The full poll is up and indvidual ballots can be viewed here. My ballot is here.

That means starting the review of the past season of Pitt football.

Between the time crunch of family visits, travel and just not being emotionally ready to discuss it, I’ve been putting this off.

To start, let’s see what has been written.

First things, first. Paul Zeise in last week’s Q&A let fly with a whopper of revisionist history in his introduction:

I’ve said it numerous times and I’ll say it again — Rich Rodriguez inherited a talented team in 2001 with a lot of returning starters and a lot of optimism, then went out in his first year and laid an egg to the tune of 3-8. He made some offseason adjustments in his approach and in some of the things he tried to do, he recruited well, and he continued teaching the things he believes in and the result has been a team that has improved steadily every year. And think about it — his first full recruiting class is his senior class this year, which shows how important it is to get off to a good start in recruiting. And he did so coming off a 3-8 season, so I don’t think the Panthers record this first year is much of a factor. Kids are smart enough to know that the transition year can sometimes be tough because of all the adjustments that have to be made.

[Emphasis added.]

I really like Zeise’s writing, but BS is BS. Since I like the writer, I’m chalking it up to a faulty recall or something non-deliberate.

Here’s the reality check. Going into the 2001 season, WVU was picked to finish no better than 5th in the Big East. The consensus was 6th, ahead of only Rutgers and Temple. WVU had been sliding in the talent, and no one was predicting a smooth time. Rodriguez slightly underachieved according to most of the predictions by finishing 7th (good old Rutgers taking the bottom rung). So, no more comparisons please to WVU and Rich Rodriguez in 2001. Expectations and talent were no where near the same.

As for the rest of Zeise’s opening remarks about the future:

I think the West Virginia model is a good one, as well, because it is clearly evident that Rodriguez has always looked for and recruited speed and last night it showed because it looked like they were about three steps faster at just about every position than the Panthers. Wannstedt’s philosophy has always been to stockpile speed and that’s what he’s attempting to do. And one thing I’ve been very impressed with about Wannstedt is this — when it comes to recruiting, he is a workaholic and he loves it more than anything else he does. One coach told me Wannstedt is the most competitive recruiter he’s ever been around. He’s all about text messaging, e-mailing, writing letters and getting out on the road to meet people. That’s the first step toward rebuilding a program and contrary to popular belief, this program needed some rebuilding when he arrived. That much is evident when you take a close look at the so-called talent that was left behind.

The second step is being able to coach and develop that talent. There are a lot of coaches who are great recruiters — and I’m fairly confident Wannstedt fits in that category — but getting players is only half the equation. I think there will be some offseason adjustments made by Wannstedt — he’s already said as much — now that he has a very good idea of what he is up against and what it is going to take to win.

Maybe I’m just feeling argumentative, but Pitt didn’t need “rebuilding.” The program may need reworking and some definite talent upgrades, but rebuilding is not what it is undergoing. That is a disservice to what Walt Harris did accomplish at Pitt from 1997 through 2004, and the players.

Coach Wannstedt has put together an outstanding first recruiting class, that will be considered a top-20 if not top-10 class by Signing Day in February. It has been the brightest thing, and let’s face it, the thing most fans have kept in the fore in an otherwise enthusiasm dampening debut season.

Q: What should fans look for from the Panthers for spring and heading into next season as far as position battles go?

Zeise: Boy I could write about five or six pages on this subject, but I won’t. I’ll try and keep it simple. The spring will be exciting, but not nearly as exciting as the fall when all the freshmen arrive. That’s when the real position battles will begin. That’s when we’ll have a good chance to see what the roster is all about. But I would expect some moves to be made in the spring with the arrival of the freshmen in mind. I think some of the moves you could anticipate are C.J. Davis to center, Shane Murray to safety, Rashad Jennings to fullback and a whole lot of shuffling along both lines. There will also be a battle between Conor Lee and David Abdul at kicker and some stiff competition at linebacker, safety and corner because of graduation. One thing that is good news for the Panthers is they aren’t losing a whole lot to graduation. Losing Lay, Cummings and Charles Spencer will hurt because they are talented, had great years and are at positions where the Panthers aren’t loaded — but other than those three in particular, the Panthers have younger, more talented guys to step into the holes that will be left behind. I think Lee and Abdul are both talented enough that the Panthers kicking game will be fine, but they need some freshmen to step in and step up at corner and tackle.
…
Q: Can someone explain why Pitt didn’t take the penalty and have third-and-13 or, if they were going to decline it, go for it on fourth-and-3?

Zeise: Well, Walt had the slide at UConn, this one was clearly a brain cramp by Dave Wannstedt. His explanation for declining the penalty then punting was that he was trying to play field position. Obviously that didn’t make a lot of sense from this standpoint — he could have accepted the penalty and had a third down play and then punted if the Panthers didn’t make it. What he did was essentially punt on third down and that is not a good thing. It made even less sense when you consider how poorly Adam Graessle has been punting the ball inside the 5. To me, there was no question that ball was destined to be a touchback which is why I thought you’d rather have the ball further back if you were going to punt it. To Wannstedt’s credit he admitted he made a mistake, he made the wrong call and if he had to do it all over again he’d have gone for it. It was clearly a bad decision but I have to be honest, I saw very few bad decisions this year which makes me believe the coaching staff has a good idea of what to do on game day. There were very few games where I questioned game management decisions — like when to go for it, when to punt, how to manage the clock — etc., etc.

He also writes about Recruit/Soft Commit RB Kevin Collier. As always, it’s a must read.

AD Jeff Long has no complaints at this point.

“We’re disappointed in this season, but we’re excited about the future,” Long said Thursday, minutes after the Panthers’ 45-13 loss against West Virginia.

As Long spoke, coach Dave Wannstedt walked into the room to begin his postgame interview. Long glanced over a reporter’s shoulder at Wannstedt and smiled.

“I couldn’t be more pleased with where we’re going and where Dave believes he’s going to take us,” Long said. “I think he believes, as I do, that he’s going to have the kind of program that (can recruit) the best players in the area. That’s the kind of guy we wanted when we brought him here to coach the team.”

Wannstedt’s first season at the helm of his alma mater’s program ended with its first losing mark since 1999. The Panthers (5-6, 4-3) were unable to defend their Big East title, and along the way suffered a few demoralizing losses.

What? You were expecting anything else?

The story also reveals that WR/Kick returner Terrell Allen wasn’t simply suspended for the WVU game, but kicked off the team for “chronic disciplinary problems.”

As for what happens in the off-season as far as adjustments regarding coaches. This is a fervent wish: fire Defensive Coordinator Paul Rhoads. I know Rhoads is very popular with the Pitt administration, but his defensive schemes are the classic smoke and mirror D.

Against below average to bad offenses the numbers look nice with interceptions and low productivity in the red zone. Against decent offenses, though, it gets absolutely torched. Because Rhoads is always more concerned about keeping the offense in front of the the defense it is never playing aggressive. It is soft and gets gashed. Not on the big play, but on chunks, gashes and drives. Rutgers, ND, Louisville and WVU. They all just moved at will on Pitt. Especially running the ball. Under Rhoads and the kids he has recruited, the run defense has become sub-par.

This year, Pitt allowed 4.3 yards/carry. Last year, 3.8 yards/carry. In 2003, 4.5 yards/carry. In 2002, 3.2 yards/carry. 2001, 2.9 yards/carry. 2000, 2.6 yards/carry (PDF). Anyone noticing a trend? Rhoads came to Pitt as DC in 2000.

Rhoads isn’t the only defensive coach who should be coming in for review. Curtis Bray has been the LB coach since 2003, and Charlie Partridge who was responsible for DEs and Special Teams. A big mitigator for both, though, are their roles in the recruiting class for 2005 (“page 2” indicates the lead recruiting coach).

This is not simply looking for scalps or someone to blame for this season. I’ve been down on Rhoads, his defensive schemes and his inability to teach players to tackle rather than hit since the 2003 season. He continually espouses a “bend but don’t break” defense and eschews blitzes. Despite having excellent corners, he rarely was willing to bring up the safeties to assist against the run — part of that fear against giving up the big play. I guess he feels a quick strike is more demoralizing than watching a team just march down the field steadily and easily.

That keeping the offense in front of the defense, along with a clear lack of speed up front is why the various permutations of the spread offense and good running games have killed Pitt. Or as was put this way (Insider Subs.):

Pittsburgh’s Defensive Front Seven
Pittsburgh’s run defense, which ranks 95th in the nation, lived up to its pathetic billing in last Thursday’s 48-13 loss to despised rival West Virginia. The Panthers have good size at defensive tackle with Thomas Smith (6-4, 300) and Phil Tillman (6-1, 315), but neither player does a good job of anchoring at the point of attack, which has forced standout MLB H.B. Blades to sift through entirely too much traffic on the second level when in run pursuit. Those problems were highlighted by coach Rich Rodriguez’s spread scheme, as QB Pat White and RB Steve Slaton combined for 399 of the Mountaineers 451 net rushing yards.

Blades barely played in the WVU game before going down with injury. He still had 121 tackles for the season. Tops by far in the Big East. The rest of the linebackers were just abused. There’s only so much you can blame on Smith’s injury.

I think Carl Krauser is dead on with this:

“When we come out there and we’re not focusing or not playing great outside defense and things like that, it causes teams to come out and hit open shots and great shots. That’s when we dig ourselves a hole and have to dig ourselves out. So what we have to do now is concentrate on the couple of days off that we have to practice and just really dig down and basically have a self check within ourselves as a team and come out here and give forth the effort for 40 minutes of defense.”

It’s easy to point to the poor 3-point shooting by Pitt to explain why St. Francis (NY) hung around — especially in the first half when Pitt was 1-9 and the Terriers were 5-11. Ronald Ramon appears to agree.

On playing a more physical defense in the second half

“More team defense. We had to get more focused. At the beginning we were giving up shots, we weren’t talking on defense at all. In the second half we were talking more and the team defense was good.”

On clamping down on Christian Brown in the second half

“He’s a great player. We played against each other in high school. It was kind of like a pay back, if you want to put it like that. We played against each other for the city championship back in New York and they stole that from us. He’s a great player. We knew he was going to come here, take shots. First half he had wide open shots, like I said it was just about the team defense. Second half we had more help from the team.”

Brown had 16 points in the first half, but only 4 in the second half when Ramon locked down on him. The defense completely took Brown out of his game.

“[Pitt] defensively stepped it up and he got frustrated,” he said of Brown’s second half performance.

Ramon used his defense to help compensate on a night where he didn’t sink a 3 and his stat sheet would otherwise appear unimpressive. A very important thing, especially if Pitt is to reclaim a reputation as being a physical defensive minded team.

The players, though, who led the way for Pitt were Carl Krauser and Aaron Gray.

Gray converted 7 of 10 field-goal attempts and was 8 for 10 from the free-throw line in 30 minutes, as St. Francis was unable to contain him.

“Aaron looked more comfortable going up with his shot tonight,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “He had patience in the post, too. Teams are going to double-down a little more as this goes on. You’re talking about a guy who didn’t score a lot of points last year, and maybe they aren’t expecting it. But the progress he’s made from his senior year in high school to now has been steady, yet dramatic.”

Said Gray: “There’s definitely been improvement each year I’ve been here. Right now, I’m doing all right.”

The victory improved Pitt’s record against the Northeast Conference to 62-0. The Panthers are 3-0 against St. Francis in a brief series that was not started until 2000.

The outcome was never in doubt, although Pitt teased a home crowd of 7,263 by allowing St. Francis (2-2) to hang around until the Panthers turned up the heat in the second half and began clicking as Dixon continued his constant shuffling of the lineup.

I’m really impressed by Gray’s free throw shooting. He’s not as consistent from game-to-game, but he is now 20-29 (.690) in 4 games. Considering he can expect to get to the line more often this year as he gets more assertive, this is vital.

Krauser served as the catalyst in the second half to start Pitt on the run from which they blew the doors off of St. Francis.

But when things get a little tense, that’s when Carl Krauser takes over. Just as he did against Robert Morris a week ago, Krauser sparked a second-half surge and led Pitt to a 79-58 victory last night at the Petersen Events Center.

“Our guys feed off his energy,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “His leadership … it’s one thing to talk. It’s another thing to do it.”

Krauser had another off-shooting night, but he made his presence felt in other areas, most notably his hustle, defense and playmaking. Krauser, who had 18 points, was the impetus for Pitt’s 8-2 run at the beginning of the second half that ignited the runaway. On one play, Krauser stole the ball, had it bounce away, chased it down and, from his back, threw an over-the-head pass to Aaron Gray for a layup. Less than a minute later, Krauser made another steal, drove the lane and made an acrobatic layup that gave the Panthers a 43-34 lead with 16:33 remaining.

St. Francis never mounted a serious threat after that.

“He’s our leader on and off the court,” Gray said. “He’s one of the main reasons Pitt is looked at as such a physical and overpowering team. We’re going to get that from Carl every practice, every game.”

Krauser set a career-high with six steals. On the same night he became one of the top 20 scorers in school history, all anyone wanted to talk about after the game was his defense.

A concern of course, was the poor 3-point shooting. Take that out of the game, and Pitt was very efficient.

Listening to the game, makes it hard to draw my own conclusions about what players were doing. Hillgrove and Groat were very complimentary of Kendall’s hustle and defense. Kendall would appear to have had a solid night with 9 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds, 1 steal and 0 turnovers.

Both Keith Benjamin and John DeGroat played solid games. Both would appear to be much more comfortable this season. Not looking to do everything and looking over their shoulder for fear of being pulled if they make a mistake.

As would be expected, some of the freshmen players were a little uneven. Tyrell Biggs would appear to still be struggling on defense, and was a little too eager to score. Sam Young and Levance Fields saw a little less time than before, but handled the ball well and didn’t press for shots.