Most people you ask will say any logo choice that the Pitt Athletic Department makes which doesn’t involve changing back to script is a wrong choice. Even if you don’t think that, I’m sure we can all join in saying this is about as bad as it gets.

What we have is a replacement of secondary logo including a “sleeker,” more “modern” look. Yeah, right. Expect to see both of those words in the press release.

Some are calling it “Dinocat 2.0,” others saying it looks like a harmless dog. The topic has six pages (and counting) on the message boards. Chas also wrote about it over at the FanHouse.

The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle did a piece on football prospect Averin Collier and how much texting goes on in the recruiting process. Collier says during one recent month he received over 1000 text messages from coaches that want them at their schools. It’s pretty safe to assume Pitt is one of those schools and Dave Wannstedt is one of the coaches that sends him multiple messages per day.

“The recruiters ruined it because they overdid it,” he said. “It was a classic case of overkill, of trying to keep up with the Joneses. Syracuse sends you seven text messages in a day, so Pitt figures it has to send eight, and so on and so on. It just escalated to a point where it became ridiculous.”

He won’t need to worry once August 1 rolls around; at that point the NCAA’s ban on “electronically transmitted correspondence” goes into effect.

I’d also love to know how these coaches are sending these messages. Is it from a phone issued by the athletic department? Do they get a phone (probably more like a Blackberry) for texting? I wonder if I can get Wannstedt’s number and maybe we can chat about the season…

(Hat tip: David in Orlando)

This is apparently the latest on the possible Pitt-Duke game at Madison Square Garden (Insider subs):

Pitt is still trying to move three games, notably Dayton, so it can play Duke Dec. 20 in New York City. The Dayton game is scheduled for Dec. 22 in Dayton, which would mean Pitt would go from playing Duke in New York on Thursday to traveling Friday to Dayton to playing Saturday in Dayton. The chances of Pitt wanting to do that are zilch.

So basically, the game is still in the air until Pitt can get the other games shuffled. The other possible issue is the fact that the Big East will be playing 18 games plus Pitt has a February game at Washington. That means the rest of the non-con will have to be done in November and December. Very little wiggle room for make-up dates.

The December 20 game would likely be a main ESPN game. The only other competition for the WWLS would be the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego that night which I’m guessing wouldn’t start much before 9 pm Eastern.

In something of a surprise, Pitt got a verbal from Ashton Gibbs out of Seton Hall Prep in NJ. The significance of the school is that it was also Brandin Knight’s high school.

“I’ve known Brandin since I was a little kid,” Gibbs said. “We’re connected through Seton Hall Prep and him being in Pittsburgh was a factor. Brandin did very well there and I want to follow in his footsteps.”

Gibbs, who took an unofficial visit to Pitt last fall, chose the Panthers over Seton Hall, Virginia and Virginia Tech. He was first recruited by former Pitt assistant Mike Rice, then by new assistant Tom Herrion once Rice accepted the head coaching position at Robert Morris.

Gibbs, who says his strong suits are his shooting ability and ballhandling, will sign his national letter of intent in the November signing period. He joins two other recruits in the 2008 recruiting class — point guard Travon Woodall and small forward Nasir Robinson.

Gibbs is a good guard. Both Scout.com and Rivals.com put him as a 3-star recruit. He makes the Rivals.com 150 at #145. Seton Hall, Virginia, VT and BC were schools that had offered. Seton Hall fans seem especially bothered by not getting Gibbs. There were other schools that were interested, but hadn’t offered like G-town, Maryland and Iowa.

Part of the issue was a perceived lack of progress in his junior year. He went into the season as one of the top NJ players, was selected for the Eddie Griffin Challenge and NY/NJ Hoops master Dick Weiss even noted him as a player to watch. Pitt seems to see enough to like about him and may see him as something of a steal.

The big underlying story, is that Pitt does not have any more scholarships available. And there is the ongoing recruit/pursuit of Eloy Vargas one of the top power forwards that Pitt was supposed to be the favorite to get. It’s unclear whether Pitt has given up on him (unlikely) or if there is something else. So to see Pitt fill that scholarship now and with a player who is not comparably ranked by recruiters causes something of a head-scratcher and probably some annoyance.
I’m going out on a limb here, to say that a transfer is coming. For all intents and purposes, Pitt has a super-sized freshman class with Gilbert Brown and Austin Wallace having been redshirted. That means 7 freshmen players competing for time. Sure a couple of this year’s true freshmen will be redshirted, but there is going to be some competition and playing time issues. Especially at the forward spots.

I actually haven’t been at my computer in nearly 48 hours. Daughter’s 5th birthday party this weekend, so between all the preparations and family coming to visit I haven’t had the time or energy. Just taking a little time right now before I go and zone out with some Scotch and the rest of the US Open.

Pitt got a verbal from Chris Hayden-Martin out of Greensburg Central Catholic. Scout.com either doesn’t have their rankings complete or doesn’t think much of a 6′ 1″ CB (1 star). Rivals.com puts him at 3-stars and has him as the #18 CB in the country, while PantherLair lists him as the #20 Pennsylvania prospect. Pittsburgh Sports Report/Keystone Recruiting has him as the #17 prospect in the state.

Given his height as a CB and the fact that he also had offers from Alabama and South Carolina, this seems like a great verbal.

Over this weekend was Pitt’s Prospects Camp.

Among the nearly 200 pre-registered players were wideout Jonathan Baldwin from Aliquippa, Pa. HS, wideout Quamaine Bryant from Pittsburgh’s Brashear HS, lineman R.J. Dill from Mechanicsburg, Pa.’s Trinity HS, lineman Harold Coates from Youngstown, Ohio’s Ursuline HS, defensive back Mike Jones from Harrisburg’s Bishop McDevitt HS, lineman Ryan Turnley from Hopewell, Pa. HS, and lineman Tyler Wilson from Southern Columbia, Pa. HS.

Another 200-plus athletes will report for Prospects Camp Day 2 Saturday, including Vaughn Carraway from Muhlenberg HS in Laureldale, Pa., Marcus Sales from Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse, N.Y., and Averin Collier from Churchville-Chili SHS in Churchville, N.Y., as well as about 70 players that will fly in from Florida. Tight end Hubie Graham from West Scranton, Pa. HS was also in attendance Friday, hanging out with Pitt tight end Nate Byham, but he couldn’t work out due to right hand surgery.

According to the second day report, Vaughn Carraway was a no-show due to reported car troubles. His cousin and former Pitt Safety, Sam Bryant was at the camp to help. Many of the present Pitt players were at the camp (obviously) and some seem noticeably bigger.

Averin Collier spent the weekend with his big brother, Pitt sophomore running back Kevin Collier. The elder Collier appeared to be much more solid than the 5-11, 180 pounds he was listed at last fall. Another Pitt player who also was bulked up was safety Lowell Robinson. The senior said he was a solid 200 pounds, but his shoulders and chest looked much bigger. Robinson expected big things from the Panthers secondary this season.

Kevin Gorman in his blog, thinks Pitt will be getting several commits in the next few weeks including Averin Collier and the long-anticipated verbal from Lucas Nix. He also notes that several scholarship players may be leaving the problems because of Buddy Morris’ strength and conditioning program, academics, injuries and playing time issues. This includes Darrell Jones, Dexter Davidson and Kevin Hughes.

Kevan Smith got some face time in the “Sunday North” section of today’s Post-Gazette. The Seneca Valley grad is the lesser-known of the three quarterback candidates and probably has the lowest odds to end up as the starter in September.

One thing he seems to like is that he isn’t feeling pressure. It comes down to who he’s competing with; Bill Stull and Pat Bostick. Stull has extra heat on him because he’s seen more action and Smith, even though it was in mop up duty after Palko. Bostick is coming in as a freshman and has all kinds of expectations on him to be a “savior” of sorts. Smith? Well, he’s just a guy who’s going to give it his all and do what he can without feeling the pressure.

“I don’t have any of that,” Smith said. “I’ve always believed that hard work pays off and I’m staying positive. I’m only worrying about what I can do.”

He was redshirted yesterday last year and was able to bulk up from 210 to 230 pounds.

“I put on weight and I’m sleeker,” he said. “I’m quicker on my feet than I’ve ever been. I always wanted to see what would happen if I just concentrated on one sport.

This quarterback competition is going to be pretty interesting, huh?

Everyone likes Power Rankings, yet never before have we seen them completely dedicated to our Pittsburgh Panthers. Every week or so we’ll take a look at the biggest news makers related to Pitt sports — all in Power Ranking form.

5. PittsburghPanthers.com Writers
At the bottom of this article, they write:

Single-game tickets, if available, will not go on sale until August.

If available?

4. Joe Clermond, DE, Pitt football
Clermond was named to the watch list for the 2007 Bronko Nagurski Trophy. He’s going to be the only player on this year’s football team that will even be close to any sort of award, and yet we could finish with a better team record than last year.

3. Terrelle Pryor, Basketball/Football Prospect, Jeannette HS
Pryor said he wasn’t going to come be a Panther with little explanation.

“They’re just not in it,” Pryor said. “That’s my picks.”

Thanks, Terrelle. You’re really giving us all the info you can. Good luck with that NFL career. If you were planning on playing hoops in the long run then I’m sure you wouldn’t rule out Jamie Dixon’s team as quickly as you did.

2. Pitt and Michigan State
Jeff Long will be bashed in a moment, but being able to work with MSU and their AD, Ron Mason, to get the September 15 game nationally televised is a solid job.

1. Jeff Long, Athletic Director
There’s definitely some backlash towards the football starting times released so far. Most of the comments questioned the times and what the athletic department was doing. Long hasn’t been the most popular guy in Oakland for a while now and he’s yet to do something that really gets him in our good graces.

It’s the 50th Anniversary of the Big 33 game, and I think it’s safe to say that most college football fans just hope that the kids coming to their school don’t get hurt. The offline world kept me from doing this yesterday, but judging by the comments at the end of this thread, the general view to knowing Pitt commits are playing is fear of injury.

Now, the story on Linebacker Travis Wolff from Shaler is nice. I like very much that he wants to come play for Pitt. That said, I don’t know if or when that would happen.

After that, he will head to Milford Academy, a prep school in New Berlin, N.Y., where he intends to play in the fall.

Wolff hopes Milford is just a stop on his way to bigger things. A lifelong Pitt fan, his dream is one day to play collegiately with the Panthers, but he must get his academic resume in order first.

“I’m trying to look at this as a three-step process,” Wolff said. “The Big 33 is the first step and Milford is the second step. Hopefully, Pitt will be the third step.”

See, the NCAA has put new rules into effect with prep schools. Effectively funneling most kids who don’t have their academics in order to junior colleges.

But the NCAA changed the rules this year after thorough reporting by the Washington Post and New York Times exposed so-called diploma mill prep schools. So starting in 2008, to be eligible, a student will need 16 core classes and only one can come from a postgraduate year.

The article on Wolff doesn’t say what he needs to do academically at Milford. It seems though, that he needs more than one core class. If he’s serious, he may find himself in summer school instead trying to get as many core classes improved as he can.

Coach Dixon was a Hawaii assistant for a couple years, including just before joining the coaching staff at Pitt. He and his family seem to enjoy going back there every year, he’ll speak at the coach’s camp and he makes it a point to stop by and see the Hawaii coaching staff. The new Hawaii head coach was an assistant when Dixon was on the staff.

“I’m really happy for Bob,” said Dixon. “Now whether we’ll be back to play in the (Rainbow) Classic … I don’t know. The way the (NCAA) rules have changed, it’s harder to come out here. I would like to.

“And you look at the money, what we could do for four games at home. … What I’d like to do is figure out a way to play here without having to play Hawaii.”

Pitt hasn’t played in the Rainbow Classic since the 80s (I think). Hopefully Coach Dixon might be able to convince the school and those involved in running the Classic to invite Pitt in the next year or two. That might be part of the reason he continues to be involved at Hawaii when he visits.

College Football News has its 2007 Pitt Preview. As I read through it, then the Defense preview and Offense preview, I could picture Pitt winning 7 or 8 games. The problem was that I could also picture Pitt losing 7 games.

Wannstedt sees progress, particularly along the lines, but that might just be coach-speak from a man reeling from a wildly disappointing couple of seasons. The perfect remedy for the Panthers would be for the team to manufacture seven wins and a bowl invite, but that’ll require a number of first-time starters on both sides of the ball to grow up real fast. On the plus side, those young players have tremendous upside as Wannstedt has upgrade the talent level in a hurry (at least according to the recruiting types). More realistically, Pitt will have a decent year setting the table for 2008 when all the new stars from the past two Februarys have some experience on their résumés.

I don’t think fans and myself are setting the bar too high. All I want to see is that the team on the field is making progress in strides to match what we’ve seen in recruiting and what the coaches have been telling us since 2005.

The talent is there. I don’t doubt it. I actually feel very good about the offense as long as things get cleared up with the O-line and who the center will be (stunning and disturbing that McGlynn might have to be converted because there simply isn’t anyone who can even match the distinctly average work of Joe Villani).

McGlynn moving to center, solidifying the position while getting Pinkston into the lineup. Wannstedt desperately wants to get his five best linemen on the field at the same time, and this is a move that would certainly address that desire. McGlynn has played center before and is the team’s long snapper so he’s no stranger to this role.

The depth and potential for the running backs is exciting, but they still need room to run. That doesn’t simply mean that the O-line has to be good. They also have to be healthy all season. The O-line still lacks much depth. Especially if McGlynn is at Center. If Pinkston is starting, then Pitt will have to get incredibly lucky with injuries on the line.

The Receiving corp is arguably the deepest in the Big East (Louisville offers a better top-2 in Urrita and Douglas), so the potential to do 4 WR or 3 plus the TE to really open things up makes me smile.

Then it comes back to who will be the QB and will he have time to throw? Last year, we saw that the adjustment any semi-competent team made against Pitt was to start bringing pressure. Sure enough, they could blow right through the O-line and keep the play from ever happening.

Yes, Pitt will have more balance with the run, but it still depends on the O-line to give the QB time. Regardless of who the QB is, he will need time. He will be a first-year starter.

Defense. I’m just scared. The write-up on CFN is typical in that a bad D-line last year will be better this year based in part on another year of experience. There’s more depth, yes, but I’m not sure that I feel great that the starters from last year still couldn’t be unseated.

Once everyone gets healthy, the defensive line will better than last year, but still not where Wannstedt needs it to be. While it’ll improve on last year’s 21 sacks, problems with the run defense won’t go away overnight.

I actually believe the run defense will be better statistically, by simple virtue of the fact that it will be hard for it to be much worse. Also, teams will be more willing to throw — challenge Aaron Berry and likely Kennard Cox.

The Defense will come down to whether Pitt can stop the run at even an average rate. The Offense will score. And I really think it will improve during the season. But to have the offense Wannstedt wants the defense needs to hold a lead. Something they haven’t been able to do against average teams or better in the first two years.

The various college football awards watchlists are starting to trickle out. I have to admit to not expecting to see a lot of Pitt players listed on the watch lists this year.

DE Joe Clermond, though, name made it onto the Bronko Nagurski Award Watchlist for the best defensive player.

Last year he paced the conference and ranked 15^th nationally with an average of 1.38 tackles for loss per game (16.5 total). Clermond had at least one TFL in seven consecutive games to close the year and in 10 of 12 games overall.

The second-team All-Big East selection finished the 2006 season with 48 tackles and a Pitt-high 5.5 quarterback sacks.

Five other Big East players are on the list:

Rutgers — Eric Foster, DT

Rutgers — Courtney Greene, S
Louisville — Adrian Grady, DT
Syrause — Jameel McClain, DE
USF –  Ben Moffit, LB

Senior defensive end Joe Clermond was one of 49 players named to the Watch List for the 2007 Bronko Nagurski Trophy, annually presented to the top defensive player in college football. The Football Writers Association of America makes the list and eventually decides the winner from their 11-player All-America defensive team.

Clermond (Tampa, Fla./Chamberlain) returns for his final collegiate season as one of the Big East Conference’s elite defensive ends. Last year he paced the conference and ranked 15^th nationally with an average of 1.38 tackles for loss per game (16.5 total). Clermond had at least one TFL in seven consecutive games to close the year and in 10 of 12 games overall.

Clermond is going to be the best player on a defense that will likely end up being a giant train wreck. Mostly because of coaching, we were able to have stars like Revis and Blades and still have a poor defense. It’s a good honor for Clermond to have his name on this list and it should help him get his name out to more people and possibly get noticed by more and more NFL scouts.

The start times first three games of the football season have been announced.

Sept. 1 — Eastern Michigan — 6 pm

Sept. 8 — Grambling (1-AA) — 12 pm

Sept. 15 — @ Michigan St. — 12 pm

The Michigan State game will be televised on ESPN, so that’s some good news. No regional broadcast issues or blackouts.

Hilarious that Grambling will be a noon start. They really want to guarantee no one shows up for that game, don’t they?

Evening start for the first game. Whoo-hoo! Extended tailgating. Spending the night in the ‘Burgh.

In the last GrayWatch post, I noted that Aaron Gray went out to Vegas for a specific conditioning program and 1-on-1 service. The intense (and expensive) program really made a noticeable difference. Reducing his body fat and making him look more defined. Joe Starkey did a column on Gray’s draft status and condition that takes a slight shot at Gray being in great condition.

Pitt was hoping Gray would whip himself into that kind of shape for his senior year, after eschewing the 2006 NBA Draft. It didn’t happen.

See, he didn’t directly say he expected Gray to be in this kind of condition for the past season. Nor did he make a direct allegation that Gray was out of shape. Just that others had hoped that Gray would be able to get to this kind of condition, and maybe implying that because Gray wasn’t in NBA draft shape he wasn’t in shape. He’s merely taking note of what others hoped.

For example, the rest of the article is simply a rehashing from other stories on Gray’s draft status, the Orlando camp, and quotes from other papers and web sites. At that point I could say something like, “a more paranoid blogger would think Starkey merely skimmed the links and quotes from prior posts to do his own article.” That way I’m not actually saying I think he did it. Merely making an observation, and making it appear like a slimy action of stealing my work.

In all honesty, I think Starkey probably did. And that’s good. There’s nothing wrong with that. That means he’s reading (considering the daily referrer logs contain hits from Trib computers I already knew some were reading) and taking advantage of one of the things I do with this blog — aggregating the information.

Plus Starkey added some quotes from Gray’s agent doing a bit of spinning on Gray’s conditioning.

“He’s finally healthy,” Zanik said. “Nagging injuries didn’t allow him to condition properly. Also, he can concentrate on basketball every day now. It’s not anything Pitt didn’t do, it’s just having more time to focus on conditioning. I’m excited to see what he’s going to look like six months from now.”

Pretty much what you would expect the agent to say.

Put this under waste of talent.

One time Pitt recruit and former USF receiver, Johnny Peyton, was arrested and charged with possession of crack cocaine.

Coming out of HS for the 2004 recruiting class, Peyton was an solid receiver with tons of potential. He was supposed to be a good recruit for Pitt, and on signing day was considered a big score for USF. He set receiving and TD marks at USF as a freshman. His sophomore year wasn’t as good and shortly afterwards he either left the team or was kicked off of it — depending on who you ask.

I joked about a curse on 2004 recruits who reneged on verbals to Pitt. This, though, is Peyton’s own doing and own bad decisions.