My son is playing an organized sport for the first time. He’s in an Under 8 soccer league. He’s 6, and like most six-year old kids can be easily distracted by a blade of grass just as the action is coming his way. It turns out, this makes me kind of crazy on the sideline when he’s out there. I do my best to stifle the urge to yell at him to pay attention or just get into the action. I just fear turning into that parent constantly berating and yelling at his kid all game long.

So I figure the better thing would be to practice with him a little bit. Make him more comfortable with things and be encouraging. We show up for practices and games maybe 10-15 minutes early and do some stuff. Maybe it helps, maybe not. What it did do is catch the coach’s attention and now I find myself as the substitute coach this weekend. That will teach me.

That puts me on a slight DVR delay.

There are 125 teams (I think) in Division 1-A. There is always a rough guess of where teams fall on that list.

Duke is not sure of what team they are, but there is a better idea based on what they have done after 3 games. The guess is they are in the lower half of all the 1-A teams. Not in the 90s or 100s, but somewhere around 65-85.

No one is quite sure of Pitt either. With blowing out a bottom-20 team and being blown out by a top-10 team, there is still lots of room. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d put Pitt anywhere from 42-72. I look at this game as a gauge on whether Pitt is in the upper-half of D-1 or lower.

Okay, Duke is 2-1. But it isn’t a great 2-1. They had a 1-AA patsy and struggled with Memphis before being trucked by Georgia Tech. Possibly the most humiliating aspect of being beaten by GT 38-14. The Yellowjackets scored four of their five touchdowns in the air. That’s right a Paul Johnson, option team that wants to run the ball found itself passing for touchdowns in and around the red zone. Georgia Tech only had 125 yards, but 66 yards came as touchdown passes.

Duke only managed 254 yards that day. About the only positive they had was that they had no turnovers.

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Pitt and Duke haven’t played each other in football in 37 years. Yet, you would think there is a long-storied past based on some of the stories from this week.

For two programs that are very different and only 17 games played between them, history is the theme. The first game was back in 1929, and Pitt was a victim of the 1938 “Iron Dukes” team.  But Pitt and Duke played another game in 1950 that at least counts as a step in history.

Pitt was about to travel to Durham, N.C., with a player destined to become part of a scene never witnessed on a college football field in that state: a black man playing against a white man.

Flint Greene, a backup defensive tackle for Pitt who was an all-state selection on WPIAL championship teams at New Kensington High School, made history that day, turning a 28-14 Duke victory into the first integrated football game in North Carolina. ACC historian Al Featherston said Duke and North Carolina had played against blacks only on the road out of state.

Altoona native Blaine Earon, a Blue Devils All-American defensive end, attended Wade’s meeting.

“He said to us, ‘If there is anybody who has an objection, let me know,’ ” Earon said from his home near Atlanta. “Nobody put up their hands. I’m serious. The only time it was mentioned was at that meeting.”

By all accounts, Greene’s presence prompted no reaction on the field or in the stands.

“You didn’t even know the guy was there,” said Billy Cox, the Duke quarterback.

It may have helped that Duke was very proactive in making sure there was no issue.

Wade warned his players he would pull them if they caused trouble for Greene. Duke president Hollis Edens and Wade issued a statement to reporters.

“Yes, we have heard that Pittsburgh has a Negro on its squad,” the statement read. “The coaches of each team have the unquestioned right to play any eligible man they choose to play. We have neither the right nor the desire to ask a coach to restrict or limit his team’s participation on the grounds of creed or color.

“Duke students and fans have a fine record of treating visiting teams courteously. We have every reason to believe this record will be continued.”

Cox, who grew up in Mount Airy, N.C., and was a classmate of Andy Griffith’s, said Wade’s warning may have been unnecessary.

“I don’t think we were far enough south,” he said.

Yes. Yes, you were. If that was the first integrated football game played in North Carolina. You definitely “were far enough south.”

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This week the Panthers travel to Durham, NC to face off with the 2-1 Blue Devils in a matchup most people would prefer to be on the hardwood. I love football, but Levance Fields’ game winner against Duke in Madison Square Garden a few years back may be my second favorite Pitt sports moment (I came to Pitt in 2004 you old farts). My favorite is still standing on the sidelines when Shady carried the ball every play but one on the game winning drive of the backyard brawl in 2008. While this matchup is on the grass, it’s still going to be an interesting one. (more…)

Give Pitt’s Athletic Department credit for creating some buzz once more for the start of basketball practice. Last year it was having an outdoor practice out on Bigelow Boulevard was a success and got plenty of national attention. This is a better than decent follow-up.

Fans will get their first glimpse of the 2013-14 Pitt Basketball Team when it hosts a “Morning Madness” event at Stage AE beginning at 10:30 a.m. prior to the Pitt-Virginia Homecoming Football game on Saturday, Sept. 28.

As part of Pitt’s “Super Saturday” slate of Homecoming events, a basketball court will be constructed inside Stage AE. “Morning Madness” will highlight the 2013-14 Pitt Basketball team and feature player introductions, various skits, promotional activities and a slam dunk contest. Admission is free and open to the public for the event. Doors open at 9:30 a.m.

I wonder if doing it after the game would preclude the post-Sweet Caroline exodus, but I guess they weren’t prepared to test the theory.

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A couple focus stories in the dailies today.

Manasseh Garner is really happy in Pitt’s offense.

Thoughtful and soft-spoken, tight end Manasseh Garner was not trying to brag Tuesday when he was asked to describe his duties in the Pitt offense.

“Linebackers, cornerbacks, safeties, I feel like, personally, you line me up against anybody and I’m going to win,” he said.

Strong words from Garner, a Brashear graduate who scored a touchdown against Florida State, his first game at Pitt since transferring from Wisconsin.

Garner, a junior, has much to prove in his remaining time, but at 6-foot-2, 230-pounds he combines the requisite size and speed that attracts attention from opposing defenses and has the potential to confuse them.

Especially when you consider how Pitt offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph uses him — splitting him out like a wide receiver and lining him up tight against the linemen to block. Garner said he’s a receiver 40 percent of the time

“That’s something that is really in his wheelhouse,” Rudolph said of lining up wide, “and he adapts to it easily.”

Versatile. That’s probably the best way to describe Garner. What’s great is his versatility is being used. It isn’t just trying to fit him into one mold. It is taking advantage of what he can do when the situation calls for it.

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This site takes a deliberate no political discussions, please — approach. This post will touch on politics, so I apologize in advance.

Specifically this will touch on the candidacy of Natalie Tennant. She is the Secretary of State for West Virginia and running for the US Senate to replace the retiring Jay Rockefeller. Yes, this will be about doing something stupid. I know, redundant when mentioning West Virginia.

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Tyler Boyd has gotten off to a tremendous start at Pitt. One that even has surprised him.

The Clairton High School graduate was named the Atlantic Coast Conference’s receiver of the week and the 247 Sports True Freshman of the Week Monday.

“It’s a dream come true,” Boyd said of his early success. “Everything I expected, but I didn’t know I was going to go through it this early. I’m just really happy about it and I’m thankful for everybody that helped me get there.”

Again, it isn’t that Boyd is good and has had an impact. It is that he has been so good and the impact has been immediate.

While Boyd is having the splashiest impact, he is far from the only freshman that is vital to this Pitt team for this year and the next few.

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With the game notes for the Pitt-Duke game out, it means we have this week’s depth chart (PDF, p. 3).

The only change is Todd Thomas is now listed as the starter at the Will Linebacker spot and Bam Bradley is behind him. How much of that involves Bradley’s shoulder injury is not clear.

If Bradley is healthy, I would expect him to see  time there and some time as the Sam Linebacker. Before the shoulder injury, he was listed as the starter at Sam.

Thomas in interviews after the game, has expressed how happy and grateful he was to be starting this past week.

Other than that no changes to the rest of the 2-deep.

Shai McKenzie, one of the top Pittsburgh area seniors as well as one of the top RBs in the nation, tore his ACL last week. This obviously knocks him out for the rest of the season and I know I speak for everyone when I say no matter where he goes to school, I wish him a speedy recovery. (more…)

Let’s put this in context right away. This is not a call for the benching of the QB. Not even close. This is also not a comparison to Tom Savage’s predecessor. While Tom Savage worries me for stretches and at time outright scares me, he does not create the game-long feeling of dread and inevitable disappointment of the QB of the previous few seasons.

This is merely an attempt to try and explain what does make me worry and nervous about Tom Savage when he drops back.

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Through two games, Pitt is -6 on turnover margin. Yet, it is fair to say that turnovers have been irrelevant to the 1-1 record. Oh, sure if Pitt hadn’t turned the ball over against FSU, it may not have been a blowout. But, no one can fairly (or without engaging in massive speculative fantasy) claim that Pitt might have won the game. With New Mexico, the only difference less turnovers would have meant would be a bigger blowout.

They do matter, though. This team is simply not good enough to consistently give away possessions (without getting nearly the same number of turnovers from the opponent) at the rate they have in the first two games. Except for Old Dominion, every game the rest of the way is a toss-up. Some may slightly favor Pitt. Some may slightly favor the opponent. That has to be cleaned up.

Onto the game.

This one was over by the end of the first quarter, but it remained entertaining.

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There really weren’t a lot of surprises in the game. I said in my Know Your Enemy column that this game shouldn’t even be close due to the talent disparity and thankfully I was right. It was 42-6 early in the third quarter and the team lost a little intensity at that point. I don’t want to say they were slacking, but it’s hard to play with 100% focus when you’re up by 36 points. That’s a lesson to be learned, but overall, the team did what they were supposed to do against an inferior opponent: won handily.

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This would be a much more exciting game if this was a meeting in November. And it was on the hardwood. Ah, well.

I was looking forward to getting to the Burgh until I realized that the game landed on Yom Kippur. So instead of meeting with my friends before the game. Sitting in the pressbox to watch. And all the other stuff. I’m not. Fasting. Heading to Synagogue shortly, then cutting out around noon to be home and watch the game without drink or snack. Yeesh.

This is the ACC Network Game of the Week. (Really? Wow? ESPN must have gobbled up everything else from the ACC if this is the best they are doing.) You can find ACC affiliates here.

So just the final media rundown.

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Some accumulated links to make it worth doing a post, before sundown and fasting begins.

On the recruiting front, Pitt is yet to officially have any commits for the 2014 class. So they make the list of teams “in trouble” with their recruiting class.

The Panthers have yet to land a commitment in the Class of 2014, and the roster next season is hardly imposing. Dixon will lose wing Lamar Patterson and big man Talib Zanna. It looks as though Pittsburgh is the favorite to land former Vanderbilt forward Sheldon Jeter, who transferred to Polk Community College. However, Dixon could also use another wing (i.e. Isaiah Whitehead) and a big man such as Josh Martin or Gary Clark.

Also on the list of “in trouble,” Michigan State, Michigan, Indiana, Gonzaga and UConn. So it isn’t really about “in trouble” so much as trying to land some very good players who aren’t deciding right away.

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