From the desk of Jim Snyder
The July 4th holiday week has slowed news reporting throughout much of the sports world. I took the opportunity to read through my copy of the Blue Ribbon Yearbook which arrived earlier this week. This massive 384 page yearbook projects the Big East and looks like many others I have reviewed.
1) West Virginia
2) Louisville
3) Rutgers
4) South Florida
5) Pitt
6) Cincinnati
7) UConn
8) Syracuse
They point out that Pitt lost five in a row at the end but they led West Virginia and Connecticut at the half. Their point was that Pitt faded down the stretch and lost their last five games which resulted in Coach Wannstedt hiring Buddy Morris hoping that they will be in better shape and perhaps mentally a little tougher this year.
If you look at the season as a whole Pitt outscored their opponents 114 to 40 in the first quarter but they were outscored 70-64 in the fourth quarter. This might suggest that the staff puts together good game plans but conditioning and/or talent caught up to them as the games wore on.
They conclude by saying Pitt’s early season schedule is not daunting and that if one of the three quarterbacks takes charge they could reverse last year’s late fade and put themselves in a position to go to a bowl. One has to figure that is only a matter of time until Matt Cavanaugh settles on one of them and they do take change. This big question is how long does it take?
Blue Ribbon lists their All-Big East team and the only Panther on it is kick-returner Lowell Robinson. In part this may tell you something about the junior and senior classes. It also tells you Pitt’s freshmen and sophomores had not yet had an opportunity to make a name for themselves. Until this young group starts to exert itself the Panthers might continue to have their ups and downs. My hope is by the time we get to next year Nate Byham is listed as a pre-season All-Big East choice and that he is joined by a couple of his classmates.
Blue Ribbon Yearbook quotes Cincy’s new coach Brian Kelly saying that the Bearcats need to upgrade their stadium from 35,000 to 42,000. This is something I would love to see them do.
Louisville has already announced plans to expand their stadium to 63,000. I would like to see the day when Rutgers and UConn expand to about 50,000. If all of that gets completed the Big East will be where it needs to be.
Last year South Florida could not run the football. This week the Bulls announced that they have hired former Pitt coach Tom Freeman as their offensive line coach leaving a few Pitt fans wondering if this is their answer.
One of the West Virginia newspapers has been writing about a possible agreement with Army and Navy in which each school would play four games per year with teams in the Big East Conference. This has been mentioned before so I am not sure if he has new information or he is simply rehashing an old story. If this type a deal were done it would help keep the Big East together in its current 16-team configuration. As long as the BCS bowl remains a separate deal you might find a way to put them in a package with the remaining bowl slots. The existing bowls package must be upgraded the next time around. It is possible you might get a better deal by including them and Notre Dame.
Rivals.com has been running two polls the past week or so.
One asks which rivalry would you like to see renewed? In each case the readers were given five choices. The top two answers were:
1) Pitt-Penn State
2) Florida-Miami
The second poll asked which is the best existing rivalry? The top two answers were:
1) Auburn-Alabama
2) Michigan-Ohio State
One could easily make the argument that college football fans prefer in-state rivalries. I think even the out-of-state fan appreciates the passion involved in these games and that makes for good football. It puts an added element of interest which often makes them a lot of fun.
Pitt has verbal commitments from offensive linemen Lucas Nix from Thomas Jefferson and Ryan Turnley from Hopewell. Initially we heard that the staff wanted to take three offensive linemen. Later we heard four. If they are going to pickup another lineman or two they will probably have to make a couple of more offers.
This week we had articles on Tyler Sands and Jimmy Bennett. Sands has shown almost no interest in Pitt and has narrowed his choices to Illinois and Boston College. Bennett named five and I did not see Pitt on his list.
This week we have also had articles on offensive linemen Tim German, Mike Farrell and Chad Hounshell. All are on our Big Board and all are still waiting to see if Pitt will offer.
Pitt also has an offer out to offensive lineman Joe Looney. He is from the same high school in Florida as quarterback Star Jackson. It is hard to tell right now where Pitt stands with this pair.
It looks like Pitt will have to extend a couple of more offers if they are to hit their targets for offensive linemen.
This week we reported of four-star defensive tackle Reggie Ellis (6’ 2” 278) from Washington Dunbar. He visited Pitt this past week and then quickly announced he was narrowing his selections. This guy looks like a candidate to commit this summer. The question will be will Pitt be it?
Chris Peak reported on Aliquippa’s Jonathan Baldwin yesterday. He names a top six but it should get down to Pitt, Michigan and Notre Dame. This week Michigan got a commitment from Top 100 wide receiver Darryl Stonum. Notre Dame already has a commitment from Top 100 wide receiver John Goodman. Not sure this rules either school out but I like Pitt’s chances with Baldwin for a number of reasons although Aliquippa kids never seem to commit early.
A couple of colleagues told me a while back Pitt has offered 14 linebackers. They will be happy to get anyone on the list. They want on to say Pitt wanted two from this list. Since that time five (5) have committed to other schools (B.J. Machen, Marcus Witherspoon, David Posluszny, Andrew Sweat and Mike Yancich). Six (6) others have not shown much interest in Pitt lately (Shayne Hale, Brandon Beachum, Brandon Beal, Tarik Rollins and Taylor Hill). Gradually this rather long list had gotten much shorter. It might require adding a new name or two.
Navigational hints
For the past several weeks my pop-up blocker has blocked some of the videos. Chris has experienced the same thing. The tech staff is aware of the problem. You have a couple of options if you are also experiencing this problem. You can turn off your pop-up blocker or you can go to the player’s profile in the database and view it from the profile. I prefer the later option.
Some hoops talk
July is an Evaluation Period for college basketball coaches. Jamie Dixon and his staff will pack their bags and watch a ton of AAU basketball. So will the basketball analysts at Rivals.com.
There are many events over the next 30 days. Here are a few:
Eastern Invitational - College of New Jersey July 5th through the 8th
LeBron James Skill Camp –Akron-July 7th-July 10th
RBK U Camp-Philadelphia College-July 8th-10th
Nike Peach Jam –Atlanta – July 12th through July 15th
Main Event-Las Vegas-July 22nd-July 26th
Adidas Super 64-Las Vegas-July 22-July 26th
AAU championships –Orlando- July 26th –August 1st
We hope you caught our article earlier this week on Eloy Vargas. If he were to decide today I am confident he would be a Panther. The problem is his coach is saying he will not decide until early November.
Vargas stock is rising fast. This Dominican has only been in this country a short while but his game is improving rapidly. Rivals.com ranked him No. 23 in the country this week and gave him a five-star ranking. Who knows how many teams will be on him after the July Evaluation Period?
There have been reports that he wants to make sure the college coach does not leave. This one makes little sense. Few college coaches will change jobs between now and the first week of November. Even if they did a verbal commitment is easily broken if the coach gets hit by a bus.
I guess my biggest concern at this point is Florida. Billy Donovan has won back to back national championships and has just had three players selected in the first round of the NBA draft.
One of our readers recently compared Eloy Vargas to former Panther Charlie Smith. I think that is a very good comparison in describing his style of play. Vargas is still young and has another year to play at the high school level but if he ends up playing at the Pete he could remind Pitt fans of Charlie Smith.
If Vargas sticks to his decision to wait until November it puts the Pitt coaches in a bind. Do you want for the big prize at the end of the rainbow or do you grab someone you see during the July Evaluation Period?
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 July 4th holiday week has slowed news reporting throughout much of the sports world. I took the opportunity to read through my copy of the Blue Ribbon Yearbook which arrived earlier this week. This massive 384 page yearbook projects the Big East and looks like many others I have reviewed.
1) West Virginia
2) Louisville
3) Rutgers
4) South Florida
5) Pitt
6) Cincinnati
7) UConn
8) Syracuse
They point out that Pitt lost five in a row at the end but they led West Virginia and Connecticut at the half. Their point was that Pitt faded down the stretch and lost their last five games which resulted in Coach Wannstedt hiring Buddy Morris hoping that they will be in better shape and perhaps mentally a little tougher this year.
If you look at the season as a whole Pitt outscored their opponents 114 to 40 in the first quarter but they were outscored 70-64 in the fourth quarter. This might suggest that the staff puts together good game plans but conditioning and/or talent caught up to them as the games wore on.
They conclude by saying Pitt’s early season schedule is not daunting and that if one of the three quarterbacks takes charge they could reverse last year’s late fade and put themselves in a position to go to a bowl. One has to figure that is only a matter of time until Matt Cavanaugh settles on one of them and they do take change. This big question is how long does it take?
Blue Ribbon lists their All-Big East team and the only Panther on it is kick-returner Lowell Robinson. In part this may tell you something about the junior and senior classes. It also tells you Pitt’s freshmen and sophomores had not yet had an opportunity to make a name for themselves. Until this young group starts to exert itself the Panthers might continue to have their ups and downs. My hope is by the time we get to next year Nate Byham is listed as a pre-season All-Big East choice and that he is joined by a couple of his classmates.
Blue Ribbon Yearbook quotes Cincy’s new coach Brian Kelly saying that the Bearcats need to upgrade their stadium from 35,000 to 42,000. This is something I would love to see them do.
Louisville has already announced plans to expand their stadium to 63,000. I would like to see the day when Rutgers and UConn expand to about 50,000. If all of that gets completed the Big East will be where it needs to be.
Last year South Florida could not run the football. This week the Bulls announced that they have hired former Pitt coach Tom Freeman as their offensive line coach leaving a few Pitt fans wondering if this is their answer.
One of the West Virginia newspapers has been writing about a possible agreement with Army and Navy in which each school would play four games per year with teams in the Big East Conference. This has been mentioned before so I am not sure if he has new information or he is simply rehashing an old story. If this type a deal were done it would help keep the Big East together in its current 16-team configuration. As long as the BCS bowl remains a separate deal you might find a way to put them in a package with the remaining bowl slots. The existing bowls package must be upgraded the next time around. It is possible you might get a better deal by including them and Notre Dame.
Rivals.com has been running two polls the past week or so.
One asks which rivalry would you like to see renewed? In each case the readers were given five choices. The top two answers were:
1) Pitt-Penn State
2) Florida-Miami
The second poll asked which is the best existing rivalry? The top two answers were:
1) Auburn-Alabama
2) Michigan-Ohio State
One could easily make the argument that college football fans prefer in-state rivalries. I think even the out-of-state fan appreciates the passion involved in these games and that makes for good football. It puts an added element of interest which often makes them a lot of fun.
Pitt has verbal commitments from offensive linemen Lucas Nix from Thomas Jefferson and Ryan Turnley from Hopewell. Initially we heard that the staff wanted to take three offensive linemen. Later we heard four. If they are going to pickup another lineman or two they will probably have to make a couple of more offers.
This week we had articles on Tyler Sands and Jimmy Bennett. Sands has shown almost no interest in Pitt and has narrowed his choices to Illinois and Boston College. Bennett named five and I did not see Pitt on his list.
This week we have also had articles on offensive linemen Tim German, Mike Farrell and Chad Hounshell. All are on our Big Board and all are still waiting to see if Pitt will offer.
Pitt also has an offer out to offensive lineman Joe Looney. He is from the same high school in Florida as quarterback Star Jackson. It is hard to tell right now where Pitt stands with this pair.
It looks like Pitt will have to extend a couple of more offers if they are to hit their targets for offensive linemen.
This week we reported of four-star defensive tackle Reggie Ellis (6’ 2” 278) from Washington Dunbar. He visited Pitt this past week and then quickly announced he was narrowing his selections. This guy looks like a candidate to commit this summer. The question will be will Pitt be it?
Chris Peak reported on Aliquippa’s Jonathan Baldwin yesterday. He names a top six but it should get down to Pitt, Michigan and Notre Dame. This week Michigan got a commitment from Top 100 wide receiver Darryl Stonum. Notre Dame already has a commitment from Top 100 wide receiver John Goodman. Not sure this rules either school out but I like Pitt’s chances with Baldwin for a number of reasons although Aliquippa kids never seem to commit early.
A couple of colleagues told me a while back Pitt has offered 14 linebackers. They will be happy to get anyone on the list. They want on to say Pitt wanted two from this list. Since that time five (5) have committed to other schools (B.J. Machen, Marcus Witherspoon, David Posluszny, Andrew Sweat and Mike Yancich). Six (6) others have not shown much interest in Pitt lately (Shayne Hale, Brandon Beachum, Brandon Beal, Tarik Rollins and Taylor Hill). Gradually this rather long list had gotten much shorter. It might require adding a new name or two.
Navigational hints
For the past several weeks my pop-up blocker has blocked some of the videos. Chris has experienced the same thing. The tech staff is aware of the problem. You have a couple of options if you are also experiencing this problem. You can turn off your pop-up blocker or you can go to the player’s profile in the database and view it from the profile. I prefer the later option.
Some hoops talk
July is an Evaluation Period for college basketball coaches. Jamie Dixon and his staff will pack their bags and watch a ton of AAU basketball. So will the basketball analysts at Rivals.com.
There are many events over the next 30 days. Here are a few:
Eastern Invitational - College of New Jersey July 5th through the 8th
LeBron James Skill Camp –Akron-July 7th-July 10th
RBK U Camp-Philadelphia College-July 8th-10th
Nike Peach Jam –Atlanta – July 12th through July 15th
Main Event-Las Vegas-July 22nd-July 26th
Adidas Super 64-Las Vegas-July 22-July 26th
AAU championships –Orlando- July 26th –August 1st
We hope you caught our article earlier this week on Eloy Vargas. If he were to decide today I am confident he would be a Panther. The problem is his coach is saying he will not decide until early November.
Vargas stock is rising fast. This Dominican has only been in this country a short while but his game is improving rapidly. Rivals.com ranked him No. 23 in the country this week and gave him a five-star ranking. Who knows how many teams will be on him after the July Evaluation Period?
There have been reports that he wants to make sure the college coach does not leave. This one makes little sense. Few college coaches will change jobs between now and the first week of November. Even if they did a verbal commitment is easily broken if the coach gets hit by a bus.
I guess my biggest concern at this point is Florida. Billy Donovan has won back to back national championships and has just had three players selected in the first round of the NBA draft.
One of our readers recently compared Eloy Vargas to former Panther Charlie Smith. I think that is a very good comparison in describing his style of play. Vargas is still young and has another year to play at the high school level but if he ends up playing at the Pete he could remind Pitt fans of Charlie Smith.
If Vargas sticks to his decision to wait until November it puts the Pitt coaches in a bind. Do you want for the big prize at the end of the rainbow or do you grab someone you see during the July Evaluation Period?
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.
