Kirschman: Expectations were too high for Panthers

Maybe the expectations for the Pitt football team were a little too high. Perhaps the Panthers… Maybe the expectations for the Pitt football team were a little too high. Perhaps the Panthers had more rebuilding to do than most people anticipated.

In a year where basically every expert picked Pitt to go to a BCS bowl and some even thought  the team wouldn’t lose a Big East game, the Panthers finished 7-5 overall and 5-2 in the conference.

That’s a three-way tie for first place with Connecticut and West Virginia, but it’s the Huskies who will wrap up the year where Pitt fans thought their team would be playing — in the Fiesta Bowl.

So where did it all go wrong? What did everyone overlook?

First, replacing Bill Stull. You wouldn’t know it for the amount of “boo”s and “We want Tino!” chants that floated from the Heinz Field student section, but Stull was the first quarterback to lead a Pitt team to 10 wins since the Dan Marino era. Last season he threw for 2,633 yards and 21 touchdowns, with only nine interceptions.

At the end of the season, he was named to the All-Big East first team. And perhaps more important than all of that, Stull was the unquestionable leader of his football team. The players said it, the coaches said it, Stull said it — there was no doubt.

So say what you want about Stull, but that kind of leader is hard to replace right away, especially with a redshirt sophomore who never played any extended time at the collegiate level. Tino Sunseri definitely improved as the year went on and I, for one, am looking forward to watching him develop throughout his career. But it’s hard to start your career on a high note with an opening game against Utah and one soon after against Miami.

Here’s another reason the Panthers fell short of expectations: They really missed tight ends Dorin Dickerson, an All-Big East first team selection, and Nate Byham, an All-Big East second team selection, more than fans anticipated.

Pitt missed Byham’s blocking ability and Dickerson’s, well, everything. In his second season at tight end, he had 45 receptions for 508 yards and was named an Associated Press All-American.

Also, the offensive line lost three starters last season and Pitt’s struggles to replace Rob Houser, first team All-Big East right guard, John Malecki and four-year starter Joe Thomas were obvious — especially in the early going — and had a lot to do with Dion Lewis’ struggles.

Lewis, with the exception of the last game of the season against Cincinnati, never really seemed to get going this year. At least not in the way many expected from a sophomore starting the season on the Heisman watch list.

The Panthers also implemented two new starting cornerbacks, Antwuan Reed and Ricky Gary, and both interior defensive linemen were first-time starters. Defensively, Pitt missed Co-Big East Defensive Player of the Year Mick Williams and All-Big East first team performer Adam Gunn.

So maybe Pitt did start the season facing too high of expectations. Maybe we were all blinded by the promise of offensive stars in Dion Lewis and Jonathan Baldwin, so much so that we ignored some obvious holes in this football team.

Off the field problems — both injuries and legal issues — didn’t help. It’s nearly impossible to replace a player like injured Greg Romeus, the Co-Big East Defensive Player of the Year last season, both as a performer and a leader.

It often seemed like leadership was what these Panthers lacked most.