Carrier Dome, fans await Panthers

Anyone standing near the Panthers’ practice facility in the South Side on Wednesday probably… Anyone standing near the Panthers’ practice facility in the South Side on Wednesday probably would’ve thought there was a sell-out crowd on hand to watch the Pitt football team’s evening practice.

The Panthers (5-2 overall, 3-1 Big East) are preparing to travel to the Carrier Dome for a game against Syracuse (4-4, 2-1) on Saturday, and they’ve taken every precaution to ensure that Pitt’s young offense will be able to handle the extreme crowd noise.

This week, Pitt practiced indoors with high-powered speakers that blared recordings of rowdy crowds. It might not have been as powerful as 50,000 screaming fans, but it was enough to make quarterback Tyler Palko’s cadence impossible to hear.

“We could barely hear Tyler when he was standing right in front of us,” sophomore wideout Joe DelSardo said. “I think that we did a good job getting ready for crowd control, but it’ll definitely be different in the game. The Carrier Dome is a tough place to play.”

While the Panthers are doing everything they can to get ready for the noise, they are also hoping to play well enough to take the crowd out of the game.

“Our whole goal is to get a big lead early so we can quiet the crowd like we did two years ago,” Kirkley said, referring to the Panthers’ 48-24 win when they played at the Carrier Dome on Oct. 5, 2002. “We just need to execute and play our best. If we can jump out like we did against Rutgers, the crowd will be out of it by halftime.”

Head coach Walt Harris is hoping to jump out to an early lead as well, but he knows that the team has to be prepared for anything. He emphasized that earlier this week, and said that the coaching staff has been trying to correct the mistakes that got Pitt and Palko into trouble at UConn back on Sept. 30.

“[Palko’s] a little more experienced now than he was at UConn,” Harris said. “The problem at UConn was that we got backed up, right in front of their students. And we kept jumping offsides, and that killed our down and distance.”

If the Panthers are to have reasonable down and distances, they will have to stop a fierce Syracuse pass rush that has been presenting opposing offenses with problems all year long.

Orange defensive end James Wyche currently leads the Big East in tackles for losses with 13 and is second in sacks with 5.5. Wyche was recently named Big East co-Defensive Player of the Week for his career-best seven tackles and three sacks against UConn.

“They put the pressure on the passer,” Harris said. “We thought UConn was pretty good, and they ended up with five sacks on us.”

The Pitt defense will be faced with the task of stopping a Syracuse rushing attack led by senior Walter Reyes, who has rushed for 677 yards this season and is averaging 5.4 yards per carry. The Orange also rely on Damien Rhodes, a junior who has already rushed for 446 yards with an average of 5.3 yards per carry.

Saturday is Senior Day for the Orange, and if history proves anything, Pitt could be in for quite a challenge. Since 1994, Syracuse is 8-2 in its last home game of the season.

The Panthers are just two Big East wins away from capturing their first-ever Big East Championship. The team’s confidence was evident at the end of Wednesday’s practice, which ended with every player raising his helmet and shouting “Big East Champs.”

Harris is pleased with the team’s progress, but also pointed out that Pitt still has plenty of work to do.

“It’s not over,” Harris said. “In this job, it’s very difficult to spend much time thinking about how great it is right now. We have another tough game against a team that’s playing better than they have all year.”

“I’m proud of these guys,” he continued. “I think they have a chance to be a special team. They’re starting to put it together and give themselves a chance to be a good football team. But we’ve got a mountain climb and we’ve got a big game up at Syracuse, New York on Saturday.”

The game will be televised locally on WTAE. Kickoff is set for noon.