Panthers face must-win game against Mountaineers

The Pitt football team has found itself in quite a sticky situation.

At one point this… The Pitt football team has found itself in quite a sticky situation.

At one point this team made history at the University with a 6-1 start, the best at Pitt since Dan Marino was around, and now it is only two weeks away from going two consecutive seasons without a bowl bid.

With six wins, the team is technically bowl-eligible, but after three straight losses, most recently this past Saturday at UConn, 46-45, in double overtime, Pitt is on the verge of finishing the season 6-6 and with five consecutive losses, not too appealing if you’re the one sending out bowl invitations.

The last two games on Pitt’s schedule are against two top 10 teams: WVU and Louisville. Unless Pitt can upset the Mountaineers or the Cardinals, it will once again be home for the holiday break. This issue and others came up after the UConn game.

Run, Huskies, Run In recent memory the Panthers have had their problems stopping the running game, but the loss to UConn blew all other losses out of the water.

While the Huskies didn’t quite put up the 451 rushing yards that WVU did last year against the Panthers, UConn did it without the talent level WVU possesses. A year ago, the Mountaineers’ Steve Slaton rushed for 179 yards while Pat White rushed for 220.

On Saturday, Pitt allowed UConn’s quarterback D.J. Hernandez, who was making only his fifth start and prior to the game had only rushed for 69 yards on 51 carries, rush for 130 yards on 17 carries. Pitt was also torched by redshirt freshman tailback Donald Brown, who gained 205 yards and scored twice for UConn in the win.

“This wasn’t a lack of effort, we just couldn’t make a tackle,” head coach Dave Wannstedt said after the game.

The Panthers will definitely have to retool for the short week as they prepare for Thursday’s Backyard Brawl and rematch with Slaton, the nation’s fifth-best rusher, and White.

“Getting ready for Steve Slaton, we’re going to have to do something new,” Pitt linebacker H.B. Blades said. “At this point, the records don’t matter in those games, and we have to be ready.”

Vick Who? Although it’s been quite some time since Michael Vick opposed the Panthers in the Big East as a Virginia Tech Hokie, the Panthers have made it seem like they’ve been going against Vick-like QBs.

Hernandez’s big rushing game made him the third quarterback to rush for at least 100 yards against the Panthers this year. Michigan State’s Drew Stanton rushed for 105 in the Spartans’ 38-23 win and South Florida’s Matt Grothe rushed for 180 in a 22-12 win.

Hopefully for Pitt, that number stops at three, but after last year’s explosion for White, 100 yards for him would be a bad game.

Big Day for Buches Senior tight end and captain Steve Buches had a career day in Pitt’s losing effort against UConn and was one bright spot for the Panthers in the heart-breaking defeat.

Buches had a team-high and career-high five catches for 73 yards against the Huskies. Two of those catches went for first quarter touchdowns and gave the Panthers a commanding 14-3 lead.

Buches, a leader on this Pitt team, told reporters after the game that the big day didn’t mean as much because it came in a loss: “I’d trade all of those catches and touchdowns if we could have won the game.”

Code Blue The Panther Pitt, the student-led group that heads the student section for all Pitt home games, will be trying something different for the Backyard Brawl this Thursday at Heinz Field.

They are asking that all students in the student section participate in “code blue,” which means wear blue to the game if you go. The idea spawned from Penn State’s “white-out” but will be especially necessary since both Pitt and WVU don navy blue and gold. WVU will be in the visiting whites, while Pitt will sport their home navy blue uniforms.

Kickoff on Thursday is set for 7:30 p.m.