He had to know it would never be easy. He’s from the area. He knows just how hard Pittsburgh can be on quarterbacks. It doesn’t matter whether it is for the Steelers, Pitt or any of the local high schools.
It didn’t help that he suffered an injury in the first game that he was starting and wiped out a full year. An injury that forced Pitt to play a never more than raw Kevan Smith and then true freshman Pat Bostick. It made the weakness of the position even more glaring from the prior years with Tyler Palko under center.
So, with Stull coming back and LeSean McCoy back there, things were expected of Stull in 2008. Maybe not great things, but consistency, a steadier hand and leadership.
Heck, Coach Wannstedt was even puffing Stull before the season started.
“Coming out of camp a year ago, I really believed Bill Stull was going to be the best kept secret in the Big East,” Wannstedt said Monday.
Of course, once things actually started playing out, Coach Wannstedt defended Stull by pointing out how little experience he had.
“…That’s a little bit of inexperience but as I’ve said many times before, he’s only making his fifth start. He’ll improve every game.”
And it seemed he did make some improvements. Getting steadier and having the confidence to throw over the middle more and improving his footwork. That was until getting concussed in the Rutgers game. He never quite seemed the same. Pitt was winning games, but Stull was hardly looking sharp.
Whether it was lingering affects, being gun shy, or just that Stull was inconsistent and was only accented by the games that followed. By the time of the Sun Bowl, it seemed that Stull had regressed and then collapsed.
That wasn’t in the script for Stull. He expected a better performance from himself. He was set up to do so.
In the weeks leading up to the Sun Bowl, Stull’s grandfather passed. The Sun Bowl was to have been Stull’s dedication to him.
“R.I.P. G-PA” written on the towel hanging from his pants. You know that Stull wanted to have one of his best games. And if it had, or even if he did enough that Pitt won we know how it would have played in the media. It would have been the postive story/puff piece that gets people feeling misty-eyed.
Instead it was his worst. An abysmal flop of a game. No stories about his relationship with his grandfather. No stories of him coming of age as Pitt’s leader. It became a story that never happened.
Instead, questions. Ridicule and doubts. Even the gambling sites are putting all the questions of Pitt on Stull.
What do Florida’s Tim Tebow, Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford and Pittsburgh’s Bill Stull all have in common? Those three quarterbacks all will be entering their third season as their teams’ starting quarterback in 2009.
But that’s definitely where the comparisons end.
…
Thus that brings us back to Stull.
Pittsburgh probably has the most talent in the Big East, with another seven starters returning on a very good defense. But the fate of this team rests on the senior quarterback. If the Stull who was part of four come-from-behind victories in the fourth quarter last year shows up, the Panthers have a chance to be a surprise team in the country next year – they are at 70/1 odds to win the BCS national championship at Bodog.
That’s what Bill Stull is facing coming into training camp in less than a month. He has a new OC with no loyalty to him, but the Head Coach has still said he’s still the starter.
Fair or not, sides have been taken in the debate. Every snap will be scrutinized by the fans. Evidence will be deduced from each practice as to his fitness and competence to be the starting QB.
I hope he’s ready. The pressure is on Stull. All the other QBs in the camp have nothing to lose by contrast.
