So riddle me this: If the University of Pittsburgh’s football program can’t take its own schedule seriously, why should anyone else?
No, really, not to pile on after the Panthers’ astounding 21-10 loss to Akron — you read that right — on this otherwise sunny Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field, but it doesn’t take an RPI database to determine that seeing a MAC opponent slated for Week 5, then spending most of Week 5 worrying about whether or not said opponent will be afforded the proper respect, that isn’t exactly the recipe for great galvanizing.
Plainly put, Pitt looks like a bored team.
With a bored base of fans and students.
With bored yellow seats, even, all 30,000, maybe 40,000 for any given game.
Here, listen to Ray Vinopal, heartbeat of the defense and one of the few Pitt players who reported for duty, when I asked what it will be like to finally resume ACC play next week at Virginia:
Doesn’t take much to read between the lines there, huh?
This isn’t to make excuses for any involved. There can’t be any for losing to Akron in the most trying of circumstances, much less one in which the home team holds two of the more dynamic offensive cards in the country in James Conner and Tyler Boyd. Can’t happen. Just can’t. This was worse than Youngstown State, worse than any loss under Chryst, worse than any loss under Todd Graham. And I’ll bet Dave Wannstedt would be all too happy to tell you it was worse than any loss under the Stache.
At the same time, let’s not pretend that this moribund schedule to date — Delaware, Florida International, Iowa and now Akron wrapped around that invigorating Week 2 ACC victory at Boston College — hasn’t had an effect. This is the time of year when college football’s snarls get snarlier, when all the emotion, all the energy comes from nothing but glancing at the schedule. And this schedule stinks.
Yes, they get set years in advance, but it’s still the same AD, Steve Pederson, responsible for this one and for the next several. And if it isn’t fair to criticize a schedule at the time it’s hurting the program, then when is?
Stepping into touchy territory here, two of West Virginia’s three non-Big 12 opponents this season were Alabama and Maryland. The Mountaineers lost to the former by 10, beat the latter by three in a thriller, and I’ve got to guess that Dana Holgorsen’s group is all the stronger for it. Penn State … ugh, sorry, it’ll be a while until I can start comparing that situation to those that involve nothing but football. Besides, everything is just so new in State College.
But you get the point: West Virginia isn’t alone. Most use the non-conference schedule to get better. Ohio State beat Kent State by 66, but the Buckeyes also played a tough Navy team, and they’ve got Virginia Tech and Cincinnati. Virginia, the Panthers’ next opponent, experienced close contests with UCLA and BYU.
Can anyone doubt the Cavaliers will be better prepared than Pitt on that count alone?
Or that their athletes and fans will be far more ready to roar?
Here’s hoping Pederson changes that approach, even if such changes will take years to manifest. The people who follow and love the program deserve far better.
From there, let’s call out what actually played out: This Pitt team can’t pass.
Specifically, Chad Voytik can’t pass.
I’ve given Voytik the benefit of the doubt through the first four games, challenging as those are to evaluate. I liked the way he trusted Boyd, the way he engineered meaningful pre-intermission drives against BC and Iowa, and I loved the way he told me up in Boston, “I feel like I’m growing a little big every week, like I’m ready for the next level.”
Sounded great. But he fizzled against Iowa and, on Saturday, was utterly exposed in going 20 of 34 for 220 yards with a TD, an interception and a pick-6 he was lucky to have nullified by a flag.
Chryst ducked a question about whether he considered inserting Trey Anderson again and, for the most part, backed Voytik: “I thought he was doing some good things.”
How boring, in and of itself.
Akron apparently didn’t think Voytik was doing some good things now or previously, judging by how they Xeroxed Iowa’s three-step process to beating Pitt:
1. Line up nine or 10 in the box pretty much all day to stop Conner.
2. Double-cover Boyd.
3. Let Voytik do whatever he wants.
Well, sure enough, Conner did his thing, bulldozing his way independently to 96 yards on 25 carries, albeit with no runs longer than 12 yards and no touchdowns.
And Boyd really did this thing, which I don’t mean in the best way. He caught six passes for 72 yards, which is decent for some, not for him. And worse, on a late Akron interception, he completely quit on the play even though the pick happened right in front of him. Seriously, he stood up right, raised his arms in exasperation and headed straight for the sideline.
Boyd wasn’t among the athletes in the media availability.
Regardless, those two aren’t the problem. Voytik is, in conjunction with Chryst not coaxing him to use others in the offense, notably — repeat after me — the tight ends.
I asked Chryst about the need to diversity the offense, and if it’s really going to be as simple for opponents as keying on Conner and Boyd: “Well, we hope not. But we’ve got to prove it. We’ve got to be able to beat that. I can do a better job. All of us have got to do a better job.”
That starts with Voytik, who no longer has anywhere to hide:
It’s a mess right now, no question. The defense shouldn’t go without blame, either, especially the young secondary again and the coaching staff. Vinopal blurted out that Akron brought “some things we hadn’t expected, which is a credit to their coaching staff.” Pitt’s coaching staff, not so much. Maybe they were bored with the challenge, too.
And it won’t help that wide receiver Manasseh Garner had his own blurt-out when asked what it’s like to be booed, as the Panthers were in the fourth quarter: “We don’t play for the fans. We play for each other and our families. The fans are with us when we win, and sometimes they’re against us when we lose. So we definitely are not playing for the fans.”
I get what he’s saying. That’s actually a commonly expressed sentiment in sports. But man, that won’t help fill all that yellow anymore than scheduling Akron for Week 5.
September 27, 2014
Column: Maybe Pitt’s real problem is boredom
by Dejan Kovacevic • Columns • Pitt
James Conner plows into Akron front seven for some of his 96 yards Saturday at Heinz Field. — PETE MADIA / PITT ATHLETICS
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
So riddle me this: If the University of Pittsburgh’s football program can’t take its own schedule seriously, why should anyone else?
No, really, not to pile on after the Panthers’ astounding 21-10 loss to Akron — you read that right — on this otherwise sunny Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field, but it doesn’t take an RPI database to determine that seeing a MAC opponent slated for Week 5, then spending most of Week 5 worrying about whether or not said opponent will be afforded the proper respect, that isn’t exactly the recipe for great galvanizing.
Plainly put, Pitt looks like a bored team.
With a bored base of fans and students.
With bored yellow seats, even, all 30,000, maybe 40,000 for any given game.
Here, listen to Ray Vinopal, heartbeat of the defense and one of the few Pitt players who reported for duty, when I asked what it will be like to finally resume ACC play next week at Virginia:
Doesn’t take much to read between the lines there, huh?
This isn’t to make excuses for any involved. There can’t be any for losing to Akron in the most trying of circumstances, much less one in which the home team holds two of the more dynamic offensive cards in the country in James Conner and Tyler Boyd. Can’t happen. Just can’t. This was worse than Youngstown State, worse than any loss under Chryst, worse than any loss under Todd Graham. And I’ll bet Dave Wannstedt would be all too happy to tell you it was worse than any loss under the Stache.
At the same time, let’s not pretend that this moribund schedule to date — Delaware, Florida International, Iowa and now Akron wrapped around that invigorating Week 2 ACC victory at Boston College — hasn’t had an effect. This is the time of year when college football’s snarls get snarlier, when all the emotion, all the energy comes from nothing but glancing at the schedule. And this schedule stinks.
Yes, they get set years in advance, but it’s still the same AD, Steve Pederson, responsible for this one and for the next several. And if it isn’t fair to criticize a schedule at the time it’s hurting the program, then when is?
Stepping into touchy territory here, two of West Virginia’s three non-Big 12 opponents this season were Alabama and Maryland. The Mountaineers lost to the former by 10, beat the latter by three in a thriller, and I’ve got to guess that Dana Holgorsen’s group is all the stronger for it. Penn State … ugh, sorry, it’ll be a while until I can start comparing that situation to those that involve nothing but football. Besides, everything is just so new in State College.
But you get the point: West Virginia isn’t alone. Most use the non-conference schedule to get better. Ohio State beat Kent State by 66, but the Buckeyes also played a tough Navy team, and they’ve got Virginia Tech and Cincinnati. Virginia, the Panthers’ next opponent, experienced close contests with UCLA and BYU.
Can anyone doubt the Cavaliers will be better prepared than Pitt on that count alone?
Or that their athletes and fans will be far more ready to roar?
Here’s hoping Pederson changes that approach, even if such changes will take years to manifest. The people who follow and love the program deserve far better.
From there, let’s call out what actually played out: This Pitt team can’t pass.
Specifically, Chad Voytik can’t pass.
I’ve given Voytik the benefit of the doubt through the first four games, challenging as those are to evaluate. I liked the way he trusted Boyd, the way he engineered meaningful pre-intermission drives against BC and Iowa, and I loved the way he told me up in Boston, “I feel like I’m growing a little big every week, like I’m ready for the next level.”
Sounded great. But he fizzled against Iowa and, on Saturday, was utterly exposed in going 20 of 34 for 220 yards with a TD, an interception and a pick-6 he was lucky to have nullified by a flag.
Chryst ducked a question about whether he considered inserting Trey Anderson again and, for the most part, backed Voytik: “I thought he was doing some good things.”
How boring, in and of itself.
Akron apparently didn’t think Voytik was doing some good things now or previously, judging by how they Xeroxed Iowa’s three-step process to beating Pitt:
Well, sure enough, Conner did his thing, bulldozing his way independently to 96 yards on 25 carries, albeit with no runs longer than 12 yards and no touchdowns.
And Boyd really did this thing, which I don’t mean in the best way. He caught six passes for 72 yards, which is decent for some, not for him. And worse, on a late Akron interception, he completely quit on the play even though the pick happened right in front of him. Seriously, he stood up right, raised his arms in exasperation and headed straight for the sideline.
Boyd wasn’t among the athletes in the media availability.
Regardless, those two aren’t the problem. Voytik is, in conjunction with Chryst not coaxing him to use others in the offense, notably — repeat after me — the tight ends.
I asked Chryst about the need to diversity the offense, and if it’s really going to be as simple for opponents as keying on Conner and Boyd: “Well, we hope not. But we’ve got to prove it. We’ve got to be able to beat that. I can do a better job. All of us have got to do a better job.”
That starts with Voytik, who no longer has anywhere to hide:
It’s a mess right now, no question. The defense shouldn’t go without blame, either, especially the young secondary again and the coaching staff. Vinopal blurted out that Akron brought “some things we hadn’t expected, which is a credit to their coaching staff.” Pitt’s coaching staff, not so much. Maybe they were bored with the challenge, too.
And it won’t help that wide receiver Manasseh Garner had his own blurt-out when asked what it’s like to be booed, as the Panthers were in the fourth quarter: “We don’t play for the fans. We play for each other and our families. The fans are with us when we win, and sometimes they’re against us when we lose. So we definitely are not playing for the fans.”
I get what he’s saying. That’s actually a commonly expressed sentiment in sports. But man, that won’t help fill all that yellow anymore than scheduling Akron for Week 5.