Seems that one of my spam comment filters has started to go wonky. That’s why comments are getting error statements. I’ve disabled the offending plug-in for the moment to allow comments to go through. I’ll try to muddle through and figure out what to do to fix this.

Well, it had to happen sooner than later.  PITT has its first defection of the 2012 recruiting class when Dakota Conwell left the fold yesterday.  His 100% commitment to PITT flip-flopped to being 100% committed to Arizona in the course of a two day visit.  We lose a four star LB right after we picked up a non-ranked LB.

That sounds a bit bitter and I’m really not.  This is how things work in the recruiting game. Conwell has now stated that he was ‘feeling’ Arizona for a couple weeks and I believe that.  Graham had recruited him to play either the Spur or the Panther LB position and Chryst will field a traditional 4-3; three LB defense where the LB play is rather confined.

Apparently Conwell wants to freelance a bit more than that entail and RR’s 3-3-5 will fit him better.

Conwell, 6-foot-1, 210 pounds, said the 3-3-5 defense that new Arizona defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel, formerly of West Virginia, is installing for coach Rich Rodriguez, is a better fit for him than Pitt’s 4-3 under its new coordinator Dave Huxtable.

“I’ll get to play in space a little bit more than I would have at Pitt,” he said. “I will have a little more (pass coverage) responsibilities at Arizona.”

Now I’m no Dick Lebeau but I can’t see how having an extra DB is somehow going to translate to Conwell having more pass coverage responsibilities.  You’d think having one less DB and an extra body on the DL would make that happen more often.

Anyway, there is no doubt in my mind that Chryst & Co. knew this was probably going to happened and with that they made sure that Caprara was onboard.  We’ll see in a couple of years if this was a decent trade off or not.

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UPDATE: Tip-off pushed to 7:40

There might be room for optimism after playing better than Pitt has in this losing streak against Marquette. Yet it was still another loss. Now Pitt is facing the #1 team in the country. A team yet to lose a game. This is likely going to be an ugly game.

Yet it is hard not to have at least a touch of hope as one other factor is in play. For whatever reason, Pitt has owned Syracuse in the last few years. Even when they looked better and were ranked higher, Pitt has found ways to win. Whether at home or the Carrier Dome. No I don’t know that it will continue, but at the very least it has to be in the back of the players and Cuse fans minds tonight. Right? Right?

It is still Big Monday. A 7:30 pm prime time game on ESPN.

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Time for another Volvo Challenge. The contest is a mix of popularity  — so remember to go and vote for me in Volvo’s Biggest Fan in the Big East— and by winning challenges. Also, this weekend when College GameDay and Louisville are coming to Pittsburgh for the Saturday night game, it is my Volvo sponsored trip back to Pitt. I’m planning to be at Hemingway’s before the game along with other Pitt bloggers — probably around 6. Please try and make it by to have a beer with us.

This challenge is a rather simple question that was asked.

What are the best traditions for your alma mater and why?

Thanks for the input last week. It’s a simple question, yet also a little vexing to me. It didn’t help that my mood when working on the draft last week wasn’t the best.

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Pitt secured its first recruit under the Paul Chryst regime last night when Mike Caprara verballed to the university.  Some PITT fans will like this but I’m thinking the majority will either be skeptical because of Caprara’s size or just will hate the offer right off the bat.  Caprara is 6′  tall &  200 lbs … and that will scare some fans off.

But the reviews of his work, especially on defense, are glowing.  Here’s what Lichtenfields of Scouts.com has to say:

“Caprara is a tough kid who gives you a maximum effort every time out. He is very instinctive and almost seems like having another coach out on the field. He is very solid against the run and can cover. There have been a number of FBS players on the Wolverines defense over the past three seasons, but Caprara may be the best. He is a leader that takes charge and leads by example.“

Here is some background on his HS career before this season started.

Then there is this fact regarding his Woodland Hills career; “Caprara, 6-foot, 210 pounds, is the all-time leading tackler in Woodland Hills history, setting the mark before his senior season and finishing his career with more than 350 tackles“.  For a more rounded view of Caprara there is this info.  Before you fall out of your seat remember that Hershel Walker took ballet lessons in college.

What does all of this tell me?  That the kid is comfortable on a big stage when the lights go on and with that he’s confident that he can succeed at anything.  I like it.  These kind of kids, guys who play their heart out in HS and rack up big numbers, can go either way when it comes to success in the college ranks.  Some don’t cut it and others end up doing well on special teams.  But the confident ones thumb thier noses at the naysayers who think they are  too small to play college ball, and then go out and light up the field with their talent.

Here’s some game tape for you to watch and make up your own mind, Caprara is #30 on defense.  I’ll just throw this reminder out when you are debating what is his ceiling in college football…

 Andrew Taglianetti

Hey, did you hear? The schedule for Pitt gets rough starting today. Yeah, that keeps getting mentioned after every painful lost since the end of December. And sharing the basement of the Big East with other teams that have been on top is not much of a comfort.

Coach Dixon appears willing to do anything to get Ashton Gibbs some space to shoot and getgoing. This includes more minutes for Isiah Epps and more of playing John Johnson at the point. Oh, and Marquette is 5th in the Big East in steals.

Everyone has their pet theories about what Pitt needs to do to get going. I wish I had an easy answer. The idea of Marcus Gilbert getting more minutes for his shot-blocking potential is nice, but he is so raw on the footwork that he can be easily moved around by a penetrating player or an easy up-and-under move. Plus his offense is even more limited.

Coach Dixon wants to see Johnson attempt to penetrate more as he is the only guard Dixon feels comfortable about doing that. I would say that is probably accurate. The one trade-off to that was in the Rutgers game where Johnson got himself hung up in-between. He would pass-up an open shot from outside trying to shot-fake and drive. Only to find it cut-off. I would love to see much more penetration from J.J. Moore. He has the strength and ability to attack the basket and absorb contact, but continues to either take 3s or pull up for a contested jumper.

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Really, Pitt? You are releasing news of hires around 5pm? This isn’t bad news. Don’t treat it like it. Even some of us bloggers have a facade of a life that doesn’t let us get updates out every hour of the day. /grumble

So in addition to the hiring of Eddie Faulkner as the running backs coach, it was announced that Matt House would be the secondary coach. House is a Michigan State alum — and like Faulkner in his mid-30s — who has been toiling at the low end of the NFL coaching ladder for the last four years.

He spent the last three years as the defensive quality control coach with the St. Louis Rams, and the year before that he was a special teams assistant with the Carolina Panthers (and helping with the strength and conditioning program).

Here’s the rest of his resume:

Prior to his NFL stint, House was defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator under Turner Gill at the University of Buffalo for two seasons (2006-07). In his final season at UB, the rising Bulls captured a share of the MAC East Division title. House’s pupils at Buffalo included four-time first-team All-MAC safety Davonte Shannon, a native of Jeannette, Pa., and graduate of Jeannette High. Shannon finished as the Bulls’ all-time leading tackler and signed a free agent contract with the Washington Redskins.

House additionally was defensive line coach at Gardner-Webb University (2005), where he helped develop consensus All-America defensive end Brian Johnston. The two-time Big South Conference Defensive Player of the Year would go on to be selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2008 NFL Draft.

House began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Michigan State (his alma mater) during the 2001 and ’02 seasons and worked with the Spartans’ defensive backs and special teams. He also was a defensive assistant at North Carolina for two years (2003-04) working with the secondary.

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Paul Chryst really likes those Wisconsin connections doesn’t he? According to Chris Dokish, he has made his hire for Running Backs Coach. He’s Eddie Faulkner, a former Wisconsin running back who played behind Ron Dayne.

Faulkner is in his thirties and has been working as a MAC running backs coach the last several years. Most of the time spent at Ball State under Brady Hoke and stayed on staff there when Hoke left for SDSU. His recruiting contacts are in Big 10/MAC country.

Last year he was the running backs coach at NIU under Dave Doren — who before taking the head job at  NIU was the defensive coordinator at… Wisconsin. So now Chryst isn’t just raiding his old team. He’s raiding a team headed up by a former colleague.

Hmm. Maybe it isn’t just Chryst. Maybe Wisconsin is just some close-knit cult-like place. All who come from there must surround themselves with others from the same place.

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Angry. Frustrated. Depressed. Resigned.

Those are just some of the emotions running through Pitt fans last night and into today.

Five game losing streak. Three straight losses at home. The culmination of the team giving up last night.

So what is the media — local and otherwise — saying about this slide.

Time for a brief and depressing rundown.

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There aren’t sufficient words to describe that pile left inside the Pete last night.

Just when we thought that the loss to DePaul was the bottom of the barrel, this group plumbs new depths. I’ve disagreed with many who have been saying that this team lacks heart, but after last night I can’t do that any longer. Losing this badly. Getting destroyed in the final 24 minutes with barely a whimper. The body language said it all by the end. They have given up.

Where do you start? How do you fix what is so clearly in these players’ heads. Even if you accept the premise that most of these players are role players, it does not explain how badly they played. They have talked about being angry about the losses. About fixing things. Turning it around. Instead they keep going further backwards. Not even getting angry out there. Just frustrated and despondent.

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2012 has been rough so far on the court and for me in the offline world. Another night where I have to go to DVR delay.

Pitt needs a win tonight. Right now, Pitt needs a win every night. Rutgers is showing the hallmarks of a young team with potential. They have been playing up or down to the level of their competition.

Presumably Zanna and Johnson will get to start once more. Their play was solid in the loss to DePaul so I don’t see that changing.

Need to see the guys on the perimeter knock down some 3s, get into the lane a bit and just, please stay in front of their guy on defense for 40 minutes. In other words, play like they have not most of the season.

7pm game on Root, SNY, MASN, ESPN FullCourt and ESPN3.com.

After the craziness of Fraud Graham and yet another coaching search, I just didn’t have time to put drafts out there for the last couple challenges. Even this is a bit late, but it is a little better. This is once more, an open solicitation for suggestions before the final answer. I will keep mentioning and begging for your help as the Pitt rep for Volvo‘s Biggest Fan in the Big East contest. The contest is a mix of popularity  — so remember to go and vote for me in Volvo’s Biggest Fan in the Big East — and by winning challenges.

This challenge is a rather simple question, yet also a little vexing.

What are the best traditions for your alma mater and why?

This doesn’t simply apply to the school traditions. It is open to the little personal traditions, superstitions or neurosis that have developed over time.

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Another game, another must win. This time against a Rutgers team capable of beating Florida (who lost to Tennessee who lost to Pitt) and UConn (who also lost to UCF and Seton Hall); and losing to USF and Illinois State.

There’s not a lot that makes sense right now. Whether you are applying it to Pitt, the Big East (L-ville 1-4 in last  5 games after being blasted by Providence by 31 as an example), or nationally — Florida St., Wisconsin, Purdue, Texas…

Pitt is smack-dab in the middle of the craziness this season. Most pundits — and a significant number of fans — have declared the team dead for this year. I don’t know. It is hard to find the optimism right now. So much not working and no apparent easy fix. It isn’t a matter of simply “wanting it more” than the other team.

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A wheel came off of my car this morning. Taking my son to school, then heading to work was the plan. Instead, as I got part way up my street, I felt the car shift and the sound of something dragging. Pull partway into a neighbor’s driveway. Park, get out, look around the car and see nothing. Get back in, back out and whoomp. The right front wheel is at an awkward angle, and not attached to the car. The “good news.” Going so slow, meant not additional damage that would have happened had it even happened at 25 mph. It would appear that it is just a ball joint that went, so it is fixable. So, um, yeah. Please go and vote for me in the Biggest Fan in the Big East. I really need a new car.

Moving on to assorted basketball things as I’m really out of whack today, and a wheel literally coming off makes a cosmic sort of sense.

Khem Birch, in case you hadn’t heard is heading to UNLV. So much for the homesickness. He does get the uptempo style he has now decided he wants. You know, when he gets on the court in January 2013.

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We are all pretending the BBVA didn’t happen. Probably for the best.

On Saturday, Pitt and head coach Paul Chryst officially announced six hires. The trinity from Wisconsin which everyone already knew: Bob Bostad,  Offensive Coordinator/O-line; Dave Huxtable, Defensive Coordinator; and Joe “Booger” Rudolph, assistant Head Coach/QB Coach.

Also confirmed, former Mt. Lebanon HS head coach Chris Haering, to handle the linebackers.

The new ones, though, are Jim Hueber to coach the tight ends and Todd Rice for strength and conditioning.

The reaction from Wisconsin fans are mixed. Not that it was surprising that Bostad left. Or even that Huxtable took the opportunity to be a DC once more. It is more the volume that left with Chryst. Especially Rudolph since he was one of, if not their best, recruiters.

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