Okay, the boring stuff first. Looks like a new style of football helmet introduced is actually reducing concussions according to this.

Newer football helmet technology and design may reduce the incidence of concussions in high school football players, according to results from the first phase of a three-year study by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s (UPMC) Sports Medicine Concussion Program.

Published in the February issue of the journal Neurosurgery, the UPMC study of more than 2,000 high school football players is the first on-the-field investigation to compare concussion rates and recovery times for high school football players wearing the Riddell Revolution helmet, with its newer technology and design, to concussion rates and recovery times for players wearing standard helmets with traditional design.

Across the three years of this initial study, the annual concussion rate was 5.4 percent in athletes wearing the Revolution helmet, compared with a 7.6 annual percent rate in athletes wearing standard helmets, representing a 2.3 percent decreased absolute risk of concussion for high school football players. In terms of relative risk, Revolution wearers were 31 percent less likely to sustain a concussion when compared with athletes who wore standard football helmets.
…
“Prior to this study, research evaluating the effectiveness of helmet design in reducing concussions was performed only in biomechanical laboratory settings,” said Mark R. Lovell, director of the UPMC program and a Pitt assistant professor of orthopaedics. “We applaud Riddell for its long-term dedication to research aimed at reducing the effects of what can be a very serious and common injury, and for actively supporting continued on-the-field investigations. By continuing this type of study long term, we will be able to obtain essential real-life data and increase our knowledge and understanding of how sports helmet technology and design may be effective in reducing the incidence of concussions in athletes.”

The large-scale observational naturalistic study was conducted by the UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program with funding support from Riddell. The research took place over three consecutive football seasons from 2002 to 2004 and involved more than 2,000 football players from 17 high schools in Western Pennsylvania for which UPMC directs an ongoing individualized clinical concussion management program.

Just kind of interesting, including how UPMC was involved in post-concussion treatments. Also, while reducing the number of concussions, it did not change the recovery time from one.

In the short-term the greatest beneficiaries of the study were the high school athletes whose schools’ participated. Not from the helmet, necessarily, but from having people trained in recognizing and diagnosing concussions at the games. This probably provided a lot more of the kids with greater long-term safety and protection because they were less likely to get back in and risk a real long-term harm.

Now on to the recruiting notes.

Pitt finally had a defection from its recruiting class. Eric Rodemoyer, an OL who verballed to Pitt in late June, has instead gone over to WVU. Mixed feelings here. While Rodemoyer was not exactly a “big” recruit, he was a O-lineman. And we all know Pitt needs help with the O-line. Then there’s the fact that it was WVU that got them. Ignore for the minute that the Hoopies are the enemy. WVU under Rodriguez has done an excellent job at recognizing and developing talent on the line. That’s what makes it somewhat annoying to lose him. It would appear that they see a lot of potential in him.

As this morning’s Pittsburgh Sports Report e-mail update described the kid:

Rodemoyer has good feet, and if he drops some weight he could have a chance to see early playing time at West Virginia. He’ll likely play guard, but he can also play center. He’s the type of player West Virginia has had success with in the past, a bulldog-type scrapper in the trenches.

Then, Scouts, Inc./ESPN.com (Insider Subs.) also seemed to like him a lot.

Rodemoyer is a big old people mover. He can get into defenders and drive them off the line of scrimmage in the run game. He gets good hand placement and has good leg drive. He displays good lower body strength because he plays with high pads and is still able to get good movement. He can wash down defenders that penetrate inside. He moves well for a big man and can get up to the second level and get a piece of linebackers. He is able to put defenders on the ground on contact when he can get an angle on them. He can pull down the line of scrimmage and kick out. Film was limited on Rodemoyer pass blocking, but he displays the ability to be an effective pass blocker especially from the guard position. He can take up a lot space, has adequate feet to mirror defenders, and has the size and strength to anchor versus the bull rush. He could possibly be a right tackle at the college level, but we feel he will get the most out of his abilities as a guard.

They consider him the 63rd best Guard in the country. Ouch.

WVU or Pitt could hear today regarding cornerback Aaron Berry from Bishop-McDevitt. Berry is apparently down to Pitt, WVU or Minnesota. Not really sure about the Gophers, though, with Glen Mason’s contract status still up in the air.

Out in NY, Pitt is still hopeful on one of the top-5 players from Syracuse.

Rounding out the top five is defensive end McKenzie Mathews who is still up in the air between Boston College, Michigan and Pittsburgh. The three-star prospect moved up one spot after exploding this season with 97 tackles, 26 sacks and one interception.

Mathews will be visiting Syracuse this weekend, so I expect him to wait to announce until the very end.

Looks like with Pitt not playing until Saturday and most resources and interest being focused on the Steelers and the Super Bowl, Pitt will have a day or so of obscurity locally.

Just this story recapping Pitt’s rebound from the St. John’s loss to beating Syracuse. It essentially highlights the good (bench scoring, Keith Benjamin and Carl Krauser) and almost (rebounding improved). Kind of avoided the bad (Gray’s inconsistent foul troubles and missing easy buckets).

The biggest problem media coverage in college sports is that there are so many teams, that coverage is spotty, inconsistent and not terribly accurate. It’s hard, and college basketball is more brutal than college football with all of the mid-majors and basketball only schools. National media writers just can’t see it all to get a clear picture because they simply can’t spend enough time watching them — except for the prestige/name schools that have gotten the national following over extended time: Kentucky, UNC, Duke, UCLA, Kansas.

A couple examples come from CSTV.com articles in the last week. I will give the writers credit. They admit they had yet to see Pitt actually play prior to watching them at Rutgers and versus Syracuse. It’s a good thing, because they saw different things from Pitt.

Here’s the Rutgers game story:

But how has a team that struggled for consistency last season with all-conference frontcourt players — like the departed Chevy Troutman and Chris Taft — managed to resurge so brilliantly without them?

Blame Canada.

Or, more specifically, junior combo forward Levon Kendall, the native of Vancouver, B.C., who’s enjoying a breakout season for the unbeaten Panthers.

“Levon’s a very good player and his numbers sometimes don’t indicate how good he is,” Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon said. “His rebound totals have been very good for the minutes he’s played, with the rotation we’ve got. He’s a great defender — not a good defender, but a great defender. He gives us so many things.”

The 6-foot-9 Kendall is a smooth mover, an instinctive rebounder with the fundamentals to start his own instructional video series. He’s physical enough to make a living as an effective post player, but has the handling ability to play facing the basket. With his controlled demeanor — always remaining within his tempo — Kendall is the type of guy who routinely makes his opponents pay for their lapses in concentration.

In the Rutgers game, Kendall had one of his best all-around game with 14 points and 13 boards. We’ve seen this team all year long. And while I think Kendall has become a good player (more so than many of you think), this article gave me a laugh for being so far over the top.

Another one of the CSTV.com analysts saw Pitt for the first time against Syracuse — mainly to talk about how bad Syracuse looked. He also said this:

On the flip side, Pitt looked good. Not great, but good. Having seen Carl Krauser in person for the first time this year, I’m a believer. Not only did he score 32 points, but he passed the ball, played great defense and fired up his teammates and the crowd on multiple occasions. He genuinely looked like he was having fun. It has helped his game that he’s playing mostly at the two-guard spot, a step away from ball handling responsibilities.

What if his first viewing of Pitt had been at MSG versus St. John’s? Can you imagine what he would have thought of Krauser then?

On the plus side, he was accurate in this:

As a final aside, it was a great atmosphere for college hoops. I’ve seen and listened to some rabid student sections, but the “Zoo” was jumping, moving and screaming the whole game, so props to them.

This is often called “parachute journalism,” where it is more important to show that the media organization was reporting from the scene, then to actually know what is going on. It’s common in all types of reporting (not just sports). It’s part of how Jayson Blair from the NY Times got caught — he failed to parachute, instead reporting and making things up from his apartment.

Andy Katz in his ESPN.com blog (Insider Subs.) has a couple things worth noting. He included Carl Krauser on his Wooden Award watch list. Voters had to narrow their choices down to 30 for this round. Krauser probably doesn’t have a shot at the award, but hopefully he’ll make the cut-down.

Katz from a couple days ago pointed out a flaw in the Big East Tournament set-up:

If the season were to end today, there would be a three-way tie at the bottom of the Big East for the 12th and final spot in the conference tournament. Louisville, Notre Dame and Providence are all 1-4, with DePaul and South Florida at 1-5 and 0-5, respectively. The problem for the Big East will come if two teams tie for 12th and didn’t play each other this season. The league is figuring out that tiebreaking procedure.

Whoops.

Now for a continuing theme on Doug Gottlieb. In his Weekly Watch offers this bit of meaningless puff:

We will find out how tough-minded Pittsburgh is over the next five games. Any road conference game is difficult, and for the second straight year, St. John’s beat Pitt in the Garden, but upcoming games at home versus Syracuse (Big Monday) and Marquette, on the road against UConn and Georgetown, then back home for West Virginia (the Backyard Brawl is a phenomenal football rivalry) will show if Pitt is for real.

Uh, okay. What does that mean? Does Pitt just need to go 3-2 over the 5 games to show if they are “for real?” 4-1? A 5-0 sweep? He doesn’t say. That way, he can decide later what he wants to say about Pitt without having to show that he holds no opinion — other than the opposite one of others on the radio or camera.