We went and visited family in Eastern PA this weekend. The drive back was excruciatingly long. It wasn’t traffic. It wasn’t the weather. It was just one of those trips — if you have kids you probably have a better understanding — where there was always another reason/need to stop. Continual bathroom breaks. Breaks for lunch and ultimately dinner. Little things that just kept adding to the length. Then there was all the complaining inside the car about how long it was taking to only make it worse.

So, I’m a little off today. This means, short bits before I can put my mind all the way back to work.

Brock DeCicco is transferring. Old news, but I wish him the best. If his choices are indeed Iowa, Wisconsin or VT then I hope he chooses Iowa. Given the way Iowa has tortured Penn State in recent years, I’d like to see DeCicco be a vital part contributing to that.

More old news is the uncertain future of Dan Mason. The issue isn’t whether he wants to play, or even to some degree if he will play. It is whether he will ever get the full medical clearance at Pitt to actually play.

“I will be back,” Mason said. “I have no question in my mind.”

Mason said the knee is OK, but the peroneal nerve that is essential to the muscles that lift the foot and toes was stretched and damaged and is taking a long time to heal. Doctors refuse to clear him medically before that occurs.

“They didn’t give me a timetable,” said Mason, a redshirt sophomore from Penn Hills. “Because of my nerve, you have no clue when that is going to come back.”

Meanwhile, Mason splits time among doctor visits, practice and rehabilitation sessions. He wears a helmet in practice, has taken a few snaps during the first two days of unpadded drills and targets this season for his return.

A damaged nerve is not just an unpredictable thing for when it will heal, but there is always the concern that it will flare or re-occur.

“Fails to meet expectations.” A damning phrase in any review or evaluation. And in a review of teams that fit that bill, Pitt is on the list.

The annual August tease: Just keep enough Western Pennsylvania kids home, and we’ll be winning like the Tony Dorsett days in no time!

The annual fall reality: The Panthers haven’t even been able to win the weakened Big East since Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College left.

Dave Wannstedt recruited well enough in six seasons. The trouble was always translating that to winning a league that has been dying for a bell cow program in recent times. Pitt has abdicated its responsibility to uphold the flimsy banner of the Big East.

On the not blackness of the soul part, at least Pitt was rather far down the list of “tease teams” in college football.

The theme also was picked up in a recent AP wire story. But at least it was in contrast to Todd Graham and trying to break that.

During his first team meeting, Graham promised the seniors he would focus on winning now. With the talent on the roster, he didn’t see a reason to wait.

“The key for us winning the championship are the guys that are returning starters, the core,” Graham said.

He ended up giving each of his players a T-shirt with the phrase “pay the price” on the front and “keep the change” on the back during spring drills, a reminder to them that he’s here for a reason: To help a program, that always found a way to fall just short of expectations, take the final step toward Big East prominence.

“We don’t want to revert back to old habits,” Graham said. “We want a different result … and that’s a championship.”

Now is always great, but for those looking to the future…

A Versus Channel film crew will be in Cleveland[, TN] for the next 10 to 12 weeks filming a television sports documentary to be aired over six weeks in October and November.

This special sports presentation will feature two of the top high school football quarterbacks in the nation, and what goes on in their lives day to day. One of them is Cleveland High School senior Chad Voytik. The second QB is Siler Miles of Denver.

Voytik recently committed to play college football at the University of Pittsburgh, while Miles has committed to the University of Washington.

…

Voytik said later, during an interview of the Raiders’ quarterbacks for the Banner’s Thursday football preview section, that he didn’t want the TV show filming to be a distraction. “I told my coaches that I didn’t want it to take away from our normal activities this season,” he said.

The television series, sponsored by American Family Insurance, will be shown by Versus in 30-minute segments over six consecutive weeks later this year. Versus, owned by NBCUniversal, reportedly will be renamed in January as NBC Sports Network.

The show will focus not only on Voytik, his family and his daily activities, but by association will also touch on Cleveland, Cleveland High School, high school football in the area and other communities in our region.

Here’s a little more about Voytik and a related video interview.