Been a little MIA lately. Nothing wrong, just ... busy. Combined with taking a bit of a break from the madness that is football and basketball season, it's just been a good time to recharge a bit. Rest assured, things will be picking up around here soon.
In the meantime, Pitt's spring game is this Saturday at Heinz Field starting at 1:00 p.m. in case you missed it. There will be parking available in the Gold Lots starting at 10:00 a.m. and a Pitt-sponsored tailgate happening at 11:30 a.m. Earlier this week, Chris put together a good look at five key questions as spring practices close. The teams have been drafted and the weather forecasts look promising. Obviously, that always plays a lot into getting a good crowd.
And in case you've not yet noticed, Pitt has amped things up a bit this year. In addition to Tony Dorsett and Matt Cavanaugh serving as honorary captains, the athletics department has put together a full slate of other events.
Earlier this year, I wrote about Pitt needing to go all out and include a bunch of other things surrounding the game. One thing I mentioned? Getting more alumni involved with the game to meet fans and sign autographs. It's the 40th anniversary of the 1976 Championship team and several of those guys will be there, in addition to Dorsett and Cavanaugh, to meet with fans and do just that. Another thing I mentioned was that they should tie in the Penn State game. They are also doing that with a pretty cool idea to give away 50 pairs of pre-game field passes for that contest.
In addition to all of those things, there will also be refreshments, opportunities for kids to get onto the field after game and perform drills (weather permitting), other kids activities, and more. Hopefully all of things surrounding the game as well as a nice day out should result in a good crowd.
One side note here - a puzzling thing was seeing that the school is holding its Bigelow Bash on campus at the exact same time as the game. I can't speak to the timing or even pretend to know how that happened. But obviously, competing for the attention of students isn't a good thing. There's no doubt that that will cause a good bit of them to stay on campus - and that's unfortunate. Between that, a Pirates game (at night), and a Penguins playoff game (in the afternoon), let's just say the spring game will have a lot of competition.
As for me, I'll be down there. If you see a shoddily-dressed, slightly (or not so slightly) overweight black guy roaming around down there with some sort of hat and glasses, you've got a reasonable chance that it's me. Say hello or something.
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