I have to say that was an extremely dull and brutal game to watch. Thankfully the weather was fine. Just a little cooler, but with plenty of sunshine. I can’t even imagine how much I would have hated life if it had been a gray day or worse, raining. Or worse, if Pitt had managed to lose this one.
Part of me just wants to be grateful for the win and relieved Pitt is 2-2 in the Big East and 4-5 overall. But…
Common refrain in many variations heard from friends and others in the stands, “Can you imagine how many yards Shady would have if Pitt had a real line?”
This game cast in brutal relief how little progress the O-line has actually made. Syracuse has the 110th rushing defense in the country, and the Pitt O-line continually failed to provide even a minute push when Pitt needed 1 yard gains. Paul Dunn, will always be a Panther, and part of one of Pitt’s greatest teams in the history. As Pitt’s O-line coach, he needs to go. Injuries are not enough of an excuse. His tenure has to end.
Either Greg Robinson or Dave Wannstedt have to go from the Big East. I think from an aesthetics perspective, it is vital that the two never match wits again in a football game as head coaches. Thankfully, this should be the final nail in the Robinson coffin.
The Orange actually got a spark from the QB change when Robinson’s back was too sore. It is speculated that Robinson tweaked his back sleeping on the floor of a friend’s while visiting him at Penn State — he had it coming then.
Is there any logical reason — from a performance and best player standpoint — for Greg Romeus to still not be starting at right DE? He keeps making big plays and has been the best pass rusher for Pitt.
I don’t want to read Wannstedt talk about the defense doing an excellent job of stopping the run. Syracuse is 113th in the country running the ball (under 75 yards/game average). The Orange average 16.5 points/game. Pitt “held” them to 17.
The Pitt coaches nearly found a way to lose this game at the end with the defense playing break-while-bending and the offense couldn’t get a single first down thanks to the O-line and horrible play-calling of just sending McCoy right in the middle where even Syracuse could get a stop.
Syracuse, defensively, is one of the worst teams in the country (110th overall). If there was a game to take a few more chances with Bostick to let him do more and bring him along, this was it. Of course, Pitt never managed to get the kind of separation in the game to do that. Uncomfortably close throughout.
And the University of Cinderella and South Florida is officially, no longer invincible.
The newfound lack of Bulls invincibility will be aided GREALY if we can get a nice snowy 20 degree Pittsburgh day when we play.
In other words, it might take an act of God or Shady, but damnit we’re winning at least ONE of these last three games!!!!!
“The Panthers won the national title in ’76 with a 12-0 record and finished second in the polls in 1980 and ’81. In those six sensational seasons, the Panthers were 62-9-2.
Since 1982, the year Pitt agreed to join the Big East in basketball, Pitt has never seriously challenged again for a national championship in football. The Panthers were No. 1 for a time in ’82, but lost three of their final five games and finished 9-3.
That was one of only 11 winning seasons out of 25. Only twice in that quarter century have the Panthers managed nine wins in a season, the one in ’82 and another in 2002.”
For everyone saying DW inherited a good program…think again. Get your head out of the 1976-1982 era. This team has a long way to go.
Foge inherited an 11-1 team with 20 starters, it took Foge a few years but he destroyed Pitt and the slide started.
As I recall Walt took Pitt to a few bowl games during his tenure, DW has not, 2008 will be his last season, no bowl game no DW!
Comment by Larry Cole 11.04.07 @ 1:42 am
“…anyone believes Bostic is truly a D-1 QB, you are (whatever the f*ck ever). [His] Poor mechanics and lack of arm strength will never allow him to be the answer for Pitt at quarterback. ..#1 priority … should be to (whatever the f*ck ever)…(Bostick) can’t run either (whatever the f*ck ever)…
Anyone who wants to tell me about who-whatever the whatever the f*ck might or mightn’t be this coaching staffs’ “#1 priority” has got a crystal ball stuffed up his-her a** that “the coaching staff” should have been alerted to and about A LONG LONG LONG F*CKING TIME AGO
>>>> P’Lease… >>>>
ndavidm@lycos.com, Philadelphia, PA
a few weeks ago against navy you wanted pitt to do that now you dont?
I’ll say this though, if we don’t open up the offense the next few games, we Lose all 3, no question. If we do open up the offense, we PROBABLY lose all 3. I’ll take the latter option.
Wanny’s the coach. Might as well accept it. He’s not the first coach to suck at Pitt, see Joe’s comment.
For example, how many times did we settle for FG attempts in that game?? Based on the play calling, especially 3rd downs, it seemed that was exactly the objective of the coaching staff. This passive play calling made this game much closer then it should of been. This tells our young players we are content with field goals, to not be aggressive, and to try not to make a mistake. College football today is about putting points on the board, not this boring NFL style offense from the late 1980s.
I hope im wrong. Id love to see this develop into a winning formula, but im not sure im seeing it.
Just for the hell of it let’s see what type of game plan they come up with for Rutgers. Any ideas? I say the first offensive series is as follows, run shady left, run shady right, bubble screen, then punt.
Face it, our coaching staff plays not to lose. Not good, our coaching staff does not use Collins, Byham and Porter to their potential. Shady is a talent, and he is shining, if we had a decent o-line he would probbably have 500 more rushing yards. Utilize more play action to freeze the lb’s and throw downfield, it worked yesterday when they tried it.
Open the offense up because if you don’t we will not have a chance of winning! Bostick looked good yesterday even when he moved out of the pocket to throw.
There is potential but I am not sold on our coaching staff, Wanny still is stuck in the 80’s and I am afraid the game has passed him bye, only time will tell.
I agree we are stuck with Wanny!
Alot of fans are acting like PSU Elistist- WE WON!!! ENJOY THE WIN AND SEE THE MOMENUTEM BUILDING.. ONE GAME AT A TIME
I cant beleive that someone said that Bostick is not a Div 1 player- That is BS and insult to the university.
PEOPLE… cant we enjoy the win and get ready for Rutgers.
GIVE WANNY AND EXTENSION AND BE PROUD OF YOUR PANTHERS BECAUSE THEY ARE PLAYING WITH ALOT OF HEART AND THEY ARE GETTING BETTER.
Bostick threw a couple deep balls today, none of which were caught. The coaches would be idiots to have the kid throw deep balls all the time when they never get to where they have to be.
We went for it on a couple 4th downs needing 1 yard. That isn’t exactly a conservative approach. The coaching staff is damned when the kick it, damned when they go for it. People would rather they pass it and other say they should run it. A few weeks ago it was “give McCoy the ball all the time” and now it is “why not let Bostick do more”? I have yet to hear someone complain that LaRod got 3 touches or whatever it was.
The only thing I will agree with is that Kennard Cox is not a starting corner on a high school JV team.
On the 4th and 1 against Navy, any play we had run, had we not made it, everyone would be bitching about it.
link to youtube.com
For the 30th time, we should have run a toss to Shady to get him to the edge. Someone please find 1 time we did this and it didn’t gain at least 1 yard. One time. Please. Go through all the tape. IT ALWAYS WORKS. Get the kid in space, not running into the back of some fat guys being shoved back by 11 in the box. We need a yard? Toss to Shady. We finally did it one time in this game – what happened? Shady’s TD. When the kid gets in space, even against 2 defenders, i’ll take him to get 1 yard every single time.
Stop running into our no-push suck-ass line.
Oh – half of Blair’s boards had to be from his own misses…he was strugglin on the putbacks…got a double-double Gray style…
Defensively the guards were excellent. Wannamaker is a stud. He’s quick, athletic, tenacious and strong on defense. Offensively he needs a bit more polish, but he can get to the rim whenever he wants. The free throw shooting was not good. Hopefully that will improve because he will get fouled quite a bit.
Blair is a beast as well. Very impressed with his passing and athleticism.
Benjamin looked better as did Fields. Cook did not play well offensively, but he did rebound with more passion. I am optimistic about this group. Much more athletic than we have been in the past. It should be a fun year.
For those that wanted the outside run by McCoy against Navy…..didn’t Notre Dame do that on the 2-point conversion and it was stopped cold.
Yes, the play calling is horrible but it is horrible because McCoy is running into 9 man fronts…up the gut. Never going to work. In the meantime…there is single coverage on the outside. Nobody is saying throw it deep but get the ball outside quick. They will throw a fade to Strong at the goal line with the game on the line….Turner has went up for a few TDs in poorly thrown balls….why not throw one up at midfield this way? Especially when Syracuse (and others) have their safeties in the middle of the field about 6 yards off the LOS. With the ENTIRE defense totally selling out to stop McCoy…there has to be creative ways to take advantage. And it is not happening. Newsflash….if a poor defense like Syracuse can get those results (mostly through poor to average playcalling/gameplanning) what are quicker, attacking defenses like USF, Rutgers, and WVU going to do? Not saying they are great defenses…just attacking the LOS…just don’t see how it will be any better against those teams…hoping for a miracle though…..we are due.
“But Dickerson was one of Pitt’s playmakers in training camp, providing a pure pass-rush threat and a defender capable of causing turnovers. For whatever reason, it isn’t translating to Saturdays. And that’s obvious when fifth-year senior Jemeel Brady, a converted safety, plays ahead of Dickerson in certain situations…
… Maybe Dickerson has no one to blame but himself. Maybe Pitt coaches, knowing their jobs are on the line, are putting players who make less mistakes on the field ahead of him. If that’s the case, I don’t necessarily blame them.
Pitt defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Paul Rhoads acknowledged this week that Dickerson is big, fast, strong and explosive but also called his move a “project still in the works†and said he “just needs to find a home.â€
I thought Rhoads was implying that Dickerson has the ability to play any of the three linebacker positions but hasn’t found the one that best suits him. Then again, maybe he was implying that Dickerson is destined to play another new position.
At 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, Dickerson has the size and skills to be an athletic H-back like Kris Wilson. With Strong graduating, Dickerson could fill a need there. But the Panthers don’t throw much to their tight ends, so it’s possible he could end up seeing less playing times instead of more….
…I know this: Dorin Dickerson is a character kid. His playing time (or lack thereof) has been a blow, one that hasn’t gone according to his or Pitt’s plans. But he still has two-plus seasons to play.”
Translation: What he showed in camp seems to indicate that it’s way too early to write this kid off.
When Dickerson’s Pitt career began, WR was a question mark so he was a logical choice to plug in there. He fell behind when he was injured and was so underwhelming in camp, they moved him to RB after only about 10 days. The move to RB made even more sense after Kinder, Turner and Pestano emerged last year. Couple that with the emergence this year of Porter and McGee, the addition of Mo Williams and Aundre Wright, and the return of Kinder from injury next year. It certainly doesn’t lack depth any more.
So he moved to RB and would’ve certainly factored in there this year. Shady McCoy changed everything there. In addition, they still had LSH, Collier and Collins very much in the mix before spring ball.
That being the case, I still can’t say it was a bad idea to move Dickerson. Kids get moved in college all the time. Dickerson wanted to get on the field; they needed him to get on the field and it looked like LB was the next best fit.
I’ll be interested to see what’ll happen next year. Maybe Murray moves back to safety (something he played well in high school and a seemingly more natural position for him) and that frees up the LB spot for Dickerson. Or does he move back to offense again? I’m not sure.
Hail to Pitt!!!!!
