In what is increasingly becoming a one-horse race, Tino Sunseri continues to impress the coaching staff as the de facto starting QB.  Paul Zeise has, in what is a departure of sorts for him, a two page article on this subject.  Somehow Zeise swings and misses by giving the PITT team a 9-4 record in 2010 but other than that it’s a good look at where Sunseri is at this point.

But just to be contrary I’ll also disagree with this statement: “Sunseri improved as the season went on and felt more comfortable in the offense. Now he has been asked to start over again in a new offense, and he believes the transition is almost complete.” Really, Sunseri hit a high point in mid-season then went downhill over the last six games, but why nitpick when writing a puff piece?

Coach Graham weighs in on the progress so far in these spring practices and how it compares to his other coaching gigs… from the Trib-Review:

“We are coming together as a football team,” he said. “We are mentally way ahead of where I thought we would be. We coached them hard, put them in situations where they really weren’t in shape to go at.”

He said spring practice at Pitt went better than it did in initial drills at his previous coaching outposts (Rice and Tulsa).  One similarity: “We didn’t have the speed we wanted, but we developed it,” he said.

In his only season at Rice, the Owls were 7-6 and went to their first bowl game in 45 years. The next year, at Tulsa, he led the team to a 10-4 record.  “The difference (at Pitt) is we are playing a heckuva lot tougher opponents,” he said.

Well Todd, you have heckuva lot better athletes than you did at those schools also so we’ll still expect a very good first season – whether you have the ‘speed’ you want or not.

Graham also says:

“I feel really good about how we have been able to move the football in the run game this spring,” he said.  “That is going to be the key to our success how we run the football. The inside-zone will still be the bread and butter of our system – it’s the key to everything we’re doing.  It’s direct runs. If you want to be a physical team, you have to run the ball straight down.  That’s the inside zone and power.”

Of course, Ray Graham is going to be a bit tired after carrying the ball 500 times this season unless we find a back up RB.

In the post-practice quotes the HC gives us a clue as to why the team is struggling with the new offense…“Today was a helmet day. We have three helmet days that we have to get in – we had two the very first two days. We saved this one to give their legs some rest and let them get their feet back underneath them.”… Perhaps if they practiced and scrimmaged with their helmets on more often the players wouldn’t have short-term memory loss and could remember what the High Octane offense entails.

And in what be music to PITT fan’s ears he says this about his approach to late in the fourth quarter:

“We’re going to do whatever we need to do to win games. If you have a three-point or four-point lead with four minutes left in the game, you need to get the football and go. If you want to win games consistently you have to be able to do that. It’s a statement that you have to make. If you want to win a game, you have to go out there and make three first downs. Those are the things that we were talking about. We have to be aware of that.”

Good God Coach, what on earth do you mean when you say this?  That kind of thinking has been forbidden at PITT for the last five years.

Pat Bostick gives us a preview of the Blue-Gold matchup at the Spring Game.

One thing to watch for and this is where the offense had some troubles in the practice I watched, is the communication from the sideline to the field.

“We’ll go at the pace that we are used to, which is pretty brisk,” Graham said. “We hope to get about 60 offensive snaps with each group.” That’s 120 plays, or one every 15 seconds or so. Hold on to your chair and brace yourself, because the game is going to be moving fast. This fast-paced tempo will also put a premium on coach-to-player communication. Coaches in the press box will have to be efficient in their communication to the coaches and players who are signaling on the sideline, and those play-callers and signalers will have to do the same when communicating to the quarterback on the field.

And here’s a quote from Pat that cracks me up…“That means Pitt fans will get their first glimpse of speed demon Buddy Jackson on kickoff returns, new starting placekicker and kickoff man Kevin Harper, and punter Matt Yoklic. Special teams will help make April’s spring game feel like a Big East contest in October.” OK, but let’s hope that would be a Big East game against Syracuse or Rutgers and not the games we have seen against WVU or UCONN of late.

Here is the latest post-game video with Graham, Patterson and Magee – again the only link I could find that works is through Facebook.  PITT needs to fix this. Facebook is only to be used for arranging clandestine love affairs with old high school girlfriends.

Magee mentions the Des Brown (walk-on RB) has done well and the HC reiterates that Brown has been a ‘shining spot’ in the offense and may do well in the fall.  Also rsFR Kevin Weatherspoon gets mentioned for the first time this spring – it will be good to have some depth at that WR slot.

Patterson talked about how Tristan Roberts, Gruder and Shane Gordon are doing at the ILB positions and also how the 2^nd string DL are pushing the starters.  That is one unit I have no worries about – we have some very good talent there on the DL.

Odds and Ends:

Pat Bostick did a great interview with The Fan radio station discussing the new PITT offense.  He clearly knows what he’s talking about and presents himself very well.  Stay tuned for some more Bostick news as the season gets closer – he’s been impressing the PGH media people left and right.

It looks like we won’t see any punt returning done at the Spring Game.

For anyone attending the game and who comments on here regularly – I’ll be hosting some free beer at the Tilted Kilt (the old Calico Jack’s) before the Spring Game to celebrate my retirement from the Coast Guard – stop by if you have a chance.

Who is the author?

“In and out of the three rivers, streams of death in life, whose banks were rotting into mud, whose waters, thickened with slime, invaded the Southside practice facilities and seemed to writhe at the PITT players in the extremity of an impotent despair. Nowhere could we stop long enough to get a particularized impression of how Sunseri was executing the passing game, but the general sense of vague and oppressive wonder grew upon me. It was like a weary pilgrimage amongst hints for nightmares similar to the WVU and UCONN games last season. Nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the practices, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on the sidelines assuring me earnestly there was a camp of opponents–he called them enemies!–hidden out of sight somewhere.”

But the reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the 2011 PITT team’s heart of darkness.”

Next Practice: Spring Game, April 16^th.