Remember the little bit of optimism people had in the Pitt football program after the Panthers… Remember the little bit of optimism people had in the Pitt football program after the Panthers nearly upset Nebraska just a few short weeks ago?

It wasn’t much, but a select few actually believed that this team had a shot at competing for a Big East title.

Since then, Pitt has squeaked by Division I-AA Furman and Big East bottom-feeder Temple and even lost to UConn — whose football program is barely older than my favorite pair of shoes.

After this weekend, Pitt’s near “upset” of Nebraska and “great comeback” over Furman aren’t looking so tremendous.

Nebraska suffered a 70-10 drubbing at the hands of Texas Tech, and Furman — who led Pitt by 17 in the fourth quarter — lost to Appalachian State on Saturday.

Kudos to head coach Walt Harris for another great win over another bad team. Never mind that the Temple Owls gave up 70 points to Bowling Green.

Harris should have a long talk with his offensive coordinator about game management.

Oh, wait … Harris is the offensive coordinator.

He is currently the head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. That’s a three-man job by most standards. When former offensive coordinator J.D. Brookhart took the head coaching position at Akron, Harris should have put his ego aside and hired a new assistant.

After all, isn’t Harris the one who said that calling plays is hard when you don’t know which ones are going to work?

Harris did a great job to put Pitt’s football program back on the map, but, as the old saying goes, “What have you done for me lately?”

This week, the Panthers take on Boston College. The Golden Eagles flew past UConn 27-7, and, unless Pitt can shore up its offensive line and its defense in a week, the Panthers could be in for a spanking Saturday at Heinz Field.

Ryan Walker is the sports editor of The Pitt News and can be reached at [email protected].