Cat Basket

See ya later Pantherland

2010-12-15T19:45:00.002-05:00

Well over the last few years we've had a great time doing this blog. We were there with the hope of 13-9 and the crashing of the last Backyard Brawl. We had always hoped that once Wanny was gone we'd take a step in the right direction. We were wrong.

We thought people who said "Pitt won't be able to get anyone" were out of their mind. We were wrong.

We believed that people who said "Steve Pederson and Mark Nordenberg would screw this up" didn't know what they were talking about. We were wrong.

We thought that the days of Pitt being cheap were over and that a new coach would be given market value. We were wrong.

We laughed at everyone who said that the Pitt administration does not care about football were out of touch. We were wrong.

It is clear that Pitt does not want to make the financial contribution to the program to ensure we will be successful. We will not over look things found in almost every person to find a guy to take us to the next level. We simply are an academic basketball school and nothing else.

We allowed WVU to steal our #1 candidate for the job. We are seeing Penn State start preparing a war chest to hire a top notch coach once JoePa passes. While at Pitt we see a school hiring a guy because he comes on the cheap.

I don't want to bash Mike Haywood just yet. He did turn around Miami (OH), but he was not dominant. He was a few plays away from a 7-5 record. He was known as an offensive guy, but his offense only ranked 83rd.

If Pitt wanted to make a splash we know that the top guys would command top dollar. We even had coaches begging for this job (Bradley/Austin) but did not listen to what they had to say.

This hire is not exciting. The people who threatened to not renew if Wannstedt was removed will most likely not renew now.

Pitt botched this search. It is time to realize that we are a MAC team in a BCS AQ conference. So in the next few years as Syracuse, Louisville, TCU, and our rival WVU are competing for BCS bids as top 20 teams, we will be there along with the Temple's and Rutgers of the world.

If I cared more at this point I would lead the charge to fire Steve Pederson, but I just don't care enough any more. Congrats Pitt. You have taken one of the most die hard passionate fans you've had and now have made me apathetic towards the team.

I will keep posting on the twitter page, but the days of fighting for news, attending press conferences, and having the same level of passion won't be there.

We're grateful for all of the support we've received over the past few years. It's been fun and we're certainly glad that we had some great company along for the ride.

Is it Haywood?

2010-12-15T10:21:00.002-05:00

News is spreading all over the place that Mike Haywood will become the next head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. This story started gaining some legs on Tuesday night as Paul Zeise and some others started mentioning his name a bit more prominently. There are also some rumblings that Pitt will be having an official announcement tonight to introduce Haywood as the coach. I've contacted some sources about the topic but have not received a yes or no.

Another report had Todd Graham moving up the list. The main issue with him had money being the biggest issue as Graham was making quite a bit at Tulsa. The raise Pitt would have to give him might just be out of the price range. Graham had a very good offense this year. He also turned around a terrible Rice Owls team and then expanded the success that Steve Kragthorpe left him with at Tulsa.

Now back to Mike Haywood. For an offensive guy his numbers were very underwhelming. He isn't exactly the big splash we had expected Pitt to see either. The big thing about him though is that he is: 1. a family man 2. Has a squeaky clean background and 3. He is extremely affordable. He was only making a few hundred thousand at Miami (OH) and it isn't very likely he will be making much more than a million at Pitt if he does get the job.

Haywood is an extremely interesting candidate as he has been getting rave reviews from many people associated with him. With that said he also was fired from Notre Dame and doesn't have the world's most impressive resume. He did play UF close early on but we later found that isn't the same Gators squad we were used to seeing. They were blown out by Cincinnati and went winless in their non-conference schedule.

His turnaround of the Redhawks was impressive that it did take place in 1 year and that he was able to beat the next great coach (Golden) to win the MAC championship in year 2.

The problem with this hire (if true) is that it won't be one that fills the stadium. We also won't know for a while if it was truly successful. I do fear that if he does become successful that we won't have the money (or free up the money) to keep him here long term. Before you bash me, I'd be thrilled if we had 3 straight 10 win seasons and then saw someone move on to greener pastures. I just think there is too much risk with this hire that outweighs the potential rewards. I would hate to see us take a step back from where we are.

That's the problem with a coaching change, we are all afraid of uncertainty. I would feel more comfortable going for a guy considered to be a "can't miss", but Steve Pederson and Mark Nordenberg have made it clear they are not willing to spend the money to get that type of guy.

So if this is true, I can't say if it's a good hire or not based on early assumption because I'm not getting a strong feeling one way or another. If it is Haywood, let's check back in 3 or 4 years and see how we're doing.

What we have come to know about the coaching search

2010-12-14T11:14:00.002-05:00

In my years in the Oakland Zoo I have had the privilege of working with many great people in the athletic department. Through creating those relationships with the athletic department staff, coaches, players, and trainers we have been able to report things which may have gone unsaid. Sometimes the people giving the information want it to be released from a source other than an officially released athletic department announcement. Other times we are given info that we are asked not to share and we always request those wishes.

With that said, I have to fully agree with Paul Zeise that getting information about the coaching search is like getting information from the Kremlin. One of the reasons that the information is not coming out easily is because Steve Pederson and Mark Nordenberg are doing a great job of keeping the search between them. Typically with other things in the athletic department, some staffers are given information which they need to complete their jobs. This time, Steve Pederson is identifying the candidates (along with the search firm), using the 3rd party to initiate contact, and then completing the interview. If the person passes Steve's interview, they will move on to Chancellor Nordenberg. This is the main area of the hold up. He has given the thumbs down to Bo Pelini and Dana Holgorsen.

What I can tell you is that Dana Holgorsen and Al Golden were the top 2 on the search. My information leads me to believe it was Holgorsen as 1 and Golden in 2 spot despite what has been reported. I also believe Steve Pederson truly believed he was going to land one of those 2 guys. One thing to keep in mind when reading the released information is that sometimes reporters need to feed information at the request of athletic departments to help negotiations, stall other ones, or for any other purpose. This is a necessary thing because people who get paid to do the investigating need to make sure they keep their contacts and sources of information. That is why sometimes they are the first one on the report and sometimes why they don't give out bigger news items (remember Dion Lewis not practicing and not playing earlier in the year without any reports?). I do this just for fun, so I try to bring you what I can without getting any of my contacts in trouble.

So, right now, all I can tell you is that I have no idea where the next coach is going to come from. I would continue to follow guys like Paul Zeise and Chris Peak as they will probably be first on the scene given their connections. At this point you have to start figuring out who it could be by eliminating some potential guys first, just like PZ did in his redshirt diaries.

From what people have said here are a few names and notes for potential guys:

Mike Leach - if we're making a splash he is the guy. He won't be hired though because if Holgorsen couldn't pass the "purity" test, neither will leach.

Kevin Sumlin - Seems like a guy that would make a great fit, but for some reason his name just isn't popping up.

Mike Haywood - Turned a bad Miami OH program around quickly, but he isn't someone that would really "excite" everyone and the resume isn't exactly "complete" for what we should be looking for in a coach just yet.

Brady Hoke - Success at Ball State, success at San Diego State, but a new deal means he isn't very likely to be coming to Pittsburgh.

Paul Chryst - Another name that has popped up recently, but no information is being provided as to how interested both sides are with each other. The silence between the two is quite interesting.

Paul Pasqualoni - I think the reports of him being a candidate are bogus and don't buy for a second that he is truly being considered.

Teryl Austin/Frank Cignetti/Tom Bradley - Maybe as coordinators but surely not as head coach.

Chris Pederson - He was listed early on as the #1 guy but a great setup out west would probably only be left if the $$$ was above what he really should be paid.

Jay Norvell - He has a limited role in the Oklahoma offense, but has been the OC at places like UCLA and yes.....Nebraska. That right there will give him a huge advantage.

Mark Stoops - What he has is the name and the family tradition. What he doesn't have is all of the success ready to show he should be a serious candidate. The other thing going against him is that he is a defensive guy and Pitt appears to be headed to a guy with an interest in offense. He is a name though that would create a buzz.

Yes this is a lot of information. From this list Norvell and Haywood would be the two I would expect to get the biggest look. You can put me in the Leach, Sumlin, Pederson camp. Any of those 3 would be able to do a good job at Pitt, but as mentioned earlier there are strong reasons against them.

I will do my best to keep digging up information, but at this point it's hard to come by and much of what we are reading is inaccurate (intentionally and unintentionally).

1 week ago today

2010-12-14T11:02:00.002-05:00

If you've followed this blog at all over the past few years, it should be clear to you that Jones and I were very much in the anti-Wannstedt camp. We were tired of losing to the Ohio's and Bowling Green's of the world. We had enough of too many excuses and not enough results. Finishing in 3rd place the last 3 years was unacceptable given the weakness of the conference the past few years.

As we reported on our twitter page on the day after the brawl, the plan was in place to have major changes made. It still remains unknown whether or not Wannstedt fell on the sword for his assistants or if he truly was fired after not achieving the goals laid out for him at the beginning of the season. You may have your assumptions, but regardless of what they are the point is that Dave Wannstedt is no longer the coach of the Pittsburgh Panthers.

I wanted to wait and write this article a full week after it had happened because immediately after the news broke (I will admit) I was very excited and felt that Christmas had come three weeks early. What happened after that was something I did not expect at all.

Seeing Dave Wannstedt visibly upset at the press conference really brought out something I never thought about in the 6 years he coached here. Dave Wannstedt and I both want Pitt to win national championships each year. We both want Pitt to be respected in the best light possible. I just never thought I would feel such an emotional attachment to a man that I wanted to see removed for the past few years now.

I suppose it was a combination of seeing someone who loved the University so much fail at the quest he laid out for himself, the team, and the fans. It certainly didn't help the way it was handled by the Pitt administration. For the first time since he was hired, I felt bad for Dave Wannstedt and felt he deserved better.

He will have the freedom in his new job to come and go as he pleases just like Johnny Majors, so he can be involved as much or as little as he wants to be. I hope that even though he is still removed from his role as head coach, he does not become too involved with the new coach. The new coach needs to have his space and needs to be able to mark the squad as his team now. How much involvement he will have won't be known until some time passes, but it will remain an interesting question until then.

As we stand now though, we have a man who failed at his job and was rightfully let go. He was unaware a change was coming and as a coach you need to be very sensitive to things such as that. The fact he remained unaware of the thought of a change was the last example of a regime that was defined by excuses and an attitude that made it appear as if he had a life time contract. Since it is all said and done, I hope he is able to do well in his new position and can leave Pitt on his own terms now with his head held high.

Pitt vs Cincy Preview

2010-12-03T06:50:00.002-05:00

Typically by the end of the year you can get a pretty good feel as to where every team stands making these little previews and predictions a bit easier. For the 2010 version of the River City Rivalry, this is not the case.

The 4-7 Cincy Bearcats have only won 1 game in their last 5 including three losses by 20 or more points. Part of the reason for this has been the struggles of the Cincy offense. We all know junior quarterback Zach Collaros can sling the ball all over the field, but recently that has included the other team. He had 4 picks in his previous game which was a huge reason why the Bearcats earned their 7th loss instead of fighting for bowl eligibility this week. One thing which might be surprising to Pitt fans is Cincy's ability to run the ball. Isaiah Pead has only appeared in 9 of the 11 games this year, but is closing in on 1000 yards for the season. More impressive is his 6.8 yards per attempt. So while the common thought is that Cincy will pass all over Pitt like they did last year, we should expect to see a more balanced offense from the Bearcats this year.

As for Pitt, we all know where we stand. We've dropped 2 of the last 3 including a nail biter against USF along the way. With the exception of a phenomenal performance by Dion Lewis, Ray Graham, or Jonathan Baldwin, the Panthers should not expect to have a 1000 yard rusher/receiver this year which is surprising given the hype and expectations placed on two of those 3 players.

The defense has had their share of problems recently, especially in the passing game. That has been the one consistent mark of the Panthers over the past 6 years. Whether it's Paul Rhoads, Phil Bennett, Chris Ball, or Jeff Hafley, we can't stop the pass (except when you have Revis on one side of the field). Add in to the mix we're asking linebackers to cover receivers and we are asking for trouble.

Butch Jones has had success before the Cincy job and I expect him to have success with the Bearcats. This game is important for them because finishing 1 game away from bowl eligibility can be a much easier sell than finishing 4-7 while playing in the worst BCS conference.

As of now, the Bearcats are 2 point favorites against Pitt (that's embarrassing). To be honest, I don't even know how this game will play out because you don't know which Pitt team will show up and you don't know which Cincy team will show up. If we have the Pitt team that played Cuse and Louisville we will win regardless of how well Cincy plays. If we are average and the Cincy team that played Oklahoma shows up, well we are in trouble.

I would love to be able to have 2 guesses on this one. I would say if Cincy can pass we will lose and if they can't we win. I do believe that the first team to 30 will win the game. If the scores stay below 30 then Pitt will win.

My prediction is that Pitt will win 31 to 7, Wannstedt wins this one and the bowl game against some MAC team and my nightmare of Wanny on the sidelines continues for another year as this 8-5 disaster season comes to an end.

Dave Wannstedt, It is Time to Resign

2010-11-30T14:20:00.002-05:00

From the moment he was hired, all we hear about was how lucky we were to have a true Pitt guy. People were worried our next hire would end up like Ben Howland and leave for greener pastures. Add in to the mix the statements that he is a great guy, a great ambassador to the University, and a players coach. All of the items that people claimed the previous coach was not.

Now in year 6 we find ourselves in the same spot we have been in for the past 25 years. We are stuck in the middle, not able to get over the hump. The worst part of this is all is in each of the last 3 years we have had an easy path to the Big East Championship but have blown it each time. Every year the path becomes easier, but we find a new way to serve what Pat Forde calls "A Wannstedt Special" by blowing it. In 2008 we needed to beat Cincy at Cincy but failed. In 2009 we needed to beat Cincy at home, but blew a 21 point lead and lost at home. This year with a 2 game lead and 3-0 start to Big East play, we blew it again and now are looking at a third consecutive 3rd place finish.

With TCU coming into the league in 2012 the path to the BCS becomes even harder. Upon their arrival and with the improvements around the league, Dave Wannstedt will never be able to win an outright Big East title.

So now, if all of the statements of Wannstedt being a "Pitt guy" are true. If he really is a great ambassador to the University and wants what is best for our school he will resign. He will not force Pitt to wait another year due to a buy out. He will not continue to create strain among the relationship between Steve Pederson and Chancellor Nordenberg as they both have different ideas of what should be done.

Dave Wannstedt has the easiest choice to make in all of this. He can resign effective immediately after the bowl game and retire. If he isn't ready to let go yet, then he can offer to take a huge pay cut and serve as an assistant to the program much like Johnny Majors did. If he refuses to step down, if he refuses to negotiate a buy out, and if he makes Pitt take the tough road, then he is not truly a Pitt guy.

Johnny Majors left the program for Tennessee, but when he returned and failed he did the right thing by taking a different job and freeing Pitt to move forward (which they did). Foge Fazio was a Pitt guy but realized he would never be anything more than a successful coordinator. It is time for Dave Wannstedt to realize he is just like Foge. He is a Pitt guy who is best suited for the coordinator role, but is ruining his team.

People in Chicago hate Dave. People in Miami hate Dave. It is time to take the high road here and leave before everyone in Pittsburgh, your city, your Alma mater, end up hating you as well.

Dave Wannstedt, it is time to resign.

PItt vs USF

2010-11-19T08:02:00.002-05:00

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.

All aboard the excuse express

2010-11-18T16:03:00.003-05:00

Yeah yeah yeah, we've heard it all. We're young, we didn't execute, blah blah blah.

All I can say is that Wannstedt built this team from top to bottom, he should know how to win with it. We lost to a team that was blanked by Louisville. We gave up on a punt block and gave up selling out for the run to get the ball back close to the redzone.

Crap coaches play well in games that don't matter but lose the ones that do matter. We have a crap coach.

So what does this mean? Well we can finish 8-4 lose in a BCS game and have the same thing happen next year.

We can finish 7-5, end up in a tie for 1st, still failing to win the Big East out right (unacceptable) and get blown out in a bowl game.

We could finish 6-6 (not unfathomable) and really would things change?

Nordenberg loves Wanny and has too much control over athletics. He wants them to have a clean program (which I'm glad we do), be moderately successful, and not spend the real dough needed to be a top tier team.

If you've ever wonder why Pitt fans don't show up to games, don't have an atmosphere, or just don't care in general.........well, look at the picture of Dave Wannstedt and that is your answer.

He has lost all of the good will he had early on from even the most staunch supporters. The kool aid drinkers will tell you the cupboard is bare, Romeus is hurt, we lost our line/Adam Gunn. Well enough excuses. Just say, I messed up, I am at fault. It is funny people labeled him "Not my fault Walt", but when was the last time you ever heard Wanny accept blame for something? I'll give ya hint, the answer is never. It was always the fault of someone else.

Pitt is mediocre because we choose to allow incompetence year after year. In the end, it doesn't matter though because after all we got our Pitt guy. The Pitt guy that no one else wants.

It's time for Uconn

2010-11-10T16:37:00.002-05:00

I don't know about you, but I get pretty upset looking at our record when playing in Connecticut. From the slide, to flash in the pan quarterbacks, it seems like Uconn just gives us fits. To make matters worse, this game is a Thursday prime time game which will be an extra incentive for the fans to be a little louder than usual.

The fun thing of this game is that we're seeing the Big East favorite against everyone's "Big East Darkhorse". Well sorry folks, that pony is dead because Uconn straight up sucks.

Sure they have the win over WVU, but let's face it, that had more to do with WVU turnovers than it did with the play of Uconn.

This game should be a breeze for Pitt, but if you read any message boards you'll find some interesting stats such as: Wanny is something like 3-8 following bye weeks and he has a losing record in prime time games.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't get the feeling that we are or will ever be in jeopardy in this game. To me it feels like the basketball game we saw the Panthers win on Monday against URI. Sure there might be some tense spots, but you know what's going to happen at the end of the day. It will be a Pitt win.

I'm hoping Romeus gets some plays in to allow him to knock the rust off for the games we will truly need him for later on. Because of the Ville doing us a favor against Cuse and the other Big East teams helping us uphold the great Big East reputation, Pitt should be able to get to the BCS game even with a hiccup along the way.

As of right now I'm hoping for 3 things.

1. A 27 to 10 victory over Uconn tomorrow night
2. Beating WVU in the brawl so bad they decide to fold the university
3. Somehow getting to the Orange bowl and beating a crap ACC team (even though we'll probably end up against the B12 in Arizona).

Bring on Buttgers

2010-10-20T10:21:00.003-04:00

This Saturday at noon, 40,000 people will be there to watch the 3-3 Panthers take on the always overrated, never anticipated Scarlett Knights. Pitt did what it had to do last week and dominated a weak Syracuse team. This week the Panthers should do the same.

Rutgers comes in with an over inflated record of 4-2 having beat teams such as Army and Norfolk State while dropping games to UNC and the powerhouse Tulane Green Wave. The most striking thing about Rutgers record is that most of their games are extremely close. All of their games against teams not named Norfolk State have all been decided by a touchdown or less.

If Rutgers plays Pitt close, then I do not like our chances. We typically do not fare too well in close scoring games. This plus the fact that Schiano has really dominated Wanny over the past few years does lead to some cause for concern (but not too much).

The thing you'll hear most about this week is Eric LeGrand who suffered a very serious injury leading to him becoming paralyzed from the neck down. Pitt is taking the right approach by having students and fans sign a well wishing banner. I am sure everyone has the same attitude as me where an athlete in this situation is much bigger than the game. I really do hate Rutgers, most of their fans, and pretty much the entire state of New Jersey, but I hope that Eric is able to recover to the best of his ability and hope that this does not limit his life or future in any way.

The Pitt students from 2006 and on really have been much better about showing class in many different situations for all sports. You don't see too many incidents like Chris Quinn or Chris Thomas, heck even the F*** The (insert opponents name here) chants have taken a backseat in the past years. I know the students will do their best to cheer for the Panthers and not do anything tasteless in reference to the current situation.

Back to the game, the real question I have is which Dr. Jeckyl or Mr. Hyde team will this Panther squad be? Will we be the team that plays fearless and has the chance to be successful like we did against Utah and Syracuse, or will we come out in a shell and not perform as needed to earn the win like we saw versus Miami and Notre Dame.

The tough thing about the 2010 Panthers is that there really isn't a way to know which squad will come out. A down and out Panther squad beat favorite Cincy at home when all hope was looking lost for the season in 2007. We also saw the 6-1 2006 squad get blown out at home to Rutgers ending our season with 5 straight losses and no bowl.

We will see the good Panthers this week if we are able to do the following items.
1. Stick with the hot running back. We don't need to worry about Dion or Ray's feelings. The running back who is having the most success should get the bulk of the carries.
2. Don't allow Rutgers to throw all over us. Every player in our secondary not named Jared Holley has really not performed as needed. The defensive backfield has been a huge question mark for Pitt under Wanny and if we can't stop the pass, we can't win the game.
3. Don't stall out on 3rd downs. This is a simple one to figure out. Most teams lose games when they aren't able to convert on 3rd down. This means running routes to the sticks on passing plays and not the "safe" dump play or draw.
4. Pressure Chas Dodd. Most people thought Tom Savage would be leading Rutgers for years, but Dodd has made the most of his chances this year. If we are able to knock down the passer early, we should be able to limit his performance.

The bad Pitt will be present if:
1. We rely on our linebackers to stay in single coverage against 3 or 4 wide receiver sets.
2. We need Tino to carry us on his back throughout the game. The young quarterback isn't ready yet in this season to win a game by himself. This basically means don't let Rutgers get out to a big and early lead.
3. The defensive line does not get pressure. We are build to destroy the line of scrimmage, and if our front 4 rushers can not contain the line to stop the run and get to Dodd, then we are in trouble as you know we won't blitz all that often to make up for the DLine struggles should they be present.
4. We continue to have penalty problems. Every game this season has seen Pitt making too many mental mistakes. Even last week we were committing too many penalties (even if they were coming late in the 4th quarter).

This is a game Pitt should win (and I hate typing that), but with Rutgers and Schiano you never know. The hopeful future Penn State coach seems to have Wanny's number and can always implement a new scheme or idea which we aren't ready for (remember the "we didn't expect them to pass" excuse?).

I say Pitt wins this one easily by a score of 28 to 17.

Expectation Creation

2010-10-14T09:23:00.002-04:00

I had a discussion with a fellow Pitt fan (and huge Wanny supporter) who basically accused me of being a bad fan for expecting Pitt to finish either 1st or 2nd in the Big East every year. This fan stated that with the cyclical nature of football we should expect to win one or two per decade while sharing the rest with the rest of the teams.

This person didn't find it too amusing when I reminded him that Wannstedt had set the bar in terms of expectations immediately after his hiring. "the 52-year-old Wannstedt thinks Pitt can win a national championship and contend each year in the Big East Conference. ". I guess sometimes the truth hurts when you take off those blue and gold color glasses.

That is the problem with this team. Real fans want to win 10 or more games every season. They want the Panthers to finish at the top of the league and earn BCS bids. Will there be a bump in the road from time to time? Absolutely. That does not mean that we can accept one 10 win season surrounded by extremely mediocre seasons. We rose from the dead at the end of the 90's only to be stuck somewhere in the middle. Year 6 of Wanny and we're still average/below-average.

When Pitt heads into this game on Saturday, just remember we have gotten to the point that in year 2 of the Doug Marrone era, Pitt is an underdog to Syracuse. So if we win, the apologists will claim we won a game we weren't supposed to win on the road. If we lose, no big deal, we weren't even favored.

How have we fallen this far where in year 6 of Wanny, we are now underdogs to Syracuse.

Checking out

2010-10-13T11:20:00.003-04:00

Well folks, he's finally done it. Dave Wannstedt has pushed Jones and I to the point where we can't just take him anymore. For all of the problems he has had, the items we have complained about, and countless disappointments we have stuck by the program through some good times and bad. The one thing that kept us coming back was the possibility of hope. It was started with promises of Big East titles and a pledge to be competitive on the national stage. Hope was quickly lost after 3 bad seasons, but restored with a 13-9 victory. Bowling Green started to take away some of our good will, but a nice season kept our hopes on the rise only to be dashed by a terrible Sun Bowl performance. A nice 10 win season was lost after a major collapse against NC State, but even worse a loss to the rival hoopies in a meaningless loss meant that after a Wannstedt style failure against Cincy kept Pitt at 3rd in the Big East. 6 years into the Wannstedt era, only 2 bowl games, 0 Big East championships, and finishing no better than 3rd.

This past weekend, we took the annual Cat Basket road trip to Notre Dame. As we played not to win, Jones and I talked about our road trips and how Wanny has ruined almost every single one of them.

MSU - With Kevan Smith struggling, Oderick Turner dropping game winning passes, and Shady starting only due to an injury to Larod, we waiting too long to make changes. We had plenty of opportunity to win the game, but Wanny stuck too long with Smith and never let the Wildcat develop in the 2nd half where it showed some promise. Pitt loses a winnable game on the road.

Navy was a game which should have been celebrated as a blowout win against a team that had beaten the Panthers in a very questionable game the year before. Instead of being able to enjoy a great experience and seeing the Panthers move on, for some reason Wannstedt felt it was needed to put Pat Bostick in the game for no reason. Pat later played at and beat Notre Dame, but at the time, putting Bostick in and wasting a potential red-shirt was a major mistake.

Buffalo saw the Panthers build a nice lead, only to have Buffalo claw their way back. It wasn't until late in the game when the Panthers put away this MAC team. This was probably the best performance I have witnessed from the Panthers on the road.

The Sun Bowl against Oregon State, well, this one speaks for itself.

Notre Dame this year. We play non-aggressive football. Most disappointing was how the game started to wind down and with 5 minutes left we call 2 straight runs into a weak interior portion of the line. Rather than being prepared on what to do, we have to call a time out just to punt. We wasted that time out and showed we had no desire to win that game.

Those are the type of items that fuel the Wannstedt bashers, and those are only from 5 road games. Mix in all of the other disastesr we have witnessed and been a part of, it is clear that this team will never be more than mediocre with Wannstedt as the coach.

Pitt was terrible pretty much from the moment Jackie Sherrill left the school. It wasn't until Walt that we returned to mediocrity. Dave Wannstedt has continued the practice of being average/below average and we won't get out of it with him in charge.

The best case scenario for Pitt would be for Wannstedt to resign (which he is too stubborn to do) and to find an innovative coach to take over. The apologists will say no one wants this job. I think that Utah, Cincy, CMU, Boise State, TCU, and others have found pretty good coaches for programs who aren't (or weren't) considered elite. Another great argument is that it is a stepping stone job. Well my question is would you rather have a lifetime of 7-5 or a span like we saw in the late 70's/early 80's where other schools are actually interested in our coach? I'd rather take the chance to have a national championship contender, because right now, no one is interested in taking Wanny off of our hands.

Time to beat the drunks

2010-10-07T12:09:00.003-04:00

Well after a blown call, 3 way too close quarters, an offensive bust out in the 4th, and another stellar day for Ray Graham, the Pitt Panthers are headed to South Bend this weekend with a 2-2 record.

The offense looked pretty bad at times last week and really didn't find a groove until the 4th quarter. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this team will not have a chance to crack the top 25 again unless Tino becomes more consistent in his last 3 years of eligibility. While the offense was struggling the defense manhandled the inferior Golden Panthers and prevented this game from being more of a nail biter than it could have been.

The strong defensive showing is a good sign heading into our 2nd toughest road game of the season. This week we will be up against the best coach that we have seen in the last two seasons. Brian Kelly is a great coach and has really dominated at every level he has been at. No matter where the guy ends up, he wins. The reason for this is that he can find ways to mold his system around the players he has instead of trying to mold the players into the system. As we've seen here, that doesn't always work.

Notre Dame will be spreading out the field against Pitt. The match up I'm most interested in seeing is if Dom DeCicco will get significant time again at linebacker. I don't buy Wanny's excuse that it is a nickel package. Dom is basically playing linebacker in a coverage role. Regardless of that, Dom is the one guy I would trust to line up at linebacker and cover a receiver. Sure Dom probably isn't as fast as most of those guys, but he is a former secondary player and having experience at safety should lead him to have a better grasp on proper coverage than a linebacker.

The thing that will make this game is does Brian Kelly still have the blue print on how to beat Dave Wannstedt? Now some people will tell you that Kelly has destroyed us when we've met. Let us not forget that 3 years ago Pitt defeated a ranked Cincy team at home. 2 years ago with the Big East title on the line LeSean McCoy was in the middle of a play to tie the game when the Cincy Students rushed the field and for some reason everyone stopped, Wanny never mentioned it, Cincy didn't get flagged, and the game just ended. Last year, well, that was all Wanny's fault for not adjusting the special teams and the game plans when things were getting a little troublesome. That is exactly what happens when you take your foot off the gas and have an attitude that "any mistake is never able to be overcome".

This will probably be the worst ND team we see over the next few years, so the Panthers better strike while the Iron is hot. Both teams have huge question marks and neither squad should be underestimating the opponent. Playing in South Bend is never easy. Heck, I'd probably guess and say it's impossible for a sophomore quarterback with only a few starts under his belt to go on the road and beat Notre Dame on the road (wink wink).

At the end of the day, this game means more for Pitt than it does for Notre Dame. For national perspective Pitt needs to with the game for ourselves and for the Big East. A loss here most likely means a 7-5 season after predictions of 10 wins and a Big East championship. That simply would be unacceptable. A win however then gives us a victory over 1 of the 3 actual real non-conference opponents. It sets the table for Pitt to enter Big East play on a 2-0 run in a league that is winnable for any team.

Picking a winner of this game will be tough because Notre Dame is flat out awful this year. What makes it tricky on the Pitt side is that you never know what type of Wanny coached team you will see on the road against a major opponent. Do we play aggressive on both sides of the ball or do we come out in a shell like we did against Utah?

My best guess is that it will continue to be a low scoring contest (I'd take the under) and neither team will win by more than a touchdown. The line is currently Notre Dame - 6. Somehow I just see the Panthers winning another nail-biter here. Pitt wins this one 24-21.

The reality of being a Pitt fan

2010-09-27T12:34:00.002-04:00

Year 6 of Wanny and we are still rebuilding. That is the only way to look at this year's team. I spent the weekend refraining from all of the Pitt message boards, didn't listen to any local media outlets, and tried to clear my head to allow myself to think clearly about the realities of the program.

Last night I watched the game again and felt like I was stuck in Groundhog Day. The same issues we are seeing in year 6 are the same we saw from Wannstedt throughout his career. The offense is completely ineffective, the quarterback isn't given any opportunity (from coach or line), and the defense is based all on the defensive line.

In the past 6 years we have accumulated some great talent at running back and defensive line. What we haven't done is find a quarterback who can win games with his arm, we haven't found and developed offensive line depth to play at a high level with capable backups ready, and we haven't found a back 7 on defense that can do much.

The entire problem stems from the offensive philosophy. We are doing what Wannstedt thinks should be done regardless of whether or not we have the players to do so. Our interior line is by far the worse since I started following Pitt football in 2000. This group prevents us from running the ball and controlling the clock. That is what is needed to win under the Wannstedt system.

Miami and Utah sold out their defensive backs to stop the run, especially up the middle. What did we see when they did that? Well Pitt decided to run the ball up the gut play after play. We had a situation in the 3rd quarter where Dion ran a sweep and gained 12 yards. The next play was power-16 right up the middle for no gain. Round hole, meet square peg.

The inability of the offense to dominate the time of possession forces the defense into a position where they can not win since we decided long ago to play a "bend, don't break" style of defense.

Last season we saw Cignetti get creative with his weapons. This season with a new quarterback, the loss of our star Flex-TE, and several new starters, we have become more bland on offense than anyone could have expected. When we do switch it up, we use a play that everyone was ready for when Greg Cross was tackled for a loss on his reverse pass. Part of me feels that Wannstedt used that play not caring if it failed because if it did then he could use that as an excuse as to why we have to stick with our base power-run offense. If it did work then he could say he does use different wrinkles when appropriate (even if it is only 1 time per game).

At the end of the day, none of this matters. Nordy and many blue and gold sunglasses fans are happy because they have a coach who would rather tell you about how he was successful in different places because of Jimmy Johnson and while painting everything blue and gold rather than focusing on winning a game.

Dave Wannstedt is not suited to be a head coach. He failed with the Bears, he failed with the Dolphins, and he is failing at Pitt. With him in control we can expect one or two 9-10 win seasons every 5 years with several 5-7 win seasons mixed in between. The worse part about it is that the people who can make the choices don't seem to care.

I have given up faith not with Pitt football, but with the Pitt administrators who seem to have made every bone head choice with Pitt football since the 1980's. I have lost faith with the fan base who accept mediocrity because they're paranoid that no other person would want to coach a division 1 team in a BCS conference. These fans would rather embarrass Pitt in national TV games instead of hearing that their coach is wanted by another school. The sad fact of the matter is of the division 1 schools, none of them are trying to hire Dave Wannstedt.

This is what we have folks. We have an average team with depth at running back and defensive line. We have a coach who is well below average at what he does. We have an administration who is not willing to make the moves or invest the money to improve Pitt back to a national power. So while we talk about how great we were in the late 70's, we can give future generations of Pitt fans new memories that we are a basketball school that once had football tradition.

Pitt vs Miami preview

2010-09-21T16:05:00.002-04:00

Well folks we are 2 days away from what should be our toughest game of the season. The U returns to Heinz Field after their last trip here prevented Pitt from making the Orange Bowl. The big difference these days is that Miami is not the powerhouse, national championship contender, they once were. Today they are a shell of their former self with a few good play makers but many average college players.

Both teams have already been tested in big games with the Panthers falling at Utah and the Hurricanes falling against Ohio State. You don't see two BCS teams like Pitt and Miami heading into their 2nd big game of the season after 3 weeks of college football, usually that time is reserved for cupcakes (just ask VTech).

The story of the game is how the Panthers will stop the overrated Jacory Harris. Let's set this straight folks. Harris just isn't as good as he is made out to be. He can make plays and does show some good flashes now and again, but doesn't do enough, or enough of it consistently to be an elite quarterback.

What he does possess is the skill set to defeat the Panthers. He is a mobile qb who can throw the ball out of the spread. This spread is something different than what we saw vs. Utah as the Hurricanes offense tends to go for longer plays putting more pressure on the defensive backs than Utah did. So while both spreads could hurt us, they are different styles. The good thing about their system is that it helps bring back the defensive line into the game instead of eliminating them through quick passes.

I don't think Randy Shannon is dumb enough to ignore our major weaknesses in the back 7. I expect to see Miami come out with different looks and different over the middle passes that we haven't seen from them yet this season.

Now on the offensive side of the ball for Pitt expect to see a little more of an even split between Dion and Ray. The key is does it matter with the way our line is playing? Lippert and Turnley should be seeing some time this week over the injured Karabin and the struggling Greg Gaskins.

On a prime time Thursday night game, I fully expect Wanny to go into all out conservative mode like we saw against Utah before the end of regulation. If we don't adjust to the stacked box, we won't be seeing Dion have too much success for the 3rd straight game as we are playing directly into the opponents hands.

Overall I see Miami frustrating us with their passing ability. This countered with stopping the run is the recipe of disaster for the Panthers.

The game will be close at first, but eventually I just see Miami pulling away with a score of 31 to 20.

Blowing a redshirt

2010-09-15T13:57:00.002-04:00

With the struggles on the line, how great would it have been to include John Malecki and Joe Thomas on this team. Sure they were seniors last year and their time is passed, but guess what. We had a chance to have them on this team.

In Thomas' case, he played a significant amount of time his freshman year so technically we didn't blow the redshirt. In the case of Malecki, he played about 4 plays on defense his freshman year. What we were left with is a huge hole in the middle of our offensive line.

Now with Greg Romeus potentially out for the season there is talk that we may burn TJ Clemmings redshirt. Now don't get me wrong, I think that Clemmings is going to be a fantastic player by the time his career at Pitt ends. The issue here is that the DLine has been our deepest position for a few years. Now with one star going down, we're talking about blowing a redshirt for what surely will only be a few plays.

Wannstedt almost never plays the freshmen. Look at the team this year, we do not start any true or redshirt freshmen. The youngest players we start are true sophomores Dion Lewis and Dan Mason. The rest of the team is made up of redshirt sophomores and older guys.

To "fake" use Clemmings for a couple of plays this year would be counterproductive for future success. I really hope Wannstedt does not blow it in this case.

Mason's mysterious suspension

2010-09-15T13:52:00.003-04:00

Well I shouldn't really call it mysterious, but who doesn't love some alliteration. Dan Mason was with Jason Douglas when he was involved in the DUI/Hit and run. Since he was there and was involved by association, there was a price to pay.

Today Dave Wannstedt announced that Dan Mason would be moved to the 2nd team for Miami. That probably means something like the suspension that Rod Rutherford had for kicking out that girl's window at Philthy McNasty's way back in the day.

My guess is that Mason only misses a series or two.

Think about this Pitt fans. Against Miami, our starting linebackers will be Tristan Roberts and Greg Williams on the outside with Max Gruder playing middle linebacker. That is scary.

Romeus out indefinitely

2010-09-15T11:30:00.002-04:00

The good news keeps rolling in for Pitt. Senior defensive end Greg Romeus had surgery on a disc in his lower back. Right now it is unknown how long he will be out for. Dave Wannstedt said he hopes to have him around for the conclusion of the season.

Given how secretive Pitt is with injuries it is hard to know exactly how much time he will miss. If he is unable to play for the rest of the season he may be eligible for a medical redshirt. 99% of the time he would most likely go pro after the season regardless of the injury based on his potential, but the high likelihood of an NFL lockout may have him consider his options a little more carefully.

Extra room at running back

2010-09-13T14:22:00.002-04:00

Well this can not be good. As reported by Chris Peak at Pantherlair.com, freshman running back Jason Douglas found himself in some trouble. On a personal level for the kid, this could be disasterous. Two major felonies might not just mean the end of his career at Pitt, he could be looking at some serious penalties in life for this type of action.

For Jason, I hope he can learn from this and eventually avoid situations such as these in the future.

For the Pitt program, our Fulmer Cup standing will likely increase. We will really need the Graham/Lewis combo to stay healthy as these two will be the work horses. We should be able to find a kick returner relatively easy given our depth at the skill positions. Lastly, I hope that Savon Huggins sees this and knows there might just be some extra room for a 5 star running back here.

Kick them back to the 'Shire

2010-09-13T14:01:00.002-04:00

After a tough loss, serving up a FCS school is exactly what the team needed. It allowed some of our guys to rest (Romeus), it allowed the coaches to see players perform in real game action (Tino), and allowed guys to get back into their groove (The D-Line/Ray Graham).

What the game didn't allow us to do was see improvement in our 3 most needed areas: Interior O-Line, Linebackers, and Secondary.

For the second straight game, Pitt chose to run heavily up the middle with Dion Lewis. The Panthers failed again to create holes for him and he was limited to very small yardage against a team we should have dominated. To make matters worse, Chris Jacobsen left the game with what appeared to be a lower leg injury. With a big game coming up against Miami, this would be a good time to see if Ryan Turnley can play as well as he appeared to play this week against a legitimate FBS team. If Jacobsen can go, then it is absolutely time for the staff to sit Gaskins. He appears to be too timid and shys away from contact. Those are traits that an offensive lineman can not have.

There is a vocal group of Pitt fans who seems interested in switching to Jack Lippert as the center. While I think it would have been a good idea to do last week if there was a chance he was needed, this is not the week to do so. Against Miami, we will need a group of linemen with some experience ready to go. I don't see the need in starting a red-shirt freshman in his first year at the position at the division 1 level against Miami in a prime time game. This is one situation where experience/age trumps potential ability.

The defensive line was a bright spot shutting down a successful offense. We were able to get to the quarterback 6 times after failing to do so against Utah. Like I've been saying all off season, this team will only go as far as the D-Line takes them.

I'm lumping the linebackers and D-backs together in one group. This really is a huge weakness for the team. In all of the games we will lose this season, I can promise you will see poor O-Line play, and defensive breakdowns in the back 7. We are simply asking guys to make plays they can not. It appears that while Max Gruder may be the "thinking man's linebacker" of the group, where he knows the defense and plays a big role, he just lacks the play making ability. Dan Mason still has potential to grow, but in pass coverage he constantly finds himself out of position. I have no complaints with his run stopping ability, but the other half of his game needs to improve. The Roberts/Williams combo still hasn't shown much for me to say there has been legitimate improvement.

The one area of major improvement which I love seeing was the Panthers coming out and throwing the ball more. Tino showed that he can make the plays when given the chance. We also saw that when we can run the ball, we can use the pass to set up the run. That might not be music to Wannstedt's ears, but it is the truth. Ray Graham exploded for over 100 yards and 2 TD's after we used the early second half passing game to establish the run. I have a feeling we will need to do this for say........every game as we can't trust the interior line to create holes for the running backs.

Overall this was a good game for the Panthers to get back on track. Wanny still used his tired excuses of "we're not where we need to be" and "we are a young team" (despite not starting any freshmen), but with more experience we can move to where we need to be and inexperience is lost. We just need to use what we learned from the 2nd half an apply it to Miami. If we come out slow and conservative, we will not win this game.

Villanova invited to the Big East, and no one cares.

2010-09-10T12:31:00.002-04:00

When news leaked about the potential offer to Villanova to join the Big East in football, some fans became angry, some fans became excited, but hopefully most fans were like me and just didn't care.....at all.

Let's just be blunt about it. The Big East Conference sucks. In fact most college conferences suck (unless your name is the SEC). Adding Villanova is no better or worse than adding a school like Memphis, ECU, or UCF. Nova is a small catholic school with a small following. Having 7,000 as your enrollment isn't exactly the most exciting number to supporting big time athletics, but hey, more has been done with less in the past.

The supporters are saying this will allow the Big East to corner the Philadelphia market. HA! People in Philly may care about specific schools for Big East basketball, but as a whole, they don't have a market for 1 specific team. Temple, Nova, and Delaware could all make cases to being "Philly's school" if marketed there correctly, but Temple hasn't done it and Nova/Delaware will never do it. You might not like to read this, but most of Philly's college fan base is going to end up going to Penn State.

Another argument in support of this is that we will see the establishment of a Big East TV network. Well, unless the network is going to show 24/7 Big East basketball, then no one cares. Will we show Big East football but exclude Notre Dame? Will we show Notre Dame basketball but ignore their football program? I like to think our gutless Big East leaders would include Notre Dame on the Big East TV deal pot so that they can keep getting extra money from different sources.

Against the Nova Wildcats is the fact they play in a small stadium, lack a true/rich history, and don't have the (to quote Kirky H.) "sexy factor" when being considered as an expansion school. For all of those reasons......well I agree with all of them.

The group that we haven't talked about yet is the conspiracy theorists. I'm shocked that I haven't read too much of the "now that Nova is a football school we can break away from the Catholic B-Ball schools" type postings. So let me give you a little fodder here conspiracy theorists. What if (even though this will NEVER happen), we take Nova for football, scoop up 3 of the Army, Navy, ECU, Memphis, UCF, or Temple group so that we can have our own network, a Big East Championship (HA!) game, and retain dominance in football. Sure we we won't be able to play extra games against St. Johns in the Garden, but who wouldn't love a trip to Philly in early February to see the Panthers square off against the Owls in what surely would be a terrible dominating basketball game.

Really, no matter if this does or does not happen, it doesn't make any difference. The only thing that will change is that we will basically have 2 FCS level teams on our schedule (well 3 if you would have counted FIU) instead of just the 1.

This move means nothing to me, and it should mean nothing to you.

On to New Hampshire

2010-09-09T10:01:00.002-04:00

Well one of the things more disappointing than losing a close game on the road is realizing your next game puts your car in the friendly confines of Blue 10 instead of Red 5 (thanks Steelers/Pitt).

This week we have our home opener at 1 p.m. vs FCS team New Hampshire. The Wildcats are coming off of a big win which saw their running back pile up Dion level numbers. This is a team that holds wins over FBS teams in each of the last 5 years and they are looking to make Pitt #6.

While Pitt should win this game easily, it will provide some much needed help for the Panthers. The Wilcats will be running their version of the spread and will be looking to replicate the success of Utah vs. our defense. This will give Pitt a chance to see the type of offense they will be facing for the majority of the 2010 season as most teams are now looking to this type of modern offense and know that Pitt has difficulty covering it as our slow linebackers are forced to line up against slot receivers.

The defensive line needs to have a monster game this week. There is no reason our All-American's shouldn't be able to throw around these division 2 offensive linemen while stopping the run and pressuring the quarterback. The play of the front 4 is essential to preventing our back 7 from having to make plays, which is a good thing.

We will get to see how our offensive line plays after a terrible start to the season. Yes we will see 9 guys in the box and yes we will see Dion being forced to run up the middle on several straight plays. If the line can create some holes, Dion should be able to rack up at least 150 yards with a couple of touchdowns to get the train back on the tracks.

If there was a game to let Tino loose and see what he can do, this is it. You don't have to worry about hiding him, or worrying if he does make a mistake because we should be up by a large enough margin to overcome what negative plays occur.

This week, I predict my tailgate party will hear me complain over and over again about the parking situation (screw you blue 10) and Pitt will win the game by a score of 35 to 10.

Post-Utah - The Defense

2010-09-07T14:25:00.002-04:00

Overall, one way to describe the entire unit is Terrible.

Our great defensive line decided not to show up for this game. Maybe Sheard/Romeus aren't as great as advertised, maybe the Utah air slowed us down, or maybe we just really missed Mick Williams and Gus Mustakas. Regardless of the excuse the D-Line needs to make more plays. From a unit that lead the country in sacks last season, we were unable to get one this entire game. Pressure on the quarterback was not consistent and filling holes led to runs which should have been stopped sooner. This group needs to get their heads on straight if we expect to have any success this season because they are the anchors of the group.

The linebackers should immediately have Wanny on the phone with every recruit in the country to see if they want to play here. Max Gruder for some reason has his spot locked up despite not being able to shed tackles, not having any tackles for no gain/loss, and looking lost in pass coverage. The only positive thing you can say is that his pass coverage skills are slightly better than Dan Mason's. I really had high expectations for Mason this year after flashes of brilliance last year. Mason will be a fine run stopper, but his pass coverage ability for a linebacker needs to improve fast if he hopes to succeed at Pitt and make it to the next level. The last spot belonging to Williams/Roberts is a huge hole as well. After 5 years of recruiting here, you would think we would have an above average trio of linebackers, but that is not the case. The one redemption for this group is that everyone realizes we are putting them in no-win situations all of the time. We can not expect our outside linebackers to cover slot receivers all game and be successful. The other move that we aren't adjusting to is when a team puts their #1 receiver in the slot, we are not adjusting. That would be like if we lined Baldwin in the slot and had Max Gruder line up for coverage.

In the secondary, Antuan Reed, and Ricky Gary actually didn't play too bad. Don't get me wrong, they weren't great, but they could have been much worse than they were. I think these guys will steadily improve throughout the season and leave us with less complaints through each game. The same can be said for Jarred Holley. The guy is an absolute play maker. He had the best game of any player on the defensive unit and certainly won't draw any complaints from me. If every player had done their job as well as Holley, we would have won this game. The biggest gripe about this unit is the use of Dom DeCicco. Who thought it would be a good idea for him to continually add more muscle to the point where he can't run as a safety should anymore. The guy is now a linebacker playing in the secondary. He continually is out of position and has poor tackling skills. He hurt his shoulder on a play that he typically goes for. Instead of wrapping up properly, he leads with the shoulder trying to knock the player down with the big hit instead of taking him down securely. With his status unknown for the New Hampshire game we will get to see Jason Hendricks get some extra playing time here. Hopefully the return of Andrew Taglianetti gives this group some relief as he has looked like our best option there so far.

There is much to complain about from this group and the coaching should be included as well. Not breaking from the base defense all game, stating we had too much inexperience, and not having accountability is what killed this team. We can not have the same tired excuses game after game, year after year if we want to become and remain a dominant defense. At some point, the words have to translate into actions and plays have to be made. Either that, or someone has to take the fall for the poor execution whether it is a player or coach.

Post-Utah - The Offense

2010-09-07T14:11:00.003-04:00

I had a feeling Pitt would lose a close game against Utah, which is why I predicted a 3 point defeat for the Panthers. I just didn't think that while expecting to lose a close game, I could come out of it with such a negative reaction.

I guess I felt that even if we did lose a close game, our 3 hyped studs (Lewis, Baldwin, and Romeus) would all have great games. What we saw was the staff limit the success of the offensive guys, and the defensive line disappear.

On offense, Tino looks like he can be the real deal. He isn't the best quarterback in the country, but he does have the skill set and tools to be a successful college quarterback. His biggest drawback is the handcuffs that the staff has placed on him, and probably won't ever take off given Wannstedt's usage/trust of quarterbacks.

Dion Lewis and Henry Hynoski did as much as they could in their positions. They made the plays that they were given room to make. The staff did a terrible job using them though as they were forced to run against 8 and 9 man fronts who knew exactly what we were going to do. If we continue to play this way for the rest of the season we won't have to worry about Dion's chase for the Heisman because he will be injured and won't have a shot to pile up stats. He was getting crushed out there.

The offensive line was terrible. If your name is not Nix or Pinkston, you should be worried about losing your job. The interior of the line could not have looked worse. They didn't get any push for the run game, didn't provide Tino time to pass, and looked exactly how a group of linemen should not. Greg Gaskins might be the worst lineman to ever suit up during the Harris/Wannstedt era. I never thought I'd wish to see Dom Williams return to play guard, but he would be starting on this team if he were here. Ryan Turnley and Jack Lippert need to be given serious looks this week in practice because if this line does not turn around quickly, we will be hard pressed to win 8 games.

The wide receivers were the bright spot of the offense. When they were given a chance to make plays, they did. The nice surprise was Cam Saddler showing some good ability as a slot receiver. His speed will compliment nicely to Shanahan and Baldwin. Speaking of those two, how can we not be using them more, especially in the red zone? As Paul Zeise pointed out, of 17 red zone passes, only 1 was to the end zone. Even if you aren't planning on throwing to Baldwin, having him on the field in those situations immediately draws the attention of 2 defenders away from him giving your offense more room. There were even situations where he was in single coverage and we refused to utilize him, instead opting for the runs against a 9 man front.

Mike Cruz showed again that he is a pretty good player. He has very nice hands, but shouldn't be counted on to block too much. For that, we were using Brock DiCicco who right now looks just as bad on offense as his brother does on defense. His false start penalties and poor blocking prevented us from sustaining drives that could have been a difference maker in the game. The big question I have from this group is, Where was Greg Cross? If he truly was to replace Dorin's role from last year, this is one game and one time we could have used it. I guess we're hiding it for the big 3rd place showdown against WVU in November.

Overall my biggest complaints are with the coaching and the offensive line. We saw Wanny's achillies heel back in full force Thursday night. I don't care if it was his or Cignetti's game plan, but it was awful. An audible, play action, or mis-direction play might not be in the 1990 Chicago Bears playbook, but it should be in the 2010 Pitt Panther's playbook.

Given our redzone opportunities and expansive set of skill players, we should have put up much more than 24 points. This is what we need to realistically expect from this type of team the rest of the season and the rest of our lives as long as we are playing this type of football. Regardless of what the defense does, we will run our standard offense and try to force our will over theirs, even if we are losing all game long.

Acquired Apathy

2010-09-07T13:54:00.003-04:00

For the past 10 years, as a Pitt football fan, I could really never understand why we never had more of a rabid/passionate fan base. We have had many reasons to see great crowds with tremendous enthusiasm, but we never found them.

After the past few seasons I can finally understand why this attitude exists. It always seems that when a Pitt football team is ready to take the next step forward, we end up stumbling.

In 2004 with a top 10 team and the most legitimate heisman contender we have had in 30 years, we lost at Toledo in a game where we were up by a couple of scores in the 2nd half.

With the introduction of Dave Wannstedt, the return of Matt Cavanaugh, and keeping defensive guru Paul Rhoads, the Panther faithful were excited to see what this coach could do with a team coming off of a BCS berth. What we had was a slaughter at Heinz Field at the hands of Notre Dame. While this could have been overlooked due to the introduction of then hot coaching prospect Charlie Weis introducing his offensive dominance, we then saw the Panthers fall in overtime to Ohio University.

In 2008, the Panthers were starting the season after preventing our hated rivals from West Virginia from playing in the National Championship. We were introducing a monster recruiting class and had things lined up to make a play for the Big East title with the last coaching wizard, Rich Rodriguez, leaving for Michigan. What we had was an opening day loss to Bowling Green, giving us our 3rd loss to a MAC team in our entire history. Things did not get better as it took a late 4th quarter comeback to defeat the Buffalo Bulls at home. The season ended with a truly embarrassing 3-0 loss at the Sun Bowl where the Pitt offense hit rock bottom.

In 2009, Pitt had a chance to earn more respect than ever by going undefeated in the Big East and earning its first BCS bid in 5 years. On a cold November night, Pitt lost to a lowly WVU team in a game that fans claimed "Didn't mean anything". That game was followed up by one of the biggest collapses in Pitt football history as a huge 1st half lead was squandered away against Cincy. That allowed the Bearcats to finish undefeated and pushed Pitt back to 3rd place in the Big East.

This season with Brian Kelly gone, a top 20 ranking, 2 great offensive weapons, a vaunted defensive line, and a quarterback fans have been screaming for the past 2 seasons, Pitt was in a position to take that long awaited step forward. You will hear excuses that losing a close game to Utah is not that big of a deal. Those people making that excuse do have a point. The bigger issue is that Pitt had a chance to win the game, but passed instead taking the safe move to play for the tie. When we did take a chance, our first play in over time resulted in an interception leading to a loss.

Now those are just the issues since I've been a Pitt fan starting in 2000. I can see how fans who have been around much longer than myself can lose hope and simply go to root for the team, but not expect too much. Honestly that is the point where Jones and I are right now. We will be at every game as we always have been, we will be cheering our hearts out for the Panthers, but we won't be expecting championship after championship as it won't happen with this program.

Pitt vs Utah Preview

2010-09-02T11:46:00.002-04:00

Well today is the day. Our Pitt Panthers will kick off the 2010 season in Salt Lake City. This is one of the premiere non-conference games and will be a huge starting point for the victor in this game.

No longer can Utah be looked at as a non-BCS underdog ever since their undefeated season a few years ago with Urban Meyer at the helm. Since that point, Utah has been a force in college football. They have played well enough and garnered enough support to earn them a spot in the PAC-12 meaning, they are now a BCS school.

Leading into the game you have heard all about the superstars for Pitt and the great home field advantage for Utah. We also are waiting to see how new comers such as Tino Sunseri and the back 7 for Utah fare in their first action as starters.

For Pitt to win this game, they need to have a balanced, successful, offensive attack. Utah has a very good defensive line which could cause many problems. The weakness of this Utes team will be in the secondary. We finally get to see the true trust level of this team as Tino is the first quarterback that Wanny has recruited long term for himself. If they let Tino throw as much as Bill Stull towards the end of the season, Pitt should be in good shape tonight. If they hold him back, Pitt is in trouble. Utah knows that we are going to run the ball all day long. A 1 dimensional offense will allow Utah to hide their secondary playing directly into their strength. A few successful passes will push them back a bit allowing more room for the running game. Without the respect for the pass, we will see the Panthers struggling in the run game. Due to this, Pitt should not expect to run the ball all game and expect to win.

On Defense, I expect Pitt to play very well. Pitt has done well against most versions of the spread. This shouldn't be like the Fiesta bowl where all of the misdirections and lack of defensive adjustments leads to a dejected Panther fan base. What we should expect to see is the defensive line controlling the line of scrimmage, stopping the run, and putting pressure on the quarterback. Our main weakness will come from the outside linebacker position and cornerbacks. Dan Mason should be in store for a great season, but if we do not see improvement from Max Gruder and the Williams/Roberts tandem, we are in trouble. We also need Ricky Gary and Antuan Reed to provide consistent, adequate play. We saw our corners struggle ever since the departure of Revis. I don't think any fan is ever expecting to have a cornerback like him year in and year out, but consistency at the position will go a long way in helping the team reach their goal of a Big East Championship.

For this game I don't see Wanny opening anything up offensively since we are opening in a hostile environment with a sophomore quarterback starting his first collegiate game. This over-reliance on the run will pose problems for the offense as our new interior linemen will most like struggle with Utah's front four.

On defense Pitt will hang and play well keeping us in the game. The defensive line will be as good as advertised and be a menace all season long. The linebackers and secondary will have their mistakes, but they will provide enough for Pitt to play solid defensively and remain one of the top units not just in the conference, but in the country.

My prediction:

Pitt 27, Utah 30.

The 2010 Season is here

2010-08-31T16:22:00.002-04:00

We are inching ever so close to the kickoff of the season. In a little over 2 days, the most anticipated season of Pitt football in the last 25 years will take place.

Amazingly, this is one of the few years in recent memory where we are favored to be the best of the "local 3". With the pressure mounting, the team and the fans are getting anxious to start the season.

We have returning sensations Jon Baldwin, Greg Romeus, and Dion Lewis. All three should have great seasons, being able to expand on what they were able to accomplish previously. My only hope is that people do not have unrealistic expectations of what each can accomplish.

Greg Romeus will be seeing more double teams than ever given the hype as well as the departure of Mick Williams. That does not mean he can not be a force this season. I am hoping that he can earn double digit sacks and continue to be a menace of a pass rusher.

Dion Lewis will have the chance to continue his great Pitt start as he will be the anchor of the offense. Lucas Nix and Jason Pinkston provide great consistency and have the skill to seal the edge giving Dion room to run. There is some concern replacing the entire interior line, but the staff seems confident in Karabin to replace Robb Houser. The Cat Basket has always been a fan of Chris Jacobsen since his KO days and feel he will be able to step in right away. Greg Gaskins and that right guard spot continue to be a huge question mark for Pitt. If the interior line is able to provide adequate run blocking, Dion should be able to at least reach last years totals.

Jon Baldwin is a major part of the offense and is one of the biggest weapons we have. He will be counted on to help Tino Sunseri make the transition from backup QB to starter. His numbers should increase as he will be the primary target for most passing plays as well as with the departure of other receivers who were big targets last year. A new quarterback often locks into the first target during the early portion of his starting career, so don't be surprised when you continually hear Sunseri to Baldwin.

If those three players have big years, Pitt should be able to make a run for a Big East title. This is the year where a 9-3 team can win the Big East. Losses to Miami and Utah won't be devastating, but a split is needed if we are hoping to gain some respect as a major program returning to glory.

Personally I see the Panthers finishing 9-3 with 1 Big East loss and 2 non-conference losses. Hopefully a 6-1 Big East record is enough to push us forward to a BCS game against a beatable ACC team.

Injuries, Secondary issues, and Todd Thomas

2010-04-08T10:53:00.002-04:00

On Tuesday the Pitt secondary took a hit as Aundre Wright was helped off the field with a leg injury. We were all hoping this wasn't going to be too severe, but thankfully the full extent of the injury hasn't been released yet. I can confirm that right now Aundre is on crutches but is able to move around. It doesn't appear from the eye that it is too severe of an injury, but you can never tell with these things. We saw the same thing with Shane Murray as day to day ended up being a season ending injury. Hopefully Wannstedt has some news for us as the secondary is in desperate need of depth. Just in case you were wondering how bad it is right now (the sky isn't falling we just have some minor injuries) here is the safety breakdown from Tuesdays practice.

FS - Jarred Holley, Marco Pecora
SS - Todd Gilchrist, Pat Costello, Kolby Gray

I know the staff is talking about having Todd Thomas at wide receiver when he enrolls at Pitt in May, but safety is where he should be. We have plenty of depth and talent at wide receiver to hold us over for quite some time. The secondary is a different story though with Tags coming back from injury, Dom missing some time, and a lack of overall concern about recruiting the position. The best thing for this unit is time as they will be able to get more guys reps in practice while allowing Dom, Aundre Wright, Tags, and Jason Hendricks to recover from the injury bug.

The other news is that while having a productive day on Tuesday, Greg Cross looks to be favoring his left ankle a bit. He does have a special boot that he has been wearing. Again this is just a minor issue, but no official word from Pitt on his status.

Catching Up With Cam

2010-04-07T14:37:00.002-04:00

I had the pleasure of talking with Cam Saddler last night and was able to find out some of his thoughts on the team thus far into spring practice.

First off without even asking about the team Cam was really excited to talk about how hungry the team is. The Cincy game left a bad taste in everyone's mouth and the players are really taking it to heart. Outside of Nate Byham last year, I don't remember ever seeing a player put so much emphasis on winning the Big East title, but it sure looks like everyone on this team views the league championship as a goal that needs to happen. With the talent we have coming back and the losses suffered by teams around the league the team has realistic expectations of winning this conference.

When asked how things were going in spring camp thus far Cam was excited to talk about how the offense is shining. As we've seen in years past the defense has pretty much shut the offense down the entire time. This year is a bit different with the offense staying competitive with the defense. With our weapons in place at the skill positions even the 2nd and 3rd teamers are shining. This speaks highly of Cignetti's ability as a coach. With only 1 year in the system we're finally seeing an offense that can run and throw the ball.

While on the subject of passing, we should have a variety of packages to use on the field. We have a smaller speed package we can throw out to stretch the field and we can also go big if needed. I asked Cam who could potentially break out this year and without hesitation he went straight to Devin Street. It could have been because they were hanging out together, but something tells me with the success he found last year in camp plus the reports that he's been improving every day that Street will make a difference for this team in a big way. I just don't know if it is this year due to the immense depth we have at the receiver and tight end position which may limit his time.

It is always good to see the guys so excited about the team. I'm sure we've all run into players who view football as a job which can anger the fiery fans. This year's team doesn't seem to have it. I think this is one year where the cards are all falling in place for Pitt. The players want it, the coaches want it, and the fans want it.

As Cam said, we can't have any excuses this year. This league has fallen into place for us this year. That doesn't mean we are a shoe in for anything as the past two years we could have held the Big East crown. This year is the year it needs to happen. With a team assembled of all Wanny guys and with the top assistants having plenty of time to work with the players we shouldn't have any questions on how to best prepare for the season. We will know our strengths and we will know our weaknesses. The key is exploiting those to our advantage.

On another positive note, as reported by Chris Peak at Pantherlair yesterday, Todd Thomas was finally cleared by the NCAA to play for Pitt and he will enroll this May. It looks like they will have him at wide receiver initially, but given our depth issues in the secondary as well as his natural talent, I really hope we move him over to the defensive side of the ball as that is where he is needed and where he could make the greatest impact immediately.

More Camp Thoughts

2010-03-31T11:34:00.002-04:00

Here is some more updates on Spring Camp:

I think it is safe to call the QB competition. Sunseri is the starter and Bostick is the backup, which means that is the opening day depth chart. Spring Camp starters transfer 100 percent to Fall Camp barring any injury.
A player to look for in the Blue-Gold game and going forward is defensive tackle Tyrone Ezell. With the depth chart changing after the departures of Mustakas and Williams I expect someone to step in as the first sub and make an impact like Caragein did last year. Ezell has been a performer in camp and is making plays. I'm very excited to see what he can do.
Another big story in camp has been the play of the new cornerback tandem Imoru and Reed. The coaching staff has apparently changed the philosophy of the secondary and has implemented more bump and run coverage. If we play tighter coverage I will dance a jig. I'm all for eliminating the secondary giving up huge chunks of yards in order to keep every play in front of them. Corner is a position where we could see marked improvement this season.
On the offensive line things are very positive. Pinkston-Nix is as good as any tackle pair in the Big East. Jacobsen is finally going to get his chance to shine at guard. The two positions that are going have unproven starters are RG and C. Greg Gaskins is a pretty sure bet to be the starter at RG and he has a decent amount of hype from the coaching staff. I don't expect him to immediately do what Malecki did last year playing next to Nix but in time I think we will continue to see the right side moving bodies. At center all we need is a someone to be solid. The current depth chart is Alex Carabin and converted defensive end Jack Lippert. I'm hoping that Carabin, who has been around forever, can lock down the position so that we can give time to Lippert to develop as an offensive lineman.

Spring camp is going along pretty well without any major injuries, which is all we can hope for. Continue to enjoy the comical Dixon to Oregon rumors and the Pens getting ready for a Stanley Cup defense.

Wannstedt's Contract Extended Until 2014

2010-03-30T11:51:00.002-04:00

Joe Schad is reporting on twitter that the terms of Wannstedt's new deal will keep him here until 2014 and that it will make him one of the top paid coaches in the Big East. With the marked improvement in his winning percentage the last two season's this was inevitable. I'm happy that the deal is only until 2014 which will give us recruiting stability but also keep the pressure on Wannstedt to keep improving.

Anybody who has read one column on this website knows our feelings about the coaching ability of Dave Wannstedt. The past 5 years have been such an up and down experience. What we do know is that with Wanny at the helm we are a recruiting powerhouse in the Big East. Our depth chart, especially on the two lines, is light years ahead of what it was when Wanny got here. The on field success has been arguable to say the least.

In order for this extension to be successful and for the program to continue in the right direction one thing has to happen, a Big East title. The past two seasons the Big East title has been lost on the field against Cincinnati. With Brian Kelly out of the Big East the track to us winning a title should be much smoother. Realistically, we need to win this Big East title before 2012 because our place in college football could be much different once the Big 10 expands. With our recruiting success and the relative weakness of the Big East there is no reason to miss out on the BCS again.

So in 4 years at the end of this extension I would be 100 percent satisfied if we have a Big East title. I'm setting my sights realistically with only 1 Big East title because I've grown to understand what we have here. Wannstedt is not a guy who is ever going to have an undefeated season. Wannstedt is not a guy who will win every game that we should. The next 4 years just like the first 5 are going to be scattered with head shaking losses and a few big wins. Hopefully, these 4 years are more like the last 2.

Status quo move by the Athletic Department that was expected.

http://twitter.com/schadjoe/status/11313994094

Post Gazette Report

Camp Thoughts

2010-03-24T11:19:00.002-04:00

I apologize for the lack of daily updates on the spring camp this year. As always, the news and developments trickle in around this time of the year. Here are some brief thoughts on the first days:

If you gave me odds around -1000 now that Tino Sunseri was going to be the opening day starter I would call those a bit conservative. I think after all these Spring Camps with Wanny as head coach we can understand how he does position battles at QB. The job has been Tino's since before they even started practicing and the amount of snaps with the first team has proven that. Can we close the book on Bostick's career aspirations as a starting QB? Probably, but who knows what will happen over the course of a season.
Tight End is an interesting position battle that is going to have an impact on our style of offense. None of the tight ends we have on the roster are as good of blockers as Nate Byham or as good of pass receivers as Dorin Dickerson. What we do have is bodies with different skill sets. Mike Cruz seems like the obvious starter playing a similar game to Nate Byham but behind him is a bit of a mystery. Brock DeCicco is a smaller pass catching style tight end and Andrew Devlin, the UVA transfer, is similar to Cruz. As we saw last year having a playmaker at tight end is a big part of the offense.
The interesting place to keep an eye on defensively is cornerback. Saheed Imoru is a JUCO transfer who has been getting reps with the first team along with Antwuan Reed. Every time I've seen Reed play I've been a fan and he has had some success in practice covering Baldwin. I will continue the tradition here at The Cat Basket bringing up Buddy Jackson into every cornerback conversation, I'm really hoping he can see significant time on the field as a 3rd corner. Aundre Wright's move to corner is interesting but I'm really doubting that it amounts to him seeing the field on more than special teams.

We will be back throughout camp with some thoughts. It won't be daily but if anything big happens you can expect our thoughts.

Spring Camp Day 1

2010-03-18T21:52:00.003-04:00

Spring camp is finally here and what does that mean? It's time for another fake quarterback competition. Sure the coaches will say the right things and the two competitors will share reps, but we all know where this is going. I'd like to just settle the rumors right now and state that Tino will be your starting qb this fall. Sure we know that Wanny loves experience, but this time it comes down to a kid from Pittsburgh vs a kid from Eastern PA, a kid who has a father with ties to Wannstedt vs a kid who has a dad who simply roots for Pitt, but never played or coached here or with Wanny.

Sure that's not the best way to start off a spring camp article, but we all know where this battle is going. I just don't see the need to really worry about it too much as we can read Wanny like a book here. If you don't believe me, well just think about this. Today is the 1st day and even though they were in helmets and shorts, Tino took every single first team rep.

Anyway, on to some real news from spring camp.

I know Jones and I were concerned about the 1vacancies in the offensive line created by the graduation of Robb Houser, Joe Thomas and John Malecki. Well today your offensive line consisted of Pinkston, Jacobsen, Karabin, Gaskins, and Lucas Nix. The guy who should be most happy about this is Greg Gaskins. Starting off as the starting left guard plus having the ability to serve as center will pretty much assure him a nice amount of playing time this year. It is concerning though that after spending some time at center, he wasn't able to secure up the spot. Instead we now have a battle for the center spot.

If you missed the news, Jack Lippert was moved from defensive line to center. I wasn't thrilled about this at first as I felt that Lippert had plenty to offer on the defensive side of the ball. After thinking about it for a while it started to make a little more sense. Throughout his coaching days in the college ranks, Jimmie Johnson and Dave Wannstedt have had a history of moving Dlinemen to the offensive side of the ball, this move is no different. The one area we can afford to move talent is on the D-Line since we have plenty of talent and depth to go around. This is one race where I have no idea where it is heading. With Gaskins in the mix for center I could see him winning the job in part because the staff really likes Turnley at guard. This race, in my opinion, will be the biggest and most interesting race throughout camp.

My next question this camp is what did Buddy Jackson do to Wannstedt that is preventing him from playing? Even as a freshman he had plenty of chances to prove himself, but never found his way into the games. He was a victim of injuries and other bad luck (broken jaw). This year with the departure of Berry and Chappel, Jackson had a chance to make some noise. Today though Reed and junior college transfer Saheed Imoru were your two starting corners. Maybe it's just me, but I just don't see how a guy with 3 months at Pitt is playing over a guy with 3 years in the system. Even if he beats him out eventually, let Jackson earn his keep.

With today a pad-free day we weren't able to get all of the answers were were looking for, but for now part of the picture was revealed.

As practices continue and information becomes available, we'll be sure to get it out to you.

Cat Basket Podcast Number 29

2010-02-22T20:43:00.001-05:00

Potpourri of Pitt football topics.

Cat Basket Podcast Number 29

Losing a linebacker

2010-02-17T11:01:00.001-05:00

Earlier this year it was reported that Elijah Fields would be moving to linebacker. While that may have been the case, I always felt that his role would be like we saw towards the end of the season. We used him primarily in nickel situations where he would line up in different spots around the field. Having him as a linebacker in our system this year probably wouldn't have changed what we saw last year much other than defining it as 4-3 instead of a nickel.

Well now it appears that all of this does not matter one bit. After struggling to make his way on campus due to grades, Elijah has had a rough time at Pitt. The most notable problem came when he was suspended for an entire season due to failing a drug test. He was expected to be a major contributor and people were even labeling him as the "Shady of the defense" during pre-season practices.

Now as we sit through cold winter months waiting for something to talk about, this is the time we typically hate having things to discuss. Just like last year with the Adam Gunn and Jonathan Baldwin incidents, off-season news typically is bad news. While the Big 10 talk and hiring of two new coaches have kept us busy for a little while, we finally have some of the news we hate to get.

From sources close to the team as well as reports from both PantherDigest and PantherLair, it looks as if Elijah Fields has once again failed a drug test. Coach Wannstedt has had Fields on a short leash since the problems first arose a few years ago. Now with a second violation it appears his days wearing #4 for the Panthers are over. This is a sad end to what looked to be a very promising career.

Now the Panthers will look to fill the hole left created in that area. With some combination of Holley, Tags and DiCicco set to return as our starting safetys, those positions are fine. At linebacker Williams and Gruder return on the outside and Dan Mason is ready to fill the void left by the graduation of Adam Gunn. So while losing Fields certainly hurts, at this point we look to be replacing depth only on paper.

Hopefully this works out best for all parties. As we saw last year, this isn't the worst thing in the world as people have left and succeeded. Jason Capizzi and Tommie Duhart are two examples that come to mind. In the end Pitt opens up another spot to let someone earn a chance and Elijah will have the chance to prove himself in a new environment.

Pitt to Big 10 Rumors

2010-02-01T11:17:00.004-05:00

So if you are a frequent visitor to the various Pitt football related message boards you have seen the news that on February 4th we will be joining the Big 10. The basis of the rumor was a closed door meeting that Steve Pederson had with the student-athletes. Apparently, people took this annual meeting as a basis to fan the flames. Every poster who confirms this rumor is apparently "in the know" and is getting the information from only the most reliable of sources. As of right now there is no major news outlet or journalist that has even brought up this move to the Big 10 which is going to happen in a matter of days according to rumor.

I think these rumors are indicative of the atmosphere that Big 10 expansion has created with schools that could be involved. Nobody wants to be left in a conference that was raided by the Big 10 without a plan. The ACC raid on the Big East has had a negative impact on the football conference in terms of national perception. Losing another team would take the BCS bid away from the Big East.

I'm not a message board insider or a guy who knows another guy that is always ahead of the curve on rumors. The way I see this rumor is that on Friday we will still be in the Big East enjoying the fruits of an extremely good football recruiting class looking forward to playing Seton Hall at the Pete on Saturday. There is a chance that we could be a part of the Big 10 expansion but I would bet that the actual media not guys on a message board who get texts from mysterious sources will break the news.

Remember people the internet is serious business and don't forget to sign up for a message board account to complain about the Oakland Zoo. I hear that is what the cool guys are doing now.

New WR Coach

2010-01-18T11:37:00.003-05:00

Just like I thought would happen, Pitt has named Scott Turner as our new WR's coach. This is a move that I really believe will hurt Pitt in the short term. The reason being is that this is Scott's first big time job as a positions coach. Prior to this he was a grad assistant at Pitt, and as most people know, he is the son of the Charger's Norv Turner.

The reason I feel this is not a good hire for right now is because we have a large amount of young talent at WR that could benefit from an experienced coach. He also does not have any history of being able to recruit and that is something that we always need to have on staff.

This move actually seems like Wanny decided to go with the complete opposite of Bossard. Instead of getting a guy with experience and recruiting ties (even though Bossard was awful at both) we went with the guy with 0 experience coaching at the D1 level, and 0 recruits to his name thus far.

The reason this could work out well in the long term is that Scott has a high football pedigree. He has the benefit of being around football of his life and from playing quarterback at UNLV. He is also young enough that he should be able to relate better to younger kids than some of the older assistants.

I hope that this move is based upon merit that Scott has earned throughout his time as a GA here at Pitt and not just Wanny looking out for one of his buddy's sons (i.e. Oderick Turner).

I would have rather found a guy, much like Cignetti, who has proven he can be successful as a coach, someone who already has a recruiting base established, and someone that can develop talent.

Now this becomes a waiting game with many questions.

Will we see Scott become like Jeff Hafley and open up a new, successful recruiting base somewhere that we haven't been before?

Will we see the receivers continue to struggle (not including Shanahan and Baldwin)?

Will we see Scott become an active part in the offensive coaching or will he be limited initially like most grad assistants?

Many questions exist, and hopefully the answers all benefit Pitt.

Bowl Pick 'Em Results

2010-01-12T14:04:00.002-05:00

Well this year we expanded the field to 8 and saw some interesting picks. It was funny how similiar everyone was with their picks.

Of the 8 contestants I was the only one to pick UNC over Pitt. Also, no one picked PSU over LSU. Danny was the only one who picked Boise State to beat TCU.

Doug W. was the closest in predicting the Pitt score as he predicted a 21 - 19 Pitt victory.

Of the 8 contestants here is how they finished

8. J.T. (John) - 12 points
7. Jim B. - 15 points
6. Johnny K - 16 points
5. Jones - 17 points
4. Mike T. - 18 points
3. DPJ - 19 points
2. Doug W - 22 points
1. Danny M. - 24 points

Dan, you are the winner of an Uncle Sam's meal compliments of me. So if you're from the Burgh or if you will be here at some point let me know.

Thanks everyone for participating. Hopefully next year we can expand it and maybe even do our own Yahoo group so that I don't have to calculate points in front of my boss haha.

DPJ

Pitt in need of a new WR's coach

2010-01-11T17:28:00.003-05:00

You read it right folks, as confirmed by the PG this morning, former WR coach Bryan Bossard is no longer with the team. It was reported that he left to pursue other opportunities. He was probably the most disappointing position coach on the roster as the receiver's did not show much improvement (especially in 2008), but his recruiting was awful. Sadly we saw the same problems here as he faced when he was at Maryland. He was needed to help us make a presence in the Maryland/DC area both of which we have been weak in. We have started to make in roads but Bossards progress was not what we had hoped it would have been.

Looking to the future though it leaves a big hole as the coach coming in will be immediately thrust into the important role of recruiting. This should be a job that people want to take as we have a great core of receivers here and a good group coming in.

There was a report earlier in the season that we were looking at the Wr coach from Ohio University, however chatter on that has seemed to die down.

A few years ago before Bossard was hired, there was heavy talk about bringing in Terry Smith from Gateway High School. That was my pick as we could have used him to help bring in Dorian Bell and Corey Brown (both ended up at Ohio State), plus he was a local guy from the WPIAL which is something our fans value more than any other school in the country.

The last, and probably most likely candidate to get the job is Scott Turner. Scott is the son of former NFL head coach Norv Turner who is a good friend of Dave Wannstedt. Scott has been a Grad Assistant here at Pitt for a few years and looks to be ready to find a more permanent role on a coaching staff. One thing that really favors Scott, other than his dad being friends with Wanny, is that he has a very good football pedigree. Being raised in a football family and being dedicated to learning the game is something that has impressed everyone who comes in contact with Scott.

I look forward to seeing who we bring in to be the coach as we will have a big hole to fill once Baldwin goes pro after next season.

Also I will be releasing the Bowl Pick 'Em results soon. Like I said, I will buy the winner some Uncle Sam's.

Bennett to Texas Tech

2010-01-05T16:10:00.002-05:00

All signs are pointing to Phil Bennett taking the Texas Tech DC job. There hasn't been much activity from Texas Tech's side in filling the vacancy which indicates that it is Bennett's job to lose.

With the departure of Bennett to his alma mater, this opens the door for Greg Gattuso to take over as DC at Pitt. I would like for Pitt to search outside of the program for some potential candidates instead of just handing it to Gattuso, but that might not happen.

There are internet message board rumblings about Sal Sunseri possibly joining, but that is a pipe dream at best. Sal Sunseri's salary at Alabama (base + bonus) are much higher than what Pitt would pay. Also, I believe that due to Tino being a sophomore, Sal would not want to join the staff due to any type of pressure or resentment that might develop with him on staff. Lastly, he is coaching on a team playing in the national championship. While we all love Pitt, we're not at that level yet and it just makes more sense for Sunseri to not leave Alabama for Pitt.

There hasn't been any word on Bossard or Tumpkin yet. Some players feel that Bossard will be back despite persistant in-season rumors that he would be relieved of his duties at the end of the season.

Things to look for at the Car Care Bowl

2009-12-26T10:56:00.002-05:00

Well folks, we are only a mere 5 hours from kickoff in Charlotte, North Carolina as our Panthers take on the Tarheels. In a game that should be (and I hope will be) a win for Pitt there are a few things you should keep your eyes on.

1. How much will the home field advantage benefit UNC? Playing UNC in North Carolina was one of the reasons we were able to take the Car Care Bowl from Rutgers. UNC agreed to purchased a large allotment of our tickets to make this game happen. Now, will the extra powder blue in the stands be a benefit?

2. Will Bill Stull erase his Sun Bowl performance and leave Pitt fans remembering his last game on a good note? This is the last chance that Stull has to redeem himself from the Sun Bowl performance. The only way to erase a poor performance in a meaningless bowl game is to go out the next year and have a great performance in a meaningless bowl game. A good game today for Bill will have fans remember this year as the point where Bill turned it around as a Qb and made big strides. A poor performance will leave fans with a sour taste in their mouth for years to come.

3. Will Wannstedt finnaly win the big game? His whole career people have said he could never win the big game. His biggest win thus far came in a game where Pitt had nothing on the line. We had a chance to end this thought against Cincy 2 years in a row now, but have failed. Today Dave Wannstedt has the chance to earn that elusive 10th win that Pitt has been searching for since Dan Marino was slinging passes around. Just like Stull, a win here will change perceptions and a loss will only confirm it further.

4. Will Dion Lewis put up another monster game? A huge game here will cement Dion's status as a heisman candidate for next year. This game is crucial as the momentum he takes in to this game can be increased heading into the 2010 season. Half of the battle for winning the Heisman is earning that early hype. Dion has a chance to do it today.

5. Will Dorin Dickerson be rediscovered for the 2nd time? Dorin had a fantastic season and showed Pitt fans why he was such a highly rated recruit. Today is Dorins chance to end the season showing that with patience and hard work you can be successful and go to the NFL even if things don't look that way early on. The last two games vs WVU and Cincy saw Dorin phased out of the offense when we could have used him. Hopefully FCj finds a way to get Dorin back in the game making big plays.

My last 5 questions for the game are just small personal ones that probably mean more to me than most fans.

6. Will Oderick Turner, Steve Dell, Shane Murray, and other guys who are seniors get some extra playing time in their last game today?

7. Will we see any creative offensive play calling or will we call the dinosaur-offense plays that we saw vs WVU.

8. If we struggle will we stick to what has got us to 9-3 or will we make changes to win this game?

9. Will the secondary step up in what is their last chance to do so?

10. How will Max Gruder play in his home state?

All of these questions wil be answered around 7 p.m. tonight as the game winds down and Pitt hopefully walks off the field with that 10th win.

2 important notes

2009-12-16T11:10:00.002-05:00

First off as many people know. Expect our next football verbal to come on Dec 21. One of our visitors had a great time and with Maryland looking like it's not going to be a good program for quite some time, Pitt is clearly the leader for this young man.

Secondly, the deadline for the Bowl Pick'em is Friday since bowl games start on the 19th. Email your picks to dpj731@gmail.com or thecatbasket@gmail.com

Bowl Pick'em

2009-12-12T11:05:00.003-05:00

Last year we had some fun doing this and we will do it again. I will buy the winner Uncle Sam's, maybe Johnny's Place if you really want it.

Here's how it works:

You pick the winner of each game. Each Bowl game is worth 1 point a piece. The BCS Bowls are worth 2 each.

In case of a tie we will use this tie breaker method. You pick the score of the Pitt/UNC game. Who ever is closest in total points wins. If there is a tie after that, who ever is closer in points scored by Pitt wins, if there is a tie after that whoever is closer in points scored by UNC. If for some miraculous reason there is a tie after that, I'll buy everyone who submits picks some food.

Here are your games.

New Mexico	Dec. 19 2:30 p.m.	Albuquerque, NM	Wyoming vs. Fresno State	ESPN
St. Petersburg	Dec. 19 8 p.m.	St. Petersburg, FL	Rutgers vs. UCF	ESPN
R&L Carriers New Orleans	Dec. 20 8 p.m.	New Orleans, LA	MTSU vs. Southern Miss	ESPN
MAACO Las Vegas	Dec. 22 8 p.m.	Las Vegas, NV	Oregon State vs. BYU	ESPN
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia	Dec. 23 8 p.m.	San Diego, CA	Utah vs. California	ESPN
Sheraton Hawaii	Dec. 24 8 p.m.	Honolulu, HI	Nevada vs. SMU	ESPN
Emerald	Dec. 26 8:30 p.m.	San Francisco, CA	Boston College vs. USC	ESPN
Meineke Car Care	Dec. 26 4 p.m.	Charlotte, NC	North Carolina vs. Pittsburgh	ESPN
Little Caesars	Dec. 26 1 p.m.	Detroit, MI	Ohio vs. Marshall	ESPN
Gaylord Hotels Music City	Dec. 27 8 p.m.	Nashville, TN	Kentucky vs. Clemson	ESPN
Independence	Dec. 28 5 p.m.	Shreveport, LA	Texas A&M vs. Georgia	ESPN
Champs Sports	Dec. 29 8 p.m.	Orlando, FL	Miami (FL) vs. Wisconsin	ESPN
EagleBank	Dec. 29 4:30 p.m.	Washington, DC	Army or UCLA** vs. Temple	ESPN
Pacific Life Holiday	Dec. 30 8 p.m.	San Diego, CA	Nebraska vs. Arizona	ESPN
Roady's Humanitarian	Dec. 30 4:30 p.m.	Boise, ID	Idaho vs. Bowling Green	ESPN
Texas	Dec. 31 3:30 p.m.	Houston, TX	Missouri vs. Navy	ESPN
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces	Dec. 31 TBD	Fort Worth, TX	Air Force vs. Houston	ESPN
Brut Sun	Dec. 31 Noon	El Paso, TX	Stanford vs. Oklahoma	CBS
Insight	Dec. 31 5:30 p.m.	Tempe, AZ	Minnesota vs. Iowa State	NFL
Chick-fil-A	Dec. 31 7:30 p.m.	Atlanta, GA	Virginia Tech vs. Tennessee	ESPN
Outback	Jan. 1 11 a.m.	Tampa, FL	Northwestern vs. Auburn	ESPN
Capital One	Jan. 1 1 p.m.	Orlando, FL	Penn State vs. LSU	ABC
Konica Minolta Gator	Jan. 1 1 p.m.	Jacksonville, FL	West Virginia vs. Florida State	CBS
Rose presented by Citi	Jan. 1 5 p.m.	Pasadena, CA	Oregon vs. Ohio State	ABC
Allstate Sugar	Jan. 1 8:30 p.m.	New Orleans, LA	Florida vs. Cincinnati	FOX
AT&T Cotton	Jan. 2 2 p.m.	Arlington, TX	Oklahoma State vs. Mississippi	FOX
AutoZone Liberty	Jan. 2 5:30 p.m.	Memphis, TN	East Carolina vs. Arkansas	ESPN
International	Jan. 2 Noon	Toronto, Canada	South Florida vs. Northern Illinois	ESPN2
Papajohns.com	Jan. 2 2 p.m.	Birmingham, AL	Connecticut vs. South Carolina	ESPN
Valero Alamo	Jan. 2 9 p.m.	San Antonio, TX	Texas Tech vs. Michigan State	ESPN
Tostitos Fiesta	Jan. 4 TBD	Glendale, AZ	TCU vs. Boise State	FOX
FedEx Orange	Jan. 5 8 p.m.	Miami, FL	Georgia Tech vs. Iowa	FOX
GMAC	Jan. 6 7 p.m.	Mobile, AL	Central Michigan vs. Troy	ESPN
Citi National Championship	Jan. 7 8 p.m.	Pasadena, CA	Texas vs. Alabama	ABC

Final Jones Pick Record

2009-12-06T19:51:00.002-05:00

Final Record: 45-31

I did a little worse than I would have expected after starting the season so hot. At least I finished over .500.

Taking your foot off the gas

2009-12-06T13:41:00.002-05:00

There was plenty wrong with yesterdays game. We played a good team, we didn't change as we needed to, we suffered from some awful calls, and in the end, we confirmed everyone's thoughts of "Same Old Pitt".

This was the biggest game for Pitt this decade. A chance to establish ourselves, a chance to earn a BCS spot, a chance to take the "loser" tag away from Dave Wannstedt.

We were not able to achieve that.

We played to not lose the game, that is what killed us.

If you want to see the main reason why, click here and look at our drives in the 3rd quarter. Not packing it in and sitting on a lead could have yielded better results for us. We ran the ball on 25 out of our 28 1st down plays. On those 3 passing attempts, we had 2 interceptions. Run, Run, Pass in the 3rd quarter against an explosive offense is not the way to win the game and is not the way to win championships. The 2nd half offense was nothing like our 1st half offense. There is no way we would take any type of risk in the 2nd half with our coaching mentality Hell, I'm shocked we used the flea flicker when we were up 24 to 10 in the 2nd.

Here are some of my points for this game.

Our back 7 were put in a position to fail. Every time UC went to a 4 or 5 wide receiver set, we had Max Gruder lined up in single coverage on a wide receiver. Why we did not switch to a nickel package here is baffling. Playing the 4-3 on every play and refusing to blitz is asking to lose. We will be stuck with this type of defense as long as Wannstedt is here. He really has not changed defensively and is another reason why we lost this game and can not put teams away.

I have a feeling Wanny told Cig to pack it in the 2nd half as well. In the first half we were able to run at will and showed some good play calls when we used screens and high percentage passing plays to keep the Cincy defense on their heals. In the 2nd half, they stuck 8 guys in the box forcing us to run outside. We didn't change and we were shut down. Play action was needed in the 3rd quarter, but was missing. We also didn't effectively use our other weapons. Baldwin and Lewis had the most catches on the day combining for a total of 11 receptions. Outside of that, only Byham and Shanahan had catches. They had 1 reception each. So much for using Dorin these last two games.

The officials were just flat out bad. I didn't have the best view of the Holley late hit and some are saying he initiated contact in bounds, others said he was 3 yards out of bounds, I'm not sure so we'll let that one go. Even though it didn't matter, that picking up the flag on the facemask was attrocious. It was easily visible from our seats in 240, the refs saw it as well. I'm tired of the Big East having suck ass refs all of the time. We were boned in 13-9, we were boned yesterday. The PI calls were questionable at best. There were two illegal blocks on Gilyards kickoff TD, and Gus Mustakas was being held like crazy. I don't see how a team who throws the ball 44 times can't be called for holding just once..........wait, I do see how. There was an undefeated team playing in the Big East. Say what you want, I don't care, but the Big East is pulling for their teams to go undefeated to improve the conference's reputation. By doing that, they're actually making it look worse. LSU was screwed 2 weeks ago for Alabama. Pitt was screwed yesterday for Cincy. I hope UF comes out and destroys UC.

Our special teams have to be the worst of any BCS conference team. Wanny is happy with Aaron Smith just catching a punt and not returning it. Cam Saddler had made several mistakes throughout the season and him catching the ball, AS IT WAS GOING OUT OF BOUNDS was a killer too. Ray Graham slipping was unfortunate, but that will happen in snowy games. The worst though was continually kicking to Gilyard. Even when we tried a shorter kick with a big hang time, we couldn't do that. When we play teams like that, squib kicking to their bigger upfield guys is the way to go. Sure you give them startin position between the 30-40, but you take away the chance for guys like Gilyard to house a kick like we saw yesterday. All of these problems (except Graham slipping) fall directly on Wannstedt as the special teams coach. Last year we were happy because we were blocking kicks. This year we have seen our special teams fall apart. Outside of the blocked punt yesterday, I can't remember a play on special teams where I thought we were working well. Also, why is Graham returning kicks instead of Aundre Wright? Wright is better suited for the spot and is just wasting a scholarship because he is basically the same person as Cam. The same question goes for Kevin Harper. This kid a big leg on him and was recruited to Pitt. Not using him is wasting a scholarship. I don't see how we can continue to use Hutchins after he has missed so many extra points this season. There is just so much to complain and so much need to fix on specials teams right now.

I feel very bad for Andrew Janocko. He messed up, he knows it, yet the fans are being very hard on the kid. I hope he can put this past him because this is the type of thing that can stick with a guy like Scott Norwood.

Dion Lewis had a great freshman year. He surpassed all of my expectations and really proved me wrong. I thought that a short running back from New Jersey would never succeed and thought that Burns, Collier, and Harris would be the guys ready to step in. I was wrong. I just hope that those 47 carries aren't adding up too fast. Wannstedt has a history of over working backs and this could be the same thing with Dion. He is a small guy, but he's our small guy for atleast 1 to 3 more years (I don't see him leaving early).

At the end of the day, this is something we have come to expect as Pitt fans. We didn't improve this year, we have the same result as last year. We are a 9 win team that easily could be undefeated. We lost two games at the end of the year that could have led to us earning a better bowl. This is not the next level, this is Pitt's level. Nate Byham said that if we didn't win the Big East, then this would be a disappointing season. Dave Wannstedt said that by year 5 we would have a Big East championship, and we don't. All Pitt fans should start becoming restless. We now have more depth than we have ever had, but we're not any better than we were. We're a slightly above average team in a garbage conference. I will not defend the staff here. They are the ones that blew it. They are the ones that shut everything down when we had late leads vs NC State and UC. They are the ones that decided to go through the motions vs WVU instead of coming out with fire, intensity, and creative play calling.

If you look at the history of our coaches, this all points back to Dave Wannstedt. Anyone remember the Jet's amazing come back vs a Wannstedt led Dolphins team? That is what it feels like. Bennett has never run such a passive, non-adaptive defense. When he leaves to take another job next year, I can't wait to see what type of defenses he has coming out. Sticking in a 4-3 base defense is begging to lose.

Cignetti did a great job teaching Bill Stull how to be a good quarterback. He let the offense complete the plays they needed to without asking them do things they were unable to accomplish. Then at the WVU game, the naked bubble screen, and multiple consecutive runs up the middle mysteriously came back. Yesterday we opened up our offense in the first half and were able to put up 31 points. In the 2nd half, we played Martyball, Cowherball, Wannyball, whatever you want to call it-ball. When you play that style, you are begging to lose. There is a reason why Wanny failed in the NFL, a reason why Cowher needed 15 years to win a championship, and the reason why Schottenheimer has never won a playoff game. I don't care about how he won 9 or 10 games in the NFL. He never won his division, he never made the playoffs. Here at Pitt, he hasn't won 10 regular season games, he hasn't earned a trip to the BCS.

I'm ready for all of the Wanny apologists to come here and bash him. This is what has happened time after time and is the reason why we will never get over the hump here at Pitt. People are too excited to have a Pitt guy they know won't leave. They are excited that they have a guy who speaks just like them. They're excited to talk about how Wannstedt is recruiting the WPIAL. None of that should matter. We just played the easiest schedule we have had since I've been a Pitt fan. We played the easiest schedule since Wannstedt has taken over. We played a season where all of our real "tough" games were at home. Yet we found a way to make 9 wins a disappointing season.

We won't get rid of Wannstedt because he has gotten us to a point that the athletics department and Chancellor Nordenberg love. He's winning enough to get us to bowls, he's winning enough to keep the yinzer die-hart Wanny lovers happy, and he's winning enough to help make the program some money without having to spend the extra cash to take us from above-average to excellent.

It took Brian Kelly 3 years with 2 and 3 star talent (if you follow that stuff) to have an undefeated season. It took Wanny 5 years with 4 star talent to have a chance for the BCS but to finish 3rd in the conference.

Wanny is not the answer, but he is also not all of the problem. The problem is the fans who are willing to accept this. The problem is the Chancellor who is so in love with the coach that he won't force him to change. We almost saw Matt Cavanaugh be replaced with Matt Cavanaugh (Noel Mazzone) until the $$$ donors stepped up and helped us land Cig. Now after back to back 9 win seasons, get ready for Gattuso to be named DC once Bennett leaves so that we can run the exact same 4-3 defense with no pressure.

We don't have the talent to compete for national championships with our style of play. Nick Saban runs the same style of football as us, but he has a team full of future NFL players at every position. We have a handful of NFL players at a handful of positions.

This is what we have Pitt fans, every few years we will be competitive for the Big East, never for a national championship. Until we demand a change, this is what we will look forward to for the rest of our lives as Pitt fans.

If you don't like what I have to say, then don't read the site. Simple as that.

Pitt-Cincy Predictions

2009-12-04T14:44:00.002-05:00

Big East Title Game!!! This is the biggest game for Pitt in the history of Heinz Field. The BCS is on the line and we get to say goodbye to a senior class that has built the foundation of this program under Wanny. What a great day for the conference and a great day for Pitt.

Dion Lewis is going to put an exclamation point on his season here. We have leaned heavily on his ability to gain big yards this season and tomorrow will be no exception. Cincy has a suspect defense and I'm expecting Dion to have a huge day. 22 carries, 188 yards, 3 TDs
This entire game is going to rest on Bill Stull's shoulders. Last week, he reverted to his form from last year and it cost us the game. If he doesn't step into passes and looks to his second or 3rd read he can be successful. I have absolutely no clue how he is going to play after watching the WVU game.
Defensively we need to be extremely aggressive. If we sit around in the base 4-3 all game Cincy will kill us in the passing game. Letting Tony Pike sit around and beat us can lead to a huge blowout. The secondary needs to tackle well to keep the big plays to a minimum.
Wanny needs to cut the mistakes out of his coaching. The WVU game was an example of his limitations as a decision maker. No weird personnel choices and 53 yard field goals. We have to play to win not to keep the game close. Win or lose we need to go down swinging.

I'm so excited for the game tomorrow. The BCS would be massive for the program and a loss means a bad bowl situation. Feast or famine here Panther fans.

Pitt 38 Cincy 35

Week 14 Jones Picks

2009-12-03T11:31:00.003-05:00

Current Record: 42-29

Last week was a big win for me picking some underdogs in South Carolina and Mississippi State. This week is my chance to get over 60% for the season. Conference title games is going to be very tough to pick.

(16) Oregon State vs (7) Oregon: The Civil War. I'm going to use my Pac 10 theory in that teams rarely win big games on the road. This is for the Rose Bowl and is a rivalry game so I would expect this to go down to the last possession. Jones Pick: Oregon
Ohio vs Central Michigan: MAC Title game. This is a tough one to pick since I haven't exactly kept up on my MAC watching. I know a little about Central Michigan from watching them lose me money not covering a spread. Take this as an absolute guess so I may not even take credit for the win if I get it. Jones Pick: Ohio
(23) West Virginia vs Rutgers: Absolutely huge games in terms of our bowl situation. It Rutgers wins they would almost certainly get the Meineke Car Care Bowl. West Virginia has been very up and down this season so this is a difficult game to call. Jones Pick: West Virginia
(1) Florida vs (2) Alabama: If this game would have been played 7 weeks ago I would have said Alabama in a walk. Since that time I have watched Bama struggle with every single team they have played and need cheating from the SEC to keep an undefeated record. Florida has gotten much better over the course of the season. Tim Tebow's play will decide this game. If Florida can move the ball they will win the game. Jones Pick: Florida
(3) Texas vs (22) Nebraska: If you hate the BCS as much as I do we need to pray for a Texas loss. I've said this the entire season but Texas is not as good as they were last year. To me they are the most vulnerable 0 loss team outside of the SEC title game to lose this week. Nebraska has the defense and running game to cause Texas problems. I wouldn't expect it to happen but Texas can very easily lose this game. Jones Pick: Texas

Should be an amazing week of college football. I will be back with the predictions for the Pitt-Cincy game tomorrow.

Cat Basket Podcat Number 28

2009-12-03T11:29:00.001-05:00

Very brief podcast with a little about Foge Fazio passing away and some lead up to the Cincy-Pitt game on Saturday.

Cat Basket Podcast Number 28

Same old Pitt

2009-11-27T22:33:00.003-05:00

Well that loss hurts. This is a game we've come to expect to lose. Despite the set back in coaching and performance all is not lost.

We need to focus every ounce of energy into beating Cincinnati. We need to play perfect on both sides of the ball.

If we are unable to, it could be a rough December with a trip to either Charlotte, Toronto, or Birmingham. Personally I'd rather go to Miami, New Orleans, or Phoenix.

Let's buck up and win this game next week.

Pitt-WVU Predicitions

2009-11-27T11:37:00.002-05:00

Here is it everybody. The 102nd playing of the Backyard Brawl. For the first time in many years Pitt is the team with everything to lose when we travel to Morgantown. 7 PM National TV on ESPN after the awesome Duke-UConn NIT final sets up for a classic in this series. Next week is the Big East Title game for Pitt but today is for more than a bowl, this is all about pride. WVU hates us and we hate them. Games like this are what we live for as college football and most importantly fans of our Panthers. On to the predictions:

Turnovers are going to decide this game. Playing on the road in a hostile involvement it will be important for us to control the ball. Creating turnovers against WVU would go a long way to slowing them down. Romeus and Sheard have had some great games against WVU in the past and this year will be no different. Brown has been coughing the ball up against lesser defenses so this game will be more of the same.
Dion Lewis needs to chew up yards like he has done every game this season. WVU will not be able to handle our power game. The more yards we can gain in the rushing game the more we can control the clock. As he has done all year expect a few big plays from Dion, he is going write himself into the history of this rivalry. 27 carries 184 yards 2 TD
Bill Stull has to continue playing the way that he has all season. There are going to be spots in this game where we need a play in the passing game and he needs to provide that play. I'm not sure if he will have a huge statistical game but where you can measure his success is how well we move the ball. I have faith in Stull to make the big play when necessary.
We have to continue to make the right coaching decisions. Stewart is in way over his head at WVU and has made it a habit of blowing games with his own incompetence. Don't become the Wanny of old here and everybody knows what I mean.

I'm very excited. Any chance we have to stick it in WVU's face is always a good one. Big game for the program in terms of perception too. Be careful if you are going to Morgantown today and if not enjoy the game. I will probably do some tweeting during the game depending on how drunk I get.

Pitt 28 WVU 10

LET'S GO PITT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jones Picks Week 13

2009-11-26T11:17:00.002-05:00

Current Record: 34-26

Very sorry for the lack of updates here at the website. The long absence was not planned it just happened. Last week missing my picks was all on me for forgetting. This week I will pick a bunch of games to make up for it. On to the picks:

(3) Texas vs Texas A&M: There has been some hype in the media about this game being a possible upset. I respect that A&M has a great home field advantage but this is a blowout. Texas has that National Title game spot completely wrapped up. Jones Pick: Texas
(5) Cincinnati vs Illinois: This is going to be a comical blowout and I will enjoy it. The bottom of the Big 10 is like the MAC. Way to schedule a cupcake the week before the Big East title game to preserve that undefeated record. Jones Pick: Cincinnati
(2) Alabama vs Auburn: If I was going to pick a big upset here is where it is. Bama has made every game this season closer than it should be. Rivalry games usually mean the game is even closer. This could come down to the final drive. Jones Pick: Alabama
(18) Clemson vs South Carolina: I have a deep hatred of how the ACC is ranked in the polls. This Clemson ranking is an absolute joke. They are not a good team and they did a great job of proving that earlier in the season. South Carolina still has a good enough defense to shut down Clemson. Jones Pick: South Carolina
(25) Ole Miss vs Mississippi State: I've been so disappointed by Ole Miss this year. Miss State is on their way to building a competitive program under Dan Mullen. This is very much a crapshoot game to me. Jones Pick: Miss State
(12) Oklahoma State vs Oklahoma: The popular wisdom here is that Oklahoma is way better at home and that Ok State has too much to lose. I really doubt this is going to be an upset for Oklahoma though. Jones Pick: Oklahoma State
(17) Miami vs South Florida: USF doesn't want to hear this but if they want to get to the next level they have to fire Jim Levitt. He just isn't a guy who can win you all the big games consistently. This is a big game for USF so guess what I am expecting. Jones Pick: Miami
(21) Utah vs (19) BYU: I think they home field advantage for BYU here will be the decider. Jones Pick: BYU
Arkansas vs (15) LSU: This is a very intriguing game to me. I think that Arkansas can pull the upset just because LSU has lost motivation. Jones Pick: Arkansas
Georgia vs (7) Georgia Tech: Georgia Tech has not impressed me all that much this season. This is a big time rivalry game but I think Tech wins. Jones Pick: Georgia Tech
Notre Dame vs Stanford: Welcome to the unemployment line Charlie Weis. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Jones Pick: Stanford

This should make up for not picking last week.

Cat Basket Podcast Number 27

2009-11-15T23:04:00.001-05:00

Here it is the post ND game edition.

Cat Basket Podcast Number 27

A Pitt vs Notre Dame preview from a ND Fan

2009-11-13T18:17:00.002-05:00

Last year before we took on the Irish, my friend (and Irish fan even though he goes to Florida State) wrote a recap for the Basket. His prediction was wrong as Pitt won the game in South Bend. This year, Kent Brown is back again with his Pitt/ND preview. (spoiler - He picks ND to win again).

Pitt hopes to keep momentum as stumbling Irish come to Heinz Field

By Kent Brown

It was supposed to be the biggest home game in Dave Wannstedt’s career.

The 7-2 Fighting Irish coming to town against, looking for a BCS Bowl Game and sporting a top 20 ranking. College Gameday in the Steel City. The Panthers with an 8-1 record, a top 10 ranking and 5 straight wins.

Perhaps the biggest game Pitt has played since they upset WVU 13-9 and spoiled the Mountaineers goal of playing for the national championship.

There was just one little problem, Navy 23 Notre Dame 21 in South Bend, Indiana. College Gameday gone and off to Forth Worth for Utah @ TCU. Notre Dame goes from a clear top 20 team to out of the top 25.

Does the appeal go away? A bit. But this is still a huge game for both teams. And I would say it is safe to say that this game means a lot more for ND than it does for Pitt. This is a non-conference game for Pitt and all that truly matters is the remainder of the Big East season.

In fact, this game is not just big for the Irish, but it is monumental for Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis. If he loses this game, it may be the end of the road for him in South Bend.

So what will happen? Will the Irish come to Pittsburgh motivated and play to “Win one for Coach Weis.” Or will the Panthers do what they’ve been doing all season, and dominate the opposition. Make no mistake, Pitt has been the better team this season. But are they much better than Notre Dame? I don’t think so.

For Notre Dame to win this game, quite a few things must happen. First and foremost, the Notre Dame offensive line must to a great job of blocking Pitt’s front four. Mick Williams, Greg Romeus and Jabaal Sheard are all having very good seasons. In Notre Dame’s 2^nd loss of the season, USC routinely got into the Notre Dame backfield with just 3 and 4 rushes. If this occurs again, expect the Panthers to win.

One more key is what will Notre Dame do when they get into the red zone. It’s clear that Notre Dame lost last week’s game because of their ineffectiveness in the red zone. The Irish have had 39 red zone trips this season and have scored only 20 touchdowns. When you have future 1^st round picks in QB Jimmy Clausen, WR Michael Floyd, WR Golden Tate, TE Kyle Rudolph, you should be better than that.

It’s clear that the one game this season in which Clausen was held in check was Boston College. Note, Clausen was 26 for 39 with 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. However, the BC defense forced Clausen to dink ‘n dunk. The Irish needed long, sustained drives. This should be Pitt’s strategy. If they bring the blitz, it will almost definitely be a long day for the Panthers defense because their cornerbacks will not be able to keep up with Floyd and Tate one-on-one.

And finally, how will the Irish contain potential All-American RB Dion Lewis? If Lewis establishes himself early, I really do not see any way the Irish will keep Pitt under 30 points. What the Irish need to do is hold Lewis to about 100 yards rushing, but make him earn those yards. Any big yardage plays will mean the Irish will be hesitant and that will open things up for Dickerson and Baldwin. And believe me, Dickerson is going to have a big game. I would imagine somewhere near 8 -10 receptions, 120-140 yards and 1-2 TD’s. Baldwin had the big 4^th down catch in the 4^th quarter last season and I have no doubt that Pitt will look for Baldwin in those red zone situations this season.

What I expect to happen is both teams will move the ball, especially between the 20’s. The big difference will be who can punch it the end zone when both teams are in the red zone? I am still not sure, but I do expect Notre Dame to abandon the run, for the most part, with just 1 scholarship Tight End healthy. Notre Dame’s TE Kyle Rudolph is out for the game and the Irish will probably not be able to run the ball that well on Pitt anyway.

Not too mention, Notre Dame’s best bet to beat Pitt is through the air. If there is a glaring weakness on Pitt’s team, it’s the secondary. Notre Dame’s best strength is their passing attack. Coming off of a loss to Navy in what could be a “must-win” game for head coach Charlie Weis, I expect the Irish to come out fighting with everything they have. This is not to say Pitt won’t play hard, but they may not need it as much.

However, the Irish defense is not talented enough to shut down Pitt. But once again, if they can hold Pitt’s red hot offense to FG’s in the red zone rather than touchdowns, expect the Irish to pull out a close victory.

My final prediction is a high-scoring, close game that should go down to the final couple of minutes. Jimmy Clausen has been as good as any team in the country this season. And he has been remarkable in the final minutes of every game. With the Irish in must-win mode against a good Pitt team, there is no reason to expect anything other than a close game.

Pitt will score plenty, as will Notre Dame. With that, I think Notre Dame score touchdowns in the red zone, rather than field goals. Add in the fact that I believe Notre Dame will win the turnover margin. Since Charlie Weis has taken over as Irish head coach in 2005, only one team has had more games without a turnover, and that is Florida. Last week’s -3 turnover margin vs. Navy was not typical and I don’t expect more than 1 turnover this week.

I would not be surprised if either team wins, however I would be very surprised if it's a blowout. I'm going with Clausen and the Irish passing attack to outshine the Panthers Saturday night.

Final score: Notre Dame 34, Pitt 30.

Pitt-Notre Dame Predictions

2009-11-13T11:42:00.003-05:00

So here it is. Tomorrow will be the highest attended game in Heinz Field history. In a base sense this game means absolutely nothing to our bowl aspirations (outside of making it harder for the Gator Bowl to choose ND). The grander scheme of the program this is a watershed moment. Our attendance problems have been well documented and the city hasn't embraced this team in the way we would all hope. Beating Notre Dame in front of a packed house gives us an opportunity to put the fairweather and bandwagon fans on notice, Pitt is back. Tomorrow means the world for the program in an abstract sense. On to some predictions:

Dion Lewis is going to have a monster game. ND was pushed around and outplayed by Navy's offensive line last week. I'm expecting us to give them a big dose of the running game in an effort to control the clock. A big game here could mean an All American season for Lewis. Stat Line: 30 carries 185 yards 2 TDs
We will find out what the defense is very quickly tomorrow night. I'm of the opinion that our defense hasn't been tested by a proficient passing attack since NC State. ND has a fantastic passing attack that will hit us where our defense hasn't been successful under Wannstedt. Golden Tate is the best player we have had to defend against this season and he is a threat to score every time he touches the ball. Bad tackling and missed assignments in the secondary is going to mean a touchdown. There is no margin for error against a team that can sling it the way ND does. Can the defensive line get enough pressure? Can we break up the big passes? Can we make the tackles necessary to slow this offense down? Those are the questions I think need to be answered.
I expect Stull to get some chances to make the big play tomorrow. ND is going to stack the line and allow our wide receivers to get into single coverage. Stull needs to continue his great play in order for us to win this game and I think he will. Whatever you can say about Stull this year you can say he has made the necessary plays. More than any other player on the field this is a game that can frame Stull's legacy at Pitt.

I'm very optimistic about our chances tomorrow. ND matches up very well against us. Wannstedt needs to find a way to win this game for the fans and for the program. Shutting down Notre Dame's passing attack would answer every question I have about our team this year. The NC State loss will no longer live in the back of all of our heads if we prove our improvement tomorrow. Everybody enjoy that atmosphere and getting to play in front of the eyes of college football.

ND 24 Pitt 31

Let's Go Pitt!!!!!!!!

Week 11 Jones Picks

2009-11-12T11:23:00.002-05:00

Current Record: 30-25

Last week I called the Oregon upset on the podcast after I had them winning on the website. That was not me hedging my bets that was just me being dumb and thinking I put Stanford to win that game. There are more good games this week so hopefully I can have a decent week.

(25) West Virginia vs (5) Cincinnati: I have been of the opinion since his first game in charge at WVU that Bill Stewart is the worst coach in the country. If everything was equal I would say WVU has a great chance to pull the upset here but Stewart is their coach so do that math. Don't expect a blowout but Cincy will keep rolling. Jones Pick: Cincinnati
(10) Iowa vs (11) Ohio State: Here is what I love about the way the Big Ten is covered by the media. I'm led to believe that it is impossible to win against Northwestern if you lose your starter like Iowa did. Those bottom tier Big 10 teams are so tough, in fact they are so tough they lose tons of games just because. This will be a horrible game and all we will hear about next week is how OSU is back and everybody was wrong about Pryor. Jones Pick: Ohio State
(2) Alabama vs Mississippi State: The SEC will not let Alabama lose no matter the circumstance. The blown interception call against LSU was as close to fixing a game as I have ever seen. This game is going to be very close and I'm guessing a phantom call keeps MSU from winning. Jones Pick: Alabama
(16) Utah vs (4) TCU: This is a tough one to call. All the pressure of the college football world is now on TCU's shoulders. Utah is a very good team and capable of pulling this upset. It kills me to pick this way because I always hope for the BCS to get ruined. Jones Pick: Utah
(17) Arizona vs California: Rule number 1 of college football. PAC 10 teams that have something to lose always find a way to lose during road games. It is a tradition as old as the conference itself. So scratch plans of Arizona winning out getting to the Rose Bowl. Jones Pick: California

Tomorrow I will do the predictions for the Pitt-ND game. If all goes well there will be a podcast up before midnight on Friday night previewing the game.

Cat Basket Podcast Number 26

2009-11-08T15:17:00.001-05:00

Post Syrcause

Cat Basket Podcast Number 26

Cat Basket Podcast Number 25

2009-11-06T21:26:00.000-05:00

Review of the time we missed on the podcast plus a little Syracuse preview. Enjoy!

Cat Basket Podcast Number 25

Pitt-Syracuse Predictions

2009-11-06T11:15:00.003-05:00

I don't know about everyone else but it feels great to have everything to lose in a game like this. The 6 years I have been watching Pitt play I have always dreaded the games against Syracuse. Not because we lose them but because they are usually so tough to watch. This is 150% a trap game and finishing Syracuse off early is a priority. On to some predictions:

Syracuse quietly has a good run defense. I would expect their gameplan is going to make Stull beat them by stacking the box to stop Lewis. This is going to result in a huge day for Stull and the playmakers in the passing game. Baldwin will continue his streak of breaking off huge plays every game and Dickerson will add to his touchdown total. Stull 25 for 30 295 yards 4 TD
On the other side of the ball Syracuse is a mess. I can't see how they are going to move the ball on us without a dangerous passing game. In no way am I forgetting the leaky faucet that our passing defense resembles at times but Cuse will have trouble exploiting that weakness. I'm expecting a few turnovers created from the defense as well.
I have an odd feeling that we may come out a little flat just due to the bye week and looking forward to the big final stretch. Expect the score to be close in the first quarter and then we will blow it wide open.

I realize this is a noon start but I'm really hoping for a decent turnout. This is a top 15 team with everything to gain in the next 4 weeks and the city getting behind them in a game like this would be great. There may be a special surprise up on the website later tonight if everything goes to plan.

Pitt 34 Syracuse 7

Pitt making some changes

2009-11-04T17:35:00.000-05:00

It is almost as if Wannstedt is reading the blogs and message boards with some of the changes we are seeing. This week it was announced that Jarred Holley will be starting at safety. This is a move that almost all Pitt fans have been asking for as he has proven he is probably the best safety we have at the moment. I don't think that we will see Fields moved to linebacker at any point as we probably need Holley to move to cornerback next year along side either Buddy Jackson or Antuan Reed.

After the USF game there were a bunch of fans saying that Fields was playing linebacker. I hate to break it to those fans, but even coach Wannstedt said that we were playing a nickel package. That's right folks, the defensive scheme that Jones, myself, and other fans have been legitimately screaming for since he took over was finally implemented. We game planned for USF perfectly by switching to that package because you could tell USF was completely unprepared for it. By having the extra defensive back in the game as well as using Adam Gunn to spy the quarterback the entire game, it shut down the USF offense. Don't be surprised if we do the exact same thing against Cincy later in the year. To be honest, I wouldn't mind if we used that package all season long. Fields seems to play best by moving around and being able to make plays on the ball instead of being set in specific positions for the package. I also believe it is more of an upgrade having him out there as the 5th DB versus having Max Gruder as the 3rd linebacker.

Speaking of linebackers, Dan Mason was finally moved to the outside. This has 2 positives and 1 negative associated with it. The first positive is that Adam Gunn has played extremely well showing that Jason and I were completely wrong when we felt that Mason should start over him. Gunn has been the most improved player in the conference this year and really has excelled as the middle linebacker. The second positive is that the staff trusts Mason to still be the back up in the middle if needed, but to also give him a chance to learn to play the outside spot (even though Dell is listed as the back up). Mason is one of the most talented players on the defensive roster and when it is all said and done, will be one of the better players in Pitt history.

The negative of all of this is that Max Gruder has been very disappointing this year. It has gotten to the point where now we have to consider other options to try and have someone ready should he continue to struggle. I always root for all of the Pitt players to succeed, but I'm pulling for Gruder extra hard because we really need him to step up for Pitt to have an even stronger defense.

With those changes plus us finally utilizing our play makers (especially Dorin) and not asking players to do things they are not capable is showing that, Wannstedt is adapting. There will always be things we disagree with, but this 2009 is showing that we finally have an upper level of talent that is being coached correctly and using appropriate play calling.

We have a long way to go this year, but as long as we don't revert back to our old ways, there's no reason to believe that we shouldn't be able to achieve our goal.

Week 10 Jones Picks

2009-11-04T11:39:00.002-05:00

Current Record: 29-23

I was a bit off on my picks last week. The Tennessee and Auburn upsets really saved everything for me. This week is probably not going to be a comeback week for me since there are so few good games. Here are the picks:

(8) Oregon vs Stanford: Mark my words here people Oregon will not a be a factor in the final BCS Title picture. They are not as solid of a team as people want them to be after beating USC. Beating USC is quite the accomplishment but that team flat out quit on Pete Carroll and we know what happens when you score points on USC. This is a game that Oregon can very easily lose. I'm not calling the loss but don't expect a blowout here. Jones Pick: Oregon
(16) Ohio State vs (11) Penn State: The Big 10 has never been worse and I'm enjoying every second of it. Watching these two teams over the past few weeks puts the outcome in doubt. OSU has been an absolute joke and Penn State had trouble with Northwestern last week. I hope Ohio State wins just for the comedy that will ensue in Happy Valley but they won't. Pryor is being misused to an amazing degree. Jones Pick: Penn State
(9) LSU vs (3) Alabama: Really big game. Bama has been the team I have been hyping hard on here like I did with Florida last year. Watching Bama play you get the feeling that they can find a way to win in every situation. LSU is an extremely tough team to beat just due to the talent on both sides of the ball. I expect a great game. Jones Pick: Alabama

Sorry I only picked 3 games this week but the rest of the games are pretty uneven. I could pad my record with some easy picks but I will not. I will be back tomorrow with another column then the predictions for Cuse-Pitt on Friday.

Squeezing the Orange

2009-11-03T17:22:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Mike Williams choice to leave the team, Pitt now sits in a great position to win this game a bit more easily than we should have expected to. I just hope that the coaches and team aren't over looking Syracuse the way I am. Last year at the Carrier Dome Syracuse took it to us in the 1st half before falling apart in the 2nd half.

This year Syracuse has much better coaching and more talent across the field than we have seen before. It is hard to get a good estimate of exactly how good of a coach that Doug Marrone is, but I can tell you one thing, he is certainly a whole hell of a lot better than Greg Robinson was.

The one thing that should help Pitt this week is that Greg Paulus has absolutely sucked since Big East season has started for the Cuse. He's been bad enough that they've switched to backup Ryan Nassib for a few series to get the offense started. Now with Mike Williams off the roster, their next leading receiver is Donte Davis who has managed to get a solid 180 some yards over the first 8 games of the season. Now Syracuse is going to have to rely on mediocre running back Delone Carter to carry the offense until someone else can step up and help the passing game. I think Marcus Sales is talented enough to help, but I don't think that anyone will make that big of a dent for them the rest of the season.

Everyone had to expect that it would take a while to rebuild Syracuse after Greg Robinson did such a fantastic job of tearing them down. Now the job is just getting a bit harder. Marrone can come out with a game plan to sling the ball around all game long, but the fact is Paulus isn't talent enough to do it and the receivers are unproven to the point where they shouldn't scare anyone, even our below average (but improving) secondary.

Syracuse will need to try and run the ball until they can get things figured out which is not the best idea against our defense. The line should be able to snuff all of it out and if we let Adam Gunn spy the quarterback this game as we did against USF that should contain any runs by Paulus. That is simply all we will have to do to shut them down because their inability to pass will force them to play into our hands.

Looking at their defense it is hard to accurately judge them. They didn't let Cincy run all over them like I thought they would, but they also had a tough time stopping Northwestern from scoring, so who knows what team will show up. I do believe that we have the 2nd best offense they will see (Only Cincy is better, not PSU go take that Nitters). With that said, we have by far the best running game they will see all season. I think they will get a healthy dose of Dion followed up with some extra pounding with Ray Graham. That is a combo that they have no chance of stopping.

I'll let Jones stick to the predictions, but there is no way we should lose this game, especially at home heading into the biggest game of the season vs Notre Dame on national television.

The Best Receiver in the Big East is Gone

2009-11-02T21:03:00.002-05:00

That's right folks, the statistical leader in the Big East, Mike Williams, has left the Orange. If I were a coach, I'd avoid wide receivers named Mike Williams like the plague. Williams has had a crazy run at Syracuse.

2 years ago, Mike Williams showed that he was probably the best player on the worst team in the Big East under then Greg Robinson's Syracuse squad. He followed up that hot start by getting in some academic trouble and then missing the entire 2008 season.

This season he was playing well. Despite being suspended for the Akron game, he was still leading the Big East in receiving. That is quite impressive considering that he does have some stiff competition in the league for that spot.

What we have now is a team without a great player. It is a shame for Syracuse too because they seemed to be finally making some strides after firing the worst coach in the Big East. Williams had even stated that he planned on returning for his Senior year which would have been nothing but positive for the Orange.

This move may actually be a positive for former Pitt recruit Marcus Sales. Once considered a Pitt lean, Sales headed for the Cuse once Pitt pulled in a trio of talented wide receivers. It was around the same time when Averin Collier, Pitt's Kevan Collier's brother, decided going to Syracuse would be better as well.

Sales has gotten some meaningful playing time as of late and will now be needed even more to pick up the slack from where Williams left off. It will all depend on if Greg Paulus can get him the ball.

Speaking of the former Duke hoopster, Syracuse is having their own Boogate as well. In his press conference today Doug Marrone was whining to the media about how the fans were booing after Paulus threw one of his 9 million interceptions when Syracuse was in the red zone last week. I'm so sick of this. If you're a college athlete you better get used to some booing from time to time. College sports is becoming such a big time money product, that the fans are starting to react to it like professional sports. They demand perfection from the players like they are being paid to play. Now I'm not going to get into the argument over whether or not booing is ok, I'm getting into the issue of the coach bringing it up.

Here is my idea, if you don't want it to become a bigger deal, then don't mention it. Paulus will now have to play under more scrutiny now because of Marrone deciding to talk about the booing. It is a great way to alienate your fans. Just take a look at Pitt. After the Sun Bowl we all had a bad taste in our mouths. We come out in the 2009 season starting off looking much like we had finished 2008 and the fans let the team (specifically Bill Stull) hear about it. This was fueled by an off season of reporting that Stull was being out performed in camp (which he was). It was fueled even further by the coaches and media bringing it up.

If you want it to go away, then don't talk about it, don't even hint at it. If you ignore it and your player performs, it will go away. Just ask Ricky Stanzi after last week's 1st half performance against Indiana.

Week 9 Jones Picks

2009-10-29T12:15:00.002-04:00

Current Record: 26-18

I really need to get back to 10 games over .500. Last week was one of those that really makes me angry because I was so close on the Iowa upset.

North Carolina vs (13) Virginia Tech: Matchups like this are the beauty of the ACC. An overrated VA Tech team versus an absolutely horrible team North Carolina. This is a really bad Thursday night game. All that being said I wouldn't expect a big blowout but Tech will dominate. Jones Pick: Virginia Tech
(21) West Virginia vs South Florida: USF is on their usual amazing slide. WVU could very well blow them out. I don't trust WVU at all because of how they are coached. Jones Pick: WVU
(25) Ole Miss vs Auburn: I think this could be a good game. Auburn has been a bit up and down this season. Ole Miss has swerved back after the big loss to be a decent team. My guess is that this is super close. Jones Pick: Auburn
Georgia vs (1) Florida: This is going to be a blowout. Georgia has fallen apart this season and Florida is due for a big win. Jones Pick: Florida
(22) South Carolina vs Tennessee: It is hard not to be impressed with how Tennessee has played this season. They have a really good defense so this will be decided in the final quarter. Jones Pick: Tennessee
(3) Texas vs (14) Oklahoma State: Interesting game. I think Texas has been underwhelming but then again so has Oklahoma State. I'm going out on a limb here. Jones Pick: Oklahoma State
(5) USC vs (10) Oregon: Blowout. Jones Pick: USC

I have a feeling this is going to be a big week for me.

Heisman Discussion

2009-10-29T11:36:00.002-04:00

So the last few days I've been getting quite angry watching ESPN whenever they talk about the Heisman. I will admit that this is a down season for the award and nobody has stepped up as the front runner. I'm going to go through and give some thoughts on the ESPN Experts Poll Top 5.

Mark Ingram: He is the closest thing to a front runner as there is in the nation right now. Playing in the SEC and putting up the numbers he has is impressive. 3rd in the nation in rushing with 1004 yards.
Jimmy Clausen: Wow this is a fantastic display of the meaningless hype that Notre Dame gets. Only at Notre Dame do you become a better Heisman candidate by losing two games. Player A: 2050 yards, 16 TDs 2 INTs, 65.2 completion percentage, 230 Attempts Player B: 1654 yards, 16 TDs 4 INTs, 67.3 completion percentage, 196 Attempts. One is Jimmy Clausen and one is Bill Stull. If having decent numbers on a ranked team is the new decider of being in the Heisman race then put Stull in.
Tim Tebow: I understand that playing on the number 1 team in the nation in the best conference in the nation is a feat but Tebow has had two better seasons. His sophomore Heisman season was insane compared to his numbers of 8 passing and 6 rushing TDs. He scored 55 touchdowns his Heisman season. By his own standards he has no business in this race.
Colt McCoy: Another guy who has completely fallen off his pace of last year. His impact on the Texas running game has not been there like it was last year. His passing numbers aren't even top 10 in the nation. Winning games is one thing but just like Tebow you have to put up the numbers on field.
Kellen Moore: Now here is a legit QB candidate. He is on a top 10 undefeated team. The numbers are there 21 TD 2 INT with a 68 completion percentage. I don't think he should be over Ingram but at least he has Heisman numbers to go along with the record.

Now for a guy who ESPN as been hyping up hard on TV vs a guy with no hype Dion Lewis

CJ Spiller: Rushing-547 Yards 5.1 ypc 3 TD Receiving-267 yards 14.8 ypc 2 TD
Dion Lewis: Rushing-1029 Yards 5.6 ypc 11 TD Receiving- 92 yards 1 TD

The big hype about Spiller is his returning yards which are pretty impressive but he is having a very light year as a running back. It isn't like he is playing against monster defenses week in and week out in the ACC.

Mark Ingram is the legit choice for Heisman as of right now but guys like Tebow need to have other worldly Novembers to even be in the conversation. You need to have actual numbers to win the Heisman not just the record of your team.

Quick Pitt-USF Thoughts

2009-10-25T12:44:00.003-04:00

I think it is time for me to eat some crow and give Stull his due respect. The way he has played over the last two months has been nothing short of amazing. There was no indication to this level performance being within the reach of Stull. Yesterday, we saw a guy who was poised and played through a rough spot and led the team to a huge victory.

Despite, being the favorite here I see this as a breakthrough game for the program. The team handled the pressure of being in the top 25 extremely well. We dominated a top half Big East team and really put everyone in the conference on notice. 4 games left and the sky is still the limit. I can see us winning out just because of how well we played this game.

For the first time since we started this blog there is something meaningful on a national level. The Big East is within our grasp. Getting into the BCS would be an amazing thing for this team 5 years into Wanny's coaching era.

Let's Go Pitt!!!

Pitt-USF Predictions

2009-10-23T11:20:00.002-04:00

Well we are currently in the meat of the schedule. Over these next 5 weeks the season will unfold. Can we keep our top 25 ranking? On to the predictions:

The game is going to be decided by our defense. We have to contain Daniels when he attempts to break the pocket and run. He is a much better runner than Wilson of NC State and he could gash us for huge plays. Another big factor on the defense is stopping the big plays in the passing game. Daniels has struggled with consistency but he has made some big plays. I have a feeling the defensive line will make up for the bad performance at NC State by shutting down the QB scrambles.
Dan Hutchins is going to have a big day kicking. With a potentially sloppy field the score could be low and the kicking game could come into play. I'm thinking we get to see some redemption out of the special teams. 3 for 3 FG
USF is going to stack the line big time against Lewis. They are going to force Stull to beat them and I think he will. I'm expecting this to be another game manager performance out of Stull. No turnovers either. 19 for 24 188 yards 1 TD

Tomorrow is homecoming and the Turn it Blue promotion so everybody wear a blue shirt. Hopefully, we can get over 50k despite the noon start time.

Pitt 16 USF 7

Week 8 Jones Picks

2009-10-22T11:36:00.002-04:00

Current Record: 22-15

Last week I went against my instinct on the USF and Virginia Tech games and lost. I've really smashed down to earth the last 6 weeks of these picks. I'm going to attempt a big comeback this week with some easier to call games.

Florida State vs North Carolina: This is a really bad Thursday night game. UNC and Florida State have been huge disappointments. My guess is that FSU will have enough to overcome but expect a close and sloppy game. Jones Pick: FSU
Arkansas vs Ole Miss: Arkansas had the game against Florida last week stolen from them. Ryan Mallet looks like the most NFL ready QB in the country. Ole Miss is a program that falls over itself to lose games. Jones Pick: Arkansas
Tennessee vs (2) Alabama: I've been extremely impressed with how well Tennessee has acquitted themselves in the SEC. Looking forward you would expect them to return as a power in the SEC. All that being said, enjoy watching Alabama play this year. This is their season just like it was Florida's last year. Jones Pick: Alabama
(13)Penn State vs Michigan: If you look at the Big 10 team for team this year has been comical. You can't look at the current rankings because of the way the conference gets overrated. I expect this game to be very close but I think PSU pulls it out. Jones Pick: PSU
(6) Iowa vs Michigan State: Iowa is going to lose this game. They aren't even close to the number 6 team in the nation. The pressure of carrying the torch for the decaying conference will be too much for them to handle. Jones Pick: Michigan State
(8) TCU vs (16) BYU: This is such a tough game to call. I'm fully behind TCU to run the table along with Boise State just so we can see how bad the BCS system works. BYU is always tough to beat at home. Jones Pick: TCU
(1) Florida vs Mississippi State: Nothing to say here other than I'm going out on a huge limb. I think Dan Mullen knows enough about Urban Meyer to stifle the Florida offense which hasn't been what it was in the past. Jones Pick: Mississippi

This should be a pretty good week of football. Back tomorrow for the Pitt predictions.

USF thoughts from a Floridian

2009-10-21T11:56:00.002-04:00

Well those of you who read the site and comments section regularly should be know of one of our faithful followers, Johnny. He is a Pitt grad who currently is attending school in Florida. I was able to meet him by chance one day getting dinner and have to say it is fun making friends just by writing about something I love so much (Pitt sports).

A while back Johnny wrote me an email after USF had just defeated FSU. While FSU now looks like they might be falling apart, the FSU win was very impressive at the time. That win showed us that B.J. Daniels is a player we should look out for and that USF won't have to worry too much about replacing Matt "Goatse" Grothe. Anyway, here is the post USF/FSU analysis from Johnny which I thought I would share with the readers.

"Even before they beat the Noles, none of the USF fans were at all concerned that Goatse is out for the year. It was all "B.J. Daniels" this and "B.J. Daniels" that. While I personally feel that Daniels overachieved in a vengeance game (he grew up basically a mile from the FSU campus and didn't receive so much as a sniff of an offer), he is still dangerous for the following reasons. His completion percentage will not even be 50%, but he has already shown that he can air it out to their tall, speedy receivers, and for as much as Hafley does in recruiting, he does the inverse as a positions coach.

I have no doubt that we will contain their RBs all game, but they will break 2 or 3 big plays in the air, and if they result in touchdowns, that means trouble. Consider that his stat line was only 8 for 21, but he still ended up with 215 passing yards. That's 27 yards per completion. Furthermore, he is very elusive and fast on his feet. While nowhere near as polished as NCSU's Quarterback, he still managed 126 yards on 26 rushes. As you (DPJ) suggested, if we don't change our scheme to a nickel or dime package, or at least have somebody spy him, we are in trouble.

Also, on defense, they are tough and fast. In particular, #11 is a linebacker by the name of Sabbath Joseph and he was everywhere. It was like watching McKillop on acid flying around the field lighting people up, stripping the ball, causing turnovers, etc. Selvie was non-existent for most of the game, but the pressure that their DT's had coming from the left side (between where Houser and Lumpy/Thomas will be) was present for the entire game. Simply put, they will blow up Dion in the backfield if we can't figure out how to stop the pressure from that side of the line.

Let me suggest to you that USF is still not very good, but they will make big plays and hang in the game if we can't put them away. While they were probably more amped playing against FSU, a school that blew every single one of those kids off, than they will be to come to Pittsburgh later in the Fall, they are now a more dangerous team than I assumed even a week ago."

Turn It Blue

2009-10-19T16:34:00.002-04:00

A student and athletic department led initiative, we're asking all Panther fans to wear blue to the game and all USF fans to stay home haha.

Anyway, wear your blue. It doesn't matter if it is royal or navy or whatever, just wear blue.

Students will be receiving free blue shirts to wear.

If you're on facebook, donate your status to the turn it blue initiative.

TURN IT BLUE - This Saturday against USF. Students get free Blue shirts at the stadium. Donate your status and tell everyone you know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8QnXbLOi9Y

Late Rutgers/National Ranking Thoughts

2009-10-19T13:54:00.002-04:00

6-1 feels pretty good. The performance at Rutgers was workman like. Mistakes on special teams and second half turnovers made this game much closer than it should have been. Like I have been saying every week with the way this team is coached every game is going to be closer than it should be. What we should be looking at is if games like this, which in past years have been losses, are wins.

Dion Lewis is quickly stepping into another level as a player. Without his big touchdown run in the second half this would have been a loss. He is doing a wonderful job in his first 7 college games. What impresses me the most is how hard and disciplined a runner he is. It appears that he doesn't have the gamebreaking moves that Shady had but he makes up for it in effort and ability to hit the hole. It will be interesting to see if he can continue this success with the amount of carries he has had to handle.

Getting to #20 in the nation is very impressive. We have spun out of that loss against NC State and rebounded to start Big East season. Being in the top 25 puts us in a position to make a legitimate run. From now on the games get significantly more difficult. Putting in a complete performance against USF is a must. Getting a win this weekend is a big next step for the program. Keeping momentum going is something we haven't done in the recent past.

Pitt-Rutgers Predictions

2009-10-16T12:01:00.002-04:00

After Cincy putting the Big East on notice last night our task gets a bit tougher. The way I see it we have to run the table in the Big East to stay with the Bearcats. Tonight is game 3 of that journey. On to the predictions:

Dion Lewis is going to have another huge game. The way he has emerged on the scene in the Big East is pretty incredible. Every single game he has produced so this will not be any different. I would expect to see more Ray Graham if the weather is bad. Lewis 24 carries, 144 yards, 2 TD Graham 10 carries, 85 yards, 1 TD
I expect Tom Savage to come out of the this game looking like Joe Montana. There is no chance we get out of the base 4-3 so Rutgers will pass all the way down the field. Rutgers offensive line is a little underrated so the amount of pressure we put on UConn might not be there.
I think tonight is going to be a bounce back game for Stull. If he can put together an entire game like the 4th quarter against UConn he could be an All Big East player. The playcalling of Frank Cignetti will cause the Rutgers blitzing defense fits. Stull 18 for 24 235 yards 3TD

This game is going to have a bunch of scoring and a bunch of bad defense. We will never learn how to get a stop against a team that throws the ball. I'm reasonably confident in our offenses ability to put the ball into the endzone and control the clock enough to win.

Pitt 38 Rutgers 35

Week 7 Jones Picks

2009-10-15T11:20:00.002-04:00

Current Record: 19-13

A close loss for Michigan against Iowa and the blowout of Georgia ruined my record last week. I'm thinking this week will be a boom or bust. On to the picks:

(8) Cincinnati vs (21) South Florida: The obvious choice here is that South Florida will lose because this is a big Thursday night game. I'm not so sure about that because of all the pressure that is on Cincy this season. No matter the result this is the showcase game of the Big East and should be a great one. Jones Pick: USF
(20) Oklahoma vs (3) Texas: This is a tough game to pick. Neither team is as good as they were last year. I highly doubt Texas is the 3rd best team in the nation but Oklahoma has not put together a good game against a decent team this season. Bradford vs McCoy may turn into which team can get the ball into the endzone. Jones Pick: Texas
(6) USC vs (25) Notre Dame: The hype around this game is that Notre Dame has a chance to win this. They have scored 3 points in the past two games against USC. I can't see a way that ND will even be competitive here. USC is about to hit their usual groove after the bad road loss. Jones Pick: USC
(4) Virginia Tech vs (19) Georgia Tech: It is not possible to be more overrated than Virginia Tech. I'm a big fan of the pollsters consistently putting ACC teams 10 to 15 spots too high in the polls due to wins against other crap ACC teams. Georgia Tech is a tough team to pick here because of how much their offense is predicated off rhythm. VA Tech ranking is a joke and an indictment of the preseason ranking system. Jones Pick: Virginia Tech
(22) South Carolina vs (2) Alabama: Game of the week right here. South Carolina has an extremely impressive defense but so does Alabama. I'm the biggest Alabama honk in the world right now. They look as impressive as Florida did last year. I can't see a team beating Alabama home. Jones Pick: Alabama

I will be back later today or early tomorrow for my prediction for the Pitt game. There are quite a few awesome games this weekend plus we will find out who the best team in the Big East is.

Something to Think About

2009-10-14T15:48:00.003-04:00

Prior to the NC State game I wrote an article about how that game would have decided what the trajectory of our season was going to be, and it did. Losing that game killed our momentum towards a top 25 spot going into Big East play. Also it took away any margin of error that we would have for the rest of the season. I think you can look at this Friday as a much bigger game in terms of the health of the program.

Wannstedt has lost 4 straight to Rutgers. Last season the game against Rutgers can be pinpointed as the moment our title hopes died. While Bowling Green was a worse loss (at home and a MAC team) it was very similar to the loss against NC State. Two games that good teams and teams that win conference titles never lose. Last season, we regained our momentum by beating USF on a Thursday and this season we have regained our momentum by beating two lower half Big East teams.

Friday is another moment that will define Wannstedt's career. There is no reason for a team with our talent level to lose to a rebuilding Rutgers...NO REASON. The only excuse will be that the coaching let us down again. Greg Schiano flat out has Wannstedt's number. He understands how to put an offense on the field that can dominate our defensive gameplan. Wanny has to prove that he can overcome the mental block that playing Rutgers poses to him.

A win here means we are 3-0 in the Big East. That means absolutely nothing nationally and won't give us any more "respect". What it will mean for the program is something a bit more significant, we can get to the USF game in a position for that win to mean something. Also Wanny will have finally beat Schiano and we can start to breathe when Rutgers comes up on the schedule.

We need to continue momentum so that when we pull a big upset in the Big East, like we always do, it means something significant for the program. This year is the year like we have heard so often.

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

2009-10-12T00:31:00.003-04:00

With our style of play, there will be games that end up closer than they should be, but as Jason Jones said, a win is a win. We just need to keep plugging along and hope that things turn out the best for Pitt.

So here is the list of people that deserve credit (good or bad) from what what we have seen.

First off Bill Stull deserves credit for his play. He deserves the criticism for the way he played in the first 40 minutes of the game. He also deserves the credit for having a perfect final 20 minutes of the game where he lead us to 2 touchdowns, a 2 point conversion, and most importantly the win.

The fans also get a thumbs up/thumbs down for the performance in the game. I understand being upset about throwing the awful pick 6 early in the game. I also understand the frustrations that Pitt fans have after suffering through disappointing season for the last 20 years. What I believe we are seeing is fans who think "same old Pitt". Especially after losing a game to NC State when we had total control of the game. I didn't have a problem booing after the pick 6. I did have a problem when the boo's came in when the offense took the field on their next offensive series. The fans do get some credit though for coming alive in the 4th quarter and joining the team with being fired up when it was needed the most.

Ray Graham and Dion Lewis deserve credit for having very good games. Minus the dropped pass for Lewis (in which Graham was supposed to be in the game), this might just be the best freshman duo in the country. Every week these two come to play and will be major players for Pitt over the next 4 years.

The offensive line deserves a great amount of credit. Let's not sugar coat anything here. In the first 4 years under Wannstedt, our offensive line flat out sucked. They were a joke and had players who had no business being on the field (with a handful of exceptions). Now we have a line full of players who could play for most teams throughout the country. This is a squad that deserves more credit than they are being given. So for Jason Pinkston, Joe Thomas, Robb Houser, John Malecki, and Lucas Nix, keep up the great work, you are the main reason why we are 5-1 and are the reason why we have been able to keep the running game going.

The last offensive person who deserves credit is Frank Cignetti. He has been absolutely fantastic. With Matt Cavanaugh we are probably 3-3 at this point. Frank Cignetti in just a few months has helped Stull develop more than Cavanaugh did in 4 years. He understands what plays Wannstedt wants and what plays work best for our offense. Having a person who understands his talent and limitations has helped us more than anything else this season. Who else would have thought that Dorin Dickerson and Nate Byham would be such integral parts of the offense this year. Frank Cignetti is doing a great job and I hope that he stays around for a very long time.

Dan Hutchins has done a very good job this season. He had the unenviable task of replacing one of the best kickers to ever wear a Pitt jersey. So far this season, he has been solid (minus a mishap vs Buffalo). The kicking game was more of a question mark than most other positions this season, but Dan has answered those questions better than we could have imagined.

Phil Bennett and Dave Wannstedt deserve credit for failing to see the need to switch to a nickel in certain situations. Constantly having linebackers cover wide receivers has hurt us more than anything else this season. When Cincy and Notre Dame come out and throw over the middle against us, it will be our downfall. It can not possibly hurt to play a 4-2-5 with Mason and Gunn as the linebackers on 3rd down and long. We put ourselves in a bad mismatch by refusing to break away from the 4-3 and that will cost us 2 games this season. Yes, 2 games this season.

Lastly, Jarred Holley played well for his first start. We really need to consider him as a starting CB or safety at some point. He has good size and speed. He is a guy that knows where he is supposed to be and can make plays. I'm not afraid to say that right now, he is our best defensive back. Berry, Gary, Chappel, DeCicco and Fields have all had below average seasons this game. In limited action, Holley has made plays when asked.

Quick Pitt-UConn Thoughts

2009-10-11T19:37:00.002-04:00

The story of the game is the 4th quarter and how Stull responded to bad play earlier in the game. Throw out any expectations of how we should have won this game and just enjoy the fact that we won. I'm getting to the point now that all I care about is getting out of a game with a W. When Sweet Caroline hit at the end of the 3rd quarter you could feel the crowd become emotionally invested in the game and the team responded big time.

I think we can all respect what Bill Stull has done with his career here at Pitt in the last 6 games. He is being helped so much by the improved playcalling of Cignetti. Stull is a guy who is always going to make mistakes but he certainly has a backbone and the heart of a winner. I'm was as dissatisfied as anyone in the stadium with his play but he won the game. The way Jonathan Baldwin has emerged as a premier big play threat is a sign of great things to come for him.

Nothing has changed with the defense and we still have the same problem of being stubborn with the base 4-3. The linebackers are getting exposed in coverage and it appears that Wanny is more than willing to lose playing his style of defense. When we play USF and Cincy this is going to be a problem so just expect that.

5-1 that is really all there is to say.

Pitt-UConn Predictions

2009-10-09T14:40:00.003-04:00

So here we are at 4-1 after a Louisville. I'm still not ready to forget about the NC State game and the problems that arose from that loss. Back at home is a always a good thing so here are the predictions:

UConn has a decent defense and maybe the best one we have faced this year as a result I think we will see the first struggles from Bill Stull. The hype around his numbers against the teams we have played is a bit excessive. I think he has played well above what he did last year and he should be commended for having the personality to persevere through bad play. All that being said, he still hasn't had to face a situation where the running game has been completely shut down. If he can continue to his current level of play I may join the group gushing over him. 17 for 28 195 yards 2 TD 2 INT
DPJ and pretty much anybody who has had to listen to me since camp has known how big of a fan I am of Ray Graham. To me he was the star of the camp at running back. Since the season started Dion Lewis has really taken over this job and has done great. What I hope that we will see is a two-pronged running attack with Graham gaining an extra 7-10 meaningful carries. Taking nothing away from Lewis, Graham needs to touch the ball more. Lewis: 24 carries 102 yards TD Graham 12 carries, 87 yards
Since Wanny came out and said that UConn is going to run the ball at us I'm convinced we will see a passing attack. If we can get the type of defensive line pressure we got against Louisville I feel we could have success. The key here is to not have our secondary cover, they are not good at it.

This is a game Wanny wins but nothing is for certain with this program. Despite what the feeling is leading up to the game about UConn having enough defense to stop us I doubt it. UConn is a bottom half Big East team and this is a game we absolutely must win.

Pitt 21 UConn 7

Week 6 Jones Picks

2009-10-08T11:53:00.003-04:00

Current Record: 16-11

Last week was a bit of a bounce back week for me. Washington and Georgia let me down in super close games. Here are some Week 6 Picks:

(21) Nebraska vs (24) Missouri: The best game that the Big 12 North can supply. I've stated before my trust in Nebraska this season so I guess I need to keep that going. This will be extremely close. Jones Pick: Nebraska
Georgia vs Tennessee: A real toss up of a game. I thought last week we saw a glimpse as to what the real Georgia defense is. Tennessee is an almost impossible team to pick in a game like this. Jones Pick: Georgia
(3) Alabama vs (20) Ole Miss: Here is the thought process I have going into this game; Ole Miss always blows their chances to have actual success but now that they have a loss they are dangerous. Alabama is by far the best team in the nation though. They have a NFL defense playing against college kids. Jones Pick: Alabama
(1) Florida vs (4) LSU: If LSU wasn't so overrated I would be more confident in picking the upset. Urban Meyer has difficulty winning in the Bayou. Tebow might not be 100 percent. All that being said Florida keeps the train rolling. Jones Pick: Florida
Michigan vs (12) Iowa: I'm going to use my famous formula of thinking the Big 10 is terrible here. Iowa isn't good enough to run the table in the Big 10, Iowa would lose 2 games in the Big East. Michigan lost last week to Michigan State in a close one and I think they get that win back here in another close one. Jones Pick: Michigan

Fun weekend of games this week. I think we will finally know if Florida is in the same league as last year's team by the end of the LSU game.

Cleaning up the Cards

2009-10-06T11:43:00.002-04:00

Well it was a pretty eventful weekend for the Cat Basket. I missed the first half of the Louisville game because of a flight to Houston and Jason Jones spent some time in the hospital with food poisoning. So, while we might not have been fully conscious or aware of what all went on in the game, I'm here to bring some things to the forefront.

First off, congrats to Bill Stull for earning player of the week. One month ago I would have said he had no chance at ever earning the honor, but he done everything we have asked of him and it is paying off.

I don't think you can congratulate Billy without mentioning what a good job Frank Cignetti Jr. has done working with him. Stull is no longer asked to do things he simply can not do. Instead we're seeing what every good coach does with his players. FCj has been able to hide Stull's deficiencies and allowed him to run an offense where he has the full opportunity to succeed. I can only hope this means that we will see much more improvement from the other quarterbacks on our roster and the two young men we have committed for next year.

While keeping on the point of using a person's strengths, how great is it to see Dorin reclaim the "Scorin Dorin" tag we labeled on him as a freshman. It's almost like when you buy something at a flea market and come home to find it's worth much more than you expected it to be. That must have been how FCj felt when he came here and saw what we have in Dorin. Great play calling has gotten him the opportunity to line up against players he can either out run or out muscle. He has been an underutilized weapon until this point, but mark my words, he will be a nice weapon for someone to add at the next level.

Dorin is not the only "where did we find this guy" type player. All throughout camp Jason Jones told everyone how great Ray Graham was. Minus a few fumbles, a case could be made that he was the best back in the group. Now after a solid performance in Louisville, we're finding out this isn't just the Dion show, but rather we have co-headliners on this tour. Dion's "shake" and Graham's "bake" is a great duo to have and can really lead to problems for many teams we will play down the line.

Have you noticed throughout this season how we haven't been talking about the offensive line? What a great topic to finally not have to discuss. Malecki is looking like one of the best offensive linemen we have had in quite some time (not including Otah). He stays low in his blocks, can move when he has to, and rarely finds himself out of position or making a bad play. He is a guy that we are going to sorely miss when his time here is complete.

Cam Saddler most likely won't be playing on Saturday which is a shame for everyone in attendance. He is everything you want from a returner. He has speed, he has elusiveness, but the thing that stands out to me is that he has a forward drive. You don't see him trying to shake off too many people when he gets the ball. He goes forward as fast as he can which is exactly what a returner should be doing.

It was nice to see us reduce the number of penalties this game. We still had some costly ones, but it was no where as bad as we have seen this season. We still have some work to do, but we are improving and that is all you can ask for.

There were two big returns this week. The first being the return of the defensive line we expected to see. We piled up 6 sacks, 3.5 of which came from Greg Romeus. We need our line to bring the pressure to compensate for our poor secondary. Getting 6 sacks is certainly a great way to get back on track.

The other big return was seeing Adam Gunn back in action. Jones and I have said several times how surprised we are to see his level of play. He did not look all that great when he was playing outside linebacker, however his spot in the middle seems to be a true home for him. It just seems like everyone on defense plays a bit stronger and more confident when he is out there on the field.

Lastly, is there any chance we can put together a complete game? Navy was the closest thing we had to a complete game to this point. Against NC State, Buffalo, and now Louisville we've seen the team struggle for extended periods of time in the game. There is no reason to be losing to a team like Louisville at half-time. If we want to be contenders against Cincy in the Big East, we need to play well from start to finish. The defense must remain strong and the offense needs to sustain drives. If we have some of these early or late slip ups, it certainly could be the difference between playing somewhere warm this winter or playing up in Toronto.

With UConn ahead I'm not too worried about this one. As long as DJ Hernandez doesn't show up and look like Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford combined, I don't see how we will lose this game. A nice Saturday afternoon should be able to draw a fairly decent crowd to watch us improve to 5-1, but more importantly, 2-0 in the Big East.

Pitt vs Louisville Predictions

2009-10-01T16:06:00.002-04:00

Well last week was a rough one but almost comforting. The real seasons under Wanny don't start until he has blown a winnable game. Big East season opens up with an extremely winnable game against Louisville. Before I do my prediction I will say this; if we lose against Louisville the wheels are going to fall off this season badly.

I have a feeling Louisville is going to put up some points in the passing game. Unlike the coachspeak coming out of the staff this defensive problem isn't fixable by minor tweaks. We have to drop the 4-3 base defense every down formula and not doing that will lead to more 450+ yard games.
Dion Lewis will have a monster first half. Before teams begin to key on our running game Lewis has been spectacular. Once we hit the 3rd quarter the usual offensive slowdown will occur. 24 carries 100 yards 2 TDs

I'm drawing a big blank about what other things to predict about this game. I think you will see the exact same performance we saw against NC State for the offense. The defense should be able to get more stops just due to the lack of talent and execution Louisville will bring to the table. Just a note there will probably be very little content about this game over the weekend due to the fact that it is conflicting with the Pens home opener.

Pitt 24 Louisville 21

Week 5 Jones Picks

2009-09-30T15:53:00.002-04:00

Current Record: 13-9 (HA!)

So I went 1-6 last week and trust me I felt it in the wallet losing a ton of bets. At least, Penn State lost but I couldn't enjoy it after the events of earlier in the afternoon. Now to more crappy picks for this week:

Colorado vs West Virginia: Not super sure about this game. I think WVU is the better team but this should be close and could be a replay of last year. Jones Pick: WVU
(22) Michigan vs Michigan St.: I'm still not sold at all on Michigan being a decent team. Michigan St. has been pretty bad this year but rivalry games always bring out big performances. Jones Pick: Michigan St
(4) LSU vs (18) Georgia: Best game of the entire week. Georgia has been a very entertaining team this season and LSU might be ranked a bit high. I think the home field advantage plus great play from Joe Cox will carry Georgia. Jones Pick: Georgia
(7) USC vs (24) California: Watching Cal implode last week made me laugh so much. They have a Pitt-like knack of ruining every chance of success they have. I expect USC to get back into their usual dominant groove in the PAC 10. Welcome to the next 10 years of USC football, lose a bad road game then run the table in the PAC 10 looking amazing. Also add in crushing Big 10 opponent in a bowl game. Jones Pick: USC
Washington vs Notre Dame: I like Washington and how they have looked this season. Remember how well they played against LSU in the opener. Another wonderful loss from ND should be expected here. Jones Pick: Washington

I can't say this enough people DO NOT BET OFF MY PICKS. You can tell I'm a Pitt Alum with the way I can kill any sort of roll I get on in most facets of my life. Back tomorrow with the picks for the Pitt-UL game.

Adding another quarterback to the class

2009-09-30T10:49:00.002-04:00

Last night Mark Myers announced that he will be attending the University of Pittsburgh. So far this season the 6'4 left handed quarterback has been able to maintain an impressive record by remaining undefeated and putting up good numbers along the way. He's also a teammate of Pitt commit Brandon Carozzoni.

This now creates some questions for the Panthers. With plans being discussed to move quarterback Kolby Gray to Safety next years quarterbacks will be the following:

Pat Bostick - Jr (rs)
Tino Sunseri - So (rs)
Anthony Gonzalez - (fr)
Mark Myers - (fr)

This is where I have to tread carefully. Myers is the standard Wannstedt style quarterback. A big pro-style guy who would be best suited for our style of offense. Despite this, he is only in his first full year of starting. He did gain some experience during his sophomore year, but last year was 2nd string behind a quarterback who is now playing at Penn.

A recruit such as Myers has a very high boom or bust potential. People on message boards have already started comparing him to Ben Roethlisberger. I am not ready to make that judgement just yet. For every under recruited player such as Roethlisberger or Flacco that we see, there is more of a chance he will end up as a Kevan Smith type player.

It will be interesting to see where we head once "Tino Time" passes. The logical thought is that both Myers and Gonzalez will redshirt and the senior Tino will start. If that is the case we will have both Myers and Gonzalez heading into their redshirt junior year when one is ready to take over. My question on the situation is this, will we stay with what Wanny prefers and use the big, pro-style quarterback, or do we switch things up and go with the smaller running type quarterback who is more likely to succeed in a spread style offense than a pro-style offense?

Gonzalez is a huge recruit, simply looking at his offer sheet proves that. He had offers from some of the nations top programs, and more often than not, when all those schools offer, the kid is usually pretty good. On the other hand, Myers has the potential to be a big sleeper. His only offers were from Pitt, Toledo, and Ball State. I don't want to discriminate against any recruit simply because his only 2 other offers were from MAC schools, but at the same time I don't want Gonzalez to be moved to wide receiver simply because he isn't a pro-style quarterback.

The best option is to give every player a FAIR chance to earn their spot and to let the best player play.

Evaluating the Rest of the Season

2009-09-28T15:55:00.002-04:00

I used to do this column two years back and with the events of the past weekend I thought I would look at how the season can shake out. Big East season starts Friday and you can make the case that the losses really count.

at Louisville: I can't see this game being a loss just because of how poor of a team the Cardinals are. Also they can't pass the ball well enough to dominate our defense.

vs UConn: You would think that this is another win because of the fact that UConn will run at us.

at Rutgers: Here is where the problems start again. Rutgers throws the ball out of the spread so that is 400 yards of offense guaranteed. Defensively Rutgers should allow us to score some points.

vs South Florida: If you watched them play FSU you can easily see how they could beat us. That being said Levitt is a goof of a coach who always finds ways to shoot himself in the foot and lose easy games. I could see South Florida coming out and attempting to do nothing but run at us. I also could see them getting 500 passing yards.

vs Syracuse: You wouldn't think this would be a tough game but Syracuse throws the ball. I think that we will have solved some problems by this point and should put in a decent performance. Do not be shocked if we lose this game though.

vs Notre Dame: I'm dreading this game because of the ND fanbase taking over Heinz Field. Weis has embarassed Wanny with the passing game before but I wonder if this ND team will have enough to win this game. Interesting and will probably be a close one.

at West Virginia: Rivalry game against a team coached by Stewart, we will win this.

vs Cincinatti: I don't even want to think about the offense of Cincy against this defensive scheme. I doubt this will even be close.

This season isn't over by any means. I think this is the most flawed team Wanny has coached since 2007. Everything Dave said in his columns are going to come into play throughout the rest of the season. If there is one thing we know about Wanny's tenure here is that nothing will change on either side of the ball. He is what he is as a coach and if his scheme doesn't work he will go down playing his style of football.

Low End Projection: 7-5 (losses to Cincy, ND, South Florida, Rutgers)

High End Projection: 9-3 (losses to Cincy, South Florida)

The Aftermath: Day 2

2009-09-28T00:19:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I vented about my frustrations with the coaching staff. Today I will focus on the players. Like you will read on the message boards, the coaches don't run the ball, they don't pass the ball, and they're not the ones who are making the tackles, that is why the players can not be excused from this one.

While it's easy to criticize the coaches for not knowing their limits, the players are exempt from that area of criticism. The reason for that is, even if you have the least talented player in the league, every player wants to be on the field to play. If you have a player who is wishy-washy about playing, then he is in the wrong business. As a competitor you want to be out there for every single play. Knowing where your limitations impact you most should change the way you play to hide those weaknesses. Think about this, Scott McKillop was not the fastest or most physical, but he made up for that by having the best football IQ and best fundamentals possible. That is what made him stick out and be such a great player. Our players need to learn where they are weak and find a way to address that in whatever way possible.

1. After this loss I don't want to hear anyone on this team talk about how great our defense is and how our line is unstoppable. You have been stopped, and now everyone in the world knows how to beat you. The only player that we have seen real consistency from is Mick Williams. He comes to play everyday and is cementing his status as an NFL player. Greg Romeus is simply getting eaten up off of blocks. I still say he should not have been all Big East last year. He had a good season, but it was nothing spectacular. This year with the added hype and pressure, we are seeing him come back to earth since there is more attention on him. I also feel like Jabaal Sheard must not be fully healthy. He is playing tentatively and is not aggressive as he was last year. I felt that Sheard would end up being the better of our two DE's, but now it's looing as if they are equals.

2. We are lucky that the offensive line has been consistent and strong this year. They have allowed Dion Lewis to use his great skills to be a tremendous bright spot for the team. Despite that, we are seeing the offense sputter out from having consistent success in the 2nd half. While it is partly a coaching problem, our offense does not have any consistency and does not perform well in the 2nd half of games. Dion Lewis is a fantastic runner. He hits the hole hard, always keeps his legs churning, and runs the way you teach backs from the moment they learn the position. Without Dion and the Line playing well, we are in a much worse situation.

3. Bill Stull is hurting this team. Through the first 4 games of this season Bill Stull has played tremendously in terms of what is asked of him. We are using him to manage the offense, make the screen passes and short yardage passes. Cignetti has done a terrific job in terms of putting him in position to succeed. Where it is killing us is that we do not have the ability to open up the offense and use the mid/deep pass to put a game away or comeback when needed. I would like to know what his longest completion was minus the YAC (yards after catch) in the last 2 years. I imagine it's the Kinder touchdown against WVU last year. Outside of that I can not think of any other true long bombs that didn't have a large YAC attached to them.

4. The second problem that we see from Stull is something that we don't see from anyone else on the team. This team tends to tense up in major pressure situations. I'm sure part of that is due to coaching, but at the end of the game you need to be able to make plays. This means hitting Dorin inside on those H-Back delay passes so he can catch it on the run, it's hitting the receivers on the screens so that they can run as soon as the ball gets there instead of adjusting first, and mainly it's getting the ball to an area where a player can catch it to win the game. Stull's 4th down pass gave neither team a chance to catch the ball which does not help on the last play of the game. I might get blasted for this but Bostick hit Baldwin against ND last year to make it count for an OT touchdown, he also hit Turner for a game winning TD that was called back on a b.s. pass interference call. Like I said, this is more than just on Bill Stull, we need players to make plays when it counts. We're not going to let Dorin slide by for dropping that 3rd down pass that could have been a td or Ray Graham for tripping when he could have extended the drive by another set of downs. Players need to make the plays when they are called on.

5. While we can all scream about dropped passes, DiCicco missing tackles, Fields being out of position, and the corners playing terribly in many aspects of the game, there is one major thing missing from the team. We all thought we were in good shape with Lewis and Mason/Gunn filling in very well for the superstars they were replacing. The one area where we have not seen anyone fill those open shoes is with leadership. You don't see any of the players showing the same passion and drive for ensuring accountability for this team. When a player misses a tackle, drops a pass, or makes a play that hurts the team, the leader needs to be there to bring everyone back together. The leader needs to be there to rally team to put the ball in the endzone when its 1st and goal from the 8. It seems as if we were a bit too quick to claim the open vacancies were adequately filled. I just hope that this loss can get someone to step up on both sides of the ball to be the leader that we so desperately need right now.

So where does this take us? Well even though we're not in the top 25 like we could have been, maybe we can use this as some strange motivation. We haven't gone undefeated in non-conference play in such a long time that this could have been expected. Now that we have this loss out of the way, let's regroup and get to where we need to be. With this loss we can all stop dreaming about that 1 or 2 loss season and start focusing week by week like we should. Overall record should be the last thing from the team's mind right now. Instead we me focus on opening up the Big East Conference on a strong note by beating Louisville. We just have to play to the best of our ability and hope that if the players do that, the coaches don't hold us back to the point where it costs us another game.

The coaches must be accountable, the players must be accountable, but most importantly we shouldn't lose all hope. The easiest way to get this bad loss out of our mouths is to beat Louisville. It's funny how there was little talk about the Bowling Green game last year after we beat South Florida. Where we go from here is directly in the hands of everyone on the team. Let's see where we end up from here.

Really Wanny? Really

2009-09-27T14:38:00.008-04:00

I am anxiously awaiting Dave Wannstedt's press conference and hope I can make it down there for it. My main reason for going is this. If you read Paul Zeise's Red Shirt Diaries, he has a very good article written up about disappointing losses and how Pitt fans have come to expect this type of thing. While that piece was very interesting and very true, the most intriguing part of it all falls at the bottom of the article. He quotes some of the players and Dave Wannstedt about the game. You can find the full article here, but this is what Dave Wannstedt had to say after the game.

"Dave Wannstedt - 'Our guys gave enough effort to win the game but we made too many mistakes to win the game. What is so disappointing is the penalties [Pitt had eight for 80 yards], we brought officials in on Wednesday to practice and they followed those guys around. For us to have penalties today, like we did last week, is very disappointing. Defensively, we didn't make any plays. I thought if we would have scored 31 points, we wouldn't have lost this game.

"There is no excuse for these penalties. The pass interference penalties are always debatable but where there is smoke, there is usually fire and you don't get called that many times week after week without there being something there. The penalties we had on defense were mind boggling.' "

This is exactly the opposite of what I was hoping to hear. Instead of taking the blame for adjustments, play calling, and personnel we get the old "the refs took the game away from us" excuse. The refs were not the ones to continue with an ineffective ground game in the 2nd half. The refs were not the ones to allow Wilson to gain 500 yards of offense.

Wannstedt, you need to man up and accept blame for this loss.

The Aftermath: Day 1

2009-09-27T07:18:00.001-04:00

2008: Bowling Green, Oregon State
2007: Rutgers, Louisville, Navy
2006: Rutgers, UConn, USF
2005: Ohio, Nebraska
2004: Nebraska, Syracuse, UConn
2003: Toledo, Virginia, Notre Dame
2002: Texas A&M, West Virginia
2001: USF

What are these games you ask? These are all of the games that I have seen us lose since I've become a Pitt fan in which we had no business losing. All of those games were winnable, but for various reasons we let them slip away. Today we can add NC State to the 2009 list.

I'm not saying that we should expect to go undefeated each year, but what I am saying is that we should expect to win games like this. We might even find ourselves being upset in a game every once in a while because it can and will happen. This week was a perfect example of that as many top 25 teams were upset (most notably PSU at home and Ole Miss on the road). However, it just seems like being a Pitt fan we have come to expect this type of game at least a couple times during the season. While there is enough blame to go around, I'm going to focus this article on the coaching aspect of what killed us at NC State.

1. The coaching staff has not learned from their past mistakes. Last year against Rutgers all we heard was how it was going to be a run vs run style of game. In an article last week I wrote that I expected NC State to come out throwing because the same things were being said for this game. So against, Rutgers, they came out passing and torched our defense. It was obvious at that point the secondary was a major weakness. This year against Buffalo, we saw the same scheme deployed. Over the middle passing which turned mid range passes into big gains. Now with the blueprint set on how to beat us, we did not change anything and NC State used the same plan to beat us.

2. If there was anything as bad as our pregame preparation it was our in game offensive adjustments. In the first half our running game was working well and we were able to complete short passes to keep our drives going. This was in part also set up thanks to some great special teams returns. After the first half concluded, we went back out with the same exact plan that we used originally. That is fine unless the defense makes adjustments. What we saw was NC State bringing their linebackers closer to the line of scrimmage which really neutralized our running game. Instead of changing to add more play action passes and more running back/tight end passes over the middle, we continued to play the same exact base offense.

3. When Wannstedt buy something and gets change back, he lets the cashier keep the coin change because he wants nothing to do with the nickel and dime. Why would you switch whenever your 4-3 is letting up 500 yards of offense. That just shows that your way is working.........Um no. Here is why the 4-3 will kill us against non-running teams this year. Teams now know they can line up 3 wide and automatically have a mismatch with a linebacker covering a wide receiver. This also hurts us even more because the db's have to play with their back to the quarterback allowing him to run whenever possible. The crossing routes over the middle killed us against Buffalo and did major damage against NC State. There is an easy solution to this. Have a linebacker spy the quarterback. That way the qb is covered in case he decides to scramble. The second solution to this problem is switching to a zone defense where the players are responsible for a specific area and can play facing the qb. It may allow some short gains, but I'd rather give up a 5 yard run than a 20 yard run when facing 4th and 13. But maybe that is just me.

4. Accountability. The staff has preached this since they took over 5 years ago. Elijah is out of position, Dom misses tackles, the corners never break on the ball, Turner continues to drop passes like it is his job, and bad penalties (deserved or not) continue to haunt this team. However, the same players making the same mistakes are always out there. Once a player has earned his spot in camp, he rarely loses it. The only real time we saw this was yesterday after Romeus' facemask penalty, he was replaced by Brandon Lindsay. If you want to preach accountability, then back up what you say with actions. This also should go for the coaches themselves. Outside of Brian Angelichio (te's) and David Walker (rb's) every other position coach has done a terrible job. Hafley and Bossard are the two most guilty of this. I don't care if you got Josh Evans to take a visit, he's not here and we sure could use him. If you're not getting the job done, get out. Paul Dunn has been the only coach to fall on the sword here at Pitt, everyone else gets a free pass and it's not like other schools are busting the door down to steal our assistants.

5. Awareness. The coaches should know that when the running game shuts down we need to adapt. They should know when a team has a passing-spread offense we need to change defenses. They should know that if our blitz packaging isn't working we need to modify it or drop it. They should know that if there is something wrong with any facet of your game, you fix it. They did not do this against Buffalo, they did not do this against NC State, they have not done this in the previous 5 years of being in charge. We're great at stopping pro-style running attacks, option running attacks, and spread-running attacks. What we can't do is stop the passing attack. During the press conference, Dave Wannstedt must come out and accept full responsibility for the loss. This loss was not due to a few missed tackles, it was not due to Stull throwing the ball away on 4th down, it was not due to one team out executing another. This loss was squarely on the coaches shoulders. We did not adapt, we did not prepare, and not the only thing left to do is accept full responsibility. For as bad as certain players performed yesterday, they certainly did not do as poorly as our coaching staff did.

Live Blog Today

2009-09-26T10:29:00.003-04:00

Like we did last year we will live blog the away games. Thoughts on everything under the sun will be coming around 3 pm.

Edit-Instead of a live blog I'm going to just twitter during the game. So follow us at http://twitter.com/TheCatBasket

Pitt vs NC State Predictions

2009-09-25T11:41:00.003-04:00

I'm very excited yet also very concerned about this game. Over the past decade Pitt has a history of blowing games whenever we get on a roll and start to feel success. WaHa did it and now Wanny has continued the tradition. On to my thoughts:

Dion Lewis is going to bounce back after a sub 100 yard game last week. I think we are going to lean extremely hard on the running game. I would expect Lewis to get his first 30 carry game. Ray Graham is going to get over 10 carries for the first time in his college career in this game too. Lewis: 31 carries, 110 yards, TD Graham: 10 carries, 45 yards
I have a feeling that the defensive line will make an impact on this game. At Buffalo, they were spread out and made no impact on the game. This week I have a feeling that Sheard and Romeus will be seen in the backfield making big plays. There will be two turnovers forced by the defensive line.
As for Stull's performance tomorrow I have no idea. My money is that Cignetti goes insanely conservative with the offense and forces the run game no matter what. Against Navy we saw Stull at his absolute best but on the road against a team that can get after the QB is a different scenario. If he can put in an efficient game I will have turned the corner on him as a player.

We can't lose this game. If the past is any indication this a bogey game but I'm looking on the bright side. NC State is a very beatable team and if we are actually improved this is a win. You can read everything about this program and our players from this game. A loss here and we are the same team that can't get over the hump. With a win our season has no limit. So try to enjoy this game tomorrow knowing the importance it holds to the program.

Pitt 17 NC State 14

Tom O'Brien Still Sucks

2009-09-24T23:29:00.002-04:00

Unless you became a Pitt fan following the ACC raid on the Big East, you probably remember Boston College fielding some of the most disappointing teams in the Big East. Under Tom O'Brien, Boston College continually underperformed, blew big games, and were out coached. What was the reward for his continual blundering? A lateral move from one crummy ACC school to another crummy ACC school.

Maybe it was the high cost of living in Boston, the annoying Bostonian accents, dislike of the Red Sox, or factors that I'm not thinking of that led O'Brien to make a move that can hardly be considered a promotion. That is enough of the O'Brien bashing for now, because while we all know he's a below average coach, it doesn't mean that we can just mark this one down as a win. This is why:

The NC State defensive line will be the first big test for Pitt's Offensive line. This is the first time that we will see legitimate D1 defensive linemen. Willie Young is, in my opinion, their best defensive player and he can be a guy that gives the offensive line fits throughout the game. This match up should work favorably for NC State because if Dion and Ray Graham aren't able to run the ball, then NC State will have solved 1/2 of the equation on how to beat us.

We are set up nicely this year to have a good ball control offense with the way we've been running the ball. If a team is able to shut down our running game, we're going to be counting on the passing game to not only make plays on 3rd and long situations, but to also act as off-set to the running game. When you're running game isn't working, you need to have a variety of passing plays that are quick-outs/screens designed to move the ball for 3-4 yards per play as a running play is designed to do.

If we are unable to move the ball on the ground, the pressure will be huge for Stull and the receivers to step up and make plays to compensate. If Dion and Ray are able to pound the ball effectively, we should be in great shape. With our extreme question marks in the secondary, we will need to eat up clock on offense to reduce the chances of multiple big plays from hurting us as we saw in the Buffalo game.

That leads us into the second part of the game. O'Brien blows as a coach, but he's not stubborn enough to try and keep running the ball because he thinks that is the only way to win. I have a feeling that this will be set up just like last year's Rutgers game. All we are hearing this week is how we have two teams that are going to line up and play smash mouth football. Instead, I think we will see 1 team play smash mouth football and the other team line up and throw the ball 50 times.

The thing that stood out to me on the stat sheets for NC State is how they get many different people in the offense. They have several players with over 10 rushing attempts and just a plethora of players who have caught passes from Russell Wilson. Now, Wilson looked like he could have been the best QB in the ACC until Jacory Harris showed up this year.

So here is how NC State can do damage against Pitt. I have not seen anything in the last 5 years to lead me to believe that we will break out of our base 4-3 defense. This will play perfectly into NC State's hands if they choose to spread the field and pass over the middle. Having our linebackers cover the receivers all game long is something that will eventually burn us. Now Max Gruder, Greg Williams, and the Adam Gunn/Dan Mason combo has performed well this year, but this will be their toughest challenge yet.

For this game we need to bring some new elements into the defense that haven't been seen yet this season. We have seen some delayed blitzing, but not much else outside of that. In this game we need to bring pressure to get Wilson off of his game. If he has time to throw, I feel that he will be able to tear up our secondary.

That is the last thing our defense must do. We must get better play from our defensive backs. We can't afford to let any type of interference calls go against us (legitimate or not). We can not have Chappel/Gary getting beat on 1 on 1 coverage. Lastly, DeCicco and Fields must play in position and make the tackles when they get the chance. Don't forget the fundamentals of tacking. Wrap you guy up and don't expect to just shoulder the guy down. Solid secondary performance is crucial for us to stop the big play and to force NC State to play into our strength (stopping the run).

If the secondary performs, Wilson doesn't turn into Mike Teel, and Dion/Ray are able to run the ball, we should win this game. I'm still going to say that 28 points will be the minimum we need to win this game. We have the team that can pull this off, but that is why games are played on the field and not on paper.

Pitt wins this game 28-24.

Week 4 Jones Picks

2009-09-24T11:19:00.002-04:00

Current Record: 12-3

Last week I did a little worse than I expected. I was convinced that Nebraska was going to beat Virginia Tech and West Virginia blew that game against Auburn. So this week I will stick to my instincts and never pick West Virginia in anything. On to the picks:

(4) Ole Miss vs South Carolina: I'm a huge fan of Ole Miss to make a big impact in the SEC this year. This will not be blowout but Ole Miss will easily win. Jones Pick: Ole Miss
South Florida vs (18) Florida State: If USF could win this game it would be quite the statement for the Big East. Florida State has been two different teams this season but I think the team that beat BYU last week will show up. Jones Pick: Florida State
Arkansas vs (3) Alabama: This is going to be absolutely fantastic. I think Arkansas will put up a fight like they did last week against Georgia but the nation will see how great Alabama is. Jones Pick: Alabama
(6) Cal vs Oregon: Cal is going to be a tough team to beat. Jahvid Best might be the front runner for the Heisman. Jones Pick: Cal
(9) Miami vs (11) Virginia Tech: The game of the week on paper. Both these teams are ranked too highly, nobody in the ACC is a top ten team yet. I'm not sure Miami is all the way back like the media has started to hype but they are better than Tech. Jones Pick: Miami
Iowa vs (5) Penn State: We all saw the upset last year that denied Penn State a place in the BCS Title game. I think Penn State gets the win back this year. Jones Pick: Penn State
Texas Tech vs (17) Houston: I thought Tech played much better against Texas than what was too be expected. Houston had that amazing win against Oklahoma State week 2 but I think they lose this game and their top 25 spot. Jones Pick: Texas Tech

Back with the Pitt game predictions tomorrow.

Importance of NC State

2009-09-23T12:09:00.002-04:00

Since the start of the season I've been trying keep my enthusiasm after each win at a reasonable level. On paper Navy, Buffalo, and Youngstown State are cupcake games and we went out in each game and won convincingly. Now we play a team with comparable athletes at each position.

The most important storyline of the NC State game is can the offensive line continue being successful. In 3 games Stull has rarely had to deal with sustained pressure. The new offensive line has acquitted themselves very well to the level of players they have had to deal with. NC State will not be undersized and they will not be much inferior athletes. Can the offensive line hold up and continue to keep Stull off his back? Also can the offensive line create holes for Dion Lewis? In a game like this the offense is going to rely heavily on the run game to move the ball. Cignetti likes to manage the situations where he calls on Stull to make a play and having a running game to get us 4 yards or more each snap is essential.

Can the secondary hold up to a team that spreads them out and passes? Buffalo was a big wakeup call for what the weakness of the defense is. Secondary play has been a problem, at points, in every game so far. Is DeCicco going to be able to make the tackles when a wide receiver gets open? Can Chappel play well enough to keep the guy he is covering out of the endzone? More importantly, is the defensive line going to get enough pressure to make throwing the ball difficult? Lining up in the base 4-3 all game didn't work against Buffalo because of how difficult it is for linebackers to cover wide receivers. NC State will definitely gameplan for the speed of our ends so Sheard and Romeus need to have better games than they did at Buffalo. Sacks and disrupting the QB is priority 1 on defense.

My other concern about this game is will the coaching staff play aggressive and loose enough to win the game. Being 3-0 is a situation Wannstedt hasn't been in at Pitt. Will the ultra conservative gameplan be brought out this week due to the nature of how we won the first 3 of the season. Going into the shell and shutting it down in the 3rd quarter might not be a good idea this week.

Back tomorrow for some picks.

Cat Basket Podcast Number 24

2009-09-22T12:55:00.001-04:00

Here it is sorry for the delay.

Cat Basket Podcast Number 24

Brytus signed

2009-09-21T21:36:00.001-04:00

Dave Brytus was just signed by the Baltimore Ravens. That's some good news for him as his Lincoln Navigator was stolen and trashed last week. Now he'll have an NFL check to get himself 1 or 2 more.

Congrats to Dave.

The Podcast will be up after the Pens game tonight.

Late Pitt-Navy Thoughts

2009-09-21T11:09:00.002-04:00

3-0 feels good. I can get used to the experience of opening the season on a roll. Now the real season starts and the real successes can be had. On to the thoughts:

Dan Mason is an absolute beast. I love the way he plays and he was quite impressive filling in for Gunn. Next year when Mason gets to play full time he could be an All Big East player.
Bill Stull is on fire right now. Enough can't be said about the playcalling of Cignetti factoring into Stull becoming a productive QB. You watch his footwork and his presence in the pocket and it is like a different player out there. He has put two great performances together and has changed my perception of what he can actually do.
Jonathan Baldwin showed what he can do when he gets the ball. The physical tools that he has are legit 1st round pick level. Getting him the ball is one of the keys to success in the Big East.
Dion Lewis is human but he is still playing such good football right now. For a freshman to be able to step in and immediately take so many carries is quite impressive. I still wish that Graham could get some more carries as he has a gamebreaker style that is a great compliment to Lewis.
The defense completely shut down the Navy running game. I expected that to be the case because of how well our defense plays against the run. This week we will see if the troubles against the past have been fixed.

As has been the storyline all year this is the week where we find out how this season will play out.

Pitt-Navy Predictions

2009-09-18T10:21:00.002-04:00

Sorry again for missing last week just so you know I wouldn't have picked us to score 54 points. This is a very intriguing game considering the last two games against Navy. Will it be a close game like 2007 or a blowout like 2008? Here are my thoughts on the game:

Dion Lewis will continue the hot start to his college career. There is no way Navy can stand up to our offensive line just due to the size differential. Cignetti is focusing heavy on the run in the first half so I would expect another 15-18 carries before halftime for Lewis. 24 carries, 124 yards 2 TDs.
Stull will not throw 3 TDs again but he will play a very similar game to Buffalo. Expect nothing but screen passes and under 12 yard routes. Hopefully, the 10 or so passes Stull floats and throws to bad spots on the field just fall to the ground like last week. 12 for 19 125 yards 1 TD 1 INT
I expect the defense to have trouble keeping Navy out of our side of the field but Navy will struggle to score. As we have seen in the past the triple option can eat huge chunks of yards out of the field but struggles to put the ball in the endzone consistently. Our defense is going to have trouble making all the tackles to slow down this offense but in the end Navy will be kicking many field goals and going for it on 4th and 3's.
Cam Saddler is going to return a kickoff for a touchdown. He has been fantastic this season as a kick returner and is averaging almost 30 yards a return. With the significant speed advantage this is the game Saddler takes a seam and breaks the big one.

At points this game will be close but I think we have too much for Navy to handle. Hopefully when we get up in the second half we don't completely shut it down like last week. No sitting on 21 point leads anymore.

Navy 13 Pitt 34

Week 3 Jones Picks

2009-09-17T11:12:00.003-04:00

Well I'm 7-1 after two weeks so the bottom is about to drop out on these picks.

(14) Georgia Tech vs (20) Miami: This is a tough game to call because of how even (crappy) the ACC is. My guess is that the home field advantage will carry Miami to this win. That being said Miami's defense looked bad in the opener against FSU and if the triple option starts working Georgia Tech can easily win. Jones Pick: Miami
Tennessee vs (1) Florida: The payback for all the trash Lane Kiffin talked in the offseason is coming. Florida is going to dominate every aspect of this game but I don't expect it to be the 30 to 40 win that everybody else does. This game will be within 14 points until the half. Jones Pick: Florida
Michigan State vs Notre Dame: Here is the thing about picking this game, both teams are down and not any good. Charlie Weis is weeks away from being fired at Notre Dame but I think this game will be a bit of a reprieve. Without a doubt this is the toughest game I have had to pick in this picks because of how little I think of both teams. Jones Pick: Notre Dame
(19) Nebraska vs (13) Virginia Tech: I really like Nebraska and I think they are going to win the Big 12 North. Virginia Tech is the class of the ACC. So I'm going to use my patented system of hating the ACC. Jones Pick: Nebraska
(17) Cincinatti vs Oregon State: I think Cincinatti will do a great job representing the Big East in this game. Tony Pike is easily the best offensive player in the conference. Oregon State is maybe the 3rd or 4th best team in the Pac 10. Jones Pick: Cincinatti
Texas Tech vs (2) Texas: This is not going to be a replay of last year. Texas is going to absolutely put it on Tech. I would expect a 3 to 4 touchdown win. Jones Pick: Texas
West Virginia vs Auburn: I'm going to shock everybody with my pick here. I don't think Auburn is any good. West Virginia will be able to score enough in this game to win. Jones Pick: West Virginia

For the rest of the season I will make more picks. If there is a tough game I will pick and if there is another game you want my opinion on just let me know in the comments.

Anthony Gonzalez Picks Pitt

2009-09-16T11:48:00.003-04:00

Some great recruiting news today with the commit of our top QB target Anthony Gonzalez. This is a huge get for the 2010 class and will add to the depth at the position. ESPN's recruiting site compares him to Tim Tebow which is quite high praise. Having an athletic QB down the line could be quite interesting in terms of how that fits into the current offense.

PG Story

Cat Basket Podcast Number 23

2009-09-14T12:43:00.002-04:00

Review of the Buffalo game.

Cat Basket Podcast Number 23

Late Buffalo Thoughts

2009-09-14T11:29:00.002-04:00

I want to apologize for not doing predictions for the Buffalo game things got really hectic before we had to travel. This will be the last game I will miss getting all the articles out the week leading up to the game. Now onto my thoughts on the Buffalo game:

Dion Lewis might be the real deal. Another fantastic game from the true freshman with 236 yards of total offense. The 80 yard touchdown run in the second half put this game out of reach for Buffalo. He is a deceptively strong runner for a guy his size. Hopefully he can continue this early success and put up a huge season.
That was as good as we will ever see Bill Stull play. Cignetti has devised a gameplan where Stull isn't getting the opportunity to make mistakes. Everything is either a screen pass or a simple read. I kept commenting during that for once Stull looked comfortable in the pocket and throwing the screens. All that being said Stull still had 5-7 horrible passes (most notably throwing two bubble screens 6 feet in front of the wide receiver), 2 of which could have been picked off. If the first pass of the game was picked off the story of this game for Stull would have been much different.
The defense had a horrible game. Buffalo found a way to negate the pressure from the defensive line and put on a clinic on how to exploit us in the passing game. I have said this a million times since we started the site, when teams pass the ball out of the spread our base defense system doesn't work. You can't expect outside linebackers to cover slot wide receivers for more than 3 seconds. That spot in the middle of the field that Buffalo kept attacking will always be there unless we add another secondary player or get to the QB faster.
Losing Taglianetti for the season is a blow to our depth but now we get to see Elijah Fields. He needs to seize this final opportunity to be a productive college player. I'm very interested to see how this goes.
Enjoy the early success. As of now everything is still on course for successful season. Sure the defense had a bad game and the final score hides how close this game was but don't worry. 54 points from our offense is like 145 points from another team. Cignetti has had two successes as a playcaller. The defense can come around with slight tweaks. I'm reasonably optimistic about this season.

I'm in the process of getting the podcast up which will cover the game a little more in depth. Thanks again for reading and I'll be back tomorrow.

Week 2 Jones Picks

2009-09-10T17:43:00.002-04:00

Last week I went 3-1 with the only loss being Georgia. Here are my picks for this week:

(3) USC vs (8) Ohio St: You know eventually Ohio State will win one of these big out of conference games by luck. This will not be the week, the USC rushing attack is going to be way too much for a team that got gashed open by Navy. The real story will be if OSU can keep this close. Jones Pick: USC
(18) Notre Dame vs Michigan: The hype on Notre Dame if they win this game will be comical. That being said both these teams still suck despite what the media tells. Charlie Weis vs Dick Rod is a battle I will take Dick Rod in. Jones Pick: Michigan
Clemson vs (15) Georgia Tech: I love watching the Georgia Tech offense but I have a feeling this could be a close one. My guess is that Georgia Tech has enough to take it. Jones Pick: Georgia Tech
(19) North Carolina vs UConn: I'm very intrigued by how UConn will play in this game. I have a feeling UNC is a top 2 team in the ACC but you can never tell. Jones Pick: UNC

Back tomorrow with predictions for Buffalo.

Breaking the MAC Curse

2009-09-10T11:04:00.002-04:00

The last two times we have gone on the road to play a MAC team we have left the stadium as the loser. The first time we had ever lost to a MAC team was against Toledo when the Panthers were ranked #7 in the nation at that time. An injury to Brandon Miree and Walt's refusal to run the ball while trying to pad Larry's stats ended up being the killer for us. The second loss came in Wannstedt's first year as Ohio U beat Pitt in overtime. It was a game where we did not look in many phases of the game. A last minute touchdown drive led by Tyler Palko was quickly forgotten as he threw a pick 6 that ended the game and left Pitt with an 0-2 record after being destroyed by Notre Dame beforehand.

Add that in with the completely atrocious loss to Bowling Green last year and you can see that the MAC has not been too favorable to us in the last few years. Last year against Buffalo we saw a very close game. It was not until the start of the 4th quarter following the introduction of Sweet Caroline that Shady scored a touchdown and Pitt took the lead for good.

Here we are a year later. Instead of coming into this game following a major let down, we're coming in as favorites who just beat on a team that we should have. This year we will face a different challenge. Instead of having the homefield advantage we will be making the 4 hour trek to Buffalo, NY. If there is one game that the 25,000 seat stadium will see fans excited for, it is our game. Sure we are not the most high profile D1 team around, but still take a look at who else is coming to play at Buffalo this year. Central Michigan, Gardner-Webb, Akron, Bowling Green, and Ohio are not exactly the worlds most exciting opponents.

So while the crowd will be a very important factor in this game, so will the Buffalo coaches and players. Starting running back James Starks was lost for the season putting pressure on first year starter Zach Maynard. Maynard had a pretty good game last weak at UTEP, but he is no where near the player Drew Wiley was last year for the Bulls. Pitt has the better players overall and that will be a huge factor for winning this game.

The other factor is Turner Gill. I do not see why there is so much hype on this guy. Without a few key turnovers against Ball State, they do not win the MAC Championship. Last year against Pitt, Buffalo was in great position to win the game until Turner Gill unexpectedly changed the game plan and didn't adapt to Pitt's changes. To me, that is a sign of a poor coach. I don't understand why everyone is screaming for him to land a job, because to me, I think he is a below average coach.

Last year Buffalo had Pitt on the ropes in many ways. They held a lead heading into the 4th quarter, they were facing a vulnerable Pitt team who had just lost a game against Bowling Green, and were playing well for the first 3 quarters, but yet couldn't put it all away. This year the game is on their turf, but they lost 2 of their top performers to injury and graduation. We have a significant drop off without the combination of Shady on offense and Scott McKillop on defense, but our replacements are much more capable than Buffalo's.

I think that this game will be closer than the - 11.5 that the odds makers are giving us. They played us close at home last year. This year we're on the road in a hostile environment. This is a game where I can really see Wannstedt playing conservatively to ensure that potential chances don't come back to haunt us. I just hope that we keep the offense open wisely. We need to take chances when they prevent themselves, but not break away from what works for us. The defense alone should be enough to win this game, but the offense must put points up against this inferior defense.

I believe Pitt wins this game by a score of 24 to 17. Don't take my word on the prediction as Jason Jones has been much more accurate in his predictions thus far this season.