Panthers better equipped to beat spread
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When Pitt played Utah in the 2004 Fiesta Bowl, the Utes smoked the Panthers with their new, high-octane spread offense.
Since then, the spread has taken hold of college football, so much so that Pitt defensive line coach Greg Gattuso said Wednesday that the Panthers' traditional two-back pro-style offense "is the strange offense in the country now."
Perhaps so, but the fact is the Panthers and most other teams have a far greater understanding about how to defend the spread because they have seen and prepared for it often over the past five years.
The Panthers will play seven full-time spread teams this season in 12 games and at least three others who will use some version of the spread or wildcat in a limited way.
That is not much different than last season when they faced seven spread teams and Navy, a triple-option team.
But that does not mean Pitt will stop Utah's offense when the teams meet for the first time since that Fiesta Bowl. The Panthers, however, will be much better prepared for it than their staff was in 2004.
"Four, five, six years ago, we were all trying to figure out how to simulate the spread offense and the speed of the offense and what they do and, now, it just seems like it is easier to prepare for in a lot of ways," Gattuso said.
"Now, it is easier in preparation, but it is not easy in execution because the spread offense is going to make one guy make a tackle, that is the whole goal of that offense. If someone from defense is going to make a play it is going to be one guy, not two or three.
"They are just good at finding gaps and holes and putting your defenders in tough situations. But we're used to it now, we know how to prepare for it. It is still a tough offense to prepare for, but we're comfortable with it now and like I said, we know how to simulate it now."
Senior safety Dom DeCicco said it has been amazing to see how much better prepared the Panthers are when they face the spread compared to a few years ago. He said it used to be a lot of trial and error, but now preparations are more routine because coaches know what works and what doesn't against the spread.
While preparing for Utah's spread, the Panthers are working in many things they have used against West Virginia and South Florida because the Utes' offense is a hybrid of the spreads those teams employ.
First Published August 26, 2010 12:00 am
