After taking the week off losing to Rutgers last week, the Panthers return home for Homecoming to face new Pac-12 member Utah. This will be the first time in 16 years that Pitt will host a team from the Pac-10/12 - the last time was when Pitt beat Washington State at Pitt Stadium in 1995. The team released the depth chart for this week's game:
QB: Tino Sunseri, Trey Anderson OR Mark Myers
Reaction: Oi, what a rough week it was for Pitt QB's, mainly Tino. Todd Graham has said that Sunseri will be the starter this week against the Utes, but if he falters early, expect Trey to see the field.
RB: Ray Graham, Zach Brown, Corey Davis OR Malcolm Crockett
Reaction: No change from last week. Graham continues to chug along and is now 101 yards shy of the 1000-yard mark. He is currently 2nd in FBS with 149 yards/game and 899 overall.
FB: Mark Giubilato, Khaynin Mosley-Smith
Reaction: No change from last week
HB: Hubie Graham, Anthony Gonzalez, Drew Carswell
Reaction: Graham was a virtual no-show in the stat line last week, only catching one ball for two yards, but then again, the passing game as a whole was a virtual no-show in the stat line last week.
TE: Hubie Graham, Brendan Carozzoni
Reaction: No change from last week
X-Receiver: Devin Street, Ed Tinker
Y-Receiver: Mike Shanahan, Salath Williams
Z-Receiver: Cameron Saddler, Ronald Jones
Reaction: See the HB notes. The passing game was non-existent (which may or may not be due to the horrific showing by the offensive line). Saddler, though, for the second consecutive week led the team in receptions and receiving yards.
LT: Juantez Hollins, Justin Virbitsky
LG: Cory King, Matt Rotheram
C: Ryan Turnley, Greg Gaskins
RG: Lucas Nix, Ryan Schlieper
RT: Jordan Gibbs, Greg Gaskins
Reaction: Please come back this week, Lucas. After last week's terrible showing (six sacks allowed and 11 tackles for loss allowed), the line needs to rebound.
DE: Brandon Lindsey, Aaron Donald, Justin Hargrove
Reaction: No change from last week. Lindsey, where were you last week? No sacks, no tackles even? Lindsey will have to re-emerge this week against Utah for Pitt to get back over .500.
DT: Chas Alecxih, Khaynin Mosley-Smith, Tyrone Ezell
Reaction: No change from last week. Alexcih had the best game on the defense, recording ten tackles including the Panthers' only sack last week.
NT: Myles Caragein, Aaron Donald, Khaynin Mosley-Smith
Reaction: Caragein has also had some troubles recently, although he did recover a fumble last week.
Panther linebacker: Juan Price, Greg Williams, Joe Trebitz
Reaction: No change from last week.
Spur linebacker: Todd Thomas, Greg Williams, Carl Fleming
Reaction: After sitting out last week, Thomas looks to return to the starting lineup and be a force on the defense like he was against USF.
SAM linebacker: Tristan Roberts, Shane Gordon, Nicholas Grigsby
Reaction: No change from last week. Despite only allowing 11 completions, Pitt still allowed over 15 yards per completion. Those passes over the middle have been a big weakness for Pitt this season and the only way to fix it at this point is with better players.
WILL linebacker: Max Gruder, Tristan Roberts, LaQuentin Smith
Reaction: No change from last week. Gruder was listed by Big East blogger Andrea Adelson as Pitt's defensive MVP. Gruder leads the team and the Big East with 51 tackles.
CB: K'Waun Williams AND Antwuan Reed, Buddy Jackson, Saheed Imoru, Lloyd Carrington
Reaction: No change from last week. For the most part, Pitt did a good job shutting down Rutgers' receivers, holding Sanu to just two catches for 27 yards. But the TD Martinek scored off the screen pass was defended terribly. Where was the secondary?
Bandit Safety: Jason Hendricks, Lafayette Pitts, Brandon Ifill
Reaction: No change from last week.
Free safety: Jarred Holley, Andrew Taglianetti, Brandon Ifill
Reaction: No change from last week.
Special Teams: Kevin Harper (K), Matt Yoklic (P + holder) OR Mark Myers (P), Kevin Barthelemy (LS), Corey Davis (KR), Ronald Jones (PR)
Reaction: No change from last week. Harper missed his first FG in nine tries, badly flubbing a 42-yard attempt. After only punting twice against USF, Pitt did so nine times against Rutgers.