I posted this under Savage, but It’s worth posting it here also.

Boyd’s answer on being asked about the touchdown catch at the end of the half….

“We want to score, we’re not taking a knee. We want to score and score, then score some more”.

LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

Todd Thomas is a game changer for us on defense. Glad to have him back as a starter. He’s the most athletic LB we have.

@@@@@
Anyone who watched the game Saturday knows
Thomas made difference. Talented,
enthusiastic, and a team player.

I don’t think you can keep a kid off the field who made 10 tackles. New Mexico or not. He had more tackles than the other 2 LB’s combined.

Don’t think the LB corp would have looked so lost had he played more against FSU.

Duke isn’t very good, they only passed for 125 yards and ran for around a 100 against GT. Their QB can be rattled when pressured. We need to roll this week.

Emel, Loved your “extraordinary crop” comment when rating the ACC cheerleaders the other day. You have to keep us abreast of the available talent as we get past the exhibition games. I will be interested in your opinion of how our Golden Girls stack up.

Spirit,
I’m liking your choice of words there. Btw, I’m in Durham, but I potentially have pneumonia for the third time in a year. Hope the doctor gives the all clear so I can be there.

Spirit LOL. In order as I’ve worked at most of the schools.

Hottest Gals

1. FSU
2. UNC
3. Clemson
4. NC ST
5. The U
6. VT
7. UVA
8. GT
9. BC
10. Pitt
11. MD
12. WF
13. Syracuse
14. Duke

Didn’t rank Notre Dame. They aren’t really in ACC till they commit.

I put the U up with FSU.

Since I’m partial to Jewish girls, haha

No. I’m not into being henpecked. But there ARE some advantages. 🙂

Just got in from the Steelers/Bungals game.

Role/reversal. Oy Vey

But how does FSU compare to Texas?

Is Pitt that fugly?

Pitt might be the fun football team in town. Need to take advantage of the down year for dem Stillers.

UT – Has tons of hot blondes…

The U on average is a pretty smart school so not a ton of hotties. They go to FIU if they stay in SFLA. FSU is the school the hotties that can’t get into UF go.

Emel – You take bengals -8?

FSU also has a great drama and arts program which helps to attract tons of hotties. The party scene doesn’t hurt either…

C’mon boys, time to dump on our QB. I’m not used to this cheerfulness.

Howsabout “ABS?”

LOL Steve1.. I do wish we got the other Sunseri, that SOB has a pick 6 every week in the SEC!

All Tino picked was his nose.

Odds: Pitt over Duke by 4.

Pitt fans are a rare breed. Pitt thumps UNM. Tons of good performances to discuss, many from true Freshmen, very little negative vibes from the game.

So how do the fans respond,,,,,CRICKETS!

Since the game on Saturday there have been 5 posted threads on The Pitt Blather and this here post is just the 186th response to all 5 posts.

But just wait until Pitt drops another game, after a loss there will be two hundred posts immediately after the game with guys calling for Pederson and all of the coaches to be fired, swearing to burn their season tickets, Trashinas the worst college football stadium on the planet and vowing to never again to put faith in the “Same Old Pitt”.

Sorry to admit it but the majority of fans that follow Pitt just have the worst attitudes possible. Our fan base sucks.

Duke not yet a talented team… but is well coached.

A good coach can always present trouble.

Doctor,

There some truth to your criticism of the Pitt fan base.

But keep in mind what has transpired ever since Foge took over.

It’s been a soap opera with more bad endings than good.

We have a good coach too.

Dr. Tom.

Couldn’t agree more. HCPC is building a program – the fact that he’s using Fr and RSfr to win, shows how little talent existed when he came here.

You have to like what he’s doing…if you don’t like it – you don’t know what you’re doing!!

My opinion on Pitt sports: I follow my alma mater and win or lose I support Pitt. I Johore Pott alum’s will do the same. Afterall, it’s our school. Hail to Pitt!

Here’s my feeling at this point.

Starting to feel pretty positive about what Chryst is doing.

The House promotion aside… the fact that a dozen true freshman have played along with another dozen redshirt freshmen… signals that something good could be underway.

There’s already evidence to suggest that Chryst has an eye for the kind of talent that best suits his system… and he and a couple of his assistants are pretty good at evaluating talent.

It’s going to be interesting to see what kind of results are returned once Chryst has two or three years of recruits with playing time under their belts.

At that point, overall team performance should rise to a new level.

However, it remains to be seen if Chryst is as good at recognizing talent in the assistant coaches he hires and promotes.

Despite what some may think, coaching is still vital to success at the collegiate level… especially when you’re trying to maximize the potential of players identified as two or three stars in high school.

Wow. My iPhone spell checks for me. Ugh!

Howrefreshing it is to read some POSITIVE Blogs !! Coach Paul and his skillful STAFF are carefully building a very good team which will be in evidence NATIONALLY in three years. The Panthers should be competitive in all the remaining games with the POSSIBLE EXCEPTION of three. That[s my OPINION FWIW. Rev. George from Columbus

I watched on TV. The announcers were awful. So, can someone please help me understand why our kickoffs were consistently short? Was Blewitt kicking into the wind or does he not have the leg to get it into the endzone? H2P

Anything less than a kick out of the end zone tells you that a kicker might not have the leg to get it there.

However, Blewitt has yet to blow it with field goal(s) or extra points… and that’s a very good thing!!!

I tend to disagree a bit. Our fan base may very well suck.

However, this blog, and for that matter, radio station call in shows, are pretty much the same everywhere. College sports, pro sports.

When you win, not as many posts or calls to the radio shows. When teams lose, posts and calls go up tenfold.

I’m happy to write this post, as I didn’t know whether tenfold, was one word or two. Looked it up, seems to be one. Learn something new everyday is a good thing.

Rev George, I like what HC PC is doing and see some progress but can’t see where that equates to a national presence in 3 years. I love your optimism and even hope you are right but I would be surprised if Pitt ever smells the top 10 again. An occasional top 20 presence is the ceiling for this program as constituted. That is still a lot better than what this coaching staff inherited.

Relating to our fellow Pitt Blatherites, I would concur, that enough of you bring the negative quite a bit, it would be nice to see some comments from you when Pitt plays well.

Not the people that make negative and positve comments, as a realist, I make some negative comments too at times (call it like I see it).

I’m speaking of the people that only make negative comments, and nothing but negative comments.

Hard to have anything negative to say about this past week. “oh, it was New Mexico”. BS!!!!

They are a division 1 team, from the Mountain West conference.

What if it was a nail biter or we lost? Many would then take the opportunity to jump right on here.

It was a very good win, against a team we were expected to beat. However, I’ve been around Pitt long enough to see many a time when we did not beat a team we were expected to beat. And blowing them off the field.

The QB played well, the RB’s, the receivers, the whole team had a pretty good game.

You can go negative after a bad performance, but, be consistent, when they play well, come on and give us some of your opinions and assessment of the game and the good things that happened.

Makes the Blather more interesting and more fun, when there are more comments.

IMHO

Doc,
Win or lose, Stevie needs to move on. Chryst has another three years to prove himself. Our new Chancellor really needs to understand sports. Texas A&M raised over 750 million dollars last year mainly driven by their move to the SEC and football success. Thats their President sayin that. That pays for Pitts new athletic and academic complex on campus. That school gets it. Pitt does not under this current regime.

What’s the point of raining on everyone’s parade about a 22 point win over a really bad team? That New Mexico team was one of the worst teams I’ve ever seen. They had such little faith in their passing game that they ran the ball when it was 3rd and 10 on Pitt’s 30ish yard line. Name me a real team that will do that?
I’m still holding out judgment until the team performs well against a decent team and not some lame rent-a-win.

Ward, you cry and cry when Pitt hoops loses, and people go negative.

You rant and rant when anyone questions anything about Dixon.

LMAO!!!

If people can post how FSU is one of the best teams in the nation, so who cares about how bad the team looked. Then posting about how bad New Mexico is as a team is just as fair. I gave Boyd plenty of props, the RBs looked good and Todd Thomas looked like the starter that he should be.

But I can’t go around saying Savage is destined for the NFL after he made a horrible first throw in the game, had plenty of time to pass to wide open WRs and got bailed out by Boyd at the end of the first half. And I say bailed out because I remember how people constantly diminished Rod Rutherford by saying all he did is throw to Larry Fitz which is easy. Is Savage better than Tino? Probably, but who knows. Tino put up some pretty good numbers in many blow out games. We haven’t seen Savage make decisions in a close game. That was his knock at Rutgers.

If Pitt is 4-1 the night of October the 12th, then I’ll be all aboard the train of positivity. I just want to see more actual results before getting excited about Pitt football only to be let down in the end, which is all I’ve ever seen in my life.

Point taken!

Dan, the two are completely different. Dixon has won for 10 years. Chryst has won for none. I also don’t post how awesome guys on the basketball team will after being at one of those lame early December games at the Pete when barely anyone else shows up.
If Paul Chryst has 10 straight years of winning 8 or more games, then I would be doing/saying the same thing for him if people would say that he should be let go or that he sucks.
Besides, I’m critical about Dixon too when it comes to things like refusing to run more or not ever using a press, the horrible noncon schedules or playing some people out of position.

I’m just in a salty mood in must be the Steeler related depression in Pittsburgh infecting me, y’all can just ignore my rants.

Allthough, I have to say, I myself didn’t give Pitt a complete pass because it was FSU.

The talent gulf is huge between the two though, that has to be admitted, and only a small string in my heart held out any hope of competing with them.

However, the first Savage pick was a momentum killer, without question against FSU, and I don’t care who we played, the linebackers and secondary looked totally discombobulated against FSU.

I thought of it as a barometer, and it showed we have a long way to go. I do see some positives with the coaching of the line, the size of the lines we will have in the future, and definitely some talented players in the mix as well.

It was New Mexico but at least it didn’t turn out to be Youngstown State, Ohio, Toledo, stop me now!!!

LOL

Your rants are always excellent. Just jabbing you about the hoops, we all love hoops too, and I’ve always been a Dixon supporter!!!

The Steelers have a problem. Listened to the morning shows, one even had Ben on. He said all the right things, “we’ve got to get better”, “it’s up to the older guys to turn this thing around” etc. etc.

The radio hosts were fine, told it like it is, and have to get the ship righted etc. etc..

Only one problem. What if you don’t have the talent and manpower?? I would be saying the same thing and holding meetings too, pretty much what you have to say and do, but I thought as I listened, “what if you just don’t have the talent?”.

Kind of like the way I felt about Pitt v. FSU.

You are right. The next stretch should be a better barometer. Duke, Virginia, Va. Tech.

I include Duke, allthough not looking too good this year, and rarely even a bowl team, they are not the Duke of the 80’s and 90’s who were everyones walk over. The program is not good, but better than usual, for them.

Especially going on the road. Hostile, no, of course not, but none the less, going on the road.

I’m interested to see how we play this week.

Dan – I’m usually probably 60/40 Negative vs. Positive. I gave 3-5 posts that we did really good. This was just from seeing stats as the game coverage nationally was essentailly non existent and ESPN showed zero highlights that I saw. Great Win over a team we should have beat. I just wish Pitt covered the spread. Not to jinx us as I’ve been on a role but since Duke lost it’s QB and Durham isn’t exactly Death Valley to play at I’m taking Pitt -4 with some heavy money.

To make us Steelers Fans feel better let me suggest my remedy. As of last year and of course this year….I bet against the Steeelers. If they win I’m happy cause we won. If we lose I’m still kinda happy cause I made money. It’s a great solution to the Monday/Tuesday Blues when we lose!

@ pmdh2p, your question about Blewitt’s inability to pound the football into the endzone on kickoffs is a valid one. He seems to kick differently on his extra points/FGs than he does on kickoffs.

At the NM game, that I attended, I noted that Blewitt really drives the ball low and hard on his extra point attempts, almost to the point that it looks like a tall defender could block the ball if he had a 36 inch vertical leap at the line. His kickoffs however have a much higher trajectory. It makes for good hangtime on the kickoff but I think that it sacrificies the distance necessary to get it into the endzone.

In practice Blewitt has made FGs from midfield, that’s 60 plus yards with the ball still 10 feet in the air to pass over the crossbar! That same kind of kick should reach the endzone on kickoffs from the 35 yard line, shouldn’t it?

I was one of the major supporters of Blewitt’s skill sets and was a big rah rah guy for him in camp but I must admit the lack of distance on his kickoffs up to this point in the season has me scratching my head on what the problem is.

Could it be that the coaches want him to get more air under the ball to allow coverage to get downfield with longer hangtimes? With the new touchback rule bringing the ball out to the 25 yardline, that may be the case. Not a bad idea to encourage your opponent to run back kickoffs as long as you can keep it inside the 5 yard line and “IF” you can produce the necessary hangtime to get your troups to surround the returner before he gets the ball in his hands.

I just don’t know, but so far, special teams are a glaring weak spot on this Panthers team.

FYI — Pitt is not the only BCS school with a possible unqualified defensive coordinator:

Here is the background of Nebraska’s DC who assumed the position last season:

Education: Bachelor’s, business management, Virginia Tech, 2001; master’s, sports administration, Kansas, 2003

Coaching Experience: 2001-03, Kansas (graduate assistant/defense); 2004-07, LSU (defensive intern/graduate assistant), 2008-10, Nebraska (assistant coach/defensive line/special teams coordinator); 2011 (Nebraska (assistant coach/defensive line/special teams coordinator/recruiting coordinator); 2012-present, Nebraska (assistant coach/defensive coordinator).

He does have a bit more experience than Pitt’s DC but not much. It should be noted that the Huskers gave up 34 pts to Wyoming in the opener and 41 to UCLA on Saturday —- just some food for thought!

UPitt, I’d say you are 80/20, but at least it’s not 100, like some that don’t show up when anything good happens.

We dominated a weak team, if you are a Pitt fan you should be happy. Every week is a new adventure, and there will be plenty to complain about. We are only a four point favorite over Duke, the Boys in Vegas know their business, so no one should lose their head. At least for one Saturday we looked good. That’s progress.

Thanks, Pittofdreams and Dr Tom. I think that the kid (Blewitt) is going to be a great asset for our team over the next four years. And, if the plan is to kick it to the 5 yard line with lots of hang time so that we can pin the other team back, cool with me. But, let’s please tackle the guy on his side of the 50.
I love that I now live (western mountains of Virginia) where I can watch Pitt on the ACC network. Last week and now again this coming Saturday. But, I could do a better job of announcing the game. Those two guys on Saturday were terrible. H2P

@Upittbaseball, if you had just bet early! The UNM game early line a week prior to the games was 21 1/2 points. So they covered the early line.

Sounds like you’re a gambler. Do you ever Hit the Rivers Casino after attending games in the Burgh? I had the perfect Saturday last weekend. Met friends at the casino to do the buffet before the game and won at blackjack while waiting for them to show up in the morning. Went back between the Pitt and the Pirates game to try my luck again and hit trip4s for a thirty to one pay off at the three card poker table before the Bucs game. Rooted the Pirates on to a win to retake 1st place in the division and then back once again to the casino to pick up the car. Had to try my luck at the craps table prior to calling it a night and won there too. By days end up over $650!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner. LOL!

No comments on those atrociously amusing Mountain West is the safety first conference commercials?

Doc – I live in Texas! Sounds like you had a great time. Good Work. I play in LA and FL sometimes. I didn’t take Pitt after the run up went to 23. Didn’t feel good about it.

I do like Panthers -4. Duke was better last year than they are this year.

By the way, how do say that Boyd bailed out Savage? Isn’t more like Boyd made a tremendous catch on a well thrown pass by Savage. His first interception was a stinker, from my angle, I thought the second should have been thrown away, but apparently on TV it was tipped and wasn’t that bad. Criticize when it’s due, but how does he bail out Savage? Even if it’s incomplete or intercepted Savage didn’t need bailed out.

How about his other 13 completions was he bailed out by his other receivers?

@ gc, Savage’s 2nd interception was a dead on RECEPTION by our WR IF our TE hadn’t gotten in the way of the pass, that he thought was being thrown to him, and tipped it in the first place.

But that kind of stuff happens when you’re scrambling around on a broken play.

Happy with this freshman class for sure – bodes well for the future. Pitt is still lacking depth and position competition, which is what truly separates the big boys from the rest of us. But it’s getting better – just look at the offensive line depth vs. the last 2 years. If we ever build 2-deep depth across the board, we are legit.

@Upittbaseball, always enjoyed your points and have never thrown you in with a few of the trolls and clowns, which I was directing too.

Which, I haven’t noticed on here lately by the way.

I’ve always looked at your points, from what you said a long time ago, you don’t accept nor will you accept mediocrity.

Knowing your mentality, your points are usually spot on. Realistic, and what they are, no sugar coating.

I’m a realist too, and want to get back too, at least being a regualr top 20 team.

I do give a little leeway for Chryst having a couple years to do it.

Like recruiting. I can’t beat up on him too much. Well, first off, looks like he has a few good ones this year, but I digress.

To get a really solid class, is going to take a couple years, a couple years of winning, a couple years of Pitt becoming a winner and also sending some talent to the NFL.

Guy gets some time. I hate seeing “also interested, Bowling Green and Ohio”. I did notice our last recruit, can’t think of his name, running back, had 5 or 6 other legit BCS teams as “also offering”.

That’s more like it.

To laugh is to live.

Seriously, boys, I saw Tony Dorsett running that jet thingee end-around TD during the first QTR.

Boyd was looking 15 yards downfield.

The Hawk is back!

@Upittbaseball. Ah, the “emotional hedge bet” is what it’s called in my family.

Put a $100.00 on the other team, to force your team (the one you cheer for) to win. LOL!!!

Hey, that can bite you sometimes though. The other team wins the game, but doesn’t cover.

Double loser!!! The consolation of “well, at least we kept it close” doesn’t work!! LOL

As for the blog topic, Thomas is definitely the best LB talent on the team and House is an idiot if he doesn’t see this. Gonzo makes alot of tackles but they are 8-15 yards past the line of scrimmage. He is learning the LB position on the job and frankly its too late for him to do this.
Gordon is seldom in the right spot to make the big play. LB is all about anticipation and reading the defense and then using athleticism to make the big stop. You can even get away with average athleticism if you are outstanding at reading keys (see McKillop and Ham). Alternatively, athleticism can make up for lack of reading the keys (see Green and Jackson).
As long as Aaron Donald is playing, Pitt’s LB should be making plays as he requires so much of the OLs attention, but not seeing it the first two games. Again, is this the LBs or House’s failures?
Blewitt has been terrible on kickoffs. If he doesn’t improve I think special teams is going to cost Pitt at least one game before this season is over.
On the positive side, lest I be accused of trolling, I couldn’t be more excited about what Pitt is doing with its OL and RBs. PC is on the right track, has gone after and gotten exactly what he wants for his offense. I think in the next few years Pitt might become one of the top 10-15 running teams in D1 football. Also, you can’t watch Boyd make circus catches without remembering what Fitz did around here once upon a time.

Dr. Tom
Blewit did kick one kickoff into the end zone. There was a penalty and he rekicked it. After that the ball seemed to land at the five for every kick. I don’t know why.

pmdH2P
The announcers on the ACC broadcast were horrible. It was nice that they were Pitt biased and did know the team but they used odd phrases and had strange banter. They also did not seem to know football very well. Maybe that’s how announcers are in the south. I guess we’ll get used to it.
H2P in the ACC!

Apparently OR is showing some unbelievable offense. I hope they make it to the BCS NC and play AL. They have the best chance. We do not need two more SEC teams in BCS NC or a B10 – SEC BCS NC.

I might be alone but I have concerns about the Duke game. We play so many freshman and this is our first road game. The Duke kids might not be good but I imagine them to be smart. They are well coached and we never get much out of the officials in the south. I was impressed with much of what we have shown in the 1st two games but I would be happy with a win and would be surprised if we cover. I hope I’m wrong but I keep remembering how bad we were last year early.

Taxing – not starting Thomas had nothing to do with his talent level, it was in response to his quitting the team in summer camp. Not getting that start is being blown out of proportion by we PITT fans I think. Thomas still played a lot during that FSU game. There isn’t any doubt that he’s our most talented LB and the most gifted athletically. The knock on him in the past has been his pre-snap decision making but this season he seems to be making the right reads so far. We do need his production out there desperately.

I’ll agree that this program in heading upward with the coaching stability we have now and the type of recruiting Chryst is doing. We’ll get some of remaining big recruits who haven’t committed for 2014 yet and that should make some fans calm down a bit but it is true that Chryst has certain criteria establish for who he wants on the roster. Sometimes it is head scratching, but he’s made that abundantly clear over the last off season.

One point to consider about playing so many true and rsFR is that some of that is out of necessity due to the disciplinary actions his personnel have had. Eric Williams (wouldn’t he be a bunch better than Vinopal?), Carswell, Ronald Jones, K K Smith, Mason… all of those guys would be getting some playing time over the freshman at that position with the exception of Carswell maybe. So I take these young kids playing with a small grain of salt. Some are contributing mainly because Chryst has to play them.

Obviously some of them are really talented and worked to earn the right to play ASAP; Connor, Boyd and Blewitt come to mind right away and that is great. Regardless of how the FR came to be out on the field it is going to pay off nice dividends next year and in 2015. I’m really looking forward to seeing Matt Galambos and Dorian Johnson as starters.

As to Blewitt; I don’t believe the gameplan is for him to kick touchbacks every time. There is nothing wrong with the returner getting the ball inside the five if we can cover. On the other hand, if our KO coverage continues to suck I think we’ll see him putting the ball in the endzone more often – he has the leg for it.

Whoever the Special Teams coach is, and I still haven’t figured it out, better raise his game before too long. We aren’t doing particularly well in any aspect of Special Teams with the exception of maybe punting the ball. When a team isn’t well establish and consistently good in either offense or defense then Special Teams become that much more important. Last year we had three losses by a TD or less, two of those were by a FG or less. When you play games that tightly then you can’t afford to give up big chunks of yardage on Special Teams as we have been doing.

@spirit, I’m right with ya brother.

It’s my own hyperbole to say this is a “big game” every week, but, when I look where the program is, has been and hopefully going, they kind of are.

Duke, ya, it’s Duke. It’s not the same ol’ Duke though. On the road.

This is one of those games, would be nice to see a nice solid win.

To be making progress, and to your point, these are the types of games we need to start winning, and winning consistently.

If anyone is saying, “it’s just Duke”, you haven’t been following the program for awhile.

We’ve lost a lot of games to “just Duke” in the recent past.