James Conner has missed most of the season. Chad Voytik isn’t starting. The offense is 113th in the country in yards per game. Tyler Boyd is…ok, still doing Boyd things. But, if I told you those first three things would be where Pitt stands after six games back in August, what would you expect Pitt’s record to be? If you said 5-1 you’re lying to yourself. The likely answer would be that Pitt is a two or three win team hoping to win six and get another bowl. (more…)
October 21, 2015
October 18, 2015
(This is one of 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.)
Before we talk about anything else watch these highlights from Saturday’s win over Georgia Tech.
Done? OK then.
Pitt flew into Atlanta, GA last Friday afternoon as a team that still had many legitimate question marks surrounding it despite winning five out of the season’s six games. They flew back into Pittsburgh Saturday evening as a team that has shown it can handle adversity, adapt to tough in-game situations and whose personnel can rise to the occasion in a harsh environment.
October 17, 2015
3:10 to go, down four, ball on their own 38 yard line.
3:44 to go, down seven, ball on their own 28 yard line.
1:04: to go, down 3, ball on their own 24 yard line.
That’s the situation opposing offenses have been in the last three games. The result? ZERO points and three wins for Pitt. After the defense held on against VT, Narduzzi said in his press conference that the team made mistakes against Iowa that led to the 57 yard FG. Since then, not only has the defense held on, they’ve thrived. What a change from last year. When the defense is on the field with the game on the line they’ve responded. (more…)
October 16, 2015
(Don’t forget to read the preceding article posted this morning also)
Oct. 12, 2015
PITT vs. GEORGIA TECH
October 17, 2015 • 12:30 p.m., ET
Bobby Dodd Stadium (55,000/Natural Grass) • Atlanta, Ga.
ACC Network • Pitt IMG Sports Radio Network
PittsburghPanthers.com • @GoPittFootball • #PITTvsGT
LINK: Where to Watch Pitt-GT
LINK (PDF): Pitt Game Notes (GT) (Pages 1-3 are handy for watching the game)
October 12, 2015
Pat Narduzzi Press Conference
Georgia Tech Week
PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO: Narduzzi Georgia Tech Preview
PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO: DT Darryl Render
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT (HTML LINK): Narduzzi Text Transcript
ACC DIGITAL NETWORK VIDEO LINK: Pitt 2015 Defensive Highlights (have fun with this one at work)
Opening Statement:
“We obviously have a huge challenge this week defending the spread option. We’re playing a team who was picked to win the Coastal side of the Atlantic Coast Conference. They’re a well-coached team, Georgia Tech. Paul Johnson does a great job coaching, a very intelligent guy. I have a lot of respect for him both administratively and as a football coach just [from] sitting with him in ACC meetings. Obviously they’re struggling a little bit and it’s not because they aren’t a good football team, that’s for sure. They lost four games to some pretty good football teams—they’re [a combined] 19-3. So if anyone wants to sit there and think they aren’t a good football team, I would argue with them. You go through struggles. They’ve had some injuries, as we have, so this will be a challenge for our football team. I think we’re 0-3 against [Paul Johnson] and we get to go against them on the road again even though we had fun at Heinz Field this weekend. We’re looking forward to getting our guys coached up and going on a business trip.”
October 13, 2015
As Chas mentioned earlierd, the offense was entirely too conservative in the second half of the UVA game. This allowed the Cavaliers to make it a one score game late and add a little drama to Homecoming. Fortunately the defense came through eventually and it was all for naught. Play-calling remains an issue, but self-inflicted wounds were the bigger issue for the offense on Saturday. (more…)
October 12, 2015
(This is the first article in 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.)
I told Chas I’ll try to keep the MMQB articles posted.
Four wins and one loss, with those wins including our first two ACC conference games is nothing to sneeze at and is a real ‘feel good’ generator for almost ever Pitt fan save a few disgruntled ones.
We held on, and that is becoming a mantra that isn’t real positive in itself, to win Saturday’s game against the University of Virginia at Heinz Field in beautiful Pittsburgh, PA.
Before getting into the game specifics let’s acknowledge something that is different with this season. There is a positive and growing sentiment among the Pitt football program, the university, the fans and, surprisingly, the local media, that sets this year, with this brand new staff, apart from the others seasons we have slogged through over the last five years.
What separates this year from all the other recent years is the solid belief that something good is not ‘about to happen’ but actually is. Yes there are areas of the team and coaching that have to grow and mature. I think we’ll all agree that even without Conner in the backfield our offense has to better come together and play more consistently.
October 9, 2015
I know some of us have been putting our predictions down in Justin’s “Hoo’s Your Enemy” article but here is a separate thread for our guesses so that we can look back easily and see who knows what they are talking about when it comes to how Pitt does in actual games.
Speaking of which I have a 1-3 record so far this year, told you I sucked at that, but I’m thinking the passing games gets its feet under itself and the OL starts to come together now that there seems to be less substitutions there. So the offense should be more productive with a more consistent running game. Our defense gets better week to week but I think UVa gets two or three big plays. We’ll give up some points but not more than we score.
While the Hoos may not stack up at that well in comparison to the other college football teams, we’ve seen other lightly regarded opponents come into Heinz and turn the tables. However, I do agree that Narduzzi and staff have done a good job keeping the kids up and focused for action.
As a reminder. these linked Pitt vs. Virginia Game Notes are essential for good Pitt football watching. The whole publication is 41 pages long but for an individual game I print out pages 1, 3, 4, and 5. Those are the game overview (pg 1) and then the Pitt Two-Deep and rosters (pgs 3-5). The Pitt media dept does an excellent job with this coming out every week.
My thoughts? The good weather, coming off a nice away conference win, and the possibility of showcasing the team at Homecoming points to a 34-21 Pitt win.
Yeah us!
Note: Yesterday I let Chas and Justin know that I’m going to be backing away from the Blather as I have been working on a fictional novel for the last few months, set in PGH in the early 1970s BTW, and a publishing company’s editor read what I had done to date and told me I need to finish it and send it out as soon as possible as she thought it had ‘good legs’. So that’s what I’m going to do. It will take up the time and energy that I have been giving to The Blather.
I’ll still try to get something up every once in a while but not on the scale I been doing for the last five years. Of course I’ll read and comment as I always do. Thanks for everything and it has been great fun to be with everyone… See you at the games!
October 8, 2015
This column will be shorter than usual as I’ve been under the weather all week. I’m also quite busy at work so that’s eating up a lot of my weakened energy. So, please forgive more typos and errors than usual. Long story short, Pitt is a better team than Virginia at almost every facet. Chaney’s offense is still a work in progress without James Conner, but I’m willing to give him a mulligan on last week. This week, however, the offense needs to produce and get things going as this defense is not good enough to win on its own against the likes of Georgia Tech and UNC like it did against VT.
The Cavaliers opened up the season with back to back games against highly ranked out of conference opponents (UCLA and Notre Dame). The Notre Dame game was a respectable loss, with the Fighting Irish needing last second heroics to pull off the win but UCLA was never really a contest. Since then, they struggled to beat FCS foe William & Mary and got whooped by Boise State. I respect UVA for the tough out of conference schedule, but in order to build the program you need actual wins, not moral victories. (more…)
October 6, 2015
Oct. 5, 2015
PITT vs. VIRGINIA Game Notes
October 10, 2015 • 12:30 p.m., ET
Heinz Field (68,400/Natural Grass) • Pittsburgh, Pa.
ACC Network • Pitt IMG Sports Radio Network
PittsburghPanthers.com • @GoPittFootball • #UVAvsPITT
LINK: Where to Watch Pitt-UVA
LINK (PDF): Pitt Game Notes (UVA)
GAME STORYLINES
* Pitt looks to build on its 3-1 start when it hosts ACC Coastal Division foe Virginia this Saturday. The Panthers are back at Heinz Field following three consecutive away games. Pitt completed its road swing with a 17-13 victory over Virginia Tech in its ACC opener.
* The Cavaliers visit Heinz Field with a 1-3 mark. However, their three losses are to teams with a combined 12-3 record (UCLA, Notre Dame and Boise State). Virginia defeated Pitt last year, 24-19.
October 5, 2015
Here is a three week late start for the Pitt Blather’s “Monday Morning Quarterback” series. There was so much going on with the new staff and the QB competition and rotation through the first three games I forgot to start writing these. If you remember the MMQB format is three points of Positives, three Negatives and then Notes.) Here goes.
(This is the first article in 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.)
A few things stuck with me Saturday afternoon as I left a Blather friend’s house after watching Pitt’s 17-13 win over Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. First was that it is very nice to get a conference win any way we can get it, and that is just what we did. Second is that no matter how a game turns out, good, bad, or middling, Pitt fans find things to worry and complain about. Check out the Game Thread posts if you don’t believe that.
I say this because I watched the game with three new friends who are long time (suffering) Pitt fans who, to a man, are convinced we’ll be a 8-10 win team this season… yet they were also sure, down to Pitt’s victory formation out of the huddle, that we were going to lose that game. Imagine that, Reed, who predicted 6-6 season and a close Pitt loss against VT calming those guys down off the ledge in the 4th quarter and assuring them we were going to come out with a win. Life is strange, eh? Of course, watching our balls to the wall defense kick the Hokies’ collective asses at every turn help my confidence we’d win a bit also. Which leads us to…
POSITIVES:
1. We may be seeing a rising and complete 180 degree reversal from the 2014 team in that we are currently relying on our defense to win games for us and that is what they are doing… with an excellent shut down effort on Saturday.
October 2, 2015
As Adam Bisnowaty pointed out, Pitt has won five of the past six against Virginia Tech (although the last loss to the Hokies was in their house in 2013). With Pitt traveling to Hokieland this Saturday, the time is ripe for Pitt to join the conversation for ACC Coastal division contenders. The Hokies are coming off of another loss to East Carolina, will be missing their best player on defense, and has an offense struggling to run the ball. As I mentioned Tuesday, this is a game Pitt must win if the goal is to be Coastal contenders.
But, even a wounded VT squad is dangerous. There’s too much pride on the line for the Hokies to lie down. Let’s look at what Beamerball’s squad has to offer. (more…)
September 30, 2015
This weekend may get a little more boring for Pitt fans — assuming you don’t live on the East Coast, especially Virginia.
Hurricane Joaquin continues to strengthen northeast of the Bahamas. As of 8 p.m. Joaquin has sustained winds of 105 mph, making it a Category 2 hurricane. It continues to move southwest at 7 mph.
Gov. McAuliffe declared a state of emergency for Virginia Wednesday afternoon, followed by the City of Norfolk also declaring a state of emergency.
Hurricane Joaquin will likely drift west over the next few days before being picked up by a cold front. At the same time, a developing coastal low will try to strengthen over the area this weekend.
The latest track strengthens the storm into a major hurricane, a category 3 storm. The center of the storm in this latest update would make landfall somewhere along the Outer Banks Sunday afternoon.
Joaquin is just one part of a complex weather pattern that is setting up for the end of the week.
If the state of emergency lasts into the weekend the Pit-VT game in Blacksburg is assuredly cancelled.
This creates a real issue for the ACC. Pitt has already had it’s bye week. It is slated to play 8 straight weeks. There is no open date for Pitt.
There have been instances of non-con games not being made up, but I can’t recall an instance in recent years where a conference game has not been played or made up at some point.
The ACC may be forced to schedule the game on a Monday or some other awkward day if the game is postponed this Saturday.
September 28, 2015
Here are the Pitt Media Game Notes for the visiting Panthers and the Virginia Tech Hokies.
LINK (PDF): Where to Watch Pitt-VT (RSN stations)
LINK (PDF): Pitt Game Notes (VT) – These are the multi-page, in-depth notes on the game.
GAME STORYLINES
Pitt opens Atlantic Coast Conference play this Saturday when it travels to Virginia Tech. The 2-1 Panthers are coming off an open week. The Hokies played at East Carolina and dropped a 35-28 decision to fall to 2-2.
Pitt and Virginia Tech meet annually as members of the Coastal Division. The series, however, dates back to 1993 when both schools were in the Big East. The Hokies lead the series, 8-6, but Pitt has won five of the last six encounters, including 21-16 at Heinz Field last year.
There has been a distinct home field advantage in the series. Pitt is 4-0 against Virginia Tech at Heinz Field but just 1-5 in games played in Blacksburg.
The Panthers’ lone win at Virginia Tech occurred in 2002, a 28-21 victory sparked by Larry Fitzgerald’s three touchdown catches. In its last visit to Lane Stadium, Pitt dropped a 19-9 decision in 2013.
Like every year since Pitt joined the ACC, the Coastal division appears wide open. In 2013, Duke had their best season in most of our lifetimes and won the division with a 10-2 regular season (6-2 in the ACC). In 2014, a 10-2 (6-2 in ACC) Georgia Tech had a season for the ages which culminated in an Orange Bowl victory over a top 10 SEC team (Mississippi State). Each season had a 5-3 team in second place (2013 had three), so there was no wiggle room; they had to win six for the outright title. (more…)
