Bulls-Pitt 2001

[Brad]

Came across this in the image file:

[CyberBull]

Look at the score underneath Rubin's picture. Looks like  Syracuse had an easy day too....

[Brad]

Why not re-live it, we could use a little high right now...

Team in first year of Division I-A shocks off-guard Panthers

Sunday, September 09, 2001

By Shelly Anderson, Post-Gazette Sports Writer  

Greg Walls of South Florida sacks Pitt quarterback David Priestley yesterday in the third quarter. (Gabor Degre, Post-Gazette)

Only a few members of the Pitt team came forward to speak about the game yesterday. They all had the same look.

Stunned. Blank. Utterly caught off guard.

For a team that was criticized by some for having an early schedule that was too soft, the Panthers fell so hard that it was difficult to comprehend.

In what could easily be called one of the worst losses in team history, Pitt was defeated by South Florida, a team in its first season as a full-time Division I-A member, 35-26, in front of a Heinz Field crowd of 39,542 that squirmed, then booed, then left in disgust and disbelief.

The Panthers, who never led, trailed, 14-0, at halftime and 28-7 late in the third quarter. They could not run the ball, finishing with 12 yards rushing. They could not stop the Bulls' passing game.

"It was a terrible performance by ourselves," Pitt Coach Walt Harris said. "I take complete responsibility. Far below what I know we're capable of, and I'm responsible for it. I'm going to do the best I can to get it right."

So much for starting 3-0 and perhaps being ranked going into a Sept. 27 showdown with Miami. So much for pulling ahead of Penn State's program on the perception meter. So much for moving into college football's elite.

Those expectations apparently were premature at best.

Harris could only offer an I-never-told-you-so.

"You've never heard me say that we have arrived," he said. "I think it's a lot of other people who have been saying that, or that we have turned the corner and all this and that. You've never heard me say that, because I'm on the practice field. I see our numbers. I see our situation athletically."

Still, Pitt (1-1) was favored by three touchdowns against the Bulls (1-1) and, theoretically, were supposed to use the game as a springboard to bigger and better things this season, after a 7-5 year with a bowl trip in 2000.

It's not as if the Panthers were surprised by what South Florida did.

Pitt knew the Bulls featured a no-huddle, spread formation offense led by quarterback Marquel Blackwell and receiver DeAndrew Rubin. Yet they could not stop them -- Blackwell passed for 343 yards and four touchdowns; Rubin had 11 catches for 144 yards and two touchdowns.

The Panthers knew they would be playing without two keys offensive starters, All-American receiver Antonio Bryant and fullback Lousaka Polite, who were hurt. Yet it took until the second half to get the passing game going, and they never had any kind of ground game.

"We could not run the ball effectively," Harris said, then admitted, "We finally quit trying."

That left it up to David Priestley and the passing game.

"That definitely puts pressure on the rest of the offense," Priestley said of the absent running game. "We've got to establish that. Their defense did a really good job, and we have to go back and make adjustments."

Priestley completed 28 of 45 passes for 354 yards and three touchdowns, but much of that came while the Panthers were playing catchup.

South Florida kicked things off early -- literally. The Bulls surprised Pitt with an onside kick to start the game and recovered it on Pitt's 29. It didn't lead to any points, but it rattled the Panthers.

"If we had not let that onside kick break our backs, which it kind of did, it would have been different, but it brought our spirits down," said Panthers receiver R.J. English. "It just shouldn't have been like that."

On its second drive, South Florida scooted down the field and scored on Blackwell's 14-yard touchdown pass to Rubin, who squeezed the ball between Pitt defensive backs Shawntae Spencer and Ramon Walker.

On their third drive, Blackwell and Rubin teamed again, this time for a 15-yard touchdown pass play that made it 14-0 with 3:16 left in the first quarter.

"Good things happened for them early and they got some momentum," Harris said.

Pitt, which punted seven times in the first half, cut it to 14-7 in the final minute of the second quarter when Priestley hit Roosevelt Bynes for a 56-yard touchdown strike that was the freshman's first career catch.

The Panthers didn't feed off of the momentum, though.

Early in the third quarter, William "Tutu" Ferguson turned the ball over when he fumbled a punt return. The Bulls took over on Pitt's 37, and three plays later Blackwell threw a little flare pass that Hugh Smith turned into a 13-yard touchdown for a 21-7 lead with 10:43 left in the third quarter.

The Bulls took their biggest lead, 28-7, on Blackwell's 22-yard touchdown pass to Brian Fisher with 5:55 left in the third.

Pitt struck back when English made a catch amid three defenders, made a deft cut toward the middle of the field and completed a 71-yard touchdown reception from Priestley to make it 28-14 at 4:52 of the third quarter.

The Panthers scored on their first two drives of the fourth quarter, on tailback Raymond Kirkley's 1-yard run around right tackle at 14:56 and Priestley's 10-yard pass to English with 7:39 left in the game.

After two penalties, Nick Lotz boinked the extra point after Kirkley's touchdown off of the left upright, and Priestley's pass for a two-point conversion was broken up after English's touchdown, making it 28-26.

The Bulls got two pass interference calls against Ferguson in the end zone to keep their next drive alive and pretty much clinched it when Blackwell leaned in for a 1-yard touchdown with 4:31 left.

On the next play, safety J.R. Reed intercepted a pass by Priestley, and the Panthers later turned the ball over when Priestley fumbled after being sacked by defensive end Chris Daley.

When the game ended, the Bulls jumped around like they had just won a bowl game.

The Panthers lined up on the field to shake hands with South Florida, then retreated.

"Tonight is going to be a long, difficult night," Harris said.

Story Link

[Brad]

Analyst says Pitt's loss mentally devastating

Monday, September 10, 2001

By Shelly Anderson, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

South Florida's Brian Fisher breaks Mark Ponko's tackle for a touchdown Saturday. (Gabor Degre, Post-Gazette)

He's outspoken, maybe even outrageous at times, but there are few people around who are better Pitt football historians. So Beano Cook can put the Panthers' 35-26 upset loss Saturday to South Florida, a fledgling Division I-A team, into some kind of context.

"There have been some bad losses in terms of points, but mentally this is as tough as any one of them," said Cook, who was Pitt's sports information director for 10 seasons beginning in the mid-1950s and now analyzes college football for ESPN and on several radio shows.

"This has to be one of the toughest ones in a long time. It's a devastating defeat because of the situation. There was hope with this team. This was supposed to be a decent team. Now they're going to have to fight to win seven games.

"[Coach] Walt Harris has to be beside himself."

The Panthers (1-1) were three-touchdown favorites Saturday in their second game at new Heinz Field and had taken some criticism for their weak early schedule. Yet they fell behind early in the game and never overcame the Bulls' passing attack and their own lack of a running game.

"It's a pretty bad loss," Cook said. "There's no doubt about it."

Some of the other particularly discouraging losses Pitt has endured include:

A 23-14 defeat at West Virginia in 1959. It came after a 3-1 start and began a three-game losing streak. "But we got beat on the road," Cook said. "Losing on the road is no disgrace, but losing at home is bad."

A 31-16 loss to Louisville in 1992, the final home game of Paul Hackett's run as coach. Boosters hired planes to pull banners ridiculing Pitt's "Killer B" administration. "But everybody knew Hackett was gone, so the loss wasn't that surprising," Cook said. "It had been three years of hell."

A 72-0 loss at Ohio State in 1996 in Johnny Majors' last season as coach. "The program in '96 was in shambles, so this [loss to South Florida] is more of a debacle," Cook said. "The best thing that happened out of the 72-0 loss was the administration decided to do something about it [by hiring Athletic Director Steve Pederson and Harris]. I don't know if anything good is going to come out of this latest loss."

A 17-13 loss at Temple in 1997 and home losses to Rutgers, 25-21, and Temple, 34-33, in 1998, all under Harris. "But those were Big East teams, and expectations weren't as high then," Cook said.

Cook said losses such as Pitt's against South Florida are a newer phenomenon in college football.

"When I was the SID, we didn't play teams like that," he said. "We played the major teams -- Notre Dame every year, Penn State every year, West Virginia every year. We had games with UCLA, USC, Cal, Washington, Minnesota, Miami.

"Those teams [such as South Florida] didn't exist. Nobody played those teams."

Teams in major conferences now routinely schedule non-league games against schools considered to be a step below the "big-time" teams. It gives the larger program a better chance to win, and it gives the smaller program a payday.

It also sets up the potential for a stinging upset should the less advanced program win.

"When you play those teams, every so often you're going to lose," Cook said.

That's what happened to Pitt, which a week ago heard some talk that its program might have reached or surpassed Penn State's. The Nittany Lions won just five games last year and lost their opener against Miami.

Cook said even before the Panthers' loss, that was just so much talk.

"I'm sure Pitt fans were chuckling last week, and if you're a Penn State rooter after this game, you've got to be chuckling," he said. "But before Pitt can say it has reached Penn State's level, they had better have a decade like Penn State had."

Cook isn't ruling that out. He just thinks it won't happen yet.

"My personal opinion -- and I said this before the season -- is that Pitt was overrated," he said. "I'm convinced Harris is going to win, but it's going to take a little more time than people think.

"I said if they're 7-4, I would consider it a good season. I still feel that way."

That would match the Panthers' record of a year ago. They then lost to Iowa State in the Insight.com Bowl.

Pitt plays Saturday at home against Alabama-Birmingham. It looked to be the toughest in a string of warm-up type games leading into contests against Miami and at Notre Dame.

Now it could be much more.

"If they lose Saturday, they're looking at a losing season," Cook said. "They've got to beat UAB.

"Who would ever think UAB would be such a key game?"

Story Link

[bulls96go]

repeat will be nice

[Guest HowieP1]

I may have asked this before, but does anybody have a picture of the Final Scoreboard?

Maybe, someone who has a tape of the game can shoot a picture off the TV, and send it to Bulliever to post here.

[Mission9]

I would have to rate this as USF's biggest and most surprising victory to date.  

[Zonald]

Ah, the good old days!