Alex Karabin Gets Scholarship

As expected, starting center Alex Karabin got his scholarship today, according to Associate AD E.J. Borghetti (via Twitter):

Congratulations to 5th-year senior walk-on center Alex Karabin. Received scholarship today!

Karabin, understandably, was pleased:

"I guess I was expecting it, but I'm still a little bit surprised," Karabin said. "It's nice to see it actually come through. It means a lot."

As I mentioned before, you've got to find a way to get a starter a scholarship. Khaynin Mosley-Smith's misfortune was Karabin's gain as Mosley-Smith's academic issues opened up the scholarship.

He's seen his share of guys start ahead of him over the years and rather than go to the service academies that offered him a scholarship, he chose to walk-on at Pitt. It's got to be hard to motivate yourself at times when you're putting in the same amount of work as others, but not reaping all of the awards. Karabin talked about staying motivated in Sunday's PG piece:

College football also is filled with walk-ons, but only a select few are good enough to earn starting positions. Karabin is now one of the few, but he had to endure constant competition as the coaching staff continually brought in scholarship players to challenge him. He most recently beat out Lippert, a converted defensive lineman.

"As a walk-on, you can't really slack off," Karabin said. "You have to go out there every day and get better every day. As long as the coaches see that, it helps out a lot. It's not like you ever really get mad about it. It's more like motivation. You say to yourself, 'I have to get better.'

Karabin is part of an offensive line with three new starters. The offensive line will largely determine Pitt's success this year and I'm glad Pitt was able to take care of him.

Dion Lewis Named As A Preseason Favorite For Doak Walker Award

Pitt Associate AD EJ Borghetti has the news that the Sporting News has named Mark Ingram and Dion Lewis as its first two picks for the Doak Walker Award, presented to the nation's top running back.

Not a big surprise here as Lewis is the nation's top returning rusher and Ingram won the Heisman last year.  Still, Devine has been gaining some steam lately in preseason articles and could be a threat to Lewis in the Big East.  I wasn't able to find the news on their website, so I'm guessing this may have been (or is due to be) released in the print version.

Updating the Big Ten Stuff Without...You Know...Much Of An Update

Lots of stuff out there, but not much substance on the whole Pitt to Big Ten thing.

Apparently, USA Today (which cites the oft-quoted E.J. Borghetti Twitter thing)thinks this all got started with a post by Ben Maller, radio host for Fox Sports. His post, though, didn't come until after the recent message board explosion and of course, no sources are quoted.

Chicago Trib says nothing to the rumors, according to 'a conference source.'

Third parties are chiming in, too, mentioning a Big Ten expansion could open the door for a non-BCS school like Memphis.

Apparently, The Big Ten, when asked about it, has offered the obligatory 'No comment.'

I'm assuming that Pitt isn't coming out and definitively saying it's not happening this week in order to keep the obvious follow-up questions (i.e. if not now, when) from being asked as they anticipate they could be one of the schools in the running. But if the athlete meeting, which appears to have taken place (though no one is sure of the susbstance) really WASN'T about the Big Ten, why wouldn't athletes say what it was about?

Anyway, there's also the talk out there that Pitt will be leaving later, just not now. Although, no sources on that, either.

ADD ON: Missed this earlier, but Bob Smizik of the PG also says the Big Ten was not mentioned at the recent athlete meeting.