The beat writers have spoken. Both Kevin Gorman and Paul Zeise have blogged that they are done with the whole QB issue. The matter is settled until after the season has begun and the whole thing is moot.

First, Gorman:

Are you going to bench a fifth-year senior quarterback with a 9-4 record in 13 career starts in favor of a redshirt freshman who has never taken a snap in a college game after eight days of training camp?

The answer is a resounding no.

So, before we begin the recap of Pitt’s first controlled scrimmage, let us end the outrage over Wannstedt’s insistence Tuesday that Bill Stull remains the starting quarterback. Stull has struggled. Tino Sunseri has shined. Pat Bostick has been steady, solid if unspectacular.

What is Wannstedt supposed to do? Pitt fans would like to hear Wannstedt announce that he is opening the quarterback job up for competition. They would like to hear him say, “Let the best man win.”

Don’t hold your breath.

What Wannstedt is doing is standing by his starting quarterback publicly, despite Stull’s unimpressive play in camp so far. It says here that Wannstedt should be applauded. Now is the time to build confidence in your quarterback. The season opener is less than two weeks away.

The message has been served. Offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. has made it clear in the quarterback room that there is open competition. Stull knows this, as do Bostick and Sunseri. It’s as simple as this: perform and play, struggle and sit. But training camp is not the time to, as Cignetti likes to say, make such decisive decisions.

Come September, it’s a different story.

Perform and play. Struggle and sit. Win or lose.

And Zeise:

The only comments I will make is this — Pitt did indeed win eight games (Pat Bostick started the Notre Dame game) with Stull at quarterback and the only of their four losses you could pin on him was the Oregon State loss. Two of the other three losses (Bowling Green – way too conservative early – and Rutgers – a really bad defensive game plan) probably fall more on the coaches shoulders than anything else and it was Cincinnati’s year and they seemed to get every bounce in that game.

Now, Stull wasn’t great in those losses but he wasn’t the reason they lost, either. There is no question that the Panthers can win with him at quarterback, particularly if he improves some from where he was at in the second half of last year.

But like I said, when the head coach says “this guy is our starter”, that’s good enough for me to move forward. I would assume that Bostick will be the back-up because I have a hard time believing that they would throw a redshirt freshman to the wolves in the middle of a game or halfway through the season if the starter is gets hurt.

So with the quarterback position settled (at least in the mind of the only person whose voice matters…..), here 10 other observations/analysis from today’s scrimmage……

I guess they both have gotten a little tired of the e-mails and questions about it as well. From their perspective, it must be a little tiring. It’s the one aspect they get asked about. I’m guessing they are getting a fair amount of outraged and frustrated responses to their reports and answers they give. They don’t get to make the decisions, but their job is to report on the Pitt team. Instead they are repeatedly answering the same questions about the same spot. Something they have no control over, no influence and it certainly must put a strain on their dealings with players and coaches if they are continually focusing stories and posts on that one portion.

Plus, it must get a bit tiresome.

Stull will be the starter when the season starts. They are acknowleding, at least, that if he still can’t get to a point of mediocrity in the season then things likely will change. Even with Coach Wannstedt having the final say.

It’s hard to have a jinx when they do a slew of these by market.

Courtesy of Sports Illustrated

The regional covers for the NCAA Tournament are out. This is the one we care about:

Courtesy of Sports Illustrated

I’ll be getting the Big 11 version out here. Looks like I’ll have to ask my dad to save this one for me.

I mean, it would have been nice, but nothing has been accomplished yet.

A planned story was scrapped after Tuesday’s 81-73 upset loss at Providence. The magazine planned to do a lengthy story on the Panthers for early March and, according to Pitt media relations director Greg Hotchkiss, there was a “95 percent” chance it was going on the cover.

Pitt basketball has made regional covers of SI, but never the national release.

Not that there isn’t an excellent story on Sam Young to read. Sure there’s the usual stuff about his poetry, gymnastics and work ethic. Yet, this really fleshes things out a lot more including a quite a bit more insight into his generally loner stance.

Upon receiving his poetry assignment, Young doesn’t roll up his sleeves per se, but he locks in all the same. After spending nearly an hour staring at his computer screen, he has mustered just a few lines of verse, but they offer a window into how he views both the promise and perils of unfinished success:

Having yet to meet our potential, I love my team’s current credential
Not any team can do it; we fought in the fire to finally get to it
Pitt is on a mission and it’s no mystery, we only halfway done and already made history
We’re giving the university faith and gave hope to this town, it ain’t no way we can let them down

…

Yet, it is off the court where Young continues to make his biggest strides. These days he lets his playful side show more readily for his teammates, who still crack up when he does back-flips during practice or in his hotel room. He has even become something of a media darling. During a preseason photo shoot, Young picked up a sombrero and struck a goofy pose, and he hounded Greg Hotchkiss, Pittsburgh’s sports information director, for weeks until Hotchkiss got him a copy of the photo.

Even at a program that has long been defined by the hardscrabble ethos of the Steel City, Young has carved out a unique and lasting legacy. “We’re always going to use him as an example as a guy who improved and did it by working,” Dixon says. “Even today, I’ll ask the guys, who works the hardest in our drills? Who’s our best perimeter scorer? It’s always the same answer. It’s Sam.”

It’s well worth reading the whole thing.

You just know that they will turn out to be a minor part of the actual game today. The attention Greg Monroe is getting before this game is a little outsized. Don’t get me wrong, Monroe is a great young player already and shaping up to be the best freshman in a down one-and-done year. It’s just that so rarely when you have this many pieces written before one game does the game narrative match. There’s the AP piece.

If basketball doesn’t pan out for Greg Monroe – and it seems that it most certainly will – he should consider taking his wonderfully mellow, bass voice on the road in a Four Tops revival tour.

“Once he starts talking,” teammate Jessie Sapp said, “it’s like, ‘Dag, you’re a little boy with this voice?’ ”

Monroe, however, insists the only performing he does is on the basketball court.

“I never really got into singing at all,” he said. “I don’t know how my voice got this deep.”

and then both DC papers have their Monroe stories. There is the standard stuff of Monroe being the latest in a line of great G-town big men.

Nearly three decades ago, Patrick Ewing arrived on the Hilltop with a freakish athleticism that belied his size, beginning Georgetown’s love affair with talented centers. From Ewing, Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo to Othella Harrington, Mike Sweetney and Roy Hibbert, Georgetown has enjoyed one of the nation’s most impressive parades of post players ever since.

And the whole, playing with a maturity beyond his years. Don’t get me wrong, Monroe terrifies me. He was not intimidated in the least going against Thabeet and UConn on the road. He’s an excellent talent. It’s just that the stories I’m seeing might as well be Mad Libs for pieces like this, that get written about any freshman playing real well. Last year it was Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, Kevin Love, etc. The numbers are smaller this year and the impact on top teams smaller so the focus will mostly be on players like Monroe, Tyreke Evans before Memphis struggled, expect the same for Demar DeRozan at USC as they start to live up to the hype.

The fun thing, though, will be seeing how DeJuan Blair handles Monroe. Sam Young isn’t worried.

But top competition always seems to bring out the best in Blair. The 6-7, 265-pounder posted double-doubles last season against some of the top inside players in the nation, including Thabeet, Hibbert, Luke Harangody, David Padgett and Kyle Singler. In his three games against Big East 7-footers Thabeet and Hibbert, the Schenley High School product averaged 12.7 points and 10.7 rebounds.

“When you put another big man in front of DeJuan and challenge him, he takes on that challenge with the best of them,” Young said. “I think he plays better when the team’s focused around the big man, and it’s his job to … go out and outplay him all-around.”

That match-up will get overhyped during the game and don’t you know, it will likely be irrelevant.

It’s not the official Big East All-Conference team. Instead it is the Big East media version as voted upon by beat writers for the various BE teams. Pitt didn’t have the most players selected. That would be Cinci with 8 players selected. Pitt and with WVU each had 4 players selected. Two of Pitt’s players were unanimous selections. I’m pretty sure you can guess which from the list of players: Nate Byham, LeSean McCoy, Scott McKillop and Conor Lee.

Byham missed by one vote being unanimous, suggesting that it wasn’t the greatest year in the BE for TEs — not that Byham isn’t a very good player, but his numbers are 18 catches for 250 yards and 1 TD. Not exactly eye-popping.

McCoy and McKillop also were voted the Big East Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year by the BE media.

Final Score, 2008

Still trying to catch-up so let’s get the links out there in appropriate groupings. These are just the general game posts.

Coach Wannstedt really made sure the team was prepared to stop Pat White (though WV partisans think the WVU OC provided an assist in that). It helps that Pitt now seems to have the personnel to stop him. It left many with a sinking, familiar feeling.

Lots of mistakes by both sides and questionable decisions, made it unwatchable to the cantankerous.

In the end it was too much LeSean McCoy. Pitt didn’t let the game slip away. Instead retaking the lead and sealing it.

So, Pitt and the fans have another year of bragging rights.

Not too much to say after the Cinci game. I’m a little disappointed with LeSean McCoy for going with or taking the bait on the “better team didn’t win” line.

“[Is Cincinnati] a better team?,” McCoy asked defiantly. “No, not at all.”

Pitt middle linebacker Scott McKillop was a little more diplomatic and said, “I think today, from the scoreboard, they were the better team but there was some penalties and we shot ourselves in the foot. They executed today against us. We didn’t play our best game today.”

McCoy then attempted to answer the question again.

“I’m sorry, I am just a little bit upset,” he said. “But I thought it was us. Speaking from an offensive standpoint, we didn’t execute enough. It is sad, I think it was a lack of execution but they are definitely not the better team. I don’t think we played like we can, it has nothing to do with better team, it is just some of the things we do, we didn’t do today. I guess you can look at it like, for this game, they were a better team.”

That’s the only time it counts. On gameday. I’m not trying to be hard on the kid. Obviously he was hurting after the loss, as was the whole team. It’s just I have read it enough times elsewhere — and it’s been pointed out on this blog — when an opposing player or coach goes to that sort of thing after losing. I don’t buy it from them, so I can’t really buy it when it comes from players from my school.

Everyone pretty much knew when Cinci seized control of the game.

The Bearcats responded with a 16-play drive that covered 99 yards and 7:54, converting three third-and-longs and a fourth-and-short. On a third-and-4, Pike beat the blitz of defensive end Jabaal Sheard to find Marcus Barnett for a 20-yard touchdown pass and tie it at 7-7 at 14:09 of the second quarter.

“That set the tone for the first half,” said Pitt middle linebacker Scott McKillop, who had a game-high 17 tackles. “We knew we’d hit adversity. We just didn’t know it would be that soon.”

Cinci’s offense followed that up with an 11 play, 83-yard TD drive.

You could argue, though, that Cinci set the tone and asserted itself after the turnover on the kickoff. Down 7-0. Pitt starting at the Cinci 34. Instead of a defense that hung its head, they pushed Pitt backwards 12 yards to remove even the chance of a field goal drive. That was an impressive stop by their D with all the momentum going to Pitt. Cinci Coach Brian Kelly actually tabbed that as the changer.

During the liveblog, there was some annoyance with the accolades and love being given to Cinci QB Tony Pike. In cold reflection, though, they were well deserved. He was outstanding.

Pike completed 26 of 32 passes for 309 yards and three touchdowns and led Cincinnati to a 28-21 win against Pitt in the fourth edition of the River City Rivalry.

“Defensively we could not get them off the field,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “That kid [Pike], I have to give him credit, he played about as good as any quarterback has played against us in the last two or three years. Not only did he get away from our rush, and we got guys who can rush, he made throws, he found receivers down the field and made some excellent throws under pressure.”

Pitt middle linebacker Scott McKillop added, “You have to give a lot of credit to Tony Pike, he had a great day, he made some throws with his arm and he made some plays with his legs. If you watch some of his film from his previous games, he feels the pocket closing and he leaves and the receivers are very good when he gets out of the pocket, of running the routes. He has a good feel for them, he made big plays.”

Wannstedt’s statement about Pike’s performance is strong considering the way Rutgers’ Mike Teel sliced the Panthers’ secondary about a month ago, but he wasn’t exaggerating as Pike was near-perfect and made big play after big play to sustain drives.

A Cinci columnist compared his play to that of Ben Roethlisberger. He’s also still trying to absorb it all.

Pike went 10-for-11 in the second half. He has gone from being an afterthought in August to a potential NFL QB after next season. If you’re looking for a metaphor for UC football lately, that will do.

How impossibly surreal was the scene at The Nip Saturday night? The place was decked out in red-clad fans, as if someone had opened a vein in the South end zone. Traffic was backed up on Taft Road a few minutes before kickoff.

Kelly is the subject of rumors sending him to Tennessee. Local sports agent Richard Katz suggests eight or nine Bearcats will go in the NFL Draft next spring.

These are the Bearcats?

That wide-open TD catch by Dominic Goodman that gave Cinci the lead, was also the TD catch to set a new Bearcats record for TD catches in a career.

Both papers had a columnist at the game. The storyline from Cook was: bet Pat White and the Hoopies can’t wait for Friday.

The Pitt coach clearly has a stressful six days ahead. He has much to correct before the Mountaineers roll into Heinz Field. For one thing, he must find Pitt’s lost running game, gone for two games now. For another — and this is the biggie — he must figure a way for his defense to contain West Virginia quarterback Pat White.

From Starkey, the defense didn’t do its job right from the start.

Now, it is up to the team leaders and the coaches to get the players heads straight and not hang it up. This was not the sort of thing you want to read.

“We were thinking Big East championship and Orange Bowl, just like everybody else in the conference,” Pitt sophomore defensive end Jabaal Sheard said. “After that loss, it’s going to be difficult to come back.”

Yeep. Over to you Mr. McKillop.

“This being my senior year, this could be the toughest loss right now,” middle linebacker Scott McKillop said. “And it is one of those things that myself, the other seniors, the other leaders, we have to as a team regroup. We do have two games left, we can’t go into the tank right now, we can still go out there and finish second in the Big East.

“A lot of things could still go either way, but we have to take care of what we control and we know we have a big game on Friday at home against West Virginia. I’m sure they’ve been eyeing this game on the schedule for a while so I think we’ll be ready and it will be interesting.”

It does seem that after each loss, the season has appeared to be potentially circling the drain. Time for another bounce back.

I probably jumped the shark a long time ago, but this is just a clincher. It also shows how blogs, like radio and other mediums can be used for promoting and selling stuff. Sports Illustrated has a new book being released: The College Football Book.

I received a courtesy copy for review and a chance to talk to someone associated with the book. In this case, David Sabino. He does a lot of fantasy baseball and football these days for SI. This makes sense when you are the Associate Editor in Charge of Statistics. Some are really not impressed by his work. David and I talked on Friday over the phone.

You can listen to the 20 minute conversation — if you can put up with a slew of “ums” and “ahhh” from me. Clearly I need to work on this before I even consider more podcasts. I’ve broken it up into 3 parts, each 6-8 minutes long.

Part 1, is about David Sabino’s background and involvement in the book.

Part 2, covers some of the specifics on Pitt players in the book.

Part 3, is just a bit of a grab bag. Talking a little about the images in the book, future projects, and the changing media.

My thoughts on the book. The photos inside are beautiful as you would expect. There are some of the classic stories from Sports Illustrated through the years, including part of the essay on Tony Dorsett from 1976 written by Myron Cope — the accompanying photo of Dorsett breaking free of some gold helmet wearing defenders trying to arm tackle him is stunning. There are also pictures of Hugh Green and Dan Marino.

Sticking with Pitt players for a moment, the center of the book focuses on All-time College All-Stars. There was also the restriction of limiting it to only one player from a school. Dorsett did ton’t make that list. A tough call, but with Jim Brown and Herschel Walker ahead of him, it is hard to argue too strenuously. Especially since Hugh Green made the cut on the defense. As David Sabino explained, most schools consider their greatest players to be running backs or quarterbacks.

More shocking was Dorsett’s exclusion from the 70s all-decade team. Instead it was Johnny Rodgers (Nebraska), Billy Sims (Oklahoma) and Archie Griffin (Ohio St.). According to Mr. Sabino, that was pretty much by the numbers.

Obviously releasing the book around this time of the year, the hope is that it will be purchased as a holiday gift. It really is a beautiful book, and it is the sort of book that if you stick on a coffee table, will be picked up and paged through.

As I say in the conversation, I got the book a day or two before family came for a visit. My dad — who still loves SI — saw the book and just started paging through it. It just held his attention for a good 30 minutes.

Another bonus is on the decade pages, they show a sampling of program covers from the period. Some great historical stuff. It’s a little sad as program covers have gotten rather boring in my view. It’s hardly worth holding onto the same way.

If you want to get a copy of the book you can find it here and here. Suggested retail price is around $30, is actually sold online for about $20.

You know what I like about the Q&A with Paul Zeise of the P-G and the blog/reporter’s notebook of Kevein Gorman of the Trib.? They are the places where you get a better sense of their opinions on things and where their biases are. Bias is not inherently bad. It is unavoidable. We all have it, from our experiences, life and everything else. Reporters pretending they can go into some sort of hypnotic, Robert Heinlein “fair witness” state is self-deluding.

Gorman’s post from the other day could be considered dumping the notebook. Just getting all the extra notes and thoughts from the past week plus out at one time. Lots of good stuff.

I’ve been hard on the defense, because I just haven’t seen what I expected from them. Also, with the Wannstedt approach to games, the defense has to be great for Pitt to win. Gorman also saw the defense as less than stellar so far.

Some signs that Pitt’s defense wasn’t all that impressive:

Buffalo’s 15-play, 73-yard scoring drive that spanned six minutes, 54 seconds and gave the Bulls a 6-0 lead with 1:59 remaining in the first quarter was its longest scoring drive since a 16-play, 80-yard drive against Miami last season. That’s Miami of Ohio, not Florida.

Buffalo tailback James Starks, whom Wannstedt said might be the best back the Panthers face this season, finished with 97 rushing yards on 20 carries (or 4 yards more than McCoy on the same number of attempts). It was the highest rushing total by Starks against a BCS opponent. His previous high was 66 yards at Auburn.

And the week before versus BGSU, the Falcon offense was 4-4 in the redzone. There are issues, and it can’t all be pinned on injuries at linebacker. Eric Thatcher comes in for some direct criticism.

He also makes an interesting observation on Wannstedt.

“…We didn’t sustain for 60 minutes. The second game, we did. That was the theme all week in practice. I put together a few gimmick things for them and did some things during the week to really try to illustrate and emphasize that it really is a 60-minute game, regardless of who we’re playing and what the score is.”

To this day, I don’t understand how a coach who so detests gimmicks on the field – such as the Wildcat offense – uses them so frequently off the field.

Heh.

As for his knock on the student section from the BGSU game,

Which makes me wonder where the student section was a week earlier, when Pitt needed some support while trailing Bowling Green by 10 points with 11:52 remaining in the fourth quarter. Does the student section really need a song to be played to stir up some interest in cheering for the home team?

There’s an easy answer to that. The team and the coaches gave the fans nothing to believe at that point. Pitt was being shut out in the second half, while BGSU had scored two more TDs. Everyone recognized what was happening and that the team was going to blow that game. Fans cheer when they believe. Whether it is believing they can hold or rally, the fans need to believe.

I’ve been to enough sporting events to recognize when fans believe or not. When they don’t believe, it’s just not possible to get that energy to do anything more than half-heartedly, briefly, or at best desperately get behind the team. Nothing Pitt was doing on either side of the ball suggested they were going to do anything. Their body language on the sideline was screaming that they were lost. Fans could see and feel it.

And that is the lead-in to Zeise’s rant.

And the fact that it has been discussed so much on blogs and message boards and even talk radio should tell you the sorry state of where the Pitt football program has fallen. I mean, we’ve spent the past three seasons discussing everything — recruiting rankings, marketing schemes, song selections, logo changes, the ridiculous whining about the script helmets — EXCEPT winning football games. It is not a good thing that all of these things are discussed so much all the time and it is more proof that Pitt really needs a long run of winning games because the fan base is really getting restless.

…

Look, I know some of you get angry with me because I like to poke fun at these kinds of silly gimmicks and these long drawn out discussions about logos and uniforms but I’ve been saying this for years: The best — and at this point as fans are out of patience, the ONLY — marketing program or plan that will put people in those seats at Heinz Field is WINNING FOOTBALL GAMES WITH SOME DEGREE OF CONSISTENCY.

Period.

The athletic department’s marketing people have done a great job with the hand they’ve been dealt but they have gotten absolutely no help from the team and ultimately that is the only thing that matters in this market, particularly for a team that is trying to compete with three professional franchises for media attention as well as fan dollars — if you win and produce a good product, they will ultimately come to watch. Heck, thankfully even the Pirates are starting to find out that concerts, skyblasts, bobbleheads and fireworks are no longer enough to keep people interested in coming back to the ballpark.

So again, as Al Davis says “Just win, baby” and all of this other stuff will go back to being a part of the meaningless sideshow to the main event, which should be the actual football played on the field.

No disagreement. Ticket sales were up this year and they sold out in 2003. As much as lower prices helped, the primary reason was that the expectations were there for the team to win.

The only thing I will say in defense of the discussions is that they tend to come up during bye weeks. Slow news cycles. You know, when there is no game to discuss. So the topics available drift to other things.

Back to the other stuff.

Q: Why is Oderick Turner so inconsistent and looking so disinterested at times? I thought he came from an NFL family (his father played in the NFL). Shouldn’t he know how to play with more passion and intensity?

ZEISE: Being the son of an NFL player only means your dad was a good football player. It doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t take the lessons you learned from him and put them into practice. And when I watch Oderick Turner play it is somewhat frustrating to me. He has all the talent he needs to be a big-time player, I just don’t get the impression he really loves it that much. There are times he makes big plays, but he leaves so many big plays on the field every game he’s become somewhat of an enigma. You contrast the way he approaches things with that of Derek Kinder, who loves to play and it is easy to see if you just watch him run around out there. He plays with heart, with passion – he really goes after it every play. Turner still hasn’t developed this kind of consistency and I fear he might not ever get it.

Turner seems to have everyone frustrated. In a way the comparison with Kinder reminds me of Louisville’s two receivers from last year: Mario Urrutia and Harry Douglas.

Urrutia looked like a game-breaking receiver. He had natural talent, size, strength and speed. He lacked heart and desire, though. Short-arming receptions, shying from contact and just lacking effort at times. Especially compared to Douglas who, while shorter and not as fast, had more desire and you knew would do whatever it took to make the play — and he did.

Urrutia frustrated Cardinal fans while Douglas was embraced and beloved.

On the subject of Bill Stull going deep, he somewhat defends him.

Q: Do you think the reason why Pitt doesn’t throw the ball downfield more, is because Stull is not an accurate downfield passer? The deep balls that he did throw weren’t even close.

ZEISE: No, they didn’t throw down the field that much before Stull was the quarterback, either. Certainly it is not his strength and I agree that the deep balls have been atrocious, but a lot of that had to do with timing and that is something that can be corrected. Stull just threw them up for grabs, didn’t set his feet, didn’t wait for his receivers to get into stride, just chucked them. This is something they need to work on obviously but they have two weeks to get the timing of these things down. But he threw one to Jonathan Baldwin last Saturday that showed he can do it (even though it was a half-yard out of bounce). He just needs to work on it.

When you expect to throw one deep ball per game, how much can you work on it? Given the accuracy issue, I don’t know why they don’t at least take a chance with going more to the middle on a deep pass. Well, actually I do know, the fear of the interception. Still, if you send Baldwin or even Dickerson their natural athletic ability combined with a little more room might give them more of a chance and give Stull a little more confidence in throwing deep. Plus, since Coach Wannstedt loves the field position issue, an interception on a deep ball might be as good as a punt.

The mystery of Dave Wannstedt’s personnel decisionmaking is an ongoing debate.

Q: What is the coaching staff’s aversion to playing the younger talent (ie. Ransom over all the other lb’ers)? There seem to be several options I have considered, a) loyalty to upperclassman, b) young players are not smart enough to learn their assignments, c) players were overrated as recruits or d) coaches don’t seem to be able to coach up their younger players. How do other schools across the country seem to be able to untilize freshmen in multiple roles but Nix can only play limited minutes and Baldwin is only able to run a fly pattern once or twice a game?

ZEISE: I think this is really rather simple and we’ve been through it before — everything we know about Dave Wannstedt’s football philosophy can be summed up in a few words “always err on the side of caution.” That is just how he is built and what he believes in. It is why his teams are always so seemingly conservative, it is why he punts twice from inside the 35 against Bowling Green and plays for field goals and field position — that’s just what he believes in. And the extension of that is when it comes to personnel — he favors experience because theoretically experienced guys make fewer mistakes. But that’s an NFL thing too, as you don’t, in the college, have the luxury of reloading with experienced guys since you only have them for four years (or five). I do think it is puzzling what is going on with both Baldwin and Lucas Nix but by the same token, it isn’t anything that is new or that we haven’t come to expect. It is just one of those things — if you look at the coach’s football philosophy, it is easy to understand why he’s hesitant to green light freshmen playing time.

Yes, it’s the most logical explanation. I think most fans know it. It doesn’t make it right, and the stubbornness of Wannstedt on this along with so many other things — even as he keeps losing support and games — defies reason. You would think at some point he’d actually take a look at his record at Pitt. At Miami. At Chicago and say, “Hmm, maybe it wasn’t all just injuries, bad luck and not ‘catching break.’ Maybe I need to change some things.” Apparently not.

Please, please, please. Don’t make it this easy.

Q: OK, cut through the BS — what is your prediction for this team?

ZEISE: I usually don’t give predictions per se, other than to give a range of where a team should be and so here is what I’ll say. I see a team, who, if it plays well, should be 8-4. In other words, the talent level on this team is, from what I can see and based on experience and knowing what kind of schedule it is going to face, good enough that it is very fair to expect eight wins from it. So eight is the cut-off in my book and less than eight is underachieving while more than eight is overachieving. So if you ask me what I am expecting from this team I’ll say 8-4, though I could make a very strong case for 10-2 or 5-7 if you’d really like me to.

So, that isn’t a prediction. Just an expectation.

Then don’t. Don’t do a write-up for preseason magazine where the “Overview” part has you writing, “It is hard to imagine this team won’t get to at least eight wins.”

I actually like Paul Zeise’s writing. I think Pitt is rather lucky that both dailies have good writers on the Pitt football beat. Zeise, however, can’t pretend that his freelance writing gig is totally unconnected.

Like it or not, the preseason mags aren’t just about providing a synopsis on a team. People buy them to see what the expectations and predictions are. I’m sure Zeise did not have anything to do with the slotting of Pitt at #23 in Lindy’s. But he took the work-for-hire, and associated with them. The language can be parsed, to say there is no prediction. It sure seems that way, though.

I think I’ve been consistent in saying Coach Dave Wannstedt is not going to be fired if Pitt were to disappoint this year. In that respect, he is not on the hot seat. I do think, however, that this is a big year for the Wannstedt reign. The big excuses — year 1, new system; year 2, defense stunk so blame recruiting; year 3, injuries and officiating — are done. A losing or .500 record and it will be hard to say that Wannstedt is the guy to even get this team to the level Walt Harris had it.

The article on the faith in Wannstedt by the administration is nothing not already known. Coach Wannstedt is on great terms with the key folks — Nordenberg and Pederson. Everyone knows it. There is no question that support has been a benefit to Pitt on  the recruiting side.

“One of the reasons we had the No. 1 recruiting classes in the Big East the past three years is I’m not looking to try to get another college or NFL job,” Wannstedt said. “I’ve done those things. I’m here to finish my career at Pitt.

“It’s one thing for me to say it, but when the administration does the same thing, it’s definitely reassuring to recruits and their parents.”

So, rare is the day I find myself nodding with a Smizik column, but I do agree with his point(s) here.

Wannstedt knows how to run a football program. He knows how to recruit. He knows how to glad-hand the alumni. He is expert at dealing with the media. He’s very good with the general public. He’s the guy any school would want as the face of its program — except for those bothersome game days. On those Saturdays and the occasional Thursday and Friday night, too often things that should not go wrong do go wrong.

On game day, Wannstedt’s Pitt teams have failed to live up to, if not expectations, the level of the team’s talent.

…

That’s where Wannstedt’s teams have fallen. They have not been ready to play up to expectations every week.

I, along with most of you, can point to a couple of games in the first 3 seasons that still absolutely boggle. Ohio and Nebraska; Rutgers and UConn; Navy and Michigan State. Games that Pitt lost that were so winnable.

Oddly enough, Smizik is actually optimistic in this column. He believes.

This is the year Wannstedt gets it. He is too good a coach to continue to stumble against inferior opposition. He has done too much good recruiting to continue to head a losing program.

Pitt can win nine games this year, maybe 10. It can win the Big East and go to a major bowl game. It can place itself as one of the elite teams in the conference. The work Wannstedt has done on those six other days has put the Panthers in a position to do all this.

“This season, it seems like everything is in the right place,”‘ said All-American linebacker Scott McKillop. “Our defense is coming back. We have a great running back [McCoy], who is a special player.”

This is the year Wannstedt becomes a seven-day-a-week coach.

In a rarity for all us, here’s hoping Smizik is right.

Sporting News ranked Pitt #26 and has their preview (which is the same that appears in their print preview) and 4th overall in the Big East. UConn is listed as 3d in the print preview for the BE, but #50 overall for their online preview. Huh? USF is #21 and WVU is #8 (which matches the online and print).

In the three seasons since he returned to his alma mater as head coach, Dave Wannstedt has a losing record and no bowl games on his resume. But after producing a third straight consensus top-25 recruiting class — the only Big East school to appear in the 2008 rankings — Wannstedt’s stable of talent should be ready to blossom.

No shock that the area they note that needs to perform this year is the O-line.

Must step up: The offensive line. True, the O-line deserves some of the credit for McCoy’s success. But Pitt ranked next-to-last in Big East rushing as a team last season, and the line breaks in three new starters in 2008.

Now if you like your previews a little more upscale, The Quad from the NY Times reached Pitt a couple days ago and put them at #32. Sadly I didn’t even notice a bump in traffic or any hits from them despite the link at the bottom of the preview.

Credit, though, for having the temp set about right for Wannstedt with regards to the “hot seat.”

Calling 2008 a make-or-break season for Wannstedt may be extreme – barring a monumental collapse, he’ll return in 2009 – but the talent is there for the Panthers to win the Big East. Fans will not be happy with anything less than a bowl appearance. Seat temperature check: baking.

That seems about right. There are expectations. But even if Pitt underachieves Wanny won’t be going anywhere short of a 3-9 type season. Paul Myerberg is expecting 8-4 from Pitt.

Could Pittsburgh be better? Absolutely. There is a great amount of talent: on offense, Turner, Kinder and McCoy; on defense, McKillop, the heart and soul of the unit, is one of the best defensive players in the nation. So why fourth, especially when most publications have Pittsburgh as high as in the top 20 in the nation? For one, I have concerns about Pittsburgh’s schedule, which, while not too difficult out-of-conference, forces the Panthers to go to U.S.F. and Cincinnati, two of the top teams in the Big East. In addition, despite the depth at the position, the Panthers must get more consistent play at quarterback. Though Bostick and Smith showed promise, the pair combined to turn the ball over way too much, leaving their defense in precarious predicaments. However, Stull’s return may alleviate some of the concerns at quarterback. While I like Pittsburgh to take a step forward this season, I think they are a program on the rise for 2009, as the underclassmen who dot this fall’s roster continue to gain experience on the college level and in Wannstedt’s system.

In the famous alumni section they include Ron Paul. Sadly Dr. and Rep. Paul is only a Pittsburgh native. He went to Gettysburg College and Duke Medical.

No it’s not part of the BCS poll voting, and this definitely goes in under useless information.  Still the AP Poll is always something watched and debated. I haven’t seen the full list of voters for 2008, but Brett McMurphy of the Tampa Tribune — covers USF — is one of the voters this year and did disclose in his blog who else with Big East ties will be voting.

The others: Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette; Mitch Vingle of The Charleston (WVa.) Gazette; Kent Taylor of WAVE Ch. 3 in Louisville, Ky. and John Silver of the Journal Inquirer in Connecuticut.

Silver is the also has his own blog to focus on UConn football. Taylor already released his pre-season top-25 (he has Pitt #23).

At least until the kids insist I stop trying to use the TV as a baby sitter, there will be a lot of quick brief posts from press releases and media day puffery.

How about the Big East pre-season poll by the BE Media? Looks like Rutgers jumped the gun on the press release — the Big East hasn’t even published it officially.

1. WVU — 22 of 24 1st place votes, 189 points
2. USF — 1 1st place vote, 149 points
3. Pitt — 1 1st place vote (really?), 128 points
4. Rutgers — 110 points
5. Cinci — 98 points
6. UConn — 97 points
7. Louisville — 69 points
8. Syracuse — 24 points (which means every vote had ‘Cuse dead last)

There’s going to be a lot of questions for whoever gave Pitt a 1st place vote.