5AF's 2018-19 Premier Pittsburgh Super Panthers Football Thread (and Basketball)

[Freddy Rumsen]

"How can we destroy all the goodwill built up over the past several weeks?"

"Pitt."

[the wicked child]

What was worse:

Pitt's truly offensive performance
Commentators riding the U's nuts all game on ESPN
Larry Richards and his complete lack of emotion on the radio standing in for Hillgrove

[Dickie Dunn]

Pitt’s performance. Complete joke.

[Nittany Ned]

Nicely done, Pitt.

[willeyeam]

What was worse:

Pitt's truly offensive performance
Commentators riding the U's nuts all game on ESPN
Larry Richards and his complete lack of emotion on the radio standing in for Hillgrove

Richards was horrible. I listened to the first quarter and couldn't take it. I'd say 1% of the plays he actually told you what the result was. He should never be allowed to do play by play again. I had no idea what was happening. The Miami long run on their first drive - he never said if he was tackled. We thought it was a TD until they lined up and said first down at the Pitt 20

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Guys that showed up to play


Pickett
Rara araujo lopes
The d line (first half only)
Hall and Ollison ran had but had no hope

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

@slappybrown

Please discuss the renfrow Briggs matchup in the slot next week

[DigitalGypsy66]

So does Pitt have much of a passing game? After watching noted scrub and loser Jake Bentley light up the Tigers’ secondary for 500 yards and five TDs, passing might be the only way to keep the Panthers in the game next week.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Pitt does not have a passing game

[DigitalGypsy66]

Clemson’s d-line is scary. Four dudes that will play on Sundays next year. Pitt’s offensive line is banged up, so the big men will feast next Saturday.

Christian Wilkins has two rushing TDs this year, too.

[shafnutz05]

What will the line open at? I'm guessing 25.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

SUnday morning tepid coffee, hot takes:

-First and foremost, the super lady panthers vb team is going to NCAAT and will host the the first two rounds becuase they will be highly ranked. The team is good imo and a lot of fun to watch. Coach FIsher is easy to like and seems like a modern era type coach guy that relates well to the players. Plus watching tall girls play on a net that is too short for them hit the sht out of the ball is fun to watch. Pitt lost to UPS in the tourney th last two seasons but had a 2nd round game in crappy valley the past two years; that won’t happen this year.

-I do not blame Pickett. Although I will ask this: what do we do about Pickett going forward? And just how horrible will the offensive line be next year? And who is going to run the ball? What the hell is this team going to do next year?

-Watson called a bad game imo. I’m sure Watson burned all of pages in the playbook for the awesome mr. wonderful shovel passes, but they might have worked yesterday considering how easily Miami’s line got penetration. Or maybe a screen? Or draw? Or not trying to run around the edge? QB Draw? Anyone else remember those TE screens Chryst used to call for former pitt yinzer favorite JP holtz? Anyone?

-I thought the denfeisve line played hard but eventually gave up in the second half.

-Jordy Mercer hit 251 this year, and miami’s QB completed passes at a lower rate than Jordy Mercer got hits.

-There are some matchup problems in the pitt-clemson game

-At the end of the day though, I’m not pessimistic. All i ask for is an occasional Coastal championship. The 7-5 record was artificially hampered by an outrageous non conference schedule. Plus, pitt has found ways to play itself out of conference championships, so it was nice to see them win.

-I hope they don’t go 7-7

[Freddy Rumsen]

Good take imo

[the wicked child]

They are going to get dump trucked by Clemson. It really would've been nice if they had shown up in Miami because 8-5 looks a lot better than 7-6.

They may not get a bottom of the barrel bowl game, but it will still be disappointing no doubt.

Last thing I want to see is another lame ass bowl against a team no one gaf about to end this season.

[Dickie Dunn]

Last thing I want to see is another lame ass bowl against a team no one gaf about to end this season.

That’s what they’re going to get and they’re gonna lose it too.

[Freddy Rumsen]

According to Jason Kirk at SB Nation it is between the Pinstripe vs. Minnesota or the Sun Bowl vs. Arizona State.

[shafnutz05]

Line opened at 23.5, promptly moved to 25 or 25.5 depending on the book. I should be an odds maker

[Stoosh]

According to Jason Kirk at SB Nation it is between the Pinstripe vs. Minnesota or the Sun Bowl vs. Arizona State.

ESPN.com has the following:

Bonagura: Pitt vs. Purdue in the Pinstripe Bowl
Sherman: Pitt vs. South Carolina in the Belk Bowl

After sitting through that 3-hour long commercial for The U that was that ESPN broadcast team on Saturday, I actually prefer the non-Pinstripe options of these. The last thing I want to hear is an ESPN broadcast crew fawning over Jeff Brohm or PJ Fleck for another three hours.

[Freddy Rumsen]

I just don't see why Charlotte would want Pitt twice in three weeks.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

imo i want the quicklane bowl

easy drive, dome, cheap hotels around Detroit, day after christmas

[willeyeam]

Music City would be the best and will not entertain arguments against that

[Dickie Dunn]

"How can we destroy all the goodwill built up over the past several weeks?"

"Pitt."

SUnday morning tepid coffee, hot takes:

-First and foremost, the super lady panthers vb team is going to NCAAT and will host the the first two rounds becuase they will be highly ranked. The team is good imo and a lot of fun to watch. Coach FIsher is easy to like and seems like a modern era type coach guy that relates well to the players. Plus watching tall girls play on a net that is too short for them hit the sht out of the ball is fun to watch. Pitt lost to UPS in the tourney th last two seasons but had a 2nd round game in crappy valley the past two years; that won’t happen this year.

-I do not blame Pickett. Although I will ask this: what do we do about Pickett going forward? And just how horrible will the offensive line be next year? And who is going to run the ball? What the hell is this team going to do next year?

-Watson called a bad game imo. I’m sure Watson burned all of pages in the playbook for the awesome mr. wonderful shovel passes, but they might have worked yesterday considering how easily Miami’s line got penetration. Or maybe a screen? Or draw? Or not trying to run around the edge? QB Draw? Anyone else remember those TE screens Chryst used to call for former pitt yinzer favorite JP holtz? Anyone?

-I thought the denfeisve line played hard but eventually gave up in the second half.

-Jordy Mercer hit 251 this year, and miami’s QB completed passes at a lower rate than Jordy Mercer got hits.

-There are some matchup problems in the pitt-clemson game

-At the end of the day though, I’m not pessimistic. All i ask for is an occasional Coastal championship. The 7-5 record was artificially hampered by an outrageous non conference schedule. Plus, pitt has found ways to play itself out of conference championships, so it was nice to see them win.

-I hope they don’t go 7-7

These two posts are basically my takeaways from the game. They managed to undo most, if not all, of the goodwill built up over the previous weeks. They looked like the same dogshit team with horrible offensive playcalling that existed for the first 5 games of the season (plus the Notre Dame game playcalling wise). The offensive line is bad. Pickett has no time to throw, so it's hard to accurately judge him, but it seems like he has at best a 50-50 shot of hitting open receivers. Some stupid drops from the WRs. Ollison has looked slow and without any kind of burst since the VT game. The DL played well in the first half, but just lost the will to live in the second. The LBs are too frequently asked to cover players they are not athletic enough to cover. If N'kosi Perry wasn't the worst QB alive Miami could have put up triple digits because the secondary could not handle the speed and athleticism of their WRs.

I expect the Clemson game to be such a slaughter that it'll get called at halftime and losing bowl games and doing ridiculous **** like winning their division but going 7-7 is just so Pitt that it's guaranteed to happen, so where does that leave things going into next season?

The only non-senior starter on the offensive line is Morrissey, so as the marsupial points out, just how bad is this offensive line going to be next year? All WRs but RAL return next year, but KSP probably won't survive long enough to get the ball to them. AJ Davis, Todd Sibley, and Mychale Salahuddin have combined for 141 yards on 30 carries, which seems fine. Davis seems like a big plodder and Salahuddin is suppossed to be a speed guy, so that could be a good combo, but who knows if the OLine can make a damn hole for them. And not that it matters, but I'm pretty sure they'll end up with zero TEs on the roster next season. Gonna end up running double TE sets with 7 linemen.

The defense gets immediate upgrades with the graduation of Hendrix, Zeise, Idowu, and Briggs. I know it seems very complex to the coaching staff, but they need to find a way to get Camp and Watts on the field at the same time. Twyman and Wheeler look like good depth guys on the interior defensive line, Jones II and Weaver have had good seasons, and DE is a position where they've seemed to recruit well, so the depth should be good. Reynolds has been good at ILB, I don't think Brightwell has been as good as we've expected him to be but he's fine, Pine has done some good things, Bright, Davis, and Tucker seem to have potential. I think they'll be okay at LB. In the secondary, more playing time for Campbell is a good thing, Jackson, Pinnock, Mathis, Motley, Stocker, Garner, and Coleman have all had their moments, and Hamlin has improved, though his coverage is still questionable. That SHOULD be a good unit, especially if Paris Ford figures out how to play a position, but the defensive scheme still worries me due to the pressure it puts on the secondary.

Special teams should be fine? Australia still kinda sucks at punting expect for when he manages to boot the ball the entire distance of the field, Kessman is the great long distance kicker in the history of Heinz Field, and Ffrench is a good return guy.

TLDR: I think the defense could be good but the offense will set the game back a century.

[Freddy Rumsen]

The Offensive Line is a giant mess and will not get better is all that really needs said about 2019 Pitt football.

I guarantee we'll see some Grad Transfers and JUCO guys brought in over the winter/spring.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Pitt's recent record of jucos and grad transfers on the OL is spotty at best. Millin has been good enough but that guy from texas last year was a waste and chase brown (juco in this year's class) hasn't played at all.

F jucos and f grad transfers, especially at tackle. Grad transfers at key positions killed pitt basketball and if nard dog goes that route, it will kill pitt football.

[Dickie Dunn]

The Offensive Line is a giant mess and will not get better is all that really needs said about 2019 Pitt football.

I guarantee we'll see some Grad Transfers and JUCO guys brought in over the winter/spring.

I don't really trust the grad transfer and JUCO stuff, especially with offensive linemen. Millin is a grad transfer and has been adequate at best. Chase Brown was supposed to be a big JUCO get and has only seen the field in scrub time against VT. Last year it was supposed to be Brandon Hodges, who sucked, and Kam Carter, who also sucked. The year before that it was Allen Edwards who was supposed to be the big JUCO get.

Except for the rare case, if this guys were any good they wouldn't be playing where they are. At some point you need to develop the 18 year old's you've recruited to your program.

Edit: **** roo beat me to my point.