One night later, and I still don’t know what to write.
As we were sitting around before the game, our friend who lives in Morgantown told us how Mountaineer fans were a little tense for this game. They expected the win, but there was an underlying sense of dread. Naturally, we dismissed what he said as nonsense.
Walking through the parking lot into the game, though, did lend some credence to what he said. Sure there were some insults hurled our way as they noticed the Pitt logo on the hat I was wearing. Standard “S**t on Pitt” and the like. Sticking with the classics. But for the most part, people weren’t particularly obnoxious or aggressive. This despite a full day of tailgating and drinking. Maybe the cold subdued them, or maybe they were actually a little nervous.
Our seats were in the final row of the section. The good news to that meant there was no one behind us who could throw crap at us. The bad news, that the wall wasn’t that high and I could mentally picture some drunk, freaked out Mountaineer fans losing it and trying to throw us over the side.
The ominous note, was that our seats were right under a flagpole with a UConn banner. Considering what WVU did to the Huskies last week and what UConn did to Pitt. Well, *gulp*.
Now, maybe it was being seated in the “family friendly” section, but the Mountaineer fans were not a big hassle. Friendly enough, and more than a few shook our hands afterwards to congratulate us on the game. Others were just as stunned about the calls the officials were making. Comments to the effect of, “the officials are doing what they can to keep us in this,” and embarrassment at such poor officiating favoring WVU. To get those calls and still not do anything with them just made it worse.
The exception to the behavior came well after the final whistle. We stayed in our seats for a while after the game ended. Part to let the crowd thin out and make sure we weren’t assaulted by any deranged, angry, drunk fans. Also to just try and absorb what had just happened. It was taking a while to come to terms with events like that. We weren’t loud. No screaming, no real gloating. Just standing about watching the fans file out in disbelief. We had been there a good ten minutes after the game ended when it got a little weird.
An older guy was just staring at us from almost another section over, and I made eye-contact. He raised his arms a bit into a shrug. I took that to be an expression of “what the hell just happened?” So I went over to hear what he had to say. Apparently I misinterpreted the gesture.
As I got closer he was just glaring at me, and just started saying, “What!” He was pissed that we were still in the stadium. In his mind, we were gloating just by remaining there. I actually tried to talk calmly at him — though it probably wasn’t going to make a difference. I never found out, since that’s when Shawn came over to throw gas on the situation.
He saw the guy gesturing and getting angry at me, so naturally he comes over and screams at the “old, inbred, toothless hillbilly to get the [explative deleted] out of here.” Yeah, as expected that calmed things down. Some other guy saw this and started yelling at us to stop picking on the old guy. To just get out and be satisfied with the win. All very silly.
What actually stopped the whole thing from getting worse — aside from the stadium being mostly empty — was the old guy’s wife coming up and yelling at him. Telling him to just leave. She was ticked. At him. Guess he has a bad habit of doing crap like this. He eventually skulked off with his wife glaring and berating him. The other guy wandered off as well. We stayed.
After that another Mountaineer fan actually came up and apologized for that and actually had a decent conversation about the game itself.
The walk back, was very subdued and depressed from the fans. Lots of silence. No comments from anyone as we went. Well, not quite. Some lady walking behind us for a while finally got up the courage to mutter, “Pitt sucks.”
In a season where Pitt has fallen short too often. Crushing disappointment and frustration. Where, there was little to say or argue too hard against that statement. Tonight, I was able to turn around and simply say, “Tonight we don’t.”
Shady isn’t up for player of the week, but Joe Clermond is. Brennan is winning in a landslide now though….
Speaking of how players view coaches; How great is this for the young kids, DW’s recruits, to experience the game Saturday (and the Cincy win) and know that Wannstedt CAN win big games. Huge difference then at this same time last year, and must feel great to them and the staff.
I also think this game proves that paul Rhoades deserves to stay – if for nothing esle, this game has earned him an extension. We idnt just win, our D destroyed them holding them to offensive lows they havent seen in many years – and we did it when it mattered. I hope some recruits were taking notes.
Its nice to hear that some wvu fans actually showed some class, that had to be painfully difficult after the worse loss maybe ever in their history.
I’m getting pumped for the MSG game against Duke. I’m expecting that we are both ranked in the Top Ten by the Dec 20th.
Congratulations on your win in Morgantown, for saving some couches from the torch, and on doing what my Knights couldn’t do last year.
Offensively there is much work to be done, however when you have #25 there is a lot to be excited about.
Saturday was the PERFECT way to end the season. Just perfect. Pitt should be ranked pre-season 2008. What a finish for Wannstache and the Panthers. Outstanding!
Got awfully dusty at the house Saturday night when I was watching the game. Wannstedt now has his signature win. It doesn’t get much better than this – beating the #2 team on the road as a four-touchdown underdog, when the opponent had a chance to go to the national championship. This one’s going to be awfully tough to top, and I’d argue this feels better than any run-of-the-mill 7-5 season with a bowl win over Ball State.
I can’t believe how flat WVU was in this game. How do you not get yourselves up for a game like this? At home, against a hated rival, all of that trumped by the fact that a win PUTS YOU IN THE DAMNED NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP? And THAT’S how you come out?
For all the criticism that Wannstedt’s teams have taken for being unprepared at times during his tenure, I think WVU fans should be asking the same questions of their coaching staff right now and then some.
And I’m sorry, but the loss of White is nothing more than a convenient excuse. Convenient and completely transparent. Jarrett Brown is a backup, but he’s not a bad enough backup that he would’ve neutralized what was supposed to be a 28-point advantage. This team was supposed to be FOUR TOUCHDOWNS better than Pitt? Pat White doesn’t make WVU four TDs better than Pitt, so his absence wasn’t the reason they lost. This was a total collapse by the WVU team – from the coaching staff all the way down.
Many kudos and plaudets to Paul Rhoads and the defense – you’ve made a believer, Mr. Rhoads, with the way the defense has played this second half. I’ve often been critical of the schemes – I wonder now if it was the schemes or the lack of solid talent playing in the schemes.
When I watched Slaton and Noel Devine earlier this year, I shuddered to think of what they might do to Pitt this year. Here was my answer: Steve Slaton – 9 carries for 11 yards and 1 reception for 9 yards. Noel Devine – 7 carries for 11 yards, no receptions. Slaton and Devine – 17 total touches, 31 total yards of offense. Owen Schmitt was also a non-factor. The entire WVU offense accounted for 183 yards. That’s not neutralizing their offense; that’s putting on a clinic.
I will echo Stuart’s comments from the previous few weeks…Penn State can have Connor and Lee. I’ll take McKillop any day of the week over either of them. That kid is a football player; I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a LB like that here at Pitt.
As to how this affects the future of the Pitt program, did anyone else hear the rumor about Cameron Saddler and A.J. Alexander taking their recruiting visits to Morgantown and ending up both celebrating on the field with the Pitt team?
No, no and no. PITT won that game, pure and simple. You’re acting like an junior psychologist with your inferences, best just to watch the game again and pay attention to the aggressiveness in which our Defense played – the answer’s right there.
And, I know this might be hard for you to admit, but take a look at how well DW got all our kids ready to play that game. That’s damn good coaching.
We need to get some recruits fast though. We are severely down this year.. Only 7 guys so far.
Ah yeah, the basketball team is ranked in the top 10. It was a good weekend for the University and for the City of Pittsburgh(Steelers won last night). OK…I’m ready to give my complete devotion to basketball and hockey. *breaths in*
Pitt football could be the same this year. I am pretty positive they wont be ranked… This game wont be remembered nearly as much in the summer when rankings come out, but i would rather not be ranked. I want our team to feel they have to prove something.
[Granted, the first play was to Pitt’s right side, and the second was to Pitt’s left side, so it is likely that it wasn’t the same ref…]
Stay classy, pittblather.com.
Not sure how much Shanoff paid you to come here and share that with us.
“10. I think these are my non-NFL thoughts of the week:
a. The officiating crew in the Pittsburgh-West Virginia game robbed Pitt, and very nearly caused the wrong team to win the game. Absolutely robbed Pitt. That crew shouldn’t sleep for a long, long time. The two fourth-quarter holding calls on Pitt were the biggest phantom calls I’ve seen in such a big spot in a long time.”
“It’s not easy being a college football referee. If you do your job well, no one notices. If you do it poorly, well then you make the Dean’s List. We’d like to recognize the Big East officiating crew of the Pittsburgh-West Virginia game for calling two of the worst holding penalties ever recorded. At the end of the third quarter with Pitt holding on to a slim three-point lead, the Panthers scored on a ridiculous run by running back LeShaun McCoy. But the officials called a holding penalty on wide receiver Oderrick Turner and Pitt had to settle for a field goal, which they missed. Then, with three minutes left in the game and Pitt winning by six, the officials called another holding penalty on poor Oderrick that negated an important Panthers’ first down. Admittedly, we’ve never completely understood proper blocking technique, but neither of Oderrick’s penalties seemed to warrant a flag. Of course, in the end, Pitt won anyways so no one is too upset, except for Oderrick. Poor Oderrick.”
I hope this attention makes sure the idiot who threw those flags never officiates again!!
I’d like to see Pitt do well in the preseason rankings only because it’s a shorter road to respectability as long as they take care of business. But I think this season has proven how little stock really needs to be put in the preseason rankings.
First, WVU didn’t come out flat. They were just used to running us out of the stadium – and then they got that huge interception and were all fired up. And then the defense stepped out on the field – and they’re were like “what the fuck?” They got hit in the mouth, and they crumbled. Their RBs weren’t running any slower, or blockers pushing any less hard – we just have more talented players that knew what they wanted to do, and got it done. They dictated WVU’s offense. Wannstached on the pregrame show all but admitted they have the offense figured out and that they were going to do things to dictate what reads they would make – and then have men there to stop them. D-Ends standing up – oh – when’s the last time you saw a saftey of ours standing 7 yards in the backfield on the weak side, waiting, and all of a sudden the play reverses, right to where he’s standing, for a loss of 7. Finally, think of all the big hits in the game – you remember any by WVU? They got outcoached and are out-talented.
Preseason ranking: I don’t think we will because everyone will say “but who’s the QB” and that’s too big of a problem to overlook. I do think we’ll be in the “others receiving votes” – and i’m fine with that. I’d rather be overlooked, but still close enough to make a run at the top – although i think that’s going to be hard to be invisible from this point forward.
Refs: They all need fired, and i’ll be livid if this just gets dropped. Absolutely horrific. How demoralizing must that have been to our team. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise to have the Rutgers win stripped from us.
WVU fans: Like my grandma said, 1 in a hundred aren’t bad, they just aren’t numbered.
I don’t know how recruits can’t see we’re a few offensive players away from being a great team. I’d want to be apart of that – instead of living in a toilet for the next 4 years.
Finally, over on link to arkansasbusiness.com they had a post earlier today that they have since deleted. Seem’s like people are actually asking about Long bringing Wanny on board down there!
“Is Jeff Long going to bring over Dave Wannstedt? Obviously, a few phone calls have been to the sports information office about the press conference….”
That’s all i can get, they deleted it but some was left in google’s cache…
All Wannstedt could say as the clock ticked to zero was “oh man, you kidding me? You kidding me?….how bout that…” He couldn’t even believe they pulled it off….
McGylnn was already screaming about Mark May not giving us a chance….
HAIL TO PITT!
Shanoff, on the other hand, called it the lock of the century.
You can go ahead and say, “Well look at me, I knew we’d win all along,” to which I would respond: “Good for you, but it’s a pretty hollow claim because you never put it anywhere in writing. And if you happened to do that, if we were to have lost you could have just claimed you were ‘going with your heart’ or something stupid like that.”
Enjoy!
As per link to gatewaygators.com
The only time my support waivered was when they announced half the distance to the goal, first down at the end, because the refs were too awful to announce (and i was too enebriated to realize) it was first down Pitt.
But no, nobody woke up Saturday and gave us even a 51% chance of winning. It just seemed improbable in every way.
And that’s why this win was all the more amazing. I said in the beginning of the year that if we won this game and went 1-11, i would be happy with the team. Its great to be happy with the team for the next 9 months, and not have to think about how terrible they are for once.
And we’re number 9 in bball. If we can just string together a few more wins here and pick off Duke, this will be a great month for Pitt.
Hail to Pitt.
Penn State still sucks.
Best night in Pitt football history. We’re back baby!
Hail to Pitt!
Clearly, Paul Rhodes owes me a fresh, hot plate of crow. Unless crow is a dish best served cold. Can a person even serve crow to another person on the same side? I guess it depends if the potential recipient of the crow was being a major league douche.
Maybe I can serve out some community service instead? I hereby volunteer to drive a truck full of the charred remains of Oakland’s living room furniture and haul it off to its appropriate dumping ground in the center of Morgantown, WV.
The T-Shirts should be bright GOLD with BLUE letters. ALL it should say is:
13-9
On the back:
HAIL TO PITT
For recruits..
I know Baldwin is a BIG target… I have heard Aubrey Hill and Wanny are in constant talks with Baldwin
Saddler is a big recruit.
Holley is a big one
Aj Alexander is really big
Averin Collier seems to be slipping away
Vaughn is getting bigger
other guys are Pead, Gardiner, Shanahan, Mckenna, Sunseri (maybe back on the market), and Stoudt.
There are some i missed, but thats a good start.
Then there is Hale and Pryor. Hale seems to want nothing at all to do with Pitt. He is really liking Virginia and WVU. WVU was number one for Hale before the brawl…
Pryor is one of those guys that says Pitt is off the board, but i could see something changing. Pitt would be an awesome situation for him. The other schools he is looking at all have areas where he isnt one hundred percent sold. Pitt really can offer this guy everything he needs… Still we didnt make his top 5
But the call that meant the most to Wannstedt came from a high school recruit, “one of the best in Western Pennsylvania,” he said.
“Congratulations, coach. I knew we could do it.”
You gotta luv the sound of the “we”…how sweet it is!
Hail to PITT!
-al-
West Virginia doesn’t have the collective brainpower to win even one national title.
Baldwins body is like that of Calvin Johnson… 6 foot 6 230 lbs.. Thats disgusting. Especially since most dbs are around 5 foot 10 or so. Pitt has always developed WRs. This kid has Fitzgerald potential. Baldwin is a guy you know will make a difference.
Alexander is pretty interested too it sounds like. he is lightning fast! i would love to see him here at Pitt.
If anyone heres any comments about Pryor post them immediately. I would like to think Wanny is at his house chatting with him right now
Imagine a QB run/pass option with Pryor, Shady and Baldwin running a streak. That’s the stuff of video games.
If you want others see next topic on pittblather that has link to the store…
Still, I feel bad about saying what I said. And the young guy who came up to us afterwards to apologize for some fans’ behavior and to general process his grief by just chewing the fat with us was an all-around good guy. And for the most part, I think most of the fans in our section were that. Some were very frinedly, in fact. The irony of the evening was revealed to us when we got back to Jonn’s house. Depstie mocking hoopie students’ and their fondness for the torch, it was our kids who wound up playing junior arsonist. It was a bitter irony. A little more next time, okay kids?