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From the Desk of Jim Snyder
Pitt extends contract and the beats Notre Dame
The announcement that Pitt and Notre Dame had entered into a long-term agreement late last week through 2015 was simply huge. Chancellor Nordenberg and Pitt Athletic Director Jeff Long have both worked long and hard to get this done. They both deserve an “atta boy”. The fact that Notre Dame had recently stated publicly that they wanted more home games and less away games makes putting together a home and away series all the more impressive. The Pitt administration has made a number of goodwill trips to South Bend over the past year and a half and it paid off.
We were a bit surprised earlier this year to see the media guide listing Pitt and Notre Dame playing in 2010 and 2011 without a formal press release and we double-checked with our contacts at Pitt to make sure this was not a typo. We were assured that it was done consciously. We subsequently learned that it was an oral agreement and that a written contract was not in place. To Jeff Long’s credit he kept after Notre Dame until he got a deal done. The move of next year’s game to early September simply looks like a goodwill gesture on Jeff’s part to help Notre Dame out. The “mumbo jumbo” about moving it so it can be televised made no sense. Disney (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2) owns the rights and will televise it on the channel of their choosing. The last 149 Notre Dame games have been televised and this game will also be televised regardless of the date. Notre Dame simply wanted a game prior to playing Michigan and Pitt accommodated them. For Pitt it is a non-conference game so playing it early in the season is no big deal.
This agreement allows Pitt coaches to tell recruits you will play Notre Dame during your time at Pitt. It is a great sales tool. This could also have some conference implications far down the road but that is the subject for later. Notre Dame Sports Information Director John Heisler was quoted in the Post-Gazette as saying, “We always want to preserve our status as an independent, but, at the same time, we do look at the Big East as our partner and when we can work with them on something that makes sense for both of us, it is something we want to do."
The Pitt administration has worked equally hard at trying to put together a deal with Penn State. Next spring the NCAA is supposed to consider a proposal sponsored by the Big 12 and the Big East Conferences to expand the regular season to 12 games. Quite frankly as long as there is no playoff system this proposal is a good one. If this proposal is approved, as expected, you have a good possibility that Pitt can put together some kind of deal with Penn State.
Pitt Athletic Director Jeff Long was asked at halftime of the Notre Dame game what the chances of Notre Dame joining a conference were. Jeff responded that they were not good unless the BCS and/or the NCAA changed the rules so that it forced them into a conference. He said that Notre Dame believes their independence is at the very core of what they believe they are as an institution.
What are the chances of getting Penn State into the Big East Conference? Almost impossible unless you can get Notre Dame to join the Big East. Go back a read the paragraph above. There is a “Catch 22” here.
The new Big East Conference is set up in such away that it allows for the eight football schools to go their own separate way and the seven basketball schools to go their way in a few years. It will be easy for Notre Dame to follow the Catholic schools in basketball unless the BCS and/or NCAA change the rules that virtually force Notre Dame to join a conference. What are the odds of that happening? Well they are much better than the odds of winning the next Powerball drawing. The BCS is wrestling with anti-trust problems when dealing with the Mountain West and Conference USA. Who knows their attempt to pacify the non-BCS conferences might catch Notre Dame in the middle. Maybe.
Passions run high among alums at most schools that play football in the level of a BCS conference. Many are quick to call for a coaching change if their alma mater loses a game. If a school change coaches the turn around often takes some time. Occasionally the turn around takes longer that alums would like. Sometimes it never comes at all. Many of these report cards are still incomplete on first year coaches. Now that we are into conference play most of these teams are more likely to pick up another loss or two than another win. Here is a quick look how the new coaches have fared at the Division 1A level so far this fall.
Coach School Current Last
Record Year
Mike Price UTEP 7-2 2-11
J.D. Brookhart Akron 6-4 7-5
Mark Dantonio Cincinnati 5-4 5-7
Chris Ault Nevada 5-5 6-6
Bill Callahan Nebraska 5-5 10-3
Jeff Genyk E. Michigan 4-6 3-9
Doug Martin Kent State 4-6 5-7
Sylvester Croom Miss. State 3-5 2-10
Brian Kelly C. Michigan 3-7 3-9
Nick Holt Idaho 3-8 3-9
Bobby Ross Army 2-7 0-13
Mike Stoops Arizona 2-8 2-10
Ted Roof Duke 2-8 4-8
George O’Leary C. Florida 0-10 3-9
Texas El Paso rolled the dice hoping they could rehabilitate Mike Price from his “Roll Tide” episode while at Alabama and has enjoyed the biggest turnaround this year. The Miners are now 7-2 and appear to have two winnable games left on the schedule. Former Pitt coach J.D. Brookhart at Akron and former Ohio State assistant Mark Dantonio still have chances to get their teams to bowls if they can figure out how to win another game.
Former Pitt Athletic Director Steve Pederson called asking if anyone had former Nebraska coach Frank Solich’s phone number. The Huskers are in real danger of not being bowl eligible for the first time since before Richard Nixon was President. The Huskers have gone to bowls 35 years in a row but their extreme makeover is not going well. The Huskers had to kick a late field goal Saturday night to prevent being shutout.
Tyler Palko’s five-touchdown performance on Saturday was truly remarkable. No quarterback had ever accomplished this against Notre Dame. Unfortunately his use of the F_word could cause problems for NBC affiliates. The current group at the FCC is long on morality and short on common sense. The FCC is currently chaired by Michael Powell (son of Colin Powell). You may have followed the story this past week where many ABC affiliate refused to clear Private Ryan on Veteran’s Day despite having aired the same show the past two years. They refused to air it for fear of how the current administration would react to the use of the F word.
Many have discussed the inability of Pitt to recruit four and five star players the past couple of years. Pitt did land Tyler Palko, David Abdul, Larry Fitzgerald, Eric Gill and Rod Rutherford but the implosion of the Big East last year and the uncertainty about Coach Harris’ future created in the media this year have made it difficult recently with the top ranked players. Quite frankly we have been more impressed with their effort with the “B” pile recruits. The last two verbals fall into this category. The Pitt staff turned to wide receivers Oderick Turner and Shawn Simmons after it became increasingly apparent they were losing ground with receivers at the top of their list. Shawn Simmons played behind a couple of Division 1 recruits last year but comes from a good program. New Brunswick Coach John Quinn is 34-1 in his three years at this school. Last year Pitt recruited four-star wideout Dwayne Jarrett from New Brunswick. Jarrett ultimately chose the No. 1 ranked Southern Cal Trojans.
During the Majors II era, Pitt did an absolutely lousy job working the “B” pile when Curt Cignetti was the recruiting coordinator. Pitt usually had 25 scholarships to hand out and then would only manage to sign 17. The result was that Pitt saw their numbers drop to about 65 scholarship players (the approximate number allowed by Division 1AA programs). Once you allow your numbers to fall it takes several years to restore them because of the 25 per year limitation.
The basketball season draws near
Justin Young of Rivals.com went to see Pitt recruit Doyle Hudson play in Atlanta recently and reported on his first game. You can read that article which is attached to Hudson’s player profile in the basketball database. Offline Justin Young reported that Doyle Hudson appeared to be closer to 6’ 7” than to 6’ 8”. He also said that he was “a great athlete, a super passer who needs to work on his intensity”. He reported he could have dominated the game but didn’t the night he saw him play. He reported that he has all the tools but still needs work. He has very good potential but is still raw. Hudson is from the Bahamas and this is only the second year in the USA. He should improve with more (and better) coaching. We spoke to the coach Roane State Community College last week to confirm Hudson had returned his Letter of Intent to Pitt and he told the Pantherlair that his team is now 2-1.
We also spoke to Coach Kevin Keats at Hargrave Military Academy. This school has two basketball teams. They have one for high school students and another for post-graduate students. Sam Young’s team played in a three-day tournament over the weekend at Louisburg, North Carolina. The teams in the tourney were junior college teams. Hargrave Academy has seven Division 1 prospects. Joe Alexander (6’ 6”) recently signed with West Virginia and Tommie Liddell (6’ 4”) signed with St Louis.
We think Coach Dixon and his staff also did a good job digging through their B-pile. Keep in mind that Danny Green, Jeff Adrien, Ryan Reid, John Garcia and Ricky Torres were all brought in for visits before most of this group only to pick other schools. We like the upside of the three they signed. We think Sam Young might be the one to contribute the quickest. He was a very good high school player that is playing with and against good competition this year on a post-graduate basis. It is almost like a redshirt year in terms of maturing.
The inter-active basketball schedule is now up and operational. This is fed through the Sports Ticker contracted for by Rivals.com and the Pantherlair. The basketball scoreboard is also now operational so you can follow scores from around the Big East and the rest of the country. You can find the basketball schedules and scoreboard in the blue border on the left hand side of this page. The University of Pittsburgh will play their first regular season game with Howard Saturday night so we are up and running. Howard was 6-21 last year.
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 on 11/15 10:04 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
This post was edited on 11/15 10:09 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
From the Desk of Jim Snyder
Pitt extends contract and the beats Notre Dame
The announcement that Pitt and Notre Dame had entered into a long-term agreement late last week through 2015 was simply huge. Chancellor Nordenberg and Pitt Athletic Director Jeff Long have both worked long and hard to get this done. They both deserve an “atta boy”. The fact that Notre Dame had recently stated publicly that they wanted more home games and less away games makes putting together a home and away series all the more impressive. The Pitt administration has made a number of goodwill trips to South Bend over the past year and a half and it paid off.
We were a bit surprised earlier this year to see the media guide listing Pitt and Notre Dame playing in 2010 and 2011 without a formal press release and we double-checked with our contacts at Pitt to make sure this was not a typo. We were assured that it was done consciously. We subsequently learned that it was an oral agreement and that a written contract was not in place. To Jeff Long’s credit he kept after Notre Dame until he got a deal done. The move of next year’s game to early September simply looks like a goodwill gesture on Jeff’s part to help Notre Dame out. The “mumbo jumbo” about moving it so it can be televised made no sense. Disney (ABC/ESPN/ESPN2) owns the rights and will televise it on the channel of their choosing. The last 149 Notre Dame games have been televised and this game will also be televised regardless of the date. Notre Dame simply wanted a game prior to playing Michigan and Pitt accommodated them. For Pitt it is a non-conference game so playing it early in the season is no big deal.
This agreement allows Pitt coaches to tell recruits you will play Notre Dame during your time at Pitt. It is a great sales tool. This could also have some conference implications far down the road but that is the subject for later. Notre Dame Sports Information Director John Heisler was quoted in the Post-Gazette as saying, “We always want to preserve our status as an independent, but, at the same time, we do look at the Big East as our partner and when we can work with them on something that makes sense for both of us, it is something we want to do."
The Pitt administration has worked equally hard at trying to put together a deal with Penn State. Next spring the NCAA is supposed to consider a proposal sponsored by the Big 12 and the Big East Conferences to expand the regular season to 12 games. Quite frankly as long as there is no playoff system this proposal is a good one. If this proposal is approved, as expected, you have a good possibility that Pitt can put together some kind of deal with Penn State.
Pitt Athletic Director Jeff Long was asked at halftime of the Notre Dame game what the chances of Notre Dame joining a conference were. Jeff responded that they were not good unless the BCS and/or the NCAA changed the rules so that it forced them into a conference. He said that Notre Dame believes their independence is at the very core of what they believe they are as an institution.
What are the chances of getting Penn State into the Big East Conference? Almost impossible unless you can get Notre Dame to join the Big East. Go back a read the paragraph above. There is a “Catch 22” here.
The new Big East Conference is set up in such away that it allows for the eight football schools to go their own separate way and the seven basketball schools to go their way in a few years. It will be easy for Notre Dame to follow the Catholic schools in basketball unless the BCS and/or NCAA change the rules that virtually force Notre Dame to join a conference. What are the odds of that happening? Well they are much better than the odds of winning the next Powerball drawing. The BCS is wrestling with anti-trust problems when dealing with the Mountain West and Conference USA. Who knows their attempt to pacify the non-BCS conferences might catch Notre Dame in the middle. Maybe.
Passions run high among alums at most schools that play football in the level of a BCS conference. Many are quick to call for a coaching change if their alma mater loses a game. If a school change coaches the turn around often takes some time. Occasionally the turn around takes longer that alums would like. Sometimes it never comes at all. Many of these report cards are still incomplete on first year coaches. Now that we are into conference play most of these teams are more likely to pick up another loss or two than another win. Here is a quick look how the new coaches have fared at the Division 1A level so far this fall.
Coach School Current Last
Record Year
Mike Price UTEP 7-2 2-11
J.D. Brookhart Akron 6-4 7-5
Mark Dantonio Cincinnati 5-4 5-7
Chris Ault Nevada 5-5 6-6
Bill Callahan Nebraska 5-5 10-3
Jeff Genyk E. Michigan 4-6 3-9
Doug Martin Kent State 4-6 5-7
Sylvester Croom Miss. State 3-5 2-10
Brian Kelly C. Michigan 3-7 3-9
Nick Holt Idaho 3-8 3-9
Bobby Ross Army 2-7 0-13
Mike Stoops Arizona 2-8 2-10
Ted Roof Duke 2-8 4-8
George O’Leary C. Florida 0-10 3-9
Texas El Paso rolled the dice hoping they could rehabilitate Mike Price from his “Roll Tide” episode while at Alabama and has enjoyed the biggest turnaround this year. The Miners are now 7-2 and appear to have two winnable games left on the schedule. Former Pitt coach J.D. Brookhart at Akron and former Ohio State assistant Mark Dantonio still have chances to get their teams to bowls if they can figure out how to win another game.
Former Pitt Athletic Director Steve Pederson called asking if anyone had former Nebraska coach Frank Solich’s phone number. The Huskers are in real danger of not being bowl eligible for the first time since before Richard Nixon was President. The Huskers have gone to bowls 35 years in a row but their extreme makeover is not going well. The Huskers had to kick a late field goal Saturday night to prevent being shutout.
Tyler Palko’s five-touchdown performance on Saturday was truly remarkable. No quarterback had ever accomplished this against Notre Dame. Unfortunately his use of the F_word could cause problems for NBC affiliates. The current group at the FCC is long on morality and short on common sense. The FCC is currently chaired by Michael Powell (son of Colin Powell). You may have followed the story this past week where many ABC affiliate refused to clear Private Ryan on Veteran’s Day despite having aired the same show the past two years. They refused to air it for fear of how the current administration would react to the use of the F word.
Many have discussed the inability of Pitt to recruit four and five star players the past couple of years. Pitt did land Tyler Palko, David Abdul, Larry Fitzgerald, Eric Gill and Rod Rutherford but the implosion of the Big East last year and the uncertainty about Coach Harris’ future created in the media this year have made it difficult recently with the top ranked players. Quite frankly we have been more impressed with their effort with the “B” pile recruits. The last two verbals fall into this category. The Pitt staff turned to wide receivers Oderick Turner and Shawn Simmons after it became increasingly apparent they were losing ground with receivers at the top of their list. Shawn Simmons played behind a couple of Division 1 recruits last year but comes from a good program. New Brunswick Coach John Quinn is 34-1 in his three years at this school. Last year Pitt recruited four-star wideout Dwayne Jarrett from New Brunswick. Jarrett ultimately chose the No. 1 ranked Southern Cal Trojans.
During the Majors II era, Pitt did an absolutely lousy job working the “B” pile when Curt Cignetti was the recruiting coordinator. Pitt usually had 25 scholarships to hand out and then would only manage to sign 17. The result was that Pitt saw their numbers drop to about 65 scholarship players (the approximate number allowed by Division 1AA programs). Once you allow your numbers to fall it takes several years to restore them because of the 25 per year limitation.
The basketball season draws near
Justin Young of Rivals.com went to see Pitt recruit Doyle Hudson play in Atlanta recently and reported on his first game. You can read that article which is attached to Hudson’s player profile in the basketball database. Offline Justin Young reported that Doyle Hudson appeared to be closer to 6’ 7” than to 6’ 8”. He also said that he was “a great athlete, a super passer who needs to work on his intensity”. He reported he could have dominated the game but didn’t the night he saw him play. He reported that he has all the tools but still needs work. He has very good potential but is still raw. Hudson is from the Bahamas and this is only the second year in the USA. He should improve with more (and better) coaching. We spoke to the coach Roane State Community College last week to confirm Hudson had returned his Letter of Intent to Pitt and he told the Pantherlair that his team is now 2-1.
We also spoke to Coach Kevin Keats at Hargrave Military Academy. This school has two basketball teams. They have one for high school students and another for post-graduate students. Sam Young’s team played in a three-day tournament over the weekend at Louisburg, North Carolina. The teams in the tourney were junior college teams. Hargrave Academy has seven Division 1 prospects. Joe Alexander (6’ 6”) recently signed with West Virginia and Tommie Liddell (6’ 4”) signed with St Louis.
We think Coach Dixon and his staff also did a good job digging through their B-pile. Keep in mind that Danny Green, Jeff Adrien, Ryan Reid, John Garcia and Ricky Torres were all brought in for visits before most of this group only to pick other schools. We like the upside of the three they signed. We think Sam Young might be the one to contribute the quickest. He was a very good high school player that is playing with and against good competition this year on a post-graduate basis. It is almost like a redshirt year in terms of maturing.
The inter-active basketball schedule is now up and operational. This is fed through the Sports Ticker contracted for by Rivals.com and the Pantherlair. The basketball scoreboard is also now operational so you can follow scores from around the Big East and the rest of the country. You can find the basketball schedules and scoreboard in the blue border on the left hand side of this page. The University of Pittsburgh will play their first regular season game with Howard Saturday night so we are up and running. Howard was 6-21 last year.
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 on 11/15 10:04 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
This post was edited on 11/15 10:09 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
