Sunday was  day of making up for not just going to the game on Saturday, but not leaving until hours later than normal… And proceeding to crash less than an hour after getting home.

What can I say at this point? A highly disappointing loss. Second straight. A total of 4 points. Two losses in two straight weeks and it is third place in the Big East.

Special teams cost Pitt for a second week in a row. Three straight games with huge gaffes in special teams. That goes beyond being an aberration. I do not think it is any doubt that the Gilyard runback for a TD at the end of the first half was a huge blow that changed things.

Going from being a rout in the first half with Cinci seemingly imploding and unable to cope, to being in the game with 30 minutes left. The Cinci defense made adjustments to force two straight 3-and-outs to start the second half and give the Bearcats time to find their offense. Four TDs in the final 24 minutes.

I mean, we all knew Cinci would put up points, but there was no excuse for the defense absolutely folding. They couldn’t claim to be tired. Even with Pitt’s poor start to the 3d quarter, Pitt held the ball for 10:32 minutes in that quarter and at that point had a ridiculous 30:13 to 14:47 advantage

You look at all the numbers and aside from Pitt dominating on time of possession as expected, the totals looks as close as expected in a 1-point game. Total yards was 371-369 with Cinci doing almost all of it in the air and Pitt having more balance but obviously tilted to the running game.

It simply came down to special teams, little things in the coaching, and it has to be said — Cinci wanted it more.

They were the ones on the road. They were the team that passes, playing in cold, windy and slick conditions. They were the ones dealing with the pressure of a perfect season. They were the ones facing the distractions of a coach most likely bailing for Notre Dame. They finished and Pitt didn’t.

Pitt-Penn State in the Fiesta or any of the BCS Bowls.

I hate to even waste a post on it. I’ve read the articles laying out how it could happen. So what?

Yes, it would pack the stadium, but that’s only half the equation. It would be little with the TV ratings. It is a regional game of limited interest. Nationally, it would be something like a Florida-Miami game or perhaps Texas-SMU for the nostalgia hounds.

Even in a bye week, this is a complete waste of time.

Speculating on bowl match-ups is silly in October. Speculating on BCS bowl match-ups in October is dumb.

I want the Pitt-PSU game back as much as anyone — as a home-and-home series. My parents are PSU grads, so the return to that fun at family gatherings is something I would dearly love.

I’m also resigned to the fact that the series won’t restart until sometime after the Zombie King is denied his brains on which to feed, has salt poured into his mouth, and has his eyes and mouth stitched shut to put him at rest.

Until then, skip the time waste.

Make no mistake, that is exactly what Saturday night’s game for Cinci is. Beat Pitt and the Bearcats are virtual locks for at least a share of the Big East title and the Big East’s BCS bid. Their remaining games after Pitt are home for hapless Syracuse and at Hawaii. Even if they lost to Hawaii, it would have no impact on the Big East or BCS issues.

A Pitt win on the other hand would merely be the first of three difficult games to finish the season. Pitt follows with WVU and then at UConn. Cinci faces the worst of the Big East and middle-of-the-WAC-pack. Pitt faces two bowl eligible teams with a combined 13-6 record.

Over the weekend there was an article in the Trib on Cinci coach Brian Kelly.

What Cincinnati has done this season has validated Kelly as one of the best and brightest coaches in the Big East. Only two seasons after leading Central Michigan to the Mid-American Conference title and five years removed from guiding Grand Valley State to its third consecutive Division II national championship, Kelly is considered one of the country’s hottest commodities.

Cincinnati has come a long way since Kelly arrived in December 2006 to replace Mark Dantonio. Kelly led the Bearcats to a 27-24 victory over Western Michigan in the International Bowl but found a media that turned a deaf ear to his pleas for giving the football program prominent play.

“If you wanted to buy a season ticket for basketball, you had to buy a football season ticket first,” Kelly said. “The program couldn’t stand on its own. It needed to break the tie of being held up by basketball. It was changing a perception that basketball was No. 1 and football was No. 2. If you’re truly a BCS team, if you’re truly a Big East team, your basketball and football have to stand on their own two legs. That was really the first thing.

“The second thing was setting expectations, and third was consistency. All of those things take time. We’re only into the second year of this, and we’ve got a lot of work to do. You can win a championship here at the University of Cincinnati. You just have to invest in it.”

He’s emerged as a hot coaching candidate this season for high profile gigs like Tennessee. A lot of writers last year at other pubs (Matt Hayes, Dennis Dodd, etc.) were talking about him being someone Michigan would have been smart to consider.

He has done a tremendous job at Cinci. Both in winning and generating excitement. This season he’s done it despite lots of injuries on the team — especially at QB.

For those of you who are still counting, the University of Cincinnati football team has used five different quarterbacks this season.

Quarterback No. 5 is Notre Dame transfer Demetrius Jones, who entered Friday’s 28-20 UC victory at Louisville late in the first quarter and rushed for five yards on second-and-16 from the UC 31-yard line.

Jones then returned to the sideline and Tony Pike trotted back onto the field.

“I’m really just doing it to set a record,” UC coach Brian Kelly said Saturday.

Actually, Jones’ appearance, his first in a UC uniform, probably will not be a one-time occurrence.

“We’ve been working on a package with him,” Kelly said. “The ball got a little wet out there and I was concerned about the ball going on the ground. If it was a dry-ball situation, he would have gotten more play.

“He can run it and he can throw it. He’s pretty dynamic when he runs the football. We think it can be a nice add-on to our run game and play action and gives us another offensive weapon. He’s definitely a part of our offensive structure now. We want to give the defense something else to worry about.”

As injuries have hit the UC quarterback corps this fall, Kelly has used three different starters – Pike, Dustin Grutza and Chazz Anderson – with Zach Collaros and Jones coming off the bench.

From what I have read, it looks like Tony Pike will get the start against Pitt. Oh, and Kelly isn’t trying to downplay the game.

“It is the biggest game in Nippert Stadium history,” Kelly said. “You put yourself in position for qualification for a BCS bowl game. There isn’t a bigger game than this one. We need that kind of support. This is where our Cincinnati fans have to come out and really give us a home-field advantage.”

I always prefer coaches and teams that don’t deny which games are more meaningful and are a big deal.

It’s something that many fans never thought possible, but that UC coach Brian Kelly predicts will become the norm.

“It’s where we want to go to each and every year,” Kelly said.

The Bearcats have won three in a row, putting them a half-game ahead of Pitt and West Virginia, which stand at 3-1 in the Big East.

“It’s obvious that Cincinnati is the team to beat,” said Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt.

Cinci has never beaten Pitt. Of course, prior to this season the Bearcats had not beaten Louisville and WVU since joining the Big East.

Now there’s a difference between embracing the game and screwing up your routine. Neither team is doing that.

And in preparation for this clash of the titans, both coaches have ordered up absolutely nothing special.

“We’re not going to do anything more (than usual) this week,” Panthers coach Dave Wannstedt said on Monday’s Big East coaches teleconference.

Said Bearcats coach Brian Kelly: “We’re not going to change anything. We’ve just tried to stay in the moment.”

That moment is getting close.

Like it or not, the whole conference supremacy crap that goes on forces us to pull for teams that at times we wouldn’t cross the street to spit on them.

Having said that, West Virginia absolutely humiliated the Oklahoma Sooners with a 20 point win, 48-28. I admit it. I was cheering for them. If for no other reason, then the whole Big East bashing crap goes away for another year.
Everyone was picking against them — for good reason.

The only downside, and I heard it near the end of the game, the excuse/revisionist history will be that Pitt beat WVU because Pat White got hurt early in the game. White wasn’t playing well when he got hurt.

Seeing Owen Schmitt  break down on national TV actually moved me. Well, except for the whole, “I love this state,” part

And I’m talking about myself.

I’m going to Morgantown.

Yes, Pitt is 4-7 and WVU is 10-1, and the game has opened with Pitt as a 28 to 28.5 underdog.

Yes in WVU’s last game they whupped up on UConn 66-21. A UConn team that humiliated Pitt 34-14.

Yes history isn’t helpful either. Pitt hasn’t beaten West Virginia under Coach Wannstedt, lost by a combined 90-40 in those two contests, last won in Morgantown in 2001 and is 2-5 in Morgantown in the last 7 games.

I have no sane reason to go. I have little hope of actually expecting a win in this game. Most likely it will be cold and potentially wet.
Nonetheless, I’m going.

I’m going because there is a chance to see history.

-100th Backyard Brawl (Pitt still holds a 59-37-3 advantage despite an 8-15-2 record over the past 25 games).
-WVU is either going to play for the national championship or have their dreams destroyed by a huge underdog that happens to be their most hated rival. I have the opportunity, so why not be there.
-Morgantown potentially burning in an orgy of couch fires and a series of meth lab explosions around and outside of the city with either result.
-A game that will have a huge impact on the pressure/confidence in Coach Wannstedt from the fans going into 2008.
Finally, and most importantly I’m going because 10 years ago I went down to Morgantown with a group of friends on something of a whim, and had my interest and love of Pitt restored.

The previous 5 years had me completely out of touch with Pitt athletics. I had left the area and the team sucked so there was very little news about the team making it outside of the Pittsburgh area. Especially in those pre-internet days.

I had been paying a little closer attention that season after moving to Youngstown. I watched and enjoyed the Pitt upset of Miami that Thursday night in some generic sports bar in Boardman after begging a bartender to give me one TV for that rather than the Pirates game.
I went down with friends, mainly to get drunk and have some fun.  We accomplished the drunk part — and then some.

[Brief aside. The original plan for the group was to grab a couple hotel rooms in town and go out in Morgantown — just for the hell of it. Somewhere in the course of the game we just decided that it would be best to go back to the ‘Burgh and not waste money in Morgantown. Then, as we had to wait for traffic to thin and for one of our group to reach the point where he was no longer going to be puke risk in the car, it became just go out for a couple beers near the apartment we were all crashing. By the time we got back and the emotional and physical drain in full effect it just became have a beer in the apartment, watch the highlights on TV a few times and crash. That was 10 years ago. It’s only gotten worse with time.]
What also happened was seeing the greatest game I ever attended. A triple-OT 41-38 win. Certainly the most enjoyable.
It completely brought the joy and hope back in that one game. I committed that night to season tickets with one friend who’s loyalty and attendance never waivered in all his years. Been holding since.

I guess, I’m hoping that there might be a chance to have a little faith restored.

…at least for a week.

With LSU’s 3OT loss to Jeff Long’s Arkansas team on Friday, the BCS Championship picture has become much clearer. The newest BCS rankings look like so:

1. Missouri 11-1
2. West Virginia 10-1
3. Ohio State 11-1
4. Georgia 10-2
5. Kansas 11-1
6. Virginia Tech 10-2
7. LSU 10-2
8. USC 9-2
9. Oklahoma 10-2
10. Florida 9-3

Our Panthers have a very rare opportunity on Saturday — the ability to knock a team out of the title game simply by beating them. Too bad actually beating them won’t be too simple.

If either Mizzou or WVU lose, Ohio State will back into the Championship game. The chance of Missouri losing to Oklahoma in the Big XII conference championship is very possible. That would mean Ohio State plays WVU for the title. What about Pitt beating the Mountaineers? Dan Shanoff says no way.

If BOTH Missouri and West Virginia lose… well, that’s just not happening.

Did you see what West Virginia did to the next-best team in their conference, when WVU realized they had to impress the nation? They hung 66 on them.

They ran up the score, because they knew they had to, in order to silence any doubt spread from, say, Columbus. Those ‘Eers are one cut-throat bunch of s.o.b.’s; they ain’t losing to Dave Wannstedt with a trip to the national championship game on the line.

Since the Backyard Brawl starts at 7:45 and the Big XII game starts at 8:00, there won’t be time to know if Missouri wins or loses though. That means Buckeye Nation not only roots for Oklahoma, but also for Pitt. Other teams hoping that both OU and Pitt win are Georgia, Kansas, LSU, and Oklahoma themselves.

Pitt hasn’t had this many fans in a long, long time. We gladly welcome all of them — maybe someday they’ll come help us fill Heinz Field to more than 35% capacity.

Tom Dienhart at The Sporting News has ranked coaches in BCS conferences compared to other coaches in the conference and then compiled a list of all 66 BCS conference coaches. Dave Wannstedt checks in at #6 of 8 coaches in the Big East.

6. Dave Wannstedt, Pitt. Wanny finally looks like he’s home. Of course, he is, coaching at the school and in the town that forged that crooked grin. He knows defense, and he has infused talent into the program. But it’s time to start delivering the goods with West Virginia, Louisville and Rutgers stealing the headlines. Pitt is a proud program that ALWAYS should be good.

I can agree with Rodriguez at the top of the list but having UL’s Steve Kragthorpe at number three in the Big East makes no sense to me. The guy has yet to be on the sidelines of a BCS team as head coach (previously the head coach at Tulsa in C-USA) and apparently the following got him higher on the list.

Plus, he’s a swell guy who has the right priorities.

One spot in front of Wanny at #5 in Cincinnati’s new head coach, Brian Kelley. A guy who went only 19-16 at Central Michigan in three years. I’m not saying these two coaches won’t be a success but Dienhart is purely guessing that these coaches are going to be something special. It’s also questionable how guys like Kragthorpe and USF’s Jim Leavitt (#2) are ahead of Greg Schiano who is at #4.

He then threw together (seeming literally) a list ranking ALL of the BCS coaches from 1 to 66. Wanny checks in at 45th.

Most of the comments left on the article are left by people completely disagreeing with the rankings, and one of my favorites was this one.

Man, what an easy way to make a living. List all the BCS coaches and put numbers beside their names.

Are y’all taking applications?

Seemingly, that’s what he did. There are so many over and under rated coaches on that list that it’s hard to count them all. Missing by a few spots is forgivable but some of them seem to be way of base.

(h/t Mondesi’s House)

So Ron Cook puts the fact that Pitt and other teams that go 6-6 will be going to a bowl at the top of his outrage list for college football. Something that everyone has been well aware since it was announced that they were going to 12 game seasons in CFB and there are just way too many bowls.

Looking for it…

Looking for it…

Searching…

Nope, can’t find the outrage. Can’t work up a lather. Hell, I’m having a hard time working up a lather about the other sins he lists:

Penn State going to the Outback Bowl — big deal. It’s a Big 11 tie-in bowl and that’s where they landed in the pecking order. Why does that make them undeserving? Compared to who else in the conference? They may get creamed by LSU or someone like that, but that doesn’t make them “undeserving” so much as point out how top heavy the Big 11 was. Non-BCS bowls are about money and what schools and conferences can bring the most fans for the games. The Big 11 has among the largest fanbases and has historically traveled to bowls well.

Potential Michigan-tOSU rematch for the BCS National Championship. Wait? You mean the BCS is screwed up? Damn, I thought the system was fine. Again, old news.

It’s the feigned outrage in the column that amuses me. These are old complaints wrapped up in an attempt at mouth-breathing anger. Don’t necessarily disagree with them, but spare me the weak emotional effort.

I noted for AOL that it might be in the best interests of the Big East and the SEC to downgrade Boise State in the coaches poll, so that they don’t get a BCS bid. Especially after UConn’s Randy Edsall all but admitted that sort of thing goes into considerations in voting.

An old WV columnist seems to think that the Big East has already taken advantage of having 4 BE Coaches voting and now needs to get the rest of the Coaches convinced.