When you have plenty of time, but no wi-fi, there is only so much you can do. I did, however, have the handy-dandy Phil Steele College Football Preview Guide to keep me entertained. Pitt was #15 on his list of most improved teams for this year! Guessing that won’t be mentioned next year when he talks of his accuracy.
It did allow me to look over the schedules of teams over the past five years and how many BCS programs have lost to 1-AA teams in that span. Time to look at the factoids gleaned.
From 2007-2011, a 1-AA team has beaten a BCS team 11 times.
Nine teams, however, account for those 11 losses.
Minnesota and Duke account for 4 of the losses.
North Dakota State accounts for two 1-AA wins: Minnesota and Kansas
So does Richmond, but both wins came against Duke.
Average margin of loss: 5.545 points. Highest: 13. Lowest: 1.
Two teams that lost to 1-AA teams made a bowl that year: Michigan and Virginia Tech.
The man for whom Paul Chryst named his dog, Mike Riley, is on the list.
There are ten different coaches who lost to 1-AA teams from 2007-2011. Four of them are still coaching at that school (Frank Beamer, VT; Jerry Kill, Minnesota; Dave Cutliffe, Duke; Mike Riley, Oregon St.)
The Big East was the only BCS conference without a 1-AA loss from 2007 until Pitt.
I’m not including Temple’s 27-24 loss to Villanova in 2009 since Temple was in the MAC at that point.
The ACC leads all conferences with four losses to 1-AA teams. (So really, you could argue that Pitt was just trying to fit in to the ACC a little early).
One coach has managed to fail upward after losing to a 1-AA team. Gene Chizik lost to Northern Iowa while coaching Iowa State and still got hired by Auburn.
Here’s the list of games by year:
2007
Big 10, Michigan-Appalachian St., 34-32, Lloyd Carr the HC: retired at end of 2007 season.
Big 12, Iowa St.-Northern Iowa, 24-13, Gene Chizik the HC: Hired by Auburn after 2008 season.
2009
ACC, Virginia-William & Mary, 26-14, Al Groh the HC: fired at end of 2009 season.
ACC, Duke-Richmond, 24-16, Dave Cutliffe the HC: still employed by Duke.
2010
SEC, Ole Miss-Jacksonville St., 49-48, Houston Nutt the HC: fired after 2011 season.
Big 10, Minnesota-South Dakota, 41-38, Tim Brewster the HC: fired after 2010 season.
Big 12, Kansas-North Dakota St., 6-3, Turner Gill the HC: fired after 2011 season.
ACC, Virginia Tech-James Madison, 21-16, Frank Beamer the HC: still employed by VT.
2011
Big 10, Minnesota-North Dakota St., 37-24, Jerry Kill the HC: still employed by Minnesota.
ACC, Duke-Richmond, 23-21, Dave Cutliffe the HC: still employed by Duke.
Pac-12, Oregon St.-Sacremento St., 29-28, Mike Riley the HC: still employed by Oregon St.
i still feel bad.
we might not have as many good players as i thought in fact we have very few.
but the coachs must be part of the blame becuse the team was not ready to play and that is on the coachs.
Somehow, this doesn’t make me feel any better about it.
We’d be more a laughing stock than we were in whenever that was when Utah trampled us in the Fiesta Bowl. Wlat’s last year before his ill-timed trip to Palo Alto.
Hey on the bright side of that, at least Wlat’s head coaching career didn’t end at Pitt.
u know (always looking for positives when it comes to PITT football)
Has everyone sobered up since Sat nite or just continued drinking ??
P.S> this could become a weekly poll we could conduct after PITT games this year. Feedback Welcome.
Takes softball questions from reporters in attendance.
Instead ,he came out and said what a coach would say about adversity.
It’s one game. a REAL bad loss yes, but it was one game.
Tino Sunseri for a while actually looked like a QB..and when it came down to it, he didn’t run out of bounds or take bad sacks or anything like that. he stuck it out, played hard and tried.
it’s nice to see.
Now let’s see if the D can get on the same track.
But admit that I was surprised by the fact that Chryst appeared no different today than any other time he has appeared before the press. In fact maybe even more relaxed.
And the press did nothing to change that.
Does anyone really think that will happen? Can anyone really envision this guy actually *motivating* anyone?
I’m sure he’s a good teacher and a really nice guy. I have been squarely in favor of giving him a chance, and there’s no way he doesn’t get at least a couple of years.
But the lack of passion Saturday night was deeply disturbing. I’m beginning to wish another HC choice had been made. But there’s nothing that can be done at this point, we are stuck just hoping that things won’t be quite so embarrassing going forward.
It’s really frustrating to be a Pitt fan. 
Pitt got a commitment tonight. Corner anthony covington with offers from mississippi state, vanderbilt, miami, virginia, unc, and nc state. Sounds like a really good pickup after one of the most pathetic games in pitt history
The team sucks… you can come in and start as a freshman… just look at the YSU game!!
I was very impressed with the play of YSU. Just goes to show you that a team that comes prepared, plays with emotion, executes well and just plain wants it more than the other team CAN win with a bunch of two (and less) star recruits against a supposedly better opponent.
As I’ve already posted before. I just can’t get my head around this guy Paul Chryst. I’m not quite sure what to make of his post game interview either. Makes me wonder how this coach is going to motivate this team to want to play Cincy in 3 days.
I just don’t know about a lot of things since Saturday. I wasn’t even greatly depressed like I usually am when Pitt lost Saturday night, it’s like I accepted the fact that Pitt just got it’s collective ass kicked by the better team????? Strange all around.
abought Chryst but i will give him till thur game
and see what happens before i pass judment but
if we dont look better i am jumping on him with both feet.
so i guess he thinks were so bad hecan play right away.
4th down… on the 35…
they elect to punt… goes into the endzone..
GT starts on the 20…
what ever the AD is up to he is to mutch of
shyster to tricky to be touched and the outhers are drinking captin morgan and are out to lunch
most of the day.
Now that tells me one of two things, either: a) Pitt’s coaches have done a miserable job at utilizing all of that high-end talent; or b) all of that alleged “high-end” talent Pitt was pulling in wasn’t all that great. I think it’s a combination of both scenarios myself. Mediocre coaching+middling talent=Average results
And you’re absolutely right, it’s very frightening. It certainly doesn’t bode well for the immediate future of Pitt football as they transition into a more difficult league.
Look at the commit we just got. Dorian Johnson puts Pitt at top. So should Foster and Boyd. They should all be good enough to play right away. If they are good enough they go to the next level. They won’t be lost on a depth chart at other schools. Big advantage Pitt.
Now if we can get Pederson to resign and take some of his salaries to pay position coaches better, we might be on to something. We are too quick to blame the coach, yet we don’t know the constraints he was given by our trainwreck of an administration we have. Wake up nordy!
- Call me crazy but I think Pitt’s going to win on Thursday. But overall, I don’t have high hopes for the season and would be happy if they get into a bowl.
- D. Johnson has Pitt back on top of his list??? Guess they must have listened to JoeD and started baking him some pies. You know, since that’s the way those elite schools get those top players….
- I wonder how long until we start hearing maybe PC wore the kids out by running so may plays during camp.
- Don’t know if he did all the offensive play calling during YSU game but he needs to give that up to the OC. He should be talking with both coordinators about what changes they need to make vs. worrying about what play to call next.
1. Am I the only one wondering if too much is being made of Chryst’s demeanor, especially in light of the post-game stuff? I certainly can understand the frustration with this given that the team came out flat (more on this in a second). But I also think the “fire-breathing coach” act only goes so far, too.
Had he shown up at the press conference and yelled a lot about the game, what purpose would it serve, other than to placate the media and fans, and give us all something to write/talk about? Or perhaps even ridicule?
(And if you think I’m wrong, look at the traction the college football media and blogosphere in particular has gotten out of Mike Riley’s “I’m a man! I’m 40!” tirade.)
2. And how do we know he hasn’t ripped the team up one side and down the other for their performance? We have no idea what’s been said to these kids since Saturday night.
I don’t know. I think there’s a time and place for that kind of stuff. Todd Graham yelled a lot. From what I saw of him at Miami (OH) and during his press conferences here at Pitt, Mike Haywood was fire and brimstone to an awkward degree. Wannstedt ran up and down the sidelines like a disheveled maniac half the time, which sometimes did little but enhance his reputation as a disorganized gameday coach.
I agree that there’s a time and place for it, and maybe Chryst needs to show a LITTLE bit of something so as not to turn into Pitt’s version of the Pirates’ John Russell. But I also think there’s a definite value to having a coach maintain his cool and keep it together more often than not on the sidelines, too.
Excellent points. Reed alluded to this as well with some of his comments over the last few threads, and I think that has to be a consideration.
Something else I mentioned in previous threads along these lines:
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 happened with Wannstedt, Haywood and Graham.
And that’s not necessarily the players’ fault, either. This is a roster largely made up of kids who signed on between 2008 and 2010 (Wannstedt’s recruits), and couldn’t have possibly anticipated what would transpire with the coaching staff.
MOST of the players on this roster (some exceptions) were too young to contribute to the 2010 team that underachieved, costing Wannstedt his job as he lost control of the program.
MOST of these players that joined or stuck by the program through that transition in 2011 would up putting their trust & football futures in the hands of a man who turned out to be 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 immediate “lateral” transfer that Graham exploited. Faced with either transferring down to Division I-AA, or transferring laterally and sitting for a year, they stuck by at this level, trying to learn their third system in three years for as many coaches, the second of which did not recruit them.
None of this excuses a loss by two TD’s at home to Youngstown State. There’s no way that should happen…not with the pedigree of players that Pitt does have on its roster.
But I wonder how much of this was the manifestation of two years of lost recruiting, stunted development of kids in the program because of two straight years of coaching turnover, etc.
I’ll tell ya, the ACC may not be the SEC, but it is a whole class above the Big East.
Players are noticably larger and faster. Coaches making adjustments on every play.
Corners firing, safeties sliding over, lb’s picking up guys floating wide.
Coach Chryst really has a huge job ahead of him.
P.S. not just talking Va. Tech., Ga. Tech, big, fast, hitting.
Maybe it’s our uniforms. Wait, that’s black that makes you skinny.
He better get some reinforcements quickly.
Both sides chest pumping and fired up on the sidelines.
Holley and Hendricks(if healthy) should play the entire game.
Now a team improves most between their first and second games. Hopefully everybody is back in action on Thursday and are recovered from the sock in the mouth that they took on Saturday. Now, how do you respond?
This team’s leadership and character will be demonstrated on national TV on Thursday night. They don’t have to win the game, but they sure as hell have to show up and play better than they did on Saturday to show some backbone. Recent history suggests that we soil our pants on the national stage with a typical subpar performance. We’ll see soon enough.
I must have an unconditional love for Pitt, why else would a sane person put themselves through such abuse otherwise to continue to be a loyal Pitt fan?
HAIL TO PITT!
Tino will have to score 45 pts a game to give them a chance to win.
What little enthusiasm and goodwill Chryst had with Pitt supporters evaporated.
He will be judged with wins and bowl games and no one expected this performance, again they were dominated by YSU.
VaTech and GaTech are good teams-the game was close and it wasn’t over until it was over.
Pitt isn’t a good team. Pitt lost to YSU so quickly, it was clear they weren’t going to win. Fans don’t want to watch losers suck for decades.
You’re the worst Pitt fan of them all-keep staying and pitt will never be good again. If the fans stopped going, pederson gets fired and we move forward.
Totally agree with anonymouspitt, sorry pitt-for-life, why would anyone stay for this product??
For “Dear Old School”??? Don’t need to get into an on campus stadium thing, but, with next to no college atmosphere on the Northside, and putting that product on the field, I will not blame anyone for leaving.
I saw your opening statement and that’s all I read, and went on to comment about what a great atmosphere and great game VT-GT had.
Two good teams, playing good football, with head coaches into each and every play like their life depended on it, then overtime, of course no one left that game.
You’re comparing apples to bubble gum!
To make a point though, ya, sure, if you’re on campus, maybe you stick around for “Dear Old School”, walk around campus, have a coffee or hot chocolate in the a.m., visit some old buildings, meet some friends, go to the game, have dinner and drinks……….
and drink in the atmosphere of days gone bye…..
“Dear Old School” isn’t in a parking lot at the Northside though.
No need to debate, both things are just what they are, we can’t have an on campus stadium, UNDERSTOOD!!!!
Along with that, Heinz Field is not our college campus either, so there are no warm and fuzzy feelings there.
Just the way it is.
The coaching and system changes certainly haven’t helped, but really, it looks like we’re kind of trying to play with a skeleton crew out there. I think Chryst will turn things around, but it’s going to take time. His first class is much more balanced and fills more needs than any of Wanny’s. Even the class GrahamCracker threw together last year was better in that respect than we’ve seen in a while. (For all the years Wannstedt couldn’t get a decent QB, and these guys nabbed two highly rated ones in two years.) So, the program will definitely turn around under a more competent college recruiter like Chryst, but unfortunately, I think it’s going to take a couple of years of rebuilding.
Your logic is obtuse at best regarding fans staying, or leaving the game early. I left early too, but not because I hoped that it would influence Pederson’s job security.
Anybody that shows up for the games in person should not be chastised for doing so, even if they decide to leave before the game is over. In Saturday’s case, the game WAS over with about 5 minutes to go in the final quarter. Yes, the way Pitt stunk it out, the stadium should have been a ghost town when the final gun sounded.
The only solution to attendence, and enthusiasm for Pitt’s football program is to just, “win baby, win”. Considering what I witnessed on Saturday, that hill looks pretty damn steep right about now. We’ll see on Thursday how anxious this team is to start that hike up that hill to victory.
Foregone conclusion, will we ever have 100,000 people like Michigan or Tennessee, no, of course not.
Other than big games, ain’t gonna have 65K either.
But, if you want 40,000 (I mean 40K warm bodies, not what Pitt says attendance is) or 50000 people for games, you have to win.
You have to win, you have to win often, and you have to win against some good teams, and you have to win consistenly.
Will we sell out, not often, but win, and there will be some people at the games.
Fact is that he had a legit Top 20 class coming at the time of his firing .. of which only 2 stayed committed when Haywood was hired.
is one and gonzy.
as far as the 2 TG and chryst signed they may be just as bad. you wont know till they play plus
did you know that the 4 star chryst got to commit
outher schools were looking at him as a D back
not as a QB. so he might not be better than gonzy
gonzalas. who was listed as a 4 star on some sites
most all the time and the place will rock and it will seam as if there are more than that there.
but for that to happen you must win and win a lot
as as he said you must beat good teams.
Thanks for getting me to retirement buddy. I am glad your tenure as president will show that your teams sucked. That is your legacy, sir Nordy. Thanks for enabling me through the years, when other programs wouldn’t. Sincerely, a bigger fraud than the last fraud. Steve
You follow the recruiting a little closer than I do, so I don’t know exactly how many teams may be looking at Chapman as a DB. But even if they are, that doesn’t really worry me.
If you recall, there was plenty of debate along the same lines about both Tyler Palko and Rod Rutherford, especially Palko, who many liked as a safety. And I remember some even arguing that Walt should’ve made Rutherford a wideout.
From what I’ve read, Chapman was phenomenal in his first game this season, too. I guess we’ll wait and see…from what I gather, this coaching staff sees a lot of things in Chapman that they saw from Russell Wilson last year. We can certainly hope that’s what he eventually becomes.
The only thig I know is this. When Pedersen was hired on 11/30/07 until the time he was fired on 12/7/10, Pitt FB had a 27 – 12 record.
We’ll see if during Stevie boy’s present realm, we will see this level again. I hope so but you have to have your doubts.
Now that opens up another totally different conversation about Wannstedt, proper evaluation and development of those you already have in addition to the ones you’re recruiting. What do you do with them once they’re on board?
Can anyone argue with the “swing and a miss” situation that occurred with Joe Flacco? Don’t get me wrong, Palko was a good QB for Pitt but really, how do you let Joe Flacco get away from you?
I seem to remember it was kind of the same type of anointment that Sunseri was given by the Wannstedt coaching staff. Make a early on coaching decision and then to hell with competition for the sake of giving attention to the development of the #1 guy. Obviously, Flacco said F that, and the rest is Fightin’ Blue Hen football legend. But then it is always easy for us to be the Monday morning quarterbacks when you have a clear view of history in the rearview mirror.
But you know what? That’s why college football is so much fun to follow. You just don’t know what the fu*k is going to happen half of the time. For instance, I sure didn’t see this YSU ass kickin coming last Saturday, did anybody else out there see it differently before the game started? I had already penciled in that “W” before the season started.
As I always say, “that is why they play the games”. Who knows what to expect come Thursday night? We’ll see.
How about a thread on what changes should be implemented for Thursday?
Sure that many here including you guys have some thoughts.
THe act of firing a coach is only half the task .. the other, and more important task, is hiring another coach who will improve the program.
I contend that you don’t fire a winning coach unless you’re pretty sure you an improvement waiting in the wings.
The question an AD has when considering firing a coach with a winning record is NOT “can we do better?” it is “Will we do better?”
wbb, you are right. Hiring is more important than the firing. There were plenty of candidates for the job, it is just that the first two times they picked the wrong guys. WVU was in the same boat as Pitt, but they just picked the right replacement.
Also, I’m not sure if anyone has brought this up with all the comments, but are we even sure that the administration is upset with the loss? I’m sure if they are picking between suspensions and a loss or no suspensions, bad PR and a win the administration is picking suspensions every time.
He then contacted the likes of Sumlin and Graham, only to find out their salary demands were way too much (turned out that Wanny was quite the bargain!)
He then finally ssttled on Callahan …. er, I mean Haywood.
I will watch the rest of the season and probably every season after that but its time to lower our expectations and accept the fact that a trip to Birmingham every three years in January isn’t so bad.
Just as nations in the past have lived and died by their leadership, so too does Pitt football. When you have an AD who wrecked Nebraska and has gone through 4 different coaching hires without any improvement in 2 years, he needs to go.
The only way to put pressure on Nordy is to not go to games and get him to fire Pederson.
This is the exact same reason the pirates have been this way for years. Poor ownership and leadership.
I honestly don’t think Pederson had a choice in the matter and that Wanny had to be fired. I will always believe that the off the field issues including the SI story were the main reasons he was fired.
I wouldn’t say Pitt are losers. Literally, like 4 plays over the course of the past 3 seasons from 3 straight Big East titles and 3 straight BCS games. I think with Chryst, Pitt will turn into the Wisconsin of the ACC, consistently beat the teams they are supposed to beat and be competitive against everyone else. I’ll take that every year.
i dont disagree with you but waht did we get in are last game a team that was totally uninspired in there play.
just like wannys that does not meam i want chryst
gone one game is not a good judge.
but there better be someimprovement on thur becuse
even bad players can try hard give it all they have that is what i want to see yes penn state lost to ohio but they played hard and never quit that is what i want.
“I wouldn’t say Pitt are losers. Literally, like 4 plays over the course of the past 3 seasons from 3 straight Big East titles and 3 straight BCS games.”
Lets face the facts, we couldn’t win the weakest conference in the country despite having the best recruits. We couldnt beat a fluke Cinci team on our home field with a huge third qtr lead. That is what losers do, they lose…we lost! And for christ sake we just got a beat down from the penguins in our home opener. open your eyes.
It’s very unfortunate that the only thing I want out of the program is to LIMIT embarrassing losses…oof.
a bad QB i was just showing steve s a point that he had not thought of or did not know.
if you read his post you will see what i was doeing.
as well as PA HS football..
(they were pessimistic, and it was immediately justified!) LMAO!!
I keep telling everyone here that the declining Western PA FB market, playing in an FB conference with limited exposure, in addition to sharing the city with a beloved NFL franchise spells nothing but trouble for Pitt FB … and you cannot measure the program by late 1970s standards.
At least Wanny, as long as he was putting players in the NFL, would always get attractive recruits.
Die hard pitt fan.. but its getting much harder to believe. I swear somebody made a deal with the devil in 1976….
star and four 4 stars the fact that 4 out of the
5 sucked is not the coachs fult .
becuse you dont know till they play.
i thought wanny a bad game day coach but i did not
want him fired.
and as Wbb said he should not have been fires unless they had a good coach locked up to take his place like WVU did.
so that is on are AD who i do think sucks a big one.
Pitt’s offense was good enough to win even with the two fumbles.
A couple of YSU stops and a couple of more possessions and the points are there.
The BIGGEST PROBLEM on defense was no so much the defensive calls although they were a problem (surprise fourth down TD pass included.
It was Huxtable being duped into playing some players (more than a few) who showed either a complete lack of ability or lack of desire to make a play.
Watching the replay, it would be hard to remember watching down D-linemen as slow and cumbersome as a group of guys wearing numbers in the 90s.
Donald also struggled to get free while being handled singlehandedly.
The one who seemed to get a little better as the game went on was 72 Lippert.
Seems ridiculous to bring strength and conditioning into question but it has to be questioned unless these guys just aren’t that talented.
Linebacker, same story different reason. Nothing to question here but an apparent lack of desire to make plays instead of just running around pursuing plays.
Isn’t there someone behind Gordon wlling to play with a motor and hit people instead of playing like a safety in run support?
Oh, I knew what you were getting at regarding Chapman. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.
I was just adding some context and discussion to it with the Palko and Rutherford points.
but as a recruiter i thought he did good even if outhers dont look at the QB one 5 star at least
four 4 star qb i dont think you can blame a coach
when 4 out of 5 suck you never know till they play.
i am upset as you all are but lets face it chryst
will get at least 3 years but the asst coachs they can be changed
for me it is not that they lost it is that they werent into the game did you see the side line were is the pride were is the giveing 100 percent even if you lose penn state lost but they tryed hard they gave it there all .
were was are balls are fire.
Only Jody would look at an article with a “Forde” time associated with it….
