COLLEGE FOOTBALL Pittsburgh prepared for wrong team in 35-31 loss to Notre Dame

Pittsburgh was ready for the Irish's passing game and got the run instead.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Pitt's upset loss to Notre Dame may have resulted from a fundamental mistake football coaches sometimes make, even when they are absolutely certain they are doing the right thing.
The Panthers prepared for the wrong team.
Pittsburgh's defensive game plan for its 20-14 loss Saturday was designed for the Notre Dame team that threw 61 times in a 23-10 loss to Purdue two weeks before. That day, the Irish often used a spread offense similar to that Toledo ran to near-perfection in upsetting Pitt 35-31 last month.
That's why Pitt defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads said last week that Notre Dame no longer was a power running team and relied mostly on a four-receiver spread offense, the very formation that frequently troubles the Panthers.
Revamped offense
The trouble was, the Fighting Irish used the bye week that fell before the Pitt game to take a long look at their offense and why it wasn't working. As a result, they quickly went back to their power running style, once coach Tyrone Willingham and his staff saw how they were dominating the line of scrimmage.
The Fighting Irish rarely threw -- they passed only 17 times, or 44 fewer than in their previous game -- as Julius Jones ran for a school record 262 yards in an offense that outrushed Pitt 355-73.
"We knew what our problem was on defense; it was those spread offenses," Pitt coach Walt Harris said Monday. "We worked hard on that.
"But what happened was we didn't know what our problems were maybe as well as maybe Notre Dame did."
The loss, Pitt's second in three games, dropped the Panthers out of the Top 25 and is generating talk that they are one of college football's most disappointing teams. They have yet to play a ranked opponent or a Big East team, yet already have half as many losses as they did while going 9-4 last season -- and with No. 2 Miami and No. 3 Virginia Tech yet to play.
Harris doesn't think overconfidence has anything to do with Pitt's two losses. The real problem, he said, was Pitt's inability to match Notre Dame's physical style, which allowed the Irish to run the ball not just consistently well, but often for long yardage.
Didn't execute
"We didn't execute well enough, and when you don't on a consistent basis, you're going to get it, you're going to get beat," he said. "Was it because we were overconfident or because we didn't respect the opponent, or because we thought it was going to be an easy road? I don't think that all that stuff happened."
Harris' disappointment was evident -- he called the game "difficult to evaluate and difficult to watch" -- but said there are too many games left to become too fixated on a single loss.
Pitt (3-2, 0-0 in Big East) plays Saturday at Rutgers (3-3, 0-2), which has lost 17 of 20 games to the Panthers. Two more unranked teams follow, Syracuse (3-2) and Boston College (4-2), before Pitt finally plays a ranked team, Virginia Tech, on Nov. 8.
Harris said it would help if running back Brandon Miree returns after missing two games with a bone bruise in his right leg. Miree is averaging 82.7 yards per game, but hasn't played since gaining 62 yards on 20 carries against Toledo.
"Any time you lose your best runner, in my mind a 1,000-yard rusher ... that's a loss," Harris said.