The Panthers gave themselves a roadmap two years ago.
Nobody in major college football does upsets like Pitt does upsets.
The Panthers narrowly missed pulling one off earlier this year at Notre Dame, but their recent history is loaded with them beating teams they shouldn’t.
When Pitt’s played a top-three opponent while unranked, the Panthers have won four in a row going back to 2002.
That's a completely meaningless stat. Going back 16 years? The current players were 2-5 years old! I don't even remember who we beat in 2002.
They’ve beaten three New Year’s Six teams in the last two years and haven’t themselves finished ranked since 2009. [That is a meaningFUL stat, same HEAD coach, some of the same players.]
Clemson had particular trouble dealing with one play Pitt offensive coordinator Matt Canada
called over and over again.
The play was an option with both a sweep run option and a shovel pass to a trailing tight end or H-back, and Pitt used it to pick on Clemson’s outside linebackers ...
.. and defensive ends:
It was so bad that unranked Pitt was "picking on" NUMBER TWO CLEMSON! I have only seen defensive players fooled so utterly twice before: Same year, 2016, against PSU, also a win, and last Saturday on the first Pitt play from scrimmage, which went for 47 yards, against Miami Gardens, in a loss.
Pitt does not have the Canadian Genius anymore. He's now the Maryland Genius. But the jet sweep, Canada's signature, was the play Saturday night (for ONE play) and misdirection was Matt Canada's oeuvre. The option toss or whatever that thing against Clemson is called is another page in Canada's seminal work, Misdirection. So we don't have Canada anymore but we still have the jet sweep in our playbook.
Dey did.
Now as I, Benjamin Harris, sat in Pro Player Robbie Rock Stadium last Saturday night and watched Maurice Ffrench completely ffool the Miami ddefense on the first play from scrimmage, and then ffool the "Canes" no mo the whole ffrigging game I wondered to my own self: "Did Duzz show that once and then no mo so as not to tip his hand to Dabo of Clemson?" And, "Is it not so, Benjamin Harris, self, that this is a 'freebie' for Duzz and for Pitt? That it don't matter if they win or lose on accounta they done locked up the Coastal Division and will play Clemson for the ACC championship anywho?" I had to concede that that was so. "But maybe, Benjamin Harris, self, you are thinking this because Ppitt looks so ppathetic" which I had to concede equally could explain my "mmindset."
But if you’ve watched the NFL the last two years and are wondering how The Peter Man threw for 308 yards against a Clemson defense, these shovel passes are your answer.
"The Peter Man," so-called, is Nathan Peterman, Pitt's quarterback in that Clemson game. Words can be hurtful SB Nation.
The Tigers are so good that trying to simply run over them, like Pitt has done at times this year, probably will not work. It’s a safe assumption that Clemson’s staff will drill its defensive front on how to not get conned by 2016’s toss read.
So Pitt’s current coordinator, Shawn Watson, needs to come up with some other ploy that can have Clemson scrambling for a while. He makes more money than me and can figure that out on his own.
Watson, come here, I must needs you.
2. Make it hard for Trevor Lawrence to make reads.
This was another part of the recipe last time. Pitt threw heavy boxes at Clemson and clamped down on the pass read in Tiger RPOs. Pitt used a perimeter defender to spy on receivers before attacking the run.
I, Benjamin Harris, do not know: 1. who Trevor Lawrence is 2. what "heavy boxes" are although he wouldn't like them thrown at him either 3. what "clamp down on the pass read" means 4. what "RPO's" are 5. what it means "to spy on receivers before attacking the run." As a consequence of the foregoing the undersigned does not know what the foregoing means a'tall.
It would defy reason for Pitt to win. But that’s far from the first time somebody’s said that about Pitt.
