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From the Desk of Jim Snyder
The New Rivals is growing and expanding
In many way Rivals is like the “New Big East”. A new company was formed in Brentwood, TN approximately 3 years ago after a company with the same name in Seattle, WA went bankrupt when their advertising based business model did not work. This happened to many other Internet companies, as we all know. The “New Rivals” went to a subscription-based model, which has put them on sound ground financially.
The “New Rivals” has grown rapidly with page views up 40% through the first 4 months of this year. By early May there had been over 1.0 billion page views this year. That did not occur until late July last year.
The “New Rivals” is expanding and growing. They will move out of one business park in Brentwood, TN in June and into another one. They will triple the amount of floor space in their new space. This will allow them room to add personal and expand their operations. This should allow them to improve the service to you. You will experience no interruption in service. The host computers are actually located in a secure location in nearby Nashville.
Many new improvements are on the drawing board. The next one coming off the drawing board should be a new search engine, which will allow our subscribers to search for articles using “keywords”. It is currently being Beta tested.
The Big East is in flux but the dynamics will change
I happen to sit in the box with Chancellor Nordenberg at the Insight Bowl when Pitt beat Oregon State. He told me at that time that he had been selected to be the representative of the Big East Conference with the NCAA. I bring this up to indicate this was in place long before the old Big East imploded. At least one of our regulars has suggested that when it comes to football he is the “acting Big East Commissioner”. There are some close to the program that often feel that during the past 17 months he has often been the “acting Athletic Director” at Pitt. All of this reminds me a little of a certain Big East Head Coach who also is the offensive coordinator and the quarterback coach of his team.
The Big East football program is now operating with only 7 teams and 2 of those (Boston College and Temple) are in a lame duck year. Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida are still members of Conference USA. Once these three schools are on board with DePaul and Marquette the political dynamics of the conference may change. Until they are on board it is really hard to forecast which way the political winds will blow.
Where will this put Mike Tranghese? Who knows? If the Big East comes out of this mess with their BCS berth intact he may have taken a big step towards rehabilitation. Keep in mind the networks and bowls have not yet put up the cash or signed deals to insure the Big East is at table as an equal partner. Only the conference commissioners have agreed at this point.
Some recruiting updates
One of regular posters indicated that Aliquippa’s linebacker Donnell McKenzie (6’ 2” 240) might have an offer from Pitt. We spoke to Aliquippa coach Mike Zmjanic this week. He told us that Donnell has not received an offer yet from any school but that many schools have made inquires and that he has sent out a ton of tape on Donnell.
We also spoke to running back Rashad Jennings (6’ 2” 255) to see how he was coming along in qualifying academically. Rashad said, “I finish up at school the end of this week. It will all come down to these final grades. I am in the process of making arrangements to take a couple of summer classes so I can be sure of being in Pittsburgh in August.”
We asked Rashad how much he weighed right now and he replied, “I weigh 255 right on the dot and I can run a 4.5 in the 40.”
It could take the balance of the summer before we know the status of this big running back. If he does make it to Oakland they better keep him away from Primanti sandwiches. He could be the next “Ironhead” Heyward.
Earlier this week we interviewed Bishop McCort tight end Jose Cruz. This big guy had solid camps at Nike and Metro Index. He had an offer from Akron and now has picked up a scholarship offer from Boston College. I indicated he has some frustration with the ball not being thrown his way last year. I thought his response was funny. I might have gotten the same response from Antonio Bryant or many other competitors. The truth is many quarterbacks and coaches do not like throwing to the tight end in traffic. Many Pitt fans often left games wondering why the Panthers had not used Kris Wilson more. Jose Seems like a nice young man that now has two offers. We think more are on the way.
Seton LaSalle quaterback Bill Stull has picked up another couple of offers. The latest to offer scholarships are Indiana and Miami of Ohio. Bill now has now has 7 offers. They include Kentucky, Indiana, North Carolina, Duke, Akron, Miami of Ohio and Bowling Green.
He is looking good
One of our “birdies” works at the UPMC complex and is use to seeing Pittsburgh Steeler players going to and from practice. The “birdie” ran into Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko this week and e-mailed us to say, “I just saw Tyler Palko and man he is a specimen. He is NFL size right now”.
Will the stars come out tonight?
Rivals will start the process of ranking players in early June. The first off the drawing board will be five star players. These are the equivalent of high school All-Americans. I suspect the opening pass will have only 20-25 five star players for the entire country.
How many players has Pitt offered
The last time we checked the “Offer” tab in the database there were 49 players listed. There may be another dozen that Pitt has offered but in most cases these players have not yet expressed a strong interest in Pitt. It is quite possible the Pitt staff will offer another couple of dozen after they move deeper into their evaluation period. Here are a few players that Pitt has offered but the database does not reflect an interest by the player at this point.
David Olsen WR 6’ 5” 195 Wichita Falls, Texas
Greg Orton WR 6’ 4” 190 Wayne, Ohio
Eugene Monroe OT 6’ 7” 320 Plainfield, NJ
Mike Brown RB 5’ 10” 185 Jersey City, NJ
Derrick Williams ATH 6’ 189 Greenbelt, MD
Greg Paulus QB 6’ 1” 180 Manlius, NY
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.
This post was edited by TNPanther on 5/28 8:50 AM
This post was edited by TNPanther on 5/28 12:33 PM
From the Desk of Jim Snyder
The New Rivals is growing and expanding
In many way Rivals is like the “New Big East”. A new company was formed in Brentwood, TN approximately 3 years ago after a company with the same name in Seattle, WA went bankrupt when their advertising based business model did not work. This happened to many other Internet companies, as we all know. The “New Rivals” went to a subscription-based model, which has put them on sound ground financially.
The “New Rivals” has grown rapidly with page views up 40% through the first 4 months of this year. By early May there had been over 1.0 billion page views this year. That did not occur until late July last year.
The “New Rivals” is expanding and growing. They will move out of one business park in Brentwood, TN in June and into another one. They will triple the amount of floor space in their new space. This will allow them room to add personal and expand their operations. This should allow them to improve the service to you. You will experience no interruption in service. The host computers are actually located in a secure location in nearby Nashville.
Many new improvements are on the drawing board. The next one coming off the drawing board should be a new search engine, which will allow our subscribers to search for articles using “keywords”. It is currently being Beta tested.
The Big East is in flux but the dynamics will change
I happen to sit in the box with Chancellor Nordenberg at the Insight Bowl when Pitt beat Oregon State. He told me at that time that he had been selected to be the representative of the Big East Conference with the NCAA. I bring this up to indicate this was in place long before the old Big East imploded. At least one of our regulars has suggested that when it comes to football he is the “acting Big East Commissioner”. There are some close to the program that often feel that during the past 17 months he has often been the “acting Athletic Director” at Pitt. All of this reminds me a little of a certain Big East Head Coach who also is the offensive coordinator and the quarterback coach of his team.
The Big East football program is now operating with only 7 teams and 2 of those (Boston College and Temple) are in a lame duck year. Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida are still members of Conference USA. Once these three schools are on board with DePaul and Marquette the political dynamics of the conference may change. Until they are on board it is really hard to forecast which way the political winds will blow.
Where will this put Mike Tranghese? Who knows? If the Big East comes out of this mess with their BCS berth intact he may have taken a big step towards rehabilitation. Keep in mind the networks and bowls have not yet put up the cash or signed deals to insure the Big East is at table as an equal partner. Only the conference commissioners have agreed at this point.
Some recruiting updates
One of regular posters indicated that Aliquippa’s linebacker Donnell McKenzie (6’ 2” 240) might have an offer from Pitt. We spoke to Aliquippa coach Mike Zmjanic this week. He told us that Donnell has not received an offer yet from any school but that many schools have made inquires and that he has sent out a ton of tape on Donnell.
We also spoke to running back Rashad Jennings (6’ 2” 255) to see how he was coming along in qualifying academically. Rashad said, “I finish up at school the end of this week. It will all come down to these final grades. I am in the process of making arrangements to take a couple of summer classes so I can be sure of being in Pittsburgh in August.”
We asked Rashad how much he weighed right now and he replied, “I weigh 255 right on the dot and I can run a 4.5 in the 40.”
It could take the balance of the summer before we know the status of this big running back. If he does make it to Oakland they better keep him away from Primanti sandwiches. He could be the next “Ironhead” Heyward.
Earlier this week we interviewed Bishop McCort tight end Jose Cruz. This big guy had solid camps at Nike and Metro Index. He had an offer from Akron and now has picked up a scholarship offer from Boston College. I indicated he has some frustration with the ball not being thrown his way last year. I thought his response was funny. I might have gotten the same response from Antonio Bryant or many other competitors. The truth is many quarterbacks and coaches do not like throwing to the tight end in traffic. Many Pitt fans often left games wondering why the Panthers had not used Kris Wilson more. Jose Seems like a nice young man that now has two offers. We think more are on the way.
Seton LaSalle quaterback Bill Stull has picked up another couple of offers. The latest to offer scholarships are Indiana and Miami of Ohio. Bill now has now has 7 offers. They include Kentucky, Indiana, North Carolina, Duke, Akron, Miami of Ohio and Bowling Green.
He is looking good
One of our “birdies” works at the UPMC complex and is use to seeing Pittsburgh Steeler players going to and from practice. The “birdie” ran into Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko this week and e-mailed us to say, “I just saw Tyler Palko and man he is a specimen. He is NFL size right now”.
Will the stars come out tonight?
Rivals will start the process of ranking players in early June. The first off the drawing board will be five star players. These are the equivalent of high school All-Americans. I suspect the opening pass will have only 20-25 five star players for the entire country.
How many players has Pitt offered
The last time we checked the “Offer” tab in the database there were 49 players listed. There may be another dozen that Pitt has offered but in most cases these players have not yet expressed a strong interest in Pitt. It is quite possible the Pitt staff will offer another couple of dozen after they move deeper into their evaluation period. Here are a few players that Pitt has offered but the database does not reflect an interest by the player at this point.
David Olsen WR 6’ 5” 195 Wichita Falls, Texas
Greg Orton WR 6’ 4” 190 Wayne, Ohio
Eugene Monroe OT 6’ 7” 320 Plainfield, NJ
Mike Brown RB 5’ 10” 185 Jersey City, NJ
Derrick Williams ATH 6’ 189 Greenbelt, MD
Greg Paulus QB 6’ 1” 180 Manlius, NY
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.
This post was edited by TNPanther on 5/28 8:50 AM
This post was edited by TNPanther on 5/28 12:33 PM
