The bye week feels like a great time to break out my old column Optimist vs. Pessimist. There’s not a whole lot to be optimistic about the rest of this season, but perhaps a bowl win could inspire a little hope like it did at the end of last season. Naturally, two more wins are needed before Pitt can even think about going to a bowl game. Let’s examine whether or not James Conner and company can win two of the last three games against UNC, the ARCHRIVAL ORANGE, and Miami.
Optimist: Pitt is down right now, but the ARCHRIVAL ORANGE and UNC are absolute jokes. The ARCHRIVAL ORANGE is starting its third string QB against Duke this week and has only won a single game since September 13th and that was against Wake Forest. Assuming Cuse loses to Duke this week, the ARCHRIVAL ORANGE will have seven losses and no shot at a bowl game. With nothing to play for, Pitt can come away a victor.
UNC is not as down as Cuse, but it still isn’t pretty. UNC probably has the worst defense in FBS football. They definitely have the worst among the Power 5 conferences. The Tar Heels allow 41.9 points per game, worst in the nation. They’ve allowed no fewer than 27 points in a game this season. On offense, it’s a one man show with Marquise Williams. UNC can’t run the ball; their leading non-QB rusher has 252 yards. James Conner had 263 last week. Last week against Miami UNC’s offense was garbage. Miami’s defense is above average, but nothing special, and held the Tar Heels to only 57 yards in the first half. By the time UNC did anything on offense, the game was over. If Marquise Williams struggles, UNC can do absolutely nothing to win a game. Stop him and Pitt will win handily. Even if Williams has a good game, the Tar Heels defense could still lose it for UNC.
As to the finale against Miami, it is possible Al Golden is coaching for his job right now. A loss to Florida State would ensure that THE U has lost at least four games every season since 2005. Miami may look to move on and an embarrassing loss to in-state rival Florida State could be the final nail in his coffin. If he’s fired, Miami may mail it in and enable Pitt to steal a victory on the road. While Miami should win this game no matter what, Pitt just needs to show up and fight against UNC and Cuse to earn bowl eligibility.
Pessimist: The defense has allowed 50+ points in back to back weeks. There’s no way that unit “contains” Marquise Williams. Sure, the offense will score 30 or so, but the defense will probably allow 60. Last year’s Pitt killer, Ryan Switzer, is a great WR and return specialist this year so he’ll have even more opportunities to throw some daggers. It took Chad Voytik playing the game of his life and James Conner trying to set the record for carries in a game for Pitt to get to OT against Duke. If either one doesn’t have a career day Duke wins handily.
No one can argue Cuse sucks right now, but their defense has kept them in plenty of games. The ARCHRVIAL ORANGE defense kept Clemson at bay and NC State only had one offensive touchdown. Their backup QB may be available against Pitt and if he can throw for 300 yards against NC State, he can do it against Pitt. Voytik will revert back to his early season form and turn the ball over and Cuse will stack the box and key on James Conner.
The only way Pitt beats Miami as Mr. Optimist suggests is if the whole team mails it in after their coach is fired. Gee, way to talk the team up. This team will lose all three games and finish 4-8 against the easiest schedule Pitt has seen in years.
Chryst should have been screaming and red in the face with the refs. If he does not seem to care why should the players.
One job of a head coach is to work the refs. When you don’t the calls will add up against you.
Maybe Tyler Boyd’s actions are not a good thing, shouldn’t the coaches be trying to motivate. Tyler is obviously a winner who hates to lose. Should not the coaches express the same emotion or take some responsibility for the poor performance.
Our coach appears to be a happy donut.
Naming names of the SELECT FEW who HE sees as being “willing to go all out”… you find the obvious such as Conner and Clemmings, the sole representative of the Offensive Line.
And no real surprise, there’s also the entire contingent from Clairton.
But Boyd also goes out of his way to mention a not so obvious, Mosely-Smith.
VOYTIK… no where to be found. But neither is HOLTZ who would be an immediate choice by many.
No, this is NOT good, no matter how you look at it or EXPLAIN it away.
Although other players may get their feelings hurt who on that team could tell you with a straight face that Boyd does not go balls out every play. He has earned the right to speak up by his preparation and actions on the field.
Maybe he is speaking out because he is sick of Potato Paul mumbling another stupid excuse like “I like the way the guys are putting it out there”, when in fact it is proven from the locker room that many guys aren’t giving it their all.
One thing is for sure their record against such weak competition says all that needs to be said.
@wbb and
@PittofDreams
my thoughts too.
I like the fact the guy is fired up, but the
selecting of names that were “all in” bordered on childish.
I know he’s only a kid, but to name names, and you make sure your all of your boys are named???
Just doesn’t play well. You have to be smarter than that, even at 19 or 20 years old.
It all just rings hollow when you made sure your teammates from Clairton were covered.
It should.
This team struggles any time it plays a team with a decent to good QB.
Heck it even struggles sometimes when they play a team with a horrible Qb (see Akron).
If the Tarhole’s Marquise Williams has a good game, we lose. If he has a great game, we get blown out.
Our ONLY hope is William’s playing similar to the VT QB in the first half of that game.
Since we beat them in their beloved ACC hoops tourney, I imagine their fans will be out for some payback and some blood.
It could be ugly.
This also does suggests Chryst is NOT “Heavy-handed” enough with Players… even when they’re the FIRST SUPERSTAR Recruit to say “yes” to you and your Program.
Maybe by not naming Voytik, Boyd was thinking about his Quarterback not being “willing” to step into a a possible Game-winning throw with a 5-11 D-Back bearing down?
jk
In one interview about the Georgia Tech game he said it wasn’t worth yelling or getting upset at the players because they knew they messed up. Do you think Nick Satan just let’s those kinds of mistakes go?
Haven’t had a chance to read Boyd’s comments.
But it is kind of ‘odd’ to not mention the guy who throws you the ball.
Not to mention Voytik has been banged around pretty good in some of these games.
Sounds like Paulie should be a social worker instead of a Head Football coach.
This kind of crap happens when competitors on your team are at the end of their rope and there is no adult supervision. I understand Tyler’s frustration – we all do. Too bad it had to come to this. Let’s hope Typer and James get the kids fired up for Saturday – someone has to.
I don’t know anyone who has questioned Voytiks toughness and heart, taking on linebackers and safeties, trying to get 1st downs???
Comment by wbb 11.11.14 @ 10:55 am
That’s what I’m getting here too.
Weatherspoon has played like garbage this year, several key drops, drops of TD passes, fumbled punts.
No mention at all of Matt Rotheram who was an ACC Linemen of the week. No mention of Jaymar Parrish who has blocked his heart out this year for Connor.
Maybe he sees ‘a lack of fire’ as a whole and that would be because any organization or team, takes it’s cues from the leader of that organization or team.
And that would be self-explanatory.
You hit the nail on the head.
Nice guy, more than likely.
Would you follow him into battle ?
Nope.
regardless of on field results.
Comment by Dan 11.11.14 @ 1:49 pm
Yep, especially since as wbb mentioned, Titus Howard was suspended for the WHOLE season and as I mentioned Weatherspoon hasn’t performed very well this year at all for a senior. 8 measly catches but a hole lot of key drops and fumbled punts.
One of those fumbled punts led to having to use Boyd as PR and he got injured.
I also question how he arrived at his list – I can make an argument for some to be on or off as I am sure everyone on here can. That’s the problem with naming a few, including himself.
Really bad and immature act to say things to the press. No one doubts his ability, but no one is perfect and once you open that can of worms, the lid is off. How would Boyd feel if a coach called him out in the press for fumbling vs. GTECH?
I disagree with Boyd. Against Duke I did not see a lack of effort or even inconsistent effort. I continue to see some poor preparation, poor schemes, tossed in a with a dose of bad luck and shady officiating.
I think the staff has lost control of the ship.
In the meantime, lets hope Boyd has a monster game or his effort will be questioned.
Comment by gc 11.11.14 @ 11:09 am
Never heard that before. But it’s funny as hell.
lmao
At the same time, it is good to see someone other than us, get pissed off. Can things get any worse by him making these comments, I don’t see how. But the way this year has gone, maybe things can get worse.
I know a coach who is taking over a program that essentially lost 2 recruiting classes and had several players transfer out deserves 4 years. But I’m losing hope that things will improve next year, and Pitt may be delaying the inevitable keeping Chryst around.
Again this is where a competent AD would be wonderful. He would have a pulse on the program and know if things were on an upward trajectory and if this is just a young team learning how to win, or if Chryst has lost this team and is in over his head. I have no confidence that Pederson has a clue, and wouldn’t want him conducting another coaching search anyway.
I guess the way the next 3 games play out we will have a better idea. I’m leaning towards Chryst being a lost cause and this will be getting blown up again soon…
Shareef Miller makes his official visit to Pitt on December 5.
“Official visits for DE Shareef Miller: #Pitt 12/5 #ASU 1/16 #PSU 1/23 @PantherLair @ASUDevilscom @RivalsSnyder”
Even the players and coaches are bored.
As far as singling out the Clairton guys, I’m going to offer up a different argument because I think there is something to this. Maybe those guys really are among the leaders of the team. Consider this…
His Clairton teams never lost in high school. That’s not hyperbole; they literally never lost a game while he was there. Single-A level or not, sustaining that kind of success for that long is almost unheard of. There have been plenty of unbelievable teams over the years that were unable to pull that off over 2 or 3 years, much less four years.
Clairton won (and still wins) on an awful lot on sheer talent, but you still don’t win as often and as big as they won without proper preparation & approach, and that element of the Clairton program has been touted in the past by people who cover high school sports here.
If that is the standard there, it may well be the case that those kids carried that same approach over to their careers at Pitt. Maybe this approach is part of the reason why Terrish Webb – who many initially considered to be a “throw in” recruit, offered a scholarship to secure Boyd’s commitment – worked his way into the DB rotation as a true freshman last year and starting free safety this year. If Webb worked hard to elevate his game to that level, it’s going to be frustrating to not see the same from everyone.
Lack of focus by too much of the roster may have been significant enough that it was a factor in the losses to Iowa, Akron and Virginia. If that’s the case and it was bad enough that we noticed it as fans, I can appreciate how frustrating it must for someone in that room who does have the proper focus.
I could very well be wrong.
Either way, I’ll be interested to see how the rest of the team responds to this.
Here’s DK’s take on Coach Blunder.
Or was that the post-game donut.
The 2nd one had to be a classic.
the rest of course is obvious.
With the way the coaching fraternity works, these guys are assured of jobs, regardless of how their teams perform.
They get fired here, someone, somewhere will hire them again.
They should all work on a straight commission basis.
Based on your results. Maybe then there would be a sense of urgency, some fire, some passion, etc.
Ever worked with or for anyone like that?
I’ve always been in sales.
If you don’t produce you’re history.
But I know what u mean when I worked a summer job in a mill while at Pitt.
Obviously the coaches should not be happy about this, but what do you expect after losing 5 of 6.
I don’t like it when I hear the bowl game goal by the coaches or players. They need to be thinking about one thing and that is beating UNC.
You win games by taking them one at a time. You lose when you take your eye off the prize. That is why they lost to Iowa, Akron, and Duke. You have to play hard every play, one at a time.
It is fine for us fans to talk Bowl Games or predict 8 or 9 wins, but coaches and players should know better. You focus on your next game, period.
As a golfer, I know this all too well, the second you stop focusing on your current shot and start to project your score, you are done.
This has the potential of SPLITTING the Team in HALF.
If they beat North Carolina, then OK I’m wrong.
But if I were a Player on the Team and my name wasn’t called…
No, let me scratch that. If I were a Player on the Team and saw this go down… I would IMMEDIATELY be thing what am I a part of?
Do we hear Tyler Boyd walk this back?
If so, then Chryst has a future.
If not, then we’ll eventually hear the opinions of some of the other Players on the Team who might not like what Boyd had to say.
The true leaders give credit to everyone else when things go great and take the blame, even if it is not on them when things go badly. Except of course, if you are Brian Kelly at ND. He pointed his finger at his qb for blowing the game against ASU on Saturday. It is a great rant. Funny thing is, I don’t blame him one bit. That said, a great leader would have said the coaches blew it first and then hold the player that is responsible, responsible. That ladies and gentlemen is how the world works.
A great AD says my plan had flaws. This is what I wanted to do and this is what happened. No excuses! This is what we are going to do to fix it. If I don’t do it right, I shouldn’t be here. That is my typical speech during my reviews with my boss each year. This is what we agreed to do. This is what I did. This is where I exceeded. This is where I failed. Own it. Instead of the whole world questioning why you failed, admit it, own it, and work like a dog to make sure it won’t happen again. This is where Pederson has failed his bosses, his university, the students, the players and the fans. He shared no executable 5 year plan. Without it, success can’t be measured. The 5 year plan is not “continue to navigate and assimilate into the ACC”. That is hogwash and whoever believes that, ust have received a degree from WVU. But I digress.
Boyd should have had the coaching staff pull film of him running routes at 60% effort and not blocking down field successfully to break Conner for bigger runs. He should have pointed to himself and said “this is not acceptable and I commit to never taking plays off or giving maximum effort from this point forward” I expect to be called out on this, should it ever occur again. It’s all about the battle. Commit to beating your guy and doing your job for 5 seconds (average play time). Commit to it and execute. Win more games.
Let’s go Pitt. Carpe’ tarheels!
Tyler Boyd is the PERFECT Football Player. He’s just NOT the PERFECT Team Leader.
Unfortunately it’s too late to STOP Boyd from saying what he did.
Now the only option at Chryst’s disposal is to have Boyd say “I didn’t really mean to say what I said.”
And then… to win back the support of the rest of the Team.
Did this blase team care?
Was just channel surfing and ended up on a replay of a clash between Houston and Tulane in a classic TCFKATBE battle(The Conference Formerly Known As The Big East). In Houston’s brand new digs that seat 40K. about a 1/4 full. The Green Wave rolling.. This could have been Pitt’s fate.
I don’t care hoW we got in the ACC. We did. And thus have hope. Think Heinz is bad now? AAC would have been the death knell in Pitt’s athletic department. We still have hope.
The casual fan is out there. I can’t tell you over the years how many guys I met if they wanted to talk Pitt or just give their condolences have called or texted me. I’m a die hard, but I know just through my social circles there are enough people out there with a casual interest in Pitt.
If Pitt is in the AAC you have no chance of success. Not even The Pete rocks for an AAC game.
So it could be worse. Let’s get the right people in place and have some success and joy again. From my lips to God’s ears…
It’s there right in front of me. Shouldn’t UPMC at least pay our psychiatric/liver transplant bills?
This is 2014, someone should foot this bill instead of me? Right?
not expecting a win, 0-4 at unc history, a weak secondary, and explosive unc offense scares me. hoping the good pitt team shows up this weekend, not optimistic about the defense, but will be there to show my support.
T.Boyd’s frustration and anger is not much different than ours. Difference is, he has to share a locker room with his teammates, however they may perceive his words. Someone needs to get control of this mess and clean it up fast. I don’t like it and I see this FB team getting worse – who thought that was possible.
I’d rather talk FB – this soap opera stuff is for g/r|$…
Pitt wins 41 – 38 with the NC kicker missing wide left as time runs out in regulation.
T.Boyd and James “The Beast” Conner play both ways – T.Boyd lines up as the Nickel CB and Conner at DE for a few series. Both have monster games (all around) and carry us to victory # 5.
DC House comes down with the flu and has to miss the game.
Yes, got them.
Not Boyd.
BTW… Never posted Cardiac Hill.
And that make it a pretty vapid piece.
The reason Pitt is in this 30 year mess is because of the CULTURE! Everyone has accepted mediocrity, including its fan base. Mediocre culture starts with the Chancellor, than the AD, then the coaches, then the players, then the fan base.
Boyd has said, I will not accept us being terrible. Which is fantastic. He is trying to change the culture from the bottom to the top instead of the other way around, due to incompetence. If the Chancellor, AD and staff won’t do it, who should in your brilliant mind? Drama doesn’t work. Who said Chryst lost the team and needs to win back their support? It’s not a Chryst problem, it’s a culture problem and it starts with the Chancellor.
So I will ask you this, Mr. know everything. Who on the Pitt roster challenged him after he spoke out? And why not? Because he stated the TRUTH. If a player got called out incorrectly, why didn’t they have the guts to call BS and challenge him to his face? That’s what happens in winning locker rooms. The great players weed out the bad apples, the slackers, the druggies. I applaud him. We all should. I see it work that way on a daily basis where I sit. But again, I know nothing about sports.
Comment by dhuffdaddy 11.02.14 @ 3:07 pm
********
You’re own words.
I listened to just about 10 minutes of the 3rd quarter, and their announcers couldn’t believe how much worse Hackenberg looked compared to the year before. They said that even his footwork looked like a junior high schooler just starting out learning how play.