Pitt's football team was 4-4 heading into Saturday night's home game with Cincinnati, but could be forgiven for feeling as if that record should have some asterisks behind it.

On Sept. 17, Pitt had a 24-3, third-quarter lead, and lost at Iowa, 31-27.

A week later, at home against Notre Dame, the Panthers took a 12-7 lead into the final quarter, and lost, 15-12.

Oct. 15 at home against Utah, Pitt led 14-3, before losing 26-14.

Tough to take. But easier to take, knowing that a Big East Conference championship is still on the table.

Easier to take, also, if you believe that the current team is on the ground floor of something big, under dynamic first-year coach Todd Graham.

"I don't think disappointed is the right word," Pitt defensive tackle Chas Alecxih said Wednesday.

"I just think we had a couple really tough breaks. We definitely have 2-3 games we should have won, but it's more about preparing for the future."

"It's been tough," added offensive tackle Jordan Gibbs. "But my concern right now is a Big East championship ring."

Alecxih and Gibbs, both fifth-year seniors, are Penn Manor graduates and part of a small Lancaster-Lebanon League connection in Pittsburgh.

Remember Pat Bostick, the former Manheim Township quarterback who played at Pitt from 2007-2010?

He's still part of the program, as a graduate assistant in Pitt's media relations department and the color man of Pitt's radio broadcasts.

"I'm really enjoying the media end of it," Bostick said.

"I'm at practice every day, so I'm still around the game. And I'm really enjoying the people I work with."

That brings us to Graham, in his first year after replacing former NFL coach Dave Wannstedt.

"He's more of a new-age, innovative coach," Bostick said.

"His style is multiple fronts, blitz, attack all the time, a little more what college football is right now.

"Very energetic, and it's reflected in how they do things, even in practice. They get a play off in 15 seconds, no huddling, even in practice."

Graham must have been having a mega-high energy day when he handed out titles to his staff. There are six Pitt assistants with the word "coordinator" in their title.

There's an "executive associate head coach," and a "co-offensive coordinator/assistant head coach."

There's a director of recruiting and a recruiting coordinator, a defensive coordinator and a pass defense coordinator, a linebackers coach and an outside linebackers coach.

"They're both great people," Alecxih said of Wannstedt and Graham. "But they're very different.

"Coach Wannstedt ran things more like a pro team. He just let us handle our buisiness ourselves.

"Coach Graham is much more a college style, very hands-on, very enthusiastic."

Gibbs was a fairly hot recruit coming out of Penn Manor as a 300-pound tight end athletic enough that basketball might have been his best high school sport.

He had offers from Virginia and Illinois, but said it was ultimately "an easy decision. I kinda like the distance from home. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made."

Gibbs played in all of Pitt's games last year, starting 10 of them. He's started every game this year, all at right tackle.

With his size (6-5 3/4, 315 pounds) and athleticism, Gibbs figures to have a chance to play Sundays.

"A few agents have hit me up," he said. "I just tell them to talk to my dad."

Alecxih had no full-ride offers, and came to Pitt as a walk-on.

"They were really honest with me the whole time," he said. "They said if I stick it out and do what I'm supposed to, they'll give me a scholarship."

And right after his freshman year, that's what they did.

Alecxih started all 13 games at DT last year, and had 57 tackles, nine for loss, and 7.5 sacks.

This year, through eight games he had 38 tackles, nine for loss, and 4.5 sacks.

He also figures to at least get a shot at pro football.

"I've heard some good feedback," he said. "You never know anything until the draft, really, but I have high expectations for myself."

Both Alecxih and Gibbs will graduate next month, Alecxih with a communications degree, Gibbs in criminal justice

Bostick is headed toward a master's degree is higher education management practice.

"I'd love to continue doing radio," he said. "But I'm getting married in June, and you can't bank on a broadcastinmg career. A lot of things have to fall into place."

Hower joins Hall
Ed Ludwig, the former Northern Lebanon AD/coach, called Patti Hower a while back and asked her to put a resume together.

Some Hall of Fame nomination thing. Hower did it reluctantly.

"I don't normally like that kind of stuff," she said Thursday.

Hower, the longtime girls' basketball coach at Lebanon Catholic, had once spoken at a gathering of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame's Central Chapter, and since then has always received a ballot for the state Hall of Fame's annual induction.

This year, her name was on it.

"When I saw some of the other names on it, I thought, no way," Hower admitted.

Way. Hower was inducted in ceremonies in the Bucks County town of Trevose on Oct. 22.

"A lot of voters probably thought, 'I better vote for one woman,' " Hower said.

She didn't make it for self-deprecation. Hower has 612 wins over 32 seasons, 15 District Three Class AA titles and state A championships in 1992 and '95.

(Aside: Her team's stretch-drive performance in the '92 final, when the Beavers were down 10 to Clarion with 10 minutes left, played a fourth quarter for the ages, and won by 18, remains one of the coolest things This Space has witnessed in sports.).

Joining Hower among the honorees were former Philadelphia Eagles Troy Vincent and Vince Papale, ex-Sixer and La Salle star Doug Overton, Penn State running back Blair Thomas and, of special interest to Hower, basketball coaches Pete Carill and Bo Ryan.

Carill, who's also in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, coached at Princeton, as an assistant with the Sacramento Kings and, way back, at Reading High.

Ryan is currently at the University of Wisconsin. He won four national Division III titles at Wisconsin-Platteville.

A contingent of about 20 friends, family and Lebanon Catholic colleagues were with Hower at the dinner.

"At first I was hesitant, but when the day came, I was really honored," Hower said. "It was nice to get Lebanon Catholic some recognition, too."

AL-L Access is an inside look at current and former Lancaster-Lebanon League athletes, teams and coaches and issues surrounding the league. Comments, suggestions and story ideas are welcome, and can be emailed to mgross@lnpnews.com.