Sorry a little too much Two Roses with some friends this afternoon. But I made it.
Well of course it’s going to be cold and wet for a night game. Why not?
Yeah, it’s not like Youngstown State is out of anyone’s mind. Though, everyone will downplay it.
ODU is moving up from 1-AA to 1-A and the Big East American Conference minor league proving grounds of Conference USA. They have a dual-threat QB. A style that has been known to give Pitt problems on, um, occasion.
But everything is fine for Pitt.
Players haven’t fully adapted to new defensive coordinator Matt House’s system. It’s getting better, but how else do you explain 10th in the ACC in yards allowed and no interceptions in four of the five games?
Pass protection is only a concept coaches draw up on a blackboard, not yet a reality. The blame belongs everywhere; linemen, tight ends, wide receivers, backs and quarterback Tom Savage are botching assignments. Meanwhile, the running game has vanished.
On top of everything, two of Pitt’s best offensive players — wide receiver Devin Street and running back James Conner — are nursing shoulder injuries entering Saturday’s nonconference game against FBS newcomer Old Dominion at Heinz Field.
Aside from that, I mean.
That said, I’m looking forward to today.
Just getting a win, and not getting hurt. Especially for the offense. They need a confidence boost
Not so worried about Navy as they cannot pass against Pitt and that is definately Pitt’s defense weak spot. Playing zone (or prevent) against a great passing team like ODU is a recipe for disiaster and almost was yesterday.
I kept asking where are the screens and draws and as I rewatched the game today, I can now see that our QB, Savage, has no touch on short passes and has great difficulty throwing a check down or screen pass. This is the equivalent of a catching being able to throw out runners stealing but not being able to throw the ball back to the pitcher!
Amazing, last 3 years we have a QB who cannot complete a long pass and this year we have one who cannot complete a short pass.
I saw huge mistakes in Pitt’s pass coverage with many “I thought You had him!” moments in Pitt’s defensive backfield. This is inexcusable at this time of year.
Loved House when he put a spy on the ODU QB in the 4th quarter.
Best comment of the weekend GC …”playing with House money”!
Gearing up for the struggle this afternoon at Heinz.
Have a good day all!!
As I said, the conservative offense may have been the result of injuries, or it may have been the game plan vs. an FCS team. All I know is that for 3 consecutive games Pitt’s passing game has struggled. I was hoping to see some issues cleaned up vs. an awful defense, because Pitt will absolutely need to throw the ball to win after next week. Hey, maybe Street gets back and they light up Navy for 400 yards.
As for what this program is, well in one word, stuck. With some deviations from the mean, Pitt has been stuck in mediocrity for a long, long time. I want to see signs that is going to change, and as TX Panther astutely notes, much of that change must occur long before the team takes the field.
It may be happening. We may be in the midst of it. Record- wise, Pitt is right were most thought they would be after six. At least they are not below expectations. That’s a step.
Chas made a great point in that Todd Thomas didn’t play because he doesn’t play in the scheme that the DC had on the field all night. This is silly – coaches fall in love with schemes. You win with players.
As for mediocrity, everyone here knows that Smiling Steve Pederson is satisfied with mediocrity. Pederson’s idea of success is coming in under budget. It isn’t winning, making the alumni happy, growing the Pitt brand, or even adding some varsity sports – it’s about Stevie being happy in his position. I hope that the new Chancellor brings in his own AD.
Unfortunately, he was losing hold of his program towards the end .. fact is that he was a great offensive mind but when he promoted a young defensive assistant who wasn’t ready to become DC (sound familiar?),the program started to regress
I respect your thoughts about our AD and they seem to hold water based on his recent track record but SP wasn’t the AD for the full 37 years since our national championship. My thoughts, and complaint from earlier this am is that I truly feel that some PITT fans way over exaggerate what PITT football has been, is now and what it should be.
In essence I think that every win is a good one no matter how many yards the opponent gets, how close the score is or by who we beat. This is PITT football and we have never, even in 1976, had a team or program which was unbeatable. Well, maybe that ’76 year because they didn’t lose but the point is that for PITT and about 110 or the other 120 D1 programs every game could be lost for whatever reason.
@Penguins fan – What we PITT fans overlook is that it is entirely possible to have a new egghead type chancellor who doesn’t give a damn about sports and football at all. If that were to happen, and it certainly could given that has PITT has heavily valued academics over sports in the past, especially financially, then we may very well see a new AD who is hired to echo and institute that new chancellor’s opinions.
That especially is possible because whenever there is a change at the top of almost any large organization the new boss tends to make some big changes right off the bat to leave his scent on the entity – that happens in universities all the time.
PITT fans jumped all over Chancellor Nordenberg’s decision to extent SP’s contract purely on the fact that the fans don’t like SP. However, if a scenario like the one I described happens the Nordenburg did the one thing that would keep the football program on an even keel until the new chancellor settled in and understood PITT and PGH’s rabid love of all things football.
That five year extension will probably hold as I’m not sure the BoT would do a large payout to buyout the contract so the glass might be half full as well as half empty depending on how things unfold in the summer of 2014 when the current chancellor retires. Unless of course the PITT completely tanks over a span of a few years, then the AD could be gone anyway.
Interesting times ahead I think.
The quality of Pitt’s football team will be on their minds when hiring a new Chancellor.
By the way, one of these guys was a real asshole, a bully, and he was a little guy! I beleive he took over his father’s business. The other guy was cool. Both guys are smart enough to realize the only way to get people thinking about Pitt in a positive way is to have winning sports programs; meaning football and basketball.
Let’s face it, Pitt is a 50 rating something school. Goldman Sachs doesn’t hire Pitt MBA’s and people around my area like doctors with degrees from Cornell and Columbia.
Thomas didn’t play a regular down against ODU? Thomas is a saint by keeping his mouth shut. Obviously he is buying his time until the draft.
No way you can justify this coach any longer. Next year could be worst with the quality of kids coming in.
We could just be in the beginning of a nightmare with many more years to come!
I hope your old frat pals have a lot of influence on the BOT.
Agree since we aren’t an elite academic school although we did get mentioned in the also rans of the Public Ivy’s book of the early 80’s, we should to reclaim our football heredity and prominence of the past.
If we can do it in basketball it can surely be done (again) in football. Basketball had no such claim to prominence in the past. All it took was money and a commitment.
Also I don’t know how to draw up any defensive scheme and leave your 2nd best defensive player OUT of IT. lol incredible !
I think you are reacting too strongly to a 1st year coach who’s team has a 4-2 record… and we ain’t getting all those wins on fantastic offensive performances either.
The Duke game aside, which was a freaky game all around on both offense and defense, his defense is giving up 22.8 points per game which is respectable. Since 2005 PITT has been between the 21-23 ppg range.
Yes, he’s making some very questionable decisions and we’ve given up some big points in a couple games. We’ve also held teams to low some scoring totals. This is what 1st year DCs and their 1st year defenses usually do.
Personally, I think his coaching is just about where we thought it might be back before the season started. We all figured that he’d have a time of adjustment before he started seeing the better results and that is what is starting to happen now. Let’s be honest, no one expected fantastic results from a 1st year DC with a new defensive scheme to work in.
I also think it is just way too early to pass judgement on whether or not House is a good hire for the position. You think it will get worse before it gets better and that might happen. IMO there is just as much of a chance that things will improve. If it does go terribly south then that would be the time to really question the hire, not after only one half of one season on the job.
