Looks like PITT isn't it and might not be ever, really

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I thought this finally was PITT's year to grab hold of the Big East conference and take that next step that we fans have been waiting for for a long, long time.

After a slow non-conference start, they started out their Big East schedule by dominating their first three opponents and it looked like it could be clear-sailing the rest of the way.

But, in week four, they lost a sloppy game in Connecticut, and after rebounding with a win at South Florida, and with their destiny in their own hands, they were blown out of Heinz Field this past Friday in the Backyard Brawl by the West Virginia Mountaineers. A win over WVU and Cincinnati would have given them the Big East title outright, now, they are on the outside looking in as both West Virginia and UConn own tiebreakers over them. All Connecticut has to do is win their remaining game and they'll get that coveted BCS bid. If they lose and WVU wins, the 'eers will earn the title. If both lose and PITT knocks off Cincinnati, the Panthers will back into the BCS game. But I'm not holding out much hope.

It looks like PITT is heading to another Meineke Car.PITT.edu bowl.

The latest bowl projections have them playing in some game on January 8th against Kentucky. I don't even remember the name of the bowl. I suppose I could go back and research it again, but what's the point?

The real point is PITT should be moving beyond these subpar bowls by now. When Walt Harris brought this program back from the dead in the late 90's, these kinds of bowls were fine, but after he departed in 2004, people started to expect more. That's why they brought in Dave Wannstedt to finish what Harris started. But Wannstedt hasn't, and he's achieved less than Harris did. The Panthers were actually in the Fiesta Bowl in Harris' last year with the program. You can call it a tainted appearance since the Panthers finished in a three-way tie, but they made it to a BCS game, and Wannstedt hasn't been able to take his team that far in six seasons and that's rather disappointing.

On paper, it looks like Wannstedt is bringing in more talent than Harris did, but maybe he's not bringing in the key talent. As was pointed out by smarter people than me, Wannstedt insists on running a pro-style offense, but he hasn't been able to develop a pro-style quarterback to run it. He came close last year with Bill Stull, but like they were saying on the PITT panthers postgame show on Friday, Wannstedt's biggest failure at PITT may have been not developing Pat Bostick into the quarterback that he was projected to be when he signed with the Panthers.

I always thought Bostick was the quarterback that the team needed to take the next step and he even managed to win a few big games, but for whatever reason, he was never able to put it together. Now, Tino Sunseri is the guy, and even though he's improved as the year as gone on, I'm not so sure there is much more progress that he can make.

Back to Wannstedt, when he was named the head coach of PITT, I had some reservations because the teams he coached in the NFL always seemed to reach a certain level, but never could get over the hump. I was hoping that wouldn't spill over into the college ranks, but I'm beginning to fear that it has. Three years in a row, PITT has had a chance to win the conference, and they've come up short.

If you're recruiting better than the guy before you, you should be more successful than him, but that hasn't been the case.

Maybe our expectations are just too high. We keep wanting things to be like they were in the late 70's and early 80's, but that is ancient history now.

The Panthers have only played in one New Year's day bowl since 1983, the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, but other than that, there's been a Bluebonnet Bowl, a Liberty Bowl, a Continental Tire bowl, a Tangerine bowl, a couple of Insight.com bowls, a couple of Sun Bowls, and a Meineke Car care bowl.

They haven't lost less than 3 games since 1981. They've only won 10 games once since 1981, last year, and it took them 13 games to do it. Maybe this is just what PITT football is.

And maybe it will be that way as long as PITT stays in the Big East. If they want to get where the fans think they should be, maybe it's time to lobby for the Big Ten conference. I know that might sound crazy since PITT can't even win the Big East, but since Wannstedt is such a great recruiter, if you give him a more prestigious conference to sell, maybe that will translate into getting more blue chip recruits and the ability to compete with the teams in that conference.

Maybe they just need to get a new coach, but would a new guy be as good a recruiter? It's a catch-22, really. Do you want a better game-day coach or a better recruiter? What would translate into better results?

I always thought if you had a coach that knew how to recruit, the wins would take care of themselves. Maybe Wannstedt just needs to take more of an executive approach with his coaching style and delegate more authority to his assistants.

I don't know what the answer is, but get ready for that bowl against some team on some channel.