It’s been a hectic fall. One thing I was meaning to post, especially for those of you who don’t live in the Pittsburgh area, was the collage of this year’s Pitt season tickets.

They’ve had better collages. This one really struggles especially when you realize how disjointed the WVU ticket will look when separated.

Today’s theme as Pitt gets ready for Syracuse is that the Orange like to rush the passer.

On Syracuse having success getting quarterback sacks:

The surprising thing, they have two sacks by corners. I think the safety has a sack or two. The linebackers have a few. For the most part, and this is what we have to be aware of, it’s been their defensive linemen. Those guys, they’ve gotten a lot of sacks just by rushing three. They’ve got sacks by rushing four. They’re not blitzing all the time when they come up with their sacks. I looked at that last night (on film). I went through it because I wanted to see what they were doing. We studied their interceptions, they have nine. We studied their sacks to see how they’re coming up with their sacks. That gives us an opportunity to talk about some things.

Syracuse has 25 sacks so far. Tops in the country. They are aggressive, which is a reflection of the style of defense that Syracuse HC Greg Robinson likes. Even if Syracuse didn’t play that style, it seems likely they would at least try to bring pressure against the Pitt O-line with Simonitis being done.

Simonitis will be replaced by Joe Thomas, a true freshman, and the Panthers will shuffle some reserves to piece together a plan should another starter get hurt. In short, all signs point to a potentially long afternoon for the Panthers’ offensive line.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt addressed such potential problems yesterday while acknowledging his need to have his team prepared for such a hostile environment. He said the presence of senior quarterback Tyler Palko should ease some concerns and that the veterans around Thomas should help him work his way through some of the jitters that come with a first start.

“[Noise] will be a big factor, but I think having an experienced quarterback is the most important thing when you go to an environment like that,” Wannstedt said at his weekly news conference. “I feel good, too, about [Palko’s] ability to handle the environment because he’s played up there before. We’ll have the noise out here during practice [today] and Wednesday to work through some of the issues with signal-calling and so forth. But this is something we’ll address from day one.

“I don’t see our group getting rattled or having any problems; we’ve got a pretty grounded group.”

The O-line usually gets plenty of scrutiny from Pitt fans. With all the changes afoot, they will be under a microscope.

Wannstedt believed that while injuries are never good, being able to play many young players should benefit the Panthers down the homestretch this season. Freshman Joe Thomas will start at right guard for Simonitis, and redshirt sophomore Dom Williams – who moved to left tackle to back up Jeff Otah after Bachman’s injury – will go back to guard to spell Thomas.

Freshman Jason Pinkston, who got his first game action in Saturday’s win over Toledo, is now the backup left tackle this week. And redshirt freshman Craig Bokor is the backup left guard to sophomore C.J. Davis.

“Fortunately, Pinkston got some playing time, which was good,” Wannstedt said. “Dom Williams has played in the past. Bokor is doing a decent job. … So, we have some younger players and there’s not much experience there, but we do have some young guys that are eager to play.”

Well, at least their eager.
The potentially good thing about this game is that Palko has been very good about getting rid of the ball quickly. With the solid receivers and tight ends for Pitt, there is the potential for some early exploiting of the Syracuse rush.

As long as the O-line can give Palko enough time to look up from center after getting the ball, Pitt might be able to run some nice screens and quick outs. This is also the kind of defense, where Dorin Dickerson could be very important. Dickerson may be the only back for Pitt with enough speed to get to the outside and turn the corner.