I noted that during the Rutgers game the announcers were talking about their conversation with Coach Wannstedt.

Here’s the thing, during the game, the announcers said that Coach Wannstedt told them he knew the team wasn’t as good as the preseason ranking, and he may have let the kids buy into the hype.

I have a problem with that. It strikes me as some after-the-fact excuse making and ass-covering. Something I wasn’t expecting from Coach Wannstedt. There was no indication or hint that the team would struggle like this.

This isn’t just starting from scratch, this is also wasting the talent that is there.

Looks like Matt Hayes at the Sporting News heard those comments as well (either that or he is reading this site).

Look, I haven’t given up on Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt yet, but it’s certainly disturbing when Wanny says his team’s preseason ranking might have been a little skewed considering the Panthers’ lack of speed.

This is a team that won eight games and went to a BCS bowl last season — and returned 17 starters and one of the nation’s best pass-catch combinations. Excuses are a sign of a frustrated — or, even worse, desperate — coach.

Looks like the South Florida game next Saturday will not be televised. It is slated for a 2 pm start time. If your high speed internet provider offers it, though, you can watch it on ESPN360.

Finally, there was the Dave Wannstedt press conference. Judging by the transcript, and this is just my reading of it, it wasn’t a particularly pleasant outing for Coach Wannstedt.

On analyzing the season to this point:

I think you have to go back and look at each game individually. Throw the Notre Dame game out. But if you look at the Ohio University game and say, what was the difference in winning and losing this game? Nebraska game – what was the difference in winning and losing this game? And then last week. That’s how you have to almost look at it. When guys get the opportunity to make some plays, we’ve got to make them. Every team has only so many guys that are capable of maybe making the big plays. Everybody has to kind of perform at the level that they’re capable of. That’s what we haven’t done. That’s been the difference in two wins, maybe three wins in my mind.

Um, uh, yeah. Sadly nothing about play-calling, game plans and adjustments as contributing factors.

So about the passing game this past week. Seemed to pick up a bit with the running game not working?

On passing more against Rutgers:

There were a lot of plays that we felt like we could have made running the ball, too. You can’t be one-dimensional. Very few teams are good enough to be that. We’ve got to do what we have to do to try to score some points. If it means throwing it a little bit more, we would do that. Coming in to the game, we felt like we could run the ball. We watched the tapes of Buffalo and people they played earlier that had success running the football.

Maybe I was watching a different game, but I didn’t see many plays that could have been made with the run. Maybe I am misunderstanding the response, but it seems that Coach Wannstedt is saying they could have run, but decided to pass.

On executing the blitz:

We blitzed them 27 times and get one sack. Our pressure, handling the pressure, we’ve got to do a better job. We’ve got to be more consistent, and when we bring some heat, we’ve got to get there. I don’t care if he gets sacked, but you’ve got to get him throwing off his back foot. You’ve got to knock him down some. The touchdown pass, he stood back there and stepped up and threw it. Everybody gets bent out of shape with the secondary guys when that happens, but guys shouldn’t be able to step up when you’re blitzing and make the perfect throw down the field – maybe quick, but not down the field.

Okay, this scares the hell out of me. Pitt blitzed that many times? Rutgers ran 71 plays, Pitt blitzed 38% of the time and it was hardly noticeable. I thought Pitt blitzed maybe 8 times. How bad does that speak about the ability of the defensive line to generate pressure?

Linebacker Brian Bennett is out for the rest of the season. The transcript didn’t say why, but he is having season ending surgery (I think it’s the knee).

Just read the whole thing. Cliches are out in force.