The Big Big East

The #8 West Virginia Mountaineers took all their frustration from seeing Rutgers stomp all over Louisville (a team that beat WV two weeks ago today), out on the Pittsburgh Panthers tonight. Pitt played very well. In fact went into the locker room up 3 at halftime, but I dont think there is a better tandem in any NCAA backfield than that of Pat White and Steve Slaton. I think of these two, as seeing a young Michael Vick in his Virginia Tech days and Reggie Bush from last season reincarnated and playing together in Morgantown. The Mountaineers who blew the critics away by putting up 540 yards against a tough Louisville defense, took it one step further for tallying 641 yards of offense tonight. To put how good these two are into perspective, Slaton (a realistic Heisman candidate) had 215 yards rushing and ran in two touchdowns. Now if I am Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt, I am furious. I would be throwing chairs. I would be slapping players. I would do things that would make Bobby Knight blush. But Slaton finished only second in his team in rushing. White, overshadowed him by rushing for 219 yards and a pair of touchdowns himself. White also passed for 195 yards (130 to Slaton) and 2 td's (1 to Slaton).

It was a tough loss for Pitt who have picked the worst year to blossom. At the beginning of the season I looked at Pitt to be in the running for the Big East title. Tyler Palko and H.B. Blades coming into their senior seasons, and building off of last year, i figured my team Rutgers would be in serious trouble. But I heard a story about how Blades used a Rutgers t-shirt to motivate his teammates during the off season by saying that they shouldnt have lost to Rutgers and that they cant let it happen again. I thought it was a great way to motivate his teammates. Until a 6-1 Pittsburgh team lost another tought game to Rutgers on Oct. 21. It seemed as if that game was their Super Bowl. After falling 20-10 at home, they traveled to Tampa and hardly even showed up for the USF game losing 22-12, and the following week lost a heartbreaker to a weaker UConn team. I feel like Wannstedt could have been a better leader. A strong team, a easy top 25 team at the beginning of 2006 just fell apart after suffering a little setback with the second straight loss to the Scarlet Knights. They only have one game left. Next Saturday they play an extremely emotional game at home against Louisville. I think Wannstedt has a whole lot riding on this game, and seeing as thought its the final collegiate game for the future pro's Palko (QB), Blades (LB), Clint Session (LB) and Steve Buches (TE), I think that Pitt will beat a unsuspecting Louisville team.