The Pitt coaches are feeling good about the linebacking corp.
Pitt linebackers coach Curtis Bray believes he has five players who are worthy of working with the first team.
“The tough thing for me is, we can only start three,” Bray said Tuesday.
H.B. Blades, who some rate as the best ‘backer in the Big East, is a fixture in the middle of the Panthers’ 4-3 scheme. J.J. Horne and Brian Bennett play on the weak side. Clint Session and Derron Thomas are on the strong side.
…
“J.J. Horne and Clint Session, in my mind, are both starters,” coach Dave Wannstedt said. “We’re going to rotate those guys around a bit more. Blades will be the only one that doesn’t move.
The real good news for those of us who agonized over Pitt’s tackling last year, Clint Session seems to have finally understood something.
Last season, Session showed he has a nose for the ball. The trouble is, he didn’t always execute once he got to the ballcarrier.
“It’s true,” Session said. “I missed a lot of tackles.”
Session started every game at strong-side ‘backer, and finished with 91 hits.
“I came in second on the team,” Session said. “I could have been first if I had made those tackles. Coach Bray and (defensive coordinator Paul) Rhodes have been drumming that into my head. I use it as motivation.”
Session is among the two or three hardest hitters on the team. He thrives on it. Yet, his desire to rattle somebody else’s teeth sometimes gets in the way of his fundamentals.
That was a problem for most of the d-line last year. All too often they would get to the runner, but rather than wrap him up, they would just hit — and miss or glance off.
The strong linebackers theme is repeated but with the idea of this group trying to leave their mark like the group from 2002.
The core members of that group — Bennett, juniors H.B. Blades and Clint Session and senior J.J. Horne — are all grown up now and poised to help the Panthers’ defense rise to the top again.
“The year before [in 2002] the defense was outstanding and that was a lot because there was a group of linebackers led by Gerald Hayes and Brian Beinecke,” Bennett said. “Those guys all played young as well, but they grew up together and, by then, they were mature and experienced and really dominated teams every week. It all came together for them and we’d like to be the same kind of unit.
“H.B., Clint and J.J. and me — we want to leave our mark like that 2002 group did.”
So far, the freshmen are getting plenty of ink pixels and climbing the depth charts. Speed and the best players are definitely ruling. Freshman CB Tommie Campbell is the latest, to rise to second team and will be getting in on special teams.
Freshman WR Oderick Turner is still getting positive reviews. Right now in the battle for back-up QB Bill Stull is working with the second team and Shane Murray with the third. Coach Wannstedt, however, says that they are “interchangeable” at this point so don’t read anything into that.
John Simonitis, the starting Right Guard is back from a hamstring injury.
