Pop quiz: Name the above Pitt running back.
If you successfully identified Qadree Ollison, congratulations. You have no life.
Just joking (mostly). Pitt usually goes under the radar because they're just kind of blah, but Matt Hayes of The Sporting News examines the snake-bit evolution of Panthers over the years.
It is pretty staggering when you look at the last 11 years:
— Walt Harris leads the Panthers to the Fiesta Bowl in 2004, and is summarily forced out after five straight winning seasons because, well, because we don’t know why.
— Pitt legend Dave Wannstedt — basically the most perfect fit in the history of perfect fits — is hired to replace Harris, struggles early but then wins 26 games in his final three seasons (9 wins, 10 wins, 7 wins), and gets fired after winning the co-Big East championship in 2010.
— Mike Haywood replaces Wannstedt, and is fired two weeks after his introductory press conference after he is charged with domestic violence.
— Todd Graham replaces Haywood, goes 6-7 in his first season and leaves so quickly for Arizona State, he doesn’t even tell his players.
— Paul Chryst arrives, and after one season, is pursued by Wisconsin for its job opening but stays because it’s too early to leave a job he just began. Two years later, the Wisconsin job is open again, and Chryst, who was 19-20 in three seasons, can’t get out of Pitt quick enough.
— Pat Narduzzi replaces Chryst, and inherits the best running back in the ACC, and one of the top three running backs in the nation. Less than one half into Narduzzi’s debut last weekend, Pitt tailback James Conner sustains a season-ending knee injury.
The worm has to turn at some point, right?
A few Thursday links:
-- Andrea Adelson examines the ACC's Week 2 storylines, including -- WOOOOOOOOO! -- Wake Forest-Syracuse.
Battle to stay out of the basement: Wake Forest and Syracuse play the first ACC game of the season, and this one has plenty of intrigue. The Orange will move on with true freshman quarterbackEric Dungey. Both teams opened against FCS opponents, so it is hard to get a gauge for where both stand going into this game. But it has to be a good sign that Wake Forest was able to actually move the ball on offense (591 total yards, 203 yards rushing) and that a young Syracuse defense shut out Rhode Island. Dungey also looked poised and confident, going 10-of-17 for 114 yards with two touchdowns. Both teams also saw freshmen emerge at running back (Matt Colburn for Wake, Jordan Fredericks, Dontae Strickland for Syracuse). These were the two worst teams in the Atlantic Division a year ago, and this is a must-win for both to try and inch up out of the division basement. Perhaps the Cuse quarterback injury gives Wake the opening it needs to get its first Atlantic Division win since beating Maryland on Oct. 19, 2013.
-- Speaking of Deacon Blues, Steely Dan explains that their 1970s song had zero to do with Wake Forest.
Donald Fagen: Walter and I wrote “Deacon Blues” in Malibu, Calif., when we lived out there. Walter would come over to my place and we’d sit at the piano. I had an idea for a chorus: If a college football team like the University of Alabama could have a grandiose name like the “Crimson Tide,” the nerds and losers should be entitled to a grandiose name as well.
Walter Becker: Donald had a house that sat on top of a sand dune with a small room with a piano. From the window, you could see the Pacific in between the other houses. “Crimson Tide” didn’t mean anything to us except the exaggerated grandiosity that’s bestowed on winners. “Deacon Blues” was the equivalent for the loser in our song.
Mr. Fagen: When Walter came over, we started on the music, then started filling in more lyrics to fit the story. At that time, there had been a lineman with the Los Angeles Rams and the San Diego Chargers, Deacon Jones. We weren’t serious football fans, but Deacon Jones’s name was in the news a lot in the 1960s and early ‘70s, and we liked how it sounded. It also had two syllables, which was convenient, like “Crimson.” The name had nothing to do with Wake Forest’s Demon Deacons or any other team with a losing record. The only Deacon I was familiar with in football at the time was Deacon Jones.
-- Nick Saban explains the evolution of Alabama's no-huddle offense.
The shortest gap between two plays was 16 seconds. On the first drive, there was a 17-second turnaround.
Other times, they'd rush back to the ball and quarterback Jake Coker would look to the sideline. Adjustments could be made at that point if the defensive formation wasn't conducive to the next play.
"It's cool, probably, for the fans, but for us, we look at it more like it has a meaning to us," tight end O.J. Howard said. "So we don't really get up in the funny looking signs. Some of them are pretty funny to us, especially when we get new ones. But at the same time, they mean things to us so we really don't get caught up in what they stand for or what they look like."
Howard's favorite sign? Domino's Pizza logo.
There's a code behind the signs, but Saban was hesitant to say much about it on his radio show last Thursday.
"Let's just say this, the signs do mean something," he said. "There's more than one sign and they both mean something, but one of those signs is dead. Aight, so it's like we're in camouflage. So which one means something?"
-- Terrence Moore of Sports On Earth writes on the state of Notre Dame football.
The Irish are rolling toward something huge. If it doesn't happen this season, it will in the near future. Don't just take it from me, who was born and raised within these city limits and grew up bleeding blue and gold. Listen to somebody with more than a clue when it comes to such things.
Somebody like Parseghian.
"People keep asking me if Kelly is going to be the next great coach at Notre Dame, but he's a great coach now," Parseghian said, looking decades younger than 92 in a back room of Notre Dame Stadium during a reception for his 1970 team. As a whole, Parseghian was in charge of Irish squads from 1964 through 1974, along the way to two consensus national championships (three overall, if you include their MacArthur Bowl award in 1964). He also never lost more than two games during a regular season.
Kelly can't say that, but he can say this: After grabbing two NCAA Division II titles at Grand Valley State, he won enough at Central Michigan, Cincinnati and his opening five seasons at Notre Dame to enter this season as the third-winningest active coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision behind Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer and South Carolina's Steve Spurrier.
Only Holtz coached Notre Dame to more victories during his first five seasons than Kelly.
-- The Buckeyes' blistering of Virginia Tech was watched by a lot of people.
-- We close with a spot in Jeff's Musical Car by a Canadian singer-songwriter named Colter Wall.
Wall is spending this month playing various venues in South Carolina, and particularly the Upstate. Tomorrow he's in Greenville at the fabulous Smiley's, followed by Saturday at Moe Joe on Main Street. Go check him out if you're in the area.
LW
