Panther Report has its preview of Pitt up. Rob Lichtenfels thinks the defense will rebound this year. Hope so.

In his key losses section, he doesn’t mention the coaching losses (4 assistants). The biggest was offensive coordinator J.D. Brookhart leaving for the Akron job. Considering Brookhart was the also WR coach, and while no one can be completely sure of how much input he actually had, he was helping to call the offensive plays. Now Harris hired a new WR coach, but has decided to retake full control of the offense. That means no possible dissenting voice for the play calling. I’m not a big fan of that.

Lichtenfels sees the potential for an 8 win season if things go right. Between 6-8 wins is about the expected number it seems for Pitt. That’s the thing. No matter how many coaching and player losses Pitt had from last year, you look at the schedule and it is reasonable to say that none of these games are sure losses. Only a limited number of sure wins (Furman, Ohio and Temple), but Pitt can still make some noise this year.