Bowl Preview: Meineke Car Care Bowl

Meineke Car Care Bowl
Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, N.C.
Pittsburgh vs. North Carolina
Date: Dec. 26
Time: 4:30 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Line: Pitt -2.5

About Pitt: The Wannstaches were only a late touchdown away from beating Cincinnati and reaching a BCS game. Instead, they're spending Christmas in Charlotte. Ouch. Pitt's biggest improvement over previous seasons was when offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh took a job with the New York Jets. This let Pitt hire a new OC, Frank Cignetti, who was interested in scoring points. That and they got a freshman running back named Dion Lewis who's sweet.

Intangibles:Peppi's North Side: +5
Pitt campus: -3
Steelers fans: -7
Steelers fans when they suck: +4

About North Carolina: The Tar Heels are returning to the Car Care Bowl for the second season, which may not be quite the visions of Mack Brown-like glory fans were hoping for when they hired Butch Davis. the Heels could be great Saturday. Or they could be terrible. Nobody ever knows. They're kind of like the rest of the ACC. Or any team coached by Butch.

Intangibles: Butch Davis at Miami: +3
Butch Davis with the Browns: -8 (F you, Butch.)
Roy Williams: -3
Not Duke: +3

Impact Player: I'll go with Pitt QB Bill Stull, who I actually saw play in high school as a freshman. He's a little better now. If Stull can make some plays down the field, Pitt wins.

Bowl slogan: "Inviting North Carolina-based teams since 2004 to help our attendance projections!"

Little known fact: North Carolina's uniforms are kind of cool, but kind of gay and make me uncomfortable with own sexuality. Billy, have you ever seen a grown man naked? Wait, what?

Watchability (1-5): 3.8

The pick: Pitt 27, North Carolina 21

Thank you Tyler Bitancurt

Bill Stewart better give PK Tyler Bitancurt a big hug. If he doesn't I will.

Bitancurt's 43-yard FG with no time remaining gave West Virginia a 19-16 upset victory over Pitt in the 102nd annual Backyard Brawl in Morgantown.

Once Stewart is done showing his affection for his kicker he should then go around and thank his defensive unit and DC Jeff Casteel. That was easily the WVU defense's best performance of 2009. They actually made Pitt QB Bill Stull look like the incompetent player of 2007 and 2008.

This win doesn't erase the bad taste of losing to Pitt in 2007 because the Panthers can still win the Big East and go to the BCS. But it does give the Mountaineers a chance to finish second in the conference with a win over Rutgers next week and a Pitt loss to Cincinnati.

Hello Gator Bowl.

But more importantly it is finally a signature victory for Stewart since he had the interim tag removed following an emotional win over Oklahoma in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl.

Fans MIA at Pitt

Poor Pitt.

Look at that pitiful crowd during the Panthers Spring Game on Saturday. Look, spring games can be a lot of fun and they can also be boring.

But The Stache is trying to rebuild Pitt, which almost won the Big East last year. If LeSean McCoy had not left early for the NFL the Panthers might be the early favorite to win the conference in 2009.

This is just plain sad. I know Pittsburgh has so much more to follow than Pitt. The Steelers just won their sixth Super Bowl, the Penguins are playing well heading into the NHL playoffs, the Pirates have a winning record and Pitt basketball is much more fun to watch. So there just aren't enough fans to go around.

Even the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette didn't report on the annual Blue-Gold Game until Monday. One interesting note from the PG's coverage is the mention that Bill Stull appears to be the top quarterback for 2009. That's not good news for new OC Frank Cignetti Jr.