There has been a ton of Tino Sunseri bashing over the last two years, some of it justified, and it has reached a fever pitch with his play in the Blue/Gold scrimmage to close the 2012 spring practices last Saturday.  We’ve been reading PITT fans on the blogs and boards pointing to Sunseri’s poor play and decision making to be the reason for between two and four losses last year.

It is hard to argue that those opinions aren’t true but in the red fog of anger towards Sunseri the exaggeration of his negative worth is way over the top.  It seems like most PITT fans can’t see very clearly when it comes to our lightening rod of a starting QB.

If we are going to bitterly complain about Sunseri then the least we can do is give credit where it is due also. I think you have to recognize that Sunseri has delivered the goods in more than one game.  Others may disagree with me on that view but here are some games where Sunseri played QB very well and got us wins because of that good play.  Lots of numbers and facts follow but they make a point.

One note when you read this.  Passing for double digit yards per attempt is excellent.  Last season only two teams had that over the course of the whole season; Baylor with Robert Griffin and Wisconsin with Russell Wilson (with Chryst as OC).

Last season against UCONN Sunseri completed 69% of his attempts for 419 yards, 10.0 ypa and two TDs.  He was our leading rusher that game with 40 yards and another TD in that 35-20 win. That’s being directly responsible for 21 points in a game where we lost our star RB Ray Graham early on and where UCONN scored 20.

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After this past basketball season I was certain that we could go through the coaching carousel without even an unserious “Jamie Dixon being targeted by X” story. Not just because Pitt had an off year, but because there were no jobs coming open that had any fit. Illinois, South Carolina and K-State were all geographically poor, not going to make a Godfather offer with money and/or not even lateral moves from Pitt. In fact Dixon’s name never even made it on most initial lists of candidates.

Then Jim Christian abruptly left TCU to take the Ohio job. With TCU entering the Big 12 and Dixon being a Horned Frog alum, the inevitable stories began. Naturally they really didn’t amount to much. Yes, TCU reached out to Dixon but nothing happened — TCU fans like to believe it was simply that they couldn’t afford Dixon’s price — and TCU hired Trent Johnson from Louisiana State.  Dixon, of course, said nothing the whole time, as has been his policy with any coaching opening.

Then came an absurd report that on the first day of the late signing day — right after meeting with Trey Zeigler and getting him to transfer to Pitt — that Dixon was down in Atlanta meeting with the LSU AD. The school refuted the report, but Dixon himself would not comment on the job. Citing his policy of not commenting on open jobs anywhere.

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