Setting aside the arguments that know we are going to get into on a regular basis from now until Sept. 1 regarding who should be our starting QB going into the 2012 season, lets discuss how we got to be where we are today with that position and what this staff needs to do to correct it.

I’m going to piggy-back on Chris Peak’s work over at Rivals.com with his excellent article on the subject.  Please read it in its entirety and post your thoughts after you finish with this post.  (Thanks Chris, great work).

Needless to say we just experience a full six years under Dave Wannstedt where it was obvious that his idea of an offense didn’t begin with a top shelf QB. He was stuck in his NFL rut to where he felt that if every other aspect of the offense is strong then all the QB has to be is a delivery system for getting the ball to the running backs.

His choice of NFL QBs ain’t Murder’s Row.  When he was HC of the Bears he had:  Harbaugh, Walsh, Kramer, Krieg and Mirer.  Wait, it gets better.  When he was HC of the Dolphins he had Dan Marino, whom he forced out for Fielder and followed up with A.J. Feeley.  Awesome Dave!

At PITT he took his inherited QB, Tyler Palko (It’s Tyler Time!!) anointed him the starter basically forcing Flacco to split and then tied one hand behind Palko’s back to fit that NFL mold.  Flacco’s leaving  left us with nothing after Palko.

Problems continued because of this – “Of course, those issues were compounded when neither of the quarterbacks signed in Dave Wannstedt’s first class – Kevan Smith and Dexter Davidson – turned out to be viable options. ”   

OK guys, you can break out the kleenex now and I’m sorry to have reminded you.  Kevan Smith and Dexter Davidson.  Two answers to PITT trivia questions 25 years from now.  My God.

Does that sound familiar?  “neither… turned out to be viable options”?   Think Myers, Gonzalez and Anderson this season.

(more…)

Spent the afternoon and evening driving to my folks house for the weekend. My mom retired from teaching this week and they are a week away from moving down to Houston — where my sister lives. My reward for 7 hours on the road with the wife and two kids under the age of 10: drinking my dad’s good Scotch (right now it’s a a 16-year old Lagavulin) and finding out Trey Zeigler got a waiver to be eligible to play in the 2012-13 season.

Now typically you put out bad news late on a Friday of a holiday weekend, but we’ll let this slide as the exception.

“Trey was hopeful he would be eligible to play this year,” Dixon said. “Our associate athletic director Dan Bartholomae has been outstanding throughout this entire process with the NCAA and we are all very grateful that it worked out in Trey’s favor.”

According to tweets from Post-Gazette Pitt basketball beat writer Ray Fittipaldo, Pitt let Zeigler know as they were recruiting him that they believed he could get an immediate waiver. And that Zeigler has been on campus for the past couple weeks getting used/acclimated to the system and the players.

Needless to say, Pitt suddenly looks a even better for the 2012 season than before. The guard situation looks really good with Woodall, Zeigler, and Robinson. At small/wing forward with Patterson and Moore. Center with Adams. If Zanna continues to progress at power forward… Well, I think I need to reign in feelings of unbridled optimism.