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.