3:10 to go, down four, ball on their own 38 yard line.

3:44 to go, down seven, ball on their own 28 yard line.

1:04: to go, down 3, ball on their own 24 yard line.

That’s the situation opposing offenses have been in the last three games. The result? ZERO points and three wins for Pitt. After the defense held on against VT, Narduzzi said in his press conference that the team made mistakes against Iowa that led to the 57 yard FG. Since then, not only has the defense held on, they’ve thrived. What a change from last year. When the defense is on the field with the game on the line they’ve responded. (more…)

I apologize in advance that this is not up to my usual standard. I’ve been too busy with work and I rushed through this. My analysis is good, but my writing sucks in this one. Sorry guys.

After last year’s abomination, it’s surprising to see how optimistic Pitt fans are against Georgia Tech. I’m not necessarily predicting a loss, but I see more confidence than I think is warranted. Last year’s homecoming embarrassment was not purely a product of the 734  six lost fumbles (five in the first half). GT had 612 yards of offense on the ground and scored 28 points in the second half after the Fumblepalooza ’14 in the first half. Georgia Tech ran the ball at will against a defense that returns most of the same starters. Let’s break them down. (more…)

Safety Paris Ford has committed to Pitt according to Chris Peak of Panther Lair. The consensus four star prospect from Seton La Salle chose Pitt over offers from Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan State, some school in Central PA surrounded by cows, and numerous other P5 schools.

According to Peak, Ford chose Pitt because he “wanted to show people that this ‘#412Crew’ movement can be serious if a big piece committed…[s]o I decided to be that piece.” While his relationship with Narduzzi and the coaches undoubtedly was the primary reason, it’s safe to say the high level play from the defense so far makes this decision a lot easier.

Ford is a great addition for Narduzzi and could be the start of a domino effect bringing numerous other WPIAL stars into the fold. Ford joins Exree Loe as the second commitment for the 2017 class.

For the game, the offense had nice enough numbers. 363 total yards. 222 in the air. 141 on the ground. The overall play calling appeared a bit run heavy. 35 rushes (including one sack) to 24 passes. About 59% run, 41% pass. It’s the way it ended up there, that is a bit of a concern.

Last week after the win over Virginia Tech, Head Coach Pat Narduzzi admitted that Pitt got very conservative on offense in the second half. That approach continued — and if anything was worse — in the Virginia game.

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This column will be shorter than usual as I’ve been under the weather all week. I’m also quite busy at work so that’s eating up a lot of my weakened energy. So, please forgive more typos and errors than usual. Long story short, Pitt is a better team than Virginia at almost every facet. Chaney’s offense is still a work in progress without James Conner, but I’m willing to give him a mulligan on last week. This week, however, the offense needs to produce and get things going as this defense is not good enough to win on its own against the likes of Georgia Tech and UNC like it did against VT.

The Cavaliers opened up the season with back to back games against highly ranked out of conference opponents (UCLA and Notre Dame). The Notre Dame game was a respectable loss, with the Fighting Irish needing last second heroics to pull off the win but UCLA was never really a contest. Since then, they struggled to beat FCS foe William & Mary and got whooped by Boise State. I respect UVA for the tough out of conference schedule, but in order to build the program you need actual wins, not moral victories. (more…)

Like every year since Pitt joined the ACC, the Coastal division appears wide open. In 2013, Duke had their best season in most of our lifetimes and won the division with a 10-2 regular season (6-2 in the ACC). In 2014, a 10-2 (6-2 in ACC) Georgia Tech had a season for the ages which culminated in an Orange Bowl victory over a top 10 SEC team (Mississippi State). Each season had a 5-3 team in second place (2013 had three), so there was no wiggle room; they had to win six for the outright title. (more…)

Pitt lost to Iowa in dramatic fashion. This feels like the norm, but it was different this year. First off, it was Pitt that came back in the fourth quarter after a rough start. Second, Pitt is still finding its footing without James Conner. Third, the defense, while not perfect, forced Iowa to earn every single point. There were no gimmes, no luck other than the 57 yards FG, and it ended up a hard fought contest between two good football teams.

I can live with that. There was no choke or horrific mistake. Sometimes you play a good football team and you lose. Instead of looking back, I want to look forward. What can Pitt do during the bye week to prepare for a tough road game against Virginia Tech? Here’s my list. (more…)

To quote Pat Narduzzi: the preseason is over. With wins over YSU and Akron, Pitt overcame some of the demons of the Chryst era with one last hurdle: beating Iowa. To be more specific, don’t blow a fourth quarter lead against Iowa, something both Paul Chryst and Fraud Graham did. Unfortunately, Iowa is already well-versed in the art of a fourth quarter comeback as the Hawkeyes broke a 17-17 tie late in the fourth quarter against Iowa State last week.

Let’s breakdown the Hawkeyes to see if they have another fourth quarter comeback in them. (more…)

The Narduzzi Era at Pitt began yesterday and Pitt came out with a 45-37 win against the tough and persistent Youngstown State Penguins in front of 49,969 mostly yellow-painted fans.  Here are the official game stats in case you are wondering how what happened came about.

There is good news and bad news coming out of this ballgame.  Here are the highlights so that you can see some of each type of play we had Saturday:

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I try to avoid immediate analysis after an ugly game as emotion clouds reason. Now after I’ve sat down and watched the game at least twice over on DVR, I have a much better feel for what went wrong and I’m much more comfortable about what happened. I’ll break it down between offense and defense. Special teams didn’t have anything that really required a breakdown as outside of Blewitt’s miss everything went reasonably well. (more…)

I will probably get more into this tomorrow — because this is hilarious — but in his own words. Head Coach Pat Narduzzi explains how he took out Syracuse Head Coach Scott Shafer with a Kiwi.

Finally something to help the annual Pitt-Syracuse football game have some meaning.

Pitt begins a bit of a redemption tour this Saturday when Youngstown State comes to Heinz.  This is the first of three games against opponents that embarrassed Pitt during the post-Wannstedt era of mediocrity. First up is the aforementioned YSU squad that defeated Chryst in his first ever game as a head coach. Next up is Akron, whose defeat of Pitt last year is far and away the most confusing loss since Bowling Green in 2008. Last but not least is Iowa, a team with two fourth quarter comebacks in their last two games against Pitt. (more…)

It’s Tuesday and we have to get off our collective asses and figure out where we are going to meet so we can put faces to internet handles/names…. and for you guys to buy me many drinks.

Here is what I see our options are:

Our prospective waitstaff

Tilted Kilt

353 N SHORE DR
PITTSBURGH, PA 15212

 Northshore RiverPros: Women servers almost unclothed (see above); close to Heinz

Cons: Small side area to overflow into – but it is covered in case of rain.

Tilted Kilt Bar

Bettis Bar and Grill

393 N SHORE DR
PITTSBURGH, PA 15212
(412) 224-6287

Pros: Has a big outdoor area that we can all meet in if the main bar is too crowded; short walk to Heinz.

Cons; Gets very crowded

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Pitt’s fall training camp starts today with the player’s reporting in from their time off-campus where they were tasked with finding a spot for the next new Pitt Stadium.  Serious on-field stuff won’t begin until tomorrow however when the staff and team can get on the field and start getting familiar with the new crop of players and reacquainted with the physical side of actual football.

Just as a point of info here is how the practice days will be conducted in general. A typical single practice day will go like this:

Coach Narduzzi Briefing: 9:25 a.m.

Practice Viewing/Photography Window: 9:55-10:25 a.m.

Closed practice from 10:25 until 12:15

Interviews: 12:15 p.m. (select players and assistants)

This is what we’ll see when Tuesday’s Media Day rolls around and  I’ll be up there for those sessions (more on that later):

Practice Viewing/Photography Window: 9:55-10:25 a.m.

Coach Narduzzi Press Conference: 1:30 p.m. (second floor team room)

Team Interview and Photo Session: 2:45-4 p.m. 

Some interesting things to note is that in all of the allowed two-a-day practices the evening practice is completely closed to the media.  That makes sense as no real news will be generated between 2:30 or so until they start up again in the evening. So that is the logistics behind the next three weeks of camp.

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In the most timely news to hit the street and anger Pitt football fans our young DE Rori Blair made a monumental mistake when he chose to smoke reefer and treat the parkway like he was in the Hot Metal Bridge 500 race qualifying rounds.  From The P-G this morning:

State police wrote in a criminal complaint that a trooper working near the Fort Pitt Bridge clocked Blair, 20, of Upper St. Clair, driving at 117 mph in a 55-mph zone March 15. That trooper pulled the car over in a left lane on Fifth Avenue in Oakland and “detected a strong odor of marijuana emitting from his breath and about his person as he spoke along with blood shot glassy eyes,” police wrote.

Police took Blair to UPMC Mercy for a blood test, which came back positive for cannabinoids, police said. They charged Blair via summons Monday with driving under the influence, driving at an unsafe speed and other violations.

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