For those of you worried that Coach Wannstedt has been almost too perfect the last few weeks with the team and what he said, breathe easy. The struggles to return a punt instead of having Aaron Smith fair catch everything brought out the silly talk.
Wannstedt said Pitt’s lack of production on punt returns is because of the spread of rugby-style, directional punting throughout college football. The Panthers are averaging 5.3 yards on 15 returns, with a long of 17 yards, using primarily Aaron Smith.
“When there are returns,” Wannstedt said, “they are very short ones.”
Wannstedt, who doubles as Pitt’s special teams coach, noted Notre Dame’s explosive Golden Tate is averaging just 6.5 yards on punt returns. Pitt is allowing only 4.5 yards on punt returns.
Of course it is all because of the punters. Among punt returners (who average more than 1.2 punt returns/game) Aaron Smith is ranked 53d. For the record, Tate got yanked on punt returns in the Navy game which Weis claimed was to save Tate from taking extra hits.
In case you weren’t aware, it’s going to be a big football weekend at Heinz Field.
Weird headline for this story, “Irish anything but a distraction for No. 8 Pitt.” Apparently the idea being that an unranked, non-con game before a bye week and the final two conference games would be something Pitt would overlook. I mean, it’s only on primetime TV and against ND. Now if the theme was the coaching situation and daily drama that is ND football, I might understand the distraction argument.
