A mixture of lots of other things happening and well, I’m not feeling particularly rushed with no game this Saturday. Still, Zeise has kept up his Q&A and I feel obliged to highlight and comment.
Immediately after the USF game, the comparisons were made to the 2004 team. I made the comparison to the conference being down like in 2004, but I’m not so sure about a direct correlation with that Pitt team. That season started out with lowered expectations as much as anything else. Losing Fitzgerald, Rutherford, the recruiting class falling apart, the bowl loss to Virginia, the loss of VT and Miami to the ACC then BC, the increased dissatisfaction with Harris — everything. It looked like a complete rebuilding/transition/lost year.
To compare the two teams because of “grit” and “heart” seems a bit weak. Those are cliched words thrown around all the time with football teams that win. It makes them seem tough and the kind of team the fans want to root.
Zeise does love playing the “voice of reason.” When Pitt fans were down on the coaches — the first 4 games — he was stressing that things weren’t that bad and everyone needed to be calm. Now he gets a nice softball to hit the other way.
Q: Paul, after the USF win, can we put a moratorium on publishing the “These coaches are too conservative!” cries coming from Panther faithful? Last night I saw the coaching staff call several shots down field, a fake punt, a wild cat formation, some risky shovel passes, and a change of pace series with Greg Cross. What more can you ask for?
ZEISE: Well let’s see — you are talking about sample size and right now the sample size supporting your point of view is about two games worth while the opposition can counter with, well, the other 38 since the start of the 2005 season. It is clear that there seems to be an effort to throw some caution to the wind and take some more chances, but like I just wrote, will this trend continue now that every game is crucial again? I do like the fact that they are taking shots down the field in the passing game because that seems to be loosening up things for McCoy and also for the underneath routes as well. As I said in my open, it was a tremendous game plan and Pitt made a lot of great plays so you do have to tip your cap to Matt Cavanaugh, which I know is something that is not always popular among some of the Panther faithful.
Cautious optimism is the general sense for Pitt fans right now, if I were to guess. There’s hope, but plenty of lurking fear that this is just a set-up for an even bigger disappointment. Or that could just be me.
We get an explanation for Jonathan Baldwin scaring the crap out of us with a near Leon Lett moment.
Q: What is the attitude of Jonathan Baldwin? I’m wondering whether he is kind of cocky and all full of himself. I admit, he looks like he is going to be a great receiver for Pitt but his first touchdown reception against USF could have turned ugly really fast when he showboated the ball out there at arm’s length just before crossing the goal line as he almost got it knocked away by the trailing defender. That kind of nonsense makes you wonder. You would think a freshman would be happy to just tuck it away and score rather than looking for style points at this stage of his career. How do you see it?
ZEISE: I completely disagree. First off, the kid is a very humble person. In fact, getting two words out of him is a chore as he is clearly not interested in talking about himself or his accomplishments. And we asked him about that play — sticking the ball out in front of him and he said — and this is actually pretty refreshing because sometimes you forget these are just kids — basically that he was trying to make sure that ball crossed the goal line because he didn’t want to mess up his first collegiate touchdown. So he wasn’t showboating at all, he was just trying to get into the end zone as quickly as possible. He’s a young kid and he obviously will mature, but it was funny to hear a player of his potential talking about how “awesome” it was to have an opportunity to score a touchdown and how he was just making sure the ball crossed the goal line. He’s got a good attitude, there is no question about.
Could be utter crap. Could be completely true. Maybe somewhere in the middle. I’m comfortable going with complete truth on this one.
How many people really wonder about whether Pitt should go to some sort of spread formation? Really? I happen to think that Wannstedt and Cavanaugh are just not wired to even conceive running that sort of offense. They treat it like it is a gadget — their words — rather than a whole offensive gameplan. I’m also not prepared to endure the ugly growing pains that switching to such a system would entail.
And about next week’s game.
Q: Paul, I look at this years defensive roster and I see a lot of the same names from last year. Aside from a year’s worth of experience, what does this team have this year that will stop Navy’s triple option?
ZEISE: Well first off — very few teams have a lot of success against Navy. This is a team that averages 29 points and 313 yards rushing per game — there is not a good way to “stop” this team. Like I said before, if you can force a few punts, it should feel like a win. Navy is going to score at least 21 or even 24 points almost every game, so Pitt’s focus needs to be on slowing them down, perhaps forcing a turnover or two and getting them into third and long if possible. If you remember last year, that dive play killed Pitt on first and second down and it seemed like Navy was constantly in third-and-2 or better and with that offense, they will make that almost every time. But having a year’s experience is a key as is the fact that Pitt has seen the cut blocking that Navy’s line does and Pitt already has an example of a defensive game plan that does not work. One of Navy’s biggest advantages is teams just don’t see that offense and so they only have one week to prepare for it all season and that’s tough to do. And the way the offensive line blocks and cuts, it is something that until you play against it, you have no idea how effective it is. Most of these guys have played against Navy now and will have a better feel for the precision with which the Midshipmen run their offense.
Last year, Pitt had a bye week before the Navy game. It didn’t help in the gameplan. I would say this game could be one of the big barometers of whether the problem was ex-DC Paul Rhoads or not.
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