Welp, DeAndre Kane was definitely going to come to Pitt for his fifth year. That is if USC didn’t sweep him off his feet. Then Memphis made a late push that seemed to sway him. But in a typical way for Kane, none of the above. He’s heading to Iowa State.

Consider me less than broken up by this. Or, for that matter, surprised that Kane flitted about from option to option. Poised to pick and then reconsider. Mercurial is one way to describe Kane. A headache might be another. You will pardon me if I don’t think Pitt is in any worse shape without Kane.

The Alabama transfer, Trevor Lacey was at Pitt this week. He was getting the full treatment with Brandin Knight taking him around to the Steelers practice. Later it was a Pirates game. Reports are it was a very good visit, but we will see. Lacey would be a great transfer to get. Yes, he would have to sit a year, but it would be worth it. (more…)

In the world of Pitt Athletics, there are two dueling factions: those who look for the silver lining and those who think the sky is falling. This is their column.

*insert Law&Order dun dun here*

This week’s Optimist vs. Pessimist topic is the slow start in football recruiting. With only one verbal so far (OG Connor Hayes) a lot of fans are concerned with Chryst’s inability to close. Even Penn State has 9 verbals at the moment and they’re sanctioned by the NCAA. While obviously Pitt isn’t a top notch destination at the moment, you’d think we wouldn’t appear to be way behind a school with a scholarship penalty.

Are those who are concerned justified in their fears or are they just impatient?
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Don’t forget, today is National Networking Day for Pitt. Hopefully you have something happening in your area. Unfortunately, nothing here in the Cleveland area. If you are involved, feel free to leave specific info about your city’s event in the comments below.

Jester Weah has wheels.

With graduation from Madison (Wis.) Memorial High School and his first class at Pitt awaiting come June, Weah will try to make Wisconsin track and field history Friday and Saturday at the state championships at Wisconsin-Lacrosse University. He is the No. 1 seed in the 100-meter run and No. 3 in the 200, with school-record times of 10.59 and 21.94 seconds — in his first full year of running track.

“That’s crazy to think about,” Weah said.

He’s 6-3, 190 pounds and can run like that. Can’t say he doesn’t have the raw tools. It would be nice in a few years to have Wisconsin fans wondering how they missed a kid in their own town.

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Football may feel like it is treading water. Basketball may have ended yet again in bitter disappointment. The Baseball team may have fallen short of making the College World Series field. But Pitt’s Ultimate club just keeps hucking.

A second straight year of winning the D-1 College USA Ultimate Championship for Pitt’s club.

If you want to see Pitt actually winning something this year, you can see the highlights of the Championship games at 7pm on ESPNU or a rebroadcast of the Championship game at 8p on ESPNU.

There was no ultimate really being played while I was at Pitt, but I started getting involved in it a few years later in law school. For a while I was playing with a club team in Cleveland. Never went through so many wrist and ankle wraps before or since.

There hasn’t been any public mention of the status of Sheldon Jeter transfer situation over the holiday weekend. Whether Jeter is appealing directly to Vandy over transfer restrictions or some other quiet discussion is occurring is unknown.

What is known is that after the initial outcry over the restriction on Jeter, there has been the careful pushback from Vandy/Stallings. No actual statement or anything to quote. Just pushing their story as a “source.”

The claim being that Jeter wasn’t a man about his departure.

Regardless of whether or not it’s fair to put a block on a player receiving a scholarship in his first year at a new school (blocking doesn’t prevent the player from transferring to a school, but does cloud the process with the NCAA), there is a right and wrong way to depart. Jeter tweeted “Due to some personal issues, I am leaving Vanderbilt University to be closer to my family.’’ According to a source with direct knowledge, he didn’t meet face-to-face with Stallings to tell him he was leaving. Jeter, a freshman forward from Beaver Falls, Pa., isn’t the first nor the last to mishandle a departure. There is a mature way to deal with leaving. Evan Gordon left Arizona State two weeks ago. He went in and told Herb Sendek he was out. The conversation didn’t last more than a few minutes. But at least there was one. Jeter averaged 5.5 points, 3.4 rebounds and 17.5 minutes a game. He’ll probably end up at Pitt. He may be on scholarship by next season. Cooler heads may prevail here. But most of the time the reason there is animosity over an exit is the way in which it is handled.

There are a couple problems here.

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Clear some tabs of things that have held my interest. Actual relation to Pitt may not exist.

The SEC is still wrestling with the issue of staying at 8 or going to 9 conference games. Great article by Andy Staples laying out the factions and the issues. There remains that certain inevitability to 9 games when you have 14 members and strength of schedule will be coming into play at some point with the new playoff system. A lot of the issues in there can be applied to the ACC.

It makes sense to see opposition from schools like Florida, Georgia, South Carolina. They have annual non-con rivalry games that limit their scheduling. Go to a 9-game conference slate and suddenly they only have 2 non-con games available. It limits the ability to schedule much outside of a rent-a-patsy. I find it strange that LSU seems so opposed to going to 9 games.

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37 days until Pitt is officially a member of the ACC (July 1).

72 days until the day training camp opens for Pitt (August 5).

100 days until FSU-Pitt kicks off (September 2).

I may have to go out and buy a preview guide.

Lindy’s comes out this Tuesday (May 28).

Phil Steele on Tuesday, June 18.

I’ll try to post over the weekend — here’s hoping that there won’t be any bad news necessitating it.

But heading into the weekend, let’s check in with West Virginia football scheduling plans.

The move to the Big 12 costs West Virginia its rivalry game with Pittsburgh, and the Mountaineers only have Maryland remaining as a natural non-league rival, and that could end when the Terrapins may the questionable move to the Big 10.

“I would love to get Pitt back on the schedule, I would love to get (Virginia) Tech back on the schedule, I would to get UVa back on the schedule, another school that we used to play a lot, and even Penn State,” [WVU AD Oliver] Luck said. “Is that possible? Well, it takes two to tango, but I think the good news is we will see some stronger non-conference schedules as we go forward.”

The wonderful thing about the article is how it is completely couched in trying to build a schedule for the future college football playoff. Getting the right strength of schedule and all that. Oliver Luck — and of course the writer of the piece — doesn’t even mention the travel costs for WVU as an issue. No not that. That isn’t at all the point.

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Been quiet. Too quiet on the football side. Can’t have that.

Offensive lineman Arthur Doakes is “transferring.” Doakes finally got a chance to play when injuries took their (seemingly) annual toll on the O-line. Doakes responded to the opportunity and was playing well to the end of the regular season. One of the few “project” offensive linemen Dave Wannstedt brought in that actually developed.

Unfortunately, he was suspended before the BBVA Bowl. He remained suspended through spring practices. Reportedly/rumor the suspension would have run for the entire 2013 season. Doakes would have been a redshirt junior this year, so the suspension would have killed one of his two remaining years of eligibility. Not to mention the likelihood of never getting back on the depth chart by the time he was a senior.

Best guess is that he drops to 1-AA or lower to be immediately eligible. Once more, concern for the O-line depth makes its annual appearance.

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Every other year or so, Pitt’s non-con tournament is something of a dog. A couple years ago it was a Philly thing with LaSalle and Penn. This time it is the Legends Classic in something that is anything but.

The University of Pittsburgh basketball team is slated to compete in the 2013 Legends Classic, November 25 and 26 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Pitt will play two of three opponents: Houston, Stanford and/or Texas Tech. Those two games will be nationally televised on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.

In addition, Pitt will host two regional games as part of the Legends Classic at the Petersen Events Center. Those games will be played in Pittsburgh sometime between November 17-21. Game times and matchups will be announced at a later date.

On the plus side, unlike the last time when Pitt was in the “Legends Classic,” these games can actually be watched. In 2008, the thing was aired on HDNet (home of the CBI).

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Sheldon Jeter wanted Pitt to recruit him when he was a senior at Beaver Falls. He wanted to be a Panther. Pitt didn’t have a scholarship in the fall of his senior year. And after Khem Birch left abruptly, Coach Dixon looked long and hard at Jeter before going with Chris Jones. When more scholarship opened after the season, there was some interest in Jeter but it still seemed cool. Ultimately Pitt landed (what seemed like a great transfer at the time Trey Zeigler) and Jeter chose Vanderbilt. Still there was this mix of coy interest from Pitt even after the class was filled (and while Pitt was even pursuing Savon Goodman).

A year later Sheldon Jeter had a solid freshman year for Vandy. Well liked by the coaches and fans. Looked to be a promising player. But Jeter felt that family reasons needed him back home and he opted to transfer. He even appeared to get Vandy Coach Kevin Stallings blessing. By all accounts he still wanted to attend Pitt, and now Pitt wanted him. Even if he would have to sit out the year before being eligible.

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Dammit, I’m going to shoe-horn in the bad puns while I still can.

The formality that was supposed to be DeAndre Kane’s transfer to Pitt for as a graduate transfer, now is not.

However, the 6-foot-4 guard, a Pittsburgh native, did not wind up pulling the trigger, whether it was due to the fact that Panthers coach Jamie Dixon was non-committal about taking him at the time, or whether Kane just wasn’t enamored with the visit.

Now Kane told CBSSports.com that he is still open, with both Pittsburgh still under consideration and Memphis also in pursuit.

From my own perspective, I’m not exactly broken up by the possibility that Kane may not be coming to Pitt.

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If there’s one thing anyone who follows Pitt will notice, it’s that there are two dueling factions: optimists and pessimists. There are some, like myself, who look for the silver lining and inevitably take too long to see a problem. Then there are the pessimists who see the faults in everything and given Pitt’s recent history, end up right more often than not. While an optimist, I can’t argue that the pessimistic side of Pitt fans has sadly been correct a lot lately. This inspired me to create a new weekly column here on Pitt Blather. It’s called OvP: Optimist vs. Pessimist.

Today’s subject is Keller Chryst. For those who aren’t aware, Keller is one of the top QB recruits in the 2014 class and the son of Geep Chryst, Paul’s brother. Keller has consistently listed Pitt as one of his top 2 or 3 schools and the interest appears to be legitimate. Even with the family connection, if Pitt lands Keller it will be a huge addition and give the program a ton of positive publicity. The addition of Keller will enable the staff to recruit much more effectively with a top QB prospect on the way.

But is Keller sincerely interested or is he just helping his Uncle out by listing Pitt as an option? (more…)

Oh, so many choices.

Let’s get target one out of the way: Steve Pederson.

Fifth-highest paid was athletic director Steve Pederson. His total compensation of $844,008 included base pay of $500,161, bonus and incentive compensation of $283,333, other reportable compensation of $10,674, retirement and other deferred compensation of $35,525 and $14,315 in non-taxable benefits.

Now due to the quirk in the state  of public records (read: insane lobbying to keep as such; treatment of Temple, Lincoln, PSU and Pitt in terms of Pennsylvania open records laws), it isn’t the easiest thing to compare. Still, it is a good roughing tool thanks to the USA Today databases. The AD salary surveys has Pederson’s total compensation lower which is important. The USA Today survey is an excellent resource but it is hardly perfect.

The USA Today survey puts Pederson in the top-40.  But the tax reporting suggests closer to top-20. Now before you fly off the handle, please keep in mind that if the differential between what the USA Today survey found for Pederson versus what Pitt ultimately reported then it is safe to assume that there are some more discrepancies in the list. That said, we can safely assume his pay rate is somewhere in the top-30 for ADs.

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Last spring, Monessen QB Chavas Rawlins was one of the first commits to the Hoopies. The athletic, dual-threat QB was so enthusiastic about the decision that he was an early enrollee.

Things have changed.

Freshman quarterback Chavas Rawlins will transfer from West Virginia, his former high school coach at Monessen confirmed with the Post-Gazette this afternoon.

Coach Andy Pacak said Rawlins was recruited by and had developed a strong relationship with former quarterbacks coach Jake Spavital who left to take a position at Texas A&M earlier this year.

“Everyone at West Virginia was great to him, but as you now he came in right when Jake left. His initial decision was I’m gonna go down there and make the most of it, but that (loss of Spavital) weighed on him a little bit,” said Pacak.

It also just happens that WVU took in a Florida State QB transfer, Clint Trickett this spring. Trickett is considered a talented QB who could have the job after sitting this year. Not to mention another highly ranked QB verballed to WVU this spring.

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