2012 Compass Bowl, Pitt Vs. SMU: Mustangs Cruise To 28-6 Win

159: Yards gained by SMU on their first four drives. The Mustangs averaged 8.0 yards per play and sprinted to an early 21-0 lead. Granted, they only gained 141 yards (3.8 per play) the rest of the way, but that didn’t really matter. Thanks to their defense, SMU technically could have stopped after their first touchdown and still produced enough to win.

8.1: Average yards to go on Pittsburgh’s second downs. The Panthers’ first-down success rate was a dreadful 20.8 percent, with running backs Isaac Bennett and Corey Davis (Zach Brown was listed as a starter in the box score but got no touches) combining to gain just 43 yards on 14 carries overall and Sunseri completing just six of 12 first-down passes for 39 yards. For a team that needed to avoid obvious passing downs because of its horrific ability to avoid sacks, this was a killer. Hey, speaking of which ...

The third quarter would see the last scoring by either team, as Wimbley had his second touchdown of the game on another goal-line dive that capped a 10-play, 73-yard drive by the Mustangs. Harper once again put three points on the board with a 34-yard field goal to bring the score to 28-6, where it would remain until the end of the game.

Williams ended up being the leading rusher in the game, with 40 yards on 11 carries.

Several reporters are calling it one of the worst football injuries they’ve seen:

For more updates and news on the 2012 Compass Bowl, please stay tuned to this StoryStream. For more from the Panthers, visit Pitt blog Cardiac Hill and SB Nation Pittsburgh.

For more updates and news on the 2012 Compass Bowl, please stay tuned to this StoryStream. For more from the Panthers, visit Pitt blog Cardiac Hill and SB Nation Pittsburgh.

The Panthers defense managed to settle down in the second quarter, after allowing 21 unanswered points by the Mustangs in the first 15 minutes of play.

The offensive yardage and time of possession is beginning to even out, but the massive first quarter by SMU may prove to be the difference in this one.

Later, SMU finished another eight-play, 54-yard drive with a short rushing touchdown by McDermott to put the ‘Stangs up 14-0 with under three minutes to go in the third quarter. At that point, the Mustangs had controlled the ball for 9:29 of the game, compared to just 2:44 for the Panthers.

The Panthers had a good kick return to get them back to midfield following the touchdown and picked up positive yardage on a quarterback scramble as the quarter wound to a close.

NOTE: Confused? See the quick glossary at the bottom.

Bowl games often pit teams with odd connections; for instance, in Jacksonville Ohio State and Florida played in the “Urban Meyer Bowl.” After an odd month of coaching changes, Pittsburgh-SMU should, I guess, be billed the “Sun Devil Bowl” after SMU almost lost their head coach to Arizona State, and then Pitt did lose theirs. Arizona State’s coaching search was a particularly odd one that saw ASU athletic director Lisa Love get overruled in her pursuit of SMU’s June Jones (after it had leaked to Jones’ current team that he had accepted the job). A while later, ASU settled on Graham, who shared with his now-former team the news via forwarded text message. It was a sloppy coaching search, and it could be a sloppy game today at sloppy historic Legion Field in Birmingham.

Kickoff for Saturday’s game is scheduled for 1pm ET on ESPN, who have dispatched Mike Gleason, John Congemi and sideline reported Eamon McAananey to call the action.

Saturday’s game will be a battle of future Big East rivals, as Southern Methodist accepted an invitation to leave Conference USA and join the Big East on December 7, 2011.

Pitt internim coach Keith Patterson released a statement Friday:

For more from the Panthers’ side, visit Cardiac Hill.

Though Pittsburgh’s defense is solid enough to handle the Mustangs’ run-and-shoot offense, interim head coach Keith Patterson will be looking to keep them off the field, Paul Zeise of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

For more from the Panthers’ side, visit Cardiac Hill.

In a match-up of two teams who have spent most of the last month engulfed in coaching turmoil, 7-5 SMU is a +5 point underdog to 6-6 Pittsburgh in the 2011 BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama on Jan. 7.

Arizona State will be mentioned a lot in this match-up between the possibly-future Big East conference-mates. SMU coach was originally supposed to leave for ASU before boosters but a stop to the move. The school then poached Pitt coach Todd Graham, who left under cover of night as the news broke.

Like Todd Graham, Norvell is also Arizona State bound and it’s not likely to be the last coach to make the jump. This will be the second season in a row that the Pitt Panthers will be coached in the BBVA Compass Bowl by an interim head coach and obviously the second coach to coach the game for the Panthers in as many seasons.

For more from the Panthers’ side, visit Pitt blog Cardiac Hill and SB Nation Pittsburgh. For more on the 2011 college football coaching carousel, check out our dedicated section.

Todd Graham bolted out the door and hopped a plane to Arizona State on Wednesday morning, leaving players and fans at Pitt jilted. Just one season after he took the Pitt job, Graham got a case of the wandering eyes and accepted the head coaching position with the Sun Devils in a move that seemed to come out of left field, making for an interesting morning.

After the jump, a few of the highlights from his timeline.

Patterson is in his first season as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Pitt. He followed Graham to Pitt from Tulsa, where he spent the past eight seasons. Patterson served as co-defensive coordinator his final five seasons with the Golden Hurricanes.

Prior to joining Tulsa, Patterson was a high school coach in Oklahoma and Texas.

Pittsburgh coach Todd Graham will head west to become the new head coach of Arizona State, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Pat Forde. Graham will replace fired ASU coach Dennis Erickson.

Graham was hired by Pittsburgh in January after the Panthers’ previous choice to replace Dave Wannstedt, former Miami of Ohio coach Mike Haywood, was arrested on domestic violence charges just two weeks after being hired by Pitt. Prior to his one year in Pittsburgh, Graham had been Tulsa’s head coach from 2006 to 2010, and Rice’s head coach in 2005.

The Compass Bowl has only been a college football bowl game since 2006, but in its brief history, the bowl has undergone three different name changes. It started as the PapaJohns.com Bowl, was renamed as the Birmingham Bowl for a short stretch and is now sponsored by BBVA Compass, a financial holding company headquartered in Birmingham.

The BBVA usually brings in what’s left of the SEC and Big East teams after some of the top options bowls have had their choice. It hasn’t yet developed any sort of continuity as far as teams are concerned as some bowls do, however, considering 10 different teams were involved in the first Compass Bowl games held thus far.