CollegeFootballNews.com has its Big East Preview. They did their Pitt Preview a couple weeks ago. The strange and surprisingly optimistic tone they had for the Pitt preview is now tempered as they pick Pitt for 4th in the Big East.

4. Pitt
Predicted record: 8-4 Conf. record: 4-3
Best Player: LB H.B. Blades, Sr.
Offense – Running game, running game, running game. Head coach Dave Wannstedt wants to move the ball on the ground more, but he might not have the horses to do it effectively at a high level. The line has the experience with four returning starters, and now it has to push someone around. LaRod Stephens-Howling is a small, quick back who’ll need help to stay fresh and healthy. The receiving corps loses top target Greg Lee and now needs Derek Kinder to grow into a number one star and several true freshmen to play like seasoned veterans. QB Tyler Palko has to be a consistent leader who takes the next step up in his production and becomes the type of player who makes everyone around him better.

Defense – The secondary should be among the Big East’s most productive thanks to the return of All-America caliber corner Darrelle Revis and Mike Phillips is coming back from an ankle injury. A second corner is needed along with far more production from the front seven against the run. The linebacking corps should do its part with H.B. Blades sure to be one of the nation’s top tacklers in the middle and Clint Session and Brian Bennett returning healthy to the outside spots. The line isn’t all that big and could be a big problem early on until several sophomores start to play like veterans. More of a pass rush is needed from ends Chris McKillop and Charles Sallet.

This season will be a success if … Pitt wins the Big East title. Crank the expectations up a notch. The team should be an experienced, hardened squad by mid-November. It’s not often you get ten games to prepare for your two biggest home games.

That much is true. With such a young team, it should be a better team later in the season. I just don’t buy their big love for USF — picking them in a tie for 2nd with WVU. I have a lot of questions about their offense. The loss of Hall at RB, the questions at QB. And I’m not sure what they mean by the potential to be the second best receiving corp? I’m reasonably certain that Johnny Peyton, their top receiver last year, left the team. “Potentially” you could say the same about Pitt and a couple other teams. Again, it seems they are failing to take into account the loss of half of USF’s recruiting class to academic issues.

In their All-Big East squads, no Pitt players made 1st team on offense. On the 1st team defense as you would expect its H.B. Blades at LB and Darrelle Revis at CB. Revis was also 1st team for Punt Returner. On the second team offense, Derek Kinder, WR; C.J. Davis, OL; and John Simonitis, OL. Adam Graessle was 2nd team Punter. They also listed the Top 30 players in the conference:

5. H.B. Blades
9. Darrelle Revis
19. Tyler Palko
22. Clint Session

In their Unit rankings, Pitt was middle of the pack, and honestly I don’t put much stock in these. It strikes me as guesswork from last year with some expectations.

Offense — 4th
QBs — 3d
RBs — 5th
Receivers — 3d
OLs — 5th
Defenses — 4th
LBs — 3d
DBs — 3d
Special Teams — 6th

Finally is their lists of 5. They have the top 5 games that will shape the Big East race: WVU at Pitt and Louisville at Pitt are of course there.

5 non-con games that teams need to take seriously include UCF and Toledo for Pitt. Honestly, for the Big East, the teams need to take every non-con very seriously. Especially the way the conference stunk it up last year in the non-con showings and in the bowls.

Blades is listed as one of the top-5 pro prospects in the BE and Kinder has one of the biggest sets of shoes to fill in place of Greg Lee.

Charles Spencer, drafted at #65 (3d round) by the Houston Texans has agreed to terms. The Texans have all their draft picks signed. Not sure what the exact numbers were, but it couldn’t be much different from the Texans pick at #66.

Winston was the last player the Texans signed. He agreed to a $608,000 signing bonus in a four-year deal, which likely will be restructured after three years. He is slated to make $275,000 this season, $360,000 in 2007 and $440,000 in 2008.

Winston, who was drafted 66th overall, is expected to back up right tackle Zach Wiegert this season.

To make room for Winston, 6-6 and 311 pounds, and fellow third-round offensive tackle Charles Spencer on the roster, the Texans waived defensive back Jammal Lord and running back Nick Luchey.

Not bad.

Way back in May, I posted about the desire of schools with 1-AA football to remove the perceived second class citizen status of that classification. They didn’t like that they were being treated like Division 1-AA in basketball and other sports when it came to recruiting and public perception. They were talking about changing the names to something more representative of their respective post-season approaches: “Bowl Division” and “Playoff Division” or the slightly less simple such as the “Playoff Championship Group” and “Bowl Championship Group.”

Fine, I guess. I kind of understand the whole stigma argument. I’m sure A-10 schools just get sick of it in trying to recruit against the ACC and Big East and treated like some also-ran group. The important thing would be to keep the names simple and short so they can be easily adopted and understood. Thank goodness the NCAA and the schools pushing the change understand that.

For the first time since they were created 28 years ago, the top divisions of NCAA football could get new names next week.

Division I-A would become the “Football Bowl Subdivision” and Division I-AA the “NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.”

The 16-team postseason tournament in Division I-AA would be called the “NCAA Division I Football Championship.”

That’s catchy.

Here’s a tip from fans that never stopped calling Pitt, Pitt. You can make it official. You can send out the press releases. You can insist on news and media outlets using the offical names. It won’t make a bit of difference.

If you make the name more cumbersome, it is less likely and harder to be accepted. It will be mocked and derided instead. The differences will be accentuated, not minimized. The name isn’t the stigma. Any stigma is from the fact that you can’t bring b-ball recruits to big football games, the football games aren’t on TV to further promote the school, and show the fanbases. And even that hasn’t stopped Kentucky, Duke and Kansas from still doing pretty well in basketball despite little evidence of real football programs.

It’s expected that this will be adopted at meetings on August 3.

The 1-AA schools are using another approach to get the 1-A schools to go along with this. Trying to increase the palatability of bringing in a 1-AA patsy for a home game.

Another reason for changing the I-AA name and including everyone in Division I is scheduling. Currently Division I-A teams can count one game against I-AA opponents each season toward bowl eligibility. Removal of the I-AA moniker could make scheduling easier for all schools in Division I.

“It wouldn’t be a conflict in scheduling if everybody was Division I,” LaFleur said. “It would be a huge gap between the schools that are I-AA and I-A. I would go for having one moniker.”

There would also be benefits to the Division I-A schools. Currently, Division I-A schools have to meet minimum football attendance requirements (average 15,000 fans in actual or paid attendance per home game).

With all schools in Division I, the attendance requirement would no longer be necessary.

Temple would be happy.

Caught this little nugget from a report on the Reebok Camp.

Pitt’s Jamie Dixon and Boston College’s Al Skinner watched Teeng Akol in the morning along with assistants from DePaul, Florida, St. John’s and Georgetown.

Akol, is without a doubt, very raw. He came to the US from Sudan in 2005. He’s also 6′ 10″ and apparently loaded with potential. Scout.com considers him a 4-star, 30th best PF prospect. Rivals.com is higher on him. They put him as the 48th best overall prospect and 14th best PF prospect. Lots of teams interested including Kentucky, Maryland, UConn and Cinci; but it doesn’t appear anyone has actually offered him yet. Not surprising since Pitt is in pursuit of kids like Beasley, Patterson and Vaughn who also play the PF position and are much more advanced in their game.

Here’s another player drawing some interest from Pitt.

Blake Hoffarber said he has around 20 offers from mid-major schools and picked up free rides from Cincinnati, Rutgers and Washington State since the ABCD camp while Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State and Pitt have also shown interest since then.

Hoffarber is a shooting guard from Minnesota. He’s listed as about a 3-star recruit, left-handed, good range and an excellent free throw shooter.

I’m not sure if their damning another potential Pitt recruit with faint praise or what?

Bradley Wannamaker, 2007 – Here is a guy with a great future ahead of him somewhere in the Atlantic 10. The Philly guard can dial it up from deep and he has a body that can take the banging when driving into the paint for buckets. Against the Mean Streets crew, Wannamaker made sure he wasn’t left out of the compliment party for the guards. He finished with a hard earned 22.

Pitt showed some interest in him at the ABCD camp earlier in the month. He still hasn’t received a major offer yet.

If you can’t get enough of reading about how sordid and just generally creepy AAU and summer league basketball can get, this series of articles — Part 1, 2 and 3 (via Big East Basketball Blog) — is must read stuff.

UPDATE (2:52 PM): Damn. Here’s some more about Hoffarber. He’s the same kid who shot a desperation shot from his ass a couple years ago in a Minnesota HS championship game.

The Blue Ribbon Yearbook Analysis of Pitt is at ESPN.com (Insider subs). As usual, it’s one of the best and most comprehensive you can read. I’ll skip down to the conclusion.

Grading the Panthers
Unit	Grade
Offense	C+
Special teams	B-
Defense	B-
Intangibles	A-

Wannstedt and his staff learned some realities of making the transition back to the college world in ’05 the hard way. They found that talent wins, no matter how good the system is. That means this year’s Panthers will be using schemes that fit their abilities. That’s a good thing, to a point.

Pitt lacks team speed and outstanding athletic ability. That shows up in the ground attack, where a shaky line and unproven stable of backs means the Panthers must be content with a station-to-station run game. There won’t be too many breakaways, and yards will come slowly. But there must be a commitment, or Palko won’t be able to break in the crop of young receivers. Pitt will score more points this year, but it could take a while for it to happen.

The defensive side is in better shape, provided the line comes along. McKillop and Sallet are strong on the outside, but the young tackles could get manhandled, at least at first. The back seven is strong, and if there is a push up front, the linebackers and defensive backs could be dominant at times.

They essentially see 7 wins as well within reasonable expectations. Talking about Coach Wannstedt, they see his need to get speed.

That’s why Wannstedt was in full assistant coach mode throughout May, crisscrossing Pennsylvania, Florida and points in between in search of recruits. The Panthers’ 2006 class received fairly high marks, especially for its pro-active nature; Pitt did grab a lot of commitments early. But it wasn’t enough. At least it wasn’t enough for Wannstedt. He needs to get more speed, the better to play the kind of attacking defense he prefers and the better to assemble special teams capable of making big plays.

“We’ve got to get more talent,” he said. “When I was here, we had a first-round draft choice every year. We’ve got to get back to that.” So, Wannstedt rolls on, trying to convince high school standouts that Pittsburgh will be as great to them as it has been for him. He’ll talk about the school’s rich history and potential for a great future. He’ll pitch the city itself. He may even break out a few pictures of an old Panther. The good news is that he’s selling himself and his town, and there’s no better product to sell than that.

“Recruiting is just selling, and if you’re selling something you believe in, it’s easy,” Wannstedt said.

Once you close the deals, all you have to do is win. That, as Wannstedt found out last season, is the hard part.

As you can expect, the lines are still the big question marks.

If you want to look at the one big reason for any offensive ineffectiveness the Panthers had last year or could suffer through in 2006, look no further than this unit, which lacks standout performers and depth. Four starters return, and that’s good news, although none of them distinguished himself all that much in ’05. And as for the backup situation, well, don’t ask.

“We don’t have enough depth on the line,” Wannstedt said. “It’s shocking that we were as thin as we were there.”

…

This isn’t exactly a strong point, either. Both tackles are gone from a unit that allowed 185.2 yards on the ground per game, an average of 4.3 yards per rush and 14 touchdowns. Pittsburgh managed just 22 sacks all year and lacked any of the dominance Wannstedt wants from his front four.

“We’ve got to find ways for the defensive line to make more plays,” Wannstedt said. “It all starts up front. It’s not a matter of how many tackles the middle linebacker makes. You’ve got to have your down guys make plays.”

The offense may still struggle to start the season with new receivers and a mostly new backfield. We will know quickly, however, if there is a reason for optimism for the year based on what the lines show.

No, I’m not doing a podcast or anything. Rivals Radio has a couple interviews, though, you might want to give a listen.

This one with Coach Dave Wannstedt (Windows Media), is decent. It’s about 10:40 in length. Some of it is stuff already read or heard elsewhere like how this team is really Palko and Blades’s. He had a lot of praise for Blades in the interview.

On the discussion of the offseason, it was asked how you know you have had a good offseason beyond what the strength and conditioning coach tells you. Wannstedt talked about issues of leadership from the seniors and who/how many are showing up for the workouts and voluntary stuff.

There was a little talk about Greg Lee leaving school early, and my impression was that Coach Wannstedt all but said, “I tried to warn him.” Encouraged, prompted by the host, Coach Wannstedt stressed that he knows what it takes for NFL people to consider drafting someone. That he knows what it takes to get a player to the next level and whether the player is ready yet. Definitely part of the recruiting pitch.

There is also an interview with Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese that runs a little over 12 minutes. Most of it was pretty standard stuff well-repeated from various media sources about no plans to expand and how the conference is improving in football.

The only part that was interesting to me was near the end when the conversation turned to basketball and how some coaches wanted to expand the NCAA Tournament. Since Syracuse’s Boeheim was one of the most vocal supporters of it, and his status, I figured Tranghese might hedge. Instead, while not directly addressing Boeheim — simply saying, “I know some of the coaches in our conference support it” — he dismissed it. He said — quite correctly — that coaches want the expansion for their own selfish reasons.

The Explanation of what I’m doing can be found here. Here’s Lindy’s, CBS Sportsline, and Athlon Preview Mags Pitt summaries.

The Sporting News College Football Preview is very unsure about Pitt. They like the team a little more than some, but hedges. In their Total Rankings (p 10) they put Pitt at #42, but then includes them in a sidebar under “Could Fade Fast.” The reason for why is not unreasonable: young talent and major questions about the line play on both sides of the ball.

This preview is big on doing all sorts of lists. One list of players was for “Best QB in 2 Minute Drill” (p 8). Tyler Palko was on this list along with Akron’s Luke Getsy.

TSN preview has lists for the top players by position.

QB: Palko, 12th
ILB: H.B. Blades, 6th
OLB : Clint Session, 19th
CB: Darrelle Revis, 6th
P: Adam Graessle, 5th
Return Men: Revis, 16th

The conference preview sections has various “best” categories. For the Big East (pp 118-120), under “Hardest Hitting LB,” Clint Session is listed. Revis is considered the “Fastest DB.” The genuine, “you can’t be effing serious” moment came when the name Paul Rhoads followed “Best Defensive Coordinator.” Needless to say, I apologized to other people in the bookstore following that outburst.

The copy for the BE preview was written by Paul Zeise, the P-G Pitt football beat writer. Zeise, as you may recall also did the Pitt preview for Lindy’s. Good to see he’s nabbing some freelance work. The preview rankings for the BE:

1. WVU
2. L-Ville
3. Pitt
4. USF
5. UConn
6. Rutgers
7. Cinci
8. ‘Cuse

Rutgers fans will obviously dislike this ranking. It’s their lowest showing in any of the mags. The USF prediction is looking quite shaky these days. As for Pitt, that was, as in the national preview portion, a little on the hesitant side. The questions about the youth and lines, especially with a more challenging non-con.

For the all-conference squads, Blades, Revis and Graessle all made the first team.

The second team had Mike McGlynn and C.J. Davis on the O-line. Chris McKillop on the D-line. LBs included Session and Revis showed up again for returns.

JUCO transfer Tackle, Jeff Otah was predicted to be “Newcomer of the Year, Offense.” I hope so.

The Pitt Preview (p 125) really didn’t say anything that already hasn’t been said. The team is rebuilding under Coach Wannstedt to run more. There are questions on the lines. The team is young, but 7-5 is a reasonable possibility.

Mainly speculative stuff.

This story on the action at the Adidas Super 64 Tournament in Las Vegas has a note on a top player Pitt has only recently gotten involved in recruiting.

Julian Vaughn said he is drawing closer to making a decision. The Oak Hill bound big man said he could make his decision by late August, early September. Florida State, Pitt, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Kentucky are looking like players in his recruitment.

The early signing period for basketball is in November.

Closer to Pittsburgh, Moon Township’s Brian Walsh, a shooting guard has seen his stock rise in the camps this year.

Thanks to an impressive performance against some of the top players in the nation, Walsh himself is now considered one of the elite players in the Class of 2008. Walsh was selected to play in the underclassman all star game at the ABCD camp and came away ranked as the No. 16 shooting guard in the nation by Hoop Scoop.

“I really didn’t know what my potential was,” said Walsh, who will be entering his junior season for the Tigers, who move up to Quad-A this season. “It was crazy. I had a good camp and everything swung for me.”

But there were more benefits to his impressive performance. Less than 24 hours after his return, he was offered a scholarship from St. Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli. Within the week, he got offers from Akron, Duquesne, Penn State, Xavier and Memphis.
…
Ackermann has also received inquiries from Pitt, Maryland and Clemson about Walsh. As a sophomore, Walsh was Moon’s leading scorer with 15 points per game.
…
Aliquippa’s Jonathan Baldwin also received an invitation to the ABCD camp and came away ranked by Hoop Scoop as the 17th-ranked wing-forward. Baldwin has received inquiries from West Virginia, St. Joseph’s, Marquette and Tennessee.

Just something to watch.

Finally this tidbit from Mike DeCourcy.

Although not all the dates are firm yet, Pittsburgh has received enough interest from ESPN about arranging big games that the Panthers expect to play their most difficult nonleague schedule in years. Playing a lot at home, with only a few major challenges, is a formula that had worked since the program’s renaissance began early this decade. But the coaches believe this team wants the challenge of playing more tough games. One test that’s certain: a return visit to Big Ten contender Wisconsin.

I don’t think it has hurt that the fans themselves seem to be getting restless about all the patsies on the non-con. At least as far as getting people to pony up the money for those tickets and actually attend.

Honestly, I don’t care what the reason is. I’m just happy Pitt is making more efforts to schedule real opponents.

Yes, it’s a slow news day to start the week.

Those Home Depot/Team Colors paints (PDF Listings). They have them for Pitt.
I don’t know why it took nearly a month to end up on the Pitt site, but a press release about some players from the football team doing some community outreach stuff.

Members of the Pitt football team paired with 45 children from two local YMCAs to participate in the First Annual YMCA Football Clinic on Friday, July 7. In addition to teaching fundamental football skills, the clinic focused on teaching good decision-making with an emphasis on the importance of staying in school and developing teamwork skills.

“It is always a great feeling to come out and support younger kids,” said Derron Thomas. “The YMCA Football Clinic allowed us to show children the right way in life rather than finding trouble on the streets.”

In addition to Thomas, other participating Pitt football players included Joe DelSardo, Corey Davis, Doug Fulmer, Adam Gunn, LaRod Stephens-Howling and Cedric McGee. Each took time to talk with the children about the importance of teamwork not only on the playing field but also in everyday life. The participants also received instruction on football fundamentals, including blocking, tackling and route running. The clinic ended with a fun obstacle course that integrated all of these skills into one.

Don’t know if this on the Pitt propaganda show (seems like the kind of thing that would), but not all of us live in Pittsburgh to catch it.

I’ve harped on the fact that I feel the Big East is not acting with any foresight with regards to its television deals. I usually cite the Mountain West and now the Big 11 as conferences that are starting to look to the future. The issue isn’t simply about exposure. It’s about sustaining and growing the revenue streams and market to ensure the teams in the Big East do not lag, get forced to engage in deficit spending and other issues regarding the ever growing costs of being involved in top-level college athletics.

I noted earlier that the NFL Network will air and be the sponsor for the bowl game being held in Houston. That’s not all they get.

The NFL Network also received all media platform rights, including Internet, wireless, video-on-demand, satellite radio, and international TV rights for this bowl game.

That may seem like small potatoes for a minor bowl. So, who cares? But I’m thinking about what those rights mean in the football and basketball deals the Big East will be announcing. These are new, growing, emerging revenue streams that the Big East — and therefore the member schools — won’t be able to tap. Those will remain with ESPN/ABC and CBS (for some basketball).

That’s why professional teams are moving to their own networks as well as college conferences. Not just the revenue but distribution of the content. Future revenue that will only grow as more and more people don’t just use the TV. Additionally, by controlling the distribution of the games, the conference is not beholden or required to air the games when the network says so.

That means avoiding the Wednesday and Friday games to fill ESPN programming. Limiting the Thursday night games to keep them relatively special events. That was one of the major reasons the Mountain West went in a new direction. Being forced by Disney to play more and more games on weeknights began showing diminishing returns from the flip-side to network exposure — reduced live fan support/attendance. How many fans can keep coming to non-Saturday games? How does getting on national TV help, when the cameras show half-empty stadiums because people can’t make a Wednesday night game?

Again, this is about forward thinking.

The Big East seems to be allowing ESPN to control the where and when of airing games in a straight cash deal. While this is not as big a deal with basketball, it really makes a difference in football since that means they decide which games will get any TV — even if it’s just ESPN regional or to air in their gameplan package. The conference is dependent on the network to choose to provide TV coverage. For Pitt, that means going into the season, 3 games will not have any TV coverage whatsoever. Now while the Louisville game may ultimately be picked up, it seems unlikely the Toledo or The Citadel will.

I am well aware that the Big East schools are no where near the Big 11 in terms of size, popularity, alumni base, marketing strength, etc. — especially in terms of football — but the conference does need to do more to leverage the strength and interest that exists on the basketball side to plan ahead.

I try not to panic when I read things like this.

Wannstedt predicts that senior quarterback Tyler Palko will have a big season for the Panthers.

“We need him to move the chains,” Wannstedt said. “That’s what we need from him — just manage the game and let the other guys around him make plays. He will do that. He has prepared himself for this season and worked as hard as any quarterback I’ve been around. I wouldn’t want anyone else leading our team this year.”

Maybe, I hope, it’s just a matter of semantics. Perhaps what he really means is Palko shouldn’t feel or try to do everything. That he needs to let the team help and make plays.

It’s just I read something like “just manage the game and let the other guys around him make plays,” and I think about Coach Wannstedt and OC Cavanaugh’s history with QBs and what they want from them in the offense. Well, it takes a concerted effort not to start rolling around on the floor in a fetal position.

On the positive side, the same article mentioned that the academic performance of the team has been excellent.

The planned first week of camp for Pitt, with the freshmen and redshirt freshmen getting separate practice sessions to allow for more repititions and evaluation of the players, gets positive reviews from the players.

“Looking at it now, that’s probably the best thing to do for everybody to get a chance to show what they can do,” redshirt freshman receiver Oderick Turner said. “Everybody is going to be fighting to get on the field. We’re all trying to get the same two spots.”

By the second week of training camp, when the “orientation” period ends, Wannstedt wants to have an idea for a depth chart.

“I think it’s a smart decision,” junior cornerback Darrelle Revis said. “We’ve got a lot of freshmen who were highly recruited out of high school. They’ll get the opportunity to learn the offense or defense and be ready to play. We can see their talent and potential, and they’re trying to get them on the field. It’s going to be real intense. This is going to be the toughest camp we’ve had. It’s going to be a challenge.”

This is the sort of thing that will likely be copied by a lot of schools by next year. Especially if Pitt has a good season.

It’s the first indication that almost every job is up for grabs, as the Panthers will spend extra time evaluating a highly touted recruiting class with at least six incoming players expected to make an immediate impact.

“Honestly, looking back, I probably should have done it last year,” said Wannstedt, who led Pitt to a 5-6 record in his first season. “Everybody looks at this as it just benefits the freshmen, but really it’s not like that.”

The premise, Wannstedt says, is to take the emotion out of decisions and develop a depth chart based on production. Each player gets five practices. Veterans will be given a chance to solidify starting spots. Newcomers will be given more repetitions and time to digest the playbook.

Wannstedt warned that the groupings will be fluid, with players potentially moving between the squads on a daily basis.

This is only for five days so a player would have to absolutely blow or blow up to move up or down in that limited time.

Finally a bit from AD Jeff Long about the status of the Big East conference. Talking about Bowls.

“We are excited about all of our bowl partners and really we are already starting to look ahead to the next round of bowl contracts to see who might be interested in the Big East,” Long said. “The Toronto Bowl is really important because we as a conference are trying to brand ourselves in Canada and I know for Pitt, we have a lot of licensed products in Canada and this will only reinforce our brand as a football program.

“But I think one of the main reasons we’ve had some changes in our bowl lineup is that we felt like we had to play some BCS conferences more than just the ACC for a lot of reasons. As we go along we’d like to get more bowl games against the Big 12, the SEC and the Big Ten because those are the games that are the most attractive and they are all a part of our strategy as we go forward.”

A nice subtle shot at the ACC as well. Love it.

And then there are some new restrictions that go into effect conference-wide.

The conference also made another change when it passed a rule barring its members from accepting non-qualifying freshmen athletes, a move that was met by some resistance but has been applauded by the majority of its members.

Pitt had a policy against accepting such freshmen. Long said the rule evens the playing field in recruiting.

Only 2 schools voted against it. One was WVU — shocking, I know — and it was likely USF or possibly Louisville who also opposed.

Here’s an interesting piece on H.B. Blades rebuilding his relationship with his father, Bennie Blades, the last few years.

“He was in the NFL, bouncing around and doing those things,” H.B. said. “At first, ours wasn’t like a normal father-son relationship because he was doing football stuff.”

Bennie Blades, who earlier this year was voted into the College Football Hall of Fame, played nine seasons with the Detroit Lions and another with the Seattle Seahawks. During that time he largely ignored H.B. and his other children and in 2005 was ordered to repay almost $300,000 after pleading guilty to a felony for failing to pay child support.

But now, the relationship between Bennie and H.B. is closer than it ever has been.

“Our relationship is good,” H.B. said. “He realized he missed out on a lot. Now, we’re making up for things. It’s never too late to make a relationship better or get it back.” …
The tragic part of their reunion is that the death of Al Blades, H.B.’s uncle and Bennie’s brother, who drowned following a car crash in March 2003, helped bring them together. H.B., who was a freshman at Pittsburgh then, said his father became more involved with him after Al died at just 26 years of age.

“We grew up in the same household and (Al) took me under his wing because he knew my dad couldn’t be around as much as he wanted to be,” said H.B., who was raised by his grandmother. “He was my best friend. He taught me everything I knew about football. Even if he did something wrong, he’d say make sure you don’t ever do that. He taught me to be a gentleman and to be well-spoken and to carry yourself in the best situation because you never know who is watching. Everything he taught me I took to heart and still use it today.”

I did not know about the past estrangement with his father. Mainly because in the last couple years, the focus on H.B. and his family has always been about the bloodlines. The mentions of his tight relationship with his uncle never accompanied that it was in part because his father wasn’t there.

Obviously, closer to September 2, there will be more about UVA. B.B., though, was surprised that the Cavs could be classified as a “likely win” in the Athlon preview. To some degree I would prefer them to be in the “toss-up” category, but it is reasonable.

UVA was wildly inconsistent last year. Their QB graduated, their top runner graduated, and their stud LB Ahmad Brooks was dismissed from the team (he was drafted by the Bengals last week in the supplemental draft telling you about his character).

On top of that, their recruiting class which was decent is not going to be so in reality. 8 of the 24 commits have failed to make it academically to Charlottesville. The latest casualty is now heading to Rutgers.

It’s been a busy week, and I’ve been wanting to get this one out for several days. The Explanation of what I’m doing is here. Here’s Lindy’s and CBS Sportline Preview Mags.

Athlon is one of the early releasers. They hold a special place in preseason mags, because they helped pioneer the cheer-babe contest. Not a lot to say about Pitt, though.

They rank all 119 teams and put Pitt at #49 (p. 36).

As for Pitt’s place in the Big East (p. 40), the conference predictions are:

1. WVU
2. Louisville
3. Rutgers
4. Pitt
5. USF
6. UConn
7. Cinci
8. Syracuse

They go 2 squads on their all conference lists. For the 1st Team All-Big East: John Simonitis, G; H.B. Blades, LB; Darrelle Revis, CB; Adam Graessle, P; Revis, PR. The Second Team only lists Chris McKillop, DE.

As for the team page, I could tell you that they see the season as a growing year, but you can actually read the Pitt preview yourself since they partnered with SI.com. Essentially, they see no reason Pitt can’t have a winning season.

On offense, they seem more concerned about WR and RB than anything else:

But Palko needs some support, and beyond wide receiver Derek Kinder (37 catches for 374 yards), there are far more questions than answers on offense. True freshman wide receiver Dorin Dickerson, a consensus Top 100 recruit, could have an immediate impact. So should classmate Kevin Collier, a tailback brought in to jazz up a running game that ranked 93rd nationally last year. Sophomore LaRod Stephens-Howling was Pitt’s top rusher last fall with only 434 yards, though he did average a solid 4.5 yards per carry.

They almost seem optimistic about the O-line. A lot more than most Pitt fans.

The Defense is trying to get faster to make up for the lack of size. They don’t say much about how they think Pitt will be able to improve against the run.

While not on the SI.com-partnered preview, the print version (p. 131) does try to project the season on the schedule.

5 Likely Wins: UVA, Cinci, Citadel, ‘Cuse and UConn
2 Likely Losses: WVU and L-ville
5 Toss-ups: Mich. St., Toledo, UCF, Rutgers and USF

Back in April when this was put together, I wouldn’t disagree with that kind of projection. Now, with all the problems USF is having getting its recruiting class academically eligible (8 aren’t and 2 others have other issues), I would move USF to a “Likely Win.”

Okay, at what level of desperation do you reach for some college football, to to sit down — on purpose — to hear what Lee Corso has to say about the upcoming season of college football? That’s up to you to decide, except for the final thing which I believe to be rooted in fact.

10. College GameDay will become a two-hour show this fall.

We started 20 years ago with a half-hour show in studio. Then, in 1993, we took it on the road for the first time at the Florida State-Notre Dame game. Then, several years ago, we went to 90 minutes on the road every week. Now, the demand for the show is so great that we’re going to two hours. The College Football Hall of Fame is going to honor the show in December for its contribution to the sport. We are just a bunch of guys sitting around talking about college football. How great is that ?

I have a bad feeling about this. That means more time for longer, more annoying musical intros and graphics; more soft-focus profiles in overcoming tradgedy/hardship/poverty/bad parents/raised by another family member/crime story where “football was his escape/outlet/refuge.”