I though Upittbaseball was banned?

USAToday football rankings: Bowling Green #29; Pitt #70. We’ll be at least 10 point underdogs. I don’t want to hear that we are playing a lowly Mid-American Conference.

Upittbaseball – you dislike for HCPC is well documented. The sideline dress is dictated by the sponsors (Nike) and the AD dept. Have you seen what Bo Pelini wears…you are an idiot and as I said previously your baseball team mates(if you played) disliked you so much that you seek revenge on the football team!

that is the pont we are and we are under dogs a shame is it not.
on csnbbs aac conference talk east carolina is bitching becuse they have to play a mac school
they think it is beneath them to have to play a mac school in there bowl.
hell if they think that and they are nobody should we not fell the same way becuse we are pitt.
that is the point we think it is ok to play a mac school in a bowl and be under dogs at that how far the mighty pitt football has falling and it is worse when her fans think it is ok how low can we go.

I got it, I got it! Hire Tom Bradley as a special teams coach/defensive assistant. We need a special teams coach now and House needs some help! Hire Bradley but up his salary so he will listen. If all goes to hell with House, promote Bradley as D coord. If all goes to hell with Chryst, promote Bradley to interim Head Coach with Engram as the Offensive Coord. If he does well, we got the man who we should’ve gotten a few years ago! Listen I actually like Chryst but I think adding Bradley to the staff would only help, then you have a backup plan. Just an idea! Thinking way to much in the snowy weather in DC!

Bowling Green is favored and deservedly so. Pitt sucks and Vegas agrees. That’s what MAC recruits get ya that are coached up by potato farmers in gray college sweatsuits.

I’m only a fan of stability when it leads to wins. Seriously the Wanny days look better as time flys by. Even Fraud brought a better offense than this turd given to us by Barry.

He needs his hand held. His assistants aren’t strong enough. His coaching flaws are exposed. Why does Pitt give coaches the chance to learn on the job. Make your damn mistakes at a MAC school.

markup be nice upittbaseball has as much right as you or me to say what he wants , is this not a sports blog and all have different ideas.
i myself do not attack chryst becuse i know he will be here for 2 more years weather i want him to or not.
but i do think the asst coachs should be fired at least most of them not all of them.

News flash Pitt played 12 games – 9 of the teams will play in a bowl game. Good strength of schedule for a 2nd year coach with one true (able to recruit the whole year) recruiting class and that class delivered!

HCPC has been the pitt coach for 25 games.

Frankcan I would give him some slack ,but all remember is negative comments coming from him and that negative attitude gets old. Ingram is a winner and a keeper, as is Bolinger, for all we know Barry A. Suggested that HCPC bring inexperienced coaches with him and to develop them.

@ Old Pitt Grad, your post made at 4:48 made me laugh out loud. “Pitt death blow”, hilarious! If Graham leaving in the dead of night before our bowl game, waving farewell via a text messgae to the team, can’t kill Pitt’s football program, then nothing will. Your really a funny guy, you should post more often, I enjoy the entertainment.

Several posts above imply or directly state that Coach Holgorsen is on the “hot seat”. I doubt that. He signed a six year, $2.3M per year, contract extension at the end of last season. That is one expensive hot seat for WVU to pull the trigger on.

markup i know but think how boring this site would be if we all drank the koolaid and sang HCPC is the best all day long. this site would suck people like JOE D and pittbaseball give some spice and give you and outhers a reason to yell and make your point for chryst. that is not a bad thing .

EMel were are you i worry when old timers are not on
EMel has not been on for days it is not like him to miss this kind of stuff.
if you are out there just post something so we know you are ok.

Chryst needs to listen to the AD. And the AD should say some heads need to roll. His assistants should have already been developed and proven commodities. I blame our current AD for allowing it. I actually blame our Chancellor most of all for hiring the incompetent ass to run the department and then extending him based on a fine record of mediocrity. The fish rots at the head.

Thanks Nordy for building a medical empire but Pitt still lags Penn State in everything but men’s basketball. Still looking up to Penn State in academics. Still behind Pedo State in brand value even after the scandal. Does Pitt have a plan?

I want to hear from the new leader how we plan on surpassing Penn State, how we plan to improve the overall quality of our athletic program and how we plan to fund it, how we plan to increase our brand equity, how we plan to compete for ACC championships, how we plan to be a well balanced university, how we plan to improve the quality of life and overall student experience, how we plan to increase our endowment and keep costs down.

No easy answers but I’m glad the door is closing on this administration. We need new vision, energy and commitment. We’ve grown too complacent.

TX Panther but will we get a new AD if we dont nothing changes .

@gc, I’ll tell you what embarrasses me, that’s Pitt fans that feel entitled to look down their noses at football programs that “supposedly” in their minds, are unworthy to give credit that they’re due, without the least bit of consideration as to the team’s makeup or the product that they have put out there on the field of play. That form of myopic unfounded disrespect for another team I find very embarrassing from a mutual Pitt fan that supposedly follows the college game! Funniest thing is, they don’t even realize that they do it. And BTW spiritofsection22, we’ve become very, very accustomed to the “mediocre” over the last four years already. So another mediocre year or two waiting around to see if the Chryst experiment turns things around at all doesn’t really matter much in the grand scheme of things to me, how bout you? But while I’m sitting around waiting for that verdict to come in, I’m sure not going to do anything but hope for the best for my Pitt Panther Football team because they’re my team through thick and thin, and I just happen to like this bunch of guys we got right now, so I’m enjoying watching the process.
Beat Bowling Green and Hail to Pitt!

Fresh blood and new ideas are good for the university. I’m confident that our current AD will be gone shortly. I hope our new Chancellor values athletics more than Nordy. Chryst needs help. The AD should be finding the money to help pay for good assistants. Chryst is still trying to learn how to be a head coach. Having good assistants will speed up the learning curve. Let’s see how serious Pitt is about winning. If there are few significant changes, we’ll get the same old Pitt and the same old results. Let’s hope for some changes and stability be damned. Again, stability for the sake of stability that gets sub par results is a losers mentality.

@ markup, I have deduced from reading many of Upittbaseball’s posts that he is not an idiot, he may be a disgruntled, pessimestic, full of negative energy Scrooge with a heart only half the size of the Grinch’s, but he’s definitely not an idiot!

But give him a new AD and his heart will grow three sizes that day.

Frankcan, our pal Emel seemed to be having a computer issue or a problem with the Blather site considering his texts from a couple of his posts noted on the “Thanksgiving Leftovers” thread dated 11/28. He made a couple posts during the Miami game, then nothing but crickets since then, got me??

@ Tx Panther, nothing but good constructive suggestions from you today.

Lest us not forget, Congratulations to Aaron Donald! Truly an amazing performance throughout his college career. I’m not sure everyone truly fathoms the accomplishments and sheer will of his play this year as well. He can be proud of being a college graduate and always an exemplary teammate. This is a Pitt man if there ever was one. Hail to Pitt!

TXPanther, Pitt hired an assistant without head coach experience to learn on the job because that really rich booster basically forced Pitt to hire him. And I’m still waiting for someone to show me even a shred of evidence that Chryst hired House due to money concerns. As Frankcan can tell you, there was literally no information on any of those coaching rumor websites that Chryst even talked to or interviewed anyone else for the DC job. There was a rumor Chryst wanted the guy from the 49ers but that was about it.

I’m not even sure the D is the biggest problem. I was just looking at NCAA team ranks: Total Offense 102, Passing Offense 61, Rushing Offense 112, Scoring Offense 85. Those are pretty bad numbers for a team coached by an offense guy.

Hey guys. In light of having half the heart size of the scrooge I must say Arron Donald should get the kudos. If Steve Pederson doesnt take of 50k and get 10-12 Billboards throughout PA and the Southeast then he is crazy. The kid is great and speaks very well and is an awesome ambassador for UP. Way to go Aaron! Ok back to pederson. LOL. Doc hope you are well. And Frankcan. Markup – I woukd love being positive but we are watching the same games right? I am reading a book on being positive no lie. Haha

I will hopefully put the sky is falling group at ease for a few minutes. I did a little research about recruiting and stars. You all have a 50-50 chance of getting this right, so let’s play. There are two teams that just played for the ACC Championship. One of those teams had 1 four star recruit (according to scout system) since 2009. Which team was it? For those that are fact challenged, it is Duke and they had one player in 2009 ranked as a four star. All other recruits were two and three stars.

Cutcliffe took several years to get his players comfortable in his system. Pitt would be wise to let Chryst have his time to develop the program. Doomsdayers need to stay away for you know not what you say.

Further, Henry may not be the end all. If you follow twitter accounts, the Shell’s and the Henry’s accounts are covered with the “N” word. There is no need for this and the associated friendships in any Pitt locker room and it is not the type of young man you want in your program. Leave that to the WVU’s, OSU’s. Tell me it is everywhere in today’s society and I will take you to task. Class is taught by Paul Chryst, not Holgorsen, Meyer, etc. Meyer may have crossed himself up after the MSU game. Rumor has it that he disrespected the Carmen Ohio tradition at the end of the game because he was pouting.

Gibson and Holgorsen will be gone next year if they go anything less than 6-6. AD Luck has already inferred that recently. Actually, Luck almost left first for the Texas AD job which would have been bad for Pitt. Why< because the AD at Oregon is a hillbilly and wanted to go back to WV if Luck left.

UPitt, we agree only that our current AD is terrible. A laughingstock amongst his peers, but laughing at the fan base because of the cash we pay him for repeated failure. Ease off on the negativity or they will start calling you Joe Jr.

Finally, let's stop all this bs about Pitt being this great academic institution. We are good to slightly above average. The rankings are manipulated constantly. I know this as I study the ranking mechanisms and how to manipulate the results. As an example, many universities hire recent graduates for a two year stint post graduation to boost employment percentages post graduation. Some universities hire many non-tenured faculty prior to survey completion so the student teacher ratio is lower, thus receiving hire scores. There are about twenty other manipulations that occur, so unless you know all the assumptions behind the rankings and what they really mean, the rankings are inaccurate. Sorry Pitt Dad. That is just how it works.

In closing, my recommendation is to back off the head coach. He isn't going anywhere. I do wish PC would take a hint from Obrien at psu and fire a couple of assistants that aren't performing, only if there are better replacements. All the players that pick Pitt, welcome. All those that go elsewhere seeking greener pastures, good luck. Recent memory suggests that the locals should remain local for the family support they need. Didn't Gibson coach at Pitt for awhile? If it was so bad, why did he work here? It was good enough for him, but not anyone he is recruiting. Sounds backwards to me, but people who don't know better (typically parents) get caught up in the emotion. My hope is that once the dust settles, better choices will be made.

@markup,
Haven’t seen you on here before. We all know Upitt and we know he’s mostly glass-half-empty. He’s a good guy, though. I’ve made the mistake of getting personal and it’s the wrong move. Just sayin’.

@Frankcan, where’s Emel? I haven’t seen him post in a while.

Tom Bradley is available as a defensive coordiantor….

Do you think he MIGHT have landed Mr.Henry IF he was one of the assistants recruting Western PA?

@@@@@@@

Don’t like the Tom Savage bashing. The O line was terrible and gave him little time to throw….especially the deep ball.
Savage wasn’t perfect but gave us his best effort and I for one
enjoyed watching him play.

Voytik is mobile and has a strong arm. Did anyone watch the Spring Game? Voytik will be ready and the early non conference games will give him an opportunity to get oriented.

JR, I agree 100%

Hopefully the O-line will improve get the running game going, taking the pressure off Voytik.

If recruits read this blog, it should show them we are passionate fans and for the most part not Kool Aid drinkers. We care deeply about Pitt and want to make her better. A new AD should tap into that love and rally the troops. I just want to be heard and see some results that show someone is listening. I’m tired of being beaten down and ignored. But it’s not in my nature to quit. Chryst shouldn’t quit either but he should reach out for help.

Looks like BG’s head coach and Elko their DC are going to Wake and won’t be coaching the game. The line may go down by a field goal.

Good for you, Upittbaseball, self improvement is always a noble endeavor, plus more positive energy from you once in awhile, I find as a breath of fresh air.

Donald is going to get another award tonight, hopefully. Tomorrow is the Big Kauna though, the Outland Trophy has always been viewed as the linemen’s Heisman and Donald is the best choice for that one too. He’ll be in rare company if he receives it, with only one other Pitt guy ever being awarded the Outland, Coach Holtz’s main anticognist, Mark May.

Merry Christmas, let’s put this belated Christmas gift on all of our lists for a dominant win over a very solid Bowling Green team. That would be the appropriate way to end our season if, in fact, Pitt is trending upward.

Keep reading Upitt, that should be your New Year’s resolution, a more optimistic outlook on Pitt athletics! BTW, your heart is half the size of the Ginch, not Scrooge.

@ dhuffdaddy, unless you correct me otherwise, one fact about the University of Pittsburgh, that continues to rank Pitt #1 without competitors is that we continue to have the highest building on our campus of higher education than any other institution in the country. So we got that going for us!

We’ve also got one of the most beautiful campuses from an architectural perspective which unfortunately isn’t seen by most ACC visitors when they attend a game at Heinz on the North Shore. She’s like a beautiful woman hidden away in the kitchen during a gala and nobody has a chance to see her curves and charm.

Yep, Pitt has the tallest education building in the U.S. and forth tallest education building in the world.

Mike I think the cathedral is the second tallest in the world after Moscow U. Stalin put a spire on top so he could say it was the tallest. We have the highest classrooms.

Typically, a recruit comes here first because of our tallest buildings and second for our architecturally sound other structures. All excellent points.

Kids buy what coaches sell. The plan to maximize the gifts of an athlete so he can get to the next level; an opportunity for early playing time and an opportunity to play for championships. For Pitt, the opportunity to play for a championship is better in the ACC, than all of our local competitors except for OSU in the Big11.

I used Duke as an example because they won 10 games in the ACC with 2 and 3 star players. The roadmap can work if given time. Cutcliffe was well under 500 since 2008. Don’t worry about me and Upitt. We get along just fine and as pointed out agree on many things. He double dosed the negative this week, that’s all.

Pitt best practices must be to continue to get Federal and private grants for research such as the recent one to track diseases. More research money always helps a schools image but competition is fierce. Hope AD gets more awards for his work and we need those local recruits be they even 2 or 3 stars.

Hi Panther, I’ve been on for a while (markp) – I somehow entered the wrong Name when I was writing to upitt…I wanted to get my note out. I don’t have anything against him or anyone else, but the tunes getting played over and over again get old! HCPC is well respected amongst his peers and is making progrss IMHO. I was at the Navy game and felt the pain as the game was given away, and was very upset as well. Two glasses of wine at Red,Red wine calmed me down…I hope for better results from the FB team.

@@@@@@

Undeniable fact Pitt cannot be come
relevant by depending on WPIAL
players. Given the shortage of local
talent and the fact not all of the players
want to attend Pitt the staff must expand
the recruiting boundaries. Also factor in the
annual needs of the team; losing Henry
is painful however most assuredly the staff
has a plan B.

@gc, sure, they’re good for a MAC team. If they were in a BCS conference, they’d be 6-6 at best.

Losing to a MAC team, or a Sun Belt team is still a stigma, to any of the 5 BCS conferences.

It may happen more than it did 20 years ago, but it is still not an everyday Saturday event.

My embarrassment is not losing to Bowling Green, you are correct about that, we’ll be lucky to stay on the field with them.

My embarrassment is how far the Pitt football program has fallen.

Think about it. We’re gonna be in a dog fight, with………..Bowling Green.

Maybe a dog fight, we may very well get blown off the field.

And embarrassment is probably the wrong word choice. Don’t know if I used it first or you did.

If I did, poor word choice.

Let’s say, it saddens me, to see what we’ve become.

Duke was pleasnat alternative to the typical ACC drum beat of the Clemsons and Florida States, etc. dominating the ranks of the Conference this year. Too bad that the Blue Devils got beat like a drum by FSU in the championship game, but that was a redundant trend all season long for FSU opponents.

My hope is that with Pitt upgrading to the ACC that the coaching staff takes full advantage of that geographic footprint to enhance the scope of their successful recruiting efforts into the deep South. There is no way to deny the fact that they grow fast, talented football players down there in Florida and such. We need our share of that crop of recruits ANNUALLY if we are expected to eventually compete for ACC Championships. This incoming QB from Florida is a start, but only a start. We need about another half dozen of them fast, skilled Florida guys to fill out our 2015 recruiting class.

I think the real reason choose WVCC is that he got a look at the all white uniforms worn by Pitt and thought ‘there’s no way in HELL I’d ever wear something that HORRID’………

Dan, sorry it was Dan72 that made the embarrassment comment. I don’t think it is how far we have fallen, but how high Bowling Green has risen. Their season is much more of an aberration to them, than ours is to us.

@gc, good points about where both programs are.

It’s not “terrible”, it’s just the perpetual mediocrity.

I hope HCPC’s plan can pull us out of it.

I’ve stated before, and I believe many if not most of us, do not have delusions of 1976 and National Championships.

Would just like to be a perennial top 25 team or so.

I can even give you a visualization of my thoughts in say, any given 10 year period.

#21
#18
Not ranked
#13
#17
Not ranked
Not ranked
#22
#15
#16

Perhaps this is asking too much from the admistration. Seems like a lot of academic institutions these days are striving for excellence in the classroom, along with excellence in sports.

I don’t think my above 10 year little thing, is asking for the moon.

Maybe it is.

Pitt has to do a better job of recruiting FLORIDA and the deep south!

Gotta get better a.coaches…and a recrutiing coordinator that CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE down there.

If not..the program is doomed to be 2nd tier in the ACC for a lonnnnnnnnnnnnng time.

“Clawson made 400k and did wonders. We are paying Potato Picker Paul and his Gray Sweatshirt 1.8M for terrible performance. If Steve Pederson actually worked for a business that had a focus on profit and performance he would have been fired 100 times over last 2 years. Don’t tell me he got us in the ACC Bullshit. He answered the phone after UCONN was denied.
Comment by Upittbaseball 12.10.13 @ 8:25 pm”

Clawson is a gem. He was my undergrad alma mater’s (Richmond) head coach and loaded up the roster before leaving to become Tenn’s OC under Fulmer.

Watch out for Wake…he will do good things for that program.

And we can all thank Gene DeFilippo for vetoing UConn. What a stroke of luck for us…

But a fairer assessment of SP is that without the improved facilities for BB, baseball, soccer, etc – that he oversaw – the ACC doesn’t call us after that veto.

Maybe when Nordy leaves things will change. We are really behind the times in making FB viable. It is a good thing that no other PA schools (like IUP) have stepped up in NCAA FB class or they would clean our clock.

@ Dan, you are saddened, but according to Dan”72″ it’s an “embarrassment” to be playing a MAC team that on paper is better than the Panthers (see 12/10 6:48pm post).

I just hope that we’re not further embarrassed by getting our a$$es kicked by the MAC Champs the day after Christmas. They ground up NIU into little pieces and spit them out in their championship game against them!

I like this match up alot. This is a good team but very beatable by Pitt if we come prepared to play. As I’ve said previously, this is a must win game for Pitt. There should be little need for the coaching staff to have to light a fire under the Panthers to get them motivated for the Fighting Falcons. Think about it, how many bowls involve a conference Champion in them as one of the participants? The MAC plays big boy football IMO, and they should be a stern test for the Panthers, and apparently their QB, Johnson has an axe to grind with a previous Pitt coaching staff, for not being heavily recruited by the Panthers.

Yep Dan, that IS the state of our program, for longer than I care to remember, middle of the road team in a BCS conference, Big East or ACC, who cares? Then you got an upstart Bowling Green team that has put together a winning combination and all of a sudden you have a contest that is even steven, a great MAC team against a mediocre ACC team.

I could give a $hit who we beat, as long as we beat them to go 7-6 to end the season.

Going into LOI signing day with a bowl win and a winning season sure will feel a lot better than another 6-7 season and a loss to a MAC team to end it, even if they are the MAC Champs.

No question Doc. If you’re going to go and play, you might as well win.

No disrespect to Bowling Green Panther either. BGU does have a very good team this year.

Don’t mean to contradict myself either. When I spoke of BGU being in a BCS conference and doing as well, I really meant having the long, long year, and playing a tough game every week.

On any given Saturday, they could probably beat anyone. We’ve seen it before with Boise St., TCU, NIU this year.

They do beat teams, I was really talking about having to go through a power conference schedule.

So, absolutely no disrespect to BGU.

Hell, I fear them as a Pitt fan. Scares the crap out of me with what’s going to happen at that bowl game.

Sure nuff Dan. No worries about them getting up for the bowl game, I’ll guarentee that! BTW, wasn’t it Ohio that knocked off ped state in their home opener last year? Could’t happen to a nicer program.

Comment on the uniforms above although funny, probably carries valid weight. Kids do put stock in uniforms, ask Oregon. They want to be recognized and not confused with Akron Zips, etc. Colors matter.

Perhaps that is what Mrs. Henry was talking about. Maybe she was talking color schemes of uniforms with Gibson and defensive schemes with House which led to confusion. I like Ms. Henry and wish her a belated birthday. I don’t care for the family decision but as I looked closer, Pitt is actually progressing, while the other program is in decline, moving to irrelevant. I am not sure they can win 6 games next year and if they don’t the partying coach will be dismissed. WVU has malcontents from other programs that Pitt wouldn’t let back in. Shell will gain big yards at wvu. The backs always do in the holgorsen system. The problem is the holgorsen run defense is terrible. WVU will be a 5-7 team next year and Holgorsen will be gone as will Gibson.

If Gibson was good, Rich Rod would have kept him at Michigan who still hasn’t recovered from the defensive back train wreck. If he was good, Todd Graham would have taken him to Arizona. There is a common thread. He doesn’t last long and he hasn’t progressed upward to defensive coordinator and won’t. Looking at his resume’, he is either a head coach killer or is on a magnificently long stretch of bad luck. The Henry family gets to decide who they are hitching there wagon too over the next month and a half. Now that the pressure is off, the family can actually sit down and think it through correctly.

dhuffdaddy, sorry to say but I think that “Henry” ship has sailed out of Pitt Harbor.

If I were Chryst or Pederson, I would have turned down the invitation to the bowl and upcoming ass kicking by Bowling Green. There is nothing to be gained by playing except 15 more days of practice….practice what? It’s like practicing a bad golf swing over and over. It does not get better!

Some of the posts above criticize the players. I wish that would stop. I think the Pitt coaches deserve the blame for not developing talent. My bar is not Texas, Alabama or USC. But when we lose to Youngstown State, struggle with ODU and go into the game an underdog against Bowling Green as an underdog, I ask myself about this trend and wonder how coaches at those schools the most out of putting an energized team together that can beat Pitt. I read the bio’s of our staff and wonder how he managed to assemble these guys. I give our players a lot of credit for playing as well as they do and winning the six games. They’ve overcome a lot of internal barriers.

>> I would hope they can land Bookser, since Haering who is recruiting him was his high school coach for 2 years, for God sake’s.

Which is why he *won’t* be signing with Pitt. Another wasted 90K on an assistant who is worthless.

@dhuff and whoever you were mentioning above.

I don’t doubt some kids look at uniforms and I respect your opinion.

However, Oregon is one of the few, to go with those futuristic, non traditional college football uniforms. No doubt, they won, they got away with it.

You’d be hard pressed though, to find anyone else successful that has done that.

(now, I’m not talking about a once a year uniform, or a one game throwback, talking about teams that changed their whole look).

By the way, Oregon had already started their comeback without those uni’s. They were in the 94 Rose Bowl, traditional green and gold.

Think about the big boys. Alabama, Auburn, FSU, Clemson, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Michigan, Ohio State, USC, ND, PSU, Iowa, Michigan State, Texas, LSU, Georgia.

Seems like most of the top teams, have not changed, and granted, they don’t need to.

Most of the uniforms look ridiculous, and are gimmicks at best, to sell a few shirts.

By the way, I looked it up, I don’t have the link right now, but I’ll get it, changing uniforms has not meant enormous profits. The first year, they sell a few, then mostly down the tubes.

Winning, is what sells jerseys.

Besides, if a player’s decision, is on the uniforms, I’m not sure he’s the kind of kid we want.

In all fairness, I just thought of Baylor and Oklahoma State. Seen them play lately though?? Look like garbage.

Maybe HCPC will succeed, we’ll see in the next couple of years.

If he doesn’t, the uniforms will have nothing to do with it, or recruiting.

The chancellor and the a.d., and the amount they pay or don’t pay for a coach, assistant coaches, and recruiting budgets, will determine whether Pitt ever gets back to be a top 25 team.

IMHO