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December 23, 2009

Visiting Old Places and Happy To Be Here

Filed under: Bowls,Football — Chas @ 2:17 pm

Another stand-by for any road game. Find the players and coaches from the area. Max Gruder got that treatment when Pitt visited Raleigh earlier in the year. It’s a redux as he actually comes back to the city where he lived.

There will be visits to old stomping grounds, dinner with old friends and one demanding task – finding enough tickets.

“My parents are coming up from Tampa and they needs about 12 tickets,” said Gruder, a 6-foot-2, 230 pounder who was a two-way standout at Country Day and named first team all-N.C. Independent School Athletic Association as a senior.

“And then there are all my friends in Charlotte. Man, I need about a million tickets, I think,” he said. “When we step on the Country Day field to practice, I think that will be the first time since I stepped off my senior year.”

Then there is OC Frank Cignetti, who spent a year as OC at UNC in the final year of the Frank Bunting era. So he knows some of the players.

Starting linebacker Quan Sturdivant is another player whom Cignetti helped bring to North Carolina. In Sturdivant’s case, Cignetti was the assistant coach primarily responsible for recruiting him. That meant Cignetti made home visits with Sturdivant’s family and showed him around campus.

“Coach Frank, I remember him well,” Sturdivant said. “I remember thinking to myself that he was the most organized coach I had ever seen. He was on top of everything, he was really organized and that made a big impression on me.

“Plus, he was good at talking. I was a quarterback and I knew I wasn’t going to be playing quarterback in college, but he kept making me feel like I had a shot. That told me that he really wanted me to come to North Carolina.

“It will be cool to play against him, but it will be a challenge because he has built a very strong offense with a great running game.”

Cignetti’s stay at North Carolina was short and mostly because that one season he was there — 2006 — the Tar Heels finished 3-9 and Bunting, along with his staff, was fired.

But it’s a hook for storylines.

Over on the UNC side of things, the Tarheels have to do damage control after the disappointment of ending up in Charlotte again (Insider subs).

Even with that, UNC still figured to be headed to the Music City Bowl to play Kentucky. But because of the shuffle created by a back-room deal that sent Florida State to the Gator Bowl in honor of coach Bobby Bowden’s retirement, the Tar Heels got relegated to the Meineke Car Care Bowl for the second year in a row and the third time in five seasons. Coach Butch Davis and his players would rather be anywhere else in the world than back in nearby Charlotte on the day after Christmas…

That meme has made the rounds. To the point where Butch Davis had to respond with the appropriate denial.

“Absolutely our team wants to be here,” Davis said in advance of the Saturday game against Pittsburgh. “We’re trying to build a program and make going to bowl games a yearly event.

“Certainly coming to Charlotte, where a lot of people might say they’re disappointed because they were here last year, in some respects that’s good for us because so many of our kids are from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia. Their families can come and be a part of this. I think it’s very good.”

We’re thrilled, dammit.





I still don’t undersatnd scheduling a bowl game on Christmas, or the day before and after. While I wouldn’t ever consider attending … fact is that I wouldn’t even watch Pitt on TV on Christmas Eve or Christmas night. I’m certainly not speaking for anyone else … I just wouldn’t interrrupt time with my family for it, even as big as a Pitt fan (I would tape it thought)

Comment by wbb 12.23.09 @ 6:28 pm

I will watch it on TV

Driving to Ohio the next day

Charlotte aint that bad

Pitt 35, NC 17

Waiting for a BCS game. Then, the hell with family. Pitt is my family when they have the chance to be National Champs.

Comment by tx panther 12.23.09 @ 11:06 pm

Utah beats Cal for 9th straight bowl victory. See ya next yr.

Comment by alcofan 12.24.09 @ 8:54 am

Utah will open with a soph QB with a year experience under his belt .. this is at least one advantage that Utah will have since Pitt will either start a QB with o starts, or a QB that hasn’t played for nearly 2 year.

I realize that I am getting way ahead of things since we still have a bowl game in 2 days, but Pitt may have better overall talent but going out to Utah for the opener will certainly be a challenge.

Comment by wbb 12.24.09 @ 10:36 am

A joyous, peaceful holiday season to all you “eloquent and passionate bloggers”. May the Panther athletic program continue to be competitive,constructive, respected and within the NCAA rules. I would not join some sports pundits in denigrating the Car Care Bowl as “Second rate or garbage”. The Pitt Athletic Dept. should be saluted for its continuing classiness. I, for one, would rather be in the hunt for conference championships with integrity than be a perennial number one with a sleazy reputation. IF the shoe fits,wear it. gEORGE FROM Columbus

Comment by rev. george mehaffey 12.24.09 @ 11:20 am

Reverend, Since I’m not a Pitt alum, I may be a little more objective … and I couldn’t agree more with your sentiments especially the winning with honor.

I find it particularly appealing that Pitt FB will have a minimum of successive 9 win years and graduate 32 of 33 seniors.

Best wishes

Comment by wbb 12.24.09 @ 11:28 am

WBB, Utah will be a handful but it won’t be “our” opener. We will already have a game under our belt with a home game with New Hampshire. So we’ll have a good scrimage tune up before Utah smacks us in the face. I was out at the Fiesta Bowl when the Utes spanked us soundly and I have no doubt they will be a solid team again next year. I just hope that we don’t get embarrassed again in our second meeting. One more win for the Seniors is needed. I’ll be there in Charlotte rooting them on. Hail to Pitt.

Comment by Dr Tom 12.24.09 @ 12:41 pm

Weather for the game looks good with a high of 50, UNC is going to load up and play the run daring us to air it out.

Comment by Vito 12.25.09 @ 11:44 am

Happy Holiday’s everyone. May you all spend it with family and wine! Chas, thanks for another year of blogging fun.

Comment by Panthoor 12.25.09 @ 12:39 pm

Interesting stuff in the Redshirt Diaries blog by Paul Zeise this morning…

link to community.post-gazette.com

– Cignetti – in response to a question from Zeise about replacing Dorin Dickerson – has let on that he’s already begun working on developing the offense for next year. May be seeing a lot of 3-WR and 4-WR sets.

– Devin Street and – gasp – Greg Cross have been singled out by Cignetti as up-and-coming impact players. Would be really nice to see Cross have a good year as a wideout. I know his situation has been kind of a target for criticism of Wannstedt and I myself wonder if the kid ever got a fair look at QB. But he always has seemed to be one of the most visible players on the sidelines and seems to be a great “team” guy. If he can get his athleticism to translate over to that WR spot, it’ll be fun to watch him next year operate in an offense that will already force opposing teams to account for Baldwin, Lewis, Graham and Shanahan.

Merry Christmas to you all! Can’t wait for tomorrow’s game.

Comment by Stoosh 12.25.09 @ 1:10 pm

Quick aside…

A couple of years ago, we were in Charlotte staying at the Holiday Inn that’s pretty much walking distance away from the Locker Room restaurant that Zeise mentions here.

If any of you are headed to Charlotte, please do yourselves a favor and stop by the Locker Room. Good food with a decided Pittsburgh flair, and the prices are good.

For what it’s worth, I would strongly advise avoiding that Holiday Inn. I’ve never been one to complain much about service and the quality of rooms, but that place was absolutely deplorable when we were there a couple of years ago. We were there in the middle of July & only the in-room air conditioners worked; the staff we encountered seemed to insinuate that the management was just leaving the air off but were told to tell people it was “just broken”. The rooms were dirty. We were there for four nights and on two of the days, no one from the hotel staff ever showed up to change out the sheets or towels.

The employees at the desk tried their best, but sometimes you can just tell when there’s only so much they can do because their own management is so incompetent, and that seemed to be the case.

Oh, and there was armed security patrolling the parking lot 24-7 because the week before we got there, there were a rash of break-ins in the cars in the parking lot AND there’s a shooting in the parking lot of the strip club across and two people were killed.

But the pool was nice.

If you’re looking for a place to stay close to the stadium, the Embassy Suites, the La Quinta Inn and the Hyatt on South Tyron are much nicer.

Comment by Stoosh 12.25.09 @ 1:23 pm

If anybody is looking for a place to watch the game in Pittsburgh, some of us are going to Mulligans in West Mifflin. It is on Mifflin Road near the airport. Good bar with lots of TVs.

Comment by Pidoublet 12.25.09 @ 11:47 pm

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