Pitt took out Syracuse with the help of 6 turnovers and a quick start for a 33-20 victory. This allows Pitt to send off their seniors with a bowl game and gives them 15 additional practices, which should help them get more acclimated to the new systems. They will be slated for either the BBVA Bowl or the Beef of Brady Bowl…so it is either St. Petersburg or Birmingham for the Panthers. No word on whether the DotcomDGHIwhateverwhocares Bowl is still in play for Pitt or not. All jokes aside, this why I like Bowl games no matter where and who Pitt plays: Todd Thomas. I want to see how much he improves with a couple of more weeks. Did you notice no defensive timeouts were used yesterday?? He may not have showed up on the stat sheet that much, but you notice him! You notice how fast he closes on a blitz…you notice how fast he gets to a ball carrier, and you just notice him. He looks like a guy who could play in the SEC. He is going to be a good one, so enjoy it.
On to a little recap to the game: Pitt came out quick and had a nice little throw back to Isaac Bennett for a TD and that is something I would like to see more of…WAAAAAY to many throws straight out to the flat to RBs yesterday…Bennett had 7 catches and Corey Davis had 4 others. I liked the first route to Bennett much more than the quick throws to the flat…as Syracuse (and other defenses will too) caught on to that. Don’t believe me? Syracuse almost got a fat guy touchdown out of sniffing out one of those passes.
Bennett also ran for 51 yards and as noted in this blog, Anthony Gonzalez did a solid job of running the wildcat with 36 yards and a touchdown. Devin Street continued to improve with 5 more catches, despite not practicing all week. By the way….THEY FINALL CONNECTED ON A DEEP BALL!!!!!!!!!! Tino took some sacks, and as always came up with another, “WHAT ARE YOU THINKING” moments when he simply jogged out of bounds 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage instead of just throwing it away. He also did complete 25 of 34 for 259 yard and as stated before, HE COMPLETED A DEEP BALL!!!
Pitt once again settled for field goals instead of closing out the game with touchdowns. This was a frustrating part of the game and Pitt had a great chance to really put the game away. Two rushes put them at 3rd and 1 and around midfield. Syracuse had just used their first time out and with about 3 minutes to play, they….tried to pass the ball????????? What was that?? It stopped the clock and also did not put the game in the hands of the best option with the game on the line…no offense, but Tino is not their best option there. You could run the ball, and the worse case is that you don’t get…Syracuse calls their second time out…and you pin a team that just used 10 minutes to go the length of the field to do so with one timeout and 3 minutes to play.
Fortunately, the defense stepped up with their 5th turnover of the game (the 6th came on the series after that…and I would like to formally thank this guyfor having sex 20 some years ago). Brandon Lindsey pulled off a great sack popping the ball in the air and plucked by Antwuan Reed for a TD! I originally thought it was a pick 6, but it was ruled a fumble. Great hustle by Lindsey on the play…awesome effort there.
So there you have it..Pitt gets to a Bowl game and Syracuse goes home. I for one can’t wait and I don’t know if that is sad or just crazy, but I really can’t wait to watch Pitt in their Bowl game.
Before moving on…we may have some bad news about the coaching staff, as reported by Paul Zeise this morning:
*** One thing that seems certain - as I wrote about the other day - the three former Michigan assistants - Calvin Magee, Tony Gibson and Tony Dews - all seem to be headed to Arizona to join Rich Rodriguez's staff. Several sources have now said it to me - as in more than three - so I am now fairly comfortable in saying that they are indeed headed out the door.
It isn't a surprise - there is some saying about "blood being thicker than water" and the bottom line is those three are Rich Rodriguez's guys and have been for a long time. Also, Magee would like to call his own plays and run his own offense again and Dews would like to be a receivers coach (he now coaches tight ends) so this will give them both the opportunity, presumably, to do these things again.
As always, there could be a last minute change of heart but it doesn't sound like it and it sounds like we will hear something formal about it in the next few days.
Now this sucks and I don’t want to see them go and hopefully no recruits will follow them should this happen...however, if they leave, Todd Graham has an opportunity to go get some other coaches that will show where Pitt will focus their recruiting in the future. That is VERY exciting as they have the chance to possibly get someone that is very good at recruiting Florida and maybe the DC area (or as I call them...ACC country).
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