Following Miami's destruction of the Penn State football team 11 days ago, much of the talk in the Commonwealth was about a changing of the guard taking place.

Penn State, by far the dominant football program in Pennsylvania over the past decade, had seemingly seen its reign at the top end.

The Lions took a 33-7 battering as a follow-up to a dreadful 5-7 campaign in 2000, and people are beginning to question coach Joe Paterno's effectiveness as a recruiter and offensive mind at the age of 74.

Meanwhile, the University of Pittsburgh, a program coach Walt Harris has brought back from the dead in his four-year tenure as head coach, looked to be on the rise.

The Panthers went 7-5 last year and appeared in the Insight.com Bowl. Their lineup boasts a Heisman Trophy candidate in wide receiver Antonio Bryant. Pitt was mere votes away from cracking the Top 25.

Surely, their time had come. Pitt beat Penn State last year, 12-0 at Three Rivers Stadium. It has begun to tap in to the talent-rich Pittsburgh area — a recruiting region that Penn State was exploiting most of the past 15 years — signing players such as quarterbacks Rod Rutherford and Tyler Palko.

Pitt even has made recruiting inroads to the rest of the state, landing highly touted running back Dustin Picciotti from Central Bucks West H.S. two years ago.

Pitt won its season opener 31-0 over East Tennessee State the same day Penn State was embarrassed by Miami, and afterward, Panther partisans were sure that they had finally become the head of the Pennsylvania college football class.

Sure enough, as Pitt supporters have often used Penn State as a measuring stick, Harris embraced the notion following that game.

"Oh yeah," Harris beamed. "I don't mind people talking that way. If they feel that way, that's great."

Even Penn State fans seemed resigned to the fact that Pitt had taken over the mythical mantle of Top Dog in Pennsylvania.

What a difference a game makes.

Pitt allowed such talk to get to their heads and got beat by South Florida — a school new to Division I-A football this season — 35-26.

And, to use an old cliché, it wasn't even that close.

The Bulls ran all over Pitt for much of the first half, using their superior speed and the arm of quarterback Marquel Blackwell — who completed 37 of 65 passes for 343 yards — to stun the Panthers and their fans. Only a late-game comeback by Pitt made the score respectable.

This is a South Florida team that had lost to Northern Illinois the week before. A South Florida program that was born only four years ago and had beaten only one Division I-A opponent in seven previous tries in its history.

So much for Pitt being ready to take the next step into national prominence.

After this game, Harris was not nearly so cheerful.

"That was a terrible performance," a dejected Harris said.

"We're not where I thought we should be, and I take responsibility for that."

With Pitt not being where they should be, and Penn State clearly not playing at a level they are accustomed to, where does this proud state — rich in collegiate football history and a traditional hotbed for high school talent — turn for its football?

Temple had a golden opportunity to move to 2-0 and at least make a theoretical claim to the state. But it promptly got blown out at home by the Mid-American Conference's Toledo (not that there is any shame in losing to the Rockets, of course. . .), a loss that proved the Owls' program is destined to remain at its customary depths.

Where do we turn now for quality college football in this state?

Slippery Rock? Bloomsburg? IUP?

Here's to hoping Pitt redeems itself this Saturday against UAB and Penn State rights its ship in its next game.

Otherwise, this could prove to be a long, cold autumn for football fans in the Keystone State.