Image now removed.
As per the bet with the boys of BGS, this painful item will be here all day — at the top of the blog.
September 6, 2005
Listen. Do you hear that? It’s the sound of punditry trying to read too much into one game.
I made the mistake of watching some of the gab shows and the talk of the ND-Pitt game today. It kind of compelled me to add a coda.
Some sportswriters probably sprained something jumping off the Wannstedt bandwagon (or backpedaling from frontrunning attempts to claim that they identified the “next” Pete Carroll).
Except for the push-broom mustache, Dave Wannstedt was channeling Walt Harris. The Panthers lost another big game and got pushed around doing it. So much for Wanny’s tough defense and power running game. Talk about sucking the life out of a team. Notre Dame strung together a 20-play, seven-minute drive in the third quarter.
Then you have plenty of mention of this:
Notre Dame goes to the East Coast and pulls a surprising rout of the No. 23 team in the country, a defending conference champ at that. Where have we seen this before? Oh, right: Tyrone Willingham‘s debut, a 22-0 rout of then 21st-ranked Maryland, the defending ACC champ, three years ago this weekend.
Which the boys at BGS seemed to expect. Unsurprisingly they completely reject such comparisons.
Here’s the thing. It means nothing of the sort for anything or anyone.
If Pitt had won, someone would have pointed out that Wannstedt and the Dolphins beat the Patriots under Belichick and Weis the first 3 times they took over as coaches. Or the fact that the last time Pitt beat ND in the first year of a new ND coach was in ’86 under Lou Holtz — and how well Holtz ultimately worked out for ND.
All it means is that ND beat Pitt this year.
We can compare it, try and make sense of it. Claim to put it in some grand perspective or scheme. But we don’t know right now. History and time will determine it’s “greater” meaning for both schools.
I hope that is all.
You can see my week 1 ballot here and the overall blogpoll for week 1. Lots of shifting and changing. With just one game, I’m still not feeling totally confident. Some teams moved up for lack of anyone else to put in front of them at this point, some dropped, some added.
- Southern Cal — Until they actually lose a game.
- Texas — Given what happened to Oklahoma, I think I might get conned into believing they could win the Red River Shootout.
- Tennessee — How does a team with this much talent struggle at home to UAB? Dropped 1 spot.
- Ohio State — A very good team. I’m actually thinking the Texas-OSU game could approach the hype.
- Louisville — Moved up a spot by default. Kentucky was a rivalry game away, but it still shouldn’t have been that close
- Michigan — Also moved up by default. Notre Dame won’t be sneaking up on them, though.
- Florida — They will only be getting better as the season goes on under Meyer.
- Iowa — Very, very good team.
- Virginia Tech — I don’t believe in Vick, but they won on the road. They will choke at some point, but right now they deserve the ranking.
- Louisiana State — DNP, but 3 teams I thought were better than them lost.
- Miami (Florida) — Brutal and humiliating performance. Big drop from #5.
- Purdue — DNP
- Georgia — Maybe even higher, with an impressive opening blowout, but it’s hard to say how much Boise St. was overrated.
- Oklahoma — Still stunned they could lose to TCU. Maybe they need to rebuild more than I realized.
- Florida State — They won, but they will actually need to score some points before they rise any further on their own merits.
- Cal — This could drop back very quickly unless the new QB can keep them going.
- Auburn — Bad loss. Lots of talent lost.
- Arizona State — New entry into the list. Best of the new teams on my list.
- Georgia Tech — Big win. Chan Gailey has the pressure drop for a week.
- Fresno State — DNP
- Texas Tech — DNP
- Notre Dame — Beat Pitt fiercely and painfully. Pitt was overrated to be in the top-25 (and even worse by me), but ND looked very good in the game.
- Boston College — I still think middle of the pack in the ACC, but by default they get in the top-25.
- Iowa State — At least until the game against Iowa.
- Toledo — Possibly the best of the MAC.
Dropping off my ballot — Pitt (damn), Texas A&M (coaching brainlock), Boise St. (they had to at least make it look close), North Carolina St. (no team that gives away like that should be ranked), Miami (OH) (a little better showing was expected).
Added to ballot — Toledo, BC, Notre Dame, Arizona State.
Just missing — TCU (can’t really justify keeping them off the ballot, but a hunch)
Both Pitt and Ohio have their game notes (PDF for both). Here’s the Bobcats’ football page.
From the notes, I read that 10,000 “thundersticks” will be distrubuted, along with rally towels.
The Bobcats were bombed in Evanston by Northwestern 38-14. They had 239 yards of total offense.
The team worked out yesterday. On Sunday, rather than practice or do drills, the team spent the entire time watching tape of the ND loss and breaking it down.
One area that Wannstedt said he was very unhappy with was tackling. He said the tackling was atrocious Saturday, which is puzzling because they spent a lot of time working on tackling during camp.
“We missed a more than a couple of tackles,” Wannstedt said. “I was concerned with our live open-field tackling in that game. A couple of those plays they made 3 or 4 yards — that’s fine, that won’t beat you. But the ones where we missed, we need to work on that.
“We work on tackling every day that we are in pads. Full-speed tackling. So that’s a high priority for us and we’ll continue to make it a priority and we’ll get better.”
Wannstedt said there were definitely some positive things to come out off the game. He complimented the play of quarterback Tyler Palko and the wide receivers, in particular Greg Lee. He said the tight ends played well and was very happy with the play of the offensive line and running backs.
Sadly, poor tackling has been an issue for Pitt the last couple of years.
I’m a little wary about the running game. It seemed Pitt was having trouble running up the middle. The good runs came on sweeps or just getting to the sidelines. Kirkley had a good bust, and Stephens had very good speed getting around the corner. I also don’t understand why Brandon Mason wasn’t given any carries.
Still, Coach Wannstedt is and always has been a “glass is half-full” kind of guy.
“Like Bill Parcells always said: ‘At least we know who we are today,’ ” he said. “We found out what our strengths are and where we need to improve. A lot of times you get to start off with someone a little lesser than Notre Dame and you might be able to play through some of your shortcomings, but we didn’t.
“Our focus now has to be on the areas we need to improve, but that game is not going to determine what type of season we have. It is how we react off of that one.
“We have to bounce back, and we will.”
The defensive line needs work, and not just getting Thomas Smith healthy. The good news, Ohio University’s O-line isn’t nearly the same class as ND’s.
“We don’t have a lot of experience on the offensive line,” Ohio coach Frank Solich said. “And we’re not that huge.”
The Bobcats have two returning starters — junior tackle Matt Coppage and sophomore guard Matt Miller — on their offensive line. Junior center J.J. Knabb (Peters Township), sophomore guard Paul Johnson and junior tackle Matt Coppage also started in last week’s 38-14 loss against Northwestern.
The only 300-pounders on Ohio’s first-string unit are Johnson (316) and Miller (301).
The game, of course, is on Friday night. Both schools are being apologetic to area high schools and blaming ESPN.
The great advantage to a short week, is there isn’t a lot of time to stew.
Well, Palko has a bruised right hand (his non-throwing). It’s no real shock that the players are hardly ready to toss the season in the crapper.
Palko’s injury is the result of a crunching second-quarter hit, and he spoke defiantly about the season ahead.
“Our spirits aren’t going to be crushed,” he said. “We’re not little girls. … We figured out last year you’ve got to learn the hard way sometimes.”
Lee, the Panthers’ leading receiver last season who caught a 39-yard touchdown pass from Palko to give Pitt a short-lived 7-0 lead in the first quarter, agreed with Palko’s assessment but was a bit more diplomatic.
“We just need to stay optimistic,” Lee said. “It’s a big loss, but we’ve got a full season ahead of us. We’ve still got a lot more games to win; 10-1 is a good season.”
Blades, the Panthers’ outstanding linebacker who led them in tackles with a game-high 13 against Notre Dame, sat in a corner and stared at the floor long after the game had ended.
“I can’t describe the feeling right now,” the junior said. “They just came out and beat us. They wanted it more than we did. It’s a wakeup call.”
While his teammates and coaching staff all had different ways of coping with the loss, Palko remained constant.
“We got our tails kicked,” he said. “There’s one of two ways you can go from here — put your tail between your legs and crawl and run away from it and hide, or face it like a man. We’ve got 10 games left.”
Blades is also not ready to let the defense get away with the excuse that ND’s O-line was bigger and more experienced.
“Nobody wants to hear excuses. We need to play football. You have to deal with [a team that is bigger and more experienced]. You can’t complain, just go play,” Blades said. “It is just that simple. This isn’t rocket science. We just have to make plays. That’s it. This is one game. Our season isn’t lost, our season isn’t over, but it will be if we, meaning all of us on defense, don’t do a better job of stepping up and taking care of our business.”
The Big East as a whole did not have a good opening weekend. In terms of types of losses, though, I think I’d take the blowout to ND over blowing a 20 point lead to a bad Illinois team.
The national reviews for Coach Wannstedt’s debut were not positive.
