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

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:15 am

UNC is 2-13 in their last 15 P5 games. Both wins came against Pitt.

Postby **Stoosh** » Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:32 pm

I can remember Wannstedt's critics pointing to two trends of his NFL tenure that would rear their ugly heads while he was at Pitt - his inability to develop quarterbacks and his teams' collective inability to win games when they controlled their own destiny and something big was at stake. Tyler Palko regressed when Wannstedt took over, and the best QB he had during the rest of his Pitt tenure was Bill Stull. Every time his Pitt teams had a chance to take the inside track to a Big East title in the second half of a season, they failed.

With Narduzzi, I started hearing in 2016 criticisms that his defense was not suited for the ACC; that it worked at MSU so well because there were dealing with a pre-Urban Ohio State, a pre-Franklin Penn State and a pre-Chryst Wisconsin. I think it's pretty safe to say that's the case...all yesterday's game did was throw another log on that fire.

I thought before the season that Narduzzi was about 95% safe through this year, especially with the schedule. I thought the only way he would legitimately find himself on the hot seat is if they somehow went like 3-9 or 4-8, looked awful in whatever games they lost to GT, UNC, Syracuse, Duke, UVA and Wake, and there was evidence that he was losing the team. Of the swing ACC games, they're 1-1 sof far but those Syracuse and Duke games no longer look nearly as winnable. Luckily they're at home, but they could very easily be 2-5 getting ready to host Duke in a month. If that happens and the Duke game goes south, all bets are off.

I tend to think Lyke would wait until the end of the season to allow for a full assessment of the program because hell, even Stallings got that much. But I'm not really not sure because I have no idea what else may be going on behind the scenes.

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:22 pm

Stolen straight from Dokish:

Pitt defense total yards

2008 317.2 Wannstedt
2009 319.3 Wannstedt
2010 305.1 Wannstedt
2011 350.6 Graham
2012 330.5 Chryst
2013 364.4 Chryst
2014 359.8 Chryst
2015 363.5 Narduzzi
2016 452.8 Narduzzi
2017 396.6 Narduzzi
2018 396.3 Narduzzi

That's some impressive defensive guru-ing.

42-39 hero Ryan Lewis made his NFL debut today with the Mighty Bills of Buffalo, bringing the number of DBs who have played at Pitt under Narduzzi up to four (Lafayette Pitts, Ryan Lewis, Jordan Whitehead, and Avonte Maddox) yet the secondary has been a **** show his entire time here. It's unbelievable.

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:27 pm

“He needs elite players to run his defense” myth is perhaps one of the worst pitt myths in the post majors II era.

Postby **Troy Loney** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 7:51 am

Has slappy turned on Nard-Dog yet?

That would be the tipping point.

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 8:43 am

Listening to Chris Peak's post-game road trip drive podcast and it sounds like at any moment he'll drive off a bridge. Feel the same, tbh.

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:30 am

Listening to Chris Peak's post-game road trip drive podcast and it sounds like at any moment he'll drive off a bridge. Feel the same, tbh.

On the post game show Pat Bostick sounded like he was ready to live broadcast his suicide. It's bad enough to sit through **** like that when you're doing color commentary, but it has to make his life as Associate AD for Major Gifts absolutely **** miserable. He spends the entire game knowing no one will be returning his calls this week.

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:38 am

Listening to Chris Peak's post-game road trip drive podcast and it sounds like at any moment he'll drive off a bridge. Feel the same, tbh.
On the post game show Pat Bostick sounded like he was ready to live broadcast his suicide. It's bad enough to sit through **** like that when you're doing color commentary, but it has to make his life as Associate AD for Major Gifts absolutely **** miserable. He spends the entire game knowing no one will be returning his calls this week.

The games coming up look brutal as well, that is a lot of what is driving it.

UCF is going to murder this defense, as is Syracuse, as is Notre Dame.

Duke is ranked.

Virginia is light years ahead of where they were last year (good coaching).

Hopes for wins rest of the year go with Wake Forest and Virginia Tech.

Miami is a loss.

so 3-9 is best bet.

Postby **Morkle** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:39 am

All I know is when Pitt pulls out this close win against UCF, don't start believing the hype. They're gonna crash and burn the week after.

Postby **slappybrown** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:42 am

Has slappy turned on Nard-Dog yet?

That would be the tipping point.

I wouldn't say that, but there are a lot of self-inflicted wounds -- a refusal to adapt this defense to the conference he plays in (stop asking your LBs to cover slot guys); a refusal to bench guys who are just atrocious (Briggs); a team that reflects his own instability on the sidelines by taking too many penalties at the worst time -- that appear to be features of his regime rather than what everyone else would describe as bugs requiring solutions. I still think next year is his make or break year, and absent 2-10 his firing isn't even up for discussion.

Postby **slappybrown** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:43 am

Listening to Chris Peak's post-game road trip drive podcast and it sounds like at any moment he'll drive off a bridge. Feel the same, tbh.
On the post game show Pat Bostick sounded like he was ready to live broadcast his suicide. It's bad enough to sit through **** like that when you're doing color commentary, but it has to make his life as Associate AD for Major Gifts absolutely **** miserable. He spends the entire game knowing no one will be returning his calls this week.
The games coming up look brutal as well, that is a lot of what is driving it.

UCF is going to murder this defense, as is Syracuse, as is Notre Dame.

Duke is ranked.

Virginia is light years ahead of where they were last year (good coaching).

Hopes for wins rest of the year go with Wake Forest and Virginia Tech.

Miami is a loss.

so 3-9 is best bet.

How much of my action will you take on over 3 wins?

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:44 am

None, I really think 5-7 is where they will end up.

Steal two of Duke, Virginia, and Syracuse.

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:55 am

Has slappy turned on Nard-Dog yet?

That would be the tipping point.
I wouldn't say that, but there are a lot of self-inflicted wounds -- a refusal to adapt this defense to the conference he plays in (stop asking your LBs to cover slot guys); a refusal to bench guys who are just atrocious (Briggs); a team that reflects his own instability on the sidelines by taking too many penalties at the worst time -- that appear to be features of his regime rather than what everyone else would describe as bugs requiring solutions. I still think next year is his make or break year, and absent 2-10 his firing isn't even up for discussion.

im getting a trump/jeff sessions vibe from this post

Postby **slappybrown** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:57 am

Has slappy turned on Nard-Dog yet?

That would be the tipping point.
I wouldn't say that, but there are a lot of self-inflicted wounds -- a refusal to adapt this defense to the conference he plays in (stop asking your LBs to cover slot guys); a refusal to bench guys who are just atrocious (Briggs); a team that reflects his own instability on the sidelines by taking too many penalties at the worst time -- that appear to be features of his regime rather than what everyone else would describe as bugs requiring solutions. I still think next year is his make or break year, and absent 2-10 his firing isn't even up for discussion.
im getting a trump/jeff sessions vibe from this post

Pat Narduzzi has been very, very bad for me, even the corrupt ups fans love him!

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:06 pm

I don't know why I do this to myself. No changes to the depth chart, because everything is fine. Chase Pine and Phil Campbell didn't see the field on Saturday. Reynolds played a lot, which for Pine seems to mean that he's fallen behind Reynolds on the depth chart and the DE experiment has gone bust before they even really tried it, which makes sense because the pass rush has been super good. Campbell not playing means the coaching staff has a collective IQ below 100 and somehow Dennis Briggs never leaves the **** field.

Pitt - 7
UCF - Infinity

Postby **slappybrown** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:09 pm

The Briggs thing is driving me insane. He gets smoked in pass coverage and had multiple missed tackles including one of UNC's TD runs in the early going where he flew by the guy at 100mph in the hole and had no chance.

Postby **skullman80** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:15 pm

It would be a totally Pitt thing for them to somehow beat UCF.

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:18 pm

Postby **willeyeam** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:24 pm

We all know Pitt wins this game right?

Postby **Stoosh** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:37 pm

I don't know why I do this to myself. No changes to the depth chart, because everything is fine. Chase Pine and Phil Campbell didn't see the field on Saturday. Reynolds played a lot, which for Pine seems to mean that he's fallen behind Reynolds on the depth chart and the DE experiment has gone bust before they even really tried it, which makes sense because the pass rush has been super good. Campbell not playing means the coaching staff has a collective IQ below 100 and somehow Dennis Briggs never leaves the **** field.

Pitt - 7
UCF - Infinity

Media (Batko & a few others) just tweeted out that Narduzzi said that Campbell didn't make the trip to UNC because he was sick. It wouldn't have made a difference because Campbell is still considered the backup for reasons that escape all but one or two people, apparently.

God only knows what is going on with Pine, too. He's listed as the backup on the UCF depth chart to Wirginis but like you said, Reynolds got the reps there last week despite getting blown up more than a few times. More camp bullcrap from Narduzzi re: Pine...talking about a position switch to DE as a way to get him on the field only he never gets on the field because apparently James Folston still has to play?

Also, we're four games into the season and our rostered TEs have a total of 2 catches for 18 yards, with the leader in that clubhouse being 6'2", 235 lb. "TE" Jim Medure. 1 catch for 15 yards. Sear has one catch for 3 yards. Nothing from Gragg or Carrigan. I'm not even sure Pickett has thrown to Gragg.

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:06 pm

- Unless Campbell is on his deathbed, he's an upgrade to Briggs.
- I can't believe that in the year of our lord 2018 James Folston Jr. is still a thing. Guess John Morgan was more training camp fluff.
- The TE stuff is baffling. If you're just going to use them as an extra blocker, go heavyset with an extra tackle because none of those guys block well enough to not be a passing option.

Postby **slappybrown** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:25 pm

Hey DD:

Duzz on playing more sub-package defense.

“Switching personnel is not really an option. … Our 3rd down stuff is really for pass. If you get into that on 1st or 2nd down … *shakes head*”

Said they’d be “running it off the goalpost."

Going to continue to run out a base 4-3 against 3 or 4 wide.

Postby **slappybrown** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:28 pm

I found the quote I was looking for about his insane idea he can keep doing this (this is from the MSU days):

“I believe one defense can stop everything; I believe we could play an entire football game in our base defense,” Narduzzi said at the clinic. “I believe that if everyone lines up exactly right, reads their keys, and does all the fundamentals involved with the defense, it is enough to win.”

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:29 pm

He’s right. No one ever passes on 1st or 2nd down.

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:48 pm

Hey DD:

Duzz on playing more sub-package defense.

“Switching personnel is not really an option. … Our 3rd down stuff is really for pass. If you get into that on 1st or 2nd down … *shakes head*”

Said they’d be “running it off the goalpost."
Going to continue to run out a base 4-3 against 3 or 4 wide.

what is the worst that could happen? would the run defense finish 103rd out of 130 (like the pass defense did in 2017) or 127 out of 128 (like they did in 2016)?

I can only imagine the chaos that would ensue if ziese was replaced with.....some defensive back.