Welcome to the meme. It’s about not doubting Coach Dixon and Pitt. It’s about proving the doubters wrong. No doubt.

Gary Parrish at CBS offered up his mea culpa.

Basically, it taught me to keep my big mouth shut, and that Jamie Dixon is now worthy of earning The Bo Ryan Treatment. What’s The Bo Ryan Treatment, you ask? It’s when you resist the urge to doubt a team with a questionable roster for no other reason than the man coaching the team has proved capable of winning with any kind of roster. Ryan is the first member I put in that club, and I wrote about it last month.

Over the past three days, it’s become obvious that Dixon should join him because the 44-year-old California native just backed Saturday’s win at Syracuse with a win at Cincinnati, otherwise known as a place Connecticut recently lost.

For those of you who don’t follow Parrish, he has an amusing weekly feature on his blog where he rips questionable poll voting. He spent several ripping an AP voter from Georgia who kept ranking Pitt — even after the Indiana loss. I think it is a worthy feature, since I hate bad voting. Of course, others take it personally when their team is singled out. He even conceded to wanting a do-over on his top-25 from Monday.

Moving on to more doubting themes, Adam Zagoria at SNY caught up with Ashton Gibbs after Pitt’s bus ride back from Cinci.

“We’ve been having a lot of doubters from the beginning since we lost a lost of big-time players,” Gibbs said. “But everyone in that locker room knows what they can do and we all have confidence in each other and it’s really starting to show.”

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon says he plans to use the 6-6, 210-pound Brown in ways he utilized Young, now with the Memphis Grizzlies.

“We ran some sets for [Brown], and we want to use him similar to Sam. He finished strong and made some plays,” Dixon said after the Cincinnati game.

Both Jermaine Dixon and Brown add experience to a young team that features six freshmen and two sophomores. With Dixon back, former St. Anthony star Travon Woodall, a redshirt freshman, now comes off the bench

“They can play multiple positions and they really work hard and they’re leaders on our team,” Gibbs said. “It starts from the defensive end with those guys and it’s really carrying over to the offensive end as well.”

The numbers back up the defensive emphasis.

Speaking of that 2009 team, I spent the balance of last year yelling and waving my arms in an effort to convince people that the old Pitt stereotypes (rugged D, points scored with more brute force than skill) no longer applied and that this was one incredible offense. Indeed it was, but this year it might be time to move one step back toward the good old Panther preconceptions of yore.

You could make a case that this 2010 team is comprised of a strong defense that for the past three games has been momentarily joined by an offense that is hitting shots like crazy (e.g., sinking 45 percent of their threes in conference play). Sophomore Ashton Gibbs has said thank you very much for the available minutes and rather quietly emerged as one of the more impressive pure shooters you’ll find anywhere. For the year Gibbs is hitting 94 percent of his free throws (against the Bearcats last night he went 10-of-11) and 41 percent of his threes while taking the bulk of the shots for this offense. Pitt’s not as good as they were last year, but right now they’re much better than expected.

Coach Dixon of course, is not buying into the surprise (publicly, anyways).

I’m shocked that Pittsburgh has put together consecutive road wins against previously unbeaten Syracuse and Cincinnati.

Panthers coach Jamie Dixon? Not surprised at all.

“It can’t happen if you don’t believe it can happen,” Dixon said on Tuesday morning, shortly after his team knocked off Cincinnati on the road the night before.

Pitt is part of the group of teams that have beaten expectations already.

So, let’s get the stoylines out of the way:

Teams that are mirror images of each other. Waiting for the full piece.

Defensive struggle expected. Sort of, but expect more.

Both coaches recruiting talent. Check.

Same coaching tree. Check (Complete with 1992 photo on Johnson’s boat, with Johnson wearing shorts that well. Eep.).

Friendship between the coaches. Full story coming

All storylines rolled into one. Right here.

The fundamentals of North Carolina’s defense are similar to those of Pitt: Play an aggressive 4-3 with the emphasis up front, pressure the quarterback and force turnovers.

That’s not a coincidence. North Carolina coach Butch Davis and Pitt’s Dave Wannstedt are close friends who were assistant coaches on Jimmy Johnson’s staff for 11 seasons with Oklahoma State, Miami and the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

Both are defensive specialists, and Wannstedt was Davis’ boss for seven of those 11 years.

“Dave’s an outstanding football coach,” Davis said. “His teams are extraordinarily well-coached. He’s got an excellent assistant coaching staff, guys who have got a lot of experience and have been with him for many years …

“Dave’s fingerprints are all over this football team. They’re very sound in special teams. They play very physical defensively, which is certainly Dave’s background. You can tell just how stingy they are by watching how aggressive their front seven are.”

Sound familiar? That description could just as easily apply to the Tar Heels.

Oh, and both teams managed to lose to NC State in Raleigh. Hopefully they won’t start rolling like Pitt afterwards, since they ended their season there.

History, though, has suggested that Wannstedt struggles against his friends and former coaching subordinates. Or that could just be Greg Schiano.

After nearly a week off for finals the players are back to practice.

“It is great to be back,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said yesterday before the Panthers’ first practice since the Cincinnati loss. “I think it is important we go out and not just practice these three days before we leave but practice with a purpose. These seniors have done so much to bring this program back to national prominence but we have to finish the thing out.

“We had two tough, tough losses to end the season so we have to finish and finish on a positive note. We’re going to enjoy the bowl game but it is business and we need to go down there and understand that. The best thing about this is we have another game to play and that means we have another opportunity to turn disappointment into positive.”

The players no doubt will say all the right things about how they want to end the season with a win, and at least partially wipe the taste of the two losses by a total of 4 points away.

It will still be a question of how they actually do when they get on the field. That’s going to be up to the coaches, especially Coach Wannstedt.

He’s just asking questions.

Joe Starkey penned what may be one of the laziest, craptacular, most regurgitated column I’ve read in some time — and yes I am saying it is worse than anything written this year on booing Bill Stull.

Let  me put it this way. This column would be derided as deluded fan ranting from a message board if a columnist had to respond to it.

(more…)

Or is that Link Dump Notre? Notre Link Dump? I feel like I’m leaving something  out. Oh, well. Plenty of stories. No time to hash them. Sort through them yourself.

Q&A with Adam Gunn — McKillop wishes he was playing this weekend.

Apparently Notre Dame likes to pass. This Jimmah’ Clausen appears to be a decent QB. Best Clausen of the bunch — FWIW. It might test the secondary. In fact, the secondary faces its biggest challenge since NC State. Eep.

Any chance ND repeats its 6 trips to the red zone with only 2 scores to show for it? Considering they only came away empty handed 4 times in the prior 8 games, I doubt it.

The magic number is 10. As in top-10 wins for Pitt since 2002. Plus it’s been 10 years since Pitt beat ND in Pittsburgh — I feel even older.

Notre Dame likes to blitz. It is expected. But their defense has continually failed in big games.

For those Pitt fans who think too many older Pitt fans are living in the past of the 70s, it beats hanging the hat on the 60s and wistful memories of Ara Parseghian.

More speculation on Weis surviving at ND. Meanwhile, Coach Wannstedt is sympathetic to Weis’ plight.

Some work on on revisionism and/or trying to figure out how Wannstedt became an NFL punchline. This one’s a tough sell for anyone who is a Dolphin or Bears fan.

Happy, fluffy puff piece on Dorin Dickerson finding his position and success.

Former special teams/DB Pitt player from York, PA now in his first year as a defensive assistant coach at Duquesne.

Everyone’s favorite OC, Frank Cignetti gets the hometown love from the Indiana paper.

I expected Pitt to be ranked in the preseason somewhere in the 7-11 range. There’s just such a bunching in the Big East in the middle. After the projected top-2 teams of Villanova and WVU, you really can make a case for (but mainly against) the next 8 or 9 teams in what order.

Nine seems to be the popular place to put Pitt. The rationale is a common one and it makes sense.

Jamie Dixon has never won fewer than 20 games, never missed the NCAA tournament in six years as a head coach. But this should be his most challenging season considering Sam Young (19.2 ppg), DeJuan Blair (15.7 ppg), Levance Fields (10.7 ppg and 7.5 apg) and Tyrell Biggs (6.4 ppg) are no longer around to dominate the Big East. Meantime, Jermaine Dixon is recovering from foot surgery. So, at the moment, the Panthers are without all five starters from last season’s 31-win team, and even the greatness of freshman Dante Taylor — the McDonald’s All-American scored 27 points in Pitt’s first exhibition — won’t be enough to ensure a smooth transition.

I get it, but I have to admit. Seeing Pitt anywhere lower than 9 is bothersome. Coach Jamie Dixon is seeing this as good motivation.

Dixon knows what’s being said, and he’s pushing it right back at his players. The stars may be gone, but Dixon is certain this team has depth, developing players and a mindset for playing defense.

“This team can be as good as any team we’ve had,” Dixon said. “I know what everyone’s writing, because you look at it on paper. But we play games on the court. Where we are now isn’t where we’re going to be. That is our belief and our driving motivation.”

He’s been on record as expecting this team to overachieve — at least based on what is being predicted. Why are teams like ND and Syracuse getting pushed ahead of Pitt despite achieving less recently and losing almost as much? Well, ND has a likely All-American in Harangody so talent always gets a little more love. As for Syracuse, well most of that is the love always given to Boeheim in the media and more willing to buy his sales pitch about his team.

Jermaine Dixon is right there with the underdog/disrespect perspective.

“Everyone can’t be picked high,” Jermaine Dixon said. “When you lose four starters and 60 percent of your points, they are going to pick us low.”

“But Pittsburgh has always been the underdog,” he added.

When Dixon gets healthy, I expect a lot from him this season. He seems especially motivated and he is still stung by the way Pitt lost and his role in it.

Big brother Juan of the Washington Wizards was calling to offer his condolences after Villanova beat Pitt to advance to the Final Four.

“He told me, ‘don’t worry about it, it was a good game, you guys fought, you played well, don’t let it get you down,'” Dixon recalled. “Then he told me, ‘You know you messed up.'”

Jermaine, of course, did not need to be reminded. He had just lived through one of the most excruciating experiences that a college athlete could endure. Dixon made not one, but two, critical mistakes that turned the game in Villanova’s favor.

I like that he doesn’t shy away from his mistakes. Instead trying to improve from that spot. Not obsess and go grim over it, or simply laugh it off. It’s there and he knows it.

(more…)

To just simplify all stories regarding Bill Stull for the rest of the year. The theme is redemption. The obligatory aspect is that Stull was booed in the opening game.

As Pitt fans, we may be tired of the storyline. We may feel it has been beaten into the ground. We may feel that it is being overplayed and exaggerated. That’s irrelevant. This is the story and by god it will be run into the ground by each and every sportswriter that chooses to write about Stull at some point.

So Kevin Gorman, freshly minted Trib. columnist after his stint as Pitt football beat writer gets his Stull redemption story a little later than most in Western Pennsylvania.

“I’ve kind of become immune to it,” Stull said. “I know if I let that get in my head, if I let that sink into my heart and, most important, if I start buying into what these people are saying, then I can’t play the type of football that I know how to play, that I’ve been taught how to play.”

What Stull can’t help but notice is how the negativity has affected his family. The cascade of catcalls has prompted his parents, Bill and Debbie, to leave their seats and watch games from a rotunda at Heinz Field this season.

Bill Stull Sr. has been so bothered by the booing that he left the Backyard Brawl last year at halftime – after his son threw an interception in the end zone – and walked home to Mt. Washington. He left the Connecticut game Oct. 10 for the same reason, watching the fourth quarter at Bettis Grille 36.

This is the conflict. We can and as fans do split the hairs over whether the boos are directed at the players, coaches and/or playcalling. Parents from their perspective see it as being directed at their kids.

As a fan, I don’t recall much of the booing from the Backyard Brawl being directed at Stull so much as the poor playcalling and the overall ineffectiveness of the offense.

The UConn game was a small surge, but then drowned out by support and cheers. As a parent, though, I can understand the feelings.

Gorman does get Stull and his father on record to talk a little about their feelings regarding it. It’s more candid than done so far.

The piece ultimately fails because Gorman does this in a way that is sure to make Pitt fans defensive about the whole thing rather than willing to think critically about it. All because he preceeded that part with this.

For this, Pitt fans should be embarrassed. To his credit, Stull blocked out the boo birds to become one of the feel-good stories of college football.

Gorman’s bio notes that he is now teaching a sportswriting class at Pitt. Hopefully he focuses on the fact that everything you write gets preserved. As pointed out, Gorman while still a beat writer in training camp was quite honest in writing that Stull hardly looked like he had earned the starting job.

Now, Stull has a 9-4 record in 13 starts. Bostick is 4-4 in eight starts, including victories at West Virginia and Notre Dame. Sunseri has yet to take a snap in a college game, but has the best arm of the bunch. Even so, Stull is the starter, even if he didn’t shine the way a fifth-year senior should.

“Has Billy made the big strides? I would say probably no. But has Billy performed at the level that you would say he’s the starter? I would say yes. I’m just trying to be as honest about it as I can,” Wannstedt said. “He’s got 13 starts under his belt, so he’s our starting quarterback. I feel good about the other guys; I feel good about Billy. I think our quarterback position as a whole is better now than it’s been the past couple years, that’s for sure.”

Stull, however, is going to have to prove that he’s the quarterback of the first nine games of the 2008 season, not the final four. He’s going to have to put the Sun Bowl behind him – and fast.

Now to right a piece that comes off as self-righteous and that Pitt fans should be ashamed of themselves for some vocalizing their feelings over Stull’s performance while ignoring that he wrote about his own doubts from watching in training camp (and yes, I get that since the piece is a news column and doesn’t necessarily allow for expanding on that –but then he still has his blog to do that) makes it seem a tad hypocritical. Heck even Ron Cook has managed to admit he was wrong in between the single sentence paragraphs.

What’s really interesting in light of the Stull stories, is this from the Paul Zeise’s chat today.

Frankie_CigsPack: Can you give us some insight as to what the team thought of Bill Stull at the beginning of the season to where they see him now? It’s a great story in college football this year without a doubt.

Paul Zeise: Yes, a lot of the team wanted Tino to be the guy because they didn’t have much faith in Stull. Now, if you talk to them, most of these guys would run through a wall for Bill because he’s earned their respect, not just as a good quarterback but as a tough guy who is a leader and who wants to prove he is a winner. Respect and confidence from your teammates are two things you must earn and Stull has certainly done that.

So coming out of training camp, even the Pitt players didn’t have faith in Stull. And not just because of the Sun Bowl.

We can go round and round over the booing. The fact is, that Stull has turned things around and stands to change his legacy at Pitt with the way the season goes.

He’s done a lot to this point. Hopefully he keeps it going.

Okay, folks it is another noon game for Pitt after the bye week.

When Pitt hosts Syracuse, the game will be at noon but for the scattered alum the game is getting shown on ESPNU on November 7.

Not sure how the world can handle this. The conventional wisdom in football is that Coach Wannstedt is at best a mediocre coach. That he is simply the latest in a line of ex-NFL coaches in college that operates in that 5-8 wins per year group (Gailey, Groh, Sherman, Callahan, et. al.).

Now Pitt sits at 7-1. Ranked its highest under Wannstedt (#15 BCS, #16 AP, #17 Coaches). Pitt’s best start since 1982.

So it is time for the paradigm shift. Something many Pitt fans have been working through for the past year or so.

3. Pittsburgh is for real: Yes, it is sometimes tough to give coach Dave Wannstedt a whole lot of credit but he has a team that is legitimately good. The Panthers not only beat South Florida, they absolutely dominated the Bulls. There’s probably a slip-up coming somewhere (Pitt is usually good for one head-scratcher per year), but until that happens the Panthers deserve to be feared.

I think we can agree that the NC State game could and should count as the slip-up game. Here’s hoping it’s the only one.

This is the week of acknowledging what is happening.

We’ve certainly been critical of Dave Wannstedt in the past, but he has it going on at Pittsburgh this season. His Panthers crushed USF 41-10 Saturday to move to 7-1 overall and 4-0 in the Big East. Pitt led 31-7 at halftime Saturday and didn’t punt the whole game.

“They just whooped us and were much better than us” was USF coach Jim Leavitt’s succinct reaction.

If not for a loss to N.C. State in which it blew a 14-point lead, Pitt would be 8-0 and almost certainly in the top 10. (That NCSU has not beaten any other FBS team has to make it doubly frustrating for Pitt.)

Yeah, that’s going to be a bitter thing for a while. I guess it can be used as a reminder to the team not to take anything for granted and the close difference between winning or losing. Or some motivational gimmick. Still just sucks.

So, there is some actual respect going on.

P is for Pitt: The only thing more complete than Dave Wannstedt’s mustache might be his football team. A 41-14 victory over South Florida makes the Panthers 7-1 for the first time since 1982, when Dan Marino quarterbacked Pitt to its last No. 1 ranking.

And respect for Coach Wannstedt.

Lesson 6: We all owe Pitt a big ole apology.

Sorry, we never should’ve doubted the ‘Stache. Dave Wannstadt and his Panthers absolutely dismantled South Florida 41-14 to take over the Big East lead at 4-0. This is the first time since 1982 that Pittsburgh has started 7-1. But I wonder just how hard Pitt is kicking itself for blowing that two-touchdown lead at N.C. State back in September? Damn.

By the way, that Cincinnati-Pittsburgh game on Dec. 5 is gonna rock.

Expect more of this meme during  the next week. What with Pitt on a bye week and Coach Wannstedt being more available for media interviews.

Here’s a list of stations around the country that are showing the game.

With only Coach Jamie Dixon and senior Jermaine Dixon at the Big East basketball media day, there won’t be a lot of stories making the national rounds regarding Pitt coming out of today.

In most preseason publications, Pitt has been picked to finish anywhere from sixth to 11th in the Big East.

As for individual awards, it’s doubtful there will be any Pitt players on the All-Big East preseason team. While forward Dante Taylor is a candidate for Top Newcomer, Cincinnati’s Lance Stephenson is the frontrunner.

Pitt certainly could develop into an NCAA tournament team for the ninth consecutive season, but the one-player, one-coach interview table at Madison Square Garden indicates how young and inexperienced the Panthers will be — at least for now. Virtually every Big East school brings two or three players to media day.

Now there will be some stories. Mostly focused on Coach Dixon and the U-21 gold medal team he coached. Frankly, even that will be minimal when you look at the coaching personalities and storylines. Calhoun, his health and new contract. Pitino and his sex and lies. Boeheim is a national media darling. Huggins and the return of Thuggins style players on- and off-the-court.

As for Pitt in the Preseason Big East Coaches Poll, Pitt gets to be underestimated just a bit. The Panthers get placed 9th.

2009-10 BIG EAST Preseason Coaches’ Poll

	Pts.
1. Villanova (10)	218
2. West Virginia (5)	215
3. Connecticut (1)	185
4. Louisville	179
5. Georgetown	161
6. Syracuse	152
7. Cincinnati	135
8. Notre Dame	132
9. Pittsburgh	119
10. Seton Hall	110
11. St. John’s	82
12. Marquette	78
13. Providence	52
14. USF	44
15. Rutgers	43
16. DePaul	15

*First-place votes in parentheses

I’m a bit surprised Notre Dame still got picked ahead of Pitt considering they already suffered a key injury.

Seton Hall is the dark horse darling in the Big East by most estimations with their potential transfer talent. It’s a reflection of how disliked Bobby Gonzalez is, that the Pirates were picked 10th by the coaches.

Not surprised by the top-3. I would have had G-town ahead of L-ville.

Still trying to figure out how DePaul only got 15 points. Not that they shouldn’t have been dead last in every coaches’ ballot, but there are 16 ballots and so they should have gotten at a minimum 16 points. Or am I not understanding how points are tabulated?

I love how coaches, who can go on endlessly about a particular play or player from 5, 10, 15, 25 years ago in the minutest details suddenly don’t know a damn bit about their own team’s recent history.

Another reason for that is that Pitt began the 2006 season 6-1 and appeared ready for a run at the Big East championship. Then, the Panthers lost a home game to Rutgers and never won again, finishing 6-6.

Wannstedt quickly dismissed the idea the Panthers could repeat such a collapse nor did he buy the idea that there was any parallel between this year and 2006.

“If you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have remembered to be quite honest with you,” Wannstedt said when asked about the 2006 start as compared to this year. “We hadn’t beaten Louisville since 1983 on the road. We hadn’t beaten Rutgers in five years. And we did it.

“So, this is a different football team. It’s a different year. Those things really have no bearing on what we’re doing.”

Yep. Nothing in common. Homecoming. Big game. Questions that still linger about who Pitt had really beaten. The winner will stay/be ranked. Facing a team with the same record and battling their own history. Why would the fans even consider the similarities? Don’t you feel silly for even considering it?

Yes, the talent is improved. So is the depth. Still for outright dismissal of past failures as not relevant and a different season — while making perfect sense for the players and coaches trying to prepare for the next game, to say nothing of the fact that many key players weren’t there in 2006 — is not something that fans can easily do.

Credit Bill Stull for at least trying to use it to keep focused on winning.

“I wasn’t trying to talk to anyone about that,” Stull said. “I know I’m not the only one who remembers it, who has thought about it since the game this past weekend. You’re definitely going to think about it. You’re obviously not going to want to duplicate the end of that season.”

I mean Pitt fans have to be looking at USF and like many other watchers, wonder or think that the loss to Cinci was the kickoff for their annual October swoon of the last 3 years.

Three years in a row, the Bulls jumped out to strong starts, winning at least their first five games and moving up the national polls, but then a single loss steamrolled into a midseason swoon.

In 2007, the Bulls opened 6-0, rising to No. 2 in the polls, only to lose three in a row to drop out of the Top 25.

In 2008, the Bulls opened 5-0, rising to No. 10, but fell even harder, losing four of their next five games, starting with a loss at Pittsburgh.

This season, USF again opened 5-0, moving to No. 21, but took its first loss Thursday to then-No. 8 Cincinnati. The Bulls’ challenge is finding the brakes and stopping the skid at one loss as they play at No. 20 Pittsburgh on Saturday.

So, they take a beating for losing to Cinci. Treated like every other Big East team that loses a big game. Back to nowheresville.

Catch you later … maybe.

Yeah, no sooner had the University of South Florida worked into the national conversation than the Bulls were relegated back to the obscurity that is the fate of all teams that fall short on the big stage. That’s the unfortunate fallout of Thursday’s 34-17 loss to eighth-ranked Cincinnati at RayJay.

…

They saw big plays on both sides, which always makes for good TV.

But ultimately, they also saw 21st-ranked USF spoil this grand opportunity with mistakes.

They saw drives sputter for the Bulls because of penalties – and haven’t we witnessed that before?

They saw the Bearcats keep drives alive because of penalties on USF – and haven’t we witnessed that before too?

And of course, USF Coach Jim Leavitt has no clue about what this October swoon that people speak of.

It was USF’s fourth straight loss to the undefeated and eighth-ranked Bearcats and third consecutive Thursday night defeat in three years.

“I don’t get into all that stuff about the late season losses. I just take it one game at a time,” Leavitt said. “I don’t like to lose whether I am 0-5 or 5-0.

“It doesn’t change for me. We are going to correct things and move forward. I don’t know any other way. I don’t have a magical formula.”

And after Saturday, one team and coach will be treated as being the same thing as always.

Much like Dion Lewis popping it outside for a big gain after Rutgers overcommitted/blitzed inside I’m just going to try and get through this quickly.

Eye of the Panther has a large chunk covered. Especially from the Pittsburgh media side of things.

It was a good win for Pitt. They broke a bad streak and put Rutgers in a 0-2 hole in the Big East.

After four consecutive wins over teams with a combined .286 winning percentage, the Scarlet Knights met their match against a Pittsburgh team that dominated both lines of scrimmage for much of the evening.

The Panthers got to Savage four times, and Pitt’s offensive line paved the way for a whopping 228-38 advantage in rushing yards.

So much for this year winning the Big East despite the soft schedule and getting all the good teams at home.

With Pitt, Cincinnati and West Virginia undefeated in league play, the Scarlet Knights aren’t mathematically eliminated, but someone at MIT needs to calculate the odds.

“I’ve been here five years now — you just want to step on that field and win every game,” safety Devin McCourty of Nanuet told The Post. “It feels like at this point this program should rise to the top like we’re capable of doing, so when you come out and you don’t, it just hurts and it’s disappointing.”

It’s 2008 all over again for Rutgers. Hopes dashed early, and now just trying to make a bowl game. Despite being 4-2, the 2 1-AA wins means they need to go at least 3-3 to make a bowl. Only one 1-AA win can count to the requisite 6 win minimum for bowl eligibility — not that they shouldn’t with games remaining at Army, Louisville and Syracuse. Even at UConn is winnable.

It was a half-full/half-empty game for Pitt. The winning trumps everything else. Especially since there were no injuries to make it potentially Pyrrhic.  Still…

As usual, Pitt was its own worst enemy most of the night. Two missed field goals. A blocked punt. A fumble by Bill Stull. A punt return turnover. Bad penalties at the end of the first half. All those mistakes allowed the Scarlet Knights to hang around until the final 90 seconds. The Panthers’ last two games and three of their last four have come down to the wire.

And.

The Panthers need to quit squandering so many opportunities, quit leaving so many points on the field and need to do a better job of putting teams away than they did tonight.

But it was a victory, nonetheless, and the Panthers (6-1, 3-0) now are poised to play host to South Florida (5-1, 1-1) Saturday in one of the biggest games to played at Heinz Field in quite some time.

…

Pitt made too many mistakes to beat a good team, something Rutgers right now is not. The Panthers had five penalties, lost two fumbles, missed two field goals, there were at least four potential sacks the Panthers failed to complete, Pitt had a punt blocked and Jovanni Chappel dropped an easy pick six. Those are the kinds of mistakes that stand between Pitt being a really good team and Pitt winning by the skin of its teeth against teams like Connecticut and Rutgers, which are both likely to struggle this year because they have some youth at key positions.

It’s a hard balance. Dwell on the mistakes and missed chances and you get labeled negative and/or wanting Pitt to fail. Go too far on the fact that it was a win and the good stuff and you are wearing rose-colored glasses who can’t see the gaping flaws and problems.

I mean the defense held Rutgers running game to a mere 38 yards (though, -25 were attributed to sacking Savage). Even excluding the sacks, Rutgers only managed 63 yards on 17 attempts — with 11 yards coming in a Wildcat formation early. To the point where Rutgers Coach Schiano had to defend the game plan  and playcalling.

Not that Rutgers partisans didn’t see their own opportunities squandered in the game.

The Pittsburgh game was not lost on Mohamed Sanu’s last fumble. It was lost in the first quarter, when Joe Lefeged accidentally took a knee at the one yard line, and Tom Savage threw an ugly looking interception on the next series. Football is sequential and cumulative; what happens in the first quarter has an impact in the fourth. The Lefeged miscue severely limited the available play calls by putting Rutgers in awful field position, practically guaranteeing the subsequent three and out. Without those mistakes, Rutgers could have built a little momentum, and maybe even tried to get their running game going. As such, not only did they fail to have that opportunity, but Pitt responded by going on methodical, clock killing drives which severely tired out the Rutgers defense.

It’s a much different perspective on what was seen as opposed to through partisan Pitt glasses. The mistakes and missed opportunities by Pitt are minimized compared to mistakes and missed opportunities by the Scarlet Knights.

I know there was a bit of excessive “Savage Love” going in the telecast. At the same time, if you are a Rutgers fan, you should be excited about his future. I thought the freshman looked very good so early in the career. Especially with fellow freshman WR Sanu.

If Rutgers had more depth at WR, it might have been different. The gameplan seemed smart if a little scary for Rutgers to throw more. Clearly the offensive coaches for Rutgers knew where Pitt’s weakness lay.

Now, during the game, it seemed like Rutgers was getting pressure on Stull. Not getting sacks but hurries, knockdowns and making him a bit more uncomfortable in the pocket. Not according to the Rutgers beat writer.

Pittsburgh quarterback Bill Stull would drop back to pass, look … look … and find a receiver.

It continued to happen as the game went on. Stull dropping back, looking around and finding one of his many targets. But the one thing he didn’t see?

Rutgers defense.

There was virtually no pressure on Stull all night long, allowing the senior quarterback to pick apart the Scarlet Knights defense and soften it up for big blows by his running backs. This wasn’t a full-scale meltdown the likes of the season-opener against Cincinnati. Rather, it was a slow defeat as the defense could get or sustain any pressure on Pittsburgh’s offense.

I would have sworn during the telecast that at one point they put up a stat saying Stull had 7 hurries and 3 knockdowns.  When there were only 24 passing attempts, I would see that as some pressure but that’s just me.

The story for Pitt. For the offense. For the game was Dion Lewis. Man, you hate when a kid playing right in your own backyard is missed and then kills you. It opens up the second-guessing about recruiting and talent evaluation (I mean, just imagine if UConn’s QB Endres had come up with a big game against Pitt).

When colleges were still sniffing around the then-mysterious running back while he was at Blair Academy, Lewis and a mentor drove tapes of his up to Rutgers to see if they would give him a look. Rutgers didn’t bite and chose instead to recruit another running back, De’Antwan Williams.

“We certainly evaluated him, like we do with thousands of kids,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said afterwards. “He’s a very good player. We made choices in recruiting — and some of the choices are made by them — but you made choices about who to go after.”

Another kid from Eastern PA got some attention, as Jarred Holley has done nicely starting at strong safety since Elijah Fields got hurt.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt is pleased with Holley and is excited about what he can bring to the team in the future.

“He’s smart and a playmaker,” Wannstedt said. “He’s a tough tackler with great instincts and he’s going to be a really good player for us.”

Holley lives with receivers Cameron Saddler, Mike Shanahan and kicker Kevin Harper and said he’s real close with the other safeties, especially since they go in early on practice to watch film on opposing offenses.

Dom Brock DeCicco looked to be a goat early for the really, really dumb gaffe on special teams that gave Rutgers the chance for their first score. Then he reversed the fortunes with Pitt’s first pick-off in four games.

Plenty of scouts at the game. From the NFL and bowls.

Represented were the Cardinals, Bengals, Browns, Packers, Eagles and two members each from the Colts and Jaguars. The Giants and Jets also were in attendance…  Representatives from the Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl and Papajohns.com Bowl were all watching the game.

I said “abbreviated recap” in the post before? Never seems to work out that way.

Sigh. The trade-off for getting a much needed night with friends in Pittsburgh following the game, is that the crap to do at home immediately piles back and I owe the wife some extra kid-watching. So, Sunday and Monday were essentially lost without any media recap or any detailed review of the UConn-Pitt game.

Now it is Tuesday and it really is time to get focused on the coming Friday night game at Rutgers (and yes, there will be a liveblog full of impulsive declarations and hyperbolic statements as the game takes place).

Still, I can’t just let it go that simply. The Cat Basket has some more thoughts on the game well worth reading. They also make a very good point about the defenses stubbornness with regards to too heavy a faith in the base 4-3.

Media recapping on the Pitt side is covered in good form over at Eye of a Panther.

I think most Pitt fans are still waiting to see if Pitt can play a good game for both halves. On the bright side, it only cost Pitt one game this season. The downside is that the games are getting harder and that won’t fly much longer.

I want to ignore the whole booing Stull thing after he and offense came back on the field following the pick-6, except that from my vantage point the boos were actually short-lived and not widespread. To the credit of the students and a good amount of other fans started cheering and trying to drown out the negativity as much as encourage Stull. It was moronic and had no excuse. It also did not seem that loud to me at the game, though, I don’t know how it sounded on TV.

Now from the UConn perspective things get interesting. This is the second game the Huskies have lost this season and both came with double-digit leads late. As we all know, it was frustrating to see Pitt blow a double-digit lead in Raleigh a few weeks back. So imagine how it must feel to see it happen twice. Especially when the Huskies have been outscored 40-10 in the 4th in 1-A games. As to the why? The UConnBlog tries to break it all down and comes up without a unified field theory to explain it.

All are plausible, but there isn’t one that seems to be the true issue holding them back. Maybe it’s all of them? Maybe it’s one no one’s mentioning? Maybe Pitt simply had the talent to overwhelm them when it stopped shooting itself in the foot? Who knows. Regardless, nothing explains why all these things happened all at one time three times in a month-plus.

Coaches, players and pundits will probably eventually fall back on old, nonsensical coach speak, saying the Huskies need to have more want-to and have-at-it. But there were no actual answers, nothing the team can try to work on in practice this week. Meaning these fourth-quarter questions might be lingering over them all season.

But the one answer they did find Saturday was one they’d hoped to dispell in September: A team desperately searching for some sense of direction, some of kind of identity, may have found it in the art of the choke.

Not that they are bitter. No one ever thinks of the bunnies.

Of course there follows the rational discussion after a bitter loss when fans start asking whether their coach can take them to “the next level.”

Overall, a “C” effort from UConn, and the team really can’t tell you what happened.

Finally, while there have been complaints (that have diminished) about Stull at QB this year, compared to UConn’s issues at the spot it is all good. So much so, the Husky beat writer came away impressed.

Don’t ask me why, but that became a popular issue for the media coverage on both sides. A good amount is focused on the Pitt rushing attack.

Then there is the whole fact that Pitt’s entire backfield is new, but thriving. Oddly, though, little mention of the O-line in that.

There’s an AP article talking about Pitt’s offense being — you know — diverse, and a challenge for UConn.

Edsall ran down a list of about a dozen different personnel groups the Panthers use, some with tight ends Dorin Dickerson and Nate Byham switching in and out and others with them playing at the same time. He also said that wasn’t all the Panthers (4-1, 1-0 Big East) are doing now that many in Wannstedt’s first few recruiting classes are juniors and seniors.

“They’re a very multiple team and we’re going to have to be multiple with what we want to do,” Edsall said.

Stull is the primary reason for the multiple personality Pitt’s offense is taking on. Much improved from a year ago, Stull has thrown 11 touchdown passes and only one interception, with Dickerson (6 TD catches) and Jonathan Baldwin (nearly 20 yards per catch average) having big seasons. Stull has already thrown for two more touchdowns than he did last season.

“We want to maximize our possessions on every series,” offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti said. “You’re always looking for explosive plays from every area.”

Brian Bennett at ESPN.com sees Johnathan Baldwin being a major factor in the game tomorrow.

The difference, then, may come down to whether Pitt can take advantage of its playmakers in the passing game. As good as UConn’s defense has been, the Huskies have not seen a fleet of receivers yet quite like Pittsburgh’s. And they have definitely not seen a receiver as talented as Baldwin since last year’s season finale. Baldwin had just one catch in that game, a Pitt victory at Rentschler Field.

But he’s more dangerous this year as a sophomore. And that might tilt Saturday’s game in the Panthers’ favor.

The UConn beat writers sees a major key for the UConn defense will be getting off the field on 3d down (gee, that seems like an oddly familiar thing) and preventing the big play.

Oh, and of course, UConn is playing to get some respect.

That promises to add to the weirdness.

For those who haven’t heard or read, the UConn-Pitt game on Saturday, October 10 will be a 3:30 game with regional coverage on ABC. And by regional, I mean regional. Here are the games at 3:30 on ABC.

I’ll post the regional map when it is actually published (or simply when I find it. Odds are, though, if you are on the East Coast you are set. West of the coastal states and you better have ESPN 360 or GamePlan.

As for my sobriety, which seems counter intuitive to a 3:30 start? Well, here’s the culprit.

There is a sportsbloggers panel at 2pm on Saturday. I’ll be sitting on a panel with bloggers from Pensblog and Pittsburgh Sports and Mini Ponies. The panel will be moderated by Mike Woycheck of Pittsburgh Bloggers.

So, I’ll be heading over to try and make kickoff afterwards. Faced with the choice of making a guaranteed ass of myself by trying to do the panel after drinking or only a 50-50 chance of it, I’m opting for the coin flip.