Sigh. Well, getting away from the warm fuzzies of the basketball team for a bit. There’s more than a bit of unfinished business with Pitt football. I might come back to an abbreviated media recap. Right now, my sense is that it is almost as if we are back to the beginning of the season. Right after the BGSU debacle. The frustration with Wannstedt, the complete disappointment in Cavanaugh.
Right now, the comments from Coach Wannstedt the other day are being parsed, dissected and interpreted. Fun. Fun. Fun.
Let’s start with the obvious big issues: QB Bill Stull and OC Matt Cavanaugh.
Not just the fans have turned their questions on Matt Cavanaugh within the Pitt program.
Games like that make you wonder if the program can take the next big step as long as Cavanaugh is calling the plays.
It was such a glaring issue in the Sun Bowl.
…or the play callers and decision makers who left them in the game and did little to change things up in order to help them out?
For instance, I’ve been a critic of fans who are always crying for Greg Cross to get in the game – but if ever there was a game that cried out for something different, and if ever the team had enough time to put together a few packages for a guy with his talents, this was it. Particularly when you consider that the Beavers defense in their last game gave up 65 points and like 400 yards rushing TO A SPREAD OFFENSE TEAM.
Let me state that again – a team gets ripped by a spread offense running the ball. Pitt has a quarterback who you recruited to run similar spread schemes. Pitt had almost ONE MONTH to prepare said quarterback and offense for a few packages like that.
Honestly, though, was anyone really surprised that Cross never got into the game? I know I wasn’t.
That brings us to Coach Wannstedt’s teleconference and what he said.
…he also took the opportunity to say he will retain offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh for next season. Pitt’s season ended with a 3-0 loss to Oregon State in the Sun Bowl Wednesday.
Wannstedt said that Cavanaugh has been unfairly criticized and that the Panthers’ problems on offense are mostly because of poor execution and are not Cavanaugh’s fault. Despite the struggles of Pitt’s quarterbacks, he said, Cavanaugh is one of the best quarterbacks coaches in the country.
“Are you kidding me? We’re not going to base anything off of just one game,” Wannstedt said. “Matt has forgotten more about coaching quarterbacks than most of the other guys out there will ever know. And you can quote me on that one.”
I guess that’s the first issue. Wannstedt sees it as “just one game.” Everyone who is critical just sees the Sun Bowl as the final straw. I admit to being in the latter camp with Cavanaugh at this point. From his struggle to adjust to being an OC in college — remember when he admitted to not realizing/remembering that hashmarks were in different places — to playcalling that has made little sense far too often, to not developing any QBs with any degree of consistentcy or confidence. I will concede that it can be hard to declare the QB all on him, as they players have some responsibility.
Still: Bill Stull, Pat Bostick, Kevan Smith, Greg Cross. None of them are good enough? None have progressed much? At the very least it has to call into question his ability to evaluate. At worst, he’s just not doing the job. If “you are what your record says you are,” then at some point those players and their development reflect your ability.
Honestly, I wish I could muster the anger and frustration. I guess I’m a little numb since I’m not in the least bit surprised by this. Coach Wannstedt believes in his circle and his way. He would rather fail with it, than change his way. We’ve all known this. This is part of it.
The part that actually gets me close to upset is that Wannstedt appeared to put the offensive struggles all on “poor execution.”
DPJ is rightfully pissed off about everything he read.
This has been the hallmark of the staff since the moment they were hired. The is 0 accountability from the staff. We always used to joke about “Not My Fault Walt” but really, when was the last time you heard Wannstedt accept responsibility. This season Cavanaugh admitted a few times that his game plans were poor and the results of which led us to lose to Bowling Green as well as struggle against Iowa and Buffalo.
I will say that it is more Wannstedt than the staff at this point. Wannstedt may be trying to defend his embattled OC, but he’s instead put the blame on his players and the team instead. Nice work.
Even, though, it sure seems like the staff screwed up in some huge ways.
Freshman tackle Lucas Nix didn’t play in the Sun Bowl, but Wannstedt said Nix would have started at left tackle and played the “whole game” if coaches had known prior to pre-game warm-ups that Pinkston would not be available. Instead, fifth-year senior Chase Clowser got his first career start.
Good god, does that cry out for more detail. What does that even mean? I know Pinkston got hurt the day before, but why was it a one or the other situation? They didn’t want to spring it on Nix at the last minute? And then, they didn’t want to make a change? You know, to — what? Disrupt the O-line? I freely admit that I don’t know the full context and what else went into this, but nothing about it made sense on the 31st and it still doesn’t. Clowser was completely overmatched and unable to do the job. Yet, Nix wasn’t going to get a snap because Clowser got the start?
