2019-2020 Pitt Super Panther Sports Thread (With a New Logo)

[willeyeam]

I suppose that's a moot point. We'd have to beat UNC and VT to stay alive so we'd be back where we were before yesterday, needing a UVA loss

[Freddy Rumsen]

Yep

[Morkle]

Narduzzi is a **** loser.

He's just another coach, in a long-line of coaches that continues to keep a middling team, middling.

[Dickie Dunn]

Narduzzi is a **** loser.

He's just another coach, in a long-line of coaches that continues to keep a middling team, middling.

He's part of the 99% of high school, college, and professional football coaches who would get out strategized by people who grew up playing Madden.

[willeyeam]

Narduzzi has made some dumb gameday mistakes but I feel as good as ever about the state of the progrum

[Dickie Dunn]

I don't even know where to start with this nonsense:

- Narduzzi. **** you.
- The defense is great and only has issues when Narduzzi acts like they've got a 4 score lead.
- If Kenny Pickett was any good he wouldn't be the QB at Pitt. Dude has some absolutely atrocious fundamentals. FREE BEVILLE.
- Vaguely Mediocre Davis is now officially Slow Ass Trashcan Full Of Puke Davis (SATFOP Davis for short). How was this scrub so highly recruited? Does anyone have Mychale Salahuddin's number? FREE DANIEL CARTER.
- Nice 33 yard carry on your first touch Todd Sibley, hope you don't plan on touching the ball again for like two hours. dadhole coaching staff.
- Does this team employ an offensive line coach?
- Carter Warren was in front of me at the Oakland Las Palmas yesterday. I DON'T THINK THREE TACOS AND A PINEAPPLE JARRITOS IS GOING TO HELP THINGS CARTER!!!!!!
- I've never seen two skill positions suck as much as TE and WR on this team. Even Fffffffffffffffrench has turned into a bum and Taysir Mack looks exactly like a WR who belongs at Indiana. Is it possible to force Nakia Stewart-Griffin back to Rutgers?

[slappybrown]

1. I didn't have a problem with kicking the FG at the one. I would have also been fine had they gone for it.

2. Today PL informed me that on that punt that went for 63 yards when we got the ball back with a chance to ice the game with a couple first downs they had John Vardzel back there because Ffrench was having a contacts issue. Vardzel is the fourth punt returner after Ford and Mack. Because he is a fourth string PR, he let the ball bounce for no apparent reason costing them 25 yards of field position (though Miami was kind of enough to give 15 of that back with a personal foul). Inexplicable decision by Powell.

3. The play-calling on the next to last drive was some Marty Schottenheimer in 1986 level cowardice. Stone-age sht. Inexcusable. You're trading a TO or two for possession, basically, which might make sense if there was a minute left in the game. There was not. THERE WAS 5 AND A HALF MINUTES LEFT IN THE GAME. WHAT ARE YOU DOING.

4. The drops, man. All year long. I spent 10 minutes yesterday trying to find dropped pass stats because I have to know if there is a P5 team worse at catching the ball than this one. Griffin-Stewart is permanently infected with Rutgers. Ffrench and Mack are good for one or two back breaking drops a week.

5. SATFOP. Why is he still a thing? How does no one on the staff see that Sibley deserves more touches? Even V'Lique Carter who is probably 170 lbs. soaking wet runs harder and is more difficult to bring down than SATFOP. SATFOP has two speeds: tentative and jogging. I have yet to see him run flat out this year. They've played 8 games.

6. In basically 7.5 games, Paris Ford has made more impact plays than Damar Hamlin has in his entire career. Ford almost won that game with the insane reaction INT that he couldn't hold onto. He's going to be a monster next year (and no, I will not countenance any concerns that Ford is going pro NO NO NO NO NO).

7. I have no idea what Pickett was doing in the first half. I don't know if his shoulder is totally shredded or what, but as ulf noted, they completely took the ball out of his hands in the second half.

[Stoosh]

With the exception of the play-calling on the goalline in the UPS game, I've been mostly on board with Narduzzi this year. That was until I went for a walk and decided to forgo my usual music for Chris Peak's "Drive Home" podcast that he recorded in the immediate aftermath of the Miami game.

For whatever reason I didn't catch this when I was watching the game. Maybe some of you did but this was the first time that I found out that when Pitt got the ball back up 12-10 with 5:44 in the fourth quarter, their historically-impotent 3-and-out helped Miami along largely because PITT CAME OUT IN A F'ING JUMBO SET ON EVERY. SINGLE. PLAY. OF. THAT. STUPID-ASS. DRIVE.

Jumbo set.

Jumbo. Set.

With Miami already planning for the likelihood of a run, Pitt rolls out the entire series with an extra tackle, Grant Carrigan at TE and Aaron Mathews as the only wideout. After managing just five yards with it on 1st & 2nd down, on 3rd and five - for good measure and just to twist the knife into the fanbase a little more - they tried it one more time. The only thing Pitt apparently didn't do to help Miami out was bring out a giant f'ing neon arrow to put over the line of scrimmage and show the hole each play was designed to run.

Even Dave Wannstedt suffering his most stereotypical Wannstedtian moment of gameday management confusion would think this was a bull$hit idea.

I just...I got nothing here.

I get that Pickett had not played well. I get that the running game was effective to that point. That said, on 3rd and five you need a better-than-average effort by your running game on that play, and you've had eight games of proof that you don't have a RB capable of regularly moving the pile with runs between the tackles, which makes the jumbo set all the more infuriating. Mack, Ffrench, V'Lique Carter & Shocky were all on the sideline for every one of those plays; if those guys are on the field, you spread the defense out and Davis at least has some more room. All you needed was one first down and Pitt could have run another two minutes off the clock; get two first downs and the game is over.

That whole three-down set is a microcosm of every legitimate criticism of Narduzzi as a head coach. Playing not to lose in a tight game? Check. Confusing player deployment/failure to know your roster? Check. Failure to comprehend the context of the moment within the game? Check.

I say this completely realizing that Pitt can still the Coastal and win nine regular season games, which would be terrific in a year many expected them to win five or six. I just wonder if any of these things continue to resurface this year and prevent that from happening, and if Narduzzi will ever get past these.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

a bad pitt loss brings out the best of the pitt clique.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Receiving stats:

Fffffffffrench 8 for 47, long 8
AJ Davis 4 24 long 16 (that means 3 for 8 and 1 for 16 folks)
Mack 3 for 158, long 7
Carter 2 for 46, long 30
Will Gragg 1 for 11 (he made a nice catch)

I don't think any of those passes were completed beyond 8 yards from the line of scrimmage

shades of watson

[willeyeam]

kicking the FG was 100% the right move at that point in the game imo. 3rd quarter no, tie game no.. down 2 with less than 10 minutes, yes, get the lead. The "drive" running 3 times up the gut was the most excruciatingly bad idea of the day by far. Even if there were 3 creative runs with some spacing I wouldn't hate it. There didn't HAVE to be a pass. But misdirection, trap, something. Have Whipple and Duzz seen the run game this year? That may have worked in 2018. 5 yards on 3 dives was about best case scenario there. Just hurt to watch

[Dickie Dunn]

The thing that kills me about Narduzzi and his weird ass conservative decision making and the **** like that death by jumbo package series, is that this is the same dude that signed off on the trick play to beat UCF, aggressively went for it on fourth down numerous times in the early days of his Pitt tenure, has made ample use of fake punts, and even if the situation wasn't great and the actual play design was horrific, had the creativity to have Jeff George Jr. change his number and pretend to be Christodoulou for a fake punt against ND last year. This extreme conservatism from him just seems new to me.

[willeyeam]

I think he might just have too much faith in the defense to be honest

[Stoosh]

Receiving stats:

Fffffffffrench 8 for 47, long 8
AJ Davis 4 24 long 16 (that means 3 for 8 and 1 for 16 folks)
Mack 3 for 158, long 7
Carter 2 for 46, long 30
Will Gragg 1 for 11 (he made a nice catch)

I don't think any of those passes were completed beyond 8 yards from the line of scrimmage

shades of watson

Some of the talk on PL is that Pickett was playing hurt. This is unconfirmed but the rumor is that the injury he suffered to his shoulder against UCF still isn't right and then he injured his other shoulder against Syracuse.

Some people who were at the game also said Mack looked like he was playing hurt Saturday as well. I'm not sure if whatever foot issue he's been dealing with most of the year got worse.

[Dickie Dunn]

If Pickett is injured then Patti should be playing or Beville should be freed.

[skullman80]

These kinds of losses don't even phase me anymore.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

I think he might just have too much faith in the defense to be honest

fair take

I do think the defense deserves some criticism for their play on the final scoring drive. 0 sacks after a season full of sacks.

[slappybrown]

I think he might just have too much faith in the defense to be honest

fair take

I do think the defense deserves some criticism for their play on the final scoring drive. 0 sacks after a season full of sacks.

I noticed they went with only four rushers on nearly every down on that drive.

[Dickie Dunn]

Shocky now listed as the starter at WR2, followed by DBJ and Wayne. Fffffrench's backup listed as Vardzel.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

I think he might just have too much faith in the defense to be honest

fair take

I do think the defense deserves some criticism for their play on the final scoring drive. 0 sacks after a season full of sacks.

I noticed they went with only four rushers on nearly every down on that drive.

Except for the last play of the drive (you know, the touchdown) when ford blitzed.

[slappybrown]

I think he might just have too much faith in the defense to be honest

fair take

I do think the defense deserves some criticism for their play on the final scoring drive. 0 sacks after a season full of sacks.

I noticed they went with only four rushers on nearly every down on that drive.

Except for the last play of the drive (you know, the touchdown) when ford blitzed.

Jackson and Hamlin both played that poorly. Hamlin seemed a step or two late getting over for deep help in the middle of the field and Jackson didn't get his inside hand up in time and fell. Hamlin then compounded it by whiffing on the tackle and not even trying to wrap up. Though to be honest, even with Miami having a bad kicker, if Hamlin does tackle him its an under 30-yd attempt so letting him score might have been the better result.

[slappybrown]

Pitt commit and Gardens DT Timothy Brown of Riviera Beach has been charged with robbery, felony battery, and kidnapping during a felony.

[willeyeam]

A sign that we are getting talented recruits? Kidnapping may be a little much though

[willeyeam]

oh man I read the story that's really bad

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

it is ok, the guy only had offers from UPS, Auburn, florida and FSU among a bunch of other mid range P5 schools.