Given that Maurice Williams has the potential for the NFL, I have to believe he wouldn’t make it permanent at Edinboro.

When Williams was ruled ineligible for the 2008 season, Pitt confirmed Williams was going to attend summer school there.

“It’s nothing that was a surprise,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt told the Erie Times-News earlier this month. “We’ve had ongoing discussions with Mo this whole semester that he knew what he had to get done academically. I would preface everything by saying he’s the first guy on the football field.

“Never misses a weight workout. Works as hard as we like. The disappointing thing is that he didn’t put the same type of effort and interest in the academic end of it like he addressed the football and weight workouts.”

The school was planning to red-shirt him.

“We will red-shirt him this year and I expect him to be a major player here in the next couple of years,” Wannstedt said earlier this month.

He would still have to sit out the year if he transferred to Edinboro. This appears to be about Williams — an Erie native — taking courses over the summer while being home.

If he was really leaving, I doubt he would be worried so much about taking the summer courses.

The article notes that former Panther Tommie Campbell transferred to Edinboro, but dropped out after a year. He had been suspended for several games because of not going to class.

Yep. More than just rumors about Mo Williams academic issues. He has been declared academically ineligible.

Williams plans to remain on Pitt’s team and take a redshirt season. He would have three seasons of eligibility remaining.

“We believe Maurice can achieve a lot at Pitt, both academically and athletically, and our expectations are for him to use this as motivation for improvement,” Panthers coach Dave Wannstedt said in a statement.

How come Pitt never makes public those kinds of press releases on ther website?

While much of the attention is on the fact that this throws the door wide open for incoming freshman stud Jonathon Baldwin to take Williams spot as the #3 WR/deep threat. It is also more opportunities for T.J. Porter and Cedric McGee to get more chances. Even Dorin Dickerson at TE becomes a more important option.

This is the second M. Williams, that’s a WR in the Big East to have severe academic issues to end his season this week — at least Mo Williams simply struggled rather than being caught cheating (”multiple times”? Really? How many times are you allowed to attempt that at Syracuse?).

Well, looks like a couple players may have some work ahead of them.

Sources tell PSI that two members of the Pitt football team will be fighting an uphill battle to keep their academic eligibility. Fullback Shane Brooks and wide receiver Mo Williams both will need to score “very well” in the classroom this summer if they hope to be apart of the 2008 team.

The reports about Williams started last week, so this is beginning to look like more than just catching up with some classes.

There’s depth at WR, and with Baldwin coming in this year it isn’t a killer. Still Williams looked great in the spring and was a near-lock on the two-deep. Hopefully this turns out to be slightly exaggerated.

As for Shane Brooks, well for the sake of the APR and his own future he needs to pick it up. From a football standpoint, it means little. Conredge Collins is the starting fullback and redshirt freshman Henry Hynoski is waiting. Brooks, a junior, was never looking at major playing time.