If you haven’t gotten the e-mail. Here’s the message from new football head coach Todd Graham. It appears to be nearly verbatim from his opening press conference, but still good stuff.
I’m re-posting it below the fold.
January 12, 2011
It’s a desperation game for the Hoyas. That loss to the Hoopies at home was something they didn’t need if they hope to win the Big East (or even finish in the top-4). So, Pitt is going to have a really tough one. Especially if the Hoyas snap out of their 3-point shooting slump.
Pitt was up-and-down in its only true road game this season. Pitt has been hot shooting 3s, and they will probably need it again tonight.
The game is on ESPN at 7pm.
Maybe you don’t need alumni coaching your school to make a rivalry game better. The Holgorsen-Graham feud appears to have people already fired up for next November. Well, at least on the WV side, they are ready to ignite couches post-haste.
The resurrected claims by Holgorsen from his days as Houston OC accusing Graham’s Tulsa teams of faking injuries/cramps to slow Houston’s offense has West Virginia columnists cackling with glee. To say nothing of the number of former West Virginia coaches now on Graham’s staff.
First, Graham is hiring Calvin Magee, Rich Rodriguez’s former right-hand man and offensive coordinator both at WVU for seven years and for the last few at Michigan. Magee initially endeared himself to Mountaineer fans for sticking around to call plays for the early 2008 Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma. He stuck around for the game after Rodriguez bolted. He did not, however, endear himself to the WVU administration when he and agent Mike Brown claimed he was not considered a possible replacement for Rodriguez because he is black.
Also, former Mountaineer assistant, fan favorite and Van native Tony Gibson is joining Graham in the Steel City.
The best is coming from the former Hoopie players seeing their position coaches now at Pitt.
The overwhelming response from these past players was to wish their former coaches well, while also acknowledging the awkwardness that will come with seeing a person they knew as a Mountaineer on the opposite sideline when Pittsburgh visits Morgantown in the fall.
But…
Larry Williams, who played his senior night in the infamous 100th edition of the Backyard Brawl back in 2007, was not quite ready for the news when he first heard it.
“I’m shocked,” said Williams. “This is one of those feelings like excuse me, what’d you just say? I just feel disappointed in a way. I understand everybody needs a job, but why Pitt? Out of all the schools you could have gone to, why are you going to go to the rivalry school? Why are you going to go to the program that we’ve grown through the years to actually hate? It just kind of hurts hearing it.”
Who said Pitt needed to hire DickRod to add gas to the couches.
Well, here’s to hoping that other than recruiting news, the Pitt football side of things are going to settle down for a little bit. I’ve hated giving the short shrift to the basketball team.
They’ve been doing exactly what we want in winning and getting better, yet it seems hard to focus on them until gameday. Well, guess what? It’s gameday. Big spotlight game. ESPN at 7pm. Liveblog tonight.
Let’s run down some belated media love — and there has been plenty of that — before moving to the Georgetown game tonight.
