Looks like there was some more good from that Buffalo win a couple weeks ago. J.J. Richardson visited that weekend, and just gave his verbal.

It was a very productive summer for J.J. Richardson playing with the Houston Elite AAU program. His blue-collar style and constant energy and effort in the paint caught the eye of the Pittsburgh coaching staff and they found a perfect fit for their program to continue the success they have enjoyed in recent years. A source close to Richardson and his recruitment beleives Pitt got one of the biggest sleepers in the country as the 6-foot-7, strong and athletic forward is just beginning to put things together on the basketball court.

Both Scout.com and Rivals.com list Richardson as a 3-star recruit. ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. doesn’t have a numeric value on him yet, but they do have this observation from the summer (Insider subs.).

Richardson showed a high basketball IQ that was impressive (2008 Reebok All-American Camp). First of all Richardson is a strong and athletic, but what was so impressive was his ability to help or hard edge on high ball screens and his ability to meet guard coming off the screen was better most college programs. He is an excellent passer out of the post, sprints the floor with regularity, can rebound on the defensive end and start the fast break and has excellent timing when blocking shots. This kid does all the little things to help his team that will not be recorded in the score book.

It’s always tricky to separate puffery and nearly every player that isn’t a 4- or 5-star recruit seems to get labeled a “sleeper.” Still, the summer evaluations look really encouraging and making him a great fit and possible glue-guy for Pitt in the future.

Back to the initial report from Dokish, there’s more about the recruiting.

Still, Pitt seems to be very intent on adding another member in the 2009 class. They are swinging for the fences with players like Dominic Cheek, an elite shooting guard from St. Anthony’s (NJ) and Durand Scott a G/F from Rice High School in NYC. At this point, both players are looking like long shots as neither has scheduled an official visit to Pittsburgh at this time, despite the efforts of the staff to bring them to campus.

However, there will be players visiting the campus this weekend when the Pitt football team hosts the Iowa Hawkeyes. Lamar Patterson and Dante Taylor are expected to make their official visits this weekend and potential big men targets Talin Zanna and James Padgett were scheduled to be visiting prior to Richardson’s commitment. The Panthers will be honored at the football game by being presented with their Big East Tournament championship rings.

While their 2009 recruiting is near completion, there is expected to be a limited amount of scholarships available in the class of 2010 as well (one on paper). Local guard Tom Droney could be close to accepting a scholarship offer from Pitt and they are also, at least, the co-leader for New Juersey guard Isaiah Epps.

Remember, the Pitt basketball team will be there to receive rings for winning the Big East Tournament.

The Pitt website offers this as a wallpaper.

UPDATE: Durand Scott, will indeed, be at the Iowa-Pitt game this weekend.

Another funfilled week of life in the top-25.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	—
2	Oklahoma	1
3	Missouri	3
4	Georgia	2
5	LSU	—
6	Florida	1
7	Texas	2
8	East Carolina	2
9	Wake Forest	2
10	South Florida	4
11	Penn State	2
12	Auburn	—
13	Utah	2
14	Wisconsin	2
15	Brigham Young	6
16	Ohio State	12
17	Texas Tech	—
18	Alabama	—
19	Oregon	1
20	Kansas	2
21	Vanderbilt	3
22	West Virginia	3
23	North Carolina	3
24	Connecticut	2
25	TCU	1

I knew I had Arizona State overrated, I just didn’t realize how badly until I actually watched them struggle with UNLV. Having typed that, I’m sure they’ll now go out and beat Georgia when the time comes.

On deck to move into the poll: Iowa, Boise St. and Virginia Tech.

Here’s a shock, Iowa’s O-line is much bigger than Pitt’s D-line.

On paper, that battle looks like a mismatch, as Iowa’s starting offensive line averages 6 feet 5, 296 pounds. That means the Panthers’ defensive front is giving away a little more than 2 inches and 21 pounds per man.

The Hawkeyes’ line is anchored by tackles, Kyle Calloway (6-7, 305) and Bryan Bulaga (6-6, 290) and also features 6-foot-5, 305-pound guard Seth Olsen.

By contrast, Pitt’s two defensive ends are Greg Romeus (6-5, 265) and Jabaal Sheard (6-4, 250), and the Panthers’ biggest defensive tackle is Rashaad Duncan (6-2, 295).

This issue isn’t as big a deal to me. I’ve been disappointed with the play of the defense and defensive line in the first couple of games, but it seemed to me that the biggest issue had to do with the schemes played by the defense without any adjustments to the style of offense. This offense of Iowa’s is exactly what Wannstedt wants to face and actually knows how to deal. They want to run the ball, they throw a little — and not too deep — they play for field position and controlling the clock.

As I said, yesterday, they are a lot more like Michigan State from last year. Heck, right down to the questionable QB play. They are playing two, because both have had stretches of complete suckitude.

Ricky Stanzi and Jake Christensen appear as co-No. 1s for Saturday’s 11 a.m. game at Pittsburgh, according to the depth chart.

Christensen entered last Saturday’s game against Iowa State on the final play of the third quarter, then led the Hawkeyes on a scoring drive that broke a 3-3 score in a game won by Iowa 17-5.

Stanzi started, but completed five of 14 passes for 95 yards. Coach Kirk Ferentz pulled him after throwing an interception into triple coverage.

“It was the right move,” Stanzi said after the game. “I wasn’t getting anything done. When you’re not jelling with the offense, changes need to be made.”

Christensen, whose string of 13 starts ended when Stanzi opened against Florida International on Sept. 6, completed 4 of 5 passes for 27 yards, but led the team better.
…
Christensen has completed 21 of 32 passes for 248 yards and two touchdowns. Stanzi is 22-of-38 for 347 yards and three touchdowns.

Three games and they average under 200 total passing yards per game.

Whether this is damning or not, Paul Zeise seems to be of the same opinion.

Q: Knowing what we know about the coach being conservative and his unwillingness to change, can Pitt win this game — assuming Iowa doesn’t give it to us with kick returns or turnovers and defensive TD’s — without challenging Iowa’s safeties on offense with the passing game?

ZEISE: I would say of all the games on the schedule this is one that the Panthers could actually try to play old-school football and win 7-3. Why? Simple, because that’s the kind of football Iowa will try to play and Kirk Ferentz is similar to Wannstedt in his football philosophy. The Hawkeyes are likely to play it close to the vest as well, so this could turn into the ultimate muck and grind game, which I am sure will do wonders for the television ratings

What makes me nervous about the Michigan State comparisons, was that Wannstedt also made them.

On playing a team with a big offensive line:

“I relate this team a lot to the Michigan State team we played a year ago. I think our conditioning is better and I think we’re stronger. We’re not going to be physically pound-for-pound as big as these teams but I think our quickness and the strength of our players will show up. They’re physical, strong and tough but I don’t see it as a mismatch like I would have maybe two years ago.”

On the bright side (sort of) is that at least Wannstedt won’t have to worry about changing his game plan (not that he would).

On teams trying to stack up against Pitt’s running game:

“I think it depends on how confident each team is at executing its base defense. Iowa is good enough with their front-seven to line up and get the job done so I think we’ll see a little run defense but it will certainly vary from week to week.”

On the importance of defense and special teams:

“I’ve always told our players that two things that jump out are turnovers and turnovers off the kicking game. I’ve always believed that the first three or four games of a season are often decided by the kicking game.”

Yes, why would anyone think Iowa would stack against the run and dare Pitt to pass? That’s just silly talk, so why plan for it?

As for the latter. What? It’s all just turnovers this season for Wannstedt. Will that be his answer for everything?  Coach, what do you think was the problem with the defense today? “Well, we just didn’t create enough turnovers.” Coach, how come the offense struggled today? “Well, that turnover came at a crucial time and really changed everything we wanted to do.” Coach, what was the problem with the coverage on special teams? “We just didn’t do a good job on stripping the ball and creating turnovers.” Why did you not play Baldwin today? “Turnovers.” Why did Fields only see one series? “Turnovers.” Coach, what about –? “Turnovers.” Coach, could you — “Turnovers.” But — “Turnovers.” Um… “Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers.

I know, you are thinking, why get up early? Why fight traffic? All for a noon game that most are not as feeling optimistic, as they were prior to the start of the season. The game is on national TV on ESPN2. It all seems very enticing to just stay home and watch the game.

And there’s your reason to go to the game. If you watch the game on TV, you will be treated to the play-calling crew of Pam Ward and Ray Bentley. Spare yourself. Make the trip to the game.

So, I got an e-mail from a marketing firm that specializes in “digital media communications” this afternoon.  They are looking to drive traffic to Circuit City and their fall football marketing. Usually I ignore these type of e-mails since there is usually a questionable tie-in, but this one might be of interest.

Specifically a live chat with Dan Marino set for tomorrow at the Circuit City site. So if you want to go ask him about his Pitt days. Maybe what he thinks of the job Wannstedt is doing. How things went down at the end of his career with the Dolphins with Wannstedt and Johnson trying to push him out. Heck if enough Pitt fans flood the board with questions on what he thinks of what is happening at his alma mater, it definitely would shift things away from the NFL talk that is expected.

Or you can go to this thread and post a question early.

Coach Wannstedt may have been happy about a bye week in terms of preparation and getting some players healthy, but I’d say it wasn’t a good thing from a PR perspective. It just gave Pitt fans a lot of time to really think about the job he’s done and bring everything into question. The consensus has not been very positive.

Well, all that has a chance to get washed away (somewhat) with the upcoming Iowa game.

Pitt offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh said that the offense fixed some of the problems that plagued it in the Bowling Green loss and spent last week working on refining some things and paying more attention to details.

“We executed better [against Buffalo] than Bowling Green].” Cavanaugh said. “We had a nice mix of run and pass. We didn’t get caught off guard and I thought [quarterback] Billy Stull was more accurate. For the most part, we made improvement and that’s what we’re trying to do.

“But you can always get better. And the bye week helped us clean more things up. I think the key no matter what is players have to make plays and you kind of go with what is working. We have to make our possessions count and we didn’t do it the first week, but we did a better job in the second week.”

No word on whether the coaches think they are doing a better job after the first couple of games. Oh, sorry. I forgot. It’s about the players executing and not turning the ball over. There were no other problems.

A big theme that can be run into the ground is that Kirk Ferentz grew up in the Pittsburgh area and was a graduate assistant at Pitt in 1980. So, he’s got lots of friends and family planning to be at the game.

“Basically, all it means is that I need more tickets,” Ferentz said after Iowa’s 17-5 win against Iowa State at Kinnick Stadium. “Going back home means Rita [Ferentz’s secretary] has a lot more work this week, because I don’t talk to anybody about tickets.

“It’s going to be a bad week for her. She handles the tickets — we’ve got a few things straightened out in our office.”

Ferentz was raised in the Pittsburgh suburb of Upper St. Clair. He worked as a graduate assistant at Pittsburgh in 1980.

“I’m sure he’ll have some flashbacks,” said Jackie Sherrill, the Panthers’ head coach in 1980. “I remember Kirk always wanting to watch film and asking questions.

“You kind of figured he’d go on to make a name, and a very good name, for himself.”

…

Ferentz’s brother, John, and his family will attend.

“Kirk’s wife (Mary) is from around here, too,” John said Sunday. “She’s making the trip, and all her family’s going to the game, too.

“What I initially heard was that he needed 72 sideline passes and 222 tickets, but more realistically, I think it’s something like 20 or 25 tickets.”

That’s funny. He tells his Iowa paper it’s no big deal. Then there was the early puffer in the Trib.

It will be a long-awaited homecoming for Ferentz, who hasn’t coached in Pittsburgh since 1998, when he was an assistant with the Baltimore Ravens.

“The only times I’ve been there coaching was to play the Steelers,” he said, “and we got nailed every time. … But returning is always special. Anybody will tell you that home is here. Pittsburghers feel that way.”

To recap, it’s nothing more than extra headaches for his secretary, yet special.

To be fair, Kirk Ferentz was nailed rather hard with a baseball bat to the head when aged 5, so you never know.

The thing about this game, is that it is entirely winnable. Iowa is the kind of team Coach Wannstedt can actually prepare to face his way. They are a straight forward basic football team. Ugly, even.

Embrace the ugly. Love the ugly. Hug it and kiss it and call it your own.

These are your Hawkeyes. This is who they are. Bloody knuckles. Broken nose. Missing teeth. Grind it on the ground, play-action the linebackers silly, punt the other guy into a coffin, and let the defense worry about the rest of the gory details.

Think last year with Michigan State. That’s what I can’t get out of my head. They will run the ball. Throw short. Play for field position and rely on the defense. Nothing fancy. No spread. No option.

The kind of team Pitt could beat — or lose by under 8 points and have Coach Wannstedt explain later how they were close except for some mistakes on execution and turnovers.

The thing to remember about all the second-guessing and just plain doubting of the competency of Coach Wannstedt and OC Cavanaugh, this is not about losing to Bowling Green and struggling with Buffalo. This is about 3+ years of questions that over which everyone has been biting their tongue, or trying to avoid the issue by saying that they trust Wannstedt in the long term. Waiting for a payoff.

That trust is gone, as that payoff looks as far away as ever with Wannstedt. That is why Zeise is getting nothing but questions about the competency and decisionmaking.

…On the flip side, Dom DeCicco is a player with good potential as well, so while he struggled the first two weeks, he’s a guy that you don’t give up on and it doesn’t sound like coaches will. In fact, I think Wannstedt said they are “co-starters” — which, by the way, based on e-mails — is another one of those things about this staff that drives people to levels of frustration I have not seen before. People ask “why is it so hard to make a decision and stick with it?” One is the starter, one is the back-up, both may play, but one has earned the start so what’s so hard about just saying it? This team has more “co-starters” and “special packages for players” than any team I have ever covered — which means both will get to play.

And the sad thing about all the “special packages,” they never get used. It’s like they do them in practice just to make the player feel special.

Q: I’m glad they won and opened up the offense a little more. But I thought Dave Wannstedt said we would see more of Lucas Nix and Jonathan Baldwin? I didn’t see much of either — what happened?

Zeise: C’mon man, what are you talking about? Baldwin had one ball thrown his way (sort of) and Lucas Nix played two plays — what game were you watching? Joking, of course, but you are right, it is puzzling. But like I have said several times this week the answer is in the philosophy — “err on the side of caution.” The Baldwin stuff is frustrating to fans, but at least the rationalization is somewhat logical and that is — it takes a lot more to get the ball to a receiver than just whatever the receiver does. I feel he’ll get some chances here soon and they have put him out there some, but it just hasn’t worked out yet. The Lucas Nix one is far more troubling. Clearly there have been points in both the first and second games where Joe Thomas has not gotten the job done and a change was not only warranted, but probably needed. So why not throw him in there for a few series to see how he plays and to get his feet wet. If the thinking was — “we are going to do everything in our power to preserve his redshirt” — well, then why did you play him for two plays and blow his redshirt? And now the Panthers are going to face much better competition from this point forward and he has a total of two plays of experience going for him. It really makes no sense at all, so the best I can tell you is that hopefully these two are a part of the plan for the rest of the season and aren’t going to go down as a just a couple more blown redshirts.

They can talk to Dorin DIckerson about that.

Then there was a whole Q&A dealing with the fallout of Cavanaugh’s statements about (not) using Greg Cross.

Q: Do you know if Wannstedt has considered that with a bye week to practice, and not having to show the “wildcat package” yet in a game, that it might be a good time to let Iowa have a full taste of it? Do you think this is a possibility? Or do you think he has not even thought of that?

Zeise: Well, not just go all the way and make this the Greg Cross edition! I think I touched on this a little bit — that perhaps the coaches were “hiding” or “trying to hide” the Cross “Wildcat” package. I don’t know if I buy it because it doesn’t really mesh with statements Wannstedt and Cavanaugh have made about using first-year players in tough situations. I mean, let’s forget about the fact that, like I said, it has already been used many times in a game (albeit with LeSean McCoy playing the role of Cross) and thus is on tape for all opponents to see — why if you truly do worry about the mistakes a first-year player might make, do you wait until the middle of a tight game with a Big Ten opponent to let him get his feet wet? Like I said, the frustration from every writer of just about every e-mail I open these days is the same about the same kinds of issues, be it personnel decisions and/or strategic decisions. I understand it, but I really think a lot of it would go away if the team would just win some more games and stop making close games out of games that should be blow-outs.

I was mildly surprised that Kevin Gorman essentially defended Cavanaugh/Wannstedt’s decisionmaking with Cross.

I, for one, understand Pitt’s hesitation (now bordering on trepidation) in using Cross. He’s new to Division I-A football. He hasn’t taken a snap in a major-college game. If the Panthers use him in the wrong situation and he fumbles or throws an interception – like Pat Bostick did on his first two snaps against Grambling last year – it could prove disastrous.

And I appreciate Cavanaugh’s honesty in the matter. He goes to great length to explain the decision-making process and the situations that would be beneficial for Cross to make his debut. Of all Pitt’s coaches outside Dave Wannstedt, Cavanaugh continually draws the most criticism, yet rarely if ever steers clear of meeting with the media and answering for it.

Which doesn’t answer the question of why you would recruit a JUCO QB if you have that kind of fear. It’s not like you can let him sit for a year or two to learn and get ready. If you bring in a JUCO, it’s use them or waste a scholarship.

It seems to be the main reason for defending/rationalizing Cavanaugh’s explanation is that he actually spoke about it. Fine. I can understand that, since it helps Gorman and the local media. Especially after years of ex-DC Rhoads not talking or commenting whenever things went wrong on defense. It’s admirable, but that’s not enough.

Ultimately, he’s too talented to leave on the sidelines, unless Pitt is considering giving Cross a redshirt, which I’ve been told it is not.

The one thing I wouldn’t do is play Cross just to appease the fans.

Which is where me and Wannstedt seem to agree.

Say what? That’s a BS strawman. It isn’t about appeasing the fans. This is about Cavanaugh admitting he probably screwed up in not using Cross. Then not being coherent about when if ever Cross will actually play. It’s Wannstedt just dismissing Cross and the whole reason he was recruited as part of some “gimmick.”

The fans disagree with Wannstedt/Cavanaugh. Yes. The explanations they have offered have been a crock. It isn’t about “appeasement” it’s about idiotic coaching and personnel decisions that have reached the point where no one has any trust and belief that the Pitt coaching staff knows what it is doing.

It was just a very strange post by Gorman defending the Pitt coaches personnel decisions. He touches on Fields and Baldwin.

Cavanaugh also promised that Baldwin “will, eventually” become a bigger part of the offensive game plan. He certainly was in for more plays against Buffalo than he was for Bowling Green and, even if he still doesn’t have a reception the Panthers have passed his way a handful of times.

Hate to say I told you so, but I did warn that Baldwin wouldn’t be ready for superstardom right out of the gates. He had a steep learning curve as far as understanding both the position and the playbook, but his immeasurable talent will ultimately force Pitt to use him on a consistent basis.
…
But with experienced receivers such as Derek Kinder, Oderick Turner, Cedric McGee and, yes, T.J. Porter ahead of Baldwin on the depth chart, it’s not going to be easy, especially if games are close as the first two.

“We also got T.J. Porter back last week; we wanted him on the field and he responded,” Cavanaugh said, “so (Baldwin) won’t be the focus, but he’s certainly put himself in the position to get on the field more and get in the rotation and, hopefully, have some opportunities.

“We need to get him some balls.”

The same way Cross needs to get some touches? See, I have a hard time with this, with regards to Baldwin. I don’t think he is the next Larry Fitzgerald, but he is a huge talent who could have a big impact on the offense.

I know that Pitt coaches can justify by talking about not knowing blocking schemes well enough or routes. It just doesn’t wash. Especially after watching guys like Turner and McGee run poor or the wrong routes the first couple of weeks.

I really think this is a sign of how far Pitt basketball has advanced in this decade that every little recruiting note hardly seems worth reporting breathlessly. Pitt gets name-dropped by recruits more and more as a way to show that he is a high-major recruit.

So, what’s going on? Shooting guard Deandre Kane, late of Schenley is heading down to North Carolina. For prep school.

Former Schenley basketball star Deandre Kane has decided to attend Patterson School, a prep school in Lenoir, N.C. A few weeks ago, Kane had said he would attend New Hampton, a prep school in New Hampshire. But he decided Patterson was a better fit for him.

Patterson has one of the top prep school basketball programs in the country. Coach Chris Chaney has produced more than 100 Division I college players and eight NBA draft picks. Three years ago, six Patterson players signed with Division I colleges and three of them went to Oklahoma, Memphis and Arizona.

“Pitt and Jamie Dixon really helped out a lot in getting Deandre to Patterson,” said Kane’s father, Calvin.

Part of the reason may have had something to do with the costs. Either way, if Kane can finally get his academics in order, Pitt has to be the prohibitive favorite.

Pitt was supposed to have a couple players visit last weekend during the Buffalo game. Only J.J. RIchardson from Texas made it.

The 6’7″ 235 pound Richardson visited the Pitt campus this past weekend and came away very impressed.

“I loved it,” says Richardson. “The players were all very nice and they brought me in to everything they were doing. They’re definitely number one right now. I almost committed, and I really thought about it, but I wanted to have someplace to compare it to first.”

That someplace will be Oklahoma State, where the strong and athletic sleeper will visit this weekend.

In other Pitt news, 6’8″ power forward James Padgett, of Abraham Lincoln HS in Brooklyn, was expected to visit at the same time as Richardson, but schoolwork prevented him from making the trip. He is expected to visit on the weekend of September 19th, along with 6’9″ power forward Dante Taylor and 6’4″ wing Lamar Patterson, both of whom have verbally committed, as well as other ’09 prospects (possibly Durand Scott and Talib Zanna, to name two) and ’10 prospects yet to be finalized.

That’s a heck of a good reason to be there for the Iowa game and be loud. Oh, and the Pitt basketball team will be honored for winning the Big East Tournament at the game. Coach Dixon visited Padgett last week, so you know they would like to add him.

Tom Droney at the Sewickley  Academy visited ND, but still loves Pitt.

I don’t know what to make of the recruitment of Dominic Cheek. A top-flight, shooting guard  has been the target of every major program. I’m sure Pitt is recruiting him hard, but with Kansas, Memphis, UConn and Indiana among the others on his list, it seems like a long shot. Yet, Pitt keeps popping up on his list. Even as his position wasn’t a priority for the 2009 recruiting class. We’ll see.

Amidst the future recruiting names for 2011, here are a couple of profiles of players Pitt has already been pursuing from Virginia. Matt Gorski is a Center from Richmond Virginia and Mike Gbinije, a guard/forward.

Have to make up for lost time. I spent yesterday on a marathon college football liveblog session. Today it was an attempt to make it up to the wife for letting me sit on the couch watching football, drinking beer and blogging. All while she had to deal with the kids with no help from me — heck, I even sent her out to pick up dinner. She is a saint.

Worth noting that the Mountain West went 4-0 versus the Pac-10 in one day. Oregon lost its starting QB — probably for the season. Washington St. and Washington look like they could give Syracuse a challenge for worst BCS conference programs.

The Big 10, well Ohio State’s shellacking along with Michigan and Purdue losing really overshadows anything else in the conference.

The ACC acquitted itself rather well with Maryland, UNC and Duke getting wins with some worthiness of respect.

Heck if you watched the SEC conference games between Georgia and South Carolina (14-7) and Auburn and Miss. St. (3-2) you came away disgusted. Remember a few years back when Big 11 partisans would rationalize that the conference just beat each other up.

The thing that I’m seeing in terms of conferences, is it is all about the QB. It has something to do with the spread offense to be sure. It just makes the QB that much more important and even more than ever, the key to a team. The Big 12 is actually standing out, and there is no conference that has more really, really good college QBs. Bradford, Daniel, McCoy, Reesing, Ganz and Harrell are all excellent QBs. 50% of the conference. Now take a look at every other conference. The SEC is second with Tebow, Stafford, Snead and a few functional QBs at LSU, Alabama and Arkansas –but no one you want to count on in a crunch time.

Yeah, overall, I’m thinking this is not a good year for college football in terms of overall quality.

This strikes me as desperately looking for some different angle to take on the team in an early bye week.

The result is skewed statistics in the run-pass balance in the offense.

Pitt has been passing more than almost any other team in NCAA Division I-A. Only three quarterbacks among 117 others in Division I-A have attempted more passes than Pitt junior Billy Stull.

Case Keenum of Houston, Graham Harrell of Texas Tech and Ryan Lindey of San Diego State have attempted 104 passes each. Stull is next with 84 attempts.

By contrast, Pitt has 66 rushing attempts and sophomore LeSean McCoy, who led all freshmen with 1,328 yards last season, has not gained more than 100 yards in either game against Buffalo or Bowling Green.

Of the Division I-A teams that have played two games, only 32 have attempted to run less than the Panthers.

I’m sorry, after two games there’s just nothing to judge here. That’s interesting that Stull actually ranks 3d nationally in passing attempts, the actual % of passing to running is only 56 to 44. It’s higher than the 50-50 you know Wannstedt and Cavanaugh state as the goal, but not by too much to be worried.

“I would do that, too, if I were a defensive coordinator, put 9-10 guys in the box against a first-year starting quarterback and an inexperienced offensive line,” Stull said. “We do whatever a defense allows us to do. They came up to try to stop Shady (McCoy), so we saw that and we had to throw the ball to loosen them up.”

So +5 to the coaches for realizing that you have to throw a bit more to try and open things up. That said, minus -200 for sticking with screens and 5-yard tosses that far from making the opposing defense pay, gives them time to recover and stop much of a gain. That isn’t going to loosen them up.

Of course, Wannstedt thinks they are close.

Wannstedt said the Panthers are close to breaking some big plays in both phases of the offense. When that happens, opposing teams will begin to change their game plans.

“We’ve been close a couple of times,” Wannstedt said. “Maybe it’s been the read of a back or someone slipping off a block. It hasn’t been three or four guys who have cost us from being successful. It’s usually been one guy. We’ll get those [big plays]. We’re getting closer.”

Roughly translated, “I see no reason to change a damn thing.” Sigh.

No surprise that Wannstedt wouldn’t be freaked by finding out he’s 0-5 off of bye weeks at Pitt.

“I wasn’t aware of that,” Wannstedt said. “I don’t know who we played after byes, but I think every year is different, every team is different, every situation is different. It’s helping us. I walked off the field (Tuesday) and said, ‘You know what? We got a little better as a team.’

“That’s all that’s important.”

Yes, but the coach and his philosophy is unchanged.

I realize Coach Wannstedt has always been a players coach. The good cop, who doesn’t want to hurt the feelings of the players. The problem comes when a move has to be made because of a player being better than a starter or veteran. So, I guess it’s comical the way Elijah Fields has made it past Dom DeCicco on the depth chart at strong safety.

Pitt defensive coordinator Phil Bennett said Thursday that redshirt sophomore Elijah Fields has been promoted to starter at strong safety.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt softened Bennett’s statement somewhat, calling Fields and Dom DeCicco virtual co-starters for the Panthers’ next game, a week from Saturday against Iowa.

“It’s not fair to say who’s going to start,” Wannstedt said. “We’ve still got a week-and-a-half. We’re practicing and working hard. We’ll make that decision come game time. They’re both going to play.”

Now, is that softening, backtracking or undermining? The DC says Fields is starting then Wannstedt says, well, maybe not, we’ll see.

You have to believe Greg Cross, the JUCO QB, has to be wondering how he let himself be talked into committing to Pitt. I’ve read this bit several times and I still don’t think I’m following it.

Offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh indicated yesterday that Cross will have a role in the offense.

“At some point, we will [use him],” Cavanaugh said. “To be honest with you, now that the first two games are done, we didn’t think we’d need him. In hindsight, we probably could have used him as a changeup. He’s been getting some reps. We do have a little package we’ll introduce.”

Cavanaugh said it’s a matter of finding the right time and situation to implement the Cross package.

“Are you putting him in there just to get him on the field or do you really need him?” Cavanaugh said. “Either one could be correct. If we’re struggling and we need a change of pace, maybe he’s the guy we go to. If things are going well and you still want a change of pace, he’s still the guy you go to.

“We weren’t so comfortable with what we were doing [the first two weeks] that we could throw him in as a changeup. Looking back at the first game, maybe he would have been a good changeup. We’ll try to get him on the field.”

So, eventually he’ll get a snap. They didn’t think they’d need to play him in the first couple of games, but looking back, it may not have been a bad idea? But they still don’t know when the right time to use him will be?

No wonder the offense is a mess. If that’s how Cavanaugh communicates the playbook, it makes a lot more sense why it takes a couple years before any player sees the field on offense.

You know what I like about the Q&A with Paul Zeise of the P-G and the blog/reporter’s notebook of Kevein Gorman of the Trib.? They are the places where you get a better sense of their opinions on things and where their biases are. Bias is not inherently bad. It is unavoidable. We all have it, from our experiences, life and everything else. Reporters pretending they can go into some sort of hypnotic, Robert Heinlein “fair witness” state is self-deluding.

Gorman’s post from the other day could be considered dumping the notebook. Just getting all the extra notes and thoughts from the past week plus out at one time. Lots of good stuff.

I’ve been hard on the defense, because I just haven’t seen what I expected from them. Also, with the Wannstedt approach to games, the defense has to be great for Pitt to win. Gorman also saw the defense as less than stellar so far.

Some signs that Pitt’s defense wasn’t all that impressive:

Buffalo’s 15-play, 73-yard scoring drive that spanned six minutes, 54 seconds and gave the Bulls a 6-0 lead with 1:59 remaining in the first quarter was its longest scoring drive since a 16-play, 80-yard drive against Miami last season. That’s Miami of Ohio, not Florida.

Buffalo tailback James Starks, whom Wannstedt said might be the best back the Panthers face this season, finished with 97 rushing yards on 20 carries (or 4 yards more than McCoy on the same number of attempts). It was the highest rushing total by Starks against a BCS opponent. His previous high was 66 yards at Auburn.

And the week before versus BGSU, the Falcon offense was 4-4 in the redzone. There are issues, and it can’t all be pinned on injuries at linebacker. Eric Thatcher comes in for some direct criticism.

He also makes an interesting observation on Wannstedt.

“…We didn’t sustain for 60 minutes. The second game, we did. That was the theme all week in practice. I put together a few gimmick things for them and did some things during the week to really try to illustrate and emphasize that it really is a 60-minute game, regardless of who we’re playing and what the score is.”

To this day, I don’t understand how a coach who so detests gimmicks on the field – such as the Wildcat offense – uses them so frequently off the field.

Heh.

As for his knock on the student section from the BGSU game,

Which makes me wonder where the student section was a week earlier, when Pitt needed some support while trailing Bowling Green by 10 points with 11:52 remaining in the fourth quarter. Does the student section really need a song to be played to stir up some interest in cheering for the home team?

There’s an easy answer to that. The team and the coaches gave the fans nothing to believe at that point. Pitt was being shut out in the second half, while BGSU had scored two more TDs. Everyone recognized what was happening and that the team was going to blow that game. Fans cheer when they believe. Whether it is believing they can hold or rally, the fans need to believe.

I’ve been to enough sporting events to recognize when fans believe or not. When they don’t believe, it’s just not possible to get that energy to do anything more than half-heartedly, briefly, or at best desperately get behind the team. Nothing Pitt was doing on either side of the ball suggested they were going to do anything. Their body language on the sideline was screaming that they were lost. Fans could see and feel it.

And that is the lead-in to Zeise’s rant.

And the fact that it has been discussed so much on blogs and message boards and even talk radio should tell you the sorry state of where the Pitt football program has fallen. I mean, we’ve spent the past three seasons discussing everything — recruiting rankings, marketing schemes, song selections, logo changes, the ridiculous whining about the script helmets — EXCEPT winning football games. It is not a good thing that all of these things are discussed so much all the time and it is more proof that Pitt really needs a long run of winning games because the fan base is really getting restless.

…

Look, I know some of you get angry with me because I like to poke fun at these kinds of silly gimmicks and these long drawn out discussions about logos and uniforms but I’ve been saying this for years: The best — and at this point as fans are out of patience, the ONLY — marketing program or plan that will put people in those seats at Heinz Field is WINNING FOOTBALL GAMES WITH SOME DEGREE OF CONSISTENCY.

Period.

The athletic department’s marketing people have done a great job with the hand they’ve been dealt but they have gotten absolutely no help from the team and ultimately that is the only thing that matters in this market, particularly for a team that is trying to compete with three professional franchises for media attention as well as fan dollars — if you win and produce a good product, they will ultimately come to watch. Heck, thankfully even the Pirates are starting to find out that concerts, skyblasts, bobbleheads and fireworks are no longer enough to keep people interested in coming back to the ballpark.

So again, as Al Davis says “Just win, baby” and all of this other stuff will go back to being a part of the meaningless sideshow to the main event, which should be the actual football played on the field.

No disagreement. Ticket sales were up this year and they sold out in 2003. As much as lower prices helped, the primary reason was that the expectations were there for the team to win.

The only thing I will say in defense of the discussions is that they tend to come up during bye weeks. Slow news cycles. You know, when there is no game to discuss. So the topics available drift to other things.

Back to the other stuff.

Q: Why is Oderick Turner so inconsistent and looking so disinterested at times? I thought he came from an NFL family (his father played in the NFL). Shouldn’t he know how to play with more passion and intensity?

ZEISE: Being the son of an NFL player only means your dad was a good football player. It doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t take the lessons you learned from him and put them into practice. And when I watch Oderick Turner play it is somewhat frustrating to me. He has all the talent he needs to be a big-time player, I just don’t get the impression he really loves it that much. There are times he makes big plays, but he leaves so many big plays on the field every game he’s become somewhat of an enigma. You contrast the way he approaches things with that of Derek Kinder, who loves to play and it is easy to see if you just watch him run around out there. He plays with heart, with passion – he really goes after it every play. Turner still hasn’t developed this kind of consistency and I fear he might not ever get it.

Turner seems to have everyone frustrated. In a way the comparison with Kinder reminds me of Louisville’s two receivers from last year: Mario Urrutia and Harry Douglas.

Urrutia looked like a game-breaking receiver. He had natural talent, size, strength and speed. He lacked heart and desire, though. Short-arming receptions, shying from contact and just lacking effort at times. Especially compared to Douglas who, while shorter and not as fast, had more desire and you knew would do whatever it took to make the play — and he did.

Urrutia frustrated Cardinal fans while Douglas was embraced and beloved.

On the subject of Bill Stull going deep, he somewhat defends him.

Q: Do you think the reason why Pitt doesn’t throw the ball downfield more, is because Stull is not an accurate downfield passer? The deep balls that he did throw weren’t even close.

ZEISE: No, they didn’t throw down the field that much before Stull was the quarterback, either. Certainly it is not his strength and I agree that the deep balls have been atrocious, but a lot of that had to do with timing and that is something that can be corrected. Stull just threw them up for grabs, didn’t set his feet, didn’t wait for his receivers to get into stride, just chucked them. This is something they need to work on obviously but they have two weeks to get the timing of these things down. But he threw one to Jonathan Baldwin last Saturday that showed he can do it (even though it was a half-yard out of bounce). He just needs to work on it.

When you expect to throw one deep ball per game, how much can you work on it? Given the accuracy issue, I don’t know why they don’t at least take a chance with going more to the middle on a deep pass. Well, actually I do know, the fear of the interception. Still, if you send Baldwin or even Dickerson their natural athletic ability combined with a little more room might give them more of a chance and give Stull a little more confidence in throwing deep. Plus, since Coach Wannstedt loves the field position issue, an interception on a deep ball might be as good as a punt.

The mystery of Dave Wannstedt’s personnel decisionmaking is an ongoing debate.

Q: What is the coaching staff’s aversion to playing the younger talent (ie. Ransom over all the other lb’ers)? There seem to be several options I have considered, a) loyalty to upperclassman, b) young players are not smart enough to learn their assignments, c) players were overrated as recruits or d) coaches don’t seem to be able to coach up their younger players. How do other schools across the country seem to be able to untilize freshmen in multiple roles but Nix can only play limited minutes and Baldwin is only able to run a fly pattern once or twice a game?

ZEISE: I think this is really rather simple and we’ve been through it before — everything we know about Dave Wannstedt’s football philosophy can be summed up in a few words “always err on the side of caution.” That is just how he is built and what he believes in. It is why his teams are always so seemingly conservative, it is why he punts twice from inside the 35 against Bowling Green and plays for field goals and field position — that’s just what he believes in. And the extension of that is when it comes to personnel — he favors experience because theoretically experienced guys make fewer mistakes. But that’s an NFL thing too, as you don’t, in the college, have the luxury of reloading with experienced guys since you only have them for four years (or five). I do think it is puzzling what is going on with both Baldwin and Lucas Nix but by the same token, it isn’t anything that is new or that we haven’t come to expect. It is just one of those things — if you look at the coach’s football philosophy, it is easy to understand why he’s hesitant to green light freshmen playing time.

Yes, it’s the most logical explanation. I think most fans know it. It doesn’t make it right, and the stubbornness of Wannstedt on this along with so many other things — even as he keeps losing support and games — defies reason. You would think at some point he’d actually take a look at his record at Pitt. At Miami. At Chicago and say, “Hmm, maybe it wasn’t all just injuries, bad luck and not ‘catching break.’ Maybe I need to change some things.” Apparently not.

It’s a minor thing compared to the on-the-field performance, but there were some noticeable changes at Heinz Field so far this year. I know some of the guys at CatBasket have been helping with suggestions and ideas for Heinz Field to be more of a Pitt home field. Sorry, ripping off “Sweet Caroline” from the Red Sox doesn’t work for me because 1) cheesy Neil Diamond doesn’t do it; 2) it’s just ripping off someone else’s gimmick; 3) as a Yankees fan, it set my teeth to grinding.

There are some hits like the great banner running behind the visitor sideline of Pitt greats through the history. Love it.

Then there’s the clear Pederson influence. The exiting the locker room and coming out of the tunnel camera for the Pitt team led by Coach Wannstedt before the game. That was a Pederson thing from the Harris regime. Then there’s the return of a certain logo.

That’s right the gold and blue blob-cat is back and Jeff Long’s version appears to be out. The old panther head was the only one seen around the field. On the tunnels at the end of a couple banners.

It’s a little thing, but I must have missed the memo on the switch. Was there an official change? Looks that way. This brings up an issue that bothered me when I took a quick look at some Pitt gear in the stadium. The confusion and complete muddling of the logo.

Pitt really needs to just make a decision about old gear. There was gear for sale with all different Pitt logos (and I’m not even including the throwback stuff) — the “Iron bar Pitt“, the new/old panther head, the newer panther head, the old font with “Pittsburgh,” I even saw a couple of the panther tooth items. This extends to the Pitt official store (obviously, since I used their site to show the examples). Where the gear is just all over the place.

The first thing is that it reflects on the obvious cheapness of the merchandising arm not to just say, “screw it,” and ship the old clothing that didn’t sell to South America or some charity overseas. It also shows the general disarray of figuring out the logo.

They seemed to have gotten it right with the arched “Pitt.” I like it well enough. It’s simple and clean. It’s the dominate logo. Now, lose all the old fonts and junk from the past 10 years of misses.

Trying to figure out the right panther, though, has remained a mystery. I disliked both recent incarnations. Pederson panther head is a dense blot of blue and gold that makes my eyes hurt if I look at it too long. The Long panther-dog head was hardly an improvement.

I’ve thought the students have come out strong this year. I disagree with Kevin Gorman who asked, “What? You want a cookie?” It isn’t easy to build the student support when the team has performed the way it has in the Wannstedt era. The Buffalo game was more of a struggle than it should have been and that first game sapped a lot of energy and hope. In the 3+ years of Wannstedt, the biggest wins at Heinz Field were the opening night 20056 thrashing of what turned out to be a bad Virginia team (but at least it was beating a BCS team) and last year’s win over ranked Cinci.

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.

Really? Someone thought this would be a question that has any relevance?

Wannstedt was asked on Monday’s Big East conference call what qualities were necessary to become an NFL coach and whether he had any interest in returning to the league where he was coach of the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins and won a Super Bowl as the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive coordinator. “No, I’m done after this,” Wannstedt said. “I’ve had enough.”

I suppose it isn’t about him returning to the NFL as a head coach. That’s never going to happen. Still, to be asking Coach Wannstedt about anything related to coaching in the NFL given the way he’s been coaching at Pitt, seems a bit of a stretch.

Another highlight from his weekly media phone call is that he thinks the team has room to improve. Ya think?

“The exciting thing about this is that we’re probably about 60 to 70 percent of where I believe in my heart we should be as a football team, and that’s exciting,” Wannstedt said. “If we were sitting here and we had played as well as could have and never turned the ball over and we were 1-1, you’d say to yourself, ‘Jeez, is this it?’ But our team has such a long way to be able to grow.”

Oh, grife. He’s sticking with the turnovers are the thing theme. The part that has me most worried is that what I saw on the sidelines of the Bowling Green game did turn out to be true.

The biggest improvement between the first and second week, Wannstedt said, was how his team handled adversity. Pitt led 17-14 against Bowling Green at halftime and never scored again. The Panthers were up just 10-9 over Buffalo but controlled the second half.

“In Week 1 at halftime, everybody’s looking at each other and the look was worth 1,000 words,” Wannstedt said. “Basically it was, ‘How can this game be close?’ And we go out and we press and we turn the ball over.

“This week we were only up one, but there was a lot of energy in the locker room and a lot of excitement to get out there and play the second half and not really look at scoreboard.”

And, um, where were the coaches in all of this? Especially in the first game. Apparently not reaching the players. Not getting them to just play. Instead, I guess Wannstedt feels/felt the players need to figure these things out for themselves. Wannstedt was just there as some sort of Yoda-figure, “Yinzeselves figure it out you must.”

No, seriously, what is the role of the coach in these situations? This seems to be the spot where the coach who trumpets his experience at all levels of football would be at his best. The guy who recruited these kids. Someone who (at least in hindsight/revisionism) is saying he could see their confusion an doubt. What’s his accountability, responsibility? And most importantly, what the hell was he trying to do about it in that game?

I know, I know. It’s done, it’s over. Let it go.

So naturally that lackluster win over Buffalo was an important thing, and the Bowling Green loss will be treated as a blessing in disguise. Right?

“I would say, without a doubt that because we got beat by Bowling Green, we came to the realization that we’ll get beat again if we don’t go out there and play for 60 minutes,” Wannstedt said at his weekly teleconference yesterday. “We haven’t proven that we’re a good football team yet and we’re just trying to win a game. The interesting thing is, if we had come out flat in the opener, you could say, ‘OK, they were reading the press clippings,’ but that was not the case. We came out and we were hitting on all cylinders, and then when we hit some adversity, we didn’t respond the right way.”

It also helped that Buffalo isn’t that good.