Plenty of individual pieces, but first the news. Sam Bryant did not just injure his ankle on Thursday. He broke it.
Bryant, a redshirt junior, was favored to win the starting job at strong safety. His left ankle was broken in practice Thursday. Yesterday Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt confirmed that surgery will be needed.
“He will at some point need surgery,” Wannstedt said. “The extent of the injury, the timetable, I would just as soon not get into that, but I will say he’s expected to be back at full strength when we start training camp. So, that’s the good of a bad situation.
Ankle injuries. Never good. I think they may be overly optimistic to think he could be ready for training camp in August. Nevermind, full strength.
Marcus Furman has a sprained ankle. Having to miss spring practice cannot be helping his chances of winning the starting tailback job.
Practice today is also “Junior Day.” It is expected 30-35 high school juniors, primarily from the area, will be attending the practice and be schmoozed by the coaching staff.
Now for the individual players.
A short piece on Joe DelSardo having to re-prove himself to a new coaching staff and keep his starting job now that Terrell Allen is healthy. DelSardo is a precise pattern runner with sure hands. Allen has speed and size. Given Wannstedt’s preference for speed, DelSardo is likely going to end up as the third wide receiver.
Steve Dell, one of Pitt’s 2005 recruits graduated high school early, already is enrolled at Pitt and is participating in Spring Practice. He gets the puff piece. Personally, I think he was nuts to leave Fort Lauderdale to start taking classes at Pitt in January. (Did I mention that it is snowing right now in Cleveland?) There are certain things you should just enjoy longer.
H.B. Blades gets a couple of pieces. He is a popular player subject because he was Pitt’s best defensive player last year and the built in storyline/connection with Dave Wannstedt. Trust me, by the time that first game rolls around, we are all going to be sick of reading some mention that Blades’ father and uncle played for Wannstedt when he was the defensive coordinator at Miami.
