East Hartford, CT (Best E Casino) - Seeking to snap a two-game slide against the Connecticut Huskies, the 23rd-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers hit the field in East Hartford this weekend to close out the regular season against their Big East Conference rivals.
Head coach Dave Wannstedt has been up and down during his four-year tenure with his alma mater, but this weekend he has a chance to guide the Panthers to their first nine-win season since 2002 when the squad also picked up a bowl victory over Oregon State. Currently tied for second in the conference standings with West Virginia and Rutgers at 4-2, Pitt has won three of its last four outings, including a 19-15 verdict versus the Mountaineers in the annual Backyard Brawl in the Steel City last Friday.
As for the Huskies, they appeared to be the team to beat in the Big East a month or so into the season when they ran off five consecutive victories, but then the team fell to both North Carolina and Rutgers in back-to-back games. Most recently the program was defeated by South Florida in a 17-13 final back on November 23rd, pushing UConn to an even 3-3 in conference action and 7-4 overall.
As far as the all-time series is concerned, this is a relatively new relationship since UConn made the jump to the Big East. Dating back to 2004, the Huskies currently have three wins against one loss, with the squad posting a 34-14 victory in last year's matchup.
"LeSean McCoy came through today and had his career-high of 187 yards rushing," coach Wannstedt said after yet another thrilling Backyard Brawl. "I think that was obviously the difference in the game today when we were struggling throwing the ball. Billy [Stull] was struggling a little bit. Our only chance to win was to play defense and run the ball."
Stull managed to complete 12-of-23 passes for 156 yards and a touchdown for the Panthers, but he also tossed a pair of interceptions, one of which was in the end zone near the end of the first half and cost the team a golden opportunity to put some points on the board. Stull has been able to convert almost 60 percent of his pass attempts this season for an average of more than 216 ypg, but he has just seven touchdowns to show for his efforts and eight picks to defend.
Clearly this offense begins and ends with McCoy who has an incredible 20 touchdowns and is one of the nation's leaders in total offense with 1,308 yards on the ground and another 296 yards on 28 receptions.
Thankfully for the Panthers and Stull, the defense was not scared off by the prospect of trying to stop the NCAA's all-time leading rusher at quarterback. "We played defense against a very good offense and a great quarterback," coach Wannstedt recognized. "Pat White is the best spread option quarterback in the country." White finished with just 93 yards rushing and a touchdown, but more importantly, he was kept in check through the air as he completed 15-of-28 attempts for 143 yards and was picked off twice.
The run defense has been very solid for the Panthers this season, allowing just 119 ypg to rank third in the Big East and 23rd in the nation this week. Pressure at the line of scrimmage has accounted for 2.45 sacks per game and an even six tackles for loss per outing, ranking the squad second and third in the conference, respectively.
First in the league and 12th in the nation at the moment, Scott McKillop is posting an average of 10.27 tackles per game and he is also first in the Big East with his 1.32 TFLs per outing as well.
Just like the Panthers, UConn's offense is also predicated on the running game, specifically what Donald Brown can get done when he gets his hands on the ball. Although he was held to just 96 yards by South Florida and below 100 yards for the second time in three games, Brown still leads the nation in rushing with his 1,633 yards. However, Brown hasn't been quite as productive in the last month as he was in the first four games of the campaign when he tallied a total of 10 running scores and had a pair of games with more than 200 yards on the ground.
If Brown doesn't move the ball then, for the most part, it doesn't happen for the Huskies because the passing game is severely lacking. Three different signal-callers have combined to throw just four touchdowns against 12 interceptions, and that's just not going to get it done at the Football Bowl Subdivision level these days no matter how great your primary running back may be.
Maybe there is a benefit to having a weak passing attack for the Huskies this season, perhaps it has helped the pass defense gain some confidence in practice and then project that in actual games. The group has surrendered just 166.6 ypg through the air thus far, a number that has them ranked first in the conference and 11th in the nation, with opponents having managed to toss just seven TDs over the course of 11 games. With that being the case the unit has a national pass defense efficiency rating of 98.7 which is good enough for not only first in the Big East but also seventh in the country this week.
There are five different players with at least a pair of picks thus far, helping to give the unit 16 INTs on the season, but perhaps even more of a force when it comes to the overall production of the group is Cody Brown who not only leads the Huskies with 10 sacks and 13.5 TFLs, but he is also responsible for four forced fumbles and the team's only blocked kick of the year.
