Reaching 7 Wins Will Be No Easy Task For Pitt

By Miami Hurricanes standards, the 2013 football season has been a “down” year. Yes, they started the season with 7 straight wins. However, after a number of injuries especially to star tailback Duke Johnson, Miami lost 3 straight games before winning this past Saturday, 45-26 against Virginia. Despite this, the Hurricanes are still 8-3 (overall) and 4-3 in the ACC.

Nevertheless, Miami has dominated Pitt since 1984 to the tune of 15 wins and 1 loss. That lone loss (and Pitt’s last win in the series) came in 1997 on a Thursday night ESPN National TV broadcast at Pitt Stadium. It was a game in which Miami was hampered by scholarship limitations as they were completing their 1995 probation sentence for providing improper benefits to players. The Canes finished that season 5-6 with Ryan Clement at QB.

In fact, Pitt hasn’t won at Miami since November 30, 1963 (exactly 1 week after President Kennedy’s assassination -50 years ago). Led by coach John Michelosen, the “no-bowl” 1963 Panthers beat the Canes 31-20 that day.

In total, however, Miami owns a 22-9-1 edge over Pitt in the series.

The last time the two programs met was in 2010 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. It was a “make-up” game the ACC Conference was forced to give the now-defunct Big East football Conference in a lawsuit settlement for the 2003 “raid” that saw Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech leave the Big East for the ACC. Home field advantage or not, the game was never in doubt.

Like clockwork, Miami completely destroyed Pitt 31-3 in 2010 in what may have been symbolic of the Dave Wannstedt era. Pitt had a chance to showcase itself ready to play with a blueblood program like Miami but instead were clearly outclassed in almost every phase of the game.

The same could be said of Miami’s 28-14 win at Heinz Field in 2003. In what was considered the defacto “Big East Championship Game” on a National ABC TV broadcast, Miami shutdown Pitt (who had sophomore sensation Larry Fitzgerald) with very little problem. As a result, Miami went to the BCS that year while Pitt ended up in the Tire Bowl where they ultimately lost to Virginia.

The main reason for all of those dominant wins by Miami over Pitt was due to their advantage up front. Miami has completely owned the line of scrimmage in practically every one of their wins over Pitt.

In 2003, Pitt QB Rod Rutherford was pressured all game long and sacked 9 times by a dominant Miami defensive line.

In 2010, Pitt QB Tino Sunseri (making his 3rd start ever) was sacked 5 times by Miami and was pulled in the 4th Quarter after going 8 for 15 on 61 yards passing. Adding insult, Pitt lost a future star middle linebacker Dan Mason that day who never fully recovered to play a meaningful snap for Pitt.

This Friday (November 29th), Pitt will once again get the Miami Hurricanes at home at Heinz Field in an ABC TV national telecast. This time, Miami seemingly looks vulnerable. Last week, against a very anemic Virginia offense, the Hurricanes surrendered 483 yards (240 yards passing and 243 yards rushing). Despite the output, Virginia turned the ball over 4 times including 3 interceptions and the Canes won fairly convincingly 45-26.

For Pitt to have any prayer of victory this time (and 7th win this season), the Panthers will need to block and give QB Tom Savage time to throw. The 2013 Pitt offensive line has been abysmal all season long yielding 40 sacks. That’s amongst the worst of all the 120+ FBS programs.

7 wins could earn Pitt a better bowl destination (perhaps ACC affiliated) and more momentum heading into the 2014 season. Losing probably gets Pitt an “at-large” bowl such as the Pizza Bowl in Detroit or the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, where the ACC doesn’t have any ties and would probably need a bowl-eligible team if the Big 12 can’t provide one.

On that note, Pitt will also need to run the ball effectively and keep the Canes offense off the field. Hoping for a “white out” and cold weather in Pittsburgh is one thing, but executing the fundamentals like blocking is another.

If there was one thing former Pitt coach John Michelosen excelled at was stressing the fundamentals: blocking and tackling. Most of his teams were very strong in both of those areas.

Ironically, since then, Pitt has only beaten Miami 4 times at home (one of which was during the 1976 National Championship season). Otherwise, its been a long repeated story of Miami dominating Pitt upfront.

The jury is out whether history will repeat itself next week. On paper, it doesn’t look promising.