Take a hint Pittsburgh

You beat a top 25 team without Dave Wannstedt on the sidelines.  That was no coincidence.

Let’s hope Directv and ESPN have prepared themselves.  At 8pm tonight the 900 pound tag team of Ralph Friedgen and Mark Mangino will be on the air at the same time.

Oh, nice crowds in Pittsburgh and Syracuse today.

Dave Wannstedt blew out his achilles?

How perfectly symbolic this is.  The worst head coach hiring of the last 5 years loses a wheel.  Just like Pittsburgh has done since that dreadful day when some idiot in the athletic department thought interviewing him for the job was a good idea.  The team, the coach and the entire football program is now skreetching down the PA Turnpike on three wheels with sparks flying out the back.  Three wheels are good if you’re riding a Big Wheel, not so much if you’re driving a rusted out 1979 Chevy Impala.

Welcome Dave Wannstedt, Pittsburgh

Man alive nothing says you need to hit the bricks more than being the head coach of a BCS Conference school with a prime time home game where the empty seats on 50 yard out number the filled ones. Both of Jimmy Johnson’s former übercoordinators will be lucky to be employed after Thanksgiving. The only thing that could save Norv Turner is some guy nicknamed LT. In Wannstedt’s case he’s proven nothing over two and half years. Five straight losses to end last season, a 2 – 4 start this season with games against Cincinnati, Louisville, Rutgers, South Florida and West Virginia to go. At this point in your Panther history (two six loss seasons) you’ve only managed to show a feeble fading pulse against Rutgers and South Florida. This was a bad hire in the first place. Dave was not a good head coach in the NFL and has shown no signs of moving Pittsburgh in a positive direction. Even in an extremely top heavy conference.

This weekend’s picks…

USC -21: Think they might be a bit embarrassed after last week? Arizona could not have come to town at a better time for the Trojans.

UVA -3: The Cavs are a solid team at home. UConn ain’t so bad their ownself, but they haven’t stepped up to winning these types of games yet.

CAL -13.5: If they’re going to keep that #2 spot in the polls they need to roll big time on everybody left on their schedule given Ohio State’s emergence.

STANFORD +5.5: TCU packed it in for the season when they lost the game and their BCS Bowl dream to Texas a month ago.

OREGON -17: These guys are not out of the PAC-10 picture yet. They need to play that way.

tennessee -7: Looks like they got a wake up call against Florida.

NFL

CLEVELAND -4.5: Miami was terrrrrrible with Trent Green. Not that he’s exactly anything special, well maybe special ed, these days.