6-6 overall is starting to look really good.

Reports are, that Luke Getsy is going to transfer. No official confirmation yet. (Shouldnt’ that be coming from the others of PSB who actually live in Pittsburgh?) Crap. I don’t begrudge him. It’s his call, and his right to do so.

It is purely selfish, as a fan. I don’t trust the O-line to keep Palko healthy throughout the season. That means Joe Flacco is the back-up, and I guess Strong is the emergency QB.

Other things

Coach Harris’s press conference regarding USF is posted. In a great moment in evading the question and its implications:

South Florida runs a scheme that has given Pitt challenges in the past.
They play a spread offense, no huddle. They gave us problems before. They are well conceived and that’s difficult to play against. We played against a couple of them in our conference, and some of them gave us a challenge; West Virginia has, and Temple has as well. That will add to it and the fact that there is no huddle will make the execution harder on our defenses. That’s why we have to make the plays, execute the calls, and get off the field.

Uh, “given Pitt challenges?” Try burned our asses. I’m not even going to say anything about his comments regarding the loss in 2001. It still burns me to this point, that he won’t admit that it was his @$^&* mad scientist attempt to impose a spread offense on a team and QB built around a pro set style that cost Pitt that game and several others that year.

Pitt B-Ball: Roadtrip to Toronto

The Pitt basketball team, is taking a roadie to Toronto this weekend. They will play some really early exhibition games up there. The NCAA allows “schools to take one foreign tour every four years and permits 10 practice days prior to the date of departure.”

Practice for the 2004-05 season officially begins on October 16. No mention of the present schedule, especially the non-con. Though, they do reveal what they will be stressing in trying to sell it — that Pitt has the best winning % of any school over the last 3 years.

Under/Over Achievers
General college football info. The lead question from SI.com’s Stewart Mandel’s mailbag concerned overrated teams in polls.

Trying to find pre-season and final rankings on the Net is a lot harder. I actually looked once — just going back 5 years — and finally had to give up, so I wish he could have placed the raw data out there.

With the help of Lexis-Nexis, I went back and found the first and last AP poll from every season and counted each time a team finished at least seven spots lower than predicted. Why seven? I don’t know, It just sounds more dramatic than six.

Ladies and gentlemen, the nation’s most overrated program, with eight such occurrences in 14 seasons, is … the Washington Huskies. Not far behind were — here’s a shocker — Notre Dame (seven), USC (seven), Auburn (six) and Texas (six).

While I’m a little surprised at Washington, overall the results aren’t too shocking. With the exception of USC and Texas’ recent resurgences, these are all teams far removed from their heyday (with the Huskies peaking right at the beginning of the period in question), yet many voters have a hard time looking at tradition-rich teams objectively. On paper, Notre Dame could have the exact same qualifications as, say, Iowa, but nine out of 10 times the voter is going to favor the Irish. It’s something I try to make a conscious effort to avoid myself. Case in point: Minnesota finished 20th last season and returns nearly its entire team, yet is starting the season five spots lower, while Auburn, which finished last season unranked, is suddenly 17th.

Anticipating what your next question was going to be, yes, I compiled the same data for teams that finished at least seven spots higher than predicted. Teams didn’t make nearly as many regular appearances in this category, probably because after exceeding expectations a few times voters got the message and started picking them higher.

The leaders, with five instances each, were Ole Miss, Iowa and Alabama, followed by LSU, Washington State, Virginia Tech, Kansas State and Texas A&M at four. The Rebels, Hawkeyes, Crimson Tide, Tigers and Cougars are textbook examples of teams whose breakthroughs have been sporadic enough so as to catch voters off guard when they happen. I was surprised, however, to see Alabama on the list. You’d think, with their tradition, voters would be more likely to err on the side of optimism.

There seems to be a flaw in the reasoning for Kansas State and VaTech to be considered underrated.

The Big East football notebook on ESPN.com (subs. req’d) this year will be written by Joe Bendel of the Trib (must somehow be a part of the vast-right-wing conspiracy between Scaife and Disney). Considering the last couple of years have seen beat writers for Miami and BC do the notebook, this can’t hurt. His comments in the notebook on Pitt:

Here’s a name to remember: Clint Session. He’s the bone-jarring sophomore middle linebacker who has taken it upon himself to revitalize a Panthers defense that got humiliated in 2003. Session, a Florida product, is counting the days until the Labor Day opener against South Florida. “Watch and see what happens,” he said. “Our defense is going to be flying. I’ll make my presence felt right away.” The most recent time South Florida faced Pitt, the Bulls threw the ball 65 times and pulled off a monumental upset at Heinz Field in 2001. The Panthers are still stinging from that one. Session could be a difference-maker on Monday.

Sophomore Tyler Palko won the starting quarterback position at training camp and could eventually upgrade a position that was exceptional last season. Graduate Rod Rutherford was a unanimous All-Big East first-team pick and set the league standard for all-purpose yards. Palko, a lefty with unwavering confidence, was the school’s biggest recruit in a decade.

If the Panthers get behind against South Florida, forget about it. Palko has just two career completions, and six of his seven top receivers have yet to catch a pass in a college game. Scary.

Preparations for a game, from a blogging sense, must include the other team’s media and resources. This is the USF sports site. John Edwards is now working for USF. The football page doesn’t have a lot at this time — not even advance game notes. Here are the Bulls’ fan site. An article talking about Pitt refers to the offense as “young kitties.” USF is also selling this gear:

Also in regular t-shirts and buttons. I think it’s important to understand just how juiced the fans down there are trying to get for this game. Just as their win over us in 2001 showed that they were deserving of being in Division 1-A football, they are essentially looking at this game as the unofficial beginning of their membership in the Big East.

Now for the media coverage. Not much yet. They still have 3 other major college programs in Florida that garners most of the focus. Apparently USF has had a few injuries in training camp, but is getting better.

This preview of USF from the beginning of August, suggests that they have solid lines (especially the O-line), but QB and RB are big question marks. Their secondary is also a concern. The survey of C-USA coaches picked the Bulls to finish 7th.

Looks like the planned move to the Big East keeps paying dividends for USF. They got a blue chip QB to commit. The Tampa Tribune is the only media to have a page just for USF. You might want to look over their special report, a multi-part piece about college recruiting.

Another late night…

Unlike most schools, Pitt doesn’t play until Labor Day. This allowed the fans and pundits an extra day to explore the madness of JoePa.

Now, the stories and articles begin on the team and preparing for USF. The opener will be Pitt’s first road opener since 1993 — Pitt’s first year under the Johnny Majors, Back to the Future plan — when Pitt upset Southern Miss. 14-10; and the first road opener for Harris.

This game is considered an immediate test. Pitt under Harris is 7-0 in openers, “but they lose most of their luster because of the teams the Panthers have beaten: Southwest Louisiana, Villanova (Division I-AA), Bowling Green, Kent State, East Tennessee State (I-AA), Ohio and Kent State.”

In the game notes, you can find the depth chart for Pitt (page 3). Depth has emerged as a huge concern during training camp. Overshadowing to some degree concern over how the lines will play. The depth chart is examined here.

Most notable were the eight walk-ons on the two-deep list, including starting wide receiver Joe DelSardo.

Of the seven wideouts listed, only one has caught a pass in a college game. The tight end has two catches and the starting quarterback owns all of two career completions.

The top three tailbacks accounted for 79 yards in 2003. Junior starter Raymond Kirkley took a redshirt.

The question is: Can the Panthers get it all together in six days, when they open at South Florida in sunny Tampa?

Can you say, “Gulp?” The depth chart also reveals that Freshman Darrelle Revis will start at right cornerback ahead of Reggie Carter and Josh Lay. The last true freshman to start at corner was Shawntae Spencer, now with the SF 49ers, in 2000.

Along with Revis starting, another mild surprise is that converted Offensive Left Guard, Charles Spencer will start. JUCO transfer, Josh “Sunshine” Cummings, has won the starting kicker job.

Two column pieces, both concern Tyler Palko. Ron Cook focuses on the Texas A&M game in 2002 when Rutherford layed an egg for 3 quarters, leading to chants of “We want Palko!” and “Put in Palko!” from the stands. Showing a bit of cluelessness from where he actually sat in the press box, he says the chant was “We want Tyler!”

I missed that game, as per the “annual Pitt home game to fall right on a High Holy Day” (this year’s model is only the Furman game on Yom Kippur so it isn’t so bad). Maybe Lee and Pat can share their memories of that game and the chant.

In a bit of revisionism Cook considers the calls “absurd.” Up to that point, it hardly was. Rutherford had not looked good in his first couple games and all through the first half against A&M. It just seemed that Rutherford couldn’t handle the job until he finally found the switch.

Me on August 27:

No reason for Getsy to transfer yet. If the O-line is as bad as last year, he’ll be starting because Palko will be out for at least a game with a concussion.

Cook on August 31:

Have you looked at that Pitt offensive line? …

If I’m new fan favorite Luke Getsy, I’m not thinking about transferring just yet. I’m thinking about maybe playing against South Florida Monday after they carry Palko off.

Advantage, PSB.

The other column from Mike Pirusta focuses on Palko’s confidence. I’ve already said that I like having a cocky, arrogant QB. I think Pitt needs that right now. Leave the negativity to the professionals.

There is a game next Monday against USF on ESPN. Pitt has its Game notes and some stats (in PDF) available.

Up late doing other things, so let’s get some of the news that was already posted on sites.

Depth is becoming a bigger issue every day for this Pitt football team. The team is thin at the tailback, fullback, and lines. Just not a good thing. We are going to be holding our breath every time a Pitt player is even slow to get up after a play this year.

Something very useful Joe Bendel at the Trib does articles on the offense and defense, complete with his grading and quick summary of the components. Not totally surprising, but the defense looks to be improved while the offense is really thin and with question marks everywhere. Both lines are still reasons to worry.

Backhanded defenses for Walt Harris in the whole Pitt-Penn St. Rivalry won’t be renewed mess. Paterno is taking the beating. First, Ron Cook, who has been on a 3-5 year mourning of watching Paterno fall from grace in his eyes.

I think we can agree Walt Harris was way out of line with his inane comments about the Pitt-Penn State football series earlier this summer. To say Penn State was somehow selfish for discontinuing the series — even as talks between the schools’ athletic directors were going on to resume it — was outrageous.

To suggest Penn State was to blame for Pitt’s recruiting problems was blatantly self-serving. Harris wants to know why he couldn’t outrecruit Penn State after his team went to its fourth consecutive bowl game last season and the Nittany Lions went 3-9? It’s because the Big East Conference turned into a second-rate league after Miami and Virginia Tech left. He wants to know why he’ll have a hard time outrecruiting Penn State again after this season? Maybe, just maybe, it’s because star players will be hesitant to play for a coach who will call them out publicly if they happen to get hurt.

As I should stress, again, backhanded defense.

Harris’ habit of speaking before he thinks isn’t enough reason for Pitt and Penn State not to play again.

We all know the truth here.

There is absolutely no good reason for the series not to resume.

Joe Paterno will tell you differently, of course. He’s the greatest college football coach of all time. He also might be the most petty. That’s the only reason this great series between great rivals withered after Penn State’s 57-13 win in 1992 and finally died after Pitt’s 12-0 victory in 2000.

Paterno doesn’t want to play Pitt and will use any excuse not to do it. Not because he’s afraid of losing the games and his recruiting edge, as Harris so foolishly observed. The idea of Paterno being afraid to play anyone is almost laughable. No, Paterno doesn’t want to play Pitt because of a grudge he still carries from more than 20 years ago when Pitt joined the Big East basketball conference instead of his dream all-sports Eastern league.

That’s why the reports of talks between the schools about resuming the series were more unfathomable than encouraging. Paterno has carried his bitterness this long; there’s no reason to think he’ll change his mind about playing Pitt now.

He’s right. He still has a bit of hero worship, so he couches it as petty and a blind spot in Paterno’s vision. Still, by the end, even Cook admits the game won’t resume until Paterno is dead retires.

Next this piece from Joe Starkey is much more caustic and brutal to Joe PA.

If not for Joe Paterno’s petty resentments, Pitt and Penn State might be kicking off each season against each other instead of against, say, South Florida and Akron.

Paterno wrecked the great Pitt-Penn State rivalry, and he’ll use any excuse to prevent its renewal — even if it means pulling a few harmless quotes out of a student newspaper.

The truth is that Paterno harbors grudges against Pitt administrators, who have long since left the university, or, in some cases, have long since died.

The truth is that because the Ohio States and Michigans of the world can’t be bullied, Paterno needs an outlet for his bully tendencies, and he views Pitt as a convenient target.

Starkey may also use petty, to describe it — because it is — but he is more brutal than most sportswriters when it comes to describing Paterno. He then runs through all the sudden changes that seemed to make the return of the game appear to be on the horizon. He is more willing to give a better defense of Harris (though with a backhand slap for flourish).

Then, Paterno supposedly turned sour when Pitt coach Walt Harris popped off to the Daily Collegian, Penn State’s campus newspaper.

“I think it’s a selfish act on (Penn State’s) part, not playing us,” Harris said in the July 29 edition.

He was right. Penn State discontinued the series twice in the past 11 years, essentially because Paterno hasn’t gotten over the fact that Pitt wouldn’t join him in an all-sports conference back in 1982.

Or was it 1882?

Not knowing the athletic directors had spoken, Harris said, “I don’t think there will be any communication on playing (Penn State) as long as one man is running the program.”

Those comments are said to have ruined Paterno’s will to renew the rivalry.

Suddenly, it looks as though Harris is the bad guy. Don’t believe it.

Oh, Harris is plenty capable of screwing things up — he often does — but he’s not the culprit here.

He had the right idea, even if he has backed off his statements and said he would have kept quiet if he’d known talks had occurred (why didn’t he know?).

The right idea, by the way, is this: As long as Paterno is running Penn State, this rivalry is dead.

Besides, how substantive could the talks have been if all it took to derail them were a few comments in the student newspaper?

It will be interesting to see if the central and eastern Pennsylvania newspapers even are willing to write anything about this. Or will they pretend it never happened so they don’t have to defend the indefensible? The Penn St. Weblog on PennLive has nothing for all of August.

UPDATE: Apparently something finally got the attention of the PSU Weblog. He doesn’t actually defend it — other than using the old Paterno chestnut of the Eastern League argument that is nearing it’s 25th anniversery of never happening; and the more recent talking point of Pitt packaging the tying all (other than the allotted tickets to PSU) individual ticket sales for the ’98 PSU-Pitt game with Temple tickets (and for the record, the combined cost of the two was still cheaper than a single ticket at Beaver Stadium that year). Enjoy that Land Grant Battle.

I don’t feel so bad getting to the stories in the paper today, because nothing particularly big is going on.

There are 2 puff pieces on members of the offensive line in the Trib. One on lineman Justin Belarski and the other on guard Matt Maiers.

Pitt released its latest graduation figures for the football team a few weeks ahead of when the NCAA will. The good news, they are almost double the number from last year. The bad news, that is still only 31% — the average is about 54%. I’m not a big fan of the way the NCAA calculate graduation rates. They don’t count transfers to a program in the rate, but if the player transfers out it counts against you. Go pro early, goes against you. The other problem of course, is that the data is quite stale. These latest figures are based on the class from 1997.

Final article is one worth reading. About how the latest talks to revive the Pitt-Penn St. game blew up. Coach Walt Harris gets blamed for this too — he pissed off the ultrasensitive Paterno. You know, at this rate, Harris is going to be blamed for the City of Pittsburgh going bankrupt.

In June Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Long discussed the possibility of the teams playing again and promised to revisit the subject again at a later date. By accounts on both sides, talks were headed in the right direction.

But then Paterno got wind of some of the comments Pitt coach Walt Harris made at Big East media day in late July and any enthusiasm for renewing the series on Penn State’s side was curtailed.

Harris was quoted in the July 29 edition of the Daily Collegian as saying: “I think it is a selfish act on [Penn State’s] part, not playing us. But from their perspective, I can see why they wouldn’t want to play us. I’m not saying we would beat them every time, but we would be pretty competitive.”

Harris also said, “I don’t think there will be any communication on playing [Penn State] as long as one man is running the program.”

Harris said last week that he made those statements without knowing Long and Curley were involved in discussions. Had he known, Harris said he would have kept quiet. His intent was merely to spark up conversation about the series.

Of course, we know what Paterno is now saying about the game. I also find this a refreshing piece of truth from Fran Ganter, Penn State’s associate athletic director for football administration — and the former PSU offensive coordinator who got booted from that position:

“We’re in no big rush for 2010 or 2011 for a game like Pitt or a Notre Dame,” Ganter said. “We’re always looking for guarantee games. Games like Akron. Those games are harder to get.”

That’s because those are games that are in demand by about 40-50 programs and there are maybe 20-25 of those Akron-esque programs out there. Those schools that you know when you schedule them they will still be a bad team when it comes time to play them in 3-5 years.

Well on the bright side, what a great start to the 2004 college football season. USC — the game’s most dominant program at the moment — got a solid scare from Virginia Tech — the game’s most consistently overrated program (thanks largely to ESPN) — but still prevailed 24-13. And it ain’t like the Hokies, who were 17.5 point underdogs, did it with smoke and mirrors either. Frank Beamer and his staff — easily the most schizophrenic group in college football (can anybody argue that they didn’t just mail it in against Pitt each of the past three years?) — used a solid game plan built on their team’s strengths: a highly mobile quarterback (Bryan Randall wound up being their top rusher with 82 yards) and good tight ends (I hope Walt was watching). So did Virginia Tech surprise me by being a little better than I expected? Sure, I’ll admit that much.

But what really surprised me was how badly overrated USC was. Neither their vaunted receiving corps nor (more importantly) their offensive line was anywhere near national championship caliber. Matt Leinart looked thoroughly average in the first half, although most of that must obviously be blamed on his relatively slow, blockhanded receivers and his absolutely porous offensive line (I admittedly have to give VT’s usually terrible defensive coordinator Bud Foster some credit for his blitzing package). In the end, the #1 ranked Trojans were barely saved by their halftime-adjusted defense (Tech only got about 70 yards in the second half), a few gimmick passes to their tailback Reggie Bush, and a @#%*@#! offensive pass interference call on Tech’s Hyman.

So anyways, like I said above, what an entertaining game… on the bright side. On the bad side, I obviously picked USC to cover against what I thought was an absolutely pathetic Virginia Tech squad after they ended last season going 1 for 6. Well, at least I consistently suck, unlike Virginia Tech.

Finally, and most importantly, I must request — nay, demand — that all good Pitt fans read Crazy Paco’s review of Paterno’s most recent comments concerning the renewal of the Pitt-Penn State rivalry (mentioned here first by Chas last evening). Absolutely genius, funny, and most importantly of all, factual. The part where Paco completely debunks the Paterno-born myth that Allegheny County has more Penn State alumni than Pitt alumni is the high point. From one Blair County Penn State debunker to another, you’re the best, Paco.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the Centre Daily Times neither covered Paterno’s comments nor made any attempt to rebut them.

Hail to Joe Paterno continuing to make himself look like an idiot without any help from anyone else.

In the political end of the blogosphere it is common to engage in fisking a particularly idiotic statement, article or argument. I may not have had the energy to fisk the idiocy from Paterno on why he ducks Pitt on the schedule, but Crazy Paco didn’t.

Read and enjoy this thing of beauty.

The starting QB has been named and Palko and Getsy can now talk to the media. Palko remains extremely confident about Pitt being a winning program and capable of being a national power. I’m glad he’s confident and even a little arrogant about what he expects from himself and the team. He has to be. Realism, cynicism, and even pessimism is the realm of the fans and sports writers.

Luke Getsy, on the other hand, is extremely down on not getting the starting nod. It isn’t just idle talk from fans and writers about whether he’ll transfer. Getsy, himself, acknowledged that it is an option he is actually considering.

“It has been difficult, no doubt. I wanted to get my chance but the time is just not right now,” Getsy said. “I love this university but I have a lot of options and I am just going to think about the situation, weigh it out and see what goes on. As long as I am here I am going to bust my [butt] for this team because you never know what is going to happen.”

He said he wasn’t “sure what the rules are” on pursuing a transfer. “I don’t know how quickly I have to act, but those are things we need to find out and I’ll sit down and figure it out.”

According to the rules, if he wants to transfer to another Div. 1-A school and play in 2005, it must happen by the 12th day of that school’s fall semester. For a school like the oft mentioned Akron (where former Offensive Coordinator J.D. Brookhart is now the head coach) he would be able to play the first 2 Pitt games before deciding.

I don’t know what he’s going to decide. I do know that Pitt needs him to stay. Not to stockpile talent, so much as my deep belief that this O-line is going to get Palko knocked out for at least a game. Bendel noted that his reading between the lines of Coach Harris is that Harris is very worried about Getsy transferring.

Bendel’s notebook notes that Pitt will play a mock game under the lights tonight and then the team is off on Sunday.

Puff piece on likely 3 time academic All-American Vince Crochunis by P-G columnist Ron Cook, who also uses the piece to take some shots at Coach Walt Harris. I think Harris may punch a columnist before the season is over at this rate.

I know, I keep coming back to the non-con. That’s because I am really, really pissed about this. So I keep thinking about it, and remember other things. Like the fact that part of how the NCAA seeding committee rationalized dropping Pitt to a #3 seed and sticking them in Milwaukee to play Wisconsin in the second round was the non-con.

When the head of the committee Bowlsby, the AD from Iowa was being interviewed that was one of the first questions. His defense was Pitt’s non-conference schedule dragged them down and losing to UConn 2 out of 3 times. He ignored Pitt’s Big East schedule and winning the Big East regular season — impliedly suggesting that for Pitt, the conference regular season wasn’t important.

Every year at NCAA Tournament time, the talk always turns to who played a good non-con and who took the cheap way out. The last couple years, we have seen the seeding committee reward teams that play a tough non-con and punish the ones who take the weak route in the seedings. Pitt was all but told to toughen up the non-con or look for the same thing again. Way to pay attention.

Remember about a week ago, when the news surfaced that Pitt and Penn State, might renew the rivalry. Guess who is doing his best to kill that:

Q: Is there an interest in renewing rivalry with Pitt?

PATERNO:There are a lot of reasons for not playing it. One of which is that Pitt decided to go their way. All of those years when they weren’t in the Big East, we couldn’t get them to play us in basketball. It’s a two-way street. I tried to get them all into a league and if Pitt had been willing to go along with the league, we would have had a Big East arrangement that probably would have been better for a lot of different people. That and the fact that when we go to play Pitt at Pitt, they double the price for our fans. It’s not the same price (as other games). At one time you had to buy two tickets in order to get to see Penn State play Pitt out there. We would love to play Pitt if they would come here 2-1 and not because we particularly want that, but we think that would be a fair way for us to give them the same kind of money. It’s not really a good arrangement for us. Now having said that, which I know that next part of this is not going to get printed, I’d love to play Pitt. I grew up here when Pitt and Penn State were big rivalries. I’d love to play Pitt. I have all kinds of friends at Pitt. Suzy Broadhurst, whose husband, Jim, has been marvelous in fundraising at Penn State, some of the trustees in Pittsburgh?we have more alumni in Allegheny County than Pitt has in Allegheny County. I think it’s natural. We should play it. But there has got to be an arrangement. We have to have six home games. We have a women’s basketball team in Italy, we have a men’s soccer team in Brazil, and that is great. We have 29 sports and we have two-thirds of the budget that Texas has and Texas has 19 sports. And that all has to come out of the revenue that we can produce out of football because the University doesn’t give us a nickel. Anything that we do has to be based on “can we have six home game? Can we satisfy the fact that we have become a national school that we have tremendous pressure to play in different parts of the country?” We are playing Boston College. Syracuse is getting back on the schedule. Notre Dame is getting back on the schedule. You would think Pitt would be a natural, West Virginia would be a natural to get back on the schedule. But there are a lot of things involved in it. It’s not just a question of picking up the phone and saying “let’s play.” I think some people have to make some concessions to us because of the problems that certain games would create for us. It has nothing to do with competition, it’s got to do with how you finance the operation you have.

I don’t even feel like tackling the number of lies, half-truths, spin and plain bull s**t in there. Suffice to say that he took more time rationalizing this than any other question in the press conference.

Okay. Quick and dirty.

Palko named the starting QB last night. Luke Getsy was apparently very upset and even Harris doesn’t know if he’ll stay at Pitt. No reason for Getsy to transfer yet. If the O-line is as bad as last year, he’ll be starting because Palko will be out for at least a game with a concussion.

Wide Receiver Greg Lee was surprised by the decision. He thought it was too close to call and would play out into next week.

The QB starter may be named but a bunch of others are still up in the air. This includes tailback, fullback, a cornerback, wide receivers, and of course injuries on the lines have a bunch of questions.

Coach Harris considered last year’s paper thin defense to be an “aberration” for the entire year. So that means he expects the D to be better this year (And how much worse could they be?).

Joe Bendel does his breakdown of the team and the challenges. Bottom line, is a 6-5 regular season and losing its bowl birth to finish an even 6-6. Right around what most expect.

Post-Gazette beat reporter Paul Zeise, does his first Q&A for the new season. Nothing that surprising, but even Zeise, a beat writer who has to deal with the guy almost daily, notes Harris needs a good year:

Q: How secure is Walt Harris? Will eight or nine wins save his job?

ZEISE: The seat that coach Harris is sitting on is certainly getting warm but I’m not sure there is a magic number for him remain at Pitt. I know three wins would put him in big trouble, but the other end of the scale (7 or 8) is not so cut and dried. Harris runs a clean program, the team wins enough and the kids go to class and he doesn’t put up with a lot of off-field nonsense. That goes a long way towards keeping the administration happy, further than most people know. Season ticket renewals, however, have not been quite as good as the university had hoped and that’s a factor as well. The bottom line is Walt needs to have a good season, how good is not quite as clear.

My feeling .500 or better he stays. 5-6 or lower, and a change will have to be made.

Finally, Pitt has its 7th recruit. Rashaad Duncan from Belle Glade, FL. He’s apparently a diamond in the rough, according to this breakdown from Bob Lichtenfels from Panther Report.

Sorry, I know I still haven’t done the news round-up for Pitt football, but I have a few moments and I am still bugged by the non-con.

I note that Pitt’s web site still hasn’t put out an official press release on the non-con. Interesting. They had no problem trumpeting the Big East schedule even though the actual dates and times weren’t ready. The actual time and dates are supposed to come out next week. I’m guessing at that point Pitt will put out a press release trumpeting its “full” schedule as being very difficult and will even resort to the same pathetic we-have-games-against-teams-from-3-major-basketball-conferences spin again.

If Pitt is too embarrassed by the non-con to release it separately on the site, then even they now what a joke it is and can’t give a legitimate defense of it. And, “look at what team x or y does” is not a defense.

Thank Christ almighty, college football is back. And just in the nick of time. I’m not sure how much more baseball I can take, let alone the completely inane Olympics.

Throughout last season, I picked 60 college football games against the spread (as all three of you who regularly read this site may remember). I tended to stay within my two favorite conferences (the Big East and the Big Ten), but occasionally ventured outside for big, national games. Despite my obsessing over college football to a greater extent than almost anybody I know, my final season record was a depressingly neutral 29-30-1 (heck, I would have rather gone way under .500… then I could at least make money betting against myself).

Given that my record was so grey, I suspect that nobody out there cares if I start picking again this season or not. So what the hell. I need something to do over my lunch hour…

THE SUCKER BET BOWL (The University of Southern California (-17.5) at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Cracker Barrel, and State University): This year’s Black Coaches Association game isn’t going to be much of a contest, and ESPN2’s simultaneously broadcasted “Behind The Scenes” crap doesn’t look too promising either. I’m hoping that Pete Carroll will keep it interesting by firing off some cheap shots at the NCAA for the way they completely butchered the Matt Williams situation (and made the wrong decision to boot). But either way, I’ll stay up to the end anyways, because my wife says I’m an addict.

FoxSports’s Fearless Predictions (or should I say “Fearless Prediction,” since there’s only one game this weekend) didn’t take the Trojans to cover the 17.5 point spread. Really, since USC could pretty much score as many points as it wanted to in this one, whether or not they’ll cover is more a matter of how soon they call off the dogs. Sure, Virginia Tech should be able to put a few touchdowns on the board against USC’s defense. But they won’t be able to keep it close, even without Williams.

I think USC will win by three or four touchdowns, so I’ll take the sucker bet and give the 17.5.

Hail to Virginia Tech taking a good, swift asskicking in their first game as a member of the ACC.