We are all very optimistic, I agree the defense looks great, but the o-line is WIP. Without a functional o-line it is going to be hard to throw and run the ball on a consistent basis.

If they do not have a winning record and go to a bowl the pressure will fall straight on Wanny.

This is a make or break year with no more excuses.

Check out this very promising article … I hope everyone can view it since it’s on rivals.com

link to collegefootball.rivals.com

To the best of my recollection, at least, I never shared, nor understood, the unbridled optimism Pitt fans, especially many (but not all) of those who post on this blog and in the chat rooms on the other two sites. At best, I believe I recall being cautiously optimistic. I recognized from the beginning that the BE title and BCS bowl were to a large degree a fluke and an aberration due to the “stars alligning” with a temporarily weakened BE due to the ACC raid (plus a down ND team) and plenty of luck with an overly favorable schedule and scraping out wins in several close games. The bowl embarassment confirmed for me where Pitt really stood overall player talent- wise. I was slso concerned with the drop off in overall quality of recruiting over the previous couple of years, particularly in regards to OL and DL. On top of that, I saw that Wannstadt’s first class was only mediocre, as he got a late start in completing a relatively weak class begun under the outgoing Harris. That info plus the knowledge that Wannstadt’s background suggested he wanted to move toward a team that depends on defense and power football to win games–the opposite of Walt Harris’s philosophy of emphasizing offense over defense and hoping to usually win by outscoring opponents in high scoring affairs–had me convinced that Wannstadt’s first season would result in medocre at best results. As a rsult, I was only mildly disappointed in the results of Wannstadt’s first season (thought 1-2 more games could have been won). Why anyone would have expected a W-L improvement over the previous season–or even a match–continues to surprise me a bit. I think that the over-optimism only had two bases–neither of which was based on a realistic appraisal of the reality of what was posible for coaching to accomplish with the level of player talent, experience and depth which would be on hand. Those two bases were; (1) a mistaken belief that the previous season’s result wasn’t a fluke and (2) Wannstadt’s naturally upbeat and optimistic attitude in dealing with everyone, including the media. Neither of these, IMHO, reflected the reality of what was either possible or likely given the actual circumstances.