Really Late, I know. I expect tomorrow will have the real recriminations. The game was too late for the deep articles. So articles tended to have a rushed, beat the deadline feel.

Graessele suffered his concussion making a tackle on that return at the end of the half that set up UConn’s field goal for a 13-10 lead. Punt returns with Allen Richardson was another disaster; and punt and kick coverage was horrible. The O-line took more injuries as Pettiti — who was not playing particularly well in the game — was hurt.

Even in Connecticut, they know Walt Harris’ days are likely numbered, and know that the decisions at the end of the 1st half are a crystallizing moment.

When a program isn’t meeting expectations and a coach is under pressure, the little things become magnified.

Such was the case with one play call made by Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris and his Panthers in the second quarter of their 29-17 loss to UConn at Rentschler Field Thursday night. Trailing UConn 10-7 with 57 seconds left before halftime, Pitt faced a third-and-12 at the UConn 12.

Pitt called timeout to set up a play. Instead of taking one shot at the end zone, quarterback Tyler Palko rushed to the middle of the field for a loss of 1 yard. Josh Cummings then came on and tied the score with a 30-yard field goal.

“I decided to go for the field goal,” Harris said. “It was third down and 12 from there and we’ve got a young quarterback. We tried to run the ball over and get it in perfect position for our field goal kicker. We thought going in at halftime 10-10 would be the intelligent way to play this game on the road. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen that way. It didn’t end that way.”
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Despite all that, expectations heading into this season were lower and a 41-38 overtime victory over Furman, the No. 2 team in Division I-AA, last Saturday had put Harris in a defensive mood. Things started going downhill last season when the Panthers didn’t live up to preseason expectations with a talented team that included Heisman Trophy candidate Larry Fitzgerald. Pitt lost five games, including a 23-16 setback to Virginia in the Continental Tire Bowl.

That increased the pressure on Harris, 57, who has taken the Panthers to four consecutive bowls. His contract expires after the 2006 season and there is no indication that a new one is in the works.

Arguably, Harris has held a new contract in his own hands with this season. At least show that he understood what needed to improve and take steps towards remedying them. Of course, last year’s Miami game showed what happens when you let a Walt Harris Pitt team have control of its own destiny.

Actually, one columnist managed to get his blast out early on the game. Gene Collier with something of a must read.

While it was easy enough to determine what Connecticut was trying to do on the damp New England lawn, it was impossible to know what Pitt was attempting at the manic behest of Walt Harris.

These are difficult times for the Panthers’ coach. It is the dawn of the Tyler Palko Era, and it is the twilight of Harris’ tenure, and the odd light thrown by unnaturally conflicting career rotations is getting harder and harder to describe.

Harris doesn’t seem to have any trouble putting Palko in situations that are ridiculously high risk, such as throwing from his own end zone into the flat on the road, but can’t seem to bring himself to let the talented sophomore flash his skills and build on his modest successes.

While it is not exactly news that the relationship between Harris, alleged passing game mastermind, and his inevitably skittish quarterbacks is an issue best left to the psychotherapists, the symptoms last night reached absolutely bizarre proportions.

When a Connecticut punt rolled dead at the 2 in a scoreless first quarter, Harris flirted with sanity and sent tailback Raymond Kirkley up the middle for a yard of oxygen. On second down, insanity returned. Palko dropped back into his own end zone and fired into the left flat for Greg Lee.

Connecticut cornerback Justin Perkins stepped in front of it and was in the Panthers’ end zone before he even had to accelerate.

Harris must consider being compelled to punt some kind of school-yard humiliation, which is curious in that sometimes a punt is his best offensive play. Adam Graessle bombed a 74-yard punt out of the Pitt end zone just three possessions after the interception, bailing the Panthers out of a contorted spell in which the offense would commit four pre-snap penalties in six plays.

Late in the first half, with Pitt trailing, 10-7, Harris had Palko execute a series of maneuvers I’d be tempted to call unprecedented if only I’d been watching football for a little more than 44 years. So I’ll just call them preposterous.
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Before third-and-goal at the 12, Pitt called a timeout to think things over. Unless you’re Walt, there isn’t much to think about. This is what Palko is at Pitt for, to sizzle third-and-goal passes into the end zone from the 12, because ostensibly he can. But he won’t if Harris keeps dealing in the kind of brainstorm he was about to display.

Palko took the snap on the left hash, ran two steps to his right … and … slid.

He slid. I believe he was safe. He lost a yard, but centered the spot of the ball so Josh Cummings could kick a 30-yard field goal for a 10-10 tie that would last 19 seconds.

“No,” Harris said when asked if he considered going to the end zone on third-and-12. “I decided to go for the field goal on third-and-12 with a young quarterback. I thought that going in at half tied, 10-10, would be the intelligent way to play this game when you’re on the road.”

If you can get past the spectacle of a quarterback intentionally sliding to a stop in his own backfield on third down, you can write this off to Harris’ penchant for outsmarting himself. But if you’re Tyler Palko, what are you thinking — this guy will let me throw it from my own end zone, but not into theirs?

If Harris thought there was negativity before, this week should be brutal.