Pittsburgh Sports, Opinion and Politics | Just Watch the Game Blog

I should have gone with my gut. On TribLive radio we have a football prediction competition and I went into the weekend in second place.

Last Thursday, my gut told me to go with Pitt but I was talked out of it and went with South Florida.

I picked Pitt over Rutgers early in the week and then my gut told me on Friday to go with Rutgers.  I stuck with Pitt.

From now on I go with my gut.

Pitt laying worse than the 34-10 score indicates makes you wonder how overrated South Florida actually was.

As you probably know, around here we don’t count rent-a-victim wins. Those games only count when the renter loses.

That makes Pitt 1-3 and I’m sorry, but that stinks.

How many years and under how many coaches has this been going on?

Why can’t Pitt stand prosperity? Why does an embarrassing loss always pop up just when the program looks like it’s making progress?

You’ll know the Pitt football program has made major strides when you don’t hear a woman calling play-by-play for its games.

Sorry, I hit the mute button today as soon as I heard a female voice doing the play-by-play.

I don’t know her name and the few times I’ve forced myself to listen, she sounds like she does a good enough job.

I would rather have either Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachman in the White House than Barack Obama, but, call me a sexist pig, if you’d like, I just don’t want to hear a female voice describing a football game.

Give the West Virginia football fans credit.

They were smart enough to stay away in droves from last week’s game with Bowling Green.

The head coach, Dana Holgorsen, ripped them for not showing up.

It was cold and rainy and it was going to be a blowout and he scolded them for being smart enough to stay home.

They still drew 46,000 which is about 40,000 more than the game deserved.

Bowling Green is actually pretty good as rent-a-victims go. Just ask Pitt.

But the only cure for stupid scheduling is empty seats.

Pitt doesn’t stink anymore. For me, beating a legitimate opponent in a must game was all that was needed to remove the smell.

That happened last night.

I have a feeling we’re going to find out that South Florida was ridiculously overrated, but that was the 16th ranked team in the country last night.

I said that the quarterback play was the difference in the losses to Iowa and Notre Dame and last night the team that won had the better quarterback.

Tino Sunseri was the best quarterback on the field last night and it wasn’t close.

The best throw that he made was a drop by Mike Shanahan, who’s not known for drops.

Todd Graham’s high octane offense played a huge role in the win, too.

South Florida’s defense was out of gas in the middle of the second quarter.

I’ll be shocked if Ray Graham doesn’t touch the ball at least 30 times a game for the rest of the season.

Give Pitt’s defense some credit, too. South Florida came in here with a reputation for putting up big numbers. After a shaky start, it shut down SF’s QB B.J. Daniels.

So, at least for now, the stink is gone. History tells us that there’s a good chance that it will come back.

There’s also a chance that the team will get better as it gets a better understanding of Todd Graham’s system.

Pitt’s 0-2 and still stinks. The first two games don’t count, and losses to the only real teams on the schedule in back to back weeks adds up to 0-2.

So, as I said, three weeks ago, until further notice, Pitt still stinks.

And I hate to reduce it again to the differences at quarterback, but this was another game that was decided in the end by Pitt’s opponent having the better of the two quarterbacks.

Tino Sunseri was the better quarterback for the first three quarters, but that was mostly because Tommy Reese was terrible for Notre Dame.

But, just as last week against Iowa, the opposing quarterback rose to the occasion at the end and Pitt’s quarterback did not. Reese completed eight consecutive passes on the winning TD drive in the fourth quarter.

Feel free to put the blame on Pitt’s defense for not being able to hold a lead. I won’t argue with that, either.

One of these games, Pitt is going to win a game because of who’s playing quarterback instead of in spite of him.

Pick a reason, but, until further notice, Pitt still stinks.

Mike Decoursy of The Sporting News is one of the most knowledgeable college basketball writers in the country and a former writer for The Pittsburgh Press.

He’s a real party pooper when it comes to Pitt’s move to the ACC.

Decourcy will be a guest on TribLive Radio Tuesday at 11:30.

Pitt still stinks.

I thought I was going to have a different headline for a while there, but after blowing a 24-3 lead to Iowa, Pitt is 0-1. We don’t count rent-a-wins here.  And it’s one more loss for Pitt to a real opponent.

So, going back to last year and until further notice, Pitt still stinks.

I wish I could count the number of games Pitt would have won in the last four or five years if they had a solid D-1 (or whatever they’re calling it) quarterback. If I had some spare time, I’ll bet I could find at least six wins that Pitt didn’t get because the opposing team had a better quarterback.

If the two quarterbacks had switched teams before the Pitt-Iowa game yesterday, Pitt would have won and it wouldn’t have been close.

Todd Graham better find himself a quarterback.