Thanks, Dennis for the draft. Here’s what it looks like at the moment after I hacked at it.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	–
2	Oregon	–
3	West Virginia	1
4	Kansas	1
5	Oklahoma	1
6	Missouri	1
7	Southern Cal	1
8	Ohio State	5
9	Georgia	3
10	Arizona State	–
11	Virginia Tech	7
12	Texas	4
13	Florida	2
14	Hawaii	–
15	Virginia	5
16	Tennessee	5
17	Boston College	8
18	Clemson	4
19	Auburn	6
20	Cincinnati	4
21	Illinois	5
22	Connecticut	11
23	Boise State	–
24	Wisconsin	2
25	Brigham Young	1

Honestly, I really like Oregon and want to put them #1, but I don’t trust them. They’ve proven me wrong too many times in prior years. Besides. Being #1 seems to be an invite to disaster. Well, just being in the top-5 seems to fit that bill this year.

The bottom half of the poll is getting ridiculous.  I keep looking at teams (Texas, VT, Virginia…) and muttering, “that’s too high,” but there’s no one to put ahead of them. I pulled the plug on Michigan, and if someone can really make a case on booting Auburn (4 losses and in the top-20, that’s a problem) I’m ready to listen.

I don’t think it fully dawned on me that it was actually hoops season until I wrote that last post about the 103-62 win over Houston Baptist.

The absolute best collaboration of bracket predictions is the Bracket Project. It’s amazing and amazingly pointless to predict the brackets at any point during the season, especially before the season even starts, but Pitt’s average projected seed is currently on the 7 line. The highest projection for Pitt is 3 and the lowest is 9.

BigEastHoops.com sees Pitt finishing 9th in the Big East since we have “nothing in the middle.” Presumably because they’re not familiar with Dejuan Blair.

9. Pitt - Their dynasty is over. With Gray and Kendall leaving, Pitt is left with nothing in the middle. In a league that has such great big men, the Panthers will struggle to beat the top teams. The backcourt of Cook, Ramon and Fields are very good. But with no inside game, Pitt will struggle to find points. They’ll still beat the weak teams of the league, but I can’t see them finishing much higher than 9th.

Blair won’t lead this team to a conference title, but I think he’ll keep Pitt from falling as far as 9th or worse.

Big East Basketball Report compiled a preseason power poll as well as conference awards.

2007-2008 Big East Pre-season Poll (first place votes in parenthesis):

1) Georgetown (13): 282 pts. Hi: 1st. Low: 3rd.
2) Louisville (5): 274 pts. Hi: 1st. Low: 3rd.
3) Marquette: 243 pts. Hi: 3rd. Low: 5th.
4) Syracuse: 206 pts. Hi: 3rd. Low: 8th.
5) Pittsburgh (tie): 200 pts. Hi: 3rd. Low: 10th.
5) Villanova (tie): 200 pts. Hi: 2nd. Low: 8th.
7) Connecticut: 195 pts. Hi: 3rd. Low: 10th.
Providence: 165 pts. Hi: 4th. Low: 10th.
9) Notre Dame: 154 pts. Hi: 5th. Low: 12th
10) West Virginia: 142 pts. Hi: 4th. Low: 11th.
11) Seton Hall: 98 pts. Hi: 9th. Low: 14th.
12) DePaul: 84 pts. Hi: 9th. Low: 16th.
13) Cincinnati: 82 pts. Hi: 10th. Low: 15th.
14) St. John’s: 57 pts. Hi: 10th. Low: 16th.
15) South Florida: 35 pts. Hi: 13th. Low: 16th.
16) Rutgers: 31 pts. Hi: 14th. Low: 16th.

Seems like Pitt is one of the toughest teams to gauge, with their high-low differential of 7 (10-3=7) is only tied by UConn and DePaul — DePaul doesn’t really count though, because they’re near the bottom and once you get closer to #11 or so, all of the teams are similarly bad.

The preseason awards portion has Levance Fields on the all-conference 3rd team, Dejuan Blair on the all-freshman 2nd team, and Bradley Wannamaker on the freshman honorable mention list.

Thanks to Dennis for the initial draft. A bit of tweaking, but mostly stable this week.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	–
2	Oregon	2
3	Ohio State	1
4	West Virginia	1
5	Kansas	3
6	Oklahoma	–
7	Missouri	2
8	Southern Cal	2
9	Boston College	6
10	Arizona State	3
11	Connecticut	5
12	Georgia	1
13	Auburn	1
14	Hawaii	1
15	Florida	3
16	Texas	1
17	Michigan	1
18	Virginia Tech	6
19	Alabama	–
20	Virginia	6
21	Tennessee	2
22	Clemson	–
23	Boise State	2
24	Cincinnati	2
25	Wake Forest	10

It’s really the kiss of death this season to put a team at #2. Oregon, though, should be up there. I’m starting to feel very shaky about keeping LSU at #1. They aren’t as shaky as Virginia, but they aren’t exactly inspiring either.

Virginia remains about the luckiest team this season. Another 1 point win, and this time the Wake Forest kicker who has been completely automatic since last season misses one at the end of the game. Yeesh.

Sean from the excellent Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician blog and discussed the state of Pitt and Syracuse last night, ahead of this weekend’s game. Here’s an excerpt.
NunesMagician: In reading some of Wannstedt’s comments this week I get the sense his interviews are as painful to listen to as Greg Robinson.
PittBlather: I noticed you commenting on that. I think there is something wired into former DCs of the pros.
NunesMagician: Like they can’t tell the truth, no matter what
PittBlather: It’s always frustrating when coaches speak and there is such a blatant disconnect between their words and reality.
NunesMagician: Robinson would gain so much goodwill with the fans if he would just be truthful. We all know things suck, just admit it and move forward
PittBlather: Yes, but that would mean admitting culpability. It’s easy to say — I’m the coach it’s on me — overall. But to take specific blame for things. Like a porous d-line. Never getting a grip on the concept of defending the spread. Developing an O-line. No. Then it’s just bad luck and things that will happen eventually.
NunesMagician: Right…of course. Luck of the draw

Too many spots and not enough teams. That’s exactly what it felt like by the time I finished the ballot. I’m not at all happy about this, but that’s the way it is.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	–
2	Ohio State	–
3	Boston College	–
4	Oregon	5
5	West Virginia	2
6	Oklahoma	1
7	Arizona State	4
8	Kansas	5
9	Missouri	3
10	Southern Cal	2
11	Georgia	15
12	Florida	8
13	Hawaii	1
14	Auburn	4
15	Wake Forest	4
16	Connecticut	10
17	Texas	–
18	Michigan	2
19	Alabama	2
20	South Florida	14
21	South Carolina	6
22	Clemson	4
23	Tennessee	3
24	Virginia Tech	8
25	Boise State	1

Waitlisted/Standing by: Does it really matter?

I found myself wanting to drop Kentucky and South Carolina, but not enough other teams worth putting in the ballot.  I mean, Boise State managed to get back into the rankings. Opted to drop Kentucky, despite their win over LSU. South Carolina holds the head-to-head edge and I’ll generally favor the team capable of playing defense. By the same token, I realize that Tennessee beat SC last week, but given the up-and-down nature of the Vols I expect a loss in their next game and them to drop from the ballot. Absolutely no faith in them.

The more I see of Oregon, the more I like — not withstanding the unis.

Arizona State is worthy of respect, but there’s a good chance their starting QB won’t be available.

South Florida will start winning again. They have two games left at home — where they are far better. Their remaining road games are at Syracuse and Pitt. No excuses. They should sweep the rest of the season or they are out of the poll.

Eh. Here’s the composite from all voters. Here’s where you can look at individual ballots.

I can’t say I’m completely buying into it. The spin isn’t just playing the freshmen, but playing “underclassmen.”

In Saturday’s loss at Louisville, Pitt started three freshmen – quarterback Pat Bostick, tailback LeSean McCoy and wideout Maurice Williams and three with sophomore eligibility – right guard John Bachman, tight end Nate Byham and wideout T.J. Porter. Three defensive players – cornerback Aaron Berry, tackle Mick Williams and outside linebacker Shane Murray – also have sophomore eligibility.

“I like the attitude of our team,” Wannstedt said. “I think we’re better conditioned, and we’re stronger mentally. When it’s 14-0 at Louisville at their homecoming game, it’s easy to fold your tent with a freshman quarterback and a lot of young kids. The seniors of this team, they just kept plowing, and I like where we’re at.”

Key phrase, “sophomore eligibility.” Bachman, Williams and Murray are all redshirt sophomores. Technically underclassmen, but not exactly.

Citing Porter and Byham is just silly. Byham was a top TE recruit in the country, so you hope he is starting at this point. The WR position last year had two redshirt freshmen in Turner and McGee seeing lots of action, and in Turner’s case starting. Exactly why is Porter starting as a true sophomore hold great meaning?

So reading how progress is slowly coming. Well… it just causes teeth grinding.

“[Progress] is slow, it’s not as fast as I would like,” he said at his weekly news conference. “It is not as fast as anyone would like, but we’re dealing with a great group of kids. The attitude is great. You wouldn’t know we are 3-5 if you watched these kids practice and study and get ready to try and win.”

If you watched them in the games however…

This article by Gorman actually implies Syracuse is also making progress. In rebuttal, this from a joint effort of Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and Orange 44.

Maybe in retrospect we expected too much to improve. But it’s not wrong of us to assume SOMETHING would have improved. Never has a football game been such a sobering experience than that Washington game. I joked beforehand about what it would be like if we lost by 40…and then we almost did.

2. Orange::44: Who is to blame for the football team’s underperformances? Is it DOCTOR Gross with his mismanagement of the department, Greg Robinson for being a bad coach and recruiter, Nancy Cantor for being a terrible Chancellor, or is it a combination therein?

Nunes: In theory you could trace the blame all the way up. Robinson for being a bad coach, Gross for hiring Robinson, Cantor for hiring Gross, Cantor’s mother for giving birth to her, Cantor’s grandmother for giving birth to Cantor’s mother, and so on until, ultimately…the blame falls to God (however you describe him/her/it).

In practice, I think you have to look at Gross. If it’s true that he only interviewed two people for the head coaching position and then decided his search was over because by the grace of God, Greg Robinson appeared before him on a diamond-studded chariot, heralded by angels, claiming that rapture and/or national titles would befall Syracuse upon his hiring…well then its Gross who needs to answer to why that didn’t happen. (The national titles, I mean. The rapture didn’t happen cause we’re all sinning masturbators, obviously)

No matter what you think of Coach P, it was a bad move to fire Pasqualoni and have no clear successor in mind. It was a bad idea to hire a lifetime coordinator and not interview other applicants as well, including ones with a history in the program and at the university. It was a bad idea to invest so much money into the state of the current program as it continues to underachieve. And it will ultimately be a bad decision to continue letting Robinson coach the team as the program and the school lose money, fan support, money, national appeal and money.

I guess Gorman was stretching a bit to make a complete parallel between Robinson and Wannstedt. The differences are that Wannstedt is an alum and is recruiting extremely well. Robinson is neither and is toast. Coming Thursday, you can expect a transcript of a chat I’ll be having with Sean from Troy Nunes… in anticipation of Saturday’s game.

Solid podcasting from CFB Weekly takes a step backward this week. They talk to me about Dave Wannstedt, Pitt and dodging the Morelli bullet. Take a listen and fully grasp why I should be read and not heard.

Also on there, the always entertaining Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician. Really, it almost  took a coach on the hot seat episode as UCLA and Ole Miss bloggers were also in the mix this week.

Even without a lot of upsets like the past couple of weeks, there were still enough to make this a mess. Thanks as always to Dennis for starting this.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	6
2	Ohio State	–
3	Boston College	–
4	Florida	4
5	Oklahoma	1
6	South Florida	5
7	West Virginia	2
8	Southern Cal	2
9	Oregon	5
10	Kentucky	4
11	Arizona State	1
12	Missouri	1
13	Kansas	2
14	Hawaii	2
15	South Carolina	10
16	Virginia Tech	2
17	Texas	2
18	Auburn	1
19	Wake Forest	5
20	Michigan	5
21	Alabama	5
22	California	11
23	Rutgers	3
24	Virginia	2
25	Penn State	1

Wait-listed/Standing by: Who the hell knows any more?

I have to say, watching the Oregon game was a really impressive thing. They have one of the best offensive lines in the country.  Shaky (to be kind) defense, but they are damn entertaining to watch.

This season, there isn’t a team on the list of top-25 that wouldn’t truly shock me to see them lose this coming weekend. It’s just that kind of a season.

This is just one of those years, where you want the poll to stop at top 10 or maybe 15. Trying to figure out who “deserves” to be ranked after that is just a crap shoot.

Hey to those not making this game. Nasty case of bronchitis kept me home for the day. Between the hacking and the side-effects of the antibiotics, I wasn’t going anywhere. So that puts me in full couch potato mode, but disturbingly sober. Will this game force my hand? Let’s find out.

12:08: Hey, no 3 and out to start the game. Promising? Or just raising some small hope to create greater anguish? Discuss.

12:11: Quote from the play-calling booth after Bostick was under immediate pressure from the shotgon. “The last two plays the Pitt offensive line did not win the battle up front.” There’s something new. Punting.

12:12: Sigh. QB Ben Mauk takes off for 56 yards on Cinci’s first play. Well, the defense is stable. Unfortunately.

12:15: TD Cinci. A little over 2 minutes to go 82 yards.

12:22: The O-line isn’t waiting to lay down for this. I am not feeling good that I will be keeping this up beyond halftime. 4th and inches (with a good spot).

Going for it.

“That’s not a good push. That’s not a good push at all.” Your Pitt Panthers O-line folks.

7-0 Cinci. 9:27 left in the first quarter.

Not promising.

Sigh. Didn’t get it.

12:27: Homecoming. Beautiful sunny day. Lots of empty seats. That’s what happens when there is no hope.

12:28: Cinci is trying to help. 2 false starts after Cox committed the blatant pass int. to Put it inside the 20.

Surprise. Mike Phillips was in a good position to help and stop the TD pass.

A blitz? From Pitt? It worked? No sack, but holding Cinci to a FG when starting inside the 30.

10-0 Cinci. 6:55 in the 1st quarter.

12:37: A change of pace with LaRod Stephens-Howling.

Some actual time to throw for Bostick and he gets 18 yards to Turner. Underthrew the ball, though.

No, no, no. I know you want to give Howlings some touches, but go with some change of pace on the drive. Get McCoy back in there in the same drive to keep the defense a little more off-balanced.

Damn, just out of Turners reach on that slant.

FG.

10-3 Cinci.

12:46: Just dissecting the Pitt D with this drive so far. Pathetic.

12:48: Of course a little blind luck helps. A false start than a bad snap goes past Mauk and now it’s 2nd and 22 back beyond midfield.

The first quarter ends and Pitt is only down 7. How sad is that to feel that Pitt is lucky to only be losing by a TD after only 1 quarter?

12:53: Start of Q2 and Greg Romeus makes a great leap to knock the ball away in what would have been a bubble screen.

Pitt takes over on the 31 after the punt.

12:54: Can you imagine how good Pitt’s running game could be with an O-line? McCoy got 8 yards all by himself.

12:56: Mo Williams on the end around. Great sell by McCoy and Pitt is moving.

Ugh. Pestano now called for a personal foul. That was weak. Both were shoving.

1:01: Bostick is really underthrowing the ball on deep throws.

Punt. Fair caught at the 12. Now flags after the punt. Late hit by Cinci. Backed up to 7.

1:05: Hey, the defense held and may actually put the offense in good field position. Depending of course on how Pitt returns the punt. Cinci just has started very sloppy.

(more…)

Darts anyone? This has ceased to be fun.

Dennis, as usual did the initial heavy lifting and I did a little tweaking. The floor is now open for comments. Please, when you complain about who is ranked and where, offer a reasonable suggestion as to who should be higher.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	South Florida	3
2	Ohio State	–
3	Boston College	2
4	Oklahoma	2
5	South Carolina	2
6	Kentucky	11
7	LSU	6
8	Florida	–
9	West Virginia	3
10	Southern Cal	1
11	California	8
12	Arizona State	6
13	Missouri	2
14	Oregon	1
15	Kansas	5
16	Hawaii	2
17	Auburn	4
18	Virginia Tech	5
19	Texas	5
20	Cincinnati	10
21	Maryland	1
22	Texas Tech	4
23	Tennessee	3
24	Wake Forest	2
25	Michigan	1

Standing By/Waitlisted: Penn State, Virginia, K-State and Alabama

It’s been that bad in college football that Michigan has found its way back into the top-25. I don’t know. I was poised to actually put UConn, Indiana or Boise St. in the poll, but the first two lost and BSU had a multi-OT shootout at home with Nevada this evening (that BSU did win) to kill that one.

I mean, for gods sake, Virginia is closing in on the top-25 at this point. Even as I argue against it.

Yes, I moved USF to #1. They have accomplished more this season than Ohio State, to this point.

Kentucky continues to yo-yo up and down the poll. Right now up because of beating LSU, though I expect them to plummet again if they lose to Florida this coming Saturday.

Cal takes a hard tumble. Not just for losing, but coming up so small at home against Oregon State.

USC drops another spot as they barely pulled out a weak victory rather than another embarrassing loss.

Cinci, Cinci, Cinci. You broke my wife’s heart by not taking back the Keg O’ Nails. Consolation trophy to come this week.
Oregon only gets a 1 spot bump because I’m not sold on them much longer with the injuries they had this weekend.

Really, it’s just a flippin’ mess. I hate seeing VT move that high just for beating Duke, but no one else is really showing much either. Same with Auburn, but if I’m going to guess at which great defense/crappy offense is better I’m going with Auburn.