When you have plenty of time, but no wi-fi, there is only so much you can do. I did, however, have the handy-dandy Phil Steele College Football Preview Guide to keep me entertained. Pitt was #15 on his list of most improved teams for this year! Guessing that won’t be mentioned next year when he talks of his accuracy.
It did allow me to look over the schedules of teams over the past five years and how many BCS programs have lost to 1-AA teams in that span. Time to look at the factoids gleaned.
From 2007-2011, a 1-AA team has beaten a BCS team 11 times.
Nine teams, however, account for those 11 losses.
Minnesota and Duke account for 4 of the losses.
North Dakota State accounts for two 1-AA wins: Minnesota and Kansas
So does Richmond, but both wins came against Duke.
Average margin of loss: 5.545 points. Highest: 13. Lowest: 1.
Two teams that lost to 1-AA teams made a bowl that year: Michigan and Virginia Tech.
The man for whom Paul Chryst named his dog, Mike Riley, is on the list.
There are ten different coaches who lost to 1-AA teams from 2007-2011. Four of them are still coaching at that school (Frank Beamer, VT; Jerry Kill, Minnesota; Dave Cutliffe, Duke; Mike Riley, Oregon St.)
The Big East was the only BCS conference without a 1-AA loss from 2007 until Pitt.
I’m not including Temple’s 27-24 loss to Villanova in 2009 since Temple was in the MAC at that point.
The ACC leads all conferences with four losses to 1-AA teams. (So really, you could argue that Pitt was just trying to fit in to the ACC a little early).
One coach has managed to fail upward after losing to a 1-AA team. Gene Chizik lost to Northern Iowa while coaching Iowa State and still got hired by Auburn.
Here’s the list of games by year:
2007
Big 10, Michigan-Appalachian St., 34-32, Lloyd Carr the HC: retired at end of 2007 season.
Big 12, Iowa St.-Northern Iowa, 24-13, Gene Chizik the HC: Hired by Auburn after 2008 season.
2009
ACC, Virginia-William & Mary, 26-14, Al Groh the HC: fired at end of 2009 season.
ACC, Duke-Richmond, 24-16, Dave Cutliffe the HC: still employed by Duke.
2010
SEC, Ole Miss-Jacksonville St., 49-48, Houston Nutt the HC: fired after 2011 season.
Big 10, Minnesota-South Dakota, 41-38, Tim Brewster the HC: fired after 2010 season.
Big 12, Kansas-North Dakota St., 6-3, Turner Gill the HC: fired after 2011 season.
ACC, Virginia Tech-James Madison, 21-16, Frank Beamer the HC: still employed by VT.
2011
Big 10, Minnesota-North Dakota St., 37-24, Jerry Kill the HC: still employed by Minnesota.
ACC, Duke-Richmond, 23-21, Dave Cutliffe the HC: still employed by Duke.
Pac-12, Oregon St.-Sacremento St., 29-28, Mike Riley the HC: still employed by Oregon St.
I will watch the rest of the season and probably every season after that but its time to lower our expectations and accept the fact that a trip to Birmingham every three years in January isn’t so bad.
Just as nations in the past have lived and died by their leadership, so too does Pitt football. When you have an AD who wrecked Nebraska and has gone through 4 different coaching hires without any improvement in 2 years, he needs to go.
The only way to put pressure on Nordy is to not go to games and get him to fire Pederson.
This is the exact same reason the pirates have been this way for years. Poor ownership and leadership.
I honestly don’t think Pederson had a choice in the matter and that Wanny had to be fired. I will always believe that the off the field issues including the SI story were the main reasons he was fired.
I wouldn’t say Pitt are losers. Literally, like 4 plays over the course of the past 3 seasons from 3 straight Big East titles and 3 straight BCS games. I think with Chryst, Pitt will turn into the Wisconsin of the ACC, consistently beat the teams they are supposed to beat and be competitive against everyone else. I’ll take that every year.
i dont disagree with you but waht did we get in are last game a team that was totally uninspired in there play.
just like wannys that does not meam i want chryst
gone one game is not a good judge.
but there better be someimprovement on thur becuse
even bad players can try hard give it all they have that is what i want to see yes penn state lost to ohio but they played hard and never quit that is what i want.
“I wouldn’t say Pitt are losers. Literally, like 4 plays over the course of the past 3 seasons from 3 straight Big East titles and 3 straight BCS games.”
Lets face the facts, we couldn’t win the weakest conference in the country despite having the best recruits. We couldnt beat a fluke Cinci team on our home field with a huge third qtr lead. That is what losers do, they lose…we lost! And for christ sake we just got a beat down from the penguins in our home opener. open your eyes.
It’s very unfortunate that the only thing I want out of the program is to LIMIT embarrassing losses…oof.
a bad QB i was just showing steve s a point that he had not thought of or did not know.
if you read his post you will see what i was doeing.
as well as PA HS football..
(they were pessimistic, and it was immediately justified!) LMAO!!
I keep telling everyone here that the declining Western PA FB market, playing in an FB conference with limited exposure, in addition to sharing the city with a beloved NFL franchise spells nothing but trouble for Pitt FB … and you cannot measure the program by late 1970s standards.
At least Wanny, as long as he was putting players in the NFL, would always get attractive recruits.
Die hard pitt fan.. but its getting much harder to believe. I swear somebody made a deal with the devil in 1976….
star and four 4 stars the fact that 4 out of the
5 sucked is not the coachs fult .
becuse you dont know till they play.
i thought wanny a bad game day coach but i did not
want him fired.
and as Wbb said he should not have been fires unless they had a good coach locked up to take his place like WVU did.
so that is on are AD who i do think sucks a big one.
Pitt’s offense was good enough to win even with the two fumbles.
A couple of YSU stops and a couple of more possessions and the points are there.
The BIGGEST PROBLEM on defense was no so much the defensive calls although they were a problem (surprise fourth down TD pass included.
It was Huxtable being duped into playing some players (more than a few) who showed either a complete lack of ability or lack of desire to make a play.
Watching the replay, it would be hard to remember watching down D-linemen as slow and cumbersome as a group of guys wearing numbers in the 90s.
Donald also struggled to get free while being handled singlehandedly.
The one who seemed to get a little better as the game went on was 72 Lippert.
Seems ridiculous to bring strength and conditioning into question but it has to be questioned unless these guys just aren’t that talented.
Linebacker, same story different reason. Nothing to question here but an apparent lack of desire to make plays instead of just running around pursuing plays.
Isn’t there someone behind Gordon wlling to play with a motor and hit people instead of playing like a safety in run support?
Oh, I knew what you were getting at regarding Chapman. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.
I was just adding some context and discussion to it with the Palko and Rutherford points.
but as a recruiter i thought he did good even if outhers dont look at the QB one 5 star at least
four 4 star qb i dont think you can blame a coach
when 4 out of 5 suck you never know till they play.
i am upset as you all are but lets face it chryst
will get at least 3 years but the asst coachs they can be changed
for me it is not that they lost it is that they werent into the game did you see the side line were is the pride were is the giveing 100 percent even if you lose penn state lost but they tryed hard they gave it there all .
were was are balls are fire.
Only Jody would look at an article with a “Forde” time associated with it….
He then contacted the likes of Sumlin and Graham, only to find out their salary demands were way too much (turned out that Wanny was quite the bargain!)
He then finally ssttled on Callahan …. er, I mean Haywood.