Both papers are reporting that LeSean McCoy will announce tomorrow that he is going to enter the NFL Draft.
Daphne McCoy, the running back’s mother, said Monday the family was awaiting a report from the NFL Draft advisory board, which graded McCoy a first-round pick. Fear of injury appears to be a key factor in the decision. A fractured leg ended McCoy’s high school senior season early.
He’s gotten advice from outside sources including Larry Fitzgerald.
I have no problem with this. A running back has a limited tread life. McCoy sustained a major injury in high school. At Pitt he is/was in a very run heavy offense that almost necessitates going pro as soon as possible to better maximize the time to make the money off the abilities he possesses.
I will miss him, and obviously this is a blow to Pitt for next year. I’m sure there will be more tomorrow.
Plus, there is no guarantee next year if he stayed at Pitt, either from injury or success. Pitt may struggle next year and if they do, so could he. I say get while the goings good.
Now, Pitt went from the best team in a poor league next year to one of many decent teams in a poor league next year. And please nobody embarrass themselves and say Chris Burns will be just as good next year. The kid could be good, but he’s not going to be McCoy. Especially behind this line.
While I can’t blame Shady for wanting to go early, he picked a terrible year to do it. Shonn Greene, Beanie Wells, Donald Brown, and Knowshon Moreno are other running backs leaving early. Javon Ringer is another top running back in this draft. After those guys, you’ve got several big name QBs (Stafford, Sanchez, Bradford) and studs at every other position. There are more than 32 players with first round talent, and not all of them can go in the first round.
With last year being an outlier (with 5), 2-3 running backs are taken in the first round every year. 5 of the top 10 rushers this year were from the first round. Check out link to nfl.com . Lots of big name rushers fell to lower rounds. I don’t know if they were undervalued or if RBs aren’t a top drafting priority.
Greg Lee.
Good luck Shady.
Now on to the #1 ranked basketball team.
Wonder if Wanny protected the program from the chanch that Shady might leave by recruiting so many 5′ 9″ running backs.
But, if he’s really going to get drafted that early, it’s tough to turn down all of that money.
Good luck Shady! We’re going to suck without you!!
THAT BEING SAID: We have a running back named Chris Burns, who was #8 in his entire class, as well as veterans Kevin Collier and Shariff Harris in the backfield, not to mention Dion Lewis and a few of these other young kids coming in. Running back is a lot more about the offensive line than you think- if we get Houser, Pinkston, Thomas, Nix, and Jacobson opening holes for these kids, they are not going to be failures. One of them WILL have a 1000 yard season next year.
The main question still remains at quarterback, but I do not feel that the loss of LeSean McCoy will cost this team 6 wins, like some people are saying. If Pat Bostick can take the starting job (like I feel he will in the offseason), this team will end up better. There are too many Pitt fans who are willing to panic after every little thing. This is normal in the course of college football, but running back is one area where we could handle a loss like Shady. I wish him the best and I hope he represents Pitt well in the NFL, but I think next year still has plenty of reason for optimism, especially come the spring game where we can watch some of these young RBs take the field.
I do not understand your post. Are you suggesting that it’s negative to recruit blue chip talent and eventually send that talent into the league even if it’s a year or two early? Seems like a pretty good recruiting tool to me.
Shady–thank you for beign you, and whether it’s the NFL or PITT next year, Thank YOU!
Hail to PITT!
-al-
Read the link from jan 6th wanny thought that he was coming back?I am happy for him and yes he did a lot, but it just seem like he is getting pushed into this by people looking out for his “$best intrest$” i would not be surpised if he does’nt drop into the 3rd round like steve slaton did last year.I was trying to make a point that Larry Fitzgerald seems like an smart guy he was a heisman finalist and all that shady would get more money by not coming out this year alot of good backs are coming out……so i guess its a damn shame that i want him to come back see ya later then thanks and good luck!(And who cares about him being happy i want pitt to win everytime at whatever cost.)Go hug a tree!
The advice I’d extend: leave now, collect your bonuses, and finish your degree — accident-injury, or plain desire — at some other point. See Emmitt Smith’s return to Florida to finish at career’s end.)
Take the money and run (literally & figuratively) — this is not just a mother’s choice (provided it happens to unfold this way. This is equally LeSean’s choice as well.
Chiefly, the only problem I’d take issue with would be any news wherein Wannstedt attempted to dissuade him. And I’m not ready to believe that just yet — I’ll maintain he cares more about his players than personal success. At this point anyway..
“Wanny…wanted to do right by the kid and make sure he got an honest assessment. If Larry/Wanny/whomever held this kid back, the next 50 kids are going to see that and say “Pitt cares about what you do for Pitt…”
Wholeheartedly agree. My point exactly
McCoy plays for two years under DW, putting up great stats in a run oriented offense (who got the ball on every play in the red zone over the last two years?), and subsequently develops into a projected first round pick.
Millions of dollars get dangled in front of McCoy and he makes a decision to grab the opportunity to play at the highest level possible, for money that will set him, and his family, up for life. That same decision is made by many underclassman in exactly the same circumstances as McCoy every single year. BTW – take a look at those other young RBs & QBs that have declared, almost every single one of them had way better shots at winning the Heisman Trophy in 2009 than McCoy did even if PITT had a great year next season.
But somehow his decision to go into the draft is all on DW’s shoulders based on the Sun Bowl.
OK, obsess much do you?
You don’t think other HS players are going to look at this situation and see DW putting yet another PITT player into the first round of the NFL draft? How many years in a row has he done that now? That’s right, this will be three straight years. PSU hasn’t done that, nor WVU. If you can’t credit DW for that, and see that it is a positive thing for PITT, then well, your mind is set anyway.
How hard is it for you to read the news and see how many kids across the country make this exact same decision, every single year – it’s become the norm for exceptional players to declare the first year they can. This isn’t unique to PITT.
Exactly….
…anyways, it won’t have as big of effect as the chicken little people think…the biggest factor in wins/losses for us next year is the QB play…and considering i am 1000% sure stull will be the QB next year (and PB when he gets hurt) it will still be mediocre on the best days and god awful on the worst. We will win 8 to 10 games, depeneding on how many Stull/Cav give away.
We will be fine at the RB position, we have a half dozen waiting, and a couple of them are real good…i think people are going to be suprised…
All the player development stuff and Wanny being so good at setting up NFL talent is great. But if he can’t utilize the talent he has to maximum benefit he is really not moving Pitt back to National prominence. Remember when Harris didn’t use Fitzgerald in the Car Care Bowl and we lost? Harris was out the next year.
Walt for OC!
As for Shady, nobody blames him if he does in fact go to the NFL. I don’t necessarily agree that it is the right decision. He could improve a few things…blocking, physique and ball security to name a few. Who knows where he could be drafted if he stayed and had a phenomenal year. Obviously the flip side of that is an injury and I would also feel awful if his career in the NFL was ruined because of something like that. Its a tough spot to be in.
You cant blame his mother for encouraging him to leave – this may be his only chance at first or second round bonuses! Would anyone here HONESTLY stay with the risks, current economic climate, and the opportunity to make millions?
Think with your heads – this is great for him, his family, the program, and the university!
No worries Wanny did fine with the Fish when Ricky Williams left to go on his pot smoking tour of Europe.
Those 9 wins were a result of a very good defense and Shady, and they came despite coaching decisions game in and out that made it more difficult to get those 9 wins. In most other major conferences, Pitt would have been lucky to be .500.
The fact is this: Wanny is who Wanny is, and that appears to be a pretty good recruiter, for the time being at least, and a god-awful field coach who prefers to lay all of the responsibility for losses at the players feet and never his own. You cannot keep waiting for next year, because things will not change with the head coach, meaning every year will be a struggle to get 8 or 9 wins.
And, eventually, perhaps sooner than we think, the recruiting could very well fall off, because they won’t be seeing Otah and McCoy in the pros, but players like Dickerson and Fields and the numerous others who come in and get jockeyed around from position to position, never achieving their true potential, because of a nice-guy moron head coach who just happens to be a great “Pitt guy.”
Good luck, Shady. You deserve nothing but the best.
Wanny – pretty good recruiter, god-awful field coach, lays blame at feet of players, and I would say a decent schemer
Walt – awful recruiter when it came to anything but WR, god-awful schemer, marginal schemer, laid all the blame at the feet of the players.
Who’s better? I go with a least the recruiter.
We’re #1! We’re #1!!!
If you can’t throw, everyone knows you are running. When they know you are running and you have a crappy OL, the running back is in trouble which means possible falling draft stock.
But any of you that are saying it’s a good decision are also guessing, because Shady won’t know that until the draft results are in. My guess is that he’ll drop behind a number of those other backs and the numbers in the pro contract won’t be what he’s salivating after right now. I’m thinking late 2nd RD and a lot less money than the bonus babies in the first RD get.
Obviously I’m guessing, too, but I’m taking into consideration how many “no-name” backs who weren’t drafted high are putting up big numbers in the NFL. Teams have better places to spend money than on RBs. They’re interchangeable and you nearly have to have 3 good ones these days.
Good luck to Shady, and by April we’ll know if he made the right decision……….at least financially.
Dickerson is head and shoulders better than Kinder and Turner but in typical Wanny fashion, we got the same old stuff for the past couple of years. Also, Stephens-Howling got all this playing time and had a couple of standout games, but it was never enough to warrent keeping people like Dickerson on the bench for so long.