It’s been a rough week for Coach Dave Wannstedt and Pitt football. I’ve been trying to do a full round-up of the national slapping — but have had some, uh, interesting moments with blogger. Hopefully I won’t consume too much of my dad’s scotch tonight to get something out. In the meantime, how about some offering just a thought:
The head coach returned to campus after a long career as an NFL assistant and head coach. He came back to bring together a divided fandom. And with great expectations, he lost a shocker to a much smaller school that made for embarrassing headlines. And he lost two other games to big-name opponents. All that fanfare, and the head coach was 0-3. Talk about being upset.
Dave Wannstedt at Pitt in 2005? Could be. It also could be Gene Stallings at Alabama. The former Crimson Tide assistant returned to Tuscaloosa after coaching the St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals in the NFL. Alabama opened with a shocking 27-24 loss to to Southern Mississippi, which had a quarterback by the name of Brett Favre. Then Florida came to Tuscaloosa and won 17-13. The following week, the Tide blew a late lead and lost at Georgia, 17-16.
After that 0-3 start, Alabama won seven of its next eight and went to the Fiesta Bowl. From 1991-93, Alabama won 28 consecutive games, including the 1992 national championship.
Does that mean Pittsburgh will win it all in 2007? Probably not. But there’s precedent that says the Panthers can turn it around. An overtime loss at Ohio and a one-point loss at Nebraska mean that Pitt is two plays away from being 2-1. Don’t be too quick to write Pittsburgh off.
Someone send Ivan Maisel a thank you card for the positive vibe.
Paul Zeise, the P-G’s Pitt football beat reporter, has his weekly Q&A .
Q: With the offensive line not protecting well right now, why are they not using the running backs and tight ends more in the passing game?
ZEISE: Great question. They did during training camp, they do during practice and they need to do a whole lot more throwing to the backs and tight ends during the game — before it is a two-minute situation. I asked some of the coaches about this and the answer was they are trying to work the tight ends, and in particular Darrell Strong, more and more into the passing game, so we’ll all keep an eye out for that. As for the backs, the swing pass (or some variation of it) is usually a big part of the West Coast offense but we haven’t seen it called a whole lot to this point. I agree it would be an excellent way to catch opponent’s in blitzes, but it is not always as simple as it seems to get executed correctly. I know they tried at least one screen pass during the Nebraska game and not only did Tyler Palko nearly get sacked, the running back who caught it, I think it was Kirkley, got crushed by a linebacker as they were all over that play. So like everything else, that aspect is a work in progress.
It’s a bit more toned down compared to last week, but he is definitely seeing the positives more than the negatives. He also defends the performance of the O-line to some extent.
