The great Bon Jovi once penned these lyrics...
Who says you can't go home?
There's only one place they call me one of their own
Just a hometown boy born a rolling stone
Who says you can't go home?
Who says you can't go back?
Well, here I am, back in the Pitt zone as I am going to serve as the executive editor/publisher of this Pitt Sports News site. Obviously there is a lot of work to do to get this thing up and running correctly again but I have already begun to assemble a staff of people to make that happen. The goal is to provide up to the minute, in depth Pitt news, analysis, opinion, etc. and there is no magical secret for that but hard work.
That is why the first person I hired is Karl Ludwig who you will get to know very well as he is going to be a full-time beat reporter. He is exactly what a site like this needs - he is young, he is hungry, he is a workhorse (I hired him yesterday and he has already cranked out at least eight different stories for today's launch) and he has been on the Pitt beat for two years. He has already developed some good sources and will continue to now that he is on the beat on a full time basis.
I've been a journalist for 30 years and have worked with good ones and bad ones and the difference is almost always work ethic. Karl is a grinder, I love his attitude and how hard he is willing to work to get to the point where he owns the beat. I am excited about what he is going to accomplish and wouldn't say that or have hired that if I didn't believe it.
As many of you know, I am a columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette but my roots (as I made clear in my opening) are covering Pitt. I covered Pitt from 2002-2015 and have remained close to it even when I moved into a columnist role. I will be a great resource for the staff and will also offer a lot of content and work a lot on the premium message boards. Also my son, Elijah, was a three-year starter at linebacker at Pitt (and is the reason I had to leave the beat for a few years) and my daughter worked at Pitt in the athletic department for a few years so me and my family are well versed and immersed in Pitt athletics.
Pitt has some serious issues right now. The athletic department is coming to a crossroads and while coverage of the teams is essential, I actually think the bigger picture needs to be brought into focus. There is a restructuring of the athletic department that has to take place as there are far too many administrators thanks to the last regime. There is some discussion of a few sports getting hacked. There are going to be some changes to the basketball program in the offseason.
All of these kinds of things will affect the teams either directly or indirectly and so staying on top of them will be as important for us as the nuts and bolts of recruiting and team coverage.
I just got here and got started so my first items of business will be to fill out a staff and clean up the message boards. These forums are for serious Pitt fans and I will be vigilant in protecting them and protecting people who just want to come and have discussions about the Panthers. I will not tolerate trolls, bullies and fools. There is no reason for it. Serious, adult people can disagree with each other and do it without getting nasty, name calling and/or getting personal.
And that brings me to politics - starting today I am going to lock most of the political threads as there is no reason for them in the main forums. Nobody is coming to this site to get political opinion and certainly not have to sift through countless threads of political stuff. I have reached out to someone to serve as a moderator for the premium boards to help me police and make sure the discussions are about Pitt sports. There is obviously room for discussions about the ACC and some broader topics but we will cross those bridges when we get to them.
I talked to Josh, who is the Rivals manager that oversees all of these sites, and he is going to bring back a "politics forum" which will be where all political threads and discussions will take place. This will enable those of you who can't help yourself to have at it without disturbing the threads on the sports boards. I promise when I get organized and get this site back running the forums will be back to Pitt sports specific topics and an entire board of political topics where all political posts and discussions will stay.
Give me a day or two to get the messages boards cleaned up and we will go from there. Spring football starts next week and so we will have plenty of coverage coming out of there daily as well as recruiting news as it happens. Again, my commitment is to build a team provides the most up to date and thorough Pitt coverage possible.
One other thing - this is a community which means I am open to ideas from all of you about how to make the site better or more user friendly.
My first thoughts are - what should we name the two premium message boards? I have some ideas but would love your feedback. And I read this morning someone suggested we bring back the "war room" - it has been a while for that, remind me what it was and maybe we will do just that.
I look forward to working with all of you and my door, so to speak, is always open to suggestions. All I ask is you be a little bit patient with us as we make this transition as I am a little bit behind the eight ball in terms of getting everything in place and organized but I think Josh will have a message for you to reconcile the lost time between when Chris Peak, who is a really good friend and colleague, left and we got started but I will leave that to him.
Who says you can't go home?
There's only one place they call me one of their own
Just a hometown boy born a rolling stone
Who says you can't go home?
Who says you can't go back?
Well, here I am, back in the Pitt zone as I am going to serve as the executive editor/publisher of this Pitt Sports News site. Obviously there is a lot of work to do to get this thing up and running correctly again but I have already begun to assemble a staff of people to make that happen. The goal is to provide up to the minute, in depth Pitt news, analysis, opinion, etc. and there is no magical secret for that but hard work.
That is why the first person I hired is Karl Ludwig who you will get to know very well as he is going to be a full-time beat reporter. He is exactly what a site like this needs - he is young, he is hungry, he is a workhorse (I hired him yesterday and he has already cranked out at least eight different stories for today's launch) and he has been on the Pitt beat for two years. He has already developed some good sources and will continue to now that he is on the beat on a full time basis.
I've been a journalist for 30 years and have worked with good ones and bad ones and the difference is almost always work ethic. Karl is a grinder, I love his attitude and how hard he is willing to work to get to the point where he owns the beat. I am excited about what he is going to accomplish and wouldn't say that or have hired that if I didn't believe it.
As many of you know, I am a columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette but my roots (as I made clear in my opening) are covering Pitt. I covered Pitt from 2002-2015 and have remained close to it even when I moved into a columnist role. I will be a great resource for the staff and will also offer a lot of content and work a lot on the premium message boards. Also my son, Elijah, was a three-year starter at linebacker at Pitt (and is the reason I had to leave the beat for a few years) and my daughter worked at Pitt in the athletic department for a few years so me and my family are well versed and immersed in Pitt athletics.
Pitt has some serious issues right now. The athletic department is coming to a crossroads and while coverage of the teams is essential, I actually think the bigger picture needs to be brought into focus. There is a restructuring of the athletic department that has to take place as there are far too many administrators thanks to the last regime. There is some discussion of a few sports getting hacked. There are going to be some changes to the basketball program in the offseason.
All of these kinds of things will affect the teams either directly or indirectly and so staying on top of them will be as important for us as the nuts and bolts of recruiting and team coverage.
I just got here and got started so my first items of business will be to fill out a staff and clean up the message boards. These forums are for serious Pitt fans and I will be vigilant in protecting them and protecting people who just want to come and have discussions about the Panthers. I will not tolerate trolls, bullies and fools. There is no reason for it. Serious, adult people can disagree with each other and do it without getting nasty, name calling and/or getting personal.
And that brings me to politics - starting today I am going to lock most of the political threads as there is no reason for them in the main forums. Nobody is coming to this site to get political opinion and certainly not have to sift through countless threads of political stuff. I have reached out to someone to serve as a moderator for the premium boards to help me police and make sure the discussions are about Pitt sports. There is obviously room for discussions about the ACC and some broader topics but we will cross those bridges when we get to them.
I talked to Josh, who is the Rivals manager that oversees all of these sites, and he is going to bring back a "politics forum" which will be where all political threads and discussions will take place. This will enable those of you who can't help yourself to have at it without disturbing the threads on the sports boards. I promise when I get organized and get this site back running the forums will be back to Pitt sports specific topics and an entire board of political topics where all political posts and discussions will stay.
Give me a day or two to get the messages boards cleaned up and we will go from there. Spring football starts next week and so we will have plenty of coverage coming out of there daily as well as recruiting news as it happens. Again, my commitment is to build a team provides the most up to date and thorough Pitt coverage possible.
One other thing - this is a community which means I am open to ideas from all of you about how to make the site better or more user friendly.
My first thoughts are - what should we name the two premium message boards? I have some ideas but would love your feedback. And I read this morning someone suggested we bring back the "war room" - it has been a while for that, remind me what it was and maybe we will do just that.
I look forward to working with all of you and my door, so to speak, is always open to suggestions. All I ask is you be a little bit patient with us as we make this transition as I am a little bit behind the eight ball in terms of getting everything in place and organized but I think Josh will have a message for you to reconcile the lost time between when Chris Peak, who is a really good friend and colleague, left and we got started but I will leave that to him.
