Time for a Clean Slate

What's done is done.  The Pittsburgh Panthers started off the year a shaky 2-0 and have blown two straight fourth quarter leads to Iowa (21 points) and Notre Dame.  Substandard quarterback play from Tino Sunseri, shake secondary play except for the Notre Dame game, and all around sloppiness leaves Pitt at a crossroads.
This week's game is a new beginning though.  Throw the national championship out the window, Pitt was never going to compete for that anyways.  Still at stake, however, is the Big East title. 

A win this week over the undefeated South Florida Bulls would go a long way towards building some confidence for the Panthers.  Maybe they are just slow learners and this is the week they finally grasp Todd Graham's system completely.

They'll have the chance to show how well they can handle the dual passing and running threat of B.J. Daniels.  South Florida is averaging 45.5 points per game.  Pitt hasn't even scored that in the last two games combined, nor have they even crossed the 40 point plateau yet this season.

None of that matters though.  What matters is this week, this game.  It's a Thursday night game, and those have traditionally been bad luck for any ranked teams involved. 

The numbers are overwhelmingly against Pitt, and based on what I've seen from this football team, there's no possible way they win this game right?  That's what most experts said before the 2007 Backyard Brawl in which Pitt destroyed WVU's shot at the national championship .

Look back at the stats from that game.  Pitt's winning quarterback Pat Bostick, now the radio color analyst for the team, threw for 67 yards and two interceptions.  67 yards!  WVU went into that game as a four touchdown favorite, and yet Pitt found a way to win it. 

Three WVU fumbles and an injury to star quarterback Pat White certainly hurt WVU, but you have to give credit to Pitt for believing they could win.

That's the whole point of this article, Pitt needs to start believing again.  You can tell the Iowa debacle rattled their confidence, and the ugliness we saw against Notre Dame probably didn't help either. 

Wipe it clean though because that was essentially the exhibition season.  Now is when Big East play begins, and now is when you need to start playing your best football.

Could something magical happen again for the Pitt Panthers?  While I wouldn't bet on it, it certainly wouldn't be the most shocking upset Pitt has ever pulled off. 

Don't get me wrong, I still think the Big East will come down to either West Virginia or South Florida.  Pitt has a chance to prove a lot of doubters wrong, including me, and I'm curious to see if they can.