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.