The Southside is quickly becoming the site of PITT’s walking wounded as the injuries mount up.  Minors ones thank goodness, but still enough to keep players off the field and the depth charts in flux, especially at the inside LB position where walk-ons are rounding out the two deep.

15 players out at last count and Graham said that’s the most he’s ever had. While he says that’s OK because it gives the staff a chance to see the ‘depth’, I think it’s putting lipstick on a pig.  Hey coach, it would also be nice to see if those guys could play too, wouldn’t it? Let’s tell it like it is.

The team focused on Situation Play today; red zone offense, inside opponents 10 yards line, etc… One drill was called the “Sudden Change”; when the defense forces a TO inside the opponents 30 yard line and the offense wants a quick strike TD.

They worked on special team play today with kickoff return coverage. Harper was booming today with a 52 yarder; Graham likes him and it shows. They will practice kickoff returns on Thursday.

The only place I could find Graham’s post-practice video was linked through the PITT Facebook site. The video can be found here.  With him were Coach Dews (TEs & “3” Backs / H-backs). Dews said the LBs were banged up coming out of the Saturday scrimmage. He had his “Move TEs” (another phrase!) guys working on short yardage and goal line blocking and Graham interjected that Hubie Graham has been a very good blocker so far.  Dews said with all the High Octane & the Nitro there will be “smoke in the city” this season.  Guess he wasn’t around in the early 1960s when that was really true.

Defensive coach Patterson talked about the LB corps naming the same guys as playing well mostly. Some new shout outs were for Carl Fleming and Shane Gordon and….wait for it…Shayne Hale! who has been working at the Panther position. Graham then singled out a walk-on, Emanuel Rackard, for praise; Rackard had six solo tackles and two QB sacks in the scrimmage.  He then talked about the corners and safeties but nothing we haven’t heard before

Graham finished up the video with two interesting observations.  He mentioned that he thinks PITT’s corners will be good enough to go “one on one” which will free up the rest of the defense to do a lot of other things. Wow, guess he didn’t watch much film from last season then.  He also said that since the ‘newness’ of the offensive and defensive changes are wearing off the staff is seeing who the “really tough guys are”.

Odds and Ends

Jack Lippert is back to the defensive line; a shade of DW going on here as Lippert’s ‘been there and back again’.  Whatever, he’s still a rsSO this season so he has time yet to get onto the field. I kind of thought he’d stick at Center last year.

Paul Zeise is back on the PITT football beat with his Redshirt Diaries. I for one am glad.  He makes some good observations when he can concentrate solely of PITT football and IMO he always makes the reader think.  He talks a lot about Graham’s insistence on tempo in the offense and what there stated goals are.  Zeise mentions 15 seconds whistle to snap but I believe the ultimate goal is 5 seconds according to what Graham has said in the past.  What we are producing now, in these early stage practices, is around 15-18 seconds,

Here is a quote of Zeise’s regarding defensive tactics that does indeed gladden the heart:

“One other thing that should also make some of the Pitt fans happy is that the “base” defense is designed to stop spread offenses and is versatile enough to also line up against power running games. In other words, we won’t see linebackers trying to cover slot receivers.”

As a commenter on another Blather article pointed out, Myers has impressed Zeise also:

“I’ll tell you one guy who has impressed me in my limited view of him – Mark Myers. I didn’t know how he’d fit into this offense but it is so obvious to me that he has the best skill set of any of the quarterbacks. He really has a good arm and boy, the ball just zips from his hands.”

Apparently PITT is now has their own spring practice TV show… “Tune in to Pitt Panthers Television each Sunday on The Comcast Network (Ch. 188/210) for Pitt Panthers Television programming.”  Perhaps one of the PGH readers can let us know what time that will be on.  If I understand this correctly what I talk about in the paragraph below was actually the first TV show…

PITT’s Spring Camp Insider on Facebook has a very nice 20 minute HD video of clips from the players and coaches running through the practices.  It intersperses those with the last two post-game videos Graham and his staff did (last Thursday and Saturday).  What is nice is that when one of the staff is talking about a player the video switches to a clip of that kid in action.  It is very well done and I suggest that it’s worth the 20 minutes to watch – even if the news imparted is days old.

Pat Bostick is kicking out his “Inside the Huddle” articles on the PITT website.  This new one features the WRs, mostly the main three returning ones; Shanahan (“Need a guy to go across the middle and sacrifice his body to make a key third down grab?”), Street (“Who is the guy that can just flat out run by someone? Who can take it the distance? Devin Street can.”) and Saddler (“He’s a loud, dread-locked ball of enthusiasm molded into a 5-foot-7 frame.”).  Bostick also touches on Tinker, Salath Williams and Carswell.  It is another very well written and in-depth piece.  I’m a little bit jealous.

Who is the guest Author today?

“The young man was about twenty-two. He was tall, sort of… maybe, with a stocky frame and his lightweight suit hung from his shoulders like the clothes of Frank Sinatra. Sitting in the Rivers Casino, the athlete’s movements and speech were slow, but one had the feeling that there was plenty of speed and strength in him, possibly, and that he would be a tough and cruel player. As he sat hunched over the baccarat table, he seemed to have some of the jack-knife quality of a falcon. There was this impression also in his face, in the sharpness of his chin and cheekbones and the wide wry mouth. His brown eyes had a feline slant which was increased by his habit of screwing them up against the smoke from the cigar he held between the first two fingers of his left hand, a cigar which was hand rolled on the thigh of a nubile Cuban virgin. The permanent wrinkles which this habit had etched at the corners gave the impression that he smiled more with his eyes than with his mouth. A mop of black hair lent his face a boyish look, which falls away quickly when a football is in his hands.

As he turned to greet the blonde cheerleader who slid into the seat next to him, he introduced himself as “Sunseri, Tino Sunseri”.”

Next practice: Thursday, March 31^st.