Moving through things quickly (and cynically) as I actually dared to live in the offline world today.
Conredge Collins is a fullback, but still hopes to be a tailback. Nothing new there. Just that he’s more willing to block at this point. Again, nothing new, since he said that last year as well. Does he mean it this time? Was he lying last year?
Scott McKillop is likely the starting MLB this season. He seems to feel a little put upon by the coded language of sports that doesn’t take his athleticism as seriously because he is white. Or something like that. Just a weird piece.
Pitt middle linebacker Scott McKillop knows the words generally used to describe him as a football player paint him as gritty and smart, a hard worker, too. He also knows that such complimentary terms are based, at least in part, on stereotypes related to race and his position.
And while he understands that, he believes people sell his athletic ability short and, because he is one of the best all-around athletes on the Panthers’ football team, that bothers him.
“But I never hear people say I’m fast,” said McKillop, rolling his eyes. “And that’s the kind of stuff I use as inspiration to play faster and better, to show everyone that a stereotype is not always right and to show I can play just as fast as anyone.”
Okay. Fine. Moving on.
Two reports on the scrimmage today. Pittsburgh Sports Report had an account (hat tip to Sara D) and so did Kevin Gorman. The one thing both agreed is that LeSean McCoy looked really good.
Gorman’s post noted that McCoy is a complete master of the cliche.
As electrifying as McCoy was on the field, he remains humble off the field. Kid sounds like he was coached by Crash Davis for interviews.
I noted that habit of McCoy last week.
The PSR report was very hard on the offense, while Gorman seemed a little less harsh. Defense continued to look vastly superior seems to be the ongoing story. Pat Bostick did look good with the 3d team and already it seems that Kevan Smith could be passed by Bostick on the QB depth chart.
Johnny Majors was at the scrimmage and he was impressed by Punter Dave Brytus who finally had a good day at camp.
Punter Dave Brytus atoned for a miserable performance in the first scrimmage with three booming punts and a solid fourth one. Johnny Majors had these reactions to Brytus’s first two punts:
1 – “Good God Almighty, look at that punt!! Who is that kid??â€
2 – “Look at this kick! God Almighty. This is the best punter we’ve had for quite some time.â€
His first kick went just shy of 50 yards and had tremendous hang time. The second had even better hang time and traveled 45 yards. He hit another 42 yards and a fourth 39.
Naturally, Connor Lee completely struggled on field goal kicking to provide the balance.
Yes, I saw the Sports Illustrated bit about the Big East preview and Pitt picked for 6th with a 5-7 (2-5 in conference) record. What’s to say. I think 7-5 is just as possible but 5-7 doesn’t seem particularly absurd either. No Pitt players in the Big East top-10 players from SI, though that may be due to Kinder’s ACL injury.
Meanwhile, Collins has every right to beeyatch because by far he should have been given a better shot at TB. I don’t advocate TB by committee but no way LSH is an every-down back, at least in the conventional sense. If Collins is the tailback in the 4th quarter of the UConn game, getting the extra tough yards when LSH merely bounced backward off the piles, we’d have gone bowling. That’s a sign of this staff’s stubbornness and something that concerns me with McCoy’s playing time (or lack thereof) this season.
