Hey now! We might just like the outcome of the game against Virginia Tech this evening. Key reason why? Well, there’s two actually: First is that VT really is poor at their run defense sitting at 122nd of 130 teams – giving up almost 213 yards per game (ypg). Currently we are averging 135.0 ypg on the ground which isn’t good at all and puts us 88th of 130 teams.

However, look at the chart below and you see that VT has an awesome Passing Yards Allowed defense in giving up only 139 ypg (2nd in rank) and a very good Passing Efficiency defense at 30th allowing opposing QBs a 110.53 rating. What sucks is that Pitt’s combined Passing Efficiency rate is only 107.39 (120th).

Our Passing Yards per game is a hoot. Try to guess how many ypg we have averaged so far. A terrible 138. So VT is giving up only (1) more ypg then we create… I really hope we stay out of 3rd and long situations but with our shaky OL and very generous penalties (117th) we will see of those then we want.

Good lord, if our OL can’t rise to the occasion and open holes for whoever Cignetti chooses to run the ball (because after all he is higher on the decision-making totem pole then Narduzzi) we’ll get beat….

Here are the Pitt & VT ESPN pages for all the info on the teams in one place. But first is the Pitt 2023 Season Media Guide to read about why this team has a 1-3 record (Just kidding, this was written pre-season when there was still hope).

Pitt Media Guide

PITT ESPN

VT ESPN

Here are a few bits of info about us and our opponent:

Pitt – VT Game Notes

Pitt Detailed Stats to Date

2023 Hokies Roster

2023 Hokies Stats

Hokies NCAA Rankings to Date

Below are the posted odds as of this morning. Pitt giving 2.5 (down from 3.5) points 7.5 points.

For a different take on this match up here is a link provided by Sports Illustrated from the VT point of view. Also, a VT page about the Pitt-VT series…

What does all this pre-game info mean? Sod all as the Brits say, but it does lead one to wonder if we will pull out a win in Blacksburg tonight. Personally because of the good passing defense VT fields and that we’ll probably kill ourselves with penalties again (I know, impossible to kill again) I think we continue on our losing ways:

VT – 24 Pitt – 17

HTP!!

A nice quick update on Pitt VB from John Demko (John in South Carolina). As you read about the team’s players here is this seasons roster for background info on them.

As a break from our dismal football season to-date, here is a review of this past weekend’s Pitt women’s volleyball matches at Duke and UNC.  For added measure I reviewed where we stand at this juncture in the season.

On Friday #8 Pitt played Duke and swept them in three sets; 25-20, 30-28, and 25-22.  In the second set Pitt had to overcome four straight set points in a row.  Pitt during the match went from their usual 6-2 offense to a 5-1 offense.  Pitt hit 0.258 versus Duke’s 0.190.

Logan Mosley started playing a defense role for the Panthers subbing into the back row when Pitt has a lead late in the set in the Duke match.  This continued in the UNC match.

The attack scoring for Pitt came mostly from Stafford (15) and Babcock (13).  The middles of Nwokolo and Monks contributed 10.  Stafford and Babcock in addition to attacking from the pins are attacking from the back row in the 5-1 offense.

Chiamaka Nwokolo appears to be back to her 2022 form.  Per Coach Fisher said Emma Monks is playing the best volleyball of her career.  This seems to happen a lot when players come to Pitt.  Apparently coaching does matter!

It is a good thing that both middles are playing well as it appears Bre Kelley may be out for a long time, perhaps the season, due to her injury.  Pitt also has Rachel Jepsen in reserve at middle in case she is needed.  Bre should be able to get a medical redshirt for this year if she does not return.

On Sunday Pitt took on UNC and swept them; 25-22, 25-17, and 25-19.  This was some small payback for the UNC beatdown of Pitt’s football the night before.

Stafford (16) and Babcock (11) again lead the Panthers in the attack.  Vazquez Gomez added 9 with both middles only contributing 7.  Pitt played a 5-1 exclusively in the match with Rachel Fairbanks.  The only time Pitt subbed out Rachel was when there was a rally where Rachel was involved in a collision with one of her teammates and ended up on the floor.

Pitt hit 0.312 versus 0.111 for UNC.  A large part of this was due to Pitt’s front-line defense as they had 12 blocks versus 6 for UNC.  In the second set UNC hit a negative 0.028!  There were numerous rallies when Pitt’s blocks continually frustrated UNC’s attackers.  Pitt was able to outleap the heavier hitters of UNC.  UNC’s best player, Mabrey Shaffmaster, seemed to tire as the match progressed with more unforced errors.

Against UNC and Duke Pitt allowed both teams to have long runs on them to get back into sets.  Hopefully Coach Fisher is working on ways to prevent that in the future.

This coming week Pitt is at the Fitz.  They play an improved Boston College team on Friday at 7 PM and Syracuse on Sunday at 1 PM. Here is this season’s full schedule…

Here are some of my thoughts at this point in the season on the team.

The two freshmen, Torrey Stafford and Olivia Babcock, are the real deal!  Hopefully they stay healthy and will be at Pitt for all four years of eligibility.  I believe they are the best freshmen combo in the nation!  They are also going to have to carry this Pitt team for the year and the foreseeable future.  Fisher is going to a 5-1 offense to have both on the floor as much as possible.

With Bre Kelley out for possibly the season, Pitt is going to be just OK in the middle with Emma Monks and Chiamaka Nwokolo.  They will not be able to score from there to the extent they did in the past.  Pitt also has Rachel Jepsen available.  As Pitt is going to lose both Monks and Nwokolo due to the end eligibility after this year, Fisher needs to give Jepsen as much playing time as he can without hurting the team’s chances.

Due to the 5-1, we will be seeing the middles slide to the pins to attack when Fairbanks is in the front row.  With our 6-2 offense this has not been a necessity.  This will be the first time we use the slide extensively since Layne Van Buskirk played.  We are going to use the back row attack this year much more than in the past.  Stafford is one of our 6 rotation players along with Vazquez Gomez.  Babcock is also being developed into that back row role.

While I generally do not prefer top spin jump serves in the women’s game, Olivia Babcock has a very impressive one.  She seems to be able to have good control of it most of the time.  It is a high risk/high reward serve though.  She has 27 errors versus 11 aces.  A hidden stat is how many points Pitt has made off the returned serves due to the other team being out-of-system.  Overall Pitt has 60 serve aces versus 93 errors so they are an aggressive serving team in general.

Our first pin hitter off the bench is another freshman, Blaire Bayless.  While not up to the level of the other two freshmen pins, she is no slouch!  She will see playing time whenever Pitt is playing a lesser ACC opponent.  Bayless is 6’2”.  When Pitt needs more height at the pins due to taller opposition Julianna Dalton is called upon at 6’5”.

In the back row, Emma Klika is doing very well.  Logan Mosley is going to be used more as the season progresses, especially when Pitt has a lead late in the set.  She is a good defender as well as a good server.

Logan seems to have overcome her issues with not trusting/communicating with her teammates on serve receive.  This was probably due to her time at Virginia Tech where she was the best player on a very bad team.

When I first heard Logan was transferring to Pitt, I was not that impressed.  I have since changed my mind.  At the present she is an upgrade over Dillyn Griffin.

Cat Flood and Dillyn Griffin are going to be used as serving specialist for the most part as well as subs in blowouts.  The two other setters, Haiti Tautua’a and Lexis Akeo, will be used in blowouts as well.  Against weaker opponents Pitt may revert to their standard 6-2 offense to give our two freshmen some rest as well as give the other setters some playing time.  This will also give Rachel Fairbanks a bit of a break.  Rachel apparently has been playing with a nagging injury.

Overall, I think Pitt has a chance to finish in the top 2 in the ACC.  If they can handle a more experienced Louisville team, they have a chance to win the ACC.  They cannot continue to have lapses as they did this weekend though and leave the other team have long runs against them.  Against Louisville and Georgia Tech that will result in lost matches.

As for the NCAA playoffs, they have a chance at the Elite Eight again this year.  This assumes we never get back a healthy Bre Kelley.  I will continue to give my thoughts on this as the ACC schedule continues.

The NCAA Volleyball committee did their first reveal of the season of the top ten seeds if the tournament was held today.  Pitt was not among the top ten.  Boo, Boo, Hiss!

A 5-5 Minnesota team was tenth and a Texas team with three losses was 9^th.  Pitt should have been in one of those two places.  Louisville was #5 so Pitt is going to have to beat them at least once to get into the top ten.  Pitt’s youth and lack of Bre Kelley was probably the reason Pitt did not make the top ten.

HTP!

Well, this is getting to be repetitive, isn’t it? Not in a good way either as we dropped another match to our first ACC opponent of the 2023 season, the North Carolina Tarheels. They came into Acrisure Stadium and pretty much had their way with us, in the second half at least. Up to that point there was a slight glimmer of hope.

After trading scores with NC we lost our starting QB Phil Jurkovec to injury and thus started to fall behind in the scoring until we maxed out at 24 points as our final score. What was pretty strange though is that there was no scoring at all in the 4th quarter. Having Jurkovec out of the game was what the majority of Pitt fans wanted to see, albeit not by injury but by a coach’s hook.

Either way Christian Veilleux didn’t make anyone forget the guy he replaced. While PJ didn’t throw any INTs neither did he throw any TDs. Apparently he left the INTs to his replacement who tossed two of them. His first could have made a difference at the time – we were down a lot but there was time left to make a comeback – that is a comeback made by a talented squad which doesn’t fit our bill.

Add to CV’s two INTs that fumble later in the game and that paints the picture that our QB room is pretty barren of any real, game changing, talent. But after the Cincy game we fans figured that out by ourselves.

Here are the stats on the game. They don’t paint the true story – NC had the game well in hand after they tied the score 14-14 at 9:09 of the 2nd quarter. After that touchdown a Pitt loss was pretty much a foregone conclusion.

Here are Pitt’s complete rankings with a comparison to the other ACC teams. We don’t fare all that well except for things like Passing Yards Allowed (11th with 159.5 ypg). But… offset that with our Passing Efficiency Defense (109th & 13th in ACC) and you can see why we lose games. It isn’t the yardage allowed in certain areas that kill us, more like the fact that our defenders carry BB guns in their pockets and shoot themselves in the foot in important situations. To Wit:

Fewest Penalties Per Game (130 ranked) 116th – 13th ACC

Fewest Penalty Yards (130 ranked) 94th – 11th in ACC

Fewest Penalty Yards Per Game (130 ranked) 98th – 11th in ACC

For their 7th Points:

3rd & 10 at UNC 25 (6:56 – 1st) MAYE, Drake pass up the middle incomplete intended for MCCOLLUM, Nate broken up by O’BRIEN JR., Phillip at the UNC38. PENALTY PIT Pass Interference on O’BRIEN JR., Phillip enforced at the spot of the foul for 14 yards to the UNC39 and results in automatic 1ST DOWN [NHSG]. NO PLAY (replay the down).

2nd & 9 at UNC 40 (6:56 – 1st) HAMPTON, Omarion rush to the right for a gain of 2 yards to the UNC42 (JULES, Deandre). PENALTY PIT Offsides on JULES, Deandre enforced 4 yards from the UNC40 to the UNC44 [NHSG]. NO PLAY (replay the down).

For their 28th Points:

2nd & 17 at UNC 2 (3:31 – 2nd) BROOKS, British rush up the middle for a gain of 7 yards to the UNC9 (MCMILLON, Donovan;EPPS, Malcolm). PENALTY Before the snap, PIT Illegal Substitution enforced 5 yards from the UNC2 to the UNC7. NO PLAY (replay the down).

2nd & 12 at UNC 7 (3:31 – 2nd) Drake Maye pass complete to Omarion Hampton for 19 yds to the UNC 26 for a 1ST down Pittsburgh Penalty, Unsportsmanlike Conduct (Donovan McMillon) to the UNC 41 for a 1ST down.

That last bit kills me. We had NC on their own 2 yard line and basically gave them 39 yards free of charge.

One weird fact about penalties under Narduzzi’s time here is this; in his first three seasons (2015-2017) our average rank of ‘fewest penalties’ was 26th of 130 teams. Pretty darn good and in ’17 we were a great 3rd. Since then we are averaging 117th out of 130. That is a damn dramatic turnaround in the worst way. Penalties are demoralizing and tend to lead to finger pointing. That is the last thing a barely average team can afford to do.

Look, we all know that we just are not a good team at this point. Now, I’m really not a cynical as some fans are in their predicting a two, or at best, three win season. I wouldn’t be shocked in we win four, or if the Gods smile on us, five games. But things have to change. I very much think that, if he’s healthy, Jurkovec will start the VT game and so on. But QB is just one of our problems. Here is Jurkovec’s Game Log so far – read it and weep:

The above is misleading in a way. In all four games PJ is 108th of 124 college QBs in rating ranking. However, over his last three games against D1 defenses he has a QB rating of only 95.4 which is horrendous. Fasten your seatbelts for more of the same.

A big problem is that our running game ain’t taking up the slack of sub-par QB play. In the last three games against decent opponents we have 347 rushing yards on 108 carries for a 3.2 ypc average. 3.2 yards folks and if that continues then we just might see a 2-9 or 3-8 season.

Lets hope not.

HTP!

Here are some bits to break up the long Game Day thread comments. What a crap game yet again. Let’s not anyone get fooled by a decent half of QB play last night…we have a long way to go on that front. Some factual stuff first:

Below is a graphic of Pitt’s standing in the NCAA rankings as of this morning. This is a ‘lots of info’ graphic but it is informative. Here is the full comprehensive of our rankings with the ACC comparisons thrown in. I’ll delve into the stats issue in more detail and its relevance to future ACC games in the MMQB article tomorrow.

Now, a few shots of the best Pitt fans ever (have to be this season, right?) Enjoy…

Here is Fran wearing his favorite new T-shirt featuring a ‘Flying Jurkovec’. It will be a hard-to-find collectors item and worth big money in 25 years when Fran is 50 years old.

Our amazing stats and general info man Richard in SC…what an asset to the POV and he gives us the most comprehensive accounting of a team’s opponents that has ever been done in college football. I’m not kidding either!

Annie, Scooter and Fran celebrating the end of the game and not having to watch the crap show any longer.

The Red5A POV Tailgating crew! Seems to have found the only dry spot in Pittsburgh. I mean ground dry, not drinking dry because of course that is the exact thing that happens at Fran’s tailgate parties.

Another shot of tailgaters with JoeL holding court. I believe Joe picked Pitt to win last night but I might be wrong…

I will be in Sewickley for an old girlfriend’s funeral on the afternoon of Saturday the 30th so will try to get to Red5A for a visit to the VT tailgate. Won’t be able to stay for the game but really want to see you all again.

HTP!!