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September 24, 2010

Pitt’s Pathetic Performance

Filed under: Football,Opponent(s) — Chas @ 10:39 am

Looks like all those “overconfident” Miami fans who talked of Miami’s speed and talent that would overwhelm Pitt were right.

Here’s the simplest way to summarize how bad it was. Miami’s mistakes, errors and penalties merely kept them from blowing Pitt away quickly. Pitt’s mistakes, errors and penalties kept them from doing anything.

Where to begin. I started watching the game sometime before midnight on DVR delay — ignoring text messages and staying away from anything that might tell me the outcome prematurely. With all the penalties, injury delays and such, the extra half-hour of recording time I tacked on still wasn’t enough. I was able to fast forward through that in about 2 hours. I can’t imagine how excruciating it must have been to watch or be at the game.

I guess I have to begin with the offensive line. Dear god, they are not improved up the middle from the start of the season. Might as well just fall down after the snap and hope the defensive tackles trip over them on their way into the backfield. It might be more effective than whatever they are trying to do.

As such it is hard to give a completely fair evaluation of the play calling, Tino Sunseri, Dion Lewis and the rest of the offense. Oh they have their problems that contributed, but when every play is on the verge of being blown up before it starts, what can you do?

I know I’ve been complaining about the lack of recruiting true centers for the last few years. Robb Houser was a good stop-gap from the JUCO rankings, presumably while they recruited and groomed someone — but no. They haven’t. Coach Wannstedt stubbornly has stuck to his idea that any offensive lineman (or converted defensive lineman) can be taught to play that position effectively. And if the guys behind Karabin, Gaskins and Turnley are so much worse or too young to be ready to contribute, then Coach Wannstedt has really screwed up his own offensive philosophy.

One big problem with the playcalling remains the fact that they are running Dion Lewis straight ahead or just off of center. I guess they want to use Hynoski as the lead blocker for Lewis, because he generally excels at it. But when the center and guards are not able to seal off any blocks, Hynoski has no where to lead but into a wall.

I really, really do not understand why Pitt’s offense is not trying to run it outside more. A sweep, a pitch. Something to allow the best parts of the O-line — Pinkston and Nix at the tackle spots more. They claim that the present TEs are not as good at blocking, but Pitt needs to give Lewis some room to run, and they can’t be much worse than the interior of the O-line.

There was one point midway though the 3d quarter. Pitt was down 17-0. Lewis gets the ball on 1st down and gets outside. He shows that talent and bounces off some tackles for a 12-14 yard gain. On the very next play, hand-off right up the gut stuffed right away.

For chrissakes, teams — not just Miami — keep plowing right up the middle of the O-line. Use it to some advantage by bouncing Lewis outside more so that the defenders are not in position.

On the subject of Lewis, I am beginning to wonder if the biggest problem for Lewis may be that he has been overcoached. During the game Craig James — while admittedly talks out of his ass a lot — talked about the difference in Lewis from last year to this year. It was a bit of Theisman-ian contradictions at times. Lewis is not being decisive enough, or that he wasn’t being patient enough. At times, though, he and Jesse Palmer talked about what the coaches wanted Lewis to do more of, and there seemed to be contradictions from the coaches. They wanted Lewis to follow his blockers. To wait for the play. To make faster decisions and hit the hole decisively. Maybe they aren’t all as contradictory in football, but it sure adds up after a while.

Of course, if Pitt keeps insisting on running Lewis straight up the gut with their Power-16 play it’s a moot point. There’s no where to run, and no holes to hit.

The lack of any O-line made playcalling a joke. They couldn’t run up the middle. Tino Sunseri had no time to throw — and with the Miami players constantly in the backfield he became completely skittish and almost unglued. Unable to complete passes when he did have a chance.

I’m sure Coach Wannstedt will be positive, and point out that Sunseri threw no picks. Well he didn’t complete much to his own players. Only 8-15, many passes were off the mark even with the tall receivers on Pitt. Too high, too low, wide. He only had 61 yards passing, with 33 coming because Ray Graham took a short 2-yard pass for a big gain.

The only incompletion that wasn’t on him, was Hynoski’s drop — which was preceded by a hold on Hynoski that negated a Susnseri scramble for a first down. Plenty of bad play on everyone.

Sunseri was eventually yanked after the game was out of hand and his psyche not in good shape. Pat Bostick mopped up. There’s no QB controversy in my mind. Not because I’m sold on Sunseri, or down on Bostick.

Bostick came in after the Miami D let up. He was sharp with his passes and he got the ball away with alacrity  but at the same time he was boring holes into his receiver with his eyes. Part of that was Bostick was also throwing to spots where the receiver was supposed to be.

That brings us to Baldwin. As has been frustratingly typical so far, Sunseri didn’t throw that much to him. Baldwin lines up on the left side of the field and Sunseri rarely looks that way. But Bostick was. Very clearly and deliberately. Even better, he was trying to hit him deep. Then came the play where Baldwin never even knew he was getting the ball. He ran a route to the front of the endzone but didn’t turn or look for the ball until he realized the defender was tracking it. Baldwin turned, but never looked up for the ball. Such a bonehead play.

The defense did what it could but it got worn down before the end of the first half. Pitt’s offense went 3-and-out on its first 5 possessions. Pitt had seven 3-and-outs in the game. Miami torched them more and more. And to add injury to insult, the time the defense had to spend out there cost the team and players dearly.

Dom DeCicco — who made a wonderful interception in the endzone — re-aggravated his groin or hamstring and was out for the entire second half. Sheard nearly collapsed/cramped. Ricky Gary hyperextended a knee — but played through it. Worst and likely season ending was seeing Dan Mason suffer a dislocated right knee. Gruesome.

Jared Holley was all over the field, and it is never a good sign that a safety is making a lot of tackles and in on plays. Awesome interception, though.

Special teams was mostly okay, except for Cam Saddler. Chris Gates tweeted how he had a “feeling” that Saddler would do something big in this game. I don’t think fumbling a punt when Pitt may have still had hope to get back into the game — leading to the TD to make it 24-3 — and taking the kickoff out of the endzone on the first kickoff only to be tackled at the 8 was what he thought.

I do have to specifically criticize Coach Wannstedt’s decision to try and kick a field goal at the end of the second quarter. The sack on Sunseri backed Pitt up to the 35 yard line. A 52 yard FG attempt with less than half-a-minute left in the half. And Wannstedt lets the clock wind down to trot out Hutchins. Not Harper who has the stronger leg, but Hutchins who has already missed both attempts of more than 40 yards this season and has little range after 42 yards in general. Of course it was no good.

Look, if Pitt was inside the 30 I would have questioned the decision a little given Hutchins’ range, but understood the reasoning. At that distance, everyone knew it wasn’t going to happen.

That is a point where you go max protection on Sunseri. Heck sub Gibbs and Turnley for the TEs to help, and throw it deep to Baldwin or Shanahan. At best a reception and a TD. Maybe a pass interference call. Even an interception isn’t bad at that point, and you at least took a shot deep. Incomplete and you are no worse than with a missed field goal.

You have to know your personnel and be realistic about their capabilities.

There’s plenty more to dissect, but that is enough for now. Completely dispiriting loss.





One last thing. Why can’t we start our most talented players. Every position should be competed. Nebraska has a Freshman starting at QB. That guy Myers we have is the only QB on the roster with size. Sunseri is a midget! Stop redshirting for the sake of redshirting. Same with the line, I can’t imagine the young guys behind the 3 in the middle can be any worse. Put them in there and let them develope. If your upclassmen suck, they shouldn’t play. Miami had a banged up D-line for this game and they looked like first rounders going threw the middle of the line. We have tall receivers and can’t get them the ball. And putting Cross in for gimmick was stupid. Let him run a route or catch a pass before trying it. If Shady isn’t getting it done, get Graham more carriers. The only loyalty Wanny should have is to winning!!!

Comment by Pittastic 09.25.10 @ 12:23 pm

Absolutely Wally and several others above who posted. Funny, I’ve posted quite a bit, as you have, and the thing is, some of the Pitt, Wanny, Sunseri etc. etc. apologists, haven’t read thouroughy a lot of our posts. I haven’t even mentioned Wanny or Sunseri that much. The point is, something stinks down there, some kind of inept fog. “well Sunseri’s only a soph”, “our O-line is weak”, “our secondary is slow” etc. etc…………..we all understand that!!!!!!!! what we don’t understand, is after 6 years, why is it still like that?????????????????????????

Comment by Dan 09.25.10 @ 12:28 pm

got cut off, but to finish my point, I’m just a dumb college football fan, maybe it’s not Wanny, not the qb, not the a.d., not the players, not the coaching staff, I have no clue, but, I’ll tell ya one thing, something is very, very wrong down there. I don’t have the ansers either, but, if you watch college football, you can watch a lot of teamsn, not just the top 40, that may not be that great, but, show up like it’s a college football game. Have a good weekend all!!

Comment by Dan 09.25.10 @ 12:34 pm

the thing that stinks most Dan is the play calling, the inability of the coaching staff to adapt (they think they know everything and think its the players not executing), and the playing not to lose that is evident in any quote that Wanny gives and any quote his players give.

Comment by Henry Hynoceros 09.25.10 @ 1:07 pm

I can’t fathom the fact that we do not have a capable quarterback. (Have never seen Myers or Gonzales play but what reason should I have faith in them after we were told Bostic was all world)

A guy we should get as a transfer but won’t because we never go out of the box is Michigan’s Tate Forcier. He’s Rich Rod’s third stringer and he is better than anyone we have. He can run, he can thrown, he’s won big games, he’s unhappy, and maybe prehistoric Wanny could give us a little spread action.

Comment by AJ 09.25.10 @ 1:22 pm

Everyone associated with the Pitt football team crapped their pants on National TV on Thursday Night…To include the coaches, the players, the strength coach, and the equipment manager! Some random thoughts on the game: The Pitt student section was outstanding. Their section was packed and loud…If we can’t run the ball, then we should go four-wide and throw the ball…If we do that, Bostick is a better fit than Sunseri. I am on record here as saying that I think Sunseri is the better football player and should start, but if we have to throw to win, Bostick is a better option. The entire body language of that offense changed when Pat Bostick came in to play QB. For the first time that night, they looked like the hunter instead of the hunted. For one thing, he is a general on the field, constantly moving players to right position (I never saw Tino direct one player to move). For another, he is not afraid to throw the ball. He plays with a high level of confidence. Lastly, he is more accurate than Tino. The first INT was him trying to make something out of nothing. The second INT, it appeared from our seats in the stadium that Baldwin made no attempt to get the ball. I’m not even sure he saw it coming…A lot of teams would have beaten us a lot more soundly than Miami did. I read some comment above about Miami’s crafty offense…It was more like a High School offense. They ran the same scripted plays over and over…That’s what made it so frustrating. If you have the game taped, watch how many times they ran the sideline out pattern to their WR’s (especially No. 3)…Wacht their QB on passing plays and note that he starre down one receiver EVERY time he threw the ball…No progession of reads, no tricky patters, no audibles…Just basic routes from a called play in the huddle executed over and over…Thank goodness Miami also felt the need to establish a running game because they could have thrown to open receivers on EVERY play if they wanted to. I don’t know what the problem is…I’m not sure firing the coaches is always the answer…Someone said it above, something is wrong with this team…Perhaps all of the off the field problems are hurting morale…perhaps our coaches stink, perhaps our players stink, perhaps fans stink, perhaps our conference stinks…OK, you get my point, its never as easy as saying all of these things. I never want to see another Pitt team play with no fire, no emotion as this team did Thursday…I directly fault the coaches for that. I saw three players on our team play with that fire: Sheard, Bostick, and Graham…You don’t fire your coaches because of X’s and O’s. All coachs can do that…You fire them because they lose the ability to get the team to execute their plan…I don’t think we are there yet, but if we have any more incidents like we saw Thursday night, I would be convinced otherwise.

Comment by HbgFrank 09.25.10 @ 1:41 pm

Can we please stop the silly comparisons of what Bostick did in mop up duty versus what Tino did in the prime part of the game? The entire situation was different from the play calling (actually throwing when it wasn’t third and long and going to the shotgun), to the defense dropping 15 yards of the ball and letting underneath routes be caught, to Miami having dropped their intensity. If Pat gets in a game where it matters than we can compare. But trying to project mop up duty to what a starter did isn’t a good comparison.

Comment by Henry Hynoceros 09.25.10 @ 2:06 pm

Comment by Pittastic 09.25.10 @ 2:22 pm

“If we played a non-con of Youngstown State, Alabama, Kent State, and Temple, we would be 3 and 1 to start the year, nationally ranked, and the sky wouldn’t be falling as it is now.”

AJ, no offense, but what the hell would that get us? Maybe drop a game or two then in the Big East, and on to the Gator Bowl, where we still get our assess handed to us by a Virginia Tech-type ACC school? Or worse, a BCS birth where a Boise State beats Pitt 63-6, largely because Wanny “didn’t anticipate a such quickness out of their spread offense?”

Comment by Lou 09.25.10 @ 2:42 pm

Henry,

We will never know, because Wanny won’t give him a chance unless Sunseri is injured. Compare Bostick’s body of work to Sunseri’s. Compare Bostick’s experience to Sunseri’s. Some guys are gamers. We will never know, because the decision was made last spring.

When there are eight or nine guys in the box you have to complete a pass. you have to make a first down. Are you telling me that Sunseri is so good and that Bostick is so bad that it isn’t worth a shot? If Sunseri makes one first down out of nine tries, Bostick is not worth a look? He is also taller, I am looking for any edge here.

Good coaches look for the guy with the hot hand.
There is a lot of football left, People that say this team cannot win the Big East are just wrong. Even with the losses of Romeus and Mason, the D is good enough to win.

However, If we keep running Lewis up the middle and Sunseri throws four feet over Baldwin, it is going to be a long season. I say give Bostick and Graham the ball.

Comment by gc 09.25.10 @ 2:50 pm

Lou, in my opinion, the name of the game is to win as much as possible and make money. If we played an easier non-con this year, you are right that we would possibly make it to the Gator Bowl or even the BCS and in both instances get our asses kicked. But in this situation, Pitt would make more money, fans would be more excited about wins and a big name bowl, and Pitt would be nationally relevant for much longer extent of the season.

There is no reward for playing a tough non-con. You lose, you are out of the spotlight, the casual fans have already abandoned ship, and the local media is beyond caring. Unfortunately, I have a feeling we will see more yellow seats next week, than ones with folks wearing blue.

Comment by AJ 09.25.10 @ 3:10 pm

AJ, with the inept fog that encompasses Oakland, their are a lot of die hards ready to abandon ship also!! Like I said in another post, who cares, Bostick or Sunseri, why are we in this position?? Weak offensive line, why??? Slow secondary, why??? Coaches, players, administration, who knows, one thing I know, something is very wrong in the state of Oakland!!

Comment by Dan 09.25.10 @ 3:14 pm

Sunseri has 3 starts in his career, I don’t believe you bench a QB after that unless those three starts were ALL horrendous, which they weren’t. It isn’t a position you can just juggle guys in and out of. Also, I do not think anything in Bostick’s body of work shows that he should be playing. His freshman year we got by because we had a solid line and a heck of an RB. QB play was the weakest part of that offense by far. Now it wasn’t exactly a fair situation because the kid was a true freshman. Yes he works hard, yes he knows the offense, but he has a weak arm, floats the ball, and lacks athelticism to move in the pocket at all. Could you imagine him trying to get rid of the ball or evading the rush against Miami’s athletes, that game would have been an even bigger nightmare.
I don’t think changing the QB is the answer to this teams problems. In fact I believe it would create more problems. At least with our poor O-Line play and 3rd and longs Cig puts us in, Tino is capable athletically of avoiding a rush.

Comment by Henry Hynoceros 09.25.10 @ 3:33 pm

Walt Harris was at the game sittng a few seats away from me. I can only wonder what he was thinking.

Comment by Jeff in CPa 09.25.10 @ 3:52 pm

Did anyone else notice that the players who led the team out of the tunnel on Thursday were Cruz, Baldwin, Jackson, and Mason?

I might be reading too much into this, but this seems emblematic of one of the problems with this team. Seniors should be leading this team on the field. What’s worse is that two of these players have hardly shown good leadership at all. Mason deserves a second chance (and I’m sorry he injured himself), but he’s not someone who should be in a leadership position. Jackson should be benched for awhile after that display on Thursday.

Comment by bpitt 09.25.10 @ 5:05 pm

Henry,

We will have to agree to disagree, Sunseri stunk in two of the three games. I didn’t see New Hampshire, but it was New Hampshire. I did not see him evade the rush and complete a pass. I think if Bostick had played against Miami, he makes a couple third down passes, we probably still don’t win, but at least he keeps our defense off the field and gives us a chance. I don’t see Sunseri beating Notre Dame or WVU this year. I hope I’m wrong.

I also think B would throw the ball away rather than take a sack, because of his limited mobility.

Look, I am not saying Sunseri is the cause of the problems, it is obvious that the line is lacking. But someone needs to complete a pass or make a timely run. Give Bostick and Graham the next two starts to find out. I don’t think there is much to lose. You can say the other guys are better but if it doesn’t happen we will never know.

Comment by gc 09.25.10 @ 5:32 pm

I just want to ask the question…

In a relatively perenially weak conference year in and year out, how long should the Pitt fans wait for a BCS bid?

I mean for those of you who defends the Wanny program…is it 7 years, 10 years…until he retires?

When is it acceptable to say it’s time?

IMO, What you see is as good as it gets. He may luck out one year and win a close one to seal the BCS bid…but that will be the “rare” exception not the rule.

Is that good enough?

DaveD

Comment by DaveD 09.25.10 @ 6:16 pm

Afer watching all the games today, Pitt could not even stay on the field with most of the top 25.
Even Temple had a plan and almost pulled off the upset at PSU.

I have been a VP Sales of several companies in my life. When sales are good, I rarely see the CEO.
When sales are rotten, he lives in my office, and does a review once per week. Perhaps that’s what we need here. A Wanny review with Pederson and the Chancelor. It might go something like this…

“Hi Dave, while we appreciate the passion you put into your coaching job, we are very disappointed with where our football program is today. We will not argue x’s and o’s with you as that is the perogative of you and your staff. However,we have some questions”:
1. Has any one else been arrested in the last 48 hours? What do you see as the discipline problem with this year’s team? What steps have you taken to assure there will be no more problems?
2. Why do you think we got beat physically and mentally on Thursday night? Dave, it’s been 6 years and this was a total disgrace. Where are we really in the recruiting game? Why don’t we have a D 1 QB? Scholarship Center? RG? and once Nix and Pinkston graduate, why do we not have anyone behind them?
3. The bench behavior at the game said a lot. Joking and laughter in the 2nd – 4th quarter,kids not knowing who was in or out? Have you lost this team?
4. What is/was your plan A? Did you stil think you could run up the middle in the third quarter with a 180 hb when Miami was living in our backfield? Why?
5. Do you have a plan B or C? Are you/team ready for unexpected events..no huddle spread, fake fg, fake punt etc.? You weren’t Thursday evening!
6. What was your plan B?
7. How do you see us matching up next week against Florida International? They gave Maryland a game….are we ready? They run the no huddle spread quick snap offense that has given us trouble. What is your plan of attack?

Thank you Dave for your time and energy. I realize we cannot win every week, but after 6 years, too many of these problems keep recurring.
We will continue to have these meetings weekly and do a final evaluation at the end of the year.
But if we get embarrassed with FIU next weekend, I want your resignation.

OK …I can dream can’t I???

Comment by Dan 72 09.25.10 @ 7:07 pm

“I can’t fathom the fact that we do not have a capable quarterback.”

-AJ

I can. Look everywhere Wannstedt’s been. He has NEVER developed a QB.

Comment by Jimbo Covert's my Dad 09.25.10 @ 7:32 pm

good stuff dan72!!

Comment by Dan 09.25.10 @ 7:35 pm

I guess I’d rather get trounced by Miami than by UCLA like Texas did today.

Comment by Henry Hynoceros 09.25.10 @ 7:47 pm

The case for Bostick is absurd. I’m still not sure how he ever received a Division I-A Athletic Scholarship. I give him props and tremendous respect for being a leader and remaining committed to this team, but he has no business being in there.

Sunseri’s performance has been underwhelming, but between the play of the offensive line and the play calling he hasn’t had much of a chance to succeed. He’ll be the starter and will improve, but he’s gonna need the help of the staff and the line.

Comment by JohnnyMajors 09.25.10 @ 7:59 pm

Henry, it is not so much when Bostick played in the game as how he runs the offense when he is in there and how the rest of the team responded to him. The truth is, right now every team smells blood in the water with Sunseri, and until he can stop thowing the ball five feet over his 6’5″ receivers heads they will continue to stick 9 guys in the box and we will continue to have trouble running the ball. You can’t put all of the blame for his 1 yard worth of passing in the first half on the coaches and the O-Line. He is our starting QB, and I’ll bet you that if he does not show some improvement aagainst Fla Int, we will have a QB controversy. I’ll say this again. I like Tino. I like the notion of having a mobile QB. I like his arm strength. I think he is a smart kid. I think it was the right choice to start him this year. But, if he does not show improvement, then the back-up deserves a shot to make something happen. The same goes for Dion Lewis as well.

Comment by HbgFrank 09.25.10 @ 9:00 pm

Just sayin…

Cincy

New coach
New #1 QB (yeah I know Collaros has more exp than Sunseri, but still)
New #1 WR

and they play the #8 team to a last second onside kick to a 2 pt loss.

seems to me we make up a whole hell of a lot of exuses for Wanny.

DaveD

Comment by DaveD 09.25.10 @ 9:44 pm

WOW. Look at all these responses! No one can say the fan base is apathetic!

Please Pitt, field a winner. We are all tired.

Comment by Pitt it IS 09.25.10 @ 10:21 pm

Miami’s coaching staff was quoted as saying they stacked the box to stop the run because they felt that Sunseri’s passing was less than accurate. That indeed is a good description. As I had feared and posted on this blog pre-game that I hoped PITT didn’t lay an egg, but I really felt it coming after their lackluster offense of the first 2 games and the fact that Miami had already played a better team on the road(OSU) and wasn’t blown out. Sunseri’s problem is his lack of height, which causes him to throw the ball high in order to get it over the oncoming D-linemen who are ALL 3-5 inches(or more) taller than him. His listing at 6-2 is like when Pitt listed DeJuan Blair as 6-8, when he was closer to 6-5. The fact that Sunseri’s accuracy is so below average certainly effects the plays called by Cig which is 2 runs for 3-5 yards and a 3rd down pass. Rather than 1 or 2 incompletions(or worse) on 1rst or 2nd down and 3rd & 10. If you haven’t seen a huge difference in Cig’s play calling because of this, you need to watch more closely. Sunseri was not a bigtime recruit even though his team won a HS State 4A championship, that alone should tell you something. After watching him in the Spring Blue/Gold, I was shocked that he was handed the starting job. He was neither accurate or effective in that game,throwing for NO TD passes nor was he during pre-season camp according to Zeise’s daily reports. I would not be surprised if PITT loses to FIU who has played four BCS teams already and scored 28 points today against Maryland. Knowing how stubborn Coach Wannstedt has been with favoring local kids at QB (Stull was annointed the starter in Spring after the disasterous Sun Bowl shutout loss) and even though that worked out last year, the way it was handled was more than puzzling. I have been a big supporter of Coach, however the most important player on the field is the QB and he and his staff have only recruited one 4-5 star HS QB in 6 years and now he refuses to consider playing him over a Pitt legacy and son of a current asst. head college coach and part of the coaching fraternity. I have seen this done a lot over the years and it usually never works out, unless mediocrity is your goal.

Comment by carolinapanther 09.25.10 @ 10:56 pm

Another thing to consider, let’s say PITT recovers to go 8-4 or 7-5 and wins the Pizza Bowl or whatever. That means Sunseri will be annoited as the starter for Spring practice and of course next year……and the following year. Meaning Mark Myers will not get a chance to play or start until his redshirt Junior year. If that is the case I wouldn’t be surprised to see Wannstedt step down and he annoits Sal Sunseri as Head Coach. (asst head coaches usually become head coaches) After all what is the point of playing a short QB with little or no upside that will produce nothing but mediocrity and 3rd tier bowl games unless you don’t want to offend the next PITT head coach. Just sayin.

Comment by carolinapanther 09.25.10 @ 11:17 pm

Hbgfrank & GC make some excellent points.
Hail to PITT !

Comment by carolinapanther 09.25.10 @ 11:23 pm

No advantage to PITT with the off week, as Miami had one too. So both teams had 11 days to prepare for this game and both teams have problems with injuries. I’m assuming Miami is deeper on their D-Line as opposed to PITT on their O-Line. If Pitt’s run blocking doesn’t get better it could be a long nite for the good guys. Miami has seen PITT’s screens against New Hamp. so it that going to work again? PITT may have to play Ray Graham sooner rather than later if Dion gets off to a slow start.(maybe both at the same time) Miami is coming off playing against a very good Ohio State offense, PITT’s is not considered nearly as good, especially sans Romeus and maybe DiCicco & Tags.
With last year’s offense(QB & O-Line) I’d say we’d have a chance, this year……I’m really concerned PITT might lay an egg. Hope I’m wrong.
Coach better hit the recruiting trail hard and come up with some juco O-Linemen (ala Otah) for next year.
Comment by carolinapanther 09.20.10 @ 7:37 pm

Comment by carolinapanther 09.25.10 @ 11:31 pm

LOL!

Dan72, you have my vote for leading those weekly status updates with Wanny!

Comment by Lou 09.25.10 @ 11:43 pm

Does anyone get tried of hearing if we play a clean game we will succeed? How often does a team play a perfect game? So what’s our chances of winning under Wanny ball? Bobby Bowden said his biggest mistake at Fla. St. was poorly evaluating talent. He failed to recognize quality five stars, while unfortuately Wanny does a poor job evaluating three and four stars. Besides being an awful game coach, Wannstedt’s recruiting is very much overrated. His Qb’s are subpar and all of his great linebackers turn in to defensive ends. I still have hope for Meyers and Gonzalez, but Bostick and Sunseri are D-II at best. Hopefully Cignetti is being controlled by Wanny, because his offense has become as blah as Cav’s. Overall, Wanny ball is boring at best.

Comment by ltl49 09.26.10 @ 12:12 am

You have to admire Mack Brown. After being spanked by UCLA, he apologized to the fans and took complete responsibility saying it’s his fault. He is responsible for everyone from the players to the coaches to the trainers and everyone else involved with the team. Now that is how a real coach reacts when things go wrong. Instead we keep getting excuses. Its year six wanny, the time for excuses has expired.

Based on todays PG, it sounds like the locker room isnt all that unified right now either. Sounds like a lot of guys are out there playing for their own stats and awards rather than playing to win – that falls on the coach.

Comment by Coach Ditka 09.26.10 @ 9:12 am

There are legitimate reasons that made the loss a likely scenario, but with all of the legitimate reasons, they should have still been more competent. Even “worse” BE teams came close to beating good to great opponents. It’s just appalling to have been demolished like that. Even kicked out BE team Temple almost took down PSU.

Yes Miami and Utah are pretty good and losing to them can be respectable, but not when you lose like the good ranked team plays the small time team that is lucky enough to get a field goal.

Comment by JoeP 09.26.10 @ 9:30 am

Gene Collier gave the Pitt football program a beat down today. You can read it online. Sadly, I can’t really argue with any of it.

Comment by Eric R 09.26.10 @ 10:12 am

I agree with most of the opinions above. I like the Stache and he is a nice guy, but we are no better than with Walt, and maybe worse. I think Baldwin’s draft stock dropped on the interception in the end zone – Larry Fitz would have expected the ball and went up and got it. Bostick keyed on Baldwin on almost every pass, which is what you are supposed to do in college football when you have a dominant receiver. I also don’t understand the comments about Bostick’s arm strength – it looks plenty strong to me. With that said, I wish Tino would show something so we can have a real starter but he doesn’t even look at his reads and just pulls the ball down and runs it seems. The run up the middle should be eliminated from the playbook for the rest of the year. Wanny’s special teams have been horrendous all year also (kickoffs, kicking, punt returns, etc.). Could write random thoughts all day but don’t want to torture myself.

Comment by Howard 09.26.10 @ 10:24 am

Wow, Gene Collier actually wrote a good sports article. You know Pitt is horrible when it makes Gene Collier look like he knows what he is talking about.

Comment by Howard 09.26.10 @ 10:32 am

Gene Collier is a much better comedian than sports writer. Florida has better and more players than W. PA, but that is not why we stink right now. An offensive line is only as good as it’s weekest links.

I have been a strong supporter of Wanny, but to go into a year when we have fantastic skill players, Baldwin, Lewis, Graham and two division two guys starting in the middle. This is not acceptable. It appears that the cupboard is bare and it is going to be worse next year. Wasn’t this supposed to be Wanny’s strength and one of the other guys weaknesses.

With a reasonably good center and guard this team would be good if not great.

I admire Wanny for his decision on Fields, who would still be playing at Miami, Nebraska, or the SEC, maybe even at holier than thou Joe Paterno University. It isn’t Wanny’s fault that Romeus’ back gave out. But six years in to have a line that can not open a hole big enough for Lewis to get through is a disgrace. I also think that having a QB that is such a minimal threat to complete a pass makes things even worse.

Cinci, WVU and Rutgers were all competitive yesterday. Even Temple put up a fight at PSU.

I feel very badly for Baldwin, Lewis, Pinkston, and the others who deserve better. I also feel bad for those who are starting that should be providing depth. It can’t be easy.

The rest of the schedule is easier. I still hope they can turn things around. A pretty big hole has been dug.

Comment by gc 09.26.10 @ 10:38 am

O.K. I am going to ask the question that has not yet been raise….is Tony Wise an asset as the O line coach? Wise has an excellent resume and clearly knows what he is doing, however, is he able to relate to today’s college players?
What are coach Wise’s recruiting responsibilities?
It is IMPOSSIBLE to win with a weak O line with our offense schemes!! Wanny is where the buck stops, the big cheese, but what about Tony Wise?

Comment by isnore 09.26.10 @ 10:53 am

Tino looked pretty good to me in the Utah game, so I think he just picked a bad night to have a bad night v Miami…which they can do to you with all their team speed. Also, when everyone in the stadium knows you will run up the middle on 1st and 2nd down, every possession, and are forced to throw on 3rd and long, even the best qbs are in a tough spot. We’ll see how he responds to the bad game, but its really Wanny’s stubborness that’s killing Pitt.

Comment by Matt N. 09.26.10 @ 12:24 pm

One other thing, that I haven’t seen on here, and very easily could be because I missed it, just thought of something………..wasn’t that the game where they were going to have over 300 former Pitt players????? Triple Yoi!!!!!!!!!!!

Comment by Dan 09.26.10 @ 12:30 pm

Comment by scott 09.26.10 @ 1:46 pm

If we don’t give Mark Myers a chance next week, I’m stopping future contributions to the University.

Comment by steve 09.26.10 @ 4:59 pm

The thing I most wonder about is…how can you build your team around power running and then have such a bad line. I saw someone mention that the OL includes three of the hightest rated OL recruits ever. Did Wanny misjudge the talent he has, or is the talent not being coached well enough? Also, with the lack of talent at QB, I think it would have been good to have left Greg Cross at QB. What a change of pace he would be, and he was really well-accomplished in JC.

Comment by auggie from latrobe 09.26.10 @ 5:01 pm

Cignetti is probably regretting that he left Fresno State. Turns out he was at a better program there. No bull.

Comment by Panther-Wildcat Mix 09.26.10 @ 11:58 pm

Great example, of a point I made yesterday, that watch any game Saturday, even some bottom tier BCS teams, and they may get beat, but, they won’t have the “fog”, “discombobulation”, “lethargy”,
or “ineptness” look too them. Don’t have to wait till today, if anyone caught any of the TCU-SMU game last night, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. SMU was never really a threat to win, but, their players looked like they knew what they were doing, the coaches looked like they had a plan, and, they actually looked like a football team. They lost 41-24, but, they looked like a college football team!!!!!!!!!!!

Comment by Dan 09.25.10 @ 10:58 am

This is an awesome point. We don’t even look the part. I am by no stretch an expert. I completely understand that every coach on our staff has forgotten more football than I know. However, I watch a ridiculous (and maybe pathetic is the more accurate word) of college football and our team constantly looks lost.

Comment by Jason05Pitt 09.27.10 @ 10:34 am

Useless fyi — this is my favorite username ever lol Awesome!

Mark May(be Cignetti Should Call Some Real Plays)

Comment by Jason05Pitt 09.27.10 @ 10:36 am

I watched Kansas State v. UCF this weekend with friends from both KSU and UCF and both those teams seem more organized, disciplined, coached, prepared, alert, aware, energetic, lively, etc. etc. etc. than we look on a weekly basis.

Comment by Jason05Pitt 09.27.10 @ 10:37 am

So much overreacting after one loss. Awesome generalizations, like Pitt looks lost on a weekly basis. Let’s get serious. Pitt isn’t going to be Alabama or anything like that. If you want Pitt to have a football dynasty like Florida or Albama start being fans of those teams. Just think how much happy you will be instead of constantly complaining and being negative about Pitt. Pitt has been a play each of the past two seasons from being in a BCS game, which clearly means this program is in shambles and changes must occur.

Yes Pitt played a bad game, but let’s get some facts straight. End of 3rd quarter Pitt finally had a good drive and was forced to kick a FG to make it 17-3. The Pitt D then stepped up and basically got a 3 and out, and Cam Saddler fumbles the punt. Yes it was a mistake. But say Cam doesn’t fumble Pitt has the ball at about mid-field with a whole quarter to go. If they continue how they moved the ball on the previous drive and this time get at TD Pitt is down 17-10 with 7 or 8 minutes to go in the game. That fumble essentially ended the game. It wasn’t that horrendous as everyone loves to make it.

I get a feeling that most people want Wanny to lose to be “right.” And if you want to fire Wanny? Who the heck do you get to replace him? I’m not proclaiming Wanny to be the best coach ever or antyhign. But, please let’s see a viable list of replacements. I’m sure there are tons of up and coming coaches looking to coach a team in the substandard conference that is the Big East. And when it comes to judging talent everyone acts as if there is a never ending pool of people lining up to play at Pitt and that Wanny can just pick and choose anyone he wants. All schools even Alabama and Florida miss on recruits. It is just that the SEC and Big Ten schools have a better pool to fail from. Wanny does get guys that end up better than their “rank” indicating some judge of talent i.e., Romeous.

Comment by XBlackMagicX 09.27.10 @ 11:56 am

It’s not one loss…we’re 2 and 4 over our last 6 games and who did we beat that is noteworthy? UNC in the Meinke Car Care Bowl? Notre Dame at home last year? You tell me…I agree we are not Alabama or Florida. I’m not arguing that we could or should be either of those teams. However, the Big East is widely considered the laughing stock of BCS conferences. We have few opportunities to showcase our University on a national stage. On a nationally televised (ESPN) Thursday night game, with over 300 former players in attendance (and numerous recruits in the stands) we layed an absolute egg. Miami is a good team. Utah is a good team. And in order for Pitt to be considered along that level we need to win a game or two against those teams. I love Wanny. I love the fact that he eats, sleeps and breathes Pitt. But it’s not too much for alumni and fans to have higher aspirations than a 31 to 3 beat down against Miami. One game a season does not make. There is time to turn things around and improve as a football team. The coaches are going to have to get creative and make some adjustments because the offensive line is what it is. Unless some of the guys off the bench come in and light a fire we are going to have to work around a below average line all season. That means the coaching staff will need to find a way to keep opposing teams off balance and get the ball in our playmakers hands.

Comment by Jason05Pitt 09.27.10 @ 1:38 pm

Walt Harris blew his share of games and made some bad calls so egregious that I wrote a blue streak about them — however, he pulled off some big wins vs. teams that had more talent…he beat VTech, BC, ‘Cuse, NC State, etc, who were better overall teams at the time. Wanny has one win vs a better team in six seasons…Pitt won’t get top shelf talent across the board, but has enough to beat Miami on a good night with smart play calling. The Utah game gave me hope regarding our talent, but better play calling earlier in the game would have gotten us the W…why do we have to have the dopey coach?!

Comment by Matt N. 09.27.10 @ 2:04 pm

Nice post Jason. Amen. PS to those with their heads still in the sand: It was not just one game. It was internally marketed as Wanny’s “coming out party”. Do you think all of those 300 players came back on their own? This was supposed to be the game where the fruits of Wanny’s efforts manifested themselves. And they did, but not how the Pitt regime hoped they would.

Comment by wally. 09.27.10 @ 2:20 pm

It’s not head in the sand to recognize that over the course of 6 years the program has gotten better. 5 of those 6 losses were close losses. Yes they need to win some of those games but not beating those teams doesn’t mean the program is downhill. Look we all agree, the Miami game was a bad game, if the team struggles in Big East play and isn’t playing for the Big East title against Cinci then I will be the first to admit that something is wrong with the program. But at this point the jury is out. Pitt had a tough loss against a good Utah team and then played poorly against Miami. If Wanny had taken the Big 10 way of scheduling Pitt would be 3-0 right now with no idea if they were good or not.

Comment by XBlackMagicX 09.27.10 @ 2:41 pm

The defenders of the faith…I have one number to give you

2013

That is the year the Big East automatic bid is up for renewal.

All-in-all as much as I hate to say this teams like WVU mainly, Rutgers, Louisville, Cincy to a lesser extent have taken their turn to help try and legitimize this conference.

What has Pitt done? Car Care bowls don’t cut it. The fact is in College football it’s cyclical…As one team reloads for another run another team steps up to replace them.

Pitt has never done that…I am not saying that the other teams I mentioned will stay down but if the BE loses it automatic birth then what?

And those who argue well there will be no BE in a few years…I don’t think the building of apathy that is the Wanny program will make Pitt look sexy to other BCS conferences. It already is a red headed step child in many ways.

So at a maximum Pitt has 3 more years to do something…IMHO

DaveD

Comment by DaveD 09.27.10 @ 3:10 pm

xblackmagic, no, it was worse, it was a disgrace, total confusion, total ineptness, and they’ve displayed this many times over the past years. I don’t know of any Pitt fan that didn’t want Wanny to succeed, not one, everyone was hoping we’d slowly progress, no, not Alabama or Texas, but, how bout a consistent top 15 program, too much to ask for?? Actually, has been done here in the 70’s and 80’s when we were a top 5 program. Allthough, most of us aren’t even asking for that. Please, missing the BCS in the worst assembly of college football teams to call a conference, is like saying I almost hit the lottery, I had one out of six numbers!!! Dude, you’re either related to someone on the team, or you’re just putting that post up there to get people going!! There is no way you could have watched that game, and not seen the total embarassment.

Comment by Dan 09.27.10 @ 4:56 pm

To all of you attacking PSU’s non conference schedule……..newsflash………Pitt would probably lose to Temple. Kent State would have given you a tussle. Temple will win the MAC. MAC > Big East.

Comment by Tom 09.29.10 @ 10:04 am

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