Sigh, backed up again. Spent last night watching mostly bad college football games late — though, that Oregon St.-Stanford game was enjoyable.
*Local kids coming home is always a popular storyline. Marques Parks is from Western Pennsylvania, plus he’s a good story as a walk-on at BGSU who earned a scholarship and was the Falcons’ fourth leading receiver last year.
*Then there’s BGSU’s starting left guard Shane Steffey. Another Western PA product. Extra fun was that his older brother, Charlie was a walk-on defensive lineman for Pitt from 2000-02.
*Zeise Q&A from Thursday had all defense questions. Young linebackers not consistent, Adam Gunn is, and the young defensive ends — plus a prediction that in the end Jabal Sheard might be better than Greg Romeus.
*Buddy Jackson’s resurgence at the end of camp likely means scout team/redshirting for Jared Holley, Antwuan Reed and Ronald Hobby.
*Finishing the Zeise-ian interaction with fans and readers, his chat from yesterday. No shock, the one place Pitt can’t afford an injury is Center Robb Houser. God, that thought terrifies me. Also tries to dampen comparisons to Antonio Bryant and Larry Fitzgerald for Jonathan Baldwin. I do agree, but think Baldwin has to be lined up any time Pitt is inside the 20. Yes, he’s still learning routes, but he is such a big target and a threat, that teams have to stay close to him and it will definitely help open up the rest of the offense.
*Lists and numbers. 5 Keys for Pitt to Have a Good Year. No disagreements with any of them. Grading the units and watching things. Best/worst case scenarios for Pitt.
*The Pitt offense has lots of potential weapons. Choices, choices, choices, and dare we say diversity. Seems to be a theme. The questions remain, though, as to whether OC Cavanaugh and HC Wannstedt can use them. We know they can pound the ball with McCoy, but can they call a good game, with balance and keep defenses guessing. The O-line just isn’t good enough to simply run them over. Even as good as McCoy is, and how well he held up last year.
*The offensive line is a question, but the defensive line is not. Big things expected from the D-line this year.
*No wonder new DC Phil Bennett wants aggressiveness and domination. He sees plenty of room for improvement from last year (so do most fans).
He credits Pitt’s rushing attack, led by All-Big East tailback LeSean McCoy, for helping the Panthers win the time-of-possession battle in eight of 12 games. Although Pitt allowed an average of less than 300 yards per game for the season, it gave up 300 or more yards four times, including a season-high 497 yards (331 rushing) in a double-overtime loss to Navy.
“You’ve got to play with a presence, every snap,” Bennett said. “I’ve been around some great defenses, as has Dave, and we talk about how those kids all had presence. When they took the field and they lined up, you could see that somebody was going to get their butt kicked across from them. We’re starting to get that.”
So no shock that Kevin Gorman will be watching Bennett’s debut as DC closely.
*Derek Kinder talks with ESPN.com’s Big East blog guy.
*Wannstedt acknowledges that recruiting has built up some depth, but wants more. What coach doesn’t? Still, a payoff is at least partially expected this season.
*Bowling Green faithful will also be curious how their offense — especially how the O-line handles Pitt’s front seven. They are closer to worried more than curious, about how the Falcon defense will do this year.
*Finally, if you love old school in football, then you’ll love this story about Ernie Bonelli, one of only two remaining players who played under Jock Sutherland at Pitt in the late 30s.
