Pittsburgh was at the forefront of Big East disappointment in the first part of the season. The Panthers, the preseason choice to win the conference, lost two of their first three games, including a 31-3 blowout against Miami (Fla.) on Pitt’s home turf.

And to complicate matters, the Panthers’ best pass rusher was on the sidelines with back problems. Greg Romeus, the Big East Co-Defensive Player of the Year last season and a Chuck Bednarik Award candidate entering this year, had surgery to repair a disc in his back early in the season after playing just one ineffective game.

But Pittsburgh head coach Dave Wannstedt knew he had someone who could step in and fill the void. He wasn’t worried because he had Brandon Lindsey.

‘Brandon will step up, and we’ve got all the confidence in the world,’ Wannstedt said Sept. 20. ‘Is he Greg Romeus? He doesn’t have the experience right now, and you don’t just all of a sudden replace the Co-Big East (Defensive) Player of the Year and first-round draft pick overnight.’

But Lindsey has filled the void and more since Romeus went down. And ever since conference play has come around, order has been restored. Pittsburgh (5-3, 3-0 Big East) has cruised, blowing out Syracuse, Rutgers and Louisville. With four games to play, the Panthers have a commanding lead on the conference.

And the biggest reason for that has arguably been Pittsburgh’s surprising pass rush. The Panthers are tied for seventh among FBS teams in sacks with 24 (three per game). Pitt also has the No. 1 and No. 2 leaders in sacks in the Big East this season — defensive ends Jabaal Sheard (nine) and Lindsey (eight).

The Panthers sacked Louisville three times in a 20-3 win last Saturday, knocking out UL quarterback Adam Froman in the fourth quarter.

‘We could never sustain any type of rhythm offensively,’ Louisville head coach Charlie Strong said Monday in the Big East coaches’ teleconference.

Romeus began working out this week, and Pittsburgh hopes he can return for the conclusion of the season. But it’s not like the team has needed him in conference play.

The Panthers have beaten their three Big East opponents by an average of 22.7 points per game.

‘It’s that much more fun just to know that we can dominate a game and we can do whatever we really want to do,’ Lindsey said.

Sheard is one of the frontrunners for Big East Defensive Player of the Year this year. After serving as a complement to Romeus with five sacks last year, he is now a Big East leader in the category.

And he is improving week to week. He had two of the Panthers’ three sacks in the win over Louisville Saturday, giving him four in Pittsburgh’s conference games.

‘You have to really appreciate what he is going through to get to the passer,’ Wannstedt said. ‘He just keeps coming and coming.’

Pittsburgh hasn’t earned national respect yet, receiving only four votes in the latest AP poll, 18 fewer than a Syracuse team that it beat by 31 points just three weeks ago.

But the Fiesta Bowl is there for the taking as was expected back in August, thanks in large part to that pass rush. The Panthers hold a de facto two-game lead on the rest of the field, as it already has head-to-head tiebreakers against one-loss teams Syracuse and Rutgers (the Scarlet Knights have one loss as of Wednesday). But despite the rush led by Sheard and Lindsey, Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt isn’t sure the team has gotten over all of its early-season woes.

‘This is going to sound like a typical coach’s response, but we’ve got to get better in all areas,’ Wannstedt said Monday in the Big East coaches’ teleconference. ‘Right now we’re not running the ball the way we would like to. We’re making progress in the passing game, but we’ve got a lot of detail things we’ve got to clean up there.

‘We’ve got plenty to work on. It’s not going to be one specific thing.’

Quiet week for Big East

For half of the Big East, Week 10 is a chance to get rested and prepare for the stretch run. There is only one conference game this weekend: Syracuse versus Louisville. Rutgers and South Florida played Wednesday night, and now each of those teams has over a week to rest as well.

It’s an important week to shore up injuries as every Big East team tries to qualify for a bowl. No team in the conference is bowl-eligible yet, something only the Big East and the Sun Belt conferences can say.

And other than Syracuse and Louisville, which both have bye weeks the week of Dec. 4, the other six teams won’t have a week off again until the regular seasons end.

‘I think the off week’s coming at an appropriate time,’ Cincinnati head coach Butch Jones said Monday. ‘We have a lot of players that have been playing with the associated nicks, bumps and bruises that come with the football season.

‘Getting them healthy for this critical stretch of the last four is going to be very, very important to us.’

Big man on campus

LB Sio Moore

Sophomore

Connecticut

Last week: 17 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries

Moore and the Connecticut defense had a banner day Friday against West Virginia, forcing four turnovers, including a crucial fumble in overtime, en route to a 16-13 upset victory.

It was a much-needed win for the Huskies (4-4, 1-2 Big East), which came into the game on a two-game losing streak. UConn only produced 278 yards of offense, but playmakers like Moore on the defensive side were the reasons why the Huskies took down the Mountaineers (5-3, 1-2).

West Virginia jumped out to a 10-0 lead after the first quarter, but Moore shifted the momentum in the second quarter by forcing and recovering a fumble from WVU running back Noel Devine. The Huskies went into the half down a touchdown and tied it up in the third quarter.

With the Mountaineers driving later in the third, Moore stopped quarterback Geno Smith from scrambling on third down, taking him down at the line of scrimmage and holding West Virginia to a field goal.

And Moore made his most important play in the fourth quarter. With the Huskies trailing, 13-10, he took Smith down for a loss and the ball came loose. Fellow linebacker Lawrence Wilson scooped it up at the UConn 45, and the ensuing Huskies drive ended in a field goal to tie the game up.

The Connecticut defense would recover another fumble in overtime, and then Huskies kicker Dave Teggart nailed his third field goal of the game to seal the win.

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on November 3, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr