Greg Robinson has no choice but to pretend he isn’t about to be fired at any moment (like after this weekend). The players are at least saying the insane party line about things.

“I believe the time is now,” defensive end Anthony Perkins said. “We’re going like a water hose, springing spurts (of progress). Everything’s coming together.”

…

“I’ve been excited all week about it. This is a great opportunity for us,” Robinson said. “I don’t see it as any other way, and I’m not going to let something get in the way of that. This is all about coaching this football team to win a Big East football game.

Syracuse is hoping to build on the momentum they took away from last week’s 30-21 home win over Northeastern.

“It’s good to have a win like that, to know that we’re capable of winning,” Syracuse senior safety Bruce Williams said. “It’s really important for us, just to get one and feel that taste.”

Nothing like the momentum of beating a 1-AA team.

Well, it happened again. A bunch of links that piled up during the week and now I just have to dump them.

Pitt hasn’t taken a lot of penalties. That has to make Coach Wannstedt happy. Just look at the company Pitt is keeping in that category.

The other thing I noticed was that many of these schools this season are in the northeast. Boston College is the least penalized team in the country thus far, followed by Pitt at No. 2 and then a two-way tie at third among Navy and Vandy with Syracuse at No. 5.

And Vandy is the only undefeated team in the top-5. Wait for the bottom 5:

#118 Georgia 4-0
#118 Texas Tech 4-0
#117 Utah 4-0
#116 Florida 3-0
#115 TCU 4-0

…

Tech coach Mike Leach, the guy who loves pirates more than anyone I’ve ever met, has an interesting take on this as well. “I’ve thought about that, and in our case, we wouldn’t be in the top five if you removed our first game (18 penalties), where we were really aggressive and sloppy,” he said. “We were too close to the edge, although it’s not unusual for us to be up there. Thing is, if you look at the list of some of those least penalized teams. There’s a lot of really bad teams there, and maybe they’re not pushing the envelope enough. Maybe they’re saying ‘We’ll at least we’re disciplined.’

Disciplined my (butt). You’re just afraid to play hard.

“John Wooden used to say teams that make the most mistakes will win and that means don’t let the fear of failure keep you from playing aggressively.

“The other part of it is, if you open it up like we do and like Florida does and some of these other teams do, you have more individual matchups where two people are isolated and you can see what’s happening better than say if we just hand it to a running back and everybody wedge-blocks up the middle.”

Gotta love Mike Leach.

Speaking of deceptive numbers. Pitt is 9-9 in the Red Zone this year. One of 8 teams that is batting 1.000. Guess who else is in there? Syracuse. They are 11-11.

The coaching hot seat topic is big. It’s funny (not really), about 4-years ago Pitt went up to the Carrier Dome for what I called the “lame-duck bowl.” Reasoning that the losing coach was sure to be fired. I was wrong. Both coaches were gone after that season (yes, I know, technically Harris left for another job, but come on. PItt was shoving him out the door). I’m not saying there will be a repeat, but if Pitt were to somehow lose this game, well yeah it could be the thing.

Syracuse fans are having visions of Lloyd Carr.

Adam Gunn featured and talking about his injury in a broader story on injuries in football.

Over to ESPN’s Big East blogger, Brian Bennett. He has a nice piece on Austin Ransom. His list of things to Watch in the Big East, the middle 3 are tied to the Pitt-Syracuse game.

5. Pittsburgh’s consistency. Panthers coach Dave Wannstedt has placed mouse traps around the football complex this week to try to remind his team not to succumb to a “trap game” at Syracuse. Please. Pitt isn’t good enough yet to look past anyone, especially an Orange team that lost by only three points at Heinz Field last year.

6. Syracuse’s confidence. Did finally getting a win give the Orange enough of an ego boost that they can hang with Pitt? That would have to be some boost. But the Panthers offense isn’t that tough to devise game plans for or contain, and Syracuse has traditionally played Pittsburgh tough. But if it is a blowout …

7. Greg Robinson’s situation. I don’t believe Daryl Gross will fire Robinson before October. But the way the Syracuse athletic director talked this week, it’s clear he’s moving rapidly in that direction. A hapless performance by the Orange would put everyone on Robinson watch beginning late Saturday afternoon.

Local Syracuse station focuses on Syracuse wanting revenge for last year. Slight tangent, notice that the TV station still uses the old “Pittsburgh” logo. Yeesh.

I’ve never understood how in the Syracuse coaching change they could let present Pitt running back coach (and ‘Cuse alum) get away. I’m not complaining, I just can’t believe it. A nice piece on Walker and LeSean McCoy.

He’d love nothing more than to break out this weekend in Syracuse because of Walker.

“It’s big,” he said. “I always jerk him around, mess around with him. Obviously, he’s from the ‘Cuse and played at Syracuse. I’ve seen some tape of him. I always mess around with him about it. It’s a little something extra for him to go back there, play them and come out with the win. That’s big.”

Hmm. Wonder if that had anything to do with LaRod Stephens-Howling going for 221 at the Carrier Dome a couple years back?

Anyone remember when the Pitt coaches talked about having Stephens-Howling and McCoy in the backfield at the same time?

Q: When are we going to see McCoy and Stephens-Howling in the backfield together?

ZEISE: Good question. I have no idea but it was something we were told would happen and it was worked on throughout training camp. Heck, I even wrote a story about it. Again, all of these things are situational and coaches have concerns about trying to do too much or get too many formations involved so it wouldn’t shock me if we see fewer formations and whatnot as opposed to more. In fact, Dave Wannstedt said as much on Monday at his news conference, that the Panthers are trying too do many things on offense and that is taking him somewhat out of his comfort zone.

From Paul Zeise’s chat on Thursday, a couple questions about passing downfield.

the_Pitts: Why doesn’t Stull throw across the middle more to his TEs? It seems like he can get 10 to 15 yards every time on those plays.

Paul Zeise: Those plays are there to be had indeed, particularly against the defensive fronts that Pitt has and will face. But those passes also don’t seem to be a priority as this offense seems to favor shorter passes and passes that go sideways, like wide receiver screens, bubble screens, passes to the fullbacks, circle routes to the tailbacks etc. etc……

…

ConservativeCav: If you dont throw down the field, the LB’s and safeties will move closer to line of scrimmage to stuff the run!!!

Paul Zeise: I know this — and that might explain why LeSean McCoy is not finding much room to run these days.

Do the coaches know this, though?

Expect a lot of running from both sides. Pitt is still looking to get the running game going, in case you hadn’t heard.

Pitt (2-1) has neither eclipsed 200 team rushing yards nor had a 100-yard rusher through its first three games and ranks last in the Big East in rushing yards (123.3). If the Panthers are can’t cure their run game against a Syracuse defense that allows 198.2 yards a game, it could spell trouble.

“We’re all a little disappointed that the numbers aren’t where they should be,” Pitt offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh said. “Nobody wants to discount winning a couple games, but we feel like, to complement our offense, we need to run for more yards than we’re getting.

“And I feel like we’re close.”

So Pitt’s a bit disappointed in their running game. What about Pitt’s run defense?

“I haven’t been pleased with our run defense,” Wannstedt said. “We’ve been OK, but we haven’t been dominant in anything.”

DC Phil Bennett sees room for improvement, but does think the defense is getting better.

“Our focus has been on us, and how we can get better,” Bennett said. “I thought we finished [the Iowa] game, and there were so many things that you could see, and one is that we are just one or two plays in the game away from a really, really fine game. We just need to keep striving for perfection in order to do that.

“At this point, it really doesn’t matter who we play. We need to focus on the little things we can do better, that is more important — taking care of us and not our opponent.”

And finally still more questions about how Pitt uses (or more precisely, doesn’t use) the players it recruits.

Q: I am a little confused about Collins. He is not used in short yardage situations. He is not used to change pace or mix the play calling up and so far he hasn’t been the greatest blocker. What myth does the staff work under regarding the necessity of a full back except for their 1982 Pro style offense?

Zeise: I could not agree more. I have been saying this one for the past three years — why did this guy get recruited to come here if he is not going to be used in a role that takes advantage of what he does well? He seems to be a good player, coaches seem to think he is a good player, but he is just not a part of the game plan at all. I understand that fullbacks are becoming sort of like the dinosaurs — extinct — but when you have a player with this guy’s skills, at least when he has the ball in his hands, to not use him seems to me like you are leaving some things on the table. I don’t think the guys is a big-time playmaker who deserves 20 touches a game, but between receptions and rushes, is five or six per game too many to ask for?

Zeise has always seemed to have a man-crush on Collins, but the point is still valid. At this point, I almost think Pitt would be better served putting in another offensive lineman at the fullback spot just to provide better blocking.