The Pitt News has a list of some Pitt players in the NFL, presently. It includes what, if anything, they did this past week. It isn’t a complete list.

There is also an interview with Mark May talking about Pitt — today and yesterday.

Three weeks ago, on national television, ESPN college football analyst Mark May picked Pitt as the most disappointing team in college football this season. However, the former Pitt offensive lineman still sees a bright future for his alma mater.

May, who was recently inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, was honored at halftime of Pitt’s 34-17 win over Syracuse Saturday at Heinz Field. In an interview Thursday with The Pitt News he defended his assessment of the Panthers.

“Nationally, if you are pre-season ranked in the top 25 in just about every poll,” May said, “and then you proceed to lose to Rutgers and Ohio, what does that say?”

Considering Pitt’s current winning streak, May acknowledges that they have turned the corner on their season.

Pitt hasn’t necessarily turned the corner. All they have done is applied the brakes and stopped skidding.

We are back to crime and punishment. Steven Walker, if you can dimly recall the beginning of August, was the former Pitt player charged with murder in Canton, Ohio of a 17-year old.

His trial is underway. No one is innocent.

His trial began Monday in Stark County Common Pleas Court. Testimony is expected to conclude today.

The first day featured conflicting statements by three of the prosecution’s eyewitnesses. But their testimony was consistent that Walker shot Cheek.

Two of Cheek’s friends, 17-year-old Aubrey Williams and 18-year-old Julius Edwards, testified that they saw Walker shoot Cheek. And store clerk Hussin al-Muzerwi said he watched Walker pull something from near his waist and chase after Cheek. He said he then heard gunshots.

The weapon, believed to be a 9 mm pistol, was not recovered.

Defense attorney Wayne Graham said in opening statements that his client didn’t shoot Cheek.

According to the testimony, Cheek and three friends went to the store July 29 to buy white T-shirts so they could go to a bar, even though they were well below the legal drinking age of 21. Cheek and Edwards were wearing tank tops that weren’t allowed in the bar.

When they arrived at the store, there was a confrontation between Cheek and Walker, who was upset that rival gang members were there, according to testimony. Cheek punched Walker because he wouldn’t shut up, Edwards said.

The question is whether the jury will believe the witnesses, given their conflicting testimony. For example, Williams testified that he, Cheek and Edwards were gang members. But later, Edwards testified that Cheek and Williams weren’t gang members.

Williams also admitted he possessed crack cocaine at the time and said he intended to “distribute” it.

Sad story, looking for a sad ending.

That’s a big topic today. What is up with Pitt’s hideous starts to games?

Pitt has gotten off to sluggish starts in four of its past six games, making blunders and falling behind early against Nebraska, Rutgers, South Florida and Syracuse.

The upside is the Panthers (4-4, 3-1 Big East) were able to recover in time to beat USF and Syracuse, two key victories that have put them in the hunt for the conference title.

Coach Dave Wannstedt will take a comeback win any day, but he would prefer to see his team dominate from the start.

“We’re after perfection here,” Wannstedt said. “That’s the challenge we have as a football team and I have as a head coach — to really get our team to eliminate those mistakes that put us in a hole early.”
…
“It’s not a physical thing,” Wannstedt said. “Is it that we’re overconfident? I would hope not. Is it that we’re not focused? Our practices were great (last) week.

“I think it might be a little bit of that whole mental maturity thing, of being mature enough to … not become stressed, like, ‘I’ve got to make the play,’ rather than just being poised. We’ve got to find a way to come out and play poised football from the beginning.”

I think a lot of it is mental. I’m not so sure it comes from trying to make the big play. Honestly, the play calling makes that kind of difficult — usually short passes and runs. It seems more from fear of screwing up. The offensive line, especially, doesn’t seem to pick things up in its protection and blocking until it gets burned badly. It just seems to have snowballed, so that everyone on offense comes out tight and with the mentality, “don’t screw-up.”

It isn’t just starting slowly, it is the way the offense has given up field position and the ball.

Pitt was fortunate that it was able to battle back and beat the Bulls and the Orange, but the hole was too deep against the Scarlet Knights, despite a furious second-half rally.

A common thread in all three games has been penalties, turnovers, bad execution and poor special teams. With Louisville’s offense, a slow start by the Panthers could mean a 30-0 hole instead of a 10-0 deficit.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said yesterday that he doesn’t think the slow starts are a reflection of not being prepared. He said the opposite might be true — the team is too excited and tries to force big plays instead of playing within their capabilities. He said the biggest issue has been consistency, and that’s what he’ll focus on in the days leading up to the Louisville game.

“The whole thing is the mentality to be consistent and let the plays take care of themselves,” Wannstedt said during the Big East coaches weekly teleconference. “We don’t need to force plays. We have to take what they give us. We are focused, we are ready to play but the word to our players is that we need to be more consistent and consistently good. We just need to let big plays take care of themselves.”

In the first quarter this season, Pitt has been out-scored 51-29. Take out the YSU game and it is 51-20.

Here are the scoring numbers by quarter:

1 — 2 — 3— 4 —- Total
29 – 61 – 69 – 51 —- 210 — Pitt
51 – 62 – 28 — 9 —- 156 — Opp

Oddly enough, only the Rutgers game resulted in a loss from the really bad 1st quarter start. Still the chances for Pitt coming storming back on the road against Louisville would not be particularly encouraging.

Well, the players have a few days to just work out and get healthy. The coaching staff is out on the recruiting trail and practices won’t resume until Thursday. From a recruiting standpoint, the late-season bye would appear to have been a good thing. It would have been a little harder to sell a kid on Pitt and Coach Wannstedt in the middle of the slide.

Meanwhile, down in Louisville the focus is on getting healthy and working on the fundamentals during their bye week.

“I think we need it,” U of L coach Bobby Petrino said Monday during his weekly press conference. “It’s been a pretty good grind, so I like the fact we have a bye week now.”

Petrino gave the players Sunday and Monday off, then plans hard work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. He said about half of each practice will be devoted to individual technique and fundamentals, with the other half dedicated to preparations for Pitt. The Cards will start their normal game week preparation on Saturday.

Their wide receiver Mario Urrutia looks to still be out, though, for the game with an injury.

Louisville, in the wake of their loss to WVU had shaken up the secondary for the following game. The younger players got the start. The competition in their secondary appears to be wide open at this time.

H.B. Blades was named Defensive Player of the Week in the Big East. The leader on the defense matched his season average of 11 tackles per game and grabbed the tipped pass for an interception he returned for a touchdown.

A first-team All-Big East performer last year, Blades has continued to play at an all-star caliber level in 2005. He leads the Big East and ranks 13th nationally with an average of 11 tackles per game. His 88 total tackles are by far the most in the Big East. (The second-ranked defender, Rutgers’ Courtney Greene, has only 63 total stops.)

I’m pretty sure he’s the first Pitt player this year to take a weekly player of the week honor. Louisville’s Defensive End Elvis Dumervil has seemingly (and deservedly) had a lock on the Defensive Player of the Week honors. 19 sacks, 46 tackles and 8 fumbles forced in 7 games will get you attention.

While the rest of us get to second guess.

Another article about how the Pitt defense has kept its plans very simple.

According to weakside linebacker J.J. Horne, the beauty of the accomplishment is that they’ve done it without trying to get tricky. Instead, they have scaled back the defensive game plan, with an emphasis on keeping it simple.
…
Blades, who intercepted a pass in the first half and returned it 38 yards for a touchdown, said a reason the more basic approach is so successful is that the underclassmen and first-year starters aren’t overloaded with assignments and keys.

“You can’t get much simpler than what we did [Saturday],” Blades said. “Guys were just running around, making plays and having fun. We just went full speed to the ball on every play. We didn’t blitz much, we basically ran one call the entire first half.

“And the younger guys don’t have to think as much. They all know their responsibilities in the base defense and they just go out and play. It comes more naturally.”

The article points out though, that this has taken place against Cinci, USF and ‘Cuse. The 3 worst teams in the Big East in terms of offense. The next team Pitt faces will be Louisville.

Louisville is the best offense in the Big East by a wide margin, and the #7 offense in the country. They get nearly 500 yards per game (300 in the air, 200 ground) and average almost 47 points a game.

So here’s the quandry for the defense. What do you do with the schemes and game plan?

This is the bye week. They have time to work on more things. Do they go back to adding some more schemes, disguising coverages, blitz packages, etc? Or does the coaching staff work on keeping it simple and basic? Emphasize and focus on fundamentals and drills.

Either way, they are setting themselves up for second-guessing.

Stick to what they have been doing and get torched and everyone will question why, when they had extra time to add some wrinkles, and how could they rest on what they did against the bad offenses.

Go with new stuff and if it doesn’t work then everyone will ask why they didn’t just stick to the basics which had been working and focus on the fundamentals of defense.

I don’t have an answer at this time. Hope they do.

A Q&A with Pitt Forward Levon Kendall. Mainly just stuff about his personal life and how he is “quirky.” Nothing following up on his comments in September about Krauser and playing in the system.

There isn’t much to add. Against a bad Syracuse team, Pitt was rather balanced on offense.

In Syracuse, they are still dissecting how bad the offense is.

But in the blink of an eye it was over, and Dr. Jekyll transformed back into a Mr. Hyde that has haunted this team for the vast majority of seven games now. He reared his ugly mug on SU’s very next possession, which began at the Pitt 15-yard line courtesy of a brilliant individual play by senior defensive end James Wyche, who sacked Panther quarterback Tyler Palko and jarred the ball loose, then swept it into his grasp while lying on the ground before Palko and a diving offensive lineman could get to it.

… SU’s response was a 1-yard gain by Damien Rhodes, two incomplete passes and a Barker field goal.

Pitt, which could have been down 21-0 less than a quarter into the game, was only behind 10-0. Even so, considering that the Orange was about to benefit from a blocked punt by Smith that resulted in a special-teams touchdown, all the offense had to do was stay out of the way and let an impressive defensive game plan authored by Robinson continue to unfold.

It failed to do so. One interception resulted directly in a Pitt touchdown. Another set up a second one. Suddenly, a game that could have been an SU blowout at the half was instead knotted at 17.

At the very least, 13-0 if not for the missed field goal.

For Syracuse, the numbers didn’t lie. The biggest being the fact that they were 0-12 on third downs. This extended their Div 1-A lead in worst 3rd down conversion percentage over North Texas. 15.8 to 23.3.

Also, after the Pitt game, it seems Syracuse will not be calling for a screen pass for the foreseeable future.

When a reporter asked about the problems running the screen, Robinson fired back and asked what the reporter thought. Robinson asked if he thought it was because of that one interception or a season-long problem. The reporter mentioned Florida State and a few other games and Robinson agreed.

“You’re probably right,” Robinson said. “Florida State, that’s a good one. Buffalo, that’s another one. Two weeks ago. We might have to put the old screen play on the shelf.

“That’s a bone of contention right now – that play. It’s probably best to cool it off for a little bit right now.”

It was a screen pass (so they say) that Thomas Smith tipped to H.B. Blades for the interception and touchdown.

About the actual game, it was observed that the offensive line provided decent protection for Palko — after the 1st quarter.

The battle between Syracuse’s defensive ends and Pitt’s offensive tackles was supposed to be a mismatch, and it turned out to be just that.

The funny thing is, the Panthers’ tackles were supposed to be the ones who were overmatched, but, instead, they dominated the Orange’s stellar pass-rushing combination of James Wyche and Ryan LaCasse the entire game.

It wasn’t by coincidence, either.

“I heard an awful lot about those two guys all this week,” said Pitt left tackle Charles Spencer, who was a big reason the Panthers gave up only one sack.

“I’ve been getting it all week from our coaches about their defensive ends, so this was something personal. They are really good defensive ends. I don’t take anything from them, but I think I did a pretty good job against them.”

The young players stepped up on offense, with LaRod Stephens-Howling getting his first 100 yard game. Derek Kinder had probably his best game in his young career with 8 catches for 81 yards and a TD.

“I think I’m gaining Tyler’s confidence a lot,” Kinder said. “I’m just trying to come down with every pass he throws to me, and I think it helps him a lot that he knows he can look to me when he goes through his progressions and trusts that I’ll be open. And scoring a touchdown was icing on the cake.”

The one guy on Syracuse who was as good on the field as the press and coaches were saying before hand was Safety Anthony Smith.

No one has blocked more kicks at Syracuse than senior free safety Anthony Smith.

On Saturday, Smith blocked a punt attempt by Pittsburgh’s Adam Graessle. Teammate Reggie McCoy gathered the block and returned it 21 yards for a Syracuse touchdown.

It was the sixth block of Smith’s career and established a school mark. All have been punts.

“We went out there with a plan and executed the plan,” Smith said. “One of their guys kicked too wide and I just went underneath. It was pretty easy (to get it). I got in there scot-free. I seen Reggie out of the corner of my eye, I was just like, touchdown.”

Smith, who led the nation coming into the contest in passes defended, had an interception which he returned 73 yards. Smith led the Orange with 12 tackles.

I don’t know how the coaches are spinning it or how it looked on TV, but from where we were in the stands, it looked like Graessle took way too much time to get off the punt. Something that would infuriate Pat all of last year.

Something I wish I could have passed on before the game, but I didn’t realize it. The Syracuse beat writer has a blog and was live-blogging updates throughout the game. Actually, a pretty cool thing.

Not surprisingly, the loss is being pegged on the offense (gee, that sounds awfully familiar).

The Syracuse University football team is chained to an offense that is taking the Orange straight to the bottom of the ocean.

Defense and special teams set the stage for an upset on Saturday against the University of Pittsburgh. But the Orange offense tossed it all overboard with another dreary performance in a 34-17 Big East Conference loss before 33,059 fans at rain-soaked Heinz Field.

Syracuse blew a 17-7 lead against the Panthers – the first time since the Virginia game on Sept. 17 it has led an opponent – by throwing four interceptions, losing a fumble and finishing with 202 yards of offense. The Orange was 0-for-12 converting third downs, had possession of the football 11 minutes less than Pittsburgh because the offense could not stay on the field and repeated a familiar and demoralizing script that is grotesque in its consistency.

At Syracuse Head Coach Robinson’s press conference today, he was not terribly optimistic.

Robinson on if there is anything positive after looking at the film:

“No fumbles. We went from nine to zero. That’s much improved. Now, there were other turnovers, but our ball security was better. You have to eliminate the interceptions and getting hit by the ball on a punt.”

Robinson on the biggest challenge of coaching a 1-6 team:

“Getting that second win. It really is. I thought that last week; same thing. It’s hard. Like I said, at halftime we had given ourselves a chance at least. It was basically a 0-0 ball game. It’s hard. It’s hard to win, it really is. That’s where it’s at right now.”

Saturday was Pitt’s homecoming, so it was fitting that Syracuse running backs coach Desmond Robinson would find himself on the sideline at Heinz Field.

Robinson, a linebacker and defensive end at Pitt in the late 1970s, is in his first season as the running backs coach at Syracuse. He broke into coaching as a graduate assistant for Jackie Sherrill at Pitt in 1981.

Just one of those things.

Other stories on Pitt, focus on the offense coming along from where it was at the start of the season.

Pitt had seven second-half drives. Four of those lasted at least six plays. Two of those hit double digits and were more than four minutes long. This from a team that combined with its offensively challenged opponent on 17 drives that went five plays or less through early in the third quarter.

Is the Frankenstein-like running offense Wannstedt has created perfect? Hardly. But it’s worlds better than the one that pushed around by Notre Dame and Nebraska early in the season.

He left out Ohio.

Tyler Palko doesn’t have any answers for the bad offensive starts, but he’s trying not to think too much about it (at least publicly).

“I don’t know why we keep coming out flat and falling behind in the first half,” Palko said.

“I really can’t put my finger on it, but we’ve been able to recover and win, so I guess we’re doing a good job in staying focused.”

And as long as the opponents are bottom feeders, there’s always time to comeback.

Coach Wannstedt is also trying to figure out the slow offensive starts.

“It’s not a physical thing. I don’t know if it’s a mental thing. Overconfidence? God, I hope not,” Wannstedt said. “It’s a mental maturity thing. It’s about not being stressed, like thinking, ‘I’ve got to make the play.’

“Being poised. That’s it. Poised football.”

Must. Go. Zen.

Owed time with the family — and a collective cold — along with football and the World Series.

Before I get to the game stuff, a quick prop to regular commenter RKohberger for getting a Q in the P-G College Football Q&A (hat tip to Chris who e-mailed me Friday night about it).

Q: How much will the success of Penn State this year affect Pitt’s recruiting efforts? This year’s batch of high school seniors have committed and do you see anyone changing their minds due to Pitt’s slow start and Penn State’s winning season?

Reed Kohberger of Columbia, Md.

FITTIPALDO: I have not heard of a Pitt recruit going back on his commitment, Reed. Pitt has received a handful of commitments and some of those players are highly ranked, and they all seem to be sticking by coach Dave Wannstedt as he molds the Panthers into his type of team. Penn State is doing quite well again this year on the field and in recruiting, but I don’t think it has a great effect on Pitt. Paterno will get a few and Wannstedt will get a few from the WPIAL, but after that I don’t think they’re recruiting many of the same players regionally or nationally.

A lot of the highly ranked players committing to, or considering going to PSU this year seem to be from the Eastern/Central PA and further along the Atlantic Coast. Not sure if it is because Pitt (and some other schools) plucked the big names in the Western part of the state early or not.

Paul Zeise had his Q&A as well, which started off with a bit of a “told you so,” attitude regarding Pitt heading into the Syracuse game.

Q: As Pitt climbs back into the Big East race, what freshmen and other new faces do you believe will continue to see playing time? Will players like Conredge Collins, John Bachman and C. J Davis play a little less with the upcoming weeks as the competition gets better?

ZEISE: Well, C. J. Davis is in the starting lineup so he’s going to play regardless and I would expect him to get better as he gets more experience. Pitt offensive line coach Paul Dunn said earlier this week that Bachman will get on the field as the game dictates because he is behind Charles Spencer, who happens to be one of the better players on offense. Conredge Collins is now playing on the special teams, but with the backfield situation as crowded as it is, you are correct, I would expect him to be used in a similar manner to how he has been used at fullback the past few weeks. I would expect Tim Murphy will handle the bulk of the plays that call for a fullback. As for the other true freshmen who have played, guys like Rashaad Duncan, LaRod Stephens-Howling, Rashad Jennings, Gus Mustakas – those guys have proven they are the best players, or among the best, at their respective positions so they will continue to play.

Looks like H.B. Blades took a vocal leadership role during the game and it resonated.

But, between the first and second quarters, middle linebacker H.B. Blades delivered a simple message to his defensive teammates.

“I told the guys, we can’t wait for the offense to score, let’s score ourselves,” Blades said. “I told them it was time for us to step up and make some big plays ourselves until the offense got going.”

Blades not only delivered the speech, he also delivered the goods as he picked off a pass by Syracuse quarterback Perry Patterson and returned it 38 yards for a touchdown on the third play of the second quarter. That sparked the Panthers, who tied the score by halftime and cruised to a 34-17 win.

But while Blades and the Panthers’ defense might have led the way — they held the Orange to only 202 yards as Syracuse went 0 for 12 on third down — freshman sensation LaRod Stephens-Howling and emerging star Derek Kinder provided the offense with some much-needed punch.

Stephens-Howling made his first start, rushed 23 times for 101 yards (4.4 per carry) while Kinder had eight catches for 81 yards and a touchdown. When the speedy Stephens-Howling wasn’t in the game, Pitt’s other freshman tailback, Rashad Jennings, pounded the Orange for 52 yards on 12 carries.

You know, as bad and as quickly as Pitt got down in the first quarter, Syracuse only had the ball for under 5 minutes. It was something like 4:40, they showed the 1st quarter stats on the jumbotron and that was somewhat surprising.

The defense wasn’t doing anything fancy in the game.

For Pitt, a simplified defensive plan worked with brutal efficiency Saturday in its 34-17 thrashing of Syracuse at Heinz Field.

“In the first half, we ran basically one call. You can’t get much simpler than that,” linebacker H.B. Blades said. “We just went full speed to the ball, and you saw the results. We didn’t blitz much. We just ran around and had fun.”
…
“At the beginning of this season, we had trouble handling adversity,” Pitt linebacker J.J. Horne said. “When the offense couldn’t get things going, we’d go out there with our heads down, and we’d let (the other team) drive down the field.

“Today, when our offense turned the ball over, coach looked in our eyes and we were smiling, like, ‘Let’s go play.’ ”

After restoring their 10-point edge, the Orange were unable to piece together a decent drive.

An interception by Horne, who is playing despite a separated shoulder that has not yet fully healed, led to a score. Palko hit wideout Derek Kinder with an 11-yard touchdown toss.
…
Guys are getting confident and getting results,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said of his defense. “We’re not doing nearly as much.”

By that, Wannstedt meant the Panthers aren’t doing as much with the schemes as they were earlier in the season.

“I was a little upset about that,” Horne said with mock seriousness. “We had plays designed to blitz and everything today, but every time in the huddle it was, ‘Base defense, base defense.’ ”

Blades said keeping things simple made it easier for everyone to make plays.

“For the younger guys, they don’t have to think as much,” Blades said. “Everybody knows their responsibilities on base call, so they can just go out and play. It comes naturally. That’s the main thing, everybody going out and having fun.”

Joe Starkey sees the game as another step in the right direction.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt described his team’s 34-17 victory over sickly Syracuse on Saturday as “a great win” before quickly correcting himself.

“A good win for us, I should say,” Wannstedt said.

OK, it was a terrible win — but a win nonetheless.

Pitt deserves credit for rallying from an early 10-point deficit for the second consecutive week and for winning its third game in a row to improve to 4-4 overall, 3-1 in the Big East.

Incredibly, these deeply flawed Panthers are right in the thick of things in this deeply flawed conference, and will play at least one truly meaningful game, after all.

He takes some backhanded swipes at the BE and wonders about how it went so bad so quickly for Syracuse. One of those articles where you have to write something, but there is no real theme.

Ron Cook, meanwhile, has no such problem finding his theme. Complaining about the crowds, especially when compared to Penn State.

What a difference.

What a letdown.

It’s hard to say what was more depressing. Was it the generally lousy football played by both teams? Or was it that so few people were at Heinz Field to see it?

It was enough to make a guy fully realize the enormity of the job facing Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt.

I guess I’m in the minority as not being terribly disappointed in the crowd size.

There are the usual reasons Cook gives for poor Pitt attendance, but I’ll add a couple more.

First, in comparison to Penn State or Michigan, it’s bogus for another reason. Despite either a down year this year or some recent bad play — both those programs have built up a sizable cache of goodwill and big winning to compensate. Pitt hasn’t. Plain and simple, Pitt is still recovering — fan base-wise — from the descent in the ’80s to the pure crappitude of the 90s. You don’t get that back overnight. You don’t get that back in under 10 years. Pitt didn’t have a better than .500 final record (including a bowl game) until 2000. Prior to that, you have to go back to 1989. It isn’t going to change just because there is a new Coach.

Second, he talks about how the ND loss took the wind out of the sails for fan support for this season. I disagree. That loss hurt, but considering how well ND has been doing, it hardly seems so bad. What totally demoralized and sucked the fan interest and desire to attend were the subsequent road losses to Nebraska and Ohio. Those were absolutely killers. After Nebraska, people gave up on the season.

I’ve been to the past 3 games, and my own attitude was that of fatalism and almost playing out the string. Going to the game was as much about getting together with friends as it was to see Pitt play. These 3 games should have been sure wins, and each one had me wondering how Pitt could blow it. It was tough and I don’t like admitting it, but I think that has been the feeling for the fans.

It would take an upset of Louisville in a week and a half to change most fans feelings about this year. That would show the fans that the season isn’t totally lost and there would be reason to hope for something more for the season — especially going into the final home game against UConn.

Wow. Over 24 hours without posting. No wonder my hands are shaking. That or not yet having the morning coffee. Got back later than intended last night, and happily slept in this morning.

Haven’t even looked at the papers yet, so here are some semi-random thoughts from the game.

— Any chance the coaches can somehow convince the players that when the game begins it is already the second quarter and they are down by 10? At least the offensive line which doesn’t seem to know what is going on until they let Palko get creamed a couple of times?

— Syracuse is bad. I mean, feel sorry for (some of) their fans, bad. Yet, Pitt gave them hope for most of the first half.

— Small comfort for the Syracuse kicker, but at least he wasn’t the Auburn kicker who went 1-6 last night. Costing Auburn the win at the end of the game and missed the kick to send it to a second OT. (That Auburn feel bad for our boy Harlan, as his girlfriend is a diehard Auburn fan, and we know that it cost him.)

— Dumbest moment: Darrelle Revis back to receive a punt that clearly outkicks the coverage unit. Catches it with at least 15 yards of open field in front of him and just freezes. I mean, just stood there. Maybe he was waiting for his blockers to get there, or something. It was insane. Then as everyone gets closer, he starts running to the sideline. Gets caught before he can barely make a few yards up-field. If he just took off running straight ahead, he would have had at least 10 yards before someone could get him. With a head of steam built up, who knows?

— Speaking of brain-lock, I assume the coaches have tape to look at. I presume they have charts to see what plays got what yards. So why do they keep trying to run LaRod Stephens-Howling straight ahead? It’s not working.

— Greg Lee is a maddeningly inconsistent talent. He’s starting to remind me of a healthy Princell Brockenbough. Will drop or miss some easy to slightly difficult passes right off his hands or body, then will make the spectacular catch to almost make you forget how he killed a couple previous drives.

— Derek Kinder is emerging, though, as a very reliable receiver.

— What has happened to Eric Gill this season? He was a pre-season Mackey Award candidate. Now he just seems completely lost out there.

— Given the absolute crappiness of the weather, I was pleased with the actual attendance. A lot of late arrivers (like us) who missed the opening kick-off, and plenty of people huddling in the concourse from the rain. The weather has been the worst for a season in quite some time. Actually that says more about how lucky we’ve been than how bad it actually has been with respect to the weather.

— Most people waited until after Mark May was honored at halftime to bolt for the toilets and the concourse.

— I couldn’t bring myself to mention it until after the game, for fear of jinxing things, but this was Pitt’s first win this season in a televised game.

It’s back and family friendly (the press release says so).

The University of Pittsburgh will host its second annual Basketball Fan Fest and Blue/Gold Scrimmages on Saturday, Oct. 29 at the Petersen Events Center. The event will highlight both the Pitt men’s and women’s basketball teams and feature autograph sessions, team scrimmages and various fan-oriented events. Doors open at 3:45 p.m.
…
Following the combined autograph session, the Pitt women’s team will play a 20-minute intrasquad scrimmage. The Panthers men’s team will then play a 32-minute scrimmage with two halves.

Fan Fest will also feature performances from the Pitt Pep Band, Pitt Cheerleaders and Pitt Dance Team, along with various family oriented activities including face painting, the Balloon-A-Tic, Moon Walk and more! Also, author Sam Sciullo Jr. will be on hand to sign copies of his book, “Pitt, 100 Years of Pitt Basketball” from 4-5:30 p.m.

FM NewsTalk 104.7 and Fox Sports 970 AM will broadcast live from the Petersen Events Center lobby. Hosted by Greg Linnelli, the broadcast will have live interviews with Berenato, Dixon and student-athletes from both basketball teams.

Hopefully, the new book isn’t just be a B/W picture book culled from the Pitt Athletic Department’s archive like “Panther Pride.” Why yes, I am a little annoyed that I spent the money on it.

The admission is free.

I wish that Pitt did a Midnight Madness thing, since that is for the students, but they stopped trying after 2003. Part of it was that they had poor turnout, though I think that can at least be blamed, in part, on not making it all about the students.

Still, the students have to take some responsibility for turning out to the events. A writer for the Pitt News called out his fellow students today.

Saturday’s victory against South Florida was an embarrassment. Not for the team, but for the students. Most of you weren’t there to notice, but the student section was half full, and I’m only talking about the first level.

By the way, Pitt won that game.

The next time the Panthers win a big game at home, which they will at some point, I want security guards to stop fans before they rip down the goal posts — to check ID’s. Any Pitt student that wasn’t there for the Youngstown State, Cincinnati or South Florida games should not be allowed to celebrate. They have no right.

Being a fan means being there through the good and the bad. It makes victory that much sweeter. In 2003, the Red Sox sold out every game, and they hadn’t won the World Series in 85 years. Pitt fans should take a page from their book and keep the faith.
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Sure, the Oakland Zoo has been crazy for Pitt basketball games versus Syracuse or UConn, but when a ticket policy needs to include punishment for those with tickets who don’t attend games, it says something about the fan base. Do you think Duke or Kentucky has that problem?

Of course Duke is averaging a little under 17,000 per game in football.

Here’s the second part of the e-mail Q&A I did with Matt from Syracuse :: 44 :: Orange. Part 1 is here. He will likely have the 2nd part of my answers to his questions later in the day.

What are the keys for Syracuse? What will you be looking for in the game? Especially early, to make you think: hey, we’re going to win this game.

The key for Syracuse, as always, is to establish Rhodes early. If Rhodes can carry the ball about 4.4 a carry early in the game, Syracuse would have put itself in a very competitive position.

All season, Syracuse has just been pitiful on creating long, time-consuming drives. The ability to run the ball effectively both early in the game and early on drives has been the primary culprit for the offense’s inefficiency. Should Rhodes/Jones/Washington effectively pound the ball through Pittsburgh’s 8 and 9 man fronts, Perry Patterson and the receiving corps would have a terrific opportunity to exploit the playaction pass.

It’s all about drive efficiency for Syracuse this season, and if they can run effectively early, good things should follow.

Defensively, it’s very important for the Orange front four to play effectively. This isn’t to say that LaCasse and Wyche need to put Palko on his back every snap he takes, it simply means that the front four needs to employ some fundamental line play. Control the upfield rush, knock down some passes, eat up Pittsburgh’s interior lineman so as to let the linebacking corps set up, use their speed, and make some plays. Should the front four establish themselves early on, I have much more confidence in the secondary to make some plays because of the heat put on the quarterback to release the ball quickly.

The other major “thing” to look for in this game is the play of Tanard Jackson. Steve Gregory will likely get the assignment to cover Greg Lee on Saturday, and I think he should perform adequately at that task. The big question mark is whether Jackson can hang with whomever is lining up across from him. It is likely that Jackson will be forced to play a lot of single coverage on his man, as there will be extra attention paid to Lee. Thus, Jackson, spotty as he may be, will ultimately determine the fate of the secondary on Saturday.

If Pittsburgh can exploit Jackson’s inconsistency, which they should be able to do, Palko could have a monster day.

Right now, the weather is predicted to be wet and in the 40s-50s (and I get to sit in that). How do you think those conditions will affect Syracuse?

Shouldn’t affect the the Orange too much. There are two reasons for this assumption.

First, Syracuse practices outside in that kind of weather anyway. It’s not like Syracuse, New York has suddenly become the newest member of the Florida Keys. So, the shock and awe of raw weather shouldn’t create a circumstance where the Orange is playing so far out of their element they won’t know what to do. Plus, Syracuse just played in similar conditions in East Hartford just two weeks ago.

The other reason is simply that weather won’t affect the physical attributes of this team. Syracuse can’t throw the ball consistently anyway, so having a hard time gripping the pigsking and receiving it shouldn’t materially affect how Syracuse loses on Saturday. The game plan, consequently, won’t need to be altered signficiantly. Additionally, Syracuse has little advantage over its competitor in this game with regard to team-speed. Everyone is going to be slopping around a little bit, and I don’t think that will sufficiently add to Syracuse’s inability to move the football.

What 3 players don’t Pitt fans know on Syracuse who could be key difference makers?

Three obscure difference makers, eh? Try these on for size:

1. Brendan Carney (P)
Punter extraordinaire. Great at flipping field-position and garnering those Bob Greise “hidden yards.” Carney does a great job at giving the defense the opportunity to play some bend-don’t-break, and may just be this year’s MVP.

This partly explains my Graessle question earlier. I’m a sucker for solid punters.

2. Joe Kowalewski (TE)
Maybe not as obscure as he should be, Kowalewski (pronounced Ko-va-less-ki) may be the most reliable target Patterson can throw to. As a tight end, JoeK does a pretty good job at creating space and does a terrific job finding holes when breaking free on playaction. Against Virginia he was dynamic, and I fully expect him to have a 4-50 type game on Saturday.

3. Nick Chestnut (WR)
I think Syracuse fans may be just as familiar with Chestnut as Panther Nation. Chestnut has become, over the last two weeks, Syracuse’s lone deep threat at the receiver. He’s a hyper-athlete with great wheels and adequate hands. He very well could be the Orange’s “X-Factor” come Saturday afternoon.

What is most impressive is that Chestnut has gone from reserve corner at the start of the season all the way to “starting” receiver by week seven. That’s a rapid progression, and when you see him run around the field it becomes apparent that he does have some worthwhile potential.

Final predictions, final score?

I have no faith in Syracuse to win another game this season. After watching the egg they laid Saturday against Rutgers, there is no chance that they can slip by any one left on the schedule, including Cincinnati and South Florida. Rhodes is a nice player and will probably put together a respectable game, but you can’t win football games with a running back that can’t run between the tackles.

With that said, I think the Panthers drop the axe on the Orange Saturday in a laugher.

Pitt: 38
‘Cuse: 10

Thanks again for Matt for doing this, and be sure to check out his blog the rest of the season.

That seems to be the theme of this game. That Pitt is improving steadily from it’s abysmal start (really it was a plummet from expectations that just kept sinking through September) while Syracuse has appeared to get steadily worse.

Syracuse’s pass defense leads the Big East with 10 interceptions. It is an excellent secondary, especially when you realize they have a defensive line that might be weaker than Pitt’s — less sacks and allow more rushing yardage — despite playing to expect the run.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt, Walker and Cavanaugh all mentioned Orange safety Anthony Smith as the catalyst for his team’s defense. So, it’s no surprise that Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko wants to be aware of his position on the field at all times.

“He’s as good a safety as I’ve seen in a long time,” Palko said. “He’s their leader, the heart and soul of their defense, and he’s going to wreak havoc. They have a senior-oriented front seven, but the defense feeds off him. And they’re very fast in the secondary.

Smith, the free safety, is one of six seniors on a Syracuse defense that also has four juniors. The only underclassman is sophomore strong safety Dowayne Davis. Both jam the line to give the Orange an eight-man front nearly all the time to stop an opponent’s running game.

This is possible due to speedy, talented and experienced cornerbacks Tanard Jackson and Steve Gregory. Smith has four interceptions and seven pass breakups. Davis and Gregory have two picks each, and Jackson has one.

“They believe in their secondary, and they’re confident in their cover ability,” Palko said. “So, they challenge you on defense and will make it very tough for our offense.”

They have reason to believe in their secondary, the problem for their defense, is that it is always on the field. Usually about 32 and-a-half minutes per game so far. In their last 2 games the defense was on the field for 35:27 and 34:07 minutes.

Not that Pitt is any great power at ball control offense. The Pitt offense is at 28:44 minutes per game. Even in the 2 wins of the last week, Pitt’s offense was out for 29:09 and 29:31 minutes per game. Well, one team is going to have to win time of possession this week.

Still more talk about Pitt trying to develop its running game.

With only four games remaining, Pitt is still trying to find that effective running game that coach Dave Wannstedt promised when training camp started.

A starting running back, too.
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And, in a familiar twist, the Panthers (3-4, 2-1 in Big East) have become increasingly reliant on junior quarterback Tyler Palko’s passing, just as they did a season ago when they ran a West Coast offense, rather than Wannstedt’s more conventional run-based system. In 2004, Palko passed for 3,067 yards, or five times more yardage than any running back produced.

It wasn’t a one-year trend, either. Pitt had only one 1,000-yard rusher during Walt Harris’ eight seasons as coach from 1997-2004 and has had only one since 1994. Pitt hasn’t had even a 600-yard runner since Brandon Miree ran for 943 yards in 2001.

This week, it’s supposed to be LaRod Stephens-Howling taking the bulk of the workload.

Dave Wannstedt stopped short of naming him the starting tailback, but the University of Pittsburgh coach was certain that Johnstown grad LaRod Stephens-Howling would be a key player when Pitt played host to Syracuse Saturday at noon at Heinz Field.

Interestingly, Running Backs Coach Dave Walker sees the touches still being well distributed.

All three tailbacks, along with senior fullback Tim Murphy, are healthy this week. And that pleases running backs coach David Walker.

“LaRod gives us a little different dimension,” Walker said. “And we’re better now in the running game, for a lot of different reasons. We’re playing a few more guys, which helps us be better up front and in the backfield.

“This week will be a challenge, though, because Syracuse will have nine guys in the box. So, we have to be very consistent against them. And we have to make the plays when we take our shots down field.”

I know the hundred-yard rushing game is the standard for running backs, but I’d rather see the ball spread out more. There’s nothing wrong with that, and I think it saves some wear on the backs. Dr. Z at SI.com was complaining about overuse of a single running back by teams this week (albeit at the NFL level), but the issue is important at the college level. For Pitt, at the moment, the talent level between Stephens-Howling and Jennings is not so vast that you need to or should tilt the number of carries overwhelmingly one way or the other. I keep repeating it, but I just really like throwing different running styles at a defense. I think it gives an added edge by almost freezing them for a split second as they have to adjust accordingly.

For Pitt, it’s been hard to have much of a running game when the O-line doesn’t give you much of a hole. That only increases the wear on the backs as they get hit and stuffed a lot more. Hopefully that will change as John Bachman and C.J. Davis, two of the freshmen offensive lineman, give a lot of hope for that possibility.

Pitt offensive line coach Paul Dunn has been impressed with Bachman and Davis and believes both have a bright future. Like most coaches, however, he does not consider it an ideal situation to put two true freshmen at such critical positions.

Davis was forced into action in the second game, when the Panthers lost three starting offensive linemen before halftime. Bachman has played recently because he has emerged as the third-best tackle.

Dunn believes the Panthers’ offensive line is in the early stages of becoming something special. What he is looking for is consistency and progress. So far, both have developed nicely, despite the accelerated learning curve.

“C.J. has done a good job handling everything we’ve given him, taking his opportunity to start and running with it,” Dunn said, “We expected that because he’s got a lot of substance to him.

“As for John, we just made some evaluations at the halfway point and realized John very well could be a guy who could start for us next year. I just felt like it may be smart to lift his redshirt and get him some playing time this year.”

Line play, line play, line play.

Is there some pro-coaches convention I don’t know about where stock cliches and phrases are handed out? Is it maybe some zen coaching philosophy I missed? It’s been getting to me all week leading up to the Syracuse game. You have 1st year Syracuse head coach Greg Robinson trying to keep his team from giving up on the season. All week long I keep reading one small line from him that pops up in every interview and article.

“It’s more important than ever to keep our guys upbeat,” Robinson said Tuesday. “We can’t talk about what was. What is, is. We must understand that. We’re going to focus on how we can get better. It’s real important that our minds are geared in the right direction. You signed on. Let’s go.”

[Emphasis added.]

Now for Coach Wannstedt’s favorite little nugget that he kept using during Pitt’s 1-4 start.

“It is what it is,” Wannstedt had acknowledged then. “We are what you saw. Unfortunately, we’re not a very good football team.”

Just one of those things, I suppose.

Syracuse’s struggling starter Perry Patterson is working on learning the West Coast Offense, and this article analogizes it to learning to dance.

Last season Patterson was asked to call several plays in the huddle, then walk to the line of scrimmage and figure out which one to employ based on what the defense was showing him. His biggest challenge occurred before the ball was snapped. On many pass plays there was only one receiver running a route, and Patterson knew exactly where that receiver would be and could zero in on him.

“We would design a play where we know we’ll get a certain defense and we’ll have some kind of play-action off it, and it would just be a deep ball or an area of the field we knew would be open,” Patterson said. “It was either that or nothing.”

The West Coast demands just the opposite of the quarterback. Before the ball is snapped it is much simpler than the old offense, as Patterson calls one play in the huddle. However, once the ball is in Patterson’s hands an intricate dance begins in which he must go through a series of progressions from a primary receiver to a secondary receiver to a third receiver that often take his eyes and feet from one side of the field to the other before he delivers the ball, a sequence that must be completed in under 3.5 seconds to have a chance to succeed.

It is a dance that must be choreographed perfectly. It is designed to have the quarterback operating in perfect rhythm with his receivers and offensive line. If the rhythm is not established or somehow gets lost – and opposing defenses are designed to disrupt it with press coverage, blitzes and the like – the dance becomes a tangled mess.

Patterson and his coaches have spent nearly the entire season trying to untangle the mess and perform the dance the way it was designed.

Patterson hasn’t exactly had help from his O-line either. He has been sacked 21 times in 6 games. That’s second worst in the Big East behind Palko who has been drilled 24 times in 7 games. Some time before or after the game they really need to compare notes.

This bad season for Syracuse has reached the point where they have assumed the #8 spot in ESPN.com’s Bottom 10 (Pitt is finally out of it for a while).

Syracuse’s stand-out safety Anthony Smith gets a puff piece. The Senior nearly went to Ohio State, and ended up choosing Syracuse over WVU because the Orange were still winning at that time while the ‘Eers were down. Whoops.