Mitsch: Wannstedt’s running out of excuses

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – I’d like to know what Dave Wannstedt really thinks.

But after the… CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – I’d like to know what Dave Wannstedt really thinks.

But after the most embarrassing loss of his tenure this side of Athens, Ohio, what did he have to say? That this team, in its third year under his leadership, has made no visible progress?

That this team’s offensive play calling didn’t change until Saturday’s game was all but over? Which, by the way, was midway through the first quarter.

That this team could very possibly finish in either of the bottom two slots in the Big East standings? Or that maybe this whole coaching thing just isn’t for him?

Nope.

“I’ll tell you exactly what I told the players,” Wannstedt said after Virginia humiliated his Panthers Saturday, 44-14. “I don’t believe we are as bad of a football team as we have showed the past two weeks.”

That includes last week’s 34-14 pasting by Connecticut at Heinz Field – a game in which Pitt ran for only 72 yards and had 43 yards passing in the first half, a game in which Pitt turned the ball over six times. The game after which Wannstedt said he’d take full blame for Pitt’s deplorable performance.

Well, coach, how do you explain this one?

The troubling part is