Here’s a look at some of the new teammates for Pitt football recruit James Conner, a McDowell running back/linebacker. Pitt just released its full list of signings. Pitt lists Conner as a running back:

2013 University of Pittsburgh Football Recruiting Class:

Name                                      Pos.             Ht.               Wt.          Hometown/High School/Prep School

Carson Baker                          OL               6-5               280          Fairborn, Ohio/Fairborn

Chris Blewitt                           PK               5-9               165          Alexandria, Va./West Potomac

Tyler Boyd                              WR              6-2               185          Clairton, Pa./Clairton

Zach Challingsworth               WR              6-2               185          McDonald, Pa./South Fayette

Tra’Von Chapman*                QB              6-2               200          Kent, Ohio/Theodore Roosevelt

James Conner                     RB               6-2               230          Erie/McDowell

Devon Edwards                      TE               6-4               255          Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Eastmoor Academy

Matt Galambos                        LB               6-2               215          Collingdale, Pa./The Haverford School

Reggie Green                          ATH            6-2               200          Cranford, N.J./Cranford

Tony Harper                            TE               6-4               200          Toledo, Ohio/St. John’s Jesuit

Titus Howard                          DB              6-1               180          Clairton, Pa./Clairton

Rachid Ibrahim                        DB              6-1               185          Rockville, Md./Avalon

Tyrique Jarrett*                       DL               6-3               320          Pittsburgh, Pa./Taylor Allderdice/

Dorian Johnson                       OL               6-5               290          Belle Vernon, Pa./Belle Vernon Area

Jaryd Jones-Smith                   OL               6-7               295          Voorhees, N.J./West Catholic (Pa.)

Luke Maclean                          DL               6-3               235          Grand Blanc, Mich./Grand Blanc

Justin Moody                          DL               6-3               265          Philadelphia, Pa./George Washington

Alex Officer                            OL               6-4               290          Rochester, N.Y./Eastridge

Scott Orndoff*                        TE               6-5               245          Waynesburg, Pa./Seton-LaSalle

Jaymar Parrish                        FB               6-2               230          Monroeville, Pa./Gateway

Zach Poker                              LB               6-4               220          Oconomowoc, Wis./Oconomowoc

Aaron Reese                            OL               6-5               300          Fayetteville, Pa./Chambersburg Area

Shakir Soto*                           DL               6-3               230          Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial

Jeremiah Taleni                       DL               6-2               300          Kaneohe, Hawaii/Kailua

Jester Weah                             WR              6-3               190          Madison, Wis./Madison Memorial

Terrish Webb                          DB              5-11             170          Clairton, Pa./Clairton

Ryan Winslow                        P                  6-5               205          Ambler, Pa./La Salle College H.S.

Let’s recap Week 13, shall we?

Game of the week: No. 1 Notre Dame at USC

Final score: Irish 22, Trojans 13

Pregame rant: This is pretty simple. The Irish win, they’re playing for a national title.

Notre Dame hasn’t won it all since the 1988 season, but hasn’t really contended for one since 1989 when it lost to No. 1 Colorado in the 1990 Orange Bowl.

So for the Irish, this is a long time coming. For USC, this is a season it’d like to forget.

The Trojans have lost four games, their best player – quarterback Matt Barkley – is out with a shoulder injury and they’re coming off a 38-28 loss to in-town rival UCLA.

Beating the Irish would sure wipe the slate clean for USC.

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Let’s recap Week 10, shall we?

Game of the week: No. 1 Alabama at No. 5 LSU

Final score: Tide 21, Tigers 17

Pregame rant: As good as this game will be, we don’t want to see the Tide and Tigers play in the national title game again.

Alabama hasn’t lost since it fell 9-6 in overtime at home to the Tigers. The Tide dominated LSU in the national title game, but the Tigers can avenge that loss and really put themselves in the national title picture.

The Tide are first in the nation in run defense. LSU is eighth. So the team that has the better quarterback should win Saturday.

Edge Alabama.

A.J. McCarron has thrown 18 touchdowns, no interceptions and can make all the throws. If Zach Mettenberger is called upon to beat the Tide, it’s not going down.

Post-game commentary: McCarron wasn’t his best until it matter most.

With that Death Valley crowd roaring and ready to pounce on him for predicting the Tide would win, McCarron was 4-of-5 for 72 yards and a game-winning touchdown pass with 51 seconds left to beat the rival Tigers.

Mettenberger actually played well. Was 24-of-35 for 298 yards and a touchdown.

Truth be told, the Tigers had this game won. They had more yards, won the turnover and time ouf possession battle and limited Alabama to 1-of-9 on third-down conversions.

So why did they lose? Penalties and bad play calling.

The Tigers had seven penalties for 51 yards and LSU coach Les Miles called a fake field goal on a 4th-and-12 play down 7-3 in the first half.  It failed miserably.

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In his high school days, Matha was a standout athlete at McDowell before going to Pitt./Photo by Jack Hanrahan/Erie Times-News

Transferred. Injured. Ineligible.

Senior right tackle Dan Matha has had his share of obstacles, but is once again a force on the field in helping No. 22-ranked Indiana (Pa.) boast one of the top rushing teams in NCAA Division II.

” It’s a great feeling,” Matha said. “It’s been a lot of bumps along the way. Haven’t always been healthy. So to finally be healthy. It’s a weight off my shoulders.

“To be able to play and do the things I know I’m capable of doing. Not really being hindered by an injury or pain or anything, it’s long overdue.”

With the 6-foot, 7-inch, 290-pound Matha helping clear space to run free, the Crimson Hawks (5-1, 2-1 PSAC West) are seventh nationally in rushing and have the nation’s second-leading rusher in senior Harvie Tuck.

“We vote every week in the offensive meeting room which side of the line did better,” Tuck said. “The right side has been getting a lot of wins. Probably four out of the six weeks, they’ve won and I think part of it is because of Dan.”

It wasn’ t that long ago Matha, an McDowell High graduate, was at Pitt wondering if he’d ever become healthy enough to even compete for a starting spot, let alone play.

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Here are three games worth watching in Week 7.

Game of the week: No. 17 Stanford Cardinal (4-1, 2-1 Pac-12) at No. 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, (5-0), Saturday, 3:30 p.m., WICU (NBC).

Pregame rant: The Irish have an offensive-minded coach in Brian Kelly, but have relied on their defense to win games. Allowing 7.78 points a game, Notre Dame is second only to top-ranked Alabama in scoring defense.

The Irish are first in touchdowns allowed with three.

However, Stanford has the type of offense that can grind it out and impose its will on a defense. Stepfan Taylor is 15th in the nation in rushing with 560 yards and five touchdowns. If the Cardinal can consistently block Irish senior stud linebacker Manti Te’o, who has 48 stops, Taylor will have room to run.

If not, it will be business as usual for Te’o and the Irish defense.

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Sophomore quarterback Casey Pachall has thrown for 2,715 yards and 24 touchdowns this season for TCU./AP Photo.

Too many bowl games. Too many sponsors with long names.

I want a playoff system, but it’s not happening.

Too bad.

What do I get in return? A slew of bowl games that are too tough to call sometimes, but if you think you’re better than me, enter my sixth BCS bowl contest on ESPN.com through Bowl Mania.

Enter the Rankin ETN 2011-12.

Let’s look at Week 1 (Dec. 17-24).

Best match up: San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl – *No. 16 TCU (10-2) vs. Louisiana Tech (8-4), Saturday, 9 p.m., ESPN. See what I mean about the names. Need oxygen to say all that, but don’t sleep on this game. The Bulldogs are riding a seven-game winning streak. Half of their four losses are to team that are currently ranked (L 19-17 at *No. 22 Southern Miss, L 35-34 at *No. 20 Houston). Now TCU should win, but Louisiana Tech won’t go down easily.

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Veuntrae Robinson (#17) and Devin Ghafoor have been impact true freshmen for the Edinboro Fighting Scots this season./ETN file photo.

Devin Ghafoor didn’t expect this.

Being a true freshman, Ghafoor didn’t have very high expectations this season

“I came in just trying to be freshman on the team and learn and all that,” Ghafoor said.

He’s learning pretty fast.

Ghafoor deflected a screen pass that was ruled a backward pass, picked the ball up and scored from 49 yards out to give Edinboro a 20-point, second-half lead as the Scots beat Mercyhurst College, 30-20, today at Tullio Field today.

“It was a big play,” Edinboro coach Scott Browning said. “Because without that score, the outcome is a lot different.”

Ghafoor and fellow true freshman Veuntrae Robinson have made key plays in the secondary for the Scots this season.

In last week’s 24-23 loss to Slippery Rock, Robinson, 6-foot, 3-inch, 186-pound strong safety out of Boardman, Ohio, returned a fumble for a touchdown.

For the season, Robinson has two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and an interception.

As for Ghafoor, the 6-foot, 167-pound starting nickel back out of Pittsburgh has three interceptions, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

Alex Romanias is 7-of-7 on field goals and 18-of-18 on PATs for Edinboro in his final season with the Scots./ETN file photo.

Alex Romanias was on the move this summer.

The Edinboro senior kicker tried to run two to three miles a day, but he also worked at the St. Clair Country Club golf course.

“I was moving around constantly throughout the day,” said Romanias, who is from Pittsburgh and attended Upper Saint Clair High School. “I tried to make sure everything I was doing was outdoors and staying active.”

As a result, Romanias lost 40 pounds and is kicking the ball better than he ever has at Edinboro. This season, the 6-foot, 2-inch, 205-pound Romanias is second in the PSAC in scoring for kickers with 39 points.

Romanias is 7-of-7 on field goals (40 long) and 18-of-18 on PATs. Last season, Romanias was 6-of-15 on field goals (38 long) and 20-of-21 on PATs.

“Last year wasn’t a great year for me,” Romanias said. “I was just trying to get a clean slate. A fresh start. I was feeling better about myself. In good condition. Everything is firing smoothly. Everything is smooth right now. I feels good.”

Romanias already has more points this season in four games than he had all of last season. So the big question is can Romanias stay perfect all season?

He’ll try.

“I’m always striving for perfection,” he said. “It doesn’t always  happen that way. All four years here, every field goal I go out for, I expect to make it. I keep my expectations high. So it’s great that it’s worked out for me so far.”

College sports with a northwestern Pennsylvania slant:

• Congratulations to Edinboro women’s basketball coach Stan Swank, who earned his 400th career victory Monday when the Scots defeated Alderson-Broaddus 86-35 at McComb Fieldhouse.
• Swank’s big win came days after Mercyhurst College women’s hockey coach Michael Sisti won his 300th career game. He’s hoping for 301 tonight when his No. 4-ranked Lakers play host to No. 2 Cornell, the team that knocked them out of the 2010 Frozen Four.

Elsewhere:

• Andrew Church, a Penn State redshirt freshman, went 2-2 and brother David Church, a freshman, went 3-2 at the Floyd “Shorty” Hitchcock Memorial Classic wrestling tournament.
• Gannon’s women’s swim team knocked off Division I Canisius 154.5-86.5 Saturday with help from McDowell graduates Jackie Rzymek and Sarah Anderson.
• Villa Maria graduate Kayla McBride and No. 11 Notre Dame take on No. 16 Georgetown tonight at 7 in a game that can be seen on CBS College Sports.
• General McLane graduate Kat Zimmerly, an Ohio Wesleyan senior, was named NCAC indoor track and field distance runner of the week.
• Pitt-Bradford senior Kyle Lewis, a North East graduate, earned a Scholar All-East Region Honorable Mention award from the National Soccer Collegiate Athletic Association. He captained the Division II UPB men’s soccer team.
• Edinboro offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Yurcich will take a similar position at Shippensburg.
• Cathedral Prep graduate John Hill won the 200 freestyle for Dartmouth in its swim meet against Penn.
• Harbor Creek graduate Brittany DiSanti and McDowell graduate Kelsey Herbst were Pitt’s performers of the meet at Saturday’s Maryland quad.
• Allegheny College first baseman Matt Stahl is a d3baseball.com preseason Division III All-American.