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Your welcome

#H2P

1. Pitt (29)
2. Stanford (23)
3. Penn State (6)
4. Louisville (1)
15. Georgia Tech
20. Miami
21. Florida State
ORV: SMU

After football and men's basketball, I'm pretty sure that volleyball is now only the third varsity sports program in Pitt's history to have obtained a #1 national ranking.

Wednesday, September 18th, 7pm: #3 Penn State @ #1 Pitt at the Pete (ACCN)

Other home games vs ranked opponents:
Sunday, September 29th, 1:30pm: ORV SMU at Fitzgerald (ACCN)
Sunday, October 20th, 3pm: #2 Stanford at Fitzgerald (ESPN)
Friday, October 25th, 7pm: #4 Louisville at the Pete (ACCNX)
Friday, November 15th, 7pm: #21 FSU at Fitzgerald (ACCNX)
Sunday, Novembr 17th, 1pm: #20 Miami at Fitzgerald (ACCNX)
Saturday, November 30th, 1pm: #15 Georgia Tech at Fitzgerald (ACCNX), final regular season game.

Heather sold me her parking pass for Saturday's football game!

LFG!


BEAT WEST VIRGINIA!!

Each week, we've got five questions: one on Pitt's offense, one on Pitt's defense, one on Pitt's opponent, one on the ACC and one on recruiting. Here's this week's Five Questions.



Offense - Will the Eli show go on the road?
Eli Holstein is officially Pitt’s starting quarterback, and in the most oft-repeated sentiment this week, we’ll get to find out how he does against a higher level of competition.

Cincinnati may or may not be good this season (the Bearcats’ win over Towson offered as little insight as Pitt’s win over Kent State), but there’s no question that Cincinnati will be a step up from Kent State. And Holstein will have to face the Bearcats’ defense, with its 3-4 defensive front, while surrounded by a hostile crowd, which creates a whole new challenge.

Look, Nippert Stadium is not exactly the Horseshoe; the venue holds less than 40,000 (amazingly, Cincinnati “officially” sold out the 38,193 tickets every single game, even in the midst of a seven-game losing streak). But however many fans are there will be rooting against Holstein and Pitt’s offense, and that’s not a non-factor.

The Panthers’ new offense ran very smoothly in the opener on Saturday - everybody was lined up right, they didn’t take any procedure penalties and they were able to control the tempo. Going in front of an enemy crowd is a different story, so in addition to the challenge of facing what should be a better defense, Holstein and company will have to contend with a road environment as well.

Defense - What gets cleaned up in Week Two?
Pitt’s defense presented an interesting case study from Week One. The Panthers allowed 212 yards of total offense, recorded five sacks, grabbed two turnovers, gave up three third-down conversions on 16 attempts and held Kent State to 3.3 yards per play. And yet, the defense seemed to leave something to be desired.

Despite getting five sacks and 10 hits on Kent State quarterback Devin Kargman, who only completed 50% of his passes, it felt like Pitt’s defense was on its heels more than the numbers would indicate. The Panthers only gave up three drives of more than 50 yards - two 75-yard touchdown drives and one 57-yard field goal drive - but on those drives, they showed gaps in coverage, a lack of pressure and poor tackling.

So there’s plenty for the defense to improve on that side of the ball.

Cincinnati - How will Pitt do against a productive QB?
Kent State quarterback Devin Kargman deserves a lot of credit for the beating he took on Saturday - he got hit a lot - but Cincinnati will present a much bigger challenge with Brendan Sorsby. The Indiana transfer made his Bearcat debut against Towson, completing 22-of-31 passes for 383 yards and accounting for four of Cincinnati’s five touchdowns - two passing and two rushing.

Towson is not a high level of competition, so Sorsby will have something to prove this weekend against a Power Four defense. But Pitt’s defense, which had a good day statistically but showed a few holes in the pass rush and tackling fundamentals, will have a challenge of its own in defending Sorsby.

The biggest thing to watch with Sorsby could be the deep passes. Cincinnati scored on passing plays of 42 and 61 yards; if Pitt can’t get pressure on Sorsby in the backfield, it will be a test for Pitt’s coverage to hold up downfield.

ACC - Why is Florida State 0-2?
Clemson at least has a good excuse for being winless; the Tigers faced Georgia in Week One. FSU, on the other hand, took on Georgia Tech and Boston College. Maybe those teams will be better than we expected, and certainly both games were played under unique circumstances (one was in Ireland, the other was on Labor Day night). But there are bigger issues at FSU, and the biggest one is the quarterback.

How, after seeing him in person as a conference foe a few years ago, did Florida State think that DJ Uiagalelei was the answer? Mike Norvell faced Uiagalelei in 2021 and 2022, and while Clemson won both games, Uiagalelei was just okay. Ditto for last season, when he left Clemson and spent a year at Oregon State.

But even if Uiagalelei was just fine as a transfer quarterback option, was he really the best FSU could land this offseason? Just looking around the ACC shows plenty of better options among quarterbacks who transferred this offseason, whether it’s Cam Ward (Miami), Tyler Shough (Louisville), Grayson McCall (N.C. State), Maalik Murphy (Duke), Kyle McCord (Syracuse) or even Eli Holstein.

FSU looked at all of those guys - and that’s just the ACC; never mind the rest of the country - and said, “Yep, DJU is the one we want.”

What was Mike Norvell thinking?

Recruiting - Is that 50-touchdown goal realistic?
One week after putting up 293 passing yards, 119 rushing yards and four passing touchdowns, Pitt quarterback commit Mason Heintschel kept it rolling on Friday by throwing six touchdown passes in a 49-0 win.

Last week, I asked if Heintschel might score 50 touchdowns this season; his team has 10 games on the regular-season schedule and he’s already at 10 passing scores. That puts him right on target for 50 in the regular season alone, and while keeping up the five-touchdown-per-game pace might be a tall task, keep in mind that Heintschel has yet to score a rushing touchdown this season.

So yeah, that 50-touchdown mark really might be in reach, and Heintschel looks really good so far this season.

I see that a ton of former Pitt players are coming out and identifying that Lasala be at least interviewed for AD position.

Obviously a Pitt lifer and currently part of Athletic Department.

I get it but if there was a lack of “vision” under Lyke doesn’t he shoulder some of that blame?

Timeline:

- First mentioned in the Master Plan in 2018
- Formally announced in 2020
- Board approved Arena & Sports Complex groundbreaking in 2022
- Arena & Sports Complex broke ground in 2023
- Arena & Sports Complex opens 2025

Other Notes:

- Part of a promise made to former Pitt BoT member and Olympian Herb Douglas
- Impacts 84% of the student athlete body at Pitt
- $250M project funded through university debt financing per Gallagher
- Donations used to offset cost but not contingent on a certain percentage per Lyke/Gallagher

https://www.utimes.pitt.edu/news/pitt-makes-financial

No red ribbon panel to be appointed to find anAD and for the love of God keep Nerdy 500 miles away from the process

We've confirmed more than 20 recruits who are planning to visit for Saturday's Pitt-WVU game. Here's the running list - we'll update this as we add more names.

Say what you want about his situation with the Stillers, but he's now with a team that runs a productive offensive system with a proven OC, behind decent OL (does the Eagles coach play the best players or does he dick around?), and WRs who aren't diva bitches and will block.

I noticed the Pittsburgh media picked up on a tweet that said KP is "struggling" and would be battling for the #2 spot with a rookie, but seemed to totally ignore when he did well in practice. No surprise from those jabronies.

Wow, I still can't believe we won that game. Some thoughts:

• I know everyone has their opinion about Duzz but his teams are always mentally tough. They never stopped believing even though I'm sure most of us did.
• I still wasn't out on Holstein, even after the first half because it was his second ever start and it was his first on the road but I thought maybe I was off on his ceiling. Man did he have a hell of a comeback. I would like to note that he already has the same amount of passing TDs as Jurk had last year. We have a stud and I sincerely hope we can keep him after this year but for now, I'm enjoying the biggest advantage you can have as a football team - a great QB.
• I know I was skewered for saying Reid shouldn't have more than 10-15 carries a game but man is he so good. I still don't think 20 carries a game is realistic for him and I'd prefer a few more pass pass plays but it's clear that he's a total gamebreaker. He already has 410 combined rushing and receiving yards which is almost as much as Flemister had all year last year.
• Mupfield and Reid were just fantastic as receivers. The catch and run on the 56 yard TD by Reid was thrown, caught, and run to the end zone with perfection. Mump really showed he can be the one we need.
• I loved that first play to Bart and I thought it was blocked really well.
• McMillon, Biles, Matlack, Edwards, and Harrison (although that was an awful tackle on the 4th down play) showed some juice. I don't think the D was as bad as it looked and a lot of times the pressure was close to getting home for the QB to throw it away.
• I never worry when Sauls kicks. He has close to half his made FGs that he did last year.
• We are a WVU win away from our first 4-0 (I know I shouldn't just look YSU but whatever) OOC start in Pitt history. I know it doesn't matter in rivalry games but WVU might just not be good. They were destroyed by a PSU team that was losing to Bowling Green in the third quarter yesterday. I certainly don't think we are going to go undefeated but I don't really see any games that won't be winnable. I do think Cal and Cuse are better than I expected but I think we can compete with anyone. Would be quite a start for us to already tie our win total from last year this week against WVU.

Pitt's offense has been putting up numbers so far this season, but what has been most encouraging about the Panthers on that side of the ball through two games? We're breaking down some of the best elements on today's Morning Pitt.

For 40 minutes at Cincinnati on Saturday, Pitt's offense struggled. But the Panthers made plays in the final 20 minutes to close on a 22-0 scoring run and secure a big comeback win.

Let's look at what worked and what didn't for Pitt's offense.

How is WVU a 5.5 point favorite in Pittsburgh? I saw part of their performance against PSU. They weren't very impressive. And based on Saturday PSU is overrated.

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To getting Nick Marsh?? If I am remembering him correctly. Didn’t he come for one of those big June recruiting weekends??

The reason I am bringing up his name is he is killing it as a true freshman at Michigan st. Sure would have been nice to see him/ Mumpfield/ Johnson as our trifecta receiving core. Especially in this offense

Does anyone know if the lots/garages open earlier than normal because of the Pirates game? I have a pass to the Gold Lot garage but am not sure if it opens 5 hours before kick-off, like it normally would, or earlier because of the Pirates game. Can't find anything online.

Very good article.....worth the time to read.

Looking for three tix for Brawl. Pitt fans buying. Thanks

Edit: purchased four already. Thanks

ABC took A&M @ Florida
ESPN took Tulane @ Oklahoma

Announcers are Beth Mowens and Rod Gilmore

correction - The announcers are Mike Monaco and Kirk Morrison

Isaiah Denis will be on campus for his official visit starting tomorrow and is there until the 31st.

Omari Witherspoon will then be on campus from the 1st-2nd