Reed has been killing it with the football stuff. This despite the lockdown of information — beyond what the coaches are willing to release. I disagree with the philosophy — and not just because it starves the media and this site a bit. It creates a situation that puts all the pressure on the team to win.

When you win, fans don’t care about the closed practices. The lack of information and/or controls on what is happening. It’s the Bill Parcells/Bill Belicheck/Nick Saban style.

But when the team loses, the fans start clamoring to know what’s going on. The media, already facing constant criticism from one side because they don’t have any real info to share because of the control, start releasing some of the simmering annoyances and frustrations with the controls of information.

Those are all long-term issues. Right now, not so much a problem. So that’s just a bit of a digression.

Onto the links from the past week or so.

A couple nice player pieces. Desmond Brown has a walk-on status, but as the only other running back available for spring practice, he is getting a shot.

At 5-foot-9, 185 pounds, Brown didn’t get much notice from major universities, so he turned down several Division II offers to concentrate on academics.

“I always knew I was a pretty good athlete, but I never really took school seriously,” he said, noting that a 2.3 grade-point average was not acceptable.

He attended Miami Dade College, which does not have a football team, improved his GPA to 3.75, received an associate degree and decided to restart his career.

The search began and ended in Pittsburgh where Antonio Brown shares a practice facility with Pitt and its co-offensive coordinator Calvin Magee, who had tried to recruit him to West Virginia.

“I told my brother to put in a good word for me,” Desmond said.

The walk-on process began and, suddenly, Desmond Brown had a home.

Brown, who said he runs a 4.48 in the 40-yard dash, has three years of eligibility ahead of him, but he hopes to help Pitt this season, if only in the return game.

“I can get a lot bigger and a lot faster,” he said.

Considering Cam Saddler stands to have a bigger role in the new offense, there should be chances to compete in the special teams.

The article also states an obvious thing. New punter and kicker this year with Dan Hutchins gone. Kevin Harper finally gets a chance to kick field goals, and the punter will be Matt Yoklic.

Greg Gaskins had — let’s be nice about it with a new year and system — a rough year on the O-line. He was shredded as the starting right guard — by both opposing defensive lines and fans — and lost the job three games in. He’s still looking to compete.

“Our conditioning that we’ve been doing the past couple months has been really uptempo and really fast-paced,” he said. “We placed emphasis on our training, just being a lot faster-paced. And I would say that’s helped.”

Gaskins will compete for a starting spot along the offensive line in 2011. The unit will have to replace two starters from last year, but offensive line coach Spencer Leftwich said the unit should still be strong in 2011.

“The biggest strength is that we got four guys returning that have a lot of experience,” Leftwich said. “Greg Gaskins, Jordan Gibbs, Chris Jacobson and Lucas Nix all played a ton last year. So, that’s something to really build off of.”

Last season, Gaskins started three games at right guard, and appeared in all the remaining games. By the end of the year, Gaskins saw playing time at each O-line position, something Leftwich said “really helps.”

“The biggest thing Greg brings to us is his experience and his versatility. He can play center, guard and tackle,” Leftwich said. “Usually you don’t see a guy that can play all five positions. And that just speaks well for his athleticism and his intelligence of knowing those assignments.”

Well, that was something Wannstedt emphasized in his offensive line. Being able to move to various spots on the line. Hopefully O-line coach Leftwich can use the versatility of the players to something approaching an advantage this year.

Last week was also pro-day for Pitt’s NFL draft hopefuls.

Greg Romeus has had an absolutely horrid 2010. Injuries, personal losses in his life. He’s doing what he can to make it a positive. Or at least say the right things.

Romeus was one of 11 former Panthers to participate in Pitt’s Pro Day on Tuesday on the South Side. The 6-foot-5, 265-pound defensive end participated in only the bench press, doing 225 pounds for 24 repetitions. He met with several NFL clubs, including the Steelers. Once projected as a potential first-round pick, Romeus now is looking forward to hearing his name whenever it is called in the NFL Draft on April 28-30.

“That’s the only real adversity I’ve ever had to deal with in my life,” Romeus said. “I feel like I’ll never have to deal with anything as bad as this, so it’s made me mature and grow into a stronger person.”

It’s that or go fetal, I guess.

Dion Lewis got surprisingly good reviews at the pro-day. Baldwin, not so much.

Lewis (5-6 5/8, 192) showed extraordinary change-of-direction skills to start and stop in a blink. Although he ran pass routes a bit upright, he did a great job catching the ball away from his body. He also fielded punts and kickoffs, struggling a bit tracking punts but showing the right skills as a kickoff returner. He must add special teams value since backs his size can’t handle a big load.

Jabaal Sheard went through defensive end and linebacker drills, showing the athletic ability to be highly productive at either position. He showed good explosiveness in his movements throughout the long workout. He has some growth potential to add some bulk to play end, too. He has been an under-the-radar prospect all fall but might surprise the masses with how high he is drafted April 28. He could be a late riser like Tyson Alualu, the No. 10-overall pick of the Jaguars in the ’11 draft.

Offensive tackle Jason Pinkston is light on his feet. He has a shorter frame with a thick, powerful core. Although he is not an elite-level athlete, he moves well enough to play right tackle or shift inside to guard. He shows good lower-body flexibility, footwork in tight spaces and features a strong, short hand punch.

Wide receiver Jon Baldwin has been called a first-round prospect by some in the media, but that’s just crazy talk. He is a big receiver with a tight upper body and almost zero quickness or acceleration off the line or out of breaks. He lacks zero elusiveness running after the catch, too. Although he didn’t drop a pass in Tuesday’s workout, he still traps way too many balls against his body instead of reaching out and snatching them. Plus, he trashed former coach Dave Wannstedt in the media after he was fired, turning off many NFL people who would have considered him as a backup receiver. Coaches make exceptions for me-first receivers with rare talent–that’s not Baldwin.

The negative review on Baldwin was picked up elsewhere. Any negative reviews will not help in a rather deep WR pool.

It turns out, though, that the review could be considered an absolute piece of BS.

Baldwin took exception to that criticism in comments to NFP, pointing out Lande wasn’t even at the Pro Day.  We talked to one of Baldwin’s mentors John Thornton on Thursday, who also disputed Lande’s account.

Thornton said Baldwin got terrific feedback from teams and didn’t struggle with trapping the ball whatsoever.  He also noted Lande wasn’t at the Pro Day.

That’s a pretty serious accusation, so we contacted Lande.  Here was his response:

“Baldwin is correct that I was not at the pro day. I did not attend because despite being a former NFL scout (I worked for the Browns and the Rams)  I am now viewed as media and do not get the same access as current NFL employees do.

“So our report on his Pro Day was based on speaking to an NFL source who told us how he worked out.  I then combined what that source told me about Baldwin’s workout with what I saw on film when I evaluated his play for Pittsburgh to write the short note about how Baldwin’s performance at his Pro Day and our evaluation of his on-field play convinced us that he is not a 1st round receiver,” Lande said.

The problem is that Lande never tells the reader he wasn’t at the Pro Day.  In fact, the article strongly leads the reader to believe he was there.  There are sections of the article which evaluates the events of the Pro Day in great detail without giving any credit to a third party.

Wow. To say the article “strongly leads the reader to believe he was there,” is an understatement. As the article points out. Taking the word blindly of an unattributed scout/source there ignores the fact that there is also a good possibility of an agenda by the scout to mislead. That damning review sure would play into trying to drive down Baldwin’s draft value.

This scouting report — which excludes the off-the-field comments strikes me as exceptionally accurate. Especially talking of Baldwin’s surprising lack of aggressiveness on going for passes despite the physical tools.

Jabaal Sheard continues to climb. In mock drafts — for whatever they are worth — he is starting to crack the 2d round. He recently took a trip down to Miami to meet with Dolphins execs.

They also were at the University of Pittsburgh event to see a terrific performance by TB Dion Lewis who also caught kicks and punts for Miami scouts and they spoke to DE/OLB Jabaal Sheard who flew to Miami last week for a meeting.

All Pitt players also were permitted to take unofficial visits next door in the South Side to meet with the Steelers.