University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Meet the Press: Dave Wannstedt Discusses the Citadel Game
9/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 18, 2006
Dave Wannstedt
Citadel Week
September 18, 2006
On the
The film reaffirmed everything that I thought initially when I talked to the press right after the game. After looking at it, the bright spot was our special teams. We really did a nice job on our returns, we did a nice job on our punt and kickoff coverage. Our kickers are kicking the ball well -- Adam (Graessle) as far as his punting and Conor Lee hasn't had many opportunities but he's been consistent.
(Kick returner) T.J. Porter made a great play, he was gone. Both he and Lowell Robinson both showed that they have big-time ability to break one. So I'm pleased where we're at with special teams but obviously we need to keep getting better.
The offense and defense can be summed up very simply -- we didn't make enough plays to win the football game. When we really sat back and looked at it, I don't think it was the intensity. I don't think it was we got tired. All those things are excuses or reasons that you come up with when you get pushed around in the second half like we did. We had opportunities to make a couple sacks and we lost containment. We just weren't as sharp as what we needed to be. I think the option game, particularly with that quarterback (
On offense, we never had a chance. We fell behind so quick in the second half that we never really had a chance to get our running game back. I was really encouraged with it (the running game) in the first half. LaRod (Stephens-Howling) was averaging four or five yards a carry, Conredge Collins carried the ball well -- he had four or five yards a carry. Then we fell behind by two touchdowns in the third quarter and now we're trying to play catch up.
So that never really gave us an honest opportunity to see if we could continue to run the football. We did have some chances to make some big plays in the passing game and we did. If you look at those first two games, that was the difference I thought. So we'll regroup. We got out of the game fairly healthy, there weren't any major consequences from an injury standpoint, so I would expect our guys to be out there today and we're focusing now on the Citadel. They're a high-energy team. They've been off to a little bit of a rough start but watching their players, we all know that they're intelligent players, they're highly disciplined players. They play hard. They've got a brand new defensive coordinator. They're doing a lot of pressure stuff, a lot of blitz stuff, very similar to what
On whether Pitt's young players will have difficulty bouncing back from a loss:
I don't think so. I think sometimes it works the opposite with young kids. They're just excited about playing and they're trying to figure it all out. Just from the response so far from the guys being around here lifting weights and coming in and getting treatment, stopping by in between class, I like the response from what I've seen initially. The older guys on our team are fine. Tyler (Palko), (Joe) Villani, (John) Simonitis, H.B. (Blades), Clint (Session) (Darrelle) Revis, all those guys were calling and wanting to see not necessarily what went wrong but what can we do to make it right.
On Conredge Collins' role in the offense:
Because we weren't sure if LaRod was 100 percent, leading up to the game we had Conredge get a lot more work than what he normally might, just as an insurance policy. Kevin Collier didn't get into the game, Shane Brooks did. We'll continue to rotate all those backs but it's difficult trying to get them all work. Conredge is one guy, other than LaRod, that has some experience. Even though he's just a sophomore he's the most experienced (fullback) we've got from a playing time standpoint. In certain situations he's the guy we want to give the football to. Yes, we expect to try to get him some more carries. That will be a week-to-week thing depending on what we're trying to do.
On decisions being made regarding redshirting true freshmen:
That's a little bit frustrating. Last week we weren't able to get Nate Byham much playing time. We didn't get Kevin Collier any. We just have to be careful because we want to try to get those guys playing time but at the same time we need to do whatever it takes to win the game. Then we have a group of players like (Dorin) Dickerson, (Jason) Pinkston who haven't gotten any (time). We'd love to redshirt them if we possibly could. Dorin, the only reason he's not in there, is he's behind because of his injuries. He missed almost the entire training camp, so he's behind. It's tough when guys stay healthy, we can only practice so long. So I just told the guys no decisions will be made, let's just play it out. We have a lot of time left, we're trying to work all these kids and keep their attitude right. Once we get on that back half of the season I think we can be a little bit more specific as far as the possibilities of a redshirt.
On keeping the true freshmen motivated:
Sitting there telling them something is one thing but then when they have to go out onto the practice field, that's the challenging thing. I think you can cite examples of guys who went through that and (make them) feel that this is pretty normal. It's all pride, they want to play. Every kid who came here came with the intention that he's going to contribute and contribute early. I think they can look and see players like Doug Fulmer, for example, who a year ago was redshirted and now is starting. You try to cite examples like that that they can relate to. It helps rationalize (the inactive season) in their mind.
On backup quarterback Bill Stull's lack of game experience:
Any time you can get your backup quarterback playing time, it's going to help your football team. We'd like to get him playing time. We just haven't had the luxury to have a lead (large enough to play Stull).
On the status of Mike Phillips' injury:
He was in for treatment this morning and he's going to play this week. After coming off that broken ankle from a year ago I think he's very mentally cautious of every time that thing (his ankle) tweaks. He's still working through the mental challenge of coming back from a broken ankle. We expect him to play this week.
On Citadel's offense:
Their offense presents challenges similar to
In this scheme of defense, if our defensive line is not making plays at the line of scrimmage or behind the line of scrimmage we're going to struggle and that did happen last week. We got the one sack early and the rest of the game we didn't make anything happen. This is a new challenge, a new game. We're going to play good defense this week.
On how they will approach this week:
I think we need to be consistent, that's the main thing. Correct what we need to correct but you don't change much. There are certain things that we'll emphasize more than others but the practice time and the meeting time and everything we do during the week will not change. We've got to go out there and get better. We've got to practice hard. We've got a long way to go. We want to be playing our best football the last week of the season.
On why
Just going off what I saw Saturday the kid (MSU quarterback Drew Stanton) did an unbelievable job of calling checks and plays at the line of scrimmage. With three different defenses, the minute we jumped into them he knew what he wanted to go and he called the play and went with it. So they did a lot of play calling at the line of scrimmage and obviously they executed. So I've got to give him credit, he did a fantastic job of that. On film it shows up that it looks like option when he's running the ball but they were running quarterback draws and regular running plays when the guys (offensive line) go up and block and he just tucks the ball and follows them up into the hole. So a couple of times it looked like option plays but it was not an option play.
On the turnovers during the game:
The fumbles are a concern. You need to get some plays out of your quarterback if he's athletic on his feet. He (quarterback Tyler Palko) needs to protect the ball better when he runs with the football. The interceptions didn't bother me. Both of those could have been touchdowns. Those jump balls in the end zone, we've got to take shots like that because we believe that our guys will come down with the ball more times than not.
On freshman guard Joe Thomas' performance:
Joe Thomas did pretty well. Joe played over half the game. That was good to get Joe Thomas some playing time. Joe jumped in and got his feet wet against good competition and he should be even better this week.
