Last week Coach Wannstedt tried to downplay concern with Jon Baldwin and how often he sees passes thrown his way.

“It’s interesting because if you look at some of the numbers, you wonder where’s Jon Baldwin? Then you think that we have to get the ball to Jon (Baldwin) more, and we know that. But the actuality is that he didn’t have a touchdown at this point last year, now he already has two. He has the same amount of catches now, and last year he had 220 yards. This year he has 197 yards, so his yardage is about the same in the first three games. You look at that, and yes we have to get him the ball more, but I think it’s more execution right now.”

Which would suggest that after the FIU game when Baldwin had only 2 catches for 14 yards that there might be a slight re-evaluation about things.

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Dion Lewis missed the entire FIU game because of a previous undisclosed/embargoed shoulder injury (“…He didn’t practice all week but as per policy, we weren’t allowed to write about it, ask about it, hint it…”).

Ray Graham ran wild over FIU. As soon as the game was over, Coach Wannstedt tried to defuse any controversy by declaring that Lewis would be the starter against ND if he’s healthy. Though, he did hedge to say that Graham had earned the right to an equal number of starts.

Naturally that did nothing to diffuse any controversy.

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One-third of the season is in the books. Pitt sits at 2-2. I have no idea about this team. I have notions, thoughts, opinions and conjecture. But I don’t have any solid sense of this team. Is this a 7-5 team? Are they improving steadily and capable of going 9-3 or 10-2? Somewhere in the middle?

I’ve been reading everyone’s comments from the threads and both positive and negative there are good points made. The fact that four games in, and I don’t feel like I know anymore about this team than when they were 1-1 is really frustrating.

We know more about them than from the preseason as realism forced us to back away from darkhorse top-10 BCS Championship dreams. Aside from that it is a crapshoot. It doesn’t help that the Big East is so weak looking that going 7-0 would not be unthinkable — and still not be considered particularly impressive.

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Hell of a tough week trying to get over a sinus infection, and all the other crap of everyday life. But I’m well enough to make this trip and see the game. Despite even my frustration and annoyance over the season to date, it is not over and I am not missing the game.

The game is on ESPN3.com where your internet provider offers it. Other wise look for the appropriate feed.

I’ll be tweeting all day to follow along.

Well, maybe a little more than one more thing.

I also want to point out this post from Ray Merangh talking about how smart Coach Dixon is about hiring assistants and how coveted getting the job is these days.

Which brings us back to the point when Herrion left and Dixon went into action. Everybody wanted that job because Dixon has become a coach who’s assistants get head coaching opportunities. Dixon was deluged with calls and resumes. Guys were even reaching out to know-nothings in the media to see if they knew anything! But Dixon had a plan.

He saw the talent in New England’s coming classes (the 2012 and 2013 classes each has potentially five top-25 guys)

He saw the potential problems at Connecticut.

Finally, he saw the guy involved with most of that talent — Pat Skerry, then at Providence — and went and got him.

Pitt pays well enough for assistants to be competitive, but there are plenty of other programs out there that pay far better. Pitt and Coach Dixon, though, offer the assistant who comes aboard more than just the money.

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