James Conner blows through Evrett Edwards (2) and Duke’s defense for an overtime touchdown. — PITT ATHLETICS
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
“It’s hard,” James Conner was fairly whispering, followed by the most uncomfortable of pauses. “We wanted to win. We wanted this.”
If I didn’t know better, I’d swear the big man had to gulp to collect himself.
Yeah, it’s hard, all right. It’s hard to see someone like Conner lay it all on the line, level defenders left and right, run for 263 yards and three touchdowns, then forced to sit there and talk about losing as if somehow he’d done something wrong.
Because you can run and run and run, but it will all feel like a treadmill so long as those in charge of the University of Pittsburgh’s once-proud football program keep running scared.
I know what you want here. You want some sort of evisceration of Paul Chryst for the bizarre call to run Chad Voytik to the right just before Chris Blewitt whiffed on a 26-yard field goal that would have won the game in the final ticks of regulation. And you want it all the more after hearing Chryst’s peculiar explanation when I asked him about that call: “With that lighter personnel group in and the clock going, it gave us an opportunity for a run that we had numbers on. We had a chance to run to the short side and get out of bounds, but we didn’t.”
Hoping to get out of bounds with eight seconds on the clock, the ball at the opponents’ 11-yard line and — this above all — a timeout left?
Yikes. How chaotic, confused and unstructured.
But sorry, that’s as far as I’ll go on that one. A 26-yarder is a chip shot regardless of the hash. Ideally, sure, it’s from the middle. But it still has to go through.
I won’t bury Blewitt, either. College student. Good player. It happens.
For that matter, I won’t focus on the insane decision by defensive coordinator Matt House to allow freshman Avonte Maddox to spend an entire half getting torched in one-on-one coverage by the ACC’s premier receiver, Jamison Crowder. Or that third-and-1 rollout that resulted in a 10-yard sack. Or Conner not being on the field for Pitt’s first two plays of the final regulation drive despite later stating he wasn’t tired or hurt. Or seeing neither Conner nor Tyler Boyd touch the ball on the final possession of overtime.
No, I’m just going to pound the same dead horse six or seven feet deeper and emphasize anew that nothing will change about Pitt football until it finds some guts.
Not the athletes, to repeat. I’m talking about the men in charge.
Want to know where the game was lost?
See above, then watch this:
But if you want know where it wasn’t won …
The Panthers already had been handed the heartbreak of Blewitt’s miss, and Duke stuck that dagger even deeper by breezing the full 25 yards to a touchdown on the opening drive of overtime. Immediately, though, it was Conner who answered with a 14-yard, not-to-be-denied, you’ve-got-to-be-kidding touchdown in which he demolished no fewer than three players — Jeremy Cash, Evrett Edwards and David Helton — who’d been waiting to clothesline him near the goal line.
It was breathtaking. Brilliant. The crowd of 15,000 or so lavished Conner and the Panthers with a roar so loud it almost sounded like the announced paid crowd of 39,293. It was a crescendo moment.
And yet, just as with the week before and that sadly passive punt from the opponents’ 40 that robbed his team of all momentum, Chryst again chose the route of least resistance: He had Blewitt boot the extra point to tie.
You know, rather than have Conner blow up some more bodies for 3 yards and the W.
What a statement it would have been, regardless of the result.
What a bounce-back from the Georgia Tech debacle.
Instead, it was, as ever, Pitt being Pitt.
I asked Chryst afterward if he’d thought about going for two there, and such questions will elicit a defiant response, oh, 99 percent of the time. But not this one:
Wow, right?
Well, maybe he’s learning, even if it might be too late, given the 4-5 overall record, 2-3 in the ACC and all but the omnipresent BBVA Who Cares Bowl standing as a goal.
Maybe he’s learning toward the future. Or maybe, he’s not the right choice going forward. I’m not prepared to take that on, to be candid. It’s Chryst’s third year, and the program is moving sideways in recruiting and results. For every offensive triumph such as putting up 594 yards on a 7-1 opponent, there’s a defensive disaster to match. For every bit of promise or potential, there are now four losses in the past five games.
Imagine the toll that takes on all concerned.
“You give your best, you put it all out there, and it isn’t enough,” Voytik said. “That’s frustrating.”
The view here is that Chryst deserves another year, in large part because Conner, Boyd and Voytik are all sophomores and the roster overall is the NCAA’s youngest. But man alive, get a clue already.
Well said. Sometimes you just HAVE to play like you have nothing to lose! And let's face it, Pitt ISN'T it right now, Pitt IS that program, a program that MUST take a step forward. Safe choices be damned! Conventional wisdom be damned!
I definitely was in the camp that Chryst is the right man for the job, but these last 5 games are making that harder and hard. The bad thing is the offense seems to be getting better, but his conservative nature is holding them back.
Could not agree more DK. The playes were not soft. The offense physically dominated Duke. The defense only gave up 3 points in regulation durrimg the second half. Honestly the players left it out there at the end of the game. The coaching staff did not.
Mr. Bowser, I sadly agree with you. I'm a Pitt grad and have been watching this program since the '80's. One or two decent years per decade, that's all you will get. Every coach this team has had plays not to lose, never to win...
Pitt being Pitt. Finding ways to lose. I feel terrible for James Conner. He has guts and toughness that his head coach doesn't have.
Paul Chryst "Man alive, get a clue already"
I couldn't have put it better DK.
My issue is the deer in the headlights look as HCPC ran off the field. His presser rivaled Bylsma's in cluelessness. Yet Pitt has to see if he can leave the Pitt coaching position in a better place after four years. I think Pitt has to see things from a new perspective .
At 4-4 when counting 15 rows of students that showed up, you go for 2. This individual game doesn't matter that much. At 7-1 it is a stupid risk, but no one was there to care. The entire culture of the school needs to change and kicking an extra point doesn't accomplish that.
Saw the score and article Dejan, but I'm an alum who just can't watch them or read about them any longer. It's really difficult to understand. Coaches, players, uniforms, stadium, AD's all change but results are the same. What to do, indeed.
Wow... OJT. Just how many years of it will this guy need?
He's getting paid $1.8m. That should be necessary. Someone needs to light a fire under his ass and explain that he'll be coaching high school football in Wisconsin in 2 years like his dad if he keeps this "act" up.
Good stuff. If you want to see a program WITH a clue, you could've just glanced across the sideline. David Cutcliffe has Duke playing smart, disciplined, risk-taking ball. He didn't hesitate to go for a TD w/ 3 secs left in 1st half. Duke's now 17-1 in its last 18 reg season gms.
Dk, as an alumni this is one of the most disappointing seasons in recent memory. You might be right in hedging on Chyrst for a year, but he has shown nothing to suggest that he gets it. Is the light switch really going to flip in year four? Year five?
But we have seen the results of pederson hires. The change in leadership needs to happen now with a new ad, who can have a year to evaluate the program and find a coach that doesn't play for ties and not to lose.
Had Pitt been 8-0 and ranked in Top 15, no gold out today. But, we'll never know since Pitt was not 8-0. If the ball was centered for final regulation FG, Pitt wins. But, we'll never know since ball was right hashed. If Conner gets ball in 2OT, Pitt scores TD. But ...
I said it before, is there a more frustrating team to watch in the country? The team has been eit her average or horrible for many years. And, the year with decent talent, Wanny ruins it by playing every game not to loose. Program needs clean, except for coach, that is 50/50
November 1, 2014
Column: A program running scared
by Dejan Kovacevic • Columns • Pitt
James Conner blows through Evrett Edwards (2) and Duke’s defense for an overtime touchdown. — PITT ATHLETICS
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
“It’s hard,” James Conner was fairly whispering, followed by the most uncomfortable of pauses. “We wanted to win. We wanted this.”
If I didn’t know better, I’d swear the big man had to gulp to collect himself.
Yeah, it’s hard, all right. It’s hard to see someone like Conner lay it all on the line, level defenders left and right, run for 263 yards and three touchdowns, then forced to sit there and talk about losing as if somehow he’d done something wrong.
No. 24 Duke 51, Pitt 48.
Double overtime.
Because you can run and run and run, but it will all feel like a treadmill so long as those in charge of the University of Pittsburgh’s once-proud football program keep running scared.
I know what you want here. You want some sort of evisceration of Paul Chryst for the bizarre call to run Chad Voytik to the right just before Chris Blewitt whiffed on a 26-yard field goal that would have won the game in the final ticks of regulation. And you want it all the more after hearing Chryst’s peculiar explanation when I asked him about that call: “With that lighter personnel group in and the clock going, it gave us an opportunity for a run that we had numbers on. We had a chance to run to the short side and get out of bounds, but we didn’t.”
Hoping to get out of bounds with eight seconds on the clock, the ball at the opponents’ 11-yard line and — this above all — a timeout left?
Yikes. How chaotic, confused and unstructured.
But sorry, that’s as far as I’ll go on that one. A 26-yarder is a chip shot regardless of the hash. Ideally, sure, it’s from the middle. But it still has to go through.
I won’t bury Blewitt, either. College student. Good player. It happens.
For that matter, I won’t focus on the insane decision by defensive coordinator Matt House to allow freshman Avonte Maddox to spend an entire half getting torched in one-on-one coverage by the ACC’s premier receiver, Jamison Crowder. Or that third-and-1 rollout that resulted in a 10-yard sack. Or Conner not being on the field for Pitt’s first two plays of the final regulation drive despite later stating he wasn’t tired or hurt. Or seeing neither Conner nor Tyler Boyd touch the ball on the final possession of overtime.
No, I’m just going to pound the same dead horse six or seven feet deeper and emphasize anew that nothing will change about Pitt football until it finds some guts.
Not the athletes, to repeat. I’m talking about the men in charge.
Want to know where the game was lost?
See above, then watch this:
But if you want know where it wasn’t won …
The Panthers already had been handed the heartbreak of Blewitt’s miss, and Duke stuck that dagger even deeper by breezing the full 25 yards to a touchdown on the opening drive of overtime. Immediately, though, it was Conner who answered with a 14-yard, not-to-be-denied, you’ve-got-to-be-kidding touchdown in which he demolished no fewer than three players — Jeremy Cash, Evrett Edwards and David Helton — who’d been waiting to clothesline him near the goal line.
It was breathtaking. Brilliant. The crowd of 15,000 or so lavished Conner and the Panthers with a roar so loud it almost sounded like the announced paid crowd of 39,293. It was a crescendo moment.
And yet, just as with the week before and that sadly passive punt from the opponents’ 40 that robbed his team of all momentum, Chryst again chose the route of least resistance: He had Blewitt boot the extra point to tie.
You know, rather than have Conner blow up some more bodies for 3 yards and the W.
What a statement it would have been, regardless of the result.
What a bounce-back from the Georgia Tech debacle.
Instead, it was, as ever, Pitt being Pitt.
I asked Chryst afterward if he’d thought about going for two there, and such questions will elicit a defiant response, oh, 99 percent of the time. But not this one:
Wow, right?
Well, maybe he’s learning, even if it might be too late, given the 4-5 overall record, 2-3 in the ACC and all but the omnipresent BBVA Who Cares Bowl standing as a goal.
Maybe he’s learning toward the future. Or maybe, he’s not the right choice going forward. I’m not prepared to take that on, to be candid. It’s Chryst’s third year, and the program is moving sideways in recruiting and results. For every offensive triumph such as putting up 594 yards on a 7-1 opponent, there’s a defensive disaster to match. For every bit of promise or potential, there are now four losses in the past five games.
Imagine the toll that takes on all concerned.
“You give your best, you put it all out there, and it isn’t enough,” Voytik said. “That’s frustrating.”
The view here is that Chryst deserves another year, in large part because Conner, Boyd and Voytik are all sophomores and the roster overall is the NCAA’s youngest. But man alive, get a clue already.
Understand, what ails Pitt is Pitt itself.