Pitt-Bulls game barks for Big East

Pitt football returns to action Saturday in Tampa, Fla., as the Panthers take on the South… Pitt football returns to action Saturday in Tampa, Fla., as the Panthers take on the South Florida Bulls at noon at Raymond James Stadium.

Pitt (6-2 overall, 2-1 in the Big East) had a bye week after its 20-10 loss to Rutgers at Heinz Field on Oct. 21. The Panthers are 5-2 in games coming after losses under head coach Dave Wannstedt.

“We had an opportunity to reflect, our players had a chance to get away from [the loss],” Wannstedt said. “Right now we’re going to need every ounce of focus and every ounce of concentration that we can muster up to take down with us to South Florida. They’re a very talented football team.”

South Florida (5-3, 1-2) hosts Pitt in its second-to-last home game of the year, where the Bulls are 3-0. South Florida returns home after an Oct. 22 loss at Cincinnati, where the Bearcats trumped the Bulls, 23-6.

“This will be a game they need to win as bad as we do,” Wannstedt said. “They’re coming off a tough loss at Cincinnati and a week off as we had, and that should make it an important game and a very good football game.”

But to win Saturday, Wannstedt believes Pitt must turn back the clocks and reshape its focus.

“There [are] a lot of things that can happen in a positive way if we get back to that same mindset that we had when we started the season against Virginia,” Wannstedt said. “We have to get back to basics and make sure we worry about one game, one play at a time.”

Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko has a high success rate against the Bulls in his two seasons as the Panther quarterback. Palko has thrown for 614 yards and eight touchdowns in two starts against South Florida, completing 34 of 49 passes without throwing one interception.

The Panthers defeated South Florida at Heinz Field last year, 31-17. In 2004, Pitt annihilated the Bulls, 43-14, en route to a share of the Big East Championship and the 2005 Fiesta Bowl.

But South Florida possesses redshirt freshman quarterback Matt Grothe, who led the Bulls to within two points of Rutgers on Sept. 29. Grothe leads the Bulls in rushing, with 482 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground.

“[Grothe] makes a lot of plays and a lot of good decisions,” Wannstedt said. “[South Florida] runs a form of the option offense. The quarterback has the ability to keep [the ball] in his hands any time he wants.”

Pitt’s rushing defense allows an average of 133 yards per game on the ground, while South Florida gains over 155 yards a contest. The Panthers allowed 268 yards rushing against Rutgers two weeks ago, and Wannstedt hopes the extra week of preparation will help his team.

“We were able to reevaluate some things from a self-scouting standpoint,” Wannstedt said. “[South Florida] is close to the West Virginia read offense, so the extra day or two was good for us to get that introduced to the players.”

But Wannstedt was quick to parlay the blame away from his defensive line for the rushing success of Rutgers.

“It’s a crying shame that [Ray Rice’s 63-yard run in the fourth quarter] turned the thing upside-down,” Wannstedt said. “[The defensive line] didn’t play as well as they could have, but it wasn’t just our defensive line.”

In the loss to Rutgers, the Panthers scored fewer than 20 points for the first time all season. South Florida allows more than 17 points per game, but still possesses the Big East’s fourth-best pass defense.

Pitt enters Saturday’s showdown with the second-best turnover margin (+9) in the Big East while South Florida is last at minus-5. But with safety Mike Phillips still nursing injuries, the Panthers’ secondary might have a void to fill.

“[Original starting safety] Eric Thatcher was making tackles, making interceptions, knocking balls down,” Wannstedt said. “Mike played better last week, but he’s still coming back from injuries, so it’s still a work in progress.”

The Panthers travel to South Florida as part of a two-week road trip that concludes Nov. 11 at Connecticut. Pitt finishes its season at home against West Virginia on Nov. 16 and Louisville on Nov. 25.

“You always see yourself as having an opportunity to get better,” Wannstedt said. “We have four games left and we want to play our best football at the end, so the key is to get back on track and pick up where we were when we started the season.”