In case you haven’t been able to tell, my posting schedule has been a bit of a mess lately. Time has not been my friend. Neither has sleep.
Well, what can you say about UConn. They have played really bad teams and won. They did, nearly lose to Temple. They probably would have, but for the MAC officials screwing Temple and a well placed security guy in front of the best camera angle. Heck, the players and the coach admitted they “got lucky.”
Of course, UConn sucked last year, until Pitt made them look like an offensive juggernaut, so there’s no room for overconfidence. The UConn offense is better this year. They have two running backs who are doing good work. Donald Brown is someone who introduced himself repeatedly to the Pitt D last season. He’s still the starter. There’s also Andre Dixon — back from suspension — who has already come in to relieve Brown with success.
They have a JUCO QB in Tyler Lorenzen who has looked good so far against Duke, Maine (1-AA) and Temple.
Starkey says this is a “must win” game for Pitt and Wannstedt. Duh.
Pat Bostick has a chance in practice. Not likely, but a chance.
Have you noticed the O-line stinks? Can’t block, protect the QB and makes dumb penalties at key moments. Oh, and a line coach who now scares the hell out of me.
Then Pinkston, playing with one arm, was beaten for sacks on back-to-back plays by defensive end Jonal Saint-Dic and weak-side linebacker Greg Jones.
“It boils down to match-ups,” [Paul] Dunn said. “Jason Pinkston, God love him, he’s out there on a shoestring, as a tape ball. That was basically a coaching error on my part, to put him out there in that situation and not realize he was injured.”
Huh? What?
Coach Wannstedt feels the team demonstrated improved mental toughness in the Michigan State game. Given the number of injuries, the team hasn’t been able to show physical toughness.
Two things to temper the enthusiasm about the defense. While holding the Michigan State RBs to “only” 163 yards on 41 carries (as opposed to their 220 yard average against Bowling Green and UAB), that is still a 3.98 yds/carry average. The defense still struggled to get off the field. MSU converted 8-19 3d downs and 1-3 on 4th downs. Think how many times you heard the phrase “bend but don’t break” during the telecast and cringe at what that might when playing a team with a good offense.
Finally, here’s hoping for a speedy recovery on the UConn side.
Randy Edsall opened things up by informing us that Father Daniel Sullivan, the team’s unofficial chaplain, suffered a heart attack over the weekend. He is in recovery, and apparently informed his doctors he had to fly to Pitt this weekend for the UConn game. Doctors told him that wasn’t going to happen.
