I was talking to a friend about Pitt seasons from the past and the topic of the 2001 season came up. Remember the first offensive play from scrimmage at the first home game against SFL, Walt called a naked boot for Priestley and he rambled 80 yards for a touchdown? We still lost that game but I admired Walt's game calls (sometimes). The whole side of the field parted like the red sea and he ran like Forest Gump for the TD. I wish someone would put that play on youtube!!!
Does Anyone Have Gametape of S.FL vs Pitt 2001? Priestly 80yd Bootleg
- Thread starter mehinpgh
- Start date
We won that game. We beat East Tenn. St. 31-0.
Correct, that was East Tennessee. It also wasn't Pitt's first play from scrimmage, it was their first play from scrimmage of their second series of the game.
The USF game was the one (or should I say one of the ones?) where USF came out all game in five wide receiver sets and Pitt never left their base 4-3 defense even one time all game. And then they couldn't figure out why they couldn't stop the slot receivers from running wild on our linebackers all game. Afterwords Walt Harris was asked about it and said that they couldn't switch to any other defense because since it was so early in the season they hadn't really had any time yet to practice any five or six DB sets. Which clearly must have been the case, seeing as to how the team had only had three weeks of camp and two game weeks to install something other than the base defense.
That 2001 season was the biggest underachieving year by a Pitt team since 2000. The switch to the no-huddle was disastrous and the results reflected it. That was an experienced Pitt team with a senior QB, Antonio Bryant, a solid enough O-line and a good defense. That was Harris' fifth season as coach and everything was in place and he blew it and the players quit on him in the BC and Syracuse games.
Never should Pitt have lost to USF, ND, BC and Syracuse, and never would have running the basic offense that Harris switched back to once Pitt was 1-5. Those wins over V Tech and NC State showed what Pitt was capable of being that 2001 season. The Panthers outscored those two by a combined, 72-26, and at worst should have gone 9-2 in the regular season, not 7-5. The no huddle prevented Pitt from making a jump in the college football world.
Never should Pitt have lost to USF, ND, BC and Syracuse, and never would have running the basic offense that Harris switched back to once Pitt was 1-5. Those wins over V Tech and NC State showed what Pitt was capable of being that 2001 season. The Panthers outscored those two by a combined, 72-26, and at worst should have gone 9-2 in the regular season, not 7-5. The no huddle prevented Pitt from making a jump in the college football world.
the new "no huddle" was a disaster plus Antonio Bryant was causing all kind of dissension among the team. A very close friend of mine was a GA on that team and he had mentioned that most of the coaching stAff was not on board with the new offense before the season even started.
After their fifth straight loss, Steve Pederson called a meeting of the football staff and basically told Walt and the staff to quit blaming the players "they are your players, you recruited them" was his message. I mean really reamed them out. Up until that point and especially after the S. Florida loss, Walt got into this habit of blaming the losses of the games on the players and their inability to "not do what they were taught". It was a miracle they won the next five and the tangerine bowl. Anything short and he was gone.
I love Walt for what he did, taking a thankless job, but sometimes he thought he was too smart.
After their fifth straight loss, Steve Pederson called a meeting of the football staff and basically told Walt and the staff to quit blaming the players "they are your players, you recruited them" was his message. I mean really reamed them out. Up until that point and especially after the S. Florida loss, Walt got into this habit of blaming the losses of the games on the players and their inability to "not do what they were taught". It was a miracle they won the next five and the tangerine bowl. Anything short and he was gone.
I love Walt for what he did, taking a thankless job, but sometimes he thought he was too smart.
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If Walt said "they aren't doing what we coached them to do" one time that season he said it one thousand. Probably literally.
The SF debacle was maybe the lowest point of my career of attending Pitt games. That read option or whatever the hell it was was a disaster. If memory serves Bryant was injured on a punt return early in the game.
What made it so bad was that South Florida was a newcomer to D1, and I think most of us had high hopes at the start of the season.
Just a horrible memory altogether.
What made it so bad was that South Florida was a newcomer to D1, and I think most of us had high hopes at the start of the season.
Just a horrible memory altogether.
Yes...
You quoted it a lot better than me, but that is when he picked up the nickname "not my fault Walt".
You quoted it a lot better than me, but that is when he picked up the nickname "not my fault Walt".
The missed extra point didn't really end any hope of a comeback. That miss made it an eight point game instead of a seven point game but the touchdown came on the first play of the fourth quarter. There was plenty of time left. Enough that Pitt scored again a short time later, but then missed the two pointer that they had to go for because of the missed PAT. And even at that there was still enough time left to come back and win, but we just couldn't stop the USF spread and they were the ones who scored the last touchdown to put the game away.
Awful awful day, then 9/11 happened very shortly after. I still think about that and the contrast of what it is really like to have s bad day. Bryant later came back for the cancelled UAB game in December and the win meant a victory in the Tangerine Bowl. Hard to believe that was 15 years ago.
The way I remember it the TD and missed extra point came late in the game and Pitt needed a stop and USF hit a big play down inside the 10-yard line. Then Pitt was called for PI on third down and USF scored easily to put the game away, 35-26. I stormed out of the sports bar since there wasn't that much time left. Back in those days, I never would have left if there was more than enough time left in the game.
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The miss left the deficit 9 points instead of 1 score. It didn't end up mattering because we couldn't stop them but it didn't help.
The missed extra point made the score 28-20, so eight points, not nine. The missed extra point came on a touchdown that was scored on the first play of the 4th quarter. The game was most certainly not over when we missed the extra point.
We then scored another touchdown with 7:39 left in the game (which kind of proves that the missed extra point most certainly did not end the game). We then went for two because of the missed extra point, and we missed that one too. So with 7:39 left to go in the game we were behind by two points. Is there anyone anywhere that knows anything about football that thinks that a team that is two points behind almost exactly half way through the 4th quarter is out of the game?
Unfortunately, on the following USF drive the Pitt defense couldn't get a stop, which is no different than what had happened for most of the game up until that point. The touchdown that gave USF the nine point lead came with 4:31 left in the game. While that isn't a good spot to be in, the game really wasn't even over at that point. Although if someone wanted to argue that with the way we played defense that day it pretty much was over then I wouldn't put up much of an argument. Surely if we had scored, even quickly, we would have needed to recover an onside kick so we could keep their offense off the field.
We then scored another touchdown with 7:39 left in the game (which kind of proves that the missed extra point most certainly did not end the game). We then went for two because of the missed extra point, and we missed that one too. So with 7:39 left to go in the game we were behind by two points. Is there anyone anywhere that knows anything about football that thinks that a team that is two points behind almost exactly half way through the 4th quarter is out of the game?
Unfortunately, on the following USF drive the Pitt defense couldn't get a stop, which is no different than what had happened for most of the game up until that point. The touchdown that gave USF the nine point lead came with 4:31 left in the game. While that isn't a good spot to be in, the game really wasn't even over at that point. Although if someone wanted to argue that with the way we played defense that day it pretty much was over then I wouldn't put up much of an argument. Surely if we had scored, even quickly, we would have needed to recover an onside kick so we could keep their offense off the field.
