There are 13 seniors on the Pitt roster. Their last home game. Time to show some more love to these players. Guys like Malcolm Postell and Ty Gilliard who committed to the school before Heinz Field, and after the end of Pitt Stadium.
Justin Belarski, Princell Brockenbrough, Vince Crochunis, Tuazama Edwards, Rob Frederick, J.B. Gibboney, Ty Gilliard, Keith Hill, Jake Holthaus, Matt Maiers, Rob Petitti, Malcolm Postell and Dan Stephens make their farewell tour at home tomorrow night in the Backyard Brawl.
Pitt has one more regular-season game after this one, vs. South Florida on Dec. 4 in Tampa.
It could be argued that this group of seniors is part of one of the more significant turnarounds in college football – on and off the field. The Panthers now practice at a state-of-the-art facility on the South Side (which opened in 2000) and play at an NFL venue in Heinz Field (which opened in 2001).
Their record in the past four-plus years is 37-22 (.627 winning percentage) and they’re on the verge of a fifth consecutive bowl bid. West Virginia, the school’s heated rival, stands in their way.
“Beating them would be icing on the cake,” Gilliard said.
All nine scholarship players are on target to graduate, including three (center Belarski and Academic All-American defensive tackles Crochunis and Stephens) who are already in grad school.
Much like when an officiating crew is calling a good game you tend to forget, one of the things to give credit to Coach Walt Harris is that the Pitt football program is clean and graduating players.
Senior Defensive Tackle Dan Stephens gets his own story.
The alarm clock in Dan Stephens’ apartment goes off at 3 a.m. every day. He promptly gets out of bed, pricks his finger and checks to make sure his blood sugar is at the proper level.
If it is not …
“I take a shot of insulin,” said Stephens, a senior defensive tackle at Pitt who must then submerge a needle into his abdomen.
Stephens follows the same procedure three hours later. And, he continues the process throughout the day, as many as 18 more times.
He must shoot his stomach with insulin each time he sits down to eat.
“That’s life as I know it,” Stephens said.
This is what it is like to be a Type 1 diabetic, which is the most severe form of juvenile diabetes. If Stephens does not do these things, he will die.
Damn.
As for the actual game, WVU’s focus has been on getting their special teams in order and stopping Tyler Palko. They also need to get another wide receiver ready to play.
The Backyard Brawl, at least from West Virginia’s side of the tussle, could turn on the performance of a backup quarterback who has never taken a snap at the position.
No, Rasheed Marshall isn’t hurt. Neither is Charles Hales, who’s the Mountaineers’ true backup at quarterback. For that matter, Adam Bednarik, who’s probably West Virginia’s third quarterback, is quite healthy, too.
We’re talking here about Dwayne Thompson, a redshirt freshman quarterback who this week became a starting wide receiver.
Thompson, 6 feet 2, 195, will succeed the suspended Chris Henry at a wideout spot for the Mountaineers tomorrow night at Heinz Field.
From a storybook perspective, this has all the makings of a big game for WVU. Just starts making me nervous.
Coach Harris thinks that the key to the Mountaineers winning the last two Brawls has been the Hoopie defense.
The Mountaineers’ defense has given many teams fits the past few years, but few more than the Panthers. West Virginia operates out of a rare 3-5-3 (three down linemen, five linebackers, three defensive backs) base alignment.
It is the only time this season Pitt will face the alignment, therefore the Panthers haven’t had a lot of opportunity to practice against it.
Harris said it has helped to have had a couple of extra days to prepare (Pitt was off Saturday) but that the defense requires a lot of patience to beat.
On some plays, the five linebackers act like down linemen or linebackers. On other plays, they act like safeties. The end result is that there could be seven or eight guys rushing the passer or seven or eight dropping into coverage on any given play.
This means that the defense is always trying to disguise what it is doing. In a way, it is a defensive equivalent to the spread offense WVU runs that tries to keep defenses off guard with quick alignments and play calling.
Wish I could be there on Thursday night.
