Chas,

What are your thoughts of the coaching changes made for the Pitt football team? The one that caught my eye was with Paul Rhodes. Not only did they not fire him, but it looks like they will be giving him more responsibility next year. Based on your previous comments, I’m sure your pulling your hair out over this one as many other Panther fans are.

I cant believe that Rhodes now has more responsibility. He did a shitty job 4 years running now, and you let him coach the linebackers as well? i hope a better opportunity presents itself to Paul and he finds his way out of Pittsburgh.

The article said Rhoads was switching his positional emphasis from the secondary to the linebackers, not that he’s not doing both.

I’m pissed. He should be off the team. He comes another 6-6 season at the best!

With my keen analytical mind I knew it was Bray’s fault all along; how embarrassing for all of you to have thought Paul Rhoads was somehow to blame!

Seriously, I have to agree with Chris Dokish on this one – it’s apparent that DW has set down what defense he wants to see and has his DC institute it. My only hope is that there really is a problem with the strength and conditioning (although to me it seemed more like a lack of depth that made the kids tired in the third and fourth quarters), and that a new coach in that area will get these kids more prepared to play four quarters for a 12 game season. Somehow I doubt it though.

After having a couple weeks to think about next season I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m looking forward to it as much as I did this year. A large part of that is being able to read everyone’s thoughts on these Blogs as the season progresses. Honestly didn’t think I’d be laughing as much in the midst of a five game losing streak as I was, and that’s due to the sharp witted posters on the Blather.

So – thanks for a great season.

Reed you should watch the basketball team. They are everything the football team isn’t.

I was reading Chas’s post on the AOL Blog and after re-reading that sentence that PITT isn’t going to a bowl for the second straight year after 5 years of going, I realized something. Some people may think it is a bogus statement, but I think the Big East is a tougher football conference now then it was with Miami, BC, and VT here. 4 years ago, Miami and VT ran the Big East and there was a severe drop off from there. 2 good teams, a handful of mediocre teams, and a bunch of bottom feeders (don’t forget temple) comprised the BE. I would consider BC one of the mediocre teams because they were not very consistant. Now, Rutgers, WVU, and Louisville are top 15 teams, with programs like UCONN, USF, and Cinci on the rise. I think those 6 teams now are better than any other 6 the Big East previously had. Whether “experts” want to admit it, the Big East is a tough football conference. (Where is the moaning/groaning about the PAC-10)

Hey Scott, welcome to the BE bandwagon. After watch the league play this year I’m convinced that not only is it a much stronger conference than most think and I agree with you that it is actually much better balanced than other conferences.

The USF-WVU game was the one that did it for me, and in turn made me feel just a little better about losing to them and UCONN (just a very little).

I’ll also go out on a limb and predict that the BE wins at least 4 of its bowls. If you look at the BE bowl match ups there isn’t a game that I don’t feel the BE teams are better than their opponents.

Now, after WVU and Louisville beat Wake Forest and Georgia Tech (which are two good teams)respectively the national pundits will come back with “the ACC was having a down year…”

And, about next year’s PITT chances… I think we’ll see a better offense than we had this year, and that will come from dramatically improved O line play. I’m not bailing on the team just because of a .500 two year record – it really could have been a lot worse, just ask Walt Harris, and the weird coaching decisions of yesterday. I think we’ll be competitive in the games and we’ll see some young kids have some real breakout play – especially Bill Stull. He is a good one.

Of course, all the above and a $1.75 will get you a cup of coffee.

Reed, I don’t disagree with you/Dokish, etc that DW has a defensive philosophy, and a new DC won’t change that. But I would add to that that it can’t get any worse, so why not make a change and try a new DC. Maybe Rhoads just isn’t doing a good job implementing DWs defensive philosophy. The defense, particularly the run defense has been mediocre at best, atrocious a lot of the time, for quite a while. As Chas has pointed out a number of times, the constant is PR. If they switch DCs and the defense doesn’t improve, at that point the constant is no longer Rhoades, but DW, and I think we’ll all hear a lot more calls for a new HC than a new DC.