Joe Starkey is a good columnist, but needs to remember that people read more than the local news.
Are you ready for some spring football?
Me neither. I’d forgotten Pitt even had a football team until Tyler Palko bounced into the room, hat spun backward, playbook in hand, adrenaline visibly coursing through his veins.
Fifteen minutes later, I was ready to charge onto the field and block for the kid.
Either he’s been holding this column for a couple months or he assumes no one has been aware of the fact that he’s been the stringer doing spring football reports on the Big East for ESPN.com since about the end of February.
Maybe I was just being anal, but that opening really distracted me from what was otherwise was a good piece (even if it was slightly derivative of another piece he did this past week for ESPN.com). Anyways, here’s the rest of the new stuff he lets free.
The roster is riddled with question marks, which isn’t exactly what Palko would have hoped heading into his final season.
Not that he’s complaining.
“We would have loved to have everything set up, all the pieces in the right place at the right time and go out contenders for the national championship. But things don’t work out the way you want all the time,” he said. “And who’s to say, at the end of the season, we’re not competing for a big spot?”
You never know. Palko, H.B. Blades and Darrelle Revis give Pitt enough veteran star power to scare people, and the schedule isn’t exactly riddled with national-title contenders. Plus, the final two games are at home against Big East favorites West Virginia and Louisville.
Palko laughed when I asked him to transport himself back to his senior year at West Allegheny.
What was he thinking then?
“In my mind, I’d come in, start four years, win a couple of championships and go to the next level,” he said. “Whether you want to call it a bad arrogant or good, that’s what I was thinking. Ignorant might be the thing, saying nothing bad’s going to happen.”
Bad happened. Good happened, too. Palko injured a hand early in his first year and backed up Rod Rutherford. He redshirted the next year before beating out Luke Getsy. Since then, he has fought through a coaching change and inconsistency with his line, running game and receivers to pass for the fifth-most yards (5,472) in school history.
No matter what, Palko has etched his place in Pitt football lore. Five touchdown passes at Notre Dame will do that for a guy. So will a dramatic, game-winning drive against West Virginia.
Now, he is aiming for a redemptive final season followed by a lot more football.
For Palko to do that, he’ll need a significantly improved offensive line.
It is going to be a long, hard road.
Last season, the offensive line was inexperienced and inconsistent. Only twice did a Panthers running back crack 100 yards in a game. Rutgers held Pitt to minus-11 yards on 25 rushing attempts. Quarterback Tyler Palko was sacked 30 times.
By the end of the season, the line appeared to be playing better. Line coach Paul Dunn said the unit is ahead of where it was this time a year ago.
“I think we’ve taken a giant leap toward understanding the offense a little bit better,” Dunn said. “Last year at this time, we … we just weren’t where we needed to be. Now, it’s a matter of guys competing a lot better and doing the things they need to do to be a winner.”
You mean like, I dunno, blocking? Not being completly overwhelmed and swallowed at the line of scrimmage? Anything like that?
