I had a chance to watch the Panthers practice today.  This is a long report on what I saw and heard so I’m going to split it into two different articles.  In this one I’ll talk about the practice in general, the offense and the offensive players.

First off, let’s talk about the general atmosphere at the Southside facilities…

I got down there about 45 minutes earlier than scheduled and had a chance to stand around in the parking lot and watch the players file past on their way into the indoor practice field.  The OLs were first out of the gate and they are big guys, Lumpy Jacobson actually looks to be the smallest of all of them.  The players were joking around and looked ready to get it underway.  8:00 a.m. and they were bouncing around and grab-assing.  I did get a lot of strange looks as I was unfamiliar to the football staff but as soon as I whipped out my PITT Blather credentials everyone backed off in fear.

The practice atmosphere is really night and day from last year. We visitors had free rein of the sidelines to move as the drills and scrimmage plays progressed up and down the field.  Last year visitors had to stand in a blocked off corner way down by the entry doors and we couldn’t see down field at all. Chryst has thrown the visitation wide open and hasn’t put any restrictions on the SID regarding who or how many may visit.  E. J. Borghetti is pleased in many ways, big time.

In the past, Todd Graham had the media and any visitors stay for only the first 45 minutes of each practice then he closed it off.  Chryst does the exact opposite and allows people stay for the whole practice session so the media doesn’t have to sit around for two hours waiting until they can do interviews after the practice is over.  Today’s session was scheduled for 2 hours and 15 minutes and went to almost three hours, open all the time

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I had a chance to watch the Panthers practice today.  This is a long report on what I saw and heard so I’m going to split it into two different articles. In this one I’ll talk about the defense and the defensive players…

DLs – Both Clemmings and Murphy looked ready to go, played hard and according to some observers who are watching practice every day they think Clemmings should get the Ed Conway Award as most improved player from last season. He’s had “great” spring camp and should show up when the games start.  Murphy is fast as hell for someone his size and is aggressive in his play.  He made a nice strip that caused a fumble on Bennett.  KK Smith has put on weight, a bunch of weight, but was still moving well. Hard to tell about Lippert and Hale – there was so much going on it was hard for a non-football guy to follow everything.  The coaches said that Hale was doing well so far but I couldn’t really tell.

LBs – What everyone wants to know:  Dan Mason was in on every drill and scrimmage play with the 1^st team.  He would start if the opener is tomorrow.  He looks a bit slower to me and not as explosive, but I’m no expert. It was weird to see a player run where there is no up and down movement of their foot. The “foot drop” brace he has on immobilizes the right foot so that it doesn’t drag when moving his leg forward and I think it affects his play.  There were some passes caught on crossing patterns where he was a step behind the receiver. But he also got into the back field on some plays so I think he’ll be somewhat different physically able when summer camp rolls around but his current ability is going to be a factor.  At least I think so.  Some others feel more optimistic.

The starting three LBs going into summer camp will probably be Mason in the middle with Todd Thomas and Shane Gordon on the outside.  Thomas is held out of practices for now and Ejuan Price isn’t getting the reps we thought he would.  Price’s publicly stating that he wants to play MLB rather than the other LB positions probably didn’t help his cause much with this new staff.

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There has to be concerns at this kind of news/rumor. Just trying to keep from hyperventilating.

We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. It is never easy.

You know what’s really depressing? This may be the least depressing topic related to Pitt on which I write today.

The Big East was finally able to put out their schedule for 2012. That means we have dates for all of Pitt’s home and away games. Not to mention times and broadcast info for a chunk of them.

The good news: despite 3 weeknight games, none are at Heinz Field. Other good news. Aside from the Buffalo game, all of Pitt’s road games will be broadcast on either NBC, ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.

The bad news, aside from the home game with VT, the rest of the home games will at best be on the Big East syndicated broadcast. At worst, ESPN3.com. Other bad news, every home game looks like it will be (or should be) a nooner.

I guess the plus side for Pitt ticket sales, is that the lack of guaranteed TV coverage might be an extra incentive for people to buy ticket. Yeah, I’m grasping.

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