We all imagine it and hope it does not happen to us. We laugh at someone else (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRf4CSHlNNw ) when it happens to them. You feel it in the pit of your stomach every time your team is favored by a large margin. It happens in all sports, but this one happens to be college football. If you are an FBS team, you do NOT want to lose (or even come close to losing) to an FCS team.
This Saturday, the Pitt Panthers face exactly that. The University of Maine Black Bears invade Heinz Field at 1PM. They will try and do what Richmond did to Duke this past weekend, what James Madison did to Virginia Tech last year, what Appalachian State did to Michigan a few years ago, and in 1993 when Arkansas went down to The Citadel. It is important for Pitt to get off to a good start and not let them hang around.
The Black Bears are not a team that should be able to give Pitt any problems on Saturday. They finished 4-7 last year and are picked to finish in the bottom half of the CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) again this year. In their defense, they do play in the same league as perennial powers Villanova and Delaware.
Maine is now 1-0 this year and are led by 19th year head coach, Jack Cosgrove. They defeated Bryant University 28-13, after jumping out to a 21-0 lead. The Black Bears rode a fundamentally sound game of no turnovers and few penalties and found some big plays of their own to take away the victory.
On Saturday, Maine will try and duplicate a feat only seen in Moscow back in the 90's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE3Wbd5_o9U ). They run a spread offense led by QB, Warren Smith. He is complemented by seniors Pushaun Brown (RB), Derek Session (WR), and Derek Buttles (TE). The offensive line is also a veteran group. It features 1 senior and 3 juniors.
The defense has to replace almost half of last year's group and are lead by safeties Jerron McMillian (who is getting NFL interest) and Trevor Coston. Coston gave the Black Bears a spark with a 74 yard kick return.
Looking for weaknesses from Maine, besides the talent disparity between the two levels? Look no further then their minus 7 in turnovers last year and a crazy 72.5 yards in penalties. The exact reason they pulled out a win last week was just the opposite of what plagued them one year ago. Pitt's coaching staff was not pleased with their lack of turnovers last week, so hopefully they are focusing on that aspect and can bring back some bad memories for Maine on Saturday.
This is the last game for Pitt, before they make the jump to play Iowa, Notre Dame, and USF all right in a row, so you would love to see them be much more crisp this Saturday. I believe they are more crisp and come out firing in the first half. I think Sunseri hits his open receivers and Pitt gets it done in fine fashion Saturday. Final score: Pitt - 54, Maine - 14.
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