Look, I’m not saying there aren’t a lot of issues that are unique to the Big East among the major conferences. The size, very diverse membership (large urban public universities, small Catholic private universities in urban areas, large private universities, public land grant univerities) and foremost the split of football and basketball schools. So, yeah, being the Big East Commissioner comes with a particularly unique set of headaches.

That said, ex-Big East Commissioner John Marinatto is not the victim.

While you’re at it, blame him for high gas prices, unemployment and even the torn ACLs recently suffered by Derrick Rose and Mariano Rivera. It’s all Marinatto’s fault. Everything that has gone wrong in the world since he took over as the Big East’s commissioner on July 1, 2009 can be directly linked back to Marinatto.

On Monday, Marinatto resigned as the Big East’s commissioner. I don’t have the exact figures, but I’d guess about 99 percent of the college sports fans on Twitter wondered why Marinatto hadn’t been fired months earlier. And that’s sad. Because Marinatto is not solely to blame for the Big East losing four schools since he became commissioner. The league’s presidents are the ones that bumbled and stumbled so that their league became more of a punch line than a BCS conference. The same Big East presidents that make up the league’s board of directors that asked Marinatto to resign on Sunday.

After Marinatto replaced Mike Tranghese, he was doomed. It was only a matter of time. He was set up to fail by the league’s presidents because they handcuffed his ability to make any relevant changes.

“He was the human pin cushion,” a league source said. “Nobody in the world could have made this work. Look at the things he was dealt.”

He wanted the job, and was not strong enough or good enough to handle it. He thought he could pull it off because the strength of the basketball schools backing him would always put him with nearly 50% of the votes on anything. Then he was shocked. Shocked, I tell you, to learn that his cluelessness and inability to actually build consensuses on anything led them to throw him out of the lobster-bake.

(more…)

Yesterday was an eventful off-season day for the Panthers.  We had one verified recruit commitment in Jaymar Parrish, a big FB from local Gateway HS along with one unconfirmed rumor about former Rutgers QB Tom Savage transferring to PITT after a short lay-over in Arizona.

First let’s look at the recruitment.  So far Paul Chryst has recruited five players, four of them on offense.  He’s gotten two big OL, a TE and a powerful FB in Parrish.

“They’re going to line him up as a traditional fullback because they’re a pro-style offense team,” said Gateway coach Terry Smith.  ”He’s an extremely physical blocker and just a tough, hard-nosed kid who is really athletic.”

Now, think back to what Chryst said he was going to put out on the field offensively and what he built so well at Wisconsin; a highly productive running game with big, strong players up the middle.  That is exactly what he’s recruited so far at PITT.

Jaymar Parrish has not been ranked yet but look at Scout’s FB prospects for 2013. Parrish is on the list but the telling thing is that only three FBs are awarded any stars at all by Scout.com at this point nationally.  Rivals.com has five FBs total with all being three star kids.

At Wisconsin Chryst loved this type of FB and used them pretty regularly.  Last year they had Bradie Ewing, a 6’0/245 FB who ended being drafted in the 5th round by the Atlanta Falcons.  Ewing had only seven rushing attempts for 33 yards but also caught 28 passes for 328 yards (11.7 ypc) in his two years of play with the Badgers. He was also the #1 rated FB going into the draft.

Just for fun compare that with what Henry Hynoski did at PITT over the course of his career where he had 37 carries for 134 yards and 40 receptions for 283 (7.1 ypc).  Of course Hyno didn’t have three 1000 yards rushers on his team one year either.

This is the FB model Chryst wants to replicate when he gets his kids on the field over the next few years and is what we were used to seeing at PITT under DW.  Whisky hasn’t rushed their FBs much but used them mostly as a lead blocker and receiver out of the backfield.  Parrish, at 6’2” and 235 lbs and having been a TE who caught 22 passes for 524 yards and four touchdowns, is well equipped with size and good hands to be that pass receiving FB Chryst has had and wants now.

As an example of Parrish’s blocking ability, last season when Gateway played Bishop McDevitt he went up against #1 nationally ranked five star DE Noah Spence and blocked him effectively enough call it a draw.  When the rankings come out he will probably be at least a three star recruit.

Tom Savage’s rumored transfer is an interesting issue.  According to his Twitter feed he alludes to playing for PITT (good luck finding it, I can’t read more than three or four Tweets before getting dizzy).  Here is what Chris Dokish had to say about Savage:

(more…)