Todd Graham is down in Florida with Pitt’s contingent for Big East meetings. Not much for him to do other than talk to the media. He’s doing that.
Maybe it’s bravado. Maybe a touch of irrationality. I don’t know and I don’t care. Coach Todd Graham is not trying to lower expectations in his first year.
Pitt’s Todd Graham: “Our expectation is to win the Big East. Anything less than that & we’ll be disappointed.”
I choose to believe first that it is simply in his personality that he expects to win. To succeed at Pitt. The other part is that he does get that there are expectations. That the fans don’t want to have them tamped down. Especially not even before the first preview guides hit the newsstands. He knows what is expected, and he’s not going to pretend that it is unachievable.
It’s also got just a touch of wiggle room. Winning the Big East this year. Not going to the BCS Championship. Not running the table in the non-con. Winning the Big East.
“We’ll be competitive in the BE.”
“We’re gonna have a tough time adjusting to my no huddle system. By mid season we’ll be OK.”
“I didn’t inherit the type of players I need to play my type of ball. Give me a couple of years.”
___
None of these would make any sense at all given the current quality of BE football.
Jamie vs. Calhoun
On the other hand, UConn has more problems on top of the previous ones. However, Calhoun, like JoePa and Tressel has won championships and will call his own retirement (although this may help expedite it.)
Marco, Just hope Mark Myers, as rumored a few times on this site, decides to transfer. Hey, Russell Wilson, a lot of Pitt fans have thought for some time now (about 19 months to be exact) that you would look good in a Pitt uni.
I was suprised that Pitt’s football team didn’t fare better;
(From the link below) In the Big East, the Louisville football team was docked three scholarships because of its 908 score. The other six Big East football programs — West Virginia (962), UConn (953), USF (952), Pittsburgh (949), Syracuse (946) and Cincinnati (936) – were on solid academic footing.
link to sportsillustrated.cnn.com