I suppose you have say things like this, but it still makes me wince.

“We get to find out what kind of a team we are and what kind of men we are after dealing with, basically, a season that was from hell,” Palko said two weeks ago at the Big East Football Kickoff in Newport, R.I., where media members picked Pitt to finish third among the conference’s eight teams in 2006. “It was horrible. Everybody knows that.

“I think last season will be able to teach us a lot. I guess that’s really the only thing you can take out of it. You learn your lessons.”

Palko believes the way the Panthers respond to adversity this season will determine whether they succeed or fail, win or lose.

“That is going to dictate how far we go,” said Palko, who wondered how his team will

respond the first time it has a three-and-out series or the first time he throws an interception that the opposition returns for a touchdown.

“How do you deal with it and how does your team deal with it? We’ll find out when that adversity hits. You can deal with adversity through summer workouts and preseason practice, but that isn’t the real test. The real test is when the lights come on.

“If you aren’t a man, you won’t be able to handle all of the ups and downs that you face.”

Palko attributes the Panthers’ poor performance in 2005 to their inability to overcome adversity rather than their new coach and his new schemes.

“When we were playing well, we were OK; when we weren’t, we felt sorry for ourselves,” said Palko, who completed 193-of-341 passes for 2,392 yards with 17 touchdowns and nine interceptions in 2005 compared to 230-of-409 passes for 3,067 yards with 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 2004.

See, I would have attributed it to just playing badly. Bad line play on the offense that produced no holes for the running game and no time to throw. The defense had equally bad line play that gave a QB all day to throw and couldn’t stop anyone who ran.