Pittsburgh has been skirting with the fringe of the top 25 for a while. SMU nationally hasn’t recovered from barely beating Nevada in week 0 and a poorly played loss to BYU where it looked like the Mustangs were about to have major issues at QB.
Well, it’s time to look at these teams differently as we near the midpoint of the season.
Pitt went into UNC off a bye week and left with a 34-24 win to move to 5-0 with P4 wins. The victories over Cincinnati and West Virginia were of the comeback variety after trailing by double digits in the 2nd half. That left many people still skeptical of how good the Panthers were. Against UNC it wasn’t a dominant win, but the victory left no doubt that Pitt should be ranked.
They did what good teams do even on the road against inferior ones. They took control. Tied 24-24, Pitt scored the final 10 points of the game as they rolled up 520 yards of offense against the Tar Heels. Eli Holstein who was the ACC’s best-kept secret at QB can’t be ignored anymore. He threw for 384 yards and 3 TDs.
The defense still has some lapses, but the lapses are getting fewer and this team survived the games where the football was more inconsistent. At some point, you are what your record says you are and Pitt is 5-0. Few teams can say that. It’s time to rank them.
SMU went to Louisville Saturday, and they defeated the #22 Cardinals 34-27. Louisville doesn’t often lose at home, and SMU is now fully QB Kevin Jennings’s team. SMU has put up a whopping 142 points in their last 3 games and is playing offensive football as well as anyone in the ACC. SMU is now 5-1, and is an absolute factor in the ACC race to Charlotte.
Rhett Lashlee made the difficult decision to sit QB Preston Stone who played so well last year, but struggled this year and go with Kevin Jennings who seems to get better each game out. Saturday he was 21/27 for 281 yards and another 114 on the ground. That’s some big time dual-threat capability. That loss to BYU doesn’t look so bad either as they are currently 5-0 and ranked in the top 25 themselves.
SMU is not a team you want to face right now. It’s time to rank them.
* edit *
Pollsters listened because as they should be, they are now ranked in both polls.
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