Palko, Pitt want to take Bulls by horns

[Guest HowieP1]

Maybe this will pump up the team!  ;D

Palko, Pitt want to take Bulls by horns

Monday, November 29, 2004

By Paul Zeise, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A number of Pitt football players gathered at a restaurant in Oakland Saturday afternoon and watched the Syracuse-Boston College game and for good reason -- the Panthers' Bowl Championship Series fate was in the hands of the Orange.

Because Syracuse beat Boston College and knocked back the Eagles into a four-way tie for first place in the Big East Conference, the Panthers' BCS fate is again in their own hands.

Pitt (7-3) needs to beat the South Florida Bulls (4-6) Saturday and it will win the tiebreaker for the Big East championship and head to either the Sugar or Fiesta Bowls. There is a backdoor into the BCS party, however, as Pitt likely can still earn the berth with a loss.

Under that scenario, the Panthers' fate would rest with pollsters and computers.

According to Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko, the Panthers aren't interested in allowing others to determine their fate. They've been down that road before and didn't like it.

"It is all in our hands now, we are back to where we were at the beginning of the season, it is all on us," Palko said. "We need to have a great week of practice and guard against any kind of letdown. We hate to lose and we've played those what-if cards too many other times this year, you know, sort of hoping on someone else. We didn't take care of business and had to put our hope in Syracuse.

"We need to take care of this business. We're not going to hold anything back. This is going to be an intense week. We don't want to have to rely on anyone else, we don't want to have to wait around to figure it out, we want to know, we want to do it ourselves, for ourselves. That's the way it has to be."

The Panthers probably would have been ripe for a letdown had Boston College beaten Syracuse because they are coming off two emotional wins (against Notre Dame and West Virginia) and their destination for a lesser bowl would have been a foregone conclusion.

With nothing to play for and a game against an unranked opponent on the road -- with a kickoff before noon nonetheless (11 a.m. ESPN2) -- the Panthers could have been stepping into a huge trap. Instead, Palko said they will be more ready to go than they have been for any game this year.

"This is now bigger than the West Virginia and Notre Dame games because a win puts us where we want to be," Palko said. "You can't ask for anything more than that, you want to have those kinds of situations. That's what all the hard work all year long is for."

Palko is the team leader, especially on offense, and his brash, almost cocky, demeanor has seemingly rubbed off on his teammates as they have achieved things this season that few thought possible. So there is no doubt that he will spend the week trying to keep his teammates focused.

But if there are times when his fiery style falls on deaf ears, there is another player who is far more laid back that Pitt coach Walt Harris may look to in order to give the Panthers a first-person account of how special a trip to a BCS bowl might be.

Kicker Josh Cummings was a freshman on the 2001 Oregon Ducks team that featured quarterback Joey Harrington. Cummings was on the traveling roster so he got to experience a trip to the Fiesta Bowl. The Ducks defeated Colorado, which was his highlight, but he said the overall experience was one of the best he has ever had.

That's why he plans on spreading the word to his teammates as a means of helping them keep their eyes on the prize that comes with a win against South Florida.

"I'd love to go back to the Fiesta Bowl, you have to love Arizona in early January," Cummings said. "The weather is great, the experience is great. A lot of people probably don't realize that I've been to a BCS bowl before and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to get there. We're right there."

Palko said he doesn't expect a letdown because the Panthers play with a lot of pride and great heart. Early on, when things weren't going well and people wrote them off, they continued to believe and continued to improve and continued to work hard.

"By no means is our season over," Palko said. "We know that. It is all right there sitting right where we want to be and games like this one are why you play football. You live to play in big games, big-money games and we as a team have a chance to do something special.

"A win puts us at 8-3, which is a better record than we have had around here probably since the big guys [the Dan Marino era] played here. We want to put our own mark on this program and we are headed in the right direction, but none of it matters if we don't take care of business on Saturday."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04334/418772.stm

[bulls96go]

we will win and deliver our calling card to the BE!