Dave Wannstedt Press Conference

Monday was that time of the week for the Dave Wannstedt press conference. Dave spent the time fielding questions about the Navy game and the upcoming game against Cincinnati. Pitt has lost four in a row, and the end of their losing streak doesn't seem to be in sight. Where there is negativity, there's always that little ray of positivity. Panther Rants was there to cover the press conference after from Elijah Fields' dorm room.


On the loss to Navy:

I felt we played a good game overall. Navy will always be a tough opponent. I remember playing them in the 70's. Johnny Majors, Jimmy Johnson, Carl DePasqua, Jackie Sherril...you know the drill. I mean there were a lot of positives to take from this game. One, we scored 45 points on offense. We ran the ball at will, and Pat right now is reminding me of young Jay Fiedler. On defense, we're still having some issues with execution. We figure for as small as Navy were, they would wear themselves out as well. It almost happened a few times when we made some stops. We just couldn't stop them from going in the endzone.

On the defense:

There's nothing wrong with the defense. It's just execution. We're doing a lot of good things on this defense. Why are you guys looking at me like that? Okay...Okay, we have a lot of issues on defense. We're not tackling well, covering receivers well, forcing turnovers...hell we're not doing a damn thing. So maybe we might tweak it a bit. Then again when we blitz, we give up big plays. When we don't, we give up 6-8 yards at a time. Sometimes we get lucky and they'll punt the ball. It's the lesser of the two evils. I don't know. I'm stumped on this one. Anyone got any ideas?


On Depth Chart Changes:

I remember our first Super Bowl year in Dallas, Jimmy cut some players who weren't performing well to send a message to the team right before we headed to the playoffs. Curvin Richards was one of them. I wanted to use him at linebacker, but Jimmy told me I should stop hanging out with Michael Irvin. Once I did, I understood his point. I won't do the same like we did in Dallas. Everyone needs a chance. Mike Phillips and Erick Thatcher are seniors. I figured sooner or later, they'd learn how to cover someone. Same with Kennard Cox. He only plays so far off his receiver just to be fair. I mean that's a good sportsmanship right there.

On the upcoming game against Cincinnati:

I think we have a good shot at this one. We've won the last two against them. We want to keep the River City Trophy here. Cincinnati does have a good team, but they're playing at Heinz. Cincinnati teams don't have much luck here. We're going to stick to our game plan of offense. LeSean should be well rested after the workout he had last game. I didn't give him the ball on that last overtime drive because I wanted him well rested for next game. As for the defense....we plan to......wait a minute! Where did everyone go? The room emptied already????