I’ll come back to this a little later, but here’s a good start on finding information and fan views on Nebraska, despite being a bit out of date, there are plenty of links.
The Journal Star has its Nebraska section and a blog written by the various columnists.
Here is the site of “Pennsylvanians for Nebraska.”
This is the school paper, The Daily Nebraskan.
Finally, the official Nebraska sports website and the head coach’s site.
Some little things from the day, that don’t relate to the on the field activity, but are part of game day.
Saw a lot of “retro” Pitt t-shirts. Royal blue with yellow lettering of the script Pitt; and the other way around. Didn’t see them in the gift shop in Heinz Field, and I didn’t make it to Oakland to know if the official gear store is carrying them. Still good to see someone has realized the pent-up desire for the old school stuff. Have to look into getting one for myself.
Should have taken my camera into the game for a couple shots. They have Banners on one corner of all the Big East football teams, including the new kids coming in next year. Will try to snap a shot this weekend.
The new lot isn’t that bad. The big positive, is they will let you pitch a canopy in the grassy portions. You need to be parked along the edges, so we may have to arrive earlier to take advantage.
One of us needs to get one of those grill-and-go things for tailgating.
Dance team and cheerleaders were pleasant in appearance again. They are just a little out of shape. Each could really stand to lose 5-10 pounds — I’m sure they will be getting toner as they perform more. Of course, this is also a good time for me to issue my usual plea for them to get their own sites and/or update the photos on the Pitt website.
And for the dance team, the “America” medley has run its course. You’ve been using that for a year or two and it is kind of old. Plus, it is really hard to tolerate even a snippet of that pathetic Madonna version of “American Pie.” Please. That was the song (the original version) we used to hear at closing time at Caleco’s. Stop trying to ruin those wonderfully drunken memories.
Shawn? Pat? Anything to add?
I’m not going to recap every article from Sunday. You can check them yourselves. I will single out a couple that I think were interesting or even disagreed with me.
Joe Bendel’s notebook, totally disagrees with my thoughts that the punting wasn’t bad. He did have a couple that weren’t great, but I think Bendel may be overstating it a bit. Look at the drive chart and consider from where he was punting. Most of the game he was punting from near the 40 yard line. He was hanging most of them high, as evidenced by the fact that OU could only return 3 of the 11 punts. The notebook asked the more important question of where was Joe Flacco? Harris had promised he would play, but he never did much other than hand the ball to Furman for the final series.
Joe Starkey did a refreshing piece on Sunday. It was partially to reign his own impulses in, but mostly to remind Panther-nation not to panic over Palko’s first game.
It might have been the shakiest opening-night performance since Lisa Guerrero’s on Monday Night Football.
But I won’t do it. Not again.
I won’t bury a quarterback after his first college start, especially not when Pitt went into its opener Saturday against Ohio University with nine new starters on offense. I sat in this seat two years ago and ripped Rod Rutherford after he was intercepted three times against Ohio U. in his first start.
To my beyond-eternal regret, I called for freshman Tyler Palko to start the following game. The next day’s headline — “It’s Palko Time” — is branded onto my psyche like some horrendous tattoo.
So, even though Palko’s first start made Rutherford’s seem worthy of the College Football Hall of Fame, you won’t see an “It’s Flacco Time” headline today. Nor would there be an “It’s Getsy Time” headline if Luke Getsy had stuck around.
Rather than just tell the fans they need to chill, he uses himself as the example. It comes off very effectively in making the plea for a little patience.
Gene Collier had some fun with the sloppiness of Pitt’s play, pointing out that Lehigh-Villanova was televised but this game wasn’t — and that was probably a good thing.
Now for todays stories. The troubles on the offense. Some key numbers to make you cringe: the wide receivers had 3 catches for 35 yards; Pitt was 2 for 15 on 3rd down; and 49 yards passing was the lowest passing yardage since a 44-0 humiliation against ND in 1993. Kirkley was the only positive, and Greg Lee gets singled out.
The only bright spot was the running of junior tailback Raymond Kirkley, who might be the focal point of the offense until Palko finds his rhythm and sophomore wide receiver Greg Lee (two catches for 24 yards with a score) proves he can be a go-to guy. Lee failed to hold onto a 30-yard sideline pass early in the game and later had the ball ripped from his hands for an interception.
Lee is considered the Panthers’ top offensive playmaker, but he failed to meet expectations on Saturday night.
I didn’t think I was the only one that saw that, but when I was looking over the Sunday stories there wasn’t much mention of Lee’s disappointing play other than allowing the cornerback to rip the ball from him on the first pass of the second half. Pitt and the passing game, need Lee to step up his game. Without him leading the WRs the team has no chance on offense.
The defense, though, did a good job. There was one warning, that should chill the blood a little.
Ohio managed just 88 rushing yards, but it should be noted that Kent State ran for only 73 in the 2003 opener before the run defense suffered an epic meltdown, allowing 2,332 yards the ensuing 12 games.
Pass the Maalox, please.
Darrelle Revis, gets some additional praise. The freshman cornerback earned a start and played very well. Revis was expected to be the biggest impact freshman on Pitt, and it looks like he will meet those expectations.
If I was the offensive coordinator for Pitt I’d be worried about my job. Oh, that’s right, the OC for Pitt is also the head coach. Late to do this, because it was a late game, followed by a late night, a late start home in the morning, and then I owed the wife a lot of downtime since she watched the kid without help for a 24-hour period.
There is a lot I would like to write about. From the game, to the atmosphere, to the dance team, the tailgating, and so on. Since this is late, though, I’m just going to (mostly) limit myself to the game and things I heard in the stands.
I haven’t looked online at the papers yet, because I don’t want my impressions colored by them. Those who read this blog last fall, know that is my general approach. The only thing I look at are the box score and play-by-play list — for accuracy. Aside from the win, the big positive was that no one appeared to have been hurt in the game. Considering the issues at depth all over the team, this will be a concern every game.
The defense acquitted itself fairly well. There was some pressure on the QB (4 sacks), and the secondary did very well in keeping the receivers in front of them and making tackles. OU lacks much of a running game so it’s hard to judge the run defense at this point.
The defense did a good job of tackling, not hitting up to a point. In the 3rd quarter (about the 10 minute mark) just before Postell’s interception returned for a touchdown, Postell but a body-jarring hit on the receiver coming over the middle and resulted in an incomplete pass. It got the defense fired up and really generated a lot of ooohs from the crowd. Highlight reel stuff, to be sure. The thing I noticed though, was that other members of the defense started trying to hit more than tackle after that point. They could get away with that against a team like Ohio, but it makes me nervous for the rest of the season, that they could lose their focus on the fundamentals of tackling. Hopefully Defensive Coordinator Paul Rhoads will remind them pointedly.
Special teams looked good. Josh Cummings looked good with his one field goal that he attempted and nailed. A 35-yarder that was strong and was on the open side of the stadium where kickers have always had trouble. Graessle, the punter, looks to be a seamless replacement for Andy Lee. A good thing, since he had to punt 11 times in this game.
That brings us to the offense. I have a feeling I will end up forgetting a few things because there was so much to be upset by.
The one bright spot was that Raymond Kirkley ran for 101 yards on 22 carries. A 4.6 yd/carry average. He looked strong and ran north and south. No dancing in the backfield.
Let’s start on the O-line. They just looked overmatched a lot of the time. The Ohio defense was penetrating easily and often. Palko was forced to scramble and roll-out a lot more than he should have. He was sacked 4 times in this game. By Ohio. Read those last 2 sentences again, and then swallow that lump in your throat.
Tyler Palko in his first start at QB was not not sharp in the beginning. He was clearly nervous and jittery when he dropped back in the first half. It didn’t help when he was sacked on the very first play. He clearly has mobility, since he ran several times — by design — and escaped several other near sacks. Clearly he was spooked by the speed at which the Ohio players were on him. His passes were not particularly accurate. He went 6-17 with one interception (on his very first attempt for the second half) for only 49 yards.
He didn’t pass much in the second half — only 4 attempts. He only went 1 for 4, though the one was also his first TD pass. A 7 yarder floater to an unguarded Greg Lee. That was funny. Pitt lined up, and this was at the goalline by the student section, and there was no Ohio player lined up across from Lee. Everyone saw it — except for Ohio and Palko. The students and Lee are screaming and gesturing like crazy to get Palko’s attention. Finally he sees it, and hikes the ball as Ohio belatedly realized it too but couldn’t get over there. Palko lobs it to Lee for the touchdown.
In the first half, Palko was 5-13 and threw 7 straight incompletions. He seemed to have trouble with his progressions and reading the defense. Not totally surprising for a new QB, but still a little unnerving to see. There was some early frustration in the stands, with sarcastic calls to “Put in Getsy!”
It couldn’t all be put on Palko, though, the receivers were a disappointment. They gave him no help. They couldn’t get much separation from the coverage, and were unwilling to fight for the ball when it came near them. If it wasn’t on the money and away from the defender, they gave up on the pass. Greg Lee was the most disappointing in this respect. I personally, think Lee has the talent and ability to be as good as Antonio Bryant was — or at least Latef Grim. Lee, though, was far too willing to give up on the pass if it wasn’t right on the money. In a way the receiving corp was the biggest disappointment to me, because I had a lot of faith in them. Even with the losses of Brockenbrough and Allen.
The offensive side has a lot of work ahead of them this week to get ready for Nebraska.
Finally. I leave for Pittsburgh in less than 12 hours. Looking forward to it, even if the crew is a little sparse for the first game. (S**t, I just realized I forgot to pick up Colony Sauce this afternoon.) Adjusting to the new lot will take a little time. The advantage of where we park, as Pat pointed out to me this afternoon, is that we likely won’t be dealing with the crowds from PNC Park, since we are on the other side of Heinz Field. I mean, they had an official crowd of around 26,000 Friday night. I doubt it will be much higher.
So, here’ s the news. Hey, did you hear the defense is looking to redeem itself after last season? Once or twice? They may find some in this game, but I think most fans will hold off on their view of how they’ve turned it around after Nebraska and a couple more games.
The real storyline for the game of course, is the first starting game for QB Tyler Palko. His coming out party. The expectations for Palko have been huge for him since he signed with Pitt. After just watching a good deal of the FSU-Miami game with those stud QBs Berlin and Rix, I’m trying to keep my expectations a little more reasonable — just don’t suck as bad as those two.
An article from Gene Collier that wonders whether Coach Harris in his comparing Palko’s acumen for the game to Pete Gonzalez, is giving a bit of a short shrift to Rod Rutherford. It’s a different take, and something I hadn’t considered. Not sure I agree with it, but at least it is a bit more thought provoking then the stuff Cook and Smizik have been putting out.
Sarcasm aside, I am excited about the game today. It’s been a long wait to see Pitt play.
Let’s go Pitt!
Key words for today’s news round-up.
Starting with the inexperience. While that describes several positions for Pitt this year, it applies to the entire (healthy) receiving corp.
Pitt sophomore Greg Lee caught 10 passes last year.
That’s 10 times as many as the rest of the Panthers’ wide receivers — combined.
Yet, there isn’t a sense of panic. There is a lot of faith and confidence that the receivers will respond and play well. I liked what little of Lee, I saw last year, and have thought that he would be the stud receiver for Pitt this year even if Brockenbrough had been healthy.
Seems the defense is trying to live down the legacy of last year. Defensive Coordinator, Paul Rhoads, says that this year the team will concentrate on tackling (Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat! But that trick never works. This time for sure…). I’d like to be a little more optimistic about this, because Rhoads does mention that the missed tackles last year were so numerous. The problem we saw last year, though, wasn’t so much the missed tackles, as it was too many players just trying to hit the guy with the ball. They weren’t even trying to tackle. They were too focused on making the big hit. No mention of that in the article, so I live in fear of its return. Hope I’m wrong.
Puff pieces on members of the defense. H.B. Blades, sophomore starting linebacker, gets the standard treatment. I like Blades, and there is no disputing his bloodlines. What makes me nervous is all his talk about wanting to put the big hit on someone. See, above.
A more gushing puff piece is for freshman cornerback, Darrelle Revis. This is, in no small part, because he is a local product and the people saw him play high school ball as well. He is good and will be a stud, but this piece is setting the bar a little high
Shelly Anderson defends Harris‘ decision to not release Getsy from his scholarship to transfer to Akron. Hopefully this will be the last we hear about this for a while. It should be a dead issue after the first game is played. I mean, unless Palko goes down with an injury, then the hand-wringings and what-ifs will resume no matter what.
Speaking of backup QBs, looks like Darrell Strong has been practicing with the QBs a bit, just in case. Seems reasonable.
I think the late start to Pitt’s season is starting to take its toll on the beat writers. Both have a pair of similar pieces. You have the story that backup QB, Joe Flacco, will get in the game. Specifically, early — like the second possession — in the game, then like Palko in 2002 and Getsy in 2003, we will probably barely see Flacco again barring injury. This early chance to play is important to Coach Harris, because after all,
“Those who have been here a while know that I usually do that with the backup quarterback because he’s one play away from being the starting quarterback, and I think it would be unfair to Joe if he would have to be the starter without letting him have some playing time,” Harris said.
I can only shake my head a bit at this. One of the reasons it was so unclear who would be the starter, is no one ever saw Palko or Getsy in games the last couple years. Harris had Rutherford playing (except for his, uh, 1st quarter suspension) just about every down. Even in blowouts. It was like some bizarre overcompensation for the Priestly-Turman yo-yo-ing.
The notebook stories are also similar pieces. Palko was back at practice, declaring himself recovered from the flu. He’s excited to play this Saturday. In the O-line depth issue, starting right guard John Simonitis will not play in the game because of his ankle. Matt Maiers will start. In some rare good news, Rob Frederick will be available to play. He will be second on the depth chart. Cornerback Josh Lay is apparently healthy enough to play now, but will not start. He has been passed on the depth chart by Freshmen Darrelle Revis and Mike Phillips. Redshirt Junior Dave Williams appears to have won the starting right tackle position.
The Trib does a piece profiling Ohio QB, Ryan Hawk. Obligatory mention of him originally playing at Miami of Ohio with Roethlisberger.
Good piece from Joe Starkey, on calling out Getsy’s transfer. Not for transferring, but the tantrum he seemed to have thrown over the whole thing.
Harris owed him nothing, and nothing is what Getsy will get.
…
No player during Harris’ tenure has been granted a release from a scholarship to play for another Division I school. Harris refuses to set the precedent.It’s not personal.
Getsy doesn’t deserve criticism for wanting out, either. It’s the way he went that leaves a sour taste.
After losing a close competition to Palko, Getsy told Harris he was considering a transfer. This, after Getsy had been quoted two weeks earlier as saying he would not leave under any circumstances, no matter how the competition unfolded, because his teammates were so important to him.
Other than for selfish reasons, no one was really begrudging Getsy’s transfer. Taking shots on the way out the door, was punk and useless.
Final item, Ohio University has its game notes ( split in 2 PDF files).
Pitt has made a streaming video feed of Coach Walt Harris’ weekly press conference available (Windows Media).
It’s a nice way to try and get context for some of Harris’ quotes. I have to imagine part of the reason is the beating Harris has been taking in the press. If they are going to filter what he says to suit their views, then put the stuff out there for others to see and hear. One of the great advantages of the internet is the ability to put the raw feeds out there for the fans to get. Gives you a chance to find out whether someone was full of s**t when they claim to have been quoted out of context.
The downside of the video, is you cannot hear what the question was or the tone of the question, that Harris was responding to. Makes it a little harder to get the context on some of his responses. Hopefully transcripts will be posted the next day.
UPDATE: Yep. They posted an abbreviated transcript.
Blogspot blogs have been down for around 12 hours or so. They seem to be back.
Yes, that’s right. The subject that may have even displaced line play as the major topic for Pitt.
How about QB Tyler Palko out with the flu. He’s expected to be back today or tomorrow. Back-up Joe Flacco handled the duties. A bit of chiding of Getsy in the article about not being willing to be a back-up at Pitt. The history lesson is good, but considering the back-ups of the last two years threw under 20 times, recent history isn’t there.
On the O-line, starting right guard John Simonitis hurt his ankle on Sunday, and was wearing a soft cast on the sidelines. Unclear at this time whether he will even be available on Saturday. Matt Maiers will get the start in his place.
Short piece on punter, Adam Graessle. A story on Ohio U QB Ryan Hawk and his connection to future starting Steeler QB Ben Roethlisberger.
Well, not a lot. This is the local newspaper, The Athens Messenger. Nothing. The Post is the school paper. Also nothing.
Their official Bobcat site doesn’t have anything yet, except for the pictures of their dance team and cheerleaders.
Finally their fan site. Also barren. I know. Shocked. Shocked are we all to find so little interest and info on Ohio University football.
I guess the big story is that Getsy has made it official that he is transferring — to Akron. No real shock, since it has been the reported destination from the moment he wasn’t named the starter.
What also wasn’t a shock was that Coach Harris wouldn’t let him out of his scholarship. It was a known fact that Harris didn’t let another player out of his scholarship to transfer to Akron, since it is likely Pitt will play Akron in the next couple of years. This simply means Getsy will have to pay his own way for the year at Akron that he is sitting out. Getsy may want to go for the familiarity of his former offensive coordinator, but he knew this would be likely. Not that he still didn’t play the victim in his reality.
“I’m going to try to appeal,” said Getsy, a redshirt sophomore. “I’m going regardless so if they won’t release me, it’s a grudge.”
Getsy said he applied for admission to Akron on Friday via the Internet and will enroll in fall classes today. After sitting out this season under NCAA transfer provisions, the Steel Valley High School graduate will have two seasons of eligibility remaining.
After Harris named Tyler Palko the starter following a close competition and said there would be no quarterback rotation, Getsy met with the Pitt coach to inform Harris of his intentions to leave the program.
“I didn’t expect him to accept it with open arms, but he didn’t give me anything,” Getsy said. “He called me selfish.”
Pitt will miss the security of having a well prepared back-up this year, but it sounds like they won’t be losing much else.
So now it is time to get ready for the Bobcats. No tape exchange, since Pitt didn’t play, but the only thing a tape of the OU game against a D-1AA team would have shown is what kind of formations they tend to use. Something Pitt already seems to know — a form of the damn spread. I think the team will take the missing tape in exchange for the full week to prepare, rather than just 4 days.
Final story on how new kickers can be the hero (Rutgers) or the goat (Oregon St.) and how Pitt won’t be sure about Cummings until he actually plays.
Come on, with the late decision to cancel the Pitt-USF game, there wasn’t going to be a lot of news about Pitt in the papers this weekend. Add in the Labor Day holiday, and you get a couple columnists mailing it in with the lazy “…” columns. Guy Junker spends about half of his column on Pitt issues. As far as a quick hit column goes it isn’t bad — some semi-interesting points — but lack any real interest because the issues aren’t at all fleshed out.
Information on the upcoming game against the Ohio University Bobcats came out a day or two earlier than it would have. Probably would have been a Wednesday article, now filling space on Monday.
Looks like a quiet day.
Looks like others noticed the timing of Pitt’s basketball schedule release.
Considering it was released amid the hysteria of college football’s opening weekend and the heart-pounding drama of Steelers roster cuts (Grant Bowman, we hardly knew ya), Pitt’s 2004-05 basketball schedule might have escaped your notice.
Maybe that was the idea.
I would go with yes, that was the idea.
But enough bashing.
To be fair, Pitt has good reasons for playing so many cream-puff home games every year, and it’s not as if they’re the only ones doing it.
Have you seen Syracuse’s non-conference slate lately?
Not the only one’s doing it is hardly a good excuse. As for Syracuse. I did take a look.
No question it is an easy one, with Albany, Colgate and Binghamton — not to mention University of Northern Colorado entering their second year of Div. I play. Of course, they are also playing Oklahoma State. But here’s the sad thing for Pitt. You average out the 2003-04 RPI of the teams Syracuse is playing (and since Northern Colorado wasn’t even listed I placed them at #327) they still average out at 170.45. Pitt’s was at 184.91. They manage to play a tougher overall schedule.
Starkey runs through the excuses, but he admits it sucks and understanding the reasons doesn’t make it any more palatable.
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