- First, that loss is devastating because it sets back so much of the progress we made last year in the eyes of both our own casual fans and the media. An overtime loss to Tennessee is completely fine. Losing to a 22.5 point favorite? Not so fine.
- Our fanbase also sucks. Doesn't seem like a coincidence that we always seem to lay an egg in the games when the least amount of people show up. I mean, I seriously do think that plays a small role in it. And players have even said it in the past. And there's always an excuse. Too rainy. Too cold. Now, many of you won't go next week because they lost this week. Whatever. I get it, you want a "return on your investment". This isn't pro sports. Attendance/atmosphere and money matter. We need more of those things not less. Even when things don't go exactly how you want them. And we have such an entitled fanbase. I mean, we shouldn't have lost last night. But I look on the board this morning and see that it's not okay to not be expecting the playoff every year? Some of you really should cheer for different teams.
- I'm also not sure how some of you make it through any adversity in your own personal lives given the way you act on here. I mean everything that happens, it's fire this person, fire that person, bench him. Or my favorite is that we lose a game and then immediately the whole rest of the schedule became losses. Just because Pitt lost yesterday doesn't mean they are going 3-9. Or 5-7. Everything in life isn't black or white.
- Ok, now to actual observations about the game.
- My hot take is that while Cignetti has been part of the problem.... I don't know if he is THE problem as people are making him out to be. I mean, let's say we keep Whipple instead of him, and everything else the same. I feel like our offense might look a lot more like 2019 and 2020 Pitt as opposed to last year. The biggest issue IMO is that Slovis is extremely slow in reading his progressions. Even earlier in the game yesterday, we threw the ball a decent bit. And guys were running intermediate/deep routes. But he just wouldn't pull the trigger. And when he does, it seems to be late/indecisive. Add in that the receivers are mediocre and not game changers, and it's a recipe for disaster. Even the last couple drives where we passed well, he took forever to get the ball out/make a decision. We just had success because they were in prevent so he could hold the ball 4-6 seconds and still throw it downfield. The issue, with his limited ability to read progressions and his limited mobility, is that if we do that all game he ends up getting sacked a bunch and/or killed. See, Tennessee first half.
- Also, I don't like "excuses" either but the injuries really are adding up. Our RBs are depleted. Davis fumbles the game away. C'Bo runs fine but he quite literally doesn't know what he's doing on 50% of the plays. I think that was why he was getting such limited plays before he was thrown in there by necessity. Even on the screen pass he looked like he wasn't quite sure what he was doing... and stayed in really tight. Which probably helped the ref make the call. Even though I don't agree with the call either way.
- The defense has to make one of those interceptions. If they do, we probably win the game.
- Was very disheartening to see GT move the pile like 8 yards on a 2nd & 11 run.
- The absolute dumbest of all dumb posts are all these Addison posts gloating that he got it right. Jordan Addison left because he got a hell of a payday, and wanted to experience a more "glamorous" lifestyle (that he earned, in fairness). If he was at Pitt, he'd be getting force fed the ball. And our passing game as a whole would look better because of the attention he commands. It makes you all look like idiots when you sit here and act like he wouldn't have 10-15 targets a game if he was still here.
- I tend to think Narduzzi is smarter than many of you give him credit for. And I don't think he's as prehistoric as you guys make him out to be. But, my one issue is that while he talks about how every game is the same, blah blah blah. He and the staff definitely approach games differently based on the caliber of the opponent. When we were playing Tennessee, we came out with a desperate game plan because we knew we needed that to stay with them. Last night, we knew GT's offense was bad enough that we could play a vanilla offense and win. Then you get to a point in the game where you're like, sh*t, it's close. And that's where bad things happen. I thought another example of this is defensive rotations. It stuck out to me last year in the WMU game. We were playing and rotating so many guys all game long. Because we thought that was the game to do it. Then it got real in the 4th quarter and anything can happen at that point. At some point, I'd like to see him focus on getting a 21 point lead against these type of opponents. THEN you can run the clock out and get your 3rd/4th string defenders in.
- With all his faults, Narduzzi is still a good football coach. Look around the Coastal. Look at the results since he's been here. Nothing inherently makes us better as a program than VT. Or Louisville. Etc. He's a good fit. Good coach. Not perfect though obviously but the answer isn't firing him after every bad loss.
- Weird stuff also happens around college football. I mean, UGA probably should have lost to Missouri last night. Miami lost to Middle Tennessee St. last week. It's a weird sport. Let the season play out.
- Games like that do highlight the need to land a few higher caliber recruits. Our depth is good and we have a lot of solid players who can be coached up to a good team. But every team is going to have games where they sleep walk, turn it over, etc. That's when you turn to a guy like Addison, Hakeem, Whitehead, Boyd, etc. to make a play and win the game for you. You saw UGA and their 5 star talent do that in the 4th quarter. We could use a little bit of that right now. It's the difference between going 10-2 every year and 8-4 as those types of players swing a few more 50/50 games your way (think Addison vs. UVA last year).
- If you haven't been paying attention, Jeff Capel has been building momentum on the basketball side of things. Got a commitment from a good 4 star guard right before the game yesterday and now has a strong 3 man class heading into the season. And has built an intriguing roster. I've been one of his biggest critics and he HAS to actually win games on the court, but there are actually encouraging things going on over there. Maybe some of you will find your way back to the Pete this year.
- Will be interesting to see where this team goes. While I'm as down as anyone, all our goals are still on the table. But a lot to clean up too. We were never going to be a playoff team. The division (and conference) titles are still out there. We'll find out where this season goes next week. Hopefully we have guys to take charge in the locker room the way Kenny did last year and hopefully the offensive staff takes the week to reflect and find some answers.
- H2P. See you all next week.
- Our fanbase also sucks. Doesn't seem like a coincidence that we always seem to lay an egg in the games when the least amount of people show up. I mean, I seriously do think that plays a small role in it. And players have even said it in the past. And there's always an excuse. Too rainy. Too cold. Now, many of you won't go next week because they lost this week. Whatever. I get it, you want a "return on your investment". This isn't pro sports. Attendance/atmosphere and money matter. We need more of those things not less. Even when things don't go exactly how you want them. And we have such an entitled fanbase. I mean, we shouldn't have lost last night. But I look on the board this morning and see that it's not okay to not be expecting the playoff every year? Some of you really should cheer for different teams.
- I'm also not sure how some of you make it through any adversity in your own personal lives given the way you act on here. I mean everything that happens, it's fire this person, fire that person, bench him. Or my favorite is that we lose a game and then immediately the whole rest of the schedule became losses. Just because Pitt lost yesterday doesn't mean they are going 3-9. Or 5-7. Everything in life isn't black or white.
- Ok, now to actual observations about the game.
- My hot take is that while Cignetti has been part of the problem.... I don't know if he is THE problem as people are making him out to be. I mean, let's say we keep Whipple instead of him, and everything else the same. I feel like our offense might look a lot more like 2019 and 2020 Pitt as opposed to last year. The biggest issue IMO is that Slovis is extremely slow in reading his progressions. Even earlier in the game yesterday, we threw the ball a decent bit. And guys were running intermediate/deep routes. But he just wouldn't pull the trigger. And when he does, it seems to be late/indecisive. Add in that the receivers are mediocre and not game changers, and it's a recipe for disaster. Even the last couple drives where we passed well, he took forever to get the ball out/make a decision. We just had success because they were in prevent so he could hold the ball 4-6 seconds and still throw it downfield. The issue, with his limited ability to read progressions and his limited mobility, is that if we do that all game he ends up getting sacked a bunch and/or killed. See, Tennessee first half.
- Also, I don't like "excuses" either but the injuries really are adding up. Our RBs are depleted. Davis fumbles the game away. C'Bo runs fine but he quite literally doesn't know what he's doing on 50% of the plays. I think that was why he was getting such limited plays before he was thrown in there by necessity. Even on the screen pass he looked like he wasn't quite sure what he was doing... and stayed in really tight. Which probably helped the ref make the call. Even though I don't agree with the call either way.
- The defense has to make one of those interceptions. If they do, we probably win the game.
- Was very disheartening to see GT move the pile like 8 yards on a 2nd & 11 run.
- The absolute dumbest of all dumb posts are all these Addison posts gloating that he got it right. Jordan Addison left because he got a hell of a payday, and wanted to experience a more "glamorous" lifestyle (that he earned, in fairness). If he was at Pitt, he'd be getting force fed the ball. And our passing game as a whole would look better because of the attention he commands. It makes you all look like idiots when you sit here and act like he wouldn't have 10-15 targets a game if he was still here.
- I tend to think Narduzzi is smarter than many of you give him credit for. And I don't think he's as prehistoric as you guys make him out to be. But, my one issue is that while he talks about how every game is the same, blah blah blah. He and the staff definitely approach games differently based on the caliber of the opponent. When we were playing Tennessee, we came out with a desperate game plan because we knew we needed that to stay with them. Last night, we knew GT's offense was bad enough that we could play a vanilla offense and win. Then you get to a point in the game where you're like, sh*t, it's close. And that's where bad things happen. I thought another example of this is defensive rotations. It stuck out to me last year in the WMU game. We were playing and rotating so many guys all game long. Because we thought that was the game to do it. Then it got real in the 4th quarter and anything can happen at that point. At some point, I'd like to see him focus on getting a 21 point lead against these type of opponents. THEN you can run the clock out and get your 3rd/4th string defenders in.
- With all his faults, Narduzzi is still a good football coach. Look around the Coastal. Look at the results since he's been here. Nothing inherently makes us better as a program than VT. Or Louisville. Etc. He's a good fit. Good coach. Not perfect though obviously but the answer isn't firing him after every bad loss.
- Weird stuff also happens around college football. I mean, UGA probably should have lost to Missouri last night. Miami lost to Middle Tennessee St. last week. It's a weird sport. Let the season play out.
- Games like that do highlight the need to land a few higher caliber recruits. Our depth is good and we have a lot of solid players who can be coached up to a good team. But every team is going to have games where they sleep walk, turn it over, etc. That's when you turn to a guy like Addison, Hakeem, Whitehead, Boyd, etc. to make a play and win the game for you. You saw UGA and their 5 star talent do that in the 4th quarter. We could use a little bit of that right now. It's the difference between going 10-2 every year and 8-4 as those types of players swing a few more 50/50 games your way (think Addison vs. UVA last year).
- If you haven't been paying attention, Jeff Capel has been building momentum on the basketball side of things. Got a commitment from a good 4 star guard right before the game yesterday and now has a strong 3 man class heading into the season. And has built an intriguing roster. I've been one of his biggest critics and he HAS to actually win games on the court, but there are actually encouraging things going on over there. Maybe some of you will find your way back to the Pete this year.
- Will be interesting to see where this team goes. While I'm as down as anyone, all our goals are still on the table. But a lot to clean up too. We were never going to be a playoff team. The division (and conference) titles are still out there. We'll find out where this season goes next week. Hopefully we have guys to take charge in the locker room the way Kenny did last year and hopefully the offensive staff takes the week to reflect and find some answers.
- H2P. See you all next week.
