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January 11, 2010

I haven’t touched on any football stuff for a while, so time to just see what’s out there.

Pitt ended the season in both polls ranked #15. Best ranking since ’82. First time with 10 wins since ’82. Seems like a trend.

With the season over, that means it is time to project way-too-early-top-25 lists. Pitt gets placed at the same spot by ESPN.com.

15. Pittsburgh Panthers

Pitt finally got over the hump under coach Dave Wannstedt, who led his alma mater to its first 10-win season since 1981. The Panthers will have to replace quarterback Bill Stull and three starting offensive linemen, but they’ll have two of the country’s best playmakers in tailback Dion Lewis and receiver Jonathan Baldwin. At least five starters will have to be replaced on defense, too, including All-Big East defensive tackle Mick Williams, linebacker Adam Gunn, and cornerbacks Aaron Berry and Jovani Chappel. Wannstedt hopes junior defensive end Greg Romeus is coming back for his senior season. Pitt plays an aggressive nonconference schedule, with road contests at Utah and Notre Dame and a home game against Miami. The Panthers will play Big East road games at Connecticut and Cincinnati and will play Rutgers and West Virginia at home.

I expect Pitt will be ranked pre-season anywhere from 13-24 in most of the polls. Pitt will likely be picked to win the conference. I would hesitate to make the early suggestion that Rutgers might be a darkhorse after they failed miserably in the role of sleeper/darkhorse Big East favorite. That said, they have done very well in recruiting and have a very good QB in place with Savage.

Speaking of talented freshman, Dion Lewis earned Freshman All-American status. In Paul Zeise’s ranging and interesting off-season posts on the football team (dare we say Gorman-esque), he touches on Lewis already back at work.

But Lewis is special for so many reasons and here is yet another one – he is reportedly already hitting the winter conditioning program with a vengeance because he understands how hard it is going to be for him to repeat what he did this past season now that he’ll be a marked man. He’s as serious of a player as I’ve ever been around in terms of, being great matters to him and he is more than willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that.

How do you come close to matching a season like that? Few players are lucky enough to have one season like that, and he did it as a freshman. Well, more pressure on the O-line to help match the job done last year.

The issue of DC Phil Bennett’s seemingly imminent departure back to Texas remains oddly minor. We do know he isn’t going to work at Texas A&M.

That doesn’t mean he will necessarily be back – he and Dave Wannstedt are set to sit down face to face tomorrow for the first time since the bowl game and they will no doubt discuss his future. When Phil was hired two years ago it was thought to be a short-term kind of hire so it will be interesting to see how this ultimately plays out. There are still a number of jobs out there and his family is still in Texas with no plans to move here to Pittsburgh, so Bennett could still be moving on as he had told a few people was his plan during the season, but it seems fairly clear that if he is leaving, he isn’t going to Texas A&M as defensive coordinator.

The angst is relatively low because his reasons for leaving are mainly family — so it isn’t personal or job performance related. Also, there is the fact that Greg Gattuso will likely take over in what seems like a no-brainer. Finally, and probably most important, Coach Wannstedt is a defensive coach. The defense has his fingerprints all-over it and so the presumption is the DC is less vital than a good OC. In that respect, it is much like the lack of angst from Cal fans when OC Cignetti left Cal for Pitt last year.

And as I hoped/suspected, the Dave Walker to ‘Cuse rumor looks like bunk.

The David Walker to Syracuse stuff is another thing flying in internet land but in doing some digging, that thing just doesn’t have many legs or much to it. The only way that would happen is if Walker were going to be hired as the offensive coordinator and that isn’t the case. He has been here now since 2005, has made a life here for his family and isn’t likely going to make a lateral move, especially to another Big East school.

Looking at recruiting news, well not so much news as what the kids are doing. The Big 33 roster for Pennsylvania was announced. Six Pitt recruits were on the roster: Aaron Donald, Kevin Weatherspoon, Andrew Carswell, Khaynin Mosley-Smith, Salath Williams and Anthony Gonzalez. Or 6 out of the 10 HS senior Pitt commits from Pennsylvania.

Minor surprise when looking over the verbal commit list. Of the 24 verbals, only 11 (including Todd Thomas) come from Pennsylvania. Yes, there is a lot to do with trying to expand the recruiting base and losing out on some of the best players to Penn State and Ohio State, but it also has something to do with this being something of a down year for Pennsylvania talent.

Mark Meyers, the St. Ignatius (OH) QB commit that seems to have captured more than a few fans’ fancy as to the possibility of competing right away for the starting job, has been named to the USA Football team.

…Myers has been selected to play in USA Football’s Team USA vs. The World game Jan. 30 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

The game, which will be televised live by NFL Network, matches USA Football’s 2010 Junior National team — 45 of the country’s top high school seniors — against a world team composed of 45 of the best players aged 19 and under from eight other countries.

So there is that.





I’ll take the bait and start the debate: The only thing Myers will do this year is redshirt…The competition is of course between Bostick and Sunseri…my guess is it will be Bostick as the starter, with Sunseri seeing a decent amount of playing time in goal line and short yardage situations (sort of like a “Wildcat” formation, only with an actual QB taking the snap).

Comment by HbgFrank 01.11.10 @ 1:19 pm

There is organized football outside of the United States? Really….Really…?

Comment by Marco 01.11.10 @ 3:01 pm

The legacy of the NFL Europe?

Comment by Chas 01.11.10 @ 4:56 pm

“The angst is relatively low because his reasons for leaving are mainly family — so it isn’t personal or job performance related.”

Tell that to those among us who still can’t forgive Holwand.

Comment by Dave in Orlando 01.11.10 @ 5:23 pm

with Jamie’s success, I have long forgiven Howland. Plus, I don’t think Bossard leaving will have a major impact but, of course, depends on his replacement. I read that while Bossard was a good position coach, Wanny wasn’t enamored with his recruiting effort .. although there appears to be good WR recruits this year and last (but not sure if Bossard was responsible.)

Comment by wbb 01.11.10 @ 6:34 pm

I didn’t know there were people who still can’t forgive Howland. The program has taken a step up since he left and I personally believe Dixon is the better coach.

Comment by OntarioLett'sGoPitt 01.11.10 @ 7:09 pm

Your right HbgFrank. Myers will redshirt . Wanny will never give a freshman a chance. The starting job will be Sunseri’s though. You will all be amazed at how well he throws the ball

Comment by KillBill 01.11.10 @ 7:23 pm

“Coach Wannstedt is a defensive coach. The defense has his fingerprints all-over it and so the presumption is the DC is less vital than a good OC.”

Two words.

Paul.

Rhoads.

Comment by Brian BK 01.11.10 @ 8:51 pm

KillBill – Sunseri throws a nice pass to be sure… however that’s just one aspect of playing QB at the Div 1 level in college, he’s got other things he needs to work on. It will be a real competition in the Spring & Summer camps, that’s for sure… and you are correct – DW will never play a true FR QB if he cab at all avoid it.

WBB -When a program has a talent like Baldwin on the roster, the Job #1 for any WR coach is to teach that kid how to play WR… not just run down field and catch the ball if it is thrown directly at you. Baldwin, while he is better this season than last, is still a far way from reaching his potential as a receiver… and if we don’t get someone who can really coach up a kid we are going to miss a great opportunity. The fact that Bossard couldn’t recruit to well is an aside – he was let go because we had talent with no real realization at the WR position.

Comment by Reed 01.12.10 @ 5:34 am

Wanny will never give a freshman a chance. What??

Have we forgotten Dion Lewis already?

If the kid performs better than anyone else, Wanny will start him.

Comment by shadyforpresident 01.12.10 @ 8:33 am

I have doubts that Lewsi starts at RB at least in the early part of the year had he not participated in spring practices .. I could be wrong. But even if he would have started .. the RB position is more dependent on natural instincts and easily adaptable than most every other position especially QB.

Barkley was the top rated high school QB last year who was forced to start due to Sanchez’s early departure, and despite being surrounded by great talent at the OL, WR and RB, still struggled throughout the year.

While I think Myers may well be a really productive QB, I seriously doubt it will be next year.

Comment by wbb 01.12.10 @ 9:02 am

Reed, I don’t disagree about Boussard — remember, he was available because he was fired from Maryland .. Wanny needed a WR coach after the previous one (forgot his name) left for his alma mater, UF.

Baldwin did improve, as you said, and Shanahan looked really good for a first year player but Turner and McGee showed little or no improvement. As I said in my previous post, I doubt if Boussard’s departure will have a big impact …just hope they are able to bring in a decent replacement to coach up all the apparent young talent.

Comment by wbb 01.12.10 @ 9:12 am

I don’t think that he’ll start either, just because he won’t be ready, not because Wanny won’t start freshman. If he wanted a realistic shot at starting next year, he should have enrolled early to make it to spring practice just like Lewis did.

Comment by shadyforpresident 01.12.10 @ 9:13 am

Did anyone watch Gilbert, the all world freshman QB come in for Texas.?? Freshman cannot start at QB for any D1 college team and have success. I believe Bostek will be the QB next year.

Comment by Dan 72 01.12.10 @ 10:35 am

If you are starting a true freshman QB you have problems as a team. Obviously there should be open “competition” at every spot. But I think it has less to do with Wannstedt being stubborn and not giving a freshman a shot (as others say), and more that Wannstedt is actually smart and knows a freshman QB is a bad bad bad bad bad idea. The learning curve is so tremendous that you have to be extremely special as a player to be able to succeed as a frosh QB.

Comment by PITTapotamus 01.12.10 @ 11:34 am

Ced McGee made some clutch catches for us this year. If you were looking for more of an improvement keep in mind that he really was just out-classed by the talent at his positon and was relegated to second-class status.

Comment by Chuck Morris 01.13.10 @ 12:37 pm

anyone know the status of recruit todd thomas

Comment by hunch45 01.18.10 @ 9:15 am

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