A Sense of Urgency
Pitt Ready To Prove It On The Field
By Tony DeFazio

On September 3, 2005, the Dave Wannstedt era at Pitt started with great fanfare. Notre Dame and Charlie Weis visited Heinz Field for a prime-time, nationally televised showdown. The Panthers took the opening drive 73 yards, sending the packed house into a frenzy when Tyler Palko hit Greg Lee in stride for a 39-yard touchdown to give Panthers a 7-0 lead.

That was the Panthers' final highlight of the game, the season and, until very recently, most of the Wannstedt era.

Notre Dame scored 35 of the next 41 points that night en route to a 42-21 dismantling of the Panthers. It got worse the next week when MAC weakling Ohio stunned Pitt 16-10 in overtime.

Wannstedt's first team finished 5-6, and the general consensus wrote-off the struggles to the typical difficulties of a transition year. After storming out of the gate the next season at 6-1, it looked as if that was the case. But when the opposition got tougher, the '07 team simply crumbled. Pitt dropped five straight to end another disappointing season.

Then came the injury-filled disaster of 2007. In an eerie foreshadowing of things to come, all-conference receiver Derek Kinder blew out his knee in camp. In the season's first game, starting quarterback Bill Stull fractured his thumb and was out for the year. A week later it was starting defensive tackle Gus Mustakas who went down for the count with a season-ending knee injury. Game 3? Goodbye to starting right tackle Jason Pinkston, who didn't play again after suffering a shoulder injury. Another season seemed to be slipping away.

The record was similar, but something different was happening - the team wasn't collapsing. With true freshman Pat Bostick forced to play quarterback behind a patchwork offensive line, there were plenty of stumbles-and some downright ugly falls-but no collapse. Pitt competed. They battled. They fought back from devastating mistakes (a botched goal line hand-off that prevented a potential game-tying score at Louisville), soul-crushing defeats (a triple-OT loss to Navy), and the heartbreak of a fourth quarter comeback win negated by a penalty (offensive pass interference in the end zone at Rutgers). Along the way, they managed to beat a 10-win team in Cincinnati.

But while the fight never disappeared, neither did the mistakes, and the losses once again piled up. November ended with the Panthers staring at a 4-7 record and one game to play.

"Our players stayed the course. It was the most incredible thing," says Wannstedt now. "Our players never gave up. Every week they gave it everything they had. We were just coming up little short."

That changed on Dec. 1.

13-9

When Pitt traveled to Morgantown to meet archrival West Virginia, the outcome seemed a mere formality. The Mountaineers hung 90 points on Pitt over the past two seasons; the Panthers were 28-point underdogs. Rich Rodriguez and WVU were one win away from a spot in the BCS National Championship Game.

Over the next three hours, everything changed. Pitt toppled the No. 2 team in the nation 13-9, Rodriguez's career at West Virginia was sent careening toward an ugly end, and Wannstedt at long last finally had his signature win. The Panthers headed into an off-season with a boost of optimism for a change.

"It was just huge," said safety Eric Thatcher. "Huge for us, and huge for our fans to let them know we weren't going to quit."

Wannstedt, while acknowledging the impact of the win at the time, is done talking about what Pitt fans now simply refer to as "13-9."

"The truth of the matter is that win won't have anything to do with us beating Bowling Green," he said, turning his attention to the '08 season opener. "We've got to go out and tackle and block and protect the ball to win that first game."

Wannstedt has spent the spring and summer challenging his players to sustain the momentum gained from their big win. One of his mantras throughout spring practice was that if the Panthers think they are a Top 25 team, then they must prove it.

"It was the ultimate - last year," stressed Stull, who has returned from injury as the front-runner to reclaim his starting job. "That's in the past now. We can build off it, but now it's time to move forward."

Defensive coordinator Phil Bennett, one of four new coaches on Wannstedt's staff, is anxious to see how his new players respond.

"How far can we carry it?" he asks. "One game never makes a season, it never makes a team, but I think that it was a stepping stone in the right direction-at the right time-for this program… We're more than capable. But we've got to prove it every time we step on the field."

EXPECTATIONS

For the first time since Wannstedt's first season at the helm, his team faces high expectations. Pitt finds themselves ranked in most preseason Top 25 projections, and the Panthers even received a first-place vote in the Big East coaches' preseason poll.

"The feel good vibe from the West Virginia win hasn't diminished yet," said Dennis Dodd of CBS Sportsline. "Dave Wannstedt might finally be putting it together."

The reasons for the optimism are simple: the win over West Virginia, 15 returning starters, budding superstars in running back LeSean McCoy and linebacker Scott McKillop, and a defense that ranked fifth nationally last year.

Wannstedt says Pitt finally has the pieces in place to play the kind of defense he envisioned was he was first hired.

"You don't play great defense on any level unless you've got the guys up front, and I like our depth," he said. "The great teams I've been around-every place I've been where we've played great defense-we've always had a great defensive line where we've had depth. I think I have that just about where it needs to be."

The excitement about the defense and potential of McCoy are tempered, however, by concerns about two crucial positions on the offensive side of the ball.

"The one position, along with quarterback, with questions is offensive line," admits Wannstedt. "The biggest challenge for our football team is for (new offensive line coach) Tony Wise to get those guys all on the same page working together and communicating so we can go out there and execute."

Last season, in spite of McCoy's Big East freshman record 1,328 yards, teams were able to load eight men at the line to stop him because Pitt's passing game was incapable of making defense pay for stacking the box. Offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh says that absolutely cannot happen again this fall.

"It's everything," he said of the offense's need to make plays downfield. "Last year we had a young quarterback who was physically not where he wanted to be, and he was not threatening anybody… We had to play a lot of games where we were conservative, trying to outmuscle people. Let LeSean get his yards, play great defense, play field position… We just felt like that's what we had to do to try to win a game. But I think we're beyond that now - not only with Bill back, but Pat Bostick has made tremendous strides to get himself stronger in his upper body; he's lost 20 pounds. So we feel like we now have a passing game that we're ready to use, and a running back that we have to continue to use. We feel like we can be a little more multi-dimensional now."

For his part, Wannstedt embraces the expectations, and thinks they are warranted.

"I like our chances every week," he says matter-of-factly. "I think that we've got to go out there and prove that the West Virginia win wasn't a freak win. I think that's the challenge."

His players, tired of three consecutive non-winning seasons, say they are ready to answer their coach's challenge.

"Even though we have a lot of expectations, we really haven't proved anything yet… We're coming off a 5-7 season so we haven't done anything. We haven't been to a bowl game in three years," said a newly healthy Kinder. "So I'm extremely hungry."

"All the pressure and all the talk that we're a good team - we're ready to back it up," added Stull, nearly bouncing out of his chair. "We have to."

NOW IS THE TIME

From national titles with the Miami Hurricanes and Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys, to being fired by the Chicago Bears and enduring All-Pro running back Ricky Williams' decision to quit his Miami Dolphins team on the eve of training camp, Wannstedt has virtually seen it all throughout his coaching career.

Does he feel any pressure to win in his fourth season at Pitt?

"There's a sense of urgency, yeah, but I wouldn't say pressure," he says. "Pressure is something you feel when you don't know what the heck you're doing. We know what we've got to do in order to win. There's a sense of urgency, though, to get it done."

Cavanaugh is more direct.

"There better be," he said. "We've been a .500 football team for three years and that's not anywhere near acceptable. Every player, every coach, everybody in the equipment room, training room and weight room better feel a hunger to win, and an urgency to win."

"We had five wins last year. We weren't good enough," said Wannstedt. "I think we've got enough talent to win, but we have to go out and get it done. We've got to prove it."

Tony DeFazio is the editor of the Pittsburgh Sports Report. You can reach him at TDeFazio (at) psrprt.com.