I have been trying to catch up with reality after a long break away over Thanksgiving. That has meant a bit of neglect here on one of the most important weeks for Pitt football. I’m feeling a bit of guilt, so it’s time to kick off a little hate.

The ‘Eers are in the hunt for going to the BCS game. They benefited from the Big East scheduling them to have 3 of their final 4 games at home. Something most teams in a national title hunt would happily welcome. What team wouldn’t want to come down the final stretch and be in front of a home crowd? Apparently the team with a buckskin-clad mascot and like to stress their hale and hearty constitutions are a wee bit put off by having to play so many games in the cold. Seriously?

WVU athletic officials have brought this matter to the conference’s attention, according to coach Rich Rodriguez. He believes the fans deserve a better shake. “I would have preferred to have more Big East home games during the season in the month of October,” he said a week ago. “I think it’s the second year in a row we’ve had more games in November and December.”

Would he? Really? He would rather have more road games at this point for the comfort of fans? Fans who would otherwise be pissed at not having their team at home very much as they approach heading to the BCS Championship? Personally, while I grudgingly admire the coaching of Rodriguez — developing players for his system, teaching them and becoming the Yoda of the spread option — I think Rodriguez is more than a little bit of a whiner who would be complaining if the team had only one home game in November.

My fellow Fanhouser and unfortunate WVU alum, John Radcliff (who wrote the post linked above) has seen Mountaineer Stadium lose its edge in the last couple years. So, he seems to believe that it is the moneyed alum are responsible for bitching to the WVU officials.

Perhaps. Like I said, Rodriguez is a whiner by nature it seems. Whine, whine, whine.

Coach Rich Rodriguez is not exactly giddy about playing a game amid hunting season.

Not so much deer-hunting season — and a host of West Virginians and Western Pennsylvanians partake in that — but rather the period for tracking down prospective Mountaineers still in high school or junior colleges.

“This is the third year in a row West Virginia has missed a week” of the recruiting period, Rodriguez said yesterday. “When we only have six weeks of a recruiting-contact period, losing a week hurts.”

…

“I see a lot of people doing it,” he added of a rivalry finale. “I just don’t like playing it in December. Playing it this late, I don’t know if it’s that fun for our fans out there.”

Pathetic. Mountaineer fans not liking the cold. WVU officials complaining about too many home games late in the season. And a coach always complains about something.

Ahhhh. I feel better.

I’ve tried to not get into this too much, but I think something needs to be said. By now, I’m sure a lot of you have seen the video from Saturday’s PSU-OSU game in Happy Valley. At a tailgate party, Penn Staters throw beer cans and shout obscenities at Buckeye fans. The video made it’s way to Youtube but has now been taken down, probably by the kid who put it up in order to attempt to stay clear of any charges. It’s too late.

First thought: This is a perfect example to throw back at Penn State’s face. Look at their fans, acting classless and stupid, throwing things at opposing fans.

Second thought: Take a step back and look at it a little bit more. There’s no way this represents their entire fan base. Sure they might all be elitists, but they can’t all be the jerks the video showed them to be. When I want to see something involving Penn State, I always turn to Black Shoe Diaries. In Mike’s post with the original video:

This is Penn State, bitch.

No, son, that is not Penn State.

To the Ohio State fans featured in the video, I’m sorry. On behalf of the 99% of Penn State fans that are nice people capable of showing respect to opposing fans, I’m sorry. This is not the Penn State I know and love.

See, they’re not all bad people.

One point that many people noticed, though, was that the cameraman (who, if you saw the video, was worthy of a sucker punch to the jaw) mentioned his beer-slinging friend was from Pittsburgh. It didn’t necessarily mean he was a Pitt student though.

Today (via Mondesi’s House), I saw a link to an update on the story: the kid you see below is, in fact, a Pitt student.

Oh no! A Pitt student did this! Now there’s someone to blame! Whoa, hold on…

A Pitt fan did this? No, not a Pitt fan, but a Pitt student. If he is a Pitt fan, there’s no way in hell he’s up in Happy Valley helping Penn Staters to throw beer at innocent OSU fans. Also, this does not let the other 100 PSU fans involved get off the hook. A lot of them threw beer (but most completely missed) and all should be charged. Hopefully when this is all over, that Pitt student is no longer a student at our school.

Steve Pederson coming back to Pitt now that he is looking for a new job is a bad idea. Okay? Pitt and sequels just don’t work. This is not about wanting a Pitt guy/gal as the AD — I don’t particularly care. I want the best person for the job. Not someone the Chancellor already knows and may be comfortable with dealing.

Pederson did a lot of good and some bad while at Pitt. He wasn’t the god/savior some make him seem for dragging the primary teams in the athletic department into the modern era, improving the facilities and finally getting a new basketball facility constructed. Nor was he the devil for changing the colors, logo and name and tearing down Pitt Stadium. For the most part he was a good athletic director who provided and acted in a way that helped Pitt. That doesn’t mean he should be brought back now that his alma mater has said “buh-bye.”

I’m sure there will be a column in the next day or two suggesting that it would be a good idea to bring back Pederson. That he would provide the energy to the athletic department and will make the hard choices, etc.

Feh. That’s just code for dealing with the only major public concern regarding the athletic department. Right now the issue is about the football program and its direction. Does the baseball program need shaken up? How about the men’s or women’s basketball? No. I don’t think so.

The athletic department could probably benefit overall from someone aggressive and with personality. It doesn’t, however, need the overhaul and makeover as before. Things have changed.

Bringing back Pederson would be taking the easy way, rather than being serious about looking for a new AD. It would also be one more sign that the athletic department is being run via proxy by Chancellor Nordenberg.

Addition: Naturally, that was also the one topic on Zeise’s Q&A today. He’s slightly more receptive to it, but doubts Pederson would be interested.

Okay, the Pitt-Duke game at Madison Square Garden has Pitt making some tickets available to the big boosters, but the general ticket sales will start next week.

Pitt was allotted 3,000 tickets, which it plans to sell to Panther Club members. If tickets remain, Pitt will open sales to its season-ticket holders for all sports and to alumni association members Oct. 22, but not to the general public.

Duke is selling tickets through its Web site (www.goduke.com). Associate athletic director Mike Cragg said Duke’s ticket sales are usually restricted to Duke alumni and donors for neutral-site games, although he did not know the specifics for the Dec. 20 game or whether Pitt fans would be able to get tickets through Duke.

For now, it appears Pitt fans must wait until Madison Square Garden has its general sale. MSG is expected to begin selling tickets to the game next week. Fans can call Ticketmaster or go to msg.com to purchase tickets at that time.

Even though the game is being played at a neutral site, Duke is the de facto home team. The Blue Devils were given the majority of tickets to sell for the game.

Duke has an arrangement with MSG to play in New York or New Jersey every year. This is the fifth consecutive year Duke is playing at Madison Square Garden or the Meadowlands.

So there’s your ticket update for that game.

Over at College Basketball FanHouse I took a look a brief look at all 16 Big East schedules. The Pitt schedule snippet is here.

Another Big East topic I just put on FanHouse seems worth mentioning here.

Last month the Big East changed hosting organizations as it looks to get into more broadband multimedia stuff. They went with a company called JumpTV that is has really done a solid job with soccer content worldwide. Actually sounds like a good strategy.

The problem for the Big East is that all the media rights for football and basketball were granted to ESPN until 2013 under the latest contract. That’s why, even for football games that ESPN regional doesn’t even broadcast, no one else can pick up or show. Including the member schools on webcasts. ESPN holds the rights and as a policy doesn’t release them. I’ve pointed out how shortsighted this approach was back when the contract was announced.

That means most live events or even sporting events you could watch later on your computer are limited to field hockey and soccer. The best they offer for the marquee sports are highlights, audio broadcasts of the Big East game of the week, the weekly audio teleconferences between the media and Big East coaches (formerly free) and video interviews from the media day events. Oh, and the press conferences during the Big East Tournament. Whee.

For the full package they want people to pay $79.95 a year. Or $9.95 a month. You can buy football or basketball specific packages for $25. Yet the actual live or even archived video football/basketball game content is nil and won’t be changing for some time.

Quite the waste. It’s also worth noting that the Big East still doesn’t get online dealings. I actually made an effort to contact the Big East to find out more about the program. Whether, perhaps, there was any attempt to work out something with ESPN to loosen the restrictions. You would think with a new program and a questionable price point they would want to do what they could to sell and promote this to the hardcore junkies who actually spend a fair amount of time with online and broadband content. I actually waited a few weeks before doing the post hoping to give the other side of this.

Instead, silence. No response. Not even bothering with a form e-mail. It’s like they are just now realizing how stupid their deal on this front is and don’t really want to let people know about how little they offer.

You know, these are the sort of things that convince me that the lack of depth on the lines for Pitt are partially the fault of the whole frickin’ coaching staff, not just blaming it all on Walt Harris.

Wannstedt confirmed that redshirt sophomore Craig Bokor has returned to defensive tackle now that Gus Mustakas is lost for the season with a torn ACL.

Bokor started the season on defense but switched to offensive guard when freshman Chris Jacobson was lost to a knee injury.

This drives me insane.  Bokor is simply an extreme example of it. Craig Bokor is a redshirt sophomore, and they have yet to keep him from one side of the ball or the other. Forget about simply learning positions along the O-line or D-line, they keep moving him back and forth. From Wannstedt down, the Pitt coaches stress the importance of learning the system of getting experience and being ready. I want to know how Bokor can ever be ready when he has to keep changing sides of the ball in his 3d year at Pitt?
At the start of training camp, they said, this time for sure he’s staying at DT on the D-line. In less than a week, after Jacobson went down, back to the O-line. Now, a month later, back to the D-line. His entire Pitt career this has been happening. Exactly how can depth be developed if the coaches aren’t willing to keep players at a position to learn it?
Part of developing players. Especially linemen and just about any “diamond in the rough” type player is keeping them in one position so they can learn, get experience and step in.

Well, this doesn’t look good.

Levance Fields was charged with one count each of aggravated assault, disarming a police officer, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.

The incident took place at 1:50 a.m. at Pure nightclub. According to a police affidavit, an officer working an off-duty detail at Pure spotted Mr. Fields yelling at another police officer. The officer approached Mr. Fields and asked him to stop yelling and using offensive language.

Mr. Fields then went into the street and began arguing with an unknown black man. The officer approached Mr. Fields again and repeated his request that he stop yelling and using offensive language, at which time Mr. Fields cursed at the officer and struck him in the chest, police reported.

Mr. Fields then grabbed at the officer’s duty belt and reached for the officer’s weapon, according to the affidavit. The officer pushed him away, and a security officer shot Mr. Fields in the chest with a Taser.

Fields has a court date on the 24th. Like Coach Dixon, I’m fine with a bit of wait-and-see on what happens, especially considering the preliminary hearing is next Monday.

“Earlier today I was informed of an incident at an off-campus location involving Levance Fields. At this juncture, we will let the judicial process run its course before determining what disciplinary action is necessary. We have built a successful program at Pitt, on and off the court, by prioritizing personal accountability and responsibility. We will not compromise when it comes to those values.”

There is no immediate need to suspend Fields since they aren’t even at formal practices right now. I do expect some sort of suspension for Fields regardless of how the charges are eventually resolved/pled down. Fields clearly messed up, badly.
Seeing the Yuri Demetris comparisons are way off to me. Demetris was stalking, purposefully breaking into an ex-girlfriend’s place. It also took place in the season, necessitating an immediate suspension then being kicked off of the team. The Demetris comparisons are just not apt in my mind.
I’m not trying to diminish the seriousness of what Fields may be facing in charges. Especially with the accusation that he reached for a police officer’s weapon. That’s the part that takes it beyond drunken stupidity.

I guess, Fields was sick of seeing Duquesne get all the fun headlines the last few weeks.

As I said, I don’t have a clue who the next AD will be. I’m not buying that Wannstedt will be looking to fill the role now or in the near future. Old names from the last search are brought up again.

Potential candidates could include Pitt’s last interim athletic director, Marc Boehm, now an executive associate athletic director at Nebraska, as well as three athletic directors who interviewed in ‘03: Cincinnati’s Mike Thomas, Central Florida’s Keith Tribble and Florida Atlantic’s Craig Angelos.

Another notable name that has surfaced is Tom Donahoe, a former Steelers director of football operations and president/general manager of the Buffalo Bills. Donahoe received a personal guided tour by Wannstedt during a visit to Pitt’s Duratz Athletic Complex last month.

Not quite following why Donahoe would take a pay cut and prestige drop from the NFL, but let the rumors fly. As for Marc Boehm, returning if offered. I think that would be awkward.

Boehm is well-acquainted with Pitt, having been Steve Pederson’s right-hand man for six years before Pederson left for the athletic director’s job at Nebraska in late 2002. Boehm served as Pitt’s interim athletic director for 4¹/₂ months and was the top candidate to replace Pederson.

But with Nordenberg and the rest of the university administration preoccupied with the search for men’s and women’s basketball coaches — a process Boehm helped facilitate — Boehm grew weary of waiting for Nordenberg to hire him full-time and followed Pederson to Nebraska in May 2002 to accept a position Pederson created specifically for him.

Unbeknownst to Boehm until late in the process, the eight-person search committee had unanimously voted to name him as the successor to Pederson. Nordenberg asked Boehm to reconsider, but the chancellor never offered him a contract. That led to a hasty search by the committee that ended two weeks later when Nordenberg appointed Long as Pederson’s replacement.

Chancellor Nordenberg really does dawdle over these contracts for ADs, doesn’t he? I realize money and time can heal a lot of wounds, but Boehm coming back would seem uncomfortable. How much would he really feel he could trust Nordenberg to back him and not, ultimately, undermine him.

I also don’t by the revisionism that the school was “preoccupied” by the men’s and women’s coaching job vacancies to deal with the AD issue. The coaching vacancies came well after the AD vacancy.  In fact, part of why you have an AD is to lead the search for new coaches. The more I read that bit, the less sense it makes. Pitt’s men’s basketball coaching search had Skip Prosser at the top of the list and part of why he didn’t take it was that Pitt had no full-time AD and Nordenberg didn’t even assure Prosser that Boehm would be the guy.

That said, revisionism, doesn’t just apply to the time with Boehm. Long gets ripped on his way out the door.

Long’s biggest failure was his inability to maintain the season-ticket base for what should be the school’s flagship athletic program — football.

Pederson’s marketing initiatives led to the sale of 42,544 non-club season-tickets in 2003, a school record, and the establishment of a waiting list to buy season tickets for 2004.

Today, one literally cannot give away Pitt football tickets.

Puh-lease. At least rip on Long for things he actually did wrong. Heading into 2003, what had the season tickets sold-out was not any marketing initiatives, it was that Pitt was a preseason top-20 team that had the label of “darkhorse” Big East champion. A team that finished 2002 so strong, and looked poised to go farther. Instead, the season went to crap, the recruiting class was trashed and the head coach lost the majority of fan support.

Winning puts people in the stands, not “marketing initiatives.” Those only get their attention and might attract some first-timers.

Pitt is struggling with home attendance because the team isn’t that good and the home schedule is worse this year. Some of that is the weirdness of the Big East putting Louisville and West Virginia (and now Rutgers) all on the same home/away pace for Pitt so the Big East portion of the schedule is pitiful. The non-con  is distinctly bad as a consequence of balancing the road games to Michigan State and Virginia. That part you can pin on Long.
Smizik also goes after Long, for being a caretaker rather than dynamic.

His two most notable undertakings were the hiring of Dave Wannstedt as football coach and a fundraising campaign tied to season-ticket purchases for men’s basketball. Wannstedt, who also was enthusiastically endorsed by Chancellor Mark Nordenberg, remains a work in progress. He has been a disappointment thus far, but it’s too early to make any kind of final judgment. The fundraising program was a success but not before it enraged some fans and forced a lawsuit that, in effect, was won by the plaintiffs.

Under Long, the men’s basketball program continued to flourish and he was able to fend off schools, notably Arizona State, trying to hire coach Jamie Dixon. The women’s program grew significantly under coach Agnus Berenato, who, like Dixon, was at Pitt before Long. Pitt’s hosting of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament first- and second-round games last season was a major step for the program and that success came on Long’s watch.

Let’s be somewhat realistic. The football and basketball programs had already been revised and dragged into the modern world of college athletics. There was success occurring in those sports. Exactly how was the AD supposed to do more with those parts, other than just try to make sure they keep moving in the right direction and keep the money moving? You really want an AD to tinker with what was going in the right direction? Jeff Long had been focusing on the rest of the  athletic department that needed updated facilities, money and direction — which meant taking the hit for the fundraising by reseating for the Quest for Excellence.

College baseball is getting more attention each year. Pitt is finally on the way to having a modest ball field. Not to mention on-site facilities for the other sports to have practices and games — rather than going out into the burbs to high school fields.

Again, if you want to rip Long for being somewhat aloof, tin eared and actual sins committed that’s fine.  To essentially make crap up, bothers me.

So yeah. I’m tired of the Pitt-Penn State thing for this calendar year. Unless they actually draw up a contract, I think we’ve gone deep enough into the issue (especially in this post). Until anything is made official (probably shortly after Paterno is buried), we’ll get this type of thing.

Yesterday, Paterno was asked during his weekly news conference if he would be in favor of playing Pitt on a six-and-four basis — six home games for the Nittany Lions and four away — over a 10-year period.

I’m exhausted of talking about the Pitt-PSU subject, and I don’t think that Paterno is actually serious with what he says. All this does is deflect some of the criticism directed at him, and he even tries to pass it off as AD Tim Curley’s choice. They have a home and home series with Syracuse starting next year — if we’re so “inferior” to them, why do they go and schedule a series with a team that is similar if not worse than us. Scared we’ll pull an upset?

It might be time to shy away from recruits in upstate New York for a few years. There seems to be some bad karma or something going on with the kids from there.

Syracuse tight end Tom Ferron (Clyde-Savannah) and Michigan lineman Justin Schifano (Webster Schroeder) quit their respective teams. Pittsburgh receiver Derek Kinder (Albion) is out for the year with a torn ACL in his right knee, an injury that occurred Aug. 11 during a non-contact drill.

Now comes word that tailback Kevin Collier, Kinder’s Pitt teammate and Section V’s all-time leading rusher, also will miss the 2007 season after breaking his right wrist Thursday in the Panthers’ final preseason practice.

“I hate to use the word unusual or freak play, but we saw it on film,” Panthers coach Dave Wannstedt told reporters. “He fell on that wrist 10 times every day for the last month, and why this time it broke, I have no idea. So, we’ll use this as a redshirt year (for Collier).”

Add in McKenzie Mathews quitting last year along with the ongoing Greg Paulus ineptitude at Duke, and it just isn’t good times for those players right now.

“Pittsburgh Live” and now “Post-Gazette NOW.” Oy.

At least the Trib, finally figured out that no one cared or particularly like the whole “Live” thing. They’ve stuck with the URL, but “LIVE” longer appears anywhere on the site or in the web banner.

The whole “NOW” thing is just as stupid and should be dropped. It’s one of those moronic things where the marketing department sat around looking at the redesign thinking about how they can stress the newness and updates. One of them looks up from his box lunch at the conference table and says, “NOW!”

The new design isn’t bad. It’s clean, easy enough to read and the navigation seems simple enough. A little generic, but I’ll take generic and easy to use over visually stimulating and confusing. It is loading quite slow, however, and maybe that’s just an early glitch.