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Q: The defense seemed to play well against Youngstown State for the most part, but the secondary seemed to struggle with coverage at times. Do you think this is something that will work itself out over the next few games or will this be an ongoing problem all season?
Shawn Kunes, Hampton
ZEISE: I think this is a great question. You are correct, the secondary didn't cover like it needs to once the varsity games begin. YSU had guys open. They also had a few chances to make some places but couldn't connect. I think if you look around the Big East and at Notre Dame and even N.C. State (despite their awful performance the other night) you'll find that Pitt will face some really good wide receivers and far better quarterbacks than Brandon Summers. For that matter, Buffalo has a kid, Naaman Roosevelt, who is going to be in the NFL some day and will be one of the better receivers the Panthers face. It will be very interesting to see how the secondary responds this week, especially since Buffalo, unlike YSU, will be able to get Pitt's defensive front blocked, at least occassionally. This is an area of the team to keep an eye on because it clearly needs to improve from the way it played Saturday.
Q: How's Nate Byham doing?
Bob Fitzmaurice, St. Pete Beach, Fla.
ZEISE: He is fine. He said he has no lingering issues from the concussions and he's ready to go. He played a very limited role this past weekend against YSU, which was more than he even thought he'd get to play. Coaches just weren't going to take any chances with him so, while I know people are worried that he wasn't a big part of the offense, there was a reason for that. He played Saturday just to sort of get his feet wet but he was not being used the same way he will be when the real games begin. Pitt had a luxury on Saturday of resting some guys or in Byham's case using him some in a limited capacity and not really taking many chances with him. But I talked with him today and he is fine and he said had he needed to he could have gone a lot more on Saturday. I expect to see him in there a lot this Saturday and I'd expect him to catch some passes and be involved in things as well.
Q: After attending the game on Saturday it is abundantly clear to me (as I suspected all along): The problem is not, nor was it, the offensive coordinator. The problem is the head coach. My question: Does any Pitt fan actually believe we can EVER be a top 10 team with this "philosopy of the 70's" mentality?Will we EVER know if ANY of our quarterbacks can really throw the ball? Will Jonathan Baldwin stay here if we use him as we have been? It is clear to me, at least, that we got rid of the wrong guy. The game has simply passed Wannstedt by.
Sheldon Leonard, Mount Union, Pa.
ZEISE: Sheldon, that is pretty rough, even by your tough standards!!! And I appreciate what you are saying but I think it is a little early to declare the season lost or the offense a complete failure. Let's wait a few more weeks and see how it develops before we declare it to be "stuck in the 1970's". I agree there are some things about the NFL mentality which permeates through this program which I'm not a big fan of, but let's not forget this team has won 11 of its last 15 games, so it is at least on the right track. It might not be that exciting to watch all the time, but it has been effective recently. As for Baldwin, he's not going anywhere and I will be very surprised if he doesn't see a little, actually a lot, more action once the real games begin. Like I wrote in my blog - -there is very little to learn from this game because YSU was so bad and as a result Pitt was so vanilla and generic in what it did on both sides of the ball.
First Published: September 9, 2009, 2:15 a.m.
