonably well and will finish in transition, keeping up with the smaller, quicker guards. He rebounds in traffic very well, and extra contact does not seem to bother him most of the time.

They say he needs to work on his conditioning and footwork. His size is listed anywhere from 6-8 to 6-10 and his weight is around 240-250.

Every year that I do this, the only thing that I am certain is that I don’t know enough. It’s now a big part of my life to know more, read more, study college football and all it seems to do is muddle things when it comes time to do rankings.

I started doing the rankings and right away I was screwed. Starting with #1. I dropped Georgia after their injuries, but then found USC moving to the top but they are lost at QB right now. Then Florida rose to the top, and they have more ACL tears than Georgia so that didn’t make sense. Next thing I knew, Ohio State was number one — HELL NO! WVU? Not happening. Oklahoma? No way.

And that was just to pick #1.

So this is the monstrosity I ended up voting. I have absolutely no faith in it.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Georgia	25
2	Southern Cal	24
3	Ohio State	23
4	West Virginia	22
5	Oklahoma	21
6	Florida	20
7	LSU	19
8	Missouri	18
9	Clemson	17
10	Arizona State	16
11	South Florida	15
12	Wake Forest	14
13	Texas Tech	13
14	Wisconsin	12
15	Auburn	11
16	Texas	10
17	Brigham Young	9
18	Virginia Tech	8
19	Pittsburgh	7
20	Penn State	6
21	Utah	5
22	North Carolina	4
23	Rutgers	3
24	Michigan State	2
25	Fresno State	1

Very, very strange. South Florida just kept rising when I was dinging teams. I actually really like UNC out of the ACC this year. Very similar to Pitt in terms of recruiting talent and close losses.

They’re just starting to clog my tabs. Time to clear them out. The profiles, the puff pieces and press releases.

Dorin Dickerson continues to get attention at tight end.

Dickerson and Wannstedt sat down in the offseason and decided that the best place to get him on the field, and utilize his enormous potential, was tight end.

Dickerson said the fact Wannstedt never lost faith in him helped make the transition to another position much easier. And he said that playing the tight end position the way he is being asked — he’ll also line up sometimes as an H-back or even a fullback — means he’ll have plenty of opportunities to make plays.

“Coach stuck with me, he didn’t forget about me, that means a lot to me,” Dickerson said. “Some people say they’ll believe in you and they don’t mean it, but coach proved when he says something he means it and so I knew he was being genuine when he said he wanted to help me get on the field.

“The more I have learned about this position, the more fun it has become. People ask me what I am, I proudly say now ‘I am a tight end.'”

There’s bit about wondering why some tagged him as not a physical player. His injury just before starting at Pitt slowed him down and cost him the 2006 season. In 2007 he was learning a new position on the other side of the ball, and despite training camp predictions of him cracking the rotation never got too high on the linebacker depth chart.

With his talent and the accomplishments coming out of high school, questions will arise when the expectations did not appear to be met. As legitimate as the reasons for the first two years are, they can be perceived as excuse-making. Whether Dickerson was actually tough enough for D-1A or injury prone. Whether he was just a player without a position. Not quite fast enough to be a receiver and not durable enough as a running back. An athlete stuck somewhere.

A player who has all the physical tools and there was never any question about his position, just his head, is Elijah Fields. He’s finally on the verge of putting it all together.

He sat out last season while serving a suspension for disciplinary reasons.

“It was real frustrating, but the decisions I made were my fault,” Fields said. “I’m not going to blame it on anybody else. I want to put that behind me and move forward and play this year and help my team out.

“I’ve matured a lot, sitting out and looking back on things and the decisions I could have made.”

Fields credited secondary coach Jeff Hafley for helping guide him through the tough times. Hafley, in turn, said Fields has shown better maturity by owning up to his mistakes and correcting them.

“He learned how important football was to him by sitting out last year,” Hafley said. “He now understands how his teammates and his coaches are counting on him. He wants to contribute — not just for himself but for the team, as well.”

The article also noted the struggles he had early at learning to play defense versus doing what he wanted because he was a superior athlete in high school. You just hope that the light has truly gone on for Fields and that it isn’t just something to say that sounds good.

The safety, who many are eager to see moved down the two-deep behind Fields and DeCicco, Eric Thatcher has his own story.

Thatcher is unheralded, but his role cannot be underestimated. As the free safety and most-experienced defensive back, Thatcher is responsible for aligning the defense on every play.

“You talk about him being under the radar,” Hafley said. “He’s under the radar until there’s a deep crossing route and he makes a big hit. People who play us know who Eric Thatcher is. I know [the media] likes to talk about some of our other guys, but he’s a leader back there.

“At that position, there is so much that goes into it from a mental standpoint. He’s the quarterback of the defense. He makes the calls, get us lined up. We need a guy like that back there, and we’re very fortunate to have him.”

Being the quarterback of the defense is especially important in a year when experience at the other secondary positions is almost non-existent. The only other returning starter is junior Aaron Berry at cornerback. The two players battling for playing time beside Thatcher at strong safety are Dom DeCicco and Elijah Fields, neither of whom has made a college start.

“It’s a position where you don’t always get the accolades because you’re not going to have 120 tackles or 15 sacks,” Hafley said. “You’re going to be the guy who lines us up and gets us in the right position. Because of that, we make the right play. Someone else might get the tackle or get the pick. But it wouldn’t happen without him.”

We’ve seen in Wannstedt’s first three years that he places a high value on players who know the schemes.

Derek Kinder has been recovering from his torn ACL, and while he has been a slowed getting on the field he has taken care of the other things.

Kinder is a recent graduate with a degree in economics, one of eight members of the 2008 Panthers to have already earned an undergraduate diploma. He’ll be attending fall semester classes with his eye on another degree, perhaps in communications. Regardless, he enters his final season of collegiate football with a better appreciation for his talent and the opportunity it’s given him.

“Before, I probably did take my health a little bit for granted,” he admits. “I’m a lot more determined now to do all the little things that the coaches are always emphasizing. The need to warm up properly, because that helps prevent injuries. I definitely take that to heart, and get my full stretching in.”

On the field, he seems to be getting more confidence in his knee and moving better.

Most years, seeing articles on a walk-on and a near greyshirt looking like they will be earning playing time for the season would suggest that the talent is thin or there were a lot of injuries. Obviously, an injury played a role in one of them, but both actually have some talent. They just had choices and really wanted to come to Pitt.

But Peter Charles Alecxih III is not your average walk-on, and the redshirt freshman from Lancaster known as “Chas” is in the thick of the competition.

“Keep an eye on him,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said Tuesday after Pitt’s first scrimmage of training camp. “He’s probably had as good a camp as any of the backup defensive linemen. … We’ve got probably four guys competing but if I was honest … and said who’s probably made the most plays, it’s probably been Chas.”

Alecxih is among the contenders for a backup spot behind starters Greg Romeus and Jabaal Sheard, a list that includes redshirt sophomore Ty Tkach and redshirt freshmen Justin Hargrove and Tony Tucker. At 6-foot-5, 275 pounds, Alecxih is 65 pounds above his playing weight at Penn Manor High School, where he was a teammate of offensive tackle Jordan Gibbs and turned down a scholarship offer from Connecticut to play for the Panthers.

“Coming in as a walk-on, the other guys were awesome but you felt like you had something to prove,” said Alecxih, whose father owns a company that builds luxury homes in Lancaster County and occasionally flies here in a twin-engine turbo Cessna airplane. “Most people look at walk-ons as if they’re not on (the same) caliber, so that was definitely motivation to come in and prove myself and say, ‘Hey, I can play on this level.’ I want to get a scholarship. It’s a respect thing, but until they’re able to, I don’t need one.

“Give it to someone who needs it.”

Finding the open scholarship a little early was how Andrew Taglieanetti was in Pitt training camp this year, rather than enrolling in January. He is poised to be a special teams player right away.

“He’s about as quick as any player we have on the team, and he uses it in the right ways,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “Right now, I’ve got him starting on possibly two special teams on opening day.

“From a special teams standpoint, he’s been the most exciting guy of the freshmen. He just wants to play.”

His twin brother Jon is also on Pitt’s team as a preferred walk-on at linebacker.

Finally, Johnstown loves the local connections.

Senior LaRod Stephens-Howling, redshirt sophomore Scott Corson and redshirt freshman Wayne Jones can provide some comfort and stability for Bishop McCort graduate Mike Cruz, Greater Johnstown alumnus Antwuan Reed and Richland grad Marco Pecora as each goes through his first season with the Panthers, who are ranked 25th in The Associated Press preseason poll released Saturday.

“It’s definitely fun to have someone you know here,” said Jones, who is in his first season as a mentor. “I was excited to hear that they were all coming down to Pitt. We’re all working hard toward the same goal.”

That would be getting the Panthers back on track – none of the local players has experienced a winning season at Pitt – and developing individually.

“When you come in, you have a lot of questions about camp and school,” said Jones, who is going through a transition of his own, switching to center this season.

Corson is in a similar situation, as he is playing defense for the first time at the collegiate level, but he still has time to help the newest members of the program learn the ropes.

“That’s exciting,” he said of having three more local players on the roster. “More guys keep coming. (I try to help out) with all of them. When I got myself ineligible, that’s a hard hole to get out of. I got my grades together and I’m trying to show them the importance of that.”

Every news outlet loves to cite the local connections.

There are days when balancing family and obsession actually tilts away from obsession. Lots of stuff I had to do over the weekend. Plus, I was putting the finishing touches on the FanHouse Big East preview postings with fellow Hauser John Radcliff. Putting the objective hat on is not a lot of fun, but it is helpful in forcing some perspective even with Pitt.

So there’s a lot to catch-up. The first bit of good news is that there weren’t any injuries in the practices and scrimmages over the weekend. After last year and the number of injuries across the country, that’s something that can’t be taken for granted.

Nice news that Pitt got ranked #25 in the AP poll. The only team in the poll to have a losing record last year. USF and WVU were also ranked. For an 8 team conference, that’s decent to have 3 teams ranked. Rutgers, Cinci and UConn also received votes.

Next bit of good news, a new verbal.

Pitt received its 11th football commitment from the Class of 2009 when Elizabeth (N.J.) running back Raymond Graham picked the Panthers after visiting for their scrimmage today in the South Side.

Graham chose the Panthers over scholarship offers from Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan State and North Carolina State. Penn State also was showing interest. Raymond Graham picked the Panthers after visiting for their scrimmage today in the South Side.

Graham is 5-9, 187 pounds. He’s Pitt’s 3d verbal from New Jersey. Oddly, all three are primarily running backs in high school. Can’t help but think at least one will look at a position change down the road.

Graham, though, is the highest starred recruit among the RB verbals. He’s a 3-star according to Scout.com and Rivals.com has him as a 4-star and the 5th best recruit out of NJ and #8 in all-purpose backs.

Given Pitt’s depth at running back, it has to be expected that most backs coming into the program are looking at redshirts. Something that comes through with Graham in this ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. evaluation (Insider subs.).

Graham is a gifted runner who possesses workhorse-type qualities in a small package. He is small in height not body composition. Thick, compactly-built and strong throughout his upper- and lower-body. … Durability with his current style is a bit of a concern as well. We would like to see him continue building up his sturdy frame with lean bulk and strength. Overall Graham is a natural well-rounded runner with skills to hurt a defense both in-line and on the perimeter. Potential sleeper in this running back class.

Best news, this story on Bob Junko and surviving his heart attack.