hello and welcome back to the loyal Sun show that's at the loyal Suns on all of your social media follow us here and follow us there for pits Sports content you will not want to miss if you love Victory Chile and hate West Virginia this is the place for you the loyal Sun show a safe sunshiny place for your pit Athletics fix gentlemen it is Monday September 9th at 5:20 p.m. and it would appear that pit has had a very interesting weekend yeah I'd say interesting is a good word to describe it we did not need any more content leading into West Virginia week but here we are with quite a bit to talk about yeah um God where where to even begin uh the football team of course uh had its biggest comeback in 50 years yep 1971 since 1971 our athletic director our athletic director got fired this morning relieved of her duties relieved of her duties and the volleyball team number one in the country meanwhile Colorado lost Penn State almost lost to Bowling Green and Notre Dame did very much lose to Northern Illinois like there's it's almost too much so how how do we want to dissect it what do we want to talk about first do we just want to get our obligatory AP po bitching out of the way or early we don't need to spend a whole lot of time on it I only really have one major gripe I mean the AP pull is what it is but Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois on Saturday at home and they are currently ranked number 18 in the country seven spots ahead of said Northern Illinois team who beat them on their home turf you have to understand for me as a m guy this is a like very worth it tradeoff because they decided to go the route of like oh maybe Northern Illinois good let's rank the Mac team and now as it stands if the season ends today there's a Mac team in the college football playoff so you know what I'll wear Notre Dame as number 18 I do not care put Northern Illinois at 18 for all I care drop Notre Dame 25 but a one in one team ranked seven spots ahead of another a two and0 team who they just lost to I just hey as long as there's an a number next to their name while they play the games on NBC that's all that matters didn't Clemson drop to 25 after losing to Georgia they sure did yeah consistency you love to see in the polls I we love to [ __ ] about the AP and it's stupid but I don't know it just it doesn't have the same juice as it used to now that like there's an actual group of intelligent stakeholders that decide the rankings that matter like now it just kind of feels like they're doing [ __ ] for attention I don't know I don't care about the AP yeah come week seven or eight whenever that first college football playoff pool comes out it suddenly is just just disappears in the Thin Air U but it's not going to stop me from from reading it and then having a gut reaction to it but that's plenty of time on that we can we can move on that's that's more time spent talking about Notre Dame than they deserve after again what has been just an insane 48 hours for the University of Pittsburgh football game do we want to go football game football game David you were there you were the one of the three sons who made the made the trip yes yeah so um just a just a quick Stadium review it is exactly what pit should have it is a 40 it's a very quaint 40,000 person Stadium tucked beautifully right into the middle of Campus um now now listen I I'd hope that whoever our next athletic director is does it right um and by that I mean like seats with backs to them and not bleachers and more than like two bathrooms in the stadium but like it's it's the perfect setup for a Cincinnati or a Pittsburgh um and and frankly you know just speaking to the experience that was the most miserable football game I've ever watched for two and a half quarters to the extent that like there was no trash talk the entire game I was also on my best behavior because I was with my fiance her cousin and her cousin's boyfriend and so I was the only one who like really genuinely cared about the outcome of the game and I was not about to get into fights in my like entirely Cincy only section but it was just pretty cordial because like they went up on us so hard there was nothing we were doing to even particip ipate in the game pit was not participants in that football game and then it didn't dawn on anyone that pit had a chance to win this football game until Kenny Johnson caught that long ball to set up the Ben sols field goal like it didn't even C even as we were coming back just didn't cross anybody's mind that this game was in Peril mfield but yeah who' I say k k Johnson who had zero catches yeah was he out just days after I predicted he may he would have a Jordan Addison es sophomore season so was did he I don't remember he played had the long kick return that got believe there was a hold on that one as well uh very much played they targeted him early on looked like they were trying to get him involved early just did not catch pass it was during the stretch of the game where we could not complete a pass oh so most of the game yeah so yeah so yeah let's let's start with that bad part the the couldn't complete a pass part how bad were you guys having flashbacks sitting at home watching that game so I don't think it was as bad because there were open guys the offense seemed to be kind of working it was just ah he missed that guy really badly or why did he throw it there or the time was way off last year nothing was working we looked like the village idiots so we at least had that like in our back pockets but after it went on for more than a couple of drives it was like something needs to change I don't know if it was uh pulling the quarterback like maybe some of us thought or we need to snap out of it like fast I want to mention our good friend Noah H sent us a text and it quite literally like I actually saw the Eli Holstein interception he threw in The End Zone on that first drive a few seconds before his text came through to us and I'm like he he said is Eli holin good or something along those lines he looks good and I replied thinking he was being sarcastic like did you intentionally wait for him to throw a pick to say that to us and he was like I swear that that happened seconds after I sent this text um because I agreed like pit was going down the field on that first drive I was like all right we're picking up picking up right where we left off the Kent State game making some plays whol scene got out of the pocket a couple times uh made things happen and then he threw a pick and then it seemed like for the next two-ish quarters we couldn't do anything there was a play of the Third and short play I believe it was still in the first quarter where poppy Williams beat his guy off the line would have been an easy pitch and catch touchdown but Eli holin under threw it and yeah I'll be honest we were calling for Nate Yarnell early early in the season this was the first time that we've officially gone to the well and said bring in the sheriff bring in Nate Yarnell and I don't know I felt pretty Justified at the time I was like we saw him play against Kent State great Hol steam played great against Kent State but we're playing a power four opponent and he can't hit anyone he overthrew a few guys even on that first drive when they were driving some guys who had some space and it looked like uh oh the the moment has got to them he's playing a real team maybe this isn't the guy we thought he was so apologies in place I mean we'll get to the good part but I think this might be a recurring theme for us yeah yeah um I I want to apologize to you two because maybe you guys were talking about it at Dylan's place like all right let's see yarney I was dumb enough to tweet it um that one was on me um I might rip I was ready to bench him okay okay that makes me that makes me feel a lot better because squid was giving me [ __ ] after the game for tweeting it I didn't realize that I wasn't alone but no where I was coming from on that and where I'm sure you were Dylan I mean he's he's still the guy he's still the future he he's still is very clearly talented but what what was going on the first two and a half quarters was clearly a case of the Jitters like like he was so in his head he couldn't hit an open guy on a slant route he couldn't throw a screen like this was just clearly a case of I am a red shirt freshman playing in my first away game and maybe we were a little bit snake bit because we saw somebody else clearly have a a case of of The Yips against Cincinnati and it cost us a game because we started so far from behind um but I I just thought at this point you know your your chances of getting to six games in a in a bowl game goes down significantly if you use to if you lose to Cincinnati just put Yarnell in stop the bleeding and then sit down holin on Monday and say hey you're still our guy we still think you're great that just can't happen again okay good buddy get back in there you're telling me that if we bench Eli Holstein after six quarters you can look him in the eye and say oh you're still our guy we just pulled the plug on you after two quarters of bad play by the time I was ready to pull Holstein I I thought the game was already lost so I was like holin is not doing it it was probably in the third quarter and I'm like this game's over so you might as well just [ __ ] it just let it ride out but I was thinking about when is the time to mix ynl in is it the fourth quarter do we start him for West Virginia do we let Holstein try again in West Virginia and then put Yarnell in because it is different last year we saw Phil was bad and that was it we had one a Phil and he he sucked you can kick him to the curb Holstein he's a delicate red shirt freshman if you play this wrong you can just ruin it all so you got to be a little bit careful I was thinking about how do we best roll out Yarnell is it now later how long do you wait versus like risking costing yourself games because it is different than last year so felt with the Arnell thing I was I just felt like we were so flat after the first couple offensive drives of the second half that it was like we need someone to give us a spark like maybe jarnell can come in and complete a few passes and get the sideline back into it clearly that wasn't an issue because this team rallied really well Pat Nardi mentioned in his presser today that he was raving about how locked in and how engaged the sideline was the whole game he said he was looking at guys and and sometimes you can see guys and be like yeah they're defeated we can't win this one but he he said he never felt like those guys didn't think they could win the game um could that be a bunch of coache maybe but from me watching on TV I'm like well they need to spark somewhere uh and just so happened that spark was Eli Holstein and a heavy dose of Desmond Reed yeah we're uh we're sitting here arguing still when when and why we would have pulled Holstein um mean the guy went on and and and won us the game so I I don't know if I should be giving narduzzi Reddit for uh uh sticking with his guy and believing him in him because I could just be giving him credit for the same stubbornness that kept jakovic in for three games longer than he should have um and you know that's where I was coming from I was I was hoping all right maybe you learned and when a guy clearly doesn't have it that day and you have a decent replacement you put him in but either way we were snake bitten we were snake bit Nardi made the right choice so what I think the overarching takeaway that pit fan should take away from this game is the the pitfalls and the positives of of going Mega warp speed so we saw a tale of of two halves the first half I kept thinking coach Nardi probably wants to strangle Cade Bell to death because they are going three and out in 10 seconds and then Cincinnati is just sitting on us the time of possession was 2 to one in the first half it felt like we didn't have the ball for longer than 5 minutes and they were they were taking their time running the clock pounding the ball I I mean just seven eight minute drives and pit never touched the ball and and all of a sudden we're down 27 to6 and that's part of the reason why I thought it was a lost cause and like we said the offense was flat but the defense came out just as bad there was no I don't think there was a did anyone think our defense could turn around after what we saw they were running for eight yards a carry they were targeting both of our Corners not just start off Rashad battle didn't look too good neither Corner looked very good they were doing whatever they wanted and even if we did switch to ynl and he let the world on fire I thought we are in too big of a hole to even catch up if there was ever game if there was ever a game where I was sitting there in the third quarter I was like yeah there was zero chance we win this game which shows how much I know but it felt like okay nothing has gone right they still have all the momentum I would say the one honestly just in hindsight bright spot was that since he didn't capitalize on a few of those possessions had to settle for field goals missed a short field goal it was like okay we're bending but not breaking but offense isn't doing anything so this really won't matter well I was getting mad the announcers were saying oh if pit can do something here they have some momentum and they got that field goal at the end of the half and oh you feel a lot better off getting three right there I was like well yeah but still we're not going to turn it around this is over I think at one point I said we're a stop away from me feeling really good here and one of our buddies said yeah I'm a million dollar parlay away from being a millionaire something like that really good line off the top but I was like yeah you know what you're probably right it got to the point where and this was the drive where since he kicked a field goal to go up 27 to6 uh my fiance asked if we could leave yet and I said if they go on up four scores so if they if they score a touchdown on this drive we're leaving good thing they didn't and that's am point we got to am I alone in thinking that the only glimmer of hope was that the offense looked all right Holstein just looked bad like guys were there the the play the play calling I I never questioned at any point um one thing that went through my mind a lot of times you can make excuses for bad teams like oh if we didn't get called for that holding or if if we make this tackle short of the sticks and get off the field on third down or if we don't underthrow that guy we're right in it you can make excuses for bad teams and say yeah you missed some opportunities but good teams don't make that many mistakes and that's the camp that I was in I was in the camp of we are missing opportunities because we are not that good we're not playing good right now Hol missed way too many guys for me to be making excuses for the offense but there were guys there and we were moving the ball Desmond Reed did look pretty good running the ball in the first half still yeah he's unbelievable and we will I'm surely I'm sure talk at length about that fact but I mean no you're you're right squid maybe we we should have wised up that uh there was a chance we could turn around because the play calling was good and guys were insanely open I'm sure you guys saw a little bit of it on TV but having the full like all 22 I couldn't believe how open some of our receivers were and Holstein would just take the snap look up be a little bit afraid have that little bug in the back of his head that that he didn't want to throw a ball 15 yards down field and then run for his life in circles which he did impressively effectively but you would have been shocked to see some of the guys running open uh in that game so in hindsight all all that took was one guy to figure it out for us to be back in that game and he sure did 11 did he figure it out fourth quarter for Eli holin 11 for 12 189 yards and two touchdowns I mean if that's not a growing up in front of our eyes moment I don't know it is I'm sure we'll see more youth from him we'll see some rookie mistakes but wow that was that was night and day I thought the best case scenario was he has like a statline half of that we still lose but we at least have a little bit of confidence in him going into West Virginia we can say well the first two quarters of Cincy were bad but everything else was good and we just got to get off to a better start did not expect a near perfect statline and a two-minute drill to get into field goal range I feel like we're a little contained right now like being two days removed from the game at this point but that was ridiculous that was the biggest comeback we've seen in our lives as pit football fans I mean anyone who's under the age of 50 has never seen a comeback like that I remember thinking in my head right when the game ended or I guess approaching the end of the game like this is not a game that pit wins I've never seen us win a game like this and come back and that's because we literally have never seen it happen that was I mean this is a game I'm going to remember for a very long time now depending on how the rest of the season plays out we we'll kind of gauge how long I remember this game but that was just a absolutely ludicrous comeback and that's the flip side of that Mega warp speed offense they scored 22 points in and what 18 minutes yeah yeah it was unbelievable like comfortably comfortably like like had the ball in position to win the game and and had to take take a couple minutes off the clock so Cincy wouldn't have anything left and they did it to Perfection yes uh that go-ahead touchdown coming from Desmond Reed believe he topped out at like 21 miles per hour I saw a tweet showing like the fastest players from college football this weekend I think we need to do more than just the passing over Desmond Reed had a great game he had a historically good game on Saturday yeah 20 what was it 254 yards of total offense he went for 100 yards rushing and 100 receiving this dude is leading the country in allpurpose yards right now pit brought in Cade Bell and Cade Bell just so happened to just bring our best player with him a guy that we talked about just about all offseason about he would be too small and couldn't play in this offense it's flat out disrespectful that we reduced him to just Vinnie Davis 2.0 this dude is one of the most electric Playmakers we've seen in a pit offense I mean obviously there's a bunch of those guys but I mean legitimately one of the best Playmakers we've had in a in a decade a lot of people are going to talk about his speed and you know when you're fast enough I guess it doesn't matter if you're tiny just ask DeAnthony Thomas just ask uh uh I don't want to give him credit but uh but why am I blanking on on Tavon Austin's name uh like if you're fast you can sort of just make things happen but his balance is ridiculous he will wear a 250 pound dude off the chest bounce back five yards because you know gravity and inertia and stay on his feet and keep going he's awesome he's he's a magician yeah yeah he's legitimately like skyrocketed rankings of most fun pit players of our lifetime already I I'll I'll be interested to see how he holds up it seemed like every time he got tackled on Saturday someone was having to peel him off the turf and he would went back to the Huddle but then we're in the fourth quarter he's taken 20 hits at this point and he takes a a five yard pass and goes 60 yards I mean that was I think I incorrectly called that the game-winning touchdown earlier but the last touchdown we scored um I mean the dude's unreal and knock on every piece of wood you can find that he can stay healthy because it sure seems like he's they plan to make him the focal point of the offense moving forward yeah we're we're gonna need to see uh like a juules Goff recovery and then profile takeoff because I mean you said it he he looks banged up anytime he he gets hit and uh uh when you get 20 plus touches a game that happens when you're 57 160 that happens when you run 40 yards every time you touch the ball just from scampering around you're you're gonna get winded and I'm sorry Derek Davis is not thus far doing it for me eight carries for 20 yards on the year so far I really hope he can show a a flat of something else I know we said on his first Carry in week one got called back on a hold but I think Dave you called him he said he looked like the Terminator uh we need to see more of that because yeah like you said I don't think it can be Desmond Reed and Desmond readed don't for the rest of the year absolutely not uh where was where was Dan Carter on Saturday cuz I wouldn't mind he he runs well enough that I I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to say okay all of Derek Davis's carries can be Dan Carter carries if gof is hurt if um who's the who's the red shirt freshman montravius lyd Mont trus if if they aren't seeing enough from mon travius Lloyd you know whatever just Dan Carter can be the running back too but somebody has to emerge and maybe it's early in the season to be saying that but I think we all see well we have in our running back one and what would happen if something were to happen it would be terrible if we had another good running back on the roster awful who was eligible yeah yeah that's a well shame there can we touch on uh a certain decision that I think think if the result had ended up being different maybe if Ben sols had missed that final kick that I think probably would have let off this show and we would have talked about and argued about for 20 30 minutes going for two down eight down eight yeah analytics analytics guys versus football guys I mean where do we stand here what do you guys think how did you feel in the moment I think it comes down to how much do you trust your team pit cut the lead the offense was figuring things out if you have a good play call I think you go for it it is so worth it and uh I support the analytics and Cade Bell had a great play call the little fake run pop pass it just was a step off yeah the play was there and if we make that we don't need a game-winning field goal can you guys tell me what happened on that because it was the opposite I was in one end zone and it was in the opposite end zone and then I I just couldn't see the Jumbotron it looked to me like Kenny Johnson if he had gone up with two hands or out with two hands could have easily brought that in was my mind playing tricks on me it was weird it was hard to tell if Holstein put a little too much zip on the ball or if Kenny Johnson like pulled up a little bit and then had to dive there was just a disconnect on I don't know if everything's easy everything's easy to say when you get to watch a replay in slow motion but I will say it did look like Kenny Johnson kind of slowed up out of his break for some reason and that if he would have not have done that it would have just hit him in the chest also felt like putting a second hand out there he could have carow it and made a play on it um but like you said it's everything happens so quick it maybe whole scene put a little too much zip on it but either way you spin it should have worked the play was there Cade Bell had a good two-point conversion play and once again this is the people arguing about oh they shouldn't have gone for it and like swiid said I think if you have a really good play which they clearly did uh they had a play that they thought would work and it would have worked if the players would have executed now the counter to that is momentum this that but it was there the the numbers say you do it if you have a play caller like Cade Bell you feel more confident doing it and by the way he is already top of the charts in terms of uh like folk hero status in Pittsburgh after two weeks but I Holstein looked too shook to me to put that important of a play in his hands and he he sh twice in a row he got us down there twice by that point I I would argue and I'm not going to feel good arguing it that even when Holstein was playing much better there were still like decisions he was and he had he what went what 10 for 11 so we're splitting here hairs there there were still guys running wide open that he he tucked the ball instead and ran or scrambled around until he found someone in the more intermediate um he's still even as we were coming back didn't look like he was trusting himself and he he ended up being a hero when needed but I just I the numbers say you go for it the numbers say you go for it I feel like very rarely does it actually work in the way the numbers indicate it should just watching football since that little an bit of analytics became popular I just haven't seen it work I don't know I will say if pit would lost the game I'd probably be on here saying that it was stupid so there's that I mean it literally didn't work right well yeah I would be on here beating the drum about it as opposed to saying like ah actually Kade Bell had a good play call well no and if you look at it pit went 0 for two and still won it was just because of the mega speed take that for as long as possible and it still worked out so if you look at like how often I just look at the numbers they're right Cade Bell's got them right you're going to doubt Cade Bell now well how about this David Nardi said he didn't like it when it happened but the num the numers say to do it and Kade wanted to go with it he said that in the either postgame presser or today's presser I'm warming up to it I'm warming up to it it Bell if it was our very young trendy offensive coordinator twist ing the arm of our progyny resistant to change head coach then I'm I'm much more willing to accept it but it and I mean like I said num I'm just glad that we don't have to worry about it me me too can we also just name a few of our favorite Cade Bell plays from Saturday um how about opening the game with just a shovel pass to Bart that was gorgeous um there was good oldfashioned it didn't really do much but he motioned uh Kenny Johnson I know exactly where Kenny Johnson into the backfield yeah yeah yeah Kenny Johnson motion to the backfield and Holstein stepped over took the direct snap Kenny got four yards I think it went for a first down if I'm not mistaken yeah and hindsight I don't know how I forgot that Kenny Johnson played in this game but that will was that one was sick uh I mean just the Desmond he ran a halfback angle to Perfection cleared out the middle had had everyone on the right just run go routes so there's so he's coming across the middle and there's just no one there if he beats the first linebacker to confront him which you're going to your Desmond Reed with a full head of steam I love this is the open field I love Desmond Reed I love Desmond Reed and I love Desmond Reed's interviews because he just always speaks very like matter of factly like when they ask him like when that play was going on did you feel like you could score there and he was like oh yeah when he called it I knew I was going to score he was like I knew I'd have one-on-one with the linebacker and I knew he couldn't tackle me so I knew I was gonna score and he said something similar in the Kent State game like oh did you know he was like oh yeah as soon as Cade called the play like I saw the hole open up I knew I'd be one-on-one with the safety and I knew I was going to score it's he he just always knows that if K calls the right plays he's just going to score I think another one is um the catch by mfield that got us into scoring position because he was so I was freaking out during that play screaming my head off because I saw I think I saw mfield a cool three count before Holstein did and he was so open it didn't matter that it took Holstein like a like three Mississippi to see him not it could have been a touchdown and I was it didn't dawn on me that we were in field goal range so I was just freaking out because it could have been a touchdown and wasn't uh but I mean how do you scheme your receiver one that open in a Do or Die Play well similarly we had a mark Whipple special we had a what was it a 38 yard touchdown on Fourth and three to mfield that was a good Blast from the blast from the past the the old pick at to Addison play he's awesome he is awesome point that was a Do or Die Play if we don't get that we think oh it's over now we got to score on this drive we're down time it's fourth quarter but um I was not expecting a touchdown and then in your brain you're like well wait a second there's this much time left we're now done only this hold on a second it isn't over it was a quick momentum shifter shout out to Kady mfield career game five for 123 and two touchdowns coming off a week one that was pretty forgettable dropped a touchdown obviously had the fumble on the punch turn oh no it was memorable forget you like to forget it yeah yeah I like forget it very memorable um shout out to him man that's a captain and stepping up and I mean they don't win that game Saturday without mfield so way to rebound there and all these other things that happen kind of overshadowed but he he had the best game of his career final star of the game before we move on to other news we must touch on my background of the day Ben SS oh yeah perfect yet again clutch one long one dude long one he is going to be kicking on Sundays that what was it was it a 57 y three 53 5 53 y yeah I saw um an advanced metric on that that 53 y was actually good from 1 million yards at least at least a million yards 3 million feet he clear home hell of a homecoming for Ben SS absolutely and you see he he hit the little uh UC on him when he hit just like not even where he was standing he walked through where cincy's line was to the student section and hit him with one I love that I love a cocky kicker also Javon McIntyre stealing the game ball from the UC equipment managers and them chasing him around the field field think Chris Carter tweeted out that video that was so weird so I I'd be remiss if we didn't just do a really quick rundown of a few things that worried us because I I have a question at the end of this so okay so the defense looked quite bad for a couple quarters and and those those Corners are going to get picked on I think they need sorry s go ahead I think being up by so much helped us because Cincinnati got conservative and was running the ball and they running it with enough success to where they were keep doing it probably could have just kept throwing it our Corners all day and ran up the score they sat on their hands a little bit I was gonna say I think you're right yeah I was gonna say I think they either need to try someone new or Rashad battle needs to fit fo very very very quickly uh Ryland Gandy got beat for a deep touchdown as well but I still feel like I've seen enough from him to think that he can figure things out but we're going on what is this year four five Rashad battle and I haven't seen much at all he's getting picked on yeah and he's getting picked on fairly consistently I mean there was one drive where I think they just went down the field strictly throwing at him so that needs to get figured out I I I feel like timan Liam has made some plays and in the situations we've seen him I don't know if he's pushing to pass bad on the depth chart but yeah that that's got to get cleaned up I worry about that because I don't know how Garr green Stacks up against ssby as a passer ker was a great running back West Virginia's got two pretty good running backs I don't want it to be more of the same next week and you can't get off to slow starts you can't let teams throw over you they're not doing a good job of making they didn't make Cincy onedimensional either because Cory ker looked like Prime EMT Smith on Saturday so there's definitely some concerns there Cory ker hell of a running back but I mean CJ Donaldson coming down the lane and seeing how many times Defenders bounced off Corey ker on Saturday CJ Donaldson might look like Derrick Henry tackling is a problem um getting pressure with four is a problem uh it's it's a repeat of last year and the year before where you you kind of have to run something a little exotic with the linebackers to get pressure you know we haven't gotten pressure with four since um 2021 that's that's something that is cause for concern uh but you know on the other hand as coach Nardi pointed out once the offense started going the defense was able to feed off of that you know they weren't on the field for for 30 minutes of real time because every commercial break for ESPN 2 is half an hour uh and you know they they were able to get some rest and recuperate on the side lines but we we saw enough you happy you got the win but I think we saw enough to be have reasonable concerns going into West Virginia so I I pose this question to you guys looking forward do you think this game represented a turning point a coming out party of sorts or should we be coming back down to earth with our expectations because of uh holstein's hesitation to push the ball downfield because of our secondary because of our tackling I would say it's very promising that the team was able to respond the way they did in the second half but and there's always a but I don't think the Cincinnati team is any good and we only beat them by one so I hope maybe it's a wakeup call what happened in the first half of of this game but if if this game had gone a little differently if Ben sols misses a kick one kick throughout the course of the game doesn't put the team on his back I'm sure I would be sitting here saying I don't know if this team will be bull eligible so that's a kind of a non answer for you but I don't know I think we'll figure out pretty pretty quickly this week how legitimate which which version of last week's team is the real one just one week at a time just grind it out every week whatever it takes I think we just need somebody to be a playmaker on defense like we know what our offense is and what they're capable of when they're clicking whether it'll be like that consistently we'll find out but I think we can count on that a lot more than we can count on our defense stepping up so we need need like one or two guys to become Playmakers like we need one cornerback to be solid throughout a game we need like one defensive end to have a big game get a couple sacks to put them behind the the sticks that's all we're asking for right now just just grind them out as it goes with the early season you you learn a little bit more each week but you really don't know [ __ ] until The Season's pretty much over so [Applause] uh hit one on Saturday historic heroic fashion Monday rolls around pit Victory Monday everybody uh feeling high and mighty and we wake up to the news that Heather like be widely regarded widely respected and uh I awarded athletic director at the University of Pittsburgh has uh been notified that her services are no longer needed here a a shock to all of us could you guys tell me what your initial reactions were we should have seen it coming like you said we were riding so high we should have expected something to bring us back down to earth I think I saw the a few texts come through on my phone it was like WTF like oh no what the heck weird reactions like that and I was like oh God did somebody get arrested over the weekend on the football team like who suspended who got hurt in practice but no it was our athletic director not leaving being relieved of their duties yeah my first reaction was what I was a little caught off guard I someone did you hear the news have their likes gone and they said oh did she get the Northwestern job is she leaving for another job I'm like no actually she was fired yeah I think I think after the initial shock washes away your kind of first reaction is like okay what happened what story is about to drop like Panther is about to be buzzing with rumors what could it possibly be she's been incredibly successful she's won all sorts of awards for being a great athletic director um during her time the football program the basketball program uh both soccer teams and the volleyball team have all improved significantly she uh has made some great hires and M made some great uh contract extensions and kept some very good coaches from from being swiped by larger richer programs so what is what is the deal here why why now what could have happened but a picture started to emerge pretty quickly people started to talk immediately are you asking us do you want to elaborate on the picture I feel like you have a good grasp of it so yeah so I was I was hoping Dylan that at this point you'd be like well if you watched Katie KA at five o'clock today oh yeah I was you and I were on the screen for like eight seconds combined on KK on news yeah uh because obviously KY K needed to go to an expert on this topic so they came to us um no that was a that was a really really cool opportunity uh shout out to the team at KDKA for for having us on but just to reiterate what we said there uh a picture very clearly started to form um as soon as this news broke uh there had been rumors for years that uh that Heather was very hesitant to embrace the changes within college sports specifically nil and that in general she was not a great fundraiser and it was not a focus of hers um we know that she initial she initially um pushed away Alliance 412 hoping to get all that money towards the panther club and the in-house fundraising efforts um there were uh you know rumors that well not even rumors she was heavily considered for several other jobs across the country USC Ohio State most recently Northwestern so it was clear that she was positioning for every opening in the Big 10 over the last year and at a certain point when your contract is due to expire as hers was why would you invest all that time and energy and money in extending someone if they've they've made made it pretty clear that this is not necessarily where they want to be yeah especially when there's more change to the top there's a new Chancellor in town and uh the previous chancellors seem to be striding stride with all the the Victory Heights efforts other things that Heather was working on they seem to be on the same page new Chancellor in town maybe not seeing eye to eye on all these prodcts projects priorities where should we be spending money should we be spending all this money on new fun things so I think at that point it was just hey it ain't gonna happen so might as well just cut the cord I have to think Victory Heights was the final nail in the coffin because a $240 million investment in uh the Olympic sports in the modern NCAA is basically suicide and the fact that we have only been able to raise like 12 of the 240 million uh indicates that she quite literally signed a check that pit couldn't cash I think when that project was initially announced I was like oh that's a cool thing that'll be a nice facility for our volleyball and wrestling and swimming teams or whoever else is set to compete there but as it was going on it was like wow that seems like a lot of money for sports I don't really care about or most people don't care about I I love the women's volleyball team so I don't want that to come off as a slight at them but I also can be realistic and say that if that if it guaranteed a pit or football or men's basketball national championship that I wouldn't mind if every other sport at the school was cut and I know a lot of people don't feel that way it's going to come off insensitive but like let's be real here we do a show about pit Sports and 98% of the time we're talking about football or men's basketball and that's just the case around most of College athletics those are the sports that make money so investing so heavily into sports that nine out of 10 of your fans don't give a rat's ass about H it's it's a little questionable even on that note I think having good facilities and all this great stuff is important if you're a power five School uh having like a dump where some of your sports teams are playing just kind of shows you aren't that serious about sports so I'm all for it but it is unfortunate that we started that project you got to raise all this money and then boom all of a sudden this other big thing happens where you need a lot of money name image and likeness so that could not have happened at a worst possible time if we could rewind like 10 years and do Victor head have it wrapped up and it's say hey now this is like our sole Focus we're moving forward we want to embrace nil and use our money for getting really good players in the sports that matters that would be pretty clutch but no we had these two kind of like rivaling uh sources of things that needed a lot of money yeah I'm all for giving the Olympic sports cooler facilities especially if it's you know multipurpose especially if it makes your brand look cooler but only if you have the money to do it and and it's worth repeating that uh the the knock on her as as much as pit fan and and pit fans loved her and I think she did a great job and and we'll give her her her flowers at the end of this um but the one consistent knock on her is that she just hasn't really cared about fundraising whether nil or just in general like that is not like I anecdotally I've heard stories of pretty medium-sized and by mediumsized donors I mean people were willing to give tens of thousands of dollars to pit um who just couldn't really get the time of day from the a from her at the athletic office so you know I'm all for it but get us the money I'm all for it if you can afford it and again your number one priority should be the sports that make you money okay how do we feel moving forward I I have a little bit of concern so you know the the say goes one in the hand is worth two in the bush so it worries me getting rid of like a pretty good athletic director when we don't know what we're going to do next so obviously this is a gamble by the University of Pittsburg and uh to me it indicates that they think that they can go out and get someone great get someone better it is promising that the chancellor pretty directly indicated that it was the changes in college sports So reading between the lines nil that drove this decision because the word on the street was that new Chancellor and and what is the new Chancellor's name someone remind me Gable that new Chancellor Gable is not a fan of prioritizing a letics so for which is just great by the way which is awesome you know uh so if you are chasing out an athletic director because they aren't focusing on nil enough that gets my hopes up however my big deep fear in all this is that we are drinking the company Kool-Aid and uh accepting the word and rumors that the school would would be pushing out and have us believe the same way I think Heather like has gotten a reputation for pushing her own narratives and and stories out uh especially to job hop um but I'm going to be really upset to find out that this was all to deprioritize sports and deemphasize uh the athletic department as a a primary money raiser for the school I'm probably in the same boat I don't think Heather like is irreplaceable I think we can find an equally if not better athletic director to lead pit forward but if you look back at some of the other athletic directors we've had kind of been boneheads not great yeah yeah morons so this is a a very uh important time in pit Athletics um we can talk about the great coaches we have uh potentially looking elsewhere how do we uh keep them here have they like did a great job at that kept capable here trusted cable retained some other good coaches whether you care about those other sports or not still happened uh the ACC the entire conference's existence where it do Pit land and all of this realign nonsense are we going to have a athletic director that is able to foresee the changes coming and Keep Us Alive everyone's worst nightmar is oh what if we get left out of the big four and we're relegated to the Big East I mean I don't think that's impossible I think it's unlikely but you can't have someone to sleep with the wheel yeah and another just quick note on that there were all those stories that came out when um do you remember a few years ago there was reports that a few SEC schools were kicking the tires on the Big 10 Big 12 sec and it was it was beyond Clemson and Florida State like Virginia North Carolina had some conversations NC State had some conversations the word out of pit was that Heather was blindsided by this I mean that's just realignment is just another terrible part of modern college football that you have to be up on and and she just wasn't I also have something else to point out here do we think a different athletic director would make that much of a difference when it comes to n like we know we're not the best but we kind of we are who we are like this is what's going to change with the new ad we're not going to be competing with the big boys are we or am I wrong here I don't disagree with you I also feel like knowing that Heather's background was in compliance so her whole career basically was fully making sure that things that are currently happening didn't happen to their players getting payments uh boosters kind of running things so it could just be be like all right we need someone who's a little more up to speed on this but it's also brand new that yes would you might be right there is no real difference that an ad can make it all comes down to donor's Pockets but I will say that it took probably far too long for us to be seeing collaborations between Alliance 412 and the university when schools like Miss Tennessee name other Southern powerful football school that anyone with oil money yeah anyone with oil money it took far too long for there to be official collaborations between the University Alliance 412 and I think a lot of that can be pointed back to that to that's a fair knock but I see some stuff on on message boards and Twitter and I feel like they make it seem that Heather like was like no we don't want your nil money like it's no good here and then the next day you'll be like oh yes I just discovered 12 more billion iones that are willing to give us money here at the University I don't know how much of difference that'll make at this point like we're here I hope we have some awesome new ad who can rile up the fan base and keep us competitive we get that guy from Colorado who's trying to get the uh the Saudi money or going to Dubai what what was he doing the private Equity yeah uh uh was that he did fully on his own accord fully on his own accord flew out to Saudi Arabia to meet with it's it's like this fund operated by the royal family and and I'm not super hip on finance but it's basically the money that they use to uh wash the blood off of Saudi Arabia hands on a world stage so the live golf money so live like live golf so trying to get the World Cup into Saudi Arabia in uh a couple decades so all the sportswashing that they've been accused of that is pretty much my understanding of where that is coming from so very ethical could not even could keep shador from getting sacked five times on national TV who should our new athletic director be wrong answers only I've saw a few people throw around L Ric already I think they're just like oh well-known Pitman who is in the spotlight a good bit and has been a good representation of our University yeah it should be him uh who else have I seen Doug wayy was another one NE case of what just name every like pit business person that we know I was like I don't think either of which have had any College administration experience so let's get Jonas sulk on the horn about uh Mark cubin Aaron Donald Fitzgerald Dave W stat wasn't there the story that Peterson wouldn't get new carpet for the football facility so ju like went behind his back and like sced up the money forward on his own to get replaced and he was furious at him probably just installed it himself down there like ripping up like the floorboards D just don't give us another Scott Barnes please please no Scott Barnes and don't use some thirdparty search or wait no it was Scott Barnes using the search firm to hire his friend Kevin Stallings that landed Us in that situation listen University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Gable we are at an inflection point in the history of Collegiate Sports nil realignment the players on the verge of were were you know one court case away from players being employees or just even not affiliated with the university breaking off and forming their own Semi-Pro uh conference of football or whatever you pushed away a athletic director that unquestionably raised the floor of pit Athletics beautiful Rebrand pit Athletics who oversaw a the greatest Rebrand maybe in the history of Collegiate Sports who oversaw so so many good things here in the city of Pittsburgh to take a Gamble and that is what you are doing you are taking a gamble the national media is going to ask questions why like the most respected female athletic director in the country who is having great success got pushed away so none of this looks good you need to nail this higher if you do not nail this higher pit is so [ __ ] no pressure no pressure but you might just Doom us for the rest of the existence of the NCA if you screw up this higher so I don't know what you have up your sleeve but God damn do I hope this wasn't all for nothing yes please do not mess it up we are counting on you our happiness the success of this podcast in future years once again our happiness and will to live could revolve around this decision so no pressure um but that's enough Administration talk today because it's brawl week much more important things on the horizon this Saturday the 2-0 pit Panthers will take on the West Virginia Mountaineers and we have a preview episode coming for you later this week uh so thank you for tuning in today don't forget to like this video if you're watching on YouTube subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen whether that's Spotify Apple music Apple podcast YouTube wherever that may be Please Subscribe helps us out and as always thank you for listening an hail loyal sons of Pittsburgh