Okay, time to get all the stories out there linked and listed.

Pitt is atop the Big East with a 6-0 record. As if a top-5 ranking, preseason pick to win the conference, and being in the top-5 of the conference for Coach Dixon’s tenure didn’t put enough of a target on this team’s back. Not that I’m actually complaining.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Pitt has upperclassmen. UConn thinks that’s crazy because cool programs have nothing but kids turning pro early and a coach that runs off anyone else.

Pitt set a new attendance record of 12,925. Breaking the old record by 5. Incrementally pushing until the fire marshal gets pissed.

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From Stuart Mandel of Sports Illustrated.

And ESPN.com’s Brian Bennett confirms:

The new additions are Todd Dodge as quarterbacks coach, Spencer Leftwich as offensive line coach and Tony Dews as tight ends coach.
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Leftwich has coaches offensive lines for 20 years and worked in that position at Tulsa under Graham. He was also at North Texas from 2007-09.

Dews comes over from Michigan, where he served as Rich Rodriguez’s wide receivers coach. Dews also coached receivers at West Virginia in 2007, and is the fourth member of the staff — including Graham — who had served as a Mountaineers assistant under Graham.

In addition, Graham has installed Shawn Griswold as Pitt’s strength and conditioning coach. Griswold served that role at Tulsa from 2004-10.

That does mean that Buddy Morris is out as Pitt’s Strength & Conditioning Coach. Though, I half expect him to return in another couple years.

UPDATE: Here’s Pitt’s official press release on Graham’s Coaching Staff.

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I’d love to give you a big overarching message about this game. Some heavily symbolic storyline or theme. Really, though, it can be whatever you want. Make it macro, micro.

I don’t think there really is. It was a wild game. It was an absolute rarity in that so much was happening that Dick Vitale was actually forced to stay on point for most of the game. I’d love to be able to go big picture, but you can’t make those declarations at this point in the season. Doubly so in the Big East.

In fact, this piece by Luke Winn may be the best piece on the game.

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I’ll get to the media recap and my thoughts on the game in a post later today. But since I know that will take a little while to compile, just wanted to get this sidebar stuff out.

This was an event. Major media covering it from all sports sites. You had seemingly half the Pittsburgh Steelers show up to watch. Plenty of Pitt football alum like Dorin Dickerson, Nate Byham, Tyler Palko, Bill Stull, CJ Davis and of course Larry Fitzgerald showed up to see this game.

And of course, football HC Todd Graham and a bunch of recruits made an appearance. Presumably they were primarily local recruits. The info is behind the recruiting sites paywalls. I am reasonably sure Desimon Green did go, but the big one is 2012 recruit, Rushel Shell. You have to believe that Graham loved being able to pitch the kids with this game as the atmosphere.

A friend at the game texted me, “Graham took the recruits past the Zoo, then came up in the stands, put on a shirt, and is jumping around w the fans. Most of his coaches just joined in.”

And then someone posted the visual.

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