I love how coaches, who can go on endlessly about a particular play or player from 5, 10, 15, 25 years ago in the minutest details suddenly don’t know a damn bit about their own team’s recent history.
Another reason for that is that Pitt began the 2006 season 6-1 and appeared ready for a run at the Big East championship. Then, the Panthers lost a home game to Rutgers and never won again, finishing 6-6.
Wannstedt quickly dismissed the idea the Panthers could repeat such a collapse nor did he buy the idea that there was any parallel between this year and 2006.
“If you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have remembered to be quite honest with you,” Wannstedt said when asked about the 2006 start as compared to this year. “We hadn’t beaten Louisville since 1983 on the road. We hadn’t beaten Rutgers in five years. And we did it.
“So, this is a different football team. It’s a different year. Those things really have no bearing on what we’re doing.”
Yep. Nothing in common. Homecoming. Big game. Questions that still linger about who Pitt had really beaten. The winner will stay/be ranked. Facing a team with the same record and battling their own history. Why would the fans even consider the similarities? Don’t you feel silly for even considering it?
Yes, the talent is improved. So is the depth. Still for outright dismissal of past failures as not relevant and a different season — while making perfect sense for the players and coaches trying to prepare for the next game, to say nothing of the fact that many key players weren’t there in 2006 — is not something that fans can easily do.
Credit Bill Stull for at least trying to use it to keep focused on winning.
“I wasn’t trying to talk to anyone about that,” Stull said. “I know I’m not the only one who remembers it, who has thought about it since the game this past weekend. You’re definitely going to think about it. You’re obviously not going to want to duplicate the end of that season.”
I mean Pitt fans have to be looking at USF and like many other watchers, wonder or think that the loss to Cinci was the kickoff for their annual October swoon of the last 3 years.
Three years in a row, the Bulls jumped out to strong starts, winning at least their first five games and moving up the national polls, but then a single loss steamrolled into a midseason swoon.
In 2007, the Bulls opened 6-0, rising to No. 2 in the polls, only to lose three in a row to drop out of the Top 25.
In 2008, the Bulls opened 5-0, rising to No. 10, but fell even harder, losing four of their next five games, starting with a loss at Pittsburgh.
This season, USF again opened 5-0, moving to No. 21, but took its first loss Thursday to then-No. 8 Cincinnati. The Bulls’ challenge is finding the brakes and stopping the skid at one loss as they play at No. 20 Pittsburgh on Saturday.
So, they take a beating for losing to Cinci. Treated like every other Big East team that loses a big game. Back to nowheresville.
Catch you later … maybe.
Yeah, no sooner had the University of South Florida worked into the national conversation than the Bulls were relegated back to the obscurity that is the fate of all teams that fall short on the big stage. That’s the unfortunate fallout of Thursday’s 34-17 loss to eighth-ranked Cincinnati at RayJay.
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They saw big plays on both sides, which always makes for good TV.
But ultimately, they also saw 21st-ranked USF spoil this grand opportunity with mistakes.
They saw drives sputter for the Bulls because of penalties – and haven’t we witnessed that before?
They saw the Bearcats keep drives alive because of penalties on USF – and haven’t we witnessed that before too?
And of course, USF Coach Jim Leavitt has no clue about what this October swoon that people speak of.
It was USF’s fourth straight loss to the undefeated and eighth-ranked Bearcats and third consecutive Thursday night defeat in three years.
“I don’t get into all that stuff about the late season losses. I just take it one game at a time,” Leavitt said. “I don’t like to lose whether I am 0-5 or 5-0.
“It doesn’t change for me. We are going to correct things and move forward. I don’t know any other way. I don’t have a magical formula.”
And after Saturday, one team and coach will be treated as being the same thing as always.
