Another NJ player joins the Panthers posted by Dustin Gabler

K'Waun Williams from St. Joseph's in Montvale, NJ has orally committed to the University of Pittsburgh.  His commitment is listed as a solid verbal.  He is a defensive back and also played wide receiver during his junior season.

K'Waun is expected to be cornerback for Pitt.  He is listed as 5'9" and 178 pounds.  Williams racked up four picks last season.  He made an unofficial visit to Oakland last Saturday, and he apparently liked what he saw.

Wannstedt was the first coach to put an offer out to him.  In an interview with Yahoo! he showed interest in waiting to see what other schools came through.  Due to this, I don't have a very good feeling about his commitment.  He could very easily end up as a Panther but it seems as though he is still exploring other options.  K'Waun did say Pitt is top of his list due to being the first to make him and offer.  That interview was before his June 20th visit so hopefully what he saw in the "City of Champions" was enough to put him in Heinz Field on Saturdays next year.

Please stop back to read more about the Big East and Pitt's recruiting trail.

Breaking down the Big East 2009: Syracuse Orange posted by Dustin Gabler

Syracuse was 3-9 last year overall and 1-6 in the Big East.  Their only victory came against Louisville for the second straight year.  The Orange will be much more competitive and will have the oppurtunity for some big upsets this year.  Do not expect Marrone to let this team roll over and die.

The 'Cuse starts out their 2009 campaign with a Carrier Dome matchup with the Big Ten's Minnesota Golden Gophers.  Minnesota is an extremely young team.  The Orange aren't very experienced either.  I'd have to go with Minnesota in this game.  Syracuse simply does not have the talent to compete with Minnesota. It'll be interesting to see what Coach Marrone does with Paulus.  If he uses him in trick situations or if he's the straight up starter.  This puts Syracuse at 0-1 and headed to Happy Valley.

Penn State is trying for their first ever back to back Big Ten titles since they joined the conference.  While a loss to Syracuse would have to no effect on this goal, PSU will not slip over the Orange.  Despite my hatred for the team from State College, they will handedly beat a rebuilding Orange team and put Doug Marrone in an 0-2 hole.

Syracuse returns home for a six game stint starting with Northwestern.  This is their final Big Ten opponent and I do believe that Syracuse will pick up this win.  Northwestern had a 9-4 season last year with a tough OT loss to Mizzou in the Alamo Bowl.  Northwestern will be suffering from an inexperienced line.  I don't believe games against Towson and Eastern Michigan will be enought to get them prepared for a BCS team.  The Orange will be 1-2 heading into a gimme game against Maine.

Wannstedt taps into Shady's former high school for a stud wide receiver posted by Dustin Gabler

The 2010 Pitt class is gaining members rapidly.  Just two days after TJ Clemmings verbal commitment, a wide receiver from Harrisburg has chosen to join the Panthers.  It appears as if now seems to be the prime time for Wannstedt to pick up as many recruits as possible.  Hopefully, there are still quite a few five star players that we may have to wait until February for a commitment.

Williams is a 6'3", 180 pound wide receiver out of Bishop McDevitt high school in Harrisburg.  He had 49 catches for just shy of 900 yards and 11 touchdowns in his junior year.  By looking at highlights he appears to be a really exciting player.  Obviously considering his size, he isn't going to be a Larry Fitzgerald or Jonathan Baldwin.  Williams has great speed, quick moves, and nice hands.  There was nothing listed about this but considering his moves, ability to break tackles, and speed, he appears to be a potential threat as returner.  He hasn't been rated or reviewed by any of the major recruiting sites.  Salath had offers from Rutgers, Purdue, Iowa, Syracuse, Maryland, and Michigan State.  Other big name Panthers from Bishop McDevitt are LeSean McCoy and Aaron Berry.

You can see the video here http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recruiting/tracker/player?recruitId=92101. I'd also expect a write up and a score given to him soon.

Check back to see a preview of the Big East starting with Syracuse tomorrow and continued coverage of Pitt signings.  Also please click on the ads of the right and check them out if you like my blog.

Breaking down the Big East 2009 season posted by Dustin Gabler

Pat White, LeSean McCoy, Donald Brown, and other Big East standouts will all be playing on Sundays this year.  This is bad news for people who want the Big East to break out and prove their BCS status.  Or is it?  Despite losing a lot of proven talent, the league may be looking at one of the most interesting seasons in it's short history.

The Big East has constantly back loaded their schedules.  By doing this, they set up the last week to hopefully have the two best teams in the conference playing on that December Saturday.  This year they have no idea what to do and set up the schedule with many great games.  The odds are in favor that it will be one heck of a week of football.

I'm going to breakdown each team in the Big East starting at the bottom.  I will give you my projected record, what to look for, the pros and cons of each team, and many more tidbits to hopefully give you some hope for the upcoming season.

Syracuse is first on my list, and they have nowhere to go but up.  Welcome home, Mr. Paulus!

Pitt gets verbal from New Jersey defensive lineman posted by Dustin Gabler

True to his word, head coach Dave Wannstedt, has locked up a big time recruit.  TJ Clemmings is a standout star from Paterson Catholic in New Jersey.  After the slow start to the recruiting season, Wannstedt said he expected more commitments coming in with some camps they have coming up.

Clemmings had offers from Florida, Notre Dame, Tennessee, South Carolina, Miami (FL), Rutgers, and best of all Penn State.  Paterno recently picked up a few recruits in Pitt's backyard and it left a bad taste in the mouths of Panther fans.  It's good to see us go over to NJ and pick up a kid that some big time schools showed serious interest in.

TJ Clemmings size is extremely impressive.  He is 6 foot 6 and weighs 266 pounds.  He has been compared to current Pitt star, Greg Romeus.

This is a good recruiting win for Coach Wannstedt.  He is looking to build another good class that can hopefully transfer into a championship caliber team.

I will be blogging about every recruit Wannstedt signs to come to Oakland before the ink dries.  Be sure to check back here for all of your Pitt recruiting needs.

Living with the Alabama Textbook scandal posted by Jason Blackburn

Last week, the NCAA gave Alabama a slap on the wrist, giving them three years of probation due to athletes improperly using their textbook benefits. The national media gave the story a bit of play, but it was largely ignored. The talk radio hosts in Columbia, however, latched onto this story immediately. One station talked about the story for roughly five hours on the day the probation was handed down by the NCAA. You would have thought that Alabama had committed a major infraction, rather than just the selling of textbooks. The hosts repeatedly called for scholarship losses.

In my experience, scholarship losses generally occur when violations give a team a competitive advantage. When Bama was busted for its recruiting of Albert Means, the team was attempting to get a competitive advantage. Scholarship losses were the deserved punishment. This textbook scandal, however, was a case of athletes on campus taking advantage of the system. There was no advantage gained, and therefore no scholarships lost.

I guess this is what I get for living in a SEC region in which 7-6 is considered a highly successful season. Competitive advantage consists of keeping Stephen Garcia out of 5 Points for 48 hours in Columbia. 

This will be settled on the field on October 17 in Tuscaloosa. Alabama will have a full slate of scholarship players and so will the Gamecocks (provided they are not in prison. . .the track record under Holtz and Spurrier says that is a possibility). We'll learn pretty quickly which team has the true competitive advantage. 

More and more money, but for what? posted by Matthew McCabe

Over the last two years America has slowly sunk into an economic mess. People are losing their jobs, their homes, and their self-esteem as they find it harder and harder to make ends meet. It appears however that not everybody is suffering. As college educated people lose jobs they've held for years, and recent college graduates struggle to find any job at all, there are some signing on the dotted line for millions that haven't earned a dime of what they are being given. America's two largest, and most arguably most popular, professional sports leagues are doing nothing to curtail ballooning salaries for top rated rookies who haven't even set foot on the field to prove they are worthy of a contract.

Immediately people are going to disagree and say these kids spent one, two, three, or four (though most don't spend four) years in college as student-athletes waiting for this opportunity. Surely then, that time has earned them a good wage in the professional ranks, but how so? How does performing exceptionally in college prove you are worth anything in the professional ranks? If you ask most athletes and analysts, they will tell you that in no sport are the college ranks anywhere near the intensity of the professional leagues. Given that knowledge, it should be easy to realize then that everything earned in college gets you nothing but attention before your professional career. Accomplishments in an admittedly lesser league (or level of play) don't prove you are capable of success on the prime time stage.

If that isn't enough to convince you, than perhaps you need a history lesson. The history of draft night is littered with failures and wasted money. Yes, a select few do go on to justify the ridiculous contract signed when they were 22 yrs old, but most do not. Without naming every failure, a few stick out as perfect examples. QBs Todd Marinovich and Akili Smith were tremendous collegiate athletes, but terrible failures at the professional ranks. Marinovich couldn't handle the demands of the NFL in comparison to NCAA football and Smith looked lost trying to figure out professional defenses. QBs aren't the only ones, RBs have been taken high in the draft only to fail miserably, Ki-Jana Carter being the best example. Carter helped propel his Penn State team to a 12-0 record in 1994. After being picked #1 overall by the Cincinnati Bengals however, Carter tore his ACL in his first preseason game and never recovered. Carter finished his NFL career with 1,144 rushing yards and 20 TDs.

"The Darkest Horse" Big 12 Edition: Colorado posted by Sean Sims

With teams like Oklahoma, Texas and Okie State all competing for the Big 12 south is sure to be a battlefield. You can expect a lot of upsets and heart breaks on the way to the Conference championship. Many individuals are picking the winner of the Big 12 south to be the team to compete against the SEC champs for the national title. And all that Big 12 south champ has to do is get past Kansas in the Big 12 Championship and the road top the national title is set.

I give a huge HELL NO to that notion. Not only do I doubt a Big 12 team will make the national championship. But why is Kansas predicted the lone-wolf -winner of the North Division? What the hell happened to CU? Are they predicted to just roll over and die?

Well they did last year, going 2-6 in conference play and finishing with a awful 5-7 record. We all know that they ( Verb) the whole season. You can insert any word you wish, as long as it can’t be said in church. Then that’s exactly what happened. Cody Hawkins play at QB was much like a Nickelback song, disappointing and making you wish you could get back the time that was wasted anticipating something great. After his freshman year Most CU fans were waiting for a breakout season that would propel him to an household name. Well that didn’t happen.

Obama’s Speech Wasn’t Controversial. But, Charlie Weis’ Coaching Is, Bobby Lashley Would Thrive in the UFC & The WWE Will Beat the Denver Nuggets in a Fight posted by Colin Linneweber

Obama’s Speech Wasn’t Controversial. But, Charlie Weiss’ Coaching Is

Amidst great controversy regarding his support for abortion rights, United States President Barack Hussein Obama II presented the commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame last week.

Notre Dame’s President, The Rev. John Jenkins, was widely criticized by dozens of American Catholic bishops for inviting our nation’s 44th President to speak and also for granting Obama with an honorary degree despite his stance on abortion.

Following the commencement, Obama spoke last Sunday night at an Indianapolis fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee and he initiated his address by jesting that the hoopla surrounding his appearance at South Bend “paled in comparison to what to do about the football team.”

“That’s an issue we may not resolve within my four years,” remarked the graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School.

“Eight,” shouted a spectator in the audience, obviously disenchanted with the Fighting Irish football program that has a record of 10-15 over the past two seasons on the gridiron.

“All right, well, maybe in eight we might get it done,” Obama, 47, teased.

Irish Head Coach Charlie Weis, who has gone a disappointing 29-21 at his alma mater since becoming the 28th head football coach in Notre Dame history, signed a 10-year deal worth a reported $30-40 million in 2006.

Assuming that he doesn’t receive his deserved termination notice beforehand, the contract would allow the portly Weis, 53, to waddle along the Notre Dame Stadium sidelines through the 2015 season.

BCS Gets Drilled By Congressmen posted by Kenneth Watkins

It seems that John Swofford, the coordinator of the BCS did not really enjoy his time in front of Congress as some of them did not have kind words for him. Many things such as BS instead of BCS came out of their mouths fueling the fire what many college football fans are feeling about this system that we have to pick a National Champion. For the longest time I was for a playoff format, but I have thought a lot about it and I do agree a little bit with John Swofford, but not totally.

Yes, we would probably lose the bowl games if we did go to a playoff system even though some people said it would still work I seriously doubt we could keep them though. The one change I would like to see changes such as a better way to pick who plays in the championship game top make it more fair. The current system we have right now is full of holes and loopholes teams can exploit. If we could shore up some of these things I think the current BCS format would actually work out better then a playoff system.

The key though we all have to work together and just scrapping one system for another is not always the answer as usually it will just cause more issues and problems. The BCS is not perfect and at least Congress is looking into it and maybe something will come with it, but I seriously doubt it.

Northern Iowa OL Steichen arrested (AP)

Northern Iowa offensive lineman Austin Steichen and two other men have been arrested in connection with an alleged assault. Arnold Park Police Chief Alan Krueger said Thursday that Steichen, his brother, Andrew Steichen, and Adam Dwyer were arrested on Tuesday after a fight that left an unidentified man unconscious. [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports

24 arrests for Gators in Meyer's 4 years (AP)

Former Florida offensive lineman Drew Miller remembers all the team meetings, the lengthy lectures about hanging out with the right people, making smart decisions and avoiding situations that would draw negative attention. To Miller, it seemed like Gators coach Urban Meyer or one of his assistants was always talking about staying out of trouble. [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports

Tar Heels ink 10-year contract with Nike (AP)

The Tar Heels will wear the swoosh for the next nine years. University of North Carolina officials said Wednesday they have signed a 10-year contract for Nike to supply athletic equipment and apparel to its sports teams. The contract was signed in late May and made retroactive to July 1, 2008. The Beaverton, Ore.-based footwear maker will provide shoes, uniforms, balls, coaching gear and other... [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports

Florida State says giving up wins unfair (AP)

[read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports

Alabama St. probation reduced to 3 years (AP)

The NCAA has reduced the probation period for Alabama State University's football program from five to three years. In December the NCAA placed the Hornets football program on probation for 17 rules violations that allegedly occurred from 1999-2003. Violations included changing grades, allowing ineligible players to play and practice and conducting offseason workouts not allowed by NCAA rules. [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports