SilverPanther here. Game watch info for NYC.
NYC Alumni Club is doing their thing at the Village Pourhouse on 3rd Avenue and 11th St. in the East Village. In Williamsburg, I’m heading to the 4th Down on N.4th St. between Bedford and Driggs. It’s a newish sports bar with big open space. Game will be shown on huge brand new projector screen with game sound. Bunch of drink specials and you can bring in food from outside. If Pitt wins, free shot (I don’t know of what.?.?.) for everyone. HTP
First off – our coaching staff has no idea what they are playing with by naming the defense “The NITRO”. Nitroglycerin is very unstable and tends to blow itself up. Everything else that gets destroyed is just collateral damage. Not exactly what you want from a defense whose name should make the opposition think it’s rock solid and impenetrable. Unless they meant “NITRO” in its other usage, which is a blood vessel dilator for heart angina victims, in that case they should have just called it “The VIAGRA” which does basically the same thing and would be way cooler.
Jerry DiPaola of the Trib-Review has a nice article on the PITT defense… Not a lot of surprises but reaffirms that Aaron Donald is in the starting DL at this point. He also touched on the culture change from 2010 to now. These quotes stand out;
Caragein said the players, many of whom were angry when Wannstedt was forced out, have embraced the new coaching staff. “If we are going to keep harping on the coaching change and be mad,” he said, “we are never going to grow as a team, and we never are going to take the next step to be better. “Coming together is a great start, and we are going in the right direction.”
This is exactly what we PITT fans need to hear at this point. But more importantly, players like Caragein and other multiple year starting seniors have to be pounding that into the heads of every kid on the roster. It was the worst kept secret in the football program that there was a real lack of leadership in the clubhouse by the senior class last year and that has to change for 2011. (more…)
Before I do the media rundown of Pitt’s 23 point win over UNC-Ashville, I’ll take a moment to explain why I wasn’t too worried about Pitt’s start yesterday.
First, Pitt had been off for over a week. You have to expect some rust — and sure enough it was there. Second, you just cannot keep trying to read too much into every moment of a game. It becomes easy in hindsight after a team loses. Oh, there were the signs. It becomes the cliche — weak spot X finally caught up to team Y. But in a one-and-done format it comes down to the teams, their skill and talent, match-ups and luck.
Look at Louisville. Coming into the Tournament, they were the runner-up in the Big East Tournament. They had won seven of their last nine. Beaten teams like Pitt, UConn and Notre Dame. They looked like the second hottest team in the Big East. They came out and laid an egg against Morehead St. Maybe they would have come back to win if Knowles hadn’t gotten hurt in the second half, but would you, did you in your bracket expect that?
Remember Pitt last year? Absolutely dismantled Oakland in the opening game and then lost to Xavier. Or how about a few years back, when Pitt won the Big East Tournament? They throttled some poor team and then played horribly against Michigan State to bow out early. The year Pitt went a Scottie effin’ Reynolds lay-up short of the Final Four, Pitt putzed around for most of the game against ETSU.
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.
Is that how you feel? That because Pitt started out rusty and played a less than outstanding first half, that the final score masked issues?
Nah. Sorry. I wasn’t that worried or bothered. UNC-Ashville was playing as hard as they could in the first half and piled up the fouls trying to match Pitt. Pitt dominated on the boards. They were rusty in the first half. Shooting poorly, more than anything else — 11-30. The defense was there, however, and Pitt pulled away steadily in the second half.
Media recap tomorrow.
Next up, Butler. They got by ODU in the final second — literally with a Matt Howard basket as time expired. Now I won’t lie. Butler makes me nervous. A guy like Howard has the potential to be streaky with his shooting from outside. And if he is dragging Nasir Robinson outside on shots, it hurts Pitt for rebounding. Then there’s Shelvin Mack.
And yes, Pitt players know they have to play better in the first half.
Indiana native McGhee, who grew up about 40 miles northeast of Butler, knows Pitt can’t afford any more slow starts.
“We played real sluggish in the first half,” McGhee said. “We didn’t move the ball well. We had some careless turnovers. If you do that against a good team like Butler, you are going to burn yourself down into a hole.”
Butler-Pitt is set for 7:10 pm on Saturday, March 19.
Adjust your life accordingly.
There are drumbeats along the Monongahela, albeit hearsay I’ll remind readers, saying that four transfers “depending on what happens during the spring practices” might happen. The gist of this is that two TEs and two QBs might be thinking there are greener pastures elsewhere given that Coach Graham is instituting a new system on offense. Hell, with just the tempo at which they are practicing I’m surprised players aren’t walking away in droves – it would kill 99% of us PITT fans.
So, let the speculation begin!! One fact that floats to memory is that Todd Graham mentioned a while back that Chris Mike had been moved from FB to TE. Perhaps the HC sees the TE position more like an H-Back as opposed to the traditional TEs we are used to. Another thing to keep an eye on as the practices are reported. But those are the two offensive positions that will be impacted the most by the new system.
We probably all expected transfers to happen given the turmoil of the December – January personnel moves and the different approach to football that Todd Graham has brought into the program. We also had to be aware that it is a fact that the pro-style system the players were recruited to play in no longer exists for the most part. Wannstedt was able to sell to recruits and their families the number of players he put into NFL camps each year, which may not be the case so much any longer.
I think it is safe to say that all of us PITT fans hope this isn’t true and it may not be, but if it is… so be it. Life rears its ugly head sometimes and these players certainly have a right to choose whatever college football career path they want. Personally, I hate it when a kid transfers away from the University of Pittsburgh because, aside from football, I think they are missing out on what could be a wonderful educational opportunity in a vibrant city… but that’s just me. However, these players do have high aspirations of continuing on in professional football after college and it is natural for a young man to chase that dream.
That said, sometimes what a kid feels in the beginning of a change isn’t necessarily what he’ll feel after he gets accustomed to it. This may well be chatter from some players who just don’t know what the immediate future holds so they are anxious about it.
On another note – the 2011 PITT Football Spring Prospectus has hit the street. It is a large download and already events are making some info outdated, but it holds a ton of interesting stuff about the program.
Okay. I can’t liveblog today. The game tips right when I have to pick up my daughter. Just comment away here. Right now, I’ve switched to the ODU-Butler game.
Let’s see, the local ties of UNC Ashville. A headcoach from Edgewood, who chose NC State over Pitt in the 60s.
Biedenbach, who still has family in Pittsburgh, had narrowed his college choices to N.C. State and Pitt.
But when N.C. State’s Everett Case — the legendary coach Dixon just passed for most wins in the first eight seasons — and assistant Press Maravich came calling, Biedenbach headed for Raleigh, N.C., to become a two-time, all-ACC selection.
“I considered Pitt strong,” he said. “I liked the ACC, and at that time Pitt was averaging about 500 fans a game. I love Pittsburgh. I’m a big Steelers fan. (N.C. State grad) Bill Cowher and I are good friends.”
500 fans/game? Yeesh. Makes the turnouts during the worst of the Willard era seem packed.
Just a final reminder to sign up and play the PittBlather Bracket game.
Fabulous Cheap Leftover Prizes for the winner.
As some filler before todays practice, let’s look at what PITT has going on in the most important position on the field. Obviously we’ll see numerous position battles at other spots, maybe even most of them on offense and defense before the dust settles – but QB is always the position which holds the fan’s interest the most. Here at PITT we hold one past player up as The Benchmark for the position; Dan Marino. Understandable as he did great things for us and led us to what was the most recent run of success we have had since cars have been built with automatic transmissions. Ever since then we PITT fans have wanted a kid under center who can thread the needle with power on his throws and make quick-trigger decisions that always turn out well… at least that is our memories of Marino, right?
Well, the truth is that Dan Marino’s college reputation was built largely on the backs of one of the most talented teams, top to bottom and year in and year out over his four years at PITT, that college football has seen. This is almost always how legends are made. Not to take away from Dan the Man – he was a great QB, but he also had a ton of help.
Too bad we don’t have that now. What we have now is the great unknown as a team due to pretty drastic changes from one head coach to another. If we could point to, let’s say, 17 of 22 positions and say we have solid returning kids there then it would be easier for us to accept that our returning QB would also hold onto the starter’s job. That may not be the case in 2011.
[EDITOR NOTE: Reed is going to be helping with spring football. So much happening. Even I have a finite amount of time available. Reed has been a longtime commenter here at this blog and has a great love of Pitt football. Much thanks to Reed for jumping into the breach.]
Hello folks, Chas has asked me to chip in and help out with this Blog’s coverage of the PITT football team’s spring practices. Chas is busy with PITT basketball team’s NCAA tournament coverage and since we all hope that goes into April, I readily agreed to do so.
Some of you may recognize my name from other message boards. I’m pretty opinionated but will try to make these entries as entertaining and helpful as possible without too much personal input — however, I am unemployed at the time and have nothing else to do so I can’t guarantee anything. One other point — I have no access to any actual practices or meetings and I live 250 miles away from PITT, so whatever I pass on is gleaned from other published sources — news media, blogs, videos, etc. No inside info here and if I state my opinion I’ll say so. That said, here goes nothing…
The 1st round was technically, last night. I don’t know anyone that actually calls it that. If the NCAA is so eager to avoid any stigma with “play-in” games, maybe just call it “The Opening Round” and still make Thursday/Friday “1st Round.” I think people might actually be accepting of that if you make just a small concession that the Tuesday/Wednesday games are not the same as the true start of the tourney. More like an introduction.
The point, which was quickly lost, was that Pitt will play UNC-Ashville on Thursday.
“We’re real excited, everybody’s ready to go,” Dixon said.
UNC Asheville (20-13) won the Big South Conference championship. The team’s first impression of the Bulldogs came from watching a first-round game live rather than film that had been edited and dissected.
“It changes a lot because you get a better feel for what the team is capable of doing,” senior Brad Wanamaker said.
When watching film, “It shows a lot of their strengths,” Wanamaker said. “It really doesn’t show their weaknesses. When you watch a game live you see little weaknesses in a team, and for us to watch it as a team [Tuesday night], it’s going to be great.”
UNC-Ashville will probably make Pitt (fans) a little nervous during the game. Simply because of a kid named Dickey, who showed he can bomb away from outside. UNC-Ashville can also play inside a bit, so Pitt will get challenged for rebounds.
Thanks as always to Luke for setting things up and running the bracket. I’m behind in so many other things, it’s one last thing to try and get to.
Okay, here’s the prize set-up for the winner.
— $50 Barnes & Noble gift card
— a couple (cheap) Pitt t-shirts that I picked up at the Pitt Stop (Size L only).
This is in addition to the regifted schwag collection that carries over from the football bowl challenge since that was unclaimed:
– 8 GB jump drive in the form of Nike branded military dog tags
– Padded black Nike drawstring bag
– Jim Beam branded flask
– Brewzkey bottle opener
– Flying Dog branded pint glass (and if you are of legal drinking age, a good beer to pour into it)
— this t-shirt in size Large
So if you haven’t done your bracket. Head here to follow the instructions.
There’s a lot of stuff I have to get to. On the blog, elsewhere on-line, and of course in the offline world.
This is one of those things I’ve been meaning to get to for some time.
The next Big East TV contract looks to be better than the last. Of course, given how far behind the last contract was compared to all the other BCS conferences, that’s not exactly a huge stunner.
The Big East Conference may get as much as $460 million for multiyear television contracts to its college basketball and football games, media analysts said.
The conference, which has 16 members for basketball, may get an increase close to the 230 percent that the Atlantic Coast Conference received when News Corp. (NWSA)’s Fox and Walt Disney Co. (DIS)’s ESPN got in a bidding war, RBC Capital’s David Bank said.
The Big East’s six-year, $200 million contract with Disney’s ESPN network runs through the end of the 2012 season. Commissioner John Marinatto said in December that boosting television fees is a priority for the conference, which has hired former National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to help. Interest from ESPN and other broadcasters, including Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)’s Versus and Time Warner Inc. (TWX)’s Turner network, may increase the league’s income, analysts said.
Now this comes with a lot of caveats and needs perspective on the numbers.
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