After this season’s Georgia Tech game I hung around Bobby Dodd stadium until it cleared out, and as I was hopping from bleacher to bleacher I ran into a local Pitt Alumni organizer who I’d met a couple of times. He suggested we head to the area where the team comes out of the stadium after the game, under the pretext of saying hello to EJ Borghetti. I hadn’t said hello to EJ in person in 23 years, and so I agreed. (Side note: I wrote a cover Story on Pitt Football for the now-defunct InPittsburgh Newsweekly just prior to the 2000 season. EJ of course was instrumental in getting this young writer access to the team. I remember writing they would show improvement coming off of a 5-6 season. Luckily they went 7-5 and my sports writing credentials were cemented in perpetuity. ) Anyway, as I was standing outside of the main gate at Bobby Dodd watching the players go by, I struck up a conversation with the Dad of one of the Pitt linebackers. I casually commented that the team looked pretty good this year. He grinned a wide, all-knowing grin and said “well…that all depends on which team shows up”. I laughed along with him and I remember thinking to myself, “now here is a guy that knows Pitt football”.

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