From the desk of Jim Snyder
Leaders in the Pick’em contest after three weeks are:
1) Fitzgerald#1
2) Rockhen
3) Thesingingriver
4) Pitt2005
5) Pitt Magician
6) Tired Ram97
7) Jim Pantherlair
8) gburgess1300
9) UP#1
10) Bye-CYa
10) Real Panther
10) Monroeville Fan
Get your selections in for this week’s games.
Searching for a new AD
It looks like Pitt is using the same process to find a new AD that they used to select Jeff Long. Pitt has named Donna Saft as the interim AD much as they did with Mark Boehm as few years ago. They have appointed a search committee that looks similar to the one they had when Steve Pedersen went to Nebraska. The last go around took over six months. Hopefully they can have someone in place by the end of the year this time around.
The committee prepares a short list for Chancellor Nordenberg and he makes the decision as who they will hire. There are only 65 BCS schools and only 64 have athletic directors. This is a highly sought after position that should attract a number of qualified candidates. Only Vanderbilt does not have an AD. The Commodores had the most successful sports year in the history of their school this year without an AD. Their baseball team was ranked No. 1 for most of the year and their basketball team was in the NCAA tournament as were most of their other teams. Only football struggles at Vanderbilt. Still this is not a good model for most schools and it is not a path Pitt should take.
The last time around Michigan State assistant Mark Hollis had some support but he was just named the new Athletic Director at Michigan State. Former Akron AD Mike Thomas also had some support. Since the last search he has moved on to become the AD at Cincinnati. Thomas rebuilt many of the facilities at Akron while he was there and hired former Pitt assistant J.D. Brookhart to be Akron’s football coach. I just am not sure what the appetite is for going after another Big East school’s athletic director. He would have support if they can get over that hurdle.
The new AD has two big jobs to deal with. The new Olympic facilities must be built at the old Terrance Village site. This project not only is a necessity for soccer, track, baseball ect. but it could help give Pitt a more campus like feel if it is done right. It would also help football recruiting.
The new AD must also work to rebuild season ticket sales in football. It looks like the high watermark was almost 43,000 back in 2003. Since that time they have slipped to something in the 29,000 range. I wish I had a lot of good ideas to help them. Winning and an improved schedule will help but they must also do a better job of promoting and selling tickets. Pitt has all the revenue opportunities they need in the club level, box seats and lower bowl. They need to use the upper decks to build new Pitt fans. I grew up going to Youth Day games and sitting in the endzones of old Pitt stadium at discounted prices.
Helping recruiting
I believe getting the Olympic facilities built and increasing season tickets sales will help recruiting.
There are two others areas that are outside the control of a new athletic director. Pitt should continue to put more dormitories on campus. This is an area that has received considerable attention in recent years and it should continue. It will not only help in football & basketball recruiting but will help in recruiting better students in general. This one is winner on many fronts.
They should also take another look at closing Bigalow Boulevard between Fifth & Forbes and then grass it over. It might be best to wait a year or two on this one and then tie it into the construction of some new parking facilities in Oakland. Closing Bigalow coupled with the new park near the Carnegie Museum will also go a long way to create a campus like feel to Oakland. Other city schools have done it. It won’t be easy but this is not “Mission Impossible”.
Pitt –Connecticut game on TV
In case you missed it the Pitt vs. UConn game will be televised on ESPNU. It will be televised in primetime with a kickoff scheduled for 7:00 pm at Heinz Field.
If you missed the Grambling game, Pitt’s All Access service has a replay. You must trigger each quarter separately and they are not in the proper sequence. All of this means you get to see a lot of the commercial for the movie featuring Jessica Alba which is not all bad.
Pitt versus Michigan State
Pitt travels to Michigan State Saturday missing their No. 1 quarterback, their best wide receiver and their best defensive tackle. In addition there are 3 or 4 other players out who would certainly be on the two-deep chart. On the surface this does look like an episode of “Mission Impossible”. The betting line started out with Pitt an 8 ½ point underdog and it moved up to 11 points once bettors got a better grasp on the injury situation at Pitt. That is a huge move in the betting line.
If I were they coaching staff I would throw a lot to the tight ends to keep the linebackers from cheating and then try to control the football with LeSean McCoy. It might be Pitt’s best shot a pulling the upset.
Before the season started I would have been thrilled to see a split with Michigan State and Virginia and I still feel that way. On paper it looks like Pitt has a better chance down at Virginia later this month. After West Virginia’s win over Maryland last night the Big East has won 29 of their last 31 non-conference games. Only Syracuse has lost a game during that span. It would be great if Pitt could help keep the streak going.
Counting West Virginia’s win over Maryland last night the Big East is 9-3 against the ACC the last two years.
Offensive lineman Jason Diehl (6’ 3” 300) is on the Michigan State roster but will not play this year. He is out with knee surgery. It is not his first and his career is in jeopardy. Diehl was recruited by both Pitt and Michigan State while he was at Milford Academy.
Most folks generally feel the SEC is the best conference in the country. South Florida’s upset of Auburn this past weekend was another small step in rebuilding the Big East’s image. The Big East is 6-0 against the SEC recently. I would love to see Louisville extend that steak at Kentucky this weekend.
Hoops talk
Tony ran into a basketball “birdie” at the Pitt-Grambling game who reported he thought Pitt had a good shot at landing McKeesport’s Zeke Marshall (7’ 0”). The birdie was not quite as optimistic about Eloy Vargas. He said Pitt was an early leader but as he got better other schools got involved and it got more complicated. Vargas, however, may be visiting Pitt within the next couple of weeks.
We had a Ticker article this week on Mt Vernon’s forward Kevin Jones. Coach Dixon visited him this week. He is out of the same program as Keith Benjamin.
Recruiting roundup
It is our understanding that ten juniors received offers in early September. Here is a list of the players we think got an early offer:
1) Tom Savage QB Cardinal O’Hara
2) Corey Brown WR Gateway
3) Dorian Bell Ath Gateway
4) Brock DeCicco TE Thomas Jefferson
5) Todd Thomas WR/RB Beaver Falls
6) Je’Ron Stokes WR Philadelphia Northeast
7) Dan Mason LB Penn Hills
8) Jack Lippert DE Central Dauphin
9) 9) John Simon DT Youngstown Cardinal Mooney
10) Tyrone Ezell DT Steel Valley
Yesterday Pitt offered Mentor kicker Kevin Harper. We will have a full report later today.
This week we reported on Dublin Coffman linebacker Steve Gardiner. We think Pitt has a good shot at landing him but he is still waiting trying to figure out where he stands with Ohio State and Michigan State. The Panthers could probably do themselves a world of good in this recruiting race by upsetting Michigan State this weekend.
The Pitt staff has been recruiting three quarterbacks in Jeannette’s Terrelle Pryor, Dublin Coffman’s Zack Stoudt and Kiski Area’s Josh Vick. So far Pryor and Stoudt have offers and Vick does not. We have had reports on all three quarterbacks this week.
Josh Vick and Zack Stoudt have similar stories. They both suffered knee injuries as juniors which limited their playing time as juniors. Neither has many scholarship offers so far although both are off to great starts in their senior year so both figure to attract more attention in the coming weeks.
Terrelle Pryor and the Jeannette Jayhawks play Yough tonight on ESPNU.
There had been reports that Pitt had started to recruit Gateway’s Cameron Saddler again but Tony Greco was at Gateway’s game with McKeesport and Tony asked him after the game if Pitt had turned up their recruiting efforts with him recently and Saddler told Tony no.
We had a Ticker article this week on Averin Collier. He visited Pitt for the Grambling game and was quoted as saying if he had to pick now he would pick Pitt. Both Syracuse and Pitt have been recruiting him for a very long time. Greg Robinson could be in trouble in Syracuse based on early returns. That leaves Pitt as the closest school to his home. He is close with the both his brother Kevin and his mother. Pitt running back coach Dave Walker has been on this four-star prospect for the past three or four years.
Milford Academy is now 3-0 after crushing Wagner 45-0. There are a couple of PA players at Milford in linebacker Travis Wolff and defensive lineman [/B]Chris Henderson. They both love Pitt. The question will be does the coaching staff extend them an offer.
We had a Ticker article this week on four-star defensive lineman Reggie Ellis. In last week’s War Room we said we thought Pitt would be in his top 4 or 5 and he told Mike Farrell that was the case.
We also had a Ticker article on LB Roosevelt Maggitt from Dwyer High School in Florida. Our sources say he has a written offer from Pitt so he is a possibility at linebacker.
Last week Tony Greco covered Aliquippa’s game with Sto-Rox for us. He spoke with the Quips’ Jonathan Baldwin after the game. We think Pitt is the leader for this four-star prospect although Michigan and Notre Dame are still possibilities. It can’t hurt that Notre Dame and Michigan have gotten off to slow starts now we need just need the Panthers to put a few win together.
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.
Leaders in the Pick’em contest after three weeks are:
1) Fitzgerald#1
2) Rockhen
3) Thesingingriver
4) Pitt2005
5) Pitt Magician
6) Tired Ram97
7) Jim Pantherlair
8) gburgess1300
9) UP#1
10) Bye-CYa
10) Real Panther
10) Monroeville Fan
Get your selections in for this week’s games.
Searching for a new AD
It looks like Pitt is using the same process to find a new AD that they used to select Jeff Long. Pitt has named Donna Saft as the interim AD much as they did with Mark Boehm as few years ago. They have appointed a search committee that looks similar to the one they had when Steve Pedersen went to Nebraska. The last go around took over six months. Hopefully they can have someone in place by the end of the year this time around.
The committee prepares a short list for Chancellor Nordenberg and he makes the decision as who they will hire. There are only 65 BCS schools and only 64 have athletic directors. This is a highly sought after position that should attract a number of qualified candidates. Only Vanderbilt does not have an AD. The Commodores had the most successful sports year in the history of their school this year without an AD. Their baseball team was ranked No. 1 for most of the year and their basketball team was in the NCAA tournament as were most of their other teams. Only football struggles at Vanderbilt. Still this is not a good model for most schools and it is not a path Pitt should take.
The last time around Michigan State assistant Mark Hollis had some support but he was just named the new Athletic Director at Michigan State. Former Akron AD Mike Thomas also had some support. Since the last search he has moved on to become the AD at Cincinnati. Thomas rebuilt many of the facilities at Akron while he was there and hired former Pitt assistant J.D. Brookhart to be Akron’s football coach. I just am not sure what the appetite is for going after another Big East school’s athletic director. He would have support if they can get over that hurdle.
The new AD has two big jobs to deal with. The new Olympic facilities must be built at the old Terrance Village site. This project not only is a necessity for soccer, track, baseball ect. but it could help give Pitt a more campus like feel if it is done right. It would also help football recruiting.
The new AD must also work to rebuild season ticket sales in football. It looks like the high watermark was almost 43,000 back in 2003. Since that time they have slipped to something in the 29,000 range. I wish I had a lot of good ideas to help them. Winning and an improved schedule will help but they must also do a better job of promoting and selling tickets. Pitt has all the revenue opportunities they need in the club level, box seats and lower bowl. They need to use the upper decks to build new Pitt fans. I grew up going to Youth Day games and sitting in the endzones of old Pitt stadium at discounted prices.
Helping recruiting
I believe getting the Olympic facilities built and increasing season tickets sales will help recruiting.
There are two others areas that are outside the control of a new athletic director. Pitt should continue to put more dormitories on campus. This is an area that has received considerable attention in recent years and it should continue. It will not only help in football & basketball recruiting but will help in recruiting better students in general. This one is winner on many fronts.
They should also take another look at closing Bigalow Boulevard between Fifth & Forbes and then grass it over. It might be best to wait a year or two on this one and then tie it into the construction of some new parking facilities in Oakland. Closing Bigalow coupled with the new park near the Carnegie Museum will also go a long way to create a campus like feel to Oakland. Other city schools have done it. It won’t be easy but this is not “Mission Impossible”.
Pitt –Connecticut game on TV
In case you missed it the Pitt vs. UConn game will be televised on ESPNU. It will be televised in primetime with a kickoff scheduled for 7:00 pm at Heinz Field.
If you missed the Grambling game, Pitt’s All Access service has a replay. You must trigger each quarter separately and they are not in the proper sequence. All of this means you get to see a lot of the commercial for the movie featuring Jessica Alba which is not all bad.
Pitt versus Michigan State
Pitt travels to Michigan State Saturday missing their No. 1 quarterback, their best wide receiver and their best defensive tackle. In addition there are 3 or 4 other players out who would certainly be on the two-deep chart. On the surface this does look like an episode of “Mission Impossible”. The betting line started out with Pitt an 8 ½ point underdog and it moved up to 11 points once bettors got a better grasp on the injury situation at Pitt. That is a huge move in the betting line.
If I were they coaching staff I would throw a lot to the tight ends to keep the linebackers from cheating and then try to control the football with LeSean McCoy. It might be Pitt’s best shot a pulling the upset.
Before the season started I would have been thrilled to see a split with Michigan State and Virginia and I still feel that way. On paper it looks like Pitt has a better chance down at Virginia later this month. After West Virginia’s win over Maryland last night the Big East has won 29 of their last 31 non-conference games. Only Syracuse has lost a game during that span. It would be great if Pitt could help keep the streak going.
Counting West Virginia’s win over Maryland last night the Big East is 9-3 against the ACC the last two years.
Offensive lineman Jason Diehl (6’ 3” 300) is on the Michigan State roster but will not play this year. He is out with knee surgery. It is not his first and his career is in jeopardy. Diehl was recruited by both Pitt and Michigan State while he was at Milford Academy.
Most folks generally feel the SEC is the best conference in the country. South Florida’s upset of Auburn this past weekend was another small step in rebuilding the Big East’s image. The Big East is 6-0 against the SEC recently. I would love to see Louisville extend that steak at Kentucky this weekend.
Hoops talk
Tony ran into a basketball “birdie” at the Pitt-Grambling game who reported he thought Pitt had a good shot at landing McKeesport’s Zeke Marshall (7’ 0”). The birdie was not quite as optimistic about Eloy Vargas. He said Pitt was an early leader but as he got better other schools got involved and it got more complicated. Vargas, however, may be visiting Pitt within the next couple of weeks.
We had a Ticker article this week on Mt Vernon’s forward Kevin Jones. Coach Dixon visited him this week. He is out of the same program as Keith Benjamin.
Recruiting roundup
It is our understanding that ten juniors received offers in early September. Here is a list of the players we think got an early offer:
1) Tom Savage QB Cardinal O’Hara
2) Corey Brown WR Gateway
3) Dorian Bell Ath Gateway
4) Brock DeCicco TE Thomas Jefferson
5) Todd Thomas WR/RB Beaver Falls
6) Je’Ron Stokes WR Philadelphia Northeast
7) Dan Mason LB Penn Hills
8) Jack Lippert DE Central Dauphin
9) 9) John Simon DT Youngstown Cardinal Mooney
10) Tyrone Ezell DT Steel Valley
Yesterday Pitt offered Mentor kicker Kevin Harper. We will have a full report later today.
This week we reported on Dublin Coffman linebacker Steve Gardiner. We think Pitt has a good shot at landing him but he is still waiting trying to figure out where he stands with Ohio State and Michigan State. The Panthers could probably do themselves a world of good in this recruiting race by upsetting Michigan State this weekend.
The Pitt staff has been recruiting three quarterbacks in Jeannette’s Terrelle Pryor, Dublin Coffman’s Zack Stoudt and Kiski Area’s Josh Vick. So far Pryor and Stoudt have offers and Vick does not. We have had reports on all three quarterbacks this week.
Josh Vick and Zack Stoudt have similar stories. They both suffered knee injuries as juniors which limited their playing time as juniors. Neither has many scholarship offers so far although both are off to great starts in their senior year so both figure to attract more attention in the coming weeks.
Terrelle Pryor and the Jeannette Jayhawks play Yough tonight on ESPNU.
There had been reports that Pitt had started to recruit Gateway’s Cameron Saddler again but Tony Greco was at Gateway’s game with McKeesport and Tony asked him after the game if Pitt had turned up their recruiting efforts with him recently and Saddler told Tony no.
We had a Ticker article this week on Averin Collier. He visited Pitt for the Grambling game and was quoted as saying if he had to pick now he would pick Pitt. Both Syracuse and Pitt have been recruiting him for a very long time. Greg Robinson could be in trouble in Syracuse based on early returns. That leaves Pitt as the closest school to his home. He is close with the both his brother Kevin and his mother. Pitt running back coach Dave Walker has been on this four-star prospect for the past three or four years.
Milford Academy is now 3-0 after crushing Wagner 45-0. There are a couple of PA players at Milford in linebacker Travis Wolff and defensive lineman [/B]Chris Henderson. They both love Pitt. The question will be does the coaching staff extend them an offer.
We had a Ticker article this week on four-star defensive lineman Reggie Ellis. In last week’s War Room we said we thought Pitt would be in his top 4 or 5 and he told Mike Farrell that was the case.
We also had a Ticker article on LB Roosevelt Maggitt from Dwyer High School in Florida. Our sources say he has a written offer from Pitt so he is a possibility at linebacker.
Last week Tony Greco covered Aliquippa’s game with Sto-Rox for us. He spoke with the Quips’ Jonathan Baldwin after the game. We think Pitt is the leader for this four-star prospect although Michigan and Notre Dame are still possibilities. It can’t hurt that Notre Dame and Michigan have gotten off to slow starts now we need just need the Panthers to put a few win together.
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.
