Sure, throw some cold water in my face. Ivan Maisel makes a good point in today’s (Aug 17) “3 point stance,”
All those freshmen who are lighting it up for your team in preseason practice? See if you read their names once classes begin, which is happening as early as this week. Coaches always expect freshmen heads to swim — and performance to suffer — once academics arrive.
This might be where someone like Rashad Jennings might get the advantage over Conredge Collins, LaRod Stephens and Shane Brooks for the starting tailback. He’s been at Pitt taking classes since January.
It’s official. College GameDay is going to be at Pitt for the opening game.
College football’s favorite road show will broadcast from the North Shore beginning at 10:30 a.m. in anticipation of Pitt’s showdown with Notre Dame at Heinz Field that night.
College GameDay features hosts Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso. Additionally, Desmond Howard joins the crew this year as a weekly contributor and analyst. The show runs every Saturday during the season from 10:30 a.m. to noon.
The show last visited Pittsburgh in 2003, when the Panthers defeated Virginia Tech, 31-28.
Details for fans planning on attending this year’s College GameDay broadcast will be forthcoming.
Fire up the VCRs and the TiVOs.
Coach Wannstedt had a press conference after the early practice. Pitt will practice again at 7pm tonight. The night practices will take added importance since 2 of the first 3 games will be under the lights.
He wouldn’t actually say that Bill Stull looks to be ahead of Shane Murray for the backup QB job, but it sure sounds like it in the context of talking about playing freshmen.
On playing freshmen:
I’m nervous about talking about freshmen. It’s like talking about rookies in the NFL. You know you’re going to need them, you know they’re going to have to play for you, but you don’t want to take anything away from the upperclassmen that have paid the price. At this point in camp you want to make sure you give them the first opportunity. I see Tommie Campbell, (John) Pelusi, (LaRod) Stephens, maybe a running back or two. There are probably going to be a half-dozen freshmen. Billy Stull has really made progress every day. I’m really encouraged by where he’s at at this point, so we’re going to have some of the young guys play for us and that’s what’s going to give us a little more depth.
He’s also very happy with how the secondary is looking. On defense, he’s been pleased with the linebackers. The d-line is where he still has concerns.
Apparently Mark May has been preaching the Pitt gospel on ESPN, and someone asked him about it.
On Mark May’s prediction of a fast start for Pitt this year:
[Mark May] is an enthusiastic alum; I love it. It would be nice if he was working for Merrill Lynch and not ESPN, where his comments are heard, but it doesn’t put pressure on us. We’re going to do everything we can to win as many games as we can, but what that number is I have no clue. I think it would be a mistake to look any further than the first one.
Leave the looking ahead to the fans and pundits and pseudo-pundits.
