Brock DeCicco has long been thought to be Pitt’s recruit to lose. The Tight End is the brother of Pitt safety Dom DeCicco. Pitt has been recruiting him for some time. He has been a regular visitor to the Pitt facilities and practices. He decided during Pitt’s bye weekend to make it known.

“Pitt is moving forward and I want to be a part of it all,” said DeCicco, who is 6 feet 5, 225 pounds. “It is as simple as that.”

It apparently caught Coach Wannstedt by surprise.

“When I told Coach Wannstedt,” DeCicco said, “he said, ‘You caught me off guard. I didn’t see that coming at all.'”

Really? You’ve been recruiting his family for three years, essentially. Pitt is coming off a major win. The major competition was Wisconsin, who has now lost 3 straight including being absolutely blown out at home. And he didn’t see it coming?

The only thing less believable than that will be if Brock says something to the effect of, “The coaches indicated I’ll have an excellent shot at playing as a freshman.” With Dickerson and Byham both being seniors next year, DeCicco is the closest thing to a lock to redshirt among the recruits.

DeCicco is a 3- to 4-star recruit. The redshirt year will probably be a necessity according to the ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. evaluation.

Should develop into a strong blocker with additional bulk. DeCicco needs to hit a college weight program, but he’s a good player who should become a well-rounded college tight end.

Being able to block, of course, is the first thing Wannstedt and Cavanaugh look for.

Sorry everyone. My computer is having some major issues that completely killed any free time this weekend. It’s a problem that has popped up on my model of laptop for the past year, but waited until Thursday to rear its head for me. The only good news is the manufacturer is completely covering the repairs, despite it being well out of warranty. The bad news is I will have to ship it off for the repairs. Expect reduced output in the meantime.

If the coaches are smart, they should work Scott McKillop extra hard for the next week. He’s just collected too many darn honors in one week. In addition to everything he collected earlier this week, he collected one more thing just for good measure.

University of Pittsburgh linebacker Scott McKillop has been named the FWAA/Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week for games of the weekend of Oct. 4.

McKillop, a 6-2, 240-pound senior from Export, Pa., collected a team-high 12 tackles (all unassisted) and had two sacks and three total tackles for loss. He also stopped a run on a fake field goal attempt in Pittsburgh’s 26-21 upset victory at South Florida.
…
McKillop is already on the 2008 Bronko Nagurski Trophy Watch List. The Bronko Nagurski Trophy will be presented to the best defensive player in college football on Dec. 7 by the FWAA and the Charlotte Touchdown Club at the Westin Hotel in Charlotte, N.C. Five finalists for the Nagurski Trophy will be announced on Nov. 17.

He also returned to the pages of Sporting News Today with a first person story talking about winning on the road — and a not too subtle suggestion that the USF fans were colorful in taunting the players.

1st Person, McKillop October 9, 2008

Oh, and in a nice addition, Defensive Coordinator Phil Bennett was named “coordinator of the week” by Rivals.com for the gameplan to deal with USF.

Coach Wannstedt has been an excellent recruiter. No one disputes that. Despite the win-loss record, Pitt has brought in talent. Now that it seems increasingly likely that Pitt will finish above .500 for the first time under Wannstedt, the speculation grows as to what will happen with recruiting this year.

“I got several e-mails and calls from recruits after the game, and we had a recruiting meeting and [the other coaches on the staff] had the same experience,” Wannstedt said yesterday via teleconference. “We had two coaches stay and recruit in Florida after the game and it was very receptive. And then we had guys in New Jersey and we had guys in eastern Pennsylvania last week and everybody was echoing the same sentiments about how positive it is out there, and that’s good.”

In case you are wondering who stayed in Florida, it was RB coach Dave Walker and LB Coach Joe Tumpkin. Other assistants hit the recruiting trail elsewhere.

…while tight ends coach Brian Angelichio headed to eastern Pennsylvania, defensive backs coach Jeff Hafley and offensive line coach Tony Wise trekked to New Jersey, and defensive line coach Greg Gattuso and offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh checked in on a number of WPIAL prospects.

In Florida, they are still a little surprised to find out that Wannstedt can actually recruit in Florida after the Dolphins.

Four years after his messy exit, Dave Wannstedt remains a mustachioed punching bag in South Florida.

The mere mention of his name in a group of Dolphins fans still tends to cause one of three reactions: fist-balling anger, convulsive laughter or goofy imitation.

The nervous hand through the hair. The stammering speech patterns. The deer-in-the-headlights look.

So it’s more than a little stunning to behold the strong South Florida flavor at the University of Pittsburgh. Since returning to his alma mater less than two months after resigning his Dolphins post in November 2004, Wannstedt has recruited heavily in his former stumbling ground.

Apparently they are a little slow down in Florida. His coaching acumen has certainly been subject to questions. His recruiting, personality and being liked has not.

This year in recruiting, unless Pitt plucks some big names from outside of Western PA, it will be a “down” year compared to the past couple. The amount of talent in Western PA is not as deep with respect to recruiting rankings.

Finally, since I made fun of the mousetrap thing from Wannstedt, even the Florida columnists can acknowledge that what seemed clueless when a team loses looks smart when you are winning.

“When we were in Dallas, we used to hang mousetraps up all over the place,” Sparano said.

Don’t eat the cheese. Don’t get caught in the trap.

What a difference a couple of wins make.

Or doesn’t anyone remember much-ridiculed former Miami coach Dave Wannstedt once upon a time using lobster traps in an attempt to impart the same admonition? The ploy became a joke.

Now?

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some mousetraps going up around here pretty soon,” said tight end Anthony Fasano.

Dave Wannstedt does it: eye rolls and snickering. Bill Parcells does it: give respect or he’ll cut you.

Thanks for the constructive comments. I did make some changes from my draft ballot.

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

It was with some hesitation that I put Cal in at #25. Pac-10 teams outside of USC tend to gak as soon as I trust to put them in the poll.

I thought a bit about having Michigan St. and Northwestern ranked, but feel better about it with the knowledge that one of them will be out when they face each other this weekend.

I ended up swapping LSU and Missouri at #2 and #4. Through schedules and hurricanes, there just hasn’t been enough seen of the Tigers for me to justify keeping that at #2.

According to the final BlogPoll this week, Pitt came in about #29. Up a couple more spots from where they were.

All things considered, this is a bit of a surprising development.

I just got off the phone with St. Anthony associate head coach Ben Gamble and here’s the deal: Wake Forest , Tennessee and UConn have been eliminated from Cheek’s list.

He plans to visit Kansas, Memphis, Indiana, Villanova and Pittsburgh, and Seton Hall and Rutgers are still in the mix for potential unofficial visits.

Pitt never seemed to be a major contender for Cheek, and it would still be quite a battle to get him. That said, this is a very good sign. Even if Pitt doesn’t get Cheek, you have to believe that Brandin Knight is going to excel as a recruiter for Pitt. He helped make the in-home pitch to Cheek.

Wake Forest was one of the earliest to recruit him and an early favorite with Kansas and Villanova. Pitt staying in there while UConn, Tennessee and Wake are all off-the-board.

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.

The Hoopies were widely expected to dominate in a weakened Big East in the first season after Miami and VT left for the ACC. Instead, Mountaineers repeatedly spit the bit. Ultimately going down to Pitt in the Backyard Brawl, when a win could have still clinched the BE. Lame duck BC was on the verge of claiming the Big East as a final FU, before completely choking against Syracuse (something that still brings a smile to my face). The final standings of the BE actually had a 4-way tie with Pitt, WVU, Syracuse and BC. Pitt, however, finished with the best record amidst the group.

Already there is a feeling that the Big East could be heading to a similar fate — though hopefully without the dead hooker. The conference is wide open for practically anyone (outside of Rutgers and Syracuse) to claim the title. The negative, at least as far as perception goes, is that it would signify how weak the Big East is this year. No dominate teams, and if the winner of the conference finishes with two conference losses, it likely means the highest ranked team would be somehwere near #20.

Of course the way to avoid that fate would be for either Pitt, WVU or USF to run the table in the conference.

RIght now Pitt and USF are the only two teams ranked in any polls so if they win out in the Big East, they will be at least decently ranked (and by decently, I mean somewhere in the #10-15 area) in the polls at the end of the season. WVU gets in the discussion because they still have one non-con game with any meaning. They still play Auburn in a couple weeks on Thursday night.

Really, it’s too early to be overly worried, but there is this bye week. So there needs to be something to discuss.

I would posit — and not just because I am a Pitt partisan — that Pitt should be the team the Big East should be backing if this is really a concern. Pitt has the one early loss. They are unbeaten in conference play early. They actually still have a meaningful non-cons at Navy and Notre Dame. A strong finish and the argument can at least be made that the team improved as the season went on.

So, really for the good of the conference, we would all appreciate it if Rutgers, Louisville, Cinci, WVU and UConn would all just roll over at the appropriate times.

So, yes, Pitt re-entered the AP poll at #24 this week, while remaining outside the Coaches — at roughly #33. The oh-so vital blogpoll has Pitt outside the top-25 at roughly #32.

For those of you ticked that I don’t have Pitt in my top-25, well tough. I’m a homer, but that doesn’t mean I have to vote for them when I don’t think they are a top-25 team right now. Yes, some bloggers who vote are probably pushing their team higher. That’s fine. If their biases are that strong, they can go that way. I don’t particularly like it, and the “everybody else is doing it” argument is weak.

I need to see them show another effort like the USF game. It took until Game 5 for the entire squad — from the coaches to the players — to play a full 4-quarters. That’s a serious issue. Everything is there, but the consistency. Maybe I’m being harder on them because I watch this team so closely, but I am still not sure what I will see from Pitt on the 18th.

One other thing. It’s been pointed out that Pitt isn’t going to kill a lot of teams in the final score. That is very true. It also means that it will be hard for Pitt to get too high in the polls without a lot of teams in front losing — big. Grinding games, where Pitt scores in the mid-20s and opposing teams score around 20 just does not look like a team that can be trusted to win every week by voters (presently Pitt’s averaging 25 ppg while allowing 21.6).

In that respect, Pitt is a lot like UConn and Wake Forest. The result is also going to be the same. When the team wins, it will be a incremental climb. A loss and the drop is substantial — because the lack of trust in the team is confirmed.

The value of winning the game on a Thursday night is tremendous in attention. Just as Pitt has learned the previous years how negatively it is viewed when you lose. If Pitt had beaten USF on Saturday without national coverage, they would not have gotten into the top-25 in any poll.

The Navy game is more than 10 days away. Of course with a bye week, there’s plenty of time to wonder.

The game will be on CBS Sports channel (formerly CSTV) at 3:30.

Navy is also off this week, so they will have plenty of time to prepare as well.

The Birddog is the Navy blog to check for all your opposition research.

Oh, and this game is Navy’s homecoming game to boot.

A bunch of nice honors thrown to Scott McKillop after this past week.

Pitt senior middle linebacker Scott McKillop has been named the Walter Camp Football Foundation National Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in the Panthers’ 26-21 upset of No. 10 USF this past Thursday.

McKillop (Export, Pa./Kiski Area) collected a team-high 12 tackles – all solo -and had two quarterback sacks, three total tackles for loss and snuffed out a fake field goal against the Bulls. He played a prominent role in grounding one of the country’s most powerful offenses, including its dangerously elusive quarterback Matt Grothe.

USF entered the game averaging 464 yards in total offense, but produced just 245 against Pitt. Grothe was sacked twice by McKillop for losses totaling 24 yards with both sacks coming at critical junctures.

McKillop’s first sack went for a loss of 10 yards, ending a USF threat at the Pitt 43 in the third quarter and forced a punt. The second was a 14-yard sack with under four minutes to go on 3rd-and-3. USF was forced to punt and Pitt was able to burn the clock down to 22 seconds and ultimately claim the victory.

McKillop also snuffed out a fake field goal in the second quarter, stopping Gregory Grant for a one-yard gain on 4th-and-5 at the Pitt 29.

McKillop was also named The Lott Trophy “IMPACT Player of the Week” and picked up Big East Defensive Player of the Week.

LeSean McCoy grabbed the Big East Offensive Player of the Week honors.

Facing a USF defense that had only been yielding 58 rushing yards per game, McCoy ran for 142 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries (5.1 avg.). His TDs covered six and three yards, the latter providing the winning points with 4:43 left in the game.

McCoy figured prominently in the winning drive — he set up his own winning TD run with a 19-yard burst through the USF defense to put the Panthers at the Bulls 3. It was his second consecutive 100-yard effort of the season and the ninth of his brief career.

McCoy is averaging 106.60 rushing yards per game to rank 18th nationally and second in the Big East. In five games he has totaled 533 yards on 117 attempts (4.6 avg.) and seven TDs.

A couple good weeks really brought his average back closer to expectations. In the past 2 games McCoy has had 291 yards. He had 242 yards in the first 3 games.

Who’s up for a couple things regarding the basketball team?

Lists? Here’s Jay Bilas ranking the top rebounders in college basketball.

6. DeJuan Blair, Pittsburgh
Blair is barely 6-7, but he has long arms and a great attitude about rebounding. He averaged 9.1 rebounds per game and just under 4 offensive boards per game. Everybody remembers his 20 rebounds against Duke in Madison Square Garden in December, but Blair had eight other games of 13 rebounds or more.

There’s some motivation for Blair. Bilas puts ND’s Luke Harangody ahead of him (though Paul Harris and Jeff Adrien are behind Blair). Bilas doesn’t even think Blair is the best rebounder in the Big East.

Brandin Knight is shooting for the big guys in his first year as a coach on Pitt’s staff. He helped make the pitch to Dominic Cheek with Coach Dixon.

“It was good, very good,” [St. Anthony’s Coach Bob] Hurley said. “Brandin Knight from Seton Hall Prep was able to give the perspective of a kid who played at Pitt. He gave Dom information that was helpful.”

Then he decided to take a run at another top player, Lance Stephenson.

“Kansas, Memphis, USC and UCLA are the schools Lance wants to visit within the month,” Stewart told JayHawkslant.com. “Brandin Knight from Pittsburgh is really pushing hard for a visit. He’s done a great job of providing a lot of information about the school to Lance, but I just don’t know at this point if a visit to Pittsburgh will happen.”

The story also notes that Darnell Dodson will be taking a look at Memphis (grumble, mutter, stupid NCAA).

Well, the player Pitt got a verbal from in place of Dodson gets, Talib Zanna gets looked at here.

Zanna, a 6’9” 220 pound forward dropped 15.0 points, 13.5 rebounds, 3.4 blocks, 1.5 assists, and 1.4 steals per game for McNamara, including individual season highs of 26 points and 22 rebounds. For his exploits, Talib, a native of Nigeria, was tabbed first team All-Prince Georges County (MD) and second team All-Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC).

Expect more from the quiet, thoughtful Zanna – who also possesses a good sense of humor – as he has worked tirelessly on his game, combining both rebounding and shot blocking prowess with an already decent shooting touch. Now, it is not uncommon to see him hit 15 footers, while also employing his go-to move, a nasty, almost text book drop step over his left shoulder in which he lowers his center of gravity and explodes to the cup.

The things that keep coming out about him is his potential upside and coachability.

Pitt seems to be getting very aggressive in the Balitmore-DC area. Another target for the 2010 class is Will Barton, a 4-star to 5-star SG. An impressive player (Insider subs).

He also has a well rounded skill set as he can put the ball on the floor, pass it, or make shots with sounds mechanics. While he is said to have been a very flashy player at one point, he plays the game very efficiently now and manages to get the majority of his points within the flow of the offense. While his first step is rarely enough to allow him to blow by a set defender, he is capable of creating his own shot at virtually anytime thanks to a mid-range pull-up with a very high release.

Not surprisingly, Georgetown and Maryland are after him. As are UVa, VT, Tennessee

Now for the main course of basketball goodies, head over to the Oakland Zoo. Josh “Merlin” Verlin is working the previews for Pitt. He already banged out the freshmen previews and has half the sophomores complete. Solid work and a vital read.

There have been some changes to the BlogPoll (as the logo attached may suggest). Now I need to have a draft on Monday and a final ballot by Wednesday. The idea being that bloggers can be influenced by rational arguments for and against teams. Note that, “you are a flippin’ moron, how can you…” is not an argument that I will find persuasive.

I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger on putting Pitt in the ballot. I thought about it, and they are close. Still the body of work so far has not done it. The loss to BGSU is still huge — especially given that they are 1-3 since then. Add in Iowa going from 3-0 to 3-3 really fast.

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

Standing by/In the discussion: Pitt, Notre Dame, Oklahoma St., Florida St.,

UNC has really impressed me. Especially when you realize they have kept rolling without their starting QB.

Oklahoma St. may be unbeaten, but good god, when your best win is probably over Houston well I’m not buying.

Yes, I know there are plenty of teams that are rated too high. The problem as always is finding teams that legitimately deserve to be ranked ahead of them.

UPDATE: You can see the full draft poll (Pitt is unranked) and links to all voters, here.

Hello, all. Sorry for the gap. With a weekend of no games I owed the family some time, and so I we went to the in-laws Friday night for the weekend.

Lots of stale story links that everyone has likely read. So, I’m just getting rid of the tabs from Friday.

Ron Cook now believes Pitt has turned the corner under Wannstedt.

Former Pitt players Torrie Cox and Antonio Bryant (now of the Tampa Bay Bucs) were on the Pitt sideline for the game. Pitt basketball coaches Jamie Dixon and Tom Herrion were also in attendance. Question, does that make Coach Dixon now Pitt football’s good luck charm?

With USF’s spread, safeties Dom DeCicco and Elijah Fields were actually on the field together for much of the game, as Pitt was using three safeties — whether it was nickel coverage or called something else.

The team played well on both sides of the ball.

Carry the ball 28 times for 142 yards and 2 TDs and you too can be the lead player in the coverage. Whether in Pittsburgh or in Florida.

Now, taking a bit of time from the links to mention some complaints that USF Coach Jim Leavitt was not respecting Pitt by talking about how his team made mistakes to cost them the game.

”I thought we tackled poorly,” Leavitt said. “A lot of that is [McCoy] but a lot of that is us, too.”

USF quarterback Matt Grothe completed just 11 of 22 passes for 129 yards, but his 22-yard touchdown pass to Jessie Hester, giving the Bulls’ their brief fourth-quarter lead, was a thing of brilliance. Grothe scrambled left, looking off defenders, before turning to the opposite side of the field, where Hester was wide open.

But USF’s defense allowed Pitt to retake the lead with a three-play, 60-yard drive that lasted just 1:14. McCoy’s 3-yard run put the Panthers ahead to stay.

”We broke down in the secondary too many times,” Leavitt said. “Between our linebackers and our secondary, our pass defense has been very poor.”

Pitt quarterback Bill Stull finished with 228 yards and a touchdown. He completed 16 of 27 passes, none more important than a 38-yard completion to Oderick Turner on the first play of the Panthers’ game-winning drive.

South Florida’s cornerbacks, particularly Tyller Roberts, were exposed throughout the game.

”We were real poor at the end,” Leavitt said.

…

”There were a lot of mistakes, a lot of mistakes,” Leavitt said.

This was his press statement right after the game.

Opening Statement:

We just made a lot of mistakes. We were fortunate to be in that game that close to be quite honest with you with all the mistakes we made in this game. I thought Pittsburgh did a really good job. I thought their coaches did extremely well in getting the team prepared. Defensively, we did not play very good. We did not play real good offensively either and special teams were not very good. Anytime that happens, you are probably not going to win the game. Nobody has gone undefeated through the BIG EAST since we have entered the league and we have to find a way to put this behind us, move forward and get ready to play.

Frankly I’m not seeing too much to be upset. Leavitt is the coach of the Bulls, not Pitt. He has to get his team to play better and respond. He has to focus on what his team is and isn’t doing. Nothing else.

Take a look at Coach Wannstedt’s post-BGSU comments. Should Bowling Green have felt disrespected? That they weren’t getting enough credit for their performance. Instead it was all about Pitt’s mistakes and inexperience.

The Tampa perspective on this game is that this is familiar. Very familiar.

Maybe USF just wasn’t meant to play football on Thursday nights.

For the second year in a row, the Bulls went into a primetime ESPN Thursday game with an undefeated record and big hopes, only to fall to the same weeknight weakness. This time, the No. 10 Bulls overcame poor play to take a lead with six minutes remaining, only to give up a quick touchdown and lose 26-21 to unranked Pittsburgh.

It was an easy storyline and the beat writers ran with it. So did the national writers.

And of course the USF-centric coverage would focus on the Bulls’ mistakes. Whether it was the offense doing nothing, or simply that the team crumbled under the attention.

The NFL and Bowl scouts came to Tampa — ostensibly to see USF. Pitt would like to thank the Bulls for hosting and wining the bowl scouts for them.

You can watch the ESPN.com highlights of the game here.

The 13-9 upset of WVU last year was supposed to be the watershed game showing that Pitt was coming together under Wannstedt. There was the talk of how the team hadn’t quit all season. That, but for the injuries, Pitt would have at least won one or two more of those close losses. That the team had turned the corner by the end of the season and that 2008 payoff would be there. That built over the offseason and suddenly Pitt was the trendy “darkhorse” pick of the Big East. Even getting into the top-25.

Of course the team went out and laid a tremendous turd in front of the home crowd and ESPN-U against Bowling Green. And the narrative shifted to, nothing has changed. The three subsequent wins really didn’t do much to alter that perception.

Now, another national win over USF on Thursday night and it is a return to the corner turning for Pitt.

There’s a lot of season left for Pitt, but on one redemptive night in the Sunshine State, a beaten and bewildered football team finally bathed itself in radiant glory. It couldn’t have come a moment too soon, for now the pressured and panicky Panthers might actually be able to view a football season as a joy, and not a burden.

Why is this win so cathartic for everyone involved in the Pittsburgh program? Very simply, the Panthers — much like Clemson, Michigan State, Arizona State, Cal, and a handful of other programs one could readily rattle off — have found themselves frozen and fearful in the face of old demon pressure. Suffocated and stifled in the face of massive expectations, Pitt has languished in the middle of the Big East over the past few years, behind the likes of West Virginia, Louisville, Connecticut, Rutgers, and South Florida. And while Louisville and Rutgers now stand beneath the Panthers in the Big East pecking order, the fact remains that the Cardinals and Scarlet Knights did enjoy moments of supreme satisfaction in recent times. Pitt has not enjoyed real postseason success since the days of Walt Harris … and that one run to the 2005 Fiesta Bowl proved to be an aberration. The words “Pitt football” and “underachievers” have belonged in the same sentence for most of this decade.

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The Panthers haven’t fully arrived, but with this big breakthrough now in their pocket, they might finally be able to display a mentally liberated brand of ball that could bring big things to the school that brought America the likes of Tony Dorsett, Hugh Green, and Dan Marino. One game does not a program make, but one game can enable a program to experience a change of character and confidence. Everyone associated with Pitt football can only hope that Thursday night’s triumph in Tampa will prove to be such a turning point.

Plus the media really likes Wannstedt. He talks nice to them.  So they want him to succeed.

“We needed this one so bad,” Wannstedt said.

This might be the program-changing win that Wannstedt so desperately needed. He came into the game bowless in three seasons. The high from the West Virginia win quickly wore off at the beginning of this season. But the Panthers are 4-1 and on top of the Big East, ready to jump back into the polls.

There’s some personality to these inconsistent Panthers. LeSean McCoy has now surpassed 100 yards for the second consecutive game and Phil Bennett’s defense is showing some grit.

And now, along with UConn, Pitt is in (oh, how I fear typing these words) control of its own destiny.

Jan Wannstedt planted a kiss under that glorious soup-strainer above her husband’s lip late Thursday night. “What does this mean for your bye week?” she asked her husband. “It means I’m going to see my grandson in Chicago,” Dave Wannstedt replied.

Oh, Thursday’s 26-21 win at No. 10 South Florida means much more than one happy kid in the Windy City getting a visit from grandpa. It means Wannstedt’s Pitt team, left for dead after an opening week clunker against Bowling Green, sits in the driver’s seat in the Big East after two conference wins – both on the road. It means the Panthers, architects of three consecutive fourth-quarter comebacks and three consecutive wins against ranked teams, might be made of the kind of stuff it takes to survive a potentially wild conference race.

Only a little more than a month into the season and we’ve had huge downs and ups.