I have a ton of other things that I should be writing. Yet I have to get this out of my system.

I last wrote about the role of the Poynter Institute in acting as the ESPN ombudsman, back in September. Specifically, about how badly they were doing in that role. I have tried to stop worrying about them, because it is a fruitless thing to let annoy me.

That Poynter wants to take it’s elitist, high-minded, ethical standards and toss them away for ESPN is their business.

Then I saw Awful Announcing’s great takedown on Poynter’s latest defense of ESPN — regarding Tebowmania.

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Haven’t done a Q&A exchange for a while with another blogger, but the folks at Casual Hoya reached out — possibly because they were bored with nearly a week off before tomorrow’s Georgetown-Pitt game. Here’s where you can find my response to their questions along with Cardiac Hill’s.

As you can imagine, this is a super-serious discussion by super-serious people.

1.Considering the raging disappointment of Georgetown since 2008, whether it was opening round flameouts or finishing 11th, 7th and 8th in the Big East. Maybe you could offer some advice to Pitt fans when you hit a rock-bottom season like this? I guess that 2008-09 season would be a close analog.

I wouldn’t really consider the Georgetown seasons post-2008 to be “raging disappointments”. 2009 was horrible, yes. But our in the last two seasons our team has been severely hampered by late illnesses and injuries. In 2010, Austin Freeman was diagnosed with diabetes, you know, real world problems. Not like Cuse where Fab Melo cheats on tests. And in 2011, Chris Wright went down with a wrist injury. Sucked. We move on. I feel like Pitt fans are already used to disappointment, just review how your last two seasons ended.

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Well to be fair, most of his former offensive staff is already in place at Rutgers. Soooooo. I guess this wouldn’t be the most absurd possibility for the next Rutgers head coach (h/t to FeartheStache).

That would be something, huh?

Well, this got interesting. Which I’ll get to in a minute. First, a quick message to Marzett Geter: Shhh.

[Ryan] Lewis, 6-foot, 185 pounds, is the fourth cornerback among 17 seniors who have committed to Pitt. Among them is Sto-Rox’s Marzett Geter, who suggested on Twitter that Pitt is “wasting” scholarships and should offer one to teammate Josh Beverly.

“Another corner commits,” Geter tweeted. “I’m not liking this at all.”

Because in Geter’s mind, there’s only room for one 2-3 star CB, and that would be him.

But let’s get to the bombshell of Rutgers Coach Greg Schiano leaving Rutgers less than a week before signing day for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Obviously Schiano is simply seeking to further emulate the paths taken by his mentors Dave Wannstedt and Butch Davis.

The main issue, is the fallout for what was shaping up to be a lock for a top-20 recruiting class. Gee, this seems familiar.

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The Pitt team and the fans needed that last night. No argument that Providence is not a very good team — though, I do like their new coach and the potential of the team starting as early as next year. Also no argument that Pitt still has a lot of problems — especially on defense.

That doesn’t change how much of a relief it was to get the win last night for Pitt.

“They are a totally different team (with Woodall),” Providence coach Ed Cooley said. “Everybody is in their role. Everybody is in their comfort zone.”

Woodall ran the Pitt offense to a 22-assist, 10-turnover ratio. He had five assists and no turnovers in the second half.

“I had legs early,” Woodall said. “It was great to get a win under our belt. It’s great to be out here on the court with my team.”

Pitt led, 46-31, at halftime and led by at least seven points the rest of the way to end a skid that had plunged the Panthers from No. 15 in the AP Top 25 to No. 16 in the Big East.

Gibbs, the Big East Preseason Player of the Year, single-handedly took over late in the first half, scoring 14 points in a 3:05 span.

“That was the game,” Cooley said.

For at least one night, we saw Pitt’s offense flow. Gibbs was able to curl and come off of screens clean and showed his quick release that has been missing. No double clutching, no hesitation because there was a defender waiting for him. It had been so long since we had seen that, some might have thought Gibbs was just throwing up shots rather than doing what he had been doing for the past 3+ years.

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Reed is having ribeye steak, asparagus and homemade bread for dinner…

Oh, and four star TE/DE J.P. Holtz committed to play his college football at PITT this evening.

This is a big get for Chryst & Co. in that Holtz is a highly ranked local prospect who was targeted by Wannstedt, Graham and Chryst as a player they very much wanted on the Panthers.  He most probably will line up at the TE position for us and seeing the way Chryst used TEs, sometimes in a two TE set, he may be able to contribute sooner rather than later.

Currently PITT has only two ‘true’ TEs on the roster in Hubie Graham and Brendan Carozzoni with converted WR Drew Carswell and converted QB Anthony Gonzalez working into the rotation at that position.  I wonder if Carswell might move back to WR as he has the size at 6’4″ and 215  that this staff likes and has used there while at Whisky.

I don’t envision Holtz playing much as a true freshman but one never knows.  Hubie Graham will probably get the bulk of playing time at that position and let’s hope he gets more passes his way.

Here is an interesting fact: in 2010 our TEs caught 21 passes; under Graham in 2011 they had 45 receptions.  I hope we incorporate the TEs into the offense at least as much as last season.

Personally I really like Brendan Carozzoni and want to see him get more action on the field.  He only caught four passes last season but showed flashes of what he can do in the UCONN game when he had three catches for 36 yards.

The big question, at least in my mind, is which of these TEs are going to excel in the run blocking aspect of the position? I think Bostad will incorporate that into the offense more than we saw last season.  We really were spoiled with Nate Byham in that role.

There is also the chance that the staff may want Holtz on the defensive side of the ball as he excelled there also.  He’s a multi-talented kid who has great athletic ability.  Plus he looks like he’s forty years old already so he’ll definitely be able to get into bars without being carded.

Holtz was a Jack of all trades in his career at Shaler as he contributed in many ways:

As a senior, Holtz ran for 337 yards on 72 carries. He caught 19 passes for 332 yards and scored 15 touchdowns.  J.P. Holtz says he played mostly running back during his junior season and had 14 total touchdowns (rushing and receiving). He says he can bench 305-pounds.

Holtz plans to major in education and reports a 3.0 core GPA. He is taking the SAT in June.

So, congrats to J.P. Holtz for picking the University of Pittsburgh for his college choice and let’s wish him the best of luck while here.

Holtz had originally committed to play at Penn State then reviewed his options after the Sandusky scandal broke and they had their coaching change.

There’s not much to write at this point that I haven’t written before in the introductions for these games. Pitt is still in desperate need of a win. Not simply playing better. Not having a good effort. A win. Any way. Any how. Just find a way to win. I don’t care if the refs are bribed.

Hopefully Woodall is feeling better and got some more rust off his shot. Hopefully someone stood behind J.J. Moore during practice and tased him if he pulled up for a shot rather than attacking the basket. Maybe someone will lie to Talib Zanna and tell him that he slept through the first half so he’ll play more like he has been playing in the second half of games.

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Does the nephew of a Pitt great count as a legacy? ESPN.com’s recruiting aggregation says yes (Insider subs). Tim Lewis’ nephew Ryan Lewis has verbaled to Pitt after a late pursuit of the cornerback. Ryan’s dad, Will Lewis — also a former NFL player — is the VP of Football Ops for the Seattle Seahawks.

Ryan and his father were at Pitt this past weekend on a visit. The father liked the visit a lot, because the visit was low key.

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Brandyn Cook is a consensus  3-star center out of Ohio. He was one of the earlier commits to Pitt. But while Coach Chryst stated that all scholarships would be honored, that did not mean he wouldn’t make it clear what kind of opportunities would (or in this case would not) be available to actually play.

Cook, 6-foot-2, 300 pounds, said new Pitt coach Paul Chryst suggested he look elsewhere because of his height.

“He didn’t think I would be able to get a fair shot at Pitt, basically because of my height,” Cook said. “Being a competitor, I wanted to go where I can play and to a place where I am needed and a place where I am wanted.”

Cook said he committed to Graham two days after receiving a scholarship offer and did not entertain further offers.

“I am a man of my word,” Cook said. “I shut it down.”

So Cook is heading to Miami (Ohio) instead.

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As you probably know, the comment system went ka-blooey last week. I’ve since made some alterations to fix and address a lot lot comment spam that was worming its way into posts.

The new system seems to be working well, but there is one significant change. If you are new to commenting or use more than one computer to post comments, then there may be a delay on seeing your comment posted. The first comment will be sent to “pending” for approval. Once I approve that first comment, your comments will start posting immediately.

Obviously the one flaw is that I have to be on the site to approve, and there will be some time gaps depending on when the comment was made and when I get on the computer. It isn’t that you did something wrong (unless you did, and I previously banned you). It is that I can be lazy.

Travel day yesterday kept me away from the computer — and it was probably a good thing.

I don’t know what to say at this point. It seems as much in the players’ heads at this point as it is to the issues of talent. You don’t go on a slide like this. Losing the way Pitt has for the past month. I mean after watching Pitt football for the past couple of years, we should all be able to recognize a team that just doesn’t seem to have it all together when the other team doesn’t roll over.

Woodall was rusty — which should not have been unexpected. The initial spark he provided the team simply by his presence was quickly extinguished by foul troubles.

There are a lot of fingers pointed at guys like Robinson and Gibbs. And I’ll agree on the defensive side, they did not do a good job. Offensively, they were okay. Yes, Gibbs was only 5-13, but he was 4-10 on 3s. That’s much better than what he has been. Good production from Lamar Patterson (14 points. 6-9 shooting). Even Talib Zanna (3-6, 7 pts) and Dante Taylor (4-5, 8 pts) generated offense inside. The problem, offensively, is as it has been for the last month. No real production from anywhere else on the court.

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In regards to some fan’s angst over HC Paul Chryst losing committed recruits, it is important to understand that Dakota Conwell is the only recruit who PITT has actually ‘lost’ so far. It is apparent that the new coaching staff allowed WR Corey Jones to switch to Toledo without much of a fight to keep him as evidenced by Jones’ own words in this Post Gazette Blog article.

“When coach Graham was there, I would get a lot of phone calls from Pitt,” Jones said. “After he left, that slowed down. I just felt like things fell off or something. I felt like I wasn’t a main priority for them.

“I wasn’t sure of how Pitt was going to handle things, how I was going to fit into their offense and if I was still in their offensive schemes. … [Pitt's coaches] are cool, but I’m just trying to do what is best for me and I think Toledo’s offense is what’s best for me.”

At 5’9 and 165 pounds you can see that Jones fit the stereotype of WR that Todd Graham was recruiting. That didn’t seem to be a priority for Paul Chryst at this time.  I would have liked for PITT to keep Jones though, talent is talent and I feel it’s a good use of a scholarship.

Note also that both Corey Jones and DB Chas Whittaker, who had committed to WVU, are teammates who made this decision together.

From the looks of things, as detailed in this Trib-Review piece, our staff is still in hot pursuit of others who will fit their plans for the type of football players they want to field this season.

“Meanwhile, Chryst offered a scholarship to defensive back Ryan Lewis, of Sammamish, Wash., his father said.

Lewis, who visited the campus over the weekend, is the son of Seattle Seahawks vice president of football operations Will Lewis and the nephew of former Steelers defensive coordinator Tim Lewis, who played cornerback at Pitt.

“Ryan really enjoyed his visit and the coach enjoyed having him there,” said Will Lewis, who is a cousin of Pitt linebacker Tristan Roberts. “(Ryan) is going to think about it for a couple of days and get back to him, sooner rather than later.”

Lewis, 6-0, 185, has offers from Colorado and Utah. He is rated a 3-star recruit by rivals.com.

Pitt welcomed several recruits to Pitt over the weekend, including defensive tackle Willie Henry and defensive back Sean Draper of Glenville (Ohio); defensive tackle Terrell Jackson of Marion Franklin (Ohio); and New London (Wisc.) offensive lineman Gabe Roberts, who also is considering Wisconsin.”

Of course, Chryst & Co. have some other more familiar names that they have been working on to play thier college ball at PITT.  J.P. Holtz and J.J. Denman, at TE and OL respectively, are highly sought after recruits who have interest in PITT.   Safety Bam Bradley and LB Deaysean Rippy are possibilities also among others the staff has contacted and worked to commit.

On the flip side we may lose Adam Pankey to WVU as he visited the Mountaineers on the 13th, but no solid news on him so far.  So it looks like we’ll get some real recruiting news over the next eight days.

Say what you will about the PSU-PITT rivalry or the Sandusky scandal, his death is big news for college football.

Personally, I’ve looked at Joe Paterno as a positive influence on college athletics overall. More so during the 1960s through the 1980s. PSU hasn’t been the same since Paterno became so old he was mostly a figurehead at the helm.

He’ll be missed, by some more than others, and we had to know this wasn’t completely unexpected given his age and the events of the past two months.  First Bear Bryant now Joe Paterno.

Their lives were consumed by their professions and they had nothing to live for after it went away.

Thanks to Volvo and the Biggest Fan in the Big East contest, I’m at the Louisville-Pitt game (hint, go vote for me). Went to the morning GameDay telecast. If you are going to the game, be sure to stop by Hemingway’s to say hi beforehand. I’ve got some Volvo/Big East schwag to give away.

There will be a liveblog for tonight. Silver Panther in NYC has offered to run and moderate things. I really don’t think he knows what he has decided to do to himself. Not that I don’t appreciate it, running liveblogs this season has not exactly been rainbows and unicorns. Help is much appreciated.

You will see comments from me from Twitter during the game, but I won’t be able to respond. I may try to check in on things during halftime.

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Well, that was fun. Just a quick check-in before I wander Oakland for fun and to grab a bite to eat.

Got in last night well before the storm hit. Have to say, it was fun driving the Volvo S60 last night. I also want to make it clear that at NO TIME did I learn that the V6 325HP car can easily reach 120 mph on the Ohio Turnpike. NEVER. IT DID NOT HAPPEN.

Took the car out in the slush and snow for “fun” this morning (and to get some bagels). Not surprisingly, since it is a Volvo, it handled it all easily. It almost felt like cheating.

Good time at Gameday. The Oakland Zoo brought the energy. Others brought them donuts.

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