Thankfully, this dreadful season is over. While 99.99% of the country was watching Michigan-Ohio St. I was watching a meaningless Pitt Duke game and flipping to the other game during commercial breaks. Here comes the final musings of the year:
1. Obviously we need to start with Yarnell. It’s obvious to everyone watching with a modicum of football sense that Yarnell has looked the best. He is patient in the pocket, makes the right reads and throws and never seems to be overhelmed by the moment. Now does he show this in practice? Who knows but clearly he is the best qb in the room. No he doesn’t have the best arm. No he’s not the most athletic, but man he’s clearly the best qb. So you have to really question how we got here and why it took so long.
2. Down 14, you score a TD and you go for 2? I realize math is a lost art but geez come on. Kick the extra point and move on. These coaches just overthink everything or read some chart that some geek put together. This inability to assess what needs to be done and the reliance on analytics is killing me.
3. Lost in the discussion of how woeful the offense has been all year long, is the fact that the D has been beaten by some of the worst qb’s I can remember. I mean it’s a whose who of irrelevance. No pass rush, no run defense. The front 7 has been pretty much abysmal all year long, which has put a tremendous amount of stress on the secondary. Speaking of secondary, I firmly believe Marquis Williams will be in the NFL. Yes he commits penalties but he is the best cover corner since Mathis was on Pitt. We had Duke in a lot of 3rd and longs yesterday and our former bread butter Delta package was painfully ineffective at creating havoc in the pocket.
4. What a gutsy win by Florida State. I know Florida is not very good but down 12-0 early on the road to a rival and to come back like that says something about that team.
5. 4th and goal from the 40 and Auburn rushes 2 guys? I mean you can’t be serious with that. I realize the qb made a great throw but rush 4 or 5 force him to throw the ball and play zone and come up and tackle. What are you doing Auburn?
6. There’s no worse feeling in golf than shanking a ball. Happens to all golfers good or bad. I’ve had my share and I’m a good golfer but I’m not sure I’ve seen more shanked punts this year than from our punter. Clutch shanks too. Yeesh. A 15 yard shank.
7. So let’s face it, this team was inept. The OL never recovered from early injuries, the backs were mismanaged, Gavin B was not utilized properly but at least the WR’s were not awful. Bub Means had a good year and I thought when called upon Konata was solid. Reynolds caught everything and Kenny Johnson showed flashes of big play ability. Question becomes who stays when OCFC is let go and a new OC is hired.
8. I’m worried about Narduzzi making the hire to be perfectly frank. He went from an explosive dynamic offense with Pickett and Addison to a conservative, 90’s pro style offense that doesn’t cater to todays game. You went from scoring 41pts a game to barely 20 pts. That’s hard to do but we did it. And that offense won you 11 games and an ACC champtionship and was probably a stupid loss to WMU from being in the CFP. Narduzzi CANNOT get a younger version of Cignetti as his new OC. It will be the beginning of the end for him.
9. I’ve seen some really bad Pitt years and eras. The Paul Hackett era where we could score 40 pts but give up 50 pts. The second Majors era where we tried to re-capture something that once was, the firing of Mike Gottfried who had loaded up the team with talent (whether he cheated or not is subject to debate), the miserable Todd Graham era, the head scratching firing of Dave W.. So we have had our share of bad Pitt football, this one hurts because I thought we had established ourselves as a “program”. Did not think a 3 win season was possible but here we are.
10. I think this off season and next year are huge for Narduzzi. He really needs to self assess and look at where the program is and he has to also get out of his comfort zone and maybe make some hires and fires that aren’t in his DNA. We’ll see. I am definitely not sure he’s up to the task but you never know. At least the nightmare is over and we can concentrate on some good things like Pitt Basketball, the women’s volleyball team.
Enjoy the offseason see you all next season.
Pitt82
1. Obviously we need to start with Yarnell. It’s obvious to everyone watching with a modicum of football sense that Yarnell has looked the best. He is patient in the pocket, makes the right reads and throws and never seems to be overhelmed by the moment. Now does he show this in practice? Who knows but clearly he is the best qb in the room. No he doesn’t have the best arm. No he’s not the most athletic, but man he’s clearly the best qb. So you have to really question how we got here and why it took so long.
2. Down 14, you score a TD and you go for 2? I realize math is a lost art but geez come on. Kick the extra point and move on. These coaches just overthink everything or read some chart that some geek put together. This inability to assess what needs to be done and the reliance on analytics is killing me.
3. Lost in the discussion of how woeful the offense has been all year long, is the fact that the D has been beaten by some of the worst qb’s I can remember. I mean it’s a whose who of irrelevance. No pass rush, no run defense. The front 7 has been pretty much abysmal all year long, which has put a tremendous amount of stress on the secondary. Speaking of secondary, I firmly believe Marquis Williams will be in the NFL. Yes he commits penalties but he is the best cover corner since Mathis was on Pitt. We had Duke in a lot of 3rd and longs yesterday and our former bread butter Delta package was painfully ineffective at creating havoc in the pocket.
4. What a gutsy win by Florida State. I know Florida is not very good but down 12-0 early on the road to a rival and to come back like that says something about that team.
5. 4th and goal from the 40 and Auburn rushes 2 guys? I mean you can’t be serious with that. I realize the qb made a great throw but rush 4 or 5 force him to throw the ball and play zone and come up and tackle. What are you doing Auburn?
6. There’s no worse feeling in golf than shanking a ball. Happens to all golfers good or bad. I’ve had my share and I’m a good golfer but I’m not sure I’ve seen more shanked punts this year than from our punter. Clutch shanks too. Yeesh. A 15 yard shank.
7. So let’s face it, this team was inept. The OL never recovered from early injuries, the backs were mismanaged, Gavin B was not utilized properly but at least the WR’s were not awful. Bub Means had a good year and I thought when called upon Konata was solid. Reynolds caught everything and Kenny Johnson showed flashes of big play ability. Question becomes who stays when OCFC is let go and a new OC is hired.
8. I’m worried about Narduzzi making the hire to be perfectly frank. He went from an explosive dynamic offense with Pickett and Addison to a conservative, 90’s pro style offense that doesn’t cater to todays game. You went from scoring 41pts a game to barely 20 pts. That’s hard to do but we did it. And that offense won you 11 games and an ACC champtionship and was probably a stupid loss to WMU from being in the CFP. Narduzzi CANNOT get a younger version of Cignetti as his new OC. It will be the beginning of the end for him.
9. I’ve seen some really bad Pitt years and eras. The Paul Hackett era where we could score 40 pts but give up 50 pts. The second Majors era where we tried to re-capture something that once was, the firing of Mike Gottfried who had loaded up the team with talent (whether he cheated or not is subject to debate), the miserable Todd Graham era, the head scratching firing of Dave W.. So we have had our share of bad Pitt football, this one hurts because I thought we had established ourselves as a “program”. Did not think a 3 win season was possible but here we are.
10. I think this off season and next year are huge for Narduzzi. He really needs to self assess and look at where the program is and he has to also get out of his comfort zone and maybe make some hires and fires that aren’t in his DNA. We’ll see. I am definitely not sure he’s up to the task but you never know. At least the nightmare is over and we can concentrate on some good things like Pitt Basketball, the women’s volleyball team.
Enjoy the offseason see you all next season.
Pitt82
