First, I’d like to apologize for the absence. I had surgery last week and was out of commission for a few days. We’re back on track now, and can finally get started with the season.

Just like myself after surgery, Pitt is going to be okay. The season opener was a rough pill to swallow. Pitt had the opportunity to impress the nation, but just couldn’t pull it out in the end. Wannstedt took a chance by switching the Utah game to the opener. It could’ve paid off big time, and it almost did. It was a risk they had to take. Unfortunately it didn’t work out for the best. It’s not the worst thing to happen though. Pitt still showed promise. Mounting a comeback as they did in such a hostile environment shows a lot of fire in these guys. Utah is a very tough environment, and a tough team. How many stadiums do you know of where the student section actually credits themselves for every opposing team false start? The fans know what they’re doing there. They know how tough they make it. There’s a reason that Utah hasn’t lost a home game since early 2007. They were ranked 24th in the USA Today Poll heading into the game. They finished last season in the top 25 as a 10 win team. They were undefeated in 2008. It’s a team that knows how to win games. It’s certainly no Fresno State (cough, cough).

A combination of bad factors cost Pitt Thursday night’s game. Everyone knew Pitt was starting a green quarterback in Sunseri. The kid has talent, but he hadn’t been tested yet. Because of this, you saw Pitt try to run the ball down Utah’s throat throughout the first half. I don’t think a single sports analyst expected that to work. I don’t think Pitt expected that to work. What I do think is that Pitt wanted to protect Tino until he could adjust to playing in the big game. By focusing on the run in the first half, they let Sunseri ease into the pressure. Had I been able to get a game prediction up before surgery, I would’ve predicted Pitt falling behind by 10 before the half. As it played out, they were behind by a touchdown.

The second half was better for Pitt. They still had some problems, but the defense looked much better. Pitt started airing the ball out a bit more and came back to tie the game. Unfortunately, we got to see the inexperience of Sunseri rear its ugly head in OT. His poorly timed pass cost the Panthers the game in overtime.

Now, I don’t want to put all the blame on Sunseri. There were enough mistakes made by everyone throughout the game. But more importantly, the play calling was questionable, especially at the end of the game. Pitt should have played for the win, not the tie. When you have two great, tall receivers in Baldwin and Shanahan, you have to go for the endzone before settling for the field goal. And once you’re in OT, you can’t trust your inexperienced quarterback to make a throw on a rollout. You absolutely have to score in overtime. You cannot afford to run any risky plays. In my mind, that was a risky play for an inexperienced quarterback.

So we’re left with a few things to wonder about. Can Pitt’s defense improve to look better than they did at Utah? Can Sunseri learn from his mistakes and brush off a tough loss? Can the offensive line get its act together? Will Pitt straighten out the play calling for the rest of the season? The loss itself isn’t that bad. If you’re going to lose, losing early to a tough out of conference opponent is the way you want to do it. The more important issue at hand is improving in the areas stated above. I fully expect Pitt to do that. This team is talented enough.

Pitt will reset and get ready for New Hampshire this weekend as the home opener at Heinz Field. The Panthers should come out firing in this game and shouldn’t have a problem. The next real test of Pitt’s season comes on September 23rd when they face Miami at Heinz Field on a Thursday night. It’s a chance for redemption. They’ll have the big audience again. They’ll have an even better opponent than Utah. It’ll be Pitt’s chance to come back and say, “Hey, we’re ready now. This is Pitt.” Panther fans should be rooting for Miami to knock off #2 Ohio State this weekend. Both Pitt and Miami will have a week off after this weekend to prepare for the Thursday night showdown on ESPN. If Miami comes in undefeated and Pitt can calm the Hurricanes, then Pitt will certainly gain back any respect they lost during the Utah game. Even if Miami can’t beat OSU this weekend, a win against Miami will do wonders for the team’s image.

Don’t panic Panther fans. Everything is going to be okay.

The Pitt Blog staff was there last night and snapped some photos throughout the night.

However, there has been a lot of buzz in general in the college sports world these days. Almost all of it relates to conference expansion and realignment.

We learned our lesson once already when we reported on speculation and rumors the last time we heard them. Those rumors turned out to be completely false and we were left standing in public with our pants down. So you won’t hear any more reports on rumors from us. But we would like to address all the expansion/realignment talk that’s going on right now. More specifically, we’d like to point out the facts to all of our readers so that they know which reports to listen to, and which reports to let pass in one ear and out the other.

Let’s take a look at the facts surrounding conference expansion/realignment.

FACTS:
1. The Big Ten Conference is exploring expansion options. This one is no secret. The Big Ten’s announcement back in December has caused quite a stir in the college sports world. This is what started the whole fuss. We’ve heard countless rumors and speculation since the announcement. Almost all of it has been unfounded (and false). The simple fact is that the Big Ten is EXPLORING expansion on a 12-18 month timetable. The keyword here is “exploring”. The Big Ten has not made a decision on whether or not they will expand. They’re simply looking into the possibility. That means we might wait until fall just to hear the Big Ten tell everyone that they’re ok without expanding. Whatever the case, their timeline remains the same. So unless something changes, the Big Ten will announce their plans no sooner than late fall.

2. The PAC 10 Conference is exploring expansion options. This is recent news. The PAC 10 has just recently decided that they will explore their own expansion options this year as well. Again, they’re just exploring options. This doesn’t mean that they will expand. Just like the Big Ten, the PAC 10 is taking a look at the options for expansion and whether or not it makes sense for the conference.

That’s it. There are no more facts. Everything else that you read out there is speculation and unfounded rumors. The only tidbit of information that even approaches the credibility of a fact is that Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany and Michigan State president Lou Anna Simon, also the chair of the Big Ten’s council of presidents/chancellors, both mentioned that if other conferences take action before the Big Ten has decided what to do about expansion, it may speed up the Big Ten’s timeline. Keep in mind though, the PAC 10′s timeline ends at about the same time as the Big Ten’s original timeline, and the PAC 10 is the only other conference that’s even mentioned expansion. So the chances of seeing something from the Big Ten sooner than their original timeline are still somewhat small.

It’s somewhat surprising that after all of the rumors we’ve seen fall through so far, the major networks like ESPN are still reporting on these rumors that are floating around. But then again, ESPN also erased all of their stories on the “Pitt to the Big Ten” rumor once it turned out to be false. I guess it’s easy to report on rumors when you don’t have to own up to your coverage, isn’t it?

If the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl sounds new to you, that’s because it used to be the St. Petersburg Bowl.

The Big East Bowl lineup will now look like this:

BCS Bowl – Big East Champion
Champs Sports Bowl – Big East vs. ACC
Meineke Car Care Bowl – Big East vs. ACC
New Era Pinstripe Bowl – Big East vs. Big 12
Papajohns.com Bowl/AutoZone Liberty Bowl – Big East vs. SEC or C-USA
Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl – Big East vs. C-USA

The 2010 Big East Bowl Season will be as follows:

Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl – 12/21/10, 8:00 PM, ESPN
Champs Sports Bowl – 12/29/10, 8:00 PM, ESPN
New Era Pinstripe Bowl – 12/30/10, 3:00 PM, ESPN
Meineke Care Car Bowl – 12/31/10, Noon, ESPN
AutoZone Liberty Bowl – 12/31/10, 3:30 PM, ESPN
Papajohns.com Bowl – 1/8/11, Noon, ESPN

All in all, it’s a pretty impressive bowl lineup. The Big East set out to structure its bowl season so that it included top opponents and attractive locations. From the looks of this lineup, I’d have to say that they did a pretty good job.

Nate Byham (TE) went as the 182nd pick (6th round) to the San Francisco 49ers.
Dorin Dickerson (TE) went as the 227th pick (7th round) to the Houston Texans.

They weren’t the only Panthers to get a shot at the NFL though. After the draft, a few Panthers were signed as free agents. They are:

Bill Stull (QB) – Kansas City Chiefs
John Malecki (OG) – Tennessee Titans
Mick Williams (DT) – New York Jets
Aaron Berry (CB) – Detroit Lions

Adam Gunn (LB) was also invited to attend the Green Bay Packers minicamp as an undrafted free agent, but is still unsigned.

Congratulations to these Pitt Panthers as they head to the NFL. Hail to Pitt!

In Alphabetical Order:
Aaron Berry – CB
Nate Byham – TE
Dorin Dickerson – TE
Adam Gunn – OLB
John Malecki – OC
Bill Stull – QB
Joseph Thomas – OT
Oderick Tuner – WR
Mick Williams – DT

Good luck to these Panthers and Hail to Pitt!

Cal U announced yesterday that Harris would be the new offensive coordinator for the Cal U Vulcans. Harris comes to this position after serving as the assistant head coach and passing game coordinator at Akron last year. At Akron, Harris served under head coach J.D. Brookhart, who was, coincidentally, the offensive coordinator under Harris when he was at Pitt.

We like Walt Harris here at The Pitt Blog. Harris did great things for Pitt in his 8 seasons as head coach for the Panthers. He took the Panthers to 6 bowl games (1 BCS Bowl Game – 2004 Fiesta Bowl) during his run at Pitt. When Harris took over, the Panthers hadn’t been to a bowl game since 1989. Harris took them to the Liberty Bowl in 1997 during his first season as head coach. That’s quite a turn around for a team that had been struggling for so many years. When all was said and done, Harris racked up a record of 52-44 at Pitt. In our opinion, Walt paved the way for Wannstedt to step in and take the Panthers to the next level.

We wish good luck to Walt at his new job at Cal U.

Yesterday it was Wanny, today it was Jamie. The two big sports are looking good at Pitt. Most importantly, both programs look promising in the upcoming seasons and are stable. Coaching stability leads to good, solid recruiting.

Despite still mourning over the “early” loss in the NCAA tournament, Panther fans should be happy. This was a great week for Pitt sports.

Wannstedt is entering his sixth year as head coach of the Panthers. After last year’s 10 win season, we’re happy to see Wanny sign an extension. He’s stated that this will be his last job. It’s great to see a guy with his commitment to the University leading the Panthers.

Go Wannstache!