NOT A Done Deal

The news of the day was obviously the McCoy story. News broke later today that McCoy leaving is not a done deal.

"Nothing is final. We just talked about the whole issue," McCoy said while walking out of the South Side facility after meeting with Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt for 11/2 hours. McCoy's parents and his brother accompanied him to the meeting.

This isn't entirely a surprise. Even when the stories broke yesterday that he was leaving, while it looked that way, nothing was ever confirmed.

I don't know, I almost don't really want to comment on this until something happens either way. But I will say this -

I'm pleasantly surprised at the lack of backlash that seems to be out there among Pitt fans. I'm glad they are looking at the situation as a whole and not really bashing him...at least from the talk show callers and message boards I've seen/heard. Even though Shady did say he wasn't leaving, this is an entirely different situation from Ben Howland going to UCLA. Many Pitt fans (including myself) think that Howland could have handled his departure better and were especially upset when Howland seemed to deny any interest in leaving before taking the job.

Ben Howland was a full-grown adult. While Shady is technically an adult, he's still a kid. You can't take the same stance against him and say, "he went back on his word." Did he? Of course. But people realize that if he can reasonably be a first-round pick, it's not a bad move. Really, he has to do what's best for himself. If he wants to come back for another year because he loves college, there's no harm in that - despite what people calling for him to go to the NFL might say.

The bad news for him is that so many top running backs are declaring for this year. But while we can project what will happen next year and say there may be fewer quality backs, we'll never know. Right now, there are some sophomores out there that will have breakout years and consider leaving early. No one can tell how many.

Being selfish, of course I'd like to see him back. But if he doesn't, I'd certainly understand.