Owed time with the family — and a collective cold — along with football and the World Series.
Before I get to the game stuff, a quick prop to regular commenter RKohberger for getting a Q in the P-G College Football Q&A (hat tip to Chris who e-mailed me Friday night about it).
Q: How much will the success of Penn State this year affect Pitt’s recruiting efforts? This year’s batch of high school seniors have committed and do you see anyone changing their minds due to Pitt’s slow start and Penn State’s winning season?
Reed Kohberger of Columbia, Md.
FITTIPALDO: I have not heard of a Pitt recruit going back on his commitment, Reed. Pitt has received a handful of commitments and some of those players are highly ranked, and they all seem to be sticking by coach Dave Wannstedt as he molds the Panthers into his type of team. Penn State is doing quite well again this year on the field and in recruiting, but I don’t think it has a great effect on Pitt. Paterno will get a few and Wannstedt will get a few from the WPIAL, but after that I don’t think they’re recruiting many of the same players regionally or nationally.
A lot of the highly ranked players committing to, or considering going to PSU this year seem to be from the Eastern/Central PA and further along the Atlantic Coast. Not sure if it is because Pitt (and some other schools) plucked the big names in the Western part of the state early or not.
Paul Zeise had his Q&A as well, which started off with a bit of a “told you so,” attitude regarding Pitt heading into the Syracuse game.
Q: As Pitt climbs back into the Big East race, what freshmen and other new faces do you believe will continue to see playing time? Will players like Conredge Collins, John Bachman and C. J Davis play a little less with the upcoming weeks as the competition gets better?
ZEISE: Well, C. J. Davis is in the starting lineup so he’s going to play regardless and I would expect him to get better as he gets more experience. Pitt offensive line coach Paul Dunn said earlier this week that Bachman will get on the field as the game dictates because he is behind Charles Spencer, who happens to be one of the better players on offense. Conredge Collins is now playing on the special teams, but with the backfield situation as crowded as it is, you are correct, I would expect him to be used in a similar manner to how he has been used at fullback the past few weeks. I would expect Tim Murphy will handle the bulk of the plays that call for a fullback. As for the other true freshmen who have played, guys like Rashaad Duncan, LaRod Stephens-Howling, Rashad Jennings, Gus Mustakas – those guys have proven they are the best players, or among the best, at their respective positions so they will continue to play.
Looks like H.B. Blades took a vocal leadership role during the game and it resonated.
But, between the first and second quarters, middle linebacker H.B. Blades delivered a simple message to his defensive teammates.
“I told the guys, we can’t wait for the offense to score, let’s score ourselves,” Blades said. “I told them it was time for us to step up and make some big plays ourselves until the offense got going.”
Blades not only delivered the speech, he also delivered the goods as he picked off a pass by Syracuse quarterback Perry Patterson and returned it 38 yards for a touchdown on the third play of the second quarter. That sparked the Panthers, who tied the score by halftime and cruised to a 34-17 win.
But while Blades and the Panthers’ defense might have led the way — they held the Orange to only 202 yards as Syracuse went 0 for 12 on third down — freshman sensation LaRod Stephens-Howling and emerging star Derek Kinder provided the offense with some much-needed punch.
Stephens-Howling made his first start, rushed 23 times for 101 yards (4.4 per carry) while Kinder had eight catches for 81 yards and a touchdown. When the speedy Stephens-Howling wasn’t in the game, Pitt’s other freshman tailback, Rashad Jennings, pounded the Orange for 52 yards on 12 carries.
You know, as bad and as quickly as Pitt got down in the first quarter, Syracuse only had the ball for under 5 minutes. It was something like 4:40, they showed the 1st quarter stats on the jumbotron and that was somewhat surprising.
The defense wasn’t doing anything fancy in the game.
For Pitt, a simplified defensive plan worked with brutal efficiency Saturday in its 34-17 thrashing of Syracuse at Heinz Field.
“In the first half, we ran basically one call. You can’t get much simpler than that,” linebacker H.B. Blades said. “We just went full speed to the ball, and you saw the results. We didn’t blitz much. We just ran around and had fun.”
…
“At the beginning of this season, we had trouble handling adversity,” Pitt linebacker J.J. Horne said. “When the offense couldn’t get things going, we’d go out there with our heads down, and we’d let (the other team) drive down the field.“Today, when our offense turned the ball over, coach looked in our eyes and we were smiling, like, ‘Let’s go play.’ ”
After restoring their 10-point edge, the Orange were unable to piece together a decent drive.
An interception by Horne, who is playing despite a separated shoulder that has not yet fully healed, led to a score. Palko hit wideout Derek Kinder with an 11-yard touchdown toss.
…
Guys are getting confident and getting results,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said of his defense. “We’re not doing nearly as much.”By that, Wannstedt meant the Panthers aren’t doing as much with the schemes as they were earlier in the season.
“I was a little upset about that,” Horne said with mock seriousness. “We had plays designed to blitz and everything today, but every time in the huddle it was, ‘Base defense, base defense.’ ”
Blades said keeping things simple made it easier for everyone to make plays.
“For the younger guys, they don’t have to think as much,” Blades said. “Everybody knows their responsibilities on base call, so they can just go out and play. It comes naturally. That’s the main thing, everybody going out and having fun.”
Joe Starkey sees the game as another step in the right direction.
Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt described his team’s 34-17 victory over sickly Syracuse on Saturday as “a great win” before quickly correcting himself.
“A good win for us, I should say,” Wannstedt said.
OK, it was a terrible win — but a win nonetheless.
Pitt deserves credit for rallying from an early 10-point deficit for the second consecutive week and for winning its third game in a row to improve to 4-4 overall, 3-1 in the Big East.
Incredibly, these deeply flawed Panthers are right in the thick of things in this deeply flawed conference, and will play at least one truly meaningful game, after all.
He takes some backhanded swipes at the BE and wonders about how it went so bad so quickly for Syracuse. One of those articles where you have to write something, but there is no real theme.
Ron Cook, meanwhile, has no such problem finding his theme. Complaining about the crowds, especially when compared to Penn State.
What a difference.
What a letdown.
It’s hard to say what was more depressing. Was it the generally lousy football played by both teams? Or was it that so few people were at Heinz Field to see it?
It was enough to make a guy fully realize the enormity of the job facing Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt.
I guess I’m in the minority as not being terribly disappointed in the crowd size.
There are the usual reasons Cook gives for poor Pitt attendance, but I’ll add a couple more.
First, in comparison to Penn State or Michigan, it’s bogus for another reason. Despite either a down year this year or some recent bad play — both those programs have built up a sizable cache of goodwill and big winning to compensate. Pitt hasn’t. Plain and simple, Pitt is still recovering — fan base-wise — from the descent in the ’80s to the pure crappitude of the 90s. You don’t get that back overnight. You don’t get that back in under 10 years. Pitt didn’t have a better than .500 final record (including a bowl game) until 2000. Prior to that, you have to go back to 1989. It isn’t going to change just because there is a new Coach.
Second, he talks about how the ND loss took the wind out of the sails for fan support for this season. I disagree. That loss hurt, but considering how well ND has been doing, it hardly seems so bad. What totally demoralized and sucked the fan interest and desire to attend were the subsequent road losses to Nebraska and Ohio. Those were absolutely killers. After Nebraska, people gave up on the season.
I’ve been to the past 3 games, and my own attitude was that of fatalism and almost playing out the string. Going to the game was as much about getting together with friends as it was to see Pitt play. These 3 games should have been sure wins, and each one had me wondering how Pitt could blow it. It was tough and I don’t like admitting it, but I think that has been the feeling for the fans.
It would take an upset of Louisville in a week and a half to change most fans feelings about this year. That would show the fans that the season isn’t totally lost and there would be reason to hope for something more for the season — especially going into the final home game against UConn.
