Despite spotting USF 10 points and looking like the team was going to do its damnedest to give the game away early, I am cautiously willing to say Pitt showed something today. The Panthers didn’t panic and they played a solid game. The offensive play calling was actually aggressive and it seemed much more friendly to using the pass to set up the run. You know, using the skills of the players, playing with the strengths.

The defensive strategy was solid, straight-forward and smart. Stop the run and make USF beat Pitt with the pass. USF’s QB, Pat Julmiste gets something of a bad rep. The plain fact is that he does not have particularly good receivers. Several drops killed their drives. Johnny Peyton should be a stud for them given his size, speed and apparent strength — all the tools; but he plays very soft. No aggression or passion it would seem.

Palko seemed much better in the pocket — getting some better protection — despite an early turnover and a slightly shaky start. This article by the way, shows why sports writers shouldn’t try to do math.

Palko, whose statistics have dropped off appreciably following the changeover from former coach Walt Harris’ quarterback-friendly West Coast offense to Wannstedt’s more traditional, run-heavy system, finished 15-of-21 for 203 yards and no interceptions. He came into the game with 1,366 yards passing — barely one-third the 3,067 yards he finished with last season.

[Emphasis added.]

Ummm… that’s about 44% of what he had for the season. Barely 1/3 would be around 1050 yards. Considering Pitt was halfway through the season before today’s game, and the emphasis on the run, that total isn’t horrible. Not necessarily what was expected, but not nearly as bad as described.

USF was quite disappointed with its performance.

“I thought we played horrible,” coach Jim Leavitt said after his Bulls lost their fifth road game in a row. “I want to give Pittsburgh credit because you always do that. But I didn’t think we played a very good football game. I’m very disappointed. There’s really no excuse today. None.”

Reads like he really doesn’t want to give Pitt much credit.

I was surprised during the game at the lack of speed from USF. I was expecting a much faster team on both sides of the ball from what I had read and heard. Instead, they were sluggish and not particularly quick.

Hopefully this link will work. This should be a way to see some of the highlights from ESPN Motion.

Heading out in a few minutes, here’s the final news round-up and summary.

Pitt worried about the team speed of USF — especially on defense. On offense they are mainly concerned with RB Andre Hall. Averaging 100+ yards/game and around 5 yards per carry.

With this spread offense and the way Pitt has been burned by mobile QBs, I’m more than a little worried about QB Pat Julmiste. Not sacked much, and has 171 yards on 44 runs — he could end up killing Pitt with his feet. Not being mentioned as an issue in the stories, though.

USF’s offensive lineman Frank Davis is from Panama and likes wearing shoes that fit.

When USF was upsetting Louisville, Greg Lee’s father kept calling him with score updates. Totally disrupting his dinner at the Olive Garden.

Finally, the Bulls are out for revenge. USF Head Coach Jim Leavitt’s quote about having “the dog beat” out of them is used again — or he just likes that phrase a lot.