Just as you make your own luck, I don’t buy into destiny. I prefer free will.
So, here’s the liveblog that should get underway sometime around 7-ish.
Since there has been something of a queue to participate, I’ve sent out some invites (near the max allowable) to those that I trust will be able to reasonably control themselves that should allow more participation. Hopefully that will help.
Here’s the Link to tonight’s liveblog.
The officiating was terrible tonight. Cincy didn’t need that much help.
Speaking of PSU … ask any Nit fan and they will tell you that the big difference between this year and last year, and for that matter, the team 2 years ago vs 3 yeasr ago (Orange Bowl) is Darryl Clark and Mike Robinson vs Anthony Morelli ….. or in other words, Tony Pike vs Bill Stull. Unless Pitt can get a good running attack to keep the pressure off of Stull, he is unlikely to make something out of nothing
Nippert Stadium – a place that two or three years ago was probably playing to 50% capacity – was amped up and the energy there seemed to be unreal. Cincy’s players clearly fed off of that.
Kudos to Pitt for coming back with a solid effort in the end. But as many said above, Cincy made the plays they needed to make and Pitt didn’t. Sometimes that’s just a product of what you are, and Pitt is still a very young team at many key positions and players are going to make mistakes (Decicco in some of his reads and support deep, for instance).
At the beginning of the season, every reputable preview publication had Pitt finishing somewhere around 3rd or 4th in the Big East with an outside shot at the conference title. I hopes for eight wins and a halfway-decent bowl game. We might get nine and a solid bowl game.
Pitt will get exactly the same results next year if they stand pat with Stull at QB.
His stat line every game generally goes something like 15 for 25 for about 200 yds and 1 TD and an interception, but that masks just how ineffective he is. He’s never able to scramble for a key first down or make a pass rusher miss in order to complete a long ball downfield. He’s just there, and that’s not good enough to win big games.
I repeat my post from last night…..
Pitt’s got to get serious about the QB position. Cincy’s a great example of a team that doesn’t have half the talent on offense that Pitt does………but they accomplish more offensively because their QB is an athlete. He consistently made the pass rush look inept with his mobility and found receivers all over the field.
Then we watch Pitt get the ball and it’s pretty obvious early that the Bearcats are keying on McCoy (like everybody does) because they know Stull can’t beat them. He can’t move well enough to shake a rush and doesn’t have any vision or any arm to make a play when things break down. He’s just overmatched at this level.
The college game is so wide open the way it’s played these days and the play of the QB is exponentially more important than what happens at any other position on the field.
I want a playmaker back there and I don’t think Wannstedt has one on the roster. Stull’s a good WPIAL QB, Smith scares all of us the minute he gets in a game, Sunseri is too short to play D1 and watching Bostick play is…….well it’s just painful and I’m baffled by how any recruiter thought he had the tools to succeed.
I’m worried Wannstedt and his staff are going to waste a ton of other recruited talent and never win the games they should during this period because they never get the right play-caller in there. Face it — one position matters more than any other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If so, he should be fired.
What I find interesting is that all of the major complaints about Bill Stull leading up to the game – mainly his accuracy and arm strength, were not factors in the game. Stull’s deep pass to Baldwin (hit him in-stride and right on the hands) and the TD pass to Dickerson were as well thrown long balls as you’ll see in CFB. Perhaps no one really wants to hear this but Jonathan Baldwin has a long way to go before he actually plays at the level PITT fans have already put him. Aside from a few deep passes for TDs I believe he’s not lived up to the hype in many ways – he certainly has a lot of work to do before he becomes a complete WR.
Our receivers should man up and take the heat for a lot of our offensive problems – they did nothing to help the cause.