PITT vs Va Tech – at Heinz Field, under the lights and in front of 345 screaming fans…
What do you think happens?
I think we lose a close one – 23-17
Pitt 2
3 scenarios:
1) If it rains all day and night, we win 21 to 14. Conner will get 30 plus carries and Va Tech 3rd string RB will peter out.
2) If the weather is normal or a light sprinkle, Brewer will throw all over Pitts, Maddox, and Vinopal and we will lose 42 to 21. Voytik will not be able to match Va Tech score for score.
3) If the weather is normal or a light sprinkle, the smart thing to do would be forfeit. We would lose 2 to 0 hence covering the spread, the nation would not see 58,000 yellow seats, and I wouldn’t spend a night cursing and having a near heart attack. I think we should forfeit.
Pitt wins 27 – 23 and James “The Beast” Conner records TWO sacks and 100 yards rushing. Tyler Boyd has a monster game with 10 catches, TWO TD’s and over 200 all purpose yards.
And Chris James has 80 yards on 15 carries and Adonis Jennings and the TE’s each with 5 catches.
That could be the game changer.
Anyone know any names? Brightwell, McKee, Clayton, Miller
Here’s hoping that many videos of Hugh Green, Ricky Jackson, Chris Doleman, Romeus & Sheard are played tonight for our viewing pleasure – AND that DE James “The Beast” Conner makes a few highlights of his own for future viewing audiences.
Voytek gives up a pick-6, gets sacked 5 times and once again a valiant comeback comes up short. Pitt loses 27-21.
Of course my heart wants to predict a win but I think we hang around for awhile and remain within striking distance but ultimately fall 30-17.
I dream of a packed stadium creating a big-time home field advantage as much as anyone but that’s just not reality. What is reality is that many, many teams have attendance issues similar to Pitt. This especially applies to colleges with urban campuses that share the spotlight with pro teams. Here it is: year-after-year of mediocrity, a disliked AD, a 3 game losing streak, a low personality HC (not a bad thing), a stadium that is far too large for the fan base, etc. and this is what you get. Let’s take baby steps to improve and it can start tonight.
HTP
I don’t post very often, usually some smart ass comment that jumps into my head at the time, but I want to address your comment from the last thread at 7:06.
I absolutely agree with you about the love for Wanny on this site, and the impatience with HCPC. Despite all of the NFL talent that Wanny had, NOT ONCE did he manage to win the Big East, even those years when it was horrible and the laughingstock of conferences. He never exceeded expectations (other than 13-9) and often fell way below the line.
HCPC is bringing in some good players as I think we will see in the next 2-3 years. He needs to be given a chance and I believe he will be successful. We do not need more coaching turnover and turmoil.
I really enjoy reading your posts. Keep up the good work.
Hell, I can predict our record for the next
10 years.
2015 6-6
2016 7-5
2017 5-7
2018 6-6
2019 8-4
2020 7-5
2021 5-7
2022 8-4
2023 7-5
2024 6-6
Why do I mention this…we as fans sometimes go overboard with our emotions.
Reed, I appreciate how you present the facts, and give us good insight with your views having seen the team during training camp and more….Well Done on your part!
I see a PITT victory tonight, for some reason 24-7 is in my mind…and that may be my emotional bias for dear alma mater!
Sunny day in Portland, so I do wish everyone a great day, and a great PITT evening!
Hail to PITT!
-al-
If I were putting money on it, I would bet VT, but since I’m not, Pitt 19-17 (4 FGs)
However, I’ve been so wrong so often and lulled into “just wait, in the next couple of years”, I’m about out of juice.
However, I hope Bertke brought his high schools uniforms, they look more like Pitt than Pitt does.
@ Dan: love your prediction. Probably true!
H2P
Now, I’ve been pretty adamant as to just how DUMB that is.
Forget the risk of injury… WHICH THERE IS. Considering the HUGE dropoff from Conner to the other Backs on the Team… why would you not want your Nation Leading Tailback at his VERY BEST?
Yes, it is pretty “DUMB.”
BUT. If there was a Game where you might consider being so DUMB… it would likely be tonight.
VaTech Quarterback Michael Brewer… NOT Tall (Same as Voytik)… NOT GOOD (A YPA WORST than Voytik)… VULNERABLE to THROWING PICKS!
Yes, if you want to be DUMB and put “Panther Beast Mode” in Pass Rushing Mode… this would be the Game.
PITT pulls out a WIN they desperately need.
TYLER BOYD is the DIFFERENCE!
Guaranteed that most sports fans in the PGH market will be tuned in to the Pens for a meaningless game 3 of an 80 game schedule. Many of the rest will join UPitt in watching a meaningless NFL game. Surivor is probably 3rd choice.
Can’t say it enough – that is where Pitt ranks for local sports fans. That is the outcome of 30+ years of mediocrity (at best), especially when the fan base wasn’t strong to begin with.
Pitt wins tonight 13-9 and gets our hopes up for a strong finish only to lose 4 of the next 5. Why? 1) Because I believe it is now a law that Pitt finish each regular season 6-6 and, 2) Because that would be SO Pitt.
Most interesting is Wisconsin at 13th.
@ Reed, my point about Bertke handing off three times and punting was simple. The playbook isn’t holding him back due to its simplicity. The physical tools aren’t holding him back, because he would only need to turn and hand off most of the time. So what is the issue? Voytik better based on what? It can’t be the playbook or understanding how to hand off.
My frustration lies there. We are plug and play offensively. We do the same thing over and over and any player can do that. That’s why I said to put in Bertke. Perhaps he is more accurate which to me, is the only differentiator for the qb’s in the simplistic offense. But tonight, we will show an offense that we haven’t seen here in awhile. Paul Chryst knows this is his signature, national moment to shine, i hope. Show your genius PC. Offense surprises!Pitt wins on a bad call by the zebra!
Pretty pumped for this game, to be honest. I expect to see VT devote a lot of coverage to Boyd and keep him outside. If Garner, Jennings, Jones, etc. and the TEs can get open underneath, Voytik has to utilize them. I also have a feeling we see a more balanced rotation of carries/catches by all four RBs.
sorry guys, was I snoring?
Regarding Brewer, I think those are the reasons you DO put Conner at DE – Brewer is a bad QB prone to throwing multiple interceptions when under pressure. We don’t get much pressure with our current DEs and Conner may be able to provide it. Q.E.D. using Conner at DE gives us our best chance to force game-changing interceptions.
Also, I’d love to a screen-pass to Ronald Jones who tosses the ball to a streaking Boyd on the second play of the game. Time for some trickeration.
When I said “build from the ground up” a thread or two back, I meant that Chryst took over a program that had pretty much driven itself into irrelevance, and that was a process that started with Wannstedt’s 2010 team.
You could easily argue that the 2010 team was the best team Pitt fielded top-to-bottom in 25+ years. That was a deep, veteran team at many positions. They were nearly-unanimous Big East favorites (22 of 24 first place votes). Their only real question mark was at QB, but Tino was a QB that 90% of the fanbase just couldn’t wait for at the time.
That season was every Wannstedt trademark wrapped into one. Big-time national TV game at home against Miami and they came out flat and uninspired and got blown out. Two weeks later, another national TV loss at Notre Dame.
They create just enough optimism to rope you in with three solid wins to start Big East play.
Then they go to UConn.
Thursday night. ESPN. Outclassed opponent (UConn lost to Temple) with a chance to assert complete control over the conference. Perfect recipe for the standard Wannstedt disaster and he doesn’t disappoint AT ALL. Sloppy offense, and the veteran defense gets gashed by Todman despite the fact that EVERYONE KNEW UConn couldn’t throw. Pitt loses. Goodbye Big East title.
Oh wait. In a cruel twist, the Big East was so mediocre that year, Pitt finds themselves hosting the Backyard Brawl two weeks later in the SAME EXACT POSITION. Heinz Field. National TV. A win again gives them the inside track to an outright Big East title and BCS berth. And it can come against the hated and vulnerable Hoopies.
Given all the circumstances, it was THE single most important game of the Dave Wannstedt era.
And again, they failed. Miserably. They play unfocused right from the start. They commit five turnovers (SIX fumbles, three of them lost + two INTs). They were ineffective on offense and again looked completely unprepared and worst, uninspired.
What still sticks out most to me about that game was the second half. Austin’s long TD to open the third took the wind out of everything. Even when Pitt closed to 21-10, it looked like they knew they had no chance. WVU answered the FG with a long TD drive that was it.
The 4th quarter became my defining memory of the Wannstedt era. Endless shots of Wannstedt looking completely overwhelmed on the sidelines, like he had no idea what was happening or how to respond. The players looked stunned, stone-faced, no emotion. And every one of these images played out over the sounds of WVU fans jeering Pitt out of its own stadium.
That was it for me. I was done.
Two gift-wrapped chances to win a very winnable conference outright with a team that was as good as he was ever probably going to have, and he blew both of them. Spectacularly, in every way Wannstedt critics loved to point out that he would lose games.
And the worst part was that for as much as I hoped it would be different, I had seen enough in the previous five seasons that I wasn’t really all that surprised.
The damage from there was done by the administration. Pederson botched the dismissal of Wannstedt, botched the transition for the bowl game, then botched the hiring of Haywood, which looked like a pathetic attempt to go cheap. When Haywood gave them a re-do, Graham at least looked like a serious commitment to improve the program but that also became its own disaster for its own reasons.
At that point, it became as close to a ground-up rebuild as you can get without going 2-10. Wannstedt’s players who stuck around to play for Graham in a system they didn’t necessarily fit were now faced with doing it again for another coach. Freshmen & recruits who committed to Graham had to rethink their plans. And that says nothing of the way all of this was being perceived in coaching circles, by recruits and by fans asked to support this mess.
Chryst deserves criticism, but he’s also not even three years removed from the mess outlined above.
As you argued about the quality of the roster Chryst inherited, I could do the same with Wannstedt and point to where this program was after his first three years. They went from 8 wins to five in his first year. His second year was defined by a five-game losing streak when they were on the cusp of bowl eligibility. His third season was the Upset Win of All Upset Wins away from a 4-8 finish. They were regressing at this same point in Wannstedt’s tenure.
Wannstedt rewarded them in years four and five with those 9 and 10-win seasons we look back so fondly on now. Chryst deserves the chance to do the same.
Because tonight I’m going by the name “Sauron”, because my watchful, piercing gaze is going to be on one Chad Voytik.
If he can just complete the utter-minimum amount of drive-sustaining and drive-augmenting passes to keep our offense moving, and on the field, I think we have a great shot.
I don’t feel good about just trying to pound the ball — after Akron, I think that ship has sailed–and fallen off the edge of the Earth.
Plus, Conner is like Rocky in “Rocky 3” after Micky dies and he loses the belt right now, he’s totally, totally lost his edge–his “Eye of The Tiger” (da-da-da, eye of the tiger is the…..lol)
He needs John Settle to be his Apollo Creed, and take him back to basics. Man, press-clippings and fan-adoration are a heck-of-a-thing and Kryptonite to being hungry+angry+desperate.
I think maybe the last few weeks just one too many young co-eds looked at him like he was a god-on-campus and it’s been going to Conner’s head a bit.
I wouldn’t know–ex-athlete, always hit the weights at school lol–but somehow, girls aren’t quite as caught-up with you when you’re accumulating student-loans and studying for impossibly-complex classes and falling-asleep at your part-time job.
Is my pitiful envy coming through enough?? Haha so sad, jealous of a 20-year-old-kid!! Still want him to get 150 every game and get invited to NY this December though 🙂
1. Romeus was healthy in 09
2. Nix – Thomas – Howser – Malecki – Pinkston
This was not only the best OL Pitt as had over the past few decades, it was the healthiest (Thomas was hurt for the bowl game and replaced by Jacobsen, his first start)
Here’s a huge thing, talking about Steve Pederson hating Dave Wannstedt:
Two years in a row, Dave Wannstedt’s teams 100% “Give Away” a chance to play in the Sugar (would’ve played Tebow’s Florida or Alabama) and Fiesta Bowls—2009 to Cincinatti losing the last game, and again in 2010 losing to Uconn (!!! Ahhhh!!!!).
2010 after beating Pitt–8-4 Uconn goes and plays a really mediocre (Landry Jones-led) Oklahoma team in the Fiesta Bowl and get blown-out. sigh.
My HUGE Question: Just how much MONEY and EXPOSURE did Dave Wannstedt lose Pitt by with those teams giving away those gift-wrapped paths to BCS games?
—-(those players didn’t want it, they were “scurred”)
—Why I complain, yet hope to be proven 100% incorrect: I see that same skittishness and lack of ambition and “guts” from our QB this year. Have to be absolutely livid after losing to Akron when you’re the starting QB. Have to be. That should make any competitive Power-5 QB want to punch a wall.
1) Missing out on the Sugar Bowl in 2009-10 by conceding it to Cincinnati the final game.
2) Giving away the Big-East Crown to UCONN in 2010-11, and missing out on the Fiesta Bowl. Defend Tino Suneri after going back and re-watching that game. Horrid.
Anyone want to talk about salaries????
Wannstedt gets to just ONE of the BCS games–even if Pitt gets throttled–he gets a massive raise and his assistants do too.
And do you think Wannstedt was apologetic about the monstrous-disappointments of those two seasons?
–I bet if Steve Pederson even went up to him to question him one bit, Wannstedt told him to “shove-off”.
Pederson didn’t lose Pitt the Cincinnati game, or give the Big East Crown to 8-4 UCONN in 2010.
Do you guys realize some people actually try to say Pitt “Won the Big East in 2010”???
I would love to be on a jury and watch some of these “Wanny Lovers” try to argue a case.
—“Well, for some reason I really, really feel this way, so you guys should too, that’s my evidence!”
9-4 2008
10-3 2009
8-5 2010
Best 3 years in PITT football since 1980-1983.
If you can count years, that is 25 years.
PITT lost MUCH MORE than money when they fired DW and started the lunacy afterwards.
I wouldn’t have felt real good after being thumped by Florida in the Sugar Bowl in 2009.
I did feel good after beating North Carolina in Charlotte in 2009 in the Belk Bowl. As PITT reached 10 wins for the first time since Dan Marino days, long, long ago.
Considering Wanny didn’t have anyone close to Marino or most anyone on that 1981 team, he did PITT proud.
And I’d love to be on that jury too, Mr Engineer.
Cause another trial would commence soon after, and that would be….why Cornhole is still at PITT ?
That’s like saying, “Well, I have no luck, but somehow I won the lottery!”
So, did you first-off just go the governmnet and handle all of your taxes first? Then, invest it well, and build it?
….”No, kind of blew it, now I’m broke again.”
It’s just baffling — that Cincinnati game was a not “offense” or “defense”—it was a “Gut-check fail”.
And when Chryst matches that success with deeper-foundations and — (gasp! I know some here will comprehend that this is quite important to sustaining-success) — a philosophical focus on QB play.
Chryst will keep bringing his guys — where the Kevan Smith’s / Tino Sunseri’s / Mark Myers’ / (sorry guys) Pat Bostick’s are politely declined a scholarship offer — and Chryst personally watches and sees if a guy can play.
Sir, 2010 was not 8-5, it was 7-5!! That’s a single win better than the last two years and in the Big East. — Some things can only stretch so-far before they ‘snap” .
Because man, he totally aces the ‘eye-test’….of standing behind the head-coach holding a clip-board.
He even carries-off wearing the headset, so it looks like he’s actually working with the O-coordinator in the booth and contributing somehow lol.
He could be a 10 year NFL thrird-string QB right now–with Savage!
The score? who cares?
The biggest MISSED OPPORTUNITIES by PITT.
Was the missed opportunity of capitalizing on both Pedo State and WVcc being in stages of turmoil.
PITT could have been the one, that was the stable program and cleaned up in recruiting for that whole period. Especially with how DW was making big inroads in NJ and Eastern PA even prior to that.
There could have quite possibly been a SEISMIC SEA CHANGE in the way people thought of PITT FOOTBALL akin to the mid to late 70’s, early 80’s. We could have maybe been…The Baddest Cats around….again.
That OPPORTUNITY HAS BEEN LOST FOREVER.
Comment by PittEngineer 10.16.14 @ 3:48 pm
Sir read this.
2010 Pittsburgh Panthers Stats
Previous Year ? Next Year
Pittsburgh [+]
Stats [+]
Schedule & Results
Roster
Game Logs [+]
Splits [+]
Record: 8-5, .615 W-L% (35th of 120)
Conference: Big East ? Conference Record: 5-2 (Schedule and Result)
The kids played their hearts out in the Bowl Game to get a win for…..DAVE WANNSTEDT.
Not the A-hole Cornhole.
8-5
btw when you did you go to PITT ??
Who cares!! Pitt was in total turmoil needing a coach — A Bowl game with essentially Zero Payout for the School and Zero Exposure — it does nothing to long-term help the program.
The regular season was a stumble to 7-5—where mustering up just 8-4 means Pitt goes to a BCS game and makes, LITERALLY, at minimum 50X the amount of money they got from the Compass Bowl.
Logistically, building a stellar football program happens quite tangibly sir.
Pitt lost Millions of dollars, and National Exposure for the sports ‘brand’.
I just don’t understand the mindset–well I do, but it’s not a very ‘flattering’ thing to articulate it lol—-but some are upset with the current situation and yet are ‘rationalizing’ that Wannstedt’s last year was ‘somehow better’…..
Having absolutely everything in place to succeed and eking-out 7-5 with 2 nationally televised BLOWOUT losses (Miami, WVU)…vs. fighting for 6-6 and almost getting 7-5 the last two years with a program in utter turmoil.
Because going to bowl games like Birmingham when no PItt fans will go and receiving a putrid, insulting payout ensures that the Athletic Department will have to actually PAY for the experience for all the players—-so those 3 Alabama years Pitt probably operated at a loss, or had to fight to break-even. They do it for the players and the fans.
You can’t make and-times more off of zero or a negative, so I lied.
link to footballbowlassociation.com
Bowl monies are shared by EACH MEMBER OF THE CONFERENCE.
You’re argument is NULL & VOID
I mean Exposure infinitely-more so.
Money gets shared and Pitt would still have had to dish out for all of the expenses regardless.
I don’t even know, whatever 🙂
Sure, Wannstedt for athletic director why not? But does he know that Pitt plays other sports too?
I don’t think he knows what gymnastics are. I think if his assistants starting talking about the ‘wrestling program’ he would respond (super-duper ‘Yinzer’) “Aww yeah, I love John Cena. Do we have ‘dem Diva girls on scholarship here? Who is the National Champion, did he win it in a cage match? I know there are different weight-classes in college, but do they sometimes all go-at-it in Royal Rumbles?”
Haha Wanny.
Lol I think we’re gonna get spanked tonight. If so the Akron game was actually great, because it put my expectations in perspective.
“‘Dem dare basketball players, how many games ‘day play each year? ‘Dey play 30 games, how ‘dey get there? We got ‘ta charter ‘dem ‘der guy charter planes and ‘all ‘dat who they think they are, some movie-star and all ‘dat?”
“Anyone still use ‘dat ‘der on Fitzy Field-Haws up ‘der up ‘dat hill still?? Oh ‘wahh, ‘dey still using ‘dat old Field-HawS, I thawt Jerome Lane ‘done ‘brawt ‘dat whole-‘thang ‘dunn with ‘dat dunk ‘dere!!!”
I do love me some Wanny so much.
He’s actually pretty good at the halftimes of FoxSports games.
And he has some personality and a lot…. a whole lot of energy.
Take him back in a heartbeat.
But to have Wannstedt back at Pitt would be fantastic. If he could ever bite-the-bullet and come back to be on the Pitt staff even if it was under Chryst, how cool would that be?
You need a dynamic leader of the program. Not a wallflower imo.
Wanny has so many coaching connections it wouldn’t be Wisconsin light in da Burg.
