A hattip to PittScript who tweeted this last night, and posted this morning on it. Jon Baldwin made it very clear that he is leaving for the NFL. He blasted the coaches and his QB on the way out.
…but when asked, “Why would you stay [for your senior season] when you have no chemistry with QB Tino Sunseri, a new coach/system taking over next season and possibly hurt your draft stock for the 2012 draft, Baldwin clarified, “Oh, I misunderstood you … Heck yeah I’m leaving. It can only get worse. They had me running a lot of deep routes [this year] and yards were hard to come by. I barely ran intermediate routes; it felt like they were purposely trying to disrupt my draft stock.”
Not exactly the nicest things to say, and I don’t think he seriously believes they were trying to kill his draft stock.
That said, it was a leading question. Plus it is hard to disagree with his assessment. I mean, we spent all season wondering when he was going to get to go over the middle. To do anything but be a decoy or run deep routes with highly random deep throws.
What has me more disturbed is what he said before the season started.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried, because Tino and I haven’t been on the field together that much,” Baldwin told NFLDraftScout.com in an exclusive interview in July. “This is a big year for me, and I made him aware of that; he knows it’s an important year for me, and he’s going to try to help me have a big year.”
Again, not untrue, but a highly selfish statement. Really depressing. Also disappointed that I some how missed that in the offseason. That should have been a huge red flag.
I’m really hoping that Devin Street or some other WR claims #82 in 2011. I just checked and that’s the number on the jersey my daughter wears.
BTW – not too much “dust settled” here really.
2. Wanny and Tino cost him millions of dollars… that matters… despite what you think about student athletes they all care
3. Dust Settled meaning he waited until Wanny was fired to criticize him
I would be surprised if he is the only highly touted talent on this team that was more worried about his draft profile than the team’s performance. The lack of interest in general was apparent from watching the sideline activities on game days.
The players who stood by Dave at the press conference are to be commeded for their loyalty. But Dave would have been better served if guys like Baldwin had stood by the team on game day.
Wanny stayed just long enough to screw Bostick out of any chance he may have had.
So much fallout from a very unfortunate decision made by a very stubborn man!
On another front. Just look at the head coach from the first game of the season. Pitt had a chance with under 2 minutes, I believe 2 or 3 time outs, and approx. the 20 yard line to go for a touchdown and seal the deal against Utah. What did Stache do?? He played not to lose and didn’t go for the win. You DON’T go to overtime when you have a 50-50 shot of winning!!! You have time outs and the red zone to win the game in regulation. You’ve proven over the years this is the same scheme……
Score early and often. Don’t play favorites because you owe seniors the right to play. (In the case of Sunseri there were other factors)
Enough rambling-bottom line Stache-great guy, good recruiter, bleeds Pitt. Stache also terrible game day coach. atrocious time clock management coach, and finally not able to sustain leads or go for the jugular. Time was right even if it means a few months of nervousness.
1. Where did anyone say he didn’t work hard?
2. If he was truly concerned, then he should have reached out to Tino over the summer to work on that chemistry. They played together in the Big 33 game (in fact, Tino threw a touchdown to Baldwin in that very game), so it’s not like they were total strangers. Finally, it was clear as early as the spring that Tino was going to be the starter, so they had 5-6 full months to get on the same page.
3. Taking an open shot at a guy the day he’s fired is not “waiting for the dust to settle”. How would you feel if, on the day you were fired, someone sent out an email to your co-workers telling them what a crap job you did? The fact that he thinks Wannstedt and his coaching staff would purposely under utilize him this year to force him to come back next year just shows you the self-centered attitude that Baldwin had.
I was surprised and even proud of the way Baldwin handled himself this entire season, given the circumstances, but his comments last night, in addition to being the wrong forum, were ignorant and selfish. I hope he learns from this, because I can tell you right now…those comments won’t help his draft stock.
I don’t blame Baldwin for being frustrated with the way this year turned out and I think he’s correct when he says he wasn’t utilized as much on intermediate or over-the-middle routes. I don’t think Cignetti did a good job building him into the gameplans this year, largely because I don’t think Cignetti/Wannstedt trusted Tino to make the plays. I do think it had an impact on Baldwin’s performance.
But I also think that Baldwin is to be blamed a little bit here as well. Baldwin could only do what he was asked to do by the coaches, but there were times where it seemed like he gave up on routes. I do wonder how hard he worked in some games to try to get open, especially when one of the most publicized criticisms of his game by some of these NFL draftniks was his ability to beat coverage off the line of scrimmage. I don’t recall commentators mentioning during games that Baldwin was busting his ass to get open and Tino just wasn’t finding him. Not absolving Tino here at all; I just think it’s probably a little of both.
To that end, I don’t expect a college football player with such high pro potential to put selfish reasons entirely aside. But in the same respect, I would also hope he doesn’t sacrifice the successes of the team at the expense of his own aspirations. Those two things often will go hand in hand.
Coming into this year, Baldwin was looked at as a potenital leader of this team and that example starts on the field and in the locker room. Word broke early on this year that there were focus and leadership issues on this team, and Zeise said after the Miami game that there were a few unnamed players who others on the team said seemed more concerned about their draft status than they did improving their own gameplay and helping the team win games.
I grew increasingly frustrated watching the playcalling and exectution at the QB position, so I can only imagine Baldwin’s frustration. But these statements do little more than help add teeth to the reports that a few too many high-profile players did not have the team interests ahead of their own.
4 months ago called… it wants its argument back
and yea, that whole 2010 season thing?
it proved the Bostick>Tino
if you watch the tape of 13-9 and ND 4OT, then watch WVU and ND this year… and then come to the conclusion that Tino should have been starting, you are delusional.
This is the best comparison i can give on talent/scheme
looking purely at fundamentals and size, this isnt even an argument.
no more Tino defenses please, i am weary from 5 losses
All of this Bostick vs. Sunseri talk is 100% nonsense. Sunseri wasn’t anointed, but rather Bostick isn’t a D1 starting QB. Don’t point to his big wins, those wins were because of Shady and don’t point to his mop up plays against Miami. His numbers are terrible, he couldn’t make throws and he isn’t mobile. What makes more sense, Sunseri was better and had more potential so he started over Bostick OR Bostick is amazing but because Sunseri is a Pitt guy Wanny put his job at risk and chose the lesser QB. Wanny isn’t stupid. Stop acting like he had it out for Bostick. Seriously, if Wanny is so anti-Bostick, then don’t you think Bostick would have transfered?
Wanny is gone let’s stop trying to kick the man while he is down. I swear some people on here are happier now that Wanny is gone than they would have been had Pitt gone 12-0 this year. Wanny is a Pitt guy people need to treat him with respect and move on and start talking about the future of Pitt football.
Chris Steuber Draft Analyst
Note how often the word “frustration” appears. The same word used by someone close to the program when the topic of Tino vs. Myers comes up.
Do you have a secret source of information? Looks like pulling it out of the air.
at discerning QB talent and who should play
Baldwin>Blackmagic and Tino defenders
End of story
The team wanted Bostick, period
13-9 Game:
10/19 67 yards 0 TDs 2 INT
4 OT Game:
14/27 164 yards 1 TD 3 INT
Awesome numbers…
And Bostick has no business in D1 football let alone starting. Great kid, hard worker, may know his stuff, but complete lack of talent.
I remember the same sort of comments and feelings after Walt was let go. Tyler Palko was very vocal if I recall. Its the typical reaction of a 19-20 year old kid that is instantly texting, tweeting, facebooking his gut reaction. It is obvious these kids had some true feelings for the stache and that is a shame but this move was ultimately necessary to move this program forward.
“He was working with a first-year starter at quarterback and turned Brandon Weeden into one of the most productive passers in the country. Oklahoma State’s top returning receiver has been hurt for most of the season, but he took a player with 20 career receptions and helped make Justin Blackmon the favorite for the Biletnikoff Award.
That’s not to say this is a gimmicky, chuck-and-duck offense. His running back was an All-American two years ago, and Kendall Hunter is right back there again this year, needing 39 yards to equal his production in 2008.
His passing offense ranks No. 2 nationally. His rushing offense ranks No. 31. Together, it ranks No. 3 in scoring offense and No. 2 in total offense.
And all that came from behind an offensive line with four new starters this year.”
Youth and inexperience will not be an issue for Dana. Make the move, Steve.
every one of those would have been a preseason excuse for the yinzer buffoon
it will be great to have a coach who makes more W’s then excuses
Where is all your information that the team wanted Tino? Baldwin does not equal the whole.
I know for a fact that Mike Shanahan really likes Tino as QB. There is also the report that some players will refuse to play in the bowl game if Wanny isn’t coach. So your whole team wanted Bostick argument fails.
The Pitt program is much better off with Myers being redshirted. He still has 4 years of eligibility left.
Yes, Bostic had Shady, but Tino had Lewis, Graham, Baldwin, Shanahan, Street and Cruz.
not sure if you ever played football before, but only one stat matters
Bostick @ ND, @ #2 WVU 2-0
Tino @home ND, WVU 0-2
qb’s win big games
one laid two eggs, one won historic victories
ENOUGH of the Tino argument
hes not playing next year anyway
on to the next subject on DeVanzo vindication day
Meyer resigns from Florida again.
i think Baltimore fans win
jesus what is your point? because mine is that Tino sucked in big games against real defenses and Bostick won two historic games for Pitt.
Oh yea, and when Bostick was the qb the players werent fighting with each other on twitter etc… again, not sure if you ever played football but leadership matters
The retraction was largely made by daddy Jeff, and it sounds like it was after he took Johnny out to the woodshed.
There’s a whole list of guys who did more to win that game than PB did. McCoy, Romeus, McKillop and Lee just to name a few.
Baldwin may work out hard, and he certainly is a physical freak, but I question his mentality and tenacity. He quit on routes all the time and is absolutely horrible at adjusting to balls when they are in the air. I hope he does well in the NFL, but his comments (although he is correct on many levels) are childish and selfish and the team is better off without a guy who has that kind of attitude.
Football is a team game; the game result often won’t reflect the performance of any one individual. I too would take Marino over Dilfer.
so you guys believe that if Pat was qb we would have went 7-5 or worse?
what alternate universe is this?
just admit you were wrong, that he sucks, that he couldnt win ONE BIG GAME ALL YEAR, that wanny was clueless, and its time to clean house
because guess what
THATS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW
moving right along on DeVanzo Vindication Day!
its so fun to have HOPE again with this program
Nobody thinks Tino is some stud qb who is going to lead this team to the promised land, but the reality is he was the best qb on the team this year. I hope that that isn’t the case in 2011 and that Myers is a)actually given a shot and b) is able to rise to the occasion.
I was just contending with Devanzo’s assertion that Wanny lost the locker room because of his decision to keep Tino in all year, which goes along with all of the wildly speculative statements he’s been making all afternoon.
Baldwin (an athletic marvel) can’t make up his mind. Coaches ruined him; coaches made him, loved Tino in preseason because of the time Tino spent throwing him the ball at all hours of the day & night to work on their timing, but now hates him because he never shared a field with him. Then he’s leaving, then he’s not.. (oh wait, that last paragraph was true.
Can’t wait until bball loses in the BE Tournament or in the Sweet 16 then the same fans who are here every March which boast again about how Dixon can’t get to the next level… Don’t believe me, check last March.
Oh, and unless you know some players or their parents, you don’t know crap about how they feel or felt. Enough of this I know someone who heard from this players cousin…
Thanks for trying, Dave. It didn;t work out. Good luck helping the AD in whatever capacity that is. Let’s get a good coach and win some games. The talen is there and I expect 10-2 or better next year.
Read more: link to post-gazette.com
Best thing for Pitt would be if Tino transfers out, which he will probably do, since he knows his Uncle Wanny is no long there to hand him the starting QB job with no honest competition.
This program needs a fresh start, free of nepotism and favoritism. And the new coach needs to let Myers and incoming frosh & highly rated Gary Nova battle for the starting job next year. And if they aren’t capable yet, I know Bostick would be ready, willing & able.
I realize someone will say I must be dreaming or delusional to say this, but LeSean McCoy carried Pitt in both of those games. The defense helped a lot at WVU as well as all the help from WVU. We won in spite of qb play… This year we couldn’t win much more even with better qb play…
Let’s move on. Let’s go Pitt.
Battle next year should be Myers vs Gonzalez vs this Nova kid. Bostick gets a clipboard, Tino moves into the bostick role from this year.
I too think Tino sucks, but so does Bostick. He moves like Bledsoe at the end of his career.
I also get annoyed how we hear how well Bostick accepts his role as mentor and backup to Tino. If he had some fire he’d be freaking out and telling the staff he’s the man. If your so happy on the sideline why would anyone write one post calling for you to play.
And you are so right about the Dixon comments too, they’ll be here in March unless we win a Nat’l Championship (which I believe will happen within the next 4-5 years, its only a matter of time).
There’s just something about some Pitt fans, they love to gripe and moan and complain. They’re practically happier when Pitt loses. I sat behind a guy at the basketball game tonight who called Gary McGhee a dufus every time he touched the ball and literally had nothing positive to say about any player. Meanwhile, the team had 6 turnovers tonight, played defense, rebounded and shared the ball and beat the crap out of a team that they’re supposed to beat the crap out of. Some people will never be happy.
And yes, that action created huge rifts in the locker room because every other players at different positions had to bust ass to try to beat out the other kids fighting for a chance to play – but Sunseri didn’t.
Don’t kid yourselves that that didn’t infect this last season… it did and bled over into the games as evidence by the acts of direct defiance (Sunseri turning his back ob DW when called over to talk to him after an INT and Reed laughing right after DW yelled at him on the sidelines were just two such examples) we saw on TV.
There was a reason Baldwin tweeted this…”Reached through text message Tuesday evening and asked if it was safe to say he would forego his senior year with Wannstedt stepping down, Baldwin responded, “No, it’s not safe to say that. It doesn’t change my quarterback!” (BTW, that quote was deleted after being posted on S.I. for an hour or so by the Blog author but Smizik had seen it, as had I, and used it in his own Blog)
You don’t say that about a teammate unless you have zero personal and professional respect for him. That wasn’t just directed at Sunseri’s lack of deep throwing accuracy folks, that addressed the negative relationship that between Sunseri and Baldwin and also the rest of the offense. It was a real problem and was alluded to numerous times by Paul Zeise over the last two months.
The sense of entitlement DW created with his horrible decision to forgo competition at the leadership position of the offense completely backfired and every one knew it.
But the bottom line here is that this isn’t on Sunseri’s shoulders at all. He was set up for this by DW’s ineptitude as an effective leader and DW’s inability to understand what his decision was going to cost down the road. I have some problems with the way Sunseri plays QB but have maintained that it was true that he probably gave PITT the best chance to win as a starting QB… what I never agreed with was the anointment (and he clearly was) of Sunseri without making him fight for the job.
So how is Dixon so different than Wannstedt? If Pitt Men’s BB chokes again in the tournament he should be fired as well — fair is fair Pederson!
Pat Bostick can’t throw a freakin’ spiral, conducting an open competition for QB in camp wouldn’t have changed that.
Sunseri might as well have had “It’s Me, Yo!” tattooed across his forehead after last year’s bowl game.
Lets not attack Baldwin… he was a credit to this university and brought a lot of accolades and success with his onfield performance… he also waited until the dust settled before going public
However, I have to take his side. Despite how we view athletes, this is their livelihoods and careers. He clearly cared about Pitt as he sayed this year, but wanting to help your draft status is not uncommon or selfish. We are selfish to want them not to care about becoming millionaires and going on to make their family/fans proud by playing in the NFL. By throwing him the ball we are MORE LIKELY TO WIN. This clearly was an issue in the locker room and… BIG SURPRISE… Wanny took Tino’s side.
Tino’s play should have benched him after ND game… and its clear where Baldwin stood on this.
As correctly stated many times on this board… Wanny’s behavior with Tino lost the locker room and many players were not happy with Tino’s preferred treatment and Bostick not given the chance to play
GOOD RIDDANCE