Late start today. Too many offline responsibilities and matters to attend.
Not that it mattered as much as practice yesterday was uneventful.
Getting the daily QB stuff out of the way. Coach Wannstedt naming Stull the starter is a full AP story making the media wires. Nothing new there, though, Bob Smizik sees a short leash for Stull.
I’m not sure I agree with his point that it had to be done since Stull played best in the spring practice. And I’m not sure I believe Stull has a short leash. What I do find myself agreeing is his point that Stull would be ill-suited to come on in relief in a game. I think that if Stull loses the job or keeps it, Pat Bostick stays the #2 QB. I can see Sunseri being put as the #1 guy and Stull down to #3 and vice-versa. Bostick at this point, and Zeise alluded to it in a Q&A, is the best choice at back-up. He’s done it. He’s probably the most comfortable of the three to do it in a live game. That’s probably the only route available to Bostick at the moment to get the #1 spot. He would have to come in for a yanked Stull and grab the job.
Coach Wannstedt confirms what I already thought, that he has Dion Lewis as the leading candidate to be the starting tailback to date.
“As far as yesterday and Dion Lewis, it’s easy to watch a scrimmage from the sideline. You see one guy make a run, and you really evaluate how his technique was, and how he was during those 32 plays. Sometimes what you see in one or two plays might not really be the true evaluation. But Dion Lewis did some good things.”
It’s a simple equation. No fumbles (Graham is having that problem) plus running better than Chris Burns minus Douglas and Harris having injuries hamper them equals Dion Lewis.
Craig Bokor has been a Pitt player for longer than Bill Stull has, and it seems like Stull has been here forever. Now Bokor has his academics and priorities in line and will finish his final year.
Today, Bokor is a chiseled 260 pounds. That’s a long ways from 330, and he overhauled his approach to academics, as well. He spent a semester at Valley Forge Military Academy after high school and will earn his diploma (legal studies) in December with the possibility of becoming a lawyer.
“I made some bad academic choices early in my career here, when I thought college football was all about football,” Bokor said. “It’s not. It’s about becoming a better person.”
No. No. No. No. Not a lawyer. Don’t do it.
Jonathan Baldwin gets a puff piece devoted to his efforts to improve in the offseason.
“I knew that I didn’t do enough last season and I wanted to set the tone for this season right away,” Baldwin said about his offseason workouts. “I knew that to do more than I did last year, I’d have to do more on my own in the offseason. I wanted to work with the quarterbacks and get our timing better. I just wanted to get better.”
By all accounts, Baldwin got a lot better in the offseason.
He has been one of the most dominant players in Pitt’s training camp. and there have only been a few practices in which he hasn’t done something special.
Well, he did a lot of that last year in training camp. This year, though, it isn’t just the spectacular. It is the domination.
This bit on the linebackers dealing with an interception drill amused me.
The Pitt linebackers surely had some jammed fingers and sore hands after their interception drill. Former Panther quarterback Rod Rutherford, a first-year graduate defensive assistant, was firing left-handed lasers from about 10 yards during the drill. The linebackers dropped back and then reversed field to catch Rutherford’s offering. Adam Gunn and Shane Murray were among those who, somehow, managed to hold on to the passes. More frequently, Rutherford’s rockets whizzed through the hands or bounced off the chest of the grimacing linebacker. For sure, in the real games, it will be easy. They will not face any harder-thrown balls all year.
The linebacker depth chart is getting closer to being solidified, it appears.
Q: I read your take on the middle linebacker. What about the outside linebackers?
ZEISE: Right now Greg Williams has been one of the best players on the field. Well, besides the two defensive ends and Mick Williams who are in another stratosphere right now. But Williams is at strongside linebacker and he has played extremely well. He’s clearly taken the next step as coaches hoped. Max Gruder and Shane Murray have battled at weakside linebacker but it seems as if Gruder has been consistently ahead. Murray is still coming back from a knee injury and they’ve limited him some. Both look capable of getting the job done. The other guy who has really played well is Manny Williams and if he continues to progress, I think he’ll get into the mix at weakside linebacker and perhaps Murray could move to strongside behind Greg Williams.
At the risk of sounding Wannstedtian, the inexperience at the linebacker spots is still a bit worrisome, but the athleticism and potential of the group is exciting.
