Coach Wannstedt had to face a lot of questions and second-guessing in his New Hampshire preview presser. Not surprising on two fronts. First it was a loss in OT, with some questionable decisions by the coaches in calling the offense. Second, it’s New Hampshire. A 1-AA team, that regardless of how good they are, Pitt should and better crush.

“We discussed that (to run or pass on third down). Obviously every call stops with me — offense, defense or special teams. Where we were at with the third down-and-ten, the one thing you don’t want to do in the red zone, which we obviously did in overtime, was to turn the ball over and you don’t want to knock yourself out of field goal range.

“On the third-and-ten they were bringing a lot of pressure. If it’s third-and-three, third-and- four or third-and-five it’s obviously a whole different call. All you have to do is look up the percentages in the third-and-ten situations when you’re thinking in the back of your mind that you have a young quarterback and he can’t hear himself talk, you want to make sure that you’re making the right call. Plus, we thought if we went into overtime that we would win the game.

“On top of it all, you’re handing the ball to a great player. We did the same thing last year against South Florida when Dion Lewis went for 50 yards. Two years ago, if you remember the last play before the half against Navy down there, we handed the ball to LaSean McCoy on the draw and he went 50 or 60 yards. I think they’re anticipating the pass, but you’re also giving the ball to your best offensive player.”

There’s are some significant differences in those situations and this. The first being that 2008 and 2009 had a better/different offensive line. The next being that there was a more experienced QB that made it more expected that there could be a pass. Finally, and this is key: Pitt was inside the 15, not “50 or 60 yards” away. You know they were prepared for a running play at that distance.

The oddity was Coach Wannstedt defending his playcalling by talking of the balanced offense.

“We’re a balanced offense,” Wannstedt said. “For us to win games and score points on offense — you have to throw to score points and run the ball to win games. It is a very touchy situation when you have a young quarterback, three new offensive linemen, a new receiver in there and a new tight end.

“You’re trying to give those players a chance to be successful, give your quarterback the chance to be successful but at the same time you have to be balanced and you have to throw the ball to get them off our backs a little bit.”

I guess what still bothers me is that they got off to a decent start throwing the ball. The quick passes obviously intended to help calm Sunseri and give him confidence. Then the offense went predictable and run heavy — and stayed that way until there was no choice but to throw.

The idea is to pass a little more early to score and build a lead, then run a little more later to wear down the opposing team and chew clock. Even in the NFL. As for a Hal Mumme comaparison — that had more to do with cheating at Kentucky  than being pass-happy.

As is usual for Coach Wannstedt, he wasn’t going to say anything directly bad about individual players. Greg Romeus was defended.

“Greg played 59 plays in the (Utah) game,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “I don’t know if he had 59 plays the entire training camp. He’s kind of playing himself back into form a little bit.”

Dion Lewis, not surprisingly, was not thrilled with his own performance against Utah.

Lewis said he was looking for holes to open behind an offensive line that was outnumbered by Utah’s defense.

“I missed a couple of things,” Lewis said, “but for the most part I think I did a pretty good job. I was just waiting for the blocks. You can’t just run up behind your blockers and run right into them. Coaches were trying to set up my blocks a little bit, but sometimes the back-side pursuit got to me before I made a move for it.”

He’s expecting 8 or 9 stacked against him against New Hampshire. As for these Wildcats, as you would expect the head coach, Sean McDonnell, is downplaying his chances.

“Hands full, big task — all those things,” he said Monday, during the weekly CAA coaches teleconference. “We bit off a little more than we can chew, I think, this week.”

UNH (1-0) goes from a 33-3 win over Central Connecticut State of the Northeast Conference to Pittsburgh (0-1), the overwhelming pick to win the Big East according to that league’s preseason poll. Saturday’s game will kick off at 1 p.m.

“They’re just a different type of team than we see in our league: one big, strong physical team,” said McDonnell. “Now we have strong, physical teams in (the CAA), don’t get me wrong. But (Pittsburgh coach) Dave Wannstedt and his staff have a physical mindset on both sides of the football.”

Behind sensational sophomore Dion Lewis, who rushed for 1,799 yards as a freshman, the Panthers lost to Cincinnati in the de facto Big East championship game last season. But in their opener at Utah, a 27-24 overtime loss, they managed just 82 yards on 36 rushing attempts, something they’ll surely try to correct against the smaller Wildcats.

“You’re talking about a kid who’s probably one of the top five or six running backs in the country,” said McDonnell. “Pitt’s gonna run. They’re gonna run it big-time and we’re going to have to tackle.”

In 1-AA they are a well-rounded team. A strong defense, good special teams kickoff returned 91 yards for a TD last week), and a back that ran for nearly 200 yards last week.

In the end, though, they are a 1-AA team and Pitt has no excuses.