E.J. Borghetti is Pitt’s Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations — Football. He is also a Pitt grad (CAS ’92) and literally has Pitt in his blood. His father, Dr. Ernie Borghetti, D.D.S., was an All-American (pg. 180, PDF) Tackle for Pitt in the early ’60s, drafted by the Browns in 1963, and today is the Pitt Alumni Association Rep in the Youngstown-Sharon area. Dr. Borghetti took E.J. to his first Pitt game in 1976, and he was hooked ever since.
As a fan and being in charge of media relations, he pays attention to what is being said about Pitt. Including this blog. Last month he sent me an e-mail complimenting the blog. For whatever foolish reason, he agreed to talk to me and let the results be posted here. E.J. also sent me a copy of the new media guide (Whoo hoo! Free stuff!).
The discussion was originally supposed to be some e-mailed questions and exchanges. To aid in that I sent e-mails to some of the readers, for whom I had e-mail addresses, asking them to contribute some questions of their own. There was a great response. Some really interesting things. To get this out of the way now, a bunch of the questions concerned issues of recruiting. Borghetti really doesn’t have anything to do with that, and under NCAA regulations all Pitt Athletic Department employees are prohibited from commenting about any commit or potential commit until they actually sign a letter of intent — which won’t be until February.
I finally sent E.J. the first batch of questions along with my own thoughts and other stuff. The focus of the questions concerned issues of PR, media, his own work, the website and about himself and his own job. The result of course was a very long missive, that caught him off-guard
“That might be the longest message I have ever received in my life….” was his response. He countered with the suggestion of a real conversation over the phone. And that’s what happened Thursday evening. A roughly 50 some minute talk with E.J. about Pitt football, the Pitt athletic department and various things.
What follows are some of my notes and recollections from the talk, and the key things.
Since he sent me the media guide, and he was an editor of the thing (PDF) that’s where the conversation began. Last year, the media guide was 326 pages, this year Pitt had to get it down to the NCAA mandated maximum of 208. That meant trimming 118 pages. You can only do so much with reducing the font sizes in places. Still, it’s an easier job than Missouri (614 pages) or Nebraska (440 pages), but still things had to be lopped or truncated.
Borghetti was very up front about the purpose of the media guide. They are about aiding in recruiting. Something most people know, but not everyone likes to acknowledge. Show kids some of the history, portray the coaches positively and give solid bios on the present student-athletes. There was to be no real sacrificing of space for the kids or the coaches. Both of those sections were only down a total of 8 pages, mostly from a smaller font size.
The real cuts came in the administration bios, some of the opening materials celebrating the City of Pittsburgh and the non-football aspects of Pitt, and sadly the written stories about great eras in Pitt football. Asking a little more about this part, Borghetti said that those stories would be moved to the Pitt website in the history of Pitt soon.
He made very clear about how important that the history of Pitt football be accessible. That the fans be able to get the information. At that point, was when he simply mentioned that his “father played for Pitt.” That was it, he didn’t mention that he was an All-American and played in the NFL. Just that Ernie Borghetti played for Pitt, and that E.J. grew up loving Pitt. To drive the point home he stated that in 1981 Pitt’s leading receivers were Julius Dawkins and Dwight Collins. I don’t know if he’s right (well Dawkins is true, pg. 145), but the audacity is impressive.
This of course led into a discussion of the Pitt website and issues of keeping it updated. At this point, he revealed something that may only matter to Pitt fans and those of us spending lots of time online.
Pitt is overhauling the website. Like the Big East, Pitt will be moving the athletics website to be under the aegis of collegesports.com. The move should take place sometime in mid- to late-August.
The whole site will be coming in for a complete overhaul, and Pitt has created a new position in the athletic department to specifically handle and coordinate internet communications and the website. Prior to that, each department essentially its own thing.
According to Borghetti, Athletic Director Jeff Long has made the internet a priority for communications and to help sell and market Pitt. Borghetti and AD Long recognize that the internet has become the default place people go for information. Be it the fans, potential recruits or the media they turn to the net find things. Pitt, therefore, needs to have a strong, forward thinking approach to its web presence. It’s very encouraging to me that he gets this.
This also means that Coach Wannstedt’s press conferences should be made available on-line a day or two afterwards, and the transcripts will definitely be on the site. A continuation of what was started last year. Direct communication to the fans will continue.
A discussion of the website and it being a place where people go for information, of course, led to talking about the Steven Walker stuff, since that was how it first got reported in Ohio that he was still a Pitt Panther. Borghetti, unsurprisingly, was not able or willing to talk about Steven Walker and his time at Pitt. As far as him still being listed on the site, he readily admitted that it was inexcusable to still have him listed in the first place. He sounded quite frustrated about the fact that there had never been any cleaning up of the page.
On Pitt football ticket sales, the media blitz is coming. Likely, starting this week to coincide with the start of training camp Pitt will be doing a lot more advertising for Pitt football and tickets. There is a whole campaign, and those living in the Pittsburgh media market should start seeing more of it.
Borghetti has been completely blown away by Coach Wannstedt from a media perspective. Coach Wannstedt has such charisma and is so very comfortable in his own skin. He is very good at getting out his message and view across in the media. He is exactly who he appears to be in interviews, stories about him. It is no act.
This jibes, of course, with everything in the past from media coverage of Coach Wannstedt. People have questioned his ability as a head coach in the NFL, but everyone actually liked him.
Finally this led to a discussion of his feelings about how people were feeling about Pitt. He said there is a vibe right now, on the campus, in the athletic department in the city about Pitt that he has never seen with regards to the football team. People are genuinely excited about the season and this first game. From a media/public standpoint, he just loves having Pitt playing the first game of the season against a name opponent. Everyone is just anticipating big things.
Hopefully, I will be able to check in with E.J. from time to time and let everyone know what else is going on in the Pitt Athletic Department.
