Why Coaches Make The Big Bucks

Well, that was a valiant effort by the Pitt Panthers who almost beat undefeated and fifth ranked Notre Dame at South Bend yesterday, but, alas and alack, fell short in the end and lost, 19-14. For the second week in a row, Pat Narduzzi demonstrated the decisions that head coaches have to make that can be hailed as brilliant when they work and, when they fail, can lead to the boiling of tar and gathering of feathers when they do not.  

You will recall that last week, in the closing minutes against Syracuse and trailing by three points, Narduzzi elected to have Pitt run the ball and not throw a single pass as the clock ticked down.  This strategy enabled Pitt to get in position to attempt a game tying field goal, which was successful, and the Panthers went on to win overtime.   The HC stated that he didn't want to risk allowing Syracuse's strong pass rush to sack the quarterback or, even worse, force a turnover.  The strategy worked, but could you have imagined the howling that would have taken place if it backfired?

Well, sure you can, because yesterday against the Irish, HCPN had another coaching decision to make.  After leading for most of the game, Notre Dame took a 19-14 lead midway through the fourth quarter.  Pitt did get the ball back and with about four plus minutes remaining, they faced a critical fourth-and-five situation.  He sent out the punt unit, and then attempted to execute a fake punt, using a third string quarterback wearing a numbered jersey that was not even listed on the roster.  The play not only didn't work, it exploded in Pitt's faces like one of the Three Stooges' exploding cigars.  It was bizarre and ridiculous and any other negative adjective you might want to apply to it, and Narduzzi is getting roasted for it, but, hey, if it would have worked.....

Both Narduzzi and Pitt fans aren't going to like this, but that fake punt call ties Coach 'Duzz at the hip with Penn State's James Franklin due to that bizarre fourth-and-five play call that he made against Ohio State two weeks ago in a game that was lost after PSU led for much of it. So Narduzzi and Franklin now have something else in common besides engaging in juvenile Tweeting Contests.

Two other comments on the Pitt game.

1. Call me naive, but can or should the ethics of sending a kid out in a fake jersey to execute, or in this case, not execute, a fake punt be questioned?   Not exactly above board, if you ask me, but, then again, this is big time football in the NCAA we are talking about here.
2. Pitt did manage to  score in the second half when Maurice French ran the opening kickoff back 99 yards for a touchdown, but after that, bupkis from the Panther offense.  Pitt's continuing inability to score points in the second halves of games this year is bizarre.

And speaking of Penn State, they lose a heart breaker when Michigan State scores in the final thirty seconds of the game to win 21-17.  This pretty much dashes any hope for the Lions to play for the Big Ten Championship and/or get into a first tier, New Year's Day bowl game.  Like I said two weeks ago in this space, I don't root for Penn State to lose, but I'm not heartbroken when I see James Franklin not win.

In other local college football news, undefeated and sixth ranked West Virginia loses to Iowa State, 30-14, and Duquesne defeats Robert Morris, 48-24.  Hey, in that latter game, at least one local team was guaranteed a victory yesterday.

It's now up to the Steelers to salvage the football weekend for all of us locals down in Cincinnati this afternoon.