SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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- Because we continue to view ourselves as equals of a program that has beaten us like a drum in recent years and we aren’t. Syracuse and Pittsburgh are probably the most direct recruiting rivals we have in this conference and they never seem to be good at the same time. We’ve played them every year since 1955. The first nine years it was a competitive series: Pitt won 5, we won 4. Then, from 1964 to 1972, we won 7 of 9 by scores like 51-13, 33-7, 50-17 and 43-13. Then they won 11 in a row including 0-38 and 6-43 games. It was our turn again in 1984 as we started a stretch of 16-1-1 with scores of 41-10, 31-7, 42-10, 55-7, and 42-10. Then they turned it around again with a 24-48 game in 2002 that was 3-48 at one point. That started what has become a 2-12 stretch with scores of 10-37, 14-45 and 7-30. We are still in that stretch. We may turn it around someday but not today.
- The sad thing is that we had a great opportunity to turn around the series when Pitt went through its coaching merry-go-round that started when they fired Dave Wannstedt in 2010. Then then had an interim coach, Phil Bennett, hired Mike Haywood away from Miami of Ohio only to have him get arrested for domestic violence, (the charges were later dropped). But that forced them to fire him before he ever coached a game. They hired Todd Graham away from Tulsa to give them an up-tempo offense but he left as soon as a better job opened up, (knees knocking at that thought). Keith Patterson coached them in a bowl game. Then they hired Paul Chryst, who left for Wisconsin after three years. Now they have Pat Narduzzi form Michigan State. That’s 7 head coaches in 7 seasons. That should have bene a golden opportunity to make inroads into that rich Pennsylvania recruiting territory, 9as we did when Mac built the program up back in the 80’s). But then we got our own coaching merry-go-round whirling when Doug Marrone left and we replaced him with Scott Shafer and now Dino Babers, So our own chaos prevented us from taking advantage of their chaos. What happens next depends on Narduzzi and Babers. But what happens next isn’t going to help us today.
- I see so many programs that have been down and now seem to be blossoming into strong or at least respected programs again: South Florida, Wake Forest, NC State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, (last year: still good), West Virginia, Michigan, Penn State, Minnesota, Wyoming, San Diego State, Washington, Washington State, Colorado, Florida, Tennessee, etc. It kills me that after 15 years of spinning our wheels that we aren’t one of them and our coach has to talk about how someday we’ll have enough good players to be good again. But it is what it is.
- And Pitt is one of those blossoming teams, too. This might be their best teams since the Dorsett-Marino years, despite their four losses. Three of which were by a total of 11 points. This team has some defensive issues but they are rolling on offense. They have a downhill runner in James Connor, who has 14 TDs and will go over 1,000 yards today to complete his comeback from cancer treatments. We’ve rushed for 1207 in 11 games and scored 11 times, 6 by Eric Dungey who likely won’t be playing today. They also have a quarterback, Nathan Peterman, with 22TD passes and 5 interceptions. Our high-powered passing game has 19 and 12 and the guy who will be playing QB for us in this game has 3 and 3. Overall the Panthers are pounding out 39 points a game to our 22.5, four points less than Scott Shafer’s meathead attack of last year scored.
- We are such a beaten-up team, with a missing quarterback, patch-work lines and defensive backfield, linebackers playing hurt. The 12 game schedule is just too much for most college teams. Pitt’s in a better position to absorb their injuries because they have more depth than we do. We are not the same team that began the season. Neither are they: they are better.
- They do have a weakness in their pass defense that is their Achilles heel. If Dungey were playing at full capacity, maybe we could exploit that but he isn’t.
- Pitt has given up only 8 sacks on the year but have recorded 36 of them. They have 73 tackles for a loss, (which doesn’t include sacks. We have 16 sacks and 54 tackles for a loss. We’ve given up 35 sacks. They are gaining 5.0 yards per rushing attempt and giving up 3.2 . We are gaining 3.0 and giving up 5.0. In other words, Pitt is going to own the trenches. They will be able to run and we won’t. They will protect their quarterback and we won’t. That spells not only a defeat, but a blow-out. But we’re used to that.
- The sad thing is that we had a great opportunity to turn around the series when Pitt went through its coaching merry-go-round that started when they fired Dave Wannstedt in 2010. Then then had an interim coach, Phil Bennett, hired Mike Haywood away from Miami of Ohio only to have him get arrested for domestic violence, (the charges were later dropped). But that forced them to fire him before he ever coached a game. They hired Todd Graham away from Tulsa to give them an up-tempo offense but he left as soon as a better job opened up, (knees knocking at that thought). Keith Patterson coached them in a bowl game. Then they hired Paul Chryst, who left for Wisconsin after three years. Now they have Pat Narduzzi form Michigan State. That’s 7 head coaches in 7 seasons. That should have bene a golden opportunity to make inroads into that rich Pennsylvania recruiting territory, 9as we did when Mac built the program up back in the 80’s). But then we got our own coaching merry-go-round whirling when Doug Marrone left and we replaced him with Scott Shafer and now Dino Babers, So our own chaos prevented us from taking advantage of their chaos. What happens next depends on Narduzzi and Babers. But what happens next isn’t going to help us today.
- I see so many programs that have been down and now seem to be blossoming into strong or at least respected programs again: South Florida, Wake Forest, NC State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, (last year: still good), West Virginia, Michigan, Penn State, Minnesota, Wyoming, San Diego State, Washington, Washington State, Colorado, Florida, Tennessee, etc. It kills me that after 15 years of spinning our wheels that we aren’t one of them and our coach has to talk about how someday we’ll have enough good players to be good again. But it is what it is.
- And Pitt is one of those blossoming teams, too. This might be their best teams since the Dorsett-Marino years, despite their four losses. Three of which were by a total of 11 points. This team has some defensive issues but they are rolling on offense. They have a downhill runner in James Connor, who has 14 TDs and will go over 1,000 yards today to complete his comeback from cancer treatments. We’ve rushed for 1207 in 11 games and scored 11 times, 6 by Eric Dungey who likely won’t be playing today. They also have a quarterback, Nathan Peterman, with 22TD passes and 5 interceptions. Our high-powered passing game has 19 and 12 and the guy who will be playing QB for us in this game has 3 and 3. Overall the Panthers are pounding out 39 points a game to our 22.5, four points less than Scott Shafer’s meathead attack of last year scored.
- We are such a beaten-up team, with a missing quarterback, patch-work lines and defensive backfield, linebackers playing hurt. The 12 game schedule is just too much for most college teams. Pitt’s in a better position to absorb their injuries because they have more depth than we do. We are not the same team that began the season. Neither are they: they are better.
- They do have a weakness in their pass defense that is their Achilles heel. If Dungey were playing at full capacity, maybe we could exploit that but he isn’t.
- Pitt has given up only 8 sacks on the year but have recorded 36 of them. They have 73 tackles for a loss, (which doesn’t include sacks. We have 16 sacks and 54 tackles for a loss. We’ve given up 35 sacks. They are gaining 5.0 yards per rushing attempt and giving up 3.2 . We are gaining 3.0 and giving up 5.0. In other words, Pitt is going to own the trenches. They will be able to run and we won’t. They will protect their quarterback and we won’t. That spells not only a defeat, but a blow-out. But we’re used to that.