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Never bet against a Cicilian when death is on the line!
I’m not sure if death is on the line, but there sure is a lot at stake tomorrow for Pitt. This is one of those games that can turn the direction of a program. It won’t pay as much as a bowl game, but I think it’s more important. What was more important for Pitt in the last few years? Their loss in last year’s Sun Bowl? Or the win against WVU in 2007? Who cares about the Sun Bowl!? The WVU win not only kept those hillbillies out of the National Championship game, but it turned Pitt recruiting fortunes around. Heck, two visiting WV recruits at that game followed Pitt into the locker room and are on the team today!
A couple of years ago, the two schools created a trophy and tried to manufacture a rivalry… I know it was a rivalry because they named it The River City Rivalry. The trophy looks like a riverboat control. It never really took–as you can tell by the nearly empty stadium. I’m guessing it might take now. Tomorrow’s game is already sold out. See, you can’t fake these things. Rivalries have to happen on their own. This one is a natural though… no need to manufacture hate between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati fans when it comes to football, is there?
As big as this is for Pitt, it’s even bigger for Cinci. They are undefeated. A win combined with a Texas loss would have them in the conversation for the National Championship game. With their coach probably be moving on to Notre Dame next year, this could be their only shot.
But it’s big for Pitt, as well. A loss would mean a great regular season ends with two disappointments. It would probably drop them behind West Virginia, and maybe even Rutgers, in the bowl selection process. Hello Papa John’s Pizza Bowl and a trip to beautiful downtown Birmingham. How will we ever get those boys back to Pittsburgh once they’ve seen Birmingham? A win, however, would mean a Sugar Bowl birth in the Big Easy against either Alabama or Florida.
Vegas seems confused on this. You would think the #5 undefeated Bearcats would be favored by 5 or 6 points at least. But the game opened with Pitt favored by 1. Gamblers jumped on Cinci and now the spread has moved to favor them by 1. Of course, most people mistakenly think a point spread is a prediction on who will win. It’s not! 
A spread is simply the point at which equal money is being bet on both sides of the line. Therefore, the early money was pushed toward Pitt. Vegas must like the cut of Dion Lewis’ jib and Dave Wannstedt’s mustache!
Also, what’s with the Bearcat? Did a little research on that and, according to About.com (Yeah, that’s my source. Get off me!) they were named by a UC cheerleader in 1914. They were playing Kentucky and their best player was Leonard K. “Teddy” Baehr. According to the story, this cheerleader (a dude, by the way) created the chant: “They may be Wildcats, but we have a Baehr-cat on our side.” Hmmm. Do you clap with that? Is there a rhythm? Lame right? Named by a cheerleader. And it stuck. Okay. What horrible name did they go by before that? The Cincinnati Flotsam? The Cincinnati Chilisuckers?
It’s completely fictitious, like a Horselizard or a Monkeygnat. Now, however, they pretend that it’s an actual animal. Here is the closest thing to a bearcat. It’s called a binturong and it’s from Malaysia. The Cincinnati Zoo has one and they sometimes bring it to the game as if that was the idea all along. Yeah, that’s one ugly-ass animal. Not cool and sleek like a panther.
Meow. Bad kitty! Hail, Pitt!
Hail Pitt! Hell, yes!
As Jerry Seinfeld astutely once said about sports fans, “In the end, we are really cheering for laundry!” How true. We cheer for the Black and Gold. Even if some of them are drunk, weed-toting womanizers, we still cheer for the Black and Gold. We cheer for Joey Porter until he dons the aqua and orange (doesn’t have the same ring, does it?), then we cheer for whoever the new guy is in the Black and Gold. Nothing wrong with that. It happens everywhere. It’s not like the players all grew up on Bloomfield stoops or the South Side slopes. The players come and go—and are paid handsomely to do so—but the colors remain.
So, after a rather rough Sunday, how about a little love for the Navy and Gold! I don’t care if you went to Penn State or Edinboro or Point Park or CMU or CCAC or the school of hard knocks, Pitt has been a part of this city since the 1700s—I think they just might be here to stay. They are as much a part of Pittsburgh as fries on top, Iron City, and Clark bars. (But isn’t it time for them to bring back the cobalt and mustard and stop trying to look like Navy or Notre Dame? Half the fans wear it to every game anyway. Just sayin’. They seem more like Pitt’s true colors than navy and gold.) 
Hail Pitt! I’m “all in” on this. I’m especially happy for Dave Wannstedt. Around 15 years ago, I watched as he had the unenviable task of replacing Chicago legend, Mike Ditka, as coach of the Bears. (Both, of course, former Pitt Panthers.) Just a few years past a magical Super Bowl season, the team had quit listening to Ditka, who had quickly become a caricature of himself and better known as an SNL skit. As a rookie coach, Dave was not the larger-than-life Ditka, and never would be. It just didn’t work. Even after the local media dogged him and made fun of his Pittsburgh accent, reporters still talk about what a great guy Wannstedt is.
So how great is it that Dave has hit his stride as a college football coach at his alma mater in his hometown. That kind of situation is not always a good fit, but Wannstedt wears it well. Turns out he’s a stellar recruiter in the living rooms of high school talent. Hey, he was the only Division I college coach to see something in running back sensation Dion Lewis. After just five plays on a DVD, Wannstedt had seen all he needed to see. He invited the 5’9″ Lewis to campus to see if he could make it physically, and the rest is history in the making.
And even though his coaching tactics have been questioned, he’s proven himself to be a great judge of coaching talent by installing Frank Cignetti–another Burgh native–as offensive coordinator. Since that move, the Panthers have become a scoring juggernaut.
I don’t care if you went someplace else. Look, my alma mater, the TCU Horned Frogs, are having the season of a lifetime. (And by the way, best college nickname ever?) They are a little school knocking on the door of a National Championship. While a TCU/Pitt matchup would seriously test my loyalties, heck, I’ve already been in Pittsburgh longer than I was in the dry and dusty city of Ft. Worth, Texas.
Two more wins and Pitt sows up the Big East championship and a BCS bowl bid—probably to the Sugar Bowl against the Florida/Alabama loser. Yikes. If the BCS really knew what they were doing, they would make a Pitt/Penn State game happen in the Fiesta Bowl. But, whatever. The payday for a BCS bowl would be around $18 million for the conference. Pitt wouldn’t get all that money (they would get around $2-3 million), but future recruits would see a team on the rise and a local coach who just might be becoming a local legend.
So move over Steelers, Penguins, and the girl who just won on Jeopardy!… there just might be another champion in Pittsburgh this fall.
