At this point, it’s just linking to the stories for posterity’s sake.
You have the Pittsburgh media local game stories that try to capture the whole thing while reporting facts.
It’s a shame the local Morgantown paper doesn’t put anything online (for free). I took a look at the articles Sunday morning, and there was nary a mention of the questionable officiating. It was mainly about WVU playing horrible, and just happening to have a bad game theme. You know, WVU just didn’t execute. Of course, the WV media also saw Rich Rodriguez as “stoic” as he came into the press room after the game.
WVU Coach Rich Rodriguez walked with a silent stoicism into the interview room and arrived at the podium, a place that was supposed to be the site of his greatest moment as a coach, but was cruelly substituted as the stage for his most painful.
He paused and fidgeted, trying to find the right words when he likely knew he couldn’t possibly explain how his team had lost at home on Senior Night with so much to play for against a team 4-7 team that was a four-touchdown underdog.
Five seconds. Ten. Twenty.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed. Certainly we were off all day,” he said. “I apologize.”
How was that “stoicism” viewed by say some NY media?
West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez stood silently in front of a lone microphone, puffed his cheeks with a breath of air, and slowly exhaled.
The only sound in the postgame interview room at Mountaineer Field last night was the whooping and hollering of the victorious Pittsburgh players who were celebrating in the adjacent locker room.
“It’s just a nightmare,” said Rodriguez, looking like a man who had just shed some hard tears. “The whole thing’s a nightmare.”
…
“It’s gonna be a long month,” said Rodriguez, who shoved his hands into his pockets, bowed his head, and walked back into the despondent West Virginia locker room.
Or this view?
West Virginia Coach Rich Rodriguez stood before reporters Saturday night with a dazed look and cracked voice.
It’s okay, let it out. Go get some sleep.
Of course, this game has all sorts of things that will become legend.
“This thing started last week,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “We tried to bring the tradition of the rivarly alive. We showed tapes of past games all week long. Coming in, our bus got hit with a rock and LeSean McCoy stood up and said, ‘Hey, it’s just like in the movies.’ This game will be the first one our team watches next season.”
Now, personally, one of the most frustrating things all season long, was after a loss hearing the coaches talk about how well the team practiced leading up to the game (see, Navy). WVU also saw nothing out of the ordinary during the week of practice leading up to it.
Perhaps, most painful to the Mountaineer fans, their reputation for hostility and homefield advantage took a huge hit.
And yet when Pitt faked a punt for a first down on its opening drive of the second half, while trailing 7-3, an eerie silence fell over the place. At the 9:48 mark, when Panthers quarterback Pat Bostick finished that drive with one-yard touchdown run to take a 10-7 lead, the silence grew weirder, more tense. The unthinkable — an epic collapse against a weakened version of their rival — suddenly became a very real possibility.
As an aside, this was just funny to read.
While the Mountaineers’ backs were being contained, Panthers freshman LeSean McCoy had a career day: 38 carries for 148 yards, out-gaining the entire WVU team on the ground. Amid teammates who were chest-bumping and screaming, “We shocked the world!,” McCoy ran off the field carrying a game ball, stopping only to do a double-take on a blond TV reporter. “She’s beautiful!” he said, in the kind of random, euphoric moment one would expect out of a 19-year-old.
LeSean McCoy only earned “Honor Roll” for the Big East, while Joe Clermond took BE Defensive Player of the Week.
The backdrop to this is that Coach Dave Wannstedt has a contract extension (leaked the day before) and that he finally has a signature win at Pitt. Vindication for Wannstedt is a big theme in the immediate aftermath. Whether it really becomes a launching pad to bigger and better things or merely a Karl Dorrell-UCLA tease of possibilities unrealized is speculation for another day.
So i went over to the rivals video, and he’s a dual threat QB, and there is a clip in one of the videos of him standing 5 yds deep in his own endzone, falling backwards out of the endzone, and he throws the ball to a kid standing on the 45 yard line.
Its in the “highlights 3” about the 1.00 mark. That’s what we need – a kid with an arm, who can also pull it down and run.
…I thought about Karl Dorrell upsetting his rival USC to keep them out of the championship game last year and how he turned out too.
I just didn’t want to say anything.
SHIT!
Sorry guys, but everyone i am hearing from is reporting cameron saddler to UVA. It seems pretty clear that WVU is out, so it is between Pitt and UVA, but pitt stopped recruiting him for a while earlier this year. Seems that is going to bite us in the butt tomorrow. Gattuso was at AJ Alexanders house tonight, and the two are very very close. Tom Bradley seems to think it is down to Pitt and Tennesee for Alexander. I like our chances! Can your imagine Balwin running post routes and Alexander (4.3 speed) in the slot….
Dont listen to any terrelle pryor reports out right now. He is keeping his thoughts to himself for a little longer. The media has no idea what he is thinking now. I still think he just has some thing against Pitt and we wont get him.
“Pitt’s not back in the picture just because it defeated West Virginia,” Pryor said. “Pitt played a real tough game, but that doesn’t change my mind about West Virginia or any other school. Stuff happens.”
So he isn’t keeping his thoughts to himself – just the opposite, he’s being pretty damn adamant that he’s not coming to PITT.
I saw the report. That and a number of other reasons are why i wrote i dont think he is coming to Pitt.. What i am saying is his recruit is a complete surprise. Anyone that tells you any school he is into (minus texas) has no idea… I have also heard from a NUMBER of rivals and scout guys ,that are admins there, that say he is not telling the media anything and most the stuff out their is rumor… These are the people paid to do this for a living. I think they know their stuff. Regardless, Pitt will be attending the game on Friday at SRU to watch Jeanette against Wilmington. Cavanugh will be recruiting Pryor and supporting Chris Burns.
1. What a great game to watch. I’ve never been prouder to be a PITT fan.
2. Our defense COULD (should?) be great next year
3. RR was classless by not giving PITT ANY credit for the win
4. I expect this to help with recruiting
Most people have said similar things elsewhere on the board. Some other thoughts:
I’ve been a supporter of DW throughout the season. I believed that we needed to give him time to turn things around. I was one of the first to state the he will get a contract extention (even when things were bleek).
However, I’m not about to gloat over one win (as big as it is). The Dorrell comment is why. As much as I hope things will be better next year, I’m not going to claim PITT will win the BE. There are a lot of issues on this team, especially on offense.
After watching how well we played against WVU, I can’t help but wonder why it took so long? This team showed a lot of talent, certainly more than Navy. I hope this is a sign of things to come, but we’ll have to wait.
I’m still supporting DW, but he HAS to win next year. And I don’t mean 7-5. If we’ve have turned the corner we need to win 8+ games and battle for the BE.
1. Apparently whoever wrote the CBS news article failed to notice the Pitt defense. This clown makes it sound like the WVU offense spent the entire time tripping over itself or something. Oh well…I’m pretty sure there isn’t one Pitt player losing sleep over what the CBS Sportsline college writers think of them, so I shouldn’t either.
2. I’ll agree with Zeise on this…I don’t blame Rodriguez for not giving kudos to Pitt. Is it classless? I think “classless” is the wrong word. I think what we saw at the press conference was a guy who was just minutes removed from watching seven years of work come crumbling down and didn’t have the words to describe what he saw. His focus was on his program and his kids, much as Wannstedt’s was after we got jobbed against Rutgers a couple of weeks ago (I’m not sure if Wannstedt gave credit to Rutgers in that post-game).
Could Rodriguez have mentioned something? Sure. Is it a travesty that he didn’t? I don’t think so. Just my opinion. But if the team wants to use it as future bulletin board material, that’s cool with me, too.
3. Recruiting –
– I’ll believe Pryor is coming to Pitt when he faxes in his LOI. Until then, I’m not getting my hopes up.
– Love to see Saddler commit, but I’m not sure what to expect there.
– I think Baldwin is just about a lock and I’ve heard we’re making a lot of progress with Averin Collier. Given the CHANCE – however slight it may be – that McCoy might only have one year left, they need to build some RB depth and Collier is supposed to be a potentially-good one.
Recruiting?? Who knows? Anything can happen and has happen, good or bad to Pitt in the past. From Anthony Morelli,to Anthony Johnson to Tony Clemons to LeSean McCoy. You think we have or dont have someone and than BAM…. they sign or go elsewhere.
I truely beleive that DW will shock the world with some KEY signings this february. TP? I dont know.. I always thought he was a Pitt silent verbal because he could be a legend but now I am not sure. Do, I beleive that DW, with the help Shady, Blair and PITTSBURGH ZOO can perform magic yes.
BTW- I love this article below and hope that DW, BUDDY, MC (if he is still here) PR post this everywhere as bullet board material to let everyone know what the nation thinks of us.
This wont be a UCLA situation because we have never reached a bowl or achieve 8 plus wins under DW. Plus, we need to move forward from this victory , no matter how great the win IS… and not focus on THE WIN like UCLA and the media did.
As for Pryor. I can’t imagine the people around him that try to have influence on his decision. Hopefully he picks a University that can challenge him and keep him grounded. Western Pennsylvania has produced the greatest players in professional football. As fans, we have watched many of them grow from kids to stars. Pryor is another excellent talent that we would love to watch grow into a college player. Maybe going to PITT would be to much for him. A region of fans would immediately expect perfection and leadership. He would become the face of the team and the University with Multiple major newspapers and sport shows covering him. He would train along with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Have a chance to also star for the best College Basketball Team in the region. Maybe he should go to Ohio State or PSU. At PSU, they do get many fans to the game but their major paper coverage is the Patriot news out of Harrisburg. Their basketball team dropped PITT from the schedule because they kept getting destroyed and replaced PITT w/ Shippensburg (and lost) He wouldn’t be expected to be a leader. If he doesn’t do as well as expected then PSU player development and Jay Paterno can again shoulder the blame. At OSU, he can do some spot play for a year. It will look nice on ESPN. It will take OSU fans some time to underrstand the young man we watched grow up.
Pryor would be expected to start his first year, first game at PITT and anything short of the BE championship would be a deemed a failure. Heinz filled would be packed with fans whom came out this year only because of him. He would have the best running back in the nation and a great WR cast in support (see Porter, Williams, etc. & possibly Baldwin & Alexander).
Pryor could go to a team, be apart of it & hopefully do well. We hope he comes to PITT where he will be expected to take his place with other Western Pennsylvania greats.
CDMOORE25…the CBS arcticle is one idiots opinion, not the “nations” opinion. Frankly, it was overly harsh on WVU and Pitt. Seven teams who were ranked #2 lost in the last 8 or so weeks of the season, five of those lost to unranked teams. For example, our beating WVU is no where near as shocking as Stanford beating USC (only becuase USC is a lot better than WVU).
Priceless!
Thanks
Im not sure how pitt would use saddler. Maybe like a LSH. I think he is a more talented version of LSH.
Update on Baldwin- Aubrey Hill and a coach from Miami attended his basketball game last night.
I listen to rivals and the college football show on sirius everyday. No one is talking about Pitt but they are talking about WVU choking to a “BAD” 4-7 pitt team.
We need to use this to motivate our players. Next year could be very very special and it could start tonight with the committment from both saddler and hale.. than Baldwin.. than Collier… Alexander… Holley and the maybe Pryor
The question for Pryor is the following- Do you want to be Legend or Do you want blend in? Go to Pitt to be a legend? Go to the other schools to blend in.
HAil to Pitt
I totally agree with your post. TP wants to go somewhere, where he can make an immediate impact as a dual threat QB. I dont feel that TP will fit into our offensive system for next year or the year after. I say lets stick with Stull for next season and go hard after the JUCO kid (Greg Cross), and focus on signing Baldwin, Hale, Saddler, Holley and Alexander. TB and the rest of our recruits should be HONORED to represent their hometown team (Pitt),and if their not, then GOOD RIDDENS
As for Hale, I just don’t see the kid signing with us. Saddler looks good but remember Burns is very good too. If we are to grab just one more RB then I rather it be Collier. Saddler is a bit short to play CB and I see him eventually falling on the depth chart at RB. Remember Shady wasn’t the only good RB we picked up last year. Still Saddler could be nasty if used correctly.
As for Baldwin, he is a must have kid. A good receiving class would have Baldwin/Alexander and Sales[Byham and Baldwin at TE? nice]. Has anyone heard anything from Steve Gardiner? He looks like a solid LB. Greg Cross looks good and if we land him then he could share some time with Stull next season…I have absolutely no problem with this arrangement. Monday we know more.
Home: Buffalo, Iowa, Bowling Green, West Virginia, Lousiville, Rutgers
Away: Navy, Notre Dame, Syracuse, South Florida, UConn, Cincy
….And Mark, nobody said Stull was a Savior. He is just a person that will know the offense next season and can help Cross or whoever is a QB transition into the position. Who says we have to just play one guy?. I do agree that Stull is not an amazing QB but it’s his brain right now, at this point, that we need. Who knows, maybe this injury gave him time to grasp the offense better, if so then good for us.
Great point. We haven’t even seen Stull having success yet. I remember some press clips that his preseason wasn’t going well and Coach W had to defend him by stating that he is one of those players that shows up in games. His numbers were not that great over the spring. To his defense he had a stellar high school career and appears to have the confidence of the coaches.
If Pryor goes to a school that only plays to his legs then he will do well, maybe get considered for a heis. but he will not be properly developed for the pros. How is Troy Smith and David Robinson doing as QBs in the pros? Do you really think Pat White is ready to run a pro offense? What is Jay Paterno’s track record? Any college championships? How about Super Bowls? Who was the last Ohio State QB to succeed in the pros? Cav won a National Championship. He has coaching experience w/ San Fran. He has Super Bowl rings. He got a super bowl ring on Trent Dilfer’s finger and Trent really isn’t good.
We need a QB to come in first game, first snap, ready to win. We want the BE championship and our BCS bowl bid next year. PSU will continue to ruin QBs by screwing around Devlin and Clark. WVU will remain WVU (& still punch drunk from the beating our D gave them). OU has their QB. If Pryor chose PITT he would be expected to be the man on Day 1 period. I saw him play in Harrisburg last year for the State championship. He was forced to throw, great arm, they lost. Maybe JUCO is the way to go.
As for recruiting, Baldwin
Cav may take some knocks as a O coordinator but e can coach up a QB and I will guarantee that Bostick has normal mechanics in two years.
Wanny and Cav best selling tool is that he can get kids to the pros and it is the truth.
People seem to forget that Bostick has not had any time with Buddy Morris. He didnt actually join the team until September. We had a HS quarterback this year. Give him a year in the weightroom and see what happens. He was a top QB recruit and I think once he gets stronger, he will be our savior.
Winning that WVU game was SO important. We had 6 recruits (including 1 kicker) going into this week.
I think we will get a handful of top recruits before LOI day. I am extremely optimistic about next season. (That doesnt say much, every March I think the Phillies are going to win the World Series)
Hail to Pitt. Hail to Shady. Hail to Victory.
Bostick can be the man for PITT. His wind-up can be corrected. His foot work needs serious development. I hope Buddy Morris can correct this problem. Send him over to the track team to teach him how to run.
I have been thinking. Pat Bostick has had this odd release all through high school. He went to the elite qb camp for the privileged few. Why wasn’t this release corrected at an earlier age? (like frosh or soph in h.s.)
I have been trying to research Cross (JUCO qb). He is 49 out of 50 of JUCO players rated and second highest qb. Still trying to find some high school stats.
It is very hard to change the mechanics of a JUCO QB b/c 9 out of 10 times they are set in there ways.
I beleive the victory this past saturday coupled with the signing of saddler is a new day for PITT. Saddler is a great addition to the program in all aspect: classroom, football field and will be a great ambassodor to the university. see the article below
I think Pitt needs to sign some defensive tackles and ends to this class.
This class could be something special
Nix
Burns
Saddler
Williams
Reed
Harper
Turley
And we still have a great read on
Collier
Baldwin
Holley
Alexander
Gardiner
Sales
Carraway
Rippy
Hale
AND Mr Pryor
HAIL TO PITT
This Cross kid – exact opposite. Watching the video he can launch it 45 to 50+ yards falling backwards. His decision making or accuracy need help though – they never show any of the bad throws, but when you have about the same number of TDs and INTs, somethings up. Plus they have him listed as a “pro-style” QB – NOT at all. He’s a dual threat – half the tapes are of him scrambling. They may be counting on him having to run for his life sometimes…
So take your pick – accurate and smart, or canon and inaccuracy and/or bad decisions. Neither seems to be 100% of what we want.
That kid Stoudt also has a canon. Haven’t seen any video on McKenna. Who knows what’ll happen there.
In any case, it could be anyone starting at QB next year – but my guess is still Stull. And if he screws up early, he’ll get pulled for Cross or (gasp) Bostick (if he gets his shit together in the off-season).
It seems like we’re going to have 5 QBs and just pray ONE of them turns into something, cause right now, none of them seem to be the next Palko (or even Rutherford).
Saddler: I’ll take any kid that returns 8 kickoffs for TDs and several more punts for TDs… Anyone notice our special teams weren’t so “special” this year? Imagine an extra 50-100 return yards a game. Plus, who was going to return kicks next year? Berry? Didn’t see much out of him (or LSH or our RB turned LB) this year…
BTW – Andre Woodson of Kentucky has the slowest release of the draftable QBs this year – he seems to be able to get the job done. I’m sure there were slower before and there will be slower after…
No, he did that specifically on purpose, and by the way Saddler committed, RR has every right to be deathly afraid of PITT getting any more positive recognition in this area.
“If Rodriguez already was aware of threats against McAfee, he did not speak out about it during his weekly press conference Monday in Morgantown.
“He doesn’t hardly miss one in practice,” Rodriguez said in regard to McAfee’s consistency.
Rodriguez never spoke the word “Pitt,” or mentioned any Panthers coach or player specifically, during the 26-minute press conference, even after he was asked about running back LeSean McCoy. McCoy ran for 148 yards against WVU’s defense.
“Well, he got his yards, and he got a lot of carries,” Rodriguez said. “
