Key time for Butler football
The next two games on the Butler football schedule mean quite a bit to the Golden Tornado.
One for the present, the other for the future.
Butler hosted Erie on Friday night at Art Bernardi Stadium. A win would guarantee the Tornado a District 10 6A playoff berth for the third successive season. It would also be the program’s final District 10 playoff appearance as Butler football returns to the WPIAL next year.
That’s what makes next Friday’s game against Seneca Valley at NexTier Stadium so important.
The Butler Eagle Traveling Trophy is presented annually to the winner of the Butler-Seneca Valley game. The Raiders have won that trophy the last 14 times the teams have met.
The Raiders went into Friday night's home game against Mt. Lebanon winless on the year. Their record going into the Butler game will be of little consequence to the Tornado.
Butler is hungry for a win over a big-school WPIAL opponent to give the program a bit of a boost leading into its return to the league in 2024.
This column was written prior to the Erie-Butler game. A win over the Royals would certainly be big.
A win over the Raiders next week — especially on the road — would be even bigger.
If a football team goes as its quarterback goes, the Steelers and Pitt don’t appear to be going very far.
The past two weeks, Steelers QB Kenny Pickett and Pitt quarterback Phil Jurkovec — a Pine-Richand graduate — have been ineffective, to put it mildly. Panther fans are already screaming for Jurkovec to be benched.
If Pickett’s play doesn’t pick up, can calls for his removal from the starting lineup be far behind (regardless of the venom being spewed in Matt Canada’s direction)?
Both of these teams have high aspirations for the season. The Panthers want to approach eight wins and go to a solid bowl game. The Steelers believe they can get to the NFL playoffs and be a tough out from there.
Without major improvement at quarterback, neither of these teams’ hopes will come close to becoming reality.
The feeling here is to give both of these guys this weekend to see if their play spikes up. If it doesn’t happen, both should sit the following week.
This isn’t to suggest they sit for the entire season. Sometimes a player needs to take a step back and recharge. Hopefully, Jurkovec and Pickett aren’t at that point.
But if they are, neither team should be hesitant to temporarily pull the plug.
John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle
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