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From the Desk of Jim Snyder
A football notebook:
Pitt was not the only school to suffer academic casualties with their incoming freshmen class. Washington State also lost 7 players, Alabama lost 5 while South Carolina and Mississippi State lost 4 each. A couple of players that Pitt recruited ultimately signed with other schools but did not make it through the NCAA Clearinghouse. Brandon Braxton did not make it at Oklahoma and McIntosh McNicolas did not make it at Florida.
Pitt had 14 football players out with injuries by the time practice was over on Wednesday. Most of these appear to be the type you often see in any training camp although having this many at one time is a little worrisome and certainly hampers preparing a team for the upcoming season. The one I would have the most concern with is the hamstring injury to Greg Lee. This type of injury can linger on for a long time. It is also one that is easily re-injured. Pitt cannot afford any more bad news at wide receiver.
A year ago the Pitt coaching staff figured Larry Fitzgerald and Princell Brockenbrough would be the starting wide receivers this fall. Unfortunately the Maurice Clarett court case and Larry’s run for the Heisman Trophy opened a NFL loophole. In addition the knee injury Princell suffered in junior college never completely healed. Sophomore Tyrell Allen showed flashes on special teams this year but wrist surgery has him sidelined for the year. As a result, Pitt will rely on some very young receivers this fall. Greg Lee returning to full health is critical. The Panthers will only go as far as the young wideouts will take them.
The news reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that Pitt and Penn State are in discussions to resume their series is very good news. It would be excellent news for all involved in Eastern college football. It is time for all parties to swallow foolish pride. The Big 12 Conference has petitioned the NCAA to add a 12th game. This could happen with the 2005 season if approved by the NCAA. There are a few of things working in favor of this proposal passing. ABC recently signed a deal with the Rose Bowl that should help insure the bowl system stays in place for another decade. This eliminates the worry about too many games with playoff system. Many athletic directors see the 12th game as a way to help them balance their budgets. There is also a new rule which requires all Division 1A schools to play at least five home games. The MAC, Sun Belt and Big West Conferences should see the adding of a 12th game as a way to help them comply with this rule. Over time the big stadium schools will play 7 home games while those with attendance problems will probably get only 5 home games in most years. A home and away series between Pitt and Penn State in September would help both football programs.
On the other hand the article in USA Today this week regarding Notre Dame was not encouraging. Notre Dame would like to schedule 7 or 8 home games each year. They also would like to retain their series with Navy and Southern Cal. Their new scheduling philosophy does not leave much room for many other home and home series. Notre Dame takes in $4.2 million with each home game. They can afford to pay for teams to play in South Bend. Pitt drops of the Notre Dame schedule after next year. It might be hard to insist that Penn State plays home and away and then take a two for one series with Notre Dame. This is not only a financial move by Notre dame but also an attempt to soften up the schedule. The BCS series has removed the strength of schedule factor. These changes will not go into effect until 2009.
I was fortunate enough to attend a revival of the play “Nunsense” this month. This musical comedy has been around for at least a couple of decades and still holds up well. This musical farce is about the Sisters of Mount St Helen who are located in Hoboken, New Jersey. They were originally founded by the Newark Airport police. We recently read a few posts on the message boards which easily could have come right out of “Nunsense”. One indicated that the top recruit in Eastern PA had not received as much as a letter from Pitt. Let me put that in context. In my search around the internet this week I came across an article on Altoona’s Zach Haulman. Zach indicated he has received over 1,000 letters from approximately 70 colleges. Haulman, however, is still waiting for his first offer.
Coach Harris was on the staffs at Ohio State and Tennessee. Former Pitt AD Steve Pederson was a recruiting coordinator at Tennessee. Many of the Pitt coaches have been at other schools. There are no secrets in recruiting. I have talked to many highly recruited athletes who claim they throw most of this junk mail into a box. Several have told me their parents sometimes look at it. Recruits will occasionally look at some of this if they really want to research a particular school. Florida players will occasionally tell you they have looked at the Pitt media guide and are aware that Pitt has other Florida players. The next time you read a post that only Penn State Coach Tom Bradley knows how to write hand written notes or that that a highly ranked recruit from PA has not received a letter from Pitt please remember this writer must have ambitions of having his work used in “Nunsense”. Recruiting is a two-way street. Identifying good players is the easy part. Finding ones that have a legitimate interest in your school makes the process a lot tougher. I could write a lot of letters to Charlize Theron, Cameron Diaz and Gwyneth Paltrow but if at some point they do not show some interest in me I had better start looking elsewhere. There are a lot of good football prospects out there. The last time I checked the Pittsburgh Steelers had drafted a quarterback from the MAC Conference.
Housekeeping items
Rivals.com has informed us they now have over 20,000 views each day of video highlights on various prospects. They expect this to reach 40,000 per day within a year. Their new offices include a television studios so you can expect an expansion in this area in years to come. The majority of their subscribers now have high speed internet access. We now have 47 videos on file for players that Pitt has been recruiting in football. There also is a short clip on Yough’s Ben McCauley.
Veteran sports writer Jim O’Brien has agreed to supply the Pantherlair with articles. Most will be historical pieces but we hope from time to time he will share his thoughts on this year’s football and basketball teams. Pitt has a rich athletic history. Many Pitt players have achieved greatness both on and off the field. The first articles deal with the Olympics but they will evolve into subjects which should interest all Pitt fans. Jim has authored many books on Pittsburgh sports figures including books on the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Pirates. He also authored “Hail To Pitt: A Sports History of the University of Pittsburgh”. In addition Jim has been an editor of the Street and Smith basketball magazine. This veteran writer is well versed in all sports. He will have some material you agree with and some you might not but they should all be a good read. This week Jim has an article on former Olympian Herb Douglas. He was one of the first African Americans to play football at Pitt. If you have not had a chance please check it out.
We had been talking to Yogi Roth the past few months about writing for the Pantherlair but it does not look like it will be happening. Yogi will be doing sideline reporting on the Pitt radio network. Things got complicated when Pitt offered him a graduate assistant position. He hopes to attend graduate school while tutoring Pitt athletes.
This week saw an article on Central Catholic’s John Pelusi appeared in the local papers. To be honest we have not pressed John. His family bleeds Blue and Gold. His father is a trustee at Pitt and a number of the family members have gone to Pitt. . You only go through the recruiting process once in life. John’s sister goes to Pitt and is not only an athlete but a very good student. My guess is John will follow his sister at the end of the day unless his parents feel it is best for him to get away. This one is not about recruiting. John’s family knows more about Pitt football than any recruiter can tell him.
A little Hoops talk
We talked to forward Jeff Adrien a couple of times after he visited UConn and before he made his final decision. Jeff was very polite and said all the politically correct things but we simply could not detect a lot of enthusiasm in his voice when discussing Pitt. The Huskies are an easy drive from Boston which gave them an edge. They also had a charity game with many of their former players while he was there. Jim Calhoun’s team is coming off a national championship so this was a tough match-up. Coach Lombardi did a good job getting a visit from Jeff.
Guard Danny Green first told the Pantherlair he would visit Pitt and North Carolina. Subsequent articles indicate that this is still his plan. This is also a tough match-up but you have to keep swinging if you hope to connect.
In addition to Danny Green, Pitt is involved with Ricky Torres, John Garcia, Ben McCauley Tyrell Biggs, Vernon Goodridge, Ahmad Nivens, Ryan Reid and others. One of my colleagues told me recently that you must land one or two high level players every year. The rest can be role players. You can be sure that UConn, Syracuse, Louisville, Cincinnati, Notre Dame and other schools in the Big East are going to land their share. If you do not land one or two each year you had better be an all-world coach. Talent will usually prevail over the long run. Pitt looks in good shape top pickoff a few very good players. They just need to get their fair share.
From the Desk of Steve Feller
Techie Talk
Earlier in the week, the Pantherlair message boards along with others in the Rivals network had been sabotaged by adware. Adware causes a lot of problems with performance of your browsing experience.
It can cause:
1). The site loading slowly
2). Some pages don't load completely
3). You can be redirected to other sites when moving your mouse over scrollbars or other browser areas
4). An exorbitant amount of popups are showing on our site
Rivals was well aware of the problem and had taken steps to isolate, identify and take action against those sites that the adware is re-directing our patrons to. In addition, Rivals policy is not to have pop-ups for subscribers. The following comes directly from the home office in Brentwood, TN:
"It is obviously Rivals policy to protect the integrity of our subscription-based sites by limiting the number of ads shown on the network, especially to subscribers. Our normal policy is that we do not show ANY popups to subscribers, and we typically limit popups to non-subscribers to 3 or less per day. If any of your subscribers or users complain that they are seeing more than this, please inform them of this policy and notify us. We will promptly respond and do everything in our power to identify the source of the problem, and promptly correct it."
There are a couple of programs out there that help eliminate adware from your computer, I use both of these. Spy-Bot can be dowloaded for free, there are no fees. Make sure you first download the program and then the Detection updates. These are executable files so once you download to a folder on your hard drive just click on each one to install.
Another free program is Ad-Aware. This catches a few that Spy-Bot doesn't. I always run Spy-Bot first so I don't know if the reverse can be said.
We do apologize for the inconvenience and annoyance of the problems seen earlier. However, todays internet is full of corrupt and sneaky people. Adware, worms, trojan horses, viruses and other damaging menaces are an every day occurence on todays super highway.
Make sure you have an anti-virus software package AND KEEP IT UP TO DATE by subscribing and receiving automatic updates over the internet. McAfee has a great package that includes a spam killer, security system, anti-virus and a firewall. There are other as well, e.g. Symantecs Nortons package.
Take control over your computer and happy surfing.
Note to Pantherlair.com Fans: The staff at Pantherlair.com works diligently to bring you the best information on University of Pittsburgh football and basketball recruiting (in addition to game coverage). Thousands of Panther fans visit our site on a daily basis. We have received a tremendous amount of e-mail thanking us for our efforts. If you like our site, please feel free to tell other fans about it. “Spread the word” and let’s add to our online family of Panther fans.
From the Desk of Jim Snyder
A football notebook:
Pitt was not the only school to suffer academic casualties with their incoming freshmen class. Washington State also lost 7 players, Alabama lost 5 while South Carolina and Mississippi State lost 4 each. A couple of players that Pitt recruited ultimately signed with other schools but did not make it through the NCAA Clearinghouse. Brandon Braxton did not make it at Oklahoma and McIntosh McNicolas did not make it at Florida.
Pitt had 14 football players out with injuries by the time practice was over on Wednesday. Most of these appear to be the type you often see in any training camp although having this many at one time is a little worrisome and certainly hampers preparing a team for the upcoming season. The one I would have the most concern with is the hamstring injury to Greg Lee. This type of injury can linger on for a long time. It is also one that is easily re-injured. Pitt cannot afford any more bad news at wide receiver.
A year ago the Pitt coaching staff figured Larry Fitzgerald and Princell Brockenbrough would be the starting wide receivers this fall. Unfortunately the Maurice Clarett court case and Larry’s run for the Heisman Trophy opened a NFL loophole. In addition the knee injury Princell suffered in junior college never completely healed. Sophomore Tyrell Allen showed flashes on special teams this year but wrist surgery has him sidelined for the year. As a result, Pitt will rely on some very young receivers this fall. Greg Lee returning to full health is critical. The Panthers will only go as far as the young wideouts will take them.
The news reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that Pitt and Penn State are in discussions to resume their series is very good news. It would be excellent news for all involved in Eastern college football. It is time for all parties to swallow foolish pride. The Big 12 Conference has petitioned the NCAA to add a 12th game. This could happen with the 2005 season if approved by the NCAA. There are a few of things working in favor of this proposal passing. ABC recently signed a deal with the Rose Bowl that should help insure the bowl system stays in place for another decade. This eliminates the worry about too many games with playoff system. Many athletic directors see the 12th game as a way to help them balance their budgets. There is also a new rule which requires all Division 1A schools to play at least five home games. The MAC, Sun Belt and Big West Conferences should see the adding of a 12th game as a way to help them comply with this rule. Over time the big stadium schools will play 7 home games while those with attendance problems will probably get only 5 home games in most years. A home and away series between Pitt and Penn State in September would help both football programs.
On the other hand the article in USA Today this week regarding Notre Dame was not encouraging. Notre Dame would like to schedule 7 or 8 home games each year. They also would like to retain their series with Navy and Southern Cal. Their new scheduling philosophy does not leave much room for many other home and home series. Notre Dame takes in $4.2 million with each home game. They can afford to pay for teams to play in South Bend. Pitt drops of the Notre Dame schedule after next year. It might be hard to insist that Penn State plays home and away and then take a two for one series with Notre Dame. This is not only a financial move by Notre dame but also an attempt to soften up the schedule. The BCS series has removed the strength of schedule factor. These changes will not go into effect until 2009.
I was fortunate enough to attend a revival of the play “Nunsense” this month. This musical comedy has been around for at least a couple of decades and still holds up well. This musical farce is about the Sisters of Mount St Helen who are located in Hoboken, New Jersey. They were originally founded by the Newark Airport police. We recently read a few posts on the message boards which easily could have come right out of “Nunsense”. One indicated that the top recruit in Eastern PA had not received as much as a letter from Pitt. Let me put that in context. In my search around the internet this week I came across an article on Altoona’s Zach Haulman. Zach indicated he has received over 1,000 letters from approximately 70 colleges. Haulman, however, is still waiting for his first offer.
Coach Harris was on the staffs at Ohio State and Tennessee. Former Pitt AD Steve Pederson was a recruiting coordinator at Tennessee. Many of the Pitt coaches have been at other schools. There are no secrets in recruiting. I have talked to many highly recruited athletes who claim they throw most of this junk mail into a box. Several have told me their parents sometimes look at it. Recruits will occasionally look at some of this if they really want to research a particular school. Florida players will occasionally tell you they have looked at the Pitt media guide and are aware that Pitt has other Florida players. The next time you read a post that only Penn State Coach Tom Bradley knows how to write hand written notes or that that a highly ranked recruit from PA has not received a letter from Pitt please remember this writer must have ambitions of having his work used in “Nunsense”. Recruiting is a two-way street. Identifying good players is the easy part. Finding ones that have a legitimate interest in your school makes the process a lot tougher. I could write a lot of letters to Charlize Theron, Cameron Diaz and Gwyneth Paltrow but if at some point they do not show some interest in me I had better start looking elsewhere. There are a lot of good football prospects out there. The last time I checked the Pittsburgh Steelers had drafted a quarterback from the MAC Conference.
Housekeeping items
Rivals.com has informed us they now have over 20,000 views each day of video highlights on various prospects. They expect this to reach 40,000 per day within a year. Their new offices include a television studios so you can expect an expansion in this area in years to come. The majority of their subscribers now have high speed internet access. We now have 47 videos on file for players that Pitt has been recruiting in football. There also is a short clip on Yough’s Ben McCauley.
Veteran sports writer Jim O’Brien has agreed to supply the Pantherlair with articles. Most will be historical pieces but we hope from time to time he will share his thoughts on this year’s football and basketball teams. Pitt has a rich athletic history. Many Pitt players have achieved greatness both on and off the field. The first articles deal with the Olympics but they will evolve into subjects which should interest all Pitt fans. Jim has authored many books on Pittsburgh sports figures including books on the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Pirates. He also authored “Hail To Pitt: A Sports History of the University of Pittsburgh”. In addition Jim has been an editor of the Street and Smith basketball magazine. This veteran writer is well versed in all sports. He will have some material you agree with and some you might not but they should all be a good read. This week Jim has an article on former Olympian Herb Douglas. He was one of the first African Americans to play football at Pitt. If you have not had a chance please check it out.
We had been talking to Yogi Roth the past few months about writing for the Pantherlair but it does not look like it will be happening. Yogi will be doing sideline reporting on the Pitt radio network. Things got complicated when Pitt offered him a graduate assistant position. He hopes to attend graduate school while tutoring Pitt athletes.
This week saw an article on Central Catholic’s John Pelusi appeared in the local papers. To be honest we have not pressed John. His family bleeds Blue and Gold. His father is a trustee at Pitt and a number of the family members have gone to Pitt. . You only go through the recruiting process once in life. John’s sister goes to Pitt and is not only an athlete but a very good student. My guess is John will follow his sister at the end of the day unless his parents feel it is best for him to get away. This one is not about recruiting. John’s family knows more about Pitt football than any recruiter can tell him.
A little Hoops talk
We talked to forward Jeff Adrien a couple of times after he visited UConn and before he made his final decision. Jeff was very polite and said all the politically correct things but we simply could not detect a lot of enthusiasm in his voice when discussing Pitt. The Huskies are an easy drive from Boston which gave them an edge. They also had a charity game with many of their former players while he was there. Jim Calhoun’s team is coming off a national championship so this was a tough match-up. Coach Lombardi did a good job getting a visit from Jeff.
Guard Danny Green first told the Pantherlair he would visit Pitt and North Carolina. Subsequent articles indicate that this is still his plan. This is also a tough match-up but you have to keep swinging if you hope to connect.
In addition to Danny Green, Pitt is involved with Ricky Torres, John Garcia, Ben McCauley Tyrell Biggs, Vernon Goodridge, Ahmad Nivens, Ryan Reid and others. One of my colleagues told me recently that you must land one or two high level players every year. The rest can be role players. You can be sure that UConn, Syracuse, Louisville, Cincinnati, Notre Dame and other schools in the Big East are going to land their share. If you do not land one or two each year you had better be an all-world coach. Talent will usually prevail over the long run. Pitt looks in good shape top pickoff a few very good players. They just need to get their fair share.
From the Desk of Steve Feller
Techie Talk
Earlier in the week, the Pantherlair message boards along with others in the Rivals network had been sabotaged by adware. Adware causes a lot of problems with performance of your browsing experience.
It can cause:
1). The site loading slowly
2). Some pages don't load completely
3). You can be redirected to other sites when moving your mouse over scrollbars or other browser areas
4). An exorbitant amount of popups are showing on our site
Rivals was well aware of the problem and had taken steps to isolate, identify and take action against those sites that the adware is re-directing our patrons to. In addition, Rivals policy is not to have pop-ups for subscribers. The following comes directly from the home office in Brentwood, TN:
"It is obviously Rivals policy to protect the integrity of our subscription-based sites by limiting the number of ads shown on the network, especially to subscribers. Our normal policy is that we do not show ANY popups to subscribers, and we typically limit popups to non-subscribers to 3 or less per day. If any of your subscribers or users complain that they are seeing more than this, please inform them of this policy and notify us. We will promptly respond and do everything in our power to identify the source of the problem, and promptly correct it."
There are a couple of programs out there that help eliminate adware from your computer, I use both of these. Spy-Bot can be dowloaded for free, there are no fees. Make sure you first download the program and then the Detection updates. These are executable files so once you download to a folder on your hard drive just click on each one to install.
Another free program is Ad-Aware. This catches a few that Spy-Bot doesn't. I always run Spy-Bot first so I don't know if the reverse can be said.
We do apologize for the inconvenience and annoyance of the problems seen earlier. However, todays internet is full of corrupt and sneaky people. Adware, worms, trojan horses, viruses and other damaging menaces are an every day occurence on todays super highway.
Make sure you have an anti-virus software package AND KEEP IT UP TO DATE by subscribing and receiving automatic updates over the internet. McAfee has a great package that includes a spam killer, security system, anti-virus and a firewall. There are other as well, e.g. Symantecs Nortons package.
Take control over your computer and happy surfing.
Note to Pantherlair.com Fans: The staff at Pantherlair.com works diligently to bring you the best information on University of Pittsburgh football and basketball recruiting (in addition to game coverage). Thousands of Panther fans visit our site on a daily basis. We have received a tremendous amount of e-mail thanking us for our efforts. If you like our site, please feel free to tell other fans about it. “Spread the word” and let’s add to our online family of Panther fans.
