It’s been eight years since Pitt and Temple played a football game. From 1974 to 2004 the teams met annually. Pitt had a 25-6 advantage, and it isn’t a stretch to say that everyone of those losses was embarrassing. I remember the last loss in 1998. I sat in the stands and watched Pitt build a big lead only to fade — as they often did that year — and lose in the final seconds 34-33.
Now with Temple being reintegrated into the Big East, there is one more meeting before Pitt heads to the ACC in 2013. Much has changed for Temple. They have shown a degree of competency in recent years. More surprisingly, some actual commitment to trying to field a decent team and play winning football. The biggest surprise is a willingness to spend money — when they clearly have no hope of making it back in the near term.
For example, Temple had to join the Big East in football this year. The Big East sprang them from the MAC early. It still left Temple without a 12th game, which they did not fill. Now they sit at 3-3 with five games left. They want to be bowl eligible, but that means going at least 3-2. They have to play Cinci, Louisville, Army and Syracuse in addition to Pitt. Getting three wins looks iffy — which is why they actually face a must-win against Pitt. Though, their coach won’t say that.
Or do they?
The Owls are trying to add a game with Hawaii.
Multiple Temple sources have confirmed a Honolulu Star-Advertiser report that the Owls are trying to schedule a football game with Hawaii at Honolulu’s Aloha Stadium in December.
After rejoining the Big East in March, Temple (3-3) was left with only 11 games on this season’s schedule. Since then, the Owls have been attempting to schedule a 12th opponent, to make it easier to get the six wins needed to become bowl-eligible for the fourth consecutive season. One source said discussions with Hawaii have been on and off since August.
The game would be on December 8. Hawaii is a bad team, so Temple could probably win the game. But the impressive thing is that Temple is still trying to put this together at the end of October. A trip to Hawaii for a football squad is not a cheap venture. More so when you are planning it with a little more than a month before the game. Yet Temple is not only willing to plunk the money down for a trip to Hawaii, it means plunking down more cash to spend on going to a bowl game (assuming they get six wins).
I’m a little impressed that Temple is willing to take those kind of losses to try and promote their football team. And, um,that if they pull this off it may block a Penn St. trip to Hawaii in December would be an added plus.
Onto prep for Saturday. Remember when we actively considered (and thought it to be a good idea) if Pitt would be running 60-70% of the time on offense? Well, guess what? Temple actually does something like that. The Owls run the ball 68.5% of the time. Why? Because their QB is mobile, but not particularly accurate.
In the meantime, Temple’s 116th-ranked passing offense (122.3 yards per game), particularly its quarterback play, is a glaring weakness.
Heading into the matchup with the Panthers (3-4, 0-3), [Chris] Coyer is completing 53 percent of his passes, worst among Big East starting quarterbacks. The redshirt junior ranks seventh in the conference and 81st nationally in pass efficiency with a 121.02 rating. (The nation’s top-rated passer, Alabama’s A.J. McCarron, has a pass-efficiency rating of 183.63.)
Furthermore, Coyer is last among conference starters in passing yards (727) and touchdown passes (seven).
When you only pass 31.5% of the time, it shouldn’t be a shock that their best receiver doesn’t actually do too much.
But, Coyer is also second on the team with 332 rushing yards. Last year, Coyer had 608 yards on the ground. Given the Pitt defense’s struggles to contain mobile QBs, this is the real concern for Pitt.
“The big thing is we lost contain on the quarterback too much,” Huxtable said. “That ties in with being disciplined in your rush lanes. You can’t rush blind.”
Huxtable is hoping to get more production from his ends, but T.J. Clemmings and Bryan Murphy are first-year starters.
“This is definitely new to me,” said Clemmings, a talented redshirt sophomore at 6-foot-6 and 290 pounds who didn’t play football until his junior year of high school. “I’m still learning. It’s definitely more mental than physical.”
Huxtable said backup end Devin Cook, a redshirt freshman who leads the team with two forced fumbles but hasn’t played recently, could return to the rotation.
The lack of containment by the ends has been a problem all season (as has their ability to generate any pass rush on the edges). And part of why Aaron Donald is getting few opportunities to disrupt inside. Todd Thomas being able to play behind them now, probably helps a bit, but the ends really need to play a lot better. But Thomas is admittedly playing his way back into game shape.
Defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable said the biggest challenge for Thomas — who has more than enough athleticism to play either linebacker position — was just getting up to speed in his conditioning after missing most of fall camp.
“Todd said to me, ‘Coach, my legs are killing me,’ ” Huxtable recalled. “It’s camp for him. Last week’s practice was his fall camp.”
Not to mention playing at the weakside linebacker position for the first time.
“I felt good, actually,” Thomas said. “I’m not used to the linemen coming up on me quick, having to shed blocks. I’m usually out in space, so it was a little different, but it’s football, so you’ve just got to make plays.”
Coyer was briefly benched in favor of back-up Juice Granger — a redshirt junior without experience — in their loss to Rutgers. So there might be a little bit of platooning.
If Pitt turns the ball over more than Temple, it could easily lose.
Contain the QB and make him beat your strength in the secondary.
Good to see Joe D seeing value in guys not loaded with stars next to their name; I am certain his information is 100% verifiable. If Pitt loses, then these are the guys we wanted right?
If Pitt wins then what?
Isn’t the world filled with players we could have or came to offering? They have to end up somewhere don’t they?
You are one depressing quasi scribe Joe. Life gives you lemons, you mix them with limes.
I root for kids from Aliquippa…
but the point being…. 2 players… Olinemen.. Pitt snub their nose at that are starters!!!
Whether that are BCS D-1… don’t know… but I do know Pitt does not have enough Olinemen… and some Dlinemen are former LB/TE converted to DE.
Golden breathed life back into this Temple program and in fact, IMO, Temple fielded a better team than Pitt last year, even tough they were playing in the MAC.
Chryst has kind of layed down the guantlet for this team at this point in the season and I’m interested in seeing if the team leadership can step up to the plate and bring home two wins in a row come Saturday. Even if Dan Mason is not the guy he was prior to his injury, his mental attiude and the leadership that he can provide for this squad can be the intangible ingredient that can make up for that loss of natural ability. Now that he is back in the game, hopefully his positive attitude and influence will become contagious.
This is a perfect situation for Pitt to fall flat on their faces again in order to continue to perpetrate the “same old Pitt” mantra that we all know by heart. On the national level, a solid Pitt win would not raise a single eyebrow amoung anyone who follows the college game, however, it is just what this Pitt team so vitally needs right about now.
I don’t know how everybody else out there in Panther Nation feels about this but my sense is that this team is still trying to find its confidence. Beating the likes of Buffalo and Temple is hardly the formula to put a swagger into the attitude of this team but a loss on Saturday would make it very difficult to imagine this team going into the final four games of the season with any hope of knocking off the likes of Notre Dame or Rutgers. And if they are actually serious about post season play, winning out by beating everybody else left on our schedule, other than those two,is essential.
So when you think about it, this is kind of a “must win game” for Pitt too. That is unless we are comfortable with just mailing it in for the remainder of the season. No better time to turn a season around than at the next game that you have to play. Time for Pitt to find its MoJo.
Hail to Pitt, and STAY POSITIVE.
I root for kids from Aliquippa too, especially coach Bobbies pressing hoops gang, but just because Pitt doesn’t offer someone is not a snub..except in your mind.
Last I looked, Pitt has been pretty good to guys from Aliquippa.
But that isn’t in your DNA. You are the black lining to the silver cloud, the litter on the lawn. Some people look to criticize constructively, you do it to hurt.
PITT should always try to take kids from Aliquippa, since that community has a special place with PITT. That’s a no brainer !
You just have to mention the names of MIke Ditka, Tony Dorsett & Darelle Revis. And that’s enough.
That O-lineman should have been offered. Guess he never heard of Mike Webster who was only 6-1 or the Steelers had another O-lineman for years in the 80’s who was only 5-11, who was a former Airborne Paratrooper who was tough as nails and I believe was All-Pro like Webster.
Sticking to height requirements is kind of bogus imo. If a guy can play, he can play, I don’t care if he’s a dwarf.
If Pitt would have offered scholarships to these two linemen, you would have heard all the complaints about how their best offers other than Pitt were Miami of Ohio and Temple. It’s a no win situation for Pitt sometimes.
The speed of the game and what teams are use to is very important in the first quarter of games and sometimes can dictate how games flow from there. Pitt believe it or not, won’t be use to the speed of the game at first, even with Temple.
Temple will be since they just played a team far better than Buffalo.
So we can’t afford to come out flat and fall behind like Rutgers did to Temple at 10-0 or 14-0. Cause we all know, we don’t come from behind in the 2nd half with your favorite QB and mine.
HAil to Pitt !
Veritas et Virtus
Get Rid of Pederson !
pounds.
xzavier mcallister every so often i check the players who have offers from pitt.
every time i looked he was houlding out for ohio state he is from ohio.
he has been to 2 camps pitts and NCS he had said he likes NCS but for 8 weeks he has had no offers from ohio state or NCS.
but for 8 weeks he has had offers from western michigan akron and PITT and kent state
the thing i dont get is if he waits mutch longer i bet pitt pulls the offer if they sign 3 more players becuse they dont have mutch more room
pitt is the only good offer he has you would think he would jump on it i just dont get what some kids are thinking.
Actually a shorter, srong guy would and could out leverage a much taller guy. DeJuan Blair is also a perfect example of this in basketball as well.
Just ask Tossing Thabeets 🙂
Plus these Men as Big as Mountains have much shorter life spans so it’s not to their long term betterment to weigh 350 lbs. Which then becomes closer to 400 when they retire.
do to the fact that no coachs read this post this
is a waste of time but i read this so i will pass it along.
i had read years ago that some of the best line men on offence had taken danceing lessons at one time or the outher in there life.
have no way of knowing if that is true but in the off season mabe he should send the line men to ahther murry dance studos.
maybe it wont help but it cant hurt.
The NCAA and the colleges are always professing they’re looking out for the best interests of their student/athletes. Well it’s not in the best interest of a 17 yr old kid to be told he won’t play unless he adds 50 lbs of weight, mostly fat.
The extra weight is very bad for not only that kid’s joints, most notably his knees, but his heart as well. One only has to look at what happened to Jeff Otah’s body, which led to him missing so many games, that he is no longer in the NFL.
And there’s no reason for this, as most D-lineman are below 300 lbs. What they should be doing is… getting these kids in shape, not asking them to put on all these extra weight !
That was a rant directed at the NCAA, college football and colleges on the whole, not specifically at our alma mater. But I’d love to see one university stand up and stop the insanity.
After all they do proclaim themselves to be Institutes of Higher Education and proclaim to hold themselves to higher standards.
Veritas et Virtus
And more recently, YSU had much smaller linemen being D2. Found this quote in Johnson’s bio from 2008.
In 2008, Johnson told ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, “If we can run it against Boston College at Navy, why can’t we run it against Boston College at Georgia Tech? If we can beat Pitt with this system at Navy, why can’t we beat Pitt at Georgia Tech? Are we going to get worse players at Georgia Tech?”[5]
Well we’re gonna find out, in the next year or two how that plays at, when PITT & Georgia Tech resume a storied history dating back to the 1955 Sugar Bowl, when PITT brought the first black player into the South to face an all-white Georgia Tech, who thru the Georgia Governor at the time threatened to boycott the Sugar Bowl game.
I believe we also played GT the next year (both were in the Top 10) in the Gator Bowl. So as we are looking for new rivals, Georgia Tech would seem to fit the bill. Add in the fact we’re both urban campuses and play in pro sports cities and the old Braves/Pirates dislike. I think we found a winner !
I’m starting to hate the Ramblin Wreck already !
Tech and Pitt have something in common, they both have a hard time filling the seats.
LOL
Zach Hooks was offered… it was his only offer… then the coaching carousel and I believe it got pulled… by Graham..
the kid from Ohio… Chryst pulled that offer.
so don’t complain about no depth or bodies at OL.
Good for the kids? Not so much.
he seams to be puting it on the players
and from what i read if you read inbetween the lines it seams the DC is saying that the drfence players are to dumb to grasp the system so they are going to just run one bacsic defence and hope they can understand it
i guess that means are defence players are smarter then WVU players becuse we played pretty good defence under him last year.
If Hooks was from anywhere but Joe D’s hometown of Aliquippa, Joe D would be singing a different tune.
Can we get Bill Snyder to off-season tudor our coaches ?
Just a thought !
Pitt and Temple pretty evenly matched except at skill positions.
If Temple had a quarterback this game would be scary… but they don’t. Receivers also not the most athletic bunch.
Just a little bit of pressure on the quarterback will go a long way in this game. Remains to be see if Pitt’s pathetically slow D-Linemen can get it done. A little blitzing might be required just to shake things up.
Hopefully it won’t work the other way around as Temple rated 19th in sacks with more than two a game.
Temple’s D, while decent all the way around… is a bit better against the run giving up less than four yards a carry on the season. That leads me to think all the talk about running by the Pitt coaching staff seems to be just a distraction.
Pitt will come out throwing and Tino needs to stay upright and have a solid game for Pitt to win.
Freshman linebacker Tyler Matakevich is a player. Possibly Big Time.
Not bad for a “2 STAR” two-way player from New York.
Well, you know how it’s all about the Stars.
I still remember the cover story article that Sports Illustrated did on K-State back around 1989, calling them the worst program in Division I football (they likely were at that point).
The work Snyder did to build that program up from where it was is incredible enough. To see him doing it again after they took a few steps back under Ron Prince is really something.
Also, I am excited Temple runs 69% of the time. I’m still having nightmares of Louisville’s first two posessesion of the second half on K’wan Williams.
Dan Mason being out on the field and actually producing is nothing short of amazing and he should be held on a pedestal for his team to look at for gut determination, perseverance and attitude. The Temple game (for me) is also a time for leaders on the team to start taking charge and demanding more from their team mates. Senior careers are almost over and many need to start stepping up and leading.
Here’s to a good ‘ol romp over Temple. Good for all of us! I remember one year when I was a kid, my Dda and I saw Pitt play Temple and the score was like 76-0 – I think this was in ’75 or ’76 maybe? Another Saturday like that would be great.
HTP
Ever have a dog come on your lawn and litter it with his droppings? The dog has to go right? We all do, but not all of us choose to do it on the place we profess to love.
55-6 and 76-0
Lets hope that the weather doesn’t play a factor in this game. Vegas line is Pitt -7. So we got that goin for us. Lets see if we come to play and put a hurt on them right out of the gate in the first quarter. We need to get up on them and keep it that way to keep Tino in his comfort zone.
Must win game! And KEEP IT POSITIVE!
list.
The Kansas State Wildcats from Manhattan Kansas tops the list !!
Can you say 55-14 (and K State even called off the dogs in the 4rth Quarter, when Puskar Stadium was 3/4’s empty, actually it was 3/4’s empty in the 3rd quarter)
Texas Tech is also a fav of mine, lol
We’ve already lost to 2 other teams we might NOT be playing again in the foreseeable future (UC & L-ville), WE CAN NOT LOSE TO TEMPLE !!!!!!!!
More than likely the early ones with a young Jamie Lee 😉
The Ramblin Wreck of Ga TEch is in the Coastal Division, which I believe is the same division PITT will be in. So we got a rival now with some history between PITT & GT. School colors are similar as well. Trips to Atlanta could be alot of fun, especially if the game coincides with a good concert at Chastain Park Amphitheatre that weekend. Chastain is one of the best Amphitheatres in the country.
2011 Aliquippa grad…
his only offer was Pitt… but Pitt sort of pulled it or that was when the HC shuffle went on.. seems height was a concern… I think 6’3 1/2″ at combine official measurement.
He found his way to Temple… got a scholarship… now starting LT as redshirt frosh.
Similar story for 2012 commit out of Ohio… Chryst told him his height was a concern so he went to Miami of Ohio… I believe starting as true frosh.