pittdan77
Athletic Director
Losing Hooker was devastating. Without him, they're not a top team but I won't hang that on them like they just blew it.
Good season?
- Thread starter cpc247
- Start date
I agree with you. I don’t think the OL was looking good early in the season but they’ve come around to being adequate if not better than adequate.
similar to Walt's 2001 season. Finished very strong but still left feeling what could have been.
Note: many teams feel that way. I think Tennessee is this morning also
pittdan77
Athletic Director
And regardless, I think the program will have a tough winter. You lost two recruits and you're going to see some turnover. Some because guys hung around to try for another championship and are ready to move on now and you'll probably lose a couple to the portal. I think that's going to become a common problem for every program.
Oh my God... not this again.
Syracuse being ranked 20th was like the 10-year-old who hit puberty two years before everybody else in his recreational basketball league. Then, when everybody is 16, he's still 5'3" with a mustache and they're all dunking on him.
You're taking the peak ranking for both Syracuse and Tennessee, in a 12-game season, and saying that is what they are. Okay, big game with a top 10 Miami team this week, I guess.
Pitt 7-4 and Bowl Bound with Rival 3-star recruits.
Miami 5-6 with Rival 5 and 4 Star recruits.
Reality
Now use the transfer portal to get some good recruits.
HAIL TO PITT!!!!
Miami 5-6 with Rival 5 and 4 Star recruits.
Reality
Now use the transfer portal to get some good recruits.
HAIL TO PITT!!!!
Yeah, you’re hitting on the biggest reason why I consider the season a disappointment.
A lot of momentum coming off of last year and I think we’ve thrown most of it away already and won’t get much of it back even if we finish strong against Miami Fl.
I think it was werewolf who started the post about the Minchey decommit and then the 2nd one after him, and there were a good handful of posters getting all over him for over-reacting. I’m never one to get to amped up over a recruit until they get here and show it on the field, but the trend of those decommits is a direct result of the disappointing season and we can’t keep counting in the transfer portal to recoup.
The season is fine.
There was a ton of baked in wins before the season started.
There was a ton of baked in wins when they season played out.
Most of those baked in wins were won.
As a season goes, that’s about all you can ask for I guess.
There was a ton of baked in wins before the season started.
There was a ton of baked in wins when they season played out.
Most of those baked in wins were won.
As a season goes, that’s about all you can ask for I guess.
That was always a concern in my mind. A lot of these guys who came back were doing so with the expectation of playing for a national championship. The second we lost a game, well... in their eyes, the season might have already been a failure. Certainly after we lost two games anyway.
I posted this past offseason about not wanting to be last year's UNC team (good season the year before, coming in with expectations, etc.). Well, we're going to have a better record than them anyway, but it kind of feels similar. Maybe be nuances weren't the same, but the deflated expectations kind of are.
I'm glad we didn't completely tank at the end of the season and are at least salvaging it as best we can. That's probably the biggest compliment I can give the team this year. We are going to finish near 60th in strength of schedule, which is among the lowest for P5 teams.
My concern now is basically what you just stated. By not using last year as a launching point for this program - coupled with the disappointment of this season - we run the risk of falling back back down into the pack. Once we lose the bulk of our better players, what advantages do we have over Louisville, NC State, UNC, Miami, Clemson, Virginia Tech, etc.? Those teams all recruit better than us. And as we've seen over the last four decades, once you're back in the pack, it's a long climb out of it.
Anyone who continues to push the Pitt beat a top 20 team in Syracuse is absolutely foolish. Pre season polls are meaningless - agreed. Early to Mid season polls aren’t a whole lot better. Syracuse isn’t good by any measure.
9-4 is good for this mediocre program. You're right about the offense, is Narduzzi that dense to not realize that the ONLY REASON he has an 11-3 season and an ACC Championship was scoring 40ppg and airing it out last year, and last year had nothing to do with defense and running the ball, just scoring fast and often and winning track meets, NOT Yinzer ROCK POUNDING
.
They are national title contenders, that said, I'd personally rather watch a crappy mens hoops team.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Pitt has underrecruited versus all those schools and is routinely outperforming all of them except Clemson and Pitt is doing pretty well against them. I'm not really concerned about "falling back" as much as I am that the fan base doesn't know how to handle the ups and downs of being a middling program that has some success and then some average seasons before competing again. Too used to being bad and just complaining all the time. Guess it's just easier.
hate to be so cut and dry about it but when you are in the ACC coastal, it's win division or bust. if we finish 8-4 (Could care less about a meaningless bowl game played by under classmen) yeah, it's good on paper but not a successful season in the ACC coastal.
I think that GT loss still has this as a “meh” season for me. Louisville wasn’t great either but from the start of the year I figured that could be a tough game on the road. A win this weekend and a bowl win would push this to a good season I guess.
Absolutely not, this season was and will be a failure. I don’t care if the beat Miami and win a bowl game, its pitts trademark, to lose games they are suppose to win, it’s a disappointing failure, heads should roll
Statues of his demo in urban places aren’t exactly trending.
He does not realize that in the least, and in fact by winning these last couple, is likely convinced more than ever that his approach is good.9-4 is good for this mediocre program. You're right about the offense, is Narduzzi that dense to not realize that the ONLY REASON he has an 11-3 season and an ACC Championship was scoring 40ppg and airing it out last year, and last year had nothing to do with defense and running the ball, just scoring fast and often and winning track meets, NOT Yinzer ROCK POUNDING
And this is what dampens the enthusiasm in what on paper would seem a decent season. Groundhog Day aspect of it. The prospect of more of the same next year, and forever more after that.
Lest the game hens start cackling, in no way shape or form am I saying he should be let go. I like him, he does many things well, he’s a good fit for us. Besides, we’d never try to hire an upgrade, and a debacle like Stallings would result. He desperately needs convinced that a modern dynamic offense is critical. Can this AD get through to him? Could any?
We didn't have all the pieces in place, especially the key ones. Everyone crowed that we had the entire starting OL back, but it was never a good OL to begin with and then never played together due to injuries. Everyone touted Slovis without recognizing there were reasons why he fell from grace at USC. The WR room was played up completely based on potential but without real performance.
The reality is that people got carried away with unrealistic expectations. Despite that, we left some wins on the table. But we also stole some wins.
The expectations were unrealistic. 9-4 this year is a really good season. They weren't going to beat UNC for the division this year with Maye's emergence as a Heisman candidate.
UNC's defense is abysmal though. With an efficient offense, that game was there for the taking.
We had the highest success rate of any team in the country that lost when Louisville beat us. Pretty sure that was also the case for Georgia Tech (if not the highest, it was close). That basically means we have better players; we just found ways to lose. That's been my issue all season: We muddy up games against inferior opponents and either fail to put them away soundly or lose.
Do we have some holes? Yeah. Did we still have better personnel than just every team on our schedule, with the exceptions of Tennessee and UNC (and even their defense blows)? Yeah. So it's disappointing.
We don't have an efficient offense and haven't had one all year. To expect it for 1 game is unrealistic.
I came to this realization pretty early after seeing the QB and WRs early on. In fact, I had concern about the "NFL" QB after the spring game, but thought Patti might be able to step in if Slovis was bad.
Oh totally agree. If you're talking about what this team actually is, you're spot on.
The most important position is QB. How many games was our QB better than the opponents?
The GT game was definitely a stinker. It happens to almost every team. Emotions carry teams to both wins and losses. Pitt had no emotion for that game. The defense failed in that game with multiple dropped interceptions, among other things.
The Louisville game happens to every team, but I don't know about the GT game. First ACC game after two non-P5 opponents, lame duck coach just got the axe, them having to come up here in bad weather for a late game... it wasn't like a trap game. We almost had to try to drop 5 interceptions, not be able to catch a pass, fumble multiple times, etc.
As for the season... Yes, Slovis has sucked. But he's not some inherent hand we were dealt and had to play. Narduzzi actively went out and put together the Slovis + Cignetti combination, which couldn't be any less compatible and has, above all else, destroyed this season. So that is the primary source of my disappointment.
I think the people disappointed are probably more so disappointed in what the season means if you’re projecting forward into the future.
If you had the hope that last season was evidence of a rise in the quality of the program. It was going to create recruiting momentum. Pitt would come out this season and be a legit damn good team that competes for the ACC. And that builds even more momentum on the recruiting trail, etc., and all of this results in an elevation of the program. If that was your hope, then the season is maybe kind of a gut punch right.
If your expectations are a little more grounded in terms of where the program is and what it could turn into absent an insane influx of money, you’re probably not as gutted.
If you had the hope that last season was evidence of a rise in the quality of the program. It was going to create recruiting momentum. Pitt would come out this season and be a legit damn good team that competes for the ACC. And that builds even more momentum on the recruiting trail, etc., and all of this results in an elevation of the program. If that was your hope, then the season is maybe kind of a gut punch right.
If your expectations are a little more grounded in terms of where the program is and what it could turn into absent an insane influx of money, you’re probably not as gutted.
Bs. Bs. Bs.
For the 1000th time, yea the receivers have underperformed but the scheme is so awful I put a lot of it on that.
B- or C+. Last year was A-.
The drop off from Pickett/Addison/Whipple to Slovis/Mumpfield/Cignetti was greater than anticipated.
The drop off from Pickett/Addison/Whipple to Slovis/Mumpfield/Cignetti was greater than anticipated.
That’s right. The moment the past season ended a rare, probably never to be be repeated opp presented itself to this program and with the right strategy to bring in a QB and OC integrated for success, it could have been realized. But he actively sought these two, as you say. It wasn’t an accident.
And as I wrote above, I don’t believe he thinks it was wrong in the least, I think he feels redeemed that he is in position to win 8 games with these guys and this scheme. And that it us a viable scheme for the future as well.
That’s the regret. 7-5, 8-4, etc. is not an awful result for us, given our history; just that it had the opportunity to be really special, and now it’s gone, and has been mentioned, with winds of change billowing though College Football, we needed to take the step up. Instead we are back to being among the odd men looking in. There is very little about our program making it appealing for The Next Gen. Or frankly even the Current Gen. Lyke doesn’t care much about this but she will care a bit more when season tickets, donations and such take an inevitable tumble. “We’re putting the Slovis and Cig band back together!”
The biggest problem going forward is pat’s preferred offensive philosophy. Our defense has been excellent for the most part this year, while the offense has been mostly awful. What happens if the defense takes a step back next year? Without that defense we are easily looking at 5-7 or Worse.
And yes, pat gets credit for the great defense, but also needs to own that the conservative offense cost us the GT and Louisville game, maybe UNC, and kept other games like duke, WMU, and Syracuse WAYYYYY too close.
And yes, pat gets credit for the great defense, but also needs to own that the conservative offense cost us the GT and Louisville game, maybe UNC, and kept other games like duke, WMU, and Syracuse WAYYYYY too close.
here in one way to look at it. If we go 8-4, with a WR unit that has one good WR, with no real passing game (We avg under 200 yards passing per game) and a below avg QB, that's kind of impressive in a weird way...
It's not a video game. Pitt didn't keep Duke in the game Saturday by being conservative. They kept Duke in the game because our QB threw the ball to the wrong freaking team.
I think the season was a typical Pitt season. Win a few that are close, blow a couple they proably shouldn't have. That said if you are not at least marginally disappointed then you aren't a diehard fan. I had heard talk heading into this season about how good our lines were going to be on both sides of the ball. Pretty much all upperclassmen who were supposedly beating up on each other in practices, and that one day the d- line had the advantage and the next the O-line. This led me to believe we could dominate up front. The D-line as usual, was solid, but the o-line wasn't always healthy and didn't meet my expectations.
Couple that with a transfer QB who was grossly overvalued, and a coordinator that took us back to the 1970's and you get a typical Pitt season. It could have been better for sure. Win the last 2 and it is a decent year.
I worry more about next year and the future. We didn't get even the smallest recruiting bump from our ACC title and lost our best recruit. I would hope we make a O coordinator change because the Duzz has proven he can recruit players for his defensive system, but, he hasn't shown any ability to bring in some great offensive talent, especially lately. If we keep Cig, it is hard to imagine a solid qb and receivers wanting to come here and play in his obsolete college offense.
Couple that with a transfer QB who was grossly overvalued, and a coordinator that took us back to the 1970's and you get a typical Pitt season. It could have been better for sure. Win the last 2 and it is a decent year.
I worry more about next year and the future. We didn't get even the smallest recruiting bump from our ACC title and lost our best recruit. I would hope we make a O coordinator change because the Duzz has proven he can recruit players for his defensive system, but, he hasn't shown any ability to bring in some great offensive talent, especially lately. If we keep Cig, it is hard to imagine a solid qb and receivers wanting to come here and play in his obsolete college offense.
The scheme that provided our QB all day to throw with WRs running around open?
It's too bad they didn't run the ball 50 times against Duke, because we likely win by 3 scores. But you experts got what you wanted, more passing by a cement footed, turnover machine of a QB who can't find a receiver.
Absolutely, losing a heisman frontrunner, and the Bilitnikoff award winner in the same year and still finishing second in the ACC coastal is very good. Plus, we really beat a top 4 team in Tennessee. Took them to OT despite the refs giving them so many points (SEC refs yet)
GT was a disaster, and the only game I'm still pissed about.
Tennessee isn't a top 4 team. Had Pitt or Alabama had been able to kick a FG, that ragtag outfit has 4 losses.
They were curb-stomped twice. Just absolute brutal beat downs in both their losses.
Vandy is hot this week coming off 2 SEC wins, will be interesting if Tennessee has a letdown following the loss of Hooker.
9-4 would be a good season. It would still be a disappointment but the 2 are not mutually exclusive. The expectations were probably unrealistic. The transfers aren't as good as advertised and last year's luck with injuries caught up to us. If we go 8-4 and have a convincing win against a P5 team in a nice bowl, we'll be ranked.
Then again, 7-6 would be a big momentum killer and a bad season.
Then again, 7-6 would be a big momentum killer and a bad season.
