The More You Know...About Pitt

Dan E. Dangerously · Nov 25, 2013

Miami closes out the 2013 regular season with a trip to Pittsburgh on Black Friday. Lets dive in and see what Pitt is all about.

The last "The More You Know..." of the regular season. The week leading up to FAU feels like 9 years ago or something. Now we make the trip into Yinzer-vania to take on an old Big East foe in the form of the Pitt Panthers. Even though the Pitt football program is a publicly funded, state university, they actually have a lot similarities to Miami:

Pitt has produced some of the biggest stars in NFL history, and has fallen off from their past glory years.
They've had a string of bad coaches, but now have one that the fan base still has a lot of faith in.
They were screwed over by their biggest instate rival, Penn State, when they were dropped from the schedule.
They're located in an NFL market and have to play 2nd fiddle to said NFL team...even in said NFL team's stadium.
They have a pretty big problem with attendance.

This is a typical Pitt Panther home game:

So is this:

And this:

Look familiar? We're not the only ones that have this problem, despite what the "we have the worst fans" section of our fan base says on a regular basis. We're also not the only fan base that goes on the internet and rips into their players. I should have favorited all the tweets I've seen this year of Pitt fans saying the most vile and disgusting things imaginable about their starting quarterback, Tom Savage, so I could post them here. But Pitt sucks so I didn't feel like making the effort.

1. Where they are in the standings/rankings:

I sat and stared at those standings for about 30 minutes when I put this section together. I was so pist. It's kinda hard to not get angry when you look at them. We're still lurking in the shadows with the hopes of sneaking into Charlotte through the back door. We need Duke to lose to UNC, and then UVA has to somehow beat Virginia Tech for us to get there. But first we have to beat Pitt. Last year Pitt was just a mediocre Big East team, now they're just another bad ACC team. They became bowl eligible last week with their 17-16 victory in the Carrier Dome. Here's what Syracuse fans are saying about Pitt:

From: Nunes Magician

Sean Farrell said:
...In the final minute, Syracuse was down one, facing a 4th and 8 at the Pittsburgh 36 yard line. It looked as if the offense was staying on the field, until Norton rushed on with about 15 seconds left on the play clock. Shafer caught the Panthers off-guard as he was about to attempt a fake field-goal pass. But Pitt coach Paul Chryst saw what happened and called a timeout. Shafer chose to put his offense back in, rather than attempting a 53-yard kick. Terrel Hunt's pass was batted down...

Since Pitt is already bowl eligible and out of the division race, hopefully they won't be as amped up to win.

2. What happened the last time Miami played Pitt?

From the Associated Press:

...Jacory Harris led quick touchdown drives to start each half and No. 19 Miami dominated Pittsburgh much like it did when the schools were Big East Conference rivals, winning 31-3 on Thursday night. Harris had two more floater-type interceptions like the four he threw in a 36-24 loss to No. 2 Ohio State two weeks ago, but shook them off to throw for two scores and 248 yards while going 21 of 32. Damien Berry did the rest by running for 87 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries in an offense that outgained Pitt's 348-232...

Not only were guys like Seantrel, Clements, and Linder just freshman, but apparently the Dougie was still a thing as well. This game was a good example of the "Good Jacory, Bad Jacory" problems during his time at quarterback. Randy blamed both of Jacory's 1st half picks on Benjamin, just like he did in the prior game against Ohio State.

The combination of Pitt's offense being a dumpster fire, and Whipple managing to put his ego in check by running more and passing less allowed Miami to pull away. The comfortable 2nd half lead allowed Jacory to shake off those turnovers and play more efficiently.

3. Who to be scared of:

Aaron Donald

This guy is a monster who's having a statistical year that rivals Ndamukong Suh's senior year at Nebraska. Aaron Donald is tied for 9th nationally in sacks this year with 10 (28.5 career total), making him the only interior lineman in the top 10. He's also seventh in forced fumbles (.36 per game). Donald also leads all of college football in tackles for loss with 26 and tackles for loss yards with 129. The next closest player to his nation leading 2.36 tackles for loss per game is Ryan Shazier of Ohio state who has 1.86 tackles for loss per game. A difference of .5 in tackles for loss between 1st and 2nd place is a pretty wide gap. All of these things have made him a finalist for the Bronco Nagurski Trophy. He's also a semifinalist for the Bednarik, Outland, Lombardi, and Lott awards. Watch him dominate Georgia Tech's offensive line in a losing effort:

[video=youtube;C25r8eN44yA]www.youtube.com/watch?v=C25r8eN44yA[/video]

Wow. I forgot what it looked like for an interior defensive lineman to shoot gaps and create havoc. One former NFL scout said he's going to be the next Geno Atkins, but I think it's the same guy that said Morris was going to be a top quarterback in the draft so TIFWIW.

4. Player that will score against us:

Tyler Boyd

This 6'2, 185 lb. freshman wide receiver is going to kill us. This time last year Boyd was still playing high school football. Now he's having one of the better seasons of any freshman receiver out there. In his first ever college game he made several big plays against FSU in their opener.

[video=youtube;77PmhzcWwCs]www.youtube.com/watch?v=77PmhzcWwCs[/video]

So far this season he leads the team in both receptions (68) and receiving yards (903). He's also 2nd on the team with 6 touchdown catches. Here's him making an insane diving catch against UNC last week:

[video=youtube;oENT9YztZvU]www.youtube.com/watch?v=oENT9YztZvU[/video]

They also like to use him on reverses a lot. He's got 11 caries for 108 yards (9.8 per carry) and 1 touchdown. The 1 touchdown may have come against New Mexico, but it still counts as 6 points.

[video=youtube;GV14CvNxm5E]www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV14CvNxm5E[/video]

5. Person that will **** you off:

Mark May

Former Pitt offensive lineman Mark May sucks. I don't feel like I really need to say anything else other than that. Every time they go to the studio he'll be pumping up his awful alma mater. If they don't, they'll surely pan the cameras around to focus on the banner they have hanging up in Heinz Field that honors his worthless career. Here's him talking about us when the Yahoo! story first broke.

[video=youtube;4nr_SrxglqE]www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nr_SrxglqE[/video]

I hate this guy with the burning of a 1,000 suns.

6. Some guy:

Devin Street

This 6'4, 190 lb. Senior wide receiver Devin Street has had a great career at Pitt, totaling 202 catches for 2,901 yards and 16 touchdowns. He passed Larry Fitzgerald (161), Antonio Bryant (173), and Latef Grim (178) this season to become the all-time receptions leader in school history. This year he's second on the team with 51 receptions for 854 yards, and is leading the team in touchdown grabs with 7. Here he is diving into the endzone to tie the game against Notre Dame a few weeks ago:

[video=youtube;W1oMZVCCL64]www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1oMZVCCL64[/video]

Notre Dame sucks. Before the season the ACC Digital Network rated him as the 13th best player overall in the conference. They put this video together profiling him before the season began:

[video=youtube;QC6rSZqDQ5s]www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC6rSZqDQ5s[/video]

7. Official Internet meme for this game:

Joseph Ducreux/Archaic Rap

[video=youtube;pele5vptVgc]www.youtube.com/watch?v=pele5vptVgc[/video]