It was a nice couple of days up in Newport, RI for Big East Media Days. We all know how LOBSTERFEST! ended in controversy on Monday, but Kevin McGuire at No2MinuteWarning.com has the final team numbers up. Pitt ran away with the competition with 14 lobsters, but they had to pull a Dooley to keep up with Jeremiah Warren.
Greg Auman was a machine yesterday, first transcribing Commissioner Marinatto's press conference, then making sure to record Skip's opening statement on video. There was one little bit of controversy when Skip left the podium:
After his opening comments today @USFFootball coach Skip Holtz tried giving #Rutgers head coach a fist bump. Schiano left him hanging.less than a minute ago via Seesmic 
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Kevin McGuire
KevinOnCFB
We weren't able to confirm this, but Holtz allegdly showed Schiano this right after*:
Even with everyone wanting to talk to Todd Graham and Dana Holgorsen, Skip did a great job getting his message out. Greg talked to Skip about his experience with facing Graham and Holgo's high-powered offenses, and took USF's 3rd place showing on the media poll as a sign of respect.
Andrea Adelson got a hold of Skip, and he is thrilled about players knowing what to do instead of having to learn everything on the fly like they did last season. Andrea and Ivan Maisel also has a nice video recap of the conference media days.
Mark at the Big East Coast Bias has a nice article up on the Big East fighting its perception of being the worst BCS conference, and it starts off with a good quote from Skip. Mark should have some USF stuff up later in the day, so be sure to head back to BECB.
Not USF related, but West Virginia DE Bruce Irvin Big East Media Days with this wonderful display,
West Virginia's loquacious defensive end, Bruce Irvin, made it clear, however, there would be no getting to know Pitt players this year. A few hours before the clambake, he posted a message on his Twitter, a message which read "I hope a sPitt player dnt Try to shake my hand. I will laugh and walk off."
Irvin did not back off of his comments when reporters asked about them ... well, at least until he realized that there were tape recorders and microphones in front of him.
"Those guys up the road, we don't talk about them in the locker room," Irvin said. "Only time we talk about them is the week before, and that is a hell week. It is a really serious, hated rivalry. [The Twitter message] is what it is, they know it. I mean, I don't want to give ya'all nothing to put in the paper because I know that's what ya'all are looking for but it is what it is.
Can't wait to have a rivalry of our own.
Finally, I'm disappointed in the Athletic Department's handling of media days. First Athletics didn't give the conference a roster for the Big East's Official Media Guide. Then I found out later that the school xeroxed copies of the digital media guide and stapled it together. I know that the media guide is fantastic online and is ahead of its time, but it looks amateurish when you hand the media a xeroxed copy when other schools are printing out hardback media guides.
I was also disappointed in the coverage from GoUSFBulls.com. When you only put up a twitter recap during a two-day event, that's not good. Put up a video diary, or post some pictures from the clambake, or ANYTHING!!! All you would have had to do was show Jeremiah Warren controlling the lobster population by himself and I would have been happy.
*This never happened but it would have been awesome if it did.