Blogs

Pat Bostick replaced an injured Kevan Smith at quarterback in the second half, leaving Pitt with only one healthy scholarship quarterback in its Big East Conference opener against Connecticut at Heinz Field. A hyper-extended right elbow forced Smith to the sidelines, where he watched the second half without shoulder pads. Smith, a redshirt freshman from [...]

Connecticut picked apart Pitt’s defense for 218 yards as it rolled to a 27-7 halftime lead Saturday night in the Big East Conference opener at Heinz Field. The Huskies turned two Pitt turnovers into 10 points, starting with linebacker Danny Lansanah’s interception of a Kevan Smith pass that set up their first touchdown and ending [...]

Connecticut took advantage of a Pitt interception, then put together a scoring drive reminiscent of last season to take a 10-0 lead at the end of the first quarter in the Big East Conference opener at Heinz Field. Pitt redshirt freshman Kevan Smith made his third consecutive start at quarterback, but his first pass was [...]

College football coaches are keen on saying that adversity reveals a team’s true character. If so, Pitt’s first loss of the 2007 season certainly exposed its weaknesses but also showed that the Panthers have some resolve. The 17-13 loss at Michigan State told us what we already knew about Pitt: LeSean McCoy was ready for [...]

Call it the quarterback controversy that wasn’t. Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt downplayed the idea that there is much competition going on at quarterback, where redshirt freshman Kevan Smith was supposed to be challenged by true freshman Pat Bostick this week. By all indications, Smith should make his third consecutive start when Pitt plays Connecticut in [...]

The lost story against Michigan State was that, for the first time under Dave Wannstedt and the first time in a long time, Pitt’s defensive line was dominant. The Panthers held the backfield duo of Jehuu Caulcrick and Javon Ringer to a combined 163 yards rushing on 41 carries, well below their average of 220. [...]

Pitt junior Dave Brytus, a West Allegheny graduate, is one of 41 players named to the watch list for the Ray Guy Award, presented annually to the top collegiate punter. The Ray Guy Award is based on total yardage punted, number of times a punt is downed or kicked out of bounds inside the opponent’s [...]

Not to contribute to a contrived quarterback controversy, but Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt spent much of his news conference downplaying the significance of the Wildcat formation in the Panthers’ offense. “I don’t want to open up a can of worms with this thing,” Wannstedt said. “That can be the problem with this. It can become [...]

Just when you thought Pitt’s offense couldn’t get much worse, the Panthers went from vanilla to Neapolitan by dumping the conventional West Coast offense in favor of the Wildcat formation against Michigan State. Pitt has long been awaiting an opportunity to use the direct snap to a tailback and the options that comes with having [...]

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Pitt found success when it abandoned the quarterback position in the second half in favor of direct snaps to the tailback, but the Panthers couldn’t protect the ball when they needed to most. Pitt was plagued by four turnovers – two fumbles and two interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown [...]