Nitter who posted after the game, too.
Largely agree with the OP.
* I suffered permanent hearing damage at the "Bush Push" USC-Notre Dame game at ND, which was probably due at least in some degree to my particular location, but I've been to the two big OSU-PSU games (last year and 2005) and they weren't as loud, even if the fans were exploding at a similar rate.
* I make a point of parking downtown and walking through campus to get to the stadium, because he's right - the high-traffic route to the stadium avoids the campus completely. My route is my version of Cardiac Hill.
* I took a friend Saturday whose biggest prior college game was a 70s Princeton-Harvard game and hoped for her enjoyment the kind of explosive atmosphere that those two OSU games had. Didn't happen. Was solely due to the rhythm of the game, IMO. Pitt completely shut down the explosiveness that PSU has shown the last 10 games or so, and there was a shortage of big PSU defensive momentum-changing plays. If I hadn't driven 600 miles for my annual game, I might have even left early. Soporific.
* I love the classic Pitt script and colors, and maybe it's the years now, but that newer Pitt blue now seems to me to be very, very sharp. The people who can afford to travel can afford the high-end gear.

Many more Pitt fans than I would have expected - used to the Big Ten games where people have a lot farther to travel and just don't bring as many.
* I also didn't see or hear any unpleasantness, but that's my experience everywhere, home or away. Basically, idiots and their antics get blown up on message boards (justifiably, often) and it makes it seem like those represent the experience of most fans. They don't. Although I was uncomfortable enough at a WVU basketball game 35 years ago to not want to return.
* Re: Whiteness. Penn State had fewer than 300 black undergrads when I was a student in the 70s-80s. The situation is much better now, but it's still not representative. I admit to wondering how many T---- voters were surrounding me cheering the opening kickoff and the 80-90% African-American members of the PSU kickoff teams. The demographics of the alumni are what they are at this point, and the subway alumni (cow path alumni?) in the surrounding area surely are not going to be very diverse.
* Separately, the Pitt RB looks like an NFLer - size and moves well. And as I said in the post-game thread, no one has defended Penn State as well over the last dozen games or so. One of the great things about being there over TV is your can actually see the plays develop. PSU just wasn't roaming wild and free in the Pitt defensive backfield the way they seemed to against most teams lately. Kept waiting for an explosion but could see it wasn't going to happen as plays were developing.