Okay, do yourself a favor and read these two posts from over at The Key Play. Further confirming my view that neither side is going to do anything too out of character for this game. Both teams have coaches that have their game plans. Know what the identity of their respective teams should be, and will not deviate far off the script. I will note, that if there is any way to sneak Walt Harris onto the sidelines for the game, do it. I think it would give the Hokie collective severe heart palpitations. Anything to further mess with their heads.

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PITT vs Va Tech – at Heinz Field, under the lights and in front of 345 screaming fans…

What do you think happens?

I think we lose a close one – 23-17

It will be kept simple.

After the Q&A with The Key Play was released, VT let it be known that running back Marshawn “Juice” Williams was also out for the the game. Three backs down in their depth chart. That means Caleb Johnson will be their primary back.

A couple other key injuries for the Hokies are on the defense. Starting DT Luther Maddy and CB Brandon Fascyson will not play. If you are looking for reasons why the line on the game has swung a bit. The injury list is a good place to start.

This means a bit more passing. Not deep throws, but much more of the short stuff. Slants. Quick outs. Controlled throws to create a little space. As for deep throws, they will take about as many as Iowa took. See if they can take advantage of the corners going one-on-one while the safeties play up to defend the shorter passes. Whether VT QB Michael Brewer will be accurate enough is the random roll of the die. (more…)

Even before the season started, this was a game many Pitt fans circled. Not simply because of it being a prime time Thursday night home game. Before the season started, it wasn’t hard to project Pitt at 5-1 or perhaps 6-0 heading into a showdown with a VT team that might have a similar record. I imagine many VT fans also circled this game considering their expectations and the history of Pitt screwing up their plans.

Now, this game is big for both teams, but not in the way envisioned. It’s more about surviving and salvaging at this point.

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(This is a weekly series of articles entitled “Monday Morning Quarterback”.   I will try to post them two days after the football games are played so as to have our wilder emotions under control by then.  It will be my take on the positives and the negatives we saw happen and a chance for commenters to agree or disagree and to add their own thoughts.)

Now that we are in the middle of the 2014 schedule let’s take a moment to look at what we fans have liked or disliked about the staff, team and players after six games have been played.  We stand at 3-3 with a 1-1 record in ACC conference play.  Last week we lost a close one to Virginia Cavaliers on their home field and this coming Thursday evening we play the Virginia Tech Hokies at Heinz Field.  It is safe to say that we need to start the second half of the season with a conference win if we want to have any chance at a Coastal Division championship.

POSITIVES

1.  Our defense. Yes, we have given up some big plays and yes, we have allowed the other team to score more points than us in three games but there were a lot of factors that went into that.  One factor that stood out and pretty much crippled us in our recent three games losing streak was our crap offense (see “Negatives #1″ below).

But we are holding our own on defense this season and while it doesn’t seem like it at times it’s true.  Granted we stumbled a bit against Akron when we let a team not know for its run game tear up the field but that was mainly due to a couple of long runs through pretty poor arm tackle and angle taking attempts.

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(Before any statisticians or math majors get excited and start ripping this apart please realize this is done for fun and researched as well as I could with the internet resources available.)

Last week we put up an article titled Past PITT QBs’ Ground Games exploring how well PITT’s recent quarterback’s could run when they actually tucked in the ball and tried to get positive yardage.  We did that because at present we are having a lively discussion of PITT’s current QB, Chad Voytik, and his strengths and weakness in the position.  I think it’s safe to say that we all recognize that running the ball is perhaps the greatest strength he has at this point.

In writing that article and looking back over the numerous and lengthy debates we have had on here about how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ a QB was for us I wondered that because  it is so subjective an issue there must be a way to at least compare QBs in a somewhat standard way.

To start I chose to go back to Alex Van Pelt, because he was so good for us, then to Rod Rutherford and all our major starters since then; Tyler Palko, Bill Stull, Tino Sunseri and now Chad Voytik.  I  included Tom Savage in the initial comparisons even though he had a short one season stint with us.

The first thing I had to address was exactly how to show the QB’s side by side measurements.  We have all seen the “QB Rating” numbers at the end of a player’s box score after the game but do we really know what that means? I didn’t realize there was more than one way of numerically rating a QB’s performance, but there is.

Background of the Ratings
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I may be in the minority on at least wanting the Backyard Brawl on some sort of rotation for the football non-con (good hate is so hard to find), so a home-and-(delayed)-home with Marshall isn’t exactly the same. But given Marshall’s relationship with WVU, and the outrage it is generating south of Pittsburgh. Well, I have to respect a scheduling troll move like that.

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(This is a weekly series of articles entitled “Monday Morning Quarterback”.   I will try to post them two days after the football games are played so as to have our wilder emotions under control by then.  It will be my take on the positives and the negatives we saw happen and a chance for commenters to agree or disagree and to add their own thoughts.)

These MMQB articles are getting harder and harder to write given the inconsistencies of our coaching staff’s decisions, our team’s efforts and our individual player’s success’ and failures, even from play to play sometimes.  I’m still not sure exactly what caliber of PITT football team we have this season.   I’ll put down some more personal opinions at the end of this article.

POSITIVES

1.  Todd Thomas’ play at OLB on defense. He came rigged to play last night and ended up with 12 total tackles; seven unassisted, five assisted with one tackle for loss, most of which seemed to come in crucial situations. He was all over the field and at least two of his tackles stopped important 3^rd down conversion attempts.  There is a lot of fan discussion this morning about how DC House is substituting for Thomas in certain situations, most specifically passing downs and against the spread formations we have seen in some past games.

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Very underrated part of this season — at least from my perspective –no games landing right on a high holy day. I am reasonably certain that one home game every year landed on one of those three days. Got past Rosh Hashanah. Yom Kippur ends at sundown — 30 minutes before the game today. Granted that means I will start drinking after no food or drink for 24 hours, but what could go wrong?

Hate to say it is a must win for Pitt, but it may well be. The idea of riding a 3-game losing streak into a bye week and then facing VT on Thursday night to try and snap out of it. That should give Coach Paul Chryst night terrors.

Pitt somehow needs the O-line to step up huge tonight for the offense to have a chance. James Conner can’t run if there’s no room, and Chad Voytik won’t even have a chance to upset fans if he is constantly blitzed and pressured.

Then there is a defense that has faded so badly in the second half of two straight games. I don’t expect a wild crowd from Virginia. Even in the best of times, the folks in Charlottesville aren’t exactly the rowdiest.

Open Thread will be tossed up a little closer to game time. 7:30 on Root Sports if you want the early reminder.

The glow from the good news of Jordan Whitehead’s verbal is still there, but it is giving way to the reality of this game.

Starting with the bad news, the O-line is going to be down another starter for the game. Left Tackle Adam Bisnowaty has been suspended for the game for violation of team rules. It is a one game suspension, and no other information as to the why is being given.

Jarryd Jones-Smith will be starting in his place. Jones-Smith has seen a good amount of playing time this year at that position. He has been rotated in there with Bisnowaty moved to guard and Dorian Johnson coming out of the game.

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Pitt just landed what is at worst the second biggest commitment of the Chryst era in Jordan Whitehead. The four star cornerback from Central Valley (Monaca) chose Pitt over Ohio State, Penn State, and West Virginia. Whitehead is rumored to will be enrolling in January and could push for a starting position as a freshman. Also important is that Whitehead ends the run of bad luck in Beaver County for Pitt.

Celebrate the victory today and hope for another tomorrow, Pitt fans.

*Quick edit, the early enroll isn’t a rumor now, it’s confirmed.

Man, a livestream of Jordan Whitehead’s announcement today at 2:30. You know, because those livestream announcements have gone so well for Pitt fans. I don’t know what the kid will do. He has played it close to the vest. He hasn’t tried to mess with the fan bases. He has his choices narrowed. I hope it is Pitt, but I won’t wish him ill if he doesn’t.

That said, man o man does Pitt and Chryst need him. And they really need to get some talent for the defense.

In the meantime…

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This Saturday is the first big weekend for ACC in-conference games. As of right now, only Miami has played more than one ACC opponent in the Coastal and somehow only three of seven teams have no losses. After the Pitt-UVA game, that number will be no more than two. In fact, UVA or Pitt could be standing alone at the top of the division if Miami defeats Georgia Tech on the road, a reasonable conclusion. Let’s take a look at the other ACC Coastal matchups as well as future opponent Syracuse. (more…)

That’s right basketball practices start to get underway. On Friday, it’s the annual Oakland Zoo Scrimmage. It actually appears to be a really fun thing for the students (and fans that can make it).

Pitt fans and the Oakland Zoo student cheering section will get their first glimpse of the 2014-15 Pitt Basketball team when the program hosts its annual Oakland Zoo Scrimmage on Friday, Oct. 3 at the Petersen Events Center. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the scrimmage begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public. Parking is available for $5.00 in the OC Lot.

All Oakland Zoo members are encouraged to arrive early due to pre-scrimmage festivities. Oakland Zoo tee-shirts with the new logo will be on sale in the Team Store. All students in the arena by 6 p.m. will have the opportunity to take a photo with the Pitt Basketball team for the 2014-15 team poster and pre-game intro video. Zoo members must have their tee-shirts on and be in their seats at 6 p.m. Oakland Zoo members will receive loyalty points for attendance and will have the opportunity to be a guest coach on the benches with the team.

The scrimmage will tipoff at 7 p.m. The Panthers will likely play two 16 minute halves.

Immediately following the scrimmage, the Pitt Basketball team will hold its annual pizza party and meet and greet for the Oakland Zoo on the floor.

Pitt’s media day is the day before. Thursday. The full schedule is now complete — including times and TV/Internet broadcast schedule. I’m a little relieved that the there is no internet or TV broadcast for the Hawaii game. Midnight (East Coast) start time on Thursday/Friday would be rough to stay awake and watch. Let alone function at work that day.

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(Note: “Fun with Stats!” again – there maybe some small math errors and lapses in info from RR’s years but this is a pretty accurate take on this subject.)

We have spent a good amount of time discussing Chad Voytik’s short career as a starter with both articles and hundreds of reader’s comments. We have talked about his past, his time since coming to PITT, his winning the starting job and his performance in that position through the first five games of this 2014 season.

What has been one common thread in those discussions is Voytik’s ability to move well with the football.  That includes called rollouts on passing plays, called running plays where he is the primary ball carrier and scrambles away from the defensive line pressure.

His box score with ‘ball in hand’ is as follows:

So on the season, adding back the sack yardage (-38 yards) which comes off the top of his rushing totals, he’s has 33 carries for 253 yards at a 7.66 ypc clip with a long of 40 and one TD.

Now that is his production when he has the ball in his hand and makes a positive move to pick up yards on the ground, and is what I consider a basis when talking about a QBs running ability His stats in this are very good.  He accounts for almost 20% of PITT’s 1,347 yards rushing total to date.

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