My kingdom for a coach for three hours 13 Saturdays a year. Wannstedt can keep all of the other responsibilities.

If Cincy was run blitzing, then adjust and pass. Seems simple enough. Also, know what personnel your opponent has on the field. When Pitt kicks off short, Cincy had Gilyard playing up short not back to receive it. If Gilyard wasn’t back there, kick it deep. Simply outcoached on that one.

I agrre with you, Wally. I think Smizk or Cook said it last year. Wannstedt is one of the best coaches fron Sunday through Friday. I know that I am reiterating here but we NEED a special teams coach!

Did anyone really expect this coach or program to not disappoint us? It only took this long because these were the only two tough games we’ve played.

DW is a terrible game day coach and from what I understand special teams are his responsibility. No excuse for the stupid coaching.

Besides having to try and defeat cinci we had to beat the refs too. How do you pick up a face mask flag??? It either is one or isnt???

Just another example of pitt not being able to perform when it counts the most. If pitt had any real dignity they would decline their bowl invitation and use the time to practice for next year. The coaches, players, and fans dont want to be in Charlotte so why waste everyones time? I look for our uninspired team to get a good ass kicking on national tv just to add insult to injury.

Another year in the books!

Being a PITT fan is harder than being and Eagles fan.

Coach Ditka – some of us will be in Charlotte to support our team. I am not delusional in thinking this isn’t a hugely disappointing season. I have been dealing with them since the Mike Gottfried era. However, Pitt needs support in Charlotte in order to lay a foundation for the coming years. Pitt’s reputation is of a team that doesn’t travel well. Charlotte is about 7 hrs from the ‘Burgh, and easy morning drive for a 4:30pm kick-off. Since Pitt has a history under DW of not finishing, it seems unlikely that the BCS national championship game is within reach under DW and even a BCS bowl may be a stretch. Therefore, Pitt will be relegated to third tier cool weather Christmastime bowls. Traveling well may make it more likely that Pitt can go to the Champs Sports Bowl (maybe second-tier, but warm and on New Year’s).

If lewis goes down at the one, then we have time to use clock, cincy would have used remaining time outs….but would have been alot less time then……coaching was pathetic, this team played hard and played well enough to win…..coaches put this team in bad positions all day…single coverage, running into run blitz, play action fake on 4th and forever for the game, special teams decisions…cant blame the team only the coaches….something has to give for this program.

In the beginning of the season, most fans and “experts” had Pitt lucky to go 7-5, 8-4. I realize some had us as a dark horse BE championship team. The question marks on Bill Stull, the new OC, and whatnot. While I am not happy with either of the losses to end the season, Pitt played very exciting offensive football all season, with the exception of the WVU game, scored in the thirties almost every game. Even the games they lost, they were in it at the end. I am excited about the direction the program is going under Wannstedt. Top 10 ranking for several weeks, top 25 finish, consistantly in bowls, adds up to a sucessful season in my book. Sure, did I want more? absolutely!!, do I think we left the Turkey on the table? sure! but hey, we have better recruits coming, the core of the o-line is back, we actually have talented o-line prospects to step in(not always true in the past) Just like in basketball, the best is yet to come.

I know I haven’t been the most positive Pitt fan out there, the BG loss last year brought out the worst in me, but lets pull together and be positive Pitt fans for once. Hey, weve been there under Foge, and Majors 2nd coming, this is way better! Lets enjoy what could be the high point of Pitt athletics for years to come!
I fully expect us to blow N.C. out of the water and make a statement that the BE is here to stay. There isn’t one BE team in a bowl that can’t win. Go BE! go Pitt!!

Pitt fans don’t even attend games in Pittsburgh. Maybe Pitt will sell 5,000 tickets to the bowl game. (maybe)

Basics on special teams hurt. Down one point with 39 seconds or so left – you don’t run a kick-off back out of the end zone…you down it and start from the 20 – no time lost.

Since Im sure the team wont take my advice and refuse any bowl game invite, DW should at least do us a favor and refuse to coach in it.

PS: 9-3 is not a good year when you play a soft schedule….

A couple things to posters above:

First, I would love to have a special teams coach, however the number of coaches a team can have is capped by the NCAA. If Pitt did get a ST coach, it would come at the expense of someone like Buddy Morris, who by all accounts is a weight training god.

Second, I could not disagree more witht the whole lets-not-go-to-the-bowl thing. Pitt tied for second place in the conference (although, in reality they are third). While that is disappointing considering where they were at a few weeks ago, this team was 90 seconds awa

Back in 1981 I threw a chair through a wall during Pitt’s total collapse against Penn State in a 14-48 lost after Pitt being up 14-0. Pitt was undefeated up till then! Last game of the season! National Championship implications! Lost to PENN STATE!!! Just kill me now. I’m much more reflective and mild mannered now. Know what, sun came up again the next day after that loss. Listen, if all you heartbroken Pitt fans WERE NOT Pitt fans and just watched this game casually on TV (since it was the warm up game to the SEC Championship, a REAL championship game), you know what you would of thought about the Pitt-Cincy game at the end? “Best damn college football game I ever watched” that’s what. Yea Pitt lost. Man that hurts! But you know what, Pike and the Bearcats did to us what an undefeated championship team does, it wins! Get over it. This was a fantastic game! A classic. This Pitt team saw up close and personal how you win a championship. Now it will be up to the leaders of next year’s squad to figure out how to use that emotional baggage to inspire the team in the future. You know, there was not one mention of playing for the “River City Rivalry” trophy during the game. Why, because up to this point there has been no “rivalry” with Cincy. That might change a little bit starting next year. That’s what games like this create. This year’s Pitt team was an unknown just 4 months ago. We had no proven running back, the QB situation was a mystery, nobody predicted better than a 9-3 season, but then we were predicted to compete for the Big East title anyhow in a “weak conference”. Well, it kinda worked out that way with some BIG surprizes along the way. One surprize was kicking the sh*t out of the Bearcats for an entire 1st half to get us in the position to lose a 21 point lead in the last minute of the game in the first place! Who predicted that pregame? All I know is that the “Big Least” is not the weakest conference around and plays some exciting football games. Anybody remember the UCONN comeback. How about the whipping we put on USF? And the Refs overturning Clausen’s incomplete pass to a fumble on review to keep us from having that SOB from pulling victory out from the jaws of defeat again was a change for once. This has been a really fun season to watch Pitt football. Come on it’s only a game. A soap opera for guys, drama, emotional ups and downs, yea and HEARTACHE. Where the hell was the secondary on that TD to Binns??? Now we get to watch the next episode, although anticlimatic. Hopefully Pitt taking their frustration out on UNC in a lopsided win to end a disappointing season that could have been. I’ll be there cheering them on because I’m a Pitt alumni and fan. Always have been, always will be. Bleed Blue and Gold, lost a lot of blood over the weekend but still here. Beat UNC, Hail to PITT.

I am not always overly optimistic but Coach Ditka and the other naysayers seem aq little too pessimistic. Yes, we are 9-3 this season but could be 11- or 12-0 with a few breaks or less brekadowns at key times. We are watching 18 to 23 year-old guys executing game plans. A former Head Coach here in Raleigh said that is why he returned to coaching in the pro’s. He said “As a coach you are pinning your future on the fact that a bunch of 18 to 22 year old guys are going to go out and execute your game plan at a high level in front of 50,000 people EVERY WEEK”. that is a lot to ask of guys that age. The coach went on to give examples of key situations which the team had game-planned “TO DEATH” and still the execution broke down for one reason or another.
That is what makes being a fan fun. There is drama and uncertainty each week. We have a great nucleus on which to build. We are better consistently with better talent consitently than we were under previous coaches.
Pitt and the BE have a chance to state their cases on how good this team and conference are during bowl season. I see an improving team that returns A LOT of talent. I am going to continue to watch us build our team to compete for BE Championships. I would much rather have Dave Wannstedt in my living room telling my son that he will get a quality education and a chance to play in a bowl game every year than some of these other coaches who say the same thing but care about winning ONLY.

HTP!

Dr Tom, do you know what my biggest problem with this is? Jealousy. I am jealous that a Cinci football program that was a Conf USA team just a 3 years ago steps into the Big East, wins in twice in a row, goes undefeated, wins 18 straight games, and dominates a conference with ease. It makes pitt look even more pathetic than we really are. we should not just be lucky to get to bowl games in this conference, we should be winning it every damn year. And I am sick of settling for a third tier bowl while the Bear Kitties go to back to back bcs games. This is a team that couldnt win Conference USA!!!! Pitts performance is unacceptable…bottom line. Rationalizing it is Accepting it.

In defense of Wanny, Pitt’s 21 pt lead lasted only 14 seconds .. and before you criticize the kickoff strategy, note that it was the 6th Pitt kickoff of the game to that point, and the previous five, 3 by Gillyard, was never advanced past the 30.

Also note that Cincy has a QB and 3 receivers who will very likely play in the NFL … I’m quite certain that no other college team can make that statement right now.

First, I think that Chas’s analysis is spot on…Cinci played with more confidence in terms of knowing what they had to do to win the game, same is true for WVU last week. Their players are used to being in those types of games and played with more confidence. Before you call me crazy, Brian Kelly said that his teams loss in the BCS game last year is what helped prepare them for big games like Saturday’s. I think the nucleus of our team will learn that they have play like the game is never over no matter what the score. They will learn how to finish games. By the way, I have nothing bad to say about the “effort” put forth by the players over the last two weeks…they played their hearts out. Really can’t be too critical of the coaches either. In fact, the game plan against Cinci was solid…run it…and then run it some more. To read some of these comments, you would think we got beat, even blown out, by a far inferior team. We lost by one point to the 3rd ranked team in the country. If their name was Texas would you all be so critical? Lastly, sometimes you just have to tip your hat to a player who had a remarkable day. I’m speaking of Gilyard, of course. Special players often do special things in the big game. It not all about our bad special teams play, a lot of it had to do with a special player on their team wanting that game so bad that he took it over.

PS: I hope Cinci makes Tebow cry even more in the Sugar Bowl!

The saddest part about this loss: Cincy is not playing for the title instead of Texas. Yeah, I said it. It hurts, but you know what, it sucks that they can’t have their shot for the championship. It is hard to type this considering how much hurt and frustration I had over them winning (former CUSA team, big lead, $ payout, inflated expectations as the year went on), but they are really missing out because the BCS system is the most politically charged, cluster F ever invented. Don’t give me “it was worse before” and “all it is supposed to do is give #1 vs #2″…because if you make that argument, you are probably a Buckeye, SEC, Oklahoma, USC fan….and you like the rich getting richer and the rest fighting for table scraps.

What you’re seeing today is what I have been screaming about for years…when we have our perfect season (and it will come), will we have a shot to play in the BCS final? The reality is, probably not…UNLESS, and this a HUGE UNLESS, we continue to kick the snot out of teams in the BCS game so our conference has the political clout to move up in that BCS discussion. Otherwise, we will likely be left out like the Bearcats this year. The Cincy loss is only damaging to our program if they get rolled by Florida and the big, bad SEC. If they win, we are one step closer to getting the Big East at the top of the political discussion in the future. If they get rolled, we are going to have to hope for serendipity like 2007 when a 2 loss winner in SEC, Big12, Big11 moved WVU to the top of the discussion. So asa much as this pains me, I’m going to be rooting on Cincy like it’s my job come Sugar Bowl time.

To me, the benchmark has (and will always be) 9 to 10 wins minimum for this program, and an opportunity to play for our conference BCS bid every year. More like a Virgina Tech-like football program than a Florida/USC/OSU. Not that I wouldn’t take it… I just think we need to have some perspective in these time. Personally, I’ll take these kinds of years over the 5-7 win medicore ones anyday. Plus, with the WAY we are playing and the WAY we are recruting, I think we are closer to being 10+ wins every year than we can imagine.

Hail to Pitt.

Bring home win #10 vs. UNC.

tHE COMMENTS BY kURT AND dR. tOM have made my day. saturday’s game was a classic. The season was successful. The coaches and players are to be commended. I can hardly wait for some redemption against the Tarheels and for next season. MY DEEPEST CONCERN is that the pitt fandom will stay home and grouse instead of embarking to Charlotte. IT IS EMBARRASSING that North Carolina has to “HELP US SELL TICKETS”. GO PANTHERS. GEORGE

It is the day after Christmas. Of course North Carolina will sell tickets. If Pitt was playing a bowl game in State College (God forbid!) we would be selling tickets for the Tar Heels because very few of them would make the trip.

I had my bags packed planning a long road trip Jan 2nd to Birmingham. I’m still a PITT supporter and wish I could attend the bowl game.. it unfortunately just doesn’t work out logistically. My fear is a lot of PITT fans are in this similar situation and it may look from the outside to non-PITT fans as an apathetic non-willing to travel fan-base.

im a college student at auburn, born in pittsburgh, lived there for awhile, family is all from pittsburgh and pitt alumni, i ended up in huntsville, al for high school from dads ppg job, auburn was cheap, man i wish pitt was in the birmingham bowl so i could go

Be honest with all the question marks about Stull, new offensive coordinator, Shady’s early departure,and coming off that Sun Bowl performance the most Pitt fans were expecting was 8 and 4 this year. I’ll take 9and 3 with a chance for a tenth win. We can build on this season !
Let’s head to the bowl and support our Panthers.

Coach D, jealousy is a poor character trait, give it up. Instead I suggest replacing it with encouragement. Then use it to wish Cincy good luck in kicking Tebow and Co. collective asses. Like it or not, we lost. Cincy is undefeated and BE Champs. They are a very good football team. If they embarrass Florida and Texas just gets by Alabama like they did with Nebraska then I say the Bearcats can start pounding their chests about National Championships! Who cares that the Bearcats have no history. Their progress since joining the Big East is nothing but good news to the Big East and for Pitt too! This Cinncinati team with Kelly at the helm showed a lot of parallels to the Majors era in the 70s. Majors left on a high note too. This Cinncinati club is national Champ quality, too bad no invite to the big party. Still beat Florida for the Big East! Now if you want to REALLY whin about no National Title shot look at TCU and Boise State situation. If that isn’t like getting invited to Thanksgiving dinner and ending up sitting at the “children’s table”! Wasn’t the idea to get non BCS conference teams the chance to play established powerhouses within the BCS fraternity? Too bad because I actually think the best team in the nation right now is TCU. Would have loved seeing them up against Alabama.

Dr Tom, anyone who says they have no jealousy is lying. Im just telling it like it is. A Conf USA Team came into our conference and kicked our ass – that doesnt sit well with me. As someone else said in another post, I am tired of cheering for our rivals in bowl games to make the BE look good when our conference has done everything they can via officiating to hold us back in 2007 and 2009.

I could care less what Cinci does in their bowl game. I never went to Cinci, none of my family or friends have ever went there and I never paid a dime of tuition to them….I was rooting for Pitt to make a statement about the BE, not the Bear kitties. And lets all stop kidding ourselves about what a great season this was. We lost the only difficult games on our schedule, unless you count a shitty notre dame team that couldnt even get to a bowl.

Has our program really come down that far that we now brag about Rutgers and South Florida as big wins??? Sorry, just being realistic here. Our 9 wins are almost as bad a s State Penns 10 wins. 5 years of top 25 recruiting classes and this was the best we can do?

Truthfully, no jealousy here, just sadness that our defense couldn’t stop Pike and Co. on that last drive. Get used to bragging about wins over Rutgers, UCONN, USF and Cincy (I left WVU out for obvious reasons)because that is our competition in the BE. Not that there’s anything wrong with that as Seinfeld would say.

Since Pitt has a history under DW of not finishing, it seems unlikely that the BCS national championship game is within reach under DW and even a BCS bowl may be a stretch. Therefore, Pitt will be relegated to third tier cool weather Christmastime bowls. Traveling well may make it more likely that Pitt can go to the Champs Sports Bowl (maybe second-tier, but warm and on New Year’s).

Comment by phillypanther

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Nothing could be further from the truth. I said when DW came here, Pitt would be in the mix and win a BCS Championship in five years. Well, it may be six or seven, but I believed it then and I believe it now. Just look at this team and what they have done. Walt Harris couldn’t take them this far, they are no longer bottom feeders, they have a balanced attack and once they get the special teams fixed, they will become the Beast of the East. Expect big things from DW and this team. Don’t give up. Keep hope alive. Cincy is a speed bump, WVU is a speed bump, things are changing and they have changed in the last five years. I BELIEVE!

As excited I am for a potential 10 win season, are our standards and expectations so low? Pitt beat only one decent team this year (ND), the other wins were against marginal teams at best.

Walt Harris, with inferior talent, took this team to a BCS game. DW, with superior talent, can’t hold onto a 31-10 lead late in the 2nd quarter at home with a BCS game on the line. Tell me please where I am supposed to get all of this “hope” and how teams like WVU and Cincy are just “speed bumps”. Seems to me like until we win those games and make the BCS games, Pitt is the speed bump.

Lets also remember Walt competed in a Big East with Miami, V Tech, and BC and bascially took over the program in complete ruins. Wanny is going up against Conference USA and took over a team coming off 5 consecutive bowl seasons.

9 wins in this conference is not a great achievement and the non con wasnt exactly stellar either.

What really confuses me is that from top to bottom wannys teams are much more deep and talented yet we still dont win any more games than we did under Walt??? What gives?

DW 34-27

Walt 39-23 (last 5 seasons)

Coach, now trend those games. Walt NEVER won 9 regular season games. DW has done it twice. The team was better this year than last, and will be better next year than it was this year. The trend is good. Walt never took us to a BCS game when Miami and V-Tech were part of the league. And the year we did “win” the BE, we finished in a four-way tie with four losses, and that only happened becasue BC choked at home to a horrible Syracuse team (I belive that BC was favored by 28 points.) And then when we got to that BCS game our lack of talent at most positions was fully exposed for the whole country to see (by a non BCS team – Utah). I don’t think the games we played over the last two weeks would lead the general public to conclude that we lack talent or are poorly coached. As for the BE, we currently play in an eight team league that finished with six bowl eligible teams, at least 3 of whom are ranked. The league has a winning record against other BCS schools over the past five years and a winning record in BCS games over the last five years. Frankly, that is remarkable considering half of the teams in the league did not play in a BCS league until 5 years ago. It is a young league that holds its own quite well. For some of you, I believe it will not matter how good Cinci, UCONN, SFLA, or Lville play, you will not respect them because they are not named Alabama, Texas, Florida or USC! You are like so many of the entrenched media talking heads, most of whom are products of the major BCS programs, you just don’t want to let any new members into the club.

NOTWITHSTANDING THE ABOVE, ALL I KNOW IS THAT I WAS ABOUT 36 SECONDS AWAY FROM TRAVELING TO THE SUGAR BOWL TO WATCH A WANNY COACHED TEAM PLAY FLORIDA FOR A SPOT IN THE FINAL TOP TEN RANKINGS. NOT BAD. AND IF THE REFS DON’T PUT A SECOND BACK ON THE CLOCK, CINCY IS PLAYING IN THE BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. THE BE IS NOT THE SEC, BUT IT WILL SEND 5 TEAMS TO BOWL GAMES, AND IS IMPROVING. THE LAST TWO LOSSES TO OUR TWO BIGGEST RIVALS HURT, BUT THIS WAS AN EXCITING SEASON AND WE HAVE A GOOD SHOT AT 10 WINS. THE
SELLOUT CROWDS AT THE ND AND CINCY GAME WERE A BLAST, AND SOMETHING TO BUILD ON. THE ABOVE NEGATIVE COMMENTS ARE LEGIT AND BLOG WORTHY, BUT THIS PROGRAM IS SOLID AND A WIN IN THE FLAT TIRE BOWL WILL LAND US IN THE TOP 15 IN THE COUNTRY IN THE FINAL POLL. YES, SOMEWHAT DISAPPOINTING, BUT NOT TOO SHABBY. HAIL TO PITT.