Pitt won't speak the name

The coach decided the loss won't keep him -- or his players -- down.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Two words haven't been heard in Pitt's locker room since Sunday night, and have been banned from further usage by coach Dave Wannstedt.
Notre Dame.
Trying to focus his team on tonight's opponent, Ohio University, and away from one of the school's worst opening-game losses ever, Wannstedt said nothing can be gained by talking any more about the then-No. 23 Panthers' confidence-shaking 42-21 loss Saturday night.
"We watched the Notre Dame tapes, and I brought them back in here at 7 p.m. on Sunday night and I personally gave them a scouting report on Ohio University, and that was it," Wannstedt said. "And I said I didn't want to hear another word about that game. I think it's my approach, and the assistant coaches, and the leaders on this team, how quickly we turn it over and move on and learn from it.
"Right now the feeling in our stomachs is not good, and the only way to make it feel good again is to win."
No problem before
That's never been a problem in the past; Pitt is 7-0 against Ohio, including last season's 24-3 victory in the season opener. But that game was much more difficult than Pitt would have liked, with Tyler Palko completing only five passes in a very shaky initial opening-game start.
The question now is whether Wannstedt can restore the abundant confidence Pitt clearly had before being badly outclassed by Notre Dame, trailing 35-13 at halftime in a game the Panthers were favored to win.
For the second time in three seasons, Notre Dame ran all over the Panthers on their home field, outrushing them 275-103 and outgaining them 502-323. It was a performance similar to 2003, when an underdog Notre Dame team got a school-record 262 yards from Julius Jones in upsetting Pitt.
Coach's return
Wannstedt's return to Pitt as coach created considerable optimism and perhaps more pregame attention than in any opener since the 1982 Panthers began the season ranked No. 1. Discouraged not just by losing but losing badly, Wannstedt admittedly was as down as his players -- for a few hours.
"They were like all of us, me included, looking for someone to feel sorry for you. But that's the nature of the game," Wannstedt said. "That game is not going to determine what type of season we have. That game is not going to be the determining factor of what happens in December. How we react to that game is going to determine what type of a season we have. And our guys have responded."