From the desk of Jim Snyder
The BCS and the Big East Commish
I got a chance to watch portions of Marquette’s upset of Connecticut earlier this week. The big crowd of 15,831 roared with approval watching their Golden Eagles demolished the Huskies 94-79. There were a lot of happy Marquette fans at the game in Milwaukee. Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese was on hand and was interviewed at halftime. He was also smiling from ear to ear about West Virginia beating Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Mike made the point that the Big East champion had just beaten Georgia on what amounted to their home field. He said the Big East has just beaten the champion of what many think is the best conference in the country (SEC). More smiles from Mike Tranghese.
You simply cannot underestimate the value of the West Virginia win to the Big East Conference. It was huge. Next summer most forecasters will put West Virginia in the Top 10 in the country in preseason polls. Louisville will almost certainly be ranked in the top 15 in the country and maybe higher. The Big East has survived. They have bought themselves time for other schools to rebuild their programs. This will give Pitt, South Florida and Connecticut the time to build their programs so that the day will come when there will be three or four football teams from the conference that are ranked in the top 25 in the country.
West Virginia finished No. 6 in the coaches’ poll while Louisville finished at No. 20. Te Cardinals had to play their bowl game with their starting quarterback or it might have been much higher.
Mike Tranghese is in the process of touring the new Big East schools from the Midwest. In addition to his stop at Marquette he was scheduled to attend Cincinnati’s game with DePaul on Wednesday night, Louisville’s game with Villanova on Thursday night and DePaul’s game with Notre Dame on Saturday night.
One had hope that Pitt would not have to rebuild football program. The loss of wide receiver Greg Lee, kick returner Terrell Allen and running back Rashad Jennings does not help speed the process. Dave Wannstedt could be playing a few true freshmen next year. Next year’s goal may simply be to get to a bowl game (any bowl game). It maybe 2007 until this ship is righted and headed in the right direction. I received my copy of Panther Eyes this week. E.J. Borghetti writes about the reasons to be optimistic about next year. Two of his reasons are the return of Greg Lee and Rashad Jennings. It could be time for E.J. to put together a new top 10 list. I am confident it will get done but it may be a little slower than we all hoped.
Jeff Long was on radio this past week and indicated that Dave Wannstedt is putting together the best recruiting class at Pitt in the past twenty years. We agree with him. Coach Wannstedt does not delegate recruiting. Give him a chance to put a couple of recruiting classes on the playing field.
An important verbal commitment
If you missed our announcement over the holidays Tony Greco has given the Pantherlair a verbal commitment. He graduated in English and Communications from Pitt. He interned in the Pitt SID office. He has also been an assistant SID at Purdue and Virginia where he knew a number of Rivals.com reporters. Tony is an assistant football coach at Moon High School. Tony knows a number of good contacts at Pitt. You can never have too many. We welcome Tony to our staff.
They better suspend him
Rivals.com once wrote an article that a Virginia football player should be suspended for a game for a flagrant foul. Diehard Virginia alums disagreed and 30 of them cancelled their subscriptions.
If you watched the Virginia Tech-Louisville game you saw Virginia Tech quarterback Marcus Vick deliberately try to injury a Louisville player. Marcus Vick should have been kicked out of the Louisville game and suspended for another game. I have watched a ton of football over the years. We often watch punches being thrown in anger. However, I have seldom watched a player deliberate try to maim another player. He could have ruined Elvis Dummerville’s career by deliberately stepping on the back of his knee. Virginia Tech had better suspend this guy to send a message this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. The referees in this game should be embarrassed with the job they did. The whole incident was very ugly.
We are in the Top 25
Rivals.com released a list this week of sites that had shown significant grow this year and the Pantherlair was safely inside their Top 25. We showed more growth than either the Penn State or West Virginia sites. It is always nice to be ranked ahead of those two. It might have been even better if Pitt had not lost to Notre Dame, Ohio University and Nebraska to start the season. We would like to thank not only our new subscribers but also the long time subscribers that have stuck with the Pantherlair over the years.
Will there be coaching changes?
We have been hearing rumors that Pitt may make a change or two after Letter of Intent Day. We have heard speculation on names but I am not sure this is a good month to fan rumors. Dave Wannstedt said he would evaluate his staff after Letter of Intent Day. This is a normal practice around the country. We will let the coach do his job at his own pace.
A big win over Notre Dame
The Pitt basketball team remains unbeaten at 12-0 after their double overtime win over Notre Dame. One thing is for certain Notre Dame’s Chris Quinn loves shooting at the Pete. Last year he scored 25 points at the Pete by hitting 10 of 15 shots. He was 5 of 6 from 3-point range last year. Pitt held on for a 68-66 win. On Wednesday at the Pete he throws in 37 points. Quinn made some shots late in the game that bordered on the unreal.
A few game balls to pass out. Ronald Ramon gets one for draining the 3-pointer in the second overtime. Aaron Gray gets one not only for his double-double but also for shutting down Torin Francis. Jamie Dixon had to send the defense to the perimeter after Notre Dame got hot early. Aaron Gray got very little help in defending Francis and he did a great job. Our third game ball goes to Sam Young who scored 15 points including 7 points in the overtime sessions and had 12 rebounds on the night (Tony Greco got to spend time interviewing Sam this week. Hopefully you read his article).
Pitt was ranked No. 5 in the country the last time we looked at the RPI rankings. Big win for Jamie Dixon and the Pitt team. Coach Dixon now has the best won-loss percentage of any active coach Big East coach in Big East Conference games.
Any win by Pitt is a good win but the Notre Dame game was a little special. Pitt had to play over 12 minutes without Carl Krauser. In an ideal world you would put the ball in the hands of your senior and hope he is the one at the foul line in the closing minutes. Many young players got to play valuable minutes in crunch time without Carl and they came away with a win. It could help the Panthers later this year and next year.
Some football recruiting talk
Pitt has accepted 21 verbal commitments. We still think it is very possible that they will hand out 25 before the process concludes the first week of February. Last week we reported that Dave Wannnstedt would return to Pittsburgh right after the New Year’s holiday but we now hear he stayed in Florida to recruit this week. W are not sure who he visited by he could have visited Geno Atkins, Audie Augustine, Tamarcus Porter, Ricky Gary, Dexter Davidson, Thaddeus Lewis and/or Jared Martin. They are all possibilities.
Pitt will have seven players in for “official visits” this weekend. Seneca Valley’s Kevan Smith, Franklin’s John Malecki and Johnstown’s Scott Corson have already committed to Pitt but will take their visits. Hopefully they will try to help bring another player or two that is visiting into the fold.
Aaron Berry of Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt, Andy Miller of Trinity and Geno Atkins are all targets and will also visited. All of these players have offers on the table. Will they commit this weekend? Anything is possible but probably not. Aaron Berry told a Rivals reporter this week that Minnesota and Pitt are his leaders but that he may not announce until Letter of Intent Day (the first week of February).
We spoke to Trinity coach Ed Dalton this week. He told the Pantherlair that Ohio State’s Jim Tressel was to visit Andy Miller this week. West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez is scheduled to attend the Trinity basketball game Friday night. Andy Miller will head to Pitt after his basketball game. Coach Dalton expects Andy to make a decision during the next Dead Period. There is a Dead Period from January 9th through the 11th to allow college football coaches to attend a national convention. Coach Dalton expects Andy Miller to call the coaches at the convention to notify them of his decision. He may hold also hold a press conference at his school.
Geno Atkins is scheduled to visit Auburn and Michigan State after he visits Pitt. You would think he would at least want to check out Auburn but we will see.
We were talking to Pahokee coach Leroy Foster earlier this week to get some senior video of Tamarcus Porter and Ricky Gary. We asked him if Ricky Gary was going to visit Ohio State this week. He told us he would not be visiting Ohio State. He said, “Don’t quote me but I think it is pretty much a done deal. Ricky Gary will be coming to Pitt.” Hopefully Coach Foster will not only come through with some senior video of Ricky Gary and Tamarcus Porter but also deliver both to Pitt.
Beaver Falls wide receiver Lance Jeter will also visit. He does not yet have a scholarship offer. Pitt may be waiting for his January SAT scores. We will follow up with Lance who has a big basketball game next week against Aliquippa.
Nate Byham and Dorin Dickerson have gotten some good props this week in San Antonio but if I have been following the reports correctly neither is scheduled to start. I am looking forward to watching both of them play this weekend. They both have the potential to be big play players for Pitt going forward. It is a nice honor for both of them.
Finally we hope you all got a chance to see the senior video of Nate Byham, John Malecki and Geno Atkins this week. If not check them out. All three are impressive. We will also have video out today of junior college defensive back Lowell Robinson.
The War Room is targeted towards our premium customers. We ask that all information reported in the War Room MUST stay right here! That’s the way this deal works. When this information is repeated outside of the Between Fifth and Forbes forum it only cheapens the price of yours and every other die-hard who have purchased premium services. The War Room is one of our more popular features...thank you all for keeping the information on this board.
The BCS and the Big East Commish
I got a chance to watch portions of Marquette’s upset of Connecticut earlier this week. The big crowd of 15,831 roared with approval watching their Golden Eagles demolished the Huskies 94-79. There were a lot of happy Marquette fans at the game in Milwaukee. Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese was on hand and was interviewed at halftime. He was also smiling from ear to ear about West Virginia beating Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Mike made the point that the Big East champion had just beaten Georgia on what amounted to their home field. He said the Big East has just beaten the champion of what many think is the best conference in the country (SEC). More smiles from Mike Tranghese.
You simply cannot underestimate the value of the West Virginia win to the Big East Conference. It was huge. Next summer most forecasters will put West Virginia in the Top 10 in the country in preseason polls. Louisville will almost certainly be ranked in the top 15 in the country and maybe higher. The Big East has survived. They have bought themselves time for other schools to rebuild their programs. This will give Pitt, South Florida and Connecticut the time to build their programs so that the day will come when there will be three or four football teams from the conference that are ranked in the top 25 in the country.
West Virginia finished No. 6 in the coaches’ poll while Louisville finished at No. 20. Te Cardinals had to play their bowl game with their starting quarterback or it might have been much higher.
Mike Tranghese is in the process of touring the new Big East schools from the Midwest. In addition to his stop at Marquette he was scheduled to attend Cincinnati’s game with DePaul on Wednesday night, Louisville’s game with Villanova on Thursday night and DePaul’s game with Notre Dame on Saturday night.
One had hope that Pitt would not have to rebuild football program. The loss of wide receiver Greg Lee, kick returner Terrell Allen and running back Rashad Jennings does not help speed the process. Dave Wannstedt could be playing a few true freshmen next year. Next year’s goal may simply be to get to a bowl game (any bowl game). It maybe 2007 until this ship is righted and headed in the right direction. I received my copy of Panther Eyes this week. E.J. Borghetti writes about the reasons to be optimistic about next year. Two of his reasons are the return of Greg Lee and Rashad Jennings. It could be time for E.J. to put together a new top 10 list. I am confident it will get done but it may be a little slower than we all hoped.
Jeff Long was on radio this past week and indicated that Dave Wannstedt is putting together the best recruiting class at Pitt in the past twenty years. We agree with him. Coach Wannstedt does not delegate recruiting. Give him a chance to put a couple of recruiting classes on the playing field.
An important verbal commitment
If you missed our announcement over the holidays Tony Greco has given the Pantherlair a verbal commitment. He graduated in English and Communications from Pitt. He interned in the Pitt SID office. He has also been an assistant SID at Purdue and Virginia where he knew a number of Rivals.com reporters. Tony is an assistant football coach at Moon High School. Tony knows a number of good contacts at Pitt. You can never have too many. We welcome Tony to our staff.
They better suspend him
Rivals.com once wrote an article that a Virginia football player should be suspended for a game for a flagrant foul. Diehard Virginia alums disagreed and 30 of them cancelled their subscriptions.
If you watched the Virginia Tech-Louisville game you saw Virginia Tech quarterback Marcus Vick deliberately try to injury a Louisville player. Marcus Vick should have been kicked out of the Louisville game and suspended for another game. I have watched a ton of football over the years. We often watch punches being thrown in anger. However, I have seldom watched a player deliberate try to maim another player. He could have ruined Elvis Dummerville’s career by deliberately stepping on the back of his knee. Virginia Tech had better suspend this guy to send a message this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. The referees in this game should be embarrassed with the job they did. The whole incident was very ugly.
We are in the Top 25
Rivals.com released a list this week of sites that had shown significant grow this year and the Pantherlair was safely inside their Top 25. We showed more growth than either the Penn State or West Virginia sites. It is always nice to be ranked ahead of those two. It might have been even better if Pitt had not lost to Notre Dame, Ohio University and Nebraska to start the season. We would like to thank not only our new subscribers but also the long time subscribers that have stuck with the Pantherlair over the years.
Will there be coaching changes?
We have been hearing rumors that Pitt may make a change or two after Letter of Intent Day. We have heard speculation on names but I am not sure this is a good month to fan rumors. Dave Wannstedt said he would evaluate his staff after Letter of Intent Day. This is a normal practice around the country. We will let the coach do his job at his own pace.
A big win over Notre Dame
The Pitt basketball team remains unbeaten at 12-0 after their double overtime win over Notre Dame. One thing is for certain Notre Dame’s Chris Quinn loves shooting at the Pete. Last year he scored 25 points at the Pete by hitting 10 of 15 shots. He was 5 of 6 from 3-point range last year. Pitt held on for a 68-66 win. On Wednesday at the Pete he throws in 37 points. Quinn made some shots late in the game that bordered on the unreal.
A few game balls to pass out. Ronald Ramon gets one for draining the 3-pointer in the second overtime. Aaron Gray gets one not only for his double-double but also for shutting down Torin Francis. Jamie Dixon had to send the defense to the perimeter after Notre Dame got hot early. Aaron Gray got very little help in defending Francis and he did a great job. Our third game ball goes to Sam Young who scored 15 points including 7 points in the overtime sessions and had 12 rebounds on the night (Tony Greco got to spend time interviewing Sam this week. Hopefully you read his article).
Pitt was ranked No. 5 in the country the last time we looked at the RPI rankings. Big win for Jamie Dixon and the Pitt team. Coach Dixon now has the best won-loss percentage of any active coach Big East coach in Big East Conference games.
Any win by Pitt is a good win but the Notre Dame game was a little special. Pitt had to play over 12 minutes without Carl Krauser. In an ideal world you would put the ball in the hands of your senior and hope he is the one at the foul line in the closing minutes. Many young players got to play valuable minutes in crunch time without Carl and they came away with a win. It could help the Panthers later this year and next year.
Some football recruiting talk
Pitt has accepted 21 verbal commitments. We still think it is very possible that they will hand out 25 before the process concludes the first week of February. Last week we reported that Dave Wannnstedt would return to Pittsburgh right after the New Year’s holiday but we now hear he stayed in Florida to recruit this week. W are not sure who he visited by he could have visited Geno Atkins, Audie Augustine, Tamarcus Porter, Ricky Gary, Dexter Davidson, Thaddeus Lewis and/or Jared Martin. They are all possibilities.
Pitt will have seven players in for “official visits” this weekend. Seneca Valley’s Kevan Smith, Franklin’s John Malecki and Johnstown’s Scott Corson have already committed to Pitt but will take their visits. Hopefully they will try to help bring another player or two that is visiting into the fold.
Aaron Berry of Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt, Andy Miller of Trinity and Geno Atkins are all targets and will also visited. All of these players have offers on the table. Will they commit this weekend? Anything is possible but probably not. Aaron Berry told a Rivals reporter this week that Minnesota and Pitt are his leaders but that he may not announce until Letter of Intent Day (the first week of February).
We spoke to Trinity coach Ed Dalton this week. He told the Pantherlair that Ohio State’s Jim Tressel was to visit Andy Miller this week. West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez is scheduled to attend the Trinity basketball game Friday night. Andy Miller will head to Pitt after his basketball game. Coach Dalton expects Andy to make a decision during the next Dead Period. There is a Dead Period from January 9th through the 11th to allow college football coaches to attend a national convention. Coach Dalton expects Andy Miller to call the coaches at the convention to notify them of his decision. He may hold also hold a press conference at his school.
Geno Atkins is scheduled to visit Auburn and Michigan State after he visits Pitt. You would think he would at least want to check out Auburn but we will see.
We were talking to Pahokee coach Leroy Foster earlier this week to get some senior video of Tamarcus Porter and Ricky Gary. We asked him if Ricky Gary was going to visit Ohio State this week. He told us he would not be visiting Ohio State. He said, “Don’t quote me but I think it is pretty much a done deal. Ricky Gary will be coming to Pitt.” Hopefully Coach Foster will not only come through with some senior video of Ricky Gary and Tamarcus Porter but also deliver both to Pitt.
Beaver Falls wide receiver Lance Jeter will also visit. He does not yet have a scholarship offer. Pitt may be waiting for his January SAT scores. We will follow up with Lance who has a big basketball game next week against Aliquippa.
Nate Byham and Dorin Dickerson have gotten some good props this week in San Antonio but if I have been following the reports correctly neither is scheduled to start. I am looking forward to watching both of them play this weekend. They both have the potential to be big play players for Pitt going forward. It is a nice honor for both of them.
Finally we hope you all got a chance to see the senior video of Nate Byham, John Malecki and Geno Atkins this week. If not check them out. All three are impressive. We will also have video out today of junior college defensive back Lowell Robinson.
The War Room is targeted towards our premium customers. We ask that all information reported in the War Room MUST stay right here! That’s the way this deal works. When this information is repeated outside of the Between Fifth and Forbes forum it only cheapens the price of yours and every other die-hard who have purchased premium services. The War Room is one of our more popular features...thank you all for keeping the information on this board.
