Dave Wannstedt had his weekly press conference on Monday. This week's version is filled with all kinds of puzzling things.
So without further ado:
10. About Tino's two costly interceptions: "I think that Tino Sunseri, would he like to have a few of those throws back (at Connecticut)? Sure he would, any quarterback would. I don't think it was a situation where it was confusion on his part of what to do. I think he has progressed week after week. Just like any other player on the team, we show him the tape and we have to make the corrections as coaches. We can't let those same mistakes happen again, that's the key." Dave's right about this one in a way. With the way Tino was playing, it was easy to expect more from him last week and think that he's not going to have bad games. But the fact is that he's still only a sophomore. He's going to have bad games and make mistakes. And that's where Dave probably misspoke a bit - those mistakes are going to happen again. Even great quarterbacks make poor throws. He's not going to be perfect and he's going to make bad decisions from time to time. 9. More about the team's youth: "We're constantly re-evaluating positions. With Greg Romeus out, and when you look at our defensive line - all four of our backup defensive line are all freshmen right now. Three of them are true freshmen and one of them is a redshirt freshman. We're young and we know that. Not much here, but doesn't youth come up an awful lot with this team? 8. Was the team ready against UConn? I felt like our players prepared well. I thought we went up there and they had the right mentality and energy to go up there and win the game. I really don't know how to take this. The team may have said/done the right things leading up to the game, and while they may have prepared well, special teams gaffes shouldn't happen if you're mentally prepared. On the kickoff, you've got to know that the one thing you can't do is allow a team to run the length of the field. And on the return, the one thing you can't do is fumble fighting for a few extra yards. Those are mental lapses that can't and shouldn't happen. 7. By the way, Pitt's still in first place:
Good call, obviously. Pitt's first-place lead is essentially meaningless. Bottom line is the team can't afford to lose any of its last games. Yes, they can still win the Big East depending on who they lose to and if UConn loses again, but Pitt really doesn't want to go that route. 6. Pitt's getting ready to play at South Florida:
"That means nothing to us. Right now we have to find a way to win a game, and all that other stuff really doesn't matter. We have to win a game, become bowl eligible and go from there."
"Getting ready for South Florida this week, I think we're all aware that they beat Louisville last week and that they have won three games in a row. Playing down there is a challenge. It will be exciting to get back up here and playing at home.
Okay, this is just weird. Can we at least finish the USF game before talking about coming back home to play? I'm sure it's not intentional, but the first thing I think of when I read this is that Pitt is almost looking past this game just so it can play at home again. Pitt has three games left and two are on the road. The talk should be focusing on how the team needs to thrive on the road - not dying to get back to Heinz Field.
5. Jordan Todman goes off:
Dude goes for 220+ and you're going to call out two plays? Really? Todman had seven plays of ten yards are more and rushed for more than 200 yards. I don't think it really boiled down to two plays.
and
1. Romeus' NFL chances:
"I feel like he'll be able to get ready for the combine once he gets taken care of, whatever that has to be. I think Greg's football reputation speaks for itself, so that won't be an issue. They'll just want to know that he's healthy and ready to go. His production is strong. He has good tape and a strong history. These things fortunately don't happen very often, but they do happen. I will do everything I can, and we will as a university do everything we can, to make sure that everything is done right. I believe that he'll be playing on Sundays for a long time."
You can't say it much better than Wannstedt did right there. You feel so bad for Romeus, but at the same time, he had a heck of a career at Pitt. Just goes to show you that recruiting rankings aren't always right. If he can stay healthy, he'll be a player.
4. So did Pitt play well at all?
Maybe, but I don't want to hear anything about positives after this game. The Big East title isn't lost yet, but finding positives out of this game is like saying Pitt's offense put up a ton of points against Cincinnati last season.
3. Okay, so about those kickoffs...
"They (UConn) didn't do anything different on that return (that went for a touchdown) than what they did on the one that we tackled them inside the 20. The only difference being that we didn't have the urgency that we did when we hit them inside the 20. Being able to keep our focus and not get caught up in the emotion of the game is a big part of this game on any level. It's a maturity thing. We score a touchdown, we go up, everything is happening fast. Then we get in there, out of position, and we don't get off a block and that's the end result. It wasn't anything overly sophisticated.
"Did we watch it? Did we correct it? Did we watch the kickoff return for a touchdown by South Florida? Yes, multiple times."
So just like that it's corrected? Wow, I'd like to see it actually happen in a game before I make that assertion.
2. About Greg Romeus"
"Finally, everybody's been calling about Greg Romeus. This is a young man that I have strong, strong feelings for. He did sustain a knee injury. It was an ACL tear during the game. He's going to get a second opinion on Tuesday, but all indications and how it appears right now is that the year is over for Greg Romeus. It is very painful for me to stand here and say that because there hasn't been a player since I've been here who has done everything in the right way both on and off the field, has always put this team first, has always been willing to do whatever was necessary to represent the University of Pittsburgh like Greg Romeus has.
We did some good things in all three phases, but not consistently enough to get us the win. We had a few mistakes that made the difference in the game."
"It was a good performance by Jordan Todman. Two of the big runs they had, we were caught out of position.