So, I got an e-mail from a marketing firm that specializes in “digital media communications” this afternoon.  They are looking to drive traffic to Circuit City and their fall football marketing. Usually I ignore these type of e-mails since there is usually a questionable tie-in, but this one might be of interest.

Specifically a live chat with Dan Marino set for tomorrow at the Circuit City site. So if you want to go ask him about his Pitt days. Maybe what he thinks of the job Wannstedt is doing. How things went down at the end of his career with the Dolphins with Wannstedt and Johnson trying to push him out. Heck if enough Pitt fans flood the board with questions on what he thinks of what is happening at his alma mater, it definitely would shift things away from the NFL talk that is expected.

Or you can go to this thread and post a question early.

Coach Wannstedt may have been happy about a bye week in terms of preparation and getting some players healthy, but I’d say it wasn’t a good thing from a PR perspective. It just gave Pitt fans a lot of time to really think about the job he’s done and bring everything into question. The consensus has not been very positive.

Well, all that has a chance to get washed away (somewhat) with the upcoming Iowa game.

Pitt offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh said that the offense fixed some of the problems that plagued it in the Bowling Green loss and spent last week working on refining some things and paying more attention to details.

“We executed better [against Buffalo] than Bowling Green].” Cavanaugh said. “We had a nice mix of run and pass. We didn’t get caught off guard and I thought [quarterback] Billy Stull was more accurate. For the most part, we made improvement and that’s what we’re trying to do.

“But you can always get better. And the bye week helped us clean more things up. I think the key no matter what is players have to make plays and you kind of go with what is working. We have to make our possessions count and we didn’t do it the first week, but we did a better job in the second week.”

No word on whether the coaches think they are doing a better job after the first couple of games. Oh, sorry. I forgot. It’s about the players executing and not turning the ball over. There were no other problems.

A big theme that can be run into the ground is that Kirk Ferentz grew up in the Pittsburgh area and was a graduate assistant at Pitt in 1980. So, he’s got lots of friends and family planning to be at the game.

“Basically, all it means is that I need more tickets,” Ferentz said after Iowa’s 17-5 win against Iowa State at Kinnick Stadium. “Going back home means Rita [Ferentz’s secretary] has a lot more work this week, because I don’t talk to anybody about tickets.

“It’s going to be a bad week for her. She handles the tickets — we’ve got a few things straightened out in our office.”

Ferentz was raised in the Pittsburgh suburb of Upper St. Clair. He worked as a graduate assistant at Pittsburgh in 1980.

“I’m sure he’ll have some flashbacks,” said Jackie Sherrill, the Panthers’ head coach in 1980. “I remember Kirk always wanting to watch film and asking questions.

“You kind of figured he’d go on to make a name, and a very good name, for himself.”

…

Ferentz’s brother, John, and his family will attend.

“Kirk’s wife (Mary) is from around here, too,” John said Sunday. “She’s making the trip, and all her family’s going to the game, too.

“What I initially heard was that he needed 72 sideline passes and 222 tickets, but more realistically, I think it’s something like 20 or 25 tickets.”

That’s funny. He tells his Iowa paper it’s no big deal. Then there was the early puffer in the Trib.

It will be a long-awaited homecoming for Ferentz, who hasn’t coached in Pittsburgh since 1998, when he was an assistant with the Baltimore Ravens.

“The only times I’ve been there coaching was to play the Steelers,” he said, “and we got nailed every time. … But returning is always special. Anybody will tell you that home is here. Pittsburghers feel that way.”

To recap, it’s nothing more than extra headaches for his secretary, yet special.

To be fair, Kirk Ferentz was nailed rather hard with a baseball bat to the head when aged 5, so you never know.

The thing about this game, is that it is entirely winnable. Iowa is the kind of team Coach Wannstedt can actually prepare to face his way. They are a straight forward basic football team. Ugly, even.

Embrace the ugly. Love the ugly. Hug it and kiss it and call it your own.

These are your Hawkeyes. This is who they are. Bloody knuckles. Broken nose. Missing teeth. Grind it on the ground, play-action the linebackers silly, punt the other guy into a coffin, and let the defense worry about the rest of the gory details.

Think last year with Michigan State. That’s what I can’t get out of my head. They will run the ball. Throw short. Play for field position and rely on the defense. Nothing fancy. No spread. No option.

The kind of team Pitt could beat — or lose by under 8 points and have Coach Wannstedt explain later how they were close except for some mistakes on execution and turnovers.

The thing to remember about all the second-guessing and just plain doubting of the competency of Coach Wannstedt and OC Cavanaugh, this is not about losing to Bowling Green and struggling with Buffalo. This is about 3+ years of questions that over which everyone has been biting their tongue, or trying to avoid the issue by saying that they trust Wannstedt in the long term. Waiting for a payoff.

That trust is gone, as that payoff looks as far away as ever with Wannstedt. That is why Zeise is getting nothing but questions about the competency and decisionmaking.

…On the flip side, Dom DeCicco is a player with good potential as well, so while he struggled the first two weeks, he’s a guy that you don’t give up on and it doesn’t sound like coaches will. In fact, I think Wannstedt said they are “co-starters” — which, by the way, based on e-mails — is another one of those things about this staff that drives people to levels of frustration I have not seen before. People ask “why is it so hard to make a decision and stick with it?” One is the starter, one is the back-up, both may play, but one has earned the start so what’s so hard about just saying it? This team has more “co-starters” and “special packages for players” than any team I have ever covered — which means both will get to play.

And the sad thing about all the “special packages,” they never get used. It’s like they do them in practice just to make the player feel special.

Q: I’m glad they won and opened up the offense a little more. But I thought Dave Wannstedt said we would see more of Lucas Nix and Jonathan Baldwin? I didn’t see much of either — what happened?

Zeise: C’mon man, what are you talking about? Baldwin had one ball thrown his way (sort of) and Lucas Nix played two plays — what game were you watching? Joking, of course, but you are right, it is puzzling. But like I have said several times this week the answer is in the philosophy — “err on the side of caution.” The Baldwin stuff is frustrating to fans, but at least the rationalization is somewhat logical and that is — it takes a lot more to get the ball to a receiver than just whatever the receiver does. I feel he’ll get some chances here soon and they have put him out there some, but it just hasn’t worked out yet. The Lucas Nix one is far more troubling. Clearly there have been points in both the first and second games where Joe Thomas has not gotten the job done and a change was not only warranted, but probably needed. So why not throw him in there for a few series to see how he plays and to get his feet wet. If the thinking was — “we are going to do everything in our power to preserve his redshirt” — well, then why did you play him for two plays and blow his redshirt? And now the Panthers are going to face much better competition from this point forward and he has a total of two plays of experience going for him. It really makes no sense at all, so the best I can tell you is that hopefully these two are a part of the plan for the rest of the season and aren’t going to go down as a just a couple more blown redshirts.

They can talk to Dorin DIckerson about that.

Then there was a whole Q&A dealing with the fallout of Cavanaugh’s statements about (not) using Greg Cross.

Q: Do you know if Wannstedt has considered that with a bye week to practice, and not having to show the “wildcat package” yet in a game, that it might be a good time to let Iowa have a full taste of it? Do you think this is a possibility? Or do you think he has not even thought of that?

Zeise: Well, not just go all the way and make this the Greg Cross edition! I think I touched on this a little bit — that perhaps the coaches were “hiding” or “trying to hide” the Cross “Wildcat” package. I don’t know if I buy it because it doesn’t really mesh with statements Wannstedt and Cavanaugh have made about using first-year players in tough situations. I mean, let’s forget about the fact that, like I said, it has already been used many times in a game (albeit with LeSean McCoy playing the role of Cross) and thus is on tape for all opponents to see — why if you truly do worry about the mistakes a first-year player might make, do you wait until the middle of a tight game with a Big Ten opponent to let him get his feet wet? Like I said, the frustration from every writer of just about every e-mail I open these days is the same about the same kinds of issues, be it personnel decisions and/or strategic decisions. I understand it, but I really think a lot of it would go away if the team would just win some more games and stop making close games out of games that should be blow-outs.

I was mildly surprised that Kevin Gorman essentially defended Cavanaugh/Wannstedt’s decisionmaking with Cross.

I, for one, understand Pitt’s hesitation (now bordering on trepidation) in using Cross. He’s new to Division I-A football. He hasn’t taken a snap in a major-college game. If the Panthers use him in the wrong situation and he fumbles or throws an interception – like Pat Bostick did on his first two snaps against Grambling last year – it could prove disastrous.

And I appreciate Cavanaugh’s honesty in the matter. He goes to great length to explain the decision-making process and the situations that would be beneficial for Cross to make his debut. Of all Pitt’s coaches outside Dave Wannstedt, Cavanaugh continually draws the most criticism, yet rarely if ever steers clear of meeting with the media and answering for it.

Which doesn’t answer the question of why you would recruit a JUCO QB if you have that kind of fear. It’s not like you can let him sit for a year or two to learn and get ready. If you bring in a JUCO, it’s use them or waste a scholarship.

It seems to be the main reason for defending/rationalizing Cavanaugh’s explanation is that he actually spoke about it. Fine. I can understand that, since it helps Gorman and the local media. Especially after years of ex-DC Rhoads not talking or commenting whenever things went wrong on defense. It’s admirable, but that’s not enough.

Ultimately, he’s too talented to leave on the sidelines, unless Pitt is considering giving Cross a redshirt, which I’ve been told it is not.

The one thing I wouldn’t do is play Cross just to appease the fans.

Which is where me and Wannstedt seem to agree.

Say what? That’s a BS strawman. It isn’t about appeasing the fans. This is about Cavanaugh admitting he probably screwed up in not using Cross. Then not being coherent about when if ever Cross will actually play. It’s Wannstedt just dismissing Cross and the whole reason he was recruited as part of some “gimmick.”

The fans disagree with Wannstedt/Cavanaugh. Yes. The explanations they have offered have been a crock. It isn’t about “appeasement” it’s about idiotic coaching and personnel decisions that have reached the point where no one has any trust and belief that the Pitt coaching staff knows what it is doing.

It was just a very strange post by Gorman defending the Pitt coaches personnel decisions. He touches on Fields and Baldwin.

Cavanaugh also promised that Baldwin “will, eventually” become a bigger part of the offensive game plan. He certainly was in for more plays against Buffalo than he was for Bowling Green and, even if he still doesn’t have a reception the Panthers have passed his way a handful of times.

Hate to say I told you so, but I did warn that Baldwin wouldn’t be ready for superstardom right out of the gates. He had a steep learning curve as far as understanding both the position and the playbook, but his immeasurable talent will ultimately force Pitt to use him on a consistent basis.
…
But with experienced receivers such as Derek Kinder, Oderick Turner, Cedric McGee and, yes, T.J. Porter ahead of Baldwin on the depth chart, it’s not going to be easy, especially if games are close as the first two.

“We also got T.J. Porter back last week; we wanted him on the field and he responded,” Cavanaugh said, “so (Baldwin) won’t be the focus, but he’s certainly put himself in the position to get on the field more and get in the rotation and, hopefully, have some opportunities.

“We need to get him some balls.”

The same way Cross needs to get some touches? See, I have a hard time with this, with regards to Baldwin. I don’t think he is the next Larry Fitzgerald, but he is a huge talent who could have a big impact on the offense.

I know that Pitt coaches can justify by talking about not knowing blocking schemes well enough or routes. It just doesn’t wash. Especially after watching guys like Turner and McGee run poor or the wrong routes the first couple of weeks.