Fanelli: Panthers can’t find consistency

For this year’s Pittsburgh Panthers football program, inconsistency has been the name of the… For this year’s Pittsburgh Panthers football program, inconsistency has been the name of the game. From settling on a head coach to the outcomes of the games, the team has fluctuated like the stock market.

This past weekend’s 34-10 blowout loss to Rutgers came on the heels of Pitt’s biggest moment yet in the Todd Graham era — a 44-17 victory over previously No. 16-ranked South Florida.

Head coach Todd Graham’s mantra for this season has always been about no turnovers and no negative yardage plays. The team had the belief that if they could abstain from these mental errors, they would be able to score against anyone and — simply put — win games.

“We’re just being inconsistent and we are not being mature enough as a football team to execute the plan,” Graham said. “That’s our job. It’s my responsibility to do that. Obviously, I didn’t have them ready.”

Mental mistakes have run rampant, from quarterbacks Tino Sunseri and Trey Anderson combining for eight interceptions through six games to the consistent breakdowns by the offensive line. Those breakdowns have resulted in Sunseri being sacked 27 times already this year, compared to just 21 times in the entire season last year.

Obviously, the team has struggled with starting linemen Lucas Nix’s and Chris Jacobson’s injuries.

“When you don’t have [Chris] Jacobson and Lucas [Nix] out there, it’s tough,” Graham said.

Regardless, their replacements were recruited to play offensive line at the Division 1 level, and they are still expected to protect the quarterback.

While growing pains can certainly be expected from any transition from one head coach to another, players deemed this transition period over a couple of weeks into the season. Yet, they still don’t seem to have a grip on how to properly execute everything.

Senior defensive tackle Chas Alecxih sees the glaring inconsistencies.

“We’re up and down every other week,” Alecxih said. “We’re just trying to find that level of consistency that we played with two years ago and we played with a little bit last year”.

With high expectations, some players know it’s about the Panthers and not their opponents. “I knew we’d be our own worst enemy,” Alecxih added.

The only consistent part of the Panthers’ season so far has been star running back Ray Graham, who is leading the nation in total rushing yardage with 899 yards. He’s also leading the team in receptions with 27. If Graham weren’t playing at such a high level, who knows how low the Panthers would be sitting right now?

“There’s been some ups and downs this year, but we’ve had a lot bright spots,” co-offensive coordinator Mike Norvell said.

The season is only six games in and this team is still in contention for the Big East title, which was really all that they had aspired to achieve. If the team can build off these bright spots, they might still have a shot at salvaging the season.

Graham was advertised as a master motivator, and if there was ever a time to light a fire under the players, it’s this weekend. The Panthers will get a shot to avenge last season’s loss to Utah before they finish the bulk of their Big East schedule.