I didn’t have a chance over the weekend to watch any post-scrimmage videos so I held off on commenting on them until now. Saturday was ½ practice and ½ scrimmage. So in essence it was 1/2 of a scrimmage. Graham said the 1st string ran 56 plays, the 2nd string ran 26 and the 3rd string ran 9. Hmm, looks like he’s expecting PITT to run 181 plays on offense per game… obviously something was off there.
One thing to note: There has been a lot of discussion regarding Todd Grahams ‘hucksterism’ in his talking about PITT football so far. In a sense he is a salesman and his product is PITT football. However, it seems as time passes and the practices get more intense his style in these interviews is starting to become more casual and informative. It’s a welcome change because when Graham talks actual football, with the refreshing honesty that he does, it is pretty interesting. In any event we are getting more ‘face time’ with this staff then we ever did with the old.
He held two interviews on Saturday afternoon, a solo one which was an actual reporters interview directly after practice ended in the Southside facility indoor practice field (10:53 long) which was very candid and another staged one from the clubhouse accompanied by the DC Coach Patterson and the OC Calvin Magee (7:21 long). Both these videos had some substance and I’ll combine the info imparted for ease of writing.
A main point Graham made was that the defense ‘dominated’ but that the offense still made strides in what the staff wants them to do. TOs were a part of that as was the ability to get the ‘no-huddle- timing down. Now the O is getting plays off in 15 seconds – the target goal is five seconds between plays. He also said “I have to turn my back when the 2nd and 3rd string is out there (jokingly) because of how slow they are. That is to be expected I think.
Paul Zeise of the Post-Gazette has this in his article:
“The goal today was not to plan, it was to run the base offense,” Magee said, “and we will grade really hard on the execution part of it. I want to see how we execute the offense [on film], not necessarily scheme, but the base stuff. And it picked up at the end. “We’ve got to get a little faster, they understand it, but they have to give us the pace that we want.”
At one point in the scrimmage, the Panthers were getting snaps off in about 15 seconds (from whistle to snap), but, as the day wore on, they slowed down. None of it was fast enough to please coach Todd Graham. “It went like I thought it would, I think we made a lot of progress,” Graham said. “We were at a turtle’s pace right now, I know you don’t think it is, but it is, we’re slow right now.”
The technical aspect of signaling in plays needs work but that was expected also. Today was the first day they practiced it. They made the point that the ‘High Octane” offense still begins with the basic premises of communication and execution that you see in any offense and that will always be emphasized.
In that solo video, after being asked about what PITT was doing compared to the first program the coach had run the offense, Graham spent some time talking about how they are interacting with the team regarding the instituting of the new offense. He stated that the staff has told the players “Trust us (the staff), we’ve done this before and it will get better with every practice”. I’m sure this must be frustrating for the kids out there who have been so used to, and did well in, the DW pro-style offense over the last years.
The “Inside Zone” running game did well today with Ray Graham breaking of some big runs. Again, Coach Magee singled out Des Brown for his play. The inside zone game will ‘define us’ as the offense will be predicated on a strong running game. OC Magee said that the O had eight ‘explosive’ plays yesterday – which I believe means plays over 25 yards.
With that Graham said the OL was playing well and mentioned Nix, Jacobson and Gibbs. Lippert moved into the 2nd string center position for a bit and played well according to Patterson.
Graham mentioned one play which didn’t go so well. It was a mental error in a scripted a 3rd and 2 scenario where they were positioning for a FG. Sunseri held the ball too long and took a sack. He also singled out Sunseri and Ray Graham for praise in how they are practicing this spring.
DC Patterson was happy with the defense’s work, all except for creating TOs which didn’t happen (both good and bad I suppose). Graham mentioned that they specifically put some ‘young bucks’ (Donald, KK Smith and Ezell) up into the 1st string DL to motivate Alecxih and Caragein and it worked. The defense had 9 TFLs by the 1st team defense and 10 by the 2nd
He said that while there are differences in this defense than last year that would be mostly the 3-4-4 alignment and how aggressive they are in putting pressure on the QB with blitzes. The point that the LBs are still learning the new defense was made and one can’t help but think we won’t see any real difference in that until G. Williams and Todd Thomas gets on board either. It sounds like Thomas is being considered for that Spur position when he can get back on the field.
Paul Zeise has a bit on the defensive goals:
Patterson said Pitt’s defense will have three goals every game: Nine tackles for losses (which it accomplished Saturday), seven three-and-outs (they had four) and three turnovers (they had one). The goal is simple: If Pitt forces seven three-and-outs and gets three turnovers that will be 10 possessions where the defense will have completely shut down the opposing offense.
So those are the main points from Saturday’s videos and articles, I advise taking 11 minutes and watching the interview Graham did from the indoor practice facility after the scrimmage. It’s a good look at “Graham unscripted” and gives a real view of his actual thoughts about how the program is going.
BTW, Graham’s Mom is jazzed about the season. Hear that, Vegas?
Odds and Ends”
The Pitt News has an article on the QBs:
“The quarterback position is a lot like the head coach position. You will either get praised or critiqued pretty hard. You are the face of the program. For our system, the best players in the end will be on the field.” Graham keeps saying that and we’ve yet to see anyone but Sunseri take a 1st string snap though.
Pat Bostick is getting a lot of air time and having his writing published as the newest member of PITT’s Sports Information Dept. (an internship I believe). He did a nice long interview with Chris Peak of Rivals.com on 93.7 The Fan radio yesterday morning. It has pretty interesting stuff about the differences between the old and the new offenses. He also talks about the “Play Entry” (signaling) communication system for getting the play from the sideline to the QB and then to the O players.
Next practice: Tuesday, March 29th.
