We lose 7 senior starters next year, 8 with the punter. Chryst is going to need 4 more years to turn this around.

Now on the optimistic side, we could sneak up on FSU. If I was an FSU player, I’d have a hard time taking Pitt very seriously because of all of these unknowns and their recent past history of under achievements. If guys like Durham and Gonzalez on defense, and Bisnowaty, Clemmings, Garner, Conner, Boyd and, most essential, Savage on offense come to play on Monday, FSU could be asking themselve come halftime, “who are those guys”?

Pitt has to change it’s team personality however to have any chance of winning this game. They have to develop the desire to come out and sock somebody in the mouth right out of the gate. I don’t know if the ABT factor alone can provide that needed change. This team has to develop a hunger to win. Hasn’t been there since the Stull QB years, and even then it was spotty depending on the opponent.

This is a huge landmark game for the Panthers. It is a rare opportunity to take a major leap onto the national stage come Monday night. Pitt’s history predicts that we will wither under the pressure, but this is a different group of individuals. Can this young group function as a team well enough early on to surprise FSU and make a game out of it? We’ll know by halftime.

If so, then the rest of the story remains to be told . Will they have the attitude so necessary to stand toe to toe with them for the full 60 minutes, if they’re lucky enough to come out strong in the first half, and make a game of it?

A win would be a milestone victory that Pitt fans would talk about for years to come, but just playing a hard competitive game would be acceptable in my opinion. We’ll see soon enough what the character of this team is. Hail to Pitt!

I’ve constantly thought that the opener last season was a storm of circumstances that led to the YSU loss. New HC, new staff and those six suspensions all came together to really shake up an already unsettled team.

Had those six suspensions been awarded a week or two earlier and the rest of the team getting used to it then I think PITT may have played a completely different game. Having it happen late at night and then the team finding out about it just a few hours before game time rocked the squad.

I believe football fans look at only talent levels sometimes and think “We were more talented than YSU and should have won that game.”, but there is so much more than that involved and especially at the college level. Team unity and morale can make up a lot of ground for the lack of some talent. The lack of same can bring a team down very quickly.

I’m hoping, and I think it will happen, that as the season unfolds we will see this team start to play at a higher level than we had last season. But should we stumble badly out of the gate, and I don’t mean the just the FSU game, then it could be tough to pull together enough to get six or seven wins.

I had some very interesting conversations both on the sidelines at the practice on Thursday and at the Kickoff luncheon the next day. What I have come to understand is that those departures and dismissals have not really impacted the team that much if at all.

Apparently all those who are gone, with the exception of Chapman maybe and he was only around for a month or so, are not missed by the rest of the team.

That said, the talent that has gone may be missed in Eric Williams, Shell and Carswell but talent leaves the roster every season. I guess what I’m saying is that I think this 2013 team will have much firmer footing to open the season, especially with the new staff in their second year, than did last years team.

At least PC has that trait and shows Character, unlike others who are “just characters”.

1. Just how bad were the DE’s in camp? You make it sound like they were pretty bad.

2. I would argue that Garner is an upgrade from Carswell. Carswell always seemed to come up with a drop at at a key moment. Granted, we haven’t seen Garner in an actual game…

3. If Vinopal falters, what do you see happening? How can the trio of Hendricks / Williams / Pitts make up for some of his perceived deficiencies?

4. I agree that this coaching staff has been able to get the team up for big games. If we could hang with ND with a third-string MLB on the field I feel like we have a legitimate shot to not totally embarrass ourselves on Monday.

hail to pitt

Team spirit, emotion and momentum can turn a game on it’s head irrespective of what the “rational analysis” states should be the outcome.

As I always say, that’s why the play the games.

The “rational analysis” says we should win 6. With the “Can Do” mindset and a little luck staying healthy that could change however.

Expectations are funny that way. After our horrible start last season, NOBODY gave Pitt a chance in Hell of beating VT and we know how that turned out. So preseason, 6-6 expectations are both realistic and it keeps the “Koolaid” in the cupboard for victory drinks after grabbing a win over somebody we have no business of beating with such “analysis” on paper.

That could just be FSU for all we know. Everybody is hyping FSU but they have as many questions regarding untested players as Pitt does. They are “reloading” however with 4 and 5 star recruits, many of which have seen the field at some point already, although not as starters.

Pitt to the contrary has untested players who don’t come in with glowing credentials (other than Tyler Boyd) that we are “rebuilding” with. None of that really matters when the teams take the field on Monday night however.

It’s all about who wants it more for that particular 60 minutes. And with so many questions for both teams coming into the season, it is a tuff call on what kind of game to expect. I think that is one reason that the Vegas line is only Pitt +10.

Wouldn’t it be great if we actually gave these guys a run for their money? We’ll see. Hail to Pitt!

However knowing PITT as well as I do, they always lose at least one and more likely two games that they’re favored in. One only has to think of UConn annually. Add Syracuse last year and YSU. Someone in that grouping of Duke, UVA & Navy will be this year’s Uconn & Syracuse.

Hopefully it won’t be more than one, but who knows how this team will play on the road in the ACC.

Please don’t let one of those losses be New Mexico or Old Dominion, but we really don’t know if this coaching staff will be able to keep this group motivated and ready to play on a week to week basis. They couldn’t last year.

I’d say on the other games against the better teams the game we probably have the best to win would be North Carolina at Heinz. They lost their star RB, Giovanni Bernard who did everything for them last year. Of course it’s later in the season though and their offense might have to gel by then.

Don’t see much of a chance with Notre Dame (which seems to beat PITT in Pittsburgh all the time sans 1999), VA Tech will be itching for some revenge from last year, Miami will clearly have superior athletes to us and GT’s offense will chew up our defense on the ground.

Only hope there is we play Navy the week before GT and they both run the triple option offense or something like it. Both are on the road however, but if you’re going to beat GT, playing Navy the week before should help, you would think !

And I as noted before, the season rests with how quickly the O-Line gels, they should all right with run blocking you would think since it’s a zone blocking scheme. The key will be; will they be able to pass block, as Savage doesn’t have a quick release per Reed, and to run deep routes and complete them, the QB has to have the time.

Concern there is, if the ‘H-back’ is out running routes, there is no Fullback in on pass protection. If that is the case then Bennett (bad knee) or Connor (true Freshman) better be good at pass blocking !!!

6-6 would be a success with this schedule and totally new O-Line and RB’s. But I also could see 4-7 or 4-8 very easily.

As long as we get to the Avrocare 100 Bowl I’ll be happy. haha 🙂 (for the drive thru Daiquiri places)

But I also could see 5-7 or 4-8 very easily.

Hey we’ll rent a Limo in Shreveport for the Daiquiri Drive-Thru’s.

Avrocare 100 Bowl here we come ! 🙂

The Syracuse game is in….Cuse again this year.

That would be back to back games in Cuse.

Giving them an extra boost to beat us again. And after playing the likes of GT, Notre Dame and North Carolina in successive weeks, we could be pretty banged up by then.

Cuse has Wake Forest, Maryland and at Florida State in the weeks leading up to the Pitt game.
Hopefully after playing FSU, Pitt won’t seem to be in slow motion for Cuse.

Certainly we have the much tougher 3 game set before Pitt/Cuse at the Carrier Dump.

Why am I highlighting this game, it’s the next to the last game for each team and if we have 5 wins by then, it will be our best shot at getting #6, as in Avrocare 100 eligible !