We beat Penn State. We beat Clemson.

We are flashy, exciting, explosive. Stop criticizing the defense. Let’s celebrate and look forward to the future.

H2P!

Really. Why ?

He just was involved in a game that set records in defensive futility. His team had the ball for 104 plays gained almost 700 yards and STILL lost. ha

This is what happens when you have the coaching turnover and lost recruiting classes we’ve had the last half decade.

Against both Clemson and Syracuse, Pitt’s def has given up historical numbers … yet Pitt won both.

Scoring more points is all that matters.

Who puts out this utter drivel ?

Hail to Pitt!

#22 Utah is losing too….maybe we will crack the Top 25.

Good to get win #8, but the visual presented of the defense was far short of good. Unless you add the word grief…

The games played out ok in the bottom half of the polls to maybe squeak Pitt in at 25 –

My bowl prediction is that Pitt receives an invite from ACC #8 or 9.

Lost in the chaos of the cuse game was
O’Neil rolling out and throwing a pass.

In addition he ran step for step with fFrench
on his TD run…..amazing.

I should have known the D was going to be in for a long day when Ryan Lewis was beating his chest early on the game… all DBs need a “thang” to bring attention to themselves when they get toasted…all teams.. all leagues… all the time…or just stop show-boating and play football.

These teams all lost their game.

God Bless Pitt…..I much prefer a 15 point win in a feeding frenzy than losing 0-3 in the cold of El Paso.
But hey, I get it. Some people live and love to be miserable.
Not me.

Something has to be done with the defense, hope we can hang on to Canada

Again the “support” this program gets from its “fans” is embarrassing, 34,000 yesterday..

I have things to do also, but CHOOSE to go to HEinz, and its only 7 times a year, but Pittsburgh will alwAys have excuses to not support the Panthers…sad sad

Please allow Pitt to keep Nard and Canada for a long time. Please. The fans deserve it. Pitt deserves it!! HTP

I have said all year that this is a team that will only win with overwhelming offense and that has been the case.

The Clemson game truly saved the season and our defense came through mightily in that game, the one that counted most.

The Pinstripe sounds pretty good, probably the only game that would match last year’s super attendance.

The one negative to me is the wasted redshirt for Hamlin. Hope the petition for a medical is granted.

Also hope our youngsters spend a lot of time in the weight room this off season. Watching Alabama vs Auburn, you can’t help notice the massive muscles.

Narduzzi and company really need to hit the recruiting hard and close on some elite players, if we want this program to get better.

We need to keep stockpiling linemen and linebackers. Would be really sweet if we could convince a couple of the local guys to stay home. Really fun to watch Kelly and Fraud fall on their faces this year.

Don’t know who to root for next week. Like to see Chryst get the win, but a PSU win really throws the monkey wrench at the bowl selection.

Clemson better beat VT next week, or we will see two B1G teams in the finals for sure, which is really a joke.

Really like to see an eight team playoff where every Power 5 gets one slot, and three at large teams.

Weah had no drops yesterday and looked like a pro.

On at least some plays the DBs actually looked back for the ball and made a play. There is hope.

Missed tackles and not shedding blocks seemed to be the biggest issues for the defense. They looked like they were in the right position, which is all the play-calling coach can hope for.

So can we get Barnes, and company, the focus on OPTICS please. Lets white paper how we can transform a stadium with a steady attendance in the high 30’s to the high 40’s game after game into a favorable impression rather than continue to sell tickets in row ZZ right below stratocumulus territory! Success comes in CANS not CANT’S and Pitt can’t sell 66,000 tickets to the vast majority of games. I get so frustrated with Barnes sometimes that I think his optimal solution would be to have Pitt play in the Coliseum.

With all our big plays and fast scores the D never got a rest. Plus the lack of urgency when you are kicking ass on offense.

For optics, Pitt should flip home fields so that the cameras are facing the filled side of the stadium. Also, don’t know how you do it but need to fill the lower bowl first. Only use the upper decks, when needed. Problem is too many season ticket holders are not showing up. Need to get creative to figure this one out.

Syracuse ran 106 plays on offense. We ran 59. I read somewhere yesterday that Juan Price played around 80 plays. That is absurd.

I think our issues are a combination of lack of speed/talent at LB and a lack of depth to run Narduzzi’s scheme. This is all personnel.

If the coaching staff cannot recruit the right players, we are going to continue to struggle. If they do, some of you will have to make things up to complain about.

Also read that PC/House had 1 defensive TD in 3 seasons. Narduzzi/Conklin have 7.

Yes the numbers are ugly, bordering on unacceptable, but the defense has evolved and improved over the course of the season. We faced 5 top 40 passing offenses (2 top 10). Not excuses. Perspective.

And now back to your regularly scheduled incessant complaining #SOP fans.

I was in for the Duke game two weeks ago. I sat by myself in my seat for most of the game as the 5 people I have season tickets with stayed inside the club level. I walked over to the other side to catch up with some people and it was packed, standing room only. Most of the poeple I know never went to their seats. Those people are at the games, they are just not that interested in watching them. So there’s that. #SOPfans.

Your right… it is SOPfans, but I’m calling out all Pittsburgh fans

I’m tired of hearing that this city has great sports fans, their all fake and front runners, they come late and leave early, from the pens, to Steelers, bucs and pitt

This city is so fake it drives me nuts, I live an hour and a half away, so thank God I don’t live it everyday!

But sitting in my seat and KNOWING the Cuse was going to score, at will, almost the whole game can’t help but take some beauty off the rose. Maybe its not Conklin’s and Hill’s fault, maybe it is. No matter, how can you not make changes to the coaching staff with the abysmal showing all season by the D.

The CBs play off so much that when the short 5 yd pass is complete the distance they have to make up makes it easy for the WR to avoid the tackle, and then off to the races. Of course, when they play tight, WRs blow right past Pitt’s CBs who literally NEVER turn to find the ball. Pathetic.

Best example all day, Briggs playing S sees CB beat on a long pass play and he tries to provide help. If he takes a glance he could have had an interception but instead he blindly drives his shoulder into the WR for an obvious interference.

Canada’s performance defies description. Innovative, varied in approach, perfect utilization of talent, etc. Barnes better get to work keeping him here as long as he can.

We can only hope that Hendrix, Zeise, Pugh, Ford, Coleman/Miller, Pine, and with the grace of God Wade make a difference defensively next year.

Why so much love for the B1G Joke conference?

Remember, penn state lost to michigan 49-10…

I don’t care about Miami or Stanford

Regardless, pitt needs to figure it out, if they have to put a giant tarp in the closed end zone that could be a start

Have a giant pitt script with our national titles on it, or we could build a 45,000 seat stadium on campus….a guy can dream, right??

Tarps make alot of sense. Excluding ND,PSU, and WVU Pitt will never sell 68-72k seats so why not use those seats as advertisement for Pitt history?

Why not provide seats in the lower section to season ticket holders at a discount? If not season ticket holders, limit walk-up sales to the lower section. I sit in 500 section and would hate to give them up, but maybe I’d move down if the price was right.

The endzone bleacher section is an abomination and the Rooney’s should be ashamed. No reason any Pitt fan should be subjected to the joke of a bleacher seat when regular seats are in abundance.

If I were pitt: every incoming freshman would be mandatory before school starts to go to HEinz and be taught football 101! How to cheer, when to cheer, why we cheer

Teach them all the songs, what to do how to do it, have some pride for the school you attend!

I feel pitt misses opportunities to get people involved with the game day experience

Bulldog Nation is unhappy with Jim Chaney, we are suprised, why?

It is funny how people buy game tickets only to sit at the bar.

Easy remedy at Heinz for making the place ‘look’ full when it isn’t.

Many besides myself have suggested ‘tarping’ the EndZone Upper Deck and the Corners of the sideline Upper Decks, when they know from advance ticket sales, it’s going to be a 40-45K type crowd.

Man this isn’t rocketscience. I just don’t get the lack of intelligence displayed by these people who make millions, or hundreds of thousands and this is all they do.

Tarp for the Syracuse and Duke’s and the Mac team of the year.

Untarp for UNC, well…come to think about it, some parts of the stadium would always be tarped, unless Pedo State, WVCC or some big name team, like maybe Clemson is in town.

Seems almost like the Pitt bigwigs like being embarrassed with the Sea of Yellow.

Cause they can’t be that dense.

Good comment Keith !

Every city I’ve lived in think they have great sports fans. Yea right.

Only when they’re teams are having a good year.

Pittsburgh is a Stiller town, but even that current crop of ticket holders pales in comparison to the 1970’s ticket holders.

You have very few blue collar types at these very expensive ticketed Stiller games anymore. Same with the Penguins. Games are more like going to the Symphony, than a sporting event anymore.

I prefer not to go, to these type of wine and cheese crowd events.

When you scream now at the game, you’re looked at like your a lunatic.

Still can’t understand why they stopped running Ollison from scrimmage after the first few games.

Hopefully saving his power for next year.

The guy that got fired from NCST last year is the hottest guy in town this year. Shows what a load of great players does for your coaching abilities.

All those complicated shifts and motion couldn’t be executed without talented experience guys.

Pitt needs to do everything possible to keep him. Best thing Narduzzi has done so far was to get him.

And if it spits a drop of rain or is in the 40’s.. temp wise, the place is 50% empty from the get-go.

Hornets games anymore are an utter joke and have been for quite some time. They literally have to create ‘fake noise’ during the timeouts that mimics real crowd noise. It’s hysterical.

And hysterically bad. Thanks but not thanks.

But why not let fans fill in the empty seats, at least they showed up. If the real owner of the seats shows up the ushers can adjust on the fly.

People buying a six dollar ticket getting to sit in a 50 dollar seat would be very happy.

They do it at the Pete when the students aren’t there.

Sad seeing the student section empty on Saturday, but to be expected on Thanksgiving Holiday.

But as far as attendance, I pretty much give up, it is what it is, always been that way, and ain’t going to change. Just not enough Pitt fans.

Pitt made a Billion dollar or more mistake tearing down Pitt Stadium with no plans to replace it, or refurbish it.

Now we have bball crowds that could easily fit into Fitzgerald. And a way too large professional football stadium, off campus. That is actually more of a hindrance to recruiting and very important, the Perception of Pitt football.

And it’s all about Perception today.

And we’re still paying these big retirement packages of these clods that made these horrendous business decisions at Pitt.

Cause the other ACC opponents really aren’t that big of a draw. Fitzgerald could have been totally torn down and replaced with something much cheaper and smarter than tearing down your football stadium.

Or even smarter would have been just moved the bball games a couple miles down Fifth Ave from campus. Again bball doesn’t pay the bills.

Still shocked how stupid that was.

There just wasn’t enough money to rehab Pitt Stadium and build the Pete. There was no Consol/PPG Paints arena, and the Penguins could easily have left town.

Until Consol got built.

We spent over $200 mil on the Pete.

That money could have been better spent on either refurbishing Pitt Stadium or a rebuild from ground up.

Just depends on what one feels is a better investment, football or bball.

Football again pays the bills for all the other non-revenue sports and is the cash cow.

The Pete did not cost 200 mil.

Was originally supposed to cost 35 mil.

Cost overuns took it to $119.

The State and City had just approved funding for Heinz and PNC, no way they would approve funding for a refurbished or new Pitt Stadium, and all the infrastructure that was needed.

From a business perspective, the deal with Heinz is a winner. Much lower operating costs, based on attendance, with minimal fixed costs.

Most of us would prefer an on campus stadium, but to say it was a better financial decision is the opposite of truth.

There are around 20 home games in basketball, vs 6 or 7 in football. Makes more sense to have basketball on campus.

Sinking another $6 million or more into it. So we’re up to $125 million.

link to post-gazette.com

And it just went thru some sort of update-refurb.

So $125 million at least.

And much more money was brought into Oakland on one football Saturday than ALL the basketball games in a season combined.

Nobody stays at hotels and even very few stay in Oakland after a bball game. They mostly all beat it back to the burbs.

So i totally disagree.

University of Pittsburgh Panthers
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Home stand: Pitt Stadium’s fate is an emotional issue
Sunday, March 14, 1999

By Shelly Anderson, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

In his family, Mark Nordenberg is known as the one with good spatial sense.

The Panthers storm onto the Pitt Stadium Field to take on Penn State last season. Pitt most likely will move its home games to the Steelers’ new stadium in 2001. (John Beale, Post-Gazette)

“I can get everything into a trunk, and I can tell you whether the leftover tomato sauce is going to fit into this container or not,” the University of Pittsburgh chancellor said.

One thing stumped him, though.

“I look at [Pitt] Stadium, and I say, well, what the heck does it mean?” Nordenberg said. “For me, just standing outside the stadium looking at it, I have absolutely no sense of what it is you could do on that space.”

That’s why he and Athletic Director Steve Pederson – spurred by the possibility of a new off-campus home for the Panthers football team – found experts to interpret how the 10-acre natural bowl on Cardiac Hill might otherwise be used.

Both men became intrigued, then enamored by what they learned. That’s why it is almost certain that Pitt will move its home football games into the $233 million North Side stadium that will be built for the Steelers and Pitt Stadium will be razed to make way for the school’s long-planned convocation center/basketball arena, much-needed student housing, perhaps some green space that is not artificial turf.

Only some detail work remains before a decision is announced.

The proposed changes have prompted criticism, some harsh, from student government, former football players, Oakland businesses and fans. Pederson and Nordenberg nevertheless are convinced they could do something that will be looked upon years from now as a great thing in Pitt history.

“We have to do the right thing for the university in the long term,” Pederson said. “I’ve come in here and second-guessed a lot of decisions that were made in the athletic department over a length of time. Whoever follows me will do the same thing.

“I hope they look at it and say, ‘Boy, did these people ever have a vision of doing what’s right long term, and overall, for the university.’ ”

The last season

Pitt Chancellor mark Nordenberg, left, and Athletic Director Steve Pederson are proponents of moving the Panthers’ games in 2000. (Martha Rial, Post-Gazette)

This is how things would work:

The Panthers would play their last season in Pitt Stadium this fall, then the 74-year-old structure would be demolished.

Once the land is cleared, construction could begin on the new buildings. It will take 18 months to two years to complete the arena, Pederson said.

The arena originally was to be squeezed onto land adjacent to Pitt Stadium, but under the new plan it could be expanded to include student recreational and fitness facilities and adequate parking.

For the 2000 season, Pitt would play football in Three Rivers Stadium, sharing the facility with the Steelers and Pirates. Three Rivers will be razed after that season and in 2001 the Panthers and Steelers would begin playing in the new football-only stadium to be erected near Three Rivers.

If that happens, the new stadium will be the second facility shared by the Panthers and Steelers. In 2000, the Panthers football team will permanently move all of its non-game day activities to a new sports medicine and practice complex being built on the South Side by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The Steelers also will lease space there.

Pederson and Nordenberg said that because the idea of playing in the new Steelers stadium was floated months before financing was in place, the university was able to take its time and explore its options. The idea of the Panthers moving to the North Side stadium was a byproduct of discussions about the UPMC facility.

“Not only was that a productive time, but it was an exciting time, a time that gave us a chance to dream a little,” Nordenberg said of the months before Feb. 3, the day the state Legislature approved funding for the city’s new football and baseball stadiums.

Then things heated up.

“We’re now past the point of preliminary discussions that we had prior to the funding approval,” Pederson said. “We’re into the details of it.”

Once everything is worked out, the internal process at the university for finalizing the moves is a bit sketchy.

“I think that it is a decision to be made by the leadership of the university in appropriate consultation with the board [of trustee],” Nordenberg said, declining to elaborate.

The Rooneys

There is a strong mutual admiration between the Rooney family, owners of the Steelers, and the Pitt administration. That has facilitated negotiations – it’s business, but it’s friendly.

“If they do come here,” Steelers president Dan Rooney said, “we’re going to do everything we can to make them feel at home. All [the details] are going to be done.”

The Steelers, Rooney said, would be happy to have the extra dates filled by Panthers football games.

Rooney said Pitt would design its own locker room, that preparing the field on weekends when both teams play at home won’t be a problem and that the Panthers would have scheduling priority for Saturdays in the fall.

Pederson said Pitt will not contribute money toward construction of the stadium. Other issues must be worked out – including rent, how certain revenues, such as concessions, will be shared, ticket pricing and policy. Aside from lease matters,Pitt needs to figure out how to transport students to and from games and find new sites for the Panthers’ displaced soccer and track teams.

“We probably would not have considered this seriously if we did not have such respect for the owners of the Steelers,” Nordenberg said. “The Rooneys have always conducted their activities in a way that reflects the values that you would like to be associated with.

“In other settings, we might well have said that, well, it’s a great facility, but we really cannot afford to be linked publicly or in our day-to-day operations with certain people who would have been our partners. But you think of a person like Dan Rooney … who could be a more appealing partner either in professional or personal dealings?”

Sharing the sports medicine/practice facility won’t mark the first time the two teams have worked together. The Steelers played their home games at Pitt Stadium in 1958 and the last five years of the 1960s before moving to Three Rivers in 1970. The Panthers have occasionally played in Three Rivers.

“I really think we have the best relationship I know of of any pro-college teams in the country,” Rooney said. “We feel very, very comfortable between us.”

He doesn’t understand the opposition to Pitt’s possible move.

“A lot of people who are calling the talk shows really don’t have it right,” Rooney said. “I think it’s really a plus for the university.”

Mike Unangst, one of eight members of the Pitt student government board, is among those who don’t think the university should stop playing in Pitt Stadium.

Unangst, a sophomore from Lititz, Lancaster County, has helped organize petition drives, informational student meetings and other events in the name of protest. He believes a large portion of the student body is against leaving Pitt Stadium, and he said the student government office has heard from a lot of alumni who are upset with the idea.

“We’re all for the university and we’re all for fixing the football program,” Unangst said. “We just don’t think this is the way.”

He said he fears shuttling the football players to off-campus sites all the time will hinder their academics, and that taking games off campus will kill the college atmosphere of football games and undermine recruiting.

***That’s exactly what happened ***

Unangst said the student government was frustrated by what he perceived as the administration’s DISREGARD for what the students want.

“First and foremost, the problem is we’ve hit a brick wall, a total lack of communication,” he said. “For months we tried to do some fact-finding. We weren’t told anything by anybody. It was like they just wanted us to get over it.

“Then it went from them looking at it do it pretty much being a done deal. Now any communication would be too late.”