Time to hit the road, but I’ll put this out before leaving.
The convergence of the start of school for the kids and the start of football season has been brutal. Just trying to get everything cleared away so I can get to Pittsburgh and enjoy the game and a night out. That’s my excuse for the dearth of posting leading up to the start of a new season and a (hopefully) new era under Paul Chryst.
We’ll see if Ray Graham gets any playing time. How the offensive line looks in pass protection. What Tino Sunseri can do (and how long it takes for someone to start booing him). Are the receivers going to be better when they run actual routes? And try to get a feel for what kind of head coach Paul Chryst will be on gameday.
Gametime is at 6pm. It is on ESPN3 (online) only.
Nothing confirmed, but some Pitt fans I follow on Twitter are talking about a potential altercation he was involved in a couple of nights ago.
Sounds like someone may have tried to pick a fight with him or vice versa. Apparently, Shell was not at the team hotel last night (the team stays at a hotel the night before game day to manage curfews, ensure they don’t get into trouble, etc.).
From what they’re saying, he may be suspended for today’s game.
Time for someone to step up. Opportunity knocks!
I want to see a little fire from PC. Not a lot. No jumping up and down and screaming in the player’s faces, but just a little fire. I put on the press conference yesterday and dozed off within 10 minutes.
But as long as the team wins, I’ll take a boring presser any day.
GO PITT
Let’s go Pitt!!
That’s “Seize the day,” for the non Latin speakers. I’m sure there’s an approrpriate Spartan statement, in Greek, but I can’t think of it at the moment.
Have a good time at the game!
Backup bottle of Makers Mark…Ready
Let’s go Pitt!!!
I am too. Very.
Watching the State game and have yet to see a tee with a picture of JoePa/Alfred E. Neuman and the question, “What’s sodomy?”
No sense of humor in Happy Valley.
Feels good to know football is back!
I’m nervous too! Being a Pitt fan for 35 years has prepared me to expect disappointment. With Pitt, it’s only a matter of WHEN, never a matter if IF…
Regardless, I’ll still be watching.
Pitt better get a mentor for him…
That’s a tell.
Don’t think you’ll see PC needing a blankey.
If the rumors are true, he might be more like Clarett than I would have hoped.
Go Ohio. Penn State sucks!!
I’ve compared Shell to Marcus Dupree…
Joe Paterno is not coming back.
The Penn State mystique is now OFFICIALLY beginning to fade.
Shell is not Dupree. But I’ll take Maurice Clarett if he ever gets on the field.
Does anyone really think PSU would have lost to Ohio at home with Paterno still the Head Coach?
H2P!!
Hail to PITT!
-al-
Dupree played in 16 games..
Lets see how long Shell lasts.
As for Shell, he’s actually a good, smart kid who’s never been held accountable for anything and he’s finally seeing that with the hoops coach at Hopewell and Chryst.
Seems some players have made the same mistake as some bloggers and took “easy-going” for easy.
As I previously said… Don’t mess with a guy from small-town Wisconsin who chews Skoal while calling plays from the Coaches’ Box.
Maryland being dominated by William and Mary/ PSU crushed by Ohio…Pitt can be beaten!
What idiocy.The bizzaro Pitt Sports scene continues.
Shell may be a good kid. Based on what we know, smart as in “common sense” would not be an adjective that would seem to fit.
Rushel Shell was kicked off the basketball team… twice… by 2 different HC’s.
He was quit the baseball team… he was about to be kicked off by Collella.
He quit the track team…
Glad to see Chryst hold these players accountable.
Foge Fazio was not exactly a disciplinarian.
Foge was too worried about being liked by his players.
could be a mudder…. which team gets the advantage for a mudder?
Hail To Pitt!
Lets go Pitt!
i dont like the look of things is penny a whitch.
this is not a good start to the season .
in may day you played football in 6 inch of snow in rain in thunder storms in floods dam pussys
in donara they played it in killer fog so thick you could not see the ball dam pussys.
the game was played on Thursday…
how come no articles or blogs on that.. lol
O’Brien is another in a line of Belichick coordinators proving just how good of a coach he is.
He’ll fill the void until the three or four years is up and PSU hires a big name to turn the program back into a winner.
plus i wanted to wait and see how we did in first game.
And I thought the defense was the not
And I thought we didn’t need to worry about the defense… and the DB’s were the strongest part of the team… ouch.
Tino has never looked this good… even if it is Youngstown.
D Line starting to gell.
The surprise is the defense unable to make a stop… they look like a D-2 defense…
On a positive note. Tino looks productive so far.
1) Pitt O has been impressive, sans the fumble
2) Major complaint about DW was lack of adjustments. Let’s see how the D adjusts. Hopefully most of this is first-game jitters.
Hopefully he’ll get it right next time….
that is how he normally throws the long ball.
Chryst play calling shows that he has limited confidence in his QB
Maybe Vinopal can turn it around. But Gordon looks to have picked up where he left off last year.
Does he understand the objective is to make a tackle and not just pursue the play?
What really scares me is the fact that I’m not nervous.
We’re losing to Youngstown at halftime — just needed to remind myself.
Sunseri put the offense in a position to score on 3 of their 4 drives.
This TEAM stinks.
He still did his part when he overthrew a wide open TD though. Would’ve at least been tied.
Street needs to make that catch on 3rd down and Holtz got tripped up by the paint on the field.
He’s out there trying to carry the team with a chunk of metal and platic on his knee… and Rushel Shell can’t even suck it up long enough to dress for his first game.
Something out of HS football…
it looks ugly fellas..
You would think that I could come to expect this, but I fall for it EVERYTIME. Feel like Charlie Brown what Lucy pulls the ball out…
Good grief!
pathetic
How about it Cam?
and not enough good players on the D no LB no DB
so he said i am out of here pitt has very little
talent time to stop blameing the coachs except for being bad recruiters.
Good call! Bill and Pat noting that the OL is indeed starting to wear them down.
YSU 21-10 with 6:25 left in the 3rd
gotta make plays when they are there.
Can you imagine the next 2 years???
You need good players!!
They are who we thought they were….
OLine is bad…
Dline has no depth…
LB’s… just terrible..
best person on the field is Tino… that is how bad they look!!!
I said it was going to be a cluster fuck…
we have no D.
Screw it, if it worked against Ambridge it will work against YSU!
Just so you all know there is an once of sarcasm in this post. Though this is what you get when recruiting takes a slide. Now that slide in recruiting has more to do all the coaching changes that have happened.
1) no one on defense has shown up today
2) Coaching is subpar today.
3) PITT doesnt want this. No energy.
Im turning the Pitt game off and watching the Pirates…
but I had YSU as a “W”..
You can’t play it both ways… then again I guess you can.
players we need better recruiters. we need HELP.
It cant allways be the coachs can it.
I doubt most of YSU’s players are from the south…
time to go watch something else…
So much for “coach em up”… now you understand why i bitch about recruiting..
This team is going to struggle all season, they cannot stop anyone.
Quite frankly it looks like another bad hire and another lost season
Tough times ahead I guess – at least I won’t get emotionally invested in this season at all. I’ll wait until basketball season to care.
I am sick!
What an embarrassment.
YSU??? I thought we had a defense! Offense isn’t much better.
And the worst part, I’M OUT OF BOURBON!!!! Good thing I had a 1.5L of a nice Syrah.
Just unreal…
Prediction??? I meant to say 3-9, not 9-3.
Really.
No effort. No fire. No nothing.
Turrible, just turrible.
Even so, they still might call an emergency meeting to rescind their invitation, dropping Pitt to join the Patriot League — where we clearly belong.
Any reasonable person would read your post and laugh. While I consider myself reasonable in most cases, I will buy into the “we’ll get better from here” line.
Meanwhile, I know I’m setting myself up for failure, but I can’t help it. I love Pitt FB, more than it deserves!!!
My earlier prediction on Pitts season was 5-7
The biggest mistake by the coaches, Huxtable mainly, is that they mis-evaluated players who obviously are much better practice players than game players.
You’re going to see some major changes by Thursday.
Hopefully changes for the better.
Told you so!!!!
‘We all know what the questions regarding the players are, but what I really want to know is Chas’ last point – ‘What kind of head coach Paul Chryst will be on gameday?’ We also get to see how prepared he has his team for YSU and opening day in general.’
I guess we have our answers.
Honestly, man… recruiting had something to do with this debacle?
You are right that you’ve got to recruit big guys and guys who can run to compete in the big time.
But tonight Pitt proved speed and athleticism isn’t everything.
Coaching means something.
Chryst has four days to turn it around and show something. Maybe not a win, but marked improvement especiailly on defense.
Knowing what I know about him, he’ll get it done.
Reed and Chas will look back at this weeks comments and I was the only one that said Pitt was not good enough to look past any opponent and listed some of the ysu talent. I hate like hell to think I was right because I wanted to be wrong. The suspensions for this weeks behavior showed that the players were looking past their opponent. Good news is that it is going to be a short week.
I said this out loud, so it wouldn’t happen to us, and of course, I knew it couldn’t!!!!!!
A we have very few good players or.
B we have coachs that suck or.
C we have very few good players and coachs that suck.
eather way we are doomed and are recruiting so far
is great if we were in the MAC.
and becuse we are not we are screwed.
and i cant even say wait till BB becuse i did that last year and look how that turned out.
were is tha ledge we are doomed.
I’m gonna put this right on the end, right next to TOLEDO, OHIO, and BOWLING GREEN!!!!!
I was skewered for saying I saw 6-6 as overachieving, but that was based on my “expectations” for Tino the Magnificent. If THIS is the defense, we’ll win one game (maybe none): Gardner Webb. That’s it.
Time to face facts.
Pitt must drop football.
With that sage advice, I ride off into the sunset.
Adios fellas.
Because, I really don’t feel like vomiting tonite!!! LOL
Why? Because he’s got a get-out-of-jail free card: he didn’t hire this guy, didn’t want this guy. And he’ll get to hire his own guy after Paul Hackett, err, Chryst, gets trash-canned after going 1-11 this year.
At least two touchdowns ended up as divots in the turf tonight.
Tino is not to blame… the defense clearly is.
But let’s put everything into perspective.
If 13-9 was a boon to recruiting, this will be the death of it. The bizarro 13-9.
Good riddance
The defensive line got no push, the offensive line got no push.
Street, what’s his deal??
3rd and inches, you sweep, go wide. Ya, I know it worked the couple times before, but 3rd and inches, c’mon, that’s football 101.
Didn’t like the end of the 1st half. 55 seconds to go, YSU in their own territory, they run, no gain or even a loss of 1. You had 3 timeouts. Start calling them, and make them punt the ball, anything can happen. (but, I guess I’m just too into details.)
Sickening, I’m done going over the minutiae of what is wrong. I’m going back to my Scotch and one liners!!!
Waited all summer for this?? About as low as it’s been.
Except for Johnny Majors II, it hasn’t reached that point yet, but, hey, the year is young!!!
a story of bittersweet love.
Good night all, running out of one liners, and I really don’t want to get into the game itself!!
One for the ages friends, one for the ages!!!
you live in cali? Couldn’t live ’round here to leave a stamp like that on comment. your eyesight 20/ROSE. jump the cliffs, b.
For those who gloated on earlier posts about Penn State’s loss to Ohio, we should not throw stones…
HTP!
How many guys are getting a free ride to play football and they can’t even stop a YSU team with less than half the facilities and amenities Pitt has.
All about hard work and pitt doesn’t do it.
Walt Harris—–Toledo
Wanny———–Ohio, Bowling Green
Chryst———-YSU
Hell, Wanny’s even leading the pack!!!! LMAO!!!
Ok, now I’m done. Enjoy the banter!!!!!!!!
1st Downs 23 17
3rd down efficiency 11-16 7-13
4th down efficiency 1-1 1-2
Total Yards 381 369
Passing 177 239
Comp-Att 14-24 19-30
Yards per pass 7.4 8.0
Rushing 204 130
Rushing Attempts 46 28
Yards per rush 4.4 4.6
Penalties 1-8 2-30
Turnovers 0 2
Fumbles lost 0 2
Interceptions thrown 0 0
Possession 35:10 24:50
I think this actually bodes well for Paul Chryst. Hopefully, the lazies move out and are replaced by his players. He will be fine ladies, but someone else shouldn’t be.
Steve Pederson should shoulder the majority of this mess as he caused it with his inability to bring stability to a program that desperately needed it. He has allowed the players to have excuses for poor results. He has no free pass here and I don’t expect him to be around at this point next year. Wake up Nordy.
Remember Sunseri was not recruited by one MAC team because they knew that he was not a D1 player but Wanny got suckered.
Today YSU fielded a better QB than Pitt and every other player on the field outplayed their Pitt opponent. Pitt really does suck who’s players are more concerned with their weave or their tattoo’s or their twitter account. It will take another year of flushing the toilet to get the program on track.
But, the real blame for this debacle has to be “Sweek Caroline.”
When you’re trailing going to the fourth quarter and they start playing that song… it’s OVER!
You’ll have a lot of room to stretch out at Heinz. Enjoy.
is take a look at tonight’s debacle.
I fear for the safety of our players against Cincy and Va Tech. If we are as soft as the jello that was on the field today Dr. Freddie Fu will have to work double overtime..we were just plain whupped.
This program needs some stability. I sure hope PC shows a lot of improvement during the year. If Pitt ends up firing the AD and (another!) I think my head will explode.
Pitt has achieved a true rarity in college athletics…PEREMANENT MEDIOCRITY!!
10.) Utah @ Fiesta Bowl 2005 (2004 season). 7-35
9.) Miami @ home 2010. 3-31
8.) WVU @ home 2010. 10-35
7.) Oregon State @ (Sun Bowl) 2008. 0-3
6.) South Florida @ Home 2001. 26-35
5.) Toledo @ Away 2003 31-35
4.) Ohio @ Away
3.) Bowling Green @ Home
2.) Youngstown State I-AA @ Home 2012. 17-31
1.) Cincinatti. @ Home 2009. 44-45
There are just too many that I can’t forget …I’m becoming a USC fan! Please free to add to this list!
i want to talk about the game day experience… it sucked. the rain didn’t help and may have been onerous to the overall quality. wtf? i was only prepared because i’m old and remember my mother always wanting me to be prepared. (remember rubbers when they had multiple uses and meanings?)
glad to see some pitt identifier at mid field. much better than the chalky white.
but what happened to the pregame band show? no horns to announce their arrival? no smoke and mirrors as the drumline came out and performed to the students? and let’s not forget some rendition of the fight songs.
and boo to the students. i’d like to start an alumni “shame party.” i’d like to show up with a large group of alumni and chant “shame”, “shame”,… maybe point some fingers.
but that’s just me.
i’m sure we’ll need them even more in future years.
YSU: it’s a division I-AA program holy shit,
Bowling Green: killed allof the momentum from previous year and MAC school,
Ohio: MAC school great way to start Dave era,
Toledo: shot our chance for BCS..we were loaded that year too,
South Florida: they only established a football program 3 years earlier,
Oregon State: most boring game ever!
It just goes on and on and on. At least we are consistent!
I’m not making excuses for their play. They were SOFT today, no doubt. But I wonder if they have just quit on the whole thing? I agree there needs to be some roster turnover, but that will take time – like a few years.
Why do I feel like its 1993 all over again??
Marco,
Great list… I guess I can call it “great.” The one that is missing for me is the loss at UConn during DW’s last season. I was one of the few people who thought that DW was about to turn the corner. Most people I knew had already realized he wasn’t the answer. After that game even I had had enough. I was all in favor of letting him going after that season.
Too bad SP can’t find a significant upgrade. You would think that would be easy….
1) SP must go! Was indifferent to him but now see he is killing the FB program
2) I’ve been a “spread offense” guy for a while, even more so now
3) I liked the hiring of TG. He turned out to be a jerk, but we need a culture change at Pitt.
4) TG is smarter than us, he knew this team has no talent
5) TG also knew the FB gets very little support from the administration
6) Please do not tell me how Pitt needs to get back to SMASHMOUTH football ever again. The college game is NOT the NFL.
7) I actually felt bad about not renewing my season tickets for the firs time in 5 years – not anymore!
I have more, but I can’t type as fast as my head jumps from topic to topic.
If you cannot beat Younstown it has to be all coaching. So much for the brilliant OC that knows how to coach players up for a game. This game will be great for recruiting. Looks like the ACC will be getting another doormat to go along with Duke.Also what was up with the suspensions?
Glad I had another committment and glad no one wanted my tickets.
Totally agree. Good old smashmouth football that many of you wanted to return to does not cut it unless you have pro type players. We want Pittsburgh Football! Right. Give me the WVU scheme anyday. 17 total pts. against a team like that, we love that run it down your throat mentality.yeah right!
ryst
8) Is it just me or does the national media seem to be treating WVU differently now that they are in the Big 12?
9) Would Geno Smith be a Heisman candidate if he was in the BE?
10) I thought the NCAA should have banned PSU from TV but I was happy to watch them in their come-from-ahead loss today
11) I’m glad Pitt was on ESPN3, not a lot of people got to see how bad this was.
12) I might actually root FOR Todd Graham. If people see he’s a good coach, maybe they will wish up to the other troubles that seem to plague the AD at Pitt.
13) As a Pitt fan you can EXPECT Pitt to WIN on Thursday. Then lose the next 2, that’s the way it works around here…
14) I’d love to be one of those people who say “bring on basketball” but that didn’t work out so well for us last year
15) My Pitt degree is worth more and more every year we move up in the rankings. I doubt I’d even get into the engineering school today, not with the class rank and SAT scores I had. But I got mine now and loving it, thanks!
16) Watching OU at UTEP. UTEP has the coolest stadium, but their uniforms are UGLY!
I don’t care that YSU is ranked #13 in I-AA. I don’t care that Paul Chryst is a new head coach. I don’t even care that we’ve had four coaches in our last 16 games. That was absolutely pathetic. I believe that Division I-A teams have something like 15 more scholarship athletes than those in I-AA. We supposedly have an All-America candidate on the defensive line in Donald. Neither he or anyone else on the front line even sniffed the jersey of the YSU QB all night. Check that, he was hit … once. And completed the pass for a first down anyway.
The Penguin RBs were rarely molested until 4 or 5 yards past the line of scrimmage, and then our LBs were grasping at tackles from behind. Pitt’s secondary, supposedly a strength of the team because it’s filled with veterans, was awful. YSU WRs were open on every play — and they were very easy to hit with passes because the QB was never pressured. It was like a 7-on-7 drill out there, with a red jersey for the QB.
Tino actually didn’t play as badly as I expected him too. He played well enough to almost win this game, if the defense was remotely competent. Yes, he had a couple of over-throws … because Tino is terrible at throwing the deep ball. He had a bad overthrow of Devin Street in the first half of what should have been an easy TD. But Street has some serious effort problems … and then fumbled any chance we had to possibly win the game in the 4th quarter.
I live in Chicago and was invited to see Pitt vs. Notre Dame by a friend. I don’t think I’ll go. I’d love to see old friends, but I don’t think I should drink as much as I’d need to drink to endure the game and drive the 2.5 hours back home. I don’t see how we win even 3 games if what we saw tonight is as much as 75 percent of what this Pitt team will be. They are going to have to make huge strides to beat anyone, and should not be favored in a single Big East contest.
We are 0-0 in the conference. We are the most talented team in the conference! Rushel Shell and RAY GRAHAM…
We have the best returning defensive team in the Big East. No school in our conference can stop our secondary at all. A game managing QB like Sunseri will get the job done.
Finally, we have the loyal sons of PITTSBURGH!!! Forget this game – it doesn’t matter. Win the Cincinnati game and no one will care about anything else.
1. This is the thing about college football. There is no preseason. There’s no way to measure yourself against someone else until you start playing games that count immediately. There are no preseason for us to watch and analyze.
We take what we can glean from a glorified scrimmage played in the spring, preseason magazines and some camp reports from beat writers. We fill in the blanks on our own with guidance from things like “star rankings” and “returning starters” and kind of guess where the team is going to be.
But until that first game, we have absolutely no idea what to really expect. We have no idea how these kids will really fit into the system, or in many cases, what the system will even look like. And as we’ve seen, this holds true even when coaches and players ARE familiar (see the Bowling Green loss).
2. So I think when we see a game like this, it may help hammer home some very ugly potential realities about this team. Namely, this is may very well be what the culmination of “three coaches in two years” looks like.
That’s not necessarily Chryst’s fault, as he can’t help what came before him with Wannstedt, Haywood and Graham.
And that’s not necessarily the players’ fault, many of whom when they joined this program between 2008 and 2010 couldn’t have possibly anticipated what would transpire with the coaching staff.
MOST of these players were too young to contribute to a 2010 team that underachieved, costing that head coach his job as he lost control of the program. MOST of these players that joined or stuck by the program in 2011 put their faith and football futures in the hands of a man who turned out to be nothing but the personification of the worst parts of this “industry”.
And most of those players who played in this game today didn’t have the luxury of the same “lateral” transfer that Graham exploited, so they stuck by at this level, trying to make it work under a third coach, in most cases, the second of which did not recruit them.
3. Those may not be excuses as much as they simply may be factors in what happened in the opener.
And if this was the reality, the other part of this is that teams tend to get better as seasons go on.
As OPFIM mentions above, there will likely be growing pains and it’s pretty safe to assume that not everyone will find themselves along for the ride. This is an incredibly young team in some facets to begin with, especially among the front seven on defense.
Chryst has been an instrumental part of some very good teams and has played significant roles in developing players. Given his history at Wisconsin, I think it’s safe to say he knows how to handle this and that it often doesn’t happen overnight.
4. As I’ve said before here, Walt was given the benefit of the doubt when it came to building his program. Wanny was given the benefit of the doubt when building his program, despite going 1-4 to begin his tenure. Chryst should get the same.
5. Rushel Shell, it’s time to grow the eff up. Vestal is no longer around to bail your ass out of trouble.
6. Does anyone know…Was T.J. Clemmings hurt? I checked the game report on the Pitt website and he didn’t play.
Not putting this all on Clemmings, but it’s just disappointing to hear about the D-line getting blown off the ball while also realizing previously-heralded recruits like Hale, Clemmings and Murphy occupy DL spots.
1. The vaunted d-line was getting pushed around all night. Didn’t hear the names of D-linemen called all night. Aaron Donald All American??
2. Were there any LB’s on the field? #44 is terrible, and #3 looks like a DB in build and size. All of the LB’s were terrible
3. Thought the DB’s were the strength. They can’t cover anyone… slow, slow, slow, slow.
I like the effort by 41 but he can’t cover, and neither can #9
4. If you can’t gain one foot on YSU don’t blame the coach. Show some pride as an O-Line.
5. Tino wasn’t terrible… a couple of bad throws, but he played good enough to beat a 1AA school.
6. That Graham fumble was a big play… then to allow an 80 yd drive is embarrassing.
7. Devin Street should be benched immediately
I could go on, but why bother?
Its clear this team is not talented enough to redshirt anyone. Get the young guys on the field and let them contribute. Tino CANNOT throw over 20 yards, something thats might important when you’re down 18 in the 4th quarter. Its time to end the Anthony Morelli Jr, I mean Tino experiment.
Every player and coach should be absolutely ashamed of the effort they put forth last night in front of fans that paid to see it.
I expressed the same sentiments on QB going into ACC play ever since Voytik signed his letter of intent. Freshmen QB in weak Big East was doable .
Chryst was right to take the disciplinary actions, of the 6 suspended the loss of Ezell hurt the most, there was no push by the D-Line.
Linebacking is weak and it was magnified by the lack of push by the D-Line.
Game day coaching was ok the only play calling fault I had was the deep handoff rather than a QB sneak with 4th and a half a yard.
Made Tino look above average.
Going to be a long year.
YSU spotters called in our plain vanilla defense alignment and their QB looked to their sideline and called the play just before the snap. Had Pitt simply showed one defense and changed just before the snap, we would have stopped them cold.
Our coaches clearly had other things on their minds before the game (discipline), and really underestimated YSU. Thought we could win on talent alone. Players too. Mailed it in. Of such things upsets are made.
Steve Pedersen had Chryst forced on him by an influential benefactor. This creates long-term subtle problems. Fraud Graham hinted at this.
On the bright side, we certainly gave Cincinnati plenty of reasons to underestimate us!
It’s go time, been waiting all summer, it’s finally here!!
We have two flags up at our tailgate, one in the old Pitt script, one with the present Pitt logo.
Stop by, just burgers, dogs and hot sausage, nothing big, but the beer will be cold, the Scotch will be old, and anyone from Pitt Blather is welcome to stop by.
Ok, let’s get a big win to start the new era!!!!
Hail to Pitt!!!!
Agreed. But, Nordy has one foot in retirement, he won’t make any major moves walking out the door. Hell, Nordy is the major reason Stevie P came back for a second stinit.
Absolutely agree. This is on Stevie P. It’s shameful.
I don’t know how the reporting out of camp said our linebackers were athletic and Vinopal had a very strong showing in camp. D-line should be strength. Not even close. Vinopal looked lost out there. Linebackers were just a complete mess. I believe YSU linemen moved faster than the LBs.
As for the offense, I thought Tino played well. He did enough to win the game. The guy who I thought really crapped out, Street. Drop pass on 3rd down stopped late 2nd quarter drive. 15 yard penalty after Pitt gets a first down killed a drive in 3rd quarter. Fumble late 4th killed any chances of Fordham like comeback.
I just think the whole team looked like crap. No emotion on the sideline or field. Well one guy looked like he got it and wanted to kick some ass, Dan Mason. He looked pissed off and looked like he wanted to take someone’s head off. Pacing back and forth was his helmet on while making fists. I feel so bad for this guy. Had to be hard to watch your teammates play with no heart and all he wants is to get on the field to lay someone out.
Funny, man. Thanks for the chuckle…needed it.
I was a BIG Wanny supporter, but did agree that we were stuck in mediocrity and that a change was needed. (I just didn’t like the way he was fired, thanks Stevie P). Maybe I was wrong. Yes, it’d rather finish 8-4/9-3 every year with some goofball games than watch what I’ve seen the past 2 years. Eh. Again, shameful.
http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/m-footbl-coaches.html
We can come up with a ton of reason for why things didnt go our way (weather, overthrown passes, 3rd down conversion, etc) but in the end the player must execute and the DEFENSE DID NOTHING to help this team out yesterday AGAINST A D1AA team. Coaching alone should have given us some result against D1AA. The high school play that got YSU at TD on the 4th down conversion is evident of poor coaching / anticipation.
The Defense must get markedly better and it starts with coaching! Not on Chryst yet but he might want to sit down with the D.C and D-Line coach and have a frank discussion.
We need good players damit!!
So, get out there and recruit…
btw.. anyone notice Chryst doesn’t have fire in the belly on the sideline??
Let’s not beat areound the bush Pitt has very little in the way of talent in too many key positions. I will give the coaches a pass in the next 2 games because our Division II team will simply be destroyed.
The only thing that will enable Pitt to become a decent team again (7-5 or 8-4) will be recruiting, recruiting, recruiting. The ACC will
eat this collection of pansies alive. In this environment and with a coaching staff not known to be able to recruit high level talent we are in for some Hart/Hackett years. Imagine Pitt vs. FSU, Miami, Va Tech, Ga Tech(option offense), Clemson….WOWEEE!
Even mighty Maryland won yesterday against the Tribe of William & Mary.
The only thing that will end the mismanagement era of Stevie P will be an EMPTY Heinz Field on game days.
Saying, told you so… the problem was the players… no heart… no skills…
Was he on the rolling suspended player list too for the YSU game?
Everyone says the D should have stepped up but we all knew that the D has some of the worst linebackers ever. I’m sure if Todd Thomas and Price were out there it would have been a different story. But you have a really thin defense against an experiences spread offense. That can always spell trouble.
The real problem to me was the offense. If you only score 17 points against a FCS team you deserve to lose. An FCS team with a new offensive coordinator. The offense just looks uninspired and slow. I remember when Wanny was still coach and there was a group of us on here arguing that the team needs to go to a spread offense to help minimize differences in talent. Sorry to say, but a Todd Graham coached team doesn’t score only 17 points against a FCS team. I think Pitt messed up in picking Graham because he is scum but was right in trying to change the philosophy. All you people who think smash mouth Pittsburgh football works anymore are completely off base.
as mutch as i hate TG i can see why he left he knew he could not win with these stiffs.
at least with TG you thoughtyou could win like the iowa game.
this loss was like daves loss no effort that is the coachs fult they were not ready to play we suck .
what is the deal with price’s medical redshirt, is it necessary, or can we remove it?
1968
—–
UCLA 63 Pitt 7
WVU 38 Pitt 15
Pitt 14 William & Mary 3
Syr 50 Pitt 17
Navy 17 Pitt 16
AirForce 27 Pitt 14
Miami(Fl) 48 Pitt 0
NDU 56 Pitt 7
Army 26 Pitt 0
Penn St 65 Pitt 9
I am Pitt Class of ’63 and watching our lack of heart and effort yesterday makes me believe that we are going to experience one of the most disaterous seasons in the history of Pitt Football.
Last but not least///6 players suspended for the first game of the season tells me all that I need to know…we have way too many players receiving a free education … I would rather have walk-ons who really want to play and play hard like Chris Wuestner than the load of LOW CHARACTER garbage that is in our locker room. SHELL WAKE UP!!!
I hate losing to USU or any team for that matter but after venting for 18 hours I have decided to move on.
Next up: UC on thursday night. Everyone now knows who can play and who can’t. Time to put the best 11 on the field. Time for the coaches to give yr team a chance to win.
H2P
They do count.
The rule is if you have more than 1 win against a 1aa team only 1 of them counts towards your 6 wins for bowl eligibility.
Unlike the other “shocking” upset losses of the past (Ohio, Bowling Green, 01 USF) this was against a 1aa team and IT WASN’T EVEN CLOSE.
We got our asses handed to us.
no effort no real will to win and that is on the coachs they did not have the team ready to play
they were not fired up so the coaching sucked
bectse even bad players can play hard and we did not . so it is on the coachs.
The problem last night was poor preperation and horrible game day coaching along with a defense that couldn’t stop the little sisters of the poor.
They were dominated by a FCS team and their defense couldn’t stop YSU do you really think it will stop UC or VT or ND or anyone?
I can’t wait to see if Pitt can beat Gardner Webb, anyone going to that game to witness that possible historical moment?
Had a feeling the Defense was going to be a major problem, when I posted several posts about the lack of experience among the Front 7.
All these camp reports saying how good the defense was going to be, was based on what??? (lol)
You have 6 unknowns of the 7 starters and Donald was moved to a different position. He was effective as a DE, you don’t know if he’ll be effective inside. If last nite was any indication, move him back outside immediately !!
Ezell, what can you say, here’s a kid who was supposidly impressive in camp, wins a starting position and then goes out and negates pretty much everything he did to win the job in camp. Had to have some impact with the team psyche.
The line-backing, oy vey, what can one say about that mess, when your most experienced player is Shane Gordon with 2 games under his belt. That’s going to be a nightmare all season imo. They are not suddenly going to get a whole lot better as a group. What’s going to happen is; they most certainly will be exploited more as the season rolls along. This group doesn’t have a clue and Huxtable didn’t look to minimize their impact much by replacing one of them with another DB in the nickle much, even though YSU completed passes at will. If YSU can roll to almost 400 yards, your looking at 500-600 yds. regularly against this pathetic defense.
So here’s whats funny (not really, but u know), with this pathetic defense, your ONLY chance of winning is by OUTSCORING THE OPPONENT. lol
And wouldn’t the spread (without Tino I’m talking) have a lot better opportunity, given the talent level on this team, to produce more points than the opposition than this Wannstedtian offense.
And of course last but not least, we can’t have a game go by, where our 5th year(God it seems like 10th yr) 25 yr old middle aged QB doesn’t overthrow, underthrow one to two sure TD passes.
Fittipaldi mentioned two sure TD passes in his blog on this occasion.
Please quit scheduling these small Ohio schools, they’re kicking our butts and making us look like a mid-tier MAC school. Smiley just say no to Bowling Green, Toledo, Ohio & YSU from now on.
I’s also like to revise my 7-5 pre-season prediction. This team will not beat Temple nor Rutgers or Uconn. So the revision is now 4-8.
And turn the lights off on your way out tonight, cause you’ve certainly turned the lights off regarding the PITT football program !!
Maybe we should change Veritas et Virtus to:
Oy Vey !
Geez, the parking attendant isn’t even here yet.
Did see some YSU fans all dressed in their red, coming out of church of all things.
Going to church on a Saturday yet, good for them!!!
Like I said, Pitt script flag and present Pitt logo flags up.
Nothing big, but the hot sausage is home made. My buddy processes it. Fantastic!!!
Hot, sweet, and he does an extra spicy one with jalapenos, habaneros etc. etc. Not for the timid.
Ok, time for predictions.
Pitt 45
YSU 10
Again, all Blather friends are welcome. Only 6 of us here, got enough food for 30, way too much.
Stop by!!!!!!!
We’ve had two “lost” recruiting seasons of which two different types of players were recruited – one for the spread and attacking defense, the other for a pro-style offense and conservative defense. The senior leadership is lacking and they really haven’t had many role models that last few years. It’s full on rebuilding time – like it or not.
As has been mentioned previously, both lines are very weak. The LB position is slow and ravaged by injuries with no depth. Our best WR last night (Shannahan) is slow even by TE standards. The supposed “strength” of the team (DB’s) were completely embarrassed.
In the next few weeks I would not be surprised to see an out with the old and in with new approach.
Chryst doesn’t really have much control over the current roster but he does with future rosters and he cannot afford a third straight “lost” recruiting class…this game won’t help those matters.
This would be a perfect game to play Voytik the whole game, as this team is not going anywhere, we might as well plan for the future and surely they can beat a bottom tier D2 school with Voytik as well as Tinny.
This team will get destroyed in the ACC, with it’s present makeup ala Maryland last year under Edzel.
Pitt & Cuse will be vying for being the other Duke in football to balance out the two divisions.
Now more than ever you do need a SALESMAN to sell this program. We shall see how this all unfolds.
But there is nothing wrong with being a Salesman, our most recent great era was led by two pretty good salesmen, both from the South. Majors & Sherrill.
HTP !!
GRP !! (Get Rid of Pederson)
This^
We know how bad it is right now. The only thing that matters moving forward is: “Do they improve?”
I’m personally tired of the “best chance to win today” BS. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? You lose to YSU?
You hear this stuff and begin to understand why “coach” = “gym teacher” most of the time….
Play the young talent. I don’t care if they’re old enough to drive, vote, or drink. If you don’t KNOW who the talent is, you need to resign Because THAT’S YOUR JOB!!! Again, the WORST thing that could possibly happen is that you lose to a team like YSU, and you just did that…
I’m thinking this reminds me of 1991-1992 minus Alex Van Pelt. Shell of a team leftover from the Gottfried years (in this case Wannstedt years), coached by a supposed Offensive genius with no prior Head Coaching experience, Paul Hackett (and now Paul Chyrst, this is getting scary). Think the previous years team was 6-6 just like last year. (cue up the exorcist music Tubular Bells)
And neither had much experience at all in recruiting or any Western Pa ties. We know how Paul Hackett turned out, he wasn’t such an offensive genius after all and couldn’t recruit worth a lick and that led to (Majors 2). Who God Bless Johnny for taking that job, given that the Hackett years had left the cupboard almost completely empty. It did result in Oval Jaynes being pushed out. If that’s what it takes to rid ourselves of SP. so be it.
Yes I think it’s that bad !
mind i say play him and i say sit the two starting wr and play the young players see if there is hope or not.
infact play all the young ones look to the ACC becuse the older players have no firein side them.
might as well see if there is hope for next year.
I’ll roll this Poison Pill theory out and see what ppl think.
These players have seen Tino handed the job 3 years running now. They know some other QB on the roster WOULD ACTUALLY give them a better chance to win. Would ACTUALLY bring some excitement and enthusiasm to a dead looking, dead playing team.
Yet the higher up muckety mucks keep annointing Sir Tino the job. I mean they(the players) had to think to themselves, after that horrid performance in the annual BBVA thing in Birmingham. that someone, anyone would be put in at QB and see what they could do with the first team on a consistent basis. Getting all the reps with the first team. BECAUSE WE KNOW WHAT TINO CAN’T AND CAN DO BY NOW. In year 10 on campus (haha).
We know he can’t lead you from behind, EVEN AGAINST a D2 team. We know he can’t hit a wide open WR over 15-20 yds.,streaking towards the Endzone. We know his decision making is not very good. We know his scrambling abilities are laughable, routinely running into his own O-linemen. We know his leadership skills are not good. We know he throws temper tantrums. We know he’s allowed to talk back to the Coaches and NOT be benched. We know he blames everyone else but himself. And here’s the kicker, we as players know come Gameday Tino despite all his shortcomings, will be the QB.
That’s gotta be quite depressing if I was a player.
And that’s my Poison Pill theory 
Second, look at the film individually on every player. Call them out personally in one on one meetings and show them their respective film. Explain that the effort displayed will never be tolerated again and then physically destroy the tape in front of the player, tell them its over and start preparing for the next game. Pitt players are not good enough to give maximum effort on every play.
Third, the six players that were suspended, need to be taken to the woodshed. Each should be required to give a talk to the team about how they let the team down by looking past their opponent and acting selfishly this week and not preparing. Actually, if any of those kids has leadership skills they should want to address the team without being forced too.
Fourth, I am fine with this loss and it is just that, a loss. Next game is Thursday. It will be interesting to see if there are any leaders on this team. We do know it is not Tino. The team doesn’t respond to him, never have. It’s not time to panic, but it is time to get true freshmen, playing time, starting with the qb. Not that Tino played terribly last night, but I swear, the receivers don’t give maximum effort because they don’t trust Tino can deliver the ball accurately and when he does, they just aren’t ready.
The good news for Pitt is that Cincy’s OL is not as big. The defense needs to run blitz constantly and put pressure on the cincy qb or it will be a long night. Pitt can turn this around quickly. Last night wasn’t coaching it was simply not having heart and not playing with a chip on your shoulder. I would not be surprised to learn that YSU had tshirts under their game jersey that read “you took my scholarship from me” written on it. Pitt players think they are better and athletically they are. They just don’t have the mindset of champions and hearts of lions. Just sayin and not being a hater. Pitt will be fine ladies!
Any High School team would come out fired up and play with intensity given a new coach, you would think. Unless said coach had no motivation skills and was boring as hell (just sayin)
Unless,,,,see Poison Pill theory above ^^^^
I still blame Pederson. When he decided to can Wanny (which you could make a credible case for doing) did he really have a PLAN? A real idea of what he wanted the program to become BEFORE he upended things?
I find it hard to believe that was the case since his brilliant master plan was to bring in the creepy Freddy Kreuger dude. Really, after that first presser with Haywood, I remember thinking WTF? You HIRED that awkward, unlikeable stiff?
Of course Smiley could have no idea that things would unravel as they would with Haywood, Graham, etc. But now we’re stuck with the guy we have, Paul “where’s my hammock?” Chryst. If he doesn’t work out, too bad. Even if he’s an unmitigated disaster, we can’t replace him any time in the next couple of years or we would be an even bigger laughingstock than we are.
But we’re in the midst of this chain of events that Smiley put into place because he derailed what we had going – painful as it was at times – without a clear path to an upgrade. Haywood? Really Steve? That was the plan?
So now we’re Pitt: Graveyard of Coaches, Future ACC Bottom Dweller.
Fire Steve Pederson. Make us all feel better, Pitt. Rash, panicky move? Maybe, but no more rash than what he himself pulled two years ago, and the consequences of which have driven a stake through the heart of a once-proud football program.
But I don’t see us being able to pressure a better Cincy team with this inexperienced lost looking front 7, it they only sniffed a D2 teams’ QB once.
Butch Jones is a pretty wiley coach imo. I see Cincy scoring 40 to 50 points.
And it might have been coaching last nite, as PITT did nothing thruout the game to alter or get YSU out of their most comfortable offensive rhythm. ON THE OTHER HAND the players at this point in their development(?) might not be able to adjust out of their base defense much. And that is a scary thought, since YSU is prolly the 2nd worst team on the schedule.
Sidenote** Buffalo, a future PITT opponent and I’m sure to most a W, put up 23 on Georgia last night.
Othernotes**
Clemson did the ACC proud by beating SEC Auburn on the road. While Alabama truly pounded the Little 11′s Michigan. Uconn shut out Umass 37-0, I believe Umass is/was a D2 power and is stepping up to D1. Rutgers won in their new coaches debut.
the LB are part of the problem and who coachs them a high school coach who has never coached a college game before.
and are OC was a TE coach last year.
just saying a lot of coachs dont really know there
jobs chryst is one him self.
think abought it he did not go out and get the best DC he could get or the best LB coach he could get he got old frends or frends of frends
that might not have been the best thing to do.
Loved the Freddy Kreuger reference.
SP should be the poster child for Chrony Capitalism.
Glad to see everyone is alive and well. Nobody did any swan dives off the closet bridge or the Cathedral of Learning. haha.
Although I don’t remember reading a post game post-mortem from Dr. Tom. Hope he’s alright.
Some might be still coming out of their bourbon or scotch coma’s.
Hey Frankcan..what do you think of my Poison Pill theory ?? You might be right about all these coaches having never coached their current positions. Although Bollinger can’t work miracles.
Save me one of those homemade Italian Sausages. Game is at 6PM right? I will stop by the tent though I’m not sure how I will find you among the other fans. I like your prediction. Could be a night to get some of the young kids playing time by half time considering that it is a D1AA school and all
I’ve heard people say that attendance was regularly bad at pitt stadium..maybe, maybe not, but the huge difference was the seats, bench style vs single seat. The stadium always looks more full with the bleachers..
I took my high school junior to Pitt this summer for a tour. She badly wants to go to Pitt. Pitt’s been a tradition in my family for generations. However, after touring Pitt, PSU, Maryland, Delaware and other big schools, I walked away from the Pitt tour feeing embarrassed that I graduated from Pitt. The tour was like an amateur hour compared to the tours at other schools. I’ve felt the same way about Pitt’s ticket office for years. Staff the thing professionally or get out of the business.
The school’s administration is isolated from the pressures of performing in the real world. This attitude trickles down to the athletic department. At some point, doesn’t this entire administration just get so embarrassing that the board of trustees steps in and does something about it? I believe that the school operates like a Division II school.
I think its time for some major changes at Pitt across the board. Someone needs to step in and get the entire school operating like a world class university instead of a third rate state school. I’m tired of feeling embarrassed that I went to Pitt.
hell if tino did not over throw thoes 2 open recevers we have 2 more td which makes the score what 31 to 31 a tie game .
dont get me wrong the D sucks but if your D sucks then you must out score the outher team and you wont do that with tino.
Lots of new starters, young guys, new era jitters, etc — I think they will play better even if they keep the same lineup.
Tino played okay but missing those key passes are such momentum killers…they really hurt even more than the missed points. The kid can pass from point A to point B with good velocity, but has NO touch…even in his 5th season. He’s like a pitcher with no breaking pitches and okay control…not real good. By my count he made one good pass — the td to Brinson — and missed on three tds — Street, Brinson in the endzone, and even though Holtz fell, I think the pass messed him up (that’s a toss up I guess). It looked alot like 2010, which was a sh#tload better than 2011, but still slightly below average QB play…despite the misleading completion percentage. Hess was clearly better.
My bet is the defense will come out blazing the next few games as they review tape and settle down…I hope!! Stay positive, if possible.
When are you going to issue some grades.. positions, coaching, etc…
HC – F
DC – F
OC – F
Entire Defense – F
OLine – D
TE – B+ (should have thrown more to TE’s and Shanny)
QB – B
RB – B-
WR – B
+1
Tino can deflate a lacrosse ball.
SHAYNE HALE, DE (2008): Scout’s five-star, 3rd best DE in the country. Offers from LSU, Ohio State, Michigan, Virginia and WVU. Has never managed to crack the lineup and secure meaningful minutes in four full seasons prior this year. A player who at the bare minimum should be serving as a veteran leader (think Craig Bokor) found himself suspended for his final home/season opener due to a violation of team rules. Our version of the “Jamie O’Hara” character from the movie “Rudy”.
TYRONE EZELL, DE (2009): Four-star by Scout, ranked their 21st-best DE in the country. Suspended for yesterday’s game along with Hale. Had offers from Ohio State, Colorado, Michigan, Virginia and Illinois.
T.J. CLEMMINGS, DE (2010). Five-star by Scout, ranked as their 6th best DE in the country. Had offers from Georgia, Michigan, Virginia, Maryland, tOSU and ND. Redshirted last year.
BRYAN MURPHY, DE (2010): Four-star by Scout, ranked their 11th best DE in the country. Offers from Louisville and Maryland. Missed last season as an academic casualty.
ANTHONY GONZALEZ, QB/S (2010): Four-star by Scout as a QB, but it was no secret he fielded significant interest as a defensive back and was projected as such almost immediately by Wannstedt’s coaching staff. Moved back to DB this year. Had offers from FSU, Maryland, Missouri, Penn State, Stanford and WVU. Was among the six players suspended for yesterday’s opener.
It’s worth noting that Ezell would’ve certainly played had he not been suspended.
And maybe this isn’t entirely fair to Murphy, Clemmings and Gonzalez, given that they’re all redshirt sophomores and Gonzalez’s position has been shuffled more times than a card deck in Las Vegas. So maybe some patience with these three – particularly Clemmings and Murphy – is in order as they’re all still relatively young.
But even still, it’s ridiculous that a player of Hale’s pedigree cannot crack this lineup and worse, that he seems to be comfortable with this given his suspension. It’s a little bit troubling to me that Clemmings isn’t more of a factor in the two-deep and did not see action yesterday (barring injury, of course). And it’s equally troubling that a guy with Murphy’s accolades struggled by many accounts to generate pressure against a I-AA team.
These are players who were Wannstedt recruits, at a position Wannstedt recruited exceptionally well. Hale was supposed to be a marquee player by now. Clemmings and Murphy would’ve been “next men up” this year as Lindsey and some other veterans moved on. Gonzalez SHOULD at least be in the mix at safety on the two-deep, not playing behind the likes of a preferred walk-on (Taglianetti) and a transfer (Vinopal) whose only other offers came from Bowling Green and Kent State.
I hope that’s not construed as taking shots at guys like Tags and Vinopal, or a guy like Jack Lippert (who started ahead of the much more heralded Clemmings). That’s not what I’m trying to say.
My point is that we often tend to look at more arbitrary metrics like “star rankings” or “offers from comparable schools” when determining where a player should fit into the program. While it can be a good guide to set expectations, those can’t always be viewed in a vacuum when so much is often left to the player themselves.
There’s no greater example of that on this Pitt team than Shayne Hale.
the coaching on offence gets a c
the coaching on the D gets a F
and they should have thrown more to the TE
Tino gets a D
the whole game just makes me sick they just look so bad no balls most of them pussys only mason seamed mad whay the hell is going on with this team every year the same shit.
The lack of leadership at the player level is obvious…no one is having fun out there. The quicker Chryst identifies his future younger leaders the better (I’m looking at you Voytik). The current group of upperclassmen are not role models and the longer they are in those types of positions the more it will permeate through the rest of the team. Based on the circumstances the last few years I can’t fault them but it’s a new day and time to clean house.
It certainly doesn’t help that Pitt has a rookie Head Coach not exactly know for riveting and passionate, rallying the troops type excitement. It’s a recipe for disaster and I’m afraid it won’t be a quick fix. Regardless of who was coaching this team, these issues were already front and center. Chryst needs to find out who still has fight and play them. This team needs an infusion of spirit more than anything because right now they don’t play with any heart or excitement.
If Tino gets a B… Chryst deserves more than an F on the offensive side of the ball.
The offensive scheme and playcalling early on made Tino look about as good as ever looked.
However, does Tino really deserve a B? If memory serves me correct he missed a couple of open receivers that probably would have meant six.
When your defense can’t make a stop a senior quarterback cannot miss those kind of scoring opportunities.
He also did not make any plays on his feet.
Tino probabley worth a C simply because he did not lose the game, but didn’t do anytning special to win it either.
The whole coaching staff does deserve an F because they lost to Youngstown.
Chryst’s biggest mistake looks to be that he delegated too much trust to Huxtable to have his defense ready to go.
Huxtable’s trust is blown. This week, PC has to show he’s up to the job of head coach by stepping in on Huxtable’s turf to make sure the necessary changes are made.
They might start by getting some players on the field especially at linebacker who have heart and a desire to make a play and not just run around going through the motions.
I’d rather have a slow linebacker in the game with a motor and desire than a fast one who is a poser.
Chryst and Huxtable obviously made the mistake in a few cases of being fooled by players who might look great in practice but are something else totally different when it comes to actually playing.
This week is a great test to see if Chryst is up to the task of really taking “ownership.”
I wasn’t shocked at all. Disappointed as hell but not shocked.
I’ve been telling anyone who asks that our defense wasn’t going to be nearly as good as people thought because of the lack of experience on it. My salient point was that when you have a front seven (pre-suspensions) that had two DEs with zero starts, who are both untested players and one a converted OL then that’s a problem…
When you have three LBs with only one guy with two starts – that’s two starts across the three starting LBs folks; that’s a problem… I said we’d see crossing patterns and WRs getting behind the LBs on a regular basis and that’s what happened.
The answers I got back was that all the new players were “athletic”; Clemmings, E. Williams and especially Grigsby, and we would get by on that. Here’s some news… Lippert is not ‘athletic’. Well, we saw how that turned out.
I went to a big tailgate yesterday and when drinking beer and talking about this game I said I had predicted 38-14 PITT score. Then someone broke in and told us of the suspensions and I said right away “We’re gonna lose this game” and ten guys around me cracked up and called me on it. To be real clear on this, I thought we’d win before the suspension and thought we’d lose after I heard about them.
In previous Blather articles and comments I wrote about how PITT, at the very least, had to go 7-5 with no off the field problems this season to turn around the downward slide program. All I heard back was that I was “accepting mediocrity” (the old favorite) and “your bar is set too low” with other fans predicting 9 or 10 wins. I had trepidation then and apparently that’s how it is going to unfold.
Don’t get me wrong – we are going to win some football games, but when a team has its returning player experience from a poor 6-7 team and also has a new, rookie, HC you pretty much have to figure it wasn’t going to be all sunshine and roses.
Hate to say all this because it’s an I told you so but to me it was pretty obvious that the starting two deep wasn’t as talented or experienced as people wanted to give it credit for. I predicted a 3-3 start to the season with losses to Cincy, VT and Louisville – looks now like it may be 2-4 at best.
As to the game?
If I’m pointing fingers for the actual poor play on the field last night I’ll start and stick with Dave Huxtable and the defense. The safety play was mentally poor and the defensive play calling was the worst I’ve seen in years. My God – how does a DC send ALL 12 of his players to the LOS at your own 23 yard line to stop a 4th and 1? Not one safety back at least?
When your offense gets on the field only three times in the second half and only eight times all game you are going to lose the game. The defense didn’t give the offense an opportunity to produce and we lost, pure and simple.
I though Ray Graham gave his all and hated seeing him out there so much. I thought Sunseri had a pretty good game all in all. BTW – watch that TD drive in the 4th quarter again – the deep incomplete pass to Street down the right sideline… Street pulled up halfway in the play. The commenter on ESPN3 talked about it at length.
Sunseri missed some passes but overall I felt that if he could have been given the opportunity to have a normal number of drives per game, in other words if PITT could have stopped a 3rd down conversion every once in a while, we’d have scored more points. I also agree with Chryst going for it on 4th and 1 when Bennett failed to get the 1st down. The way our defense was giving up 15 play drives Chryst had to gamble to keep our offense on the field.
The only real problem I have with the offense is Devin Street’s play with the dropped 1st down pass when it was 14-10 at the end of the 2nd quarter. That, his other dropped passes, his half-assing his deep route and his fumble were the keys to our offensive failure in my mind. Obviously Graham;s fumble on the YSU 18 on the opening drive didn’t help any either.
Finally – I’m 100% behind Chryst’s suspending those six players for this game. Rumor has it that Shell’s may be more serious than at first glance but that’s smoke, not fire, right now.
If anyone still harbors any doubt in their mind about what the University of Pittsburgh holds more dearly, football wins or the school’s local reputation put it to rest right now.
Wannstedt would not have suspended these players especially not when Ezell, R. Jones and Hale – three vital parts of the two deep – were involved. We know how well that turned out for him. PITT just isn’t going to screw around any longer after the off the field year we had in 2010. PITT will not play the depth chart game when it comes to player’s discipline any longer, wins be damned. Football just isn’t that important when stacked up against the University’s other mission areas.
I thought about this last night when I was driving back home from Erie and listening to the post-game and reaction on 93.7.
I would’ve loved to have been a fly on the wall in whatever luxury box Stevie P was sitting in yesterday. I’d love to have been able to drop in on some of the conversations he may have had with some of the disgruntled boosters who came up to him as that game unfolded.
I’d love to know how much he cares, what he said, whether these boosters honestly believe in this guy.
I just wonder this because while I have a ton of faith in Chryst (I loved watching his offenses at Wisconsin and I think he can build that same sort of thing here), I just wonder if the university is going to give him the right kind of help. I wonder if Stevie P understands how crucial this is, and how bad it’s going to look when the ACC jump is made and this team is not ready.
I wonder this because of the way everything was handled dating back to the transition from Wannstedt, all of which has made Pederson’s bungling of the Frank Solich situation he oversaw at Nebraska look good by comparison.
The dismissal of Wannstedt was beyond awkward and uncomfortable. As much as I was ready to see Dave go at that point, I felt horrible for the guy for the way it was handled. That goes from the communication of the message (Was he dismissed? Was he fired?) to the announcement of his dismissal to the coaching of the bowl game. All of it – particularly the press conference with the players standing behind him right down to the delay in settling on the bowl game coach – made it look like there was no unified message.
The Haywood hiring further muddled things. There was talk that Wannstedt wasn’t the guy to take the team to the next level, which may have been true. But holy hell, how on earth was the next best option Mike effing Haywood? Was Pederson that enamored with Haywood’s one big season at Miami-OH? He must’ve been, because it certainly couldn’t have been Haywood’s sparkling personality. It was a mystifying hire, one that smacked of an attempt to go cheap. And it wasn’t like the program was shelling out to help him out (remember the relic of an offensive coordinator he was planning on bringing with him?). Luckily, Haywood’s own idiocy saved us from that disaster.
The transparency of Haywood’s hiring forced Pederson’s hand to spend money and shell out not just for Graham, but also his assistants. That blew up in Pederson’s face as well when McGee and some of the other assistants bailed immediately after the regular season ended, and Graham followed shortly after. Nearly all of them, by the way, took at least one chance to take a shot at Pitt on the way out the door (many of which I believe were directed at the Pitt administration).
In light of their departure, horror stories about the interactions between Graham and his coaches with players, program staff, university staff and even the Steelers staffers who shared the practice facility began to pour out via the media.
How did Pederson allow this to exist? Did he not know? Isn’t it his job to know that? Isn’t it his job to oversee that? Is he that dumb? Is he that disconnected?
I’m not sure. And now we have this.
As I said, I like Chryst. He was one of my three favorites as the initial replacement for Wannstedt. I like what he developed at Wisky. I like that he knows that blueprint, and he had a great mentor in Alvarez. I think he can make it work here.
I just hope he has the support of the athletic department. I’m not sure they gave him the resources to get the best assistants he could get, but we’ll see.
And I hope this isn’t indicative of something larger going on behind the scenes…that maybe the athletic department doesn’t take the success of this program as seriously as it should. If they don’t, what could transpire after the ACC transition would be 1000x more visible than a 14-point loss to YSU.
Very well thought out and presented. I was 100% in favor of firing Wanny. Just couldn’t take the out-of-left-field losses anymore. Couldn’t take the bewildered look on his face when the game needed a coach to take over. He was the “Pitt man” that was supposed to rescue the program. He just couldn’t do it. But what has followed has been a nightmare. That means that someone has to take responsibility. Someone has to own it.
I’ve been there through the lows and the highs. But the last 20 years are taking their toll on me. Even a fanatic has his limits.
then we do we know better now.
but you have to be disapointed in the coaching
i thought that was fixed but i think not after all chryst did not go after the best coachs but went after coachs that were frends or frends of frends.
i think you had some misgivens abought all the wisconsin tie in was that not you who was worryed abought that.
Hell, Mike Haywood wouldn’t have lost this game!
Forget about blaming Tino for this one. When your defense give us 31 points to Youngstown State that’s on the coach.
Give Chryst an F- for coaching because there isn’t a lower score.
For one, the six players suspended most likely would have played — as Reed pointed out.
And don’t discount the opposition. It was a perfect storm as far as the Youngstown team Pitt ran into. Ten returning starters on offense, a good quarterback, an even better runningback…. and new coach who might turn out to be another Jim Tressel as far as we know.
That all said, Pitt should never have lost last night.
The game exposed some serious shortcomings regarding Chryst’s staff and some of the players they chose to put on the field.
How could such seasoned coaches be so wrong about whether players are ready to play?
But, I’m willing to give Chryst the slightest benefit of a doubt until Thursday.
We’ll find out then if he is really willing to take “ownership” and make the necessary changes to put a competitive team on the field despite what egos get bruised.
I have to believe Chryst will get it done.
I have to agree with the posters about about Wanny. The man wanted to be here. No one worth any salt does.
This is how we can salvage the program and as alumni, we have to be vocal by threatening to stop donations until we get our way:
1) Can we please have the mustard, powder blue, script uniforms back with names on the jerseys? We look like ND and the Naval Academy and it sucks.
2) Put tarps on the upper deck seats and force everyone to sit down low like the Pittsburgh Power do. Maybe the building will get a little noisy and feel like a football game rather than a Catholic mass.
3) This year is lost so sit the seniors and play Voytek, Shell, and the freshman. Let them take their lumps and develop for next year.
4) Chryst gets four years to build this thing no matter what happens this year. We have no continuity and no one that has the smarts to make good hires.
5) Let the band play before the game. Last night no alma mater, smoke, ect. I was like wtf.
6) Win some f’n games so we don’t have to go back to Birmingham.
PS….great timing too, not even giving me 24 hours to forget this most recent debacle before asking for money.
The only way this team is getting to Birmingham this year is if they buy their own tickets.
Don’t bring back our real uniforms with royal blue and gold with Pitt script until we have a real Pitt team that we can be proud of.
If I were the players I would want them to not only take the names off the uniforms but also the numbers.
They’ll win a few games – even in the Big East. The offense wasn’t bad – they just didn’t have many possessions to do much – this team will score points and it’ll have to with that defense.
Pedersen said they wanted someone with head coaching experience after Wanny left. There is a risk in promoting an assistant coach, because some assistants don’t grow into the new job. They never realize that it’s a different job. Peter principle.
Maybe somebody has something on the other five who look to have been involved in a totally different situation.
I know the BE wanted to do us dirty; but, come on, we should have asked YSU to reschedule for a different date later in the season or, at a minimum to play the game a couple of days earlier (Thursday night, Aug. 30?) once the BE dropped an early Thursday road game on us as a parting gift.
This, like Haywood, Graham, and the totally incompetent way Dave Wannstadt was removed is yet another black mark against Steve Pederson!
Why was YSU was underestimated by both coaches and players?
The game plan was totally vanilla. Although that is typically what you do in first games against supposedly weak opponents so as to not give anything away to your first real opponent coming up in game #2. But, when you badly under-estimate an opponent while doing that and your attitude is picked up by the players (as shown by their seeming lack of real effort on top of half-a-dozen of them so un-serious about the opener as to break team rules and get suspended) then its the coaches fault.
Then, you don’t make any halftime changes because you still apparently think you are going to come out and turn it around in the 2nd half without doing anything different.
All this is 90% on the coaches; but, shame on the players for not having a better attitude and giving a better effort despite the coaches!
Are we really so lacking in talent as many (most?) fans believe?
I am not yet convinced that is the case. Despite the overall lack of effort on both sides of the ball–and two turnovers–the offense was okay.
The defensive line was playing without Clemmings, who I presume must be injured, and Ezell (who stupidly got himself suspended) add that to the lackadaisical effort and lack of aggressiveness and its hard to be 100% sure that it is a talent problem rather than an attitude, effort and vanilla opening game scheme problem.
Should we be writing the season completely off as a result of this debacle?
For now, I am still hoping the YSU game will prove to have been an aberration for a variety and combination of possible reasons (not in any particular order)—
1) YSU may be a lot better than any of us thought (legit contender for their division’s National Championship?)
2) Our coaches and players didn’t take YSU at all seriously and gave no effort.
3) Bad scheduling of Cincy game had coaches and players looking ahead while game planning plain vanilla for YSU as a result.
4) Six players missing in action due to bad attitude/bad judgment.
Bottom Line: I am not yet quite ready to write these coaches and this season off. (Maybe after Thursday night I will be?)
OMG, do you realize this team and program, warts and all is going to be on National TV on Thursday Nite.
I really hope ESPN sends a memo to whoever the Thursday Nite crew is this year, to be…..KIND.
And let’s all hope for some sort of miraculous transformation in the next 4 days.
Oy Vey
GRP !!
Hail to PITT!
You who live and die by these Rivals, Scout & ESPN, star ratings. Surely you must be jesting. PITT has plenty of talent to win even with Sir Tino. Granted they didn’t perform like it last nite, but still they do. And I also don’t buy this, “well these players were recruited to play a 3-4 defense instead of a 4-3.” laughable
That was only for one year(last year) and none of those players are on the two deep for this year’s defense. Those on the two deep were ALL recruited to play a 4-3. Another lame excuse.
No there is some underlying factor why this team plays with no passion, no grit, no determination.
Even if it’s only to impress your first year
Head Coach making his coaching debut. PITT played with about as much emotion, enthusiasm as they did against SMU in the bowl game. That would be…..
NONE. There was a plausible excuse then (though based on some player comments you’d think they would have been happy Graham left and played their asses off against SMU). Now there aren’t any excuses unless……
See Poison Pill theory above ^^^.
I’ve heard people say that attendance was regularly bad at pitt stadium..maybe, maybe not, but the huge difference was the seats, bench style vs single seat. The stadium always looks more full with the bleachers..
Comment by goalie44 09.02.12 @ 1:50 pm
Great point goalie44.
PITT Stadium was a great old venue. Would Notre Dame ever consider tearing down their old venerable stadium? Of course not. PITT stadium had great sightlines, not a bad seat in the house. It was basically a smaller version of the Rose Bowl. For is was a bowl shaped stadium. I didn’t really care about the piss troughs in the men’s rooms or the antique concession stands.
I was there to watch a football game, not critique where I took a leak or eat garbage hotdogs.
If you wanted to be comfortable, complain about parking, piss in comfort or eat, stay the f*ck home. Just leave my ON CAMPUS bowl shaped great football stadium the f*ck alone.
Pederson you can shove Heinz Field and your luxury suite up your ass sideways(although u might like it). You’ve done more to destroy whatever tradition we had at PITT (not f*cking Pittsburgh), between the uniforms, the script, the f*cking stadium and your f*cking assinine hirings than all the Oval Jayne’s, Ed Bozik’s and Dave Hart’s (lol) combined.
Oy Vey !
GRP !! (Get Rid of Pederson)
It is just that the talent that is on it is left over from a 6-7 team that couldn’t rise to any occasion last year either. If the games were played on a computer using only star ratings we’d be fine but they aren’t.
Other than Ray Graham and Donald is there any one player, in your opinion, that would definitely start for any other D1 team?
No there isn’t and that’s 20 out of 22 starters. Combine that with a severe lack of experience and you have a …. middling football team.
The answer to your question is “yes”, the entire athletic department is incompetent….they grew up under incompetence and believe it to be the norm: acceptable.
Pitt does not have any acumen in athletics.
If Pitt were to drop to D2 for instance their performance at that level would mirror what you see before you.
I doubt Pitt can remain a D1 program much longer. They are what Temple was when Temple got booted from the BE.
I addmit, last year I drank the Kool-aide because I thought the spread was the only way to go without major talent and I still think that. With decent QB play we would have won 9 or 10 games last year and TG would have gotten the Texas A-M job for about $5mil a year instead of the $2mil at ASU. Thats why he was so pissed at Sir Tino.
Only 8 possessions last night. A D-1 team with minimal talent should score on 5 of those posessions. I have always looked forward to getting up on Sunday morning and reading the paper and the sports page. Today I left it in the street!
PC, prove me wrong!
1) the team improves greatly over the course of the season
2) they don’t embarrass me again
Odds anyone?
How can the Students care about a football team when players are partying the night before? The PLAYERS don’t give a shit about the team, and neither do the fans because the program sucks.
It’s sucked for years. Nordenberg and Pederson have destroyed any hope for Pitt to be a future strong football school. It’s over until they’re gone.
I am a more recent grad, so I am defensive on this one, and I wasn’t there for the glory days, but I can definitely say the student sections were the only sections that were packed and making any semblance of noise Saturday night.
I thought the spread would be 10.
Fans don’t cheer for their team getting crushed. God, some people on here are simply misguided. Yea, keep cheering when you’re getting steamrolled by YSU. Keep cheering when your program is in shambles.
Come on, get real. Pitt Football sucks and doesn’t deserve to be cheered for.
“I have resigned as head coach at Pitt, and accepted the head coaching position at Texas A&M university.” J. Sherrill circa late ’81
“this has to be, YSU is a div 1-aa team (ya, I’m tired of all the fbs crap, I’ll call it what I want to),
“no, Bowling Green was a momentum killer”
“Ohio, are you friggin kidding me, Ohio”
“Holy Toledo, I can’t believe this”
“oh, you have to throw in those 76-0 and 63-17 drubbings from JM II”
LMAO!!!!!!
What a sad state of affairs, discussing (again, INCLUDING MYSELF) which loss was worse!!!!!!!!
Wow, I’ve not given up yet, bet if you looked up the word buzzkill, this would be it.
After waiting all summer. I have to ask, what have you been doing???
Don’t want to hear about talent, or changing this or changing that, this was pathetic, from the word “go”.
It’s football, not rocket science. Absolutely no push from either line, no fire from anyone, no one getting pissed off.
This just may be the year I end this love affair. I always say a coach gets a couple of years, but, wow, I am thoroughly disgusted.
Growing pains, ya, I understand that.
Getting embarrassed, literally beat up, AT HOME, against Youngstown State.
There is nothin’ you can sell me on this one.
Don’t try to sell it, cause I ain’t buyin’ it!!
I mean, if someone didn’t watch the game, and just saw the score come across the crawler, they’d think, “oh, what an upset”.
Any of us that were there, or those that watched on the computer know quite differently.
We got are effin’ asses kicked up and down the field.
I see more emotion from the gallon of milk in my fridge.
This killed all of the glee of the PSU problems and them losing to Ohio.
Killed the excitement of trying to win the BE championship going out the door.
And it killed any excitement of going to the ACC.
Sad, disgusted and I have no more answers on coaching, offenses, defenses, I got nothin’ left.
It’s almost just about time to say “UNCLE”.
Call me disloyal, I could give a rat’s ass.
That’s friggin’ fine. If our goal is to be an Ivy League school, or Duke, Stanford or Vanderbilt, that’s teriffic.
If that’s the case, then let the fans know. Don’t come out about winning, “we’re here to win”, switch conferences to the ACC to go after championships.
Just call it what it is. Seriously, just come out and let the fans know, football is way down the list on our agenda.
The chancellor, the trustees, the athletic department, just come out and say it!!
We’re big boys, if we aren’t here to try to field a great football team, then just effin’ say so!!
That way, we can all make our decisions, should we get excited about Pitt, or, our we in with CMU, Case Western and the Univ. of Chicago.
That’s fine, then it’s up to us as to what to do with our money, time and heart!!
1. Beat the teams you’re supposed to beat, and
2. Give me an occaisional upset.
Oh, one more thing. Look like you’re trying to win.
Anyway, my friend, who is an ex high school football coach found two things striking (1 – how can a senior qb be that bad?, 2 why is the student section empty after the 3rd quarter?).
I never had really paid much attention to anything other than the empty end zone before and attributed it to the fact that Pitt has been typically losing at that point in games and so they left.
So as were are leaving Heinz AFTER the fireworks, I mistakenly took the wrong escalator and left via the wrong gate and had to circle back around the stadium to get to Green 22. The line of students still waiting to get on buses to go back to Oakland was still almost up to the casino!
I know when I was at Pitt, it didn’t take me that long after a game to try and get the first seat at the Wooden Keg. These kids don’t want to wait in a 2 hour line to start partying of pitching woo and I, frankly, don’t blame them.
This AD is amazing. He can’t even design public transportation on a Saturday for crying out loud. I know we will never have Pitt Stadium back but after what I saw Saturday, it put a whole new perspective on why these kids leave early. And fireworks won’t keep a 19 year old in the stands, Steve.
Seems like a lot to fix in five days.
he didn’t do anything that badly… no interceptions… no fumbles… no running out of bounds 10 yds back… etc Completion rate was ok.
The ground and pound game may work in Wisky… but not at Pitt when you don’t have an Oline… the short passing was working… why not more of it??
Shanny should lineup at Tight End on some plays.
Don’t be surprised if this team completely loses its psych after three games……
Nice thing about this game is that the Panthers now have hit bottom right off the bat. ANY win this season from this point forward has to be viewed as a step in the right direction.
And to think that most of us were worried about how Sunseri would play. LOL, he is the least of our problems. DEFENSE! Lets get some?
Forget about next year in the ACC, let’s start now to build momentum for next year with players who want to play football at Pitt.
It’s time for a change…
HTP!
@Wally. Initially, I was on the students case the past few years, but, after talking to a few of them, just what you said. If they don’t leave early, they wait in line for several hours. Thought they may be making it out to be a bigger deal than it is, but you confirming it lets me believe what they said.
Remember that age too, sure some are sports fans, but a lot go to the game for the fun, and the booze and chicks afterwards. That was always part of the fun.
If you’re on campus, you can stumble out of the stadium at the end right into the bars of choice. Have to get in a line, for a ride, to get on a bus, to take you back to school???
I know there is no room on campus, not bringing that argument up. I hate this phrase “it is what it is”, but that’s it. You’re miles from campus and have to bus there, ya, I’m probably leaving early, if I even go at all. If the games on tv, definitely would have found me at the Keg, Zelda’s or Calicos watching the game, getting primed for the evening.
Just very disappointed. I didn’t expect him to “coach up” this group to beat Va Tech or ND or even Louisville (who looked pretty good yesterday when they had their starting qb in), but……..
getting hammered by YSU, and the lack of any inspiration at all, has me pretty deflated on the whole season.
Especially the lack of inspiration for the opening game. These guys should have been coming out like they were shot out of cannons.
As for talent, I wasn’t at camp, and frankly I don’t care. These are Div 1 players, even if the cupboard is somewhat bare, to come out with that steaming pile of crap of a game was inexcusable, no matter the talent level.
Maybe you start out 2-5, 3-6, then I could listen to someone tell me “hey, I told you we didn’t have much”.
Opening day against that team, to soil the field like they did. NO EXCUSES!! Absolutely horrible!
Pederson is cheap and always has been. We could have kept the OL coach if Pederson would have paid. Return on Investment occurs when you invest. Pederson doesn’t do that. He is cheap. When will people see that he hurt pitt his first time here, nearly killed Nebraska and is now killing pitt again. It starts at the top people and he is unfortunately, the top. He got to go, we got to stay!
Russ Grimm as AD? Mark May? TD? Tom Clement? Is there anyone out there that Steve P hasn’t alienated that we could bring back with open arms and let them run a program? Anyone? …..Damn crickets!
KK Smith was OK at best last season; Clemmings has shown nothing; Manny Williams and Eric Williams have shown nothing; Grigsby hasn’t every played before so we know nothing about him; Tags hasn’t played that well as a starter, Lippert is a journeyman, Ezell hasn’t shown anything during play, Hendricks has been up and down, Vinopal (who I really like) hadn’t played at PITT yet, etc…
Sorry but IMO we aren’t that talented and certainly not talented enough to overcome the real lack of experience going into 2012. That said, I think this group will be better in the future than we saw against YSU. Get some experience actually playing and we’ll see how talented they actually are but it may take half a season.
I am a football nut and will go no matter what. The typical college kid wants to get loaded and laid and the team will have to win to get them interested and in the stadium for the whole game.
I agree with Reed and others. What did the veteran players prove the previous two years, not much. What top shelf talent was in the Pitt Football cupboard for PC, not much. What did the veteran players prove last evening, not much.
It is childish to say the least to crucify PC after one game in light of the above. It is shortsighted and is only magnified through the looking glass of the last two years of Pitt Football.
Will PC change the defeated culture of this program, only time will tell. But I want him to weed out any vestiges of accepted mediocrity, piss-poor/self-entitled/non-hard working players and any visions of grandeur for a team with as many holes as this one.
On a side note Reed, while TS was not terrible his limitations were there for all to see…
And BTW, Arizona St ran the ball an incredible 51 times the other night (for > 300 yds) vs 20 passes. Do you think that OL matters??
Is it any wonder that Pitt on Saturday night played laid-back, tired, and nice?
And those of you who (still) say Chryst must stay, is THAT what you want? Really?? And if so, why?
Contrast that with lowly Colorado State out here, on nobody’s map, not even in Colorado. But they hired Jim McIlwain, the OC at Alabama, as their first-time head coach.
And CSU was amazingly inspired on Saturday, feeding off their amped-up coach to beat a much more talented Colorado Buffs team.
Looks like we hired the wrong OC…
- Well 475 comments in and I think all agree that wasn’t a good game by Pitt.
- I haven’t seen PC full interview but wonder if anyone asked why they didn’t seem to adjust the D to what YSU was doing. Was it due to them as coaches just missing it or do they feel the players can only do what’s been asked. Either way, the lack of making ingame adjustments has been Pitt’s biggest trouble and that didn’t seem to be fixed with the new guys.
- I see some already want to fire PC. Well, you might want to start watching a different team then since that’s not going to, nor should it, happen. He’s going to at least get 3 and more likely 5 years to build the team the way he wants it.
- And let’s be honest, the players they’re working with are mainly leftovers by the past coaches. Any of the really good ones are already in the NFL. If DW was still the coach today, I’d say 3/4 of these guys wouldn’t even be starting. That doesn’t mean I think DW was the greatest coach in the world, but to me, this highlights the damage from inconsisent recruiting for the past couple years.
- For this year, it is what it is…unless either Graham or Shell become top 5 RB’s in the country or the D somehow figures out how to play football. Guess we’ll all find out on Thursday.
Second – for those who complain about Sunseri’s arm strength – watch that TD pass again. Sunseri throws a frozen rope 35 yards IN THE AIR between two defenders and perfectly into Brinson’s hands.
That was one of the best passes we’ve seen in years.
So yes, we say some poor plays but we also saw him complete 66% of his passes, no TOs and he took no sacks.
We had one three & out during that game. Our other three play drive ended only because of Street’s fumble.
Was it a great game? No, but he played well and to point to him for that loss is insane. Especially when our defense gives up drives of 10, 15, 15, and 12 plays. YSU scored on five of the six actual drives (not including running out the clock at each half). Five of six!
That is where the finger should point.
Are you’re talking about the overthrow to Street in the first half?
Watching the replay, I believe Sunseri threw the ball to the outside and not right on top of the angle in which Street is running.
Chryst (and Rudolph) did design a safe conservative gameplan tailored to give Sunseri the best chance of success, a lot of short outside throws and sitdown routes for the TEs.
But give Tino credit. He executed it pretty well.
The problem with his performance is that he did not make any plays with his feet, not just running but also buying time in order to find a secondary receiver breaking free.
Sunseri simply doesn’t have the ability to make a big play out of an extended play. That really limits the big play ability of an offense.
I sit in section 523 and watch the students leave at halftime and after sweet caroline…they were dead sat…and mostly all gone in the 4th quarter (and thats every game for that matter)
..if that is support then u guys are the “loaded ones”…College football is all about spirit and being proud of your university…these kids have six maybe seven home games a year…do your job and stay for the whole game..and scream your lungs out until they bleed!!
He has no goals for the coaches, players, etc.
Just get better…
That is not CEO/HC material…
Then regarding play calling… lol… 4th and 1 got the play in with 8 secs… snapped on 1 sec.. cluster fuck.
He wouldn’t commit to who was calling the plays… on offense or defense.
He is your typical control freak who can’t delegate… I noticed Chryst was running the practices with very little delegation to the DC or OC.
(Chryst)…said the six suspended players will get to practice this week. He said he won’t decide until later in the week if they get to play at Cincinnati.
Move the song to either halftime or better yet save it for after the game for a “Fifth Quarter” performance by the Pitt Band.
Have the Pitt Band play Sweet Caroline in collaboration with the Pitt student section.
A Fifth Quarter featuring Sweet Caroline should help solve the problem of students leaving early for the gates.
For those who have not seen it, Fifth Quarters involving the school band are pretty popular at some schools.
One that comes to mind is Wisconsin were the tradition is for the band to play the Budweiser Thems song among others.
Win or lose it keeps the majority of fans and students in the stadium until the band has finished playing.
Comment by Dan 09.02.12 @ 11:40 pm
RFLMAO
One of the classic lines EVER posted on PIttblather Dan-o
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
(you have to laugh as to not breakdown and cry when thinking of Pitt football these days )
Oy Vey
GRP !!
1. No bus leaves until game is over.
2. Pass out a card after the game to anyone leaving. Card holders have priority on the bus over anyone in line.
As to control freaks. President Carter was a control freak. He personally spent time deciding the White House tennis court schedule.
And he was a pretty good President. Oh, wait a minute, never mind.
We will offer counseling and other things(massive quantities of booze) to deal with the fortunes of following PITT football !!
Oy Vey (the new school motto)
GRP !! (get rid of Pederson)
Great idea I love it, a 5th Quarter.
Only problem is somebody like Wisconsin usually wins 95% of their home games. So people are in a celebatory spirit for some 5th quarter fun.
Somebody like us (pITT) we lose 50% of our home games and usually always against anyone of note.
So while i love the idea, I can’t imagine staying after, say the latest home loss to YSU, to sing Sweet Caroline or anything else, how about We are the Champions (not).
Maybe the theme to Charlie Brown would me more appropriate, we could all hum along since it’s instrumental.
Oy Vey
GRP
GREAT! Then NO ONE WILL GO. No one wants to see these pathetic losers get drunk the night before a game, get suspended, and get their asses handed to them.
You CANT force fans to like their team. You have to EARN fans. Fans want to cheer-they’ve wanted to for years-but we fail year after year. Fans are sick of it. Students don’t care-why should they? The team sucks
There is no emotional attachment. How are you supposed to build positive emotions when the whole thing is just a terrible experience? Get up early as hell so you can take a bus to Heinz Field for a noon kickoff to watch Pitt struggle to beat terrible teams or to get blown out buy the good ones. Even the kids from Western PA would have absolutely no positive memories of this team growing up.
I’m from Jersey and only went to Pitt because a scholarship made it cheaper than Rutgers (a school with a very similar fan base, just missing the decade of success and the old timers holding on to a dead in state rivalry). The only reason I even care is because I love football, I saw some great wins (VT leaving BE, ND so proud of this fucking football team, and WVU dagger) and I enjoy stuffing my face and binge drinking in parking lots.
inside, outside, nowhere is home
inside, outside, where have I been
out of my brain, on the 5:15″
This is the 4th quarter pass I’m talking about – not the poor throw on the 1st half pass where Street was wide open and Sunseri blew it. That was a typical Sunseri muff.
