There has been a lot of chatter in the media, blogs and the message boards regarding Todd Graham’s seemingly superior attitude when it comes to talking about how the players have performed this season. This was evident in a recent Post-Gazette Q&A:
Q: Why does Todd Graham have such a hard time complimenting his players? This week he called Tino Sunseri’s performance “average” even though he set a Heinz Field record.
ZEISE: I think there was a little more at work with Tino Sunseri and Todd Graham than meets the eye. Simply put — Tino Sunseri sometimes gets a little overconfident after a good performance (see the two games aftter South Florida) and I think Graham would like him to stay humble and hungry and that’s what he was getting at. He obviously knows Sunseri had an excellent day but he feels like he needed to make it clear that the Panthers have a long, long way to go before they are really and truly operating the offense at a high enough level.
Remember what Zeise is referring to? After the USF game Sunseri strutted into the post-game interview room and proclaimed, without being asked a question, “Didn’t I tell ya’all that we were close, didn’t I?”
Zeise reports it as this: Sunseri got really happy after the South Florida game – he came into the media room after that game and said “Didn’t I tell ya’all that we were close…” – and then he played like, well, this is a G-rated blog so I will just say he played poorly for two games.
I can say it. He played like crap.
What Sunseri said bears repeating as the way it was presented was so arrogant as to be almost unbelievable. We all saw what happened after that – 18/39 for 165 yards and three INTs in our next two horrible losses. A stretch of such terrible QB play which I can’t remember happening before in recent history
So, given that grand pronouncement as a precedent, Zeise describes what Coach Graham counters with after Sunseri’s very good offensive performance against UCONN:
I will tell you what I told Tino, that we played average but we can play a lot better than that,” Graham said. “I was pleased with the performance but it was not a great performance. The one thing that was great about this game was not turning the football over. If we had not taken three sacks then it would have been a good performance.”
This is what Sunseri does and what Graham has to work to avoid. Sunseri plays well one week and craps out the next. His doing this isn’t confined to this year either. Last season he had two good games in a row mid-season against SYR and RU then finished out the year in the most mediocre way. But his head swells pretty quickly and that has led to problems on the field and in the locker room over the past two seasons.
I see what Graham is doing and agree, he has got to be deathly afraid that the pattern will repeat itself Saturday evening against Cincinnati. As written in the P-G’s Q&A:
And he (Sunseri) apparently didn’t have the greatest of practices the first two days after the UConn game, either. So I think Graham’s primary goal is to make sure Sunseri understands that the success he has had has been a matter of working hard, paying attention to details and most importantly, staying humble and hungry.
It isn’t confined to Sunseri of course. Chas Alecxih nailed it when he said…
“We go in there (to Rutgers), and we were the clear big dogs,” Alecxih said, “and they played harder and they beat us.”
“Beating a ranked opponent on ESPN, Thursday night, you can get overconfident,” he said. “I don’t want to say we got complacent, but we might have been feeling ourselves a little too much. But now we know anybody can beat anybody. So, we are not going to let that happen again.”
Good. We’ll see if that holds true on Saturday night.
Other notes. It looks like the coaching staff is getting pretty fed up with Lucas Nix not chomping at the bit to get back onto the field. They reported earlier this week that Nix was going to start this game, and then they backed off from that. From the Tribune Review:
The expected return of senior Lucas Nix from a left knee injury and center Ryan Turnley’s insistence on playing with two injured feet may boost Pitt’s offensive line. “Somehow, he finds a way to go out there and play,” line coach Spencer Leftwich said of Turnley.
Nix has missed nearly half the season with a left knee injury, but he is ready to return to the starting lineup. “We expect that he can play,” Leftwich said. “We’ll see what happens Saturday. He is practicing well, and I think he is going to be able to do it. If he is able…”
Graham has continually championed Turnley’s guts in getting out there with his injuries and it has always followed questions about Nix’s return. Only the player should be able to give himself the green light, but there have been a lot of questions regarding Nix’s reluctance to get back in.
As linked above, Ejuan Price’s playing time has dwindled due Todd Thomas being back from injury and Greg Williams’ play. Huh. They are seeing something I don’t about Williams but then again they are the coaches. I’m just glad Price has gotten so much playing time already – that sets him up nicely for 2012 and beyond.
I guess my Sheard jersey was a smart move, lol.
Is he still a starter in CLE?
Reed, don’t put so much emphasis on Tino’s over confidence after uSF — remember he also stunk vs Utah and couldn’t possibly be overconfident after Rutger’s.
Face it … Rutgers and Utah have much better defenses than USF and UConn and also had the best strategy for defending Pitt .. which had no answers. Overconfidence is just another smokescreen.
The FAN keeps on beating up Coach Graham on the “average” comment. If Tino was overconfident in the past, then Coach Graham was correct in limiting his praise. Besides, I’m not going to say Sunseri or the offense played amazing when they only scored 35 against a bad UConn team.
And BTW, I vividly remember Graham’s post-game comments that the putrid offense vs Rutgers was not the fault of the QB. Further, nobody can blame Tino for being over confident vs Utah after the Rutgers debacle.
I am not in total agreement with the comments from The Fan but there is a larger measure of objectivity there since thosguys are emotionally involved with the team like everyone here .. and seems to take sides.
No doubt that the failure of Tino being able to throw the long pass makes Pitt easier to defend .. but there are many variables.
Todd Graham, IMO was paying Sunseri a compliment when he said his performance was “average” because he has had more than one outing that has been God Awful, really stinking out the place against Utah the previous week.
How anybody on this squad can pretend to be over confident is beyond me at ANY point in this season!????
The only “dog” this team should identify themselves with is “Underdog” as in “we’re not good enough to be expected to beat this team” no matter who that team may be from week to week through the rest of the season.
Now to be clear, I’m not trashing this team or any player on it. What I’m saying is keep your eye on the ball, work hard to get better everyday, play like your life depends on it and start surprising people that you can bring a win home week after week when you’re not supposed to.
That starts in two days against a team that is easily good enough to put Pitt over it’s knee and give us a good spankin if we don’t so up with the correct attitude come game time.
Keep you mouths shut and just win baby! HTP!
My points are these:
1) his effectiveness vs USF and UConn, and ineffectiveness vs Utah and Rutgers have much more to do with the opponent that with his attitude
2) the backhanded comments and inferences by Coach Graham which make it sound like all of the good offesneive games are due to his system, and all of the bad games are due to the players are crap … and by this, he comes off as arrogant as Tino does. This is especially true when he makes a claim that Tino should have passed for 500 yds, meanwhile, his last year’s team averaged only 300 yds .. and his 09 team was even worse.
I mean, any system can be effective if you have the talent to execute it .. big deal!
Notice that the WRs Graham is recruiting are all speedy guys who can move with the ball.
I know Graham shoots off his mouth and sometimes says things that just don’t add up. The crack about ‘500 yards is what we are used to’ for example. An easy reference check shows that his offense didn’t have a 500 yard passing game in the last three years at least.
But I think that Graham knows his players listen to and read his interviews… he knows that the players feel this is still all brand new and a bit overwhelming and he’s is still in the mode of convincing players that this offense will succeed when they trust it and play as coached in it.
So every chance to reiterate that he takes.
As far as the Uconn performance being average, against that pathetic offense it WAS.
I posted this previously, the Western Michigan QB, Alex Carder threw for 479 YARDS AND FIVE (5)
TD’S with a 183 QB rating AGAINST UCONN in WMU’s 38-31 win.
And Gino Smith of WVU threw for 450 yards and Four (4) TD’s and had a 173 QB rating in leading them to a 43-16 blowout of Uconn.
Sunseri threw for 419 yards and Two (2) TD’s with a 168 QB rating in leading Pitt to 28 points in a 35-20 win. (Ronald Jones threw for the other Pitt TD.
So while it was an excellent game for Sunseri(and more so in his mind), I believe Graham when looking at Uconn’s pathetic defense and that a 2nd rate MAC team threw for close to 500 yards, believes 28 points is AVERAGE at best against Uconn.
And I concur.
Bostick said on The Fan this evening that Tino understands what TG is saying and that he accepts the challenge TG put out there. Maybe Graham is getting through. I guess we’ll see on Saturday.
Q: Why does Tino Sunseri possess such a scattergun arm in games? We’ve seen him overthrow his guy by 20 feet, then bounce-hit him in the shoes the next throw. It is nerves? (except since he’s a junior, that should be long-gone by now). It is something structural (thus, hopefully, correctable), like “happy feet” or poor shoulder position?
Terry Smith, San Clemente, Calif.
ZEISE: You are right. It is indeed all about his happy feet. And this is something they have worked on and worked on and worked on with him. When he drops back, if he sets his feet and throws it the ball will be accurate and with some velocity, even the deep ones. But when you notice him drop back and start to do that little dance (he hops a little bit), you can almost be assured it is going to be a bad pass. These little fundamentals — the consistency he lacks in them — is what has held him back from really becoming the kind of quarterback coaches believe he can be. It is a focus thing — he needs to concentrate on the fundamentals every time because when he does, he is a much different quarterback.
I think Zeise simplifies things a bit when discussing Sunseri’s problems with consistency but he makes a good point about form here. The sad part is that this is Sunseri’s fourth year with rather decent coaching and still he reverts back to old habits.
BTW, what the hell happened to Brandon Lindsey?