For Pitt, part of the story from BC and this week is the team getting healthy. The offensive line (except for Rob Frederick) was the healthiest and strongest its been all year. While there was still pressure on Palko (and a couple no-call roughing the passer late hits), he was not sacked in the game. Part of that is attributable to his mobility and strength, but the O-line also deserves credit for at least slowing the down the advances. Now fullback Tim Murphy appears fully recovered from a high ankle sprain that had him sidelined since the first game of the season. This can only help the O-line with protection on passing and hopefully help improve the running game further.
Rutgers, on the other hand, has no depth in its secondary because of the accident last week. It’s running game has been virtually non-existent, in part due to its own problems with health on the O-line and its starting running back. While their RB, Brian Leonard, should be fully recovered they are still patching people in at the right offensive tackle position. As we’ve seen, shuffling offensive linemen into another spot on the line is not a great option.
Coach Harris, though, has irked the New Jersey media by either missing or skipping the teleconference with them.
Lots to talk about. Except Walt Harris wasn’t talking. The Pittsburgh coach has sealed his lips. Refused to indulge Rutgers’ media with the usual 10 or 15 minutes of phone Q-and-A yesterday.
It hasn’t been easy being Walt Harris this year, according to some reports. Pitt’s late-season slide last year, when a 7-2 start fueled by the brilliant Larry Fitzgerald and QB Rod Rutherford evaporated into an 8-5 finish, left a lot of Panther not-so-faithful disenchanted. Including, the rumors say, athletic director Jeff Long, who wasn’t there when the former Jets assistant was named head coach.
Then recruiting took a late hit with a number of critical defections. And both Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News in recent weeks have rumored Pitt grad Dave Wannstadt warming up in the Panther bullpen.
Maybe that’s why Harris copped out yesterday. It can’t be because he’s frightened of the Scarlet Knights, against whom his Pitt teams are 6-1 including five wins in a row.
Well, the Pittsburgh media is trying to take the Scarlet Knights seriously. I don’t know why Harris skipped out or missed. I thought he was required to do the teleconference under Big East rules. Seems stupid to miss it.
This brings us to the latest from Bob Smizik. With a Pitt win, there isn’t much to bash Harris for this week. So, instead he gets really ahead of the curve by complaining about how bad the Big East is, and will be. You know, this was standard predictable stuff back in June. By August it was overdone. To trot out this dog in late October? At the very least, you save it until the end of the season so it can be excused as a “look back” column. I would say he’s been saving it as a filler column, but it does reflect the current games.
