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.

Media blitz day for LeSean McCoy.

Both Pittsburgh dailies had stories on him. You know he’s been well coached… in media relations.

“It isn’t about yards, about touchdowns, about accolades for me. The only numbers that matter are 5-7 and I want to do everything in my power to make sure we improve on that,” he said of Pitt’s record last season.

“If we go to a bowl game, win a lot of games — that’s how you can judge my season because that’s my focus. Maybe teams will key on me — that will open stuff up for [fullback] Conredge [Collins] or the passing game.

“I don’t know if I can do better individually, but as a team, we all want to and know we can do better.”

Not that McCoy isn’t confident in himself.

McCoy, for one, believes he’s a more complete back after spending a full year in the weight room and conditioning under strength coach Buddy Morris. Most of all, McCoy said he’s become a student of the game by watching more film.

“I understand the game of football. It’s more than just raw talent out there,” McCoy said. “I’m a little more confident now that I know what’s out there and what I have to do. Last year, I was curious about what I had to do and what was going to be out there for me. I was just playing, just trying to do what I do best and just run. Like coach said, I left a lot of runs on the field, a lot of long ones. It was me trying to do too much.”

Well, given the offense last year, McCoy had little choice but to try and do too much.

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.

Go figure at media day there were questions for LeSean McCoy. Mainly about whether this will be his last year before going to the NFL.

“I don’t worry about that,” said McCoy, who ran for a Big East rookie-record 1,328 yards and a school-record 14 touchdowns last fall. “As long as I come into the season focused on what I’m going to do, that stuff will take care of itself. I’m not ready to go to the pros. Those guys are grown men who have to support a family. I’m not ready for (Brian) Urlacher or Ray Lewis. I’ve got to take my time and enjoy college.

“Definitely, it’s in the back of my mind. With this sport, this position I play, anything can happen. But, on the same token, to play on that level you’ve got to be prepared physically and mentally. It’s a whole different step. That’s the real world. It’s in the back of my mind but far in the back of my mind.”

He said exactly the right thing. Personally, I think he’s gone after this season — barring injury. He didn’t deny interest. He didn’t say there was no way. He played it humble. Suggested he needed some more experience and conditioning to be ready. You know, like this season.

AD Steve Pederson brushed off stories that suggested Coach Dave Wannstedt was on the hot seat if the team fell short of expectations.

“We’ve made great progress,” Pederson said. “I think often times, particularly in football, it doesn’t always happen as fast as people would like. It takes awhile to get linemen physically and mentally ready to play — it takes some time. And I saw some good things in the WVU game, a lot of good things, and I think we’ll continue to see that.

“And, obviously, by extending his contract at the end of last year, we made a statement about how we feel about Dave and his program. We need stability, and what I like about Dave is he has carefully built an entire program, not just a team, but a program that is going to be good for a long period and he is doing it for all the right reasons.”

It’s something we all do. I don’t really consider  those who have written or said things like that idiots. Just superficial.

Look at a program that has had some past success. Has had a change in coaches with expectations of being better. and has underachieved for 2 – 3 years. Ergo, coach on the hot seat. A lot of times it really is that simple, but it’s a shorthand thing that ignores other things.

In the case of Pitt, with the extension (probably even more than the WVU win) Wannstedt was not in any real danger after last season. Pitt just isn’t prepared to eat a contract extension like that. Add in the intermediate step of assistant coach overhaul that always takes place just before a true hotseat year has yet to occur. Finally, there is the fact that Wannstedt is a big hit with the monied alum/donors. That is a big issue at any school. The unwashed masses may sometimes be screaming at the gate, but more often it comes down to whether the money people like the guy. In Wannstedt’s case, that is not in question.

Just another reminder, College Football Live at 3:30 on ESPN and 6:30 on ESPN-U will have LeSean McCoy as a guest.

Here are just a few interesting things blogged with regards to Big East Media Day unrelated to Pitt.

Troy Nunes IAM goes barrel fishing with a shotgun by breaking down the utterances of Greg Robinson, not once but twice.

USF Coach Jim Leavitt actually will miss Rich Rodriguez — mainly since he went 2-1 against the Mountaineers with DickRod there.

“We beat Rodriguez. We haven’t gotten this guy. This guy worries me. I wish Rich would have stayed. But he didn’t, so we’ll have to go play Michigan now.”

At least Leavitt will be more popular in Morgantown.

The reports that the Big East may be trying to work a deal with Army and Navy. Um, not so much.

Mike Tranghese dispelled the recent New York Post story on the Big East looking at Army and Navy for football. He said the conference had discussions two years ago, but haven’t spoken since. “We had discussions two years ago, the service academies didn’t feel it was in their best interest, and we dropped it,” Tranghese said. “Now this story appears, and it sounds as if it’s happening now, but that’s not so.”

Chip Malafronte also describes WVU Coach Bill Stewart this way, “Actually, he kind of looks and sounds like Lou Holtz, without the speech impediment.”

Outgoing BE Commish Mike Tranghese seemed to really be out to put an end to any expansion talk in his final year.

“I don’t think there’s anybody out there who can make us better,” Tranghese said. “If there was somebody out there who could make us better, I think our people would react to it very quickly. Our people talk about it all the time.”

Sorry, East Carolina.

What will likely be a story with some legs. Or at least some interesting back-pedaling from WVU QB Pat White. The once 4th round draft pick of the Anaheim Angels calls the WVU Baseball coach a racist.

Asked if he had spoken directly with Van Zant about playing for him, White said: “(No), he wasn’t (excited). He wasn’t interested.”

Then he paused and added:

“In my knowledge of West Virginia baseball, there’s not been many players of my race on his team. He’s not too high on it.

“Every player I’ve talked to doesn’t like him. He’s not a well-liked coach but I guess he has tenure so they never got rid of him. They’re not successful at all.”

Asked if he might have played if there were a different baseball coach at West Virginia, White said, “Maybe.”

Okay, completely unrelated, but too funny not to mention.

A student is facing various charges after police said he entered the Lasch Football Building on Thursday morning and caused $5,000 worth of damage — all while wearing a Penn State football helmet.

…

Following a night of drinking at his friend’s University Terrace apartment and two downtown bars, Costenbader told police he was on his way back to his Toftrees apartment when he decided to hop the fence onto the football practice field. He told police he stripped to his boxer shorts and began running around the field, hitting tackling dummies. He then saw an open gate and headed toward the Lasch building, according to court documents.

Though Costenbader told police he doesn’t remember much about being in the building, he admitted to breaking a glass window as well as being in the locker and weight rooms, according to court documents.

While inside, Costenbader allegedly damaged a window in the training office by throwing weights at it, flipped two tables and two trampolines in the training room and broke a window in the south lobby.

Awesome.

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).

Latest press release has the Big East TV appearances. They grouped them by networks so here are the relevant (Pitt) appearances.

ABC
Fri., Nov. 28 WEST VIRGINIA at PITTSBURGH Noon

ESPN
Thurs., Oct. 2 PITTSBURGH at USF 7:30 p.m.
Sat., Dec. 6 PITTSBURGH at CONNECTICUT * TBD (might air on ESPN2)

ESPNU
Sat., Aug. 30 Bowling Green at Pittsburgh Noon

CBS College Sports
Sat., Oct. 18 Pittsburgh at Navy 3:30 p.m.

NBC
Sat., Nov. 1 Pittsburgh at Notre Dame 2:30 p.m.

ESPN Regional/Big East Game of the Week
Sat., Nov. 22 PITTSBURGH at CINCINNATI or WEST VIRGINIA at LOUISVILLE

ESPN Regional
Sat., Sept. 6 Buffalo at Pittsburgh 6 p.m.
SportsNet New York/ESPN GamePlan

CBS College Sports is what used to be the  CSTV channel. They rebranded it during the NCAA Tournament and after CBS purchased them outright.

More games will be added, but this is what is known so far. For example the October 25 BE Game of the week is open — and just happens to be the day Rutgers-Pitt play. So that will likely get added.

Not bad for Pitt to already have 6 games on national (non-PPV/regional) distribution considering the last few years. As for the other schools: Louisville has 6 games, WVU has 5 games, USF has 5, UConn has 5, Rutgers has 4, Cinci has 4, Syracuse has 3

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.

Here’s the main page. Video interviews and stuff all day. This is the main page.

According to the list of attendees (PDF), Pitt is bringing Derek Kinder, Scott McKillop and LeSean McCoy for player appearances.

Yesterday was golfing day.

Lots of stuff to blog the rest of the day.

It’s the in-story in the offseason. ESPN’s Outside the Lines story on Penn State‘s off-the-field issues. I was only able to get around to watching it this evening (I really love having a DVR). There have been enough people e-mailing me about it that I will write something.

There was nothing too earth-shattering in it. That Penn State has had a lot of criminal charges filed against the players in the past several years is not a revelation. This sort of report has been building as it has carried on each year. Suggesting something in the team culture, rather than just the “bad apple” argument.

Joe Paterno’s insistence on denying everything shouldn’t have been a surprise. Even his overall cantankerousness. It’s Joe Paterno. Big shock that he’s old and cranky when the media isn’t asking the questions he wants. I had a sense that if Steve Delsohn — the reporter — held up a blue paint sample and asked him what he thought of this shade of blue, Paterno would have denied that it was actually blue by the end

Remember what I wrote last week about Iowa’s problems? Well, here’s the key bit.

More than that, though, it also becomes an issue of how the fans face such things. Do they look at it solely in what it means in wins and losses? Do they circle the wagons and descend into lunatic-fringe paranoia – seeing conspiracies and attempts to bring down their beloved program at every turn? Do they demand accountability from the program and their school?

That’s what Penn State fans have to address. Is it all just an ESPN hit piece? Numbers without context? Really? The PSU Football team has been a top-510 resident of the Fulmer Cup the past two years. What does that say?

Programs like Penn State, Notre Dame and Michigan love to talk about a special way of doing things and all that tripe in the past. Their fans eat it up and parrot it. Really, what they want is to win. Period. When convenient they will rationalize it with “everybody does it” themes to minimize things. They will accuse all others of being jealous and just trying to bring them down.

It doesn’t go both ways no matter how hard they try. Either accept that the old ways are long gone and the program is just like every other program out there. With periods of bad behavior and problems. Or mean it when you claim the program is different. Demand and act accordingly when the bad crap happens.

If this sort of thing shows up on a message board, it gets little credence.

You read here earlier about the importance of Pitt F Sam Young’s being invited to work as a counselor at Nike’s Vince Carter Skills Academy so he could absorb some lessons about perimeter play as he transitions from functioning primarily as a power forward. It turned out his experience there was a smash. Observers report Young dominated the other top college wings who worked the camp.

If it shows up in the Sporting News‘ Mike DeCourcy’s tidbits, it gets a bit more. Either way, it’s the sort of thing we want to believe.

I’ve been debating the waste of time that was ESPN’s “Face of the Program” gimmick. Essentially trying to pick one player or iconic image that would define a program at its best. It’s been mostly lame. For several schools they have been stuck with just the logo.

Pitt was a no-brainer for ESPN in going with Tony Dorsett. Not only was he the school’s greatest running back, won the Heisman, wore the cool uni and was a hall of fame pro player. He also led a Pitt team to a national championship.

That’s the one thing that trumps all the other poll choices in Dan Marino and Hugh Green. Larry Fitzgerald and Curtis Martin never had a shot.

Yes, that I even wasted a post on it is an obvious sign that news and info is drying up just before the July 4th holiday.

Via press release, this week the USA Today Sports Weekly will be a college football preview.

LeSean McCoy will be the cover boy for one of the 6 regions. (Dammit, Laurenitis is one of the others, so I know which will be the cover in Ohio.)

I know. His power rankings in the season always seem to suggest a slightly dour view to Pitt. Maybe there’s bias. Maybe Pitt is a team he simply won’t give as much credit towards until it has a bigger March impact. It’s also possible.

That said, he’s also been there with praise after the Big East Tournament. His pre-pre-power rankings for the upcoming year starts Pitt at #6. I happen to like Winn, since he is one of the few basketball sports writers willing to look deeper at numbers and statistical information.

So, yes, I saw his story talking about potential effects of moving the 3-point line back 1 foot for the upcoming season. In his final section it looked like Pitt got singled out as being at risk.

But the most interesting case study will be at Pittsburgh, which was seventh-worst on that list. Last season, defenses were kept honest by the shooting of junior Sam Young (38.3 percent, 44 threes) and seniors Ronald Ramon (37.2 percent, 67 threes) and Keith Benjamin (37.0 percent, 51 threes). The Panthers’ overall percentage was dragged down by the abysmal aim of point guard Levance Fields (27.7 percent, 28 threes) and Gilbert Brown (24.4 percent, 19 threes) — both of whom will likely be in the starting lineup now that Ramon and Benjamin are gone.

If defenses sag down against Fields’ penetration, and use help to double super-sophomore DeJuan Blair in the post, can Pitt make them pay? The Panthers are finding their way into plenty of preseason top 10s, but they won’t be a contender without being able to pose some semblance of a threat from beyond 20-9.

The point, though, was he was looking at numbers from NCAA Tournament teams. In that final section — those  Tourney teams that had the lowest shooting % on 3s — Pitt was not just the only preseason top-10 team for this coming season, but the only consensus pre-season top-25 team. That makes Pitt the team with that question mark. On a national level, who cares if UNLV or Georgia is going to struggle with the transition if it isn’t even a sure thing if they’ll even be in the rankings? I take it as a bit of respect and a note on the expectations that Pitt merited the discussion.

Really, even in if the line wasn’t moving back a foot, it would still be the big question mark on  the team going into the season — and a concern for Pitt fans. A literal change of guards. With Ramon and Benjamin gone. Especially Ramon. For all his struggles through injuries last season, Ramon was still the guy expected to take and be consistent on 3s. This is why there is some thought as to Ashton Gibbs coming in right away to help Pitt with that, and why the signing of Jermaine Dixon seems a little curious considering he isn’t exactly a 3-point marksman.

Unless it is absolutely explosive, this will hopefully be the only mention of this on the blog.

Mark Wogenrich, one of our Penn State football beat writers, tells us that ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” investigative TV show is pursuing a story about the legal issues involving the Lions’ football team since April 2007.

It’s such an easy target, it almost seems surprising that they hadn’t done the piece yet.

That said, they hardly seem worse than so many other teams. But like other schools/fans that play the self-righteous, higher standard card any chance they get, they really can’t turn around and claim they are no worse than any other school.

You can’t have it both ways. Either you are no better/different from other schools and their fans, or you are on a higher standard and have to deal with extra scrutiny when those standards aren’t met and even ignored.