Fans are panicking. Questions are flying. Four wins and five losses. An ugly October killed any hope of a successful third season. Is the coach anything more than a great offensive coordinator who can’t handle running the show himself? A few good wins have been countered with ugly losses. Does this team have a QB that can win next season? The defense is in shambles and has looked like one of the worst in the country. All the hope and promise of a 7 win season last year is gone. Should the coach be fired and let the program start all over again after recent turmoil? With a little luck in the remaining three games perhaps the season can be salvaged, but two tough opponents make that unlikely.

The above cluster of random, flustered sentences looks like it’s about Pitt and Paul Chryst. That or it could be about WVU exactly one year ago today. One year ago, although coming off a win over TCU, WVU was 4-5 with an awful defense, questions at QB, and a lot of people who wanted to fire the head coach. From talking to some WVU fans before the season, most were expecting four or five wins and for Hologorsen to be fired before December. Fast forward one year and WVU is 6-3 and all three losses are to top 10 teams. There’s a lot of hope in Morgantown and they just hosted ESPN’s game day last weekend, and heartbreaking loss be damned, the game was worth the hype.

I don’t bring this up to say “be jealous of WVU, they turned it around.” I don’t bring this up to be optimistic and say next year will be better. I bring it up to ask what can Pitt do to turn it around like WVU did? I notice a few key things WVU did this offseason that Pitt can do. Will it work? If I could answer that I’d be working for Pitt, not writing about them.

1) Bring in experienced help on the defensive coaching staff

WVU’s defense was worse last season than Pitt is this season by a large margin. WVU gave up 30+ points in seven of their final nine games. While the past two weeks have been ugly, Pitt has only given up more than 25 twice. What did WVU do? They brought in former PSU coordinator Tom Bradley to help with the defense. The results have been astounding. While the defense isn’t statistically great, they’ve been opportunistic and have enabled WVU to compete against the upper echelon of college football.

I’ve seen several people connected to the program say Matt House probably won’t be fired. But, there are several assistants who could be shown the door and that will create ample opportunities for improvement. The key difference for WVU has been the approach. With the pass heavy Big 12, WVU played soft coverage and didn’t get much pass rush. Sound familiar? This year the Mountaineers have gone attack-heavy and it has made a huge difference.

2) Trust a second year starter at QB

WVU cycled through three QBs last year and the results left a lot to be desired. They combined for 16 touchdowns, 16 interceptions, 54.1% completion, and only 6.78 yards per attempt. For a pass heavy offense that’s terrible. To compare, Voytik is at 11 touchdowns, 6 interceptions, 61.3% completion, and 7.21 yards per attempt.

In year two for Trickett, his completion percentage has gone up 14.3%, his yards per attempt 1.59 yards, and he has 18 touchdowns as opposed to 7 and their season still has four more games. If Voytik can get up to even 65% completion and 8 yards per attempt, the offense will be dramatically better. Heck, if the offense plays close to what we saw against Duke we’ll be in good shape. If that offense shows up against Iowa, Akron, and UVA Pitt is 7-2 right now.

3) Don’t play true freshmen

Obviously Pitt hasn’t had much of a choice here, but the amount of inexperienced players is a hindrance. On WVU’s current depth chart according to Ourlads, WVU has one true freshman on the two deep, Dravon Henry. Pitt has four on defense (Maddox, Amara, Blair, and Wirginis). Three of those four play extensively. I don’t say that to in any way denigrate their play, but I think everyone will agree the sophomore versions of those players will be better than the freshman. Amara, Blair, and Wirginis have a very high chance of starting next year (Wirginis was supposed to redshirt but played his way onto the two deep in camp), so their experience now will help in 2015.

Next year, the only true freshman who appears likely to play is Jordan Whitehead. Whitehead, like Henry for WVU, is a top tier recruit so that isn’t necessarily bad. Thankfully with the return of Titus Howard from suspension and a now experienced Avonte Maddox, Whitehead will have to earn a starting job. Pitt only has to replace six senior starters, three on each side of the ball, and each position has backups currently seeing the field consistently.

Will these three things mean a WVU like jump in Chryst’s third year? Who knows. The key is obviously adding coaching talent to the defensive side of the ball. Who or how that will be, I don’t know. I just know that Matt House will likely still be DC in 2015 much to my chagrin, but with some help, maybe they can turn it around. Matt House’s defense looked good two weeks ago. Maybe a little help could go a long way.