The numbers are damning over the last 3 games.
— 1552 total yards surrendered.
— 140 points given up by the defense (We won’t count the 7 given up by special teams).
— 1 takeaway by the defense.
As the offense has improved and progressed over the course of the season, the defense has made no progress from the start of the season. It was masked by the competition, but there is no hiding from this mess.
But this has been coming a while. When Matt House was hired as the defensive coordinator, no one could actually defend the hiring from a football standpoint. He was unqualified. He had very limited experience even as a position coach. He was Chryst’s comfortable hire because it promoted staff continuity. The defense of House essentially came down to either trying to shift the blame on the AD or to say that we have to trust Head Coach Paul Chryst’s judgment on his own staff.
This is a staff that is supposed to develop talent. We see plenty of that on the offensive side, but not so much from the defense. We are told not to worry about star/recruiting rankings. But, funny thing, the offense just happens to have a bunch of 4- and high 3-star players while the defense lacks those. This was why the verbal of Isiah Whitehead took on such an outsized level of importance.
And there are flashes of some players that look like they will be good players — at some point. But as a whole, the defense has not gotten better. And consider that some of Pitt’s best and most consistent defensive players — Ray Vinopal, Anthony Gonzalez, Todd Thomas and Dave Durham — are seniors.
As I watched the Pitt-UNC game I was struck by how little confidence I had in the defense. And just how much pressure it felt like there was on the offense. Justin may have summed it up best.
The complete lack of faith in the defense is creating both anxiety and fatalism. As Pitt jumped out to a 14-0 lead, all I could think 0f was the Iowa game. Where Pitt looked so strong and certain, and then the defense started to wobble. And wobble. And unlike a Weeble, fall down.
And there was little explanation given other than cliches.
There were no answers for North Carolina quarterback Marquise Williams, who slipped through poor tackle attempts, outran defenders and threw for 276 yards and a touchdown. Walk-on running back Charles Brunson, who hadn’t been handed the ball since the opener, scored on a 17-yard run in the third quarter, only 86 seconds after Conner’s third touchdown gave Pitt a 28-19 lead.
North Carolina’s six touchdown drives covered 72, 80, 75, 92, 81 and 75 yards. After a scoreless first quarter in which Pitt built a 14-0 lead, the Tar Heels (5-5, 3-3) scored almost at will on six of eight possessions.
“We had some missed tackles, overran a couple things, and they executed a little bit better,” coach Paul Chryst said.
There was more to it, however.
Oh, was there. Marquise Williams started the game horribly. He was 4-16 midway through the second quarter. He then rattled off 16 straight completions, and carried the Tar Heels. It wasn’t just the secondary. The inability to reach the quarterback in time made the pass rush useless. It was painful, oh so predictable and I couldn’t look away from the mess.
Not that the Pitt players had much of an answer. They seemed genuinely shell-shocked after this game. Somehow more so than after the gut-punch of a loss two weeks ago against Duke. And all Chryst could offer was something that is not simply hard to swallow, but engaging the gag reflex.
“It stings,” Chryst said. “There’s a sting right now, but they’ll be resilient and we’ll come back.”
Still waiting for that bounce back after the GT game. And the Duke. And now UNC.
Now the reality. Chryst isn’t getting fired this year. I don’t think he should. But he has no choice in shaking up the staff. He didn’t have a ton of goodwill built up before this season, but given the schedule and the way the games have been lost Chryst has put himself in a position with no margin of error for 2015.
Not simply that, his decisions on who he hired for the defensive staff make it his responsibility to change what isn’t working. And whether he wants to or not, that means making changes to the defensive coaching staff because the “process” and the status quo are not working. And it does start with Matt House as the primary sacrifice.
Maybe someday House becomes a good DC and vindicates what Chryst saw in him when he was promoted. The problem is he got promoted way too soon and has not been up to the job at this time. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Inoke Breckterfield and/or Chris Haering pursuing other opportunities after this season.
Changes will be coming this off season. They have to.
The real eye opener is even if they hire a competent DC the talent level is pretty thin and they could struggle next season.
The lack of quality defensive recruits over the Chryst era has caught up with them.
Pitt has the OutHouse Defense.
something to be celebrated, right. haha
Yea well when your best defensive player, one of the very few who make a big play, tackle for loss, etc., is off the field for at least 33% of the defensive snaps…..what can one say.
Men’s basketball showed some grit today in the initial game of the Maui classic. Mike Young is a monster! We have some quality players that need to learn to play together but we will live and die these next three years with our sophomore class. Get healthy Cam we need you to take over the starters role for CJ! Really, really disappointed Durand, potential don’t put points on the board or rebounds on the stat sheet. Welcome DW! Hail to Pitt! UPone
I know that yours truly won’t be in attendance.
First time in many of a year we didn’t go to at least one Pitt game.
If they stand ‘pat’, won’t be going to any next year either.
Cudos to Coach Blunder for putting a neophyte, who could neither coach or recruit, in charge of it.
I wouldnt go if I lived in the stadium and had $500 gift card to Bojangles! ACC Reference. LOL. Real Stats 14k fans. Annouced attendence. 39k. What a joke of a program.
I would also sit Pitts. He will either take that as notice for next year or he will fold and be dead weight along with Jevonte. It’s time to motivate the kids in the defensive backfield or wish them well in their other careers. Free up some additional schollies.
That was Dan72 who said 17K.
I’m not good at predicting how much of a bright yellow ocean of empty seats will occur.
And they do love doing that. Don’t they.
We all know he has to go. Again though I ask, if Chryst is not extended in the month or so, which I don’t see happening, who comes here. No DC who still has career aspirations walks into this mess with a head coach entering the 4th year of a 5 year contract, with no extension forthcoming. I just don’t see it.
I think House is back. Brecterfeld or Haering may be the sacrificial lambs. The only other option would be to maybe promote Troy Douglas. I like his fire and think he recruits better than House. Although he has a lot more coaching experience than House, he has never been a coordinator.
Regardless of what happens this offseason I believe in a little over a year from now Pitt will be searching for a new man to lead the program. I just don’t see Chryst turning this around. I wanted to believe in him, especially after how Graham bailed on us. Deep down I had some serious reservations. Some guys just got it and you know it. Chryst doesn’t exude that at all and after witnessing him coaching for almost 3 years it is becoming increasingly obvious that he just don’t got it.
My hope is when what seems like his inevitable firing happens, it is a clean sweep with Pederson gone too. Maybe then, we can have hope again. It has been since I was still a friggin teenager in the mid 90’s I was this down on Pitt football…
Is HCPC saying the coaches are forgetting to put players on the field? Had to ask – too easy…
How about this quote from the same presser – “we have to get better”, says coach Chryst.
Suggestion on getting better: SOP – Show Outhouse (the) Pinkslip. Instant improvement!
Does the Idaho Potato Bowl still exist?
Did anyone else notice that the three guys who seemed to be making all the plays (or were close to making all the plays) true frosh.
Blair was the only one that seemed to get consistent pressure late (but just couldn’t get close enough on a couple of key plays)
Amara had a crucial PI called against him on 3rd down (okay so this is not making a play, but due to lack of depth he was playhing)
Maddox by all accounts had a heck of a game against one of the top receivers in the ACC.
So the takeaway is that this defense, and by extension the team is a year away. If you look at the last three coaches, it took them all 4 years. Harris went 5-7 in year three. Wannstadt went 5-7 in year three. Chryst will most likey go 5-7 in year three.
Sucks to have to wait to see how this will all pan out, but them’s the breaks.
Thank God Maddox had a good game or NC would have put up 70.
Pitt needs some speed on the field, especially at LB.
their first TD and and the converted 4th and 2 occurred when the OLB contained but the MLB was nowhere to be found to plug the hole
For me and every other Pitt fan on here, we all understand that HCPC is safe, and i think a bunch (im guestimating) of us are okay with that. But it is also blatently obvious that changes need to be made mainly on the defensive side of the ball. HCPC doesn’t have a strong suit of making adjustments, so i worry that he will fail to see this as well. And if I am fiercely optimistic and Pitt wins its last 2 games, then feel that there is even more likelihood that changes won’t be made on the defensive side of coaching.
This is the third game in a row in which defense has failed us; strike 3 and HOuse should be delivered walking papers today. If nothing else, it shows the fanbase that HCPC is serious about winning, but that isn’t how he works. I look at HCPC coaching mantra to be similar to the tortoise and the hare. Right now the hare is winning, and us pitt fans are screaming at the tortoise to hurry up!
Will be watching the final two games. However
can’t wait until the season is over.
Painful to watch. Disappointed for sure.
Worse than all can’t see a light at the end
of the tunnel. Questions abound re: PC,
MH, recruiting, coaching gaffes, etc.
Will it ever change after 33 years
of mediocrity?
The Pitt coaching staff is not good at making in-game adjustments. Whether it be the defense or offense or special teams. The offensive coaches have adjusted mid-season to our QB’s strengths and we have seen some positive results (wins not included).
The defense has not adjusted, nor game planned well to our competition as the season has progressed.
If we look at the season in its entirety, you have to look at the trends.
Offense – trending up
Special Teams – trending down
Defense – spiraling downward and out of control
Dixon has a history of hiring former head coaches as his assistants. they contribute for a year or two and move on. That is not a bad thing. Keeps the program fresh. Why not spend a few extra bucks on a former head coach? Plenty of great DCs out there that were promoted to HC and it didnt work out. Bring one in for a season or two before he gets another HC job.
IF you were not a Pitt fan, This was a fun game to watch, not many penalties, (or defenses either) so lots of scoring and back and forth lead changes. But Chas nails it when he states that there is a pervasive FATALISM surrounding the Pitt program right now. When Conner, in full BEAST MODE, pushed that last Panther TD in with just over 3 minutes left in the game to take a one point lead again, no $hit, I immediately stated, “just enough time for us to lose this”! Now that’s a phucked up attitude for a fan to have, isn’t it? But, like all of you, have seen this show too many times already. Sure enough, Pitt finds a way to lose!
Time to hire both a great recruiter and an experienced respected DC no matter what the cost. This defense is under manned, poorly coached and lacks recruiting strength at all positions. This has to change immediately or else the Chryst era is doomed.
Doe’s Chryst pull the plug on House, I doubt it. Therefore we must continue to petition for the firing of Steve Pederson NOW! At least then Pitt will have a new AD to conduct the search for our next head football coach after Chryst is let go after yet one final year of dissappointing football in 2015.
Pitt football deserves better! Hail to Pitt!
looking ahead at next year, i do think we are at a crossroads; heck it can’t get much worse. This next year will be a make it or break it year for HCPC. Either he makes the changes he needs to, or else he won’t be invited back to return for another season. Simple as that. I feel like we have hit rock bottom this season, fortunately it was with a very young team. so there is a lot of lessons learned for that team. if it was a team mainly of juniors, then i would say forget it, but we are a young group of guys that are learning. we have learned what it is like to lose, so now lets learn how good it feels to win. there is talent on this team, it is just raw. and can’t leave this out, House must go!
It has to be a nationally respected guy who has an established recruiting pipeline that he can bring with him and maybe a couple kids this year.
Anything short of this is lipstick on a pig and he will be gone after next year along with Conner and Boyd.
If Gallagher is any kind of a man with an understanding of the fan base, SP will be gone today, to let everyone know that Pitt cares about its athletic programs, its alumni and fans. Oh yeah and especially the kids that have chosen to play for Pitt.
My guess is unless these things happen a lot of people will not be going to Heinz next year, myself included.
I am also done with commenting on Football for a while, it is way to repetitive and there is really nothing else to say.
I doubt that even Reed will have a hard time finding any positives.
This current team has a very bright OFFENSIVE future for next season, but that’s only half the formula for success. With a “decent” defense we win at least 4 of 5 against Iowa, Akron, UVA, Duke and UNC this year. That would feel like a completely different season being 8-2 and already penciling in a win against a struggling Syracuse squad while we’re trying to figure out how to beat FSU in the ACC championship game. Remember how optimistic this board was back in August? If we had a D it could have transpired just that way.
We are not even close to “rock bottom” but we DO deserve better, much better! HCPC screwed the pooch on his DC hire and his lack of having an aggressive, successful recruiting staff on board has retarded the progress of his tenure also. This is repairable without having to blow this completely up and starting over like we just did a few years ago.
Unfortunately, I just don’t think that HCPC has the cojones to do the things necessary to get it done. Also The sooner Pederson gets shown the door the better. I don’t see that happening soon either. So Pitt football will probably just continue to wallow in the current mediocrity that it has been mired in for years. Same old, same old. And we wonder why Fraud Graham bailed in the middle if the night? Make no mistake about it, Pederson is a major part of the problem.
Fire him and get an AD that builds a fire under our cheesehead football coach to make those correct staffing upgrades and Pitt just might become relevant in the national scene again in the future. Otherwise, meh?
But meh is a long way from hitting rock bottom. I hope I never see that again, because that was beyond ugly.
1. Fire Pederson today. Tired of being the butt end of a joke.
Time for new blood and a new belief. That is one thing that puzzled me from the first day one and the second day one with the AD. He NEVER rallied the troops or gave the fan base any semblance that Pitt would improve in ANY sport. If the AD can’t get excited, why should the coaches, players and fans.
In college athletics and in professional life, a program takes on the persona of their leader. Our AD is the leader of the athletic program. Our AD has failed in every sport in every year. Compare him to any other power 5 school AD and what do you get? An AD without an identity. AD has no identity, his programs have no identity.
The next AD could come from wrestling and turn wrestling into a powerhouse or swimming, or something, I don’t care. Let’s be great at something and not terrible at all things. Basketball has underachieved. Creampuff scheduling has caught up with the pollsters and committee. He has sold leadership for years and it is time for a leader at the university to say, sorry, you are the weakest link.
You nailed it. Johnny Majors 1.0 had Jimmy Johnson and Jackie Sherrill. Majors 2.0 had ???
Chryst seems to think defense is just something to kill time until the offense gets the ball again. An afterthought.
SOP – Support our players AND shove out Pedersen
HTP!
Tortoise and the hare
Losing mindset was there in 72 and is still there today. It’s just that in 72, I actually believed there was hope and it arrived in the form of Johnny Majors. I no longer have hope!
Just heard that Pederson is bringing back 1/2 of the throwback Script colors for the Syracuse game. The Heinz mustard yellow color is back against the Orange at Heinz Field! YELLOW OUT!
Rumor has it that the first 10,000 patrons arriving at Heinz will receive bright yellow T-shirts. No Pitt Script or Pitt emblems of any kind emblazoned on them however, just a little square at the top center that contains the identical number of the seat that you sit in. As an extra promotion it will also be BALLOON DAY! Any seat left unoccupied will have a balloon attached to it with an image of a face hovering above the seat during the game. Can you imagine the impact of an entire stadium completely covered in bright yellow and balloon faces in every seat, at every level?!?!?!? That will have to appear INTIMIDATING to the opposition!
And we think Smiley Steve has no original ideas to promote the Saturday game experience! LOL!
The anticipated “extra” left over T-shirts not distributed on game day will be magnanimously donated by Pitt to the local area Boys Clubs and homeless shelters on Sunday. The only issue Pederson is currently “trouble shooting” is the apparent shortage of available helium supply in Pittsburgh needed to fill the expected 50,000 balloons required to, as Pederson states, “to really do this balloon thing right”!
Pardon the gallows humor, but what is left, but to laugh?
I don’t know much about coaching so I’ll leave that to the other Blather experts. However, I believe Pitt needs to learn how to hold a lead. Eliminating mistakes and costly penalties would be a good start…
Comment by Dr. Tom 11.17.14 @ 1:24 pm
No problem Doc…..Pitt football has been a Dark Comedy for most of the last 30 years.
Bad News Panthers !
Creepy….but then again so is Cornhole.
Blaming coaching for the putrid defense is easy but it may not be the real problem.
Also, i don’t hink the admin will get rid of Chryst strictly based on the W-L record. He only gets canned if the team becomes non-competitive in the losses–mostly blowouts–and that hasn’t happened yet.
