JoePa wants us back so bad it hurts

Once upon a time, Pitt and Penn State engaged in one of collegiate football’s most storied… Once upon a time, Pitt and Penn State engaged in one of collegiate football’s most storied rivalries. Penn State made it into our fight song and into our collective psyches as our most loathed opponent.

We trounced them one final time Sept. 16, 2000, 12-0. Pitt is a proud member of the Big East, while Penn State is the superfluous 11th member of the Big Ten.

We’re making a name for ourselves against the worthy opponents in the Big East, earning our first national ranking in 11 years as 17th in the Associated Press poll. Penn State is coming off its first set of back-to-back losing seasons in Joe Paterno’s 37-year history.

Now, JoePa wants us back.

We’ve proven ourselves a force to be reckoned with and a rival worth cultivating. But JoePa didn’t want to play with us anymore after we whooped the Nittany Lions at Three Rivers Stadium and refused to agree to his ludicrous terms – he wanted us to play two games in Happy Valley for every one game we played in the Steel City.

In the Nov. 20th edition of the Tribune-Review, JoePa said he’d love to see Pitt in the Big Ten so the rivalry could be rekindled. At a coaches’ teleconference, he said, “I would love to see the Big Ten try to get Pitt to be the 12th team.”

No dice.

Why would we leave the Big East just to dance with the Lions? Of course the rivalry was fun. It was one of the traditions that made going to a large football school in Pennsylvania great. Football coach Walt Harris told the Trib he’d love to battle Penn State again.

“It’s a natural rivalry. There’s no reason in the world we shouldn’t be playing,” he said.

Too true.

If JoePa wants to tangle with the Panthers so badly, he should make it happen.

Penn State’s dance card for nonconference games is full for the next seven years. Why not drop one of those? It’s silly to ask us to jump conferences just so we can renew a rivalry that was beginning to fizzle.

JoePa must be scared. He knows we have an entire city willing to jump into the fray and rally behind the Panthers. Why else would he want so much play in State College? Because cows and fields hardly constitute a home-field advantage.

JoePa, go back to hawking rolls. When you’re really ready to step up to the powerhouse that is the Panthers, you know where to find us.