On Thursday I posted an article that listed some things I felt would be interesting and important to look for during the Spring Game this year. Here they are below in bold with a snippet of text from that article following in italics.
Can Sunseri carry practice success onto the field under competition? “I want to see if what we are seeing and hearing about Sunseri’s calm demeanor and accurate deep throws in practice can translate into completions at game speed.” All three QBs got a nice amount of reps yesterday and each stayed with the squad they were assigned; Sunseri 1st team, Myers 2nd and Anderson 3rd.
Sunseri did not play to the level which he has been over the last four weeks of practice and in truth was showing more of the same repetitive mistakes we have seen from him during past games. He was overthrowing open receivers and had an INT returned for a TD by Tags. His stats on the day were a mediocre 13-27 for 147 yards and one TD. Rivals.com paints an accurate picture of how things progressed for him in this article:
Quarterback Tino Sunseri completed 13 of 27 passes for 147 yards but missed a number of throws that would have put points on the board. Twice on the first drive, Sunseri overthrew tight end Drew Carswell, once on a flag route then again on a fly where a blown coverage left him wide open. That trend continued as the afternoon wore on.
“I think that guys were running open,” Sunseri said. “You just got to put the ball on people, understand certain route depths and just keep competing.
This quote from Sam Werner’s coverage in the P-G is pouring fuel on the fire as it is just more of the same: “Obviously you’re disappointed you didn’t score, but there’s still positives in that,” Sunseri said. “You moved the football.” Less silver linings and more sunny skies please, enough of the positive attitude after the fact. He did nothing yesterday to dispel the “Practice Hero” label that’s for sure.
What will Mark Myers do when the spotlight is turned on for more than a play or two? “Myers has struggled with the short/intermediate passing game. I watched this happen in practice and I’ll be watching Saturday to see if that is still an albatross around his neck. If it isn’t then new life may be breathed into the competition for the fall.” Well, ramp up the campaign slogans again. Myers made a case yesterday that he is to be reckoned with in summer training camp.
Myers was 10-16 with 167 yards and beautiful 58 yard skinny post TD to Brandon Ifill (remember that name). All spring Myers has been hitting on well thrown deep passes and didn’t disappoint yesterday either by hitting two of them. His passing all around was OK and he was accurate enough overall to complete 63% of his passes but his short passing game still has a way to go.
Having a 16.7 ypc average yesterday doesn’t hurt his case either. I don’t know if he’ll be able to sustain that level of play in August but if he can then all the better for the Panthers. I still think it is a long shot for him to grab the starting position but it is early yet.
Which WRs after Street and Shanahan are going to step up? “Saddler has really been the highlight reel of practice so far so he’ll be the #3 guy I think. The format for the scrimmage is ones vs. ones and twos vs. twos so we should get a decent look at players like Jones, Brinson, Jackson, Salath Williams, Tinker, Ifill and Felder to see how well they can produce when the heat is on.”
What we saw from the WRs looked, to me, to be pretty promising. Aside from Ifill’s long TD and Jones’s short TD the receivers were getting open very well even if they were being missed by the passes. Tinker pulled in another deep Myer’s pass also. There was a lot of WR rotation out there so it was kind of hard to track. Shanahan didn’t play so it will be hard to project just how the receiving platooning will go once the matches begin in ernest. I do think we’ll be pleasantly surprised at the effect this coaching staff will have on the WRs this year. Again, two WRs to watch in training camp are Ifill and Brendon Felder who can catch the ball and has speed to burn.
Which brings us to this question – is Carswell a TE or a WR? “He’s been playing, and doing well at WR in these latter practices. Will we see Carswell split out more and getting passes thrown his way?” WR and that is what he played mostly yesterday. He was wide open for a deep TD but overthrown by Sunseri (ring a bell?). He worked free on some other plays also. He’s a big strong guy and gets down field well so I see him being split out more than in the TE position when the dust settles.
Who will be the third RB coming out of spring camp, Davis or Crockett? “Saturday we’ll see a lot of Isaac Bennett of course since he’s the firm #2 RB. But we know injuries happen to RBs all the time and that we could easily have to dig down to #3 to help carry the load.”
Crockett didn’t play due to injury. Corey Davis looked very quick and effective as did E. J. Banks – who I think would be the Wildcat QB if the staff uses that formation during the season. Here are some stats compiled in a nice overview article by Steve Flinn of the Panthers 24/7 message board:
The Panthers depth in the backfield showed. E.J. Banks ran 13 times for 68 yards and a touchdown, Corey Davis ran 7 times for 41 yards, and Desmond Brown ran 10 times for 32 yards and a touchdown.
But the real question here is if Isaac Bennett is going to take carries away from Ray Graham. He looked absolutely superb yesterday – here is how Rivals described his effort.
In front of 4,607 fans on a rainy afternoon, the Pitt offense went to the ground early and often. Sophomore running back Isaac Bennett ripped off a number of nice runs early and give the Panthers their first big play of the scrimmage.
On the first play of the first team’s second drive, Bennett took the handoff right, cut back and juked defensive end Bryan Murphy, then stiff armed Lloyd Carrington before taking off down the left sideline for a 51-yard run. Bennett had 87 yards on his first six carries and finished with 121 on 23 carries.
Bennett was the star of the day. He’s powerful up the middle, fast and quick in his lateral moves and has deceptive speed once he gets a step free. I was told he’s gained about 20 pounds of muscle over the offseason, from 190 to 210, and it showed.
Shell will have a very hard time leveraging Bennett out of the RB2 position as Bennett has done everything he’s been asked to do and much more this spring. We know that in the past at Wisconsin Chryst rotated and combined three main RBs during the season. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we see Chryst and Rudolph do the same thing this year for us. That will be a good thing especially as it will take the wear and tear away from Ray Graham coming off that injury.
Is Ray Vinopal for real? “As of today he’d probably start at one of the Safety positions. The PITT fans wanted a big hitter back there and they got him in this kid. He’s one of those players who has a ‘nose’ for the ball and is always around the crucial point.”
Yes he is. He was all over the field yesterday and made some very nice tackles on running plays. I was surprised to see that the rumors of Huxtable moving the Safeties up for run support were true in spades. It seemed like there was only one guy deep on some formations, but this plays right into Vinopal’s strengths. He didn’t do anything to hurt his chances at being a starting safety come Sept 1st which I think will happen. Steve Williams was knocking the crap out of a couple of guys out there also; we are going to be nice and deep at Safety.
Can Dan Mason really get back to form? “I wonder is our hearts aren’t getting in over our heads with this kid. Getting back on the field and playing is one thing, excelling at MLB is quite another. Let’s see if our fears are founded or not.”
Mason started with the 1s and played well. To be honest I was concentrating so much on watching the 1st string offense I didn’t get a real feel for how Mason could drop back and cover passes but to me he looked the same he has all spring. That is a good thing. He’ll still have a real test in summer camp to show that he can do all that is required of him but he’ll most probably be starting at MLB. Grigsby played MLB a bit yesterday and looked pretty good also.
Just how fat is K. K. Mosley-Smith? “He was relegated to 2nd string because of his conditioning early on and that’s something we really can’t afford to have happen. Which squad he runs with on Saturday will tell us if he’s gotten back in to the good graces of Huxtable and the DL coach.”
Smith stated yesterday and played a lot of reps. He is still too big and I’m sure the staff will set a weight limit for him to reach by the opening of training camp. It was hard to pay attention to Smith because everyone was watching Aaron Donald wreck the offensive line. He was a force of nature out there yesterday with at least two QB sacks…literally which pissed off the coaching staff as the QBs had green jerseys on.
Is Bryan Murphy the beast we all think he is? “Yes. Wait until you see him with your own eyes. IMO he’ll be the 2013 defensive star for us.” Yes, he’s going to be great for us. ‘Nuff said.
Are we set at DB? “So, how about the new kids back there? Keep an eye on Lafayette Pitts as he’s played very well so far and is pushing for a starting job. The same holds with Cullen Christian. This is a deep unit but I think we’ll see some not so familiar faces getting the most reps in summer camp if they produce in this scrimmage.”
Christian and Carrington started as did Vinopal and Tags at Safety. This didn’t mean much as K’Waun Williams and Pitts were out with injuries. As stated above Steve Williams impressed with his hits, Tags had a Pick-6 and the other DBs were active and competent.
How are the Center-QB exchanges? “Over the last two practices there were some fumbles for just this reason and nothing kills a drive faster than a botched snap.” No mistakes between Sunseri and Turnley but Rowell the 2nd string Center and Myers. Nothing to be overly worried about though. Sacco got time in as the 3rd string Center.
Finally… will Tino Sunseri be booed after his first incompletion? “Odds are that he won’t unless it is on a deep post pattern. Then we’ll see a lot of food stuffs being throw on the field in protest. Hopefully it will have been bought here to keep it in the family.”
Commendably, I didn’t hear any boos out there at all yesterday. There may have been one or two but I couldn’t hear them with my new Spring Hat on. I walked around during the scrimmage so I overheard a lot of comments and “Same Old Tino” remarks but no booing.
Speaking of the Sunseri family, I was introduced to Gus Sunseri yesterday and had an interesting conversation about the interaction between Graham and his nephew last season. Too bad he didn’t bring his wife along… Real nice, even when I told him I was pretty critical of Tino in the past, and an open guy and it was interesting to hear what he had to say about 2011. Pretty much cemented the thoughts I have about the external pressures Graham put on Sunseri at by being a complete ass as a HC.
Note: It was a great day and nice venue for both tailgating and watching a bit of PITT football. Thanks everyone.
Everyone around me said the same thing…”Tino’s in mid-season form.” I hope Myers steps up and wins the job- there is REAL potential there.
i have no hope for tino he wont change he cant rhrow deep and he is like a chicken with its head cut off when the real game starts.
bad what you rather have a putz like tino
or a inconsistant myers in practice but who turns it on in games forget thoes practice reports pk read the news papers listen to thoes that were there myers was the best looking QBon the field
some players arent practice players
dan the man did not like to practice eather not saying myers is any were as good just saying some players dont like practice but they turn it on in games
We saw Myers in two games last season and he went 1-4 for 5 yards. Not exactly lighting it up when the klieg lights turn on.
He had a nice practice yesterday with the long balls but still had some problems with accuracy… and don’t forget he was playing against PITT’s 2nd string defense.
Let’s not take what happened yesterday and think that somehow wipes out a lot of ills Myers’s has in his game – he has a very long way to go before you want to see him starting for the Panthers.
I think you are banking way too much on this “practice vs play” theory when it comes to our QBs. We have seen Sunseri have some very nice games against decent D1 Big East competition, you can’t deny that. We’ve seen absolutely nothing out of Myers.
REED TINO SUCKS AND YOU KNOW IT.
BUT WHAT I AM SAYING IS OFF THE GAME YESTERDAY MYERS WAS THE BEST ON THE FIELD I DONT GIVE A DAM ABOUGHT HOW MYERS LOOKED IN PRACTICE IN THE GAME HE LOOKED BETTER THAN TINO .
YOU ARE RIGHT WE HAVE SEEN NOTHING OUT OF MYERS WHAT REAL CHANCE HAS HE HAD
BUT YOU HAVE SEEN TINO DONT YOU TELL ME HE LOOKED GOOD THESE LAST TWO YEARS BECUSE HE HAS NOT
AND FROM WHAT I READ THEY ALL HAD SOME TROUBLE WITH THE SHORT PASSES HE WAS NO WORSE THAN THE OUTHERS WITH THAT.
BUT PERHAPS YOU LIKE TEAMS PUTING 8 OR NINE IN THE BOX BECUSE TINO CANT THROW LONG
THIS WAS AS CLOSE AS WE HAVE GOT TO A GAME AND ONCE AGEIN TINO SUCKED READ THE PAPERS ASK PEOPLE THAT WER THERE WHO LOOKED BEST
WHY MUST YOU BE A BUZZ KILL AND DISTROY OUR HOPE
Also, due to the depth and injuries at corner Tino faced Carrington and Christian while Myers faced Pitts and walk-on’s Fisher/Lopez.
Both of Myers’ bombs were against Fiser and Lopez, who like I said are walk-on’s. Not to be racist, but they are also both white. When was the last time you saw a white div 1 or NFL corner.
ONE PRACTICE does not win Myers the job, especially when he has been fighting to hold on to the #2 spot.
Oh wait, that was sarcasm wasn’t it? You mean like when that punk Tom Brady had the nerve to even think he could replace Drew Bledsoe in New England and, like, just come in off the bench and be great and stuff…who the heck did he and all the fans think he was anyway…sheeesh, what gall.
I’m stating that the coaches are watching these kids play 100x more reps than we saw in the spring game and have, at this point, put Sunseri ahead of Myers.
There is a reason for that. Sunseri has been outplaying and outproducing Mark Myers during the 14 spring practices prior to Saturday. Don’t forget that this was the 3rd scrimmage – Myers didn’t impress in the first two.
If Myers could practice consistently the way he played in the Spring game then I’m sure the coaching staff would make a change in the depth chart, at least I believe they would.
But do you really believe, given everything that we have seen and heard from Chryst, that his personality is such that he’ll start a kid who has been second best during 30 practice sessions (after fall camp) just on the off chance he may shine on gameday? When he didn’t shine during practices?
Or do we really believe Chryst is going to bet a season on an untried and untested true freshman when he has a two year starter on the roster. I very much doubt it, but that is my opinion of what will probably happen through the eyes of the coaching staff. As to Voytik, I think the most that will happen with him this training camp is that he’ll learn enough to be the #2 QB.
My personal opinion?
I would love to see Mark Myers grasp the playbook (not the watered down spring version either) and play every practice like we saw him play last weekend. You guys can tell I’m very impressed with his deep throws which is a great weapon to have in the offensive arsenal. I just need to hear the staff and beat writers, who see him everyday, say that Myers has played well enough in practice and in scrimmages to win the starting job.
I would love a change at QB as long as it is based on progress and production and not made just for change’s sake alone.
At this point thinking about doubling down.
It would be great to be able to count on him as depth, or to start, at DE.
TX Panther & others – let’s don’t forget that we finished 6/6 during the regular season last year and that was with Sunseri at QB, losing Ray Graham halfway through the year and with all the drastic changes and burdens those new offensive and defensive systems put on the kids. Don’t underestimate how much that “no-huddle, 18 second offense” negatively impacted our players. Plus that 3-4 defense took a bunch of games to come together and start playing well.
There were a lot of problems last season aside from Sunseri’s panicking yet had he played a little better we could easily have been 8-4… easily.
This season under Chryst a lot of those negative aspects/burdens are going to be relieved. I don’t think Sunseri is going to be any worse this year than last. I truly expect him to be at least a bit better than last year.
I think our OL will be improved in both the run and pass protection. The WRs are going to be much happier being given specific routes to run each play instead of getting basically no directions at all thus will be more engaged also. Our WR corps will be deep and fast.
We will have Graham back and, IMO, another star RB in Bennett, with a possible 3rd thrown in with Shell. Our run game is going to be among the nation’s tops I think.
Our defense may be very, very good this season and it will be much more aggressive than we have seen in the past. We certainly have more speed on the defense than any other year that I can remember. We’ll see a lot of blitzes from the LBs and Safeties also.
Anything can happen but with all the positive changes that we are seeing from 2011 to 2012 I’ll be shocked if we end up 6-6 again.
You can’t just give up on the season to get a QB ready for the ACC. Need to be competitive right away. Tino is the best choice, since no one else has stepped up. The team is going to win at least 8 games with Tino as QB. And me being optimistic a BCS appearance.
This is a season where we should be prepared to see several QB’s get meaningful time. I don’t see anyone “stepping up” so to speak.
I can make excuses for anyone..Tino and Myers under the 3rd system in as many years. Anderson shrinks from his program height to his real height. but it won’t matter.
The question is whether Chryst will start the QB who has performed the best…on the field and in the film room and in the QB prep sessions for check offs, etc…
I saw one scrimmage and the one I saw, in front of people other than players and staff, Myers was the best QB, Anderson second and Tino 3rd. That simple.
The scrimmage was neither a typical practice nor was it a game…but it was officiated and the clock ran..
Play for this year is my advice and the rest will take care of itself, but if any of the QB’s has a fragile ego because he is not named as “the man”, then they should be prepared to eliminate themselves from the race for QB because none have proven anything at all.
To the old timers, Joe Montana did not start regularly at Notre Dame. There is a message in that for all parties.
Thanks for the info and all your time covering our Panthers. How did TJ Clemmings look Saturday? Also, does Grigsby has the skill set to help out at all 3 LB spots? Lastly, is LaQuentin Smith playing DE exclusively? If so, how did he look this spring?
Thanks in advance!
Not good. The article says it will take 3 months to heal, which means Moore is probably out for summer league play.
For those of you who think Pitt can win just by handing off to Ray Graham or his breather-sub(s): what’s to prevent teams from doing what Utah did last year — put 9-10 (heck, maybe even 11) guys in the box to stuff the run?
The solution to that is to complete some mid-range or longer passes to keep the defense honest. Which anti-Tebow Sunseri is incapable of doing. He can complete dinks, but that doesn’t work if 10 are in the box.
And that Utah game — Homecoming Game to boot — is the most miserable offensive output since the Sun Bowl, and maybe worse.
ABT!
HTP!
The 800 gorilla is the QB position of course. Chryst has to be apprehensive about Sunseri if he has studied ANY film from actual games last year. Chryst needs to build a fire under the back up quarterbacks and impress on them that it is their time to take the job away from Tino. And for Tino, get him a good sports psychologist since all the practice time in the world ain’t gonna fix what is ailing Tino.
I’m still leaning in the direction of the ABT camp if for no other reason than I want a game tested QB behind center come 2013 upon entering the ACC, and thank God that guy FINALLY won’t be Tino.
Anyway I am hopeful for improvement but never know.
I don’t put a lot of stock in how well Myers did in spring game unless he did it against the first team and I don’t know who he played against. If it was against 2nd/3rd team then not sure how good a day he really had.
I do buy lottery tickets but have not purchased any swampland in Fla just yet.
H2P
Then we get into the 2009 season and Stull starts having success early and keeps building on it. He wasn’t asked to win games on his own but Cignetti created a playbook that used what skills he had to complemented the running game. Remember this also, Stull didn’t have any 300 yard passing games that year. What he did do was have a 70% completion rate mostly on short/intermediate passing, something that Sunseri does very well also.
Stull wasn’t much more talented than Sunseri if at all. To think that after some real honest football practices in the summer camp while instituting the actual playbook Sunseri can’t get comfortable running this offense is a bit out there.
Football isn’t about big deep passes – they are few and far between. It is about getting first downs and moving the sticks… and ball control when needed. We didn’t have a coaching staff that understood that last year like we did in 2010 and, I believe, we will in 2012.
In 2009 we converted 43% of 3rd downs (Stull); in 2010 it was 42% (Sunseri). Both good statistics and no small reason we won 9 & 10 games those two years. Last year with a “hurry up and confuse” offense we converted 34% and our wins total dropped to six.
Which ever QB plays is going to have to be the one who gives us a better chance of sustaining drives and moving down field to get in scoring range. Sunseri did that pretty well in 2010 so we at least know he has it in him to do that.
The deep ball will be a luxury in a real sense. I understand keeping the defense honest but what good does that do if your QB can’t effect the meat and potatoes of offense and of the passing game.
Point being that we have had 9, 10 & 8 win seasons with two QBs who weren’t exactly world beaters because the teams around them were pretty good.
