West Virginia is Big East's lone ranked team
West Virginia carrying the banner for the Big East? Well, that's not an unfamiliar situation.
That's the case at least as far as the Week 2 polls go. The Mountaineers are the lone ranked team in the AP and coaches' polls . They check in at No. 23 in the AP and 22nd in the coaches' poll.
Pitt fell out of both rankings after opening the season 15th in each. The Panthers are 28th in the AP and ranked 29th by the coaches.
The Big East was even less popular in the new ESPN.com power ...
Softball. Softball Announces 2011 Schedule
PITTSBURGH—The University of Pittsburgh Head Softball Coach Holly Aprile announced the 2011 schedule this week. The Panthers play eight fall ball games in September, and will resume action in February with five tournaments in just over a month’s time.As Pitt has done the last several years, the season opens in Florida in both the Florida International Blue and Gold Tournament (Miami, Fla.) and the Florida Atlantic Tournament (Boca Raton, Fla.). Pitt’s first game of the 2011 season is slated for 3 p.m. against Providence on Feb. 18.The Panthers will face Florida International during the opening weekend. The Golden Panthers are ...
Football. Meet the Press: Coach Wannstedt Previews New Hampshire
Dave Wannstedt Press ConferenceSeptember 7, 2010New Hampshire Week Opening Statement:“Because of the early game, we had the opportunity to get out there and get the team back to work. We had meetings and everything on Saturday. We were able to go out and have a good practice on Sunday night. (After playing your first game) there are so many things that are correctible, whether it’s a mental mistake that was made or a physical mistake. We really used the extra days to focus on us, make sure that everybody understood what needed to be done and move forward. procad("http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/CSTV.PITT/SPORTS.MFOOTBL.SPECREL;sect=mfootbl;pos=story;sz=300x250;dcopt=ist;",0); “Our ...
Post-Utah - The Defense
Overall, one way to describe the entire unit is Terrible. Our great defensive line decided not to show up for this game. Maybe Sheard / Romeus aren't as great as advertised, maybe the Utah air slowed us down, or maybe we just really missed Mick Williams and Gus Mustakas . Regardless of the excuse the D-Line needs to make more plays. From a unit that lead the country in sacks last season, we were unable to get one this entire game. Pressure on the quarterback was not consistent and filling holes led ...
Penn State and West Virginia up, Pitt out of college polls
Penn State and West Virginia moved up in the college football polls that were released today while Pitt fell out of favor among the voters.After debuting at No. 15 in the Associated Press and USA Today coaches' polls, Pitt was dropped from both after losing at Utah, 27-24, in overtime.Utah moved up to No. 20 in both polls.Penn State and West Virginia ascended in the polls after beating Division I-AA teams in the opening weekend.Penn State moved up to No. 18 in the AP poll and remained at No. 14 in the coaches' poll. West Virginia is No. 22 in ...
Acquired Apathy
For the past 10 years, as a Pitt football fan, I could really never understand why we never had more of a rabid/passionate fan base. We have had many reasons to see great crowds with tremendous enthusiasm, but we never found them. After the past few seasons I can finally understand why this attitude exists. It always seems that when a Pitt football team is ready to take the next step forward, we end up stumbling. In 2004 with a top 10 team and the most legitimate heisman contender we have had in 30 years, we ...
Post-Utah - The Offense
I had a feeling Pitt would lose a close game against Utah, which is why I predicted a 3 point defeat for the Panthers. I just didn't think that while expecting to lose a close game, I could come out of it with such a negative reaction. I guess I felt that even if we did lose a close game, our 3 hyped studs (Lewis, Baldwin, and Romeus ) would all have great games. What we saw was the staff limit the success of the offensive guys, and the defensive line disappear. On offense, Tino ...
Q&A: Is the Lewis-for-Heisman chatter a distraction?
Submit your Pitt football questionThanks for participating in the Pitt football Q&A.You can follow the Panthers here as well as our Pitt football blog, The Redshirt Diaries.One other thing -- my weekly live Pitt chats will take place Thursdays at noon. Q: Paul, do you think it's time to put away the "Dion for Heisman" along with all the other individual awards talk and lets just concentrate on "this team" winning football games?Kevin Oleska, JohnstownZEISE: No. If you are suggesting guys were too focused on their individual glory, that's not the case at all. Those guys know that there are ...
Last turnover pool
I mentioned this last week and plan to make this a regular weekly feature until a champion is crowned. Maybe the most important stat in any football game is turnovers. Take care of the ball, and you'll give yourself a great chance to win.
Some do it better than others. This season, we'll track which teams and quarterbacks are best at avoiding giveaways through our last turnover pool. The rules are simple: You're alive in the pool until you cough up the ball. Last man and team standing wins.
Let's check the standings after Week 1: ...
Big East lunchtime links
Dave Wannstedt said Pitt's mistakes against Utah were mostly mental and are correctable.
The friendship between Bill Stewart and Doc Holliday runs deep.
Speaking of old friends, Skip Holtz and Urban Meyer go way back, too. Now they're rivals for the first time.
Vidal Hazelton suffered a tough break .
Rutgers may try the hurry-up offense .
Charlie Strong wants more ...
Heisman contenders in the Big East
Well, this should be a short post.
Last week, I highlighted a few players in the Big East who could factor into the Heisman Trophy race. One week in, and that list has dwindled.
Sure, players can climb back into the picture after a shaky Week 1. But to win the award from the Big East, the player's team pretty much has to go unbeaten or close to it. So Cincinnati's Zach Collaros is out of the discussion right now. Pitt's Dion Lewis , after gaining a career-low 75 yards at Utah, is too. Same ...
Big East power rankings, Week 2
1. West Virginia (1-0): The Mountaineers weren't especially impressive on offense versus Coastal Carolina, but their defense pitched a home shutout for the first time since 1997. And with Pitt, UConn and Cincinnati losing, West Virginia moves to No. 1 almost by default.
2. Pittsburgh (0-1): Yes, the Panthers lost and had some problem areas exposed in the process. But falling on the road in overtime to a really good Utah program in the opening week isn't reason to penalize Pitt too much.
3. Connecticut (0-1): The 30-10 loss to Michigan was wildly ...
Ratings, Numbers, Whatever
A short story that has little context.The national telecast of the Pitt game on Versus drew an overnight rating of 8.6 in the Pittsburgh market. According to a network spokesperson, it was the highest cable rating of the evening and second overall in the market.The top rating belonged to the Steelers, who played their final preseason game against Carolina at Heinz Field. The game drew a 30.0 rating on KDKA-2, the local CBS affiliate.An average of more than 99,000 households tuned into the Pitt game. More than 346,000 viewed the Steelers game.Now, am I or ...
Pitt Football: Wannstedt says mistakes correctable
Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt met with the media for the first time since the Panthers' 27-24 loss to Utah and said, after watching the game film, he feels a little better about the team's long-term prospects than he did immediately after the game.He said the bottom line was the Panthers made too many mistakes, but those are easily correctable. Two mistakes, which resulted in Utah touchdowns, were a matter of miscommunication and inexperience."I was disappointed that we didn't play better," Wannstedt said Monday in his weekly teleconference. "But, if you look at it, we gave up two easy scores on ...
Should There Be Wildcat Wariness?
I’m not saying there should be deep fear of New Hampshire this weekend, but remember that this is the #5 team in 1-AA. Also Ole Miss showed the follies of complacency when thinking the game was over. To say nothing of Temple needing lots of weirdness to beat Villanova.Oh, and there is this added fun.As Division I-AA teams go, the Wildcats are exactly the kind of team most Division I-A teams like to avoid because they are capable of pulling an upset.In each of the past four seasons, the Wildcats have beaten a Division I-A team on ...