The Stanford job is open, but seriously, that’s not a job Dixon would take at this point. Aside from, at best being a lateral move, Stanford AD Bowlsby was an idiot. He put off Trent Johnson’s contract talk all season — then wasted two weeks after the season without making an offer (Johnson was in the last year of his contract). What? He thought no one would be interested in a classy, clean coach who won at Nevada and Stanford?

Besides, how eager would Stanford be to hire a Pitt coach after what happened with Walt Harris?

That said, expect rumors and reports that Jamie Dixon is in California. Because he is.

Pittsburgh basketball Coach Jamie Dixon is returning to the Southland Saturday to be honored by his alma mater, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, at the school’s annual Knights of Honor dinner-auction gala at the Universal Sheraton.

…

UCLA Coach Ben Howland, a close family friend, will introduce Dixon. Jimmy Kimmel is the master of ceremonies at the event.

Yes, Jimmy Kimmel is the MC of a HS alumni event.

Bob Smizik puts himself into an interesting little corner in his chat.

SDWC: Hi Bob, I noticed in your column this morning a line stating “It’s nice to see a coach with his eye on the real target “. Was that meant to be a quiet dig at Jamie Dixon and the Pitt BB philosophy?

Bob Smizik: Yes, it was a reflection on how Pitt proceeds in the post-season. It was refreshing to see Therrien have his eye on the big prize and not the conference title.

There’s a few other Pitt basketball questions after that, and then this.

Baxter: Who has had the more successful basketball program over the past several years? WVU with two sweet 16 appearances and one elite 8 appearance with an NIT title in between or Pitt and its early exits from the NCAA tourney.

Bob Smizik: Pitt, with its Big East TOURNAMENT championship, probably feels it has been more successful. I also think it has the better record, although I don’t have those numbers in front of me. But based on NCAA play, the big prize, I’d say West Virginia has the more successful program.

By recent years, that is then limited to just the past 4 because WVU hadn’t been in the NCAA Tournament since 1998, prior to 2005. Then by that logic, John Brady and LSU is a more successful program in recent years. A lot of good that did the new coach at Arkansas -Little Rock State.

Sorry, I can’t buy into that. There’s no question that the NCAA Tournament matters. That it is the big prize. But to be outright dismissive of the regular season and the Big East regular season and the Big East Tournament is beyond moronic. No, I take that back. It speaks of someone who just doesn’t care about college basketball beyond the NCAA Tournament at best. Arguably, it is one of the worst things about being a college team in a pro town. The mindset.

It’s that reasoning which allows the BCS to survive, as proponents point to the claim that at least with the BCS, the regular season matters. That every game counts and it isn’t just to get to the playoffs.

A big Pitt/Wannstedt puff piece from Yahoo!/Rivals.com to start off the day.

The upset of West Virginia may not have been a fluke, but Wannstedt – ever the cautious coach – warns that it won’t matter when the Panthers open the 2008 season against Bowling Green on August 30.

“That will be the focal point, but it won’t have a darn thing to do with us beating Bowling Green,” he said. “Beating West Virginia reinforced that we could be good and reaffirmed to the kids we were recruiting that you could win at Pitt.”

There are a lot of reasons to anticipate a successful season for Pitt this fall. Seven starters return from a defense that ranked fifth in the nation last season. The return of Stull and Kinder should boost the passing game, which will benefit McCoy.

…

You also need a reliable quarterback. Stull, who has thrown only 30 college passes, doesn’t figure to challenge for All-American honors, but he should be an upgrade at quarterback. His presence is another reason many Pitt fans can’t wait for the season to start.

But Wannstedt can. “I can wait,” he said. “We need to work. The season will get here soon enough.”

When it arrives, Wannstedt will have a team with eight offensive starters returning. He’ll have a dynamic tailback, an All-American linebacker, a junior quarterback and an all-conference receiver returning from injury. He’ll have a team with one of the best defensive lines in America. He’ll have emerging stars, like strong safety Elijah Fields or defensive end Greg Romeus.

He has a team that lost three games by a touchdown or less last season and is seeking redemption. He has a team coming off that win over West Virginia. There are a lot reasons to like Wannstedt’s team in 2008. And he does, although not for the reasons listed above.

Looks like Pitt is set to be the trendy media favorite “darkhorse” team to “suddenly” jump from losing record to top-25 team at least. This always begs that deep philosophical question of whether a team can truly be considered a sleeper or darkhorse when everyone is picking them to be that team?

Paul Zeise has had a week to watch practices and the P-G beat writer has had daily Q&As. The first one, to the shock of no one was all questions on the O-line. The now annual concerns for the O-line.

Dickerson has looked great at TE by all reports, and that was another major topic for a Q&A. It was also the topic of this story.

“It feels good catching the ball again,” Dickerson said. “I worked real hard in the offseason. I knew this is what I wanted to do, and me and Bill went in there and started throwing every day.”

What has caught Wannstedt’s attention is Dickerson’s willingness and effort to take on defenders with blocks, even though Dickerson likened the difficulty of blocking linebackers to hitting a moving target.

“I was impressed with how he made an attempt to block. That’s usually the biggest transition for these kids,” Wannstedt said. “Catching the ball and running is an easy thing. Everybody wants to do that. Very few guys want to get in there and get their nose bloodied up. Dorin showed that he’s not afraid to do that. If he can keep that attitude, I think he’ll be an asset for us at tight end.”

At least he is willing and working on the blocking. If he can, then he has huge potential to be a key player in the offense.

The latest Q&A addresses Bostick’s wind-up motion –like everyone and their mother, Zeise believes Bostick will be redshirted — and then questions about the linebackers. Especially the young ones: Brandon Lindsey, Tristan Roberts and Greg Williams. And what do you know? A story on the linebacker corps to tie-in to this.

Now, the coaches seem to have found linebackers capable of delivering that speed. That group includes four redshirt freshmen in Max Gruder (middle), Greg Williams, Tristan Roberts and Brandon Lindsey, as well as redshirt sophomore Nate Nix.

Williams, who is 6 feet 3, 220 pounds and runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds, is the most intriguing prospect, mostly because he is physically gifted. He is a converted running back who seems to have picked up his new position well and continues to make plays in every practice.

“The competition we have at linebacker, I really like our young linebackers,” head coach Dave Wannstedt said. “I am really impressed with the progress all of them have made in two weeks. It looks like that will be a good competition and they’ll only continue to improve.”

Of the group, Gruder is the one who likely won’t see the field much this fall, because he is behind McKillop at middle linebacker and also is battling Steve Dell for the backup spot. But Gruder has been a surprise and looks like he might be a fixture at the position when McKillop graduates.

At this point, Shane Murray and Adam Gunn look to remain the starters at the WIL and SAM spots. The rotation, though, should be a little more frequent which means a lot more speed and energy regardless of who is out there.
Finally, there was recap article from Zeise at the start of the week on key obsrvations from spring practices so far. Most of them have already been mentioned in this and previous posts — Dickerson at TE, Stull will be the QB, WR is deep, Defense is strong, O-line [sigh] — but this stood out to me.

Buddy Morris is worth whatever they pay him — Morris was brought in last year as the strength and conditioning coach and he has transformed the program. His grueling schedule has instilled a mental toughness the team seemed to lack in recent years, and more importantly, they are stronger and in better shape this spring then they have been. The Panthers seemed to get stronger as the season wore on last year and played some of their best football down the stretch. That has carried over into the spring, and it is clear his contributions are making a difference.

This is a radical shift from his view on the whole matter in February 2007.

My point? Strength and conditioning is an easy target when things go bad, but I’d be willing to bet most strength and conditioning coaches are roughly the same and their success or failure is almost always commensurate with the talent they have to work with.

I agreed with his viewpoint back then, and I think there is something to be said for the change in players. The majority of the players now, are recruits Wannstedt has brought in. If we agree that the players are better physical, athletic talents, then it stands to reason that they will respond to most strength and conditioning better and probably faster.

Still, that he would change positions like this suggests that what Morris is doing has had a significant and noticeable impact on the players.

I’m going to share (one of) the dark thoughts in my mind. That little voice of doom and despair that goes against all this optimism and expectations for this coming season. The puff pieces and encouraging news of how the team is developing. Everything. And then that little voice whispers:

Remember 2005?

That first spring of the Wannstedt era. When everything looked so promising. All the national attention. The darkhorse talk of what that team might do? How good it could be?

I know, on a micro- level this is no where near the same. Players have changed, style, the departure of Rhoads. All that. Then that little voice gets louder when I read pieces foreshadowing in national mags.

I’m here in Pittsburgh and just finished a nice chat with Panthers’ coach Dave Wannstedt. As I got on the elevator at my hotel — a Roberto Clemente long ball from PNC Park — a few Pirates fans hopped on and were grousing about losing to the Cubs in the home opener.

Guy No. 1: “I’m done with the Pirates. Fifteen straight years of losing home openers.”

Me: “You guys know there are 150-something games left, right?”

Guy No. 2: “I can see the end from here.”

And I can see the beginning for the Pitt Panthers. It’s all starting to fall into place for this team, and I’ll address that more next week in SN Magazine.

I really get nervous when the other darkhorse teams Matt Hayes likes include: NC St., Mississippi St., Stanford and Michigan St.

Unsurprisingly, the defense looked great in the first scrimmage. Everyone healthy, more depth, cohesion and not a lot of losses from the starting D-line. That versus an offense that was a mess last year except for McCoy. That still has lots of key players out with injuries and a 1st round O-lineman gone. So nothing too shocking to this point. Still waiting on an O-line to show up.
Everyone’s probably read the stories and the way individual players like Safety Dom DeCicco has done to this point. Dorin Dickerson has looked good at TE, but then no one is asking him to block a this point. Every bit of good news, should come with some dark caveat. Or at least a “but…”
I can’t help but be optimistic, but then I’m always optimistic about the football team in April.