The “Pitt On Opening Day” section on page 4 of that PDF is interesting. I had almost forgotten that you were even **allowed** to start the season against a good team.

What will be more interesting than this starting lineup for the opener – after all if you followed camp there are no real surprises on it – will be how the starting lineup looks in Game 5 when we start the BE schedule.

Maybe this is the season where the staff – meaning DW – realizes it has enough talent in the two deep to make some changes if necessary.

I’m hoping this is the case anyway – we have some very good young kids waiting in the wings who may shine enough in the early going so that they could move up the depth chart. I could see Mason doing this, perhaps even Holley and Shanahan when he comes back. Two guys I don’t see being able to do this are Fields at safety – because 1) I think Tags is going to do very well there and 2) because I just think Fields can’t rise to the consistency you need at that position.

Then, of course you have the 2nd string QB… Sunseri, who everyone seems to want. But, my take on this is that is we get to the position where he has won the starting job in-season, we are basically screwed by that point anyway as it would have happened as a result of Stull’s poor play in the earlier games – which means losses. I don’t think DW is going to yank Stull unless his play translates into losses folks.

Best case scenario is that the Panthers start out strong and get big enough leads where the staff can get these inexperienced kids PT – because nothing in the past has shown they will otherwise.

Wanny claims nothing is scripted when it comes to when Tino will play, and it will depend on how the games go. Is it possible that the more Stull struggles, the less time Tino will see? An interesting conundrum … you know he wants Stull to look good and score points before inserting Tino, but will he use Tino, with no game experience, if the offense is struggling and the game is close?

Most of us see this as a no-brainer … but, of course, we coaches in the stands are much less conservative than the one on the field.

Lots open 5 hours before kick-off…can’t wait!

Since the season is about to begin, does anyone want to go on record with a prediction based on this schedule:

9/5: Youngstown St.
9/12: @ Buffalo
9/19: Navy
9/26: @ N.C. State
10/2: @ Louisville
10/10: @ UConn
10/16: @ Rutgers
10/24: USF
11/7: Syracuse
11/14: Notre Dame
11/27: @ WVU
12/5: Cincinnati

The funny thing is that Pitt is so unpredictable that I can see them going anywhere from 12-0 to 6-6….I think it will be very interesting to watch this season unfold.

10-2

losses to ND (terrible, I know) and WVU/Cincy

Probably a tie for first in Big East – could lose tiebreaker to WVU, though…

I think I am going with 9-3, losses at Rutgers and WVU. Rutgers seems to have our number and play with great confidence against us. WVU, just a gut feeling. Then pick any other random game for us to blow for the third loss. Pitt always loses at least one of these games they “should win”. But the good part of the schedule is that every game is very winnable.

Well here is my take, with some observations.

WIN Youngstown St. 27-7
WIN Buffalo (very close game) 21 -13
WIN Navy 28-10
LOSS N.C. State (Defense scores 2 TD’s) 17-14
WIN Louisville 31-14
WIN UConn 28-21
WIN Rutgers (finally) 28-17
LOSS USF (hangover from Rutgers win) 21-20
WIN Syracuse 31-17
LOSS Notre Dame 21-17
LOSS WVU (Morganhole is burned to the ground) 28-27
WIN Cincinnati (The River City trophy is ours!!!)
28-21

8-4

The UCONN game is at home this year. I noticed the PG website shows it as an away game, but it is at home.

Total Optimism
WIN YSU 52-9
WIN Buffalo 31-10
WIN Navy 45-13
WIN N.C. State 24-20
WIN Louisville 38-17
WIN UConn 38-14
WIN Rutgers 27-17
WIN USF 19-17
WIN Syracuse 38-10
WIN Notre Dame 38-34
WIN WVU 31-21
WIN Cincinnati 34-20

12-0

8-4.

losses to Buffalo, NC State, USF, Cincy.

greg, Paul Zeise agrees with you (I will be disappointed but not shocked)

link to post-gazette.com

Anywhere between 8-4 and 10-2.
Possible losses: Cincy, ND, Rutgers, NCSt

No way they lose to USF … the biggest fraud in the BCS. These darlings win enough to get mega hype and then go to pieces after 6 games.

7-5 worst case to 9-3 best case.

12-1 with Pitt’s only loss coming against Florida in the BCS Championship Game.

But really there isn’t one game on the schedule that Pitt doesn’t have a more than decent chance of winning. Toughest games are at Rutgers and at WVU. Rest are clear sailing. ND is overrated as always and Cincy lost way too many starters.

12-1?

Wow, wardapalooza!

For a team that has to replace a great running back and has named Helen Keller as their starting QB, you must admit that is a bit over the top!

Try 7-5; Pitt has some great skill players but their weakest link is the QB.

The defense is really good and will keep them in a majority of the games but without any passing offense it really doesn’t matter. (see Sun Bowl)

I see PITT going 10-3 for the 09 season with a Bowl win! P-I-T-T, LET’S GO PITT!!!!

IMHO,

Probable wins: YSU, Buffalo, Navy, UL, SU, UConn
Probable losses: RU, WVU (both away, WVU wants revenge & RU plays well at home under the lights)
BubbLe: NCSt, ND, USF, Cincy

8-4 (possibly 9-3)

does everyone realize that rutgers lost the only weapons that allowed them to salvage their season? And their best 2 defensive backs? From a 7-5 season win no games again ranked out of conference opponents?

I’ll admit they have a good coach, but other than their 4 game streak (one of which was a Pitt win in nj), Pitt was 19-3 all time against this team. They are a fraud and the only division 1A team to have not played a ranked opponent out of conference in the last 5 years. That is one team Pitt must beat this year to consider the season a success.

I say 9-3 with losses to nc state, nd, and wvu. Please for the love of God beat the everliving shit outta Radio Shack.

wanny will cost us at least one game this year w/ some bonehead move, pulling defeat from the jaws of victory, i’m guessing it will be at NCSU. so, let’s say 9-3 instead of 10-2.

WIN YSU 45-10
WIN Buffalo 38-14
WIN Navy 41-13
LOSS N.C. State 24-23
WIN Louisville 31-10
WIN UConn 34-24
LOSS Rutgers 35-13
WIN USF 27-20
WIN Syracuse 38-17
WIN Notre Dame 45-38
LOSS WVU 17-13
WIN Cincinnati 31-14

yeah, I figured 10-2 and then added in the Wanny/Pitt Letdown factor and settled on 9-3. Without a real difficult schedule, I would hope 8-4 is worst case.

Wilk,

I am with you, that is why I went with 8-4 instead of 9-3!

Here’s my, perhaps overly optimistic, forcast:

9/5: Youngstown St.: We’ll win by a lot
9/12: @ Buffalo You’ll see some bad things, you might even get nervous for a minute, but we’ll pull it out.
9/19: Navy: We’re blowing them out again.
9/26: @ N.C. State: We lose a close one on the road, Pitt Blather becomes awash with pissed off fans.
10/2: @ Louisville: We take this one by 10
10/10: @ UConn: Dunno why you put “@”, they’re coming to Heinz. We’ll win.
10/16: @ Rutgers FINALLY we beat these guys and get our revenge.
10/24: USF By this time of the season, Grothe’s usually broken down, or at least on his way to being so. We’ll win a close one here.
11/7: Syracuse: Blowout!
11/14: Notre Dame: They’re overrated again. We take them down @ Heinz
11/27: @ WVU: They’re headed for disaster, we’ll win this one.
12/5: Cincinnati: Last year was a fluke for the Bearcats. We finish off their season by kicking their asses in the ‘burgh, and Brian Kelly soon after takes a job at another school.

Then, since we’ve won the Big East, we then go to the Sugar Bowl and get the crap kicked out of us by an angry Florida team that suffered an upset or two and is not playing for the national title.

So, we basically screw up at NC State (the game where Wanny finally benches Stull for Sunseri perhaps?), realize the err of our ways, right the ship, win out, and and get crushed in a BCS bowl by Florida.

Final record: 11-2.

And yes, you can all make fun of me profusely when none of these predictions come true.

I don’t get why everyone has us losing to USF BTW.

They get the kid glove treatment from the media because they’re a newer program, but they’re just a fast, but undersized team. If you can come close to their speed (Pitt can), you can run them over because they’re not overpowering anyone.

Plus, the reason Grothe has to scramble so much is because they’ve NEVER had a good offensive line.

Either way, I’m excited. I’m about to watch (ok, well in this case find a place on the internet to listen to) my first game of meaningful football since the Super Bowl.

I love college football Saturdays, and call me corny, but goddamnit I love Pitt!

Don’t discount Rutgers. Besides a good coach they have done a good job recuiting locally in NJ as well as Florida. They will play good defense just like Pitt. They have had our number for the past 4 yrs! They are for real! And it is a good thing for the Big East. Rutgers brings the metro NYC market. When they beat Louisville a few years ago, the Empire State building was lite up in Scarlet red for a few days!

Who is Radio Shack?

I like your picks best Jimbo. Love the D this year, and can’t wait to see what pans out.

9-3 regular season, 10-3 after a bowl game… no BE championship this year.

jimbo’s my dad–I like your optimistic outlook. I will say, however, that if we are as good as you predict to go 11-1 regular season I don’t think that even an angry Florida team will be able to “blow us out” assuming you mean a game where we are physically overmatched and get manhandled at the LOS and lose by ~30+. I could certainly see a scoreboard loss under your scenario (even a double digit one) but assuming we are good enough to go 11-1 going in i wouldn’t see one where we are totally physically dominated like we were by Utah in the Jan 2005 BCS game. However, all that being said, I will be happily surprised if we go 11-1 although I do think overall talent wise we are only a truly talented (future NFL starter) QB away from being a legit MNC contender. However, since it is that most important position on the field we are talking about we remain miles away from being the MNC contender we otherwise may have the potential to be.

My biggest fear is losing games we should win. For this program to take the “next step” we cant be losing to teams like Buffalo, YSU, USF, etc. HOWEVER, that seems to be Pitt (and DW’s) MO over the last 15 years or so.

For whatever the reason, I dont see the gameday preparations/ motivation of the players to win these types of games. Sure, every program encounters these issues, but the elite ones work through them. Until I see differently, I think the best we can expect is 8-4 or 9-3.

Trust me, I hope that I am wrong – its just too hard to go against history.

Here’s what I’m willing to predict…

1-0

No further.

Not this team.

Not this coach.

Not this QB.

One game at a time.

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