Here is a two day old KDKA’s Vukovcan’s piece about Pitt’s future recruiting. From what I gather a DT in our own backyard at Central Catholic is a prime target:

**Central Catholic DT Kurt Hinish picked up an offer from Virginia Tech. Hinish tells me that he’ll take a visit to Notre Dame on March 19th.  A couple of interesting articles and facts accompany this kid.  first  off he can probably lay a concrete driveway for you.

And the Hinish Clan’s athletic success runs in the family.

Tawnie Hinish is not surprised by the athletic success of her children. “They’re hard workers and totally committed,” she said. “They don’t like to lose.”

According to Tawnie, even Trivial Pursuit games can get heated at the Hinish household. “Our Thanksgiving football games get really intense. Kurt and I are running full-out with the kids,” she said.”

Guys – I have to say this – if you want Pitt football news during the offseason you should put The Pitt News in you favorites link. Here is an article from them addressing a subject close to every Pitt fan’s heart… more Pitt branding at Heinz field during Pitt gamedays.

As Athletic Director Scott Barnes was rolling out the Department of Athletics’ strategic plan for the next year at a January Town Hall meeting, alumni stood up to complain about a lack of Pitt branding around the field, where Steelers’ black and yellow dominates the real estate.

Pitt is one of eight college teams that shares a stadium and branding opportunities with an NFL team. At a question and answer session after the Town Hall meeting, Barnes said despite certain NFL restrictions, there was “definitely room to grow” with on-field branding.

With the season looming closer, the Panther Fans Experience Committee — an organization that collects fan feedback on the athletic department — has begun converting complaints into game plans for fan engagement and Pitt branding.

Committee member Anson Whaley — who also serves as editor of Pitt sports blog Cardiac Hill — said branding has been a large focus of past meetings. “That’s something we’ve talked quite a bit about in our meetings,” Whaley said. “I think it’s a big concern for Scott Barnes. It’s something he’s actively mentioned in our meetings.”

Andrew Goodrich, the assistant director of athletics for administration at the University of South Florida — an American Athletic Conference school that shares a stadium with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — said he’s heard similar complaints at South Florida.

Hurry and take out a 2nd mortgage! You can still buy season tickets and the newly offered three game package for Pitt home games.

One of my ongoing problems I have with college football and major sports in general is that it is no longer just a fun thing to do, especially if you hope to take your family to a game.  Actually, they aren’t even games any longer but “events” and as such we fans are financially gouged at every opportunity.

Forget about the extortion that goes on with required ‘donations” to Pitt for a fan to be able to even sniff the Club Seats… and that is exactly what it is – extortion.  What pisses me off royally with Pitt is the bold  lying, right to the face, they give the fans – especially from our new AD scott barnes.

He has said many times that he wants Heinz field filled to the brim with Pitt fans so to force out PSU fans that come into our home field.  Yet he raised the ticket prices for the PSU game by 600% in some sections.  600% my fellow friends.

Does that even attempt to draw more Pitt fans into the stadium? Hell no it doesn’t It is a pure money grab any way you look at it. We can talk about how Pitt football has changed and a lot of fans think it is for the better but I don’t think so – and this is just one example.

Spring ball starts on March 15th and ends, after the allowed 15 practices, on Saturday April 16th. The practices are pretty tightly regulated:

For days in which institutions schedule a two-a-day practice, live contact practices are only allowed in one practice.  A maximum four (4) live contact practices may occur in a given week, and a maximum of 12 total may occur in preseason.  Only three practices (scrimmages) would allow for live contact in greater than 50 percent of the practice schedule.

The first three practices have to be no contact – I think… at least that has been in the past.  I’ll try to get up to two practices 9even if they will still be closed) and the Spring game.

One last note Vukovcan also had this item in hin blog a few days ago – Jim Paganos from Rutgers is now a Volunteer Coach on Pitt’s football staff.  Mike says this about the issue:

Former Rutgers defensive line coach Jim Panagos is officially a member of the Pitt football team.  Football Scoop.com was the first to report that  Panagos was joining the Pitt staff as a defensive consultant.  So what’s that mean?

I’m being told that as a volunteer assistant, Panagos can prepare materials for coaches and be in coaches only meetings but cannot do any direct instruction with Pitt players.  Panagos can recruit on campus only.

That last part can be very beneficial to Pitt because Panagos has an excellent reputation as a recruiter.  In fact, was one of Kurt Flood’s top recruiters at Rutgers, closing on many high rated prospects.

I don’t think that is correct.  according to the research I did with the NCAA rules he can’t activly recruit anywhere… he can have a meal or two (not training table) with a prospective recruit but cannot recruit him.

NCAA Bylaw 11.01.5 – Coach, Volunteer In sports other than football and basketball, a volunteer coach is any coach who does not receive compensation or remuneration from the institution’s athletics department or any organization funded in whole or in part by the athletics department or that is involved primarily in the promotion of the institution’s athletics program (e.g., booster club, athletics foundation association).

The following provisions shall apply: (Revised: 1/10/92 effective 8/1/92, 4/26/01 effective 8/1/01)

(a) The individual is prohibited from contacting and evaluating prospective student-athletes off campus or from scouting opponents off campus and may not perform recruiting coordination functions (see Bylaw 11.7.1.2). (Revised: 1/16/93, 1/11/94, 5/26/06)

(b) The individual may receive a maximum of two complimentary tickets to home athletics contests in the coach’s sport. (Revised: 1/16/93)

(c) The individual may receive complimentary meals incidental to organized team activities (e.g., pre- or postgame meals, occasional meals, but not training table meals) or meals provided during a prospective student-athlete’s official visit, provided the individual dines with the prospective student-athlete. (Adopted: 4/29/04 effective 8/1/04; Revised: 1/10/05, effective 8/1/05).

Also he can offer individual skill instruction to a player but not anything that has to do with actual plays, playbook or game planning.  That is pretty limited all around but the main benefit of Panagos is that he can work with the staff as a defensive “advisor” which in itself will be a good thing for Josh Conklin… after all our defense wasn’t all that great last year and I think Narduzzi now realizes the as a HC he has way too many irons in the fire to be able to devote time to mentor Conklin… thus Panagos.