I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that Liberty kicked off their season on Thursday. Rashaad Jennings, formerly of Pitt, piled up 160 yards on 25 carries with 2 touchdowns as Liberty cruised 27-0.
Of course, Liberty was playing St. Paul’s College. St. Paul is in Division II athletics. Kind of puts it in a bit of perspective.
And boy there were a bunch today. How about with a national perspective before we get more specific and downright unnerving about the season. I’ll start with this warm fuzzy.
The season’s right around the corner, and as always, it’s gonna be a fun one. A ton of seniors to root on, newcomers to watch, programs on the rise, and a bunch of good stuff to watch out for. So, let’s see who made my lists.
Here are some schools that I wouldn’t want to play over the next four or five seasons …
…
2. Pitt
Dave Wannstedt is bringing in a ton of talent, and Pitt football is gonna get special again real soon. Wannstedt didn’t inherit enough players to pull of a Charlie Weis in his first season, but he still looks like the “next Pete Carroll” to me. Sure, Pitt was only 5-6 last year, but remember, Carroll was only 6-6 in his first season at USC. The second year, USC made a big jump, thanks to a talented senior quarterback who finally developed into the talent we all thought he would. And, playing the role of Carson Palmer this season will be Tyler Palko.
That may be a little too optimistic. Not to mention, making me think he just purposefully jinxed Pitt.
Both the P-G and the Trib were doing more season preview stuff today. That required lists. While Zeise specifically singled out Palko as needing a big year for Pitt to do well. The Trib listed 5 players who Pitt needed to have good years, along with the reason why. I’m just going to list them.
The UVa game tomorrow headed the list of key games for Pitt this year. Followed somewhat surprisingly by Cinci and Rutgers. There is some logic.
The piece closed with 5 big questions.
1. With four starters returning, can the offensive line open holes for the rushing game and protect the quarterback?
2. After having someone lead the Big East in receiving yardage eight times in the past nine years, can the Panthers find a playmaker to spark their passing game?
3. Has the defensive line matured enough to improve a run defense that ranked seventh out of eight teams in the Big East?
4. How will Pitt’s place kicker, who has never played in a college football game, handle pressure situations?
5. With so many newcomers on the two-deep, can the Panthers withstand injuries to any starters?
The P-G lists and explains the 5 keys for Pitt. Guess what they are.
1. The offensive line can’t be offensive
2. The defensive line must show up
3. Adventures in kicking
4. Somebody had better make some plays
5. Many of the Panthers’ problems last year were intangible
There aren’t any surprises really as to the questions about Pitt. We’re all just waiting to learn the answers.
Herb Pope, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 2005-06 Basketball Player of the Year, has left Aliquippa and will attend Arlington Country Day in Jacksonville, Fla.
“He’s transferred there,” said Art Alvarez, coach of the Miami Tropics Junior AAU team.
…
This will be Pope’s fifth school in three different states in the past five years.
If the AAU coach down there is confirming it, then it’s a safe bet that Pope seems to have severed ties with Stright after being sent home from the summer tournament after fighting. Apparently he doesn’t want to hear anything bad or bear any responsibilities.
As Keith said, I don’t want Pope in or near the Pitt program. His talent appears unquestioned, but his ego and maturity unfortunately are also unquestioned — one is way too big and the other appears non-existent. Whatever program (if any) he ends up playing for will appear good on paper but will be one of those colossal disappointments because there is no real team.
There’s the obligatory Groh and Wannstedt crossing paths stuff.
Wannstedt and Cavaliers head coach Al Groh have a tendency to find each other on the schedule.
Their careers have crossed paths almost every step of the way in the last 17 years, first with the Cowboys and Giants in the NFC East, later in the AFC East with the Dolphins and Jets and now in the college ranks.
“It seems like we’ve ended up in the same conference a lot,” said Groh, who has gotten the better of Wannstedt in their only two meetings as head coaches, both in 2000.
It’s more than that, though. Their coaching careers are near facsimiles. Both latched on to a successful head coach early in their careers (Wannstedt to Jimmy Johnson; Groh to Bill Parcells). Both are defensive specialists who eventually got NFL head jobs. And both opted to go back to their respective alma maters.
So both know what to expect from their coaching counterpart this weekend.
Like Groh and his affinity for the 3-4 defense and tall, lean, athletic types who fit in well at either linebacker or tight end, Wannstedt has his preferences.
Groh and his players had praise for Tyler Palko.
“[Palko] has a really good arm,†said UVa outside linebacker Clint Sintim. “He takes chances with the ball and he throws them in tight coverages, and he makes them look easy.
“He puts it right in there and his receivers make catches on it. He is a good quarterback and he is elusive.â€
Palko, a junior, enters his third season as the starting quarterback and already ranks fifth all-time at Pitt with 5,472 passing yards. Earlier this week, Palko was one of 34 players to be named to the “watch list†for the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award.
Sintim said he has been thinking for months about sacking Palko and other quarterbacks who lie ahead on the Cavaliers’ schedule. That’s only natural.
“His receivers make catches?” They must have skipped the tape featuring Greg Lee and Erik Gill.
Both teams start a 5th year QB. Here, though, Pitt should have an advantage as Palko in that Virginia’s Christian Olsen has never started a game in college.
Olsen is a 23-year-old fifth-year senior, and he’ll start his first college game at 7 p.m. Saturday, when Virginia plays at Pittsburgh. He inherits from Hagans an offense that lost its starting running back and three starting offensive lineman. Olsen also will miss Deyon Williams, because the Cavaliers’ leading wide receiver from last season is out indefinitely with a stress fracture in his right foot.
All that uncertainty, and Olsen’s the focus of it. All these years of waiting, and still no answers.
“All the questions about Chris, any answers that I give … it’s just so much b.s.,” Virginia coach Al Groh said. “There are no answers that count about Chris other than what happens on the field.
“This is his chance. It’s now or it’s never gonna happen.”
Olsen came to UVa after transferring out of Notre Dame. I love this, in large part because the social scene sucked.
“It was a little uptight,” he said. “It was cold, it was gray, it was gloomy.”
Said McCabe, Virginia’s No. 2 quarterback: “He said the girls are walking around in sweatpants all day.”
An area of potential strength for Virginia is its secondary. Apparently this had been a weakness before.
When Virginia travels to Pittsburgh today for Saturday night’s season opener at Heinz Field, the Cavs’ secondary will be armed and dangerous. New secondary coach Steve Bernstein probably hasn’t had as many talented defensive backs to work with at one time in his 37 years in the business.
Not only does Virginia return All-America candidate Marcus Hamilton at one starting cornerback spot, the walk-on Byron Glaspy (who started at safety), the soccer player Ryan Best (who played in every game, mostly in the nickel and dime packages), and Mike Brown (who gained valuable game experience as a true freshman), but there’s a plethora of other talented players that potentially makes the Cavalier secondary one of the deepest in the country.
Hamilton is a player Coach Wannstedt and Pitt players have singled out as deserving praise.
Hamilton’s 10 career interceptions ranks third in the nation among active players. He had six last season, when he was named second-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference.
“A lot of his interceptions come from being aggressive, but he’s a playmaker, and you have to know where he’s going to be at all times,” Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko said. “He does it all. He can cover and he can be physical and he’s not afraid to stick his nose in there and stop the run.”
True, the 5-foot-11, 198-pound Hamilton has been known to blitz the quarterback, and is averaging 47 tackles the past three seasons, and 58.5 the past two years. Hamilton is an All-American candidate and an NFL prospect.
“He’s a big-time player. I’m sure if you would talk to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles or Washington Redskins, he would be a guy that would be listed as a potential pro prospect,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “He’s a guy you better be aware of at all times because he can turn a game around in a hurry.”
Hamilton will almost assuredly be trying to lock up Derek Kinder. Both teams seem to have defenses where the strength right now is in the secondary. God help us, it may actually come down to the running game.
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