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Pitt football Q&A with Paul Zeise
Tuesday, October 02, 2007

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Q: Do you really believe this team can even win four games, and if that is all, how can you justify keeping this pair of coaches - Wannstedt and Cavanaugh, who are trying to play 1950's football -- for another year?

Sheldon Leonard, Mount Union, Pa.

Zeise: Four games, I just don't know if they can win even another game unless a few things change dramatically. Take the Navy game for instance: Does anything you have seen from this defense over the past six seasons lead you to believe it has any prayer of consistently stopping an option team? And further, do you think the offense will attempt to score against Navy -- a team it should be athletically superior too -- or will we see more of the same passive game plans of the past two weeks in an attempt to win 3-0? I would hope the coaches are at the point where they understand that desperate times call for desperate measures, and make no mistake, these are desperate times. You look ahead at the schedule. How many points do you think Cincinnati and its wide open spread offense will score against this defense? Think Toledo a few years back. I think that anything can happen - the 2001 season turned around out of nowhere, but I don't know the likelihood of that given the body language I saw from many of the players Saturday. You'd have thought Navy and Syracuse at home were two games the Panthers would have an excellent chance to win, but it all depends on which team shows up to play. Four wins at this point seems to be the maximum and regardless of how it ends there will be some changes on this staff. There has to be and I'm sure some will be mandated from above because certain things just aren't working.




Q: Paul, you said Pinkston "will have two years of eligibility remaining" but since he's only a true sophomore and he took a redshirt this year wouldn't that leave him with three years?(redshirt sophomore, redshirt junior and redshirt senior)?

Ron Mexico, Pittsburgh

Zeise: Yes, my bad, you are correct. He will sit out this year then have three more years to play, which is a good thing for this program. I think if you look at next year's line - Lucas Nix, Chris Jacobson, Jason Pinkston and Joe Thomas were are very highly touted players and CJ Davis, who I would think they'd consider moving to center, will be a four-year starter. I don't care if Nix would be a true freshman, if that unit doesn't at least show a pulse, then there is something really, really wrong.

First published on October 2, 2007 at 5:28 pm