PItt vs USF

BJ Daniels, BJ Daniels, BJ Daniels. There ya go. That is the key to this game.

When Matt Goatse was hurt and Daniels came in, South Florida found out very fast they had a quarterback that could make some plays. The only thing that troubled him was consistency (sound familiar?). Well in the last few games for USF, BJ Daniels has played very well and the Bulls are on a nice little winning streak giving them just a glimmer of hope in the weak Big East.

Before you give up on this game, just remember Pitt has had some success and some failures against dual threat quarterbacks which should make this game very interesting.

The first thing you should know is that the plan is for Dom DeCicco to play in the linebacker position to spy the quarterback. This means that we will be stuck in our base 4-3 all game (hey Nickel packages are gimmicky right?). This also means the pressure will be on the secondary as we play more towards a run stopping defense leaving the secondary in more single coverage.

Daniels has shown that when he is off, he looks terrible, but when he is on, the defense is in for a long day. If Skip Holtz has watched any of Pitt's games in the past, he should know that a run-spread option isn't exactly the best method to beat Pitt. Actually the game plan should be to copy Russell Wilson and NC State from last season.

A hurry up spread-pass option with a dual threat quarterback is probably the worst situation for Pitt. Given our refusal to adapt quickly (or at all for that matter), a fast paced offense to take advantages of mismatches early might be the best way for the Bulls to put the Panthers away.

The results of this game will be directly related to BJ Daniels. If he can muster up a good performance with few mistakes in the passing game the Bulls will be in good shape. If he makes some bad choices and relies too much on the run then Pitt will be in the drivers seat.

I'm saying Pitt wins this game 28 to 21.