Yesterday I promised words and pictures for this post. That’s before I found out that my camera was not going to work with me in uploading the pictures I took onto the computer — so we’ll move along without pictures until a) someone sends some to my e-mail address, or b) I am able to get my own pictures to upload. Anyways…

Thursday night was the first time I had been to a Pitt Football Fan Fest, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. We walked in Gate A (by the river, under the scoreboard) and were handed a roster by some cheerleaders, which turned out to be a handy tool during both the autograph sessions and the practice.

The seniors were sitting at tables on the south plaza (or what I call the “giant patio”) facing the scoreboard so that they could meet the fans and sign autographs. The combination of me not being big on autographs as well as long lines kept me from talking/taking pictures with any of the seniors. Over to the far left, near the tunnel the team comes out of, Stan Savran was doing his show, interviewing Dave Wannstedt and a handful of players.

Onwards to the Great Hall where the rest of the players were broken up by positions to sign whatever fans brought to them. Once again, I didn’t get in line but I was happy enough to just see some of the players up close in street clothes (read: game jerseys and jeans).

The autograph session that was supposed to last from 6:30 to 7:30 was ended ten minutes short. One of the security guys said, “The coach wants ’em down there” — not sure if he was serious or not. As he walked from his table to get down onto the field, I was able to shake Oderick Turner’s hand (my personal favorite player), and he thanked us for our support.

Between the autographs and the practice, we headed over to the team store. We were greeted by a display of about 8 shirts — every single one of them plastered with the new logo. I might be able to live if it was 2×2 inches but the thing was HUGE. I’m also wondering why they are selling replica jerseys that look nothing like the game jerseys.

The block PITT is nowhere even close to being the same size and the shades of gold are different on the replica compared to the real deal. I realize that’s exactly what it is, a replica, but a replica of what? Certainly not the jersey the players wear.

After grumbling to myself about not liking anything I saw over at the clothing tent, we moved to some seats a few rows off the field near the corner where the visiting fans usually sit.

The practice was basically a big joke; players going at 50%, no fun drills or anything. The first thing the skill players did was field punts/kicks, with one of the groups catching kicks from who I believe was Henry Hynoski. One thing that will stick in my mind was that the first time everyone got to see LeSean McCoy in action, he dropped his punt return. I didn’t really watch the practice too closely (and do any sort of real reporting like I could have), but instead chose to take in the whole thing and talk about the upcoming year with two friends: one being very cynical, one very optimistic — which leads to some interesting chats.

Fan Fest was something that I needed to attend simply because I was going through some serious college football withdrawal — thankfully the real games start in only a week.