Well, the praises of Buddy Morris are being sung going into the Michigan State game, hopefully with good reasons.

Wannstedt hired Morris in December to get his players in better condition. That meant more time in the weight room and running in winter, spring and summer, but the end result is more confidence among players going into this game.

“Buddy has done wonders around here,” free safety Eric Thatcher said. “You can really tell with the lines.”

Michigan State has two big backs who are averaging more than 70 yards per game. Javon Ringer has 163 yards on 35 carries and Jehuu Caulcrick has 146 yards on 24 carries.

Sophomore defensive tackle John Malecki said the Panthers are better prepared for the Spartans’ run-first offense this season because of their improved conditioning. The game last year was tied, 10-10, at halftime, but the Spartans scored four touchdowns in 16 minutes to blow the game open.

“We all feel great in the fourth quarter,” Malecki said. “You can turn on the tape and we look just as good on snap 60 as snap one. We took conditioning more seriously than we used to around here.”

I’ll be happier if the team takes tackling “more seriously than we used to around here.”

Pitt has taken a bunch of penalties in their first couple games. By contrast, the Spartans only have 7 in two games — the lowest in the Big 11. Big, fat, hairy deal.

Certainly, a team that has a very small margin for error, such as MSU, probably wants to avoid penalties as much as possible.

However, the least penalized team in the Big Ten last season was Northwestern with just 39 total fouls.

Avoiding penalties obviously didn’t do the Wildcats much good because they finished 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the Big Ten. In fact, Northwestern led the nation in fewest penalties per game, and for what?

And guess which team was 118th in the nation with 8.29 penalties per game?

Drum roll please …. none other than your national champion Florida Gators.

…

Penalties, while annoying and at times downright infuriating, haven’t been the problem.

No, not at MSU, but they were a symptom of the problems of the Spartans under Slappy Smith.

Both Wannstedt and Dantonio are similar minds in what they want their teams to be and do.

Mark Dantonio, however, likes his chances a little better this time entering Saturday’s game at Spartan Stadium.

“We’ve got a little more ammunition (than Cincinnati had),” said Dantonio, in his first season coaching MSU.

…

“We’re going to play a running football team,” Dantonio said. “We’ve talked about that we need to stop the run and make a team one-dimensional. This is probably the first team that will come out and try to establish that aspect. It will be a good test for us.”

Said Wannstedt: “This will be our first big, big challenge. These guys (Michigan State) are a physical team.”

The focus on the Michigan State offense is obviously their running game, but with QB Brian Hoyer throwing well, it would be foolish to overlook WR Devin Thomas.

Thomas ended up with four catches for 156 yards, 76 of which came on a first-quarter reception to set up the Spartans’ first score.

With the 106 yards he had in the season-opener against Alabama-Birmingham, Thomas leads the Big Ten in receiving yards with 131 per game. His 29.1 yards per catch is second.

“I just feel like when the ball is in the air, I have the ability to get it,” Thomas said. “Regardless of the situation, if the quarterback puts it in my area I can get it. That’s just my mindset.”

The Zeise Q&A is back.

Q:Is our only chance to win this game against Mich. St. is to have McCoy have a Heisman trophy day and we get turnovers and a few Defensive/Special Teams TDs?

ZEISE: LeSean McCoy needs to have a big day for Pitt to have a chance for several reasons. One, to help protect Kevan Smith — you obviously don’t want a situation where he has to drop back and pass every down because you’ve fallen behind, and if you are running the ball successfully it means you are still in the game. Also, a big day running the ball will help protect the defense by keeping it off the field and fresh. And one other thing – if Pitt can control the line of scrimmage against Michigan State, it would be a huge confidence boost going forward. I think Pitt can win without getting help from the defense and special teams scoring points, but a few easy scores sure would help the cause.

Actually, I don’t feel as confident in Pitt winning without a little extra help from the defense and/or special teams with points. Those seem vital. At least get some turnovers and have a chance to convert them. Few teams are going to pull a USF and win a game with 0 points off of 5 turnovers as they did with Auburn.

Okay, here’s how the Pitt Blather ballot finally went.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	—
2	LSU	—
3	Oklahoma	2
4	West Virginia	1
5	Texas	5
6	California	1
7	Florida	1
8	Louisville	4
9	Wisconsin	3
10	Rutgers	3
11	Ohio State	1
12	Penn State	3
13	UCLA	1
14	Georgia	5
15	Nebraska	1
16	South Florida	9
17	Georgia Tech	6
18	Boston College	4
19	Clemson	5
20	Texas A&M	—
21	South Carolina	5
22	Hawaii	5
23	Oregon	3
24	Missouri	2
25	Auburn	7

On the Cusp/Watching: Washington, Cinci, Alabama, Tennessee, VT

Washington and Cinci just missed making my poll. I did move Missouri in, while dropping VT from the draft ballot.

You can see what the full ballot results look like, here. Every blogpoller’s ballot can be viewed here.
There are plenty of teams that I wanted to rank lower, but the problem was that there was a lack of teams that I could justify putting ahead of them without thinking how overrated that would make those teams. That was the one factor that mitigated against fully embracing some of the comments.
Keep in mind that several teams still moved up simply by virtue of other teams being knocked way down or out of the poll.
Did teams like Cal, Florida, Ohio State and UCLA really deserve to rise in the polls even one spot after this past week? Not really but Louisville, Wisconsin, VT and Georgia all deserved to fall further — which is how the others moved up.

Last week’s record; season record: 7-1 (including the USF win); 7-1

Thursday, September 13, 2007

(5) West Virginia vs. Maryland, 7:30 pm EDT
WVU struggled a bit in the first half at Marshall last week. Their ability to adjust is very valuable, though.

“A lot of teams come out with a good defensive scheme. It takes a bit to fix it,” said All-American junior running back Steve Slaton, who has rushed for 23 yards combined in the first half of both games this season. “Every team will give us a shot.”

Maryland will give their best shot but White and Slaton will shake it off for the win.
Pick: West Virginia

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Temple vs. UConn, Noon EDT
Connecticut is bad — Temple is worse. UConn will start the season with three straight blowouts, and yet their record and point differential will be misleading to the casual observer. They come to Pitt next week.
Pick: UConn

Pitt vs. Michigan State, Noon EDT
If I’m not a Pitt fan is this an easy game to predict? Probably. But I’m a homer and I have “that feeling” that Pitt could pull it off. I’d rather just call it a toss-up, but I need to make a pick. The list of injuries is a killer for Pitt, especially the loss of Mustakas against a team that was going to run against us anyways. Add that we’ll be on the road with an inexperienced QB and it looks like a loss. (I’ll be cheering when they prove me wrong.)
Pick: Michigan State

Cincinnati vs. Miami (OH), Noon EDT
Cinci is getting a lot of love, and much of it is justified.

Cincinnati in two games has displayed something the glamboy frontrunners in the Big East haven’t: a defense.

Last week’s huge win over Oregon State included holding their star RB to only 30 yards on 16 carries.
Pick: Cincinnati

Illinois vs. Syracuse, Noon EDT
Syracuse is the embarrassment of the Big East this year. The AD there, Daryl Gross says be patient.

Sometimes you take three steps back before you move forward. The thing I do know is these kids worked so hard in the offseason, as hard as any team in the country. I’ve been around teams and I see how they work, and these guys work really hard. The whole program deserves better. I think there are better days ahead.

This will be that third step back…the try for the forward step will be next week against Louisville.
Pick: Illionois

Norfolk State vs. (13) Rutgers, 3:30 pm EDT
Hey Rutgers, you haven’t been good for that long. You have no reason to do this to anybody, especially the Navy.

Navy was booed and peppered with “You suck!” chants when they stepped on the field for both halves. Toward the end of the second half, Rutgers students in the new bleacher section began to serenade the adjacent section of Navy fans and uniformed Midshipmen.

”F— you, Navy. F—you, Navy. F— you, Navy.”

I hope Norfolk State beats you…but they won’t.
Pick: Rutgers

(10) Louisville vs. Kentucky, 7:30 pm EDT
The Cardinal’s 58-42 didn’t impress BlogPoll voters (down two spots), but don’t blame the offense. If anyone on Louisville’s non-con schedule is going to pull an upset on them, Kentucky is the team. I just don’t think they have the defense to keep up with Brian Brohm and WR Mario Urrutia.
Pick: Louisville

Track the scores here.

(Rankings used are from the BlogPoll.)

So yeah. I’m tired of the Pitt-Penn State thing for this calendar year. Unless they actually draw up a contract, I think we’ve gone deep enough into the issue (especially in this post). Until anything is made official (probably shortly after Paterno is buried), we’ll get this type of thing.

Yesterday, Paterno was asked during his weekly news conference if he would be in favor of playing Pitt on a six-and-four basis — six home games for the Nittany Lions and four away — over a 10-year period.

I’m exhausted of talking about the Pitt-PSU subject, and I don’t think that Paterno is actually serious with what he says. All this does is deflect some of the criticism directed at him, and he even tries to pass it off as AD Tim Curley’s choice. They have a home and home series with Syracuse starting next year — if we’re so “inferior” to them, why do they go and schedule a series with a team that is similar if not worse than us. Scared we’ll pull an upset?

According to this article (most is subscriber only) Eloy Vargas was blown away on his recruiting visit to Florida. Vargas reportedly  has it down to either Pitt or Florida, but the Gators now hold the edge after the visit.

The only amusing thing about this, since many seem to treat recruiting issues as life-or-death issues, is that both Pitt and Florida don’t actually have an available scholarship to give Vargas for the 2008 season. Neither, though, seems too concerned.