You know, out of town Pitt fans are fuming about the game not being televised this weekend. Still, the impact is blunted because it is a home game for Pitt. For Rutgers, it’s ESPN360.com or nothing. They are in the NYC media market and the sports channel SNY which has draped itself (with the Big East’s blessing) as the place for the Big East and also Rutgers doesn’t have the game. Under “Who’s stock is down.”

SNY-TV
The “Home of Big East Football” won’t be airing Pitt-Rutgers. ‘Nuff said.

ESPN doesn’t want to make it a regional game, the BIg East has little say. Way to nail down that contract, Big East. One of the two top-20 teams in the conference along with the major tenant in the big media market play — and it’s on broadband.

C.J. Davis comes in for praise in his senior year on the offensive line.

Davis, a 6-foot-2, 305-pound senior, is anchoring an offensive line that is performing at its best in the Wannstedt era. The No. 17 Panthers (5-1, 2-0) are averaging 380.7 yards per game, including 166.8 rushing, and lead the nation in fewest penalties and penalty yards heading into Saturday’s game against Rutgers (2-5, 1-2) at Heinz Field.

The Scarlet Knights present a new challenge for the Panthers in that they will likely attack quarterback Bill Stull and Pitt’s pass-protection scheme where previous opponents have stacked the line of scrimmage in an effort to minimize McCoy’s impact.

“They bring a lot of pressure,” Davis said. “They are going to try to create some confusion.”

If Davis and his linemates can be as adept in pass protection as they have been in run blocking, Stull will be in good hands.

If you caught any of the UConn-Rutgers game last week, UConn’s Donald Brown piled up yardage in the first half against Rutgers defense. In the second half, the Scarlet Knights laid off the attacking to stack against the run. That was a huge reason why Brown only had 27 yards in the second half. The Rutgers DC/HC came to his senses and realized that UConn has little threat from the passing game.

Pitt can only hope that Rutgers follows that same formula. Unlike UConn, Pitt has been able to score points and actually has weapons in the passing game.

In his Q&A today, Zeise details one of the major reasons why Pitt under Harris did not just beat Rutgers regularly, but would regularly shred Schiano’s defense — the offense went away from Rutgers strength (stopping the run) and at their weakness (passing). It also helped that Rutgers was a really bad team.

The defense of Pitt on the other hand has to answer like they did last year. Scary thought that Pitt could conceivably lose 4 in a row to Rutgers.

Coach Wannstedt, avoided going overboard in talking up a 2-5 opponent.

“Rutgers may be the best two-win team in the country. If you watch them on tape, their running back Kordell Young has gotten better week after week. I think he’s probably as healthy as he’s been all year. He sure looked that way last week. He had some very nice runs against Connecticut on Saturday. With them winning the game, I think it was a very big momentum boost for them, I’m sure. Defensively, I think personally they’re playing as good as any defense I’ve had a chance to watch. Obviously we have South Florida, Connecticut, Cincinnati – so we’ve got some real good defenses in our conference and I think Rutgers is playing as good as any of them. They do a lot of movement, they pressure you a lot. They force the issue – as I would categorize their defense. We have our work cut out for us this week. We’ve got a good week of preparation. We have to stay focused and come up with some good plans on offense, defense and special teams. We’ll approach this one with the same intensity and focus that we’ve done the last three or four games.”

Look, Rutgers has a very good defense. Their offense, though, is a mess. Kordell Young has hardly looked particularly great. Just the best they have. Teel has been a mess. Underwood has turned into Greg Lee. Kenny Britt is just frustrated.

I have been very conflicted about writing more about Pat Bostick getting inserted into the Navy game at the very end. I’d rather move on to the Rutgers game. The problem is, I haven’t stopped thinking about it, and the answer given has not resolved the issue in my mind.

As soon as it happened, I was confused by the decision. The annoyance quickly followed, but not at seeing Bostick in there, or at Wannstedt’s decision, per se. I was annoyed because, despite, a fantastic performance by the defense. Despite McCoy absolutely shredding Navy’s defense. Despite seeing Baldwin being used as a real deep threat. Despite an aggressive game plan. Despite all the good, that decision at the end of the game was going to turn into a major topic and distract from all the good stuff.

Coach Wannstedt’s answer after the game hardly cleared anything up.

Heading into the season, coaches were adamant that the plan would be to redshirt Bostick, thus preserving a fifth year of eligibility for him, and let Bill Stull hold the starter’s job for this season and next. Under that plan, Bostick would then have two years of eligibility to be the starter once Stull graduated but now that he’s played in a game, he will only have one. Theoretically, though, he could take a redshirt next season and still have two seasons, but that seems unlikely at this point.

Wannstedt was cryptic in his answer about Bostick’s redshirt.

“We’re trying to win games and [Bostick] is our back-up quarterback right now and if something happens to Billy [Stull] he has to go in and play,” Wannstedt said.

When asked a follow-up question about whether he was concerned about preserving Bostick’s redshirt, Wannstedt answered sternly, “No.”

So, a coach known (and liked in the media) for being open and transparent suddenly becomes tight-lipped, and gives a coachspeak answer and won’t explain. And answer that goes against all private statements and implied statements by Wannstedt and other coaches to all those who cover Pitt football. No, that won’t cause a lot of arched eybrows and questions.

Take Paul Zeise in his Q&A from yesterday.

Personnel decisions are often second-guessed and most of the time for the wrong reasons . But the decisions to not play Elijah Fields — for even one snap — and to burn Pat Bostick’s redshirt so he can hand off three times and take a knee (and then explain that he needed to “get some work”) are both puzzling — and that is being kind. Bostick was supposed to be the franchise quarterback — in playing him for three meaningless snaps you’ve basically told him and the world that he is no longer regarded as that because if he was, you’d want him to have as many years of eligibility to be the starter as possible. And the bottom line is this — if you don’t think that he is the guy for the future, that’s fair. And if you think Tino Sunseri is — and he might not be — why burn his redshirt — especially for a guy like Bostick who has done everything they’ve asked, who works hard and who doesn’t embarrass himself or the program? Why not tell him that you’re not sure he is the guy and give him the option to transfer somewhere (like a Division I-AA program) and have his three years of eligibility remaining intact. Those three snaps did nothing to “get him ready” in case Stull goes down so it just smells like a “not-very-well thought out” plan.

A beat writer is around the team and coaches all season. It’s rather obvious no one saw this decision coming.

You know what that does. It creates conspiracy theories, hypothesis, rumors and speculation. And not just here and on the message boards. Even a columnist from one of the papers sees it as the most compelling thing coming out of the game and joins in the decoding of the deeper meaning.

The second point has more long-term ramifications. Evidently — and Wannstedt will deny this from now until the end of time — the Pitt staff doesn’t believe Bostick is their guy for the future. If Wannstedt felt otherwise, he never would have played Bostick, the starter as a freshman last season by default after Stull’s hand injury in the opening game, until he absolutely had to play him. That would be pure lunacy. Wannstedt likes Bostick as a quarterback better than Cross and Smith, but …

Fair or not, these are the conclusions a lot have reached.

Now to be fair to Coach Wannstedt, I’ve never heard or read explicitly that Bostick would be redshirted. Some have written that before the season, Wannstedt appeared on Joe Bendel’s radio show and said words to that effect, but I can’t confirm it.

This is about as close as Wannstedt had come to the issue — and obviously he left a lot of wiggle room — prior to the start of the season.

The topic of Pat Bostick being redshirted this season has been brought up but we will not make that decision this week. We’ll do what we have to in order to win this first game. We’ll take things one week at a time concerning our backup quarterbacks. Obviously we’ll have a plan should something happen to Bill but that wouldn’t be revealed until that situation occurred.

And that plan wasn’t unveiled until game six? In his Rutgers preview press conference, he did address the Bostck situation. Sort of.

On Pat Bostick as the primary reserve at quarterback:

“Well, the way our season’s been to this point, we haven’t really had an opportunity for any other quarterback to play. The discussion was, and is, that we’re trying to do everything we can to give our team the best chance to win this year. I think if Pat’s going to be the backup quarterback and if Bill got hurt on the first snap, then we’d expect Pat to go in. He’s got to have some playing time. We haven’t had him take any snaps in a live game since last year so that was the thinking behind putting him late against Navy. It wasn’t the redshirt thing or anything else. The decision to name him the back-up was based solely on what gives our team the best chance to win. He won’t necessarily see action every game. We’ll see how every game unfolds. He felt good about getting in there. In practice, he takes the back-up reps and he’s prepared to play so nothing’s really going to change with his status.”

I know, Pitt’s riding high and questioning success seems excessively negative, but Coach Wannstedt’s decision-making and the explanations — especially regarding back-ups is maddening.

This seems a lot like the way he responded to using Greg Cross. First, declaring there is/was a plan to use him, then explain how things just haven’t worked out to in the game to do the things they wanted.

Putting Bostick in there for one series where his only duty is take the snap under center without fumbling, firmly place that ball in Sharriff Harris’ stomach without fumbling the exchange and then get out of the way. Repeat two more times and run off the field to let the team punt.

I’m sorry, I know I didn’t play the game. I just don’t see how that helps him or the team. Yes, he hasn’t seen live game action since last season. That series hardly does much to change it. The explanation and reason just don’t match the actions.

I’m glad that Bostick is apparently happy with the explanation Wannstedt gave him. That’s nice. It still doesn’t change anything regarding the situation. It isn’t fair to Bostick, since it now subjects him to a whole new set of swirling rumors — almost all negative. It was all something that could have been avoided, and it all falls at the feet of Wannstedt.

Finally, go check out Part 1 and Part 2 over at Cat Basket as DPJ tries to make sense of this. Some excellent stuff.

A few items to get done.

During the game, I never took notice of Elijah Fields in the game. Turns out, it was because he never played a down. Obviously with Navy, there is no real call for packages that have 3 safeties, but to not even spell DeCicco was surprising. I know there had been talk of Fields coming in and essentially playing linebacker, but Greg Williams really had a great game so there was no need there.

Williams, who is the team’s fourth-leading tackler with 24 and has 1 1/2 sacks, finished the Navy game with four tackles, a tackle for loss and the pass breakup. He made a number of plays by forcing the play back into the middle where the Panthers had a host of defenders. The Panthers only gave up one big play to the outside of the field, on Navy’s first drive.

Pitt middle linebacker and defensive captain Scott McKillop, a fifth-year senior, said it has been fun to watch the maturation of Williams.

“I think having two weeks to prepare really helped Greg because I don’t know that he has ever seen this offense or played against it,” McKillop said. “But he is picking things up every week and he is getting so much more comfortable in what he is doing that he is now able to use his physical tools because he is not thinking so much, he’s just playing.

“He made a couple of big plays for us today, he’s so athletic and he just runs around and runs guys down. I’m happy to have him on our side.”

As he has learned to read the play, he can use his speed to get there.

Pitt’s defensive line really looked solid against Navy. It had to help with the linebackers playing closer and McKillop essentially shadowing the Navy fullback, Eric Kettani.

Mustakas said the key was winning the battles at the line of scrimmage and staying disciplined in his assignments. The Panthers made sure there was no confusing his job.

“We were doing periods with no ball-carriers,” Mustakas said. “They were saying the whole week, ‘Just don’t get bored.’ We were doing the same thing. We were just hitting the fullback every down, if he doesn’t have the ball or if he has the ball. Hit the fullback. Just little things that we stayed in our assignments, it showed off in the end.”

Mustakas said the bye week allowed him to rest his knee and last week was the first where it felt fine after practice. He is looking forward to making an impact and the Panthers will need as much from him, with Williams out indefinitely and backup Tommie Duhart sidelined after injuring an ankle against Navy. Redshirt freshman Myles Caragein got his first large dose of playing time and finished with four tackles.

A little worried about the depth now at defensive tackle.

Maybe it’s because there’s a lot of military in the stadium, but apparently it was noticeable how pleasant it was to actually go into the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

Is something wrong here? I’ve waited anywhere from 15-25 minutes in “security” lines at Heinz Field at Pitt and Steelers games. I traveled to the US Naval Academy to see Pitt play this past weekend and I wasn’t touched by any security person at all. And guess what? There weren’t any security issues at the game. Please note I’ll be talking to Guest Services at Heinz Field the next game I attend.

Hey, it could be worse. You could have to deal with Ohio Stadium.

Before the season there were plenty talking about how good Pitt could be this year. Then, of course, BGSU happened. Now that Pitt is at 5-1 and ranked, the ones who pushed Pitt early can come back to them.

Stewart Mandel, SI.com (who picked Navy in this game, just for the record).

1. That LeSean McCoy is back. When Pittsburgh struggled early in the season, so, too, did its talented sophomore tailback, who averaged 80.7 yards his first three games, down from 110.7 as a freshman. Over his past three games, however, McCoy has put up 149, 142 and 156 yards, the latter coming in Saturday’s 42-21 win over Navy, which also included three McCoy touchdowns. By no coincidence, the Panthers, which have now won five straight following an opening-week loss to Bowling Green, have upped their scoring average from 21.7 to 34.0.

Pittsburgh appears to be rounding into the Big East title contender that many of us expected. The Panthers’ offensive line was their biggest question mark, and they did indeed struggle early in the season, but they must be improving now that McCoy is finding holes and QB Bill Stull is finding time to throw downfield. (He hit freshman WR Jonathan Baldwin for a 60-yard TD against Navy). Meanwhile, Scott McKillop and the defense held Navy to its lowest rushing total (194 yards) in two years. Pitt is far from a polished product but is now the favorite to win its league.

And Matt Hayes, The Sporting News, with regard to teams not ranked high enough in the AP poll.

No. 17 Pittsburgh: I’ve just got a strange feeling the Panthers could run the table or finish with 11 wins. The running game with LeSean McCoy and LaRod Stephens-Howling is terrific, and the stingy defense gets better with each week.

So now, at this point in the season, Pitt is looking more and more like the favorite in the Big East to go to a BCS bowl.

Odds of winning the league: 3-1

BCS-bound because: The Panthers have planned this team according to a championship formula: run the ball with a solid back, play great defense, especially up the middle, and sack the quarterback. RB LeSean McCoy and LB Scott McKillop might be the best at their positions in the conference.

St. Petersburg Bowl-bound because: Bill Stull still hasn’t shown he can win a big game with plays in the passing game. It’s tough to imagine Pittsburgh excelling with a quarterback who throws more interceptions (five) than touchdowns (four).

The silly projections are all going to the Orange Bowl to play an ACC team.