After seeing Bostick in the Grambling game my 11 year old daughter remarked “dad he looks afraid down there” If she can see it from section 510 I am sure that DW knows that this kid is just to green right now to put into any game. If anyone thinks that Bostick should be in there then you clearly were not at the Grambling game. As much as I would like to see everyone ride in on a white horse to save this team I know that it can’t be Bostick. Not yet anyway. He needs more time. I think the coaches should have had a better plan B for this year but they didn’t and here we are. The Team looks better and Shady is clearly a stud running back. It’s a shame that we didn’t someone in the wings in case Stull went down. The only bright spot is that the next 2 games are against teams that are not much better then Grambling.

Chas, I’m surprised you thought the defense was ‘gassed’ in the fourth quarter – the article you linked to doesn’t reference that, quite the opposite…and I haven’t read anything else to allude to it.

“I think what we did do is prove to a lot of people, and maybe in some respects ourselves as well, that we can line up and fight and battle and be as physical as anyone. We played them hard for four quarters and that’s all we can ask for. We stay focused, we kept our composure and kept playing.”

That was one of the most impressive aspects of the team to me after watching last Saturday – that the defensive rotations were good enough to allow PITT to remain strong & effective for the late 3rd and 4th quarter, even with the difference in TOS. This was a major problem last year and has been non-evident this season. They might have been worn a bit and rightly so, but nothing like we’ve seen in the last two years. So, unless I missed something I have to disagree.

Tony – I’ve thought about the QB situation also – but what other “Plan B” could DW have enacted? He did everything he could to dissuade Flacco from leaving, even not releasing his scholarship, he couldn’t have anticipated Davidson being medically unable to continue, he recruited the best QB in the North East – only to have him leave camp, and he opened the competition up in camp to get his best guy on the field. In addition and knowing the position would be tenuous he sent his O coordinator somewhere to learn a contingency system.

It’s all too easy to point to DW and say he should have done better in this situation but to me that’s just wrong. Sometimes things just go poorly and they are out of the HC’s control. Blame DW for other things, but in this case I’ll give him credit for having the foresight to have a Plan B in place.

He should have magically spun a QB from straw. Obviously.

the sad part is with Billy Stull we beat MI State. I say put Bostick out there, he has to face the fire sometime, get him some reps. He cant do much worse than Smith. If he is the future he needs to get some playing time. A few series against grambling dont mean anything, the only way to gain confidence is to play.

Stuart,

How about looking around for a junior college transfer? We were able to land a decent punter that way. I not saying that they would have found someone with Bostick’s potential but they could have found someone with some game time experience just in case Stull got hurt.

Most of the teams in the big east have 5 or 6 QB’s on the roster. We have 4, 3 of which are freshmen.

I am saying that the coaches didn’t have a plan B if Stull went down. That’s a fact. They put Smith into a position that he isn’t ready for. That’s thier fault not his and Bostick is no more ready then Smith. They had to know this was a gamble going into the season.

By the way we will see a Junior College Transfer QB on Saturday starting for U Conn. He beat out Hernandez who is now playing @ WR. Cinny’s starting QB is a Junior College Transfer as well.

Both of those teams have tons of magic spinning straw laying around. Obviously.

I’m glad there are more than at least a few voices of reason here on the board capable of seeing the bigger picture, especially after reading the gameday thread.

Maybe this is a fanbase that’s been beaten down by a program that’s been mostly irrelevant on the national scene for the better part of the last 20-25 years. Maybe it’s the “same old Pitt” syndrome. I’m not sure. It’s like the fanbase is always waiting for the other shoe to drop, although recent history certainly gives them cause.

I just think we’re finally starting to see signs that there’s a plan in place, the plan is being adhered to, and we’re starting to see tangible signs of it. I was really encouraged by a lot of what I saw on Saturday, from the evolution of the defense to the flexibility and the creativity of the coaching staff to the obvious talent of LeSean McCoy (I hope this kid stays at least two more years).

This was a game they really did have a chance to win and unfortunately some bonehead mistakes – some crucial ones by upperclassmen – helped derail a couple of really good chances to take the game away from Michigan State. To that end, I was a bit disappointed in the outcome. However, if you would’ve told me at the beginning of the year that Pitt would go into East Lansing down its starting QB, top WR, best defensive tackle, and two of its top three RBs and STILL have a chance to win the game on the final play, I’d have taken it. I’m pretty sure most of us would have as well.

I’m encouraged by what this means for the upcoming games against UConn and Virginia.

Good post, Stoosh.

Tony,

I think you’re right on Lorenzen (UConn’s QB) but Cincy’s top two QBs are Dustin Grutza, a 2004 signee out of high school, and Ben Mauk, who transferred from Wake Forest.

As far as bringing a JUCO kid in, I can certainly see the rationale behind it and perhaps they should’ve planned that far ahead just in case. But they also would’ve had to convince a JUCO kid to come in while the kid was aware that he probably wouldn’t have a realistic shot at the job. Why?

I get the impression that during the offseason and even going back to the last stretch of recruiting, their plan was for the QB battle this year to come down to Stull and Bostick in camp. Bostick was there in the spring learning the playbook and by accounts I’ve read, he knew the playbook in the spring fairly well. So they had every reason to suggest that he would’ve been there in camp getting reps and executing the plays.

I don’t think they ever really envisioned having to use anyone else – Smith, a hypothetical JUCO recruit or anyone – unless they lost both Stull and Bostick to injury. I think they hoped Stull would win the job and play well enough for them to keep Bostick on the bench and redshirt him. I don’t think they ever envisioned a situation where Bostick wouldn’t be ready because he wasn’t physically prepared.

Shortsighted? Perhaps. And this is where Bostick leaving camp really blindsided them. Based on what we the fans KNOW (not what anyone may have heard), there was really nothing outward to suggest that Bostick would do something like that. He committed early, never wavered after committing, was the first one to get his LOI faxed in on signing day, and he’d been here since the spring learning the playbook. Missing camp set him back probably 15 or 20 practice sessions because he left during two-a-days and it cost him all those reps.

I think they’ve prepared Smith about as well as could be expected under the circumstances, and I think his play is more a reflection of his talent and experience than anything else.

You’re on point Stoosh.

If Pitt (i.e Shady) beats down UCONN, expectations will again rise and then people will be upset if they lose to some better BE teams.

I think there would be quite a few JUCO kids who would have taken a shot at getting the starting job at Pitt if they would have looked at the roster. None of our QB’s were locks as the starter going into this year as in years past. Plus none of them had any real game time experience.

It dosn’t matter for this year anyway as it’s to late. Hopefully they learn their lesson this year and make sure we a have a couple of plan b’s next year.

The team is improving no doubt about that and I don’t expect to get blown out of to many games this year but I would have to say that we are still a year away from contending for the Big East title.

Stoosh’s first post is dead on. To even be in a position to win that game was beyond my expectations given the injury situation. Do other teams really have 4 or 5 QBs? How can that be? Aren’t there limits on how many scholarships each team has? And I’d have to think that the two biggest concerns for this team going into the year was the offensive line and the defense. If anything, that seems like a place where you would need to have invested some scholarships and have some serious plan Bs because of the injury risks, particularly among those on the line.

In any case, it sucks that Smith didn’t get the job done and that we have such a weakness at such an important position right now. But given everything else, I was very encouraged by the great play of the defensive, the incredible performance of Shady, and the fact that it looks like this team will be able to put itself in a position to win 7 or 8 games if a few things fall into place.

I think we’re all missing the bigger point here…

OUR PUNTER’S A FUCKING CAGE FIGHTER!! That’s awesome!

Oh yeah, any word on Bill Stull’s progress w/ the injury? B/c THAT my friends is the answer for this year.

Reed, you’re spot on. DW brought in Murray (QB/S prospect at the time) and got Stull to change his verbal from Kentucky in 2005. In 2006 he brought in Davidson and Smith, and even after those two verballed he went hard after Thad Lewis. In 2007 he brings Bostick. If you want to assign blame for small numbers, consider that Walt brought in Flacco in 2003 and no QBs in 2004 (1 in 2 years vs. 5 in 3 years).

Murray switched to D due to team needs at the time. Flacco transfers, Davidson gets injured and is likely out of football, Stull gets injured, and Bostick has personal issues at the beginning of camp. Are you blaming DW for the transfer, the two injuries, Bostick’s issues, for developing Murray as a starting LB, or for only getting commitments from 5 QBs in 3 years?

A final thought about bringing in a juco this year. There were 6 5-star QBs last year according to Scout.com, including Bostick. Quick fact: None of the 6 schools that took these QBs took a second (freshman or juco). I strongly suspect that you could look at the top 6 QBs from the last 5-10 years and find that none of them came in with a second QB. If you want a blue chip QB, he comes in by himself, simple as that.

Yes, blame Wanny. And the lack of magic straw.

I don’t think we have enough real issues to talk about here, because people are making shit up and whining about the improbable.

Jimbo, I haven’t heard a word. Just “mid october” is listed on covers.com. I emailed that douche that does the Q&A but he hasn’t answered, he is busy telling us about how he thinks football is played instead of answering questions that only he has access to – ie, questions that the coaches have to answer. Useless.

Let’s not forget the dropped winning TD pass. If that catch is made .. Pitt wins .. Smith gets off with a “he came through when he needed to but needs to improve” saving the toss under the bus for another week.

Hey, like i posted before, the blocking/oline sucked too, and that really got Smith rattled. One of those INTs was half because the line screwed up, half smith STARING at his target for 10 seconds. The other INT was all him. The last series, Collins screwed up a block, Pinkston screwed up 2 in a row the same way, and Shady got off his block too early once. So when there was a tiny little pressure, instead of stepping up in the pocket, he’d freak out and run.

But he also threw some awful balls. So i’d say its more than half him, and the rest the oline/blocking crap.

Quarterback #1 gets hurt, #2 gets a shot and doesn’t do the job, so #3 gets a shot. Logical progression.

Wanny should announce that Smith will start and get three possessions, then Bostick will come in and get three possessions, no matter what.

That way, you don’t have to get into these head games that benching Smith might kill his confidence or what will happen if we play Bostic and he sucks too and we’ve got to pull him! Will that bruise his fragile emotional state? Simply, they are both going to play until one wins the job, however long that may be! You remember beloved Walt, the only thing he did well was Quarterback Coach. Walt created a lot of QB controversy and was quick to replace a QB in his earlier years at Pitt. But, he got good results from guys that are about as good as what we have now. The competition, real or imagined, was good for the overall performance of the position.

Neither one of these guys has won the position, they merely temporarily inherited it. So, neither has the right to complain if they sit. Let them play and compete on the field and earn the job.

And please Matt Cavanaugh, continue to show offensive creativity in exploiting Shady’s talents. And please create some (any) kind of effective passing game. O for 12 in third down conversions is pathetic and unexcusable. Pitt has too many playmakers on offense for that to happen.

when was the last time we won a game we werent supposed to win?

MelbaPlace is a champion screen name.

Good point Rex. But how about this question. When was it even a close score in a game that we werent supposed to win? At least we are getting closer. Although, it wouldve been nice, it is a long season, and we’re gonna have some more chances. LETS POUND UCONN!!

From collegefootballnews.com, these were their top running back performances for the week:

Michigan RB Michael Hart went for 187 yards and two touchdowns on 35 carries in the win over Notre Dame.

Cal RB Justin Forsett ran for 152 yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries in the blowout of Louisiana Tech.

So Shady’s 175 yards on 25 carries wasn’t good enough I guess. No need to mention he did it without a pass threat or an offensive line.

Also, MSU is better than Notre Dame and LTech

ChrisA. Thank you.

Pitt has a football program?

We’re not a bandwagon school, no one wants to hear about us. I’m used to it by now. I don’t think i’ve ever met anyone who’s attended Michigan or ND, but I’ve met a ton of their fans… Its dumb as shit, but nothing we can do. Anywas, i’d prefer no one expects much of us so we can catch some people off guard.

Hahaha… bandwagon team we are not.

I live in Tampa and the Bulls are playing well now and people are literally like “Quick! To the bandwagon!” It’s lame.

Stuart – on the INT on the pass to Turner (bubble screen) – I’ll give half the blame to Turner on that one. Yes, the ball could have been thrown better but watch the replay, the announcers were incorrect in saying it was thrown too hard, it actually had a bit of arc to it, but it was thrown a bit behind and above Turner’s head – and Turner still gets two hands on it. He catches that and it might not have gone for positive yardage, but it wouldn’t have been a pick 6.

If I’m disappointed in anyone this season it’s Oderick Turner – he’s playing like he’s brand new to the position, not at all like an experienced WR. Smith’s problems I can at least understand given his experience factor – Turner’s are mind boggling. The only decent catch he has this season was a perfect pass by Smith into his breadbasket.

Yeah, Smith sucks, Turner sucks, and the whole block scheme (OL/RB/TE) sucks. Pretty much the only that doesn’t suck is Shady (when he’s not blocking that is). Yet we’ve gone from 7.5 to 10 point favorites at Uconn – I guess our offensive disaster doesn’t scare the betters. I just don’t see how Uconn doesn’t put 9 in the box to stop Shady. Hopefully they really are incompetent.

I wonder if i can call dishnetwork and ask for the sports package with espnu for 2 weeks, and then call back and cancel it in 2 weeks?

Stuart–I suspect the betters believe (as I do–and I hope we are correct) that UConn’s DL, and defense in general, is so much weaker than MSU’s that Smith will not have to worry about making quick decisions under pressure because he will see no pressure. Consequently, he will be able to pass at least as effectively as he did vs Grambling. If so, and they have loaded the box to stop the run, they will pay by getting burned with the passing game.

Stuart–Also, if our defense is for real as I believe, the UConn QB is in for a really rough day which could lead to multiple turnovers in Pitt’s favor. It will be interesting to see what actually happens.