Pitt has control of its destiny to a large degree again. I think I’ve mentioned once or twice, how much of a problem that can be. Oh, it doesn’t control getting a BCS bid, but if it even wants to make the Insight Bowl and not wait for another bowl to open up, it has to win. Pitt is close and if you want to see how they could make the BCS bowl, it is in the sidebar to this article.
In Harris’ weekly Big East teleconference call, he admitted that the WVU game is a really big game with all of its implications.
“The chances we have are only there if we win,” Harris said on his weekly teleconference. “We have to do everything we can do to win this game because it is a big one. We’ve had two excruciating losses the last two years, so there is more riding on this one than maybe your normal one.
“But I’ve found that if we take care of our business, everything else works itself out. So we have to get ourselves ready to play our best game of the year. We need to win and if we do, some other things could happen for us. It all starts with a win.”
Some members of the media are doing something of a mea culpa regarding Harris calling out some of the players during training camp and pre-season. Seems Harris did know which players needed a bit of a verbal kick in the ass to get focused (Greg Lee). I for one am very happy to be wrong about my concerns.
“I had a good feel for the pulse of our team and our players,” Harris said. “[Media] ran with [my criticism of my players] and ran with it in a negative way, but one thing you recognize now is that, once we get down, we don’t stay down. We are a tough team. I’m not saying we’re the toughest team around, but this is one of the most mentally tough, hard-hitting, we won’t die, teams I’ve had the pleasure to coach.”
Fair enough.
The name change from Team Pittsburgh to Panther Club was noted. Pat wondered why they just didn’t go back to the original name of “Golden Panthers.” I would hazard two possibilities: Golden Panthers sounds like a retirement community of old Pitt alumni and they can use that term as a really high level of donations within Panther Club.
Apparently WVU Coach Rich Rodriguez would like to play the game now, rather than a week later. So would I. The longer the wait, the more time to speculate, ruminate, and overprepare. Pitt has not done well in big games when it has too much time to think about it.
