Bad enough that I can’t make the final home game of the season against Miami on November 29, because I’ll be travelling home from Thanksgiving with the wife and kid. Now the Disney conglomerate has decided to make the night game an ABC regional telecast rather than the ESPN game. This absolutely sucks because I live in the Cleveland area. Regional telecasts mean that I will end up seeing the Notre Dame – Stanford match-up, because it will be of more “local” interest.

This wouldn’t be a problem if John was still living in Pittsburgh.

The trip to Morgantown ended in defeat – again. Somehow, though, I just can’t bring myself to hate the Hoopies in the same manner that I hate Penn State and Notre Dame.

Maybe it’s the time that I grew up, watching Pitt dominate – WVU was always an inferior program, and considered an expected victory, back in the Majors I, Sherrill, and Fazio eras. Even though Pitt lost a few of those games, it was expected that Pitt would win. When Pitt started losing to them regularly, it was a sign of how bad Pitt had become, not how good WVU was.

Even in the 1990’s, when Pitt was god-awful and WVU was beating us nearly every year, most WVU recruits went there because Pitt (or PSU) didn’t offer them a scholarship. I never hear of Pitt and WVU going head-to-head for a recruit and the guy ends up choosing WVU.

I like their fans (I echo Lee’s comment here). They root for their school, or show in-state loyalty, because that’s what you’re supposed to do, damn it! They are loud – when Mountaineer Field is full, it’s as loud as anyplace in the country (and even when it isn’t full, often). They are proud of their school – unlike a lot of Pitt students and alumni who either don’t give a damn about football or b-ball, or are outright traitors and root for other college teams. And most of all, they don’t have that superior attitude that Penn State and ND (and OSU, Michigan, etc.) have about their team or their school. Granted, WVU isn’t all that good, and the academics suck, so how could they, right? But they have that “Yeah, I’m a Mountaineer, what of it?” attitude that I like. I guess I see them as a constant underdog, and I always like the underdog. Even though they hate Pitt more than any school (although lately VaTech, Miami, and in years past, Penn State earned much hate from the Hoopie faithful), I still can’t bring myself to hate WVU back.

Sure, they are easy to pick on. West Virginia jokes abound, and have nothing to do with football or basketball. As we walked away from the stadium Saturday, looking at the subtle poetry to the t-shirt vendors’ products (“Shit on Pitt”, “Pitt Sucks”, and the sublime “Fuck Pitt”), and listening to the taunts of the drunken WVU faithful as they saw us in our Pitt gear, I could still mutter (not quite under my breath) “we may have lost the game, but you still live in West Virginia” as I walked on by. It wasn’t out of hate, but almost empathy and pity. I became more irritated at the rest stop on I-79 on the way home, which was full of WVU fans, most of whom were talking shit. All I could think of was “Yeah, but the degree hanging on your wall still says ‘West Virginia University’, ass-hole” as I walked back to the car. But, they won, and we have to eat crow until next year. Such is the way of things.

Game and Stadium comments:
The lines to get into the stadium were ridiculous! We left John’s house, not a mile away from the stadium, at a little past 6pm. Somehow I maneuvered my way though the throngs and was the first one of our group to the seats, and I was barely there by 7pm. Some of the guys missed the first TD of the game because they were still in line. The entire home side of the stadium, probably close to 30,000 fans, were expected to file past a total of four ticket takers. I thought that Beaver Stadium was the worst, but this set up took the cake. And it wasn’t because of the stadium design – there were plenty of gates, just too few of them open.

I again echo Lee’s comments, but I do like the stadium. It is a great place to watch football. The Steelers played some exhibition games there when Heinz Field wasn’t ready a few years ago, and I envy those fans. The stands are on top of the field, great sight lines, the bleachers aren’t nearly as cramped as other college stadiums, and there is plenty of leg room (unlike Pitt Stadium). Lots of bathrooms and concession stands, and just a great atmosphere. They expanded their scoreboards, and now have a large instant replay board at the south end zone.

The game, well Pitt’s run defense sucks. It sucks ass. But why? Are they too slow? Are they not big enough, or strong enough up front? Is it a matter of mechanics, that they can’t shake blocks or tackle? Are they not on the good steroids anymore? As I said earlier, Pitt always wins the recruiting battles with WVU, so there shouldn’t be a talent gap. Perhaps their players are weak academically, so Pitt stayed away from them, or perhaps they were late bloomers that Pitt didn’t notice because they didn’t play much their junior or sophomore years in HS. I can’t figure it out. Rhoades was a fine coach last year, and he didn’t forget how to coach after one season. There has got to be a reason – I just don’t know what it is.

The fans:
I was a little disappointed that they didn’t riot. Plenty of cops on the field and in the stands near the end of the game – some sporting riot gear right out of a South Korean newsreel – big, long wooden sticks. No pepper spray, just John Denver piped over the PA system. As the night went on, things stayed relatively calm. That’s relative, for in Morgantown a few fires on a Saturday night are just a normal occurrence.

In West Virginia there are some storylines coming off the big win, that Pitt fans understand. The predictable is like this piece on how the seniors led the Mountaineers to victory. The kind that Pitt fans may understand better is “great that WVU won, but what if they could have avoided the dumb early losses?” What if WVU hadn’t blown the lead against Wisconsin? What if they had actually been awake when they gave the game to Cinci? Good questions that Pitt fans would have been asking regarding Toledo and ND if Pitt had won the Backyard Brawl.

In Pittsburgh, the blame is falling on the defense and its inability to stop the run.

Walter Washington is a relatively unknown player among college football fans across the country, but by this time next week he could be one of the leading candidates for the Heisman Trophy.

That’s because Washington is the starting quarterback for the Temple Owls, and he is also their leading rusher. And the Owls’ next opponent, the Pitt Panthers, have excelled this year at making the Heisman dreams of opposing rushers — and sometimes even passers — come true.
…
And considering Washington ran for 151 yards against Virginia Tech this past weekend, he has to be thinking he’s headed for a 300-yard game come Saturday.

Not that the offense’s running game isn’t taking some heat.

As bad as the Panthers’ run defense was Saturday night, their run offense may have been worse — and that, too, has been a consistent issue for them this year. Pitt ran 26 times for 10 yards (0.4 yards per carry) and its leading rusher was fullback Lousaka Polite, who ran five times for 9 yards.

Both problems — the inability to stop the run and run the football — are the main reasons the Panthers are 7-3 as opposed to 10-0. Pitt is ranked 86th in rush defense (183.7 yards per game) and 79th in total defense (394.9) and they average only 110 yards rushing per game, which is worst in the Big East Conference and 98th in the NCAA.

The root of both problems can be found up front, where the Panthers have been consistently manhandled on both sides of the ball.

Gee, line play was a key. What a shock. Can’t believe that was the case.

Of course, credit must be given to WVU’s defense in the second half making, you know, adjustments to deal with the passing game.

“The defensive staff did a great job making adjustments,” WVU coach Rich Rodriguez said. “In the second half, we played some different coverages and used a couple blitzes. We didn’t want to use three-man pressure. We wanted to try to mix in four- or five-man pressure.

“In the second half, we did a little better job of getting more in [Rutherford’s] face. I don’t think any quarterback likes pressure. It was a chance to disrupt his rhythm. He was in such a rhythm in the first half. We wanted to try to make Rutherford hold onto the ball a little longer.

“I thought in the second half we did a better job of getting off the blocks and we did a better job of breaking on the ball. In the first half, we were kind of standing around too much.”

Shame Pitt couldn’t make any.

Of course, Pitt could still win the Big East, but even Harris knows that problems on defense are not going away.

The only thing worse than Pitt’s offensive inefficiency, particularly along the line, was a defense that might not look the same when the Panthers play a Temple team coming off a near-overtime upset of Virginia Tech on Saturday.

“We missed more tackles than I’ve ever seen us miss,” coach Walt Harris said

“We have to go back and try to fix whatever we can fix.”

The Panthers got little production from their front four Saturday, most notably senior defensive end Claude Harriott, who struggled so mightily that backup Azzie Beagnym replaced him on numerous occasions. Harriott, a preseason All-America candidate, has only two sacks. He had 9 1/2 in 2002.

The starting defensive front of Harriott and Thomas Smith at the ends, and Dan Stephens and Vince Crochunis on the inside, combined Saturday for only 10 tackles, none of which occurred behind the line of scrimmage.

WVU tailback Quincy Wilson (208 yards on 34 carries with four scores) became the third back to run for 200-plus yards against the Panthers.

As for the guys behind the line, linebackers Brian Bennett and Lewis Moore both finished with double-digits in tackles, but weakside backer Malcolm Postell (5 tackles) found himself out of position on a number of occasions and got beat on a number of passes, including a sensational 28-yard grab by WVU’s John Pennington that tied it at 24-24 with 31 seconds left in the first half.

Of course, just to depress further, there is still the issue as to whether Larry Fitzgerald will be back next year. Some are already saying goodbye.

Pitt’s next game is against Temple. Somehow, I don’t think it will be on national TV.

The basketball team plays St. Francis (PA) on Saturday also. Could be a light week.