Well, if you really want to get back to happy hype, the first college basketball preview mag hit the newsstand on Tuesday.
Too soon?
Let’s stick with football for another post.
The bye week is a scary thing for Pitt. Oh, hell, let’s call it what it has been. A frickin’ disaster under Coach Wannstedt. In the past 3 years, Pitt has had 5 bye weeks. All before facing a team that finished with a winning record. Is this a shock to learn that Pitt is winless in those games? 0-5. If there’s anything to argue that this is misleading, it’s that four of the losses off a bye came in the conference slate. Only Navy last year was from the non-con. Oh, and Pitt has lost game 3 on the schedule all three years under Wannstedt. Not to read anything into that, of course.
Not that Coach Wannstedt is treating this as a negative.
“Normally, I’m not excited about bye weeks this early in the year, but I’m excited about this bye week,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said following a 27-16 victory over Buffalo Saturday at Heinz Field. “We have got to go out, practice and get better.”
Next for Pitt is undefeated Iowa, coached by Upper St. Clair native Kirk Ferentz. The Hawkeyes have outscored their first two opponents, 88-3.
And this is supposed to be a down year for Iowa.
That’s why this week could be one of the more critical of Pitt’s season.
“We’ve got to work on the fundamentals: tackling, blocking, getting our linebackers into the right fits, catching and throwing the ball,” Wannstedt said. “Our offensive line was better than last week, but we need this week.”
Other than that, things are fine.
Nate Byham seems to have become the spokesman for the offense. He spoke a bit after Pitt’s first game and then again after Buffalo. He sticks with the party line that the offense looked better, and it had nothing to do with a weaker opponent.
Coaches often say a college team shows its greatest improvement from the first game of the season to the second, and Byham is convinced that happened — if only because he believes the offensive line was that much better. The Panthers outgained Bowling Green 393-254, yet committed three turnovers and were shut out in the second half.
“It all starts with what the offensive line’s going to do — if they play good, our offense is going to play great,” Byham said. “That’s what happened (against Bowling Green), their defensive line got pressure and it kind of messed up the whole rhythm of the offense.”
And he’s not being shaken from the story.
“I think what we showed is we can be a very versatile offense and we have a lot of weapons,” tight end Nate Byham said after a win against Buffalo. “I think that is the thing we can do over the next two weeks — just continue to work on getting everyone involved. You saw [Saturday], we had tight ends catching passes, we ran some reverses, we had Shady [McCoy] going — we got everyone involved.
“But the best thing is … we have a new quarterback, a newer offensive line and some other new guys so we’re only going to get better and better. We just have to work hard.”
No doubt.
QB Bill Stull was more effective in the second game.
Stull was more poised – perhaps because the offensive line did a better job than the opener – and completed 22-of-33 passes for 241 yards. One of his few blemishes, an interception, came on a harmless, desperation heave on the final play of the first half.
“I think Billy will tell you, mentally, he was into the game the whole time,” Wannstedt said. “I think a few of the throws that he missed were physical. I don’t think there was confusion on anything.”
The passing game remains short only, and mostly to along the sidelines. There are theories about that.
Scott McKillop picked up Big East Defensive Player of the Week honors. So there’s that.
If I was Greg Gross I would be pizzed about the time that he never ran with the first string in the spring or fall camps. At least a series or two.
Look around, You and Shady4Pres are the only ones left in Wanny’s corner.
Look at what Stull did on his third down attempts last game – 6 for 8 (75%) and a 62% total third down conversion rate…way better than our stats last season. Look at how many different receivers have caught the ball so far this year. Six receivers have averaged over three completions per game – in all of 2007 we had two to do that. At the very least give him credit for knowing who Nate Byham is – Byham has half his 2007 total catches already this season.
This is the backbone of the West Coast offense, getting the ball into the hands of the playmakers, and Stull is doing just that. He’s hitting his second and third, and even fourth, reads on some plays – did we see any of that from either of our 2007 QBs last year? No.
Yes, the season is still young, and yes, our competition may not have been equal to what we’ll see in the BE (jury is still out on that though) but to not give Bill Stull credit for what he’s done in his first two games is just not looking at his actual accomplishments so far.
By the way – Dan Marino isn’t on the roster so don’t hold your breath waiting for someone of that caliber QB to suit up, they aren’t on this roster.
Stull has done OK so far, and will continue to improve week to week (another thing we didn’t see in 2007).
I am not a fan of the West Coast Offense
That said, Cav needs to keep opening up the passing game downfield (we saw a bit more last week) and trust the players to make the plays. The situation this season is totally different than last year where because of the QB’s inexperience, and inability, Cav had to pare back the gameplan to a bare bones safety-first approach.
Add me to that list. I am in the corner of Wanny, pitt, the players, and the fans .
Omar,
I agree with your assesment in CAv’s version of West Coast. We need easy score. Cavs has to find us a way to score easy and fast.
Hail to Pitt.. Wanny get these young men hungry
I like Wanny, I supported his hiring, but I am now firmly in the “get results or get out” camp. This is why: All last year, I watched an offense that far from resembling an NFL offense, looked more like a HS offense. I accepted this had to be for all the reasons given (True FR QB, best WR out for the year, injuries on the OL, etc.) What turned me on Wanny and Cav was watching the BGSU game from the stands. By the end of the 3rd quarter I had a terrible realization: Wanny and Cav did not run that stripped down HS offense all last year for personnel issues, they ran it because THAT IS THEIR OFFENSE!!! Not until the 4th quarter did they open it up vs BGSU and then only sparingly. Think back to Wanny’s orginal loss to a MAC team – Ohio U, they did the same thing and that was with Tyler Palko!!! Their ultraconservative offense KEEPS OTHER TEAMS IN THE GAME and puts too much pressure on our defense to be virtually perfect.
You make some great valid points that I am not going to dispute. We both cheer for Pitt win lose or draw. There was an article that interviewed Bill Stull after the Bowling Green game. Bill said that he has the option to audible out but had trouble identifying the defenses. I cant blame that on the coaches.
I think we will be fine. I knew this season would test our patience but i realize last year and this year that there is no quit in this team. Expect a strong performance from both sides of the ball. Iowa plays right into our style smaash mouth. i think Mckillop will have a game for the ages and so will Byhnam.
Hail to Pitt
