WVU vs. Pitt Grades: A Unit-By-Unit Look At The Mountaineers Victory Over The Panthers

It is a great year when you beat Pitt. It is an even better year when you crush Pitt's dreams of a conference title and BCS bid in the process. It is 10 times better when you beat them by 25 points. Yes indeed, my friends, it is another great year for Mountaineer football.

While some fans may have given up on this team and the coaching staff, they have powered through the hard times and put themselves in position to win the Big East. The sometimes unfair scrutiny this team faces seems to have galvanized them in recent weeks to step-up their game. Keep it up boys, because your goals are still attainable.

As for the game, that was the most emotion I have seen from a Mountaineer team this season. Our defense came out flying to the ball from the start of the game. Our offense wanted to push Pitt around and make them thank us for the beating. It was a great overall performance from our Mountaineers.

From the tone of this intro, I'm sure you know the grades will be high -- so, without further delay, let's get to the grades...

Offense:      B  Our experience with Mountaineer offense this season can be summed up perfectly by a quote from the great Leslie Neilsen,  "Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to stay on my toes."  From week to week we had no clue what to expect from this Mountaineer team except the unexpected. Forget what happened in the past because our offense looked good against a pretty tough Pitt defense. Let's keep rolling...

Offensive Line:    B   This unit gave Geno time to pass and held their blocks long enough for Devine, Clarke and Alston to run.

Tavon Austin:    A+++++++  Every time he touched the ball, it was a great play. I don't care how small he is, he should be in on every play. We are going to run a QB sneak to gain an inch, line him up wide. Victory formation, let him take the snap. Who cares. He makes things happen and we should be getting the ball into his hands more often.

Defense:     A   This unit played a different type of defense against Pitt. We gave up some yardage and struggled on third down, but created turnovers by swarming to the ball. This unit has been practicing on the "turnover circuit" everyday at practice since the UConn game. I have no clue what it is, but that thing is working

Special Teams:    B

Uniforms:    C   It is cool that we are "relevant" enough for Nike to give us new uniforms, but our colors are gold'n blue. If we wear these uniforms more than once a year, I will be very disappointed.

Coaching:    A   This was the best coaching job of Stew's career. His guys were ready to play from start to finish and executed the game-plan perfectly. This is what we expect from a Mountaineer football team.