Pitt Panther Prowl

Jamie the Loyal

If Jamie Dixon were a knight, Jamie the Loyal might well be the name he went by.  Andy Katz has a nice article on ESPN.com detailing the loyalty of Dixon to the Pitt program, and giving a significant list of statistical accomplishments that should remind us why we should be so proud of Dixon as our coach.

Of all the reason to like Jamie Dixon, and there are many, it is his loyalty to the University of Pittsburgh and to Pitt fans that have caused me to respect and admire him so much.  Sure he has a great winning percentage, he has had great success in the Big East Tournament, and he runs a squeaky clean program.  And sure there are reasons to criticize him, such as the lack of 5 star recruiting, the inability to make it past the Sweet 16, and the lack of Pitt players in the NBA.

All said in done, the attractive thing about Jamie Dixon is that, in an era where coaches are looking to build a resume to make a jump to a better place, Dixon has shown great commitment and loyalty to Pitt, never giving the impression that he wanted a better job.  And furthermore, never seriously contemplating other jobs, even when he was offered (or at least considered, before shutting them down immediately) some, such as Indiana, that historically would be seen as better programs.

From Katz’s article:

“He is so loyal to us and if there are three to five suitors every year, that would not surprise me at all,” Nordenberg said. “He doesn’t dangle that in front of us and doesn’t advertise it or try to take advantage of it.”

“Every time his name circulates with a job, Jamie shuts things down fast,” said athletic director Steve Pederson, back for his second stint as AD.

And again:

Loyalty at this level, in any sport, is unique. Chasing the big bucks is more the norm, but what has changed over Dixon’s five-year tenure is how much Pitt has become a destination job. No longer is there a reason to run with Pitt arguably one of the premier jobs in the Big East, which makes it one of the top gigs in the country.

We know how unique loyalty is.  It was Dixon’s predecessor, Ben Howland, who jumped at the first opportunity to go to a better school.  That stung most of us.  But Dixon has taken that sting away, and for me anyway, taken away much of the legacy of Ben Howland by forging his own as a rookie head coach.

Rumor after rumor abounds every year that Jamie Dixon is off to somewhere else.  Though there never seems to be so much as an interview.  Supposedly he was going to bolt for the Cal job this year, because everyone knows he is from Cali and can’t wait to go back there; everyone, that is, except for those of us who have listened as he has repeatedly said that Pittsburgh is his and his family’s home, and that he has no intentions of leaving.

I am not naive enough to think that Dixon could never be lured away or will never leave.  There are so many variables that can’t be predicted.  A new AD that he doesn’t get along with; whiny fans who consistently call for him to be fired, despite his continued success; the feeling that he has reached a ceiling at Pitt… who knows.  He may not spend 35 years at Pitt.  But he certainly never gives the impression that he is looking to leave, or even that we should be worried about the next opening that will be dangled in front of his face.

The following quote by Jerry Cochran really puts into perspective how unique Dixon is and how lucky Pitt is to have him:

“He’s not looking for stardom, to increase the size of his bank account. I’m quite pleased to say he’s an exception to the rule.”

If you are a Pitt fan and you don’t think we are lucky to have Jamie Dixon, consider a few things.  Look what Kelvin Sampson did to Indiana.  We could have ended up with a coach like that.  Now, Tom Crean is there, having eight scholarship players from last year either declared for the draft or removed from the team.  And then there is Bob Huggins.  Huggins is a good coach, no doubt.  And if he can stay clear of problems, he will have WVU competing at a high level year in and year out.  But after signing a 10+ year contract extension, all the news is about how it has a clause telling him not to drink and coach.  WVU says that it is standard in all contracts, and that may be.  However, it is being made newsworthy because of the embarrassment Bob Huggins’ drinking brought upon the Cincinnati basketball program.

So many schools sell their souls to win.  They will hire disgraced coaches; recruit players of questionable character (Ralph Willard anyone?); throw as much money as possible to try to lure coaches away from top jobs (Oklahoma St. anyone?); or just have complete jerks (John Calipari?) as coaches (though I guess that isn’t exactly a crime).

Even if Dixon never wins a national championship at Pitt, I am happy to have a coach I can be proud of, running a clean program that I can be proud of, knowing that the coach isn’t looking for the first chance to upgrade to the next best thing to come along.  Jamie the Loyal is a fitting name.  And to him, I pledge my allegiance.

Posted in Basketball, Jamie Dixon | 1 Comment »

Little Big East

There is no doubt that fans of [teams in] every conference believe that their conference is the best. Fans in every conference feel slighted every year when NCAA Tourney brackets come out. Fans are angry when their conference doesn’t have a team that has a shot at a BCS championship, or if their conference didn’t get as many bowl invitations as they “deserve”. And of course, fans in every conference believe that the teams in their conference are far superior to teams in all other conferences, and that the only thing that keeps fans of those other conferences from admitting it is their own blind allegiance to an otherwise inferior league.

Prior to the defections of Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College, the Big East was legitimately a top football conference. It has since come to be [not so] lovingly referred to as the Little East. Like it or not, losing three of the top programs in the league definitely hurts the competition level. At the same time, the Big East did add some teams, and two of those teams (Louisville and South Florida) have turned out to be solid teams. Also, Rutgers’ coach Greg Schiano has turned the Scarlet Knights into a solid team.

The issue is whether or not this is enough for the Big East to maintain respect as a league. I would say that the conference has been hurt by two other factors that, if rectified, would allow them to re-emerge as a solid BCS league. Those two issues are the inconsistency of Pitt, and the total demise of Syracuse. The league needs the core of the original Big East to be strong to maintain the public respectability.

For many in the media and fans of other conferences, no matter how well Louisville and South Florida perform, they won’t bring credibility to the league because they are new, and they don’t fill the shoes of the teams that left. On the other hand, if Pitt could consistently make bowl games, challenge WVU for the league championship, and win 8-9 games; and if Syracuse could return to being at least semi-respectable (making bowls and not being a team that goes on the schedule to ensure a win), the Big East would have a core of solid teams (Pitt, WVU, Syracuse, and Rutgers) who have been in the league for a long time. I truly believe that this would help the league to gain respect tremendously.

Consider that WVU has been ranked in the top 10 the last several seasons, and every year the outcry is that they are too highly ranked because their league is weak. Sure the Hoopies blew a shot at the BCS title by losing to Pitt. But this wasn’t nearly the magnitude loss as USC losing to Stanford. Pitt could be no. 1 and WVU no. 100, or vice-versa, and the Backyard Brawl would be a game where either team could win. That is what rivalries are about. In this case, it wasn’t about WVU choking and proving that the Big East didn’t deserve a shot at the BCS. It was about Pitt stepping up and showing that keeping their rivals from that title shot was important. After the loss, the naysayers immediately began the, “The Little East is a mid-major conference,” complaints. The only time I ever rooted for the Hoopies was when I was watching them THRASH Oklahoma, proving that they [and the Big East] are for real.

But the league can’t survive on WVU and Louisville alone. Pitt looks like they are heading in the right direction. If recruiting translates into actually game success, the Panthers should make the Big East proud. If only Syracuse could come along and do the same thing. The school that produced Marvin Harrison and Donovan McNabb needs to dig deep, for the good of their program, and for the respectability of the league, and return to form.

From Little East to Big East, let’s take a look at the other side of the story. While we have spent the last few years not being able to make a legitimate claim to being the best football league; there is little doubt that the Big East is truly a monster league in basketball. Even before the defections of teams to the ACC this was a truly solid league. The defections helped basketball because we lost perennial bottom feeders [other than BC who was generally solid, but hasn't been much of a threat in the ACC].

With powerhouses such as UConn, Syracuse, [more recently] Pitt, Villanova, and [traditionally] Georgetown, the Big East was always a top basketball league. Adding Louisville and Marquette only improved the league. While other conferences might claim one year or another that they are the best league, the Big East is consistently, year in and year out, the most competitive and difficult league. The Big East Tournament is the mother of all conference tournaments, playing in the Mecca of college basketball, New York City.

Sure, this year many claimed that the Pac-10 was the best. Another year people might claim it is the Big 10 or Big 12. Fans love to jump on the ACC bandwagon, but they only have two consistently good teams: Duke and UNC. A two team league isn’t a powerhouse, even though the top two teams are most definitely powerhouses.

The reality is this: while many in college football claim that WVU or Louisville wouldn’t survive in other “real” conferences, it is certain that no team could plow through the Big East basketball league year in and year out. Duke couldn’t do it. UNC couldn’t do it. UCLA couldn’t do it. Kansas couldn’t do it. These teams might be in the top half of the league; being an 8 seed in the Big East will still get you a workable NCAA tourney seed. But these teams would not dominate the Big East the way they dominate their leagues. UCLA might finish 16-2 one year in the Big East, but it would finish 12-6 another. While that kind of record hurts in another league, it is a reality for teams in the Big East. There are just too many good, competitive teams in the Big East.

Who out there thinks that Memphis would have finished with one regular season loss if they had to play Georgetown, Louisville, WVU, Pitt, Marquette, UConn, and Notre Dame, and some of these teams twice?

I am not going to get into whether the Big East is the “best” league. What I am saying is that it is the most difficult and competitive league in college basketball… every year.

So we are Little Big East fans. We realize that the football conference needs to improve; though we also know that it is a much better football league than many out there give it credit for. We also have the luxury of knowing that we get to watch some of the absolute best basketball every year. The rivalries, the tradition, the competition, and the tournament all make the Big East the premiere hoops league.

I am ok with being the Little Big East.

Posted in Basketball, Big East, Big East Tournament, Football | 5 Comments »

Pitt Tradition

There is something that has been on my mind for a while now and keeps rearing its head in various ways. That issue is whether or not Pitt has a real sports tradition of its own, and if so, what that tradition is. As I see it, most of us as Pitt fans want to believe that Pitt has a solid tradition, but that it is hard to really determine what it is.

The first example of this, and the most widely talked about, is Pitt’s name/symbol and how it has changed over the years. Pitt used to be known as Pitt, and was readily identifiable in its royal blue and yellow/gold uniforms with the Pitt script logo. Over the last 15-20 years, Pitt’s logo has changed several times; our colors have gone to Notre Dame’s colors more than our own Pitt colors; the name was changed from Pitt to Pittsburgh then back to Pitt again; and even in between name/color/logo changes, other aspects of the uniforms have changed. I don’t want to rehash all the discussion about whether or not we should return to the Pitt script or not. I honestly don’t care what our symbol, name, or colors are. What I do care about is that we pick something and stick with it for the long haul. And by the long haul, I mean forever.

Uniforms and logos are the biggest identifiers of a program. How many times in the last 20 years have we seen PSU, tOSU, USC, Michigan, Miami, Florida St., etc. etc. etc. change their uniforms, logos, or names? The answer is that, for the most part, we haven’t seen most major programs change anything like that. The reason being that they have a tradition that has been determined, in most cases, on the football field. Why would USC change their look when you can look at a USC jersey or helmet and immediately know what it stands for? It stands for pride, tradition, and winning.

Schools that change these things all the time are teams that have no identity on the field (or basketball court if it is a basketball school) and believe that marketing will change the reality that there is no sports tradition. It is hard to establish a tradition if the iconography keeps changing so that there is no immediate visual association to that tradition. What is the first thing that you picture in your mind when you think of Pitt? It probably depends on how old you are because of the many changes.

Another aspect of tradition has been displayed in the very lively discussion of Cassin Diggs’ departure from the Pitt basketball team. See Pitt Blather for a sample. This discussion pertains to the issue of tradition because it forces each of us to decide both what we think Pitt sports (in this case basketball) is known for and what it should be known for.

Jamie Dixon is generally believed to be a classy guy. He runs a clean program. We never hear of scandal. He seems to genuinely love his players, the school, and the community. While we all want to win national championships, many of us are happy if we stay competitive, but have a squeaky clean program. We don’t want a ‘win at all costs’ tradition. We are proud that there are established rules and expectations and that our coaches (in football and basketball) follow them.

The Diggs episode forces us to examine that tradition. Does his departure from the team, one which is clear he didn’t want, represent a black eye to that squeaky clean tradition? Is it ok for us to be a school that has high standards for its players (remember the thugs the team had in the 90s), but also does what it needs to do to win games? Is it acceptable to take away a scholarship from a guy who is just taking up space on the team. Does the situation reflect poorly on what we expect from Pitt; or is it time to move a bit more towards a commitment to winning, without losing our soul in the ‘game’ of winning?

If Pitt had an established tradition, this would be a non-issue. No one would question Notre Dame football for getting rid of a player that didn’t live up to their standards. In fact, their coaching carousel reflects the expectation that if you don’t perform, you are gone. The same is true for UNC (just ask Matt Doherty) and KU (Self was very much on the hot seat until this year) basketball. Many have also cited Jim Calhoun’s callousness in running his team and letting players go. He is well known as a hard-nosed coach. He is also well known as a winning coach.

But what is Pitt known for?

We are the school with 9 (supposedly) football national championships, yet we haven’t been relevant nationally since about 1982. Pitt basketball was solid in the 80s, so we pretended we were a hoops school first. But Pitt has no basketball national championships and were barely relevant in the 90s. The Howland/Dixon resurrection of basketball was less of a resurrection than it was a birthing of a tradition that had never existed before.

So who are we? What is our tradition? Much of that has yet to be determined. Right now we are a school whose tradition is having an AD who thinks that marketing strategies will drum up interest and will create a tradition. In that regard, he has spent more time ‘borrowing’ other schools’ traditions in an effort to establish one of our own. We are also a school who has established a tradition of general classiness within its coaching staffs. We are a school who is building a tradition of winning and pride in basketball (but it is a short term tradition that, if things changed next year, would be forgotten nationally within five years). We are a school that is trying to build a new tradition in football that hearkens back to the 70s and early 80s teams that were so successful.

It may be hard to determine exactly what our tradition at Pitt is. Our athletic department hasn’t made it any easier on us with all the changes to our identity. It may also take a while for us to truly redefine our tradition as both basketball and football have undergone, and are still undergoing major changes from what they have been in the past. But there is one tradition that will never change: we are all Panthers, through and through. Whether there are 100,000 of us or only 100, we love Pitt and we want to see it flourish. We have great pride in our University and stick with them through thick and thin. That is a tradition that I hope continues on and can be passed down from generation to generation.

Hail to Pitt!!

Posted in Basketball, Football | 5 Comments »

New Look, Same Attitude

As promised a few weeks ago, Pitt Panther Prowl now has a new Pitt specific theme.  Many thanks to Scott Bannon for designing this for me.

The design may have changed, but the Prowl is still the same great site with the same great (my mom told me it is a great site… she wouldn’t lie right?) opinions and analysis.  Thanks to everyone for your patience as I worked to get a theme for the site that was easier to read than the original theme.

I hope everyone enjoys the new look.

Posted in Off Topic | 6 Comments »

FOOTBALL: SPRING REVIEW; OTHERS

Continuing with our ‘look back’ to the Spring Game” let’s review the rest of the offense (less QBs and RBs) and the defense, and see what surprises happened that we didn’t expect…

None really, except for Elijah Fields being a non-story.

 Thanks - see you next article.

 Wait, I can’t log off without mentioning how our second string kicker was set up for failure on national TV.

Our starting place kicker Conner Lee was 2-for-2 in field goals (35 and 20 yards) and 2-for-2 on point-after kicks. He was 7-for-10 on field goals this spring, but 5-for-5 in game conditions the past two scrimmages (the first scrimmage was a special teams drill).

However Wannstedt, who is coaching the Special Teams this season, put in Dan Hutchins (rsSO) after Lee was pulled. He missed both his attempts, one from 52 and another from 22 (which was partially blocked by Aaron Berry). Wannstedt then put in Lucas Briggs, a walk-on, who then missed a 54-yard attempt.

I love Dave Wannstedt - I really do, and believe that he genuinely cares about his players.  But why in the world would he put these two kickers behind the eight ball like that?  They probably had family and friends there, and may never get a chance to kick on national TV again - and he has them attempting 50+ yard field goals, in the wind, in a kicker’s graveyard.

I’m hoping it was just a failure to notice on his part.

Posted in Dave Wannstedt, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

FOOTBALL: SPRING REVIEW; QB / RB

When The Prowler asked me to contribute to his Pitt Panther Prowl Blog earlier this year I agreed right away. Then, and as I do with every knee jerk decision I make, I had to sit back and think about what I had gotten myself into. “Not a problem” I thought, “I can do this with my eyes closed”. And in truth, some of these articles read like I wrote them that way.

But really, I was at a loss on how to approach doing this as it was mid-March and a long way from the start of the 2008 football season. Fortunately Spring Camp was just beginning so there was some fodder for discussion. The first few posts were outlooks on what I thought we’d see, and should pay attention to, during spring practices. Now that practice is over, and the Spring Game has been played, it would be interesting to take a look back at what was written.

So, let’s see if I knew what I was talking about, and what surprises weren’t on the horizon…

QB COMPARISON

The three major points I felt were most important for the QBs were if Bostick had worked on his throwing motion in addition to losing his excess weight as reported during the off season, whether Stull’s thumb injury had healed, and if Cross could pass as well as we hoped.

Stull’s thumb injury seems to be OK, he has stated he wasn’t going to worry about re-injuring it and his passing during camp was good and accurate. He showed a bit more strength on his passes then he did at this time in 2007 so all in all it appears that that concern has been minimized.

Bostick does look more like a college QB this season. He is leaner and more mobile than last season, has better zip on his passes and seems more in command of his role in the offense. However, the reports of the demise of his windup and hitch were greatly exaggerated as they say…

Cross’ passing started off slowly and for awhile it looked as if he wasn’t cut out to be a competent passer at this level of play. But, as the camp progressed, and Cross became more knowledgeable in, and comfortable with. PITT’s offensive system his passing began to improve. At one point Matt Cavanaugh told Cross that he was “thinking too much” about running the offense and that he should “just go out and have fun”. That seemed to be pretty good advice because by the time the Spring Game rolled around Cross was playing well enough for the fans to start wondering if he might be a viable candidate for the starter’s position. A fun thought, but pretty unrealistic in my opinion unless his passing game improves substantially.

Going into camp the coaching staff had said that the QB position was still wide open. Hmmm, I wonder now if it actually was. If so, it isn’t any longer. Bill Stull performed well and more importantly showed the consistent ability to make good quick decisions under center. Especially in his receiver progressions. This was Wannstedt’s prime concern for the QB position, especially after living through the nightmare of having to field inexperienced players at this position last year. Stull made his case and will be QB1 going into the summer Training Camp.

The second QB position is somewhat up for grabs and the battle for it will be fun to watch. Bostick would, on the face of it, seem to have it well in hand. However, there is a distinct possibility that DW feels comfortable enough with Stull as the starter and Kevan Smith as his short term relief (allowing for Bostick’s return should a long term relief be needed). This would allow PITT to redshirt Pat Bostick and prepare him to be second string next season and for the starter’s role in 2010. That decision is pretty far off, but I feel confident enough to say that we’ll see Bostick and Smith sharing play repetitions equally at the beginning of training camp, with Smith gradually taking more and more to prepare him as the back up going into the first game.

Cross will be getting his time during camp also but it will be as the ‘change of pace’ QB. However, I must say that if his passing keeps improving the way it did during the four weeks of Spring Camp, when he made large strides as he began to feel comfortable in the offense, then we might see a real interesting battle for that #2 spot in August.

OFFENSE - RUNNING BACKS

Prior to camp there was nothing more obvious than this; LeSean McCoy was our starting running back and he wasn’t going to get much work (read: exposure to injury) either during practices or during the Spring Game. He is and he didn’t. Good.

The competition for the second string RB position didn’t seem that important either, not with LaRod Stevens-Howling returning. After all, he ran for almost 900 yards in 2006 and did a fine job as McCoy’s relief last season. That is until Shariff Harris started to carry the football in March. It seemed like every day the beat writers and the coaching staff had something good to say about Harris. It was almost hard to believe that this young guy - a redshirt freshman who was 6′1″ tall and weighted 190 lbs according to PITT’s roster, could be the quick powerful runner everyone was talking about. That is until it was revealed that Harris had gained 35 pounds of muscle after a year of working out with Buddy Morris (PITT’s Strength Coach). It showed. Boy, did it show, especially in the Spring Game. Harris is the real thing and it’s going to be a pleasure to watch him carry the ball in the fall.

Will Harris’ success preclude LSH from being the second string RB? I don’t think so, at least not going into the start of the season. Running Backs at this level, and in the West Coast offense have a multitude of responsibilities; blocking assignments, pass catching out of the backfield, etc…and those aspects of the game are equally as important as rushing the ball. A missed blocking assignment can result in your QB going out for the season - Wannstedt’s second worst fear.

So, I think LSH is pretty secure for now based on his experience in the offense, his skill in rushing and the fact that DW plays upperclassmen as much as possible. But he needs to look over his shoulder because that sound he hears is Shariff Harris gaining on him.

So where does that leave Kevin Collier, our returning third string and very promising running back? Unfortunately, on the outside looking in at this point. It’s tough to battle back from missing a whole season due to an injury and find that you have been replaced on the depth chart, but that might be the case here. There is a lot of time until our opening game, and Collier might do very well until then. But as it stands now he may be the odd man out.

At Fullback we didn’t see any surprises, and the depth chart as it stands is the same as last year; Collins, Brooks and now, Hynoski. Hynoski did some good things during camp and the last scrimmage, but not enough to supplant Shane Brooks as second string going into training camp.

Posted in Bill Stull, Dave Wannstedt, Football, Greg Cross, Henry Hynoski, Kevan Smith, Kevin Collier, LaRod Stevens-Howling, LeSean McCoy, Matt Cavanaugh, Pat Bostick, Shane Brooks, Shariff Harris, Spring Camp | 4 Comments »

PITT FOOTBALL: SPRING GAME RECAP

Pitt had its annual Blue -Gold Game yesterday and with the exception of some strange mysterious scoring system, it was pretty much fun to watch.

As I was driving up from Maryland on Saturday morning - a beautiful day and a lovely drive through the central and western part of Pennsylvania - I was reflecting on what us PITT fans can expect from this sort of preseason scrimmage. My conclusion was not too much actually, but that won’t stop every PITT fan from having an opinion on what they see during the game.

Once I got down to the stadium I had a chance to meet with some new friends I’ve made through the PITT Message Boards and then sitting together, with their families (I went stag), was a real pleasure. Apparently there is a strong movement afoot to raise these young boys and girls up as Panther fans from young age. It reminded me very much of going to Pitt Stadium in the 1960’s to watch the games with my family, except a lot less booze. We all agreed on some subjects, agreed to disagree on others and basically came away somewhat happy about what we saw.

On a side note - I was impressed with the effort Steve Pederson and his staff put into the pregame activities. Walking through the parking lot was almost like game day, groups of fans tailgating and tossing footballs around, lots of laughter and just a good atmosphere. One interesting note about this: while walking through the parking lot I noticed a young man taking gulps of water out of a bottle and spitting it on the tarmac, over and over. I thought that was rude. As I walked by I was just about to say something when he turned and - LUCAS NIX! - I saw my life pass before my eyes. Actually he’s huge, and probably doesn’t know how lucky he is that I was in a good mood right then. So, I asked one of the guys I was with - Seamus Regan, a scrappy Irishman who is a Tae Kwon Do expert (I figured he’d be up for anything) - to go up and “tell that big guy to quit spitting”, but even at six years old Seamus was too smart to fall for it.

Back to football. Basically, we saw just what the coaches wanted us to see. But that’s fine, any live PITT football at this point is welcome. You can talk a subject to death over the off season, but discussing what we actually saw makes it so much more interesting.

The Prowler did a pretty comprehensive article on his impressions of the squad on Saturday - not a bad overview for someone who says he’s not a big football follower…but a good article, to which I’ll disagree on some points.

Regarding the subject most fans are concerned with, especially after the debacle of 2007, the QB play was pretty good all around. Each got some time under center with Stull being pulled early to keep injury free.

To me the key stat that jumped out regarding our QBs on Saturday was Bill Stull hitting six different receivers with his first six passes - you don’t think Cavanaugh was ecstatic about that? Plus Stull had the most intriguing post game quote…:

“My thumb’s not hurting anymore. I’m not going to get injured. I’m done thinking about all that stuff. It’s time to get some work done.”

…and shows that he’s doing just that - thinking about it.

All the QBs showed some good playmaking the other night, but nothing was so dramatic that, again IMO, changed the staff’s minds about the depth chart for training camp….

Stull

Bostick

Smith

Cross

…is what it looks like at this point. Smith will get more repetitions in summer camp due to his probably being the short term backup over the season, Bostick will be readied for a redshirt and Cross will get more opportunity to show what he can accomplish with his arm in the passing game. If Cross makes progress in the cerebral part of the QB position he might slide up to #2 behind Stull. Cross throws better than we were led to believe by the earlier media reports, but there is no way he’s capable of meeting the passing requirements as a QB in our Pro Set right now. And IMO not by September either, so I’ll look at him as out of the starter’s race.

However, I can see Cross coming in for both the Pro Set and the Wildcat as a change up and doing very well, especially if defenses will think he will only run…he was really fun to watch. That’s how I see us going into camp in a few months.

Bostick needs the year to work on being a better QB. He appeared to lock onto his primary receiver and that extended windup is almost as pronounced as last season from what I could see. Other QBs may have some tools which could compensate for that motion, I don’t think Bostick does right now. He looked leaner and moved a bit better, his passes seemed to have a bit more zip then as before, but four months of off season work just isn’t enough to overcome what I think needs to be done with his training. It looks more likely he’ll redshirt and that’s a good thing. A fine tuned Pat Bostick playing QB for us in his junior and senior years might be very productive.

At running back DW started McCoy to whet the fans appetite (and the NFL Channel’s who broadcast the game live) and then pulled him to safeguard our breadwinner from injury. McCoy looked every bit as good in his first and only series as we remember from last season. He made one run where it looked like he made a 90 degree course change with no loss of speed. He is pretty amazing to watch carrying the ball.

Shariff Harris is the rising stud RB and his efforts and production this spring will give Cavanaugh lots to think about over the summer. At first I was prepared to write that he’ll be our #2 RB in 2008, then had to rein my thinking in as I overlooked the fact that, in a west coast offense particularly, a RB has many more responsibilities then just carrying the ball. Blocking, outlet passes, etc…are all part of it. LaRod Stevens-Howling has shown he can handle that part of the game very well, and be productive carrying the ball. However, if the past holds the keys to the future, we’ll see LSH get banged up at some point. If that happens I think Harris comes into play rather then Kevin Collier.

So, this will be an very interesting battle in training camp - and one that might mean more than we realize right now if the unthinkable happens with our starting RB (you know what I mean, I’m not even going to put the words on paper).

Maurice “Mo” Williams played well at WR, caught seven passes, but had a couple missed balls also. Apparently DW wasn’t real happy with Mo’s play and when asked about his good production let it be known that catching the ball was just part of the WR’s job - Williams missed some down-field blocks.

“Dorin Dickerson”. Say it again. “Dorin Dickerson”. Pretty soon we PITT fans are going to have a nickname for him and be wondering why he’s not getting the ball more often. He played very well and showed the hand and body control of a much more experienced WR. He moved well after the catch also. More on him in later articles, but I’ll say right now that even though he’s gotten bigger over the last two years, there is no way is he sporting a tight end’s body. We’ll see him at H-Back and WR in the summer camp. This is good as the last thing we want Cavanaugh to think about is whether or not both Dickerson and Nate Byham play at the same time. Past examples have shown Cav tended to pull Byham on third downs - maybe he won’t be tempted so much this season. Boy, thinking about those two guys in the same offense, along with our other talent, makes thing look pretty bright.

As to the defense. Not much to report as we didn’t see it. Fields didn’t make a big impact, DeCicco did. Greg Williams is as fast as any other PITT defender and Romeus is still very good. The DL didn’t get to play any stunts so we couldn’t gauge how well the O line could handle it.

Really, it was hard to get any feel for the defense when it was so obviously held back from doing anything.

One last note:

I had a chance to spend some time prior to the game with Ron Byham - Nate Byham’s grandfather. It was a real pleasure and I came away from our meeting and conversation not surprised a bit that Nate has turned into the type of young man he is. Ron raised Nate from birth practically, and the pride Ron shows when discussing his grandson is just so evident. Plus, Ron’s a remarkable guy in his own right and I’ll just say it was my pleasure to make his acquaintance.

Posted in Bill Stull, Dave Wannstedt, Dorin DIckerson, Football, Greg Cross, Kevan Smith, Kevin Collier, LaRod Stevens-Howling, LeSean McCoy, Matt Cavanaugh, Mo Williams, Pat Bostick, Shariff Harris, Spring Camp | 7 Comments »

Blue/Gold Game Thoughts

It can be hard to get a good feel for how well people are playing in a scrimmage where the defense isn’t allowed to blitz. Our top two QBs were sacked a total of 5 times, which is somewhat of a concern. That said, I was fairly impressed with Pitt’s offense today. If their defense is really their strong point, and of course taking into account that the defense was playing pretty soft pass coverage and wasn’t blitzing, then based on what the offense did today we should be satisfied that this will be a pretty good team this year.

I am not going to say at this point where Pitt will finish in the Big East or nationally. It would be impossible to determine that from this scrimmage. Without ranking where they will be compared to other teams, I can say that we have reason to be excited about the upcoming football season.

First, Bill Stull looked pretty solid at QB, as did Pat Bostick. I have heard a lot about Bostick’s “big wind up” and I have to say that I only noticed it because I have read so many comments about it. It is true that he takes a half-second longer, maybe, to get the ball out of his hands. I am not sure it is even that much. But I can only imagine it really being a factor if he is under pressure and needs to get the ball away quickly. That said, it is unclear as of yet how well the offensive line will be, so the quarterback could be under pressure a lot.

Other than that observation, Stull and Bostick both seemed confident and accurate. Each of them had trouble with deeper passes. Both threw long balls that should have been caught (Bostick’s for a td). In both cases, though, better passes would have helped the receiver. This is especially true for Stull. His deep pass ended up out of the hands of Oderrick Turner mainly because it was under thrown, which gave the defender time to catch up on the play. This is somewhat of a minor point because it was only one pass for each of them. It is just an observation though.

On the subject of QBs, Kevan Smith and Greg Cross looked fairly good as well. Neither looks like they should be a starter, but they both played well enough that if they had to be in a game, I would have confidence that Pitt could still win. That said, lets hope that Stull and Bostick stay healthy. Smith has a strong arm, threw a TD pass, and was the only QB not sacked today. But his accuracy was a bit questionable. Cross showed that he is a great athlete who can create with his legs, including a 29 yard run when he should have been sacked. Like most running type QBs Cross also showed that he holds on to the ball way too long, mainly because he knows he can create with his legs. If he could learn to get rid of the ball when there is nothing there, he would be much more of a threat.

The running game looked great. Larod Stephens-Howling and Shariff Harris looked solid. They each had big runs and showed that they are starting quality RBs. It is nice to have LeSean McCoy. It is even nicer to have Stephens-Howling and Harris backing him up. Stephens-Howling had a nice run in the first half where he completely changed course and ran the opposite way of the play and just out ran everyone. He is fast. If our o-line holds up, Pitt should have a pretty awesome running attack.

The WRs and TEs looked solid as well, but other than a very nice play by Dorin Dickerson, there wasn’t anything that really jumped out at me. The team is deep with WRs, but I am not sure we currently have an Antonio Bryant or Larry Fitzgerald on the team. Mo Williams looked solid with 7 catches for 107 yards and a TD. Oderrick Turner dropped a pass from Stull that would have probably been a TD if the ball wasn’t under thrown. In Turner’s defense, the ball being under thrown made it a tough catch. At the same time, if you want to be the #1 receiver, you have to make tough catches; and tough catches are what he struggled with last year. Lets hope his hands sure up a little more, or that another #1 receiver emerges.

It is really hard to comment on the defense at all because they weren’t really playing the defense they will during the season. They weren’t blitzing. They were in soft pass coverages. Blitzes, pressure packages, hard hits, laying the wood to the QB… these are the things that cause turnovers. Since they weren’t able to do any of that, we didn’t really get to see what they could do. Also, since they weren’t doing any of that we had a hard time seeing just what the offensive line can do. I am sure we will hear a lot more about both units long before the regular season starts.

One final thought. Connor Lee got to kick two field goals that are basically gimme kicks for him. Between the other two kickers, two of three attempts were 52+ yards. I know they are back ups and it is worth giving them game situation type kicks. But everyone knows that kicking is mental. A kicker can lose a whole season from one bad kick early in the season. I am not sure I would have wanted to put those guys in that situation to have to kick 50+ yarders. Since they won’t be kicking in the regular season, barring injury to Lee, both of those kickers just have to live with missing kicks on national tv.

All in all, I thought the game went well. It was fun to watch. I was a bit disappointed with how empty the stadium looked on tv. Then again, I didn’t go (kind of a long trip from Kansas) so I am part of that problem I guess. The offense showed us some good things and I am excited to see and hear more as we get closer to playing a real game.

One final note; did anyone else get tired of hearing about Pitt beating WVU? On one hand, I can never get tired of it. On the other hand, it came up so many times that it seems like they are trying to convince us that beating WVU turned around an abysmal season and/or that it is the first step to really turning things around. I am thrilled with that win. Now stop telling us about that win, and get ready to beat them again this year.

Posted in Bill Stull, Dorin DIckerson, Football, Greg Cross, Kevan Smith, LaRod Stevens-Howling, LeSean McCoy, Mo Williams, Oderrick Turner, Pat Bostick, Shariff Harris | 5 Comments »