Yesterday was the weekly Big East Coaches Conference Call. You can listen here (Coach Wannstedt came on at 7:30 — following Dantonio [Cinci]). The conference call, according to the Big East website is only up for a week until the next call.
In the call, Coach Wannstedt was nice about Frank Solich and the Ohio QB.
Thomas Smith is still considered questionable but expected to play.
The primary issue for Coach Wannstedt reported in a couple BE notebooks is that Pitt is playing a Friday night game.
Pittsburgh head coach Dave Wannstedt is sensitive to this, and insists efforts were made to avoid interference with the local high schools.
Because of the national television coverage associated with the two high-profile coaches – Wannstedt at Pitt and former Nebraska head coach Frank Solich at Ohio – the game was slated for the prime-time audience.
Wannstedt said the area high school coaches understand the situation, and by no means is the scheduling a slight to Friday night football.
“No one is more sensitive to high school football in western (Pennsylvania) than me,” Wannstedt said. “Sometimes you get into situations because of scheduling and TV. Some of these things we have to do because of the conferences and the program.”
Not related, but something to keep in mind when offseason coaching changes occur, Rutgers Head Coach Schiano is also the Defensive Coordinator — not good when your team blows a 27-7 lead.
As for comments about the ND game, he tried to be philosophical.
“The only comment I will make is how much work we have to do,” he said. “When you are playing a team like Notre Dame you are going to find out real quick, and we did.”
Then there is Coach Wannstedt’s regular press conference, and transcript.
On the receivers:
We’re making some progress. I think we know where all of our guys are. Greg Lee, it’s kind of a shame he didn’t make that one catch in the end zone. I mean, he’ll make that 99 times out of 100. We all know that. He played well. On the touchdown, on the opening drive, he really ran a great route. He beat the guy and got open. Joey [DelSardo], we know where he is. Joey’s going to be a good, consistent player for us. The third guy is really unknown. There’s [Derek] Kinder, [Marcel] Pestano. That’s where we’re at. It’s between those two guys. Kinder, probably right now, is probably faster. He’s more of a natural receiver. You know, Kinder was a running back in high school. He’s a guy that smart, and he’s always in the right spot. So from a coach’s standpoint, that’s kind of what we’re looking at.
To be honest, when Lee didn’t make that catch, it was hard to be too upset considering he’d been doing nothing but windsprints and decoys for the majority of the game. He was probably shocked the ball was actually coming to him.
Greg Lee, however, does need to start dominating again or get help. He’s going to face a lot of extra coverage.
Pitt must develop another receiver with speed to take pressure off WR Greg Lee. After Lee caught a 39-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter, Notre Dame rolled a safety toward Lee almost every play to help in coverage. Lee caught three passes for 24 yards the remainder of the game. Joe DelSardo, who starts opposite Lee, is a solid possession receiver, but Pitt has to look at freshman Marcel Pestano to stretch defenses.
In the ND game, it also didn’t help that Palko rarely had time to wait for him to break the coverage.
