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December 26, 2013

Open Thread: Pizza Bowl

Filed under: Bowls,Football,Open Thread — Chas @ 1:32 pm

Man, getting home in time will be tight. That means keeping this brief so I can get crap done to make this work.

6pm on ESPN.

Focus continues to be about ending the season with something resembling positive energy.

A few weeks back, Pitt coach Paul Chryst said he was talking to redshirt senior nose tackle Tyrone Ezell when Ezell recalled the Panthers’ most recent bowl win, a 27-10 victory in the BBVA Compass Bowl against Kentucky to end the 2010 season.

Ezell was a redshirt freshman on that team and told Chryst what it felt like to end the season with a victory, the sense of accomplishment and positive momentum heading into the offseason. It’s something that the freshmen, sophomores and juniors have not experienced, with the past two seasons coming to an end with a 6-7 record and a loss in Birmingham, Ala.

The Panthers have a chance to put a positive cap on the up-and-down 2013 season today when they play Bowling Green in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.

“There’s a big difference in our room between going 7-6 and 6-7,” Chryst said. “There’s a lot of reasons. The senior class, they want to finish it out right and I think they want to send the young guys into next year with some momentum. Every team’s the same way. Bowling Green’s probably got the same mantra. We’re looking forward to going up, getting one more chance to play and our goal is to play the best game we’ve played to this point.”

Not that anyone is implying the effort was less than 100% in the past two years in Birmingham. Well, maybe it’s being implied a little.

This may be the last year for the Pizza Bowl. The bowl organizers continue to put on a brave face, but it just doesn’t seem likely since Ford Field probably won’t be hosting it and the Big Ten is done — Ford Field and Big Ten are creating their own bowl game. Just can’t see two games at Ford Field, and I really can’t see any enthusiasm for trying to play it at the Comerica Park.

Bowling Green will be paying attention to Aaron Donald on defense and Tyler Boyd on offense. To which, all I can say is, “duh.”

Embattled, first-year DC Matt House is from Michigan. Hopefully by the end of the game there won’t be any need for jokes about leaving him there.





^^ gc

no doubt bro. Cheers !

Comment by Emel 12.26.13 @ 10:37 pm

Go Figure

I’m in the mood for some Pizza now ! 🙂

Comment by Emel 12.26.13 @ 10:39 pm

Great to see us put up 450 comments on a win. I guess it would have been 900 if we lost.

Hail to Pitt!, see you at the Pete.

Comment by gc 12.26.13 @ 10:40 pm

Emel, this was a MAC team we were predicted to lose to by 7.
If you don’t think the freshmen played well for most of the season you must not have been watching all the games.

Comment by Jimbo 12.26.13 @ 10:43 pm

Great game on all fronts…The freshmen came to play, and played well. AD was held with great regularity, and when he was tackled late in the game, I thought we’d get a safety as the BG QB was in the end zone.

I was impressed with PC. He gets a lot of criticism for not emoting a lot, but when he called a timeout when we had only 10 men on the field, I give hi credit for retaining his cool and being encouraging. Also, he gave Voytik a chance to win the game.

The future looks bright indeed!

As always, I am proud to be an alum and fan of PITT!

Hail to PITT,
-al-

Comment by Oregon_Panther 12.26.13 @ 10:47 pm

wow it was down to +4 yesterday. Lot of late suckers on BG. Good for them.

Yes I watched most if not all of the games.
Boyd, Connor & Blewitt and the Clairton kids were pretty good all year.

Comment by Emel 12.26.13 @ 10:49 pm

HTP – what a night!

Comment by PITT it IS 12.26.13 @ 10:59 pm

Connor will be a two-way star next year. He’s too good at DE to keep him off the field. He’s too good at RB to keep him off the field. Match him up as part of Thunder and Lightening combo with Ibrahim and/or James and unleash him on opposing quaterbacks on passing downs. Kid is a stud.

Comment by Atlanta Panther 12.26.13 @ 11:08 pm

I’m all fired up for another game, now I have to wait till next year.

Comment by pd 12.26.13 @ 11:08 pm

Connor will be a two-way star next year. He’s too good at DE to keep him off the field. He’s too good at RB to keep him off the field. Match him up as part of Thunder and Lightening combo with Ibrahim and/or James and unleash him on opposing quarterbacks on passing downs. Kid is a stud.

Comment by Atlanta Panther 12.26.13 @ 11:09 pm

Other than the final score, the best part of this game was the fire that the team played with…love it….Looks like the pieces are in place for the offense next season.

Comment by HbgFrank 12.27.13 @ 1:01 am

Just curious – watching the game on ESPN – I know what the yellow line is (First Down), and I know what the black line is (Scrimmage),

but what is the Green line?

Comment by 17YearsAtPitt 12.27.13 @ 5:57 am

Field goal line. It’s when the kicker is in range. Stupid imaginary line for fans who can’t figure it out for themselves.

Comment by TX Panther 12.27.13 @ 8:00 am

it even says on the line “field goal range”

Comment by PITT it IS 12.27.13 @ 8:59 am

So it’s the team’s kicker’s longest FG, or some kind of “average?”

Comment by 17YearsAtPitt 12.28.13 @ 7:55 am

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