In case you were wondering, Coach Wannstedt used the free weekend to take in some Friday night football on the other corner of the state.
“I knew this would be a dogfight,” said West Scranton’s standout tight end Hubie Graham, who gave University of Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt plenty to marvel at on his visit to Scranton Memorial Stadium.
Hubie Graham is a 4-star TE (possibly DE) recruit.
It always astounds me — and I can’t resist pointing it out — how Paul Rhoads disappears from interviews when the team fails or needs to show-up on defense. Facing Navy’s triple option with a typically fading defense on Wednesday, the Rhoads-man has been no where to be quoted.
Wannstedt said simulating the cut-blocking techniques was half the battle in getting the scout team prepared to run the Midshipmen’s offense — the other tough part is the execution He said Navy is near flawless in running its triple-optionoffense, which will put more pressure on Pitt’s defense.
“We have spent a lot of time teaching the execution part of it,” Wannstedt said. “Because it’s an option team, it’s real critical [for the scout team] to not just run plays but to keep the proper distance between the quarterback and the pitch back and the fullback.”
The staple of the Midshipmen’s offense is the fullback dive, which Wannstedt said Navy will run “30 times in a row” if the Panthers don’t show the ability to stop it. Navy has an excellent fullback in Eric Kettani, who is averaging more than 6 yards per carry (51 carries, 318 yards) but the leading rusher is quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada, who has 418 yards rushing and seven touchdowns.
But Pitt won’t be able to key on either player because the triple-option’s brilliance is that it is able to spread the ball around. The Midshipmen’s statistics prove the point. Navy has five players who have averaged at least 40 yards rushing per game. The Midshipmen average 348 yards on the ground as team — the second-best mark in the NCAA.
So, um, we are relying on a Rhoadsian defense to play disciplined? By far the best thing for Rhoads this season has been the struggles on the offense to take some of the attention away from his side of the ball.
Q: Paul, The O-Line is by far the weakest link on this team due to the lack of depth & injuries. Frankly, I do not see any signs of improvement this year, or even next year. Your thoughts?
Zeise: I just can’t figure out how there can be this many problems with a unit for such an extended period of time and there doesn’t seem to be much that can be done to change it. Otah has played fairly well at left tackle, CJ Davis is steady at left guard, the rest of the line has really been inconsistent – and that is being kind. You’d hope that as Mike McGlynn and Joe Thomas settle back in to their old spots they’d continue to improve and then they’d be able to give the center spot the help that it needs, but I’m starting to think that might be a lot of wishful thinking by the coaching staff at this point. There should be a little more depth next year at some of the spots, but given that they are losing McGlynn and Otah, tackle will be virtually starting over.
And that’s why 2008 is not what anyone can presume.
