Illinois makes it triplets

This morning’s Post Gazette…

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“He (James Conner) provided a great spark in the second half when he did come back,” Narduzzi said. “When he’s in the game, it seems to be a little bit different.”

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Took a little while for Narduzzi to figure out what some if not many here at the Blather already knew.

Canada too.

Next Saturday… Pitt needs to “HONOR CONNER”!

PoD – Conner was recovering from chemo, cancer and a bum knee to begin the season. The coaches, and Conner, realized he took too much on at the beginning of the season so they scaled him back until he could handle it again. On Conner’s health, you really have to trust Pitt on this one. What was best for Pitt wasn’t necessarily best for Conner. Besides, even Conner said he wasn’t himself to begin the season. Narduzzi has said he was running about 17mph in camp, 18mph to begin the season but then was clocked at about 21mph leading up to Clemson game. Pitt uses GPS to track players in practice. It just took time for Conner to get back all the way. I loved that Conner, on his own, pulled himself from the game yesterday without pressure from the coaches to get back out there.

No question about it, Pitt (football) is it! It’s been along time when Pitt’s offense is better than their defense. I enjoy watching a team score points and this years Pitt team did not disappoint.

When Pitt beats Syracuse and goes 8-4, they should get a decent bowl invitation. If Pitt plays anywhere in the south, I plan on making the trip to see them play. Hail to Pitt!

Sorry on my 8:08am post – should read 10 wins combined for six pedo state BIG Joke opponents.

Pathetic conference getting much love in the polls.

I don’t understand why…

pitt and pinstripe might be it
i dont think the bowls will give much love given our traveling fanbase
whatever the bowl, pitt should be a sexy pick with their offense
good tv ratings like usual

The program is moving in the right direction..

As for the pitt fans….pathetic!!!

I took my brother (a Penn st fan) and we actually sat by a few more Penn st fans, so there was at least 4 Penn st fans of the lousy 35,000 announced attendance

Coming off of its best win since 13-9 the city of Pittsburgh can’t support this program??,

I’ve known for a while now the Pittsburgh fans are terrible sports fans

So when all you people bitch and complain about whatever Pitts doing wrong and what they can be doing better……I say, go root for and support someone else!, I know I won’t see you at Heinz field cuz you’ll always have an excuse!!

Show up and support the Pitt Panthers!

Tossing… well aware of everything you mention above.

However, I did get the sense that both Narduzzi and Canada thought the “Smoke ‘n Mirrors” Offense could fire on all “4 Cylinders” as well without Conner as with him. Obviously NOT the case.

The Drop Off against Duke without Conner in the Game was noticeable. Do not believe there is a Back on the Roster… except for maybe Ollison… who can even come close. And even with Ollison, there’s a considerable Drop Off.

The exception though might be a Linebacker named Kaezon Pugh who, in my opinion… is POTENTIALLY a BETTER Runningback than any of the Returners on the current Roster.

If the incoming Freshman Backs next year don’t make an IMMEDIATE dent… I’m going to be looking for Pugh to get his CHANCE to show what he can do.

But we know that Narduzzi and how STUBBORN he can be.

I think Moss will be legit. The drop off from Conner to Hall and Ollison was noticeable. Ollison was running with some passion though. I think I hes in the dog house and fighting to get out of it. I believe next year we’ll see more RBBC.

U forgot rb Todd Sibley coming in next year. Also I am not sure Conner will leave and he cant play RB in the pros too small and cant play DE too small. Maybe he could be a linebacker in the pros?

Too small for RB? He’s 6’1″ 230 lbs? 5’9″ 210 lbs is ideal.

What ever happened to Zach Challingsworth (#80)?
I thought he made some good catches last year, but I don’t think he’s played this year, at least not much.

Just think if they had kept James Conner at defensive end. Yes he would probably have been a good player, but his impact would not have anywhere as great

Pedo fans are just using their season tickets here is all…

Funny though…we need to root for Ohio Fake to win out so the over rated pedos don’t get to play in the championship game.

Jack – HCPN’s old team MSU will beat the pedos.

Pitt’s rushing D is ranked 4th and the passing D is still at 127 out of 128.

Overall rank is 79th.

On to the cuse game.

Dis-color the orange –

If Conner is projected to go in the middle rounds, I wonder if he will go.

I linked a Si article the other day and he wasn’t listed among the Top 10 RB’s expected to enter the draft.

And as we all know RB picks aren’t as high as they use to be, as most teams are only playing with 1 RB and running the ball in the NFL is now secondary to slinging it all over the field.

Maybe JC’s status will rise if he does the Combine thing well. Don’t think he has anything left to prove playing another season in college. Although I would be thrilled if he came back for his senior year.

I found it shocking that the kid from Clemson(Galman) was on that Top 10 list and no JC.

JC is much better imo than him. Not even close.

Here’s another draft site with JC at #17 among RB’s.
And saying that NFL sources are suggesting he play another year in college.

link to walterfootball.com

Personally never posted an opinion about Conner playing Runningback at the next Level.

Only felt STRONGLY about him as a D-1 Back.

But like we’ve learned over the past few years, NEVER count Conner out of ANYTHING he wants to do!

PoD – agreed. Would not count him out.

Emel – zero chance Conner comes back. Only bad could happen. He’s considered a late round pick right now based on a projected 4.62 40 time. If he can get that down to 4.5 he can get into the 3rd round. He should probably show up in the 225lb range too.

Hope Conner does stay.

But if I was his Trusted Advisor… I’d say trim down… run a FAST Forty… and GO!

Emel – thanks for sharing the draft info. I too would love to see Conner return to Pitt for his SR year, but I believe he wants to go to the NFL now.

PoD suggested we HONOR CONNER at the cuse game – with that being Senior Day, I doubt Conner would want us to distract from his Serior teammates to honor him. He is anything but selfish.

What an honor though to be a Pitt fan and getting to experience such a great person and player. He is the main reason I renewed my season tickets two years ago after the many 6-6 string of seasons – almost threw in the towel…

Can’t wait to see Conner clobber the cuse.

HTP!

I wanted Tyler Boyd to stay for one more year. If James Conner decides to then he goes. There’s much any of can say or do. Yes, I hope he stays. I believe that one of the reasons that Tyler Boyd went was because the class of wide receivers for his senior year was projected to be stronger. If you can go higher in the draft one year over the other, then you can more than make up for it with the high draft pick’s contract.

27years@pitt… Challey is out with an injury… I don’t know if he has seen the field this year…He has good hands

Erie… Good point.

Still believe strongly that Pitt needs to do something to “HONOR CONNER!”

Maybe it will have to be something IMPROMPTU initiated by the Student Section.

PoD – agree with you in that HONOR CONNER point.

Just watched the replay of the Duke game on Root Sports TV – really nice tribute to Conner after the game concluded.

HTP!

@PittofDreams Students will most probably be home as it is Thanksgiving break – Panther Pit has largely been absent the last few years at home games at this time of year. Jut sayin’, may be up to us adults to promote HONOR CONNER.

H2P

Didn’t think Duquesne could play with kentucky

Just checked the updated projected bowl selections on a few websites looks like a northern bowl in Annapolis or NYC.

Hey, let’s hope that the Panthers are ready to play next Saturday. They really seem to have things rolling right now. Despite their mid-season slump, they have an opportunity to finish with an 8 win season. Not bad when look at the teams they faced.

Dec 30, 2016- Hyundai Sun Bowl- ACC Nos. 4-7 vs. Pac-12 No. 5- Pittsburgh vs. #12 Utah

link to sports.cbslocal.com

Belk Bowl

Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC, 5:30 ET, ESPN
ACC vs. SEC
Pitt vs. Ole Miss

link to collegefootballnews.com

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

New Era Pinstripe Bowl
Pitt vs. Iowa Yankee Stadium
Bronx, NY 2 p.m. ESPN

link to heavy.com

So who knows, it’s all over the place. We usually never know until all the bowls take who they really want.

And then somebody get’s stuck with Pitt.
As we’re not thought of very highly in Bowl committee circles.

I just hope we get a Bowl with a Power 5 opponent.

Pac 12 or Big 12 would work for me. Iowa not so much as we’ve played them as recently as last season.

Most of these Bowl committee’s are interested in who is going to bring the most fans with them to fill up the local hotel rooms and frequent the local restaurants. Basically revenue for that city.

So I doubt the Belk Bowl, as we don’t have a good track record bringing many fans to Charlotte.

They took us in 2009 cause the opponent was the Tarholes, so that pretty much guaranteed a full stadium.

El Paso is perfect, because the local residents buy a lot of the tickets, as it’s the Big Event in a city that doesn’t have many Big Events. And it’s like a week long celebration.

Kentucky 81 Duquesne 46 5 min left

And as a caveat, would like to get an opponent that is ranked in the Top 25, so Utah would fit that too.

Plus we owe the Utes a beatdown.

Scalp a Ute !!

Emel El Paso isn’t bad, it was part of my sales territory from 13 to 16 when I lived in Texas they do really work at keeping it safe but you have to be careful.

Ciudad Juárez across the border is extremely dangerous and violent do not visit under any circumstance.

Yep WLAT….know all about Juarez, they hang people off the telephone poles there, the Drug Cartels that is.

The Catholic Nuns of El Paso even stopped going over to Juarez to provide help, because of the violence.

It’s unbelievable and kept quite secret by our evil main stream media.

After reading this story:

link to elpasotimes.com

It seems safer than Chicago. Which has more murders and shootings per month.

I personally would love the Pinstripe Bowl. But PITT has become irrelevant in NYC. Kids love Penn State. Rutgers gets a lot of press. In my local Bergen Record not even a small column on PITT’s game/win this weekend. Don’t expect that bowl.

My grandson’s high school soccer team won the state championship (NJ). Undefeated 22-0.

@Justinian

Speaking of Tyler Boyd, AJ Green may be done for the year. A “Death Blow”(for any Seinfeld fans) to my already reeling fantasy football team, but a huge opportunity for Tyler. He caught his 1st career TD pass today.

@Erie Expess

I agree that Michigan St beats the Pedo’s on Saturday…

More Narduzzi “Truth Mis-Direction” revealed.

Remember how it was supposed to be a group of Pitt Players who were making the decision about what NEW Uniforms were going to be worn each week?

Nah.

This mornings Trib Review…

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Pitt wore its royal blue and bright yellow uniforms Saturday, a favorite of many fans. But Narduzzi said that will be the last time they are pulled off the shelf this season.

“I know some people will be upset with that, but we want it to be special when we put them on,” Narduzzi said. “You won’t see them back out again.”

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Actually never really believed. Simply too much $$$ invested in the marketing of the NEW Unis for Pitt to actually place control in the hands of some College Kids.

But it sounded good.

At the same time… more from the Trib…

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Pitt announced a crowd Saturday of 35,425, its smallest at Heinz Field since 32,549 attended a game against Syracuse on Nov. 22, 2014

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Maybe the Pitt Athletic Dept needs to focus on something else besides what Uniforms the Players wear.

We drove in Saturday morning through the bad weather knowing that at game time there would be no rain. Others may have decided otherwise. I also know the Miami game (beat down), was the end of the season for some ticket holders (folks I know).

Even worse will be this coming Saturday’s cuse game on a holiday weekend. I know many “diehard” Pitt fans and season ticket holders who won’t make the trip. We’ll be there, but with very few friends this time.

Note to AD Dept: give tickets away to the Boys & Girls Clubs, church youth groups and the YMCA to help fill the stadium and attract future Pitt fans. This could be the lowest attendance since that ’14 cuse crowd.

I wish it wasn’t so, but at 7-4 there is not much excitement. However, at 9-2 the crowds might flock to see your product. Gotta make the plays next year to win the close games.

One thing is for certain and that is the Pitt “Recruiting Department” needs to focus on something besides the Pitt attendance figures for their home games.

Pitt wasn’t the only football team that had a hard time drawing a crowd. This isn’t only a Pitt thing.

link to twitter.com

scroll down halfway or so, lots of empty seats at a lot of college football stadiums nationwide.

NFL too, attendance is down across all sports.

Look at the Browns/Steelers pics, that game never had so many empty seats.

Look at Rutgers/Penn State. WVu/Okla.

TCU is like 70% empty, even Houston didn’t have a sellout against #4 Louisville.

Tons of empty seats at UNC, Wake and NC State.

Smallest crowd ever or at least 60 years for the USC-UCLA game.

Football is Dead.

jk

Erie Express – all season ticket holders can donate their tickets thru stubhub.com

Seriously… In my opinion the reason for the decline of Viewers and Fans in the Stands is really pretty simple.

It’s the combination of 24/7 exposure for Football Games, Highlights and Analysis across TV and the Internet… and SO many alternative Entertainment Choices.

And Roger Goodell.

ray – if the tickets are donated there is NO guarantee the yellow seats will be filled. I try to hand mine to someone I KNOW will use them.

This season, for some reason my wife wants to attend ALL of the home games – ok by me…

Maybe HCPN has her believing too.

HTP!

This Pitt team is fun to watch. High scoring games plus lots of drama with guys like Henderson, Orndoff, Aston, Weah and Conner able to make the big play happen.

Let’s bring home #8 on Saturday and most preseason predictions will have been satisfied. Finish strong Panthers, Conner Strong!

With the attendance trajectory, the next remodel of the Pete could possibly allow for an indoor field. Full-size field and seating for 10K should do it.
Couldn’t make the Duke game but may get to Syracuse and extra effort(will press harder on the gas pedal) if there is a Conner tribute.
H2P!!!
H2JC!!!

need a smaller, multi purpose stadium