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.
