In case you missed it, Stuart Mandel at SI.com listed his top-5 teams to markedly jump in number of wins this year (roughly 4-6 win improvement).
This is the season Dave Wannstedt has been building toward with three straight top 30 recruiting classes. It’s not surprising that last year’s extremely youthful team struggled, but even so, they knocked off 10-win teams Cincinnati and West Virginia. With the return of two potential All-Americas, RB LeSean McCoy and LB Scott McKillop, as well as two key players (QB Bill Stull and WR Derek Kinder) who missed last season with injuries, I expect the Panthers to contend for the Big East title.
Including Pitt on the list tells you just how high on Pitt he is. Except for UNC none of other schools have the wiggle room (SMU 1 win, ND and Ole Miss 3 wins, UNC 4 wins) to have the 4-6 win jump without it being a major impact on their conference and the top-20. (Okay, anything that happens with ND is treated by the media as having a major impact, but you know what I mean.)
Now the gamblers are hedging a bit more on Pitt with regards to winning the BE. Here’s how they see it to win the conference:
- Cincinnati +800
- Connecticut +1000
- Louisville +1400
- Pittsburgh +500
- Rutgers +350
- South Florida +200
- Syracuse +5000
- West Virginia +175
It’s interesting. Prognostications about Pitt seem very optimistic, but when it comes time to lay out the Big East order, Pitt has been coming in at 3d or 4th. Which actually says something about a bit of depth in the Big East this year.
As for Pitt, specifically.
Pittsburgh has a shot to have a lot more offense than it did last year, especially if quarterback Bill Stull, who missed almost all of last season with a broken thumb, can come back and perform. But this former Western Pennsylvania high school hero is still unproven. He gets help, though, from another player coming back from injury, WR Derek Kinder, who was a semi-finalist for the Biletnikoff Award two years ago. And sophomore running back LeSean McCoy is a stud, setting a Big East frosh record with 1328 yards. Seven starters return from a defense that ranked fifth in the nation in defense (298 ypg). This is a good darkhorse possibility.
There are two things I am very sure of, the defense will be as good if not better, but will not be ranked as highly as last year. And the offense will be better than last year — statistically and reality.
The defense will be much more consistent and (hopefully) will not have games like that Navy performance. It will also, most likely, not be prone to being unable to hold at key times like last year (Louisville and Rutgers come to mind — and heck, they nearly gave it up to Syracuse at the end).
The offense, can only be better with Kinder back and presumably Stull under center. Even if it wouldn’t be Stull (injury or being beaten out for the job) Smith, Bostick or even Cross have experience which was sorely lacking last year.
