I see that Pepperdine basketball canceled their game today.

Hoping that PittBasketBallInsider escaped unharmed from the fires in LA.

Watched the end of their game at Syracuse. Not sure how good/bad Syracuse is but L'ville is playing some really good ball right now. It made me feel better about Saturday's results. Didn't realize they had reeled off that many ACC wins in a row.

Watched a couple of minutes of Duke/Miss. Broadcaster said Duke paid $9M NIL for Tulane QB. Can't believable Duke has that much NIL money. I guess their standards were bought out by NIL.

Also, it was great watching Oregon get stomped. I guess Nike's unlimited NIL wasn't enough.

Same records basically. PSU 11-2, OSU 10-2

Both lost to Oregon

OSU has the head to head AT Penn State, which is a huge win.

OSU beat Indiana. PSU beat Illinois.

Rest of the schedules were junk.

OSU does have the worse loss but is that enough to offset the head to head win and IU win....and Vegas metrics which show that OSU is considerably better?

This isnt fair to Oregon either as they are the #1 seed but are a 2.5 point underdog to a team that many feel is the best in the nation. They probably would have been better off losing to Penn State and getting the 5 seed.

Could PSU's CFP run get any easier? No word yet on who may be out. These things CAN be pretty a pretty big deal.

Let’s go…

I might have missed this on the board but this is pretty big news:

This has been posted in various threads, but just to get everybody on the same page. Pitt is expected to host two transfer candidates today:

Western Carolina QB Cole Gonzalez
Mercer DE Brayden Manley

The priority is still on offensive linemen, but in the meantime, these are two interesting positions to target.

Gonzales obviously has the connection to Kade Bell. While playing for Bell at WCU in 2022 and 2023, Gonzales appeared in 19 games and completed 65% of his passes for 4,139 yards, 39 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. This season with Bell gone, Gonzales only played eight games but threw for 2,543 yards, 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He went into the portal after the season and stands as an intriguing target.

From Pitt's perspective, a capable backup quarterback could be very valuable. Eli Holstein is the returning starter, and he'll be the starting quarterback this season. But Holstein also missed two full games and parts of three others due to injury; that doesn't guarantee that he'll miss time in the future, but it's a possibility Pitt should be prepared for. After Nate Yarnell and Ty Dieffenbach transferred, the Panthers were left with two scholarship quarterbacks on the returning roster and one incoming freshman. The ideal scenario would have been to bring Yarnell back, but with that off the table, Gonzales is a pretty good option, given his knowledge of the offense.

From Gonzales' perspective, though, I don't quite get it. Like I said, Pitt has a starting quarterback, and Gonzales would have to know that going into the visit. Additionally, I don't see Pitt using a lot of the NIL budget on a backup quarterback. So I would have to think Gonzales could find better options if he's looking for 1. A starting job, and/or 2. A decent NIL amount. But he's visiting, so there's something to monitor, and like I said, he would be a pretty great option as the backup QB.

Manley went into the transfer portal on Monday and almost immediately got offers from Pitt, Arizona, Toledo, Memphis, Virginia, Western Michigan, Charlotte, UAB and Eastern Carolina on his first day in the portal. Indiana and North Carolina have also joined the mix in the last day.

Manley had a breakout this season, recording 18 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks. He's 6'2" and 245, so he's not a big pass-rusher, but he's productive and obviously has drawn a lot of interest. I think Pitt would love to add a defensive end to go with Jimmy Scott and Sincere Edwards (I suppose Chief Borders would fill out that rotation). Manley is also a sophomore, so he's got two years of eligibility remaining, which is another positive.

Scores After Quarter
Q1: 32-7 SMU
Q2: 49-18 SMU
Q3: ............ 49-46 SMU
THEY WENT ON A 28-0 RUN

Login to view embedded media
Any idea who this could be or is it potentially old news?

Big loss, but what's the difference anymore, honestly? This team seems pretty doomed while Narduzzi is still at the helm.

Why didn't they give UGa a quasi-home game in Atlanta as the 2 seed?

Cignettied yet again.

TVD to reunited with Rhett Lashlee.


Also, there's this...

Man….. something about that loss really has me in the dumps.

Because it doesn’t just feel like we’re just going through a rough patch that we can get through.

This isn’t last year where we had to go through Bub/Jaland growing pains or maybe an off night from Blake.

It just truly feels like Jeff/staff are dead set on a philosophy and lineup that is just fundamentally lowering our team’s potential and ceiling.

And I just don’t get it. Lowe and Leggett look rough at times but we know to expect from them at their peak.

Corhen .., has no peak. It seems like this staff is waiting for some moment that has yet to come.

And I truly don’t get it.

But it feels like it’s just broken this team’s spirits.

And just really has soured my outlook on the season. So hard to be excited when it just feels like we’re not even putting our best effort out there of maximizing our roster.

Just feels so weird - we still have a decent team and roster but I feel so little excitement for the rest of the season.

Just sucks. Thought this was our year.