And once more the secondary was wandering aimlessly. Probably one of the most disturbing press box observations.
Sitting up here in the press box and watching the plays develop – I’m not sure if Pitt’s secondary has any idea what it is doing. There are plays when some guys are in man, some look like they are in zone and after ever reception there seems to be at least one guy waving his arms as if to say “what the heck just happened?” I don’t know what the problem is, but it needs to get solved quickly.
Don’t ask Aaron Berry, though, he’s as stunned as anyone else.
“Honestly, I can’t tell you [what went wrong in the secondary],” Berry said.
“We’re in position to make plays, we’re just not making them. [The interference call], I don’t even think I touched him, I don’t even know what I did and the one on [Jared Holley], I thought that was a horrible penalty, too.
“That’s part of the game, we can’t dwell on that, that did not lose the game.”
No, it didn’t. Yet Berry seems to not have any grasp of why the secondary looked like it was absolutely clueless. Where’s Paul Rhoads to kick around when I need him?
Mick Williams, though, has an idea of what was part of the problem.
“It comes down to tackling,” said defensive tackle Mick Williams, who had eight tackles. “We missed too many tackles. We didn’t play disciplined enough to win this game.”
Congrats to the Pitt defense and secondary in particular for making Russell Wilson the odds-on-favorite for ACC Offensive Player of the Week. Oh, and one of the nominees for national player of the week honors. Well done.
Not that Wilson didn’t have help. Remember when Rutgers came into town last year, and after the game Coach Wannstedt expressed surprise at how much Rutgers threw the ball rather than run. This despite everyone else knowing that the Scarlet Knights had no real running game, a pretty good QB and two outstanding receivers.
Well, apparently Coach Wannstedt’s game preparation failed to notice Russell Wilson can do a lot more if you look at game tape from last year and note that he was getting a key member of the O-line back for this game.
After staying in the pocket for most of the first three games, Wilson showed off the speed that made him the ACC’s most feared dual-threat quarterback last season.
“We didn’t see him scramble like this at all this year,” said Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt. “He made things happen on his own. He’s a leader, and a winner.”
Biting tongue. Biting tongue. Not going to say anything. Moving on.
As gut-wrenching and painful a loss as this was to Pitt, you would think that in Wolfpack land this would be a significant win that speaks to a team on the rise and making noise. Or not.
The only thing that made the N.C. State football team content Saturday evening was the outcome.
The path the Wolfpack took to its third consecutive victory of the season wasn’t all that pretty.
N.C. State had nearly as many penalties as points in the first half.
The Wolfpack missed a pair of not-so-long field goals.
A poor snap in the game’s final three minutes nearly ruined the day.
In the face of it all, N.C. State somehow came away with a 38-31 victory over previously-undefeated Pittsburgh beneath a dreary sky at Carter-Finley Stadium.
Even Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien was somewhat baffled at the end result.
“In the final analysis, we’re not a very good football team right now,” O’Brien said. “We’ve made too many mistakes, and I’ve done a bad job coaching. We have to face up to some facts. We were lucky enough to escape with a victory today, but going into the ACC, I don’t think that performance will get it done.”
It was a harsh, but honest, assessment by O’Brien…
And no, this wasn’t an isolated storyline. The theme was that Wilson is a god, and the Wolpack needs to be very grateful he’s theirs.
An incredible athlete saved a “bad” team from defeat Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium.
Quarterback Russell Wilson put on a dazzling display of running and passing in the final 19 minutes to help N.C. State wipe out a 14-point deficit and pull out a 38-31 non-conference win against previously unbeaten Pittsburgh.
Hell, even a stubborn, boring offense, run-first guy like NC State Coach Tom O’Brien knows enough to stay out of the way.
“With the quarterback, the way he’s playing, we’ll keep slinging it around the yard and see what happens,” coach Tom O’Brien said.
Even as he’s down on himself and the rest of his team.
“Right now, we’re not a good football team, and I’m not a good coach,” Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien said. “I have a lot of work to do this week.”
Which says, exactly what about Pitt?
Not that some weren’t expecting Pitt to have this kind of seizing defeat from victory moment.
I can’t be the only one who spent the first month of the season wondering when the requisite Pitt choke job would bite the undefeated Panthers.
All those who expected it to come in the form of a defensive implosion take two steps forward. Not so fast, Mr. Cook.
“I thought defensively we didn’t make any plays,” Wannstedt said, ever the master of the obvious. “Their offense made all the plays.”
It’s a crying shame because Pitt’s offense — especially quarterback Bill Stull — played well enough to win. If you’re like me, you’re probably feeling a little foolish for thinking he would be Pitt’s big weakness this season. Really, Stull threw only one bad ball all day — an overthrow out of the end zone on fourth-and-goal in the final 80 seconds after Pitt recovered a fumbled shotgun snap by the Wolfpack at the North Carolina State 8 with 2:45 left. A play earlier, he threw a pretty pass that tight end Dorin Dickerson could have caught for the tying touchdown, although it would have been an above-average catch.
But the game shouldn’t have come down to that final Pitt series. When Stull threw a 79-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin late in the third quarter to give the Panthers a 31-17 lead, it should have been enough for the defense.
Great defenses rise to the occasion at that point of the game, right?
Not Pitt’s.
North Carolina State went 45, 83 and 71 yards on its next three possessions for touchdowns.
Yeah, that’s some defense.
It’s safe to say the defense is in crisis mode. Probably best to have a short week with a Friday night game. Not time to dwell. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.
It’s true, every time I watch the DBs they’re all running around, yelling and pointing fingers. They seem to never be set.
I blame this mostly on coaching. Their coach, Hafley, guaranteed us Joiseyans a victory over RU. I think he should focus on coaching instead of prognostication.
Definitely, the defense was the culprit, but here is some food for thought from Zeise this morning. I think there is a lot of substance to it in that I believe Pitt started every 2nd half series with a handoff to the tailback (Lewis was 9 for 16 in the 2nd half.)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09271/1001299-233.stm
Its real simple, when the opposing team comes out in 3 and 4 wide sets, How about either going to a mickle or dime with a spy, or have the outside backers go to zone coverage and have the middle backer spy a scrabler like Wilson, or Jaret Brown. Im a former high school JV coach and even I can see we where in teh wrong D Saturday.
Go P! Go I! Go P I double T!
At least Penn State lost.
I’m just tired of these bad losses…games Pitt should have dominated in we somehow find a way to lose….truly pathetic!
How could anyone think a dual-threat QB would run AND throw? Why game plan for that?
(Note to Bob Smizik: here’s how you tell when a team is not making adjustments. If one team keeps doing the same thing and it keeps working, the other team is likely not making adjustments.)
Comment by steve 09.28.09 @ 8:03 am
It is simple cause and effect!
I’m sure all the negative Pitt fans are sending bad vibes to Wanny and the players, therefore causing very poor play.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Too much acid during your college days or just bad vibes?
LOL!!!!
It should be obvious that it is not the coaching … it is the players …. they obviously drank the kool-aid that they are a superior unit, only they obviously forgot how to do it. Penalties, missed tackles and assigments are all symptons of a lack of focus, and maybe now that they actually lost, they will hopefully play with some desperation .. it is up to senior leaders like Williams and Mustakas to take over, and make every player accountable.
The time of the game between the University of Connecticut football team and Pittsburgh on Saturday, October 10 will be determined six days prior to the event. ABC will take a 6-day selection option and will commit to televising either UConn at Pittsburgh or West Virginia at Syracuse on a regional basis at 3:30pm.
The game not selected by ABC will become the BIG EAST Network Game of the Week at Noon and will be televised by the BIG EAST Network through ESPN Regional Television.
http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/collegesports/default.aspx
As I sat in the press box and reflect on this game – a 38-31 loss to N.C. State — one of the writers who covers N.C. State said to me “this has to be one of the worst losses you’ve covered, right?” to which I laughed and said, “not even close….”…and that may speak a lot more about the state of Pitt’s football program than anything I could write in this space after that complete meltdown in the final 18 minutes of that game tonight.
But that got me to thinking — and just in case you need to be reminded — I started covering the Panthers in 2002 and so where does this loss rank in the list of the mind-boggling, poorly played and poorly coached Pitt losses that I’ve had the pleasure to cover since then. So before we get into the game, and without further delay, here are the worst Pitt losses since I’ve covered the team….
1.) Ohio 16, Pitt 10, OT (2005) – It is one thing to get beat by a MAC team. It is another to get beat by a bad MAC team, particularly when they don’t score an offensive touchdown. But this loss was the difference between the Panthers going bowling in 2005 – a year after going to the Fiesta Bowl. This is the worst team Pitt has lost to since I’ve covered the team. The Panthers dominated this game in every category, but played for a field goal at the end (instead of the touchdown) to tie it and send it to overtime.
2.) Connecticut 46, Pitt 45, OT (2006) – The Panthers led the Huskies by 14 points with about nine minutes to play. But they got too conservative on offense and allowed the Huskies, led by quarterback D.J. Hernandez, to go on two long touchdown drives to tie the game then the Huskies won it in overtime. Once again, if they win this game – against a team which finished 4-8 – they go bowling. Instead, they finish 6-6 and stay home. Hernandez, by the way, was such a good quarterback that he was moved to wide receiver the next spring.
3.) Navy 48, Pitt 45 (2007) — At some point we all believed there would be some, any defensive adjustments in this game but they never came and the Midshipmen basically ran up and down the field against the same defense. But despite that and a whole lot of other head-scratching moments, the Panthers still had a chance to win as they trailed by three in double overtime and had third-and-goal from the 2. It was simple, right? Hand the ball to your second-round draft pick running back and run behind your first-round draft choice tackle – a guy who had fish flopped Navy defensive linemen around the field the entire night — once or maybe twice and win the game…..or maybe not. Instead of running twice, the Panthers chose to put the ball in their freshman quarterbacks hands, he threw two fades and neither was close to connecting. The loss was the difference between a 5-7 season and a 6-6 season which might have been enough to get to a bowl.
4.) Bowling Green, 27 Pitt 17 (2008) – Pitt jumped out to a lead then (are we getting a pattern here yet) got ridiculously conservative, left Bowling Green – a MAC team which finished 6-6 and a team which saw its coach fired at the end of the season — in the game and by the time it figured out it was in a game, was scrambling to try and get back into it. The Panthers had several opportunities early to blow the game open but opted instead to punt inside the 36 on fourth-and-short.
5.) West Virginia 24, Pitt 17 (2002) – Yes, I know, it is a rivarly game and the Mountaineers were on the rise that season but the Panthers, who were at home, dominated the game but turned it over four times — three of them either in or down near the redzone. And as bad they played, they still had one last chance but the always reliable Larry Fitzgerald dropped a game-tying touchdown on the Panthers final drive.
6.) Texas A&M 14, Pitt 12 (2002) – All together now — “the swinging gate”!!! Pitt might have won this game had it not been for the ridiculous decision to try some sort of swinging gate formation on the first touchdown the Panthers scored. Pitt took a bunch of illegal shift penalties on it and ended up missing the extra point. Then, when the Panthers scored late, they had to go for two to try and tie the game and didn’t make it.
7.) Toledo 35, Pitt 31 (2003) – Unlike Ohio and Bowling Green, the Rockets were at least a good MAC team. Still, the Panthers, ranked in the top ten, put former Seton-LaSalle star and then-Toledo quarterback Bruce Gradkowski in the college hall of fame in this game. But despite an awful performance by the defense, the Panthers still could have won this game had they converted a late third-and-1. Of course, instead of quarterback sneaking Pitt’s 230 or 240-pound quarterback or running a fullback who is now in the NFL – against a defensive line they pushed around – the Panthers opted to throw a wide receiver screen, behind the line of scrimmage to the left side of a left-handed quarterback (meaning he had to turn his body the wrong way and was throwing back behind the receiver) and the play failed, Pitt punted and Toledo marched down the field for the winning touchdown.
8.) North Carolina State 38, Pitt 31 (today) – The Panthers led 31-17 with four minutes left in the third quarter agianst an opponent that defines mediocrity – and that is a common theme with just about every one of these losses. But somehow Pitt allowed NC State to go down the field three times and score touchdowns in the final 18 minutes of the game. The second and third drives had all of the gems of a bad loss — penalties, missed tackles, failure to get off the field on third-and-long and even fourth-and-long. Despite a bad performance, the Panthers had one last chance when N.C. State handed them the ball on the 8. But four plays produced zero yards and Pitt didn’t even take one shot at the “jumpball” to Jonathan Baldwin, even though he was being guarded by a 5-foot-10 guy (who I am told by N.C. State people is a former walk-on) and a freshman safety.
9.) Oregon State 3, Pitt 0 (Last year’s Sun Bowl) – The Beavers entered the game without their two best offensive weapons and it showed as they did absolutely nothing on offense and were dominated by the Panthers defense. But Pitt made sure the Beavers were never in danger of losing, despite only kicking a field goal, because they self-destructed under a barrage of bad decisions, bad plays and the Panthers never made any adjustments to try and do anything other than chuck the ball in the air and hope someone catches it. Then, the one good drive they did put together was fueled by LeSean McCoy and the running game but on third and fourth and 2 the Panthers threw the ball twice, both incomplete and turned it over on downs.
10.) Notre Dame 20, Pitt 14 (2003) – Yes, I know it is the Irish, but this was a bad version of the Irish. And they had a freshman quarterback, Brady Quinn, who did next to nothing but didn’t have to because the Irish ran Julius Jones off tackle for like 9,876 yards…..Pitt on the other hand couldn’t protect its quarterback and never made any adjustments, for whatever reason, to slow down the Irish pass rush. The Panthers also blew all three of their time-outs in the third quarter (then couldn’t stop the clock late when they needed to) because they couldn’t get plays into the game quick enough. Of course, we (the stinking media) asked Walt Harris after the game what was the problem getting the plays in and he produced this gem “It is hard to call plays when you are not sure which ones will work!” Really?
11.) Nebraska 7, Pitt 6 (2005) – Nobody expected Pitt to win this game, but the Panthers should have won it except: Greg Lee was somehow caught from behind on a pass down the sidelines in which he had about two steps on the corner covering him and there was no safety over the top — of course, instead of running straight to the endzone, he ran across the field and was caught and Pitt had to settle for a field goal; Pitt had Nebraska’s quarterback sacked for a go-ahead safety, but he somehow shed the tackle and got out of the endzone. Pitt then lined up on third down for a game-winning field goal and even caught a break when the ball was centered off the holders helmet and Josh Cummings grabbed it and threw it into the flat for an incomplete pass – which stopped the clock and gave Pitt one more chance — but the field goal was blocked and the Panthers lived at heartbreak hotel yet again.
Honorable Mention: Notre Dame 14, Pitt 6 (2002) – The Panthers dominated the Irish in every category but couldn’t get out of its own way in the redzone. Michigan State 17, Pitt 13 (2007). The Panthers would have won had they punted on first down every drive of the first half. Instead they insisted on turning the ball over. All 17 of Michigan State’s points came off turnovers.
one other point. i find it ironic that our nfl circa 1989 mentality, field possession, ultra-conservative head coach can recruit pretty solid athletes yet can’t seem to teach them the fundamentals of defensive football – tackling. week after week, it’s “well, we just didn’t tackle well today”. that’s like a basketball team saying we didn’t shoot well today. tackling (and blocking) is the primary skill required to be successful in the game of football and we don’t do it very well. nice.
Then I sat and read comments after reading Chas’s posts. LOU is the one that I completely agree with.
While there isn’t much that can be said for defending the secondary…I disagree with those that say DeCicco & Aaron Berry aren’t fit to be D-I starters. Both have the physical attributes & talent…both are GOOD ENOUGH athletes to EXCEL in the Pitt secondary. I would be willing to bet that DeCicco graded pretty well after film review as far as assignments go…just poorly on tackling. I disagree that he had a lot of mental breakdowns, just some really important 3rd down plays where he was flat-footed and needed to be more agressive instead of sitting back and catching. Berry continues to disappoint from an “nfl prospect” standpoint because he’s supposed to be a cover-corner. I was in the endzone corner for the pass interference call & then watched it on tape…the tv viewpoint showed his hand on the lower back of the receiver, though not enough to impede the receiver’s jump nor was the ball catchable. It was a bad call, but Berry’s jump wasn’t timed well either.
My biggest concern is no longer the secondary. It is Coach Bennett’s defensive system/inability to adjust. While they played man in alot of situations (a correct decision according to NC State’s offense), LOU hit the nail on the head for what I kept thinking the whole time. CAN WE PLEASE GET A $*%@ing SPY on Wilson? There was ZERO…ZERO contain from any linebacker. The 4th & 14 play was the game. You stop that, I believe it would have been a different outcome. The defensive line was lousy…but when they did get pressure (and they did more than you think), it was flushing Wilson to the outside & then there was no contain. You have to have a spy in that situation if you’re going to flush out…if not, you rush from the outsides & force him to come up the middle where you have bodies.
I’m negative, I’m depressed today…the season isn’t over…but can we please make some serious defensive adjustments? Can we please inform Coach Cignetti that he’s got to throw to his enormously tall wide receiver after a gift-fumble on at least 2 of the downs? Can we please tell Coach Bennett that he’s going to see qb’s like Wilson again and needs to put a spy package into the defense? AND, can we please tell Wanny that his coaching staff is just doing a poor job & they’ve got to improve drastically now, or it’s time for Jeff Long to cut the cord, even for this Wanny-band wagon fan.
The offense didn’t help anyone out by disappearing. What the hell happened out there?
I can only conclude you thrive on mediocrity and think Pitt’s best days were during the Micheloson era. Some of us want a whole lot more.
Berry is a horrible leader and an absolute disappointment. In my opinion, Berry needs to be benched. He should be the loudest mouth on the field but all you hear is crying and see negative body language. I don’t expect an All-American at this point but I expect leadership, accountability and desire to win. The horrible part is that he will still make an All-Big East something at the end of the year.
We all knew this team wasn’t going undefeated. But, that’s a game that we should have won. Now we have to go play a desperate Louisville team on the road that wants to bury our chances of a conference title. I still see us winning that game because our defensive line comes through for us. That part of the defense looks great.
I can’t complain about the offense. They are miles ahead of the curve right now. There are weapons everywhere and Cignetti has used them. If two months ago you told me that the offense would outplay the defense, I would have laughed in your scotch. Now I have to drink it. Oh well, we are 3-1. The season isn’t over yet but somebody has to tell the defense that.
This, sadly, is the only way I can medicate myself after a loss like this.
On a positive note, this loss PALES in comparison to BG last year. Bar none, the worst loss ever in my eyes.
Short week. Time to man, up.
What’s the deal with UL?
The sad thing is, this is the same thing we saw under Walt Harris. The difference is, we don’t see the likes of Tony Dorsett and the boosters screaming about these bad losses because we have a Pitt guy.
The sad thing is, we have a guy who we know will never leave Pitt. But, no one else wants to hire him.
http://bebballreportpitt.blogspot.com/2009/01/will-pitt-football-ever-become-power.html
http://bebballreportpitt.blogspot.com/2009/01/clarification-on-football-article.html
But college football is a wide-open game these days and there are going to be times when you need to score 40 or more to win. If you don’t believe that, you’re trapped in the past. To that point, unless you’re USC and all your QBs are headed to the NFL, I just don’t see why you’d go into battle without a QB who’s a dual-threat player.
Running around and making plays when things break down is what wins games in today’s style of college football. Whether it’s Wilson beating Pitt or the kid at Michigan or the new kids at Miami and USF, everywhere you look you see athletes at QB scrambling and making plays. And then we have Bill Stull, who can make a few nice throws early in games but who just doesn’t have the ability to grab a game by the balls and win it late by making big plays with his feet and his arm.
I want a playmaker back there to win games even when the defense sucks. And we all get that maybe Wannstedt doesn’t have a better option than Stull right now, but that’s not the point. What’s surprising is how the Pitt quarterback strategy seems to fundamentally misunderstand the current college game. Maybe the Gonzalez thing is a recognition that things have changed. Even if it is, it’s woefully, woefully late.
I generally agree with your comments, but I have to disagree about handing the ball off to Lewis on 1st down. According to ESPN’s BE Blog, Lewis is averaging over 6 yards per carry on 1st down. I’ll take a 2nd and 4 or a 2nd and 3 every series!
Couldn’t agree more re: the coaching. While the head coach is ultimately responsible for the product on the field, Wanny wasn’t out there missing tackles. Further, if Pitt fires him, who are they going to get? As much as I love the Panthers, it is not a program in a position to get a “name” coach.
ESPN Big East Blog link re: Lewis: http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/3143/next-level-stats-in-the-big-east
I also hate the overused comment that the head coach isn’t at fault because he isn’t kissing tackles because he is the one who is bringing in kids who can’t tackle.
I understand that Pitt has had big time coaches in the past, but the program has unfortunately fallen quite a ways since then. While I would rather beat NCST than not, I definitely do not want to start all over again. All in all, I feel we are on a steady, albeit slow, upward trajectory as a program, with a 10 win season and BCS bowl not out of the question. Time will tell if I am too trusting in Wanny, but right now I’d rather have the devil I know than the devil I don’t. This team has the talent that it should be AT LEAST a 9 win team… if it is not, I will gladly admit to my ignorance.
As to the tackling comment, both Elijah Fields and Aaron Berry were excellent recruits (Fields was a 3-star Rivals and Berry a 4-star). As I neglected to say before – I agree that the buck stops at the head coach. However, when I watched the game, it seemed much more like good players making boneheaded decisions than a failure of athletic ability. Maybe that is Dave’s fault, maybe not – I’m not at practice. All in all, I was generally pleased with last season (Sun Bowl notwithstanding) and I am not ready to throw out the current regime after 1 close loss.
I hope I am not stepping on any toes here. I have no dog in the fight, but as an outsider who follows college football in general closely, my two cents are that you folks could/should be doing better than Wannstedt.
I saw the quote linked above re “We didn’t see him scramble like this at all this year,” and was just dumbfounded. South Carolina gameplanned their entire defense around not letting Wilson escape the pocket. When he got outside SC had multiple defenders blocking the running lanes. So he didn’t run in the first game because SC didn’t let him, and he didn’t run in the next two games because we were playing scrubs and he didn’t need to. Last year Wilson shredded any team that didn’t at least try to contain him. When Wilson got outside the pocket against Pitt, no one was there to stop him. The DBs weren’t even cognizant of the possibilty of a scramble most of the time, it seemed. What was your defensive staff thinking?
I hear about Wannstedt being a great recruiter, but his classes aren’t ranked THAT highly and moreover I think other coaches could recruit just as well or better. Pitt has a lot of advantages. You guys should be the team to beat in the Big East, or close to it, every year. Personally I’d have preferred Pitt joining the ACC instead of BC, not sure how you feel about that.
Good luck the rest of the season.
Only Pitt fans defend Wannstedt, everyone else (and even some in our fan base) know that he sucks.
Good guy for Pitt, bad guy for Pitt football.
Its F.C.J. time.
These days it is generally accepted that if you are negative about something then you are being realistic- whether that is about football or anything else. To be optimistic is to be naive and to be negative is to see things as they really are.
Bull.
Neither I nor those others on here who have failed to jump on the “fire Wanny now, after 1 loss this season” bandwagon after this first loss have said that Wanny is a great coach, that he will win us a national championship given enough time, or that he had nothing to do with the loss.
Most of us have stated exactly like everyone else, that this game was one we let slip away. We have acknowledged that there are glaring problems on the defensive side of the ball. And I in particular pointed out that our inability to run the ball in the second half is killing us AND is at least partially a coaching issue.
Just because we don’t think that Dave Wannstedt should be fired because of Saturday’s game doesn’t mean we see the world through rose colored glasses. We started this season 3-0, something we haven’t done in a long time. Sad, I know. But that should speak to where this program has been for a LONG time. We started 3-0 by beating two teams that we absolutely should have beat, and a third team (Navy) that almost beat a top ranked Ohio State team.
We then lost a game to a team we could have beat. On a given Saturday, maybe we should have beat them. But we are 3-1. We still have a shot at going 9-3 for the regular season- which I would be happy with- not because it 9-3 is stellar and makes us elite, but because I am realistic about where we are as a program right now. We are still growing and improving, which means there will be bumps in the road. Someone suggested that 9-3 every year and a “crappy” (as they put it) bowl appearance isn’t good enough. Funny that two years ago most of us would have peed our pants if we were told we would go 9-3 every year with a shot at a 10th win in a bowl game. That would give us the occasional 10 or 11 win season, and maybe the occasional 8 win season. Sounds like a good place to aspire to for a team that has had as little success as we have had the last 25 years.
As far as “defending Wanny” is concerned, I don’t defend him. I agree that he makes mistakes. He has also made MAJOR strides for us that didn’t happen under any other coach since the Dan Marino days. I agree that he isn’t a stellar game day coach. But then again everyone complained that he was too committed to the pro-style offense and what did he do? He fired Cav, hired a college OC, and has worked on recruiting college style QBs. So he clearly gets that he needs to make changes. I suspect that he will still make boneheaded decisions in the future, because he is prone to them. But he isn’t as stubborn and set in stone on doing things one certain way as he is often accused of.
I am not saying that we are going to go 9-3, 10-2, or 11-1. We very well could be 3-3 a few weeks from now. If that is the case, then many of us who don’t think that 1 loss this season after giving us a HUGE 9 win season AND 2 straight wins over WVU is grounds for firing may change our tune. If we finish .500 for the season, that is unacceptable. But losing a game isn’t the end of the world. That is the perspective that many of us are trying to drive home. Losses happen. More of them are going to happen.
Pete Carroll took a loss to a pathetic Washington team two weeks ago. Fire him. Ten top 10 teams have lost this season, and I believe 8 of those losses came to unranked opponents. It is just perspective. We AREN’T elite like USC. If they can lose to a team they should dominate, then can we?
I was furious after the Pitt game Saturday. I wanted to burn all my Pitt stuff and hide in a hole I was so mad. Then I looked at the schedule and saw a nationally televised winnable game for this Friday and decided that everything in my life hadn’t just crashed and burned.
Receivers stop dropping balls. Start running the ball effectively in the second half. Figure SOMETHING out with the secondary. And let’s see how the rest of the season goes before we call it all a loss and demand a new coach.
The hell with the Big East. I root for Pitt to win. I root for WVU to lose. End of story. I root for the other Big East teams so the conference looks better. But if Pitt only got 1 win in a season and WVU had only 1 loss, and it was Pitt beating WVU and keeping them from a BCS title, then that is FANTASTIC. I will never root for Pitt to lose for the good of the conference and I will never root for WVU to win at anything for the good of the conference.
I was in Charleston, WV in July with a Pitt shirt on and a guy working in a sporting goods store was bitching at me because Pitt cost (his) WVU a national title shot two years ago. He was still bitter, and that made my DAY.
I read these Blogs and Boards every day – and can’t count how many posters looked at the schedule in pre-season and said that the NC State game would be a big test and would probably be a loss. Many fans figured we’d have 2-3 losses this season – and listed NC State among those. But, now that their own predictions have come true, it’s the worst possible thing that could happen to PITT, ever!!
Seriously, we are 3-1 with an out of conference loss… how bad can that really be? Everyone would have liked to have won that game, but we didn’t. Guess what – this is sports folks – it’s not supposed to go in any pre-planned manner.
… And Justin, really – if a PITT loss bothers you so much that you get into a public argument afterwards perhaps you need to read a book on the history of PITT football over the last 25 years to put things in perspective. In every one of those years our fans would have killed to start out 3-1.
What was NC State’s record last year?
Did they have a winning season or go to a bowl game?
Were they picked in the top 25?
NC State is a mediocre ACC team, sort of like Pitt.
This is a mediocre football program, Pitt has not had a 10 win season since 1981!
The first three wins this year were against cupcakes, they played a decent team last week and lost.
How many total yards did the defense give up?
Per the PPG Wanny stated in his press conference yesterday;
“Wannstedt also harped on all of the penalties the Panthers are taking”
Of course he takes no responsibility, maybe all that talent he recruited is going to waste because of poor coaching.
Look for a close game Friday, two moronic headcoaches with no clue!
NCS returned 14 starters from last year’s team which was loaded with several 1st time starters … including a QB named Wilson. They improved as the year progressed and won their last 4 ACC games, including wins against 3 bowl-bound teams. They did play in a bowl game losing 29 to 23 to another team that even had a better 2nd half of the season that they did … Rutgers (remember them?)
There is EVERY reason to believe that this team, when healthy (and they were their healthiest so far vs Pitt) to compete in the ACC this year.
Artie, I suggest you become a college football pollster …. you have about as much knowledge as most of those morons.
Whatever NC State did last year was last year. While you’re throwing that out, you might as well throw out whatever their preseason projections were because the first four weeks of this season has rendered a lot of preseason conjecture absolutely useless, and that goes for the top of the polls all the way down.
You say Pitt is a mediocre football program and that we haven’t had a ten-win season since 1981. I’d be curious to see how many different BCS-caliber programs HAVE had ten-win seasons since that point. I’d also love to know how much we’re supposed to hold Wannstedt responsible for all of that. This program has had several coaches since 1981.
Pitt has won three games this year and in each case, they largely dominated teams they should’ve dominated. They neutralized a Navy running game that gave Ohio State fits a few weeks ago. They hung 54 points on a decent MAC squad while other decent BCS teams have been dropping games or at least struggling to beat non-BCS opponents of the same caliber as Buffalo. They dominated a Division I-AA opponent when, in seasons past, they managed to have difficulty with some of those teams (Furman?).
You say they beat three cupcakes, then played a decent team and lost. I say you could probably look across the country and see very similar patterns emerge at several other good BCS programs – one I know plays right smack in the middle of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
I’m not trying to sugarcoat things here – this team has issues that need to be addressed. And trust me, there are things about Wannstedt that drive me nuts.
But as Reed said in his post, even the elite teams are not immune to bad losses or, in this case, letting a game slip away.
The bottom line is that this Pitt team still has a very legitimate shot to win the Big East and go to a BCS bowl game. I look at the schedule and right now, I still don’t see any games that I’d say Pitt would be a decisive underdog playing, and that includes WVU and Cincinnati. Both Oregon State and Fresno State showed that it’s possible to keep up with Cincinnati, and we’ve got the rest of the season to get the other issues straightened out until we face those two teams. They have a legitimate shot to hit that 10-win mark.
Let’s Go PITT!
IMO, Wanny’s big problem is how steadfast he is to his beliefs, and continues the pro mentality of playing not to lose instead of playing to win. He continues to play too conservatively on offense with a lead, and he is very reluctant to make adjustments on defense when things are breaking down (Rutgers last year pus this past Saturday.)
But we knew this about him … and by hiring coordinators with college backgrounds and recruiting mobile QBs, he does appear to be adapting … but way too slow.
Nonetheless, there is no fan with higher but false expectations than a college fan … I assure you that there are several coaches being villified across the country this week … it is part of the college (and pro) sports environment.
If we can’t run the spared, at leat bring back Jock’s single wing.
Is Brohm still at QB? (kidding, I know he is not, it just seemed like he was there forever…highly touted recruit who never amounted to his potential, always seemed to be hurt too)
I honestly have no idea how good this Louiville team is at this point in the season, and I’m not buying anybody’s take in the media.
Hail to Pitt!
But stats are funny things. To not win there in 26 years sounds so daunting. We haven’t won on the Moon in 26 years though, either. So just the mention of that stat alone isn’t enough information to say whether or not we should be concerned.
Personally, I am disappointed also because I thought the defense would come together after the Buffalo game and the way we played against Navy. This really concerns me, and will each week I suppose, especially since we have basically the same personnel we had last season when our defense was pretty good.
At any rate, we have more games to play and more to watch as fans so it will be interesting to see how this season turns out…
The difference is that if Pitt loses any of them, any chance of a national title game (and most likely a BCS game) are gone, whereas at a major school it is not.
For Pitt to get in the class of a consistent top 15 program you can’t lose these games before you are established. It ruins your credibility with the voters, and when you are in the BE its hard to make up for that given the current weakness of the conference overall.
Could another coach be more successful here, who knows? Only the elite programs or the ones lucky enough to catch lightning in a bottle have the best. What can be said about DW is that he is neither – the history is undisputable.
Just because you are frustrated with this situation as an alum/ fan does not mean you dont support the team.
People keep looking at Wanny’s overall record, and I keep pointing out three things:
1) he was left with a pretty good QB but little else from probably the wrost BCS bowl team ever. People coveniently forget that the 04 team needed OT to be Furman at home, and the top receiver on that team was a 5’8′ sophomore walk-on.
2) Walt did a good job rebuilding but never had less than 4 losses in any season. The first part of the 01 season, when he unsuccessfully tried a spread and started 1-5, was probably worse than anything Wanny has done. Note that Pitt good enough in the end to be Va Tech 38-2 and Phillip Rivers and NCS 34-19 in a bowl game.
3) and I have pointed this out many times … in the time that Wanny took over, WVU, RU, UC and UL has had the greatest teams in the history of their programs … and for that matter, so has UConn & USF albeit a short history. THIS IS NOT BULLSHIT, people … look it up!
Pitt had the most wins last year since ’82, and appears to be capable of anther good year despite Saturday’s disappointment …. but at least a close at NC State is a major disappointment, which, if you look over our long history, hasn’t always been the case.
WE still have quality here but not nearly the quantity from back in the 70s when local kids made up the large part of thos good Pitt teams of the late 70s. If you want proof, consider the Florida players who played here during this decade that were not recruited by the big schools … Antonio Bryant, Torrie Cox, Clint Sessions, NB Blades, Gus Mustakas, Greg Lee, Claude Harriott, Greg Romeus … and this is just off the top of my head!
Whether people want to accept this or not, Pitt can do, and has mostly done, a lot worse than what they are doing now.
I havent given up hope for a good season but we need some answers for this defense. They looked confused, disgruntled, and emotionless. Scott McKillop, we knew we would miss you and now we know just how good you were. Its sad watching a less talented SFU team without their sr qb beat up on the noles while we cant hold a late 2 td lead against a middle of the pack acc team. I agree, its good to have a short week, this team needs to forget about nc state and move on.