So spring practices are in the books. Now the darkness of the spring and summer months fall. With little but speculative predictions, tidbits of recruiting news, filler, fluff and whatever else that can partially fill the void of Pitt football (insert joke here) until August.
But before that, a recap — media-wise — of the spring game. Reed did another great job of covering spring practices and recapping key things from the spring game. And thanks for all who were able to attend who left their impressions of the day.
For some other blog-writer perspectives, Anson from Cardiac Hill had a list of developments from spring practices. Pitt Script has his view, and makes a great observation.
It really hit me yesterday how much of a rebuilding job Paul Chryst has in front of him. There’s the team coming off a season that had nearly as many head coaches as wins with an incumbent quarterback that can’t seem to get the job done and no one to replace him. But there’s also the fanbase – which was never particularly large or deep – that seems deeply unsatisfied with how the past 18 months have gone.
The fanbase point is a good one.
Plenty of us are huge fans. There is a fair amount of optimism, but it is cautious, guarded. In some cases, I would say it is very fragile. The frustration over not just last year or the last couple of years, but for the better part of a decade seems to have a large contingent of the fanbase in a perpetually sour mood. From not getting over the hump after Walt Harris rebuilt things, to Wannstedt redoing the style of the team — but still not getting any further, to the coaching fiascos since December 2010.
So a lot of the fans want to believe in Chryst. Just as plenty wanted to believe in FraudGraham and Wannstedt before that.
Well, as for the recaps. Isaac Bennett used the spring game to show that the talk about how well he has been running in practice, wasn’t exaggerated.
Tailback Isaac Bennett put an exclamation point on his spring with another sparkling effort in the Pitt spring game. The 5-foot-11, 190-pounder carried 23 times for 121 yards, including a cutback 51-yarder. He also had a pair of 70-yard touchdown runs and a 50-yard score during the Panthers’ 15 spring practices.
“Isaac worked this spring,” coach Paul Chryst said. “He’s young, and I think he had a chance to learn a lot and grow. The last three or four times we’ve gone pretty hard, he’s done some things that have been good.”
With all-Big East runner Graham recovering from early November ACL surgery and five-star recruit Shell on the way, Bennett is making the most of his chances.
He signed autographs for 15 minutes after the game and had a big smile during postgame interviews.
“I think (the spring) went pretty well,” said Bennett, who rushed for 237 yards and two touchdowns on 58 carries last year. “Every day I had to get better. It’s just a learning process.”
Bennett took advantage of a spring where he didn’t have much competition to show what he could do. By doing so, he inserted himself into the discussion for not simply making the 2-deep come the fall, but to be named the starter. I realize Pitt was scrambling for recruits at the time, but I will give some credit to FraudGraham on recognizing something in Bennett. Remember, he committed to Pitt in late January. 2-stars on one site, and others didn’t even have him starred.
It’s also been pointed out that Chryst is not afraid to rotate backs and pound the ball — a lot.
Bennett, though, said he wasn’t concerned about his place on the depth chart, and Chryst certainly shouldn’t have any problem finding carries for three running backs. As the offensive coordinator for Wisconsin in 2010, Chryst came 4 yards away from having three running backs rush for 1,000 yards.
“It’s a lot of fun just because when you get tired somebody will come in and take off where you left off,” Bennett said. “It’s a lot of fun knowing that everybody’s good.”
Yes, Pitt’s O-line is nowhere near the same level as Wisconsin’s. At the same time, we also know that the O-line is much better at run-blocking than pass-blocking. And if Chryst is sincere about game-planning to the strengths of the team and players, then we could well be looking at a 70-30 run-pass mix*
(*may be a slight exaggeration)
Which, of course, brings us to the performance of the QB position.
While the running game excelled, the passing game continued to struggle on Saturday. While the receivers managed to get open, the quarterbacks couldn’t consistently hit their marks for most of the afternoon, and starter Tino Sunseri overthrew Drew Carswell twice on the first drive of the game before Kevin Harper missed a 39-yard field goal.
“I think that guys were running open,” Sunseri said. “You just have to put the ball into people, people have to understand certain route depths and we just have to keep on competing.”
Sunseri pointed to the positives of the offense’s stalling drives, saying that the team is moving the football, even if it doesn’t always lead to a touchdown.
“Guys are getting open, we’re making the right reads, we’re making the right adjustments,” he said. “It’s just finishing plays.”
Yeah. Just that. Mark Myers had the better day, but it is hard to read much into any of that. Sunseri by all accounts has been better and more consistent this spring. Myers has improved, but has shown a lot less consistency — with Trey Anderson passing him on the depth chart for a while. The problem is, that Myers had the better day than Sunseri when the fans could see it.
It would be one thing if Sunseri had a really bad day. Then it could be a case of just that — an off day. But the accounts of Sunseri’s performance is probably the worst case scenario: essentially the same type of performance that he has had the last two years. Suggesting to fans that nothing with Sunseri has changed. That it isn’t the coaches, style of offense, or all the other stuff.
It probably doesn’t help Sunseri with the fans when he talks about his mistakes like it is a group thing. Invoking a royal “we” to describe missing receivers — though, he made progress from last season since he didn’t claim that the receivers were making mistakes. But the end result is that, “We are not amused.”
Yes, Juantez Hollins was out for disciplinary reasons. And Chris Jacobson is out until the fall. Still, the O-lines need a lot of work on pass-blocking.
Still, the defense deserves credit stopping the offense. The front seven put consistent pressure on the quarterbacks, finishing with nine sacks and six hurries on 22 offensive drives. Even when the offense was able to move the ball, the defense was able to hold most drives to a field goal by Kevin Harper, who went 5 for 6 on the day.
And if you want to here me talk about Pitt football in the spring, you can catch this podcast I did with Pete Sonski on Saturday night. The good news is that I’m the first guest. The bad news, it’s two guys talking in montones.
In all this recent discussion, ‘we’ haven’t mentioned much the true culprits of Pitt’s fall from grace the past 2 1/2 decades — the administration. Starting with Foge Fazio, how many mediocre or just plain bad coaches has Pitt inked? Many. The only coach I feel pretty good about since Jackie Sherrill left is Walt Harris — not given enough credit for the heroic turnaround he generated with not exactly an abundance of talent (yep, plenty aware of Walt’s limitations). I think they may have finally backed into a good decision with Chryst, and ironically have only Graham to thank for it. So thank you, Todd Graham — may turn out to be the Wally Pipp of Pitt coaching.
Not only are there always too many yellow seats, we never sell out at home unless we get considerable help from the opposing fans (ND & WVU.) We also have never traveled well.
The fact that we play in an NFL city plays a major role not to mention that we have substantial less alums than the PSUs and MSUs of the world.
As Chas mentioned, many here on this site are not the problem but I know way too many Pitt alums who spend exorbitant sums to be at Heinze on Sunday and could care less what happens on Saturdays (no matter how the team is faring – good or bad)
I’m not sure if that was the case on Saturday but it does appear that for some odd reason, Tino starts slowly in the pro-set just like he did 2 years ago and improves as the game goes on … yet last year he seemed to get worse as the game progressed … and anyone can go back and look & compare his numbers the last 2 years and see the difference.
Like many, I would hope Myers can turn it up a level since he has a better upside but I’m not counting on it.
So Paul, do me a favor: Go out to the Cathedral lawn and dig up a kid tossing anything from a frisbee to a football.
You just may save a life.
I am so with you on that, brother.
tino seems so inept
I’ll be giddy like a schoolgirl with 7 regular season wins. Anything more will be gravy on top of a frustratingly bad past 3 or 4 years going back to the Rutgers game in 2008. Wishing for (and expecting more) is just asking for disappointment.
We have seen four football games in the past two years from Sunseri that can stack up against any D1 QB around. SYR and RU in 2010 and SYR and UCONN in 2011.
Those four good, productive wins are four more than Myers, Anderson, Voytik, Gonzalez, Jones, etc… have combined. Sunseri has shown that he can indeed put up the type of play that helps win football games.
Now, the fact that he is inconsistent with this is another story but let’s be at least a little bit honest when looking back over his career when we say he is totally inept or hasn’t done anything.
That just isn’t the case.
Marino and Fralic had offers from all over the US and both were Parade All-Americans in HS. Dorsett had multiple offers also and he was absolutely no surprise when he started as a freshman.
Hail to Pitt!
reed have you going nuts a QB has 4 good games
and he is our great hope do you realize how dumb that sounds
EMel were are you this is nuts
With the very weak schedule this year there shouldn’t be many games or situations where Tino will need to throw when the other team’s defense is bringing the house in a must pass situation.
IMO, most games are going to be pound it down the opponents throat on the ground (with a few passes mixed in for variety) and Pitt will be leading fairly comfortably in the 4th against a worn down opposing defense and be in a kill the clock mode. This will allow Tino to perform adequately.
My talking about Sunseri’s productive games is in reference to the posters who insist that he hasn’t done anything of merit at all, which isn’t the case.
My thought is that our QBs who haven’t had any success during actual games HAVE to outplay the incumbent in practices, which at this point Myers or anyone else haven’t done.
It is all well and good to sit back and wish upon a star that Myers, or Voytik, will suddenly practice so well that the coaching staff has to play them. But that hasn’t happened yet and, regardless of what you would like, still may not.
We’ll see how things unfold but don’t be surprised if the depth chart remains exactly the same through the course of the summer camp.
I will belive it when i see it and if i see it for at least 6 games i will come on here and say i was wrong
but i dont have mutch faith in a QB who has had 4 good games out of what 26 games .
most schools would have tryed some one else
for at lest a whole game to see what they can do
tino time has been a waste of time.
I really enjoy your posts and know that you tend to see all things concerning Pitt in a very emotional light. HOWEVER, at least give Reed and others the courtesy of reading their posts and not putting words in their mouths.
At no point in this post did Reed or others say the things you accuse them of. All Reed said is that Sunseria has had 4 very good games out of 26 or so starts. He has at least shown he is capable of playing well, he just doesn’t play well consistently, to say the least. To this point, he is 4 good games and about 100 good practices for what its worth.
And before you say “PRACTICE”, what else should a coach base his opinion on? I’d hate to be that coach who tells his team on Friday, “Well boys, Bob here really played lights out this week while doofus here goofed off, was late to practice and doesn’t know his playbook any better than a mule that dropped out of WVU. But we’re going to start doofus ’cause the fans say so.”
And whoever posted earlier that the reason Pitt has struggled since the glory years is because every coach chooses to play veterans nobodies over hall of fame freshmen, give me a break.
Who are these hall of fame freshmen over the last 30 years who had to wait until senior year and even then couldn’t win 10 games? Mainly since they got to play as seniors above other hall of fame freshmen, I guess.
he said what he said tino had 4 good game out of 26 and when you say that is a good record then i say that is nuts he did not say that was a good record but it implayed that he is defending him and if that is our hope we are screwed.
the only one on here that defended tino before was wbb but he even said to day he is hopeing for myers.
when we were wining BB games last year and the year before and the pete was full win and they come lose and they stay home just a fact of life.
You can’t find one. The nearest team to Pitt in the ought to be good every year but ain’t is Illinois and we have come nowhere near their level of success.
Stop bitching about the fanbase. If Coca Cola changed its formula every 3 years and tasted like stale beer most of the time no one would drink it!
Start winning and fan base will grow…keep screwing up in a town where arguably the best run sport franchise calls home and you will suffer mightily by comparison.
In 54,000 seat Pitt Stadium back in the late 70s and early 80s when Pitt was an annual Top 10 team, you can still walk up to the ticket window on Saturday and purchase a ticket for any game that wasn’t ND, PSU or WVU.
I don’t buy it.
I went to my first game in the late 1960’s…the game where ND let the clock run during time outs.
I also went to my first Steeler game around the same time in Pitt stadium.
Both Pitt and the Steelers stunk.
Since then, the Steelers have 3 head coaches…
Pitt has had 11
I don’t buy bad food because it cost less when I can get good food for roughly the same price.
It isn’t a rationalization…the baby boomers in the country grew up with Pitt being very good for a very short period of time..
Other than that (which Pitt blew), it has been mediocre at best.
Medicocrity breeds disinterest.
Again, name me another program who has endured the poor performance (what is the stat? Pitt is one of 3 teams over the last 35 years with at least 3 losses every year) that has a strong fan base.
wbb- sports in general and college football is a different animal now than in the late 70s and early 80s. If Pitt finished in the top 10 the end of this year with freshman QB Voytik leading them I can guarantee you that the 2013 slate would be essentially sold out.
Finally, in regards to Tino, all everyone does on here is bash the dude over and over. I’m no Tino fan, but come on. Lots of people act like he has been the only thing wrong with Pitt football. The dude has been picked to be the starting QB by 3 separate coaches. Also for how bad he is, Pitt only had 3 games (Miami, WVU in 2010 and bowl game in 2011 in 2 seasons in which they had no chance of winning the game in the 4th quarter with a play or two. All the other games were winnable with a play or two. In 2010, if the vaunted D is able to stop that bad UConn RB from running for over 200 yards with a nonexistent QB then Pitt is in a BCS game. And last year Tino was running a system he had no business running. But Todd Graham loves fitting square pegs into round circles. So seriously it isn’t as if Tino is the worst QB ever.
Are you actually rearing what YOU write then???
“BOWLING GEEN PANTHER I just went back and read REEDs post and i dont see were put words in his mouth he said what he said tino had 4 good game out of 26” – True
“and when you say that is a good record” Where? Never once written or impied by onayone on this post including me.
I actually said “he just doesn’t play well consistently, to say the least” – which implies he was certainly not that good, yet you stated I said he was good.
“reed have you going nuts a QB has 4 good games
and he is our great hope do you realize how dumb that sounds” – Where did anyone write that Tino was “our great hope”? Those words haven’t been uttered since 2009.
I just don’t gett the hatred for Tino and anyone who dares say something not completely insulting about him. He is certainly not a very good quarterback, but if he has a good game I’ll be the first to complement him. I certainly won’t rip others who will point out some positives in the midst of many negatives.
Every Pitt fan in the world should one one of our quarterbacks to rise up, play to their full potential and maximize the numbers of wins we can get this year. I really don’t care which one it is. But I think either Myers or Anderson have a lot of work to do to get the start over Tino. So far, neither one has seized the bull by the horns…
You commented earlier on why a coach wouldn’t at least try someone else if the started failed so poorly in a game. I’m pretty sure we saw Anderson turned to in desparation last year against Utah & Rutgers. Wasn’t the greatest success. If Myers can beat Anderson in practice, maybe he would will get a shot.
It would be nice if there were other and better PITT football news to talk about but we are sports fans and sports fans argue about everything, especially starting QBs of our favorite teams.
PITT does have a dedicated fan base although it is not that great in number and needs some good news at least every once in a while. Last year the spring game drew less than what we saw at North Hills on Saturday and people were having fun.
Maybe that is because the Wicked Witch is gone and took her husband the HC with her) but there was an upbeat feel during the afternoon. How long that will last is anyone’s guess.
What I do know is that two hours of scripted drills isn’t enough for any casual fan to make declarations or predictions of failure, either for a singular player or a team.