Pitt head coach Dave Wannstedt held his weekly press conference. The Panthers come off a crushing loss on the road against Virginia where the game was over before the first quarter was over. The last three weeks have been a struggle for Panthers as they will use the bye week to hopefully get back in the winning column. Don't even bother listening to his press conference. Here's what we came up with during Happy Hour at Bootlegger's:
On the loss to Virginia:
“We went in with the same game plan as we did for Connecticut the week before. Everything seemed to go according to plan. We let Virginia get a big lead on us which wore them out. This is where Buddy Morris’ strength and conditioning came into play. We figured with being down 27-0 early, we let them get all the scoring out of their system. The offense did a good job as we just ran the ball most of the time. Then we would go to our secret weapon which was the passing game. It worked to a degree as we were able to cut the lead to 30-14. After that, we had a few breakdowns and couldn’t score anymore. This goes back to how we execute our game plans on offense and defense. This is on me and the coaches. We will work hard in this bye week to address these concerns for when we play Navy.”
Why Pitt didn’t throw much at first:
“Again, it was part of the game plan. We figured by running the ball, we’d get those three and outs and give Virginia the ball back. We were hoping they wouldn’t score as much, but it didn’t work out that way for us. Once we started to pass, things got a little better. Then we just hit a wall and couldn’t score anymore. Then the defense just got tired and that happens. This also gave us a chance to evaluate our players so this was kind of like a preseason game for us. “
Jason Pinkston’s injury:
“Jason’s a little banged up as some of our other players are. I don’t think we’ll use more of our young players. We’re just going to throw the under-talented upperclassmen to the wolves. They’re not doing a damn thing and they don’t have much else to look forward to except for graduation or maybe the drink specials at McFadden’s. Again, 2008 is our target year. This is just a practice lap here. We figure with all the guys out for the year, we’ll have them for next year.”
On the struggles on defense:
“Well again it goes back to our game plan execution. We were hoping they would wear themselves out by the end of the first quarter. It looked like that was the case for a second until they caught their second wind. This goes back to what we do in practice. We tried the onside kick in the beginning. It wasn’t so much to get the ball first, but to let the other team’s offense wear themselves our quickly. We also gave their receivers 12 yard cushions just to play mind games with them. We figure they would get confused and just drop passes. Either way, they would just get worn out.”
On the Navy game:
“Navy has a good team. They love to run the ball which reminds me of those offenses back in the 70’s. We may implement the same game plan as we did with Connecticut and Virginia. It’s bound to work sometime. This might be our lucky day. Who knows, they may even feel sorry for us and let us win.”
On the season and the future:
”Again guys, I’ll say it again. 1976 National Champions, Miami Hurricanes in the 1980’s, Jimmy Johnson, Russell Maryland, How bout them Cowboys, Rick Mirer, Ricky Williams, Zack Thomas, Jason Taylor, Super Bowl rings, we need to run faster, things are looking up, execution of game plan, Ladies Night at Studebaker's in the strip, and the wall around Western PA. Need I say more?”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment