Absolutely stunning. We just crushed Texas A&M 37-26. And one question just keeps racing through my mind…

When the hell did Walt Harris and his coaching staff start making effective halftime adjustments?

I mean, at halftime, we were trailing 13-9. Texas A&M had pretty much dominated us all afternoon, aside from a few flashes of brilliance from Larry Fitzgerald. Pitt Defensive Coordinator Paul Rhoades apparently forgot to prepare our defense for the option (I mean, who the hell would have ever suspected that a Big XII team would run the option?). Worse yet, Rhoades apparently forgot to teach anybody how to tackle anything. On the offensive side of the ball, Rod Rutherford was way off target — frequently missing wide open receivers. To be honest with you, I had pretty much given up on Pitt at that point.

But then a completely different Panthers squad emerged from the tunnels after halftime. Apparently Harris had finally watched the tapes from the Texas A&M/Virginia Tech game last Thursday, and had realized that the Aggies had trouble defending the run. Despite the loss of starting tailback Brandon Miree, the Panthers started successfully ramming the ball down the Aggies’s throats (especially with Polite). This forced the Aggies to leave our receiving corps in man-to-man coverage, and shortly thereafter, Texas A&M’s wheels just fell off under the aerial attack. The Panthers scored 21 unanswered points in the third quarter, and easily held off a comeback attempt by the Aggies in the fourth.

I have never seen such a complete mid-game turnaround by a Pittsburgh Panthers football team. We went from being dominated to dominating in the time that it took Texas A&M’s camouflage-wearing marching band (dorks) to get on and off the field. Walt Harris and his staff on the offensive side of the ball outcoached the living hell out of Dennis Franchione at halftime… and this despite Harris’s long-standing record of stubbornly making literally no halftime adjustments whatsoever (to my frequent and bitter frustration).

(Just in case I’m painting too rosy of a picture here, however, the Panthers’s defense continued to reek AFTER HALFTIME. I’ve never seen a team miss so many easy tackles. And I suspect that if we hadn’t knocked Aggies Quarterback Reggie McNeal out of the game, they would have continued to successfully run the option against us. I have been very disappointed in the job that Paul Rhoades has been doing for us all season long. This game only reinforced that. Of course, to be fair, Rhoades had lost both Claude Harriot and Lewis Moore to injuries for most of the game.)

But the crux of this whole game was and is that Larry Fitzgerald is Almighty God… er… well, at least a half-diety like one of Zeus’s illegitimate children to some earth-bound Greek slut. Even Musberger couldn’t shut up about him. That Willy Mays basket catch for a touchdown in the midst of three Aggie defenders was the most freakish thing that I’ve seen a receiver do since Cris Carter retired. Fitzgerald must have finished the day with at least 135 yards, although his official stats have not been posted yet. This kid, who seems classier than I’ll ever be, has got to be a legitimate Heisman contender now.

So as far as my picks for this week went, I got the Pitt game way wrong (and I couldn’t be happier about it). I think that I’m going to have to throw in the towel on the Toledo/Syracuse game too. The Rockets are currently down 27-7 in the 4th quarter. Perhaps that win in the Glass Bowl was a freak after all. Ether way, I refuse to believe that Syracuse anything-but-sucks this year.

But my Minnesota Golden Gophers came through for me by sticking with their running game and powering the ball down Penn State’s helpless little throat when it mattered in the fourth quarter (Minnesota 20, PSU 14). Nevertheless, the Nittany Lions showed some heart in this game, and that scares me. After most of Penn State’s tailbacks and wide receivers proved worthless yet again, Quarterback Zack Mills got hurt, backup Michael Robinson came in, and suddenly the Lions had a legitimate scoring threat… a running quarterback like Michael Vick… albeit a slower, white bread version. Either way, the Lions came up JUST short yet again.

So I went 1-2 on the day, taking my season record to .500 (9-9). I might take the week off next week, as I’ll be on a cruise ship on my honeymoon. Besides, both Pitt and Ohio State are idle. In any case, I sincerely doubt that anybody really cares.

Hail to Walt Harris for finally learning how to make halftime adjustments. Hail to Pitt for a legitimately impressive win. And Hail to good swift asskickings for Paul Rhoades (AGAIN) and for Texas A&M for having the stupidest traditions in college football (just because you take yourself way too seriously doesn’t mean the rest of the world isn’t laughing their asses off every time you end a cheer with “OOP!”).