Can Pitt begin a new trend of winning games on the road that they should?
Every Pitt fan knows it. You can feel it, can't you?
Friday night is a winnable road game for the Panthers and you are just waiting for them to fall flat. Most of us saw the chance for a fast start with the schedule. These are winnable games, but in the words of Lee Corso, "not so fast my friend."
After all, we've all seen disappoint with similar opportunities to impress. Here are some of the road games the Panthers have let slip away over the past decade along with the head coaches at those times.
Dave Wannstedt:
2005 - Ohio University, where Pitt lost on a pick-6 in OT, 16-10.
2006 - UConn (yup, you are going to see this name on here a few times), where they dropped a double OT loss, 46-45.
2007 - The Panthers lost to a 7-6 Michigan State team by four points and then dropped a game to 6-6 Louisville by a touchdown and an extra point.
2008 - In a game that featured the number 19 and 20 ranked teams in the country, Pitt couldn't keep up and lost 28-21 to Cincinnati...we could probably forgive them for this one, but the teams were pretty even that year and the Panthers came up empty.
2009 - A bad early season loss to a 5-7 NC State team by way of 38-31, and after climbing to number eight in the national polls, Pitt dropped one to West Virginia by a field goal.
2010 - Wanny's time came to an end this year, but not without another loss at UConn, 30-28.
Fraud Graham:
2011 - This season saw two losses that just left us dumbfounded. There was the complete second half collapse at Iowa and then a no-show at Rutgers as the Panthers were trounced, 34-10.
Paul Chryst:
2012 - Hey look, it's UConn again. The Huskies defeated Pitt by seven. The Panthers also suffered another loss to Syracuse by one point.
2013 - Last year, the Panthers went to Annapolis and came away with a three-point loss.
That's a long line of dropping winnable games on the road. We could argue about a game or two on the list and we could also talk about maybe a game you think should be on the list.
And we also realize that road games are more difficult. Few teams are going to defeat every team they may be better than away from home. Still, the Panthers have shown a pretty long track record of losing games on the road that they could have won.
Friday night will be a big test - and despite the fact that it appears winnable, it's far from a guaranteed win for the Panthers.
Be sure to join Cardiac Hill's Facebook page and follow us on Twitter@PittPantherBlog for our regular updates on Pitt athletics. Follow the author@BrunoPittsburgh
