Hi everyone. I’m sure you’ve missed me. For those who forget/don’t know me, I took a break writing here to write for CBS Sports/247 for a little bit. I left a few months back  and haven’t written much thanks to the birth of my son. Here he is with a message for Boston College on Friday. As you parents know life gets pretty hectic the first few months. Now that he’s six months old and life is settling down a bit, I have this thing called “free time.” It’s a weird thing, not sure how to handle it. My thought was MOAR FOOTBALL!!!!!

This was a fun game to watch. We won’t see another 62-0 win probably ever again. As long as Tyler Boyd is OK (apparently a dislocated finger) for next week, this game couldn’t have gone better. While “it’s only Delaware” is important, just take a look around at other schools and how they handled their inferior competition.  Georgia Tech was only up 10-9 at halftime against Wofford. As I type this, Boston College is only up 6-0 at halftime against UMass. You’re supposed to beat inferior competition, but HOW you beat them is more important than if.

The key to the offense was obviously the big uglies up front. You don’t rush for 400+ yards and 7 TDs if the offensive line isn’t dominating. Pitt did absolutely nothing special in this game. NOTHING. The closest thing to a trick play was a reverse to Boyd which is hardly a trick play given how many times it has been used in the past year. The offense lined up, handed the ball off, and moved the ball at will. Nothing fancy, just got ole fashioned smash mouth football.

Chryst employed an “if it ain’t broke…” offensive strategy. Running the ball was working, so why stop? I wish we could’ve seen Voytik take a few shots down field though. Voytik finished 12/15 for 92 yards and 2 TDs. What impressed me with Voytik was he didn’t force anything. He took what was given to him. I was very impressed with his play in the red zone. On the Boyd touchdown he dropped a dime right where Boyd could make a play. The coverage was good on Boyd, but he had a step and Voytik put it in a great spot. I’m sure we’ll see Voytik challenged a bit more in the future, but it’s nice to see a QB have an easy day at the office.

Regarding RBs, the pecking order before this game appeared to be Conner-Bennett-James-Ibrahim-Ollison. Ollison didn’t play and the way the RBs played the luxury of letting him redshirt is possible. Now I’m not so sure.  James looks like a star in the making, his burst is the best on the team. Ibrahim was a pleasant surprise today and had the second most rushing yards of the group. It’s possible Bennett could end up on the bottom looking up sooner rather than later, which is a large contrast to last season. Bennett’s fumble (which was probably an incomplete pass) along with the fewest carries by a large margin (seven) is why I’m leaning this way.

The defense played the best team defense I’ve seen since Scott McKillop led them onto the field. Sure, there were the interceptions, but  for the most part, it was a group who played great assignment football and prevented Delaware’s offense from getting anything resembling offensive success going. Delaware had 6 first downs and 71 yards of offense. For perspective, Pitt had five touchdown drives of 60+ yards.

Some awards:

The Bulldozer Award: James Conner. Conner had plenty of running room and when things got tight, he pushed through the rubble and got a few more yards.

The Prettiest Ugly Award: The entire OL. It’d be unfair to award anyone specifically without a second look at the tape (will look tomorrow) but it’s hard to find fault in what anyone did.

The Pleasant Surprise Award: Rachid Ibrahim for his 14 carry, 95 yard day.

The Great Hands Award: Todd Thomas. Thomas had to get up high to pull off the pick and it was a big one given it kept Delaware out of the end zone.

The Welcome to College Football Award: Avonte Maddox. While Chris James put up the stats, true freshman Avonte Maddox debuted at CB and didn’t look out of place at all. The Detroit native will be relied upon heavily with the losses of Titus Howard (suspension) and Trenton Coles (transfer).

Random Thoughts:

-Chyrst had 6 offensive linemen in the first unit offense. The starters were Bisnowaty, Dorian Johnson, Rowell, Rotheram, and Clemmings. On several series, Jaryd Jones-Smith played LT and Adam Bisnowaty slid into RG. This is a case of a player who has earned the right to play when there aren’t enough spots. Jones-Smith has had an incredible improvement in the past year and forced the coaches to play him. The offensive line has experienced starters and depth. After the last two years that’s an incredible thing to see.

-I know the decision to play Trey in the 2nd quarter seemed odd, but I love Chryst’s reasoning: Voytik earned the right to start but Trey earned the right to play too. It’s the same as Jones-Smith above; they earned the right to play. The message Chryst is delivering to his players is “even if you don’t start, if you earn the right to play, we’ll find a way.” It’s a great way to keep guys who aren’t starters motivated. Work hard and you will see the field.

-If you haven’t read Patrick Amara’s story on ESPN, do so. I was very happy for him when I saw him on the field. I know as a journalist I try to be objective, but I’m openly rooting for Amara to do great things. You should too.

-It’s really odd that the youngest team in college football also has so few starters who didn’t play last year. The entire starting offense played last year; all but Voytik started a game. This team is young, but they’re not lacking in experience. The growing pains of last year are likely going to pay dividends this year.