Okay, folks it is another noon game for Pitt after the bye week.

When Pitt hosts Syracuse, the game will be at noon but for the scattered alum the game is getting shown on ESPNU on November 7.

I’m sure most of you have seen the quote from USF Coach Jim Leavitt that accurately described what happened to the Bulls.

“They just whooped us,” South Florida coach Jim Leavitt said in describing the Panthers’ 41-14 destruction of his team before a homecoming crowd of 50,019 at Heinz Field.

There would be no way to spin this as it being close or just a couple plays making the difference. Right? Right?

Helllll00oooo B.J. Daniels. Your late entry for Mr. Delusional 2009.

“I feel like we beat ourselves: penalties, missed opportunities and not completing drives … I don’t think they contained us,” said redshirt freshman quarterback B.J. Daniels, who had 104 yards total offense. “I feel it was us, in terms of 11 guys on the field. There were a lot of things we could have done better. The scheme was there. We just didn’t execute.”

As a team, the Bulls had nine penalties for 71 yards, including four on the opening two drives.

On the opening kickoff, an illegal block by Nate Allen set the offense back to its 10-yard line.

…

Daniels said the offense needs to get back to executing to turn things around.

“I feel like if we did everything we were coached to do and take advantage of our opportunities then we would be sitting here with a win,” he said.

Two facts regarding penalties. The USF Bulls are the most penalized team in the Big East. It’s not like penalties are an aberration for them.

Second, the nine penalties were very equitably split amongst squads. The Special Teams had 2, The Defense had 4 and the Offense had 3. All three of the offense’s penalties came in the 1st quarter and the Bulls had 7 of their 9 penalties in the first half. Even trying to blame the penalties for a small amount of the loss is a complete farce when your team commits them all the time.

The cliche is, “you are what your record says you are.” At this point in the season the stats also tell you what your team is. The Bulls are a sloppy undisciplined team. They have athleticism, speed and potential playmakers but do little with it. So, while the Bulls players and coaches may somehow convince themselves that they lost the game with mistakes, they really did little differently. They just ran into a team that was better than them, that didn’t let them get away with that kind of play.

Especially delusional is the offense.

“They were giving us a six-man box and we kept getting the third-and-medium, third-and-short, but we couldn’t execute,” USF offensive coordinator Mike Canales said. “We were trying to find a niche. We felt like we were getting 3, 4, 5 chunk of yards at a time.

“Then something bad happens, a mistake or a penalty. It stops your mojo. It takes away your rhythm and the next thing you know, it’s all out of whack. It’s so frustrating.”

Redshirt quarterback B.J. Daniels, USF’s leading rusher, did most of the work on keepers. He carried 15 times for 50 yards. Otherwise, the carries were divided between Jamar Taylor (five for 28), Mo Plancher (five for 23) and Mike Ford (two for 4).

“I believe we have playmakers everywhere on this team,” Plancher said. “I just think we’ve got to come out with more fire and play with more discipline. Whatever play is called, we should be doing much better than we’re doing.”

Well, at least we know that on the offensive side, the whining about beating themselves originated with the OC.

Despite Pitt not stacking against the run. Instead guarding against passing and B.J. Daniels taking off, the Bulls still had no run game.

Of course, the supposed strength of USF was the defense. Er, not so much. Now, they are confused.

“This shouldn’t be happening,” said USF senior defensive end George Selvie, shell-shocked after watching the Bulls give up 486 yards to the Panthers. “We didn’t put any pressure on Pittsburgh. They had their way.”

The Bulls (5-2, 1-2 Big East), losers of two straight games, were undressed in the first half. Pittsburgh (7-1, 4-0) scored on all five of its possessions, rolled up 297 yards and built a 31-7 advantage at the break.

The second half was merely a formality. Overall, Pittsburgh converted on 11 of its 16 third-down opportunities.

Thinking about it, the inability for USF to get off the field when it was 3d down was very reminiscent of what happened to Pitt’s defense against NC State. Well, except that it wasn’t just one guy making plays.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I saw a Bulls team that simply quit in the 4th quarter. Pitt beat them down on both sides of the ball and whether Pitt made them or USF did it on their own, they still quit. The question is, do they stay that way?

Offensive coordinator Mike Canales said the Bulls “can’t buy a break” with missed opportunities and penalties negating big gains but the players must decide how they will respond to the recent adversity.

“We need to start leaning against each other. Our backs are against the wall a little bit,” he said. “You say, ‘Hey, who are we?’ Are we going to lie down, or are we going to come back and fight. I think you’re going to see fighters.”

Recent history has suggested otherwise. Of course, if they don’t, they could well miss bowl eligibility. They need two more wins and their remaining games are against WVU, at Rutgers, Louisville, Miami, and at UConn in December.

The only thing they salvaged from the game with that final score against Pitt’s 3d string defense was avoiding their worst loss ever in the Big East. So, at least they had that.

The last couple games have been a painful reality check for USF that they are still no where near “arriving.” They can be a good team, but not a consistent one.  They haven’t done it for more than half-a-season to this point in their history.

Not sure how the world can handle this. The conventional wisdom in football is that Coach Wannstedt is at best a mediocre coach. That he is simply the latest in a line of ex-NFL coaches in college that operates in that 5-8 wins per year group (Gailey, Groh, Sherman, Callahan, et. al.).

Now Pitt sits at 7-1. Ranked its highest under Wannstedt (#15 BCS, #16 AP, #17 Coaches). Pitt’s best start since 1982.

So it is time for the paradigm shift. Something many Pitt fans have been working through for the past year or so.

3. Pittsburgh is for real: Yes, it is sometimes tough to give coach Dave Wannstedt a whole lot of credit but he has a team that is legitimately good. The Panthers not only beat South Florida, they absolutely dominated the Bulls. There’s probably a slip-up coming somewhere (Pitt is usually good for one head-scratcher per year), but until that happens the Panthers deserve to be feared.

I think we can agree that the NC State game could and should count as the slip-up game. Here’s hoping it’s the only one.

This is the week of acknowledging what is happening.

We’ve certainly been critical of Dave Wannstedt in the past, but he has it going on at Pittsburgh this season. His Panthers crushed USF 41-10 Saturday to move to 7-1 overall and 4-0 in the Big East. Pitt led 31-7 at halftime Saturday and didn’t punt the whole game.

“They just whooped us and were much better than us” was USF coach Jim Leavitt’s succinct reaction.

If not for a loss to N.C. State in which it blew a 14-point lead, Pitt would be 8-0 and almost certainly in the top 10. (That NCSU has not beaten any other FBS team has to make it doubly frustrating for Pitt.)

Yeah, that’s going to be a bitter thing for a while. I guess it can be used as a reminder to the team not to take anything for granted and the close difference between winning or losing. Or some motivational gimmick. Still just sucks.

So, there is some actual respect going on.

P is for Pitt: The only thing more complete than Dave Wannstedt’s mustache might be his football team. A 41-14 victory over South Florida makes the Panthers 7-1 for the first time since 1982, when Dan Marino quarterbacked Pitt to its last No. 1 ranking.

And respect for Coach Wannstedt.

Lesson 6: We all owe Pitt a big ole apology.

Sorry, we never should’ve doubted the ‘Stache. Dave Wannstadt and his Panthers absolutely dismantled South Florida 41-14 to take over the Big East lead at 4-0. This is the first time since 1982 that Pittsburgh has started 7-1. But I wonder just how hard Pitt is kicking itself for blowing that two-touchdown lead at N.C. State back in September? Damn.

By the way, that Cincinnati-Pittsburgh game on Dec. 5 is gonna rock.

Expect more of this meme during  the next week. What with Pitt on a bye week and Coach Wannstedt being more available for media interviews.

So, while I was in Pittsburgh enjoying a dominating win by Pitt my wife had to take our son to the pediatric emergency room as he is apparently battling pneumonia. He seems to be responding real well to the medicine, so there is no great danger. It did mean I was on duty to watch and care for him last night and most of the day while the wife got some sleep and down time. Hence the lack of anything for a while.

Dumbest thing I heard during the game. A guy behind me complaining about Bill Stull after he hit Baldwin for the deep touchdown. I would love to be making it up, but it really happened. Apparently the pro was all over the mistakes: Stull double-clutched before throwing, it was not actually in perfect stride plus it was over the wrong shoulder.

Seriously? Why even go to the game if you hate everything and need to be that miserable? It was on the money. In stride. Stull had another great game.

Yet, when Stull threw that pick I swear you could see people in the stands catch their breath. There was murmuring.  People began to look around at the rest of the crowd. Waiting to see if anyone and who would boo Stull at that point. When nothing happened there was an exhale.

It was a great effort from the team in all phases. I’ll get more later. After all, there is a bye week to fill the time.