Its about time to look back and see whether expectations were met. Yes, a bowl game is still to come, but I think we can pretty much evaluate the year now. The low tier bowl games never say much anyway.
I hate just evaluating the year on wins and losses, because there are too many variable at play, but lets start there.
- Going into this season we mostly expected 6 to 7 wins in the regular season. 5 was low and 8 was high. Pretty much no one other than the kool aid drinkers had us at 9 or above.
- We all expected a brutal schedule. The non-con schedule was brutal, but the conference schedule ended up being pretty easy. Much easier than anyone anticipated. Due to that I think our schedule was maybe a 6-8 on difficulty on a 10 point scale. Going into the season we expected 9-10.
The defense was expected to be really tough this year. I think our expectations were really high for them, and they didnt meet the expectation, but they got better. The defense that started the year was bad, and the defense that ended the year was probably a 6-8. I would grade the defense as a B-
The offense was expected to be in the 5-7 range. A lot of us were pretty high on Kenny Pickett. A lot of people even discussed his potential to win awards. That didnt come to fruition. The offense did well against lesser opponents and struggled against quality opponents. I think this is a tough one to gauge, because they were really good in some games and really bad in others. I would rate them a 3-5. In my opinion they didnt meet expectations. I would grade the offense as a C-
The overall team met expectations win wise which to me means that is is a B level performance based purely on wins. However, you have to factor in that the schedule wasnt as tough as we thought it would be which knocks them down to C+ overall. I do think that you have to give them some credit for winning the games they needed to to win the atlantic coastal though. (even though it was an easy conference) That likely brings this year back up to a B-.
Overall, this year had its ups and downs. We need to be able to challenge better teams. The defense seems to be trending in the right direction, and the offense is not. I am in the camp that wants to fire Shawn Watson. I dont think he is helping us win games. He can do okay when we out talent a competitor, but he sucks when he is outmatched. Pitt isnt going to out recruit a lot of schools, so to have a guy like Shawn Watson is a waste. I dont think there are a lot of coordinators that make us worse than what we saw from Shawn Watson. I also think a lot of coordinators would step in and get better results from year one. Pitt finished the year ranked 79th in total offense. However, Watson got lost against better programs. Our passing offense finished 120th out of 129. There arent 119 teams with a qb better than Kenny Pickett.
I actually think that even losing the offensive line next year that a decent offensive coordinator could spring this team to having an offense in the top 60 next year. I do think the talent is there... The line will not be as good, but the line had struggles, because the offensive coordinator was outmatched and out game planned.
Overall, this was an okay year. Nothing more and nothing less. Narduzzi isnt on the hot seat right now, but he isnt going to get any job offers coming his way either.
I hate just evaluating the year on wins and losses, because there are too many variable at play, but lets start there.
- Going into this season we mostly expected 6 to 7 wins in the regular season. 5 was low and 8 was high. Pretty much no one other than the kool aid drinkers had us at 9 or above.
- We all expected a brutal schedule. The non-con schedule was brutal, but the conference schedule ended up being pretty easy. Much easier than anyone anticipated. Due to that I think our schedule was maybe a 6-8 on difficulty on a 10 point scale. Going into the season we expected 9-10.
The defense was expected to be really tough this year. I think our expectations were really high for them, and they didnt meet the expectation, but they got better. The defense that started the year was bad, and the defense that ended the year was probably a 6-8. I would grade the defense as a B-
The offense was expected to be in the 5-7 range. A lot of us were pretty high on Kenny Pickett. A lot of people even discussed his potential to win awards. That didnt come to fruition. The offense did well against lesser opponents and struggled against quality opponents. I think this is a tough one to gauge, because they were really good in some games and really bad in others. I would rate them a 3-5. In my opinion they didnt meet expectations. I would grade the offense as a C-
The overall team met expectations win wise which to me means that is is a B level performance based purely on wins. However, you have to factor in that the schedule wasnt as tough as we thought it would be which knocks them down to C+ overall. I do think that you have to give them some credit for winning the games they needed to to win the atlantic coastal though. (even though it was an easy conference) That likely brings this year back up to a B-.
Overall, this year had its ups and downs. We need to be able to challenge better teams. The defense seems to be trending in the right direction, and the offense is not. I am in the camp that wants to fire Shawn Watson. I dont think he is helping us win games. He can do okay when we out talent a competitor, but he sucks when he is outmatched. Pitt isnt going to out recruit a lot of schools, so to have a guy like Shawn Watson is a waste. I dont think there are a lot of coordinators that make us worse than what we saw from Shawn Watson. I also think a lot of coordinators would step in and get better results from year one. Pitt finished the year ranked 79th in total offense. However, Watson got lost against better programs. Our passing offense finished 120th out of 129. There arent 119 teams with a qb better than Kenny Pickett.
I actually think that even losing the offensive line next year that a decent offensive coordinator could spring this team to having an offense in the top 60 next year. I do think the talent is there... The line will not be as good, but the line had struggles, because the offensive coordinator was outmatched and out game planned.
Overall, this was an okay year. Nothing more and nothing less. Narduzzi isnt on the hot seat right now, but he isnt going to get any job offers coming his way either.
