Pitt was picked to finish sixth in the ACC this year. Seems about the right range. Upper-half, NCAA bid. Safely within two spots of where they might finish come the end of the season.

1. Duke (50)        805
2. Syracuse (3)   753
3. North Carolina (1)       668
4. Virginia            612
5. Notre Dame  608
6. Pitt    477
7. Maryland        473
8. Boston College             457
9. Florida State  334
10. NC State       332
11. Georgia Tech              311
12. Miami            224
13. Wake Forest               220
14. Clemson       141
15. Virginia Tech               65

Something that will take getting used to is that the ACC’s preseason All-ACC team is limited to just five players. No 6th man. No 2d and 3d and honorable mention. Just the projected best five players. No surprise that Pitt had no player on the list.

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Atlanta Panther had an intruiging comment about ODU as a measuring stick for the program yesterday in my Know Your Enemy column:

In a weird way, this game is also kind of a yardstick about where we stand as a program.

 I don’t think anybody expected us to hang with Florida State, and I don’t expect anybody *really* expected us to win against VT (though I’m sure we all thought we had a shot if we played a perfect game).

That being said, a solid program always wins the game it is supposed to win. This is a game we are supposed to win. We’d better go out and win it.

I disagree on VT, but he makes an interesting point. Is ODU a measuring stick for the program because it’s a game Pitt should win? (more…)

Because of course someone would ask.

Talib Zanna of Pitt on whether Pitt, Cuse, LVille can hang with big boys of ACC (Carolina and Duke): "We're big boys, too." #ACCMediaDay

— Brian Neal (@BrianNealNews) October 16, 2013

Pure shades of SEC media asking Kevin Sumlin about his concerns about playing football in the SEC in 2012. Only, this is perhaps more absurd.

Pitt had been hanging with the “big boys” of the old (that doesn’t seem right for a conference that only existed that way for less than a decade) prior incarnation of the Big East for almost the entire run. Only one year not finishing in the top-5 of a 16 team conference. Of a conference that was the best basketball conference for much of the time.

Some one also asked Lamar Patterson to name all 15 other members of the ACC. That’s either a set up for a stupid compilation video of various players around the ACC trying to name all the teams or just weak trolling. (For the record, I usually end up forgetting either Wake Forest or Georgia Tech when I try to rattle them off quickly.)

BEHEAD THE MONARCHS!!! Thanks to the commenter who posted that. I told you I’d steal it. The Old Dominion Monarchs are coming to town and they’re bringing a lot more talent than you’d expect a FCS team transitioning to FBS would. There’s no doubt Pitt is a better team, but if they rest their laurels on that alone it will not be fun on Saturday night. (more…)

Warning, this post has math and math based analysis. Enter at your own risk.

No matter how you shake it, Tom Savage took a beating on Saturday. You can blame the OL, play-calling, and Savage himself. I’m not too interested in blame. I’m interested in facts: how much time did Savage have from the snap of the ball until he was sacked, where did the sacker come from, and was there a possible option to get rid of the ball? (more…)

That wasn’t exactly fun. The OL got their asses handed to them and Tom Savage held the ball too long. The result was a putrid offensive performance. But, the defense turned in another respectable effort. They weren’t lights out like VT’s defense was, but after the dreadful performance against Duke, the defense made sure the offense was in position to win the game again. VT has certainly struggled on offense this season, but they’re not a team severely lacking talent like Virginia or New Mexico. (more…)

In the simplest terms, for Pitt to win the offense has to produce like it did against Duke and the defense has to perform along the lines of what it did against Virginia. Ever game so far has been a test. Has had importance in a different way. This is the latest and feels like the most important — in no small part because it is the next game.

It would be Pitt’s biggest win since, well, last year against Virginia Tech. But a quality road win? We probably have to back to South Bend and four overtimes in 2008. Even then, ND wasn’t ranked. To find a road win against a ranked team? There’s that win over USF in 2008 when the Bulls were actually believed to be a top-10 team.

Now, there haven’t been a lot of chances to beat ranked road teams in the Big East the last few years (okay, there haven’t been any), but that bleeping ND game last year still pisses me off. Iowa a couple years ago. Utah before that. Road games that Pitt didn’t get. That were there for them.

This isn’t about showing how Pitt belongs in the ACC. This isn’t about firmly lodging Pitt in the psyche of Tech fans. Those are just perks. This is about getting a big win. About doing more than show potential and possibilities.

Here we are at the one third mark of the 2013 season and we are still not sure of what we have in the way of a football team. We sit at three wins and a loss and that should make us feel pretty good, yet it is as if somehow the other shoe is going to fall on the season.  PITT fans, not the most optimistic of people in the best of times, have the tell tale marks of nervousness not just about the upcoming Virginia Tech game but of the rest of the season also.

One of the nice things about college football, in my opinion, is the week to week inconsistency by both the teams and units within those teams.  One truly never knows what you’ll get week to week unless you are a powerhouse program like Alabama or LSU.  Most times you can point to one part of your team after camp finishes up and feel pretty good about it or know that it will let you down. That really hasn’t been the case with PITT this year, with a few exceptions.

After watching some summer camp practices and scrimmages I felt like the strength of the team was going to be our experienced defense, especially in the backfield that played so well last season and which carried over virtually intact.  Last year that unit ended up 20^th in the nation in Pass Defense giving up only 194 ypg, 15 INTs and 15 TDs through the air.  A real show of solid play was PITT’s Pass Efficiency Defense which was very good at 113 (21^st nationally). Our pass defense was pretty solid all around.

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Yahoo approached Chas about writing a column for their Battle Loyale series and he graciously allowed me the opportunity to bash Virginia Tech for somehow losing to us four times in a row. Here’s the link. It’d be great if people would tweet it, share it on facebook, etc. because it’s a great promo for the site to bring in new visitors. It’s a pretty cool moment for me to see my name on Yahoo’s website as a writer. Hopefully I don’t piss too many VT fans off with the column. I certainly was a lot more critical than the VT writer’s column where he spoke about dining halls.

I got promoted at work a couple weeks ago. So, the extra hours/work and new stuff has me adjusting my schedule quite a bit. I’m sure you’ve noticed the recent slowdown in posting. It’s not as good an excuse as Justin has with moving and a baby on the way (Congrats, Justin), but it’s the best I can do. This has led to a pile-up in browser tabs. So it’s time just to clear them.

Recommended reading time. The Key Play has an exhaustive game preview for the Pitt-VT game. Lots of really, really great info stats and X-O material. Especially about Pitt’s defense and giving up the run.

The ongoing surprise in the offense has been how underutilized the tight ends have been. Obviously there is the breakout of Tyler Boyd to allow for deeper passes to him and Devin Street. There is also the issue with blocking. The tight ends have had to do a lot more of it to help the O-line. The other aspect is that Tom Savage still is not as accurate — or comfortable at times — with the dump-off or short passes to the tight ends. It’s not a crisis, but given the amount of hits Savage is taking looking downfield, it might be good to go shorter occasionally if Savage wants to live through the next eight games.

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Chryst and company will face their first real road challenge of the 2013 season when they head to Blacksburg to face a Virginia Tech team eager for revenge. Last year’s win was a huge shock. Pitt was 0-2 with a loss to Youngstown State and Virginia Tech was 2-0 with a season opening victory over Georgia Tech. Even an eternal optimist like myself saw no chance of victory. Here we are a year later and while the Hokies are favored, no one would bat an eye if Pitt pulls off the win again. (more…)

Joe from The Key Play — a proudly independent Virginia Tech blog and tremendous community — and I did what I hope will continue to be our yearly Q&A exchange for the weekend’s Pitt-VT game. My answers to his questions are over here.

1. Whatever happened to the Virginia Tech running game? Take out the 1-AA Western Carolina game and the Hokies are getting under 105 yards/game on the ground. Is it with the O-line? Has it been the players. Has it been a case of Jay Paterno Syndrome at the Running Back Coach?

Well you’re right, we’ve struggled to run the ball consistently since 2011. David Wilson was a first round pick after that season, and no combination of backs have been able to replace his production. 2012 was an anomaly though. Former offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring and play caller Mike O’Cain tried implementing a wonky pistol offense that resulted in Stiney’s demotion and O’Cain’s termination. Both scheme and talent were issues two years ago.

New offensive coordinator Scot Loeffer has preached a commitment to the run from the minute he was hired last winter. However, opposing defenses have also been determined to stop Tech from rushing, forcing Logan Thomas to win games. Thomas has gotten much better at working through his progressions, and Loeffler has designed good underneath routes that exploit a loaded box, pick up good yards per catch, all while controlling the clock.

Both the o-line and tailbacks have made mistakes and left yards on the field. Tech’s running about as multiple (in every sense of the word) offense as possible. One week it’s rushing from the next spread, zone, power, inverted veer, veer, triple option, etc… I expect the rushing game to strengthen as the o-line and tailbacks become more familiar with the system, different techniques, and all the nuances.

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How does a defensive coordinator try to provide extra motivation to his front seven for an opponent? He lies outrageously.

Linebacker Jack Tyler was going on about how defensive coordinator Bud Foster said Pittsburgh’s offensive line was better than Alabama’s when Washington Post beat writer Mark Giannotto, having seen the Panthers surrender seven sacks to UVa a couple weeks ago, called shenanigans.

“Well, that’s a little motivation on his part to make us go a little harder,” Tyler said, changing his tune slightly. “But I mean, they have 330-pound guards. That’s unheard of even at the pro level. And they can move. So it might be the biggest defensive front and we’re really going to have to bring our big-boy pads and go to work.”

[Emphasis added.]

I guess the only tape he let them see was of the Duke and New Mexico games.

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Credit to the Virginia Tech players for honesty, they aren’t pretending it’s just another game. This game on Saturday is a bit personal.

“Dang, everything, man,” said [linebacker Tariq] Edwards regarding what stands out to him about last season’s loss at Pittsburgh, which travels Saturday to Lane Stadium to play No. 24 Tech (5-1 overall, 2-0 ACC). “Watching that game, it’s kind of disgusting just to watch it.”

“Sometimes, in football, you don’t want to use the revenge word, but revenge is a must as far as I put it right now.”

Where are the, “that was last year, this is a new season, we’ve moved on,” cliches?

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Pitt will host Old Dominion at night on a Saturday, because… well I’m not really sure.

Initial guess, was that it to do with the possibilities of the Pirates being in the NLCS, but that didn’t makes sense as it would suggest a noon game for the NLCS. Sure enough it doesn’t. It would be a Game 7 at LA. No way that would be anything but a night game.

So that’s kind of weird for a 1-AA opponent that will be a RSN televised game to get a 7pm slot. The downside meaning missing most, if not all, of the FSU-Clemson game at 8pm that night. I’m not complaining, though, since it guarantees to be an overnighter for me in the ‘Burgh.

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