Posted:
#476
thanks mod for removing.
time to go to work men! here we go!
let's start with the obvious, the coaching turmoil. It seems most articles are acting as if PItt is the only team having to deal with turmoil..I have different view, I have to think some of these smu players didn't take kindly to the fact that june jones was ready to give them a big middle finger and bolt for ASU as graham did. pitt has been here before, they beat kentucky last year with an interim coach when wandstedt was fired, they are a bit more upset about the way graham left, but they are more than happy to try to get the w for the assistants who stayed when they could have easily bolted as well. assistants who are familiar with smu from their conf usa days with graham, equally, jones is familiar as well. so all in all, i'm def not a fan of backing teams with no coach, but i think pitt wants to play for these assistants who stuck around and on the smu side, i know i would have a little issue with a guy standing on the sideline that was all but out the door.
big east has had a pretty good showing in this bowl season to say the least, big east is 5-0 in this bowl and pitt has won 3 straight bowl games. pitt on a 5-0 ats run, smu on an 0-6 ats run, both teams playing some pretty good teams along the way.
turnovers usually tell the story of the game and smu has not been very opportunistic in turning teams over, in fact, they are the worst in the nation giving the ball away 31 times and only taking it 14 times. smu o line will also have to protect against a pretty nasty pitt d line without a serious threat in Line in the backfield. pitt has 39 sacks this season and rank fourth in the FBS with an average of 3.25 per game. Pitt compiled 17 tackles for loss and seven sacks against the utes in an October game. SMU allowed 27 sacks this season. This is also an offense that has put this point total up in their last 6 games. 3, 7, 45 (tulane), 17, 7, 27 (rice). not too explosive for a june jones offense, something not clicking. pitt rush defense is top 25, good match-up for pitt in the run game here, certainly have to contain mcdermott though. but he has turned it over as many times as he hasn't, 16 td to 16 int, pitt defense should win the turnover battle.
all that being said, this is the kicker for me - graham was known as not necessarily playing to his teams strengths. i think sunseri was a pretty good qb in the confines of pittsburgh, he didn't thrive in grahams system. Patterson and Dodge know this and per the Post-Gazette
Both said they'd like to possess the ball and play ball control and they will look to run time off the play clock before snapping the ball. They will still be no-huddle but they will not try to snap it every 18 to 19 seconds. Patterson said the reason for this is he believes the strength of the team is the defense and he wants to keep the defense fresh and he's not afraid to play some field position. I think this will make all the difference for Sunseri today, no pressure to fit his round peg into a square hole. I think this sets up well for Sunseri and pitt gets the W.
Pitt -3 (-130)
Good luck all!
time to go to work men! here we go!
let's start with the obvious, the coaching turmoil. It seems most articles are acting as if PItt is the only team having to deal with turmoil..I have different view, I have to think some of these smu players didn't take kindly to the fact that june jones was ready to give them a big middle finger and bolt for ASU as graham did. pitt has been here before, they beat kentucky last year with an interim coach when wandstedt was fired, they are a bit more upset about the way graham left, but they are more than happy to try to get the w for the assistants who stayed when they could have easily bolted as well. assistants who are familiar with smu from their conf usa days with graham, equally, jones is familiar as well. so all in all, i'm def not a fan of backing teams with no coach, but i think pitt wants to play for these assistants who stuck around and on the smu side, i know i would have a little issue with a guy standing on the sideline that was all but out the door.
big east has had a pretty good showing in this bowl season to say the least, big east is 5-0 in this bowl and pitt has won 3 straight bowl games. pitt on a 5-0 ats run, smu on an 0-6 ats run, both teams playing some pretty good teams along the way.
turnovers usually tell the story of the game and smu has not been very opportunistic in turning teams over, in fact, they are the worst in the nation giving the ball away 31 times and only taking it 14 times. smu o line will also have to protect against a pretty nasty pitt d line without a serious threat in Line in the backfield. pitt has 39 sacks this season and rank fourth in the FBS with an average of 3.25 per game. Pitt compiled 17 tackles for loss and seven sacks against the utes in an October game. SMU allowed 27 sacks this season. This is also an offense that has put this point total up in their last 6 games. 3, 7, 45 (tulane), 17, 7, 27 (rice). not too explosive for a june jones offense, something not clicking. pitt rush defense is top 25, good match-up for pitt in the run game here, certainly have to contain mcdermott though. but he has turned it over as many times as he hasn't, 16 td to 16 int, pitt defense should win the turnover battle.
all that being said, this is the kicker for me - graham was known as not necessarily playing to his teams strengths. i think sunseri was a pretty good qb in the confines of pittsburgh, he didn't thrive in grahams system. Patterson and Dodge know this and per the Post-Gazette
Both said they'd like to possess the ball and play ball control and they will look to run time off the play clock before snapping the ball. They will still be no-huddle but they will not try to snap it every 18 to 19 seconds. Patterson said the reason for this is he believes the strength of the team is the defense and he wants to keep the defense fresh and he's not afraid to play some field position. I think this will make all the difference for Sunseri today, no pressure to fit his round peg into a square hole. I think this sets up well for Sunseri and pitt gets the W.
Pitt -3 (-130)
Good luck all!
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