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

Postby **Morkle** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 10:59 am

That's the problem though, I don't see that football stadium being built, and where they should have just torn down the old one and replaced it, they chose basketball.

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 11:23 am

this was appropriated from pantherlair, but the odds of 8-4 go up greatly next year when the schedule looks like:

Miami of Ohio #MACtion
Marshall @freddy rumsen
Richmond
Notre Dame
Florida State
Miami
North Carolina
Duke
Georgia Tech
Syracuse
Virginia Tech
Virginia

FSU stinks and pitt should always be able to get 4 wins in the coastal+the 'cuse. 3 non conference wins + 4 costal plus cuse wins + 1 win from FSU and notre dame = 8 wins. So it is possible.

Postby **NAN** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 11:23 am

I disagree with the on campus stadium. In a perfect world, absolutely, that would be fantastic.

But in reality:

1) Where would it go on campus?
2) How are they going to pay for it? The program and athletics in general at Pitt receive very little donor support. And they need to take care of more pressing needs than an on campus stadium. The facilities for the other sports need major upgrades or just flat out replaced because they are so old and out of date. That is what the Victory Heights initiative is for, and that will take around 20 years to complete.
3) The university already has to pay around $6-7M a year to sustain athletics.

Lyke and Gallagher are pushing hard to turn around Pitt athletics and the culture IMO. But it's not going to happen over night.

But the last thing that is going to happen unless you get a Phil KNight come in and offer $500M to build a stadium is an on campus stadium.

Where Pitt f'd up was firing DW. He bled blue and gold and was able to sell the program. Unfortunately at that time we were in the Big East and didn't have the funds we do now, and he and Pederson did not get along. If DW was around today with Lyke, I think there could have been good things.

I think we need to start scheduling softer OOC games to build up the wins. and then go from there.

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 11:30 am

The thing about an on campus stadium is that I already don't like going to the North Shore to watch games, why the **** would I subject myself to Oakland?

Postby **skullman80** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:00 pm

An on campus stadium would be ideal, but I think it's pretty far down the list of problems with the program overall. Especially as how it relates to attendance.

Postby **Morkle** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:02 pm

Basically NAN's a) was my point, there's hardly any room (if any at all) for a stadium in Oakland. They chose basketball, instead of playing somewhere for a few years until a new one was built.

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:09 pm

Depth Chart!

TE: Griffin-Stewart, Gragg, Carrigan
RB: Davis, Davis, Carter
Mike: Brightwell, Reynolds, Pine
FS: Hamlin, Hallett
CB: Jackson, Coleman OR Williams

What the hell prompts a midseason move to FS for Hallett and to CB for Coleman?

Whatever. Hope springs eternal. Let's get it done this week.

Postby **willeyeam** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:22 pm

which Davis is #1 at RB?

Postby **skullman80** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:22 pm

Hopefully that RB #1 is the Davis that is like 5'8" and 150lbs cause he is the only RB that seems to be able to make anything behind this oline.

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:28 pm

The bad Davis is still listed at 1.

Postby **Stoosh** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:35 pm

Something Mark Packer said last week on his Off Campus speaks to this. The problem with college football is that the money at the top end is really starting to skew things. You've got about 15 or maybe 20 programs that are able to throw obscene amounts of money at their football programs thanks to donor bases that are large enough, rich enough, and obsessed with football.

It's been this way for a long time, but the money gap seems to be growing exponentially, even over what it was 10 years ago. The reality is that those top 15-20 programs are just playing a different game and they're not going to stop raking in donations and spending their money on more and more resources.

It's not that Pitt won't compete with that; it's that for the most part, they can't. We saw that with Matt Canada. Pitt tried as best it could to keep him but at the end of the day, LSU just called a few more donors and had them kick in an extra half million or whatever it was, and off he went.

Not to say they can't do something about it. What you do with the resources still matters. At the end of the day, there are a lot of decent coaches but probably only a few elite ones. If you're Clemson, Alabama or Oklahoma, you're pretty well set. But look at Florida State, Miami, USC, or Michigan and you'll see that resources aren't everything. Who you hires still matters.

I still think Pitt's ceiling with the right coach is along the lines of what DD mentioned - a consistent 8-4 with a 10-2 season here and there. There are multiple ways to get there.

You could hire the next up-and-coming head coach from lower levels, though this seems to work with mixed results. The two more recent ones I tend to point to are Matt Campbell at Iowa State and PJ Fleck at Minnesota. For as much publicity as he gets, Matt Campbell's first three years at ISU look a lot similar to Narduzzi's first three at Pitt - a couple of 8-5 seasons with the sub-.500 season flipped. Fleck has found it a bit tougher to get off the ground at Minnesota, though he's only in Year Three.

You could go the stability route as programs like Northwestern, and Iowa have. Ferentz is obviously entrenched at Iowa, and he's what Northwestern is trying to get with Fitzgerald. In fact, Fitzgerald's record is a pretty interesting argument for stability. His first seven years:

4-8, 6-6, 9-4, 8-5, 7-6, 6-7, 10-2

He delivered his first 10-win season in his seventh year (2012), this coming after three straight years of decline from a 9-win season. Since then, he's gone:

5-7, 5-7, 10-3, 7-6, 10-3, 9-4, 1-1 this year.

Would I take that at Pitt, especially looking at his last four seasons? I think I would.

When I look at where they are now, the way the defense has evolved, the way the passing game is starting to get better, the upgrades with assistants (Beatty, Whipple, keeping Partridge), the upgrades with the resources & facilities, the recruiting class coming in, and a much more favorable OOC schedule next year...as much as he drives me crazy sometimes, I still think their best course of action is to give Narduzzi through next season.

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:50 pm

We will not have sense in this thread Stoosh.

Postby **dodint** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:56 pm

An on campus stadium would be ideal, but I think it's pretty far down the list of problems with the program overall. Especially as how it relates to attendance.

This is kind of a funny sentiment, the need for an on campus stadium I mean. Heinz field is, what, 2.8 miles from Oakland? This isn't a situation a real city would even bat an eye at but because Pittsburgh is so small it feels like a real issue.

Postby **shafnutz05** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:01 pm

does this game change anyone's predictions for total wins on the season? I say no. They have to go 4-3 in the rest of the conference schedule to finish at 6-6. I feel better about beating the 'cuse in the dome, and bc stinks. but until they actually score points, there is minimal room for optimism. I just don't see this team going 5-2 against the cuse, the u, bc, duke, UNC, VT, and GT.
I think they have a better chance at beating UCF than I thought before the UPS game.

I saw your follow up post to this, but I also don't think Penn State is that good...at all. I think they will be out of the Top 25 in four weeks.

Postby **NAN** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:14 pm

Shut up shad.

Postby **shafnutz05** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:42 pm

My good friend just accepted a very high-level position in the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford's athletics department. I know that school is pretty highly regarded among satellite campuses, so I'm happy for him.

Postby **willeyeam** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 2:06 pm

does this game change anyone's predictions for total wins on the season? I say no. They have to go 4-3 in the rest of the conference schedule to finish at 6-6. I feel better about beating the 'cuse in the dome, and bc stinks. but until they actually score points, there is minimal room for optimism. I just don't see this team going 5-2 against the cuse, the u, bc, duke, UNC, VT, and GT.
I think they have a better chance at beating UCF than I thought before the UPS game.
I saw your follow up post to this, but I also don't think Penn State is that good...at all. I think they will be out of the Top 25 in four weeks.

UPS is certainly not good. I am encouraged by Kenny Pickett's progress

Postby **willeyeam** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 2:07 pm

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 3:14 pm

In the interest of showing positivity about something, Habakkuk Baldonado has been great. Dude has been an out of nowhere surprise.

Postby **slappybrown** » Tue Sep 17, 2019 2:25 pm

am I going to go to this nonsense on Saturday

Postby **MrKennethTKangaroo** » Tue Sep 17, 2019 2:29 pm

#metoo

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 8:21 am

Postby **NAN** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 8:34 am

I see some white face in there. That's racist.

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:59 am

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 11:11 am

College realignment sucked