Obviously, it’s a little late to be recapping what the articles said on Sunday. Everyone has read them. So, here’s just the list of game recaps.

* McCoy has a big day — Post-Gazette.

* Pitt rebounds — Tribune-Review.

* No style points, but a win — Washington Observer-Reporter.

* Pitt gets past the Bulls — Johnstown Tribune-Democrat.

* Pitt and McCoy return — Erie Times-News.

* Second half keys Pitt — AP wire story.

* Buffalo took a lot of penalties — Buffalo News.

* The Big East sucks — Joe Starkey

* Pitt isn’t dead yet — Ron Cook

Okay, now I’m not saying that there were expectations that Pitt might actually lose that game. I am noting, however, that both Pittsburgh papers sent a columnist to the game, and papers further out in the region that often use stringers or AP feeds went with sending their own reporters. Even with the Steelers playing on Sunday.

For. Buffalo. To. Cover. Pitt. Playing. A. MAC. Team.

That’s one way to get the media coverage. Be so inconsistent and disappointing that the media has to be there so they can write the obituary.

It’s all about the teams outside of the BCS Conferences. 4 teams from the outside. Heck, if Bowling Green had beaten Minnesota, they would have been in the mix.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	—
2	Georgia	—
3	Oklahoma	2
4	Ohio State	1
5	LSU	1
6	Missouri	1
7	Florida	1
8	Arizona State	1
9	Texas	2
10	East Carolina	13
11	Wake Forest	1
12	Auburn	1
13	Penn State	7
14	South Florida	2
15	Utah	1
16	Wisconsin	2
17	Texas Tech	1
18	Alabama	3
19	Fresno State	2
20	Oregon	1
21	Brigham Young	2
22	Kansas	4
23	UCLA	1
24	Vanderbilt	2
25	West Virginia	21

I am really agonizing about leaving WVU in the poll. I feel they deserve to drop out completely, but I’m not completely sure who should go in there. Boise State?

Constructive comments and suggestions appreciated. The final ballot is due on Wednesday.

I can’t say this surprised me one bit. I expected a noon start for this game. The mouse monopoly hasn’t decided at this point whether it will be on ESPN or ESPN2.

That depends in part on what/how Iowa looks in their in-state rivalry game with Iowa State this weekend. If they lose to the worst of the Big 12 North, expect this one on ESPN2.

Looks like another game of heading to Pittsburgh before sunrise.

Finally back online. A good night out after the game. The weather held nicely.

On the downside I left my sweatshirt behind at the game and some idiots called the usher and security to complain about us for standing too much during the game. God forbid we actually cheer and yell at time. It’s a football game. How much of an ass and moronic were these people about 4 rows back? They yelled at us to sit down at the opening kick as we were letting people pass to their seats. They yelled again during halftime –yes, halftime — because apparently we were blocking their view of the Buffalo band. The band?

Really not bright people. We’re a fairly laid back group, but we have just enough of a venal streak to make them miserable the rest of the season. I’m just sayin’.

Regarding Pitt’s 27-16 win over Buffalo. I’m happy Pitt won. Relieved they won. Not feeling particularly great about the way Pitt looked. It’s a good thing Pitt has a bye week. They are going to need as much time as possible. These are just my impressions from last night. There’s over 150 comments queued up to read.

Pitt’s O-line is a scary bad thing. You can’t tell me that Buffalo’s defensive line is that good, yet the O-line was regularly being blown backwards and getting pressured. Yes, they were blitzing and obviously they watched what Bowling Green did. That’s what teams are going to do. They are not just going to stick 8 in the box, they are going to attack and attack.

Yes, Joe Thomas has been very frustrating, but he is not the only hole on that line. Still, there was no sign of Chris Jacobson, Dan Matha, Jordan Gibs and others to have a chance. Yes, Lucas Nix got in the game, but if Pitt is really playing the best available, then clearly Wannstedt and the coaches have done a lousy job of evaluating, recruiting and developing the talent on the line.

Bill Stull definitely has limited accuracy after about 15 yards downfield. At least there is a better understanding as to why Pitt doesn’t do deep shots. When he takes the deep shot, there just hasn’t been any touch on it. Not even close to the receivers.

The defense does not fill me with great confidence. The speed that was supposed to be there seems lacking. They are not getting off the field easily. Lots of 3d down conversions. Buffalo had zero 3-and-outs. That Buffalo’s kicking is an adventure cost the Bulls 4 more points.

That’s a big potential problem since I don’t see Pitt putting up a lot of points in games this year.

Greg Cross spent most of the game just throwing the ball to Kevan Smith on the sideline. You know, a close game, so you can’t take a chance of seeing how the Wildcat package might work. Jonathan Baldwin still has 0 receptions.

I think the thing that worries me is the lack of intensity from the team, right at the start of the game. I expected a lot more fire from the team, after what happened the previous week. It just seemed that they never quite got fired-up about the game and really seemed to care to do much more than just enough.

Once more, I’m at the game so I just left everyone a place to comment. Hopefully there will be some other people at the game. I don’t know what to say. I really don’t know what to expect.

The good news, one way or another, I’m drinking afterwards.

Three MAC teams (sort of, it’s still kind of weird to think of Temple as a MAC team) face Big East teams on Saturday. Temple is looking for payback on UConn after their own refs and the Big East replay ref jobbed them last year. Akron is excited about the idea of taking out a BCS team. They don’t actually say it’s Syracuse, just a BCS team. Then there is Buffalo.

UB’s players and coaches have talked all week about the significance of the game, and how it would boost the Bulls’ standing in the Mid-American Conference and nationally. If they needed a reminder, all they have to do is think back to last Saturday when the MAC’s Bowling Green knocked off the then 25th ranked Panthers.

Several of the Bulls watched the game together last Saturday in which the Falcons defeated the Panthers, 27-17, and Bowling Green caused quite a stir.

“We got excited,” said senior left tackle Ray Norell. “Any time that a MAC school goes in and beats a Big [East] team, it’s huge. We’re hoping we can go in there and play as hard as we can and we can come out with a win, too.”

The Bulls had two reactions to the Bowling Green upset: They should be able to match up against the Panthers and the Falcons are better than they thought.

…

“Right now, our confidence is high,” [junior defensive tackle Dane] Robinson said. “Coach Gill tells us, ‘You have a right to be confident,’ not cocky because it’s only one game and there are 11 more and we have to do it consistently. Pittsburgh has some questions that need to be answered and that may be something that plays into our favor.”

Those questions. How does Coach Wannstedt expect to answer them?

“They can expect us to hold onto the football,” he said. “That would be the most important thing. We have to protect the ball and not give up any easy scores. As long as we do that, we’ll have a chance to beat everybody we play.”

That and apparently change the pregame meal seems to be the extent of the changes necessary according to Coach Wannstedt. How about scoring more points?

Bulls QB Drew Willy directed an efficient dismantling of Texas-El Paso with ample support from TBs James Starks and Brandon Thermilus and long connections with WR Naaman Roosevelt. LB Scott McKillop and the Panthers defense should be able to limit the big plays, but their offensive counterparts must stop putting them in difficult positions. Ball security will be the top priority for Pitt QB Bill Stull and RB LeSean McCoy as they challenge the Buffalo stoppers, led by hard-hitting SS Davonte Shannon.

The Trib’s Kevin Gorman does a guest commentary for Rivals.com/Pantherlair and calls buffalo crap on the turnover stuff.

The Panthers went to great lengths this week to blame their season-opening loss on turnovers, in an effort to deflect legitimate criticism about their confounding choices on critical calls and inability to score more against a team that allowed an average of 402.5 yards and 30.2 points last season:

…

If that’s not placing the blame on the players instead of the coaches, I don’t know what is. Wannstedt was emphatic this week in calling turnovers “the difference between winning and losing.” He should know, considering how turnovers have affected his record in three-plus seasons at Pitt.

The Panthers are 16-20 under Wannstedt, and most of those victories have come when the Panthers won the turnover margin. It’s not quite the simple equation as winning the turnover margin equals winning games, though.

Pitt is 3-4 when the turnover margin is even, has lost three games with a plus-margin and won one game with a minus-margin. The Panthers are 4-3 in the seven games they haven’t had a turnover, beating Connecticut in 2005, Central Florida in ’06 and Eastern Michigan and Syracuse in ’07 but losing to Nebraska and UConn in ’05 and UConn and West Virginia in ’06.

Sometimes, it comes down to what you do with the turnovers.

As much criticism as OC Cavanaugh takes for the offense, it has been pointed out that this offense is also the offense Coach Wannstedt wants. Low risk, limiting opportunities, just run clock, field position and mainly trust in the defense to control the game.

To that extent, any turnovers by Pitt’s offense are killer since they disrupt the entire game plan. And that, many — including myself — would see as a major flaw in the gameplan. Turnovers happen. Especially at the college level. Wannstedt’s gameplan depends not just on Pitt winning the turnover margin, but not turning the ball over at all. Each turnover by Pitt effects field position, running time off the clock by the offense, making the defense do more, and one less chance to score a field goal.

The prove it/disproven theme continues in this AP piece.

All week on this blog, it’s been about all the shortcomings of Wannstedt the coach coming back at once. The excuses, putting it on the players, overvaluing experience/not trusting the younger players, old NFL mentality, etc.

In Paul Zeise’s Q&A and chat from Thursday, all of these things came up and there was no disagreement from him. Zeise has also noticed the anger from the fans has reached all-time highs.

Q: Is this the angriest you have ever seen Pitt fans since you started the Q&A?

ZEISE: Actually, yes, and by a lot. I mean, I have lost track of how many e-mails, phone messages and whatnot I have received, plus you read the message boards, listen to talk radio — there is a lot of anger and I think it is three years of frustration finally boiling over. I mean, when Walt Harris had his low moments, there would be anger but at least 30 to 35 percent of the correspondence was defending him. I don’t know that I have received one e-mail this week that was even remotely positive or trying to defend the coaching staff. It has ALL been negative, so that’s why it is pretty easy to figure out that this has been as bad as it gets for the coaching staff and the program in terms of an unhappy fan base.

“Think it is three years of frustration finally boiling over.”? Nay, it is. It is so completely an overwhelming and stupefying frustration and anger. Look Pittsburgh and Pitt fans have no problem with a power running game and strong defense. Everyone gets that. It’s comforting and familiar. But when it is so clear that, it isn’t happening that way. When it is college football, not the NFL. It becomes too much to take when the head coach is the only one that doesn’t see it or can’t admit it.

Another fun fact for the Wannstedt era. In Pitt’s 13 1-A wins under Wannstedt, only 3 came against teams that finished above .500 (Cinci twice and WVU). So, for the most part, if you lost to Pitt, and were not Cinci, it was a very, very good chance that you were a bad team. I guess Buffalo will find out a lot about itself tomorrow night.

Pitt will take a shot and try to get Redshirt Senior Linebacker Adam Gunn a 6th year of eligibility. It’s an admitted longshot, but it can’t hurt to ask. Especially if they look at the tape of the injury.

Wannstedt said watching Gunn’s injury on tape was “very frightening,” especially after learning that McKillop cracked his helmet and bent his facemask on the play. “In 30-some years of coaching, I’ve had very few helmets that have been broken on the field,” Wannstedt said. “That’s an indication of the type of impact they had. I think Scott’s very lucky that he’s not hurt, too. You have to look at it from the positive side, that Adam will be fine. Right now, it’s just a setback and a disappointment. He’ll be fine once it heals.”

Yeep. Didn’t know about the cracked helmet.

That means the linebacker depth chart gets a shake-up and youth must be served. Of course DC Phil Bennett seems more concerned that Pitt failed to actually get turnovers — especially since there were opportunities.

One of the most frustrating parts for Bennett was that the defense misplayed four possible turnovers — two interceptions and two fumbles — because he had emphasized that area all summer. One critical play was a dropped interception by safety Eric Thatcher in the end zone; the Falcons scored on the next play.

He defended the play of Safety Dom DeCicco, which you do have to expect. Even if it causes some eyerolling.

QB Bill Stull gets a friendly piece in the Youngstown paper. Why? His folks are from Newton Falls (got a speeding ticket there) and Stull lived in the suburbs of Youngstown through most of elementary school.

Interesting bit in Ivan Maisel’s college football rundown stuff on scheduling and off weeks for teams. He talks to the Big East’s guy, associate commissioner Nick Carparelli about it. Pitt is the example.

2. Every school is responsible for their own nonconference schedule. In an ideal world, since we have five nonconference games, the schools will schedule them in the first five or six weeks. That leaves us a blank slate to concoct a balanced, fair, competitive schedule.

3. Pittsburgh plays Notre Dame on Nov. 1 (so much for early-season nonconference games). In an eight-team league, I’m forced to give someone else a bye then (that would be Rutgers).

4. We avoid three straight road games. If we have to do it, we include a bye. Pittsburgh plays at Syracuse (Sept. 27), at Cincinnati (Oct. 2) and at Navy (Oct. 18). Part of the problem with them [Pitt] is that this is the year they [nonconference] scheduled three home games in the first four weeks and two road games late in the season. They handcuffed us.

5. We avoid one school having a “short week” playing an opponent that has a full week or more. (Pitt and USF both have five days to prepare for their game on Thurs., Oct. 2, as do USF and Cincinnati for their game on Thurs., Oct. 30).

6. If you shortchange a school (a team without an off week playing a team that had an off week), you try to limit it once in a season. West Virginia is at Pitt on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Pitt plays at UConn on championship Saturday (Dec. 6). UConn doesn’t play on Thanksgiving weekend. We felt better because Pitt is getting an extra day to prepare. We couldn’t avoid it.

Now we know.

On the heels of the Big East releasing the conference slate, Pitt releases its full sched.

Legends Classic (Newark, N.J.)

Obviously FoxSports Pittsburgh hasn’t decided how many of the games it wants to pick up. I’m guessing they are struggling with the decision on many that don’t exactly look like big ratings.

Have to say, Pitt doesn’t exactly have a challenging non-con. They are going to have to be darn near undefeated to keep the RPI up with this slate. Can’t afford too many losses. Of course, with the Big East looking absolutely loaded, it’s a reasonable hedge to pad the win total.

Pitt hasn’t announced its full schedule, but the Big East has released the full conference schedule with dates and major TV for 2008-09.

Non-con Pitt games being televised:

Wednesday, Dec. 17 — Siena at Pittsburgh, 9:30 p.m., ESPN/ESPN2

Sunday, Dec. 21 — Pittsburgh at Florida State, 5:30 p.m., FSN

Big East Pitt schedule

Wednesday, Dec. 31 — Pitt @ Rutgers

Saturday, Jan. 3 — Pittsburgh at Georgetown, ESPN

Sunday, Jan. 11 — St. John’s at Pittsburgh

Wednesday, Jan. 14 — USF @ Pitt

Saturday, Jan. 17 — Pittsburgh at Louisville, 6 p.m., ESPN

Monday, Jan. 19 –Syracuse at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m., ESPN

Sunday, Jan. 25 — Pittsburgh at West Virginia

Wednesday, Jan. 28 — Pittsburgh at Villanova

Saturday, Jan. 31 — Notre Dame at Pittsburgh, Noon, ESPN

Saturday, Feb. 7 — Pitt @ DePaul

Monday, Feb. 9 — West Virginia at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m., ESPN

Saturday, Feb. 14 — Cincinnati at Pittsburgh, 4 p.m., ESPN

Monday, Feb. 16 — Pittsburgh at Connecticut, 7 p.m., ESPN

Saturday, Feb. 21 — DePaul @ Pitt

Tuesday, Feb. 24 — Pittsburgh at Providence

Saturday, Feb. 28 — Pitt @ Seton Hall

Wednesday, March 4 — Marquette at Pittsburgh, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2

Saturday, March 7 — Connecticut at Pittsburgh, Noon, CBS Sports

Half of Pitt’s Big East schedule gets nationally televised, with the potential for more to be picked up. I’m a little annoyed that Pitt only got one game on CBS.

The offense has faced a lot of criticism, and deservedly so. The players know they need to do more on offense. Even if they parrot the words of their coach.

It’s frustrating that we’re not scoring,” Pitt junior tight end Nate Byham said. “I don’t feel that we need to score 48, 50 points like Florida. We just need to execute and put up our mid-20s and 30 points. That’s how we are. We have a great defense. We can play and win games with 27 points, 24 points, with the defense that we have.

“That’s not our problem. If we just execute like we should be and learn the game schemes of the other teams, we should be able to put up big points. We’re not setting a goal for how many points we need to score. We’re going to score as many points as possible. It’s just that we have a lot of confidence in our defense that they’re not going to give up a lot of points.”

There is some credence to the basis of Byham’s beliefs. The Panthers are 5-2 when holding opponents to 20 points or less and 0-6 when giving up 41 points or more. But Pitt is winless when it gives up more than 21 points, and the Panthers have done so 11 times in their past 18 games.

That last bit is damning. It would be nice to hold teams to under 21 all the time, but come on. You also should be able to win some games when the other team scores 24, 27 even 30 points.

Coach Wannstedt?

Yet Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt has remained steadfast in his philosophy that the Panthers will control the clock by running the ball and rely on their defense to shut down opposing offenses.

“Scoring has gone up significantly the past few years,” Wannstedt said of the Bowling Green game, in which the Falcons scored two of its four touchdowns after recovering fumbles. “We know that, but we also didn’t help ourselves (Saturday) by creating short fields for our offense. We got one turnover, and we turned it over four times, which is eliminating four possessions. We can’t turn the ball over.

“It is the difference between winning and losing.”

So scoring is up, but that’s not a big deal? There’s nothing to change but the execution. I hate to do this on so many levels — referencing Skip Bayless, dredging up more past, mainly referencing Skip Bayless. A hat tip to reader S.N. for sending me this article written just after Wannstedt had quit the Dolphins in 2004.

As a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, I closely followed Dave’s final two Bears teams. Nearly every conversation I had with him began with, “Geez, we can’t get a break.” His creativity began and ended with, “This week, we’ve just got to run the ball and play defense.”

Disturbing familiarity.

Bowling Green was 4-4 in the redzone on Saturday. On 3 of the 4 TD drives, the Falcons had to go 52 yards or more. They never had to settle for a field goal. The defense may have had decent numbers with regards to total yards allowed, but they weren’t that impressive. But for the ineptitude of the offense, they would be getting more flack.

The offense, though, no one can defend it as it is.

By every objective measure it is clear this offensive coaching staff and philosophy are stuck so far in the prehistoric era of football that Fred Flinstone probably ran some of these plays when he was a quarterback at Bedrock High School but by the same token, did anyone catch Alabama, using the same playbook, mauling Clemson the other night? That tells me if you get the right offensive linemen (which Pitt doesn’t have) and running backs (which Pitt might have) and you can physically impose your will on teams (which Pitt can’t) that playing this power-I — or whatever you want to call it — style of football can be effective.

The problem Pitt has, however, is this: The coaches want the Panthers to be a power team, but they don’t have the personnel and, to this point, the coaches have not made much of an attempt to change the philosophy to adapt to the personnel. Few teams in college have the kind of powerful and talented linemen to line up and consistently blow other teams off the ball. There just aren’t that many top linemen around. In year one and two — when you are trying to establish a new program, that is acceptable. In year four — when you need to win games — it is probably time to do something different.

Hey, at least Matt Cavanaugh will talk after a bad performance by his unit and actually take some responsibility.

Cavanaugh said yesterday that in retrospect, the criticism of him was justified because he clearly didn’t have his best day as a play caller. He said the Panthers did make some key mistakes — like the four turnovers — but he admitted he needed to do a better job of putting together a more aggressive game plan to make teams pay for bringing pressure on every play.

“It was a combination of play calling and execution,” Cavanaugh said. “I understand some people’s vision of what a big play is and that is when the ball is thrown 40 yards down the field. But we can make big plays other ways, and I need to give the guys a few more opportunities this week to see if we can make a few. Scoring a lot of points comes with execution and good play calling and we were lacking in both the other day.

“I am accountable for this, too. It has been like that since day one around here — I have never pointed fingers at any player and players haven’t pointed fingers at the play calling.”

Cavanaugh said he spent some time Saturday after the game reflecting on what went wrong. He said he knows he made at least one key mistake in the sequence before the half but also second-guessed himself on the way he called plays the entire second half.

He said Bowling Green was basically daring the Panthers to throw deep a few times, and he didn’t try to take advantage of it.

And he even admitted that he really screwed up the play calling at the end of the 1st half. Hey, after most of the week of Head Coach Wannstedt going with a “not my fault,” “we were playing for field position,” and “we just didn’t execute,” Cavanaugh admitting that he actually screwed-up is a breath of fresh air. It doesn’t excuse it. Especially in the first game when there should be no excuse not to be well prepared and truly ready for what an opponent will do. But at least he is copping to some real mistakes on his part.

LeSean McCoy even took blame for his game.

McCoy said the Falcons “had my number,” that he got “frustrated” and “started doing my own thing” and wished he could have back the fumble late in the second quarter that led to the game-tying scoring drive.

“I was a little impatient, trying to see if it would open up a little bit,” McCoy said. “I kind of got out of the strategy of the game plan and started doing my own thing a little bit, trying to get a little extra.”

Naturally Wannstedt defended both as his guys, but with this for McCoy?

On McCoy: “Shady just needs to run where he’s supposed to run, block when he’s supposed to block. He’s still learning. This is his second year of playing in college. I think because of the publicity that he gets, the perception is that he’s been around here playing for three years. He’s still learning every day and every game. The key is to improve week to week.”

Inexperience is the excuse? Still learning? I would have accepted, simply “trying to do too much,” but not that. That’s more crap, and another thing that has really come to bother me with Wannstedt as head coach at Pitt. If a player is not a redshirt junior or better, he seems to feel they lack the necessary experience and that is the built-in excuse. Not the coaching, teaching or responsibility of the player. Just too darn little experience.

This is college in 2008. Not 1968. Not 1978. Not even 1988. The days of being able to redshirt a player, load up with 100+ scholarships and build deep experienced players has been done for years. It isn’t the pros. In an ideal world you have players with lots of talent and experience. Reality is different.

You aren’t going to have many players with a lot of experience that are on the high talent. Odds are they are gone by their junior year. That’s why the CFB Coaches want to eliminate the redshirt and give a flat 5 years of eligibility. It gives them more flexibility with the use of players. If they redshirt a player who suddenly blossoms, they will lose him as a redshirt sophomore. Not getting enough use of them. McCoy is almost certainly gone after this year, inexperience is the one excuse that won’t wash.

This AP article points out, again how Pitt under Wannstedt is just not winning games.

“We have something to prove,” tight end Nate Byham said. “We definitely have something to prove, especially after this loss, but the ability is there for us to play with anybody.”

That’s the ongoing story line at Pitt: The Panthers can beat anybody, but they do so all too infrequently.

And that is why the frustration and anger after last week continues to fester. It’s nice to say, time to let it go. Time to move on and focus on Buffalo. It’s another thing, to simply try and ignore last week. Especially when it seems very obvious that things aren’t changing.

Strange school in a way. First, it’s the University at Buffalo. Not “of.” They can get touchy about that.

Second, they make you think of malt liquor.

Buffalo Bulls Mascot vs. Schlitz Malt Liquor Blue Bull

Maybe colored by experience of knowing which one has kicked my ass, I find the Schlitz bull more fearsome.

Pitt of course, needs a win. Buffalo actually kicked the crud out of UTEP 42-17, so they can score and play some defense. Pitt is saying what is expected.

“I will be the first to tell you, we aren’t looking past UB,” said Pitt receiver Derek Kinder, a product of Albion High School. “We have to get a victory to get the season started. Buffalo is an up-and-coming team, they’ve made strides and they’re looking to come in with a victory on Saturday and feel they have a good chance at winning.”

Pitt’s 2007 season crumbled with losses to Michigan State, Navy, Cincinnati and Rutgers by a touchdown or less. Its breakthrough came in the regular-season finale against West Virginia, ruining the Mountaineers’ national championship hopes.

According to Kinder, the positive feelings that came with beating West Virginia haven’t ceased. That speaks to Pitt’s confidence; even after the loss to the Falcons, the Panthers insisted they were the better club.

“After Saturday’s game, everyone was down, but Sunday’s practice was a real turning point,” Kinder said. “We had an upbeat practice and we turned the page to get ready for Buffalo.”

Glad they were.

For Buffalo, they are known these days from actually rising from sub-Temple-esque joke to nearly middle-of-the road in the MAC under Turner Gill.

Now in his third season, Gill is making people believe by leading the Bulls to respectability. Buffalo had won only 12 games in seven seasons since moving up to Division I-A in 1999 before Gill’s arrival in 2006. The Bulls have won six of their past 13, including five in Mid-American Conference play last season, and opened this season with a 42-17 victory over the University of Texas-El Paso on Thursday.

Gill was the 2007 MAC Coach of the Year, and appears poised to follow Florida’s Urban Meyer and Missouri’s Gary Pinkel and use his success as a springboard to a Bowl Championship Series conference.

“Obviously, (Gill) was an outstanding football player,” said Syracuse coach Greg Robinson, whose Orange beat Buffalo, 20-12, last season, “but he’s been able to take it to the coaching world.”

Gill has done so by taking a page from his mentor, legendary Nebraska coach Tom Osborne, and communicating with his players how to perform at a high level on a consistent basis. One method was to create individual highlight tapes so players can see their productivity and eliminate any doubts with continuous positive reinforcement.

Gill is a disciple and played for now Nebraska AD Tom Osbourne. Gill brought his own ideas to Buffalo, but also brought a couple Husker classics. Walk-ons.

Among the program’s most successful walk-ons was defensive end Jimmy Williams, an All-America selection in 1982 who went on to play 12 seasons in the NFL, twice being named MVP of the Detroit Lions.

Williams now works as the defensive coordinator for the University at Buffalo, where head coach Turner Gill has transplanted the Cornhuskers’ appreciation for football players without scholarships.

UB got plenty of contributions from current and former walk-ons in Thursday’s season-opening 25-point blowout of Texas-El Paso, especially from a trio of linebackers: Justin Winters, John Syty and Raphael Akobundu.

Appropriately, Williams also serves as the Bulls’ linebackers coach.

Hey, we have Austin Ransom.

They have a local high school player on the squad, so naturally he gets attention. It helps that he is also a All-MAC 1st teamer (the first in Buffalo history).

Davonte Shannon didn’t know the Buffalo Bulls from the Buffalo Bills, but the Jeannette star was willing to listen when they offered a Division I scholarship and the opportunity to play early.

All along, though, he was hoping to play at Pitt.

Instead, Shannon ended up to Buffalo, where he started at safety and led the Bulls with 123 tackles — the most by any freshman in the country last season — and became the first player in school history to earn first-team All-Mid-American Conference honors.

Wow. A freshman making an impact on a team, despite a lack of experience. What are the odds?

Well, Pitt doesn’t have much of a choice at Linebacker to start and play kids lacking in experience. Shane Murray’s knee looks to keep him out and Adam Gunn is done for the season.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said yesterday that starting outside linebacker Adam Gunn is likely out for the remainder of the season after an MRI revealed a fracture in one of the vertebrae in his neck. Gunn was injured during a helmet-to-helmet collision with teammate Scott McKillop in the third quarter of the Panthers’ 27-17 loss to Bowling Green Saturday.

“He met with the doctor this morning and he does have a small fracture in one of his vertebrae,” Wannstedt said. “He is out indefinitely and it could be the year.”

That just sucks. A senior. Injured by colliding with a teammate. A legit student-athlete — twice selected as an All-Big East Academic football player.

Now, Coach Wannstedt has to do something he hates. Play underclassmen and inexperienced kids.

Redshirt freshman Greg Williams, who had three tackles and two quarterback hurries, is expected to replace Gunn in the lineup, opposite fifth-year senior Austin Ransom. Wannstedt said redshirt sophomore Nate Nix and redshirt freshman Brandon Lindsey also could see playing time.

“You can’t protect outside linebackers, and I say that not being a smart aleck,” Pitt defensive coordinator Phil Bennett said. “With what these guys do, they’ve got to react, to play coverage, to play perimeter. They’ll be involved in some inside-run game. Are there certain things that you can dictate what they do? Yes. Play in and play out, they’ve got to play their technique, they’ve got to play fundamentals, they’ve got to execute what they’re trying to get done.”

Scott McKillop is going to have have a big game to help them.

I thought things might be moving on, but Coach Wannstedt’s overall performance as Pitt head coach has continued to be a high topic of discussion. It is no longer about how effed up Pitt was against BGSU.

As has fairly been pointed out, the Falcons are a good team. They adjusted their game and beat Pitt. Pitt did not perform well on the field. There were some questionable decisions by the coaches. It does happen.

The issue, though, is not — and I don’t think it has been for the last couple of days — been about that game. It’s more that this is one more example on Coach Wannstedt’s shaky performance as a coach.

When Pitt released its game notes and depth chart (PDF), there was little change to it other than at linebacker where there are injuries.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said if starting linebackers Shane Murray (knee) and Adam Gunn (concussion) — both are listed as “day-to-day” don’t play against Buffalo, the Panthers will use either senior Austin Ransom or redshirt freshman Tristan Roberts for Murray at weak-side and redshirt freshmen Brandon Lindsey or Greg Williams for Gunn at strong-side.

This is it. Other than at his press conference reiterating that they need to get a couple guys some more time. Continually falling back on “it just didn’t work out/unfold/etc. that way,” excuse.

On playing time of freshmen Lucas Nix and Andrew Taglianetti:

Lucas will play for sure. We need to get him in the game. Last week we were looking for opportunities, and it just never came up the way the game unfolded. He will play this week regardless. We need to get him on the field and get him some playing time. (Andrew) Taglianetti was on field goal block, punt return, punt team, and kickoff team. He didn’t play any defense – I really didn’t expect him to play any defense. Right now we have Irvan Brown and Elijah Fields alternating in at the safety position. He’ll continue special teams and then we’ll go from there.

On Elijah Fields’ playing time:

We have packages where he’s a major player, where we think we can take advantage of some things. Just the way the game unfolded, we had three or four possessions of their normal offense and then they went to the swinging gate and the totem pole, two different offenses. One that I’ve never seen and one we use on field goal, and they hit a couple plays on us and because of some of the things they did it really didn’t give us a chance (to put Fields in defensively).
…
On not playing Gregg Cross against Bowling Green in retrospect:

I don’t know, it’s easy to look back and say maybe. We do have that ready to go, you’ve seen it work, seen it in practice. Even though we were behind and not scoring points, we felt like we had some opportunities to make some plays with what we were doing. To answer your question, that is a little package (featuring Cross) we do have. The situation just didn’t come up when we felt he would have made a difference.

Unbelievable. That set J Jones at Cat Basket off on a righteous rant worth reading in full.

The biggest indictment of the program and Wannstedt that has come out is the lack of change in the two deep. One position, right tackle, obviously needs to be changed but the official announcement is no change. Wannstedt has said that Lucas Nix needs to play this week no matter what but he has stated that before, remember his interviews before the Bowling Green game. Joe Thomas played the worst game of anybody on the offense but it appears that wasn’t enough to lose his starting job. This is indictative of Wanny’s entire reign here and I would expect not to see Nix unless we are in garbage time.

Make sure you go there to read the whole thing. He discusses the arrogance of Wannstedt. It’s a good point, because when Wannstedt says the things, he tends to do in a congenial way. A manner that is disarming, but is rife with condescension. He talks of his experience and how he has his way of doing things and how they have always worked (and then hopes no one realizes he’s talking 20 years ago or so).

If you have followed Wanny’s head coaching career in Chicago and Miami, then you should know this is the choppy point. Last year, the fan support was eroding — and then forestalled by the WVU win — but the media was still with him. Give him more time they said. Why? Because Wanny is so darn likable. Everyone wants him to succeed who is in contact with him.

Then this season has started with more of the same. Guess what’s happening to the media backing?

Make no mistake: The mess that was that game and the mess that is the Pitt program are on Wannstedt.

The man lost me Saturday. I really hate to say that because I’ve spent a lot of time and energy defending him. I eagerly endorsed his hiring — and Harris’ exit. I urged people to give him a fair chance through those first three tough seasons. I was convinced he was going to bring Pitt back and take it to heights Harris never could.

Not anymore.

What will be interesting to see is how many Pitt fans Wannstedt has lost.

Joe Starkey devotes his column to how Wanny is losing the fans.

Those weren’t samplers. Those were hard-core supporters, sick of watching Pitt underachieve under fourth-year coach Dave Wannstedt.

I asked Wannstedt on Tuesday if he thought the boos and heavy post-game criticism were justified or an overreaction to the first of 12 games.

I liked his answer.

“It was pretty justified,” he said. “I mean, let’s be real.”

I would, except there was no admission of responsibility from Wannstedt in the whole answer.

On whether or not the fan reaction was justified:

It was probably justified. I mean, let’s be real. We expected to go out there and play good and win the game, so when people are disappointed they are going to express it. And that’s part of the business you know, got to be able to handle that. You know how I feel about this school, I love these kids, and my focus now is getting ready for Buffalo. I believe in these kids, I know we have a good football team, I know we have good players. We just have to keep pressing forward.

Pressing forward. Just time to move on. These things happen.

Even in Buffalo, they have noticed as their team gets ready.

Wannstedt’s four years into his dream job and it’s been anything but dreamy. The Panthers have lost 13 of their last 18. Last Saturday they blew a 14-point lead in a loss to Bowling Green. This week’s game against the University at Buffalo amounts to a must win if Wannstedt’s to have any realistic shot at staying on the job despite signing a contract extension prior to this season.

The natives are restless. The Panthers are 13-point favorites. And if UB seems like the ideal foe for the moment consider that Bowling Green, its Mid-American Conference East brother, also went in as a 13-point underdog. Clearly Pitt’s in no position to take anything for granted.

Pitt’s Wannstedt era has rung discordant from the get-go. The Miami Dolphins were 1-8 when he “resigned” as head coach in November 2004. The Panthers quickly came calling but Wannstedt turned them away, unsure that he was ready to get right back onto the sidelines, even for his alma mater. He reconsidered soon thereafter and by Christmas was named the new coach. (One of the other finalists, by the way, was Bo Pelini, who beat out UB coach Turner Gill for the Nebraska job after last season. And Wannstedt once interviewed Gill for a vacancy on his Dolphins staff. Small world, coaching.)

It’s perplexing that Wannstedt has yet to have a winning season.

…

Wannstedt makes it sound like Pitt’s in transition, or retooling after a successful run. Neither shoe fits. He’s been at it more than three years. He has the athletes. Now what he needs are wins.

Yup.

Paul Zeise takes the defense that there is still plenty of football to be played this season. Yes, there is, but this isn’t about one game. Trying to pretend that the anger and frustration all arose out of one loss is bull. This has been building. Yes, other teams have recovered.

Teams have rebounded from ugly early season losses in the past:

• Michigan last year lost to Division I-AA Appalachian State and finished the season 9-4 and beat Florida in the Capital One Bowl.

• Wisconsin in 1999 lost to a terrible (3-8) Cincinnati team but finished the season as Big Ten champions, went 10-2 and beat Stanford in the Rose Bowl.

• Florida State in 1989 lost to Southern Mississippi in its first game and finished 10-2 and destroyed Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl.

• Northwestern in 1996 lost to an awful (3-8) Wake Forest team and rebounded to finish 9-3 and play in the Citrus Bowl.

• In 1995, Northwestern lost to Miami (Ohio) in the second game of the season – and finished 10-2, Big Ten champs and played in the Rose Bowl.

• In 1993, Boston College lost to a terrible Northwestern (2-9) team and finished the season 9-3 and went to the Blockbuster Bowl.

• And though it was five games in, who can forget Virginia Tech losing to the greatest team ever compiled … Temple (2-9) … in 1998 and finishing 9-3 including a destruction of Alabama in the Music City Bowl.

Here’s the difference. The coaches on those teams. Lloyd Carr, Barry Alvarez, Dave Barnett, Tom Coughlin and Frank Beamer were the coaches on those teams. Dave Wannstedt has never drawn comparisons (or success) to them.

Also, consider that these coaches were actually capable of making real changes to their game or approach (well, maybe not Carr) — even if they wouldn’t necessarily admit it. Frank Beamer, just this week after losing to East Carolina, scrapped plans to redshirt sophomore QB Tyrod Taylor and return to the two-QB system. Why? Because it helps the team and it is more important than pride and trying to prove he knows best.

Well, whatever. A week in, and I’m confused. Almost worse than preseason polling. Making a judgment after only one week.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	1
2	Georgia	1
3	Ohio State	—
4	West Virginia	—
5	Oklahoma	—
6	LSU	1
7	Missouri	1
8	Florida	2
9	Arizona State	1
10	Wake Forest	2
11	Texas	5
12	South Florida	1
13	Auburn	2
14	Wisconsin	—
15	Alabama	11
16	Utah	5
17	Fresno State	8
18	Texas Tech	5
19	Brigham Young	2
20	Penn State	—
21	Oregon	5
22	Cincinnati	4
23	East Carolina	3
24	UCLA	2
25	Michigan State	1

Dart throwing would probably have yielded more defensible results. Probably

There’s only so much rehashing and teeth gnashing that I can do over one game. At least as far as discussing how many versions of excrement that game was and the performance from the coaches to the players.

The excuses/revisionist history from Coach Wannstedt has had me ready to kill.

• — Bill Stull goes from being a guy in the system who knows it and has been everything they wanted from the position to being inexperienced and only playing his first full game.
• — The line was coming along and the talent and depth was improved to still being a work in progress that isn’t there.
• — Pitt was playing for field position, because the defense was doing well. In the first quarter? Afterall, nothing could possibly change from there. Adjustments never happen.
• — The players weren’t tired in the second half. Which means they had to have been poorly prepared and coached to be that out of position so often. (P.S., it’s not a good sign when Coach Wannstedt is feeling defensive about what Lou Holtz is saying on TV.)

Those were just a few off the top of my head. I’m sure there are more I’m forgetting where the storyline from the coaching staff suddenly shifted.

There is no doubt that what deflated Pitt and encouraged BGSU was completely on Coach Wannstedt.

Rather than take a shot at the end zone on third down, Pitt opted to let 25 valuable seconds tick away before calling time out with three seconds left. Conor Lee’s 37-yard field goal put Pitt ahead, 17-14.

It’s a decision that cost Pitt the game, its preseason ranking and possibly its season.

Brandon, a progressive offensive mind but not one to be confused for former Bowling Green head coach Urban Meyer, certainly wondered what Pitt was thinking.

“Our guys at halftime said, ‘Coach, they ran the clock down. Why did they do that?’ The kids said (Pitt) should have gone for it,” Brandon said. “Our guys at halftime felt confident.”

Brandon also hinted that offering constant motion and gimmicks confuses Pitt’s defense, whether the opponent is Bowling Green or South Florida.

Read between the lines, and it’s not difficult to deduce that Bowling Green thinks it’s not to difficult to out-coach Pitt.

The staffs at Ohio, Connecticut, Navy and Rutgers probably think the same thing.

As LeSean McCoy said,

“It would have been nice to get a touchdown but, you know, we follow the leader (Wannstedt),” McCoy said.

While what Pitt did only gave BGSU encouragement.

Following Saturday’s game, Brandon and his players fielded myriad questions from Pittsburgh beat writers looking for fodder to lampoon Wannstedt. Brandon said the Falcons were energized by the Panthers’ cautious play calling at the end of the first half. Linebacker John Haneline said he relishes opportunities like Saturday, when he lined up against Pitt’s no frills I-formation, which is outdated in today’s college game.

“It’s my favorite thing to play [against],” Haneline said. “They’re going to knock you in the mouth. You have to knock back.”

Again, what goes back to the coaching concerns the personnel. As many have pointed out, despite Dom DeCicco struggling at safety. Joe Thomas looking like a human revolving door. The offense stagnanted and predictable. Potential playmakers and young talent were no where to be seen on the field.

As for changes to the starting lineup, Wannstedt said he is not ready to panic after one game, but he said Lucas Nix and Baldwin need to be on the field more because they are two of the most talented players on the team.

Nix has been pushing starting right tackle Joe Thomas for playing time since training camp and was supposed to play against Bowling Green, but he didn’t mostly because the Panthers were locked in a tight game with few opportunities for making changes. But the coaches believe Thomas has underachieved since training camp began and Saturday apparently wasn’t his finest hour, either. Wannstedt said game situations won’t dictate Nix’s playing time this week.

“We need to get Lucas Nix into the game and get him some playing time,” Wannstedt said. “We’re just going to have to put him in and let him play. Whether we are winning or losing or it is a close game, we need to get him in there. And the same thing with Baldwin; he needs to be in there and play a little more.

“Those are the two players who need to get more playing time, but nothing else will change because we just made a few mental mistakes, and they can be corrected.

Uh, what? So are we getting, “The system is fine. All is well. If the players just do what we tell them it will work. The coaching was sound.“?

The Panthers were criticized for punting twice inside the Falcons’ 35 and played for a field goal instead of a touchdown at the end of the first half.

Wannstedt took exception to the criticism and said that the Panthers were — and always are — obviously trying to score a lot of points — they just weren’t very successful at it. He said that was due to lack of execution and a lack of protecting the football.

“I’m not sure what you mean, full throttle?” Wannstedt asked rhetorically. “I mean, you’d like to think with our backs we’d be able to make a few big plays running the ball. We have to be able to generate some big plays, but, if you look at it, our longest play from scrimmage was only 17 yards.

“You are not going to score a lot of points doing that. Our offensive line is a new group, and we are taking that into account [in play-calling] and our quarterback was playing his first full game of his career, but we know that we are going to have to score more points to beat anybody, especially against some of these spread teams.

“Scoring has gone up significantly the past few years, we know that, but we also didn’t help ourselves by creating short fields for our offense. We got one turnover and we turned it over four times, which is eliminating four possessions. We can’t turn the ball over; it is the difference between winning and losing.”

I’m sorry. This is pathetic. No responsibility or accountability from Coach Wannstedt. He simply says they need to get some players more game time.

He doesn’t explain why they didn’t see the field in this game when needed. Except for Greg Cross which he excuses as saying that in the second half when Pitt was trailing, they needed to pass not run. Because, you know, they were trailing by all of 3 points for a significant portion.

Elijah Fields, one of the teams most athletic and high ceiling players never saw any action against a spread. The kind of offense, I would say Fields would thrive against.

I admit, right now I don’t think there is much Wannstedt could say to make me feel positive. That said, he’s given me no reason to believe he sees any problems other than the players not executing well enough.

Apparently because they were at fault. No issues with the coaching, preparation, game plan or motivation.

The one constant of Wannstedt at Pitt has been his slavish devotion to experience over talent. He continually bemoans positional weakness wherever there isn’t a senior or upperclassman.

This is college. Every team has issues of inexperience. Pitt is actually one of the most experienced teams in the country in terms of returning starters. Yet, it still doesn’t have enough experience. It is up to the coaches to get the players ready and to take advantage of what they can do. If you can’t adapt your system even a little to the players you have, then this will be the continual outcome.

Disappointment and excuses that the players are making mistakes.