Things that I just haven’t gotten around to linking or posting.
Bruce Feldman at ESPN.com lists 10 teams he expects to take a big step forward in wins.
2: Pittsburgh
All hail the ‘stache! The Panthers emerged from a four-game losing skid to upset No. 23 Cincinnati and finished off the season by wrecking the title hopes of West Virginia in Morgantown. Pitt will return many of the leaders of the nation’s No. 7 defense as well as one of the country’s top young running backs in LeSean McCoy. They also hope to get back smooth WR Derek Kinder, an All-Big East pick in 2006, who underwent season-ending knee surgery during training camp. QB Bill Stull, another former starter, also will return from injury, and he will try and beat out Pat Bostick, the talented true freshman who finished the season as Pitt’s starter. DT Gus Mustakas, a rugged inside presence, missed the final 10 games of the season after knee surgery and also should be back, as will tackle machine Scott McKillop. I think the Panthers’ patience with Dave Wannstedt will pay off with a return to the Top 25 next season and maybe even a Big East title.
A few individual honors. The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) — which is essentially the Eastern schools from UConn, BC, Syracuse, PSU, UVa, WVU and such — named LeSean McCoy the rookie of the year (PDF). In addition to McCoy also being named to the all-star team, Jeff Otah, Greg Romeus and Scott McKillop were also named to the squad.
Romeus and McCoy were also honored by being named to the Football Writers Association of America All-Freshman team.
A couple days ago, I noticed a slew of hits from a premium WVU message board. Oddly enough, they concerned a post that had nothing to do with them and was 18 months ago. The issue was Charlie Taaffee who served as a Pitt assistant in 2006. Taaffe left to go back to being a head coach in the CFL. He had a disasterous first year back, but there was nothing to suggest he was leaving. He had even hired some new assistants.
Turns out he was big in the rumor mill to be hired as offensive coordinator at WVU. Those reports later turned out to be false and recanted.
Therefore, if the reports are credible, recently fired O-line Coach Paul Dunn is now a candidate for the job in Morgantown.
Here are the stats for the season for three highly touted true FR QB’s:
C-A-I PCT YDS TD
Clausen 138-245-6 56.3 1254 6
Mallet 61-141-5 43.3 892 7
Bostick 155-252-13 61.5 1500 8
I’m am going to go out on a limb here and say that the both Clausen and Mallet had more talent to work with at the WR position. True FR QB’s just done leave their HS fields and take over on a D1 FB field. It’s clear to me that Bostick played similar to two other highly touted FR QB’s. All appear to have bright futures. With the offense that we run, Bostick has the potential to be a great QB some day. Give the guy a break. He was thrown into a situation that he was not ready for. That does not mean that he lacks talent. He needs conditioning and experience and then he will be a great college QB in our system.
The stats of Mallet/Clausen compared to Pat speak for themselves!
I’m not a trainer so I have no idea how the hell he’s going to have him do it, but at least a plan is in place and Pat will come back much better in 2008 than he started in 2007.
Wanny went out and loaded up at the QB position this year. Bostick will redshirt and so will Sunseri but in two years Bostick will be lucky to be 3rd on the depth chart in 2009. The JC kid Cross and Stull will be fighting it out for the starting position next year and Sunseri is a winner, this kid can move around and he is a very accurate passer.
Bostick better shed about 25 pounds and improve his mobility, release and arm strength. He was very over-rated coming out of high school, its not impossible for Bostick but he has a very long way to go.
The guy has his work cut out for him. Let’s just leave it at that.
Your making an assumption that Stull is better than Bostick. We haven’t seen Stull play. He was average during camp and Coach W had to defend him by saying that he’s the type of player who shows up at gametime. Sounds great BUT, he has never played in a game minus a few plays at mop up duty. Do we really want to have another season starting a QB whose experience is only as a high school QB?
Stull played in 2007…
I know it wasn’t a complete game because of the injury, but he did start a game and played pretty well for most of it.
As I recall the biggest criticism is that he had too much loft on his passes. In any case, we were better off before Stull got hurt… at least he could use the whole playbook.
Some fans are indulging in revisionist history with regards to Bostick’s efficiency at QB, throw out the stats and comparisons to the other two freshman – they mean nothing, and are cherry picking the IMPACT Bostick had on the offense. It wasn’t positive, and there are reasons for that. Starting with whatever he went through that compelled him to miss camp last summer. Bouncing back from that is a real feather in his cap IMO.
But, I look at his experience and see someone that was, yes, thrust into a situation neither he nor the team were ready for. And, I’ll give him all the credit he deserves for keeping his head up and gutting it out. But the negative aspects of his play outweighed any benefit he brought to the the field of play. He was truly inconsistent in his passing, inept in his overall command of the team (shaky drop backs and handoffs) and wasn’t someone Cav who could put a full offensive game plan into his hands – he just wasn’t. And you know that had to infect the attitude of the rest of the kids on the field when they knew we were severely limited in our approach (Run, Shady, Run!). It was painfully obvious also that his self confidence wasn’t where a college QB’s needs to be. He never really progressed with playing experience last season, and the shakiness he exhibited in his first game was at about the same level in his last. Look at how he reacted at the first blush of defensive pressure on the pocket, tucked the ball down, dropped his eyes and lost all chance at a completion. It is tough for a true freshman to handle these things – and he played just like a true freshman.
Some fans point to his good completion rate – which is misleading in the extreme – his standard pass was between behind the line of scrimmage to 7 yards out. Had he been called on to throw 15-25 yard passes his stats would have gone straight into the dumper. And Maz, using the excuse of being behind and having to pass is laughable, as it was Bostick throwing pick 6s & interceptions that gave the opponent points and great field positions.
All that said, and it does sounds terrible, I do think he should be able to put last season behind him. Remember, not only did he get valuable playing experience under his belt, he’s also growing a year older and more mature. In a real sense he should be saying to himself “It can only get better, right?” He exhibited flashes of some very good play at times last year, and the staff should concentrate on that. But, what he really needs is to have some time to buckle down and work at getting better and getting ready to compete for the starting job again – and to have explained to him that IF he is redshirted its not a punishment, but an investment in his, and PITT’s, future.
Pryor to visit PSucks. Pitt mentioned as possibility should he get to play basketball as well as football. MI listed as most likely due to DickRod, big surprise there. All this form the “Pryor Diary”!! This kid has got the ego of TO.
And i think 100% of Bostick’s problems are in his head. You can go look at his passing from highschool (look at the throws, how he threw the ball) and now he can’t complete a WR screen pass without bouncing it in the dirt? You see flashes of what he can do in games…and then at other points you see flashes of the problems between his ears…Pat Bostick is like a box of chocolates….
And what happened between June 5th and the last couple weeks of training camp?
Excluding the Virginia and UConn game I think the entire team put forth a great effort to post a few wins and keep the games very close and competitive, Bostick tried his best but it was evident he did not have the talent to compete as a true freshman right out of high school.
It was clear that the coaching staff had little confidence in Bostick because the play book was really condensed and when Bostick had the opportunity to “shine” he usually threw a game changing interception. The coaching staff saw this and most of us openly stated the offense was very conservative because of Bostick’s short-comings.
Bostick has to really focus and really change his physcial make up, mentally? who knows!
I wish him the best of luck but unless he dramatically improves his “game” there is a good chance he will never start another game at Pitt.
You must agree that DW has addressed the QB situation with the infux of talent this year. Stull is a question mark but he did win the nod in 2007, i agree he does put a bit of too much air under his long passes but other than that he does have good arm strength and is accurate.
My guess is they play a two qb system (wildcat and pro set) to keep opposing defenses off balance and utilize their best offensive weapons.
Regarding Pryor, no way he is coming to Pitt, and yes I must agree he is a head case, but he is a great talent, excluding injury he should have a great college career. Expect him to turn up in the big-10 and exclude State Penn.
I’m excited about next year and can’t wait for spring practice.
I don’t disagree with anything you say. I am just tired of people writing people off. I am old enough to remember people in this town calling Clemente a bum, Franco a chicken because he ran out of bounds, and Bradshaw too stupid to play.
I think Pitt fans should be thanking Bostick for coming to Pitt and remember he was the last option this year and did pretty well,all things considered.
DW improved the depth at quarterback so that we don’t get down to our last option again. I am rooting for Bostick to win the starting job, unless a miracle happens and Pryor wants to join Shady in the backfield.
Thanks for the Stull stats. I wanted to look them up.
GC,
Got to disagree on the Bostick winning the big game at WVU. We won despite a very poor performance by Bostick.
Unfortunately, his best wasn’t nearly good enough last season, but sadly it was also the best PITT had to put in the game.
To say that Bostick is a “winner” is spinning a phrase out of thin air with nothing to back it up. He did nothing to WIN games by himself, however he did just enough not to lose some. But, an objective PITT fan would have to say that our wins came on the shoulders of McCoy and our defense’s efforts. When a QB goes out and doesn’t have a terrible day and the team happens to win – it does not constitute that game being ‘won’ by the QB. This isn’t MLB where a pitcher gets awarded a won or loss.
And, I understand your frustration at fans writing him off – I dislike that “be a star right away or you stink” mentality also. I think he can be a fine player if things go his way, and that starts with the coaching staff, his parents and himself being brutally honest with what transpired last season. Then he can put his shoulder to the grindstone and get to work on being a better QB and trying to win back the starting job.
I said “win back” because DW’s actions over the last month have shown clearly that he lacks confidence in Pat Bostick’s ability to lead this team at this time. I think Pat can bounce back, and I hope he does.
One last point – should things not go as Bostick would like, and he gets passed on the depth chart, I will always appreciate Bostick signing on with PITT, the position he was put in and how well he tried to do his best.
I would only add that two of PB’s physical limitations (lack of mobility and arm strength) were exposed when he competed at the college level.
I think PB will mature and be a very intelligent and cerebral QB, but there is little that can be done to fundamentally change his physical make up.
I did not say that Bostick won the game on his own. Sometimes a qb just has to play well enough to win. Remember Ben’s superbowl performance. Also, Morelli never beat Michigan. (I put that in just for fun)
Bostick is not going to be the next Dan Marino, he doesn’t have to be as long as Shady stays healthy.
Unless the JV transfer is the real thing, it’s Bostick’s job to win or lose. Sure, Stull looked great against a cupcake and Sunseri looked fine against Gateway HS, Smith showed flashes as well. Bostick has a year of experience and that means alot. Do you remember what Palko and Rutherford looked like when they were freshmen?
Maz makes good points regarding the O-line and receivers. The potential is there to be way better, which will make any qb look better.
The real good news is the progress of the defensive line and the play of McKillop. That is why we beat WVU and why the future is bright.
Any news on the recruits that visited this weekend?
Where’s Adam???????
