They take less and less meaning as the start of the season gets closer, but here are some more preseason rankings, power polls and other rating-esque things.
First up, the NY Times backed Pre-Snap Read ranks Pitt at #29.
Why No. 29 and not, say, around No. 15, where Pittsburgh ended last season? I understand your puzzlement. Bear with me as I attempt to explain this point: Pittsburgh can still win the Big East. Getting West Virginia at home is key, with that game again going far towards determining the conference champion. In fact, it hard not to view the Panthers as the Big East favorite, what with this team’s high level of returning talent on both sides of the ball. … Still, the lack of a proven quarterback is a concern. So is the interior of the offensive line; the interior of the defensive line will also break in new starters, but that’s far less of a worry. The Panthers must find two new starters at cornerback: it will be enormous for this defense if Imoru can step up immediately. All told, while I wouldn’t be surprised in the least to see the Panthers take the Big East, the handful of new starters and a difficult non-conference schedule will make it difficult for this team to match last season’s win total.
The question marks and the non-con are the issue. That is also why Phil Steele has Pitt at #27 even as he picked Pitt to win the Big East.
While touching on the non-con CBSSports.com has a break down of the top-25 teams and grades their non-con schedule.
15. Pittsburgh
Sept. 2: at Utah, A-
Sept. 11: vs. New Hampshire, F-
Sept. 23: vs. Miami (Fla.), A
Oct. 2: vs. Florida International, F
Oct. 9: at Notre Dame, B-Overall Grade: B
Man, when it’s good, it’s great. When it’s bad, well OK, it’s like, Ampipe-bad. But what high points this thing has. Big props for the ‘stache here, as he’ll have his troops well-tested by Big East time. The Panthers would have earned three A grades if the Irish were up to snuff recently (off-shoot question: Do you think the younger generation even remembers when the Irish were a top-flight program?) Don’t hassle the Panthers too much, with that schedule, they’ll need breaks like UNH and FIU. In the meantime, us college football freaks still give a big thumbs up.
Shouldn’t ” ‘Stache” be capitalized?
My former colleague at FanHouse (and fellow aficionado of fine beers) Brian Grummell does the write-up for Pitt in FanHouse’s, in-house poll. Putting Pitt at #22.
The team possesses All-Big East candidates everywhere, from offensive tackle Jason Pinkston to defensive end Greg Romeus to receiver Jon Baldwin to 2009 Big East Offensive Player of the Year Dion Lewis. No other conference opponent has the Panthers’ stable of future NFL talent. No other team likely has their schedule, either.
The Panthers must open their season on the road against Utah, while also facing Miami and Notre Dame in non-conference action. Road games against Connecticut and Cincinnati don’t help matters, either. Nobody’s talking undefeated season — yet — but Pitt clearly has the talent to make a run at besting last year’s 10-3 mark and capturing the Big East crown.
If Pitt survives the significant hurdles, it will have certainly earned both conference and national respect.
No pressure.
Rivals.com has its writers predict the conference. All but one picks Pitt to win the Big East, Tom Deinhart goes with UConn. Suddenly, I like the chances of Pitt winning the Big East a lot more with Deinhart picking against Pitt. They are unanimous in picking Dion Lewis to lead the conference in rushing, but not so much in receiving.
IF I WERE {BLANK}, I’D REALLY BE WORRIED.
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Mike Huguenin: Pitt offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti. He has two of the best skill-position players in the nation to work with in RB Dion Lewis and WR Jonathan Baldwin, and LT Jason Pinkston has All-America potential. But he also has a first-time starter at quarterback in Tino Sunseri. So, Cignetti has a Ferrari with a teenage driver, and his job is to make sure that driver doesn’t wreck. Forget going 100 mph on the freeway; Cignetti needs to worry that Sunseri stays right at the speed limit on neighborhood roads so nothing goes wrong.
Steve Megargee: Pitt QB Tino Sunseri. Yes, I think Pittsburgh will win the Big East. Apparently, so does just about everyone else, since the Panthers received 22 of a possible 24 first-place votes in the Big East preseason media poll. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a first-year starting quarterback, even one who has the luxury of handing off to Dion Lewis and throwing to Jonathan Baldwin.
Here’s more of their preview stuff for the Big East.
Brian Bennett at ESPN.com has Pitt at the top of his Big East power poll. More interesting is the confidential survey of Big East players (Insider subs.).
Who will win the conference?
Heading into the league’s 20th year, Pitt has zero outright Big East titles. But 55.6% of conference players say that streak will end this year. “Cincinnati will still be good,” says one defensive star. “But Pitt doesn’t have any big holes.”Best Coach?
Dave Wannstedt has long been the conference’s top recruiter, and last year’s Panthers went 10-3, with the three losses coming by 11 total points. Opposing players have noticed the Pitt ascension, with 55.6% picking Wannstedt as the league’s top coach. “I don’t know what kind of game-planner he is,” says a rival lineman. “But I do know I would like playing for him. He coaches with passion.” For the last coach you’d ever want to play for, most players named Rutgers’ Greg Schiano (77.8%).
Dion Lewis was picked as the top player in the conference. Take it with the grain of salt that the sample size deserves. The survey hit 135 players total, so there were probably no more than 16 to 18 Big East players surveyed.
Matha transferred to IUP in January.
Yes, I hate my life.
Gene Collier does a real good job of letting everbody know why the last thing any of us should do while Pat Boatick is on a football field in a Pitt uniform is to boo. He is a good football player and a great student. We are very lucky to have him on this team.
I just wonder how he was so highly rated out of high school?
Wasn’t he a four or five star recruit and the best QB in the state that year?
I’ve seen recruiting services get it wrong, but that was ridiculous.
Bostick was a big time recruit when he came to Pitt, but he is just one of those guys that hit his ceiling early and hasn’t progressed to become a next level type of player. Sometimes the best guys in high school are the best guys because they are a little ahead of the game not because they are the most talented.
And you know this how??? Have you really seen Bostick play in a game since he was thrown in as an 18-year old true freshman with not even a year under his belt in a Division 1 football program??? I’m guessing we’ll see what 2 further years in the program have produced when he is pressed into service once again as the “backup”, and I’m guessing it will be impressive.
Bostick – backing up at Pitt
Ricker – never heard from
Devlin – transfered to Delaware
Frazier – doing nothing Bostick couldn’t do at UConn
Not exactly a whose-who. Granted they got Palko and Henne right before that and they appear to have gotten Pryor and Savage right since but that was a bad two year run of QB evaluation.
I would be much more comfortable with him at QB heading into this season with all the experience he has than Mr. Prodigy Tino Sunseri (who has none)
He threw the ball with much more zip on it than Bill Stull and showed that when they both played in windy conditions at that infamous Sun Bowl Game. This is one instance where Coach went ‘local’ instead of with the player with the most potential and talent.
I’m comfortable with either guy stepping into our offense, we have too many weapons for a QB to fail.
I’ll put my trust in Cignetti, you should too.
They are a year older/wiser but so are we.
Patrick, my research suggests that all of the players currently on the Rutgers team are Big East players; that all of these BE players wanted to play for Schiano when they were in high school; and that most of them still want to play for him.
best
One theory I’ve heard is Bostick’s pedigree was a product of him getting some notoriety from the recruiting sites earlier on in his high school career. I believe he started at least three years for his varsity HS team, and the talk was that some recruiting sites looked at his numbers and/or saw him at some camps and probably projected him a little higher than his actual talent level would ever bear out. By the time he left high school, there was some talk about him probably being overrated by the recruiting gurus, but none of them really devalued him in their rankings.
That’s not meant to knock him. I’ve heard more than a few people mention that from a “complete package” standpoint, by the time he left Manheim, he was probably just closer to a “three-star” QB than he ever was what the recruiting sites made him out to be.
As Pabs mentions, this stuff probably happens quite often.
Now, aside from the Rutgers team (which accounts for just over 12% of players in the Big East), it states that Schiano is the “Last coach you would ever want to play for” for nearly 78% of the players polled.
If you put Rutgers team entirely among the remaining 22% who DON’T consider Schiano the “Last Coach they would ever play for”, that means nearly 90% of the non-Rutgers players in the Big East REALLY don’t want to play for Schiano.
So my question again: why? Does he berate his players during the games within earshot of the opposing players? Has word gotten around about some other part of his coaching style that puts people off?
