It’s quiet in the dailies. Too quiet. I realize Monday is reserved for lots of articles on the Steelers, but the lack of swift and active critiques of Pitt and Walt Harris all weekend has to be unnerving for him. It’s a bad thing. It means the knives are being drawn a lot slower and the cuts will be deeper when they come. Like what? I’m thinking timelines, lists blunders and missteps. Maybe even a well thought out and reasoned column from Smizik — okay, I may be reaching a bit on the last. The Monday press conference should be a very tense event.
Guy Junker’s weekly scattershot column leads with the obvious: the Big East sucks in football. Hell, I don’t think there is a person following college football, not employed by the Big East or member institutions, who disputes that. There’s a reason that Big East officials are already mentioning the success of Louisville despite the fact that they won’t be members until next year. Junker also takes his shot at Harris,
That is a losing mentality. First, how can Palko get game experience when he runs a give up play? What happens the next time he’s facing a third and goal late in the half or late in the game? Wouldn’t it have been better to let him tryfor a touchdown, even if for no other reason than to learn? He says all the politically correct things, but how do you think Palko really feels about Walt Harris showing no confidence in him at all?
Yet, he was allowed to throw out of his own end zone even though he wasn’t allowed to throw into UConn’s. How about a fade or a screen or something fairly safe. And if UConn was expecting a pass, how about a draw play?
Now, I asked myself this question: If the Huskies don’t return the ensuing kickoff to midfield and complete a quick pass before kicking a field goal as time expired to retake the lead, would I think differently?
No, because you can’t play scared. You can’t play not-to-lose football. The message sent to that entire Pitt football team in the last minute of the first half last Thursday was that “we aren’t good enough to compete.”
Essentially along the lines of what Collier said.
The beat writers are doing their job, trying to look to the Saturday game at Temple. Zeise, though, appears to be at then end of his tolerance for the same starting with the very first sentence of his notebook.
Pitt’s running game — and this is an old story — is having a hard time getting out of the gate.
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If Pitt is to have any chance of finishing with a winning record and making a bowl game, it will need far more production from its running game. With a better running game, Palko, who has been sacked 13 times and is under enormous pressure most of the time, would have a better chance of being successful as well.
Of course, that would mean the offensive line would have to open up an occasional whole or actually push forward, rather than be driven backwards.
The Temple game is seen as Pitt’s “get well” game. Both physically and mentally. Pitt, oddly enough, may feel even more pressure in this game. MAC power Bowling Green decimated Temple this past Saturday by 54 points. That’s harsh. If Pitt doesn’t win by at least 20 after that, then Pitt will look even worse.
