Thanks Lee, that helps and interestingly enough, it goes opposite some of what was written. I just wish someone published the stats on a quarter or even by the half split. That’s the sort of thing that tells you a lot more than just the box score, or even drive chart.

The news for today. Josh Cummings was Big East Special Teams Player of the Week. The final paragraph of the press release may make you laugh at the spin, or cry at the reality:

Pittsburgh is 25-10 (.714) over its last 35 games, its winningest stretch in nearly two decades. The Panthers have won 12 of their last 17 road contests (.706) and 14 of their last 18 Big East encounters (.778).

The tight ends were definitely used often and well by the Pitt offense and Palko. Generally, it’s something I favor, because they tend to be better going over the middle and keeping the defense off to allow the running game to have a chance. I have to wonder, though, how much was because the receivers weren’t getting open or just to dump off to avoid the rush.

Statistically, Palko had an amazing game, with 380 passing yards and no interceptions. That makes Coach Harris 6 for 6 with his starting QB having a 300+ yard passing game during his time at Pitt. The fact that the defense allowed 417 yards of total offense makes you wonder. Did they forget to tackle again? Was Nebraska even more inept than we realized? Did they start to believe their brief moment of positive press?

In a bit of a contrast to what Lee said about the team quitting on Harris, Kevin Gorman writes that he doesn’t think the team quit on Harris. The problem is, that Western PA recruits seem to have quit on him and Pitt.

Western Pennsylvania football prospects have spoken loudest by saying nothing. Of Pitt’s eight verbal commitments, only one is from the WPIAL. That player, Burrell offensive tackle John Brown, is a legacy whose father was the hero of the 1982 Sugar Bowl.

There is an overriding belief among top WPIAL prospects that Harris will be gone by December, whether it’s by his choice or that of the administration. That another legacy, Central tight end John Pelusi — the son of a Board of Trustees member — hasn’t committed speaks volumes.

Why choose a lame-duck coach?

The damage done by defections of recruits Anthony Morelli, Andrew Johnson, Johnny Peyton and Alphonso Smith was mostly from a perception standpoint. None were as ready as Darrelle Revis or Darrell Strong, two players who kept their commitments and are playing regularly.

Yet the reneging of the recruits devastated Harris. He was visibly disturbed on signing day, and has either been unable or unwilling to leave it behind him.

As a result, Pitt is having trouble recruiting in its own backyard, which is the lifeblood of the city-based program. WPIAL players are quietly being advised not to commit to a coach who might not be there on signing day.

Unless Harris receives a contract extension or a vote of confidence, the Panthers’ commitments from out-of-state recruits might as well be treated as an afterthought, as well. A new coach isn’t going to take borderline prospects.

Which is why Harris needs to adopt the same circle-the-wagons attitude with recruiting that he has with coaching. It’s time to rebuild the fence around Western Pennsylvania.

I don’t know if the players have quit on Harris or not. I do know that this article is more disturbing for the long term.

The announced attendance was over 35,000, and the stories did nothing to dispel that notion.

In response to Chas’s prompting, I’m too busy at work to do a decent write-up of the Pitt-Furman debacle right now. But I can give you my quick impressions: it wasn’t good. On the bright side, it was a great game and I definitely got my entertainment dollar’s worth. But it was humiliating. Our offensive line was completely dominated by a I-AA team. Palko spent much of Saturday running for his life. Harris’s playcalling was, yet again, laughably predictable. And our secondary got repeatedly torched. I left with the feeling that we just wore down Furman’s defensive line over the course of the game or we wouldn’t have been able to come back in the fourth quarter. And I definitely got the feeling that Harris has “lost” this team, perhaps by insulting its players in public once too often.

At times, our crowd was so quiet that the 200 or so Furman fans over in the corner of Heinz Field dominated the sound of the place. However, our crowd did, to its great credit, get loud enough to completely disrupt Furman’s offense at the end of the 4th quarter and in overtime. The 15,000 or so gentiles who showed up were still louder than anything a little I-AA team had ever heard.

Speaking of gentiles, why does a university with as many Jewish students and alumni as Pitt seem to always insist on having a home game on Yom Kippur? I mean, it does hurt attendance. Only 5 of the dozen or so members of our group could even show up… although, laughably, one did have to attend a pig roast afterwards.

So anyways, the tailgating was quiet, the Field was mostly empty, and chants of “FIRE HARRIS” started earlier than usual (end of the 1st quarter). Unlike Shawn, I didn’t bother to listen to the marching band (I was too busy daydreaming up ways to kick both Walt Harris and Paul Rhoads out into the snow). But it was still worth the ticket price and the gas to and from Altoona.

Incidentally, which version of College Gameday were you watching, Chas? On College Gameday Final late Saturday night on ESPN (or 7:30 AM Sunday morning), Rece Davis, Trev Alberts, Mark May went out of their way to highlight the Pitt-Furman debacle. While Davis and Alberts openly snickered at poor Mark May, Mark merely looked down and said “talk about a coach on the hot seat… they need to make some major changes at Pittsburgh now… I mean, you shouldn’t have even been playing Furman.” Amen, Mark.

The line for Thursday night opened up this morning at UConn -6 and quickly grew to UConn -6.5. I could have never imagined one year ago that we would be nearly a touchdown underdog to the Huskies in FOOTBALL. Then again, heck, I’d take UConn and give up ten based on what I saw Saturday.

Finally, not to bring up an old tread, but despite crushing James Madison 45-10 last Saturday, West Virginia fell one spot yet again in this week’s ESPN’s mock BCS rankings. More disturbing, they fell BEHIND Florida State, which has already lost once. The inherent lack of respect for the Big East is frightening (remember that our champion has to finish in the top 12 over the next four years for us to retain our seat at the BCS table). And, as I’ve said before, I couldn’t agree more with this lack of respect. We need to slut our way into the Big Ten now.

Hail to Walt Harris just getting the hell out of town already.

I’m back, but in the dark. Rather than show the Pitt game on the local Comcast channel at my parents’ house, I was treated to the Delaware-UMass game. So I saw nothing of the game. They weren’t exactly talking this one up on College Gameday. Sure there are articles and wire stories in the paper, but it doesn’t tell me what happened. I need the game report from one of the guys who was there. Lee? Shawn? Pat?

Generally, I find the current incarnation of Pitt’s Varsity Marching Band to be vastly superior to the operation that was extant during my days as an undergraduate at Pitt.

Having said that, I wish to point out that while I LOVE the Beatles, I DO NOT want to hear a medley of there songs during ANYONE’s halftime show, much less my alma mater’s!

It also didn’t help that the medley included “Elenor Rigby”, “Let it Be”, and various other downbeat Beatles songs, given the circumstances at halftime.

[Note: Leaving this morning to visit family. Probably no posting of Saturday news.]

Two puff-like pieces and a must read Q&A.

Allen Richardson is still the punt returner to the surprise of many. I’m guessing another muff, though, and he won’t be on special teams for a long while.

The story on Palko, while definitely with puffery, is one that should make every Pitt fan feel positive about him. The kid has loads of confidence, but he isn’t arrogant and isn’t blaming any one but himself for the mistakes he has made so far.

Pitt beat reporter Paul Zeise, did the story and he is a big supporter of Palko. That brings us to his weekly Q&A. He’s got plenty of positive things to say about Palko in this session. But he is also very honest in his opinions about the team and the coaching:

Q: Does Walt Harris really think that Tyler Palko can do what Rutherford could not, which is, to win with an inferior offensive line?

ZEISE: I think Harris has no choice because the line is what it is. And frankly, if Pitt’s defense was good last year, the Panthers would have won 10 or 11 games despite the fact that the line stunk. Certainly they beat Toledo and Notre Dame and probably West Virginia as well. So you can win with Pitt’s line, you just need a great quarterback, a Heisman-caliber receiver to score points and a good defense to stop the other team.
…
Q: Is it just me or does all of Walt Harris’s quarterbacks seem to struggle to get the plays in on time? At what point do you start blaming the coach for this?

ZEISE: It is not the quarterbacks that are calling the plays so I’m not sure who else you can blame but the coach. All of those delay-of-game penalties and wasted timeouts add up, but they have seemingly become a big part of Pitt’s offense. Saturday I saw an added twist – on several plays there were only 10 men in the huddle and an 11th had to rush onto the field. This can’t continue.

Zeise seems to think Harris needs 7 wins and maybe win the bowl game to be safe in his job. This is one article, where I suggest you click and read it all.

You know how I think Pitt is actually taking this game seriously? I’ve read nothing about the short week and Pitt’s Thursday night game against UConn. There is no looking past this game so far. A good sign.

Me, September 19, after the Nebraska game:

To some degree, maybe you can compare this to the Texas A&M game for Rod Rutherford 2 years ago. Pitt’s offense looked pathetic most of the game, and then in the 2nd half, Rutherford seemed to find the switch. Pitt still lost, but things finally started falling into place for Rutherford. Wishful thinking? Rod had Fitzgerald. Perhaps. We won’t know for a few more weeks. I’m just saying there is something in my gut…

Joe Bendel, September 24:

Tyler Palko and Rod Rutherford had strikingly similar starts to their Pitt quarterbacking careers.

Both were awful in their debut game.

Both struggled against a Big 12 opponent Palko vs. Nebraska; Rutherford vs. Texas A&M — in the first half of their second game.

And both came to life in the second half, nearly leading the Panthers to improbable last-minute victories.

Glad I’m not the only one who saw some parallels.

We might see a quick kick this weekend, but it may come from Furman. A piece on their quarterback points out that he has experience punting.

Marcus Furman is tired of hearing stupid comments about the opponent being the same as his last name. Furman and Kirkley both suffered “slight” concussions in the Nebraska game (is that like a little pregnant?”) but will play. Tim Murphy is questionable with an ankle sprain.

As for the ever-questionable O-line. Is the glass half-full?

Harris sees some progress in the line

Or half-empty?

Pitt’s line banged up

Belarski and Pettiti are playing well. Spencer is still struggling with the conversion. Simonitis is returning this week, but left practice early for more treatment on his ankle. Frederick is still out. Who knows.

Not a lot of attention for the Furman game around the country (surprise!) . An AP Big East piece has Harris saying all the right things. There is also a really long piece covering Div 1-AA teams, that gets really, really bold about this game:

GAME OF THE WEEK: No. 2 Furman (3-0) at Pittsburgh (1-1), 1:00 This I-AA upset thing could start to become a trend. New Hampshire took down Rutgers two weeks ago, and Maine went in and defeated Mississippi State last week. Now, the Paladins have an opportunity to prove that teams from outside the Atlantic 10 can take down a BCS level opponent. Furman has some experience knocking off I-A opponents with five total wins, though only one of those triumphs came in the last 18 years. The Panthers are saying all the right things, and appear to be taking the Paladins seriously. “People look at I-AA and see pushover,” said Pittsburgh head coach Walt Harris. “But I’m sure Greg Schiano (Rutgers head coach) and Mississippi State head coach Sylvester Croom don’t believe that.” The Panthers focus should be strong, and they will want to get a win at home. But as focused as they might be, Pittsburgh is not as good as Furman. With Ingle Martin at quarterback, the Paladins hold an edge at the signal-caller position. Pittsburgh’s offense is without last season’s stars at the skill positions, and the Furman defense has enough talent up front and in the secondary to shut the Panthers down. The Paladins are second in I-AA in total offense, and a running game averaging 300 yards per contest has to perform against a pretty strong Pittsburgh run defense. The defenses will battle it out most of the day, but Martin is the best player on the field and will live up to the hype with a late touchdown pass for the win. Prediction: Furman 20, Pittsburgh 14

Pitt might start to feel like Rodney Dangerfield before the coma.

From the Pitt News, the columnists are bothered by the student section clearing out early at the Nebraska game. Another theorizes that the problem with the student section is the lack of uniformity in color scheme.

Take T-shirts, for example. Right now you see people walking around with shirts in navy blue, royal blue, yellow, gray, white and even pink. The designs on the shirts range from the old-school “Pitt” logos to the new and dull “University of Pittsburgh” print.

Starting to see the problem?

Things are much different when it comes to basketball. You could make the argument that the team is better, but Pitt football has been solid over the last four years, so it has to be more than that.

Uniformity rules at basketball games, and the atmosphere at the Petersen Events Center benefits greatly. The student section is a sea of gold “Oakland Zoo” shirts, and, because of fans’ intensity, the organization has received national recognition over the last few years.
…
It’s not up to the athletics department to put a mandate out on what color shirts students should wear. This one is up to the students. They’ve started a “Panther Pitt” with towels that students wave, but so far no shirts have been printed, and if they have, they haven’t caught on yet.

The Pitt football team wears navy blue jerseys at home, right? So this Saturday, if you’re planning on going to the game and sitting in the student section, plan on wearing navy blue.

I recall an edict from the athletic department last year for a “golden shower.” Failed miserably. Uniformity of colors may look good for the camera, but those things take time. The Oakland Zoo at Pitt basketball game didn’t happen overnight or in one season. It took a while to catch on with the students, and a willingness to buy the t-shirts.

Uniform colors from fans looks nice for the cameras, but it doesn’t help the team. Enthusiasm, excitement and lots of cheering is what makes a good student section. Pitt students are willing to get excited for a game, but let’s face it. The first 3 quarters of the Nebraska game was sucking the life out of the biggest, loudest fans.

Yeah, Nebraska fans wore a lot of red. Big surprise, they’ve had the same colors for decades. Plenty of time to get the gear you like. Pitt shifted its colors and the present logo sucks — that doesn’t endear itself with the fans young or old. You want to see the fans embrace a little more uniformity of color scheme, give up the bland new San Diego Chargers color stylings and embrace a little more of the old school stuff.

Breaking this up a bit, so I don’t make this page any slower to load. Happy to say that they didn’t break out their America medley this game. Maybe they did it one last time, owing to the day of the game against Ohio. This was one of 3 different outfits they wore in the course of the game.

Fill in the caption.

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More next week. 

Exposing myself for the geek I am, everytime I see reference to Furman by their nickname, the Paladins, I harken back to those high school days of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Hated Paladins. Boring characters. No high school kid wanted to be a Paladin. We were virgins in real liife, why do the same in role-playing? Not getting any in reality and fantasy. What a great idea.

Obviously not a lot in the papers.

The notebook columns have almost exactly the same information: starting DE Azzie Beagnyam is out for at least 6 weeks; Harris actually had praise for the way Darrell Strong is practicing at WR — after converting from QB then TE in 2 months; Freshman RB Brandon Mason practiced, but so did Kirkley and Furman; and right guard John Simonitis made it all the way through practice healthy.

In their personal observations: Palko is feeling more comfortable running the offense and Harris was actually happy about a Tuesday practice.

A puff piece on a former Furman player and ex-NFL head coach, now QB Coach for the Buffalo Bills, Sam Wyche. Sam is making the roadie from Buffalo for the game. The article also talks up how tough Furman has played against Div 1-A teams in the last 5 years. Something to keep in mind.

Story on Furman QB, Ingle Martin‘s journey from Parade All-American to Florida to Furman. He transferred to Furman so he wouldn’t have to sit out a year before playing.

Joe Bendel’s ESPN.com Big East Notebook (subscription req’d) gives Pitt a moral victory in losing to Nebraska. Focuses on the positive of how the team played in the second half. Also this about the Furman game:

The Paladins (3-0) are ranked second in I-AA, and quarterback Ingle Martin started four games at Florida last season before giving way to Chris Leak. A Parade All-American out of high school, Martin has led Furman to 45.0 points and 545.3 yards per game. The Paladins would love to be known again as “Giant Killers,” just as they were in the 1980s with wins over South Carolina, North Carolina State and Georgia Tech. Their biggest win of late came in ’99 against North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Haven’t even seen a line on this game.

These banners are at the game. Even though USF, Louisville and Cinci don’t join until next year, they are all but members now. Notice that BC isn’t in the group.

Tomorrow. Dance team.

Some shots from the Nebraska Game.

Have we mentioned that one of the great things about our seats, is they are right by the student section? 

Direct information first. Here is the Walt Harris Press Conference (Windows Media) and the abbreviated transcript. Nothing particularly eye-catching. The team showed improvement in the second half but needs to do more, the defense is playing great, kicker Josh Cummings is excellent, Freshman RB Brandon Mason may actually play this year…

Punter Adam Graessle was named Big East Special Teams Player of the Week.

The articles looking back on the game remain optimistic. Or at least the pieces don’t take issue with the positives expressed by Coach Harris. The receivers seemed to make a big improvement from last week, clearly Darrell Strong playing WR has really helped for depth and packages.

There were injuries in the game. I mean, we aren’t saying this was anything like what happened to the Cleveland Browns, but there were some players who won’t be returning right away. The big one, starting defensive end Azzie Beagnyam has “ligament damage” in his right ankle. He will be gone for an extended period, very possibly for the season. The reason Brandon Mason might play, rather than take the redshirt as expected, is that the RBs got banged up in the game:

All three of Pitt’s experienced tailbacks — Tim Murphy, Ray Kirkley and Marcus Furman — were injured in the Panthers’ 24-17 loss to the Cornhuskers. Murphy (ankle) was not able to return the to the game but Furman (head) and Kirkley, whose injury was undisclosed, did.

On the positives, right guard John Simonitis, may actually be healthy enough to play.

Mike Prisuta’s column was about optimism with Pittsburgh quarterbacks — both Pitt’s Tyler Palko and the Steeler’s Ben Roethlisberger.

Palko seemingly arrived not at the outset of or at any time during Pitt’s opener against Ohio U but in the fourth quarter Saturday against Nebraska. His play until then had suggested things couldn’t possibly have gotten much worse, but a timely series on the sideline allowed him to regain his equilibrium and he re-emerged a different player.

Ever conscious of running the team and leading his teammates, Palko suddenly seemed less concerned with what everyone else was doing and more consumed with doing what had to be done. Perhaps, given the bleak state of what had been taking place against the Cornhuskers, Palko felt as if he had nothing to lose. Whatever, he finally started to let it fly and trust his receivers to make some plays for him.
…
If Palko can become a little less obsessed with making the right play and a little more trusting of his instincts for making winning ones, Pitt’s offense has a chance after all.

As for the game on Saturday, which I will miss and I doubt will be shown at my parents house, here are the game notes (PDF). This matchup is against the Paladins of Furman. Furman is hoping for its first win over a Div 1-A football team since it beat North Carolina 28-3 in 1999. After what happened to Rutgers, Pitt can’t take the #2 1-AA team lightly.

As noted, the starting QB was actually a transfer from Florida. He transferred after not getting a chance to be the starter. Still, I think the toughest thing for Pitt and the fans, will be getting “up” for the game. I mean, this is the game the Pitt athletic department knew would have trouble getting people to show up for (and not just because it is Yom Kippur) — that’s why it’s buy-one-get-one ticket day. Scalpers will be giving tickets away for this one.