10-27-2016

The Pitt News

The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | october 27, 2016 | Volume 107 | Issue 65

WARREN STUMPS FOR DEMS AT PITT Dan Sostek

Senior Staff Writer

Members of Pitt’s Chinese Club gathered in Nordy’s Place Wednesday night for dumplings, spring rolls and ping pong. Kyleen Considine STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

BURGLARIES CONTINUE, OAKLAND LOCKS Alexa Bakalarski

Assistant News Editor An unknown person broke into a home on Ward Street Tuesday night, the most recent of at least six burglaries in Oakland this month.

This most recent burglary took place on the 3300 block of Ward Street between 5:40 p.m. and 8:40 p.m. Tuesday, according to a crime alert from Pitt and city police. The residents of the home were gone at the time, but told police someone entered the house through a window.

When they returned home, residents

found several items missing. They told police they did not see anyone in the house or in the area.

Police have no further information on a suspect in this robbery, or in the string of burglaries that began Oct. 9, when police responded to two robberies within an hour of each other on Semple Street and Meyran Avenue.

Less than a week after these two incidents, another burglary was reported on the 300 block of Semple Street on Oct. 14, at about 4

a.m. A home on the 3600 block of Bates Street was then burglarized the following day, Oct. 15, at about 2 a.m. A fifth burglary occurred on Oct. 19, on the 3700 block of Dawson Street between 10 p.m. Wednesday and 12:30 a.m.

Thursday.

Emily Schaffer, assistant public information officer for the city’s Department of Public Safety, said all of the burglaries are being investigated separately. This indicates that — despite proximity in time and location —police See Burglary on page 4

At her first visit to Pittsburgh this election season, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, DMass., chose to hammer in an election day warning to a pair of prominent Republicans.

“I’ve got bad news for Donald Trump and Pat Toomey,” Warren said. “Nasty women in Pennsylvania vote.”

Though Warren first delivered the “nasty women” line at a campaign event in Manchester, New Hampshire on Monday, it has quickly become her go-to phrase for hitting Republicans.

Wednesday was no different. Warren visited Pitt’s Alumni Hall to stump for Pennsylvania Democratic senatorial nominee Katie McGinty and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Her trip to Pittsburgh comes after recent stops in North Carolina and New Hampshire, among others.

McGinty, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Rep. Mike Doyle also spoke Wednesday, all promoting Democratic policy while emphasizing that Trump and Sen. Pat Toomey — McGinty’s competition — stand directly opposed to it.

The “nasty women” line, a play on an utterance Trump hurled at Clinton during See Warren on page 5

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PEACE CORPS ALUMNI DISCUSS DIVERSITY Janine Faust Staff Writer

Nicholas Langston, the Pitt Peace Corps recruiter, told students about his own experience as an American overseas. Jingyu Xu STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Munya Jakazi disappointed a lot of Filipino children when they found out he couldn’t play basketball.

As a Peace Corps volunteer in 2012, Jakazi, a graduate of Lebanon Valley College who is black, travelled to the Philippines, where he worked as a youth development volunteer coordinating extracurricular activities at a rehab center for youths.

“The people there, they only knew what they knew about black guys through the media, which can be pretty incorrect in how it portrays people,” Jakazi said. “Right away, some of the kids tried to get me to be on their basketball team. I’m actually not good at basketball at all.”

Jakazi, who is now a graduate student at Pitt studying international development, served in the Peace Corps until 2014, because he was pursuing a career in service work and foreign culture.

On Wednesday afternoon, Jakazi sat with several other Pitt grad students and former Peace Corps volunteers on Pitt’s Peace Corps Diversity Panel. The panelists, who varied in race, sexuality and gender, discussed their experiences serving communities in other countries, including Morocco and Swaziland.

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Some of the stories, like Jakazi’s on basketball, offered perspectives on dealing with preconceived notions about race around the world.

“A lot of [the children] were surprised about the way I acted. Being around me, it defeated the stereotypes they thought were true,” Jakazi said. “And I learned a lot from them by being immersed in their culture.”

Other panelists also discussed the way traveling and living in other countries had shifted their own cultural understanding — which was a broader goal of the panel, according to Pitt Peace Corps recruiter Nicholas Langston.

“We want people to know that the Peace Corps isn’t just made up of a bunch of white guys,” Langston said. “And that anyone can discover more about themselves and others, gain experience and make connections through working as a Peace Corp volunteer.”

According to the Peace Corps website, 28 percent of accepted volunteers identify as minorities in America based on their race or sexuality. But, as several panelists pointed out, those who identify with a majority or minority group in America can find their experiences flip-flopped in other countries.

See Diversity on page 4

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Burglary, pg. 1 have no evidence that the break-ins were committed by the same people.

To prevent the series of burglaries from continuing, Schaffer said city police will continue to patrol Oakland during all shifts, but did not say police planned to increase their presence in the neighborhood. She encouraged Oakland residents and students to secure their homes.

“Be vigilant, lock all doors and windows [and] call police if you see anything suspicious,” Schaffer said in an email.

Pitt police did not post a crime alert regarding a robbery early Thursday morning at senior Tom Harnett’s apartment at the intersection of Semple and Ward streets. Harnett said his apartment was unlocked — though the apartment building was locked, to the best of his knowledge — when someone entered while he and his roommate were sleeping.

During that incident, an unknown person took two PlayStation gaming consoles, two laptops, an external hard drive and Harnett’s wallet. Harnett said he’s most going to miss the years of backed-up work saved on his laptop.

“I’m just glad I didn’t wake up, so I didn’t do anything,” Harnett said. “If [the robbers are] that confident, I would be afraid.”

He added that he’s been more careful about

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locking the door, even when he is home.

“We’ve been locking the doors, like triplechecking and everything,” Harnett said. “We just know we’re not going to make that mistake again.”

Pitt spokesperson Joe Miksch said concerned students should follow the advice included on each crime alert. That advice reads: “Keep ... your doors and windows locked, be aware of who you invite in your home, report suspicious persons and crimes promptly and always pay attention to your surroundings.”

Kelly McCabe, a junior urban studies and business major who lives on a block of Meyran Avenue that’s been recently burglarized, said she and her roommates have been following that advice lately. “[My roommates and I] started dead bolting all our doors when we leave,” McCabe said.

“If we leave for the weekend, we dead bolt our individual doors, and we also leave the lights on when we leave.”

Similarly, Colin Montesano, a junior biology major, who lives on the same block as McCabe, said he and his roommates are being more careful in light of the robberies.

“Since we’ve heard about them, we definitely have been locking our doors and keeping our windows shut,” Montesano said.

“We’ve been trying to make sure we ... be more vigilant about it.”

Diversity, pg. 3 Ryan Stannard, a Pitt graduate student studying international development, said he felt like a “white blond guy who stuck out” while volunteering in Thailand from 2014 to 2016. For that reason, he didn’t want to talk about his homosexuality.

“I figured I already attracted enough attention just by how I looked,” Stannard said. “It was a little hard not saying anything, but it gave me a new perspective on how some people are viewed differently just by their appearance.”

Ryan Flint, a graduate student and former volunteer who is black, said his race helped when he was teaching English to students in Africa.

“It was easy for me to get the community to trust me, and I was able to convince them to work with me pretty quickly,” Flint said.

As a Peace Corp volunteer, Langston has been to Rwanda and Uganda. In Rwanda, he taught English and entrepreneurship classes and helped coordinate clubs for women’s empowerment. In Uganda, he served as a development consultant for an under-construction orphanage.

Both times, he found people assumed he was wealthy because he was a white American man.

“They’d all think that I owned a BMW and had a lot of money,” Langston said. “Part of the job of being a [volunteer], besides educating and empowering communities, is to teach others

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about your culture, and to learn from theirs and take that back home with you.”

Mariana Dougherty, a sophomore psychology major who attended the panel, had traveled to Nicaragua in high school to work with an organization that constructs schools in places without the adequate infrastructure for education called buildOn. She said she’s interested in doing similar work after graduation and came to the panel to hear from Peace Corps alum.

“I think this panel was pretty useful, since I was able to learn more about what a Peace Corps volunteer experiences in different cultures through some new and unique perspectives,” Dougherty said.

Joel Garceau, a graduate student studying international development at Pitt, also did service work in Thailand and felt comfortable coming out to his co-teacher about halfway through his time there. He quipped that she treated him the same afterwards and “stopped trying to find [him] a girlfriend.

Overall, Garceau’s experience made him feel less intimidated about interacting with other people.

“You’ve got to be a lot more outgoing when you’re immersed in a different culture in order to connect with others,” Garceau said. “And when you connect with them, you find out that although people have different beliefs and attitudes, we’re all basically imperfect humans.”

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Warren, pg. 1 the final presidential debate, was one of a constant barrage that Warren, McGinty and other Democrat speakers fired at Trump and Toomey, setting an aggressive tone with just 12 days until the election.

Fitzgerald opened the event, criticizing the incumbent Toomey for not supporting the western Pennsylvania region throughout his six-year term as senator.

“I can tell you, as county executive for the last five years, there’s one U.S. senator that I’ve never heard from,” Fitzgerald said, referring to Toomey. “Never called me or the mayor to say ‘What can we do for western Pennsylvania?’... We need two U.S. senators that are going to work for us, not just one.”

Throughout her speech, McGinty was on the offensive against both her opponent, citing the need to “send him packing,” and Trump, calling him a “fraud.” If she wins the seat, McGinty will be the first female senator in Pennsylvania history.

“While you’re helping shatter that glass ceiling in the White House,” McGinty pleaded, referring to Clinton becoming the first female president, “Can

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you help me shatter a glass ceiling in the U.S. senate?”

In recent weeks, McGinty has been fighting to regain her lead over Toomey in the polls. Currently, Toomey leads McGinty by an average of 1.7 points across all polls according to Real Clear Politics, which keeps track of polling data.

After McGinty concluded, Warren joined her on stage, and the two embraced. Meagan Hart, a senior dual major in political science and philosophy who attended the event, said this moment resonated with her as a moment of pride.

“The first thing [Warren] did when she came out was she shook McGinty’s hand, and she raised [McGinty’s] hand,” Hart said. “The women empowerment really got to me.”

Warren began her speech discussing her own working-class roots.

“The way I see it, I am the daughter of a janitor that became a United States senator,” Warren said. “But here’s what scares me about that story. I’m worried it’s a story locked in time.”

She said she fears that is no longer possible, comparing and contrasting investments and regulations America made in

the 1930s and 1980s and noting that income growth that once went to 90 percent of Americans almost entirely now goes to the top 10 percent.

She used this to begin her attack on Trump, who has alleged that the presidential race is “rigged.”

“When Donald Trump says ‘It’s rigged,’ he’s right, it is rigged,” Warren said. “It’s rigged for billionaires like Donald Trump.

And we are here to fight that.”

Although Warren focused on the Republican presidential candidate, she also showed her distrust of Toomey, attacking the Pennsylvania senator for favoring his “rich and powerful friends” on Wall Street.

Warren specifically panned Toomey for voting against refinancing student loans, expanding social security, raising the minimum wage and equal pay, while voting for defunding planned parenthood and privatizing social security.

“Pennsylvania doesn’t need another senator for the rich and the powerful,” Warren said. “Pennsylvania needs a senator for the working people. Pennsylvania needs Katie McGinty.”

She then attempted to link Trump and

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Toomey, assailing the senator for his refusal to commit to either supporting or opposing the Republican nominee at the most recent senatorial debate.

“I thought at some point [Toomey] would whip out a bushel basket and put it right over his head, on the assumption that ‘If you can’t see me, I’m not here.’”

Warren quipped. “But he can’t hide from this question.”

Warren asked the audience to do two things –– vote and volunteer, citing close polls in Pennsylvania.

In Pennsylvania, Clinton currently leads Trump by 4.4 percent, according to Real Clear Politics.

When outlining different stances she and her party believe in, Warren said she, Clinton and McGinty share the same platform, including increasing minimum wage, protecting and expanding social security, regulating big banks, fighting climate change, supporting equal pay and combating racism.

“This is Hillary Clinton’s agenda, this is Katie McGinty’s agenda,” Warren said. “It is a common sense agenda. It is an opportunity agenda. It is a Pennsylvania agenda and it is an agenda for America.”

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Opinions column

from the editorial board

Proposed City Council rule change punishes transparency Politicians have enough incentive to hide behind closed doors. They shouldn’t have to pay for offering a glimpse at the internal discussions that drive our city.

Council President Bruce Kraus introduced legislation Tuesday that would penalize council members who publicly discuss closed-door executive sessions. Offenders would have to pay $500 if a unanimous council vote deemed punishment appropriate.

Because these closed-door meetings generally occur between council members and attorneys from the city’s law department, the city has argued that the content of these meetings are confidential under attorney-client privilege. But the truth is that this rule only serves to protect council members from criticism for their decisions.

At the basis of Kraus’ proposed legislation is a logical flaw: attorney-client privilege only prevents attorneys from exposing information related to the client. It works in much the same way that HIPPA only prevents doctors from talking publicly about their patients’ illnesses — patients are allowed to discuss their own ailments at their own discretion.

Council members are the law department’s clients in this case, so this rule would restrict the ability of people involved to share information regardless of content.

It’s very unlikely that an issue covered in one of these meetings would be massive enough to threaten the city’s well-being but small enough that a meager $500 fine would dissuade someone from exposing it. Creating these fines is a preventative move that would do very little to actually prevent substantive matters from blowing up in the public sphere.

These elected officials are discussing matters involving public funds, not nuclear weapons plans.

One such executive session occurred in September and focused on attempts to re-

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vamp the Pittsburgh Police Department’s response policies. Kraus, the member proposing the rule change, refused to make the meeting public despite calls to do so from District 1 Councilwoman Darlene Harris, the member who claims the new rule is targeted at her.

The general information covered in the meeting was explained by city officials beforehand and reported in an article by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette anyway.

What is the harm in allowing the public to hear about how their law enforcement agency is handling their concerns, and would that harm really be substantially larger if it was a member of the council who explained the proceedings?

Kraus’ proposal may seem meaningless — and, typically, there isn’t much confidential information worth protecting, but more broadly, it’s a direct threat to the kind of transparency we’ve been asking for from politicians for years. Being able to speak up about perceived ethical missteps is something worth protecting, as so few politicians would be ever be willing to take such steps in the first place.

It is also, more fundamentally, an unnecessary attempt to limit the free speech of council members, who have as much of a right as anyone to express themselves publicly or to a member of the media.

If a city official decides information is egregious enough to share with the citizens they serve, they should do so. It may be against the wishes of the larger council, but each member is individually elected by his or her district and the public deserves the chance to decide what’s important.

This proposal serves as insulation to protect city officials from facing the consequences of identification with how they behaved and spoke in a city meeting. That’s not a secret worth hiding, it’s something we have a right to know.

JILL STEIN’S GREEN PLATFORM TOXIC Jaime Viens Columnist

“Crooked.” “Idiot.” “Liar.” “Grab them by the pussy.” These compelling phrases have dominated the intellectual rhetoric of the 2016 election season.

As profoundly as this debate eloquence and the ringing endorsements of the “lesser of two evils” may inspire you, we are not simply dealing with the lesser of two evils, but four.

Because it could deter votes from one of the two primary candidates and risk victory for the other, some people have been making the argument that a third party vote is a privileged vote.

Young, white, socialists despise Republican candidate Donald Trump and deplore Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, so they plan to vote for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson. These young people have been described as privileged because, generally, their demographic has nothing to lose if they toss their votes to a candidate who can’t conceivably win.

If an individual chooses to vote for the candidate whose ideals align most closely with their own, then a third party is not a protest or a privileged vote, but a choice. In this particular election, however, it’s a poor choice. Somehow, our third party candidates are less adept to run the country than our primary ones.

The predominant third party alternatives are Gary Johnson — the hot-tempered libertarian who gained notoriety from his inability to identify Aleppo, Syria — and Jill Stein — the radical, conspiracy-theory-loving Green Party candidate.

I don’t think it necessary to explain why Johnson — a man who responds to earnest questions with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and remains incapable of naming a single global leader — is unfit to run the country. But, while Stein’s indiscretions are slightly less glaring, they make her a far more unsettling contender for POTUS.

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As a Green Party candidate, the bulk of Stein’s policies are centered on the climate change crisis and public health issues. The main objective of her “Green New Deal” is to end the use of all non-renewable resources by 2030.

In an August interview with the Washington Post, Stein said, “We need an emergency wartime-scale mobilization to create 100 percent clean renewable energy by 2030.” Not only is this a dangerous escalation, but, following this proclamation, Stein was unable to explain how she would accomplish such a feat in a government incapable of agreeing to a low, revenue-neutral carbon tax, let alone a full-scale reversal on energy tactics.

Even if we had an affordable renewable energy source to meet the demands of the American population in such a short period, or a Congress that wasn’t so divided on the severity of climate change, the plan would remain logistically infeasible.

Undergoing a complete energy transition in a matter of 13 years would put tremendous pressure on the 14.5 percent of Americans living below the poverty line who can’t afford renewables at their current price and accessibility.

It would leave the 9.8 million Americans that work for the petroleum industry, not to mention hundreds of thousands of coal-workers, jobless in the matter of a decade. Eventually solar and wind energy will catch up to the employment levels non-renewables currently hold, but jobs still won’t materialize at a fast enough rate to compensate for the petroleum industry’s loss.

Implementation of renewables is far more contingent upon a specialized workforce. It will require engineers, installers, manufacturers, researchers and planners, financiers, real estate agents and law and software developers. A period of 13 years won’t give people the money — or time to earn it — they’ll need in order to gain the education required of such a competitive industry.

Find the full story online at

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The Pitt news crossword 10/27/16

Culture A CAPPELLA GROUPS UNITE FOR ANNUAL HALLOWEEN SHOW Deanna Druskat For The Pitt News

The members of Pitt’s a cappella group Pittch Please usually sport matching jet black suits for their performances, belting out renditions of Top 40 and throwback hits.

But for this year’s Halloween concert, which will feature all seven a cappella collectives on campus, Pittch Please will ditch the fancy clothes for Pokemon costumes and sing the show’s catchy theme.

“I’m gonna be Squirtle — I have a turtle backpack, so it was kind of a natural progression there,” said George Burnet, Pittch Please’s president.

Hosted by the a cappella group Pitches and Tones, the sixth annual halloween a cappella concert, “Witches and Bones” will begin at 7:30 p.m in the seventh floor auditorium of Alumni Hall. According to Lena Gallagher, senior marketing major and president of Pitches and Tones, the group expects about 500 people to attend.

This event is the only occasion of the See A cappella on page 9 Pitches & Tones performs Courtesy of Brendan Cox

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PROFESSOR OF HOR ROR: FILM PICKS

Noah Coco Staff Writer

While most 4-year-old children watch Elmo singing tunes on “Sesame Street,” Diana Anselmo-Sequeira was watching horror movies.

Her mom showed her “A Nightmare on Elm Street” at an early age, and afterward she was hooked. The ’90s brought her other formative favorites, “Interview with the Vampire” and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.”

Anselmo-Sequeira, a postdoctoral fellow in film studies, has since made a career out of horror film studies, and currently teaches a horror film course called Horror Film: Genre and Genre. Instead of just

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teaching the formal elements of each film on the syllabus, she’s focusing the class’ scope on gender and women’s studies, watching films that take place in various time periods and geographic regions.

For Anselmo-Sequeira, horror films explore the idea of otherness, and she uses the genre’s lens to examine a fear of loss of control in society that’s exploited through the representation of women and minority groups on the big screen.

The Pitt News caught up with AnselmoSequeira and asked about her favorite films and her suggestions for the Halloween season. Here are a few of her picks.

A Personal Favorite: “A Nightmare on

Elm Street” (1984) “If I had to choose, the most influential horror film for me was ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street,’ because I watched it when it kind of came out — I was four. And my mother is spectacular, so she got me into watching horror as soon as I was born.

So ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ because I couldn’t sleep for a year...I didn’t understand very well what was going on but I knew I shouldn’t sleep because it was coming for me.”

Animated Film: “Belladonna of Sadness” (1973) I’ve watched one recently — I would not call it necessarily horror, although it has a

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lot of graphic material — called ‘Belladonna of Sadness’ that was actually playing at the Row House theater here. And it’s a cult film, where watercolor marries with violence and women getting chopped to pieces or raped. It was gorgeous, because it was watercolor animated, so it was aesthetically very pleasing, the subject matter was a little bit like, ‘Woah, there.’”

A Classic: “Portrait of Jennie” (1948) “I also like when horror meets with other genres, so like romantic melodrama, so ‘Portrait of Jennie’ is really beautiful. It’s like a ghost story but also like packaged as a classical romance, Hollywood romance, I See Movies on page 9

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A cappella, pg. 8 year when all seven of Pitt’s a cappella groups, which normally have solo concerts or perform with one or two other ensembles, will sing on the same stage.

No tickets are required, but the performers will ask attendees to donate to Pittsburgh Public Schools arts and music programs, in addition to selling raffl e tickets for gift cards to Fuel and Fuddle and a University Store gift basket. A GoFundMe created for the event has already surpassed its $1,000 goal in support of PPS. “Every time there’s a budget cut, usually the music and the arts programs are the ones that get hurt,” said Gallagher. “We thought it would be a good way to help these programs that [made] our own personal high school experiences much better.”

During the 2011-2012 school year, PPS reduced private music lessons at Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts magnet school, but has added four rotating instrumental music instructors to all schools that have fourth through eighth grades for this school year.

As for the lineup itself, each of the

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groups will perform two songs, which Gallagher said lets the performers showcase their own styles and allows the audience to experience almost every genre on the spectrum, from country to classic ’80s rock.

Because it is hosting the event, Pitches and Tones will perform an additional song to open the concert. Although it has not finalized what the group will sing, Gallagher said all three songs in the proposed set will be different in terms of genre. At its last performance, Pitches and Tones opened with Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September,” and later moved into a slow, bluesy reimagining of Foreigner’s ballad “Cold as Ice.” Much like Pitches and Tones, the allmale group Pittch Please will pair the Pokemon theme with a very different, more contemporary song — Zedd’s “Candyman,” an electronic track featuring the soulful vocals of Aloe Blacc.

“The majority of our songs are contemporary, we occasionally throw in a couple throwbacks,” said Burnet, a sophomore emergency medicine major. “Everything is very organic, we arrange all of our own music so we decide as a group what we want to do.”

Movies, pg. 8 love that one.”

Hybrid Movie: “The Neon Demon” (2016) “[Nicolas Winding Refn] made this film about Los Angeles and the fashion industry of sorts. It starts as if it was just gonna be one of those very trite sort of [films] — there’s this little girl from a small town trying to make it in the big city. And like the spaces he films in, like motels — it seems like it’s going to be that story, a comingof-age story. And then it takes a veer to be almost like, it’s a horror movie, it’s a satire, it looks like a music video, like MTV music video. At times it just looks also like a fashion spread — it’s about girls being photographed, so it’s very still. And it’s very existential too because it’s sparse in the dialogue, and it has a David Lynch kind of feel to it, like you’re watching ‘Mulholland Drive,’ but now. So it’s a pastiche of different influences, and not just in the sense of like he took from other movies or he took from other time periods, but he took from other directors. It’s crazy — it bombed so hard in the box office — I barely got to catch it.”

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DALE SHOEMAKER

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The Pitt News

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Sports

GLORY DAYS Former Panthers Matt Morgan, Rod Rutherford and Walt Harris reflect on playing and coaching against Virginia Tech at the height of the teams’ Big East rivalry | by Steve Rotstein | Sports Editor

Former Pitt wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald hauls in a pass in a 31-28 win over Virginia Tech on Nov. 8, 2003. Courtesy of George Gojkovich/Pitt Athletics

The No. 25 Virginia Tech Hokies are coming to Heinz Field Thursday night for a crucial conference showdown with the Pitt football team –– a visit that has been a death wish for the Hokies in the past.

Tonight’s game will be the 16th meeting between the former Big East and now ACC rivals.

Virginia Tech leads the all-time series, 8-7, but Pitt is 4-0 at Heinz Field and has won two in a row in the matchup.

Last time the schools met in Pittsburgh in 2014, the Panthers won a defensive struggle between two unranked teams, 21-16. But the four games played between the Big East rivals from 2000-2003 hold a special place in Panthers lore.

VT was at the peak of its prowess under head coach Frank Beamer in the early 2000s, yet Pitt won three out of four and nearly swept four in a row. Although the Panthers just missed out on a historic upset in 2000, the game served as a turning point for the program, proving they could compete with any team in the country.

Oct. 28, 2000 — No. 2 Virginia Tech 37, Pitt 34 Coming off an undefeated regular season in 1999 and an appearance in the 2000 BCS National Championship Game, VT was in position for a trip back to the title game with electrifying sophomore quarterback Michael Vick at the helm.

The Panthers weren’t seen as much of a threat coming into raucous Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia. The Hokies were still undefeated in late October and had Vick –– the Heisman Trophy favorite and future No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick –– running the offense.

But Pitt linebacker Brandon Williams laid a brutal hit on Vick late in the first half, putting him out with an injury and nearly knocking the Hokies from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Only Carter Warley’s 27-yard field goal with 16 seconds left allowed VT to escape with a 37-34 win.

See History on page 13

PREDICTION: PITT 38, VIRGINIA TECH 31

Dan Sostek

Senior Staff Writer As a head coach, Pat Narduzzi has never defeated a ranked program. The Pitt football team will have its third chance in two years to change that Thursday night.

Narduzzi’s Panthers host the No. 25 Virginia Tech Hokies at Heinz Field 7 p.m.

Thursday in a battle of two 5-2 teams, effectively putting any chance they have of winning the ACC Coastal Division on the line.

With a chance to move to 3-1 on the season in ACC play, Narduzzi and company are keying in on the Hokies’ mobile quarterback, dealing with up-tempo offense and facing VT defensive coordinator Bud Foster’s patented and ferocious defense.

Edging out Evans

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After a couple years of mediocre signal calling from quarterbacks like Michael Brewer and Brenden Motley, the Hokies once again field a dynamic playmaker under center.

This team’s quarterback, junior Jerod Evans, has been sensational. He’s looked even more impressive than VT’s last dangerous QB, Logan Thomas, who graduated in 2013. Evans has thrown for 19 touchdowns and just two interceptions, while also posting 417 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

Pitt has faced a handful of speedy quarterbacks already — Penn State’s Trace McSorley and Georgia Tech’s Justin Thomas, for instance. But at 6-foot-4 and 236 pounds, Evans is a larger target.

“He’s bigger,” Narduzzi said. “He’s a more physical runner. Saw that last week.

Very efficient with the ball. He’s thrown one or two picks, so he’s not careless with it. He would rather take it down and run, try to gain some yards, instead of throwing to us.”

Pitt linebacker coach Rob Harley discussed how important it is for his unit to maintain its fundamentals against the big and slippery Evans.

“When you get that 11th guy in play, when he’s an athlete, that puts a lot of stress on us as a defense,” Harley said. “On every one of our positions, but especially our front seven, they have to contain him, they have to bottle him up.”

Crowded house Narduzzi wants a packed home field

October 27, 2016

Thursday, and not just for aesthetic’s sake.

He even pseudo-petitioned for students who had class the night of the game, posting a fake excuse note on Twitter, which said students could miss class for the game.

While he might not be able to get people out of that two-and-a-half hour lecture, he did emphasize the importance of having solid support at Heinz Field.

“It should be an electric crowd, you’ve got two 5-2 football teams battling Thursday night,” Narduzzi said. “So, it’s the only show, at least at 7 o’clock. I don’t know if there’s a later game out west, but it’s going to be a big game. It’s huge.”

Perhaps the biggest reason Narduzzi wants a rabid fan base at the game is for See Preview on page 13

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History, pg. 12 Former Pitt offensive lineman Matt Morgan, who started the game as a redshirt freshman, has vivid memories of his first trip to Lane Stadium.

More than anything, Morgan remembers VT’s deafening entrance to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” before the game. He said it was even louder that year because Vick waited until the rest of his teammates took the field before flipping a football and storming out of the tunnel.

“Most teams got intimidated by that stuff, but we just got a rise because we knew for whatever reason, [Pitt head coach] Walt Harris had their number,” Morgan said. “We always played them tougher than anybody did all year.”

Nov. 3, 2001 — Pitt 38, No. 12 Virginia Tech, 7 The next year, a one-loss VT squad came to town still in the national title hunt, but unable to afford another stumble against the lowly Panthers. Meanwhile, Pitt struggled to a 1-5 start, prompting head coach Walt Harris to switch to a new offensive scheme. The move paid off as the Panthers rolled to a 33-7 win over Temple to move to 2-5.

But even with the improved offense, no one could have expected what happened the next

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week at Heinz Field. Pitt outgained the Hokies 393 yards to 151, allowing only 15 rushing yards on 25 attempts while forcing four turnovers in a 38-7 trouncing.

“I remember not even having to play the second half because we were kicking the crap out of them so bad,” Morgan said. “It was like the turning point of our season. We thumped the hell out of them. Everything was clicking.”

Former Pitt quarterback Rod Rutherford was just a backup as a sophomore in 2001 but did attempt two passes in the game. He played a starring role in the next two installments of the series, becoming one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in school history.

Rutherford, who is now a football coach and mentor at the NorthSide Youth Athletic Association, reflected on the shocking beatdown over the cries of his 13-month-old son, Rod Jr. “Our defense played really well, I think they scored their only touchdown off a blocked field goal. Back then, our defense was fairly similar to theirs,” Rutherford said. “I was a young kid trying to find my way, really didn’t play too much that year, but it was cool.”

Find the full story online at

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Preview, pg. 12 strategic purposes.

Virginia Tech runs what the coach says is the highest-tempo offense Pitt has gone up against, and he added that the team will need help from a noisy crowd while on defense to cause communication issues for the Hokies.

“We expect plays to be snapped somewhere between 10 to 15 seconds,” Narduzzi said. “If we get 20 to 25 it will be a difference, a loud crowd can be an effect on Thursday night. It needs to be an effect.”

Tech taught well Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster has been on staff in Blacksburg, Virginia, for three decades, and has run the defense since 1995. His fronts are typically some of the toughest in college football, and this year is no exception. Virginia Tech has the No. 3 scoring defense in the ACC and No. 4 total defense in yards allowed.

“With Bud Foster on defense they have continued to be a dominant defense,” Narduzzi said. “Not only in the ACC, but in the nation with where they’re ranked.”

Narduzzi credits Foster for creating a fi-

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ery but smart mindset for the Hokies unit. “[Foster’s] aggressive. I think that probably most important thing about Bud is he does what he does,” Narduzzi said. “He doesn’t get too fancy ... they’re very consistent with what they do, very disciplined, they play smart, they know how they fit.”

Tech’s defense is led by brothers Tremaine and Terrell Edmunds, sophomore linebacker and safety, respectively. But Narduzzi says the defense is 11-men deep, and might be the best Pitt has faced thus far.

“I made that comment earlier [in the year], I don’t know who it was against,” Narduzzi said. “But every week it seems like you play a good one. But, based on the stats, without a question [Virginia Tech is the best defense we’ve faced].”

PREDICTION: On a neutral field with neutral circumstances, Virginia Tech would likely have an edge. But with Pitt playing at home and coming off a bye, the Panthers hold a distinct advantage. With five extra days to prepare, expect Pitt offensive coordinator Matt Canada to come up with creative offensive packages to attack the Hokies’ stout defense.

Pitt 38, Virginia Tech 31

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The Pitt News SuDoku 10/27/16 courtesy of dailysudoku.com

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October 27, 2016

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