The team obviously, but also for us. I took the weekend off in part because of frustration. I didn’t want to post stuff that was too reactionary and without any real reflection. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to help.

There’s no excuse for the way Pitt played — on offense. The defense really was valiant considering how long they were on the field and the injuries — Romeus, DeCicco, Mason, and even Gary getting hobbled.

The offense had no such excuse. Like everyone else, I keep coming back to the offensive line, the gameplan and QB.

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Last week it was taxes, son’s birthday, assorted other offline stuff and taking a full day in Pittsburgh. This week it has been all Big Ten expansion stuff. As such, there are plenty of links and stories that have accumulated in the tabs.

I hit 40 last year. You do notice the changes. They are subtle and sometimes slow differences, but then at some point you realize you can’t pull off staying up until 1:30 on a Sunday night watching the Blazers-Suns playoff game and get up at 6 am without being absolutely miserable. The body just needs more time for everything — recovery from drinking too much, more sleep to recharge, eat less and exercise more to keep from getting paunchier and paunchier.

Needless to say, I envy Rod Rutherford’s youth. Especially after reading this.

On those two nights a week Erie Storm quarterback Rod Rutherford practices in Edinboro, that alarm clock rings a little louder the following morning.

Rutherford usually completes a four-hour round trip around 1 a.m. in Pittsburgh, and then must be at Pitt at 6 a.m. to work as an assistant for its football team.

“The hardest part is getting up in the morning,” he said grinning. “But once I’m up, I’m good.”

Hard to believe Rutherford is only 29. Seems so long ago that he was a quarterbacking Pitt back in 2003. Now he is a Pitt assistant and moonlighting as a QB in the AIFA. Enjoy it while you can, Rod.

It’s never too early for watchlists for college awards (apparently). Greg Romeus is on the Lott Trophy watchlist.

A week ago the offense was looking sharp and the guys on that side of the ball were feeling confident.

Pitt had swagger on offense, and it has carried over to spring camp 2010.

“It’s real high right now,” redshirt sophomore receiver Cameron Saddler said after practice on Tuesday.

The seeds of Pitt’s offensive swagger and confidence were planted last season, when first-year coordinator Frank Cignetti – with ample assistance from running back Dion Lewis, receiver Jon Baldwin, and tight end Dorin Dickerson – engineered an attack that ranked second in the Big East and 21st nationally in points per game while averaging nearly 400 yards of offense.

“He’s a very confident guy, and he always feels like we can take advantage of the defense,” Saddler said of Cignetti. “All the coaches we’re surrounded with – Coach Turner, Coach Angelichio, and Coach Walker – they’re confident guys, too. So as a unit we’re just confident and the swagger’s really there right now. It really is.”

Then the Blue-Gold scrimmage happened.

The 6,532 fans who braved the elements to attend Pitt’s Blue-Gold spring game on a damp and brisk Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field most likely came away thinking one of two things — either the Panthers’ defense is going to dominate opponents or the Panthers’ offense is not very good.

The good news is there is a lot of time between now and when the season begins for the offense to improve. More important, the lack of explosiveness on offense — it scored only one touchdown — and imagination was by design.

At least that was the storyline from the key players after the 62-24 beat down the Blue team (defense) handed the Gold team (offense, though the offense actually wore white uniforms).

The post-game spin was that the offense was not showing much because it was televised on the NFL Network. The coaching staff wanted to give Utah little to work with in advance of the season opener in September. While it was true that the offense attempted no deep passes, it was very clear that the middle of the O-line needs work.

“The offensive line, particularly the center and two guards, is going to be an ongoing process,” Wannstedt said. “Throughout training camp, throughout the season, I think those guys up front will be playing their best football in December. It is just going to be one of those positions that is going to take some time to bring those guys along.”

Along with the offensive line, tight end is still in flux, but not because there aren’t any candidates. There are plenty of options and each player can do certain things, but only one, redshirt sophomore Mike Cruz, seems able to do it all. So the position will be manned by committee.

Cruz seemed rather solid out there on Saturday. I don’t have nearly the same level of concern for the TE spot as I do, the O-line.

Maybe there is something to the spin that the offense was playing for the basics.

The goals of Pitt’s offense changed in each of the team’s three scrimmages this spring. In the first scrimmage two weeks ago, the offense focused on sustaining drives. Last weekend, the focus was on hitting explosive plays and getting yardage in big chunks.

On Saturday, the Panthers went to work at Heinz Field for the annual Blue-Gold Game, and the offense’s goals appeared to be centered on conservative, low-risk/low-reward play-calling.

It certainly was that.

Not sure why both papers have done such a poor job covering spring practice. I sort of get that Zeise at the P-G was shifted between the NCAA Tournament and WVU. Yet the Trib has hardly been impressive without a similar excuse. You would think that with Pitt’s potential for 2010, plus the quarterback competition that was expected (even if it didn’t happen) there would have been a push to stay on top of the spring intrigue.

The only ones enjoying this are Panther Digest and PantherLair. They have been covering practices, but it is all behind paywalls and thus restricted information to paying customers.

What stories have been published, have focused a lot on the offense. Ray Graham is not displacing Dion Lewis, but he has come out ready.

Graham’s talent has always been apparent, Walker said. But Graham excels at taking concepts out of video sessions and team meetings and applying them on the field, even if they are difficult to grasp at first.

It is that attention to detail that has sparked Graham’s improvement the most, Walker said.

“That’s probably the thing that’s most encouraging for me,” he said. “I know he can make a play and do some things, but it’s all the little things that maybe go unnoticed that he’s also doing that have been nice surprises.”

As he prepares for the start of his second collegiate season, Graham hopes he can continue to perform well in practice, push Lewis to better himself and compete for as much playing time as possible.

And, he hopes he can show a little more versatility in his game.

“You’re going to see me catch a little more,” Graham said. “I’ll show you my Reggie Bush side.”

As others noted in the comments, that sort of statement suggests using Graham to catch passes out in the flat and use his speed in open spaces. What wasn’t mentioned, and one of the factors that will play a large role in his playing time — holding onto the ball.

Graham struggled last summer and in some action last year. We all know how Coach Wannstedt feels about turnovers.

Another member of the backfield hoping to do more, fullback Henry Hynoski.

Hynoski primarily has been a blocker in his first two seasons, but his role is going to expand in the fall. The Panthers lost two of their top four receiving threats when tight end Dorin Dickerson and receiver Oderick Turner graduated, and the coaches are looking for new weapons in the passing game.

“Henry is a guy who is a better player with the ball in his hands than anyone gives him credit for,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “With Dorin gone and Nate [Byham] gone, we’ve got to find some ways to get the ball to some people. One guy [defenses] know we’ll get the ball to is Baldwin, and they’re going to have three guys covering him, so it’s pretty simple that we’re going to have to find other people, in other ways, to throw the football to. And Henry is capable of doing that.”

Not to be negative, but exactly how much passing is going to get out there? This is still a Wannstedt team, and it will be a Sunseri in his first year back there. Dion Lewis is a weapon no one forgets.

There is Baldwin and Shanahan obviously should get a lot of the passes thrown their way. Then Cruz and Devlin can’t be just blocking the entire time at TE. Now there’s Graham and possibly Hynoski? To say nothing of other receivers that could step up like Saddler, Devin Street, Todd Thomas and Ed Tinker. Let’s also not forget that Greg Cross has been looking pretty good. The euphoria and optimism of spring and possibilities must still be tempered.

The defense this year, has been more beaten up and dealing with injuries, so the offense has looked really sharp for 1st and 2nd teams.

“The best thing we did on offense was both the first and second units played fairly clean,” Wannstedt said. “You didn’t see the ball on the ground, you didn’t see any turnovers, there were very few penalties. When we play like that on offense, we’re very tough to stop because of our balance.”

Wannstedt praised both quarterbacks, who threw for a total of 251 yards and five touchdowns yesterday. Sunseri completed 13 of 18 passes for 129 yards and four scores, while Bostick was 10 of 14 for 122 yards and the touchdown to Cross.

Dion Lewis carried nine times for 64 yards, and Chris Burns netted 35 yards on 11 carries. Jason Douglas and Ray Graham combined for 53 more rushing yards on 24 carries, Graham with 22 on 11 and Douglas with 31 on 13, while Mike Shanahan and Jon Baldwin each had touchdown catches.

There have been some bright spots on the defense. Tyrone Ezall looks really good at DT. He has shined this spring.

The corner positions look  a lot more stable than expected with junior college transfer Saheed Imoru and Antwuan Reed. Apparently because the coaching staff has gotten away from having the corners play so far off the receivers. Showing tighter and more bump-and-run style of coverage. Depth may still be an issue, at the spot but at least it is not looking horrid.

Really? Cinci recruits were running their mouths at the Big 33 game. Seriously?

“We were saying how we were going to try to send a message to everybody else that Pitt was coming, and we’re going to play for the national championship in years to come,” Baldwin said. “Every last one of us contributed.”

Added Saddler: “The whole game, we were saying, ‘I feel bad for the Big East because the next four years they’ve got to deal with all of us.’ It was that kind of feeling that had us excited about one another. All week, the Cincinnati (recruits) were mouthing off that they supposedly have one of the best recruiting classes in the Big East. We wanted to show them that we don’t supposedly have the best recruiting class; we do have the best recruiting class.”

The next step is to get out on the field in the fall.

The other item from the story was picturing Coach Wannstedt and AD Pederson, uh, getting down at a Kenny Chesney concert.

There was two other all-star games this past weekend. Sort of. The North-South game in Johnstown, though it was called late in the 3d quarter because of ongoing downpours. That game featured one incoming Pitt player.

Johnstown’s Antwuan Reed rushed for 123 yards on 11 carries and one score for the South, and the Pitt-bound speedster added a 53-yard punt return. Matt Varga of Bishop McCort had a pair of touchdown receptions to earn offensive back MVP honors for the South, while quarterback Jordan Kaufman of Somerset threw a pair of scoring passes.

The East-West game was in Altoona and featured two Pitt-bound players. Tight End Mike Cruz, who was named one of the team captains for the West. Also on the West team was RB Chris Burns.

This game was shortened due to lightning and was a struggle for the offenses. The West won 10-0.

Cruz, a quad-captain on the West, started the first series on offense and had one pass thrown to him during the first quarter. The ball short-hopped Cruz, who was lining up in the slot. Cruz also lined up on the inside of a three-wide set.

“It’s just a great experience,” Cruz said. “This week was a lot of fun, throwing in that spread offense was all fun.”

In addition, Cruz handled the long-snapping duties on the West’s punt team.

Cruz mainly blocked for Wilmington’s Chris Burns, who finished with 43 yards rushing. Cruz has committed to play football at Pitt and will be a future teammate of Burns.

Burns also had a couple receptions in the game. His running was characterized as “rugged.” His 43 yards came on 9 carries.