All the talk about running the ball, and no one seems to be asking the best receiver in the Big East what he thinks.
In fact, Greg Lee believes he can improve upon his outstanding sophomore season.
“I won’t know until the season starts,” Lee said. “But I don’t think our new offense will hurt me personally.”
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“If anything, it’ll probably help us, because teams will not be looking for us to throw as much,” he said. “They’ll probably keep a lot of people in the box, which, with time, will probably benefit me by not having a lot of people in the secondary to beat.”
Pitt’s first unit did not attempt a single long pass in a full-contact scrimmage Sunday. Lee and Wannstedt said it was partially because the offensive line still is rounding into shape.
“Going deep will be the easy part for us,” Wannstedt said. “We have to be able to run the ball well enough to set up some of those deep passes. That’ll be the trick.”
As I keep saying throughout the season of spring practice, it’s not like any of the coaches or players are going to say anything negative. This is all new.
As long as Wannstedt and Cavanaugh don’t forget about all of the talent and potency in the passing game (and I don’t see how they can), they will just be looking to find balance on the offense.
Speaking of the running game, the youngsters were getting their turns in the contact scrimmage yesterday. Both Ray Kirkley and Tim Murphy sat out the practice with minor injuries. As did Tight End Eric Gill. Apparently they did quite well.
The biggest development, however, was the continued emergence of freshman tailback Rashad Jennings, who had another excellent outing. Jennings (6 feet 1, 240 pounds) is a big, physical back who breaks tackles and gains yards even after he has been hit.
“For getting here and just learning everything new, what Rashad Jennings is doing is very encouraging,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “If we had to play [a game] today, boy, he’s been as productive as any running back that we’ve had the entire spring.”
Jennings carried the ball 14 times for 79 yards, which was more yards than all of the other tailbacks combined. Jennings, along with sophomore Brandon Mason, played the majority of the snaps at tailback yesterday because senior Ray Kirkley was knocked out with a rib injury on the third play.
Jennings enrolled at Pitt in January. In case you were wondering how a non-redshirt freshman was taking part in spring practice.
Mason, who was the star of the first scrimmage, continues to impress Wannstedt with his ability to make defenders miss him but caught some heat for dropping the ball a few times.
“He has the most elusiveness of any back we have,” Wannstedt said, “but he had a couple of balls on the ground today. We have to make sure we’re securing the football with him.”
Mason ran the ball 11 times for 28 yards. Zeise’s notebook indicates that the defense seemed to slightly outplay the offense.
Coach Wannstedt, though seems to disagree.
Coach Dave Wannstedt wasn’t overly impressed with his defense during yesterday’s scrimmage.
“Nobody really rose up and came up with the big turnovers,” he said. “We’ll continue to work on that.”
It is also noted that Kicker David Abdul was back and kicking. I don’t see how Cummings loses the job, but Abdul will still have 2 years of eligibility left after this season. Hopefully he will be fully recovered physically and mentally to get back to the place he was as a freshman.
Another player earning praise was Defensive End Chris McKillop.
Wannstedt, unsolicited, brought up McKillop by name.
“I’ll tell you, the one guy that I should mention, because he really deserves it, is Chris McKillop,” Wannstedt said. “He’s in the hunt for a starting position. Nobody plays any harder. I think he’s found a home at defensive end. He’s really come on the past week, and you can see him getting better every day.”
Coach Greg Gattuso gets a puff piece from the Harrisburg paper that decidedly caters to a Penn State crowd.
For those who have known Greg Gattuso the past two-plus decades, he probably looks out of place dressed in blue and gold sweats and a cap from the University of Pittsburgh.
And in a blast from the past, an alumni sighting in the Arena Football League. QB John Turman is with the Green Bay Blizzard.
