I’ve tried. I’ve really tried. I’ve wanted to care about the City Game as more than just another non-con. I’ve made fun of their rebranding efforts and derisively referred to them as the Stage Magicians. I’ve written a few posts about their ineptitude over the years
Moving it to the Con Paint Store, was a good effort to try and make it special. But other than the humiliation of losing to a bad team and ending a 15-game winning streak against the Dukes, it’s hard to feel any animosity or hate towards Duquesne that should go with a rivalry game.
Maybe it’s me. Maybe as a non-native I just don’t get the same impact of friends and families torn apart by their loyalties and the importance of this game within the area. The trash talking that must go on between the two sides.
/thinking
/pondering
/contemplating
Nah.
Duquesne is ranked 22nd in KenPom.com. They have a 3-5 record, and a SOS of 328 out of 351. They have lost at HOME to Canisius, Tennessee-Martin and UMBC. Even beating Duquesne is likely to hurt Pitt in terms of SOS. And really, that has been the only way they have gotten over Pitt in this millennium. As a drag on the non-con SOS.
7pm game time on the ACC Network Extra/ESPN3.
They’d have to go to a 2-1-2 or a 2-3 zone. This team can’t play Man to Man at all, so they should just recognize that and put that on the shelf.
They can recruit kids to Morganhole to play in the forlorn places of the Big 12(Ames, Lubbock, etc) but Pitt can’t recruit worth crap to play in the ACC.
smh
I know… I know…
Until we win another Bowl Game, Voytik is the last Pitt QB to win a Bowl game since Bill Stull.
Matt Cavanaugh is 2nd.
Got any problems with them
As Pitt scored plenty of points to win 8 or 9 games that year.
And his decision, not to ‘center’ the ball before Blewitt’s missed FG against Duke.
And his decision to ‘walk on Pitt’ before the Bowl Game.
Pitt Fans should be happy.
Even for them to be playing for the BIG 10 Championship tells you that.
Hoping for Chryst and the Badgers to pull it out!
“Pundits” is another word for IDIOTS.
Potato Paul did his best imitation of employing the “Turtle Offense” in the second half AND I think the “Outhouse D” was also in full execution during the 2nd half…
My prediction for the playoff teams:
1. Alabama
2. Clemscum (who’s only loss is to Pitt)
3. tOSU
4. Washington
5. Michigan (who beat penn state 49-10)
6. Oklahoma and/or penn state (who lost to Pitt)
25. Pitt (in need of a QB and a defense for 2017)
Maybe I did, but not in those exact words…
HTP!
I hope my “gut” is wrong…I am usually more optimistic with Pitt FB.
PSU certainly improved since the Michigan beatdown at Ann Arbor in late September. They haven’t won by less than 14 points since they beat Ohio State. They eventually beat Wisconsin. Other than Michigan the only decent teams in the Big 10 that they didn’t play were Nebraska and Northwestern. Have to give them some credit…
Just imagine if Pitt had had a credible pass defense this year. They probably would have also beaten the Big 12 runner up on the road.
HAIL TO PITT.
Top 3 takeaways from this 2016 season:
1) BEATING PSU
2) BEATING Clemson
3) Being the SOLE reason PSU is NOT in the final 4!
Again (& forever) – HAIL TO PITT!!
Head scratcher – but yes, Pitt also beat penn state.
Either way, if we win our bowl game (for a change) we’ll end up ranked in the Top 20. Not bad.
Getting revenge on Utah would be nice too. I still remember Urban Meyer running up the score at the end of the bowl game and laughing on the sidelines with his QB Alex Smith.
We need an easy win here though because we stink in bowl games and because we HAVE to be ranked going into LOI day…..and only a win will achieve that. The pedos & hoopies will be ranked even if they lose.
We’ll get a better bowl next year.
Would love to know how that works though….
Either way, we need a win, not a ‘good’ bowl game against a better ranked team. If we win we stay ranked going into LOI Day, period. The pedos & hoopies will be doing everything possible to poach our players in late January. Being 8-5 and unranked would be real bad news for the Duzz.
I mean, it’s not like we’re great playing in bowl games lately.
ACC has done us absolutely no favors in Bowl selections for sure.
Took care of the good ole boy schools of UNC and GT and even Miami over the Little Panthers.
So sick of it. I hate this conference anymore.
Sux for bball too !
Did a full review on why Stanford would have been the ticket for Pitt the other day.
They are ranked above us, so we could move up.
They are a running team
Only avg 159 passing per game
They have a winning record.
They have a National Name.
Should have known we wouldn’t get them, because it made too much sense.
I knew no way we’d get the Russell, they had the #2 pick of ACC teams.
If they could have dropped Pitt to a Tier 2 bowl they would have.
It sucks for football as far as selling out Heinz with attractive opponents. And they don’t take care of us obviously with these bowl selections, even though we handed them 5-6 games per year with Notre Dame in football, while giving up our Notre Dame games.
And the marquee basketball programs aren’t guaranteed to play at the Pete every year. Other than Syracuse.
Basketball interest at Pitt is not growing per the ACC it’s declining.
Other than when Duke or UNC comes, there is not much interest in the other games.
Take this bowl game and unleash the dogs. Roll up a big score, and be happy with a good win for the guys. Next year, 10 wins, and another crappy bowl, and kick some more butt … Etc, etc, etc. Till we get 12-0 and a shot at the big dance.
Instead the ACC got our game. Fookers.
Yet the announcers were celebrating Duquesne’s win, even cheering for them.
This is getting ridiculous, that Pitt lets this crap go on.
We lost the ND game to get the pedos. No way we were playing both. You’ll notice that when the pedo series ends we’re back playing ND.
Big 12 wasn’t interested in Uconn.
GT, Miami do not bring fans at all no matter where, I can tell you that from living here in the south. VT, Clemson travel well, UNC fans will not flock to their bowl game this year when UNC played UGa in Atlanta for their first game this season maybe 5k to 7k fans the rest UGa .
I agree Pitt doesn’t travel well but neither do a lot of ACC teams
For the season, the Wildcats are 94th in the nation in offense with 25.6 points per game and 23rd in the nation in defense; allowing only 22.1 points per game.
Stat to watch: Northwestern is 2-10 all time in bowl games, which is the second lowest winning percentage in the history of the FBS (of teams with a minimum of one victory).”
Pulled this from PSN –
NW is 6-6 on the season and 5-4 in B1G Joke conference games. They lost occ games to W.Michigan and Illinois State. They did squeak out a win vs Duke. None of their games were against a high powered, scoring offense – best team they played was tOSU who has a very inconsistent offense (see penn state game).
For recruiting purposes, fan morale, #ThePursuit and keeping the B1G Joke tag line, Pitt needs to run up the score in this bowl game and then score again.
The D needs to keep stopping the run, play a decent game (pass coverage and tackling after the catch) and let the O be our best D.
Thankful for the extra practices –
HTP!
For Pitt’s next to last home game against Duke Pitt had over 35,000. That was the first game after the Clemson win. For Pitt’s last home game against Syracuse the attendance was just over 34,000. The Steelers played away games both of those weekends.
For the Pitt-Miami game Miami had over 52,000 in attendance.
I understand bowl games aren’t primarily about attendance but the bowls are put on in part to boost the host city.
Pitt fans don’t typically show up and the team has tanked in some recent bowl appearances. Most notably with Navy, Ole Miss and SMU. Struggled to beat Bowling Green.
We need somebody underneath, down on the blocks, a presence down there. If I was Stallings I would put Nix at the 5, Jeter at the 3 (where he played last year) and sit Jones and bring him off the bench to provide some spark, as the bench is pretty horrible (only 4 points last nite). The bench has been horrible all year.
So what this does is make Pitt bigger underneath, maybe provides some better offensive rebounding with Nix, so Young can do his thing from midrange and outside and shores up your bench with someone who might contribute something off the bench.
Now they have some teams coming up they could try this with, and if Stallings is any kind of a coach, he should know they can’t stand with this pat hand.