Pencil ‘Vania in for some Bowl Games

by Dustin Snyder
Love of Sports Correspondent

With so much drama in the SEC (it’s kinda hard being Snoop D-O double G?) and the Big XII, its easy to overlook the hottest area of college football right now.

It isn’t Texas, it isn’t California and it isn’t Florida. Try Pennsylvania. There are three major college teams in the keystone state: Temple, Pittsburgh, and Penn State, and they’re all performing much better than expected - and better than they have in years.

Temple’s blight has been incredible, to say the least, and the job Al Golden is doing makes you wonder if his real name is Anne Sullivan (ok, they’ve won three games ... but the Owls generally take all year to get to three wins, if they ever do).

There had been no shortage of reports from the PSU High Command that things needed to change. A lot of the finger-pointing was in the direction of underboss Jay Paterno, for his alledged mismanagement of Penn State’s quarterbacks and questionable playcalling. For the life of me, I am still unsure who is fooled by play-actions on 3rd and 14. The evidence was piling up against JoePa each season, and the lynch mob seemed to grow every week.

At Penn State in 2006 and 2007, the Lions won 9 games in both years combined. But for supporters and fans, it was two of the longest seasons they had endured at Penn State. The staff seemed to set aside the success of the 2005 offense for the PSU offense of old, despite the fact that the 2005 campaign gave them more success than they had in a decade.

Going into 2008, the Lions promised a new, faster offense. Across the state, Pitt was ranked in the top 25 to start the year and had themselves a serious Heisman candidate. But despite Pitt’s early season pothole, both programs are poised to win their respective conferences.

As of now, all hammers are silent on the blue-and-white hangman’s scaffold.

West of Happy Valley? Similar grumblings.

After three seasons without bowl appearances under the Wann-stache, Pitt actually headed into 2008 with large aspirations, but a season-opening loss to Bowling Green looked like it had all but sealed the deal on the failed Wannstedt experiment. It was looking like his legacy at Pitt was going to be chalked up to his inability to deal with the coordinator positions. 

The Pitt faithful have been calling for former QB Matt Cavanaugh’s head for years. Cavanaugh, now the offensive coordinator at his alma mater, has been criticized mightily for his alledged player mismanagement, and poor play calling even this year. Likewise, as a freshman, Larod Stephens returned a kickoff for a TD, the only Pitt TD of the game, and was taken off return duty the next week. Pitt’s defense, unlike Penn State’s, was also under a barrage of criticism, as the defense under Paul Rhodes routinely failed to make in-game adjustments. Rhodes has since left the program for Auburn, and we see where Pitt and Auburn are today, in 2008.

As of now, all hammers, silent in their chorus of the blue and gold guillotine.

Things are in position to come full circle for the two programs. The Lions have been knocking on the Big Ten door for years, not able to get inside the upper echelon.

Pitt, likewise, is showing signs that they are the top dawg in the Big East this year, and are poised for years to come.

For the fans, and the players, and the recruits, and the citizens of the Keystone State, it’s been a long time coming and what they’ve been waiting for.