Red 5A Gang

  "I still don't see much respect for a 4-1 football team, which is fine. It's something I'll use." - Pat Narduzzi in Monday's pre-VT press conference Twittersphere and the blogosphere was rampant with that comment during the past several hours. Most rejoinders included a WMU loss reference, and others just showed contempt for the coach.  My take on Duzz's comment - taken in the entire context of the question and his full answer - it was more about him saying he can use the lack of ranking to get his kids motivated.  He is so right about bias in the polls, particularly pre-season.  Lets look at the ACC media (aka the provincial Tobacco Road, Bojangles loving 4th estate cartel) pre-season view... 1) UNC 2) Miami 3) VT 4) Pitt 5) UVA 6) GT 7) Duke Mack Brown returns to the open arms of the Chapel Hill faithful, lands a couple good recruits, one of which is Sam Howell....and the Tar Heels are annointed the favorite. I get that they went 7-3 last season, but h...

Its THE week of the season as far as I'm concerned. This week's game can either put Pitt in the driver's seat for a Coastal Division run or place us effectively two games behind the Hokies. Pitt is coming off a week's rest and the question in front of us is" Was a good thing or a bad thing? From the sounds of Pat Narduzzi's comments earlier today and last week, its clear that he is focused on getting his guys ready for the game. Are the kids listening? I sure hope so. VT is like a wounded dog right now and this game backs them into a corner. Pitt will need to start fast and avoid mistakes.   A link to full game notes at the botto m of this post, but here are some pages of interest.... The two deep: Here is a link to the full game notes as published by EJ Borghetti's team: Link to Full Game Notes

Heading into this bye weekend, I'm contemplating how to use the extra 5 hrs of time between pre-game coverage, the game itself and the postgame. I suppose that in a loss its more like 5.5 hours since there are more things to read. Thank goodness for golf. But I am definitely watching the Domers face the Hokies tomorrow night. Should be a good opportunity to see if VT is as good as the team that beat the Tar Heels on Labor Day weekend, or more like the team that squeaked by the Richmond Spiders. I have no idea what I want to see.... a big, emotional win for the Hokies or a loss. I lean towards a close Hokie win in a low scoring battle...which is possible because neither team is an offensive juggernaut. The Irish are ranked 94th in NCAA Offense and like Pitt, the passing game is their strength. But its ranked 30th, which means their rushing offense has been putrid. And ranked at 123rd, I think that is a fair assessment. One thing we know about VT is that they have a good defense, par...

  Our good buddy BigB made reference to HCPN's appearance on the Packer & Durham Show yesterday AM.  For those of you who are not able to get the ACC Network (sadly too many!), its a morning talk show which covers all things ACC sports. Both guys are quite knowledgeable about Pitt and Mark Packer is an unabashed Panther fan it would appear. I happened to catch it as well and thought it was a good discussion of where things stand with the program, some insight into Deslin Alexandre and the challenge of dealing with success.  Just watching the dialog, its very clear that one catches more flies with honey than vinegar (a-hem). If no honey on the shelf, grab some KoolAid I suppose.  Here is a link to the segment which lasts just under 8 minutes. Narduzzi on Packer & Durham

  There was some discussion a couple weeks ago about gameday atmosphere and the traditions other schools have that Pitt lacks.  You oldsters... the ones who remember the "Penn State Sucks!" chant at the end of the fight song may recall a thing called "The Snake". Full disclosure... I do not recall it at all. But apparently, it was a thing back in the day and it was resurrected on campus on Homecoming Friday (before the UNH game). Snake through the campus, I suppose?  We stumbled on it while unsuccessfully trying to help my little (all 6'7" of him) brother find some Pitt gear. There was a bit of an electric vibe on campus- also nice to see. Here's a link to a short video for your viewing and listening pleasure: http://pittsburghpanthers.com/watch?Archive=15150 Brings to the forefront that these are kids making their memories... just like we oldsters did long ago. 

  Gordon lamented earlier today over the lack of an MMQB post. I thought his comment later in the last POV post was fairly good at covering that, but thought he needed a falsetto back-up and decided to underscore, augment and round out his thoughts... I'm Lewis, btw. Gordon Conn October 3, 2021 at 9:27 am A few observations; It was only one game, although a great one. It doesn’t wash the bad taste from the WMU game in fact in some ways it makes it worse. What the heck, how did that happen? Makes it more difficult to understand. (What could have been.... what should have been. And I agree, the bad taste is there still and if the season progresses the way we hope it will, the taste will become more acrid.) However the game does forebode that a good ACC season could happen. (One down, seven to go. Pitt's goals are still on the table and this year feels different than year's past at this early stage, mainly because of offensive production we havent seen in quite a while...perha...

  With Reed taking some time off to address more important matters on the homefront - and putting POV in timeout as well - it seems a shame to stop the dialog while we wait for Pitt's next opponent, the Hokies. Here are links to news stories about the game: https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/Pitt/2021/10/02/pittsburgh-pitt-panthers-kenny-pickett-georgia-tech-acc-college-football/stories/202110020038 https://triblive.com/sports/business-as-usual-as-pitts-kenny-pickett-approaches-off-week/ https://pittsburghsportsnow.com/2021/10/02/five-takeaways-from-pitts-rout-of-georgia-tech-in-atlanta/ https://www.ajc.com/sports/georgia-tech/georgia-tech-momentum-meets-big-obstacle-in-loss-to-pittsburgh/3MJZ3XTFW5BPRFCPFHER3CI6QQ/ Other random musings... Was surprised nobody commented on the POV about the Narduzzi- Collins lovefest after the game. As reasonable folks surmised, the two wanted to put if behind them and they did.  The success Pitt is having on offense - they are ranked #1 in F...