2001 was the year Heinz Field opened, rising from the ashes along the banks of the Ohio River. It was such an occurrence that lame-brains in some PR capacity convinced the city’s leaders to try and change the name of the area from the North Side to the North Shore. Forever leaving first-time visitors to wonder: Where’s the beach? Note to new residents/visitors: don’t ask for directions to the North Shore because you’re libel to be laughed at — I’ve seen it happen here in Greenfield — or find yourself in the parking lot of the Monroeville Mall.

Since that time there has been some monumental games played inside the generic-looking edifice that houses both the pride of Pittsburgh sports, the Stillers, and its coattails-riding nephew — Pitt football. The North Side has seen three AFC Championship games in those eight years, meaning at least three different times preliminary applications for second or third mortgages spiked in the city as the mighty Steeler Nation got busy, ready to travel to the Super Bowl should our hero’s prevail (it’s all about priorities Junior and Missy, besides, that’s what student loans are for).

But here’s the funny thing: nephew just played the greatest game ever at Heinz Field. No game, no matter how great, will ever match Pitt’s 45-44 Big East Championship loss to Cincinnati yesterday. It’s just not possible.

Why?

Because watershed moments are never topped, that’s why. Yesterday was the day that Pitt football, despite how much it hurts right now, not only re-captured the city but re-emerged as a legitimate program in the modern college football landscape. The brilliance of first-year running back Dion Lewis was on display all day long, and Lewis will be back next year. With any luck, so will the Lennon to his McCartney, the ridiculously talented wide receiver Johnathan Baldwin. How many really good high school football players watched that game yesterday, on national TV, and thought dang, that looks like a real attractive option all of a sudden. Which brings me to the next reason it won’t be topped, the atmosphere.

63,387 people were bouncing up and down as if House of Pain’s classic “Jump Around” was blasting from the speakers the entire time. Only it wasn’t, just 22 college kids putting on a show for the ages despite the snow, wind, and cold. Hell, the elements added to it. No empty yellow seats could be seen at the beginning of the third quarter (the normal pro fans beer-run) and nobody left early. The college atmosphere not only inhabited Heinz Field yesterday, it took it over. It was a passionate three hour orgy of plays being made, referees being screamed at, and Oh-my-God moments that only the college game brings. Cincinnati’s Rudy Gilyard showed why he’s one of the top-five players in the country by saving Cincinnati’s perfect season by having a game for the ages (ditto Pitt’s Lewis, who at 5-8 carried the ball 47 freaking times for 194 yards). The show those young men put on was masterful. The glory they’re feeling today is deserved, and Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly should leave a special gift behind for Gilyard when he leaves for Notre Dame. His counterpart, Pitt’s Dave Wannstedt, continued to grow on me with his post-game actions and words.

Wannstedt went out of his way to protect the holder on the botched extra point that ultimately created the one-point difference. “I told him after the game that it wasn’t one play, this game wasn’t one play,” Wannstedt said post-game, “everyone in that room could have done something during the course of the game to make a difference, he’s been great all year.” Wannstedt followed up with tunnel vision thoughts about the state of the program. He, unlike Kelly, isn’t going anywhere, and despite what some message board yahoos might think (and what I even thought early last-season) that’s a very good thing for Pitt football.

“I was convinced we were going to win this game,” he said. “I was and our whole football team was. We’re a lot closer than we were a year ago, and light years from where we were four years ago. We’ll recruit and keep building.” Wannstedt is Pittsburgh through and through, and with his ability to recruit plus the recent additions he’s made to his staff, he’s perfect for Pitt football. The players he brought to Pitt were on the brink of a championship yesterday, a real championship. They lost a heart-breaker to a team that’s now 12-0.

Pitt — and Cincinnati — played a game that will be remembered forever in this city.

A game that, in the future, will be seen as the seismic shift for Pitt football.

Wow, it’s 12:30 on Sunday afternoon — Do the Steelers even play today?

Playing quarterback in the city of Pittsburgh can be tough, even on the great one’s. Terry Bradshaw received less-than-ideal treatment before becoming a four-time Super Bowl champion. Big Ben felt the lack of support and heard the calls for Charlie Batch to replace him — this after he’d won a Super Bowl and, oh yeah, had his face completely smashed by concrete in a motorcycle accident.

Tough crowd those Yinzers.

Growing up in Pittsburgh Bill Stull saw first-hand what this city does to QB’s who struggle. Stull watched as a strong-armed “athlete” the University of Colorado hit the ‘Burgh like a meteor shower. “Slash” aka Kordell Stewart, captivated the Steel City — and like Nuke LaLoosh in the seminal sports flick Bull Durham — announced his presence with authority. Slash did a little of everything — catching, throwing, and running for touchdowns in key situations.

The rise of Stewart was fast, and when Neil O’Donnell took the money and ran to New York, Stewart eventually found himself starting at quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers (to the chagrin of Mike Tomczak). In a matter of months Stewart’s #10 was one of the top selling jerseys in the NFL. Slash was all over the television, appearing in almost as many commercials as Peyton Manning currently does (okay maybe not that many).

Then he started to struggle.

And things got UGLY.

After getting an extension with some good money guaranteed, Stewart was no longer a meteor lighting up the sky. In fact, he once took an Iron City shower — the Burgh’s beer of choice — courtesy of angry fans as he exited the field after another disappointing performance. He ended up crying on the sideline. And as fast as it all happened for Slash, it was over. He moved on, mostly as a backup, to places like Chicago and Baltimore.

A new QB, Tommy Maddox, was ready to save the day. Women throughout the city were all of a sudden sporting #8 jerseys and rooting for their own version of “Tommy Gun” — Maddox was accepted and embraced by the females much more than #10 for some reason (maybe because their male companions didn’t mind so much?). Maddox saved the day, until it was intercepted. His last several moments as the starter followed the same formula — a loss that included some big picks returned for touchdowns, followed by Maddox refusing to ever take responsibility in front of the media. Maddox was “Not My Fault Walt” the player version.

So you could say that Bill Stull knew what he was getting into by staying home to play for Pitt. He knew the expectations. He knew about the out of whack perceptions — created by long-gone Panthers during the long-gone era of the mid-to-late 70’s — that caused fans to grumble at the 8 and 9 win seasons of NMFW (Walt Harris). And he still came, as a 3 star recruit, because his heart wouldn’t let him do anything else.

Last season Stull anchored a team that won 9 games. Anchor being a decent description, as Stull’s lack of production was most often viewed as a weight holding down a promising team. Still, it was a great regular season for the Panthers and they were seen as a program on the rise. But then the Sun Bowl came and Stull, along with the rest of the Panthers, couldn’t do anything right. It was probably the worst bowl game ever in all the phases — offense, defense, special teams, heck even the TV announcers sucked. The 3-0 loss to Oregon State featured 20 punts.

Stull was a dead QB walking. No way was he going to win the starting job again, not with his bowl performance topping off a season in which he threw 9 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Pitt needed new blood. And the wolves started howling early.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette thought that red shirt freshman Tino Sunseri was establishing a gap as the leader in the QB battle during preseason camp. Tribune Review columnist Joe Starkey opined that perhaps it was time to start Sunseri (Starkey, always a standup guy, has admitted he was wrong).

Stull battled, won the job, and he’s been pretty much terrific the whole way. The senior’s thrown 13 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions. On Saturday he led his team back from a 21-6 deficit against UConn to pull out a 24-21 win. He put more than enough points on the board against NC State in a tight loss.

Stull’s quarterback rating is fourth in the entire country and he’s completing 66.7% of his passes (98-147). The offense he’s directing is averaging 34.8 points and 388.8 yards per game. His feature back, true freshman Dion Lewis, is helping him out with 738 yards rushing through six games (good for third in the country). The Panthers are 5-1 heading into the meat of their schedule, starting with Friday night’s game at Rutgers.

But Stull is still hearing boos from the hometown crowd. He was booed as he entered the field before a recent game — yup, before it even started. He was also booed yesterday as he dropped back to throw what turned out to be a key touchdown. Stull started out strong, had one touchdown dropped early in the game and struggled a bit before righting himself and leading the comeback.

There’s been skepticism of Pitt football under Dave Wannstedt. No matter what happens the rest of the season I’d venture to say there’s a lot more confidence in the future success of the program than there was at the end of last year.

Somebody, namely new Offensive Coordinator Frank Cignetti, seems to finally know what to do with all the talent Wannestedt’s been recruiting.

Somebody else, namely Bill Stull, is teaching an Honors Level course on how to lead a team and be a successful QB in the city of Pittsburgh every day — booing be damned!

The future seems bright for Pitt, especially if the QB’s behind Stull are paying attention…and soaking up the toughness and grit he displays.

After all, they need to know exactly what they’re getting into.

Before we get started let me give the referee of the Pitt @ NC State game props for supplying the title for NBE’s weekly football column going forward — his call of “disconcerting signals” made my ears perk right up and I scribbled it down before I could forget it. This penalty happens when the defense apparently yells/moves/does something that influences a false start by the offense. Which is funny because ranking college football teams before October 15th or so is sending disconcerting signals to fans everywhere (not to mention really screwing up the BCS chances of any team not rated at the beginning of the season).

Can anyone argue a legitimate reason for the early rankings when the fourth week of regular season play produces results that clearly disprove said rankings? We all understand rankings are subjective but come on, this is crazy (and it happens every year). It started Thursday night with #4 Ole Miss going down 16-10 to the Gamecocks of South Carolina. But Thursday was only the beginning, take a look at the “UPSETS” that followed on Saturday.

#5 Penn State — The Nittany Lions looked like cute little kittens vs the Iowa defense. QB Daryll Clark will take a lot of heat over his horrible numbers (12-32) but he was getting pressured on just about every play. Receivers also dropped 3 or 4 balls that would have gone for first downs if caught. The rain soaked Valley was anything but Happy by the time the fourth quarter got underway because it was obvious Iowa was going to roll to another W. Penn State’s results prior to last night’s 21-10 butt-kicking? Wins over Akron, Syracuse and Temple. In other words Joe Pa’s crew had done absolutely nothing as a football team to deserve a #5 national ranking other than be Penn State. And that my friends is not a good reason.

#6 CAL — Lost to Oregon 42-3. Had beaten Maryland, Eastern Washington and Minnesota. Maybe the Bears miss new Pitt OC Cignetti. Maybe they just aren’t that good?

#9 Miami — Throttled by Beamer Ball at Va Tech 31-7 after a lot of people were yelling, “the U is back baby!” As that older guy on the TV screams every Saturday morning, “not so fast my friend.” Heisman candidate Jacory Harris had some national columnists make the trip to rainy Blacksburg ready to anoint him the next great thing. They left making excuses for him (rain). Hey, last I checked football is still primarily played outdoors folks. Harris, to his credit, didn’t use any excuses.

#18 Florida State — See Penn State. Thoroughly dominated at home by a South Florida team led by Tallahassee native B.J. Daniels, a red shirt freshman QB taking over for the phenomenal Matt Grothe. Daniels put up 341 yards of offense, while the Bulls D held the Seminole running game to only 19 yards.

#24 Washington — Fresh off their upset of USC, the Dub laid an egg by getting smacked 34-14 by Stanford. This team won 0 games last season. The defeat of USC said a lot more about the USC coach’s inability to get his TV stars up to play every Saturday than it did about Washington’s improving group. Maybe the Trojans can convince the NCAA to let them do a college version of HBO’s Hard Knocks reality show and just film every single day? Maybe then they’ll stop taking these inexcusable losses every season.

During the Pitt/NC State broadcast they had a segment called “coaches cribs,” where they gave you a visual tour of Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien’s office. Judging from the results of this season so far, maybe they should just rank teams based on that. I bet Urban Meyer’s office is pretty sweet, ditto Mack Brown’s at Texas. It makes as much sense as the way they do it now. Florida is really good. Texas too. So maybe a top 3 until October 15th? The way it stands now seems like the likes of the BCS, ESPN/CBS — not to mention the college football media — is sending all fans disconcerting signals.

I heard Brent Musberger argue against delaying rankings because we in the media need the rankings to create story lines.

If that’s the best reason we have for the preseason and early season rankings… then shame on us.

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4 Quick Hitters on the Big East

1. The Big East has taken a lot of heat this season as a weak conference but they look okay to me so far.

2. Pitt football is in Bizarro-world. Everything all the experts told me about the Panthers is the opposite. They were going to have to win games 10-7 but their defense just might be capable of doing it. The offense was going to struggle all year. Well the offense has been like the college version of the K-Gun Buffalo Bills while the defense has been atrocious. Pitt’s D couldn’t hold a 14-point second half lead yesterday in their 38-31 loss to NC State. They put much-maligned QB Billy Stull in a position he didn’t deserve to be in — having to make a play at the end of the game to tie it up. Stull still hit Dorian Dickerson in the hands with a third down pass that should have been caught.

3. NC State QB Russell Wilson’s name should automatically appear on Heisman lists after yesterday’s performance. Passing for 322 yards and running for another 91 should do that for you. Wilson was unstoppable and unflappable.

4. I’m wondering how long it will take for an SEC school in a warm weather climate, or a Notre Dame maybe, to throw the bank at Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly? The man can flat-out coach some football. Pike and Collins are studs that should be on All American lists — not to mention the aforementioned Heisman ones — before the season ends.

5. Congrats to South Florida. You’re no longer the little brother (okay, probably the Gators, but they’ll never be foolish enough to bring you into the Swamp).