Jerry DiPaiola of the Trib-Review writes about the WPIAL alumni on the DL for PITT.

Ezell is playing behind and learning from Caragein, who is entering his senior season and will start at nose tackle next to senior Chas Alecxih. “I can be better just watching him,” Ezell said of Caragein. “I told Myles I need him to stay on me, work me, tell me if I am doing wrong.” Alecxih likens Ezell to “Godzilla.” “He’s a big, strong dude,” he said. “He’s going to be a force when he gets his technique down a little better.

Yikes, don’t let Ezell go to Japan anytime soon, Godzilla is the last thing they need right now.  But in all seriousness, this is, to me, what college sports is all about: “I might be the only one in my family that I know of to graduate college,” he said, puffing out his massive chest.  “I am going to try to get that.”  Don’t just try Ezell, do. There are things more important than sports and with those circumstances your getting that degree is one of them.  Head Coach Todd Graham appreciates the WPIAL kids’ dispositions though… What Graham does like is his young linemen’s demeanor. “Our guys have some mean and nasty in them,” he said. “They play irritated. I like that.”… If that’s the case let’s hope the whole defense gets hemorrhoids.  There is nothing more irritating then that is there?

PITT has produced the second installment of the Spring Camp Insider Show and it’s another great and in-depth production.  This one is 27 minutes long – all PITT all the time.  It starts off with an interview with Devon Street and goes from there.  Again, it is the coaches post-practice videos interspersed with footage and interviews.  It really is nice that PITT is providing this much info for us this season.

The blog Cardiac Hill has a short piece on Buddy Jackson and the staff’s plans for him in 2011.  This quote hits home: “I just need to make sure I catch the ball and get up the field, see that gap and go into it. I am just going to use my speed and do what I have to in order to get that shot in the game. Once I get that ball, I’m seeing the end zone, I want to get there as fast as possible.”  OK, that’s a change from catching the ball after waving your arm over your head and walking off the field as fast as possible that we’ve seen over the last few years.  If Cam Saddler is going to play a bigger role in the offense from the LOS, then let’s not have him back returning kicks if there is a viable alternative.

If you are interested in national recruiting Scouts.com has come out with an updated Top 300 listing.

Everyone loves a homegrown success story and The Pitt News has an article on one with an interview done with PITT alumni Yogi Roth.  Walk-on WR to scholarship player to elite coaching status to on-air personality to columnist for The Onion sports network to social activist (doesn’t this guy every get tired?) … but hey! even with his extensive resume’ guess what his dream job is?

 I get to do the Elite 11 show, where we go around the country, evaluate the top [high school] quarterbacks and choose the top 11 kids to come to LA. When we do the show, I’m not the host necessarily. I get to coach the kids. When I call a game, I feel like I’m coaching the viewer. Now I feel like I know ball better than I ever did because I get to really talk it. I’d love to go coach my dream job, Pitt.

Well Yogi, after we get out of the court-ordered therapy we are in because of the last “Pitt-Guy” coach we had we’ll look you up.  But thanks for remembering where you came from.  Another interesting observation of his is this regarding the High Octane offense:  It’ll be interesting. How is it going to do in November in Heinz Field? I don’t know Graham yet, but everything starts from a two-back set.  Two back set?!  Hell, we’ll go with a four back set or die trying, we are even thinking about incorporating the Old Fumblerooski and making Lucas Nix our ‘fifth back’ sometimes.  And who gives a crap about November?  If Graham doesn’t win in September and October that coaching job you covet may just be open sooner than you think.

The Pitt Network is doing a new video series titled Meet the Football Coaches.  It’s another great product from the PITT SID people who are busting their butts to get as much info to us PITT fans as possible.  This first one is on defensive Coach Patterson, who tells the defensive players they are to be “Mean, nasty and overly aggressive”.  I’ll settle for just plain aggressive thank you.  Pitt had to distinguish it as the “football coaches” because our basketball coaches are either jumping ship or beating other basketball coaches in things that don’t matter.

Here’s an article on how Jon Baldwin is trying to learn from those PITT-NFL success stories that went before him:

Both of these men (Revis and Fitzgerald) while being the best at their position are also two of the most respected guys on the field because of their behavior.  They are always picking up their teammates and never down on their team.  Something Baldwin has had trouble with this offseason by throwing his teammates and coach under the bus giving him a “Diva” label already.  It is something that has affected his draft stock.  If these guys could get to him with that it would help him even more then even learning better techniques.

I hope the first thing they taught him was to shut the hell up.  Secondly, that actually fighting for the reception would probably play well in the NFL.  If he does both those things?  The NFL world will be his oyster.

Here is the 2011 schedule in case anyone wants to start working on their pre-season predictions.

All home games in bold.

Who is the writer?

One morning, as the PITT football player was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug.  He lay on his armour-hard back and saw, as he lifted his head up a little, his brown, arched abdomen divided up into rigid bow-like sections.  From this height his blue and gold Pitt Script blanket, just about ready to slide off completely, could hardly stay in place.  His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes. ‘Why am I wearing Addis when our contract is with Nike?’ He wondered ‘Thank God I get all these shoes for free!’

‘What’s happened to me,’ he thought ‘Just yesterday I went to sleep as a linebacker for the Panthers and now I feel ugly and rotten, like I play for WVU or something’.  It was no dream.  His room, a proper room for a human being, only somewhat too small, lay quietly between the four well-known walls.   Above the table, on which an unpacked collection of hundreds of used jock straps and teeth guards was spread out (the LB was a bit of a hoarder) hung the picture which he had cut out of an illustrated magazine a little while ago and set in a pretty gilt frame.  It was a picture of his idol Hugh Green with a black panther superimposed behind him…

Next practice: Thursday, April 7th.