Totally bummed. It could be a 7 game L streak to end the season. Think about it! Next week ND, followed by UL who beat SF today and we are in a spiral downward.

Why is it every time I get excited, I get let down. This sucks! At least my BB tickets came in the mail today.

Well, I am considering walking-on as a defensive back. I have 4 years of eligibility left and what is the worst that I could do – be nowhere near my man as he streaks down the field?

Was pretty pumped about heading up to ND for the game next week…..now not so much. Walking out of the stadium today…the feeling was a lot like after the UConn game last year. It never ends!!!!

I am so sick of the Pitt emotional roller coaster.Cant wait for the Wanny presser to be posted.

5-7 is a definite now. Program is all smoke and mirrors under Wanny.

We’re screwed, Bostick’s starting the next couple of games.

No way we get a W in South Bend with Pat at the helm.

Everyone complained about Stull, but I’d love to have him back now.

I honestly think the first half defensive troubles were an aberration. A horrible aberration and the type of misfortune that happens to Pitt at least once per year, but an aberration nonetheless. I mean, we shut down a pair of good offenses and all the sudden Rutgers torches us? Fluke. Play that game again and I bet that doesn’t happen.

But it did happen, and we have to live with it.

What really hurts was that we were BADLY outplaying them in the 2nd half and were about to retake the lead, when Berry fumbled. That killed everything. The defense collapsed, the offense went out of synch, and then Bill Stull nearly got killed in about a 5 minute span and that 5 minute span may have sunk this season.

Then Houser went down, as Bostick almost immediately throws a pick in his first crucial moment. Great.

But, as my Dad would say, that Berry fumble causes some serious “bad juju” for the Panthers.

So we’re back to a shakey offensive line and Pat Bostick at QB, same situation as a year ago.

At what point did you guys look at the teams that you’d played thus far this year, and thought “yeah we’re legit”

USF was the only win Pitt has had thus far of any substance, and yet now that one doesn’t look so impressive with the Bulls dropping one to UL today. You guys need a new coach. Wanny is the equivalent of Greg Robinson with more resources.

What did i tell you. I told you not to rank them. You just counldn’t listen.

That was the most disgusting football game i’ve ever seen or sat through in my entire life, and i stayed until the last kneel down. Disgusting. I’m fucking disgusted with this program. There are no words to describe how i feel right now.

My grandmother could have made better adjustments than that D. How many fucking TDs do you have to give up before you start covering someone?

I know we’re not supposed to call out kids here, so i’ll call out the coaches. They are fucking morons for putting berry back in there in any capacity. It is on the coaches. You have a player fumble every single week and yet you let him play? And its not like he’s putting up shady numbers. The coaches are completely inept. Disgusting. That is all for now.

Legit Q-tip? Legit what?

If you mean legit Big East contenders, yup. In fact, the Big East is so bad that we might still be. We knew this team still had a penchant for possibly blowing a winnable game in horrific fashion, they always have. We just hoped they wouldn’t.

And why wouldn’t we consider ourselves legit Big East contenders? We outrecruit every program in the conference by a mile. We have and will have more talent than anybody in the conference for awhile.

It’s just that we always have these “lapses” where the unexplainable happens. And it always happens in the worst way imaginable (ie, getting killed at home against a bad team).

Did we ever think we’re a legit threat nationally? Nope. And we won’t be until we decide to rise above the rest of the shit teams in the Big East and put an end to these unexplainable lapses that plague us.

Hard loss. Bad interception by Bostic, but on 3rd and 1, shouldn’t you give the ball to shady or if you’re gonna throw it with a QB that just came in at least roll him to the right not the left which is a harder throw to make under presure. Cav didn’t put Bostic in a good situation.

Wanny’s coachspeak this week was that Tiel was the greatest passer in Rutger’s 100+ years plus history and that Britt and Underwood are big play threats … then Wanny says that he expected Rutgers to come out running. Maybe to be successful, he should believe in himself.

Bostick is a candy arm over-rated QB!

LEt the bashing begin!

None of this should surprise any of us. I get so frustrated reading posts actually trying to dissect the game. This had nothing to do with the players really. Schiano outcoached Wannstedt, period. For those of you around long enough, do you remember Marino’s senior year when he torched Penn State for the first two scores and was marching for a third? Pitt was up 14-0 in that game. Paterno adjusted and the final score was 51-14 Penn State. Wannstedt does not have the ability to adjust. Or if he does, he is too stubborn to use it. This is about coaching folks, not players and turnovers.

Stuart – I thought of you all day yesterday as I was stuck at home (wife on the warpath!) for the game. No one says it better or with more vitriale
than you. I tried, God knows, but no one does it better! If Pitt had lost say 24-17 in a hard fought shoot out…no one would have been suprised…disappointed maybe, but not suprised.
But to lose like this?? It’s all coaching!
I was at Navy and watched Pitt make 11 seperate mistakes (that no big time team can make) and still blow out a small quick team.

Pitt’s light ass lineman got out physicalled all day by the Rutgers “thugs”. ND will do the same much like the other games in the Wanny era.

I think we are all so disappointed stunned and frustrated because we know this team can be so much better. I see it in business every day. Some people are just not cut out to be head coach material. Wanny has proved it over and over.
Here we go again!

dan 72:

big time Pitt ditto

Entered Heinz field thinking Pitt could go undefeated the rest of the year – left Heinz field thinking they can’t win another game all year. Losing center Rob Houser for the remainder of the season is an enormous loss, defenses will blow up the offensive line from the middle . Houser was the one guy Pitt’s offense could not afford to lose. Glad to hear Stull’s condition isn’t as serious as it looked on Saturday.

dan 72,
Right on! And what do those people who are promoted beyond their competency have in common? – world-class smoozing ability. It enables them to hang on because their bosses like them. This also explains an ability to recruit. They typically work long hours, just not on the right things. Just wait till next year, or maybe the year after that!

Great move to keep Fields off the field most of the game. He is unathletic and a poor safety-not even close to the caliber of Thatcher and DiCicco. It was their stellar play, after all, that kept the score to a mere 52 points. And getting beat deep every-other-play, well, that was by design, part of the defensive scheme. Heaven forbid we would have played anyone else at safety.
Time for Wanny’s bags to be packed.

I never want to see Aaron Berry return another punt again. All he has been this year is inconsistent and sloppy at best. He makes bad judgment calls, has muffed at least four kicks this season, and when he does get a return, it’s very little yardage gained at best.

While Berry can’t be singled out as the reason Pitt loss to rugters ( the defense didn’t execute very well at all until it was to late, and the secondary seemed that they all needed benched), his fumble after the three and out late was huge.

Pitt was only down three then and I’m fully confident that we could of marched down on the field riding the momentum we had and would have turned this game around.

Wannstedt has said Berry is their man, but he needs to really reconsider.

Watching on ESPN360, after the first Teel TD (60 yards), the announcers said, “That won’t happen again, the corners and safeties will be told to hold their positions and ignore the play fakes..just stay with their man.”

Somehow, these guys could see it, but Wanny or Bennett were asleep at the wheel or waiting for their running attack to get in high gear.

It was hard to watch…hard to watch…hard to watch…I felt like it was “Groundhog Day” everytime rutgers got the ball…did Wanny and Bennett not watch the same game I did.

Other than Cav, this loss was squarely on the coaches.

Hail to PITT!
-al-

would someone please confirm the names of the defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach?

What was their previous experience?

wow- still cant believe what I saw yesterday…

How could the d not make any real adjustments to the pass? For God sake they had 4 Quarters to figure it out.

Wanny needs to fall on his sword for this one. If he comes out and blames the kids then I am done with PITT. ACCOUNTABILITY!!!!

I want to see some serious thought and discussion about what they are going to do moving forward instead of fake excuses without a plan of correction.

I still think we win that game if Aaron Berry doesn’t fumble that punt.

I had already chalked up the defensive debacle in the 1st half to just having a bad half and was ready to move on. Hey, it happens.

Early in the 3rd, it looked like we’d made the correct adjustments on defense and were charging back to win the game (the Rutgers D couldn’t stop our offense at that point).

The muffed punt changed everything. Like I said, it was a 5 minute span from hell. Muffed punt. Rutgers TD pass. 3 and out. Stull hurt.

First, I hope Bill Stull makes a full recovery. Please keep us out-of-state fans updated on his progress. When something like that happens, it puts everything else in perspective. Second, it was not surprising that Pitt overplayed Rutgers nonexistent running attack. Wannstedt was simply sticking to what he knows. He fully expected to Rutgers to stick to the ground attack as that is what he would have done. Rutgers’ coaches took full advantage of that plus our inexperienced outside linebackers. Pitt’s coaches never made the necessary adjustments. The reference to the Penn State adjustments on Marino was most appropriate as they dared Pitt to run in that game. I unfortunately was there that day.

Third and last, I still believe we can pull two wins out of rest of the season and finally go to a bowl. I hope we will see more of Cross now to complement Bostick’s passing.

Yeah, maybe we win if berry isn’t give the opportunity to fumble another punt. Who gave him that opportunity again?

I turned to my college roommate who came into town to go to this game with me, and he said he hopes berry gets a big return. I said “no, i’ll just be happy if he fair catches the ball on our own 20 with no one within 30 yards of him and actually secures the ball for once…i won’t be mad at all – you just watch….” and sure enough, fumble, they come up with the ball. I looked at him and he could not believe how right i was. This team is a broking fucking record, ground hog day all over again. Its so fuckign predictable that in a drunken stupor i could call play for play EXACTLY what we were going to do, and be right 90% of the time. Any half competent opposing coach will murder us when we do the predictable – and thats what we did yesterday. When we play the USFs and the WVUs our coaches come up with new game plans and show a different look. When we play the Bowling Greens and Buttgers we “stay the course – the scheme is sound.” Its fucking disgusting. I cannot believe i waste money or time on this.

I think mike teel just threw another TD. Good news though, we’re going to stop the run on the next posession. Cause they have the next ray rice in the backfield. We sure secured the moral victory there! We stopped a useless RB and let the roll up half a hundred through the air. Morons. The whole fucking coaching staff.

Oh and i’m glad we weren’t playing more of guys liek fields and jackson…we need to stay with the slower guys who are in position to get run by over and over again…disgusting.

I don’t get what everyone’s so upset about. Navy basically rolled right down the field on their first possession by mixing pass and run, and then completely abandoned the pass, as well as kept the QB who toasted us for 46 points on the sideline the entire game, and we won. Why shouldn’t our coaches have expected Rutgers to keep their QB who has beaten us 135029363249047383 times in a row under wraps? You think its on the coaches to expect RU to pass more than the 8 times that Navy did? Why? How could they have known? Its not like our defensive backfield completely blows or anything! Other than with Darrelle Revis, we haven’t covered anybody in ten years. When I was at Pitt, Shawntae Spencer blew more assignments (and missed more tackles) than anybody I’ve ever seen…and he’s in the NFL! (Okay, he’s on the Niners, but still, he’s getting paid.)

And I don’t get the piling on Aaron Berry/the coaches for putting him back there. Has he had trouble fielding punts or something?

i miss stull now…bostick 5 star? how on earth?

Two things can be counted on in the fall, the leaves will change colors and Pitt football will disappoint. Wanny=GARBAGE

Maz – at least once a game Berry muffs a punt. I STILL think we win the game if he didn’t – we had momentum, aggressive defense, and Rutgers wasn’t stopping us. We would have taken the lead and sucked the air out of them.

To be an optimist: IF Uconn beats WVU next week then we control our own destiny again, win out and we would win the conference with one loss. Let’s just hope.

PS, South Florida is the only ranked Big East team now at about 24.

There should be some accountability with the players, though. Is Eric Thatcher seriously the only one out there who can call a formation? Does he HAVE to play? Create some accountability. Put Fields in there. Take Berry off of punt returns. He’s moved Baldwin in there finally. Just like if Dom Williams isn’t cutting it, put Lumpy in there. If Bostick isn’t cutting it, find a way to use Cross or even go with Kevan Smith.

Riddle me this: Who on the time, including the linemen, could have possibly done worse in the defensive backfield? Over 300 yards and five TD’s in the first half.
Say goodbye, Dave.

Just got back from the basketball fan fest, saw a LOT of good things.

This game proved two things today: 1) coaching
2) scouting.

I have said since the start of the year that the key to beating Pitt is to spread them out. We have a great front four and with McKillop at LB, we are tough to run on. If you spread Pitt out and throw, it is a sure win. Rutgers had good scouting and were able to adapt. Bowling Green studied film last year and was able to be successful.

Kurt Ferentz of Iowa is old school like Wanny. Iowa was at their best when they were throwing. Instead of doing what worked, Ferentz changed QB’s and pulled a classic Wanny I will run the ball down your throat.

In D-1 college football, you have to adapt to win. You are lucky to win anyway you can. Old men like Ferentz, Wanny, Phil Fulmer, and Superior don’t win because the game has passed them by. They are stubborn and too old school.

As much as I hate to say this, the teams that win year in and year out are those that adapt to the times and those that adapt to the personnel that they have so men like Paterno and Tressel continue to be successful while we are left in the living, breathing hell that Pitt football has been since 1990.

Example: State Penn changes their offense to the spread this year because it is what is best for QB Clark.

TOSU changes their offense from the spread with Troy Smith to a pro-set with Boekman to the spread with Pryor.

If Pitt had Pryor or Clark, we wouldn’t use them right.

Hell, we can’t even use McCoy properly. He should be getting 25 to thirty carries per game.

The game was pretty disappointing but I don’t know how you can pin the poor performance of the defensive backfield totally on the coaches. Yes, Fields should have been on the field and I have no idea why Eric Thatcher has a jersey – but – at a certain point, it is the defensive backfield’s job to cover the receivers. I don’t care what scheme the defense plays – you have to know where the receivers are and our defensive backs literally looked like they had no idea. That is on the players.

Hopefully all the recruits that were attending the game got the message that Wanny was sending them by his game decisions.

We need someone that can execute a fake field goal.

We need someone to return punts.

We need more sacrificial lambs so that high school hotshots will see our deficiencies and want to sign up.

merlin how was fan fest?

Omar-
I don’t wanna do a full analysis on here (I’ll do one on the Oakland Zoo website) but I’ll say that this team looks strong top-to-bottom. Jamie’s going to have a very good problem in getting minutes for Nasir Robinson, Ashton Gibbs, Jermaine Dixon, AND Brad Wanamaker. Our outside shooting is going to be much improved from last year, DeJuan Blair looks like he’s improved a lot from last year, and this team looks STRONG around the basket and on the dribble penetration.

bostic ,are you uninformed genius likes happy now his redshirt will be at calif pa. or indiana pa. tino is the savior only the answer.

Stull was released from the hospital diagnosed with a concussion. Questionable for the ND game.

link to post-gazette.com

The curse of Wanny continues as the Steelers fall ay Heinz in a bizaare game of very strange happenings and crippling injuries…Sound familiar?

I repeat — Wanny doesn’t even believe in his own pre-game analysis. 1st he says that Teel is the best passer in Rutgers long history and that they have these home-run hitters for receivers .. then after the game, he says he was surprised Rutgers didn’t come out running!!

He also spoke how Fields was probbaly as good as a CB than anyone Pitt has .. but again he rarely played. What good is Thatcher if he knows all the assignments but can’t execute; face it, he has been getting beat for years now — do you remember the 3rd and 26 pass play against UConn last year when he gave the receive a cushion right down the middle of the field?

Being from New Jersey and having many friends who go to Rutgers, that was painful. I couldn’t even retort with the fact that they have a losing record and lost to Navy because the game was that pathetic. I feel like it is going to be 2006 again. I hate to see that Shady had 146 yards and 4 touchdowns and we lost. His NFL stock is rising so I don’t think he will be here next year.

Damn. Panthers, Penguins & Steelers all lose in disappointing fashion. What the heck did the city of Pittsburgh do to piss off God this weekend? Get to church you slackers!

Oh, and Stull is fine and may even play next week at ND….

Wow, even the Steelers had every break go against them, and then were finally done in by injuries today.

Just a bad week for the Pittsburgh sports fan. Pitt, Pens, and Stillers all lose, it’s the opposite of the yinzer trifecta!

Why are USF and UConn still in the BCS rankings? It appears to be mostly the work of the pollsters and not the computers. It’s almost like the feel that a team or two from all six BCS conferences MUST be ranked at all times, but let’s face it, nobody in the Big East deserves a ranking.

I think one thing that became clear Saturday is that the Bostick red shirt issue is no big deal. He is clearly not a division one starting quaterback. And for those who have criticized Stull through the year it is obvious that he does a much better job that you had thought. Look at what happened after he was gone. The sad thing is that with how terrible the defense played, had Aaron Berry not fumbled and Stull not been injured Pitt wins the game in my opinion. They were down three at that point, had finally started stopping Rutgers, and had all of the momentum. Anywas, the Big East is championship is still a possibility. However, for it to be a possibility 1. Bill Stull must be healthy and 2. Aaron Berry must be replaced at punt returner (he has had to fumble or muff at least 5 balls this year). I would take Tim Stein of a few years ago over Berry, at least he secured the ball.

Ugh fuck not again. I have a question for you people to ponder. What happened to the former Michigan State coach who every week had an emotional roller coaster ride? Do you know the anwser? Yeah he got fired! I have nothing personal against Wannstedt but here we go again. This is absoultue bull shit. Its really turning into embarresment being associated with this program. I would rather have a team that you know sucks (like Wash St or Syracuse) rather than trying to anaylize this every week. Too me theres too many blue chip recurits for us to lose and not be prepared. At least you knew what to expect with a Harris team. All tho not physical and a soft D, at least there was an upset or two and you got a bowl game.

Ugh not again. I have a question for you people to ponder. What happened to the former Michigan State coach who every week had an emotional roller coaster ride? Do you know the anwser? Yeah he got fired! I have nothing personal against Wannstedt but here we go again. This is absoultue bull shit. Its really turning into embarresment being associated with this program. I would rather have a team that you know sucks (like Wash St or Syracuse) rather than trying to anaylize this every week. Too me theres too many blue chip recurits for us to lose and not be prepared. At least you knew what to expect with a Harris team. All tho not physical and a soft D, at least there was an upset or two and you got a bowl game.

Also this is like a Chinese torture drill for us. We pay this money, expect great things and only to be unprepared loosing many games we should win. I hate to say this really but DW should be gone. I see many trends of coaches who where out at other schools that lost games the way we do. Examples John L Smith Mich St, Larry Coker Miami, oh year and just recently Terry Bowden. So they way I see it people a change has to be made after this year, even if that means overhauling the whole staff!

It is more than 24 hours later, and I still haven’t dealt with this loss (and the Steeler loss only worsens my mood). Hiring DW because he was a Pitt guy was a huge mistake. He never was a winning HEAD coach anywhere. He has the most talented athletes in the Big East, and yet can not be Rutgers. I am an angry alum at this point. I try to be optimistic, but it is a tough thing to be as a Pitt fan.

Jen,

Actually, Wannstedt’s career record when he coached at Miami was 42-31. He coached four and a half seasons with the Dolphins, going 11-5, 11-5, 9-7 and 10-6 in his first four seasons. He was 1-8 in his fifth season (2004) when he resigned, but that was also the season that Ricky Williams retired literally on the eve of training camp, leaving him with little to no established depth at RB (I think Travis Minor became their starter that year).

What drove him out of Miami were mostly two things:

1. his teams had a penchant for fading in December (which is kind of scary when you think back to 2006 and where Pitt is right now in 2008), and

2. some of his player personnel decisions were awful. Check out the Dolphins entry on his wikipedia page.

link to en.wikipedia.org

I said last year that Bostick should be playing at Slippery Rock at best and was called an idiot. How many people now agree that he probably can’t even start at the Rock? After a year his throwing mechanics were supposed to be corrected….looks like the same aweful throwing motion to me. Some people give this coaching staff way too much credit for being real coaches. Wanny is a recruiter at best and judging from Saturday’s game that ability may be overrated.

Wow – every poster on here was singing a different tune on Friday, October 24th. Amazing how people can go from being so sure of something one day to so sure of another thing 4 hours later. Then again, some of those same posters were scratching their eyes out after the Bowling Green loss also.

Who on here thought we’d go 12-0? – no one. Anyone think we’d go 11-1? – same answer.
We all knew we’d have some more losses, just didn’t know when they would happen. Well, it happened.

We lost, we got spanked and it was one of the strangest football games I’ve ever seen. But it’s done and it’s over. I’d be hurting a lot more today had we lost 54-3 as opposed to scoring 34 points against a pretty darn good defense.

I’ve said all along the key to this season’s team would be how they respond to adversity. We saw a good rebound and pretty solid play after the opener. Now we’ll see if we can do the same after this loss. Don’t be surprised if we rise to the occasion.

well said reed. most people predicted 8-4 as a successful year, and at 5-2 we are on pace for that. people hate on bostick, but we did beat some good teams last year with him at the helm, so the notion that we’ll lose the rest of our games seems unlikely. personally, i’m pulling for bostick.

I see that nobody mentioned that maybe Pitt was looking forward to the ND game….and obviously took Rutgers too lightly in the first half….Pitt D has started slow in just about every game this year….but managed to overpower opponents in the 4th quarter….that was on track on Saturday except for muffed punt, Stull Injury and Bosticks poor interception….game over….the remainder of the season…the “meat’ of the Big East season doesn’t look so optimistic…ND….a loss….away game with Stull out and O-line in disarray….ND has some solid receivers….much better than Rutgers….this game will feature Clausen sitting back in the pocket and waiting for his receivers to torch Pitt’s secondary….guys this game is looking to be ugly at best….as for the rest of the season…Louisville is winnable, Cinci Winnable….WVA…..too much speed….could be a blow-out…..Connecticut…winnable…but I think Edsel will outcoach Wanny….just a Shiano did…7-5 or 6-6….no soup for you Wanny…..

Stoosh,
By win, I meant even go to a superbowl. And you are correct, the December stats are scary.