You won’t get the Pitt coaches or players to admit they were still emotionally back in South Bend. No. There was no hangover from that loss. No matter what everyone else saw, it just happened to be a coincidence that Pitt came out looking like they didn’t want to be in Connecticut.
“We came out too sluggish,” said running back Ray Graham, who was held to 41 yards on 15 carries, his second-lowest output this season. “We just were too flat. Definitely give credit to them, but we stopped ourselves.”
Coach Paul Chryst said he didn’t sense lingering effects from the tough loss to Notre Dame last Saturday.
“UConn outexecuted us,” he said.
Do you know what made the game just that much more upsetting? What kept pissing me off more than anything else?
The goddamned commericals for ND-BC that kept airing. Hyping this game as if it could possibly be an upset. All because Pitt had the game and then lost it — which would have rendered that game to regional interest. Brian Kelly talking over images of ND about how his players know that “every team is going to give them their best shot.” Juxtaposing in my mind how Pitt looked last week, and how they clearly weren’t able to muster the same energy or effort against UConn.
Sam Werner at the end of the brief post-game blog post probably offered the simplest, most devastating critique of Pitt’s lack of effort.
Players talked all week about the motivation of playing for one more game with this group of guys, but that motivation didn’t seem too evident in the first 30 minutes tonight.
The urgency never kicked in until the 4th quarter, down 21 points. When it was too late.
I mean, it isn’t like anyone who watched UConn with any regularity saw this coming.
In the end the offense came through.
Let’s say it again: In the end the UConn offense came through.
No, try again. They really did not see this coming.
What the UConn football team did to Pittsburgh on Friday night? Utterly inexplicable. Mostly anybody who has seen the Huskies play this year, particularly in the four games prior, figured there would be more of the same. What UConn gave the 33,503 gathered at Rentschler Field was more of what everybody wanted to see all year and some of what they never want to see again.
The UConn beat writers are saying this. They were stunned. UConn came into the game averaging a paltry 82 yards on the ground. Lyle McCombs had 120 on 29 carries last night.
There aren’t as many stars on offense. But Griffin, at 6-6, 247, the senior tight end is as good as anybody on the team.
That’s why it’s a bit mystifying that [Ryan] Griffin wasn’t targeted more the first half of the season. He caught one pass for 34 yards against UMass. He caught one for 4 yards against NC State and one for 2 yards against Maryland. After three catches against Western Michigan, one for a touchdown, he only caught one again against Buffalo.
That’s seven catches in five games. Granted, fellow tight end John Delahunt also was targeted some. Still, seven catches in five games wasn’t nearly enough for a guy who is capable of making pro money on Sundays.
Griffin had 31 catches as a sophomore in 2010. He caught 33 balls last season for 499 yards and three touchdowns. On the John Mackey Award Watch List, he had just 20 through nine games this year. Granted four of them were for touchdowns, including a 42-yarder against Temple, but we saw in the first half exactly what kind of a pass-catching bear he can be.
UConn needs to feed the bear.
Griffin had six receptions for 84 yards and a touchdown in the first half alone. And then … he finished with six for 84 yards. The only time Griffin was targeted in the second half, Chandler Whitmer overthrew him on what would have been a fourth-quarter touchdown and ended up as an interception by Jarred Holley.
Well, that explains some of it. I guess. UConn’s offensive coordinator Greg DeLeone has been ignoring their best player on offense for the last month to sandbag Pitt in this game. There’s a reason Paul Pasqualoni holds a 13-3 lifetime record against Pitt.
Speaking of mystifying…
/shakes head
/deep sigh
/deep breath
Tino Sunseri…
/ducks
I’ll get this out of the way, first. The O-line reverted to terrible status last night. They were shoved backwards regularly. They gave very little protection. They created no running lanes. It was pathetic.
Now, back to Tino. He was poor, and apparently even worse in person. The entire game, Pitt beat writers were tweeting that he was completely missing, ignoring, not seeing — something — the downfield receivers. Particularly, Devin Street.
Here are the samples:
To clarify, I was wondering why on earth Sunseri refuses to throw it to Street. Dude is getting wide, wide open.
— Sam Werner (@SWernerPG) November 10, 2012
Don’t pump-fake to the open receiver.
— Chris Peak (@PantherLair) November 10, 2012
If he’s open, throw it to him. Just a thought.
— Chris Peak (@PantherLair) November 10, 2012
FINALLY…Sunseri finds the wide open Devin Street
— Panther Digest (@PantherDigest) November 10, 2012
Again…these plays have been here all night…Sunseri to Carswell from 11 yards out; 24-10 UConn, 13:37 4th
— Panther Digest (@PantherDigest) November 10, 2012
Yes Sunseri had defenders in his face most of the night, but apparently he had enough time if he wasn’t — and this is shocking — just holding onto the ball too long looking for something else.
Really, the die was cast when the defense came out with nothing in the opening drive of the game.
What made Connecticut’s opening 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive even more embarrassing was this: Eight plays gained at least 5 yards. Players were out of position and outside linebacker Eric Williams , who had played so well against Notre Dame, missed a tackle at the line of scrimmage on McCombs’ 12-yard run to the 2.
Fun fact for 2012. Pitt is 0-6 in games where the opposing team scores first.
And why did Pitt’s defense seem to not have a clue for the entire first half?
Whitmer never broke open the game, but was ruthlessly efficient, completing 18 of 24 passes for 196 yards and a touchdown. Griffin had six catches for 84 yards and a score, all in the first half and most on play-action fakes.
“I think [we had problems with] our eye discipline,” Pitt coach Paul Chryst said. “Which is a problem on the play-action pass.”
“Eye discipline?”
And then there was the punt return for a TD. To who?
Connecticut’s second touchdown came courtesy of a familiar foe for Pitt. Midway through the second quarter, the Huskies forced Pitt to punt from the 40. Huskies returner Nick Williams took the punt 80 yards for a touchdown to put the Huskies up, 17-0.
In 2010, Williams returned a kickoff 95 yards against the Panthers to swing the momentum in Connecticut’s favor and eventually propel the Huskies to a win.
I realize Chryst wasn’t here for that game. But, but, but… [long, long, long string of expletives deleted]
It’s not too early to start drinking again? It is the weekend afterall? I kind of feel the need after writing and recapping.
Why do we care so much about Pitt Football. They, and Steve Pederson, don’t give a damn about us.
What’s wrong with us? How do we keep getting sucked into this trap? If I mustered half the focus and energy on my job that I put into Pitt Football, I would be a millionaire 4x over.
Again, they (Pitt Football) don’t care about us.
Not with the uniforms, the coaches, the stadium, the quality of play, the effort, the hated QB,the schedule…nothing!
I guess we are all clinically obsessed (using my Psych major here). What on earth is wrong with us?
I wasn’t in the room, but from everything I read, PC was SP’s 3rd choice. But after Sammy-A threaened to withhold his donations, Paul Hackett (oops, Chryst) got the gig.
Stevie-P deserves blame for getting himself into this mess by losing all his cache by the botched Mike Heywood hire (going cheap, having no plan after Wanny was broomed out, whatever).
I think maybe, if SP hadn’t blown the Heywood hire, he’dda still had enough horsepower left to not be forced by outsiders to make the PC hire.
Whatever, maybe Chryst gets one year to show his stuff without having to play a D-III QB. But he should be on a very hot seat already for next year.
Jesus H. Christ, last night in the first half, a nursing home full of bed ridden residents could of outexecuted the Panthers as long as everyone of them maintained a steady heartbeat! Ya think!?!?!?!?
No fans at gamed, poor coaching hires and the botched dismissal of wanny.
He is destroying the program by death of a thousand cuts. As for uconn and nd plus the other horrible losses over the last 10 years it is hard to believe we still watch and care.
We knew at the cinci game we would lose after the kick return and we knew we would lose last week after the phantom pi call.
It is a curse and the ad owns it. All else has been tried. Get him the f outa here
Hail to Pitt! Man, it hurts sooo gooood when I say that!
But it wouldda been nice to see Todd Graham stay one more year, long enough to try to install & play an Oregon-type offense without having to play sabateur and coach-killer Tino the Skill-less at QB.
Now we’ll probably never know….
I’m not getting attacked anymore on Pitt football blogs…
They are who I thought they were…
They may not even get to 6-6 that I forecasted.
It’s a bad team with talented players. They will show up for some games – Va Tech and ND – but will also lose interest also. This is what 3 HC’s in 3 years will do. They can’t finish games. They don’t know how to close out games. Some of this is on the coach but a lot is on the situation as well. Sunseri should be the leader on offense – do you really think the players respect him?
I’m still baffled at some of the game time decisions by Chryst. I’ve been saying all season that it’s a learning curve and he’ll begin to get a feel … but he keeps making the same mistakes which has me concerned that he’s not learning. VERY frustrating.
I’m not a fan of the defense. I don’t like the “bend but don’t break style”. It leads to long drives and a tired defense late in the game.
I’m still not throwing in the towel though. Wanny’s first two seasons were a nightmare and Chyrst has a lot more upside and a better understanding of the college game. Once he starts getting his players in leadership position, hopefully things will change.
On to basketball…
Just funnin with you, really. LOL
Of course, part of me would like Pitt to win the last two games, even if it means yet another trip to Birmingham to surely get smoked by another middling Conf-USA team.
But another part of me can’t wait for the strange hold that Knucklehead Tino has on Pitt head football coaches to come to an end as soon as possible.
Dude, they might not even get to the 5-7 that I forecasted….
Right now, Tino the Coach-Killer’s record is 18-18(8-5 in 2010, 6-7 in 2011, and 4-6 so far this year). If he wins out (snicker) or splits, thus to end with a winning or .500 record, then years from now people will think that we who survived this horrible period in Pitt football are just griping curmudgeons when we curse the very mention of #12′s name.
But if Boy Wonder can continue his normal play for just two more games, those same people will instead pity us, ask why the [heck] the program played a 3-year loser at the game’s most important position?? And then we’ll have the chance to tell our story: we have no idea either!
Don’t you know.
25 Million copies sold of The 50 Shades of Grey .
Or is that the 30 Years of Pitt Football.
Meh…either way it’s S & M 
“well, we gotta give this guy a year
at least, and another year for his recruits to come in and help.
“hey, what did u expect before the season, he can’t work miracles”
“he has to use what he has”
“look, this is the 12th coach in 11 years, these kids should get a break”
“I think next year, we don’t have Clemson or FSU on the schedule, I think we could have a shot at the Coastal Division. Miami and UNC are on probation.”
“Holgorsen has got to recruit some lineman, you would have thought he would have learned that at Oklahoma State”
“Get off of Holgy’s back, I think this might really be the one”.
“well, at least this is Tino’s last year”
“Steve Pederson has got to go”
In my own case I had the great good fortune to have my undergraduate and graduate experiences coincide with the Dorsett and Marino years respectively. I was very lucky. I was in the Dome on January 1, 1977. What a thrill.
I guess somewhere deep in my hippocampus I think this will happen again, but of course the reasoning centers of my brain know that it won’t.
I just wish it was better than it is. I know another national championship is not realistic but I just wish being a Pitt fan wasn’t so… embarrassing.
I do get somewhat pissed off at the University of Pittsburgh when it seems that they just don’t care about this.
I like it…..Imma Man
I like it !
It has become clear at this point that what the team is doing is “self-motivating” itself.
Can’t remember ever seeing a team be so capable of playing either up or down to its competition.
Contrary to what I have believed, the evidence is mounting that Chryst is simply not a coach who is capable of doing whatever it takes to get his players motivated to go out and perform.
Maybe this can change? Maybe not?
However, now the Good News.
Guaranteed… a victory against Rutgers next week!
It’s as simple as the team once again taking it upon itself to self-motivate without the help of its head coach.
After last nite’s wretched performance at Rentschler
The names come off the back of the jerseys again.
(and Sir Tino gets to play numberless) haha
If it’s true as Chris Peak from PantherLair apparently tweeted that Sunseri was oblivious to open receivers all over the field… THE TIME HAS COME!
Play Anderson. If not Anderson… then burn Voytik’s redshirt and let’s end the mystery as to whether he has any chance of being Pitt’s future.
It might be the only time Voytik ever gets the chance to see the field.
I see “self-motivating” as something akin to self-medicating.
But you’re the expert.
UConn 24 Pittsburgh 17
I’ll make this brief. This was a terrible loss. Not only did Tino Sunseri stink, but the entire team stunk. They were lifeless and clueless. Paul Chryst once again made some very strange decisions.
Posted by Chris Dokish at Friday, November 09, 2012 22 comments:
Mark Kaboly – Pittsburgh Trib-Review:
“Steelers, Pitt share facilities, and let me tell you, a faux wood door doesn’t keep sound out from media room. Just a little yelling going on.”
Mike Bires – Beaver County Times:
“I’m working in media room at Steelers headquarters. Hard to concentrate. Next door, Pitt coach yelling at team, losers to UConn last nite.”
Good to see. Hopefully the coaches focus some of that inward as well.
“That is not “a little yelling” going on on the Pitt side @MarkKaboly_Trib. That Pitt coach sounds like he’s going to pop some blood vessels!”
This team is just not enjoyable to be a fan of. We can’t rally around the QB (to say the least), the defense is vanilla at best, and the coaching decisions are mind boggling.
That’s why last week was such a kick in the $#%& because it finally looked as if there was a glimmer of hope, a reason to feel good. And, as usual, splat. Last night was more of just a “pull open the curtains” moment to show what this team really is.
I’ve officially moved on to basketball season.
Too little too late. This season is h-i-s-t-o-r-y
Too little too late. This season is h-i-s-t-o-r-y
“Haven’t we suffered enough?”
Over and
Over and
Over and
Over again
and again
and again
and again.
30 years of crap.
UGH!
Indiana 14
4rth Quarter
After some early season struggles scoring due to transfer QB Danny O’Brien of Maryland not performing to well. Wisconsin’s offense has been rolling since week 4. And a healthy dose of bad Big 10 defenses doesn’t hurt either.
Because when your revenue producing sport plays in front of thousands of empty seats each week and you lie about attendance you reveal your identity. Here is a clue. You know what liars do? They lie.
A birdie at the Pete last night said one reason why Anderson was leaving was because Cyanide Steve is too difficult.
The damn band director is is infected by this clown.
Cyanide Steve is the CEO of the athletic department. No independent Board of Directors would keep him.
Again I ask:who among us donates to Pitt because Cyanide Steve inspires them to do so?
Ask Amy N how easy her job is because of the follies of this fool.
high octane, impact, explosive” in reference to our player.(Except, of course in reference to #12. The present coach seems CALM on the sidelines. Reports indicate he is a mite frustrated in the locker room. I applaud that, in many respects. Pitt now has an extented time to prepare for a Rutgers team that smashed “mighty ARMY today. I really feel the Panthers MUST try a new QB and I’m not suggesting burning Voytik’s redshirt. I would recommend that Trey Anderson be awarded an opportunity to start because of his loyalty and(buckle tour seatbelts matey’s) that # 28==Gonzalez be allowed to platy QB in the wildcat. It is also OBVIOUS to me that our left tackle is not up to the job. Why not try Shane Johnson at guard and put Jacobson and Doakes on the left side on the offensive line. You football strategists might scoff, but what do we have to lose? Another trip to Birmingham??? Rev. George from Columbus
But instead of yelling at the deaf, if PC-o-H REALLY wants to send a message? Then set his knucklehead 5th year senior QB on the bench for a game.
Not only would his hearing improve instantly, but I’ll bet his infuriating penchant for hanging onto the ball might improve too. And if it doesn’t? Then just him on the bench….
Holley
Donald
Street
Shanahan (at TE)
Graham (if at full strength)
That’s it in my book.
Sometimes you got to have them playing SCARED.
But you can’t teach that. Some are just born with the ability to intimidate.
Not just the top 20 teams, even some teams that would probably be, I would say, top 40 overall.
They all seem to have a plan. Like they are trying to accomplish something within their offense and defense.
A gameplan I guess you’d call it.
I haven’t seen that at Pitt for I don’t know how many years, 20?? More??
It’s been haphazard play calling, just call some plays and see if something works.
Try a “D”, see if it works, if not, well thats what we’re using.
Just an observation. Not on this coach, the whole program for years.
No direction, no, “ok, this is what we’re gonna do, and this is how we’re gonna do it”.
Oh well, like someone said, the NYC trip would have been expensive anyway.
Hoopies got clobbered again, lose by 21 !
Pedo’s lose by 2 TD’s at Nebraska.
Texas A & M makes the NC game a whole lot more interesting now, by beating the Crimson Tide
And yes another first year coach is having great success in his first year. That being Kevin Sumlin of A & M. But wait….
he doesn’t have any of his own players yet. And yikes he’s playing a true freshmen QB. How can this be.
All this kid Johnny Manziel has done is account for 33 TD’s. Talent should come before legacy & nepotism & coaching fraternity, so good for A&M.
Lady Panthers lose opener to Youngstown State 64-50.
Do we have an athletic department?
Pitt has a men’s basketball team with potential talent and a better than average wrestling team.
Smiling Stevie could be the most overpaid AD in the U.S.
I have seen a lot of bad ones but that was as flat a team as I have seen in the first half. Should have run Shell up the middle early and often. Soften them up for Graham.
Probably beat Rutgers lose to South Florida.
Anyway, start ABT, end the misery. can it be any worse?
chryst is a joke.
what has he done not a thing that i can see wanny
did better.look at are last game the players werent ready to play.
it is the responsibility of the coach to motivat players to play hard every game and chryst has failed miserably on that this is per the cardic hill but i do think they are right.
anderson should play the last game why not we dont need tino then hell we dont need tino now.
lets get some one ready for next year.
What utter mysticism does Tino have over this and the other coaching staffs. I mean they have the stats. Not one comeback ever in 3 years if we are down. Only one long bomb connected on in 3 years and about 57 misses. Tino does the Statue…but not the “of Liberty”! I mean we could fill a book with his blunders. However “pump faking to the open receiver” is by far the most apt description.
Tom Savage will make us all forget Tino and I think he will. The only similarity will be the initials T.S.
I have TexasA&M season tickets and they are my second favorite team, Kevin Sumlin is flat out a great coach,Paul Chryst is not.
Chryst will be fired after the 2014 season, he just doesn’t have what it takes.
Sumlin is winning right away with someone else’s players. Now that’s the mark of a good coach. A good coach can coach anyone’s players be they ones he recruited or not. And continual boneheaded calls and horrible clock management is a sign of a guy who might be good in the booth but not on the field. Since the final decision is not on you in the booth.
Maybe he should coach from the booth as the OC and let someone else make the decisions on the field. Cause they are decisions some kid playing Madden NFL would make better.
Also maybe bring in a motivating halftime speaker to fire them up,this team usually is flatter than a door to start the 2nd half. The beginnings of games aren’t too good either usually.
Oy Vey !
Maybe we can get Chas to post a EndofTino clock like the one he has for our entrance into the ACC.
Can someone 2nd the motion ! lol
JoeD – You want M. Stoops. What about him makes you know he’ll be an excellent game manager immediately and will pull in those top 5 recruiting classes starting year one?
Just like PC, stoops has never been a HC so no one knows what he can do and I’m guessing he’d make some mistakes his first year. Which means he’d immediately need fired according to Emel.
Call me crazy but I think it’s easier for a coach to recruit kids to Arizona and FSU than it is at Pitt, would you agree? So maybe instead Pitt needed to find a coach from a school that’s shown success without getting top 5 talent each year. And last I saw PC did some great things at WI, equally, if not more impressive than what MS has done at AZ and FSU.
The standard I do think Pitt should set before hiring any football HC is requiring a couple years previous HC experience. That allows them to get a better idea of how they’ll manage.
Leach also has them at 2-7 this year, has lost his team, has a lower recruiting class than Pitt, and now has been called an abuser in his last two jobs. Yep, he would have been the perfect coach to turn things around…………
By the way…all may not be lost for us next year in the ACC…I see the best record in our new division is 6 and 4 overall and the best divisional record is 5 and 5!…
Hail to Pitt…
Why, because we understand how to take a round house kick to the nuts without even flinching, that’s why!
Now, how I’m going to get my masochistic fix next season with my beloved Tino Sunseri no longer there to provide my angst, I have no idea. Maybe a well placed Black Cat fircracker dropped in my pants on gameday might bring back those fond memories of watching Tino patiently waiting to be dropped in the backfield by the opposing defensive lineman without ever taking an avoiding footstep will suffice. Aaaaah, the memories.
Good luck with the extractions Leaseman. Remember to ask for Vicodin ES instead of the regular strength Vicodin. Provides much better pain relief.
As always, H2P, keep the faith Panther Nation, Pitt will win again.
if you pay enough they will come
the coachs i want oregon coach chip kelly
boise coach petersen.
as was said in the godfather
make him an offer he cant refuse
money talks.
Just to be sure, the Twitter posts I mentioned above were mostly just anecdotal stuff. To be honest, I’d always rather have a coach who is more reserved and keeps calm under pressure.
I’ve mentioned this before in discussions about Chryst’s demeanor. I think when things go bad, fans tend to get frustrated and angry. I think when fans tend to see the coach not doing the same, it only lends to the frustration of the fans – whether there’s the assumption that maybe the coach isn’t seeing the same thing the fans are seeing, or that the coach doesn’t care as much or whatever.
I can remember being embarrassed watching Jim Leavitt turn into a fire-breathing maniac on the sidelines for USF, and I don’t think it was ever a coincidence that his teams always fell apart in big moments. He never looked like he had control in the face of adversity, so why would his players?
Ditto for Brian Kelly. I know some Irish fans who absolutely despise his charades on the sidelines, and they think he’s a bully. Same for Bo Pelini in Nebraska.
Those three are probably extreme examples, and I think you need to have some balance. Rev. George, you even brought up a great less-extreme example with Todd Graham, who had more than his share of sideline meltdowns last year (can’t say I blame him in some respects). And Wannstedt as well. As much as I liked the guy, I hated the notion that within the national consciousness of college football, Wannstedt was best known for something like this:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1018/1047718180_160321177a_o.jpg
In terms of gameday demeanor and interaction, I think there needs to be a balance.
Would it hurt Chryst to show a little more emotion on the sidelines now and then? Probably not. But I also don’t think something like that is some sort of missing ingredient with this team right now.
I thought the same exact thing about Leach when that news broke yesterday.
I respect Dokish’s opinion and I know that’s the guy – or kind of guy – that he championed for during the coaching search. He said he wanted Pitt to take a shot at a big-time name, and Leach was the one he always mentioned.
Pitt was never going to hire Leach, though…not after taking a gamble with a maverick personality like Graham and getting burned (even if some of that may have been self-inflicted). If they were going to go the “previous head coaching” route during Coaching Search Part II, I think the guy they wanted was Cristobal.
The three guys I would’ve loved to have seen were Chryst, Cristobal or Sumlin. The reality is that they were fighting an uphill battle for the latter two. Some of the names that were being tossed around weren’t coming to Pitt unless Pitt made it worth their while to do so, and as we saw with Graham and his staff, even going that route guaranteed nothing.
The thing I always liked about Chryst was exactly what you mentioned – the ability to work with and build systems around players who may not exactly be higher-profile recruits. He did that as an OC. Whether he can oversee that same sort of thing from a head coaching position remains to be seen, but that’s an issue that would’ve existed with anyone getting their first crack at being a head coach.
and i hope he gets his shit togther i really do
i dont want him to fail.
but i dont think it is right to pretend that every thing is sunshine and flowers.
all i am saying is he at this point seams like wanny bad game day coach like wanny bad at geting team ready to play like wanny not as good at recruting so far any way.
i hope his second year is better i really do
but it pisses me off that are AD peterson has done this to us really had no plan when he let wanny go i dont know how he keeps his job.
i guess what i think is if we ean up with wanny 2 we should have kept wanny 1.
it just seams that every thing was so haphazard
it is like we have a year long hangover.
and he had the same system as TG would it have worked i think so in time and dick rod liked the area.
so there is another AD fuck up i know it is water over the dam just saying what might have been.
The road to recovery starts with firing Pederson. Then hire an AD with a track record of success in hiring head coaches. I was thinking of the Cincinnati AD but he has moved on to Illinois. Then they need to quit being cheap. They are getting a huge increase in TV money in moving to the ACC. If they don’t start spending the money to hire a real head coach and real assistants then they are just thieves.
Move on to basketball, wrestling and Dartmouth hockey.
year with a D I QB. Can’t take any more of Tino.
Planning to play Pitt: how do we defend against a QB who
can only throw short and intermediate passes and is not
a threat to rollout or run out of the pocket?
I was ok with PC being hired. He wasn’t my first choice but that doesn’t matter since I wasn’t doing the hiring. I was a fan of going with Luke Fickell. My thoughts were he had some experience as a HC, knows the area for recruiting, was very successful at developing players and putting top D’s on the field, and with Tressel out of the way maybe we could have hired a number of their assistant coaches.
If they wanted to make a splash, go hire Tressel and wait out the suspension but we all know Pitt wasn’t going to go there.
I agree being a Pitt Football fan requires a large amount of masochism and self-flagellation…thank God this is just entertainment and my life doesn’t depend upon it…
Nonetheless, I will be there once again in 2 weeks submitting myself to the torture and loving to hate it!…
Hail To Pitt!
and as for dick rod i know why they dident but just think if they had
1 it would have been a huge slap in WVU face i would have loved that
2 they could have got him kind of cheap a million and a half.
3 he would still be here and we would not have going thru all this shit he was a expercend head coach
4 we would have benn playing more exciting football rember at the time most wanted the spred
and he knew and loved the area and knew the high school coachs just saying the AD FUCK UP AGEIN.
I’m sick of this shit. Khem “Bitch” 2.0
Comment by burgh1972 11.11.12 @ 6:58 am
I don’t think you read all my posts burgh1972. I’m not calling for PC to be fired, as that would only make us look more foolish as a University than Stevie Cornhole has already made us look.
All of my comments are just observations. Of course I didn’t expect PC to go undefeated, lol.
My pre-season prediction (which btw was on the low end here on the blog) was 7-5. Which I think all of us would take now in a heartbeat. How could anyone think we would go undefeated with Sir Tino at QB. (really)
To your other point of winning big games. No, what I expect a good HC to do is beat the teams your supposed to beat. Namely this year, that group would include a D2 team (Youngstown State) a middling team, that we’ve owned (Syracuse) and a lousy team (Uconn). That would put us at 7-3, bowl eligible already with 2 games to play. I think near everyone would have been very happy with that. Is thinking that we should have beaten these 3 dreg teams wrong ?
Your 3rd point, about recruiting and specifically a Top 5 class. Again no, lol. As we have never had a Top 5 class, as far as I know, even back in 1979 or 1980. So thinking we’ll ever have a Top 5 class now in todays college landscape is laughable. My point about recruiting, in a previous post,was that it takes several years of good classes (unless you go the JUCO route) to get to the point we were in circa 2008-2009. And that we’ve had 2 mediocre or less classes and this would be our 3rd unless we get a couple of these stud kids late. And I then mentioned PC better gets some better recruiters on the staff pronto if we ever are to see 10 wins again. If he can get a Top 20 class here and there and Top 35 otherwise, that would his maxed out ceiling. Again I don’t think any of this is extreme, do you ?
Since I don’t know what era you’re from and what your expectations of Pitt football are, I’ll leave it at that. However I do agree with your last stmt, that we should require several years of HC experience before hiring a HC. I never like be waited on at stores, restaurants, wherever by on the job trainees. That’s just me !
Anyway we all want the same thing, I’d just like to see PITT relevant again in my lifetime for more than just one year(2009) over a span of 30 years. For I don’t know if they have High Def in Heaven.
Veritas et Virtus
Comment by markp 11.11.12 @ 6:02 pm
I don’t know where you got your info but Saban went 8-4 and won the Peach Bowl his First Season at LSU and in the Top 25.
Additionally there is no comparison to be made even had he gone 3-8 his first season at LSU
Saban had had some success and experience before LSU hired him. First at Toledo where he went 9-2 in one season as Head Coach and then as Head Coach at Michigan State where he turned a perennial loser into a decent team that in his last season got a New Years Day Bowl game.
If you think this team is not talented, next year and the following years team is going to be less talented. Other than at QB, naturally.
As we will have a better QB, (how could we not) but will that QB have anybody to throw to, as Shanahan, Saddler and H. Graham all graduate. And there is talk Street will leave early if it’s indicated the NFL will draft him. Meaning the only returning receivers with any catches will be 2 TE’s. And they caught less than 12 passes between them.
And your ONLY game breaker on offense is graduating, that would be the Ray Ray.
Plus while the O-line is no great shakes, the 2 best on it on graduating as well. (jacobson & turnley) Any newbies are just this, questions marks.
On Defense, Holly & Tags are gone too. The rest are back. So it will be the same talent as this year. Whether that is good or bad is this ; just another question mark.
And next year we’re going to be counting on a freshmen PlaceKicker named Blewitt for those crucial FG’s.
So if you think this year’s team is not very talented, it’s the most talent PC is going to see until he recruits some. (see Foster, Johnson & Boyd)
Hail to Pitt !
His name should not be brought up in any conversations that include Paul Chyrst.
Meaning small QB’s like him and he’s a leading Heisman Candidate as a Freshman can be successful in D1. And they should he able to more easily avoid the rush of these giant obese players with their quicker feet and smaller frames. Just like a Point Guard can easily scoot around some guy much larger than him in basketball. (see Joe Montana)
P.S. For those of you who don’t know, Joe Montana played Point Guard in HS, I know cause I played against him. lol
I quit in the second quarter. All I can say is that this isn’t fun anymore. I used to never miss Pirates games and now I could care less. Why? It wasn’t fun anymore?
Paul Chryst, Stevie P., is there anything you can do to make this fun again?
Love Emel’s Tino countdown clock idea.
Asking Steve Pederson to improve the football experience is a lesson in futility. He is the engineer of this train wreck of a program.
Empty seats followed by announcements of higher attendance; being played for a fool by Haywood, then Graham and then the adminsitration playing us, the buyers as fools, by letting everyone responsible for the disaster stay in their jobs.
Firing Wanny is one thing: treating him like shit is unacceptable, but he did that to Solich too.
At least Nebraska admitted their mistake.
Pitt athletic fundrasing is somewhere between 1965 and 1974.
Next to nothing and going nowhere fast.
Pederson doesn’t create revenue, he costs us money.
Him staying in his job tells you what Nordenberg really thinks of athletics.
Nordy would not let this malaise sink into any other university department, but he relishes in sucking in football.
Have you noticed the low profile of Pederson this year.
there is only one plausible explanation…..Pederson has got to have pictures of somebody…was Petraus at Pitt over the last 2 years?
Comment by TX Panther 11.12.12 @ 10:16 am
LMAO…actually we made some pasta over the weekend, it was much more fun. Now boiling Tino … forget it ! lol
Any time this team has any adversity on the field, mainly falling behind, they pretty much pack it in. Oh you can score a few TD’s if you’re way behind as opponents drop into prevent defenses and are willing to let you nickel and dime your way down the field in exchange for time off the clock. But they are more mercy td’s than anything else. Anytime they want they can dial up the defense, apply some pressure, tighten the screws and invariably Sir Tino will fold, and therefore the offense folds.
Or they just pack it in altogether and why not, they know they have absolutely no chance to come back.
One thing… in any endeavor, you gotta believe !
Might have more to do with not wanting to testify about the Benghazi boondoggle.
My mistake on Saban’s first year at LSU, I misread when he started, DiNardo had the 3-8 record. Thanks for pointing that out and thanks for pointing out that Saban’s only loosing record came as a HC in the pros. Both he and PC had to live with some of the previous mistakes of DW and management in their 1st year!
My point on talent is that HCPC can be criticized for some of his coaching (learning) moves, but the talent level has to lower due to the instability of the coaches that have been hired/fired. I would like to see him him succeed.
However Saban won in his first year at Miami Dolphins after Wanny left. It was his 2nd year that he had a losing season.
And like I posted, PC has more talent on this team than he’s going to have the next several years as we lost the TOP 20 class Wanny had recruited before he was booted for Baby Daddy, he of the one year HC’ing experience. So that class that Graham assembled was average at best, as was one PC assembled when he got hired and the current one is as well unless he gets Foster, Johnson and the Clairton kid.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and some of the kids will get better as they develop. Who knows !
And maybe PC will get better with in game decisions, again who knows !
If they don’t do something or get better, it will be more a matter of…..Who Cares !
“that was so bad, I was gonna text you, then I thought, ‘it’s not even worth texting about’”.
It’s not too late to leave the ACC. We might all need to go to Western Psych if we go to the ACC.
I’ll be able to witness more of these meltdowns in person, being here in the middle of ACC country.
Luckily nobody down here follows BigLeast football so they don’t know how horrendous we’ve become.
Here’s the latest from the Trib, with a classic quote from Sir Tino:
But he completed less than half of his passes (10 for 22 for 161 yards)in the first three quarters before Connecticut loosened it’s coverage in the fourth. Sunseri hit 9 of 12 for 141 yards in the final 15 minutes, leading a rally that fell short.
“We have to be crisper in our protection” he said.
“We have to be crisper in our routes”. We have to be crisper throwing the ball downfield as an offensive unit.”
Wrong, we have to be CRISPER throwing the ball downfield as the QUARTERBACK !
Today’s word has been crisper. Sir Tino just learned it over the weekend on Sesame Street. lol
Did the FBI let this one go as the “general” was already on the inside (I guess he was “inside” now wasn’t he).
Perhaps Steve Pederson was part of the investigative team enlisted.
If two people know something, it isn’t a secret, especially when clothes are on the floor.
I dont belive it i never will thank god it is all most over.
dont double pump to the open recever
street was poen all day.
we need to be crisper WTF.
“He isn’t the best quarterback to play at Pitt.
Not even close. But he isn’t the worst, either.”
True, certainly not anywhere close to the best. duh
He isn’t the worst either, I will admit. Wayne Adams was the worst.
Sir Tino is the Worst PITT QB EVER to START for 3 years though !
Because usually if they were that bad that would be replaced. But not with our Santino. lol
Who had more fumbled snaps from center when playing Notre Dame, Sir Tino or Wayne Adams ?
and missed one game when hurt or would have 3000 yd.
i know it is div 3 but thoes are div 3 WR he is throwing to and div 3 OL men he is playing behind
so not a bad year.
and for thoes that say he cant throw short a lot of the TD WERE FOR 10 YD AS WELL AS OVER 60 .
6 foot 4 310 pounds
listed as one of his top 3 schools
Or are these only known to us?
Myers could throw short, that was a ridiculous excuse somebody came up with as a reason why he never got a shot. 3000 yards and 25 TD is good regardless. Kenny Anderson and Dave Kreig both were All-Pro NFL QB’s from D-3. Not saying Myers is but it shows that you can still be a quality player, even an NFL All-Pro coming out of D-3.
He mustn’t had been that impressed with PC or he would had wanted to be tutored by such an offensive genius.
I guess Chryst went with Tino because he looked better in practice.
“Were talking Practice here”.
If we lose to Rutgers and Tino is QB at USF then something is going on we know nothing about.
Simply could not see Tino ever leading Pitt to the promised land.
That viewpoint was roundly criticized by those who said Tino was simply the best quarterback on the team.
Fast forward… Record 4 – 6.
In hindsight, how bad could it have been if Pitt would have gone a different direction at QB?
For the life of me, never understood Chryst naming Tino the starter way back in Spring.
No question in my mind, his biggest mistake as first-year Head Coach.
Looks like the move may have been what drove Myers away and maybe, just maybe… killed any chances of Pitt having a winning season.
Oh well.
Adams ONLY actual in game performance made Tino’s demeanor under pressure look calm and collected by comparision. Where’s Tom Yewcic when you need him.
Emel, of course you realize that most any Panther fan under the age of 40 probably has no idea of who the hell we’re talking about here. Take care my good old Panther Faithful friend. Keep up with the gingo biloba and omega 3 fatty acid fish oil capsules to maintain that sharp memory of yours.
WOW, Really? I guess that might be the case at the professional level that Chryst has coached at, or maybe even at the college level as well, IF the team is loaded with stellar recruits 2 deep at every position and has a solid current winning tradition like Wisconsin’s program was when Chryst left. Teams such as those have a “winners attitude” already instilled in the players. The old saying, “winning begets winning”. But this is Pitt 2012 that we are talking about here.
College football players are just kids. Many of these kids haven’t matured enough by college to even have a concept of what their potential is, both mentally as well as physically. IMO, at the college level, it IS the coaches responsibility to “coach effort”, because many young athletes really do not yet know what their effort potential even is yet.
Football is an emotional sport. The mindset of the overall team and each individual’s confidence level on that team can influence the effort put forth by those athletes for the team. The Head Coach is responsible for getting that process firing on all cylinders.
IMO, in light of the above quote, The UCONN loss sits right in the lap of Coach Chryst! He didn’t have this team emotionally prepared to play football on Friday, and coaching THAT part of the game is just as important as being an expert at the Xs & Os of the game.
As far as this year, I do like PCs more balanced offensive schemes, and the potential there is obvious. However, I really don’t think much of Huxtable’s defense at all – big changes needed there IMO. I hated that bend-don’t-break crap when Rhodes was here too – never saw the advantage to it at all.
Unfortunately, we are seeing a lack of effort or emotion on the field at times, but no one should be surprised. The leaders on this team are still Wannstedts guys, and it’s the same lack of passion we saw when he was here. That’s the culture Wanny cultivated, and why he needed to go. I think we’ll see that change over the next couple of years. Yes, coaches can do what they can to try to get the best out of players, but at the end of the day, if they aren’t self-motivated to a large degree, then they shouldn’t be playing D-I football. It’s the same for any college kid studying any subject – it’s not a profs job to make them interested in studying. If they aren’t already motivated enough to do the work, then they don’t belong in college. The same goes for football.
Having said that, though, I wouldn’t mind seeing Chryst being a bit more animated on the sidelines sometimes. I like an even-keeled approach, but sometimes a coach does need to get fired-up a little to get the team going.
So true. Pure logic won’t cut it. On occasion a leader must show some passion or his team won’t think he really cares. Eisenhower was once asked when did he get angry. His response was “when he needed to” (whether he really felt that way or not).
Based on his comments throughout the season it seems he really wanted to do it differently by treating players like good sons who can be counted on to respond to encouragement and take the initiative to do the right thing.
Think Chryst may be learning that might work with some but not all. As a coach, you inherit all kinds of kids, some functional, some dysfunctional, regardless of their abilities on the football field.
Some kids coming from less than the perfect home encironment and others who’ve been spoiled rotten as a result of the their success in sports… can at times require a little more.
Hopefully, Chryst is learning some players simply cannot be counted on to “self-motivate” for each and every game.
