So much for keeping all records private. I don’t care though. But you advertise privacy and then you post confidenciality. You might want to check the legality of doing such a thing.

Look, I’m not a Rhoads fan myself. But Wanny who I am a fan of is just as responsible because he is the fan of base defense. Rhoads was never a base defense guy. Check out that fact and get back to me. I just think blind hatred towards one guy is not the depth of the problem.

I meant to say Rhoads who I am not the biggest fan of!

With all due respect, my last point is…Our defense is terrible. It starts on the line. Putting 3 men in the box is 100% Dave’s idea. He will tell you so. Many people have also posted this fact as well. It’s not smart to blaim a coordinator for being the one who checks off on the defense called when the head coach is the famous defensive coordinator “who was supposed to bring Rhoads and his agressive style under his wings in order to teach him the ropes”. The running game is a seperate argument and had nothing to do with the defense sucking. Both coordinators should be blaimed under your theory of poor decision making. 170 pound running back is supposed to be used like a Randel Ell and not an every down back. Lastly, if our freshman are supposed to be so good and our talent so poor, any good coaches would have played all of them early and often. Instead, it was once again Wanny who has decided to hold them back and wait. Any time a freshman is as good as advertised, he will find a way to make the field. It helps the team win and helps recruit more top players who want to play early. Instead one could argue one of two things. Either we are not thinking about what the best kids want when we are recruiting (early play) or the class we have recruited is way over-rated.

I am getting very irked by Paul Zeise, whom I usually respect. He seems to be sticking it to Pitt fans who have badgered him with the silly Bill Stull jokes, by tiptoeing completely around the 9000 pound elephant in the room (Rhoads) as the major problem. GIVE US THE TRUTH. UNLIKE WHACKO JACKO NICHOLSON, WE CAN HANDLE IT. The run defense has stunk since 2001; Over the course of two head coaches, Paul Rhoads has largely been responsible for the defense and its personnel; Ergo FIRE PAUL RHOADS.

It’s amazing how these guys will write a 500 word article ripping the awful run defense, then turn around and praise Rhoads for being a great coach! Do they really think the readers are that stupid? Wait, don’t answer that …

The PG was the same paper that claims to be “objective” but cheerleads for PSU every week because the editor is a Nit alum. Ergo today’s headline “PSU Seniors showing their class.” Pitt would never get a gushy ass-smooching headline like that. Not that we deserve any this year. But up and down the schedule, PSU has exactly the same number of impressive victories as we do this year (0).

I realize this was a football post, but I am really impressed with the depth and balance of Pitt’s basketball team. Gray got in foul trouble against UMass today, but the team seemed to be fine without him as Fields, Graves, Cook and Biggs (and Gray) all scored in double figures.

By the way, Cincinnati is up 17-0 over Rutgers.

Geeman2001, I’m not a journalist (nor do I play one here) but I think Zeise is in a tough spot. As the Pitt beat writer, he probably can’t write that Rhoads needs to go, even if he and nearly everyone else feels that way. It’s up to Cook and Smizik (the opinion guys) to write that.

Give it up. It’s time to revel in hoops.

You have a good point about Zeise, he’s the beat guy and can’t risk p*ssing off the staff. He should be objective either way. But if you notice in his Q&A, he definitely defends Rhoads and praises him. I guess I just don’t understand that.

I also agree that Cook or Smizik should do it more blatantly in their op-ed pieces … they certainly did so with Harris, mocking him and calling for his head every week in 2004. And Walt took the team to a BCS game!!! WVU aside, how do they keep from screaming about giving up 400 yards rushing every game to teams that then nearly get shut out the following week?

I guess Rhoads must be much more charming to them when they venture into the UPMC for free lunches. Or they just hate Pitt fans and refuse to give us the satisfaction…

I heard on a radio sports show today (I think it was on 104.7 FM) and they said the folks at the Internatrional Bowl told Pitt they’d take a 6-6 Pitt team over a 6-6 Cinci team.

Too bad the Bearcats just upset Rutgers…

link to youtube.com

This video is on the YouTube most viewed videos page today. It’s Pat White making fun of the stadium sound system’s dorky panther growl. Pretty funny. RRRREOWW

Cincinnati’s victory over Rutgers tonight is salt in the wound. They stacked the line against the run and forced QB Mike Teel to beat them. He couldn’t, throwing four interceptions. Rice and Leonard were held to a combined 57 yards rushing.
Makes you wonder what Rhoads is thinking when the obvious works so well.
As an aside, it looks like our best win of the year will be our victory over Cincinnati. A bit disconcerting.

I guess I have a different take on the Orange and Cincy victories – to me it shows that the BE is more balanced that we thought.

Granted, Rutgers blew that game in the first quarter with turnovers and their weakness (Teel) was exposed – just as Omar said it would be. And UCONN didn’t play well either. But we have seen this leveling of the conference all year. In the long run, I think it will be good for the conference overall. Three teams 9-1, and 4-1 in conference play. Much better that in 2004 when a 8-4 PITT team went to our BCS bid. The sad thing though is that it also puts PITT firmly in the middle-bottom of the BE. The worst record so far is Syracuse at 4-7 overall, again – not too bad of a record for a bottom dweller, and to beat a higher ranked conference team yesterday shows that even the bottom feeder isn’t terrible.

But this is what I like about college football as opposed to the Pros. We beat Cincy; Rutgers beats us and Cincy beats Rutgers – you never know what you’re going to get each week.

Really though, as far as the national media respect goes, it will all depend on how the BE teams do out of conference against their bowl opponents – and I think they will do OK.

Zeise is entertaining at best and I like to read what he has to say, but he sure won’t go out on a limb in his opinions.

Also, how come no pundits are bitching about the lack of defense in the OSU-Michigan game as they did in the Louisville-WVU game (or the title game last year), 900+ total yards and 81 points. This just goes to show that there is a marked anti-East Coast prejudice nowadays.

Just re-read my second paragraph and realized I didn’t support my premise very well – that’s why I’m in the Military and not a writer. Not sure exactly what I meant to say, just that three teams with one loss (or two at season’s end) is impressive.

I knew Cincy would beat Rutgers. Pitt would not beat Cincy at this point in the season. That team has an excellent defense and played a great schedule. They didn’t get blown out by anyone, even Ohio State struggled with them.

The basketball team is unbelievably good. It is wonderful to see such a talented team share the ball like these kids. I used to have a few issues with Jamie Dixon but he is an excellent coach and a great example for the kids. Pitt made an excellent decision to sign him long term and they should extend his contract after this season.

Reed,

I went to the UC, RU game last night in Cincy, UC mixed up their D to confuse RU’s QB. UC sold out to stop the run and expose RU’s sorry passing game. Something that Pitt did not or could not do.

In the end UC was very well prepared and very fired up for the game. UC has a shot to win 7 games. UC gets leftovers in the recruiting battles and I do believe UC’s coach is in his 2nd or 3rd year, face it UC has a very good coach and has shown progress in making his team better as the season has moved along.

W can make any excuse he wants, we have regressed since our 6-1 start and there is a good chance we can finsh on a 5 game losing streak.

I’m as bummed out as anyone else, very frustrating. Hopefully the DC is gone at this time next week.

I’m looking forward to basketball, this team looks special.

So i guess it’s back to recruiting and on that note, Nick Sukay might be opening up his recruiting status….that can’t hurt Pitt…any better recruits we get, the better off we’ll be….come on down Nick, we need you!

Cincy committed to stoping the run against Rutgers. DUH!!! Any pee-wee coach could have figured that one out. And that’s why it is imperative for Rhaodes, who could not figure it out, to be fired.

Agree totally that we regressed, but even with those 6 wins there was some hints that the team wasn’t as strong as the record was showing. Kind of like a peach that looks good on the outside and once cut open you can see it is going bad. Before each game I had the sneaky feeling we would struggle/lose and even when we won I kinda was waiting for the next shoe to drop.

I posted on the other site that even though people won’t acknowledge it, 6-6 is better than 5-6. Imagine how we’d feel if we recognized all these shortcomings the team has, and then had to look at a losing record on top of it. It’s not much consolation, but is at least something.

And, I’ll still be optimistic going into next years training camp, if for nothing else than to see some of the young kids get more playing time. I’m looking forward to seeing how Stull does, and if Bostick can win the starting job. Maybe Dickerson and Fields or Murray will be allowed to start and contribute, we’ll have new O-line guys – maybe Jacobson can start & Pinkston can go full out, etc…

To me being a fan does not revolve around just wins & losses – but I really would love to see us make the improvements we were expecting this year.

Reed I like your optimism. Still the inability or better yet un-willingness to change the base D has cost at least 1 and possibly 3 victories this year.

I lay tha blame at DW’s feet. He wants the D to be like it was for him at the U. That is all fine and dandy if you have the players to do it and particularly the D line. Survey says he does not have the players to do it. So why in the sam he** did he not adjust to give the team AND FANS a better chance to pick up those 1 to possibly 3 victories?

As for Rhoades, he has to go if for no other reason than to put a fresh face at DC. Ultimately, as I had said, Rhoades failure must be seen as DW’s failure.

There is no reason for not giving your team the best shot to win and that shot extends to the O side of the ball as well. Running a 170 lb 5’7″ back as the feature back consistantly is outragious too say the least. Anybody with a half a brain would have used LHS situationally and started CC and most of the time used him in a one back, two TE sets.

But alas that is another story.

Forgot to metntion, as Colonel Jessup said (paraphrase), “You want the truth, well you can’t handle the truth about DW and that truth has been validated by UC: Adapt and improvise (in this case win)!”

food for thought:
geeman2001: took a look, psu has 4 losses, those teams are a combined 44-3. we sure as hell can’t say that…..

where is everybody that said how GREAT this rutgers team is and that it was okay for pitt to loose to them. wow, look what happens when you play defense and adapt……

this team will be worse next year without palko – no matter who is coaching the “d”……

louisville – wvu isn’t even in the same league as osu – michigan, not a bias, just fact. both are those teams are better than anything else in this conference….

pat white making fun of the panther noise is the FUNNIEST thing around…….

big east is NOT more balanced than you thought, just still not a very strong conference with some ok teams……

way too many empty seats for the wvu game – actually looks BAD, national tv, the backyard brawl and that is the best crowd????

nick sukay will NOT come to PITT….

wvu will dominate this conference for years to come, better coaching AND better recruiting……

Those are all good and valid points – and I do believe that DW needs to really look at this season and be willing to adapt and learn from other’s success, and our failures. Replacing the DC with a young, energetic, risk-taking coach would be a good start – if DW can stomach it.

The BE is in many respects a very young conference since the defections, and while it’s not as good as the SEC or Big Ten, it’s still competitive both in conference (hence the WVU/Louisville/Rutgers merry-ground) and out of conference (perhaps best non-con winning %) – again, the bowl games will be a gage of its national strength. I think we do have to wait a few years to allow the BE to schedule and play some quality non-con games, which the programs are doing, and to allow some of the up and coming programs to mature (UCONN, USF, Cincy). To me, what the national media thinks about the BE takes a back seat to how the in-conference games are played. This is a conference where any team can rise up and either beat or play closely another, and that makes it fun to watch. It goes back to the root of what we want from our fan experience, and I am pretty satisfied with the level of competition in the conference – regardless if it results in a national championship.

Can’t remember any posts that said Rutgers was a GREAT team, but lots that said they are a good team and deserve recognition – and they do. 9-1 is a damn good record, especially for a program that was the butt of jokes two years ago. You can’t cast a pall on their whole season for losing one game – otherwise every team but OSU and Boise State suck.

By the way, Colonel Jessup also alluded to the critics of what he did for a living “sitting around at their cocktail parties talking about freedom, while his men were putting their asses on the line defending it.” So, I’ll agree that DW is inflexible, but I’ll also give him his full 4 years before I call for his head because as much as I follow PITT football, I’m still a fan sitting on the outside looking in. It could be (hopefully, maybe, perhaps) that DW’s grand plan for this team could actually work out, and these last two years – as painful as they have been to watch – could be building blocks to bigger and better things. Anyway, we’ll find out starting next year.

Here’s a link to the latest BCS standing, three BE teams in top 14. Even more impressive is the combined computer rankings for the three BE teams.

link to sports.espn.go.com

I think Dave has become a big fan of reading the paper to get his ideas. Now he claims that the way to beat Louisville is blitz often. As if none of the other teams deserved such an idea? I like Dave, but I doubt he ever gave his DC the green light to use a 3 man front against WVU without his full backing. Maybe Dave needs a DC who can convince him to change but this defense is Dave’s so far. Rhoads is just his favorite teacher and game day play caller. I am sure Rhoads had his instructions to work with.