Sure the local Pittsburgh press was all over Pitt playing like they have all year, and how the game was a “microcosm of a season filled with wouldas, couldas and shouldas.”

I failed to mention how utterly sick I was by the end of the game with the talking about Larry Fitzgerald. Mainly because I was trying to pay attention to the game as it was happening. Not the prescripted, preplanned storylines the people at ESPN had to push.

Still, this piece from the Charlotte Observer really gives it to Pitt Coach Walt Harris (registration req’d, so use: pittsb email address; password: pittsb).

The results are in, and the award for “Worst Coaching Job in Ericsson Stadium in 2003” has been won in a landslide. Come on down, Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris! You messed up Saturday’s Continental Tire Bowl game so badly that no one can believe your record as a head coach is 55-64, because no one can believe you actually won 55 games.

Harris did the near-impossible Saturday in Charlotte in a 23-16 bowl-game loss to Virginia. The Pittsburgh coach made the best player on the field — Pittsburgh receiver Larry Fitzgerald — look mediocre.
…
Harris took Fitzgerald out at the Virginia 1 in the first quarter. After four straight running plays got snuffed and Virginia went on a 97-yard touchdown drive, Harris decided that not using Fitzgerald had worked so well he’d stick with that plan for the rest of the game.

Of course, Walt’s an offensive genius. He doesn’t need to rely on Fitzgerald.

Harris tried to use an old cliché in his postgame news conference, but said: “Hindsight is 50/50.”

He meant to say “hindsight is 20/20,” but since the Pittsburgh coach’s vision of beating Virginia included throwing the ball only three times toward Fitzgerald in the final three quarters, let’s give Harris a break on this one.

The coach had his own vision pegged exactly right.

I no longer feel like I’m being quite so hypercritical of Walt.

This is painful to have to do. Pages of game notes that followed a painfully familiar script. As always, I’ve avoided the papers since the game, only relying on the box score and game log to make sure my numbers are accurate.

[Big Caveat: It looks like who ever did the box scores really screwed up. Missing numbers on sacks, fumbles and punts from a quick look. Repeated elsewhere. This one from the Pitt Athletic department appears correct, though.]

Contintental Tire Bowl Pre-game notes, observations and comments

Read and heard some things before the game, about how Pitt might come out flat because they were disappointed by their bowl game. Not a concern of mine. Pitt played their way down to this bowl. Pitt needs to win to show that they weren’t completely overrated this year.

The crew for calling the game:

Pam Ward — play by play
Chris Spielman — color grunting and ranting
Mike Gleason — useless on the sideline

The Refs for this game are from the SEC, suggesting taunting and showboating will result in penalties. The SEC refs have a short fuse for that sort of thing.

Prior to kick-off, they showed the Pitt locker room with Walt Harris finishing his pre-game speech. Live and in monotone. He ticked off three items:

Physical play;
Execution — actually he kept referring to that; and
Have fun.

God was that speech uninspiring. I mean, it doesn’t have to be the insane rantings of a Mike Ditka, or the over-the-top passion of Pete Carroll. It’s just, I felt like I should go get some more coffee after that snippet.

1st Half

UVA starts on offense. UVA is looking to pass on its first drive. Incomplete (overthrow), incomplete (dropped), complete for 18 yards. Pitt’s pass coverage is playing very far off the receiver. No excuse for that on 3rd and 10.

A 4 yard run, then Schaub takes a sack when he held the ball too long, the run got stuffed on 3rd and 10. UVA punts.

Ward and Spielman are already talking about the Pitt run defense, and how bad it’s been this year.

Pitt takes over from it’s own 30. They proceed to march down the field. Miree runs the ball well. Polite is getting a couple runs and a fantastic one-handed stab catch for 4 yards to bring the ball inside the UVA 10.

The way they managed to stop UVA and are marching down the field, is a bit reminiscent of the Miami game.

Pitt has the ball 1st and goal from the 2 yard line. Out of 11 plays, they have only thrown 3 times. Run the ball one or two more times — maybe to see if you can punch it in. But then it should be time for the bread and butter. You have to throw a fade or jump ball to the corner to Larry Fitzgerald at this point. He is bigger and can jump higher. Take advantage of it. He’s been doing it for 2 years.

The sequence:

Polite up the middle for nothing.
Rutherford keeps after faking the hand-off. Stumbles against his O-line for a yard (from one angle, I almost believed he broke the plane, but he didn’t).
Polite runs for no gain.

4th and 1 and they are going for it. I’m screaming for the fade. Even if he can’t come down with it, they have a shot at getting the interference call and a fresh set of downs.

Miree tackled in the backfield as the O-line was shoved backwards.

My stomach just sank into my ass.

Annoyed and queasy, but not ready to panic yet. Pitt went 69 yards on 15 plays and chewed 8:33. At least the defense is staying rested.

The Pitt defense decides on this series to show that it can be incredibly soft against the pass. Two passes, two first downs. 32 yards covered on the two plays. A reverse for another 13 and then a 52 yard pass play for a TD. Where the deuce was the secondary? There was no one near the tight end. The frickin’ tight end!

7-0 UVA.

Pitt again marches right down the field and scores with a balanced attack. Miree really seems to be running well. He’s finding and hitting the hole.

7-7 tie.

UVA starts from its own 30. That quickly changes as the very first play is a run that goes 51 yards. There wasn’t even anyone near him to miss a tackle until the guy was 10 yards past the line of scrimmage. Two plays later, it’s 1st and goal from the 5. This seems familiar.

Run for 3 yards; run for 1 yard (barely); and then Schaub bootlegs and should have been tackled back at the 10, but the ever generous Pitt defense lets him get back to the line of scrimmage. 4th and 1 and they go for it. Naturally, UVA runs it right up the middle and scores.

14-7 UVA

Again Pitt responds. Miree is definitely looking to impress the NFL scouts. So is Rutherford. He even runs on a sweep for 17 yards. Rutherford is sacked from his blindside. There was no chance to get rid of the ball. Hopefully that was just a blown assignment, not just bad line play.

Fitzgerald isn’t getting the ball thrown to him on this series. Spielman and Ward note that he is getting double and triple teams on every play.

Still Pitt keeps moving, and UVA gets called for a dumb personal foul to help the cause. Pitt scores on a screen to Miree that goes for 18 yards. But David Abdul misses the extra point!

14-13 UVA.

This leads to the most bizarre comment from Spielman for the game, “Yeah, Walt [Harris] doesn’t like that. He’s a fundamentalist.”

Huh? Fundamentals? Harris? Coaching? Teaching? Whatever Spielman was having, give me two.

Spielman also gives the sob story on the rough year for kicker David Abdul — longtime girlfriend gives birth, gets married, apartment burns, and then watching his friend and Pitt football player Billy Gaines fall to his death from a church catwalk they were on. Spielman forgets to mention that the two were drunk at the time.

UVA goes 3 and out. A big break for Pitt, since UVA had a good run back on the kickoff but did nothing. The punt is signaled to be a fair catch by Tutu Ferguson, and he muffs it! UVA has it. Crap! But the SEC ref down there actually blew his whistle too soon. The refs called it an “inadvertent” whistle requiring the down to be replayed. Pitt catches a huge break. Spielman is beside himself with the unfairness of the call to UVA. If I was a UVA fan, I would be bent also.

On the rekick, it is a booming kick and a flag as the Pitt player ran into the kicker. Running into the kicker is only a 5 yard penalty, so it is declined. The ever wise Spielman complains that the refs got it right, but should have still called for the roughing the kicker 15 yard penalty to make it up to UVA. Yes, compound bad officiating. It’s a shame that Ohio State didn’t take Spielman seriously when he declared his desire to be the head coach at OSU a few years ago.

Pitt moves quickly at first. Miree runs for 11 yards. Rutherford passes and runs for a couple more first downs. Pitt moves from their own 19 to the UVA 32. Suddenly UVA stiffens. Miree is stopped for no gain. UVA blitzes virtually untouched up the middle on second and third downs. Somehow Rutherford manages to get rid of the ball and not take a sack. Pitt takes a time out with 1:30 left, and appears to be going for it.

My stomach is now down to my ankles. I am standing and screaming at the TV at my inlaws. Thankfully, everyone is downstairs, but they can hear me. It comes out as sputtering incoherence since I am making desperate attempts to censor myself.

I realize they have no faith in Abdul to kick a field goal, but they should have even less faith in their D to stop UVA from quickly moving into field goal range. Punt it. Pooch kick it. Throw a deep interception on purpose even. Something, but don’t go for it now.

4th and 10. Corner blitz to Rutherford’s blindside again. Never had a chance to even plant his feet to set and throw. A 7 yard loss. UVA takes over at their own 39 with 1:25 left.

UVA inexplicably throws two short passes for a total of 6 yards. I almost start to believe Pitt might escape being down by 1 point at the half. Then the defensive line misses tackles to allow a 12 yard run with 19 seconds left.

This leads to the Spielman understatement of the day, “You see the run defense struggling for Pittsburgh.” You think?

UVA picks up 16 more yards to get to the Pitt 27. UVA has a good kicker and he nails the 44 yarder at the half.

17-13 UVA.

Halftime thoughts and comments

Pitt completely dominated the time of possession, but still couldn’t keep UVA off the board. That 4th and goal looks even dumber than ever.

Mark May goes to Pitt’s first drive, and notes that a simple fade to Fitzgerald on the 4th and goal should be the no-brainer call if Pitt is going to go for it at that point. Pitt’s coaches outsmarted themselves again.

This was my exact comments in my notes at the half:

Pitt needed to be tied or leading at the half. I have no faith in the Pitt coaches in the second half to make adjustments. The defense is playing like crap — again — and with the time of possession completely favoring Pitt; it doesn’t even get the standard excuses of being worn out from being on the field too long.

I wasn’t feeling optimistic about the second half.

Second Half

The second half gets off to a really, really bad start when Rutherford is intercepted. It was a high throw to the tight end, Kris Wilson. Wilson managed to tip it and it went about 15 yards further to the waiting secondary.

Still, the defense actually holds. They were helped when Schaub simply fell down on 1st down, losing a few yards. Followed by a dropped pass in the endzone.

UVA settles for a field goal.

20-13 UVA.

Pitt starts from their own 20. On second and 3, Miree tears off 17 yards. Then they finally throw to Fitzgerald again. The first time in some 30 offensive calls — that isn’t good — and he hauls in a high throw for 28 yards. Miree runs again for 12 yards. He is gashing UVA. 1st and 10 from UVA’s 16. Then Pitt sputters and stalls.

Out comes the field goal squad. The kick will be attempted by Gibboney (who?). Abdul has been yanked. Good time to let the senior who has never kicked a field goal in a game get his shot. He makes it, but this is still not a good scene.

20-16 UVA.

The kickoff is taken by Marquis Weeks of UVA from his own goal line. He takes it 68 yards to the Pitt 32. The only reason he didn’t score was because he tripped himself up. In a moment that just about summed up Pitt’s season, just before he tripped himself, a 2 Pitt players collided while trying to tackle Weeks.

The defense, though, makes it’s second big stop of the second half. UVA turned the ball over on downs. They had a 4th and 1 from the 12, and rather than run it through Pitt; they had brain lock and opted to throw a screen that lost 7 yards.

Of course, this is when Pitt has it’s first 3 and out of the day. Andy Lee booms a 50 yard punt that was returned for 8 yards, but there was a block in the back penalty on UVA — seemed like a questionable call. They have the ball on their own 22.

UVA starts to move the ball then near midfield they get hit with another personal foul when the running back, Lundy, was caught retaliating against a Pitt player.

Pitt starts out from their own 19. Rutherford hits Wilson 15 yards down field, and he runs for another 18 yards. UVA then jumps offside, to make it 1st and 5 at midfield. I’m almost starting to get hopeful.

Should have known better. Rutherford is sacked for a 12 yard loss. He was rolling out, and they were right on him. He still needed to get rid of the ball. UVA keeps blitzing and Pitt has to punt.

UVA has the ball, starts moving down field as the 4th quarter gets underway. The first 3 plays of the drive go for 14, 7 and 21 yards. The Pitt defense is looking like it is fading. It is starting to give up yardage in chunks again. UVA gets to 1st and goal from the 10. They run for 6 yards on 1st down. On second down, they try a fade that is intercepted in the endzone by Ferguson.

unbelievable. UVA keeps doing dumb things to keep Pitt in the game. I realize Schaub, the UVA QB, is pretty good, but come on. The weak point of Pitt is their run defense. UVA has some good backs. How can you keep throwing it in critical moments rather than running it? UVA fans had to be pulling out their hair.

Pitt has the ball at their own 20 with most of the 4th quarter left. In a 5:50 drive, Pitt moves the ball on the ground with Miree; catches a big break when UVA gets hit with another questionable personal foul (taunting?) after nailing Rutherford with another corner blitz; and some good catches by Wilson, Lee and Brockenbrough. Ultimately, Pitt again stalls and Gibboney doesn’t even come close on a 36 yard attempt.

Pitt needed a touchdown at this point regardless of whether the FG would have been good. 7:51 is left on the clock and Pitt’s O-line has been getting worse in providing protection to Rutherford. As there is less time remaining, that means Pitt has to throw, and UVA will blitz more. Not a good combination.

UVA moves down field and adds another FG to make it 23-16 UVA.

There is 2:28 left, and I’ve just about given up hope…

Ferguson takes the kickoff from the 4 yard line out to the Pitt 48. Pitt may actually have a small chance to get 52 yards in 2+ minutes.

Hah! Rutherford sacked for the 5th time and a fumble! UVA has it at the 37. That is it.

This game really hurt. I didn’t want to believe, but I kept thinking Pitt might. They had so many chances. Really, it seemed like all the breaks went for Pitt — penalties and bad calls. All went Pitt’s way. Still Pitt blew it.

It wasn’t that Pitt played flat, or didn’t show up for the game. It’s that Pitt played the game like they played during the entire season. Harris wasn’t completely outcoached — Groh made his share of dumb calls — but Groh made adjustments with his defense to bring more pressure on Rutherford and not give him time to throw. Harris didn’t or couldn’t adjust the protection.

In the comments under Chas’s last post, a discussion started between he, Pat, and I about whether or not razing old Pitt Stadium and moving to Heinz Field was necessarily a good move — as Chas assumed it was in his post. For some reason, Haloscan won’t let me add another comment and respond to Pat’s last point (Chas?). So I’m bringing the discussion up into a new post because I have no choice.

To bring everybody else up to speed, here’s Pat’s last comment.

A string of posts would be nice, but in a nutshell, Pitt got a new stadium for free.

Far more luxury boxes, club seats, and parking spaces to sell than they could ever have at Pitt Stadium (unless they did what Chicago did with Soldier Field, which would be expensive and wouldn’t include parking).

No doubt the parking (and tailgating that goes with it) brought more people to games than would have come if they were at Pitt Stadium – even with high expectations for the team on the field. It’s the perceived inconvenience that hurt attendance at Pitt Stadium in the past.

Pitt did indeed get a nice new stadium for free in Heinz Field. I, myself, especially appreciated Heinz Field’s seat backs and armrests while I was shivering on a muddy aluminum bench last month at Mountaineer Field. That being said, old Pitt Stadium had been paid for long ago and was presumably free too. Furthermore, the taxpayers of Allegheny County weren’t stuck with the bill for its construction. Anybody want me to compare the relative sales taxes between Pittsburgh and Altoona?

To make an obvious point that we all already agree on, the main advantage of old Pitt Stadium was the fact that it was located on campus. Ceteris peribus, an on-campus college football atmosphere beats an off-campus college football atmosphere every freakin’ time. The alumni can actually tailgate around their old haunts. More students show up, and more show up drunk. Don’t tell me that we all weren’t just a little jealous of that scene down in Morgantown. Pitt will never be able to compete for atmosphere with WVU, let alone with a few Big Ten schools that I could name, as long as were all driving to the North Side.

So all I’m asking is did we have to move? Couldn’t we have fixed up the bathrooms and added a few luxury boxes to old Pitt Stadium? We could have built a simple tower of luxury boxes opposite the press box just like Penn State did at Beaver Stadium. I’m not sure that we would have had to radically alter the old girl.

So I’m not quite buying Pat’s luxury box and free stadium arguments just yet. However, I will buy his parking argument. Pitt is surely making a hell of a lot more money off of parking concessions now than it used to. But as far as the perceived inconvenience of parking on campus goes, Ohio State and Notre Dame fans never seemed to have a hard time finding somewhere to park in Oakland, did they? I would suggest that Pitt’s losing seasons and commuter-student culture killed attendance in the 1990s more than the parking (not that the parking wasn’t something of a factor, admittedly).

Besides we all agree that the urban tailgating in Oakland was something truly unique in college football.

In conclusion, I’m simply not sold on the NECESSITY of razing Pitt Stadium yet. Obviously, I haven’t seen enough of whatever cost-benefit analysis was performed to know if razing the old girl was an outright good idea or not. And I realize that we haven’t really factored in all that the Pedersen Center brings to campus yet. We did need a convocation center. I’m just not sure that it had to be located on the ashes of was once one of the greatest stadiums in football.

Now maybe we can get another four comments under this post before somebody has to start another post.

Hail to Haloscan’s improving its service.

Nebraska found out quickly that their new athletic director, Steve Pederson is an aggressive AD. His first big move, firing Frank Solich, stirred things up. He could have taken the easy way out, and let Solich have one more year before unloading him, but he fired him now and willingly takes the heat.

Losing Pederson was something Pitt fans didn’t want, because he dragged Pitt’s athletic department kicking and screaming into the present. Notwithstanding the change of the color scheme, he did a lot of good for Pitt, that wasn’t appreciated when he first did it. Mainly the razing of Pitt Stadium to build the Petersen (no relation) Event Center; and moving Pitt football off-campus to Heinz Field.

A really good article from the Lincoln Journal Star recounts some of the Pitt days.

Call anyone in the Pittsburgh athletic department and there’s a good chance you’ll hear the same greeting.

“Hello, Pittsburgh Panthers.”

Like the Petersen Events Center and the football practice facility across the Monongahela River, the friendly welcome is a Pederson production. No detail slipped his attention.

“He’s not a control freak, he’s a visionary,” said swimming coach Chuck Knoles, in his 14th season at Pittsburgh. “He moves very quickly. He’s very decisive, and either you believe in him or you don’t. We were fortunate here at Pittsburgh that everybody believed in him.

“Look, he tore down Pitt Stadium and let go one of the most successful football coaches in college football history in Johnny Majors. Hands were up in the air, eyes were wide open, chins dropped a few inches, but he did the right thing. Pittsburgh is a much better place than it was before he came here.”

While it’s hard to find a ready critic of Pederson’s results, the method he used to revive the Panthers’ athletic department rubbed many the wrong way.
…
Even so, alumni sent Pederson hate mail when he announced plans to tear down the on-campus football stadium. He also alienated big-time athletic boosters and donors by not consulting them on plans for the new arena.

“He doesn’t tell anything to the boosters because boosters like to go to the newspapers and act like big shots,” Beano Cook said. “No, he’s like a priest in confession. He keeps everything to himself. That’s the way he is.”

When a difficult decision needs to be made, Pederson usually forms a committee of one (see NU’s current search for a new head coach).

That did not sit well with small pockets of Pittsburgh boosters, who in the beginning resisted his sweeping changes.

The article also has a “no comment” quote from former failed Pitt basketball coach, Ralph Willard. Willard was fired right after Pederson came aboard.

ESPN Page 2 has a Cheerleaders BCS playoff. Round 1 has 4 match-ups: Oklahoma vs. Tennessee; Ohio St. vs. Michigan; LSU vs. Florida St.; and USC vs. Texas.

Thankfully, the wife doesn’t bother reading this blog, so I can break this down and give my vote.

Oklahoma/Tennessee is tough. They have Oklahoma as the #1 seed, but I have to give the edge to #8 Tennessee. They both do the always popular mid-rif thing, so it is close but go with the Vols.

Ohio St./Michigan is a toss up, because neither should make it out of the 1st round compared to some of the other contenders. No strong feelings, as neither impresses. Oh hell, I’ll give this one to OSU but they have to lose in the second round.

LSU/Florida St. should be a tougher call, but it isn’t. LSU all the way.

USC/Texas. Unfair that either should have to lose in the first round. SoCal girls in tight white sweaters — giving that almost Catholic school uniform vibe — is a tough siren song. But Texas. You have to reward the revealing outfits. That is more than merely a mid-rif. Go Texas.

ESPN.com‘s Bill Hodge released his first early ranking of the 2004 college football recruiting classes on the Official College Sports Network this morning. Although Hodge released his early rankings much sooner last season, this is still the first 2004 ranking that I’ve seen anywhere.

For what little early rankings are admittedly worth, here it is…

No. 1 LSU
No. 2 Texas
No. 3 Southern California
No. 4 Miami-Florida
No. 5 Michigan
No. 6 Oklahoma
No. 7 Ohio State
No. 8 Penn State
No. 9 Georgia
No. 10 Maryland
No. 11 Tennessee
No. 12 UCLA
No. 13 Texas Tech
No. 14 PITTSBURGH
No. 15 Texas A&M
No. 16 Washington
No. 17 Florida State
No. 18 Missouri
No. 19 Alabama
No. 20 Iowa
No. 21 Michigan State
No. 22 Purdue
No. 23 Washington State
No. 24 Nebraska
No. 25 Virginia

I guess my first reaction to Hodge’s list is disappointment that Pitt’s 2004 class (thus far) is STILL ranked well behind Penn State’s class — despite the facts that (1) Penn State has seemingly lost every major recruiting fight that it has been in over the last month; (2) Penn State had to settle for the otherwise completely unrecruited Kevin Suhey to fill its quarterback needs after Chad Henne, Jordan Steffy, and Anthony Morelli (all PA quarterbacks) turned the Lions down; and (3) both Michigan and Ohio State are now raiding the Commonwealth with ease.

Of course, I am a little amused that Penn State’s recruiting class isn’t ranked #1, as several of the papers around here have been suggesting for awhile now.

But while it sucks to be behind Penn State — for the time being, anyways (their class is nearly full, ours isn’t) — it’s nice to be well ahead of such rivals as West Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Syracuse.

I’ll keep an eye on Hodge’s rankings as college football’s second season progresses towards mid-February.

Hail to Harris recruiting some decent freakin’ linemen already. And you know, Chas, I’m kind of glad that you did drag me into playing ESPN’s Bowl Mania Challenge.

Pitt and Florida State play tonight. It’s the biggest game of the season for Pitt. Not because both teams are 10-0. Not because both have excellent recruiting classes. No, it’s the biggest game, because FSU is the best team Pitt will face in the preseason, and likely until the game against Notre Dame on January 12. In the bizarre calculations of RPI, FSU has gone down (from 13 to 51), Pitt has gone up (82 to 46) and Murray State is really high (shooting from 109 to 44) compared to before this tournament.

I’ve only seen one Pitt basketball game this season, otherwise, I’ve had to rely on box scores and recaps. Still, what I saw and read jibes with this story on how teams are and will keep playing Pitt in the 2-3 zone, letting Pitt take the open 3 rather than get the ball in the paint. Looking at the team and individual stats, gives the simple explanation. Pitt is shooting 32.2% from the 3 point line (48-149). Julius Page and Carl Krauser have taken more than 2/3 of the shots (101) and are above the team norm (37.6%).

Jaron Brown, though, is killing the Panthers when he shoots. Actually, when Jaron shoots from the free throw or the 3-point range he might as well close his eyes. Brown is 3-21 from beyond the 3-point line and an embarrassing 7-17 at the free throw line. Brown is a joy to watch on defense, but unless he is driving or cutting to the basket you don’t want the ball going to him on the offensive side.

Pitt as a team has been incredibly streaky in their 3-point shots. Through their first 9 games they had 6 games where they shot under 30%. It isn’t simply a need for Julius Page to start driving to the basket more. The team needs to get consistent, and regain some of their patience for the open look.

It hasn’t cost them yet, and they shot 5-9 versus Murray St., who they crushed. But between streaky 3-point shooting, and bad free throw shooting — through the first 9 games they are 107-177, 60.5% — we can expect some of what happened last year to happen again. Pitt will lose some games that come down to making foul shots, and not be able to come back in other games because the threes aren’t falling.

Even head coach Walt Harris admits that Fitzgerald is ready to play in the NFL. The best he could say in favor of staying at Pitt was that he gets to stay a “kid” for another year, rather than have a job.

Right. Being a premier college football player is not being a kid or a college student. It is your unpaid minor league. Plenty of media attention. Lots of people trying to leach onto you. The pros may have it turned up to a higher level, but at least you are getting paid.

Other Notes

Walt had his weekly press conference that was a special edition mastery of confusion, coachspeak, and doubletalk

Walt Harris said he and the Pitt coaching staff are disappointed with the way the season went. But he stressed that doesn’t mean the season was disappointing.

Only Harris seems to know the distinction.

It’s pure philosophy. The team and coaches are disappointed that they didn’t do and play as well as they expected. They do not, however, feel the season was a disappointment. Expectations are other peoples. Walt wasn’t going to be bound by the others’ preconceived beliefs and rankings of the team.

“But what happens is, you’ve got to play well, and we got caught short in some games where we didn’t play physical enough. That was the difference. There were three of them that we didn’t play physical enough.”

No matter how the hair is split, the Panthers didn’t live up to expectations — their own or anyone else’s.
…
But Harris was right in his assessment of Pitt’s losses to Notre Dame, West Virginia and Miami: The Panthers were manhandled on both sides of the ball in all three games.

Harris also cited poor defensive play as another reason Pitt didn’t live up to expectations. He said coaches underestimated the leadership of some of the graduated defensive players.

“I think we probably thought we were going to be better on defense,” Harris said. “It probably surprised us that we weren’t better on defense. I think the leadership that graduated off the defense — we knew it was going to be a hit — but I think it became even bigger as time went on.

“That’s the hard part, that is the intrinsic factor you can’t put a height or weight on or a number of tackles on. That is a feeling they have in the huddle. We had some guys last year who were different kinds of kids.”

I realize talent usually wins out, and the players have to have some accountability; but this just looks like he is placing all the blame on the players and absolving himself and his coaches. “We had a system. We had a plan that would work. They failed. They didn’t step up and perform.” To blame it on a lack of leadership amongst the players for not getting better on defense is a crock. That goes to the coaching and practice. That goes to trying to make corrections and adjustments. All of that is coaching. On both sides of the ball.

As for the turnout expected for the Continental Tire Bowl. UVA has sold over 30,000 tickets; Pitt is well under 4000.

I know, I never got around to getting John a house warming gift, maybe we should get him this

I’d be curious to see how long it lasted until someone came by with a baseball bat.

Well both Pittsburgh papers are trying to help generate some excitement about the final two games Pitt will play in its own tournament by pointing out the fact that both opponents, like Pitt are unbeaten. Of course neither team is ranked, but that isn’t important.

I’ll concede that the final two games actually have potential, Murray State is one of the best mid-majors, and Florida State had one of the best recruiting classes last year. Still, like Pitt, they really haven’t played anyone of significance to this point.

Checking College RPI, I see that Florida St. has an RPI of 13 and Murray St. has an RPI of 109. Pitt has an RPI of 82. All of these are prior to the games played this week. This means, that Pitt’s RPI has dropped by beating two really low RPI teams. Florida State’s high RPI is a bit of a surprise, but it may be illusory since it gets a boost from being in the ACC and benefits from the big wins in that conference.

I bitched about this tournament when I first heard about it. I still don’t like it. Pitt has to win both of these games, or they will tumble right out of the top 25 and their RPI will plunge — potentially to the triple digits. These are also the closest Pitt will come to a true test until Big East Conference play begins.

Even the Pitt players know they have played a pathetic schedule that tells them nothing.

[Julius] Page went on to say that he’d have preferred a tougher non-conference schedule to this point, and that the next couple of games will give him a true gauge of where the team is heading into conference play in less than three weeks.

“We need some tests before January,” Page said. “We really get to see where we stand right now. We’ve been playing a lot of games in a short time, so it’s hard sometimes to point out to guys what they’re doing wrong because we’re not practicing. These things are actually happening in games and you can’t stop things. For Chris (Taft, freshman center), he’s not going to guard guys three inches shorter than him in January. He’s seeing that now, but that’s not how it’s always going to be. But that’s why our practices are so good, we get at each other. And it helps everybody learn what to expect.”

And of course, none of these games are on TV. Not even in the Pittsburgh market.

No real news, but a puff piece on two freshmen wide receivers — Greg Lee and Terrell Allen — who stand great chances to end up as Pitt’s #1 and #2 WRs for 2004. Allen was the more heavily recruited and bigger fish from South Carolina, but was injured when an opportunity to be the #2 receiver in place of Princell Brockenbrough occurred.

Lee has played well when given the chance, and looks to be the leader for the #2 receiver position even if Fitzgerald returns for his Junior season.

Brockenbrough will be hard pressed to keep his job. He has good hands and speed, but is sloppy on his routes and despite his good hands tends to drop a lot of easy passes because he is looking upfield or for the hit before he has the ball.

Allen has thrived in the second half of the season as a kick returner. He has shown great cutting and bursts of speed.

Other Notes

Column from Mike Prisuta on how the Continental Tire Bowl is more important to Coach Harris than it is to Pitt. It makes a good point:

…the Continental Tire Bowl can provide for Pitt, specifically for coach Walt Harris, something that would go a long way toward healing the wounds opened up by Toledo, Notre Dame, West Virginia and Miami.

Redemption.

Harris could use a little of that right about now, and his recent record in bowl games suggests he’s capable of grabbing enough of it to temporarily quiet the wolves growling at his door.
…
Wins such as those are very effective.

I think he overstates things when he suggests that it would “go a long way toward lessening the disappointment Pitt has endured since coming so close to the BCS and yet winding up so far away.” It won’t do that, and there will still be plenty of “what ifs” to contemplate. It will, however show that Pitt can win against a good team (other than Virginia Tech) that is equal or perhaps considered better than Pitt.

I think it will also be an important message to show just how much the team is still with Harris. They come out flat and play poorly, and everyone will know Harris couldn’t get this team to rebound from their bad games against Miami and West Virginia.

He’ll talk about anything except the possibility of challenging the NFL to let him be eligible for the 2004 draft.

Larry Fitzgerald responded to an interview request with a request of his own: No questions about the NFL Draft, because I don’t know what I’m going to do.

The Pitt sophomore receiver was willing to address any topic, as long as it wasn’t about whether he would petition the NFL for early entry, as ESPN.com reported this week.

Otherwise the stories are about getting ready to play Virginia in the Continental Tire Bowl — Saturday, December 27, ESPN2, 11 am. God that sucks. I’m in my 30s, with a wife and kid. There is no way I can rationalize popping open a beer that early while watching a game on TV (tailgating is different). Especially while at the in-laws.

Other Notes

Pitt is getting a transfer from U of Wisconsin, Defensive Tackle Andre Williams, but he won’t be eligible to play until the 2005 season. Looks like Coach Walt Harris will only be hiring a new wide receivers coach, not an offensive coordinator.

“We didn’t have a coordinator for a couple of years in the past. We do have some qualified people on our staff, but we already have an offensive coordinator.”

Harris was obviously referring to himself.

And, of course, there is the obligatory column as to whether Pitt will be able to overcome the letdown of blowing a BCS bid to play well in the Continental Tire Bowl.

My view: sure, why not.

Seriously though, Pitt shouldn’t have much of an excuse for a let down as compared to WVU last year. Pitt blew their chance. They didn’t have a higher bowl ripped from them because a better “name” was picked ahead of them. Pitt had its shot, and crapped out. A modicum of pride should spur them to want them to prove that they aren’t complete choke artists.

Walt Harris and Pitt’s long term future will be more clearly revealed in who he hires as offensive coordinator and how much authority is given. Brookhart, who leaves to be headcoach at Akron, was the offensive coordinator and wide receiver coach. In truth, he was mainly the wide receiver coach, and the guy who taught the offense in practice. During the game, Harris was in total control of the offensive play calling. If Harris insists on keeping that level of control, then he may be setting up his own fall. He will be locking out any possible new voices with respect to changes and adaptation to the offense. My sense is, he will not want to give up his control on offense.

Harris has no plans to immediately find a replacement for Brookhart, but did say that the Panthers will look outside the program.

“We’ll go outside,” Harris said. “Right now, our plan is to bring in a receiver coach, the best receiver coach that I think will fit in our system.”

Pitt still could hire a receivers coach and promote running backs coach Dino Babers to offensive coordinator. Babers held the same position at Arizona and Texas A&M.

This really worries me, because it looks like he is not going to make a real change to the offense. I know, college coaches like Stoops, Saban and Carroll do the same with regards to their defenses; but Harris is not those guys and this is the offense not defense.

I nearly missed this column from Sunday, talking about criticism Walt Harris has received. Beano Cook is quoted extensively in the story. Amazingly enough, I am in almost total agreement with what he said:

But this season has been viewed as a disappointment and the buck stops with the head coach.

“I don’t think he’s hated the way some coaches are,” ESPN college football analyst Beano Cook said. “But I think the fans are frustrated when he gets up at a press conference and brags about going to a fourth straight bowl. That would have been OK in the year 2000. But not this year.”
…
Harris has been criticized for poor game management and shaky play-calling. He has been hammered by former Pitt players and coaches for being unable to recruit dominating offensive and defensive linemen.

Cook sees merit to the criticism.

“The play-calling is atrocious,” Cook said. “(Pitt athletic director) Jeff Long needs to tell him either he gets an offensive coordinator, or Long will get a new head coach.”

On recruiting, Cook said: “He’s getting good players at the skill positions. But he’s got to get some linemen.”

In the final analysis, Cook agrees with those who see Harris as a good coach, but not a great one. Harris deserves credit for resurrecting the program, but now, armed with state-of-the-art facilities, more is expected than a late December in Charlotte.

“I don’t think there should be a change, because he’s done a good job overall,” Cook said. “But he’s going to have to take them to the next step and he’s going to have to do it in the next few years.”

If Beano can see the problems, then you know it is glaring.

ESPN’s season review of the Big East and Pitt declare Pitt to be tied with VT as the biggest disappointment in the Big East this year. Any argument?