Pitt 28 - Notre Dame 21

As Len Martin and I were walking into Heinz Field last night, we had a conversation that boiled down into two main points.  One, that we hoped for a competitive game, and two, neither of us could remember that last time Pitt football posted a meaningful win, or a "signature" win.  There certainly had not been such a win in Paul Chryst's brief tenure as Pitt Head Coach, and wouldn't be something if such a win could possibly happen against Notre Dame?

Well, Pitt fans got both of those wishes last night with that 28-21 win over Notre Dame, and it was a well earned, well executed (for the most part) win over a team that no doubt has superior talent.  I am happy for Pitt, but I will take no more pleasure over this win than I would over any win over a strong, nationally ranked team.  One of the best young men I know is a Notre Dame graduate, and I'm sorry for him and his family, so there will be no hatin' on the Irish from this corner, as I enjoy the aftermath of Pitt's win.

I also have to say that the atmosphere at Heinz Field was really good last night.  It was a chilly but beautiful night. The stadium was sold out (although there were a number empty seats) and as you would expect, a large portion of the crowd was rooting for Notre Dame, but I saw no ugly incidents among the fans, unlike what people who may be dressed in Buffalo Bills garb may experience today at Heinz Field.  Do you think that that might possibly be because no beer is sold during the Pitt games?  Lots of tailgating pre-game with both Panthers and Fighting Irish fans pleasantly co-mingling.  The Pitt band was in great form, and the Pitt student body wass spirited and pretty much remained in the Stadium until the final gun.  And I have to say that Pitt really does a nice job in "presenting" the college football experience at Heinz Field.

So congratulations to coach Chryst and his Panthers.  In a season that has been mostly "meh", they delivered a big win last night against a quality opponent.  Panthers fans can only hope that this will be a nice stepping stone into the future.

Florida State 41 - Pitt 13

For the first time since my college days, I am a Pitt football season ticket holder (Man, those were the days - the Dave Hart and Carl DePasqua eras when 1-9 seasons were not uncommon, nor was it uncommon to see the clock run continuously in the fourth quarter when Pitt was getting thumped 62-7 to the Notre Dame and Penn State teams of that era), and I was anxious to see Pitt's ACC Inaugural game against Florida State, and to spend time with friends Dan Bonk, Len Martin, and their season ticket group.  

I make no claim to being an expert on Pitt's personnel, but those folks who are have told me that if Pitt manages a 7-5 or 6-6 season in 2013, they would consider it a success.  I do know that Florida State is always a force with which to be reckoned, so I had no great hopes for a Pitt upset last night.  Then, the Panthers took that opening kickoff and managed a very neat touchdown drive and led 7-0, and, well, the Seminoles are starting a freshman quarterback, so, hey, you never know, right?

Well, then that freshman QB, Jamies Winston took the field and the party was pretty much over.  He was simply remarkable.  At one point in the third quarter I said that I wish they would put his stats on the scoreboard, because, I said, "he has to have completed at least 75% of his passes."  Guess I wasn't playing as close attention as I thought, because Winston ended up going 25 for 27 (93%) for over 350 yards and four TD's.  Three of those TD's, by the way, were to  kid named Nick O'Leary, who happens to be the grandson of some guy named Jack Nicklaus.  Pretty cool.  Winston will be a most interesting player to follow throughout the season and his career.  He will certainly come up against far better defenses than what Pitt threw at him last night, but he sure looks like quite a talent.

It's easy, I suppose, to come down hard on Pitt, but both the good and bad news of last night was that eleven freshman received significant playing time in that game.  Pretty obvious that the there was not a lot there when Paul Chryst took over the Panthers in 2012.  If you are a Pitt fan, you can only hope that these kids turn out to be good players, and that Chryst and his staff can coach 'em up and get the best out of them.  Also, and I claim no expertise here, I am not sure that the ACC, with the exception of Notre Dame, is going to throw any stronger opposition against them than what Florida State did last night.  You just have to hope for game by game improvement as the season progresses and maybe for an unexpected upset somewhere along the line.

Two other things I'd like to comment upon concerning last night's game.

First, Pitt issued a special over-sized commemorative ticket for last night's ACC Opening Game.  I know that lots of folks collect such things.  The Heinz Field ticket takers then proceeded to fold the tickets and tear them in half.  And to make the cheese more binding, there was no perforation in the ticket so what you got back was a jagged, ripped ticket,  You could have gotten a cleaner tear if you bit your ticket in half with your teeth.  The tickets did have a bar code on them, but word was that the scanning equipment wasn't working last night.  So, so much for that nice souvenir ticket.  And you thought only the Pirates were capable of such screw ups!

Secondly, you may have heard reports on the radio today that the Pitt student section pretty much abandoned Heinz Field after the singing of "Sweet Caroline" at the end of the third quarter.   Wrong.  I would say that more than half of the Pitt students - and they had reported 11,000 student tickets sold - abandoned Heinz Field at halftime.  Those that were left then departed after "Sweet Caroline".  I am not sure how such a mass exodus can be prevented, but it doesn''t look good when your students exit in droves like that.  And I am not buying the reasoning of some hard line Pitt folks that this is all because that "damn Steve Pederson moved football off campus".

On the bright side, I had great time with the folks in the ticket group.  Male bonding at its finest!

Bring on them New Mexico Lobos!

Pitt Reels in the Recruits

Thanks to my friend Dan Bonk (Official Golden Panther to The Grandstander), I was able to attend the big National Letter of Intent Day event that Pitt held at Heinz Field last night.

Paul Chryst and his staff officially landed 27 recruits for the 2013 recruiting class, and a lot of great hoopla surrounded the announcement.  As Dan puts it, this event, along with the hoopla surrounding the NFL Draft, is one of the great "Non-Events" on the sports calendar,  but, what the hell, it's fun, and what's the value of following a team if you can't have a little unbridled optimism once in awhile.  

The way the deal worked last night, Chryst opened the show by thanking everyone for coming (and there was probably a couple of thousand people there) and their support. He then introduced each position coach who then talked about each of the kids, or, excuse me, each of the Young Men, who will be coming to Pitt this Fall.  Of course, every recruit was a tremendous football player with great "upside", and all were outstanding Young Men who came from Great Families.  When it was all said and done, you figure that Pitt should probably end up winning 45 games or so over the next four years.

We were the shown video game films from the high schools of each of the 27 Young Men who will be coming to Pitt. It got a little tedious, to be honest, but one thing I noticed was that on everyone of those tapes, the kid that was being highlighted was always, and I mean always, either the biggest or the fastest kid - and sometimes both - on the field.  The only problem is that now these 27 kids will now be competing with and against other kids who were the biggest and fastest kids on their high school fields.

I hope that ALL of these kids work out for Pitt, that they all become All-Americans, Heisman finalists, and/or first round NFL Draft picks, but the reality is that some of these kids won't make it.  Some will drop out of school for various reasons, some won't be good enough to play on the Division I-A level, and one or two may get arrested.  I don't know what the percentage is that makes for a really good recruiting class, but I'm thinking if seven or eight of those kids become solid two or three year starters, with one or two being solid NFL prospects, Chryst and his staff will probably be pretty happy with it.

In the meantime, as a brand new season ticket holder, I enjoyed last evening's event, and am looking forward to Pitt kicking it off in the ACC come Fall.