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August 19, 2011

It’s All About Tino

Filed under: Football,Players — Chas @ 1:28 pm

I hope Tino Sunseri has had some long talks with Bill Stull as he gets ready for the upcoming season. If there is one person that knows what is coming for Tino from the fans this year, it is Stull. An underdiscussed thing that Sunseri will face this year, is not the new system. It’s not the new coaching staff. It is the skepticism to outright hostility from the fans based on what he did last year.

There have been no shortage of stories on Sunseri working very hard to become a better QB and better leader for Pitt. This article was encouraging, because he openly admitted to weak spots in his game last year — that were completely obvious to every fan watching.

In July, Sunseri was tabbed to take part in the Manning Passing Academy. He was one of only 30 college QBs invited to participate. To serve as a college counselor to high school QBs and learn from Archie, Eli and Peyton Manning. Along with coaches like Jon Gruden.

How valuable was the camp? I don’t know. Maybe it just serves to give Sunseri some extra confidence and motivation. Maybe the little tips and extra things learned will help.

“The biggest thing you could watch as they worked out was that they gave 100% every time,” Sunseri said. “And they expected the ball to be a certain way, and if it wasn’t there, they told us, even if it could be caught by the receiver.

“They had certain expectations of themselves, and that’s what you could see. You could see what kind of demand they had of what they expected of each play, and you could see that it really bothered them when it wasn’t there.”

Sunseri, who led Pitt to an 8-5 record in his first season as a starter in 2010, spent an extended amount of time with Eli Manning during the weekend. First, he worked in a small group with the younger Manning where the Giants’ quarterback broke down his own footwork in detail. Then the focus of the drill turned to the college quarterbacks, with Manning watching and critiquing Sunseri and his colleagues.

Sunseri also picked up more than a few pointers from Peyton Manning. Mannings study habits and preparation are the stuff of legend, and Sunseri got a taste of that work ethic at the camp.

“[Manning told] us how he looked at things and how he broke it down and how he has a regimen. He keeps it the same way each week; he wants to make sure that he’s on a certain schedule so that he’s always understanding and by the end of the week, one, he understands, and two, he doesn’t forget what he looked at on Monday.

“[Manning also talked about] how he was able to bring his guys and make sure how they worked out on the field, how they went over routes, how they got timing down, how they were able to make sure people were on certain routes and certain yard lines and be there and expect where the ball was.

“Those were two things that I really took away from the camp and understand and I can apply to this month and the season.”

By all accounts and reports from training camp, Sunseri has been very good. Sharp. Showing a very good grasp of the new offense. Crisper passes, and the system is being tweaked to his strengths — rolling out, short to medium passes downfield. None of that will matter once the season begins.

The minute he underthrows a receiver. The minute he tosses and interception. The minute he makes any sort of mistake — the grumbling, complaining will be there. Why? Because it will confirm everything said and/or believed about Sunseri last year.

Sunseri may have a fresh start and new beginning with the new coaching staff, but the fansĀ  still have the perceptions and biases from last year. The performances against Miami, WVU, Kentucky last year will be treated as the typical performance against good opponents.

People will still hold the actions of Dave Wannstedt regarding Sunseri against him. The fact that Wannstedt never actually let anyone else compete for the QB job despite claims that the position was open. The belief/conspiracy theory that Wannstedt handed Sunseri the job because Sunseri’s dad Sal is a crony of Wannstedt/a Pitt alum with significant booster backing that forced it/or any of the other explanations created. That added to the hostility towards Sunseri in the season. The perception that Sunseri didn’t even earn the job as starter.

This brings it back to Bill Stull. He went through much of that in 2009. His abysmal finish to the season in the Sun Bowl. His tailed off performance after his concussion versus Rutgers. That’s what was remembered by the fans regarding Stull heading into his senior year.

As Pitt headed into camp, he didn’t even look like the best QB early in the camp. Sunseri came out looking good in most reports, and there was no shortage in message boards and the comments on this site that Sunseri should be the guy. Or Pat Bostick be given another shot. At the very least, there should be a real competition for the starting QB job. Yet there was never even a hint that a change would be made at QB.

Even as camp went further along and Stull re-asserted himself as the best QB in practice according to reports, there was plenty of skepticism, doubt and hostility. Why? Because of how Stull looked in 2008. Not just because of how he finished the season, but his overall mediocrity. That his best wasn’t going to be enough for Pitt to compete and win the conference. Stull went into the start of the 2009 season with a lot of fans against him.

As big an issue as anything else, that is what Tino Sunseri has to be prepared to face on September 3.





Oh, and BTW, the Iowa game would be the perfect time in our schedule to sneak up on an opponent and hand them a slobber knocker. How would you like to prepare for a team that you have only two games of film on, against inferior opposition at that, using probably a very vanilla O & D schemes up to that point, but still, that is totally different than anything that that team had erve run in the past? Then Graham gets creative and installs a few new plays on both sides of the ball for the Iowa game, we come on like gang busters, hang say 40 points on them and by game’s end the Hawkeyes with glazed eyes are wondering “did we get the license plate number of the bus that just ran over us”? Just a pipe dream of mine right now, but wouldn’t that be a fantastic storyline to come home with anticipating a home game against ND next on the schedule?

Comment by Dr. Tom 08.21.11 @ 9:28 am

We need a new post this is to long .

Comment by FRANKCAN 08.21.11 @ 11:25 am

I disagree with those who claim 7-5 (or maybe even 6-6) would not represent failure. Here is why–

Back in the day when college teams played a 10 game schedule, Pitt did not purposely schedule two “cupcakes” (one or both being 1AA schools-or the equivalent). In that era anything worse than 7-3 (or perhaps 6-4 as a stretch) was a bad year. today’s games 11 & 12 are strictly designed to pad the results.

So, we now play 2 additional games, both of which are (or should be) guaranteed wins.

That means, with two guaranteed wins, the old days 6-4 is now 8-4 and its 7-3 is now 9-3.

The corollary is that 7-5 = 5-5 and 6-6 = 4-6. There is no way any Pitt fan, under any circumstances, should accept anything less than 9-3 or 8-4 as the floor for measuring a coach’s success.

Comment by pitt1972 08.21.11 @ 11:36 am

I really think that Pitt is being underrated by everone and that WVU is being severely overrated. I say this not because I am a Pitt fan, but because, it seems like both programs are going through similar situations and that Pitt seems to have a little less turmoil and more talent than WVU. This team needs to play with a chip on their shoulders and show everyone that on gameday, they are there to play and to be noticed. I for one am so excited for this season to start and have extremelly high expectations. Am I missing something that the media sees that predicts that WVU will be the better team? Pitt has a lot of talent at the core of their team, Wannstedt recruited well, he just didn’t coach well. Holgorson is still a wild card with little if any head coaching experience. TG has me fired up and hopefully his team is fired up as well. We are going to be more than fine this season and everyone needs to sit back, relax and enjoy the show that TG and the Panthers are going to put on. We are going to surprise a lot of people, so just hang on and Hail to PITT!!!

Comment by henryhudson228 08.21.11 @ 12:23 pm

PITT1972 That is what i have said from day one 9 and 3 at the very least it not like this was a down and out team . with better coaching last year we would have been 10 and 2. and ps 8 and 4 is not good enough.

Comment by FRANKCAN 08.21.11 @ 12:25 pm

henryhudson228 you are right abought WVUthey just put out a call to the student body for walkons for deph how come are people hurt or what ?

Comment by FRANKCAN 08.21.11 @ 12:36 pm

Last year, Pitt had the least amount of returning starters in the BE (11), while co-champs WVU had 18 and UConn had 17. I assume that Pitt was picked No. 1 pre-season last year because of Romeus, Sheard, Baldwin and Lewis … supposedly 4 of the league’s top players.

This year, Pitt has more starters returning tha WVU, and much more depth in most areas. Sunseri is bound to be much better.

However, as we should know by now, pre-season No. 1 picks in the BE are pretty much meaningless … thus, WVU may finish 1st or maybe this is the year where USF finally catches up with its talent and/or Butch Jones will get Cincy back on track … the league turns out weaker this year than last (a possibility.)

I can see Pitt winning the BE, but they finish in the middle of the pack also.

Comment by wbb 08.21.11 @ 2:31 pm

Let’s not forget that 7-5 technically won the Big East last year. Being picked to win the BE is like winning the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest. I think 9-3 (which translates really to 5-1 or 6-0 in the conference with our non-con) would be a great season, not the floor of achievement.

Comment by Cnorwood 08.21.11 @ 2:43 pm

link to pittscriptblog.com

new basketball commit — and a backcourt man

Comment by wbb 08.21.11 @ 3:09 pm

Wow, I didn’t know we had the talent and were “that” loaded to go 11-1, even with Bear Bryant coaching?????? Hey, I’m all for it??

@Melvin, how’s your head doing??? Funny stuff!!

Comment by Dan 08.21.11 @ 4:00 pm

For you younger guys I found this on youtube.

In case you never saw one of the greatest scenes in movie history. From one of the best movies that most people have never seen.

link to youtube.com

@Dr. Tom thanks for the kind words. It was Bookers and it was quite an interesting night,
shall we say.

Comment by melvinbennett 08.21.11 @ 4:08 pm

One other tid bit about our latest BBall commit: Made both free throws with 4 seconds left in the DC City League Championship game in March to give his team the win.

And by the way, I’m sure @Melvin is fine. I’m a little worried about his consort’s @$$, though. Comedy.

Comment by Cnorwood 08.21.11 @ 4:12 pm

Youtube for James Robinson. Looks so solid:

link to youtube.com

Comment by steve 08.21.11 @ 4:18 pm

And bright as well.

link to youtube.com

Hail to Pitt!

Comment by steve 08.21.11 @ 4:28 pm

DO ANY OF YOU EVER THINK THAT YOUR WIFE IS NUTS THEY CAN DTIVE YOU UP A WALL SOME TIMES

Comment by FRANKCAN 08.21.11 @ 5:02 pm

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