Pitt takes aim at Big East championship
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Dion Lewis jumps down from the student section after his team defeated South Florida, 41-14, at Heinz Field Saturday.
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Pitt's 41-14 win against South Florida Saturday is one of the most impressive victories the Panthers have had in recent seasons.
It put them in position to make a run at the Big East championship. It also made a statement that perhaps their record (7-1, 4-0 in the Big East) and ranking (No. 16 AP (media), No. 17 USA Today (coaches) and No. 15 BCS) are not a product of a weak schedule.
"I don't know how good we are, I just know we're a team that loves to play football," said defensive tackle Mick Williams. "But we have [four] big games ahead of us so we are going to take some rest then get back to work and see how far we can take this thing."
This week's bye week for the Panthers couldn't have come at a better time.
Pitt has played eight weeks in a row and if you add training camp -- which this year was especially physical -- the players have been playing their brand of hard-nosed, physical football for nearly three months without a break.
The Panthers also have a number of players with bumps and bruises. Coach Dave Wannstedt said after the South Florida game that the most important thing about this bye week is the rest it will provide.
"We have some guys who are beat up and we haven't had a break yet," Wannstedt said. "I think for our team, for our coaches, this bye week really came at the right time for us and we will get some rest. We'll take a few days off then get back to work [Wednesday] and go for a couple days then get started working on Syracuse."
But does a team as hot as Pitt has been really want to take a week off and risk losing momentum?
"We need the rest, believe me," tight end Dorin Dickerson said. "We have some guys who are beat up; we have a lot of tough games coming up and we want to be healthy and ready to go down the stretch."
Syracuse (3-4, 0-2) will be the Panthers next opponent after the off week on Nov. 7 and, while the Orangemen are still a team in rebuilding mode, it could be a tricky game to get focused on.
That's because the Panthers follow the Orange with a tough stretch of games against No. 25 Notre Dame (5-2), at No. 22 West Virginia (6-1, 2-0) and then the season finale against No. 5 Cincinnati (7-0, 3-0).
Wannstedt said there is no way that the Panthers will overlook the Orange for two reasons -- the fact that they always seem to play the Panthers tough (last year they led the Panthers going into the fourth quarter) and it is a Big East game and they have to win it to control their own destiny in the conference championship race.
He also said that the win against South Florida is the kind of game that should give the Panthers confidence.
"Syracuse is a conference game, it is a priority," Wannstedt said. "Up to this point, it is probably all talk that 'are you a contender or a pretender' and I think our guys now should get a taste that, we could be a contender.
"But we have to take them one at a time and see what happens."
First Published October 26, 2009 12:00 am
