Between closed practices for the final preparation of FSU-Pitt and actual football all weekend, there probably won’t be a lot of real news this long weekend. Plenty of anticipation. Hype. Excitement. Lots of other things. But not news. Well, I mean barring something really stupid and frustrating happening off the field. Because that never happens.
Anyways, FSU’s running back depth took a very minor hit as their #3 RB, Mario Pender, was declared academically ineligible for the year. The redshirt freshman is that because this is second time that has occurred. That’s right. He redshirted last year because of academic issues. A year later, he’s still academically ineligible. A 4-star RB that can’t seem to focus on the classroom. Geez. Imagine that.
Looks like Isaac Bennett and probably James Conner will be good to go for Monday night. Maybe. Probably. People seem to think so.
FSU Coach Jimbo Fisher is from West Virginia. One more reason to take a dislike to the guy. He didn’t like Pitt, but he paid attention to them growing up.
“You can’t be a Pitt fan in West Virginia, but I did follow them,”
And he proved that point to a Florida columnist by rattling off details of Pitt games from the 70s and early 80s.
Small skirmishing war of words — such as it is — between the FSU DBs and Pitt’s Devin Street.
“He’s a big, athletic guy,” junior safety Karlos Williams said. “He loves to get the ball. He loves to compete. Compared to our receivers, he’s not a Rashad Greene, he’s not a Kenny Shaw, he’s not a Kelvin Benjamin. But he’s their playmaker.
“We watched film on him. He’s not a great receiver, but he’s a productive guy. He’s the go-to guy for Pitt. And we’re going to have to go out there and stop him.”
Nice. That’s a safety, mind you. Someone who won’t be covering Street.
Senior Lamarcus Joyner, who is listed at 5-foot-8, was asked about the challenge of facing a big receiver like Street.
“I go against guys like that every day,” Joyner said. “In Kelvin Benjamin, we’ve got a guy that’s much bigger. So I see that kind of stuff in practice. … (Street is) not one of the fastest guys I’ve ever seen, but definitely has good hands. And a great route-runner. Big, physical guy. So he’s got what it takes to get the job done.”
Unsurprisingly, Street isn’t taking the bait.
“Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion,” Street said. “Karlos, just from watching film, he’s a great player. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. I can’t do anything about it, he just went public with it. I can just go out there and show how productive I am on Monday night.”
So… yeah. That’s essentially nothing. Well, other than this.
Street said the Florida State defensive backs are fast and physical, but he added, “Sometimes, they get lost in coverage. They have holes in their defense. They are a great team, but it’s football.” He also pointed out that FSU cornerback Lamarcus Joyner, one of the best players at his position in the ACC, isn’t perfect.
“Just from watching film, I think we can attack him in different ways,” he said. “Sometimes at corner, you have to be patient. I see he is a little aggressive, but he’s a great player.”
It’s a battle of mild, passive-aggressive words.
Oh, and the coin toss will be a crowded spot. But not with the usual cute, adorable kids from Children’s Hospital . Nope. Old, white guys.
ACC commissioner John Swofford, who will be in town for the game and participate in the coin toss with the presidents and athletic directors from both schools…
#goacc
That deserves a whole article right there.
Nostalgia is fine, but the game day experience is far superior at Heinz. The Band’s pre-game march, the Great Hall, Club Seats, the Food, Tailgating.
Better restaurants, bars, the River access, the Hotels, the subway.
This week it’s Ribfest. Time marches on, quit whining and man up. Heinz is our home now. On Saturdays it is part of Pitt’s campus, just like the practice facilities on the SouthSide. You might be surprised to learn that as many students party on the SouthSide as in Oakland on weekends.
Pitt Stadium might have been all the things you say, but it is gone, never to return, same with Forbes Field and a lot of other places.
I saw plenty of great games and have great memories, but I don’t miss it at all.
Bobby Dodd Stadium at Georgia Tech was built around the same time as Pitt Stadium and GT like Pitt is an urban campus as is Harvard.
Did these two schools tear down their stadiums, well of course not, they refurbished them and cherish them. GT has a much better hoop program than PiTT pre 2000, did they tear down their almost 100 year old football stadium to build a state of the art basketball arena. No they didn’t.
Notre Dame Stadium opened a few years after Pitt Stadium in 1930. Do you think ND would EVER consider tearing down their stadium. It’s old, a bowl like Pitt Stadium, it’s had bench seats since it opened. Most college stadiums have bench seating. You’re supposed to stand and root your team on anyway. Not lounge in some seat and complain when ppl stand in front of you.
Still had to believe a college with 9 National Championships, most of them won in Pitt Stadium, would even contemplate tearing down that stadium.
The ghosts of Pop Warner, Jock Sutherland & Johnny Michelosen roamed those sidelines among many other former great players. All that tradition and history just plowed under by an idiot AD that didn’t even go to PITT.
You don’t destroy your history or tradition unless you never understood it to begin with.
Nor do I go to a football game to eat. You go to a nice place for dinner either before the game (or lunch if it’s an early game) or you have dinner afterwards in a nice restaurant. Where they have good food, not garbage you typically find in sporting stadiums.
It sounds to me you guys are the whiners, ” I have to sit in seats with backs, I can’t stand in a line to piss, I need a nice bathroom to piss in, I need my nachos and beer, on and on.
Man up yourself and quit being a girl.
Imagine frisking everyone going into Pitt Stadium.
Pitt Stadium should have been torn down and replaced on the spot, but there was no money. They looked at renovating and upgrading, again, too expensive. I don’t remember great protests when they tore it down. Nobody chained them self in front of the wrecking ball. Hell they tore down Yankee Stadium, Babe Ruth must be turning over in his grave.
I don’t hear anybody whining about not playing in Fitzgerald Field House. The Pete is a fabulous facility.
100 percent agree with your two previous posts! we’ve become a spoiled lot…
What would they frisk you any different than they do at Heinz ?
And I don’t recall any colleges tearing down their football stadiums. Unless they were dropping out of D1 to a lower classification or dropping the sport altogether. However most want D1 teams because it’s a cash cow. UMASS is now D1, and UNC-Charlotte just built a brand new football stadium as they’ll be entering C-USA in the next year or two.
Who are these 50 colleges that tore down, replaced or removed their stadiums ??
Only one I can think of, that would be that idiotic is……wait……PITT !
I remember going up to Beaver Stadium in the 1970s’. Now that was a dump, did Ped State replace, remove or tear it down. Of course not, they kept making it better. It use to fill up with water in the stands when it rained, probably still does. If you want to watch the game up there when it rains, guess what…you stand in.. in standing water. But they have over 90,000 ppl that will do it at Creepy Valley.
Maybe closer to $300 when they had to replace the brand new roof….with another brand new roof.
Plus redo the whole lobby area twice.
I agree with your approach with lunch or dinner, but I see a lot of Quaker State Wings and Primanti Sandwiches sold at the stadium. The all you can eat seats are pretty popular at PNC.
Not everyone rates nostalgia over comfort, or would put up with your spartan approach. I don’t think all the ladies you brag about would appreciate the lines at the ladies room, or the boiled dog on a soggy bun. Oh but the memories.
just because someone drives a late model BMW, doesn’t make them spoiled..
no kidding, renovating costs money. it’s called investing. in my opinion, pitt would have been better served renovating and keeping history, rather than renting and showing potential recruits how we value the football program.
Legion Field – Home of the UAB Blazers
Some stadiums in college football have a mystique. Some stadiums are home to great moments, classic games, and many great players. Legion Field is one of these stadiums – or at least, it was. Legion Field is still in use, however. In 1991, the University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers began playing their home contests at the venue. The magic and mystique of Legion Field, however, has vanished. The stadium has deteriorated. Due to unsafe conditions, the upper deck had to be torn down. What was once a great place for football has become an old, rusty, lifeless facility, all due to the city of Birmingham’s inability to take care of it.
Maybe Pitt would have been better served to renovate, but it would have cost huge money.
Recently Tenn. spent 200 mil., Michigan 200 mil, Washington 280 mil, Cal 321 mil, and Texas AM 450 mil. All these were in far superior condition than Pitt Stadium.
Imagine just bringing Pitt Stadium up to handicap codes.
Renovation was evaluated and ruled out. You are entitled to your opinion that we would have been better off with renovation, but we still would have needed a place to play basketball and there was not enough money for both.
They have PITT and Heinz Field at #56. Which I think he was generous with. Cause most I know can’t stand the incessant video’s and piped in, way to loud, crowd quieting music (can you call it that)
Kinda of doubt this guy was actually at a game, cause he says: “The fans are always optimistic before kickoff no matter who the opponent is or what the Panthers record is.” HUH !
Anyway we’re in a grouping that includes; GT, SMU, Wake Forest, Utah, AZ St., UTEP, BYU, Utah State, and Western Kentucky. Not exactly venues you think of when you think college football.
It is, what it is.
I would love to see a Panther Hollow Stadium, just don’t think I will live long enough.
This imo is the biggest difference between Heinz atmosphere and real college stadium venue atmospheres.
Places with good college game atmospheres don’t pump in fake NOISE to make noise. That’s so Pro stadium. Despise it.
Plenty of schools are spending big bucks on their football stadiums being renovated, therefore their football program. Cause they know that’s where the money is. Everyone but PITT that is !
But so many Pitt fans sit on their hands during the game, the noise is better than silence. I miss the days of the Let’s Go Pitt Chant without cue cards.
With the $20 Million/year ACC revenue and let’s say the whole Athletic Dept has been getting by on far less, like 4 million/year. Even if you moved that up to say $10mil/year. The other $10/mil/year times 30 years would pay off the bond investors.
So we lucked out being rated that high, imo.
I’ve been to a couple games in Norman, the game atmosphere there is like 20 times better than Heinz Field. Not even close. Yea he must hate the Sooners, cause he didn’t even mention the Sooner Schooner, that thing is a riot.
I remember the time in the Orange Bowl the Sooner Schooner got a 15 yard penalty, lol.
or the wvu mountaineer..
Now I would even wait in a piss line to make that piss. lmao
Pea on JoePedo or Cornhole. We could sell tens of thousands of raffle tickets to commemorate the Event.
Meaning the OU gals will be in their skimpiest attire.
Maybe a rain shower in the 2nd half would cool them off nice !!!
Of course an on-campus football stadium would be preferable to playing off-campus even in a great place like Heinz Field (yeah, I like it). But there is no way, no matter how much you load into the structure, that an on-campus football stadium, particularly one built into the small footprint of the old Pitt Stadium, will ever get as much use as the Pete does.
Consider this also: What do the following generally historically mediocre Top 5 Conference football programs have in common? Minnesota, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana, Iowa State, Kansas, Colorado, Colorado State, Washington State, California, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Boston College and Duke
Hell, use Kentucky as the perfect example. Off campus basketball facility that is sterile and void of any charm what-so-ever. Football stadium on campus, plenty of area for parking and tailgating, and recently updated to the tune of multi-million dollar improvements. How is it possible that UK routinely competes for national championships in basketball and just as commonly shits the bed in football?
Nobody has ever complained that Steelers game atmosphere is lacking.
I just came through Pittsburgh International this afternoon and I saw dozens of FSU fans, wearing their colors and excited to be here. They have rabid fans. WE NEED RABID FANS!!
Be the change you want Panther Nation to be, people!! Buck-up little campers, get excited, get loud, get on your feet, and lets have some enthusiastic fun Monday night.
More to the point, none of the venerable old college stadiums mentioned in this thread have anywhere near the other features you mention. Harvard Stadium, Yale Bowl, the Big House, the Horseshoe, etc. are all single purpose facilities – football stadiums. Perhaps an occasional outdoor event. Classrooms? Dorms? Nope.
Now, if you want to build a facility like that on the Schenley golf course or Southside, I’m with you. But that still doesn’t mean Pitt Stadium could be saved or that it wasn’t worthwhile to build the Pete.
that’s why pitt football is in it’s current situation. all those “crying” examples you cite. “buckling up, getting excited” won’t make pitt win. recruits..talented recruits will make pitt a winner. again, what 5 star recruit wants to play in a half-filled shitty turfed stadium??
Has any kind of color ‘out’ be it a ‘blue out’ or better a ‘gold out’ been ordered up by the mktg. dept in the AD’s office, for Monday nite.
A ‘gold out’ would hide, pretty good, any empty seats in the upper deck and in the 4rth quarter, when all the students are allowed to leave early by University provided buses (brilliant idea there).
Plus the maroons coming up from Yahooland(tallahassee) will be probably have some gold on as well, so ppl would just see them on TV as PITT fans as well.
And the Oakland Zoo kids could just wear their already owned gold shirts.
Has anyone heard anything about a ‘Gold Out’ or if they insist a “blue out” ???
Plan C would be on the Mon on the Sousside, would make sense next to the UPMC practice facility.
No need to divert the Mon thru Oakland then ECH, lol
my hope is stevie p will put the fantastic panther ?? logo back on the helmet..
896 followers on Google+
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public research university located in the state capital city of Tallahassee, Florida, United States. Wikipedia
Address: 600 W College Ave, Tallahassee, FL 32306
Enrollment: 40,474 (2006)
Mascot: Seminole
Acceptance rate: 58% (2010)
Phone: (850) 644-2525
Colors: Garnet, Gold
FSU is accepting phone calls from Pitt fans. haha
Personally, I’d favor either the golf course in the park or southside. It’s too congested to build a stadium with the features you suggest on the hill.
Dan is in charge of the ACC field logos. ha
Haven’t seen him in a while since JoeD-Dan83 vanished. (or was vanquished)
Call the phone number and ask for Jimbo’s cell number. 🙂
Knowing Pitt they’d probably put the Natatorium above the Football Field. ha
Cincy pummeled Purdue 42-7
Hoopies eked past William & Mary 24-17
Pedo State slipped past Cuse 23-17
ND beat Temple 28-6 (must have been first matchup ever)
Ohio Fake not impressive 40-20 over Buffalo
North Dakota State 24 Kansas State 21 (biggest upset so far)
Why blame fans for decisions fans did not make?
Like refusing to give Sherrill what he wanted, which would have prevented Foge from being in charge to backtrack the program’s progress, not running off Mike Gottfried, being committed to winning football with both heart and checkbook.
Pitt administrations have been the biggest roadblock to Pitt football success. We need to keep saying it until alumni demand change.
5 for 26 58 yards.
No wonder d-bag looked adequate by comparison.
McNeese State 33
South Florida 7 @ Halftime
after Uconn got beat by Towson State, Thurs.
AAC looking sharp
another man’s shithole is another man’s palace. pitt stadium needed updating not doubt, but i’d still rather be playing there than heinz field. it may have been “a dump” ur words.. i disagree, but it was our dump where some of the greatest teams in school history made their mark. without their own stadium, wherever they put it, i believe the team will not achieve greatness as before.