The ESPN/USA Today college basketball poll was released today, with Pitt coming in at #20. The #1 team in North Carolina, who had more total ballot points than UCLA even though the Bruins had more 1st place votes.

Other Big East teams in the preseason poll are: Georgetown (5), Louisville (6), Marquette (12), and Villanova (25). Syracuse and Connecticut were both high in the “Others Receiving Votes” column. Too bad we won’t see a good opponent play the Panthers until mid-December.

As always, Penn State wasn’t even on the minds of voters.

Solid podcasting from CFB Weekly takes a step backward this week. They talk to me about Dave Wannstedt, Pitt and dodging the Morelli bullet. Take a listen and fully grasp why I should be read and not heard.

Also on there, the always entertaining Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician. Really, it almost  took a coach on the hot seat episode as UCLA and Ole Miss bloggers were also in the mix this week.

Misleading stats cut both ways. We’ve read how Coach Wannstedt talked up Pitt’s pass defense as being one of the tops in the country statistically, while then excusing the lack of turnovers as because teams have big leads and didn’t have any pressure to do much other than run the ball. At the same time, he talks of how the run defense has improved and excuses the Navy game as an aberration (or “not reflective”).

Obviously reality gets examined this weekend. Pitt will play a team with prolific passing, but a struggling running game.

The Cardinals (4-4, 1-2 Big East Conference) still rank fifth in the Football Bowl Subdivision in total offense at 529 yards per game, but they have been held below 100 rushing yards in four of their past five games.

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Pittsburgh (3-4, 1-1) will enter Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium tomorrow ranked

Nationally, that puts Pitt’s run defense at 54th in the country. Louisville’s longest run from scrimmage this season has been 20 yards. Of course with one of the best QBs and probably the best pair of receivers in the country, the running game hasn’t been the problem. It’s been the Louisville Defense.

The running game leads into a topic of Coach Wannstedt in the papers today: Time of Possession.

If Wannstedt has it his way, though, standout Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm will be doing a whole lot more standing and watching than actually playing.

“[Controlling the clock] would be our objective every week,” Wannstedt said. “That is one of those things that shows up on the stat sheets that people don’t talk about usually. They talk about the obvious — touchdowns, interceptions, sacks — but possession time is a key and there are so many benefits to that, particularly when you are playing a high-scoring team and you want to minimize the number of possessions they have.

“If you are a running team and you can control the clock and you have a controlled passing game — and we’re that way now — I think the theme is, don’t stop ourselves. It is amazing how, even in last week’s game, we’re at the 9-yard line going in and we have a holding call and we settle for a field goal.”

Wannstedt said that even if the Panthers do control the clock on offense and even if they don’t turn the ball over, they still will have their hands full trying to figure out how to stop the Cardinals.

Unless there is a huge disparity, time of possession is a relatively minor stat for a game and the season. Louisville ranks 5th in the country in ToP

So, while the running game for the Cardinals hasn’t been much, they still use plenty of clock moving the ball with the pass.

Pitt comes in at 47th at 30:24. The difference between being 23 in the country is just under a minute (Toledo, 31:21). The difference of being 70th is the nearly the same (Oklahoma, 29:25).

Zeise probably nailed the issue at the end of the article.

Although time of possession is one key statistic from the win against the Bearcats the Panthers would love to duplicate tomorrow, it will only be possible if they duplicate another — turnovers.

The Panthers forced three of them and turned the ball over only once, a big difference from the first six games of the year when they had 16 turnovers and forced only six.

More possessions leads to a larger ToP. To do that against Louisville, it is going to have to come predominantly from interceptions. Brohm has only 6 interceptions in 8 games. Pitt coaches are essentially talking scared about blitzing.

“He makes you pay for (blitzing),” Rhoads said. “First of all, they’ll ‘max-protect’ in a heartbeat. If they sense any pressure, they’ll keep seven players in to block and protect him. Now, it doesn’t matter how great the scheme or what you bring. Your chances of getting there are certainly slimmed up.”

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Even if blitzing isn’t the answer, the Panthers are planning to pressure Brohm in some way, shape or form.

“You always got to get to him and touch him some how, some way,” Phillips said. “You let him sit back there, of course he’s going to pick you apart because he’s a great quarterback. You’ve got to get in his face, get after him and make him hurry some decisions.”

If not, Pitt’s secondary could be in for a long day.

“It’s a big challenge,” Phillips said. “We’re really going to see where our defense is at.”

Scary thought.

Joe Starkey had a … column, with this final thought.

Not sure if Dave Wannstedt stepped further in or further out of Pitt’s defensive game plan Saturday, but something looked drastically different. Here’s what Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly said when I asked his opinion of defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads and the Panthers’ scheme: “I can tell you this: They had not shown the versatility within their defensive scheme that they showed against us. … They never gave a static look. Their plan was excellent.”

Something tells me Navy coach Paul Johnson didn’t leave Heinz Field with a similar feeling.

Pitt fans hadn’t seen it either. So, when Coach Wannstedt talked on Monday about not being as interested in blitzing and bringing pressure, it created a natural anxiety. Concern that Coach Wannstedt was being stubborn and blind to what had worked. Zeise was asked about it in his Q&A.

Q: I was listening to DW’s press conference from Monday, and was getting a little concerned. It sounds like he does not want to bring as much pressure this week. I felt like the reason the defense started to play well was because of the extra guys they were bringing, especially in the middle. What is your take? Clearly, not bringing pressure has not helped, so why not go with what seemed to work? What is the worst that could happen that has not already happened the past 3 years?

ZEISE: Well, you’d hope he is just trying to throw Louisville off because if you sit back and let Brian Brohm stand in the pocket and throw it, he’ll light it up. I think that is the wrong approach. Again, I go back to last year when Rutgers played Louisville and came from way behind to hand the Cardinals their only loss. The key to that game? Greg Schiano blitzed and blitzed and blitzed and got Brohm out of his comfort zone. That’s so important. But we’ll see. Again, part of me thinks that is just pregame coach speak, though there is a lot of precedent suggesting it is not.

Hopefully that’s all it is, but Zeise is correct in suggesting that Wannstedt has not been much for gamesmanship in saying one thing in the strategy and doing another.

The Zeise chat today, following a win actually had a lot more centered on the Louisville game.

jimmy_g: Was last week’s game just a fluke or has the defense gotten better?

Paul Zeise: The defense played well last week. Did it get better? Log in and ask me next week after we watch it play against Louisville….

shady_is_sweet: How do Pitt’s corners match up with Douglas and Urrutia?

Paul Zeise: From what we’ve seen this year — I don’t like that matchup at all. Not for a minute. I think this is an area that has to improve for Pitt — the coverage of the corners and the coverage of the safeties. It hasn’t been terrible, but it hasn’t been great either and it needs to be great this week because the Cardinals receivers are special.

panicbutton: What about Pitt’s offense versus Louisville’s D? The focus is on Pitt’s D this week, but I’m hoping to see a big game from Shady and company.

Paul Zeise: Well that’s what we have been talking about. It all comes down to Pitt posession the ball, the taking some time off the clock with nice long drives and not turning it over or settling for field goals. Louisville will score some touchdowns so Pitt needs to match that.

Lots of pressure on the secondary this weekend.

Kiss of death. Some think Pitt might be turning the corner and picking Pitt. Of course it could just be the lack of faith in Louisville these days.

Pitt 27, Louisville 24: Did the young Panthers turn the corner last week? I’ll say yes. Their pass defense is very good (sixth in the country) and I really like their ground game against a suspect Louisville D.

Bruce Feldman really hasn’t seen Pitt play, has he?

Finally, in 1-AA, the University of Northern Iowa Panthers are #2 in their polls. Here’s a puff-piece on former Pitt Panther, now UNI Panther WR Terrell Allen. At least he’s happy now.