Dave Wannstedt Spooked by Thursday Night Game: Sees Werewolves at Rentschler Field

Dave Wannstedt is so fired up about the UConn game tonight, he arranged crowd noise and loud music to be pumped in to the Panthers practices all week. Odd, don't you think? The last time Pitt played at UConn the Panthers won big and the crowd, although recorded as 40,000, was closer to 28,000.

Wannstedt is fully aware of his and Pitt’s sorry Thursday night record. He is 1-5 in nationally televised Thursday night games, and Pitt is 5-10 overall. This season Wannstedt is 0-2. He embarrassed himself and the university by a sloppy first half against Utah, resulting in a 27-24 overtime loss and the 31-3 Miami fiasco.

UConn holds a 2-1 advantage in games played at Rentschler Field. The series dates back to 2004 when UConn joined the Big East Conference.

This week Wannstedt went on and on about what a great team the Huskies are and how unbeatable they become once they hit the red zone.

“When you see they are No. 1 in the conference in red zone offense, it gets your attention," Wannstedt said.

It gets Wannstedt’s attention because his Pitt team hasn’t been very good in the red zone all season long—on defense. The team's red zone defense has been among the worst in the Big East. The Panthers are sixth out of eight teams.

Pitt’s red zone offense has been improving and is now third in the Big East. The Panthers have scored on 27-of-32 attempts and fifteen of those scores were touchdowns.

No one spins bad news as well as the Stache: “I think even when you look at the games that we won, we weren't as efficient as we want to be and then when you look at the games—like Utah and Notre Dame—we got down there a few times and came away with only three or even zero points.”

Despite red zone woes, the Pitt defense is the highlight-reel story of this season. It’s ranked 20^th in the country and gives up just 19 points per game.  Tino Sunseri, ranked No. 26 in the nation for passing efficiency, has thrown for 1,672 yards on 141 completions in 214 attempts.

Despite being a redshirt sophomore, Sunseri has tossed the ball for 12 touchdowns and only has thrown four interceptions. Sunseri’s efforts are complemented by wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin who has 33 receptions for 546 yards and four touchdowns.

The star of the Pitt running game has not been preseason Heisman-hyped Deon Lewis. Ray Graham has stepped up to the plate instead, running for 685 yards on 94 carries. Graham has scored eight touchdowns.

UConn has relied upon its defense and a strong ground game in the majority of its victories. The Huskies are ranked 38^th in the nation in points allowed—giving up an average of 21.4 points per game. Their rushing offense is also ranked 38^th in the nation averaging 174.8 yards per game. RB Jordan Todman leads the team with 954 rushing yards on 174 carries and has nine rushing touchdowns.

From listening to Wannstedt, you might think the Huskies are leading the Big East with an unblemished record. The highly efficient Huskie offense managed to put only 10 points on the board against Michigan. The Huskies record is 4-4, 1-2 in conference play.

Pitt is a 5.5 point favorite tonight. The odds matter little to Wannstedt. The Pitt coach can’t get the 2006 fiasco out of his head. When he talks about the crowd noise tomorrow night, he’s thinking about the Huskies comeback that took the game to OT when the Panthers lost.

It took UConn’s D.J. Hernandez scampering into the end zone for a two-point conversion in the second overtime that Veterans Day in 2006 for the Huskies to pull out a stunning 46-45 win over Wannstedt’s Panthers and earn its first Big East win of the season.

When Donald Brown, an unheralded freshman running back, was able to gain 205 yards on 43 carries, the warm seat Wannstedt was already sitting on after the 2005 season got a little hotter.

In a coaching tenure where the low points still outnumber the high, the 2006 loss to UConn stands out as one of the worst. It cost the Panthers a bowl bid in 2006. It set the program spiraling down into a deep hole. The Panthers wouldn’t begin to dig out until the season finale against West Virginia in 2007.

Wannstedt has every right to be spooked tonight. Let’s hope the cloves of garlic, iron crosses and prayers to St. Jude help do the trick tonight. With a win, Pitt would move to 4-0 in the Big East, 6-3 overall.

The Panthers would put themselves in an even more secure position for the conference championship with away games with South Florida and Cincinnati remaining on the schedule.

A victory could put Pitt in the top-25 and maybe dim the roar of Big East bashing that hasn’t let up since Pitt’s 31-3 debacle against Miami—on a Thursday night.

Frank Cignetti, Pitt’s offensive coordinator, has given his word: no slide plays tonight like the one former coach Walt Harris had Tyler Palko run on the Huskies goal line in 2004. The play worked, Pitt got a field goal, but the Panthers lost to UConn, 29-17, thereby initiating the Rentschler Field curse.

Pitt will win tonight, but it won't be pretty: Panthers 27, Huskies 24.