Ames, Iowa has a job opening.

Dan McCarney resigned Wednesday after 12 seasons as Iowa State’s football coach, saying it was time to re-energize the program.

McCarney, the Big 12’s longest tenured coach, will remain with the Cyclones for the final two games of the season.

Come on Iowa State. It’s time to call home a native son. A “hot, young” coordinator. Make that call to Paul Rhoads now.

As for the Pitt defense, it is time to exceed all potential. Make DC Rhoads look really good. Really shut down the remaining three teams. Make it happen.

Believe it or not, I haven’t forgotten about basketball. It’s just been a little crazy lately. I have taken a look at the various previews that have Pitt anywhere from 4th to 9th in the country. Really they all talk about the team in mostly the same way:

• Aaron Gray coming back was huge.
• The team has depth and maturity.
• Kendall is underrated.
• Ramon and Fields will do well.
• Sam Young could break-out.
• Mike Cook will have a big impact.
• Dixon’s a good coach who has balanced playing time well.

They also ask some questions that do need to be considered about this team.
— Can Pitt handle the hype?

Let’s face it, this is a big question that nags at the back of most of our minds. In both football and basketball, it seems that Pitt has just never done well when there are big expectations from the team. Forget getting to the Final Four or BCS. The teams seem to struggle to win and not go out in the first round of the NCAA and/or Big East Tournament.

— Can Aaron Gray be the #1 guy?

If media day is any indication, Gray seems at ease with the attention and being the focus of all attention. Carl Krauser took a lot of the focus both positive and negative. How will Gray handle taking the questions when the team loses a game?
— Will Coach Dixon be able to figure out the rotation, and find enough playing time to placate egos?

Pitt is very deep, and could very easily go 10 or 11 deep. There’s only 200 minutes to go around each game. There’s a good chance that all the freshmen could find themselves redshirting. Only Gilbert Brown might break into the roatation.

— What will the perimeter defense be like?

Ronald Ramon is a very good defender, but his size is an issue. He can be shot over. Fields was inconsistent. Graves has shown a propensity to be a step slow with a penetrating player. Cook might be an answer, but that remains to be seen.

— Who will be the “go to” or “crunch time” guy?

Carl Krauser was the guy — for good and ill — now there isn’t that one guy who the team will look to for that shot. The guy who took the ball and was going to get the last shot. Ramon took key shots late in games, but he did not create them. Maybe it will be Fields. Perhaps Cook. Young can penetrate as well. Maybe it’s not a bad thing, since there isn’t one player to key on, but it is a legit question.

After a breakout game against Rutgers, it’s no shock that Redshirt Freshman RB Donald Brown has supplanted Senior Terry Caulley. Officially, it is because Caulley is not 100 percent from an ankle injury. Reality is that Brown ran for 198 yards against Rutgers. Production on the field matters a lot more then being a team captain and the all-time leading rusher (for now) at UConn. Brown of course, is ready for the job.
As if that isn’t enough of a reason to beg, plead and scream to Coach Wannstedt and DC Rhoads to stuff the box against UConn’s offense, surely the fact that D.J. Hernandez was named the starting QB should.

But even with all of Brown’s athletic ability and promise, the Huskies still need some semblance of a passing attack to win and keep their fading bowl hopes alive. D.J. Hernandez, named starter for the second time this season prior to the Rutgers game, was again ineffective in completing 8 of 17 passes for just 67 yards, an interception and a fumble.

Hernandez’s dismal statistics were all but lost in the euphoria over Brown’s breakout game. He needs to get better, Edsall said Tuesday. Hernandez agreed, saying the problems stem from a combination of miscommunication with the receivers and his own occasional lack of patience.

“Sometimes it’s breakdowns, sometimes it’s me not securing the ball,” Hernandez said. “It’s a little bit of both. Whether there’s route confusion or myself not holding onto the ball and protecting the ball. Sometimes I try to stay in pocket a little bit too long, and go through my reads when things are opening up.”

The game plan against Pittsburgh (6-3, 2-2) will still be a heavy dose of Brown, with Caulley, if recovered from an ankle injury that sidelined him against Rutgers in the first place, and Lou Allen spelling him at times.

But as any coach knows, a team needs to be able to throw to keep defenses honest. Even though Brown churned out several big runs against Rutgers, he was limited in the fourth quarter because Hernandez wasn’t throwing well, and the Scarlet Knights loaded against the run.

Will it be a shock to anyone to know that UConn  has the 7th worst passing offense in the Big East, and 112th overall.

Seriously, when you see those numbers, know you have a bad QB who hasn’t started much, and that the whole offensive game plan for the opponent is to run. How does any sane HC and DC not just say, “Okay, we have a good secondary so we’ll let them go one-on-one. We’ll bring up the safeties. Bring the linebackers closer. The focus is not just on stopping the run, but stuffing and forcing them to throw.”

I’m not talking about blitzing, I’m talking about lining up to stop the run. That’s it. I really don’t know how or why that red herring of blitzes keeps getting tossed out there whenever someone questions the defensive strategy, and somehow it works. It’s like people in Pittsburgh are so conditioned by the Steelers about blitzing, that it simply mentioning “blitz” confuses and distracts them from anything else.

UConn also has lousy punting. Blocked punts in three games this year.

Thanks as always to Lee for drafting it — his version and explanation after my draft ballot. As usual, I made some changes which I will note. Still time to point out errors, ommissions or general cluelessness

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Ohio State	—
2	Michigan	—
3	Louisville	2
4	Texas	2
5	Florida	1
6	California	3
7	Auburn	—
8	West Virginia	5
9	Southern Cal	1
10	Arkansas	2
11	LSU	5
12	Rutgers	2
13	Notre Dame	2
14	Tennessee	6
15	Boise State	2
16	Wisconsin	1
17	Wake Forest	2
18	Oklahoma	—
19	Georgia Tech	2
20	Boston College	5
21	Maryland	5
22	Nebraska	4
23	Texas A&M	1
24	Virginia Tech	—
25	Tulsa	2

Here’s what Lee originally submitted:

1. Ohio State: No, the close win over Illinois wasn’t simply a case of the Buckeyes looking past the 2-8 Illini. Ron Zook and his defense did a skillful job, in the second half, of exploiting what has been Ohio State’s weakness all year – a large, talented offensive line that can’t adjust to a single stunt or loop. The penetration that the Illini got on Troy Smith and Antonio Pittman had better be a wake-up call, because the best front seven in college football is now less than two weeks away. Of course, Tressel’s unimaginative play-calling didn’t help things either, but I tend to believe that he just doesn’t want to show the Wolverines too much. On a side note, Ron Zook has done a tremendous job at Illinois this year, nearly beating not only Ohio State, but Penn State, Wisconsin, and Indiana as well. Really, the only teams that have really been able to physically dominate the Illini are, well, Rutgers and Syracuse. Y’all pardon me while I let my Big East bias shine… Speaking of which, I disagree with Pitt TE Darrell Strong’s assertion that the Panthers are, indeed, number one.

2. Michigan: No, the close win over Ball State wasn’t simply a case of the Wolverines looking past the 3-7 Cardinals. Ball State exploited what has been Michigan’s weakness most of the year – an inability to score enough points to put an opponent away. The dropped catches and putting the reserves in too early didn’t help either. Of course, Carr’s unimaginative play-calling didn’t help, but I tend to believe that he just doesn’t want to show the Buckeyes too much. And yes, the repetition between how I described #1 and #2 is intentional.

3. Louisville: To me, the gap between the first two teams and #3 has narrowed this week. Louisville’s offense looked balanced and great Thursday night, admittedly against a porous WVU defense and pitiful Mountaineer secondary. The Cardinals’ run defense was suspect, admittedly against the most explosive ground attack in the country. So yeah, there were some weaknesses here. But not much worse than the weaknesses that Ohio State and Michigan showcased yesterday. 354 yards through the air and 114 on the ground is nothing to laugh at against anybody, let alone WVU. Yeah, I think that the Cardinals would have a chance against the top two, so long as they decide once and for all how they want to pronounce the name of their city (even Pitino calls it Loo-ee-ville, you hicks).

4. Texas: Everybody keeps talking about an Ohio State-Michigan rematch in the title game, but nobody talks about an Ohio State-Texas rematch there. If Louisville loses to Rutgers and Ohio State is fortunate enough to make it past Michigan (and it will take some fortune), it very well could happen. This is not the same team that lost to the Buckeyes back on Septbember 9th. Colt McCoy has come of age a lot faster than Juice Williams has, with career-high 346 yards on 23-of-29 passing against the Cowpokes. Perhaps the most offensively explosive team in the top five. Perhaps even better than Louisville. But, alas, Louisville is undefeated.

5. Florida: Yeah, Vandy challenged them (especially on defense), but the Commodores challenged the Wolverines in the Big House too. And a win on special teams is still a win. A legitimate top-five team and national championship contender (if Louisville falls).

6. Auburn: (Yawn) A typically unimpressive win, this team against Arkansas Freakin’ State (it’s in Jonesboro, and you bet your @$$ I had to look that up). OK defense. Struggling offense. Can’t put them above Florida.
[And I couldn’t actually move them up for whacking on a 1-AA team, but with the big demotion to WVU, that meant a little something extra for Cal.]

7. California: A good win against a game UCLA squad. Nate Longshore and his offense continued to shine, completing 20 of 24 passes for 266 yards and three touchdowns. Their offense is probably better than Auburn’s or Florida’s. I ranked them just behind these two, though, because of their defense and because Cal plays in the PAC-10 (perhaps unfair). That being said, I won’t argue with anybody who puts Cal as high as #5. The Bears are clearly the class of the PAC-10.

8. West Virginia: Why this high? Because if Slaton had held on to the ball a little better, the Mountaineers would be in the top three. Really, that’s all it might have taken. Yeah, the secondary sucked, and we all knew it would. But what an offense! And how much of a stud is Pat White for being able to run it all by himself for a successful drive without Slaton? On a neutral site, WVU could realistically beat any of the seven teams ranked above them.

9. USC: The second best team in the PAC-10 took out its frustrations on hapless Stanford (how’s the new gig going, Walt?). I am not impressed, nor have I been since they clocked Arkansas in the first week of the season… which, incidentally, is the only reason I have them ranked ahead of…

[You know, that Nov. 18 against Cal is looking mighty big right now. Going to be a great day/night of football.]

10. Arkansas: Nice win in Columbia. The Hogs just keep perking along, winning the SEC West. Big tests in the next three weeks against Tennessee and LSU will tell us how good they really are, though.

11. LSU: Great win in Neyland Stadium. Doucet and Russell looked the way I expected them to look when the season started.

[I thought Les Miles was going to slug the sideline reporter after halftime when she reminded him that his teams have sucked on the road against ranked teams in the second half.]

12. Rutgers: I struggle with where to put Rutgers just as much as everybody else does, whether they’ll admit it or not. Rutgers is a tough, physical team that belongs more with Wisconsin in the Big Ten than with Pitt in the Big East. Ray Rice and the o-line he runs behind are as good as any in the country. They had a bye this week. We’ll see how good they really are Thursday night against the Cardinals. But for now, this is honestly where I think the undefeated Scarlet Knights belong: I think the 11 teams in front of them are better, and the 12 behind them are worse. Of course, my opinion is fluid, though. If Rutgers beats Louisville, I’ll have no problem vaulting them above a few one-loss SEC teams because, at that point, they will have proven themselves to be better than I think they are right now.

13. Notre Dame: Wow. Brady Quinn connects on 23 of 35 passes for 349 yards and four touchdowns against 1-8 North Carolina, and the media starts handing him the Heisman again. What were his stats against Michigan again?

14. Wisconsin: It’s easy to overlook this juggernaut with a huge offensive line, huge tailback (P.J. Hill), and tough defense. Like most Wisconsin teams, they don’t have the flash that gets you noticed. Stucco is a good quarterback who doesn’t make mistakes, but no Troy Smith or Colt McCoy. The wideouts are OK. Still, nobody wants to play this punishing, blue collar team. Lord knows Joe Paterno didn’t (incidentally, that made my 35 year-old knee ache… yeeouch!).

[They are good, but I couldn’t move them this far up.]

15. Wake Forest: Great win on the road on Chestnut Hill. Currently, the class of the ACC. And yes, that’s at least the fifth team that I’ve said that about over the past two months (Georgia Tech, Clemson, and Virginia Tech being others). Either my rankings are a train wreck, or the ACC is. You decide.

[Clearly Lee didn’t watch the game, or was just drunk. It was a home game for Wake. I would love to move them up this high, but I just couldn’t do it. They have one of the best damn coaches out there — now he knows how to gameplan and use personnel — but the injuries are really mounting.]

16. Tennessee: A good team that just has trouble playing big games at home. The opposite of, well, LSU (a good team that couldn’t win big games on the road… until yesterday). Nice defense on LSU’s last drive, by the way.

[As much fun as it would be to put them this far down, they lost by only 3 to a damn good team, and with their back-up QB playing the entire second half.]

17. Boise State: Crushed Fresneck State on Wednesday (Wednesday?) night. Just keep on winning against, well, nobody in particular, and you may get into a BCS game… not that anyone outside of Idaho will care…

[This would be a 4 spot drop for still winning. Even putting them where I did was a slight drop. Can’t let them go this far. Oh, no, lots will care if BSU goes bowling. The ACC will be humiliated and the Big East rule of evaluating questionable conferences rankings will tick against the ACC for a second straight year.]

18. Oklahoma: Good, close win in one of my favorite tough environments, based on yet another gutsy call by Bob Stoops (still a great sideline general). Oh, what this season could have been…

19. Oregon: Impressive win against Ty Willingham’s scrappy Washington squad. The Ducks may beat USC, but they’re obviously not in the same class as Cal this year.

[I swear, Lee is doing this to piss me off. I said Oregon was out of the top-25 until they actually beat a ranked team. Beat the Trojans this week and we’ll talk.]

20. Georgia Tech: Heck, even Akron can beat N.C. State at home. Still, the Wreck is 7-2 and Reggie Ball and Calvin Johnson are for real. Clearly the class of the ACC’s weaker division (the “Coastal,” and incidentally, non-geographical divisions suck… what’s so hard about ACC North and ACC South? It works for the Big XII. And I don’t have to look up which division Nebraska or Texas are in).

21. Virginia Tech: Beating Miami is even less impressive than beating N.C. State these days, and Tech had to work to do even that much. Should easily finish in second place in the ACC’s pitiful “Coastal” division.

[And that’s why I won’t put them this high. I definitely won’t put them above a BC team that smacked them around a few weeks ago. I watched that Miami game, VT has a good running back and little else on offense.]

22. Boston College: Losing to Wake Forest at home puts them in the also-ran category of the ACC’s tougher division (the “Atlantic”). Still, a solid squad. Fortunately, they no longer have to compete against powerhouses like WVU and Rutgers.

23. Maryland: Terps QB Sam Hallenbach played out of his mind in a stunning upset over Clemson at Clemson. I never saw the Turtles’ resurgence coming. I hate to credit Ralph Friedgen, but I guess I’ll have to (must be the Under Armor “protecting his house”). They’re in the thick of the chase in the ACC’s tougher division. And to think I wasn’t impressed by WVU’s crushing these guys at the time.

24. Nebraska: Thumped Missouri, my one-time Big XII North favorite. Still, it didn’t impress many people now. Big game in College Station this Saturday will tell us more about the Blackshirts.

25. Texas A&M: Tough loss against Missouri. But they were in it to the end. As an Aggie would say, they just ran out of time.

Early in the season, following NC State’s embarrassing loss to Akron, HC Chuck Amato rambled on about the unfair advantage the MAC and other C-USA schools have over NC State. Because they aren’t held to the high academic standards of NCSt. It was bizarre, freaky, factually inaccurate and instead led to more scrutiny as to the poor graduation rates of NC State football.

So, why, oh why, did Randy Edsall start whining about academic standards at UConn?  Edsall has since backpedaled, and even Coach Wannstedt took a nice indirect swipe at the malarky.

Edsall attempted to back away from his comments on a Big East coaches teleconference yesterday, saying that he simply meant that the academic standards at Connecticut are much higher now than they were when he began. Wannstedt responded, “It is real simple, look at the graduates from the University of Pittsburgh, and it speaks for itself. I wouldn’t even go any further than that.

The most unhappy person out of all of this. UConn B-ball coach Jim Calhoun who would like no scrutiny of academics, especially when it comes to his team. Edsall, really shouldn’t be casting any aspersions on any other programs — academic or otherwise. Especially in a season where he had to dismiss one player from the team for credit card fraud and suspend another for fighting in a wing joint. On the bright side, at least they weren’t academic issues.

Syracuse blogger Matt Glaude has a much more factual-based takedown of Edsall’s insanity.

I swear, there are days when I think stories like this are planted just to give me hope.

The future prospects of Dan McCarney remaining the football coach at Iowa State beyond Thanksgiving grow more bleak by the week. For some folks the die is already cast, although for others Mac still has their support because of his past exploits…

…

Pollard has repeatedly passed on opportunities to give Mac, who we shouldn’t forget was just named the Big 12 Coach of the Year three seasons ago, a vote of confidence as of late. Conventional wisdom amongst the media and fans is that Pollard has already made his decision, and I count myself in that camp. It’s gotten to the point that folks are even speculating on prospective names for replacements. Two names I’ve heard bandied about already are Paul Rhoads, the defensive coordinator at Pittsburgh, and Jim Harbaugh, the head coach at Division I-AA San Diego.

Rhoads is a former ISU assistant under McCarney and Ankeny native, this year’s Sporting News College Football Preview named him the best defensive coordinator in the Big East.

Go for the gusto Paul. An opportunity in Ames, Iowa doesn’t come around very often.

I suppose there would be a bit of bashing if players came out after the game saying that they felt good about things. The way the players are talking at the moment, though, is a big concern.

“That is the million-dollar question — why we have self-destructed and why we haven’t made the plays we’ve made in the past,” quarterback Tyler Palko said. “It isn’t a lack of focus. We need to get to the root of the problem.

“We tip our cap, but, shoot, we can’t do these things and expect to win football games. It is hard enough to win football games when you play mistake-free.”

The Panthers have been anything but. Wannstedt used the word “disappointing” to describe their play and was surprised because he believed they had practiced well. Right tackle Mike McGlynn respectfully disagreed, saying the team had been “lackadaisical” the past two weeks.

After-the-fact, last year’s poor team psyche was attributed to some “bad apples” and poor leadership. Something that no one actually considers and issue. The effort and energy from Pitt’s best players have been there, even as they shoulder the blame.

“The lack of focus we have, that’s my fault,” Blades said. “As a senior leader on this team, I can’t allow those things to happen. So you can put this on me. It is my job, and for that matter Tyler’s [Palko] job and all the captains’ job, to get this team focused and playing well again.”

Blades, whose knee was so beat up Saturday he had to do his postgame interviews while sitting down, said it is frustrating to see the Panthers lose in the manner they have the past two weeks. He said he knows Pitt is a better football team than it has displayed.

“We need to concentrate on us right now,” Blades said. “We need to forget about all the other stuff that’s going on. We can only control what we do. We can’t control anything else. We can’t be focused on other people and other things. We have to be focused on what we do. Period, point blank. I was shocked [by Pitt’s lack of effort]. We just didn’t put out the effort you need to play winning football.

“It seemed to me like some of the guys weren’t into the game. You just can’t cry about it when things go wrong. You have to keep playing football.”

Blades wasn’t the only player who questioned the effort of some of his teammates after the game. Cornerback Darrelle Revis said there were Panthers who flat out quit…

It all seems to start on the lines. If the D-line isn’t stopping the run, or if the O-line can’t provide holes for the running game or protect the quarterback; then it seems the whole team starts to fall apart. They can’t handle the adversity.

I’ll ask: might it have anything to do with a lack of faith in the coaching staff to make adjustments to what the other side is doing? It speaks, poorly to the discipline within the team.

On the field, the O-line is in bad shape.

Pitt shuffled its offensive line, which is beset by injuries, against South Florida. Midway through the second quarter, the Panthers replaced guards C.J. Davis and Joe Thomas for a series with Dom Williams and Chris Vangas, who drew back-to-back penalties. In the fourth quarter, Jason Pinkston replaced Jeff Otah at left tackle on the final drive.

And on top of that, with only 3 games left Coach Wannstedt may take the redshirt off of Freshman DE Greg Romeus. Please don’t.

This was a system wide problem for my host, who reports a massive DoS attack that knocked everything off. Problems are resolved, for now, but I am a bit disillusioned as their performance the last week has been spotty.

I posted a little at AOL today about Wanny and finally learning “what is a rutgers?“

A Q&A with former Pitt RB Brandon Miree, now a fullback with the Green Bay Packers.

Question: You played college football at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Alabama. Can you talk about the differences between the places?

Answer: Pitt was like New York City compared to Alabama. Alabama was real rural and pretty much a campus town. It was an awesome experience, but at Pitt, you really felt like you were in the big city. We had bigger buildings on campus than they had in the entire city of Tuscaloosa. There’s not much there.

In a shock to few, yet another pro athlete tabs “Scarface” as his favorite movie.

Sorry folks, my host server has been completely messed up all day today. I also needed a little break this afternoon. The downside of 10 hours or so of watching college football and blogging it, is that I have found myself dreaming of blogging and watching football. This is the second straight weekend of that happening. Disturbing trend.

I got something out on Darrell Strong, and I will have more to recap the debacle.

…because its basketball time!

Keith here, making a random cameo appearance.

Pitt defeated California (Pa.) tonight, 80-65. The box score is only available in the Game Tracker right now, but it should be showing up on Pitt’s page anytime.

I didn’t get to watch the game, but the box score has some good and bad. It’s been a good-bad sort of day in Pitt sports I suppose – but I am not going to touch that. Here’s my take on the basketball:

Good: Levon Kendall; he shot 8-for-11 from the field and 2-3 from downtown. If he can regain the shooting touch he displayed two years ago, he could become one of the premier players (right now he is a premier role player) in the Big East – in a Dirk Nowitzki sort of way.

Bad: Mike Cook; I will not bash the guy; I will bash the unfair expectations Pitt fans seem to have for him. 0-5 from the field, 0-2 from three, 1 assist, 1 rebound, 2 fouls. I am not saying he wont turn out to be good (or great) but just be careful with him. Be nice.

Good: Antonio’s confidence; if a box-score line could ever indicate a player’s confidence level, than Graves’ does. He’s taking shots (4-9 from the field), taking three pointers (2-5), and – and this has never been a huge part of his game – dishing boat loads of assists (8). That’s my biggest surprise of the game.

Good: Aaron Gray’s free throws; the big guy was 5-5 from the line and didn’t turn the ball over once while scoring 23 points.

Bad: Little contribution from Benjamin or Young (coming back from injury).

Question: In what capacity is Fields going to be used this season? I didn’t watch the game so I couldn’t see what he was doing, but only two assists for everyone’s PG of the future isn’t good.

Good: R Squared; Ramon had 7 assists and zero turnovers. He also shot 2-4 from downtown. I just want to see him shoot more!

It’s only one exhibition game and it was against sub-par competition by Pitt’s standards, therefore none of this is an end-all-tell-all, just a jumping off point. With more good than bad maybe it will coax a few of you football fans (hello, football fans, anyone, anyone…. *crickets chirping*) away from the ledge.

So, who’s ready for some B-ball?
Both articles today focus — deservedly so — on the toughness of California (PA) University’s head coach. Good stuff.

Pitt won’t be taking this team too lightly since they put more then a scare into Maryland earlier this week. Taking them to the very final seconds with Maryland eking out a 1 point win.

Feeling a little bitter this morning as I realize that Gameplan is not showing the Pitt game on the air (they are doing it online, but I’m not springing for that as well). The only BE game today, and it’s only on regional channels. Thanks. So I’ll be stuck with net radio and the ticker scrolling.

Pitt wants this game. It wants to get the 7th win now. Not to mention avoiding back-to-back losses.

“The speed they have is going to cause us some problems if we don’t match it from the beginning of the game,” said Pitt linebacker H.B. Blades. “But we have had a long time to think about our last loss, so we’re hungry and we’re eager to get out there and play another game.

“This is a big one for us, at least, because the worst thing you can do is follow a loss with another one.”

The Bulls are focused on stopping Palko as the key. They also have not forgotten that they have lost 2 straight to Pitt.

Pittsburgh’s 74 points against USF the past two seasons are the most points USF has allowed to the same team in consecutive seasons since Hofstra scored 92 in 1998-99.

“It’s always been little mistakes here and there,” USF senior linebacker Patrick St. Louis said. “They had big plays every now and then. We have to try to limit all the big plays.”

The biggest challenge for USF will be limiting Palko, ranked No. 2 in the nation in passing efficiency.

“It’s going to test everybody on our defense,” Leavitt said. “Certainly you need to have a good pass rush and you need to be in the right areas. You’ve got to do both. You’ve got to do a number of things to have a chance to slow them down.

“He’s going to make some throws, he’s going to complete some passes, there’s nothing you can do about that, but it’s going to have to be the whole defense playing together.”

Pitt had the bye to get healthy and think about all that they did wrong against Rutgers. The key for Pitt on defense is to stop QB Matt Groethe. Groethe has had a week to get healthy, but will be wearing a protective shield on his face mask to protect the stitches on his nose from gashes suffered in the Cinci game.

No discussion in the Q&A about the Bulls. Zeise in his intro states that he thinks Pitt should and will win this one.

I guess if Coach Wannstedt and DC Paul Rhoads aren’t going to answer the question about stuffing the box to stop the run — other then to give a “because, I say so” response — Zeise is going to have to keep answering for them.

Q: What are your thoughts on the game plans against Rutgers? Why no hurry up offense? Why no eight men in the box?

ZEISE: The Panthers did some hurry-up offense and to some degree it worked.

I thought on defense, the game plan was pretty solid ?? they were losing 13-10 with about 10 minutes to play. The idea that there were so many different things the Panthers should have tried on defense to me is a little silly given the fact that they held Rutgers — despite giving up a huge edge in field position — to six points in the first half. The defense did the job and finally just wore down.

The offensive game plan seemed to be sound, it was the execution that was terrible. I know that is coach-speak but in this case it is true. The Panthers were their own worst enemy. They had penalties, they had dropped passes, they had a lot of negative plays. They seemed to be in terrible field position and third and long the entire first half. It is hard to call plays when that is the case.

I will concede the offense bears a lot of responsibility for doing a poor job in execution. Missing opportunities, making mistakes and drops. No question. It also allowed the Rutgers defense to take more chances and get more aggressive.

Having said that, the defensive game plan was anything but solid.  They held them to only 6 points in the first half, in large part becaues Rutgers brokedown at the very end of those drives and a missed a 35 yard FG. As for the defense wearing down, sure because that’s what happens when you continually bend but don’t break. Rutgers held the ball for over 18 minutes in the first half (10:24 in just the second quarter) and converted 3-6 on 3d downs in the second quarter.

I don’t want to keep rehashing the same thing. It’s just that it defends the indefensible and offers flawed logic. If you allow a team to continually get better field position, you keep the offense further back and don’t do anything to help change field position and it is no shock later in the game that the D is wearing down.

Q: There is a movement among Pitt fans to have a “Blue Out” for the WVU game, where all students and fans wear blue to the game. What do you think?

ZEISE: I think it is noble and all, but doesn’t West Virginia also wear blue? So how can you tell who is cheering for either team because a lot of Mountaineers fans will be wearing blue? I mean, it would make more sense to me if Pitt still wore the blue of the old uniform colors.

You know, I make no promises as to what color I wear to a night game in November other then to be certain it is quite warm.

Big thanks to “Pittpanther14” if he’s a reader or just had the same issue on his own for asking the question in Zeise’s chat.

Pittpanther14: I was confused by your article today. Is there a difference between applying pressure / run blitzing vs just keeping 8 or 9 men in the box?

Paul Zeise: There is but the bottom line is it starts up front. This whole nine men in the box thing is nice — but if your big guys get blocked one on one, which was happening, your nine men no longer have a big advantage in outnumbering the blockers — and all you really have is a lot of guys close to the line scrimmage who are forced to chase a running back down the field. If you can’t win the battles up front, all of the rest is really irrelevant in a lot of ways.

Um, okay. Sure.

While on Chat transcripts, this from Mel Kiper, Jr. (ESPN Insider).

Jade (Duquesne, PA): Hello Mel, What round to you think Tyler Palko will get drafted in 2007 or will he get drafted at all?

Mel Kiper: I think he’s had a good year. He’s a great year. I had a chance to meet him when he was a freshman. He’s been there and had good coaching. He’s a tough kid. He’s got a chance on Day 2 of the draft. How high, it depends on how he finishes out. They could be a large factor on how things finish out. They play WVU still.

Hmph. You’d think showing the ability to thrive in two different style systems would be a big plus in showing his ability to grasp and run any offense.