We pulled it out again….EXCELLENT and for the last time. FIRE CAVANAUGH he sucks. Thank God the players outdid the coaches and won the game.
(I have no idea what happens next year in the quarterback area.) But for now…..Let’s savor beating WVU’s ass again…… 13-9 what?????
Now it’s 19-15!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think, other than that fade pass called on the goal line, Cavanaugh has done a great job.

Cav called a great game. Sure they should have run the ball at the end of the half, but a fade route to Baldwin is not the worst call in the world. It was possibly the worst throw I have ever seen. Stull played terrible.

To be honest, I agree with dan. We all can agree that the fade pass was the wrong call and that he should have stuck to the run, at least on 2nd down. However, we drove right down the field the first two drives resulting in a TD and missed FG, which wasn’t helped by a false start and holding penalty. And he called solid plays our final couple of drives.

Sure you can argue that it’s not hard to continue handing Shady the ball, but there were solid misdirections other calls instead of just playing “smash mouth”.

The problem is how limited we are with Stull. I’m sure he’s a nice kid with good leadership qualities, but he consistently throws into triple coverage, dances, throws off his back foot, and lobs balls that are over or underthrown to the receivers.

HTP!

8-3 at this point is good for us. The Gator Bowl is within our reach and so is a 10 win season.

I can’t agree in that you have to coach to a players strengths and weaknesses. Stull is not mobile, can’t throw a screen very well, and has no arm to throw the deep pass. He is good at short, quick throws 5 yards down field. I think Cav has a 80’s mentality as well. This team has a top 5 running back, a line that has improved pver the year, and a quarterback who is good for the short game only. It doesn’t take rocket science to produce decent results within those parameters.

Stull sucked today, but I really don’t care.

Two years and counting (and 3 of the last 5 too!)

Now if we could only get the guys in the white helmets back on the schedule so we can beat their asses too!

Devine vs. Auburn (DC Paul Rhodes)

17 car 207 yds 1 TD

Devine vs. Pitt (DC not Paul Rhodes)

12 car 17 yds 0 TD

Maybe we’ve figured those hicks out?

Paul,

Very good point about how well we contained Flava Flav today. Also, the secondary finally stepped up as well. Hats off to Coach Bennett and the entire defense.

Tommy Tuberville: Hey! I am going to hire Paul Rhodes 🙂

Auburn faithful: Are YOU trying to piss off the volcano?!

Watching Pitt football is like going to the dentist!!

Congrats to all for the comeback and the win…all other discussion and frustration is moot.

Hail to Pitt….!!!

I think it’s too easy to blame the 2nd and goal pick on Cav.

I think you need to remember that Cav was dialing it up real well in the 1st half and looked like he could walk on water. I liked the balance and I think that Cav wanted to out coach WVU who likely was going to key on Shady.

No the fault on that play lies completely with Stull. He does not strike me as a thinking QB. Has no pocket presence and rushes the his throws (look at the wide open inc he got on 3rd and 7 because he has no touch whatsoever).

Stull is horrible. His deep pick, I didn’t see anyone in the vicinity.

Personally, I think Pitt was trying to make WVU to pay for keeping 8 in the box and once they pulled the Safeties back give WVU an overdose of Shady.

It became apparent that this was not going to happen so DW/Cav had no option but to go with Shady.

My guess is they never really new that Shady has an “S” underneath his uniform.

When you can will your team to victory…that’s the stuff of legends. I hope to see him back, but if he changes his mind, he has earned it because without shady we don’t get a sniff to victory today.

Brilliant effort from Shady. As well as the D (but that darn Pat White was driving me nuts…I am just thankful that I can say “for the final time”

DaveD

Was a very scary game. Pitt should have had it put away by half, but instead had to come from behind. There were some questionable calls, but overall was a well coached game. Stull played like crap. He has looked good at times and bad at times. Today was the latter.

Thank God for Shady. He hoisted us on his shoulders and willed us to a win. And the D was fandamtastic.

There are things to complain and gripe about; but I look at it this way: we have beat WVU two years in a row. If this staff is going to make a habit of that, then fire no one. Let’s not complain after winning the only game on our schedule that even matters.

Explaining what is wrong with Stull is like the Jim Mora press conference where he had to explain that they couldn’t do diddly poo on offense and couldn’t do diddly poo on defense. He can’t throw screens. He can’t throw deep. He can’t throw the ball fast enough into coverage. He is not mobile. Basically, he is me – except he starts at Pitt.

19-15

Sah-weet! A thoroughly exciting and heart stopping game.

WOW! A lot of momentum changes….Stull looked good his first five passes, then (other than rolling him out) looked tentative…at the end of the game—everybody knew Shady was going to get the ball over and over, and thanks to our line and Cav calling the pitch, we did it!

I thought Cav called a good game overall (maybe had too much ice cream when he tried the fade before halftime).

But think of it…Stull wasn’t at his finest, the refs made a horrible call (giving wvu a first down and then a FG), White runs a long TD…and we win.

Kudos to both of our lines–they really both were dominant today!

Hail to PITT!
-al-

Had em all the way! Stull made excellent handoffs, the coaches did the obvious late in the game. We always win late if it’s close because of conditioning.

wHAT’S THE LINE VS TECH TONIGHT?

I have no problem with our coaching staff, I have to say the coaches made a ton of progress this year!

Just think if Pitt had a QB that did not suck we would have a few more wins under our belts.

Shady is the man!

Just getting back from the game…great time, great atmosphere, as is to be expected from a backyard brawl. One thing I was wondering, though, does anyone know what the song is they played before almost every kickoff? This is the only game I’ve been able to get to this year, and I don’t remember them playing it at all last year, nor can I recall hearing it at any other sports venues.

Line on the BBall game…Pitt -12.5

Well we won in spite of ourselves but any win over the mountainqueers is a good win. This game was all McCoy and must give the D big credit. Stull appears to be getting worse as the year goes on…dont know what the story is there. The fans were great, out of their seats and making noise almost every third down. Hail to Pitt!

Just got home. Made no sense to stick with Stull after pick #3. What were they saying on ESPN? And the draw play up the middle on the 2 point attempt was revolting. If you’re going to run a QB put Cross in there for goodness sake. The amazing storyline is Shady. Everyone in the house knew he was getting the ball and he still outplayed every player and every crappy coach on that field. Hail to Pitt! Now on to the BB game.

Bobby, they showed Bostick warming up and for a minute the announcers thought he was going in. Turns out Wanny just did it to light a fire under Stull’s ass. It didn’t work.

Look, defense was awesome. Running game was awesome. Special teams were awesome. Passing game, not so much. I’ll take three out of four and a win though.

I just don’t want this to turn into a “We won but we’re going to complain anyways”-thing as usual (I’m guilty of it too).

It’s WVU, it’s a big game, and we did it. I’m more than satisfied with that.

In case anyone cares about basketball, you can listen live on: link to 3wsradio.com

Lets go PITT!!

Will – I tried to figure out that song, and can’t. I was wondering if it was a Guitar Hero song or something??? But it’s a kickin’ instrumental.

Other than Stull being inept for much of the game and the refs blowing 3-4 big calls in the 2nd half (one ruled catch by WVU for a 1st down on 3rd down in front of their bench was right in front of me, and he was juggling the ball out of bounds), the big question to me is—-can Dave Brytus kick it more than 35 yards in the air????

By the way – kudos to the O and D lines and to Buddy Morris, to Shady, to Nate Byham, to Jovani Chappel, to Aundre Wright, to Mick Williams, to Scott McKillop, to Conredge, to Kinder for a nice TD catch, to DeCicco for a good overall game and a nice pick.

Go Pitt!

Anyone know why the Pitt-Tech game is delayed? I am getting anxious over here.

That song sounded to me like something from the Kill Bill vol. 1 soundtrack. Do a search for “Battle without honor or humanity” by Tomoyasu Hotei.

link to youtube.com

Pitt playing some really ugly BBall…shooting terribly…including fouls …you can see the talent though…both Blair and Fields look less than 100%

Baudolino is correct if that’s the song that you are talking about. Since I was only watching on TV, I’m assuming that’s what you were talking about, but I heard it before all the kickoffs now that you mention it.

It’s actually become a pretty popular song at sporting events since Kill Bill vol. 1 dropped. I know I’ve seen it at a few Penguins games as well as Florida State Baseball and you can hear it in the background of a lot of other games. Jim Colony used to also have it in the background when he would read his sports report on Mark Madden’s old ESPN radio show.

How is the hoops team looking right now? I’m following the ticker on espn.com.

Hoops team is pulling away from TTech it looks like.

Onto bowl talk. I lurk (but don’t post) at pantherlair.com a lot and people are talking about the Sun or Car Care bowls taking Big East teams with worse records over us because their fans travel better and stuff like that.

To the best of my knowledge, if the Gator or Sun takes a Big East team, it has to be the #2 team in the league, regardless of whether or not they think our fans will travel. Their only choices are whether to take the Big 12 team, Big East team, or Notre Dame. But if they do take a Big East team, it MUST be the #2 team in the conference.

Same goes for the Car Care bowl except with the #3 team in the conference. It doesn’t matter if a team can only sell 23 tickets, if they’re #3 in the Big East, they’re going. End of story.

I know all of this talk is going on over on the rivals board, but I figured some of them read this as well and I also didn’t feel like registering for that board to clarify this.

So in summary, it doesn’t matter if they think we’ll travel or not. If you’re in a certain place in the conference, you get to go. If Pitt finishes 3rd and WVU 4th, Car Care has to take Pitt. They can’t choose WVU because they bring more fans.

Everything I’ve read on this shows that this is how it works.

And as I typed this, we beat Texas Tech!

What an excellent day. We beat WVU in football and Texas Tech in basketball. Now that’s a good Black Friday!

I live down south and was watching the game with some friends house. One of them who did not know I was a Pitt fan said “That guy is a bad quarterback.” He was not talking about White.

Definitely a solid day of sports for me as well Panthoor. If only the Penguins could have repeated the trifecta this evening.

I have to ask Kenny, how were you watching the Brawl with friends who didn’t know you were a Pitt fan? Pitt dominated the entire first half, even with the score only being 7-3. Did you never once cheer, jump up in excitement, or even smile? Everyone in my town knew I am a Pitt fan because all 6000 of them could hear me screaming (good and bad) all game long.

I like where DW has this program headed. However, the reality is Pitt will be not much better next year with Stull throwing the ball. If anyone thinks he can sail this ship to an undefeated season next year, that person is the ultimate homer. I would take another 9-3 season (assuming Uconn gets McCoyed).
Until Pitt can get a solid QB throwing the ball, this system will suffer at least 2 losses per season. By solid I mean – does not get scared by collapsing pocket, can throw screens and short passes consistently, and can keep teams honest with an occasional deep ball.
While I am almost certain Stull will be starting next fall, I am hoping for some type of QB controversy to occur.

To anyone who ever doubted this, Heinz Field is a GREAT place for a college football game and really does feel like Pitt’s home when the place is full!!

They do a good job of putting Pitt regalia all around that stadium, I’ve never complained about that (go to RayJay in Tampa, there’s NOTHING USF-centric in that place, and they often play with Buccaneer logos all over the field, if you want to complain). It’s just up to the fans to go the damn games! When they do, the result is nice. For the first time in a couple of years, it didn’t feel like I was watching Pitt play in the Steelers stadium. And it wasn’t just the Pitt logo at midfield haha.

The only thing wrong with Heinz Field is that it’s probably about 10,000 seats too big for Pitt’s fanbase at this point.

Jimbo – agreed. Heinz was ROCKIN’ today. One thing that helps – this is the best student section in my 25 years of football games (counting when I was a student).

Yeah, I was worried that there wouldn’t be a lot of student support because of Thanksgiving Break and all, but we pulled together a nice crowd.

And, as a member of the student section today, we were trying to drown out the “Let’s Go(oooo) Mountaineers” chant more than once and it was nice to see the rest of the stadium respond.

Went to the game today, in the student section, and I can say that “I’m so fucking proud of this team”, and all our fans overall for the atmosphere created. As a senior undergrad I could think of no better way to end my student section Pitt career then in the fashion we did. Shady was a beast.when he carried three mountaineers 5 yards late in the forth on the way to his first TD, we all said “ohhhh shit!(in a good way)By far the best overall game I’ve ever been to.

On a side note, was following the ESPN ticker for the Bball game, and it said that Tim Frye had a two-point dunk shot. Does anyone know if this is reality or not? I’m surprised the boy got in, let alone to dunk… Really?? any light shed would be nice..

Hail to Pitt.

I was at the basketball game. We out-muscled and out-classed Texas Tech. My only question: Why didn’t Nasir play more than mop up? Was it because Gilbert is back to full strength?

As a postscript, DeJuan didn’t look any worse for the wear.

Looking forward to the final tomorrow night.

Another big win vs WVU! We could have ahd a Louisville type score we had a decent QB. I think the coaching staff did a great job against a talented team today. Still in not a good QB. I’d put Bostick in the rest of this year to see how much he’s improved since last year and to see if he has a chance to be the QB next year. Stull doesn’t really do anything very well and he hasn’t gotten better with experience.

@Jimbo’s Dad…
When bowl teams are selected, when they say they are taking the #2 Big East team, it does not mean the team which finished 2nd in the conference. This number means the order in which they are chosen by the bowls. It is the same for every conference. Go and read Mandel’s Bowl Projections on SI.com, he lays it out nicely and explains all the selection processes.

Basically, the bowls can take whoever they want as long as they have 7 wins. I predict the Gator will take a Big 12 team (Nebraska) and the Sun will take their choice of a Big East team. I think they may still take WVU based on fans. That would likely put us in the Meineke Bowl which isn’t a terrible drive and would be a nice matchup vs. an ACC team.

Since the Buffalo game, Cav has called very good, agressive games…however, taking the ball out of Shady’s hands on 2nd and goal from inside the two was mind-blowing stupid! Luckily for us, the stupidity spread to both sidelines as WVU coaches also thought it a good idea to make Pat White a WR on 3rd and goal from the 3! I was at the game, the wind was swirling very strong the entire game, which might explain the lack of any deep throws. Bottom line, if we had better play from our QB position we win that game by 20+ points. I think that the QB position will be a wide open competition in the Spring.

Ah, thanks for helping solve that mystery, guys. As a pump-up song, I like it. It’s a good alternative to the usual boring “Sandstorm”/whatever Lil Wayne song has blown up recently.

Ive been a season ticket holder for over 20 years and will say that Heinz field was rockin Friday. But here is my beef with the whole “Pitt experience” and why they cannot sell out the stadium on a regular basis. First, after listening to Steve P. announce he was going to do his best to have as many games as possible after 3:00PM, we had how many? I know TV dictates this, but c’mon, Big East Game of the Week has to go. 6:00AM wakeups to get to a parking lot that has 2 port a johns (30 minute wait each visit), waiting in line at concession stand (can easily miss a quarter of football), and then spend over 2 hours to drive 12 miles home as confused police officers try to direct traffic. This on a day Pitt won. I cant be mad at the fans who shy away from coming to the games to no have to endure this, especially with the way the teams and coaches have performed over say the last 15 years. Sometimes they make it real difficult to enjoy the game day experience. Lets hope the team can get to top 10 caliber and offset all the other mess.

I echo the words of Z-boy. It is completely frustrating to wait in the long concession stands, the inconvenient parking lots and most of all THE NOON KICK-OFFS! They have to end for me to continue to attend the games with my season tickets that I have held for at least 20 years as well. TV has too much to do with the scheduling of these games. I can understand the noon kick offs once in a while but these games have been almost the norm for Pitt football. Who in the administration believes these noon kick offs help sell tickets, parking revenue, concession revenue and most of all the program? Our local midget football programs do not even have noon kick offs. STOP THE MADNESS AND GO PITT.

z-boy and smitty-

i’d send your exact comments to the ad department. I think they are valid but won’t get addressed unless they know..to their credit, they have been responsive to my comments/suggestions.

Has anyone seen WASU play this year? I was looking at their stats and on paper they seem to have a very good defense. Granted they haven’t really played anyone yet but 41.2 PA is very good. Then again Texas Tech was averaging 101 points a game and we held them to 67. This could be a close game early if Young and Blair stumble a little.

Also, I am still celebrating the WVU win. Cursing and Hollering in front of the mother-in-law for one day a year is sooo f’in cool.

Hot Sauce, put me down too. I just don’t understand why the Pitt experience cannot be EXACTLY like the Steelers, it makes no sense. They need to use the same security screeners, users, parking lots, policemen (traffic). Pathetic. And they don’t even sell beer in the Great Hall so why the lines?

One major problem Pitt needs to address is parking. I flew back to Pitt from Cali for homecoming. A group of us wanted to tailgate and had to drive around for about 40 minutes until we finally decided to just pull over, unload our shit by another friends parking spot, and then park in the garages. The whole arbitrary “presold lots only” is absolute bull shit. This happened to me multiple times while an undergrad and I hate that it continues. Pitt should work out a better plan for reserving spots in ideal tailgating zones.