Lots of activities and autograph sessions with some past Pitt players. Q&A with the coaches. The game will be televised locally, but does little good for those of us not living in the ‘Burgh. I would have enjoyed a road trip this weekend just for fun, but between family obligations, taxes not done and, well — I think the wife would have beaten me with a tire iron if I had even suggested any more college sports activities — it just isn’t going to happen.
Still, seems like a lot of fun.
Fans will have a chance to interact with coaches and learn about some tactical decisions and why they are made, the recruiting process and a typical practice schedule, as well as some other aspects pertaining to the Panthers or college football in general.
Wannstedt said he is looking forward to the event because he thinks it is a good way to get fans more engaged with the program.
“We just decided we needed to change some things up,” he said. “I’ll talk a little bit about recruiting and the process and the program over all and then we will have Phil Bennett talk about defense and obviously Frank Cignetti, the offense.
“Then it will be open to questions, and that will probably be as much fun for the fans as anything because they’ll get a chance to ask questions about what takes place during practice, game day or halftime or whatever they want to know.”
Of course, one reporter said that odds are very good that the first question will have something to do with quarterbacks, to which Wannstedt quipped, “I’ll defer that one to Frank. That’s why he’s talking.”
Seems like Coach Wannstedt went out of his way to stress to the beat writers that the spring game is not any more meaningful than the other practices. I noticed a similar thing in Gorman’s blog post as well.
Perhaps the biggest misconception revolving around spring drills is the importance of the Blue-Gold Game. In reality, it’s little more than a glorified scrimmage in the eyes of Pitt coaches. And they evaluate it as such.
“We’ll put it in the same category as our last (two) Saturday scrimmages,” Wannstedt said. “We’ll look at the execution and how the players respond that way. It will be an important day for our players, no question about that, but I wouldn’t say it’s really any more important than the last two scrimmages.”
Added offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti: “You won’t see much. It will be real vanilla. We’ll just go out there and run a base offense and, obviously, just try to come out of it healthy.”
There is something to be said for the Panthers putting on their uniforms and performing in game-type situations before fans at Heinz Field.
“Just by being in the stadium and having people in the stands and knowing it’s on TV, that has a tendency to affect some players differently than if we were just up here on a Saturday morning, having a scrimmage in the bubble,” Wannstedt said. “That’s good. That type of exposure has a tendency to bring out the best and, sometimes, the worst in players.
“We need to find that out now.”
I think most fans know that it isn’t any more than a light scrimmage that is the end of a spring fan fest. It’s just a way to help generate more interest in Pitt football. The only reasons it takes on a bigger meaning to the fans is that it is one of the only times they get to see the team at this time, and it is the final practice and scrimmage of the spring.
That may be be worth the price of admission (free) but it makes it a little more fun to have something to watch.
I’m driving up for the scrimmage today and want to at least see Dion Lewis carry the ball, if Bostick has truly lost that throwing motion, and Brandon Lindsay line up at DE….
Plus drink beer with friends.
(An allusion to link to vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com )
But now it’s Cignetti vs. Cavenaugh.
What one can infer from link to pittsburghlive.com that, under Cavenaugh, the QBs
>weren’t students of the game
>didn’t do repetitions
>didn’t know what was going on
>weren’t being pressured to perform well, and
>weren’t getting any better
(Of course this begs the question, what the hell were they doing?)
Some quotes:
(Cignetti) has brought a high-energy attitude to practices and placed pressure on his quarterbacks to perform.
“Everything they do from the time they walk on this field is evaluated,” Cignetti said. “Everything.”
The Panthers have added twists such as more rollouts for quarterbacks and choice routes for receivers
“He’s very intense,” Stull said. “We come in at 6 in the morning with sleep in our eyes, and he makes sure we’re ready to go.
He’s bringing a lot of new stuff, and we’re really enjoying it. The coaching is different. It’s making us better.”
“It’s refreshing because you’re doing certain things, and you’re repeating them every day,” Bostick said. “You get to master it and own it.”
“That’s one thing that coach stresses,” Stull said. “We’re going to be students of the game, and we’re going to know what’s going on.”
…….
We’ll see!
Yes, we’ll see … but while I was not as critical of Cav’s playcalling as most (except for the fade before halftime vs WVU), I do think he longed to get back in the NFL and didn’t want to be the patient teacher required by a college coach.
I expected the defense to dominate epecially with some injuries on OL, but every once in a while there should be some risk / reward when blitzing this offense. It seems like evry time pressure comes, it’s either a sack or an hurried incompletion. Just once, can’t they hit a hot receiver, or evade a rusher and complete a pass???
1. This is a good to great defensive unit
2. They know the Pitt offense since they play against it every practice
3. The offense in the spring game is intentionally plain vanilla for obvious reasons
As for the quarterbacks, a brief assessment:
1) Stull–looked halfway decent in my opinion, nice throw to Baldwin for a TD, looks like his throws are a little better, not the classic Stull rainbow, more of a line drive
2) Sunseri–looked mobile, calm, threw a couple of nice screens, needs to work on down field accuracy, a couple near interceptions
3) Bostick–maybe I got bored and started to flip back and forth between the scrimmage and the Pirates, but I can’t really say anything good or bad, they stressed that he has lost over 35 pounds and the hitch is gone
The balance of the scrimmage was dominated by the DL — it was about as simple as that. There was not that much blitzing but total dominance by the likes of Sheard, Caraegein and Mick Williams (1st team) and Hale, Tkach andBokor (2nd team) penetrating to stop both the run and the pass.
Dion Lewis’s best runs, as explained by Wanny which did the color on the telecast, were turning a 2 yd loss into a 2 yd gain. I don’t believe there was a run more than 5 or 6 yards all day.
Except for the initial TD pass to Baldwin, the average completed pass play went about 5-8 yards. No QB stood out — all were bothered by pressure with a few sacks and many hurried incompletions. Bostick’s delivery is much improved — he made a nice completion on a rollout to the left of about 20 yds ut was negated by a definite push-off by Shanahan who made the reception. Greg Cross made a nice 10 yd recetion for a first down ove the middle … but that’s about it.
Fields played very well including an acrobatic interception. Gruder, Dell, G Williams and J Chappel all made good tackles keeping short passes to minimum gains.
Prior to the game, Wannstedt announced the winners of the Ed Conway Award, annually presented to the most improved players of the spring. This year’s recipients were junior quarterback Pat Bostick and sophomore linebacker Max Gruder.
Pitt also presented its freshman Academic Award, which was shared this year by wide receiver Mike Shanahan and linebacker Joe Trebitz.
The Gold were led by senior quarterback Bill Stull, who finished the day 12-of-17 for 132 yards and a 54-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Jonathan Baldwin. Baldwin concluded the game with five receptions for 75 yards and a TD on the day.
Bostick finished 4-of-10 passing for 31 yards and an interception, while redshirt freshman Tino Sunseri was 5-of-15 for 38 yards and one pick.
Freshman running back Dion Lewis led the Gold with 12 rushes for 34 yards and redshirt freshman Chris Burns finished with 11 attempts for 13 yards.
————————–
Sunseri is mobile and has a strong arm but forces the ball into coverage — could have had 2 more INTs. 4th team walk-on QB Andrew Janocko is left-handed. Brandon Lindsay also looked good as 2nd team DE.
Shane Hale will be an excellent player for us.
E. Fields is a monster, as is J. Sheard.
Joe Thomas was terrible.
The defensive line was much too tough for the offense.
Stull’s touchdown pass was under thrown and he was not the least bit impressive. But then, no quarterback was.
Both Antuan Reed and Jarred Holly are upgrades over Berry.
Dion Lewis is smaller than advertised and it will need to be running back by committee.
The QB spot has to improve without a doubt. That was one of our weaknesses last season and it cost us an Orange Bowl. I’m going to grind a tooth loose if Stull wins the job again and we score 10 points against Youngstown State. A good mobile QB can compensate for an average OL. Speed thrills and I want my boys outrunning the train.
Let’s give these kids a chance to prove themselves. They have the summer to boil in the sun and get better. I’m still excited about the season.
1) it looks like we have a real strong defense and a rather weak offense. sounds like 2007 all over again. but in reality i think our offense will improve as the o-line becomes set and is able to work as a unit. plus one of the qbs will present himself as a frontrunner at some point in the summer/fall.
2) does anyone else find it weird that the “gold” team wore white? especially when we have a gold alternate jersey? have we scrapped them or could this be a sign that… gasp… another alternate uniform might be in the works? perhaps one that has a bit more of a royal shade?
However, note that as has been previously posted, the defense knew the plays and the offense was vanilla.
We have two very quick and strong D players in Brandon Lindsay and Shane Hale – and so much depth at DE it’s almost criminal. Caragein looked good also I thought, and with Mustakas returning our DL may be excellent and pretty deep.
All three QBs had rough days I thought. Stull’s pass to Baldwin was under thrown as mentioned above – and the DB missed an easy INT on it. Sunseri obviously has some athletic skills, but I don’t think we’ll see him for awhile – even if the competition is truly open. Bostick’s throwing motion is completely different than 2007 – and his release is faster. Also – and even though we’ve read this over the last month – his ability to move around is much improved.
He had a real nice roll out and completion – going to his left, then followed that up with a six yard scramble a few plays later.
One thing was nice about the offense that as ‘vanilla’ as the playcalling was, there seemed to be much more planned movement by the QBs – so I thought that was good.
All in all if a fan went in expecting to see anything other than a practice he’d be disappointed, but I’m fine with it. The only strong impression I got was that our defense could definitely be kick-ass this season.
“Hey Walt, get the play in!” Even the fans were practicing.
Not too much should be made of any of the scrimmage other than it was nice getting to see the team practice.
i just heard a leak that an anouncement will be made by pete the athletic director on tuesday. its gunna be about all sports switching to nikes.
