Chas

I couldn’t agree with you more. 17 commits and just one O lineman in the class. Call me crazy, but given the current state of affairs, we need to sign offensive lineman. Another running back which we really don’t need.

JUCO! JUCO!

Looks like we’ll need a replacement for the little guy arrested for hit-and-run-DUI. Agree on the need for more OLs.

This kid looks real good. I agree that JUCO will be the way…it’s worked in the past. Maybe we get lucky with a walk on as well. But, we need better O-line recruiters and then coaches to get the most out of that talent. It’s a shame Pitt cannot recruit quality O linemen anymore given our history – Brown, Stepnoski, May, Covert, Grimm, Fralic, etc. We used to be known as O-line U.

Things get really scary when you take a look at hte full roster. We have linemen, a lot of them, they just “aren’t ready” to play.

BnG…and they never seem to EVER be ready to play. Don’t understand it.

For you juco guys.Saheed Imoru and Greg Cross. Taking roster spots.

Otah=JUCO

Houser=JUCO

Yes, the point about JUCO O-Line is that they are typically ready to come in and play. Which is important as we seem to have very little depth on the O-Line that would be ready to play next year.

link to google.com

What a garbage article. I don’t understand why everyone is acting like Miami is the national power it once was. I hardly think Pitt is still chasing Miami and the programs are pretty much equal footing right now. Citing a ranking when both teams are 1-1 hardly qualifies as proof that one program is superior. Also, citing the horrific start of the BE and neglecting to acknowledge how awful the ACC has been is poor journalism. The title of the article is probably the worst part…

At this rate, I’d take ANY other recruit…

What’s up with all of these running backs and defensive linemen?

Henry, I hear you… but Pitt just needs to win its games. I’m tired of all of the reasons (excuses) when it comes to games like last year’s Cincy game and this year’s Utah loss.

I watch teams with freshman QBs (Penn State) and they don’t take the soft approach the Panthers did with Sunseri. These teams use their weapons where the Panthers haven’t… I still remember Larry Fitzgerald’s decoy game against the U.

Pitt can/should win some of these big games, but a few wins against Notre Dame and one incredible upset over WVU doesn’t cut it.

I say Hail to Pitt, but it better win.

Agreed Brian,

‘Not my fault’ Walt had just as much success to this point as Wanny has, with alot less big time recruits in the stable…so tired of having to wait ’till we’re down by 10 in the 4th to see how fast this car can go. If they simply flipped the play chart and called everything like it was the 4th quarter, we’d be a serious force to reckon with….imagine the holes for Lewis and Graham if the defense got torched by a few seam routes early in the game….Ausgezeisshnet!(sp?)

The two “signature wins” against Notre Dame only happened because the only game-day coach in America worse than Wanny was on the opposite sideline. We all thought the WVU upset was THE TURNING POINT – didn’t happen that way of course which suggests RichRod had a worse night than Wanny. Pitt needs to win, and they need to play to win, not play not to lose. There is far more downside in losing than upside in winning. What good does it do to beat Rutgers and UConn to get a BCS bid if you spit the bit everytime ESPN turns the lights on? One more thing: with the Steelers’ start, Pitt needs to win big if they want to stay in the conversation around here. If they don’t, expect announced crowds of 50,000+ in October when your eyes tell you there may only be 25,000 in the stands if you include the concession workers in the count.

Wow. If there was one type of recruit they didn’t need, it’d be a 5’8″ running back.

I say we all ante up and buy off the stud OL from Damatha … and take our chances.

Chas, get Paypal programmed

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Every year we rotate which link. It’s been the QB, or DBs. This year it’s the OL. I suppose you can scheme to hide the weakness, but I don’t see much of that. The other links can be really strong, even made stronger, but that’s not much help.

I’m all for slipping some dough to the OL to come to Pitt. Let’s hope he wins the Outland trophy in four years and is forced to give it back.

I don’t understand how one can look at the 13-9 game and not see some sort of progression from before that game until now.

Prior to 13-9 we were 6-6 and 5-7; since then we have been 9-4 and 10-3.

If a PITT fan can’t see that game as some sort of turning point then your vision is skewed.

I think some Pitt fans see progress as being “win the games your supposed to win, be competitive in games your expected to lose”

Losing to Bowling Green, bad…..Losing to NC State, bad…..

I agree, Pitt is in a much better place than it was going into the last few years, I’ve expected at least 8 wins per year and to me thats progress. The doldrums of the 90s weren’t that long ago, lest we forget

Today

Partly cloudy. Very warm. High 89F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph

Miami weather

Wow, there is some negativity on here per the usual. The nonsoft approach really worked well for PSU versus Alabama. In that game, the freshman QB made huge mistakes in the red zone and took points off the board. If PSU plays it the “bad” Wanny way, they probably are in that game an the end with a chance to win. And if the D just picks up the blocked punt and takes it into the endzone then Pitt wins. I’m sure having Tino wing it around against Utah and get picked off 3 times in the first half would have done wonders. I can only imagine what people on here would be saying if Pitt got blown out by Utah. And in regards to the Walt Harris era, this years Pitt team would crush any of Walt’s best teams. Pitt has been within a play the past 2 years of getting to a BCS game. Yes, there have been difficult losses, but we are in every game at the end and don’t get blown out anymore. People need to stop acting crazy and get real.

XBlack, don’t forget – a horribly muffed kickoff catch by our DUI specialist and 1 missed mid-range field goal, take 7 away from Utah if Douglas catches the kick. This team will win tonight. The crowd had better be a factor!

XBlack – This year’s team probably wouldn’t have crushed any of Walt’s teams. Not saying the talent isn’t greater, but the coaching and play calling hold this team back, preventing it from crushing just about anybody. Taking talent into consideration, the Harris teams from 02 and 03 would almost certainly beat this team.

Not much changes with some Pitt fans–I remember Dan Marino getting booed at Pitt stadium when he had (for him) and off day and threw a couple of picks.

I tend to think that nothing less than going 13-0 and winning the MNC every year would ever satisfy some. Even then, some would be negative and complain that the scoring margin wasn’t high enough in some games or that it would have been an easier road to the MNC if a different QB, or RB, was playing first team, etc., etc. The standard for success for some must be continually ratcheted higher and higher.

All that being said, my own personal view (which I hope is more pragmatic) is that in this age of scholarship number limits which “spreads the talent” around more it isn’t nearly as possible to win the BE title and make a BCS bowl every year. On the other hand, generally speaking, given the 12 game regular season and the tendency to schedule weak non-conference opponents to pad the bowl resume it isn’t the number of wins a season should be judged a success by, it is the number of losses. IMO, 5 or more losses is a disappointing season. Four losses is a barely acceptable season (mediocrity). Success means 3 or fewer losses (10 wins or more).

Note: For the current season only, due to a tougher than usual non-conference schedule, I would slip my above criteria for failure a little–>Failure = 7-6 or 8-5 (after a bowl loss) or worse. I think I would define success as 9-4 (after a bowl win) or better. Mediocrity would be = 9-4 (after a bowl loss) or 8-5 (after a bowl win), I think.

Good points Keyboard kev. I completely forgot about the kickoff . Isn’t Ray Graham the normal kickoff guy? If Ray had played he would have caught it for sure.

Hollywood, I think you are forgetting about some of Walt’s terrible calls, like the swinging gate in 2002. And I was at in the Glass Bowl at the terrible Toledo game in 2003. Also in 2003 Pitt lost to WVU 52-31. No team is beating Pitt by that this year.

This team would crush any Harris team without Fitzgerald on it. If Fitz is there it could be a good game if the Harris O-Line can pass protect. However, I think this teams D-Line would do what Miami used to do to Harris o-line’s and hammer the QB. Advantage this years team.

“and Pitt takes the opening possesion on the 20..run to the right for two yards, up the middle for one, ok, 3rd and7, and, we have a 5yrd sideline reception……..” wait, wait, that must have been a nightmare, they haven’t even played yet thank goodness, and of course, I know they won’t come out and do that tonight!!!

I’m sorry, and I respect your opinion, but, even in this day and age of scholarship number limits, I would expect, and believe, there is no reason that Pitt and West Virginia should not be vying (sp) for the extremely soft, even softer than usual, weaker than the Mountain West (better watch out, the comparisons in the future won’t be between the BE and MNT WEST, it will be between the BE and the WAC, but, I digress)………there is no reason that Pitt and WVU should not be playing for the conference championship and a BCS bid on a regular basis. Maybe my expectations are too high???? In my mind, we should be dominating one the weakest conferences in the country. So, no, I don’t expect 13-0 or even 12-1 or 11-2 every year (allthough, admittedly that’s where I’d hoped we were going someday), but to be an also-ran in the BE is not what I was hoping for. I’m not saying we are an also-ran now, but a couple more losses, and, yes, that’s what we’ll be again. I like Wanny, I love Cignetti, if you take the blinders off, it just wasn’t the loss at Utah, it was the way we looked, it’s been 6 years, and yes, I’ll admit it, I thought we would be a perennial top 15 team by now. No, not Alabama or Texas or USC, but, a team people on sportscenter would say, “watch out for those Panthers in the East”, “oooh, Pitt looks tough!”. It’s not being negative, when you take the blue and gold colored glasses off, we have not looked good the first two games. Even the NH game was rough around the edges and no Dion against a Div 1aa or whatever they call it now. I am gearing up for a big win tonight, I am fired up, I am looking for an exciting cat fight that I hope we win, hopefully they’ve jelled and will be on their way to a great season. I hope there is nothing negative to comment on, nor will I be looking for negatives, but….. I will comment on what I see. Hail to Pitt!!!!!!!

I live in Nashville now and the stats of stae players was in the paper today. This kid is dead middle of the state’s RBs and through 5 games has 62 carries for 449 yds and 3 TDs.

The better OLs dont sign early…hang tight boys. My guess is that with all the attention on the OL this year that a focus on recruiting will be there. Immediate help comes from JUCO. We will need a mix.

Dan–Have no disagreement with you really. I do think that the BE has shown nothing (so far at least) this year. But, it is only one year (and still early) and the last several years the BE was pretty strong. These things are cyclical. Hopefully, this is just a down BE year (for all but Pitt and WVU). I do think we should be contending for the BE title and a BCS bid every year but don’t expect we can win it every year since the past 5-6 years would suggest WVU will also contend and some one of the other BE teams will be a contender also most years. The pattern might wind up being Pitt could win the BE slightly more than 1/3 the time, WVU slightly less than 1/3 the time and some other BE team the remainder of the time (whichever team gets”hot”).

I gotcha pitt1972, and your formula is reasonable and I agree, I’m just hoping to someday have Wanny get the program to where 10-3 and 9-4 are kinda disappointing. Good chat. Almost time to blow outta here and head down. Enjoy the game if your going, or on the tube if not!!! Let’s Go Pitt!!!!!!!!!!!!

X et al,

Wanny got pummeled by Rutgers just two years ago, when their guy set their all-time passing record on us?! And WVU spanked us on national tv when we had Revis and Palko?! Believe me, I’m a huge fan and would love to see us put it to the “U”, and I think we can win, but Walt knew how to take the parking break off and score some points — he clearly had his weaknesses also — but Wanny still has much to prove from the in game adjustments “standpoint”. I like the guy, but he’s ridiculously stubborn on offense when he has the horses to really bring it if he wanted.