There appears to be a wall of secrecy being built around the PITT football program by our new staff as practices have been placed off limits to the media, save for the first 40 minutes. So, what leaks out is controlled by the staff itself and by the PITT media department. That’s OK because it leave more room for us fans to make stuff up, right? One nice change is that PITT has put out a website that is specific to Spring Camp – PITT Spring Insider. It isn’t bad actually and has had a video posted each day with some accompanying articles.
The second PITT practice was held on the Southside yesterday and the focus was on creating both big plays, being successful on five and having the defense create turnovers (TO). An interesting stat so far is that our D has forced 14 TOs which includes 4th down stops – which they accomplished a few yesterday. Surely that 4th down stop would have been avoided if the O had called a time out and punted.
Graham stated that in his opinion the defense ‘won’ the first practice and the offense won yesterday. The offense was more efficient with less busted plays yesterday and the HC feels that the O is on the right track in picking up the pace and progress. They worked special teams also with a hurry up FG formation practice and Harper was good from 46 yards out. It would be nice to see his accuracy follow his leg strength this year, wouldn’t it?
Speaking of defense, we are to refer to it as “The Nitro” now which nicely complements “High Octane” as the O is referred to. These guys crack me up with the labels. Just as an aside, they also have a saying in the locker room that explains the need to execute under pressure… they don’t want the players to “Hurry up to mess up”. Wonder what they will call their slowed down, clock-killing, offense when we have a big lead… maybe “The Methadone”?
There is a second post-practice video posted on the above website (sorry about the Appleby’s ad) it features the HC, Calvin Magee (OC) and Keith Patterson (DC) talking about the practice that just finished. It is mostly fluff and coachspeak with less mention of player’s names than the first one. However in a companion article of quotes they specifically mentioned Aaron Donald, Chas Alecxih and K.K. Mosely-Smith for praise. Mosely-Smith, BTW, hasn’t been told yet that he’s not on the team this year, at least according to the current PITT roster. Talk about planned deception by the staff to meet their stated goals! This may be underhanded but we applaud the effort.
One last practice note: on the above video the staff quotes old Atlantic City Beach postcards when they say “Wish You Were Here!” which in itself is ironic because they are taking numerous steps to ensure we aren’t.
Odds and Ends:
Don’t look now but the QB race may just be rounding into form. Every time Mark Myers name is mentioned it is done with pretty high praise. Paul Zeise refers to this in his Red Shirt Diary entry of 3/17: “The one thing I will say is that redshirt freshman quarterback Mark Myers really looked sharp in the first practice, throwing the ball and making the reads in the offense, and he said he is perfectly comfortable in it. That is a good development for Pitt because it means maybe he will stay around and who knows, perhaps even win the starting quarterback job”.
This is a good thing and needed. When looking at Myers it begs the question of just how much of a ‘running’ QB does one have to be to succeed in this offense. We already know Myers isn’t a Scott Mitchell-like water buffalo out there so can the QB concept be tweaked to allow for his physical attributes? Or does it even need to be? We watched Sunseri pick up yards on busted plays last year so we know he can at least put one foot in front of the other, can Myers do the same?
PITT picked up a walk-on RB to cover the lack of depth there; Desmond Brown, a former running back out of Florida. There isn’t much info on the web about this young man but it’s nice that he’s getting a shot to show what he can do and to help out when needed.
Kevin Gorman of the Trib-Review has a “Where Are They Now?” type piece on everyone’s favorite Rastafarian, Elijah Fields. We are not sure whether he was invited to PITT’s Pro Day or he asked to be involved, either way it was nice that he was allowed to participate and apparently he showed off his physical talents pretty well.
Any NFL scout could have saved the cost of airfare by just asking any PITT fan whether Fields has the physical skills to play in the NFL, the answer would be a resounding “Yes!…, but…”. The only real interesting part of the article was the revelation that Field’s dismissal was a result of another failed drug test. How would you bettors have liked to gotten odds on the results of that test? Apparently PITT needed more than just a “You pissed me off for the last time” reason to take action.
We all knew he pretty much blew his last chance at PITT with the Twitter post alluding to a ‘pay for play’ deal. I guess PITT needed something more concrete to base the dismissal on so they ordered the test. Anyway, old news… best quote of the article… Fields saying “That’s what I don’t want people to think, that I’m a waste of talent”.
Finally, is it just me or does it seem that there is an extraordinary amount of talent in our football program over the years who leave PITT too early? Not just early entry into the draft as soon as possible (in which PITT may be the standard bearer) but kids quitting, dismissals and transfers where the departed does well at other schools?
Next practice: Saturday, March 19th with pads on.
The new regime in some ways reminds me of how the Johnny Majors era began. It was a new attitude and Majors promised that those who stay and buy in will be Champions.
In 1973, a group of young men began their first football practice in the wake of a one-win season the year before. Those who survived the new head coach’s intense drills formed one of the best college football teams—ever. This year marks the 30th anniversary of a stellar season in Pitt football history.
A Season to Remember
The players aren’t even off the buses, but they’re already sweating. The head coach stands at the front of a school bus and looks down the aisle, past the nervous, shiny faces of fresh recruits, through the rear window to the line of buses beyond. There are six buses in all, and within them sits the future of the University of Pittsburgh football program.
It’s the summer of 1973, and newly recruited coach Johnny Majors has brought the returning members of last year’s team (with its dismal record of 1 win-10 losses) to Pitt’s Johnstown, Pa., campus. He also has brought along nearly a hundred new recruits. Majors intends to forge a team that will wipe out nine years of losing records. His plan is simple: He will work this team harder than any team he has ever coached. He has enough recruits to make the competition at each position three, four, even five players deep, and he will subject the players to punishing drills in sweltering heat. The ones who don’t quit will be the toughest, best-conditioned, and most dedicated. With temperatures close to triple digits, the fields of Pitt-Johnstown form the perfect crucible.
The days burn through. Majors works his plan, prowling among wide receivers who dart through crossing patterns and hovering near offensive linemen as they lower their shoulders into blocking pads. He’s everywhere. Shrill whistles and barked orders from assistant coaches tunnel through the heavy summer air. Majors chews on chunks of ice, a habit that cools him during practice—and helps him keep his cool on the sidelines on game day. The players he intently observes will eventually form the nucleus of a team that ESPN.com will, in 2001, rank among the best ever. But now, most are just struggling to put one foot in front of the other.
“I called my dad and said, ‘I think I’m over my head here,’” recalls nose tackle Al Romano (CAS ’77), a new recruit in ’73. “My brother was in the Marines. After I finished with Pitt, I thought the Marines had nothing on us.”
AND FINALLY AN INTERESTING QUOTE FROM THE STACHE:
“After that camp, everybody was on board,” says current Pitt head football coach Dave Wannstedt (EDUC ’76G, ’74), who sweated out the days alongside the recruits as a senior captain and offensive lineman. “Those who were left were committed to the cause.” That cause was to bring pride back to Pitt football.
I’m loving the fast paced practices the team is getting. I think that its breaking the mold right off the bat and showing them that things are no longer as they used to. And I hope that its instilled in them that losing is by no means just something that ‘happens’ anymore.
A sidebar on that 1973 camp: A bunch of those guys who left fielded a team in the intramural league. They aptly named themselves “The Quitters” and expected to sweep through to the league championship. They didn’t. Yeah, it was flag football, but it just proves the old adage: Quitters never win. 🙂
Also, except for this past year, I have never seen early dismissals or exits from the program to be an issue .. at least not compared to any other program
He may well revive excitement though
Also, I get your point about the Majors-Graham comparison and it is valid given Majors inherited a 1-10 team. But let’s not think that Graham doesn’t have his work cut out for him in trying to rebuild the PITT team’s attitude and morale. It truly sucked last year and there were real problems both in the locker room and off the field. He has his work cut out for him.
However, I think you understood my point. Many of us weren’t feeling much different after this past season than we did in ’72. I don’t know which is worse, knowing your team sucks and watching them get hammered, or thinking your team is good and watching them get beaten by seemingly lesser opponents.
Graham may not be The Savior either, but at least he’s making things exciting so far. We’ll see how this all translates to the play on the field. Personally, I’m “fired up” to see the High Octane Nitro Panthers. 🙂
You and I have to get together before or after a game someday. We have way too much in common.
Reed, this past year was bad as far as discipline goes — no doubt, but morale? You may remember the players standing behind Wanny at his firing. Actually, from what I read and heard, the morale was pretty low after meeting the interim coach who was fired (forgot his name already)but the morale picked up greatly when Graham was hired.
I know a guy who is real good friends with Taglianetti’s father and was told a month ago that the team was squarely in Graham’s corner. Now this may change when the new discipline is invoked or new recruits come in and replace current players because they are Graham’s guys, but I don’t think there is an overall issue with morale
You are probably correct, once we had Graham in place and everyone started looking forward it got a lot better. Focus will do that. Your point about upcoming developments and incoming recruits who may usurp playing time is a good one and worth watching. That may force a decision point with some players.
My article about the possible transfers touched on this and I’ll add something else… it may not be just the two TEs and two QBs who are talking about leaving… apparently a few other players have voiced their thoughts about wanting to see how things shape up over the spring also before deciding whether they will stay on board or not… As I said in the article – these are here-say so it may or may not happen but there have been rumblings (I haven’t heard specific names).
One point – if we do have people leave I don’t think that is an indictment on Graham or the football program. What it would be is a pretty drastic difference between what was in place when these kids were recruited and what will be in place in the future.
I remain comvinced that there is no big morale (or transfer) problem at Pitt. I grant you that Pitt lost a few too many since last summer due to discipline problems but that appears to be an abberation since there is little evidence of it being a trend over the years.
