59-37-3 is Pitt’s all-time record against that school from Morgantown. Don’t forget that.

Naturally with one team looking at a chance to play in the BCS Championship game and ourselves sitting at 4-7, the Mountaineers are the ones who will have their names on ESPN and such.

Scouts, Inc. (subscription, naturally) breaks down the game by positional groups. Plenty of the stylized WV and only one advantage for Pitt, at wide receiver.

Darius Reynaud is not a bad WR for the ‘Eers, but other than him there seems to be very little depth. The combination of Steve Slaton and Noel Devine trump Shady, which is perfectly fine in my mind. The rest is pretty self-explanatory, as if the way each team’s season has unfolded wasn’t enough information.

On Todd McShay’s weekly stock report, he gives love to WVU’s smaller but quicker offensive line.

Speaking of offensive lines, West Virginia’s is the most underrated in college football. Coach Rich Rodriguez’s scheme values mobility over size, which is why this unit doesn’t land many five-star recruits or pipeline many prospects to the NFL. However, there isn’t a more efficient unit in the country right now than the one playing in Morgantown. Positioning and effort are the biggest keys to West Virginia’s offensive success up front.

One matchup to watch will be LeSean McCoy against West Virginia safety Eric Wicks, a Pittsburgh native from Perry HS. Wicks positions himself on the field similarly to the Steelers’ Troy Polamalu — meaning anywhere and everywhere. His pre-snap positioning will definitely be enough to confuse our offensive line for sure. Not only will Wicks face fewer blocks en route to a tackle but the linebackers will also take full advantage of the confusion. Wicks is an “aggressive run stopper” and will be a huge part of the Mountaineers efforts to stop Shady from running wild.

Maybe we’ll at least get to something like this again.

I have been trying to catch up with reality after a long break away over Thanksgiving. That has meant a bit of neglect here on one of the most important weeks for Pitt football. I’m feeling a bit of guilt, so it’s time to kick off a little hate.

The ‘Eers are in the hunt for going to the BCS game. They benefited from the Big East scheduling them to have 3 of their final 4 games at home. Something most teams in a national title hunt would happily welcome. What team wouldn’t want to come down the final stretch and be in front of a home crowd? Apparently the team with a buckskin-clad mascot and like to stress their hale and hearty constitutions are a wee bit put off by having to play so many games in the cold. Seriously?

WVU athletic officials have brought this matter to the conference’s attention, according to coach Rich Rodriguez. He believes the fans deserve a better shake. “I would have preferred to have more Big East home games during the season in the month of October,” he said a week ago. “I think it’s the second year in a row we’ve had more games in November and December.”

Would he? Really? He would rather have more road games at this point for the comfort of fans? Fans who would otherwise be pissed at not having their team at home very much as they approach heading to the BCS Championship? Personally, while I grudgingly admire the coaching of Rodriguez — developing players for his system, teaching them and becoming the Yoda of the spread option — I think Rodriguez is more than a little bit of a whiner who would be complaining if the team had only one home game in November.

My fellow Fanhouser and unfortunate WVU alum, John Radcliff (who wrote the post linked above) has seen Mountaineer Stadium lose its edge in the last couple years. So, he seems to believe that it is the moneyed alum are responsible for bitching to the WVU officials.

Perhaps. Like I said, Rodriguez is a whiner by nature it seems. Whine, whine, whine.

Coach Rich Rodriguez is not exactly giddy about playing a game amid hunting season.

Not so much deer-hunting season — and a host of West Virginians and Western Pennsylvanians partake in that — but rather the period for tracking down prospective Mountaineers still in high school or junior colleges.

“This is the third year in a row West Virginia has missed a week” of the recruiting period, Rodriguez said yesterday. “When we only have six weeks of a recruiting-contact period, losing a week hurts.”

…

“I see a lot of people doing it,” he added of a rivalry finale. “I just don’t like playing it in December. Playing it this late, I don’t know if it’s that fun for our fans out there.”

Pathetic. Mountaineer fans not liking the cold. WVU officials complaining about too many home games late in the season. And a coach always complains about something.

Ahhhh. I feel better.

Hate to agree with any WVU coach — especially this week — but former Mountaineers basketball coach turned Big East color analyst Bucky Waters was right at the end of the Boston U game last night. The game told us nothing about Pitt. It was a stat-sheet filler game against a completely overmatched team.

The two best things about the game were that no one got hurt and Ronald Ramon found his stroke.

“It feels great. I know my teammates have confidence in me,” Ramon said. “They know I’m going to put the time in to get my shot back.”

For Ramon, the five three-pointers are the most for him in a game since Pitt beat Western Michigan in the 2006-07 season opener.

“Not that we had any concerns about Ronald but 5-for-5 was good to see,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I think it answers any questions.”

Ramon had shot only 7-24 on 3s. Not a huge concern, usually, but just so low and against competition that was leaving him rather open. It was a little disturbing. Yes, he’s had a sore ankle but that’s never stopped him before. Ramon has regularly played through those things in the past.
Levance Fields knows the team hasn’t been tested yet.

“The competition hasn’t been the best,” Fields said, “but it’s not easy just to continue to win by the margins we’ve been winning by. We’ve been that much better than the other teams we’ve been playing and we’ve been showing it.”

I think the team is looking forward to a real challenge soon. Keeping interest in the game was difficult and it was obvious at times last night that the team was getting bored.

Coach Dixon may have eased up on the Terriers, but he wasn’t falling into complete positive coachspeak as he used to after this game.

Even though Pitt coach Jamie Dixon reinserted his starters with about eight minutes to go with a 24-point lead, Wolff thought Dixon was letting up on the gas pedal a bit.

“My first thought I think they were taking it easy on us,” Wolff said. “We’re kind of friends with those guys and I appreciate it. They subbed very liberally.”

So no one will be confusing Dixon with Bill Belichick. Still, there was reason for Dixon to have some concern with his team’s play. The Panthers committed 16 turnovers and allowed the Terriers to score 34 points in the second half, including a 14-2 run that triggered Dixon to get his starters back in the game.

“I don’t think we were playing well,” Dixon said. “But we were going to have to put them back in there anyway. Sometimes that’s the hardest time to figure out your substitutions. You want to do things right and be respectful of the other team.”

Really, though, who schedules the next game to be on the same day as the Backyard Brawl?