After a while, you do have to convince yourself of that. I mean, otherwise, yet another revised top-25 list for college football in May would be, well, filler or just a waste of time. That — that just can’t be.

From the Viacom empire, Dennis Dodd at CBS Sports revises his top-25 and moves Pitt down a spot to #22.

The feel good vibe from the West Virginia win hasn’t diminished yet. Dave Wannstedt might finally be putting it together. Tailback LeSean McCoy was a freshman All-American who surpassed some of Tony Dorsett’s freshman numbers. Linebacker Scott McKillop led the nation in tackles.

From the Big East, WVU #9, USF #19, UConn #21, Cinci #25.

Then there is CSTV.com (another online arm of Viacom). Their college football editor moved Pitt from #24 to #20 in his revision.

The pressure is on Dave Wannstedt. He keeps bringing in these highly rated recruiting classes, but doesn’t have much to show for it on the field. But off of that impressive win over West Virginia in the season finale, and the duo of LeSean McCoy and Pat Bostick leading the offense, there’s reason to be very optimistic. Panthers’ defense should be strong.

Of course, no one else actually thinks Bostick will be the starter (or see playing time) this season (hello, redshirt). A fact even most national writers who paid any attention to things were aware.

“The question with Billy Stull was could he come back full speed after his thumb injury?” Wannstedt said. “He has proven that he can. With the year off and all the lifting he did in the weight room, his arm looks a little stronger to me. Right now, he is probably the most advanced of the group.”

Stull, a homegrown product of Pittsburgh, said his thumb injury might have been a blessing in disguise. Stull said he gained about 10 pounds and now weighs 212. “It’s definitely one thing I noticed when I was able to start throwing,” Stull said. “My arm strength is better.”

…

Still, it appears to be Stull’s job to lose. “He’s tough as far as reading the defense and hitting the targets,” McCoy said. “It’s going to help out the running game tremendously. It was tough last year because there were so many guys in the box. Everybody knew we were going to run the ball.”

McCoy isn’t the one calling the shots on offense, but it doesn’t hurt to have him speak with confidence on the likely starting QB.

So, yes, at long last, Pitt fell out of the top-25 in both polls. A week of doom to be sure as it’s the first time in 43 consecutive weeks that Pitt wasn’t ranked. Oh, well.

In the Q&As Fittipaldo points out a good reason for struggles in February.

Q: Coach (Jamie) Dixon always talks about continually getting better, yet Pitt seems to hit a wall every February. I was hoping this year would be different because the freshmen would improve, but they seemed to have regressed over the past few weeks. Why does this continue to happen?

FITTIPALDO: Pitt is 2-2 this February. The Panthers were 5-2 last February, 4-3 in February of 2006, 4-4 in February of ’05 and 6-2 in ’04. The only year the Panthers might have regressed at the end of the season was ’05 when they lost four of their final six games and were knocked out in the first round of the Big East and NCAA tournaments.

You might be noticing that Pitt does not win as many games in February as January, but there is a reason for that. The top teams in the Big East are desired by the television networks for marquee games with other top teams. The TV networks begin to televise most of their better games in February and March, when more people are more inclined to tune in. CBS and ESPN do not want to compete with the NFL playoffs. If you noticed, the first half of Pitt’s schedule featured many of the bottom-rung teams in the league. The second half of the schedule features teams competing for NCAA tournament berths. That’s because the networks dictated which games they wanted to televise.

Good point, but it never stops sports writers from talking about how Pitt is struggling at the end of the season.

An article on Jermaine Dixon that is at least somewhat reassuring.

A Baltimore native, Dixon is one of the leading candidates for Player of the Year in the Panhandle Conference, regarded as one of the most competitive Juco conferences in the nation.

“Basically, Jermaine is a big, athletic guard who can go from A to Z very quick,” Tallahassee CC coach Eddie Barnes said. “He’s a good kid. He’s very coachable. He loves to compete. He’s going to compete at the highest level (in the Big East). He’s a dream guard. It’s going to be hard for me to replace him.”

The left-handed Dixon averages 21.0 points and about 7.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game.

His work ethic on the court doesn’t seem to be in question and he is apparently one of those high-motor players. Anyone familiar with what the Dixon boys have overcome should want to root for his success.

There’s more Pitt recruiting stuff here.

It’s nice but hard to take seriously. With football season over. The BCS hashed, rehashed and playoffs pumped then torn down. The head coaching carousel done. Recruiting stuff has already gotten tiresome for many — or they don’t want to sully their hands with the discussion. That leaves precious little to write. That means it is time for sports writers to predict 2008 polls.

Dennis Dodd at CBS Sports puts Pitt at #22.

Stewart Mandel at SI.com has Pitt at #25.

Yeah, it has little meaning. On the other hand, Pitt has been absent from even the discussion since the 2004 season. So, there is the fact that Pitt is still somewhere in sportswriters’ minds.

I don’t think Pitt has shown up in any type of football rankings in at least a couple years. That’s why when Mark Schlabach ranked us at #22 I got a little more excited for the 2008 season.

22. Pittsburgh The Panthers have reason for optimism after upsetting West Virginia 13-9 in the regular-season finale, a loss that cost the Mountaineers a chance to play for the BCS championship. Dave Wannstedt failed to produce a winning record in his first three seasons as coach of his alma mater, but the Panthers seem ready to turn the corner in 2008. Pitt lost four games by seven points or fewer in 2007. Seven starters are expected back on both offense and defense. Tailback LeSean McCoy ran for 1,328 yards and 14 touchdowns as a freshman, and freshman quarterback Pat Bostick was much improved by season’s end. Receiver Derek Kinder and defensive tackle Gus Mustakas will return from season-ending knee injuries. Linebacker Scott McKillop led the country with 151 tackles and led a defense that showed bite in 2007.

We should remember a few things before we get too pumped up: the 2007 ended less than 24 hours ago, we haven’t even seen what National Signing Day will bring to every team, and of course the injury bug could come out of nowhere and ruin a season in the blink of an eye (see: Pitt hoops). We’re also not entirely sure who’s going to start at QB and whether or not they’ll be competent enough to lead the team.
Still, next year should be a fun time to be a Panther fan.

Quick basketball post before getting into tonight’s Backyard Brawl thread. Dejuan Blair arrived late at today’s game and ended up scoring 11 points and pulling down 11 rebounds in Pitt’s 78-52 win over Toledo. Why was he late?

Pitt freshman DeJuan Blair, facing a difficult decision, didn’t want to disappoint his family or his teammates. He was needed to serve as a pallbearer for a funeral, yet his team played a game at nearly the same time.

Blair finally made the only choice he felt he could make: Try to do both, and hope his sorrow and disappointment didn’t affect his play. And they didn’t.

“I was just coming straight from the funeral today and I was late,” said Blair, who attended military rites for great grandfather Eugene Nelson, a Korean War veteran, shortly before gametime. “I couldn’t even warm up with the rest of the team. I just tried not to think about it and just play, so I just played for him. It was difficult to play, but the coaches and the team and the fans made me feel comfortable.”

Definitely a tough game for Blair to play in, but he performed well and showed a lot of heart to do so. The game was fairly close through the end of the first half, but we came out in the second half and pulled away.

“We came out sluggish and they came out ready to play a ranked team and it showed in the first half,” Young said. “We weathered the storm and definitely came out in the second half ready to play.”

Against Duquesne on Wednesday, we’ll need to be ready to play all 40 minutes because they can score very quickly and an early lead might be the key to an upset for the Dukes.

Thanks to Dennis for the initial draft. A bit of tweaking, but mostly stable this week.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	—
2	Oregon	2
3	Ohio State	1
4	West Virginia	1
5	Kansas	3
6	Oklahoma	—
7	Missouri	2
8	Southern Cal	2
9	Boston College	6
10	Arizona State	3
11	Connecticut	5
12	Georgia	1
13	Auburn	1
14	Hawaii	1
15	Florida	3
16	Texas	1
17	Michigan	1
18	Virginia Tech	6
19	Alabama	—
20	Virginia	6
21	Tennessee	2
22	Clemson	—
23	Boise State	2
24	Cincinnati	2
25	Wake Forest	10

It’s really the kiss of death this season to put a team at #2. Oregon, though, should be up there. I’m starting to feel very shaky about keeping LSU at #1. They aren’t as shaky as Virginia, but they aren’t exactly inspiring either.

Virginia remains about the luckiest team this season. Another 1 point win, and this time the Wake Forest kicker who has been completely automatic since last season misses one at the end of the game. Yeesh.

Too many spots and not enough teams. That’s exactly what it felt like by the time I finished the ballot. I’m not at all happy about this, but that’s the way it is.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	—
2	Ohio State	—
3	Boston College	—
4	Oregon	5
5	West Virginia	2
6	Oklahoma	1
7	Arizona State	4
8	Kansas	5
9	Missouri	3
10	Southern Cal	2
11	Georgia	15
12	Florida	8
13	Hawaii	1
14	Auburn	4
15	Wake Forest	4
16	Connecticut	10
17	Texas	—
18	Michigan	2
19	Alabama	2
20	South Florida	14
21	South Carolina	6
22	Clemson	4
23	Tennessee	3
24	Virginia Tech	8
25	Boise State	1

Waitlisted/Standing by: Does it really matter?

I found myself wanting to drop Kentucky and South Carolina, but not enough other teams worth putting in the ballot.  I mean, Boise State managed to get back into the rankings. Opted to drop Kentucky, despite their win over LSU. South Carolina holds the head-to-head edge and I’ll generally favor the team capable of playing defense. By the same token, I realize that Tennessee beat SC last week, but given the up-and-down nature of the Vols I expect a loss in their next game and them to drop from the ballot. Absolutely no faith in them.

The more I see of Oregon, the more I like — not withstanding the unis.

Arizona State is worthy of respect, but there’s a good chance their starting QB won’t be available.

South Florida will start winning again. They have two games left at home — where they are far better. Their remaining road games are at Syracuse and Pitt. No excuses. They should sweep the rest of the season or they are out of the poll.

Eh. Here’s the composite from all voters. Here’s where you can look at individual ballots.

The ESPN/USA Today college basketball poll was released today, with Pitt coming in at #20. The #1 team in North Carolina, who had more total ballot points than UCLA even though the Bruins had more 1st place votes.

Other Big East teams in the preseason poll are: Georgetown (5), Louisville (6), Marquette (12), and Villanova (25). Syracuse and Connecticut were both high in the “Others Receiving Votes” column. Too bad we won’t see a good opponent play the Panthers until mid-December.

As always, Penn State wasn’t even on the minds of voters.

Darts anyone? This has ceased to be fun.

Dennis, as usual did the initial heavy lifting and I did a little tweaking. The floor is now open for comments. Please, when you complain about who is ranked and where, offer a reasonable suggestion as to who should be higher.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	South Florida	3
2	Ohio State	—
3	Boston College	2
4	Oklahoma	2
5	South Carolina	2
6	Kentucky	11
7	LSU	6
8	Florida	—
9	West Virginia	3
10	Southern Cal	1
11	California	8
12	Arizona State	6
13	Missouri	2
14	Oregon	1
15	Kansas	5
16	Hawaii	2
17	Auburn	4
18	Virginia Tech	5
19	Texas	5
20	Cincinnati	10
21	Maryland	1
22	Texas Tech	4
23	Tennessee	3
24	Wake Forest	2
25	Michigan	1

Standing By/Waitlisted: Penn State, Virginia, K-State and Alabama

It’s been that bad in college football that Michigan has found its way back into the top-25. I don’t know. I was poised to actually put UConn, Indiana or Boise St. in the poll, but the first two lost and BSU had a multi-OT shootout at home with Nevada this evening (that BSU did win) to kill that one.

I mean, for gods sake, Virginia is closing in on the top-25 at this point. Even as I argue against it.

Yes, I moved USF to #1. They have accomplished more this season than Ohio State, to this point.

Kentucky continues to yo-yo up and down the poll. Right now up because of beating LSU, though I expect them to plummet again if they lose to Florida this coming Saturday.

Cal takes a hard tumble. Not just for losing, but coming up so small at home against Oregon State.

USC drops another spot as they barely pulled out a weak victory rather than another embarrassing loss.

Cinci, Cinci, Cinci. You broke my wife’s heart by not taking back the Keg O’ Nails. Consolation trophy to come this week.
Oregon only gets a 1 spot bump because I’m not sold on them much longer with the injuries they had this weekend.

Really, it’s just a flippin’ mess. I hate seeing VT move that high just for beating Duke, but no one else is really showing much either. Same with Auburn, but if I’m going to guess at which great defense/crappy offense is better I’m going with Auburn.

Not a lot of changes from the draft ballot. Minor tweaks, really.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	—
2	Ohio State	2
3	California	—
4	South Florida	1
5	Boston College	1
6	Oklahoma	4
7	South Carolina	6
8	Florida	—
9	Southern Cal	7
10	Cincinnati	6
11	Missouri	7
12	West Virginia	—
13	Wisconsin	6
14	Hawaii	—
15	Oregon	—
16	Florida State	6
17	Kentucky	6
18	Arizona State	2
19	Illinois	7
20	Kansas	5
21	Auburn	5
22	Maryland	4
23	Virginia Tech	3
24	Texas	7
25	Georgia	16

You can see the full results here and individual ballots here.

Another crazy weekend of action. This is just the rough draft. Hard, hard ballot. Lots of teams that did and even a couple deserving to fall out. Problem, what team to put in there instead.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	—
2	Ohio State	2
3	California	—
4	South Florida	1
5	Boston College	1
6	Oklahoma	4
7	South Carolina	6
8	Florida	—
9	Southern Cal	7
10	Cincinnati	6
11	Missouri	7
12	West Virginia	—
13	Wisconsin	6
14	Hawaii	—
15	Oregon	—
16	Florida State	6
17	Kentucky	6
18	Arizona State	2
19	Kansas	6
20	Illinois	6
21	Auburn	5
22	Maryland	4
23	Virginia Tech	3
24	Georgia	15
25	Texas	8

Standing By/Wait-listed: Colorado, UConn, Boise St., Indiana, Tennessee
Dennis offered his thoughts on his initial rankings that I tweaked for the draft ballot. Comments from me are in italics.

(more…)

Okay, a bit more tweaking from the initial draft. Thanks as always to Dennis for starting it and everyone who offered thoughts on it.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	1
2	Southern Cal	1
3	California	3
4	Ohio State	5
5	South Florida	8
6	Boston College	4
7	Wisconsin	4
8	Florida	4
9	Georgia	3
10	Oklahoma	7
11	Kentucky	6
12	West Virginia	7
13	South Carolina	6
14	Hawaii	2
15	Oregon	1
16	Cincinnati	5
17	Texas	10
18	Missouri	—
19	Rutgers	11
20	Arizona State	3
21	Nebraska	1
22	Florida State	4
23	Miami (Florida)	1
24	Purdue	2
25	Kansas	1

Most of the tweaking came in the second half of the ballot.

Virginia Tech was always shaky and the more I thought about what I saw in the UNC game, the less comfortable I was with keeping them in it. Kansas takes the spot instead. They may not have actually beaten anyone either, but at least they are doing it with a comfortable margin.

Texas and Rutgers ended up taking a bigger tumble the more I thought it through. Oregon less of one.

I gave South Carolina more of a boost, but no they are still behind Georgia.

The full Blogpoll is here and as always, you can look here for individual ballots.

Okay, after LSU and USC everybody sucks. Or is at least so severely flawed that you just can’t count on them.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	1
2	Southern Cal	1
3	California	3
4	Ohio State	5
5	South Florida	8
6	Boston College	4
7	Wisconsin	4
8	Florida	4
9	Georgia	3
10	Oklahoma	7
11	Kentucky	6
12	West Virginia	7
13	Hawaii	3
14	South Carolina	5
15	Texas	8
16	Rutgers	8
17	Missouri	1
18	Cincinnati	3
19	Oregon	5
20	Arizona State	3
21	Nebraska	1
22	Miami (Florida)	2
23	Virginia Tech	2
24	Purdue	2
25	Florida State	1

Standing by/Wait Listed: Hell if I know anymore.

LSU is just too impressive. I finally had to flip them with USC. USC has struggled with Washington, but LSU hasn’t slipped yet.

Purdue didn’t really deserve to move into the rankings after that performance against ND, but someone had to go in at #25.

Florida and Oklahoma had off games as much as anything else. Things just seemed freaky in those.

Wisconsin is winning but is continually shaky doing so. When they finally lose, expect everyone to plummet them with their votes. Right now, though, there’s no one else to really put in front of them.

South Carolina struggled until late against Miss. St. yet moved up way too much. I’ll have to adjust that. I don’t care that they beat Georgia head-to-head. I see no reason to move them ahead of the Bulldogs at this point.

If the upper-teams keep losing, then Hawaii might actually creep into the BCS poll.

He’s lying there, practically asking for it.

Sure, it seems like lousy timing to get the list of 10 worst football head coaches debate going when Pitt is (to be kind) floundering. Dave Wannstedt is going to make the list and be the nominee for the worst, by many. So what? Wanny is — to go all Gundy on this — a grown man. An adult. He can take it.

As fans of our school we can be bothered by it, but getting bent out of shape or indignant over it is silly. Right now, at this point he’s in the conversation, and even a punchline.
So, until Pitt shows a pulse and starts to even look like it is going in the right direction that has to be expected. And things like this:

Falling: Pitt. Getting beat down by Rutgers or West Virginia is one thing. But getting beat down by UConn — at home, no less — is quite another. Feel free to make your own joke.

There are plenty of teams and coaches doing more with less. Pitt and Coach Wannstedt are not among them. Like it or not, that is reality right now.

It can change. I still hold out hope that it will. Right now, Pitt is 2-7 in its last 9 games. 2-4 at home and the last time Pitt won a road game was Mid-October of last year. Coach Wannstedt has often fallen back on the cliche that “you are what your record says you are.”

Right now, he isn’t a very good head coach.

Not a huge amount of tweaking, but a couple little things from the draft.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	—
2	LSU	—
3	Oklahoma	—
4	Florida	—
5	West Virginia	—
6	California	—
7	Texas	—
8	Rutgers	1
9	Ohio State	1
10	Boston College	2
11	Wisconsin	3
12	Georgia	1
13	South Florida	1
14	Oregon	3
15	Clemson	1
16	Hawaii	4
17	Kentucky	9
18	Missouri	3
19	South Carolina	1
20	Penn State	9
21	Cincinnati	4
22	Nebraska	1
23	Arizona State	3
24	Miami (Florida)	2
25	Virginia Tech	1

Under Consideration/Wait Listed: Purdue, Michigan State, Kansas, Michigan and UConn.
The total voting results can be found here and here are individual ballots for all blogpollers.

I did swap Miami and VT after rethinking. Not sure the Hokies really are deserving but even that shellacking from LSU was more than could be said for anyone else to go in ahead of them.

I appreciated Sean pointing out that Nebraska somehow moved up. That, was just crazy talk. But, no way am I considering UCLA until they prove they can win a real game.

I don’t think Wisconsin is very good, but I just couldn’t put anyone else higher. They aren’t impressive, but they keep winning. Dropping them out of the top-ten seemed like enough for now.