Time for the weekly installment of Todd Graham's top ten press conference quotes. After the debacle at Iowa, this should be good:
10. On any major changes for this Saturday’s game against Notre Dame:
"Hopefully we will play the whole sixty minutes and four quarters instead of three...
The big thing here is that, right now, anyway, it doesn't look like there will be a quarterback change. We can go back and forth on this, but while I'd keep Sunseri in there, if there's a time for a change, it's now. As I wrote earlier this week, Pitt has a big game next week at South Florida. It's a far more important contest than this one because it's a Big East game. If Trey Anderson is going to get a look, it'd be best to get him some more time in the offense. With Sunseri apparently staying in there, it's looking like it's Tino or bust.
9. "It was a very tough loss for us Saturday, but I was very proud of our players to play so well and I thought physically our guys really went in there and took it to them.
This is brutal. Sure, you can proud of the players - no one would fault him for that. But to talk about how well you played and took it to the other team. You are aware that you lost, right? Right?! Yes, I know Pitt dominated the game for three quarters, but the message to send to the media isn't to talk about how well you did for three quarters, it's to explain why the fourth quarter collapse was inexcusable. When talking to the players? Sure, by all means, prop them up and get ready to play. But the fans don't want to hear about how glad you are that the team played well for three quarters.
8. You don’t have much time to lick your wounds because I think we’ve got the best team on our schedule coming in here this week.
Wow - think West Virginia will remember that quote? Not only is that bait, but I don't even know that it's true.
7. I know when you look toward the future and being in the ACC, you can look forward to the opportunity of playing the top opponents week in and week out. It’s going to make for an exciting home schedule every year. For me personally, I think the universities that are associated with the ACC academically and athletically are at the highest level in the country.
Whoa there, Chief - Playing the top opponents week in and week out? The highest level in the country? This isn't the SEC or even the Big Ten or Pac-10 Pac-12 Pac-14 Pac-12. On a similar note, all the talk about how the football competition is much greater in the ACC than it is in the Big East is a bit ridiculous. While the top teams in the ACC are better, there's not a huge level of difference in competition from top to bottom.
6. On trying to grind the clock later in games:
"Our whole philosophy of what we do is not something we’re going to change because I believe strongly in the system. As we progress and become more mentally and physically conditioned then we will get better.
This is really frustrating because not only does Graham think not taking time off the clock was fine, but he doesn't sound like he'd change it in the future. You play to win football games - not score as many points as you can. I can appreciate the philosophy of trying to score at will during a game, but things change when you're up by 17 points in the fourth quarter. If you don't adjust, games like that Iowa one will become more common.
5. There will be times where we will slow down and strategically do things differently. An offense is about running a rhythm and you can’t just change the rhythm and expect to be successful. We wouldn’t have changed anything about our tempo in that game
More on that tempo thing and the inability to adjust ... ugh.
4. I personally hope that the rivalry between Pitt and WVU would stay intact because I think it’s good for college football."
That makes two of us.
3. I looked at the film and our mistakes were not made from being too tired or playing too many snaps on defense.
Graham would know far better than someone parked in front of his TV/computer for the first three games, but I've talked to lots of people at the games who said the defense looked incredibly winded on the sidelines. Given how quickly Pitt's offense was on the field, I have a hard time believing they weren't at least a little tired.
2. One thing that has hurt us is we have given up a lot of big plays on pressures and were not a team who has done a lot of that in the past.
This is one thing I picked up on with Graham the last few weeks - he's constantly compared Pitt to how his previous teams have done. This time it was on defense and before I heard him talk about Tino and how he's not used to having a QB hang onto the ball that long. Eventually Graham will need to figure out that the personnel he has are unique to what he's had before. I'm sure I don't need to tell him this, but you can't simply take a system and expect the same results using any given set of players.
1. Perception is reality and the perception is that this (ACC) is a big-time move up for us. When recruiting kids it will prove to be very impressionable to be a part of this conference.
Well, I don't know how much better playing football in the ACC is compared to the Big East, but point taken. This is really a big jump for Pitt - not because of any one thing, but a multitude of things. Better football, little dropoff in basketball (maybe none if UConn gets in), and more prestige. All in all, a great move.