Pitt prepares for first game on the road

The Panthers are stirring some excitement in Alabama.

Pitt (1-1) travels to… The Panthers are stirring some excitement in Alabama.

Pitt (1-1) travels to Alabama-Birmingham (1-1) to take on the Blazers tomorrow night in what UAB has promoted as the Steel City Showdown. The Panthers’ and Blazers’ last meeting resulted in a 24-6 Panthers victory and a trip to the Tangerine Bowl back on Dec. 1, 2001.

In two games this season, Rutherford threw for 266 yards and guided the offense to 425 yards of total offense and five touchdowns, three of which he scored himself.

The problem has been consistency. Pitt is coming off a 14-12 loss to Texas A’M in which the Aggies dominated the first half defensively as they held Pitt to 34 yards of offense. Toward the end of the third quarter, the offense began to move the football and found the end zone twice in the second half.

The controversy over the extra point led to the Panthers being down by two points when they scored their final touchdown of the day. But the two-point conversion failed.

“We are inconsistent,” head coach Walt Harris said. “We should be running the ball at a better level.”

The combination of running backs Brandon Miree, Marcus Furman and Raymond Kirkley has produced 250 yards rushing on 83 attempts, which is an average of 1.8 yards per carry. Miree is at the head of the pack with 131 yards rushing on 29 attempts and an average of 4.3 yards per carry and will get the start.

“His [Miree’s] progress was set back since he got hurt in camp,” Harris said. “Miree is going to start – hopefully we will play them all.”

In two games this season, UAB gave up a total of 1,070 yards of total offense with 614 of those being passing yards.

“They (UAB) played Florida, which is one of the best teams in the country. One receiver had 260 yards receiving,” Harris said. “I think we do what we need to do. We like to run the ball.”

The Blazers are coming off a 27-26 victory over Troy State, in which they surrendered 223 yards on the ground and 204 yards passing to the Trojans. In UAB’s first game of the season, it gave up 233 rushing yards and 410 yards through the air.

The Blazers’ defense features four linemen, two linebackers and five defensive backs.

Senior free safety Chris Brown led the team in tackles with 10 after the Florida game. Junior weak safety Thurman Pearson had the teams’ only interception.

Look for Pitt wide receivers Lamar Slade, Larry Fitzgerald and Roosevelt Bynes to have a height advantage over the Blazers’ secondary as corners Carlos Hendricks and Dio Hill are both listed at 5 feet 10 inches. Pearson and Brown are listed at 6 feet 1 inch and strong safety Julius Wainwright is listed at 6 feet. Slade, Fitzgerald and Bynes are 6 feet 4 inches, 6 feet 3 inches and 6 feet 1 inch respectively.

On offense, the Blazers mustered 461 total yards. Redshirt freshman Darrell Hackney and senior Thomas Cox both saw action at quarterback in UAB’s two games. Hackney completed 20 of 38 passes for 223 yards and one touchdown. Cox attempted 14 passes and completed four of them for four yards. Hackney and Cox both appear to be most dangerous with their legs, as they have rushed for 45 yards on 14 attempts and 50 yards on 18 attempts respectively.

Sophomore running back Kendal Gibson rushed for 103 yards on 18 attempts. Gibson is built like a fullback, as he is 6 feet tall, 245 pounds, which is bigger than Pitt fullback Lousaka Polite who is 6 feet tall, 240 pounds.

Wide receiver Kenneth Borders leads the receiving corps with five receptions and 58 yards. T.J. Simmons is right behind Borders with four receptions and 54 yards and a touchdown.

Kickoff is scheduled for tomorrow night at 7 p.m. and will not be televised.