So just got back to my place after a very long day in that heat starting at 9 AM with tailgating. Here are some of my immediate thoughts:
- I swear ALCO parking repainted the spaces in the Gold Lots and made them shorter in width. People are jammed up against each other with tailgating more than I could ever remember. We had beer pong going and barely had room to stand on both sides.
- Champions Club is very well done. I have no regrets moving half my seats there.
- Not the story book type of game you dream of for an opening day of a new coach. Playing an FCS opponent. Not having your top (and one of college's best this year) receivers in Boyd. You lose Conner early. You have multiple turnovers in your own end and give up a pick-6. You allow some huge plays on some play breakdowns.
- Now with that all said, you come out with a win and are 5 games away from bowl eligibility with 11 to play. Conner likely plays in the rest of the game if its a meaningful opponent (though I would say getting a win in game one against anyone is important given what happened with Chryst). You find out as expected with the recruiting success at the position and for some reason Pitt always has a great stable of running backs. You win a game without Boyd and Conner, two of the few talented players on the roster. This team could have "pitted" itself as usual, but came out with a win...even though it was closer than it should have been. The staff played a lot of people today on their depth chart, many of which very early in the game (many of which, I personally disagreed with).
- Since I already mentioned it, our running back stable is pretty awesome. That has always been a spot we simply plug and chug at going back quite a few head coaches. James and Ollison both did well once Conner went down (and then when James when down too). Hall is pretty good to have back there too and already is seeing time as a frosh. Good hands at the spot. I also want to mention...this success at that spot should not be surprising. Why? Because we have a lot of players at that spot with pretty good offer sheets and some of our higher rated players at that positions. Recruiting matters!
- The offensive line has some learning and improvement to do on both the left and right sides. I think part of it is a continuity thing as well, as well as the right side really gaining its first experience of playing someone in a game that isnt wearing a Pitt jersey. They were not bad today...a bad day certainly doesnt end when you rush for 300+ yards as a team with your top two running backs going down.
- I did not like seeing Peterman come in after we had just scored on the series before. And then he stayed in the next series too when that pick occurred. Voytik and this team need to get in a rhythm early in the season. Reading how receivers react and run routes differently. I really dislike the "QB by committee" approach they went with today. Stick with Voytik. Play Peterman later if garbage minutes or if Voytik gets hurt.
- Ollison....well, what can you say. That guy came in two RBs down and well, exploded on the scene with 207 yards on 16 carries. As a team, we rushed for 325 against them today. Kid earned more carries to spell Conner.
- Receivers....well, this is what you get when you dont recruit the position well. This is a position I would not be surprised if they try to add another high talent to this class in addition to Flowers. We were without our #1 in Boyd and as I said in the preseason, we dont have a real #2 (or future #1) talent receiver on this roster. We have a bunch of #3/#4 types, but not those #1/#2s.
- I know the offense was really vanilla today, but Voytik needs to do better. 9/14 is not bad, but that pick was bad. He missed on a sure TD to Orndorff with an overthrow where the offensive play called completely fooled YSU coverage. Needs to improve and hopefully does as the playcalling opens up more, though we saw that base offensive scheme today. Very much relying on the running backs to carry the load and I look for play action to become deadly in future weeks. Also look for Orndorff to really figure in to the passing game this year.
- Punt team. Two delay of games. A false start. And Winslow, you simply have to get better. For a scholarship punter, you should not be averaging 36.5 yards when you are punting from your end of the field most of the time.
- Blewitt...you have to get better as well. Missed a makeable FG. You had a very ugly PAT that snuck in and almost didnt even make it over the crossbar....ON A PAT!!!
- Special teams....get your s#1t together. Its great that we had a return for a TD that turned to be a pivotal score....but it came on a kickoff where two of our guys ran into each other and the ball is live on the ground.
- Now to the defense. Well, lets start out positive. We had 6 sacks today and showed we are going to be aggressive and stunt a ton out of our base package. This is an instant improvement considering we had 19 total last year. We look exponentially more sound as a tackler and some of our pursuit angles.
- Now to the negative...we simply are not the talented on defense. Are we improved? I think the players get the scheme, but they are still learning it. That attributed for some of those big plays. But it ultimately comes back to talent, and we need a lot of it. Hopefully Narduzzi and Conklin preach that to Hamlin, Hudson, and all the other defensive players that are in the upper tier. You will play if you can show you can pass over the people ahead of you, which shouldnt be too big of a problem considering the level of raw talent on that side of the ball.
- Now back to good, a lot of the problems today that were not talent related can be cleaned up to prevent a lot of those big plays. Stop those big plays, and this game is much much more comfortable win.
- Fans.....you suck. Simply. That goes for everyone and includes the students. Yes, I know it was terribly hot. I look like a lobster right now from sitting out in it the entire time...but I was there the entire time. I even left tailgating early to get there 20 mins prior to kickoff. Yes, a lot of people showed up on the home side, but overall we are probably talking a 35k-40k type of attendance? A ton of people left early (looking at you students). I know Pitt is a bandwagon team. Completely understand the last five years we have royally sucked including losing to the same FCS team we played today and Akron last year. But you have to give this staff a chance and support this team with butts in the seats.
- And I am super enjoying this Temple/PSU game. Go Owls! If I'm Narduzzi, I'm making calls tonight to some PSU recruits with Pitt offers and say "are they headed in the right direction...they just lost to Temple for the love of God". Time to flip that script that they have used against us with Akron and YSU losses of years past under Chryst.
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