The Pitt-BC game will not be televised. Pitt, however, has arranged to show the game at the Petersen Event Center on campus. Very cool move for the students, though there does appear to be a secondary reason — to capture more highlights for Larry Fitzgerald’s Heisman candidacy.
In a move that ensures that video highlights are available from this Saturday’s game, which is not televised, Pitt arranged for a live video broadcast of the game to be shown at the Petersen Events Center. The Pitt athletic department is producing the broadcast.
This could be a big game for Fitzgerald, and possibly the entire Pitt offense. Boston College has a pair of very short cornerbacks— 5′ 8″ and 5′ 9″ to cover the 6′ 3″ Fitzgerald. This means, that BC will have to drop the safeties to help out on covering Fitzgerald, otherwise Rutherford can just lob jump balls his way all day long. Of course dropping the safeties off, will (hopefully) allow for the underneath passes to TE Kris Wilson and the other receivers. Not to mention, maybe giving the offensive line more of a chance to help create some holes for the running game, where Tim Murphy will be sharing more of the carries with Jawan Walker.
On the defensive side, Pitt will be facing another powerful back, Tailback Derrick Knight, who despite an ankle injury against Notre Dame last week will still play in the game. Knight needs only 10 yards to reach the 1000 yard mark this year, which would be the second straight year he’s reached that mark (and 3000 for his career). It would also be the sixth straight year that BC has had a 1000+ yard running back.
Pitt has dropped 5 consecutive games at Alumni Stadium. The last time Pitt won, 1989 under present ESPN analyst Mike Gottfried. The Panthers’ last lost was a humiliating 45-7 drubbing in 2001 leading to the junking of the #$^%* spread offense.
Boston College is also having as much, if not more trouble than Pitt, with its kicking game (ESPN Subscription only). Actually, it’s whole special teams is a mess. Their punting game is even worse than their kicking (a blocked punt and a fumbled snap against ND, plus the punter got hurt).
All the stuff, looks like it could be a big game for Pitt, but…
Pitt has not played well against BC no matter where the game is played. Add in the fact that everything looks to be in Pitt’s favor, and I just start to get really nervous.
