I have mixed feelings on this. I love that Stull has really played well this season. He’s had some rough patches, but compared to expectations he has been much better. That said, every column that praises him keeps repeating the “he was booed by the fans in the first game” bit. Even when they are talking about his improved confidence and footwork. That gets more than a little tiresome. Even more tiresome is repeating the lie that he was booed louder in the second half when he was inexplicably reinserted after Sunseri played a series. He wasn’t Smizik, and you were not there to even claim you witnessed it.
It was a solid win. It was great to see a strong finish and Pitt did what they should. That said, no one should claim it was a win against a good team. Louisville is bad. They have now lost 8 straight to 1-A opponents. Their coach is (or should be) a lame duck and gone after this season. On top of that, the Cards quit.
Pitt tight end Dorin Dickerson said the Cards “flat-out quit” toward the end of the game…
There is no greater insult to a team than for the opponent to say you gave up. Whether it was Pitt that made them quit, or their own problems it is a brutal indictment on the Kragthorpe time in Louisville. Sloppy, undisciplined and getting worse deeper into the game. Not good signs for the rest of the Louisville season.
As for Pitt, it was needed to reestablish the defense. It was also the first time in a few games that Pitt’s offense finished strong. Reeling off 28 unanswered points in the second half. There’s no doubt that trailing at the half helped make sure Pitt kept the foot on the gas in the second half. No letting up this time.
On the defensive side, the D-line had a much-needed big game.
“We had a team meeting on Monday,” said middle linebacker Adam Gunn. “We made a promise to the offense — we will never have a performance like we did against Buffalo or N.C. State again.”
It then went from words to actions as a defense that had been shredded for 500 yards in a win at Buffalo and more than 500 yards and 38 points in a loss at North Carolina State went out and had perhaps its best week of practice since early in preseason training camp.
The result was a defensive unit that showed up at Louisville’s Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium Friday night with a chip on its shoulder and resembled the dominant unit most people predicted would carry the Panthers this year.
Particularly dominant — at last — was the front four.
Every Pitt watcher knew the D-line had to be stronger. Or else the real problems in the D would get exposed.
“We’ve kind of dominated here and there, but this was a total performance by the whole D-line,” Romeus said. “We’re still not satisfied. Next week, we are going to try to come stronger.”
Strong play by the front line takes pressure off a Pitt secondary that was exposed against Buffalo and N.C. State. It will be critical in the future as the Panthers meet Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen, West Virginia’s Jarrett Brown and Cincinnati’s Tony Pike, who all rank in the top 6 in the nation in total offense or passing efficiency.
“If we can’t make plays up front,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said, “we’re not going to play very good defense.”
“Who was that guy wearing the No. 11 Pitt jersey last night?
Was it really Bill Stull, who was booed at Heinz Field on the first series of the first game last month?
The same Bill Stull, who played so abysmally in Pitt’s 3-0 loss to Oregon State in the Sun Bowl last season?
Funny, I would have sworn it was Dan Marino leading Pitt past Louisville, 35-10”
Umm no Ron, it definitely wasnt Dan Marino. I give Stull credit, he has definitely outperformed his low expectations but lets not annoint him Danny Marino just yet. I am glad to see his confidence improving and he is hitting key passes. But its a long season, he still has a lot to prove.
If you still don’t understand the immediate reaction from a live blog — when he nearly threw picks while staring down his receiver that bounced off of the defenders hands and the reactions really seemed to upset you — then I can’t help you. It’s being a fan and reacting immediately. Not upon reflection.
As for the booing. I was at the game. The booing was loudest on the INT — the second set of boos. The booing when he was reinserted was half-hearted and the least because people were too confused to boo at once. The crowd had started to thin as the game was well in hand. Plus most people didn’t realize it right away when Stull was reinserted. There was a lot more, WTF before any other reaction.
I hate that Smizik, who was not at the game, keeps repeating something that is a flat lie. I’ve been in the press box for a game and the media in the press box at Heinz Fields gets little sense of the crowd because most of the time the press box is sealed off and so crowd noises are significantly muted. The big roars or boos are clear, but most other sounds that roll through Heinz Field are much less clear.
I do believe that there are still too much dislike and distrust of Stull even now … especially since right now there is no proof that inserting Sunseri would be an upgrade.
Clausen doesn’t worry as much as Brown or Pike, because he doesn’t have their mobility. Mobile QBs seems to be the bane of the defense.
About using Sunseri … “We would love to do that. That has not changed. Tino is continuing to make progress in practice. The only thing that we haven’t been able to do is get him in the game and get him some playing time. It’s a little bit like the Ray Graham scenario. It’s just easier to roll running backs than it is quarterbacks, for the obvious reasons. Tino is ready to go every week. We would have hoped to have more opportunities to get him in the game, but sometimes it’s just difficult.”
I saw that play, rewound it on DVR, called the missus in, and had her watch it with me. It was a beautiful thing. I was at the Niners’ preseason game with the Raiders, and Scott McKillop was all over the place in the second half. He had an INT, a bunch of big plays, and a fumble rec for a td (that was called back on a penalty). The best part? He stood next to Coach Singletary the entire time when he wasn’t on the field. The kid wants to play.
Facts are facts, folks: Billy Stull is an elite passer! I love it. Given the rest of the schedule, I see no reason why Stull can’t throw for 25 touchdowns. Notre Dame’s d is horrendous. South Florida’s is solid, and Cincy is stacked, but we should make waves against the rest of our slate. Also, Dion is 5th in the nation in rushing, well ahead of the obscenely overrated Jahvid “Not Really Even One of the” Best. Noteworthy: Stanford Senior Toby Gerhart leads the country in rushing with 650, and they are a few horrendous penalty calls at Wake Forest away from being 5-0…yet they’re unranked and no one talks about Gerhart for post-season hardware. Everyone is so obsessed with preseason hype its absurd. Oklahoma just HAS TO BE good, so we leave them ranked at 2-2. Washington was ranked at 2-1 when they upset USC. They came to Stanford and got waxed, so they fell out. But Stanford made no progress in themselves being ranked. Then Stanford manhandled UCLA in a game that was never as close as the final score, and the voters sit on their hands. Come on people.
On the flip side: Props to the voters for ranking South Florida. That will help us when we smoke them later on in the year.
Also, when it comes to booing, it is not the intention but the perception. There were many others like you who aimed your booing towards the coach, but the mass perception was that it was aimed at the QB. Lastly, I see little difference in booing the QB or the coach for playing the QB.
which leads into …. all you Stull haters, get your vocal chords tuned up …. UConn should be the best defense Pitt has seen by far, I’m sure you’ll get your chanced for voicing your displeasure.
I do not want to get too excited about the L’ville win. They are an inferior team who isn’t playing anywhere near 100% of their capabilities. We know what are issues are, let’s see if we can overcome them against a better team.
I am very dismayed at the comment a few posts ago that the Pitt Administration is looking for a 7-9 win season ever year. Let’s face it, 7-9 wins may cut it for a college town or a larger metropolitan area, but 7 wins isn’t filling Heinz field and not generating additional season ticket sales. The Big East is perceived as a 2nd rate conference and 7 wins gets us on ESPN2 on Friday nights. Until we get to 9+ wins consistently we will always take a back seat to the Pittsburgh pro teams, other nearby colleges & other conferences.
Does anyone remember when Pederson arrived at Pitt in 1996 how he shook things up? He cleaned house, made the decision (OK maybe it wasn’t all his decision) to tear down Pitt stadium and generally re-vamped the “business as usual” athletic dept. Now that he is back, has anyone heard a peep from him? Seems like Stevie found a place to hide out and retire.
Conversely, there is every reason to believe that Pitt is in a budget crunch like everyone else. The bowl payouts, which is muuch worse as it is than any other BCS conference, is getting worse … and the season ticket prices are much lower than most other comparable schools due to the issues of playing a pro town in an unattractive and lowly-esposed conferences. (note that season ticket sales are way up this year.)
Like it or not, Pitt simply cannot compete financially with the big boys — they do not have the alumni base, nor the payouts from the bowls and TV contracts that the bigger schools have.
The guy gets it out to midfield almost every time he fields a kickoff, and it’s only a matter of time before he breaks one.
When the college FB regular season was only 10 games long the minimum measure of success for fans and getting to a bowl game was going 7-3 or better. Now that there are 12 games–and at least 2 games are specifically added as guaranteed wins vs weak opponents, the MINIMUM standard for success becomes 9-3 (7-3 + 2 “cupcake” wins) in the regular season. Anything less than 9 regular season wins, IMO, means the season has been unsuccessful because today’s 8-4 = 6-4 in reality and today’s 7-5 = 5-5 in reality and that is definitely mediocrity.
Hey wait a minute, maybe Smizik can join him.
Pitt opened up as an 8.5 favorite against UConn.