From the desk of Jim Snyder
Reflections on Navy
The Pitt football team has now lost four games in a row since beating Grambling which is a 1AA program. Pitt is now 2-4 after completing the soft underbelly portion of the schedule. Unfortunately the tough half of the schedule is still in front of this young Panther team.
The Pitt defense saw Navy roll up 497 yards in offense. The Panthers were only able to force Navy to punt once all night. Coach Wannstedt had lost total confidence in the defense’s ability to stop Navy and went for the win at the end. It is hard to fault that decision but easy to second guess the last two plays. Pitt is much bigger than Navy. I personally would have run fullback Conredge Collins (6’ 0” 230) twice. I am sure others would have run McCoy. It is easy to second guess plays that do not work but with the way they were playing on defense it was best to try and win it with your offense.
Another area that has plagued Pitt all year long is kickoff coverage and it hurt them again against Navy. Pitt came into the game ranked dead last the Big East in kickoff coverage. They kicked it out of bounds twice against Navy and they gave up two long kickoff returns. When you are having trouble stopping a team giving them field position is a killer.
Congratulations to Conor Lee for breaking Carson Long’s record for consecutive extra points. There has to be some irony in passing up an automatic field goal to go for the win in the second overtime.
Pitt has given up 126 points in the last three games to Connecticut, Virginia and Navy for an average of 42 points per game. These three are not known to be offensive juggernauts.
This week Rivals.com released a mid-season All-American team and their freshman All-American team. Pitt had no players on the All-American team but true freshman running back LeSean McCoy and redshirt freshman defensive end Greg Romeus both made the freshman All-America team. They are but a few of the bright spots in Pitt’s future.
In case you missed it they announced earlier this week that Pitt’s game with Cincinnati will be played at Noon. It will be the Big East Game of the Week and will be carried locally by WTAE-TV. I would expect this game will also be available on the ESPN Game Plan package. Cincinnati is now 6-0. They are favored to beat Louisville this weekend by 10 ½ points so the Bearcats could come to Heinz Field 7-0. With the current collapse going on the Southside they figure to take the River City Trophy back to the Queen City next week.
As we head in to the conference portion of the schedule keep in mind that Pitt has now lost 6 conferences games in a row.
The high watermark for season ticket sales at Heinz Field was approximately 43,000. It has dropped to something in the 28,000 to 29,000 range. It is the driver that will eventually result in the football program be reevaluated.
As far as I can tell Pitt has not yet started to interview for the athletic director’s position and without an athletic director on board Pitt fans are adrift on a rudderless ship.
The first BCS standings will be announced Sunday at 4:15 pm.
In case you missed them we had a photo gallery last night on the Pitt-Navy football game.
Records set
In September Yahoo! Sports was for the second month in a row the most heavily trafficked sports site on the Internet ahead of ESPN which is in second place and light years ahead of Fox which is third.
This week Yahoo! opened up additional links to the Rivals network (after time had been spent upgrading the servers to handle the increased load). Traffic on the Rivals network this past Tuesday peaked at a level comparable to Letter of Intent Day in February which historically the busiest day of the year.
After Pitt’s loss to Navy Wednesday night we had 1,036 fans on the Pantherlair free football message board at 12:30 AM. It was a record for that single board but it was not a record for the site. The site record for the Pantherlair (on all message boards combined) was set on March 11, 2007 which is the day the NCAA basketball pairings are announced. It suggests that at least for the time being Pitt is a basketball school.
Terms of service
I wanted to give everyone a heads-up on something coming next week. Beginning next Tuesday (October 15th), you will come to Rivals.com and be asked to consent to a new Terms of Service agreement (this is part of the Yahoo! transition). This will only happen once per user and take you very little time if you know your login and password.
You'll review the information, enter in your nickname, enter in your password and then agree to the new terms.
I will post separately on all of the message board later today with detailed instructions.
Some hoops talk
Pitt will host their annual basketball media day today (Friday) so for those of you who are starved for some basketball coverage we should have articles for you soon. The Pitt’s men team is ranked No. 23 in the country by Rivals.com and the Pitt’s women’s team has also been ranked in the Top 25 by several publications.
Pitt will hold their annual basketball Fan Fest on Sunday October 21st from 1:00 pm until 4:15 pm. The women’s team is scheduled to scrimmage at 2:15 pm and the men’s team at 3:35 pm.
In addition the Big East Men’s Basketball Media Day is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 24 at Madison Square Garden.
As a reminder Pitt is selling tickets to the game with Duke at Madison Square Garden. Today is the deadline for Panther Club members. Monday they will go on sale to season ticket holders and members of the Alumni Association if available. Duke is the home team for this event so they were given more tickets than Pitt.
Over the years I have commiserated with one of my relatives after football loses. We had a standing joke which asked, “When does basketball start?” The good news is basketball practice starts today.
Recruiting roundup
Pitt had an off week this past weekend and the coach staff was on the road attending high school football games. You are only allowed to do this once during the football season so they picked the off week. In many cases they were simply out attending games of players that have already committed.
We reported earlier this week that Dave Wannstedt was in attendance at West Scranton’s game which featured tight end Hubie Graham and junior lineman Eric Shrive. Aubrey Hill was in Washington, DC to attend Dunbar’s game so he could watch Reggie Ellis.
We had a report this week on four-star lineman Reggie Ellis. He will visit Pitt in early November when the Panthers play Syracuse. We think Illinois is the clear leader but if you get a visit you are still in the hunt.
We also reported that four-star wide receiver Marcus Sales from CBA in Syracuse will make an official visit to Pitt next week for the Cincinnati game.
We had two reports on the Ticker that New Jersey linebacker Dwayne Beckford from Irvington, New Jersey indicating he had an offer from Pitt. We also had a video interview of Beckford in the All the Way to Friday series. There are two linebackers from the same high school (Irvington) that claim offers from Pitt. Our sources say Pitt is recruiting these two (Dwayne Beckford and Dawan Nolton) but neither has a written offer at this time. It looks that Aubrey Hill may have oversold the situation.
This week we have featured video of three quarterbacks that Pitt has been recruiting. If you missed them we had video Travis Kelce from Cleveland Heights and A.J. McKenna from Lackawanna Junior College. We also had senior video of Zack Stoudt from Dublin Coffman in Ohio. You might recall that Stoudt was injured much of his junior year so this is video he has sent to a number of colleges. We also had an article on the Ticker this week on Josh Vick from Kiski Area.
We also had senior video of Dublin Coffman linebacker Steve Gardiner. You can check the Ticker or his profile in the database to watch it.
We also had Ticker articles on TE Hubie Graham’s visit to UCLA and Altoona’s A.J. Alexander who is in the process of setting up visits.
Rivals.com updated their Top 100 and Top 250 list this week. A wide receiver out of Miami Northeastern by the name of James Streeter jumped on to the Top 250 list. Pitt has been recruiting him. We think he may have a verbal offer but nothing in writing at this point.
Rivals.com’s All the Way to Friday crew was at the Thomas Jefferson-Trinity game last night so we will receive highlights. Tony Greco of the Pantherlair was also there and has a report this morning.
Next week the All the Way to Friday crew will be back in Western Pennsylvania. They will either do Montour’s game with Hopewell or Aliquippa’s game with Center.
Pick’em contest standings
Here are the standings in the Pantherlair’s Pick’em contest league after six weeks:
1) Fitzgerald#1
2) Praaron
3) Bkm67
4) UP#1
5) Dukebbal3581
6) St. College Panther
7) MtLebo Panther
8) TiredRam97
9) UPJ81
10) Pitfrenzy
Please make sure you have entered your selections for this week’s games.
Due to time restrictions resulting from travel there will be no War Room article next weekend.
The War Room is targeted towards our premium customers. We ask that all information reported in the War Room MUST stay right here! That’s the way this deal works. When this information is repeated outside of the Between Fifth and Forbes forum it only cheapens the price of yours and every other die-hard who have purchased premium services. The War Room is one of our more popular features...thank you all for keeping the information on this board.
Reflections on Navy
The Pitt football team has now lost four games in a row since beating Grambling which is a 1AA program. Pitt is now 2-4 after completing the soft underbelly portion of the schedule. Unfortunately the tough half of the schedule is still in front of this young Panther team.
The Pitt defense saw Navy roll up 497 yards in offense. The Panthers were only able to force Navy to punt once all night. Coach Wannstedt had lost total confidence in the defense’s ability to stop Navy and went for the win at the end. It is hard to fault that decision but easy to second guess the last two plays. Pitt is much bigger than Navy. I personally would have run fullback Conredge Collins (6’ 0” 230) twice. I am sure others would have run McCoy. It is easy to second guess plays that do not work but with the way they were playing on defense it was best to try and win it with your offense.
Another area that has plagued Pitt all year long is kickoff coverage and it hurt them again against Navy. Pitt came into the game ranked dead last the Big East in kickoff coverage. They kicked it out of bounds twice against Navy and they gave up two long kickoff returns. When you are having trouble stopping a team giving them field position is a killer.
Congratulations to Conor Lee for breaking Carson Long’s record for consecutive extra points. There has to be some irony in passing up an automatic field goal to go for the win in the second overtime.
Pitt has given up 126 points in the last three games to Connecticut, Virginia and Navy for an average of 42 points per game. These three are not known to be offensive juggernauts.
This week Rivals.com released a mid-season All-American team and their freshman All-American team. Pitt had no players on the All-American team but true freshman running back LeSean McCoy and redshirt freshman defensive end Greg Romeus both made the freshman All-America team. They are but a few of the bright spots in Pitt’s future.
In case you missed it they announced earlier this week that Pitt’s game with Cincinnati will be played at Noon. It will be the Big East Game of the Week and will be carried locally by WTAE-TV. I would expect this game will also be available on the ESPN Game Plan package. Cincinnati is now 6-0. They are favored to beat Louisville this weekend by 10 ½ points so the Bearcats could come to Heinz Field 7-0. With the current collapse going on the Southside they figure to take the River City Trophy back to the Queen City next week.
As we head in to the conference portion of the schedule keep in mind that Pitt has now lost 6 conferences games in a row.
The high watermark for season ticket sales at Heinz Field was approximately 43,000. It has dropped to something in the 28,000 to 29,000 range. It is the driver that will eventually result in the football program be reevaluated.
As far as I can tell Pitt has not yet started to interview for the athletic director’s position and without an athletic director on board Pitt fans are adrift on a rudderless ship.
The first BCS standings will be announced Sunday at 4:15 pm.
In case you missed them we had a photo gallery last night on the Pitt-Navy football game.
Records set
In September Yahoo! Sports was for the second month in a row the most heavily trafficked sports site on the Internet ahead of ESPN which is in second place and light years ahead of Fox which is third.
This week Yahoo! opened up additional links to the Rivals network (after time had been spent upgrading the servers to handle the increased load). Traffic on the Rivals network this past Tuesday peaked at a level comparable to Letter of Intent Day in February which historically the busiest day of the year.
After Pitt’s loss to Navy Wednesday night we had 1,036 fans on the Pantherlair free football message board at 12:30 AM. It was a record for that single board but it was not a record for the site. The site record for the Pantherlair (on all message boards combined) was set on March 11, 2007 which is the day the NCAA basketball pairings are announced. It suggests that at least for the time being Pitt is a basketball school.
Terms of service
I wanted to give everyone a heads-up on something coming next week. Beginning next Tuesday (October 15th), you will come to Rivals.com and be asked to consent to a new Terms of Service agreement (this is part of the Yahoo! transition). This will only happen once per user and take you very little time if you know your login and password.
You'll review the information, enter in your nickname, enter in your password and then agree to the new terms.
I will post separately on all of the message board later today with detailed instructions.
Some hoops talk
Pitt will host their annual basketball media day today (Friday) so for those of you who are starved for some basketball coverage we should have articles for you soon. The Pitt’s men team is ranked No. 23 in the country by Rivals.com and the Pitt’s women’s team has also been ranked in the Top 25 by several publications.
Pitt will hold their annual basketball Fan Fest on Sunday October 21st from 1:00 pm until 4:15 pm. The women’s team is scheduled to scrimmage at 2:15 pm and the men’s team at 3:35 pm.
In addition the Big East Men’s Basketball Media Day is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 24 at Madison Square Garden.
As a reminder Pitt is selling tickets to the game with Duke at Madison Square Garden. Today is the deadline for Panther Club members. Monday they will go on sale to season ticket holders and members of the Alumni Association if available. Duke is the home team for this event so they were given more tickets than Pitt.
Over the years I have commiserated with one of my relatives after football loses. We had a standing joke which asked, “When does basketball start?” The good news is basketball practice starts today.
Recruiting roundup
Pitt had an off week this past weekend and the coach staff was on the road attending high school football games. You are only allowed to do this once during the football season so they picked the off week. In many cases they were simply out attending games of players that have already committed.
We reported earlier this week that Dave Wannstedt was in attendance at West Scranton’s game which featured tight end Hubie Graham and junior lineman Eric Shrive. Aubrey Hill was in Washington, DC to attend Dunbar’s game so he could watch Reggie Ellis.
We had a report this week on four-star lineman Reggie Ellis. He will visit Pitt in early November when the Panthers play Syracuse. We think Illinois is the clear leader but if you get a visit you are still in the hunt.
We also reported that four-star wide receiver Marcus Sales from CBA in Syracuse will make an official visit to Pitt next week for the Cincinnati game.
We had two reports on the Ticker that New Jersey linebacker Dwayne Beckford from Irvington, New Jersey indicating he had an offer from Pitt. We also had a video interview of Beckford in the All the Way to Friday series. There are two linebackers from the same high school (Irvington) that claim offers from Pitt. Our sources say Pitt is recruiting these two (Dwayne Beckford and Dawan Nolton) but neither has a written offer at this time. It looks that Aubrey Hill may have oversold the situation.
This week we have featured video of three quarterbacks that Pitt has been recruiting. If you missed them we had video Travis Kelce from Cleveland Heights and A.J. McKenna from Lackawanna Junior College. We also had senior video of Zack Stoudt from Dublin Coffman in Ohio. You might recall that Stoudt was injured much of his junior year so this is video he has sent to a number of colleges. We also had an article on the Ticker this week on Josh Vick from Kiski Area.
We also had senior video of Dublin Coffman linebacker Steve Gardiner. You can check the Ticker or his profile in the database to watch it.
We also had Ticker articles on TE Hubie Graham’s visit to UCLA and Altoona’s A.J. Alexander who is in the process of setting up visits.
Rivals.com updated their Top 100 and Top 250 list this week. A wide receiver out of Miami Northeastern by the name of James Streeter jumped on to the Top 250 list. Pitt has been recruiting him. We think he may have a verbal offer but nothing in writing at this point.
Rivals.com’s All the Way to Friday crew was at the Thomas Jefferson-Trinity game last night so we will receive highlights. Tony Greco of the Pantherlair was also there and has a report this morning.
Next week the All the Way to Friday crew will be back in Western Pennsylvania. They will either do Montour’s game with Hopewell or Aliquippa’s game with Center.
Pick’em contest standings
Here are the standings in the Pantherlair’s Pick’em contest league after six weeks:
1) Fitzgerald#1
2) Praaron
3) Bkm67
4) UP#1
5) Dukebbal3581
6) St. College Panther
7) MtLebo Panther
8) TiredRam97
9) UPJ81
10) Pitfrenzy
Please make sure you have entered your selections for this week’s games.
Due to time restrictions resulting from travel there will be no War Room article next weekend.
The War Room is targeted towards our premium customers. We ask that all information reported in the War Room MUST stay right here! That’s the way this deal works. When this information is repeated outside of the Between Fifth and Forbes forum it only cheapens the price of yours and every other die-hard who have purchased premium services. The War Room is one of our more popular features...thank you all for keeping the information on this board.
