Cinci is getting set for the “River City Rivalry” (RCR).

The game will also launch a new college football regional rivalry and trophy game. Cincinnati and Pittsburgh will begin the River City Rivalry. The winner will get to keep the River City Trophy, an award composed of a riverboat telegraph and a graphic silhouette of the Ohio River.

Oh, goody. And I’m sure that for the Cinci players, the prospect of this trophy will more than make up for losing their Victory Bell Trophy to Miami of Ohio. I mean that was old. That was the 110th meeting of the teams. Who cares now. Who wouldn’t prefer to say they were there for the very first time the conference dictated “rivalry” game was played?

Their game notes (PDF) also contain the tidbit that the team is taking a bus from Cinci to Pittsburgh — a five hour or so drive — and then, wait for it…

To commemorate their entry into the River City Rivalry, the Bearcats will arrive at their Friday walk-through at Heinz Field via riverboat. Arrangements have been made for the team to bus to Pennsylvania and then board a riverboat for the final miles of the trip to downtown Pittsburgh.

Apparently Cinci is 2-7 when playing on October 8. The wins came against Temple and Western Michigan.

That’s what I am trying to figure, because it’s been mostly low.

The first half of Pitt’s season has been filled with too many emotional highs and lows for coach Dave Wannstedt’s liking.

The first five games marked by near-misses, wasted chances, crushed hopes and flat-out failures. Now, the Panthers (1-4, 0-1 Big East) must shore up their battered self-confidence — again — before Saturday’s game against Cincinnati.

That, according to Wannstedt, is one reason for team’s struggles.

“We’ve got to change that mentality of (things being) a roller-coaster ride,” Wannstedt said Monday. “Every week, it’s a new adventure, with the psyche and the attitude. It shouldn’t be that way.

“We’ve got to create a tough mentality of consistently going out there and performing at the level you need to win, regardless of who you’re playing. Right now, we don’t have that.”

I accept that there are a lot of things that are truly out of the hands of a coach. Keeping the team on an even-keel — if that really is an issue — seems like one of the things that is exclusively within the control of the coach. It reads like he isn’t just talking about the game, he’s also talking about practice in the week leading up to the game. This is very disturbing.

If it means anything, Pete Carroll’s first season at USC started out 1-4. They managed to finish 6-6. Granted, they didn’t lose to teams like Ohio and Rutgers, and had been 5-7 the year before.

Despite, the success of the no-huddle offense, Coach Wannstedt does not appear in a hurry to use it very much.

“I think there’s a place for [the no-huddle offense], and we did talk about it leading into the game,” Wannstedt said during his weekly press conference yesterday. “Normally, it’s very dangerous going into a stadium at night on the road and try to do a no-huddle offense where all your communication happens at the line of scrimmage.

“That’s not the best environment to do some of that stuff. … We were sacked five times, and Tyler was knocked to the ground 20 times. The no-huddle did slow them down to some degree, and we had some success. But I wouldn’t say that’s the answer. If we’re going to be a good team we have to be able to run the ball some.”

And if Pitt is going to be a winning team, they have to score some. So if Cinci brings a lot of pressure and Pitt finds itself playing from behind, then perhaps he might use it. I have to expect Cinci will be bringing pressure. Cinci Coach Mark Dantonio was a defensive coordinator, and likes to pressure.

Coach Wannstedt is still making noise about changing the line-up and depth chart. He made some noise after the Rutgers game, but didn’t. If Pitt somehow loses this game, he won’t have but much choice.

As the Panthers look ahead to their game against Cincinnati (2-2) at 2 p.m. Saturday at Heinz Field, Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt is becoming increasingly frustrated with the team’s “inconsistency” in a number of areas.

Wannstedt met with the media yesterday for his weekly news conference and did his best to address these issues but admitted there are no easy or quick solutions to any of them. He said he would expect to see some changes in the lineup if things continue as they have and he’s not ruling out a youth movement to lay a foundation for the future of the program.

“We’ve got to try and keep it competitive,” he said. “We’ll continue to play as many guys as we can. We’re trying to rotate in as many linemen as we can. The lines are the two areas where we can rotate guys to keep the competitiveness going.”

The lines have been a major disappointments thus far. They are the two areas that needed to be overhauled in the offseason because of graduation.

And the problem Wannstedt has, particularly with the offensive line, is that there is very little quality depth. That’s why he’s considering giving some freshmen opportunities to play.

“You talk about graduating a couple of guys and their backups are true freshmen this year or redshirt freshmen,” Wannstedt said. “And those guys, like C.J. Davis and possibly a John Bachman, need to get their feet wet and get some playing time now.”

Davis, a freshman guard, has played some this year and the coaches believe he has the ability to be a star in the future. Bachman, a freshman tackle from Moon, has been the most pleasant surprise of the Panthers’ most recent recruiting class. If he were 30 pounds heavier, he might have worked his way into the starting lineup.

Other freshmen who are looking at increased playing time include LaRod Stephens-Howling, although an ankle injury has held him back, safety Tommie Campbell, defensive tackles Corey Davis and Rashaad Duncan, defensive end Gus Mustakas, receiver Marcel Pestano and offensive tackle Chase Clowser.

The running back position, suddenly very thin, looks to remain that way.

Beyond that, the Panthers have been without the services of Brandon Mason, who Wannstedt said has an ankle injury, LaRod Stephens-Howling (ankle), Marcus Furman (ankle) and Rashad Jennings (shoulder).

Jennings was in uniform Friday for the Panthers’ loss to Rutgers, but Wannstedt said he was not ready to play.

Stephens-Howling did not practice yesterday and Mason wore a red jersey (no contact). Wannstedt said all three are questionable for the game against Cincinnati Saturday at Heinz Field.

Stephens-Howling has a high-ankle sprain, and no one ever comes back after only a week off from that. Especially someone who cuts and moves like Stephens-Howling. If Pitt is lucky, they will at least have Rashad Jennings to help in the backfield.

Brian Bennett is out for the season with a knee injury — ACL damage.

The most worrying and disturbing concern is H.B. Blades.

Middle linebacker H.B. Blades was too hobbled stand to talk with reporters after the Rutgers game, and his status for the Cincinnati game is uncertain. “We’re about out of linebackers,” Wannstedt said.

Blades is the leading tackler, not just for Pitt, but for the Big East. I’m guessing he goes. He’s too tough.

As for Cinci, well they appear to be on the verge of a QB controversy/change.

University of Cincinnati football coach Mark Dantonio isn’t giving up on quarterback Dustin Grutza, but he made it clear Monday that Grutza will have to compete in practice this week with backup Nick Davila to keep his job as the starter.

“Nick Davila deserves an opportunity to be in the mix,” Dantonio said. “How he practices this week relative to how Dustin practices will determine who’s going to start.”

UC (2-2) plays at Pittsburgh (1-4, 0-1) Saturday in its first Big East Conference game.

“That makes it unique for us,” Dantonio said. “It gives us a little more motivation.”

Grutza was intercepted five times in UC’s 44-16 loss to rival Miami last Wednesday. Over his last two games, he has completed 32 of 63 passes for an average of 143.5 yards per game, with no touchdowns and six interceptions.

In two appearances in the late stages of blowout losses to Penn State and Miami, the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Davila – a transfer from Chaffey (Calif.) Junior College – has completed seven of nine passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions.

“Nick Davila has gone in at the tail end of games and has performed well,” Dantonio said. “But it’s been at the tail end of the game . . . The only thing I will say is if we’re struggling, he’s going to play.”

Grutza has 3 TDs and 8 INTs.

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.

Well, at this point, they are all must-wins.

This will be the Bearcats’ opening game in the Big East. Pitt has a 4-0 record against Cinci. Last time they played was in 1981. So naturally this game is ripe to be given a trophy and deemed a rivalry. Whatever.

Pitt has its game notes available (PDF). The depth chart shows nobody lost their starting job (or #2 position on the chart) despite hints of change. Brian Bennett is out with an injury suffered in the Rutgers game. J.J. Horne is the official starter with Adam Gunn as the back-up.

Tyler Palko needs 64 more yards to pass John Ryan and move to 6th on Pitt’s all time passing leaders.

Disturbing stat. Pitt has yet to recover a fumble in 5 games (3 chances).

Kicker David Abdul gets a puff piece detailing his comeback from a broken leg. The article skips the rehashing of his absolutely miserable 2003 year.

Plenty of personal achievements on the offensive side of the ball in that miserable loss.

Against Rutgers, quarterback Tyler Palko set career highs in completions (35) and pass attempts (58) and threw for a season-best 371 yards and four touchdowns. It was his sixth career 300-yard passing game.

Wideout Derek Kinder had the best game of his career, with 10 catches for 78 yards.

Wideout Greg Lee has strung together three games with 100-plus receiving yards. He made a career-best nine grabs for 130 yards and a touchdown.

Team-wise the stats are mixed. After a slow start, Lee is 20th in the country in receiving yards per game with 96.2. Pitt went up a bit in total offense to #75 and passing is up to #45. Rushing yards, though, Pitt is down at #82.

Adam Graessle is 10th in punting average — 44.85 yds/punt. Darrelle Revis has definitely improved Pitt on punt returns. He is 20th in the country with a 13.36 yard average.

The defense took a plunge in the stats, falling from #19 to #29 in total defense. Not exactly a shock. Pass defense is still #3 (somehow), but rushing defense is now down at #88 allowing a whopping 171 yards per game.

Well, Darrin Walls will make his announcement this morning. Walls is considered one of the 3 best recruits in the country, depending on which recruiting site you view.

Walls, who narrowed his choices to Florida, Michigan, Notre Dame and Pitt, did not tip his hand Sunday to which school will win his services. He will reveal it today at a 9 a.m. news conference at Woodland Hills High School.
…
“I had to really look everything over. I basically tried to keep everything consistent. I tried to base it on academics, head coaches and position coaches. I tried to pick the four that were best for me.”

Walls said the determining factor was academics.

“No matter where you go, you’re going to have to compete for a position,” Walls said. “I’m going to work hard. The most important thing is the academics because if I don’t make it to the NFL, I’m going to have to use my degree.”

Pitt and Notre Dame made strong pushes for Walls in the final weekend. Irish assistant head coach John Latina attended the Woodland Hills-Connellsville game Friday, the same day that 45 handwritten letters arrived at Walls’ home from the Panthers’ coaching staff.

“I took that into consideration,” Walls said of Pitt’s mass mailing. “It was from all the different coaches. I think it was a good move. They’re showing they’re really into me. They really want me to come to the school.”

Walls has been on visits to several schools — but not Notre Dame yet. 2 of his 3 visits, though, just happened to be when the hosting school was playing (and lost to) Notre Dame.

I think the conventional view is that he is heading to Notre Dame.

One of Pitt’s local recruits, Justin Hargrove not only has his season ended, but his entire football future is in question after suffering a brain contusion.

“They told me I had bleeding of the brain,” Hargrove said.

Doctors also told Hargrove his season was over. Hargrove (6 feet 3, 245 pounds) will go back to the doctors in 11 days.

“I’m scheduled for a re-evaluation Oct. 10,” Hargrove said. “They had told me there might be a little chance that I won’t be able to play next year, but I think I’ll be OK.”

I don’t know if I’d ever be able to put a helmet back on to smack heads on the field after an injury like that. That is just scary.

Lineman and Pitt recruit John Malecki did a Q&A with the P-G a couple days ago. He re-affirmed his commitment to Pitt.

Several top recruits have reaffirmed their commit to Pitt, despite continued (and not unexpected) sniffing around by other schools.

A handful of Western Pennsylvania prospects who chose the Panthers said that they remain solid in their commitments despite hearing regularly from other schools. And they view Pitt’s struggling start as an opportunity for them to make an impact early in their college careers.

“A lot of schools have been trying, but I usually just don’t pick up my phone,” said Franklin tight end Nate Byham, who is hearing from Iowa, Miami, Southern Cal and West Virginia. “When I committed, I called and told all the other schools, ‘Thank you, but no thank you. I’m going to Pitt.’

“Obviously, I’d like to see them win, but it’s not changing my mind at all. I’m still sold on Pitt.”

Ditto for Dorin Dickerson of West Allegheny, Jason Pinkston of Baldwin and John Malecki of Franklin Regional.

Dickerson, like Byham, was named to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and also heard from Southern Cal. After a fast start, where he scored 12 touchdowns in three games, Dickerson has been recovering from an ankle injury.

“Schools were recruiting me,” Dickerson said, “but they’ve lightened up a lot.”

Malecki promised not to renege on his pledge the way Penn Hills quarterback Anthony Morelli and North Hills running back Andrew Johnson did to Harris in the Class of 2004, when Morelli picked Penn State and Johnson chose Miami.

“Recently, I’ve been worried that the big recruits would pull out like Johnson and Morelli did,” said Malecki, a defensive lineman who said he still receives mailings from Michigan State. “I’m not reconsidering anything. I’ve always wanted to be a Panther. Hopefully, they’ll make the right choice and stick with Pitt.”

Four months until signing day.

UPDATE: Walls made it official, he’s going to ND (hat tip to Bill).

This is the frustrating thing about watching Pitt, so far this year. There hasn’t been much improvement from week to week. Okay, that’s not entirely true. The running backs — prior to the rash of injuries — had shown promise and the receivers and tight ends have been showing more confidence.

It’s the line play, though, where there has been nothing. Notwithstanding pounding on YSU, both lines have just continued to be beaten up front. Today, the majority of the attention is on the Offensive Line.

True the Panthers have many problems — a 1-4 record (0-4 vs. Division I-A teams) would seem to suggest as much. But one thing that has become increasingly clear is that the offensive line is incapable of blocking effectively and there appears to be few solutions.

Palko dropped to pass 63 times Friday. He was sacked five times, the Scarlet Knights were credited with 20 quarterback hurries and even though there is no official statistic for “hits taken,” he likely set a school record in that category. Rarely did he finish a passing play on his feet.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt did not comment specifically on the offensive line other than to say, “They blitzed us early but at the end of the game, they were rushing three guys and we had difficulty with both. We had a very difficult time [protecting Palko], a very difficult time. He got hit on almost every play until the last play of the game. On that last snap, he got knocked on his back.”
…
The offensive line’s struggles, however, go further than just failing to protect Palko.

The running game, which has been a major point of emphasis with the new coaching staff, was non-existent and not for lack of trying.

Pitt fell behind so quickly it was forced to pass more than normal, but the run game was ineffective from the start because the backs were getting hit before they got to the line of scrimmage.

Tyler Palko is naturally not saying a bad thing about directly, so it makes even these comments surprising.

Palko did offer, “When you start worrying about making sure you are safe in the pocket, your vision is not down field all the time and you are a little late to look at the coverage and the secondary.”

During the game, the announcers noted that Palko was missing open receivers, simply because he didn’t have any time to look for everyone.

Apparently some of the O-linemen were getting into it with each other.

The Panthers’ inability to effectively pass block could be leading to some dissension. In the first half, linemen Joe Villani and Mike McGlynn got into a shouting match and had to be separated by their teammates.

After the game, neither Villani nor McGlynn wanted to discuss their sideline fireworks display. They were only slightly more enthusiastic when asked about their inability to stymie Rutgers’ sack attack.

“It’s been the story of our year so far — inconsistency,” Villani said. “One guy doesn’t execute on this play. One guy misses a block on that play. One guy takes himself out for one play. You need all 11 guys on every play, or you’re not going to win.”

“We’ve got to get everybody on one page,” McGlynn said. “It’s hard when one guy messes up, you pick him up and the same thing happens the next play. It’s disappointing.”

Considering how much pressure was coming straight up the middle and that prevented Palko from even trying to step up in the pocket, if changes really are coming I would expect Chris Vangas to be given a shot at Center. Vangas was expected to win the Center position but Villani, a walk-on, surprised everyone by outperforming him in spring drills. You hate to change centers in a season, but Villani is just not doing a very good job on the line. Looking at the O-line and depth chart, he seems the most likely one to face a demotion.

Of course, Pitt’s defensive line was exposed again. Only 1 sack, and very little pressure on the QB. They allowed 203 yards on the ground. Lots of poor tackling. Instead, they were trying to hit. In the opening series they kept getting right past DE Chris McKillop. He actually got penetration in the backfield, but would allow himself to be juked out of a tackle. The other thing, is that he still slowed the runner, made him pause, but there were no other members of the defense swarming on the play.

The secondary was also very guilty of not tackling. They too kept going for the hit — and failing badly. Not to mention 2 dropped interceptions.

Here’s the AP story on the game.

Notwithstanding the Rutgers blog viewpoint of “it’s a big win, and I don’t care how,” the NJ media seems to be more of the opinion, “is nothing ever going to be easy with this team?”

Even when it looks easy for Rutgers, it never winds up that way.

Even when things are going as well as they can possibly go, the Knights somehow find a way to add unneeded drama to a game that looked to be completely devoid of it.
…
It just became one of those too-close-for-comfort situations for Rutgers because of the Panthers’ 29-point second half after they went to a no-huddle, hurry-up offense.

“I was nervous,” said running back Brian Leonard, who caught two touchdown passes.

“I refused to look at the scoreboard,” senior defensive end Ryan Neill said.

A weary Scarlet Knights defense, on the field for 84 plays, finally managed to summon up the energy to make three big ones when they counted, enabling Rutgers to improve to 3-1 overall. For now — fleeting as it may be — the Knights are tied with West Virginia and South Florida atop the Big East standings.

The theme is repeated here.

Okay, so they won. They had a must-win game and won that game, and if you asked anyone wearing red when they entered Rutgers Stadium last night, they would have gladly accepted that result, regardless of the final score.

But we have to ask: Must everything be so difficult with this team?

Can’t a 27-0 halftime lead be a comfortable margin? Can’t this team remember that a college football game consists of two halves of equal length and importance?

Can’t these poor fans ever relax?

Some college football diehards carry Jack Daniels in their flasks. Rutgers fans carry Maalox. No lead is too big, no amount of time is too short, and the stomachs never stop churning.

Somehow, a 27-0 lead turns into 37-29 victory, a blowout turns into nailbiter. Somehow, a potential defining victory comes off feeling like the Scarlet Knights ended up stealing one.

This game should have been over early in the second half. The Scarlet Knights did everything right, dominating hapless Pittsburgh in every facet of the game.

It had the makings of a truly memorable night for a program that has enjoyed too few of them. The student section was packed an hour before kickoff. The tailgaters started arriving early in the afternoon. ESPN was in the building, and with no other games on the schedule, the night belonged to the Knights.
…
This one was not over until Dave Wannstedt called the single most predictable fake punt in football history. There were four minutes left with the Panthers facing a fourth down on the Rutgers 29-yard line.

Still, despite the near collapse it was a Rutgers win. That is different.

Friday night, against BCS-fresh Pittsburgh, on ESPN2, Rutgers would have a chance to show the country what Rutgers football was “about” coach Greg Schiano said.

Friday night, against Pittsburgh, at Rutgers Stadium, the Scarlet Knights started doing just that. They drove into the Pitt red zone at will and then couldn’t will out more touchdowns than field goals. A team they should’ve run roughshod over they did for a bit and then maddeningly didn’t.

And then, on its first undivided national stage, the Scarlet Knights forged a new identity. They showed just enough less of what Rutgers football has been about and more of what it could be. They turned a clunker of a game into an interesting one and in the end, if not roughshod, they did at least sort of run over Pitt, 37-29, in front of a near sellout.

The win marked the first time Rutgers (3-1, 1-0) won its league opener in 11 years. It was the first time the Scarlet Knights took out Pitt (1-4, 0-1) in seven years, the first time they’ve won three games in a row in 13 years and the first time they refused to allow the old trappings of Rutgers football to wholly trap them.

A criticism sometimes leveled at Pitt fans is that we are still dreaming of the glory days back in the ’70s and early ’80s. Imagine, though, being a fan or alum of a program that has no glory days. All they seem to have is a history of ineptness, so only nearly but not blowing the game is seen as a big positive.

When Pittsburgh scored its second touchdown, with almost five minutes left to play in the third quarter, you knew what everybody in the building was thinking: Illinois. This is Rutgers, after all.

When Pitt scored its fourth touchdown and the score was 37-29, with eight minutes to play in the game, people were sitting quietly, presumably because they wouldn’t stand for this. Not again. Not another Illinois.

Even if the people here want to believe the glass is half full — and they want to believe this in the worst way — they live in fear of the emptiness they have come away with all these many years.
…
… they had to go and make them play the second half, a traditional and persistent problem for the Scarlet Knights.

This time they made it through the whole 60 minutes.

They didn’t pull another stunt like they did against Illinois. This time they made an exemplary first half stand up.

That’s progress.

That’s sad.

I’ll keep this brief (this time, for sure) since I’m sure most have read the stuff already.

Paul Zeise absolutely crushed the effort by Pitt in the first 4 ‘graphs.

Several members of the Pitt football team remarked that the Panthers had hit rock bottom after they lost to Mid-American Conference lightweight Ohio University earlier this season.

If that was the case, then those same players likely got out a jackhammer last night and to find out what is below rock bottom because the Panthers have reached a new low.

Pitt bumbled and stumbled its way through a mistake-filled first half against Rutgers, then botched a comeback attempt and lost, 37-29, in their Big East opener.

Losing a conference game on the road is generally not an unforgivable offense, but the Scarlet Knights are a team that have won a total of three Big East games since 2000 — and two of those were against Temple, which was kicked out of the conference for being unable to field a competitive team. It was also the first time Pitt (1-4, 0-1 in the Big East) lost to Rutgers (3-1, 1-0) since 1998, a span of six games.

In 1998 (my first year as a season ticket holder since being a student) Pitt last lost to Rutgers. That year Pitt was 2-9. The only wins came against Div. 1-AA Villanova and Akron from the MAC. This year, Pitt didn’t even beat the MAC patsy. The offense was non-existent in the first half and often the players didn’t help matters.

Pitt’s comeback in the second half was aided in part by mistakes from Rutgers.

Bizarre play-calling and personnel decisions by Knights coach Greg Schiano also helped the Panthers get back in the game.

Schiano used three quarterbacks — inexplicably sitting Hart, a senior who earlier in the game became Rutgers’ all-time leading passer, at critical junctures. Redshirt freshman Mike Teel and freshman wideout Tiquan Underwood both lined up under center, but neither was dazzling.

And, despite having a big lead and a burly, sure-handed fullback in Leonard, the Knights continued to try high-risk, deep-passing plays — and paid the price with punts and turnovers.

With 6 1/2 minutes left in the third, a pass from Hart to Tres Moses bounced off the hands of the Rutgers wideout and into the mitts of Pitt linebacker J.J. Horne.

Palko zipped a 25-yard pass to tight end Darrell Strong. On third down at the 11, Palko found Lee for 9 yards and a first-and-goal.

Justin Acierno’s 2-yard TD catch trimmed the deficit to 13 points with 4:42 to go in the third. It was Acierno’s first career touchdown.

Rutgers caught a break near the end of the third quarter. Palko scrambled out of the pocket and linebacker William Beckford jarred the ball loose. Cameron Stephenson recovered for the Knights.

Moses caught a 25-yard touchdown. Safety Tez Morris had a chance to stop Moses at the 3, but failed to wrap up and finish the tackle.

It’s hard to totally fault the switching of QBs, especially Underwood who was very effective in the first half at taking direct snaps. The Teel stuff wasn’t really that damaging, and I generally like seeing back-up QBs get some work — especially if they are the “future as Teel is supposed to be for RU. I also can’t totally fault Schiano’s play calling. It was aggressive. Trying to step on Pitt’s throat and put the game out of reach. It failed, but it’s better to err that way then turtling up early.

As for Palko’s admittedly costly fumble. The mistake from Palko wasn’t the run and the weak-ass juke. It was the fact that he never secured the ball. When he pulled the ball down, he never tried to adjust the ball from a passing grip to a carry. That’s why it was able to be jarred loose.

Now, I don’t hear the talk radio in the ‘Burgh, but I think we all know how closely I follow the local media. In the first quarter, around 8:30 pm, Rod Gilmore started talking about how the Pittsburgh press has been all over the coaching staff for the slow start. Say what? Now the national media has been on Coach Wannstedt — very hard since the Nebraska loss — but the local press has been more than kind.

That ended with the Rutgers loss. Joe Starkey blasted away.

…make no mistake about this: Dave Wannstedt’s return to his alma mater has become an utter embarrassment.

What else can you say, the morning after a 37-29 loss to Rutgers?

Pitt is now 0-4 against Division I-A competition.

Maybe things will change. Maybe Wannstedt will be like West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez, who suffered through a miserable first season that included a loss to Temple before turning things around.

Maybe.

At the moment, this fiasco is just not defensible. It’s one thing for Wannstedt to lose some games as he transitions to his system, and, eventually, to his players. It’s quite another to lose to Ohio and Rutgers in the same month (Rodriguez, by the way, beat Ohio and Rutgers his first year, the latter by an 80-7 score).

What’s more disturbing is Wannstedt’s tendency to distance himself from the mess.

This past Monday on the Big East conference call, a reporter was quizzing Wannstedt about his team when Wannstedt uttered what he termed “my standard line.”

It goes like this: “We are what we are, and it is what it is.”

You don’t need to be a trained linguist to translate that as, “There’s only so much I can do.”

There’s some truth there, but let’s be serious. Pitt was not that different, personnel-wise, last season and it beat Ohio by 17 points and Rutgers by 24.

He also points out (and this was something even the lousy ESPN2 crew noticed) that Pitt was completely out-physicaled by a Rutgers team. Being out-muscled and physically manhandled was something Coach Wannstedt and everyone associated said wouldn’t be happening.

Ron Cook’s slightly less brutal column also noticed Pitt being manhandled by Rutgers.

I also knew there would be a period of adjustment for Wannstedt. There almost always is for a new coach. It’s hard to win with your system when you have to play with the previous coach’s players. And it’s not as if Walt Harris left a lot of quality offensive and defensive linemen.

But, never in my wildest imagination, did I envision Pitt getting beat by Rutgers, which always has been a sure victory on its schedule, even in the dark days of Johnny Majors II and Paul Hackett.

Or that Pitt would be 1-4 at this point and staring hard at the possibility of 1-10.

Or that there would be so many questions so soon about Wannstedt being the right man for the Pitt job.

In case you are curious, Hackett and Majors II went a combined 5-2 against Rutgers.

What I didn’t get from Cook’s column was his questioning of Palko.

Pitt’s biggest problem among many is the play of Palko. Maybe those four touchdown passes he threw in the second half will get him going. That seems to be Pitt’s only hope at this point. He hasn’t looked like the same quarterback who lit up scoreboards last season. He doesn’t look comfortable in offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh’s system.

Has he not seen the continual blitzing and pressure Palko has been facing? He stood in there and took more abuse than anyone should. I may be biased, but Palko is one of the few players on this team that I have no questions about.

I will ask once again, why hasn’t offensive line coach Paul Dunn come in for more questioning. Sure there are plenty of issues regarding offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh’s play calling and Coach Wannstedt’s philosophy, but since most of the problems have been with piss-poor line play I’d at least like to hear/read what Dunn has to say.

Went to bed in a foul mood. Woke up still pissed about the game. Managed to resist the urge to start drinking right away as I started thinking about the game again — need to make it to at least noon.

Before I try to do any serious recaps, I want to post a few of your comments from after the game, and maybe add my thoughts.

Whatever you’re taking rjb, I’d like a double. That’s some strong, relentless optimism.

Jason had a lot to say.

Just too deep a hole from the first half. I don’t think Pitt could have played any worse in the first half at all facets. It was a perfection of ineptitude. They needed to be perfect in the second half to pull it off. They weren’t and that was it.

I can’t take a moral victory from this. If for no other reason that a Ron Zook led team was able to come back and win against Rutgers. Does anyone like that idea?