I know, it’s March. Should be all about basketball. And for the most part it will be. Well, there will be spring practices starting in about 2 weeks. That will be a distraction.

Still, some links I’ve accumulated relating to football items, so I might as well clear the palate first.

Let’s start with the head man. Coach Todd Graham was back in Tulsa for a funeral and to take care of personal business as he makes the move to Pittsburgh (his wife Penni has been a Tweeting source of info). He spoke with a Tulsa World columnist to try and smooth over some hard feelings from his departure (and subsequently competing with Tulsa for some recruits).

That is to be expected at any school when a successful coach leaves. There are some Tulsa fans who still mumble about Bill Self leaving as basketball coach more than a decade ago.

“There are two places that have special memories for me,” Graham said. “One is Allen (Texas) High School, where I coached for seven years. The other is the University of Tulsa. Those places mean a great deal to me.

“I didn’t come to Tulsa to leave. I was very committed to building upon what coach (Steve) Kragthorpe had done. I felt like the administration was very committed to football, and we got the football stadium upgrades. I think we were fully committed to the program and to making it better.”

There can be little question that Graham left the program in better shape, a hard thing to do considering the higher level that Kragthorpe brought to Tulsa football.

…

“We didn’t go looking for it, but it popped up again,” Graham said. “I talked with a lot of people, both in Pittsburgh and in Tulsa. I wanted to make sure that if I was going to leave a place I loved, I wanted it to be a great fit for us.

“When I took the Pitt job, I met with some of my good friends in Tulsa, people who made our success possible in Tulsa. They shook my hand and wished us well. That’s how I feel about Tulsa. I want nothing but the best for all of the young men in the program, all of those coaches and the people that love Tulsa football.”

There’s rarely a good way for a successful coach to leave without some hard feelings (just ask Ben Howland). Graham has said all the right things at both ends. Not much else that can be done. There’s always going to be a contingent that feels personally betrayed or outraged.

New Co-offensive coordinator Calvin Magee is excited about coaching at Pitt, and he says something that is music to the ears of every Pitt fan:

“We’re excited about the experience that comes back there with Tino [Sunseri], but we’re going to make it competitive,” Magee said. “Competition makes everybody better.”

One spot where there’s not a lot of competition, at least in the spring, is running back. Junior Ray Graham is the only experienced ball carrier and could see a lot of touches in this offense.

“I’ve coached a lot of very good backs in this system,” said Magee, who coached running backs at West Virginia. “And, boy, he fits it.”

Magee is fitting in at Pittsburgh, even if he spent several years on the other side of the Backyard Brawl rivalry. I asked him if he’s gotten used to wearing the Panthers colors yet.

“I’m excited about wearing them and I love them,” he said.

The coaches have an open mind about most spots. I’m hoping that most fans will. There’s been a lot of vitriol directed at Sunseri. Whether as a proxy for Dave Wannstedt or otherwise. No matter our own biases, he’s in the mix and there is still the possibility that he might emerge once more as a legitimate starter in this system.

Now for a somewhat awkward look at those who really were harmed by the Mike Haywood implosion. As much as Pitt fans bemoan the fate of the recruiting class, and the negative attention that ensued in the debacle, it really is hard to compare it to being stuck out of a job when there was no control over things.

In a flash, the 44-year-old Mottola was going from career high-water mark to the unemployment line.

Because of the postseason coaching turmoil at Miami — and at Pittsburgh–  not one full-time assistant will return to the RedHawks’ staff in 2011.

“I understand what’s going on, but I don’t think everybody understands the actual human factor,” Mottola said. “I’ve applied for unemployment and food stamps and all that … stuff I was hoping I would never have to do.”

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Mottola, a native of Castine, Maine, has had several coaching stops including Vanderbilt, Army and Kent State.

Mottola is married (Joni) with three school-age children. Mottola still lives in Oxford as he ponders his next move. His eldest child, Ciana, is a senior at Talawanda who has attended seven different schools. Daughter Adia is a sophomore at Talawanda, son Dominic a sixth grader at Talawanda Middle.

Christmas was great for the Mottolas. Haywood, after initially not offering Mottola a job at Pittsburgh, changed his mind. Mottola was headed to Pitt and would triple his Miami salary.

Some of the guys did manage to get jobs, and others will in time. This year, though, mainly due to the lateness of all that happened, many of them are stuck. Just more collateral damage from Mike Haywood flushing his career down the drain.

The last couple years — Cinci excepted — the Big East has become a defensive conference. Offense has been spotty at times. Things are a-changing.

So when Calvin Magee came in as part of Pitt’s third staff in roughly a month, he expected the players to act guarded and reserved around the coaches. Instead, they have responded with enthusiasm because of one thing: the new offense.

“All you have to do is look at the numbers, and it’s hard not to get excited about that,” Magee said.

Magee was Rich Rodriguez’s offensive coordinator last year at Michigan, which ranked No. 8 in total offense. His new boss, Todd Graham, oversaw a Tulsa offense that finished fifth nationally in yards per game.

Now compare that to Big East offenses, which acted as if the NCAA mandated cement shoes for the 2010 season. No league teams ranked in the Top 30 of the FBS in total offense a year ago, and only one (Cincinnati at No. 32) finished among the best 66 offenses in the land. It’s telling that in the Big East’s top two bowl games — the Tostitos Fiesta and the Champs Sports bowls — its teams combined to score exactly one offensive touchdowns in a pair of blowout losses. Connecticut, which won the league’s BCS bid, had one of the worst passing games in the country and reached the end zone offensively only once in its two most dramatic wins (vs. West Virginia and at South Florida).

When the Big East churned out national title game contenders from 2006 to 2009, it was led by high-scoring outfits like Rodriguez’s spread-option teams at West Virginia, Bobby Petrino’s multi-faceted attacks at Louisville, and Brian Kelly’s high-tempo passing machines at Cincinnati. The league’s reputation went down with its scoring last season, as no conference teams made the final Top 25 of either major poll.

So, it’s not just Pitt players who should be excited about offensive changes this spring. It’s everyone who’d like to see more points — and perhaps a ranked team or two — in the Big East.

I’m the first to shout, “correlation does not equal causation,” so I’m definitely not saying that the Big East will be back just because the offenses at Pitt, WVU, Rutgers and maybe even UConn will see a change. Besides, TCU will be here in a year, and they dominate with defense. But at least it might be a bit more fun.

And let’s face it, the change to offense is what most are watching to see.

1. How quickly can Pitt and West Virginia pick up their new offenses?: Dana Holgorsen might hold the key to the entire Big East 2011 race in his playbook in Morgantown. Meanwhile up I-79, Todd Graham will bring a wide open no-huddle attack to Pittsburgh. Both Holgorsen and Graham have overseen some of the most productive offenses in the nation at their previous coaching stops. How quickly can they install their systems at their new jobs?

And of course there is the NFL Combine — even if there won’t be a season. Jon Baldwin is on the damage control/reputation repair mission. The raw physical talent is not a question. All of them have to do with attitude. He had an up-and-down combine.

Dion Lewis, at best, looks to be a late-round pick. But he has made some impressions.

Dion Lewis, RB, Pittsburgh Panthers: I loved Lewis after the 2009 season (who didn’t?), but expected him to come back for another year after a disappointing 2010 season. He instead opted to enter the draft where he is probably a third day pick. I would have liked to see him show up in Indy with closer to 200 pounds on his 5’6/5’7 frame, but he did look very fluid in position drills. He could be a steal on the third day.

and

Dion Lewis, RB, Pitt. His lateral quickness was impressive during running drills. He changed directions suddenly and without losing speed. He did not run fast in a straight line but confirmed his exceptional agility, body control and balance.

Henry Hynoski is trying to sell himself in the throwback mold.

Hynoski spoke of playing “with disregard for my body,” and “wearing people down.” Hynoski patterns his game after former Bucs fullback Mike Alstott because “he was a beast,” and his father, who made it to the NFL with the Cleveland Browns. Hynoski has watched all of his dad’s game tapes from high school through the pros.

“I idolized my dad,” he said.

I asked Hynoski about his forty time, and he said his focus was not on long-distance speed but rather on 10- and 20-yard splits, the vertical, and drills that show explosion. His training approach makes sense, since NFL fullbacks rarely run forty yards downfield.

No one needs to see that.

Jabaal Sheard seems to be getting love as a sleeper/steal pick in the second day.

Injuries galore in his senior season, someone is going to grab Greg Romeus. It is only a question of whether it will be to play DE or LB remains to be seen.

As for Jason Pinkston.He didn’t wow anyone, but he didn’t do anything bad. He will get drafted and then, one day, will star in the remake of Backdraft.

Pinkston, who is 6 feet 3 1/4, 317 pounds, was a junior volunteer fireman for the South Baldwin Volunteer Fire Company from his sophomore year at Baldwin High School through his freshman season at Pitt. His college degree is in administration of justice, and two years ago he did a summer internship in the arson detection department of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire.

“I loved it a lot,” Pinkston said. “It was nice to get out in the community and help people out. Not too many people volunteer to do that. Their numbers are low. I used to be terrified of fire trucks when I was little, but then there was a horn going off and I was like, ‘I want to get into this.’ I actually went up and I got involved with it and I love it a lot.”

It wasn’t just any internship. Pinkston worked with detective Michael Burns of the Pittsburgh Police department, who is also an arson inspector, and accompanied him on each shift, even the midnight shift. When Burns had to investigate a fire scene, Pinkston went with him, often digging through the rubble to help determine the origin of the fire.

Pinkston loved it so much he said he wants to get into some form of fire prevention or detection when he is done playing football. Right now, he hopes that career is still a number of years away.