Inside Slant
Don't tell Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt winning isn't everything.
A little more than a week ago he was thinking of a Big East championship
that title brings a trophy and a trip to the Sugar or Orange Bowl
payback for the long, hard stretch of trail it took to reach that fork in the road.
It all went swirling down the drain by the slimmest of margins. West Virginia beat the Panthers in the Backyard Brawl on a last-second field goal and then Cincinnati roared by from a 21-point deficit, took advantage of a botched extra point and beat Pitt, 45-44, for the conference crown.
Instead of the Sugar or Orange Bowl, his team was heading for the Meineke Car Care Bowl to play an 8-4 North Carolina team and he was looking at a major job of trying to build back his deflated team.
"To be honest, I hadn't thought about it. I was convinced we were going to win this game. I was and our whole football team was," he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the moments after the game.
But it was obvious that the way the team absorbs the scouting report on the Tar Heels matters far less than the way it absorbs the defeats, especially the one to Cincinnati that was so crushing.
"This was a tough, heartbreaking loss, to say the least," Wannstedt said.
"It is tough," senior defensive lineman Gus Mustakas told the Post-Gazette. "It almost feels like throwing a season away. You go so far and your goal is to win the Big East championship and you come so close
it really hurts, bad. You hope the younger guys will learn from this and next year they won't let this happen to them."
Pitt lost only three games in the season and all were torturous, losing by 11 points and blowing a large lead to both N.C. State and Cincinnati.
"Our program is excited to play another football game and have the opportunity to potentially earn a 10th victory," Wannstedt said when the matchup was announced. "The Meineke Car Care Bowl organizers are outstanding people and professionals, and I know our team will have a first-class experience when we visit Charlotte later this month. Playing a national ESPN television game against a quality ACC opponent is a great opportunity and we are looking forward to the challenge."
North Carolina comes into the game off, in its own way having dropped a 28-27 decision to rival North Carolina State to end a four-game winning streak during which the Tar Heels knocked off Miami (Fla.) and won at Virginia Tech and Boston College.
