Some scholarships were given to walk-ons yesterday, though, Pitt has not officially announced it yet, there are other sources to reveal three players who received them.

Congrats to @giubilato_43 @myoklic92 @kbart58 for earning scholarships! Cant be more happy for them.

— Andrew Taglianetti (@Andrew_Tags) August 22, 2012

That’s Fullback Mark Giubilato, Punter Matt Yoklic and Long Snapper Kevin Barthelemy.

Congratulations, guys.

UPDATE: Per PantherDigest, WR Chris Wuestner was also given a scholarship.

Here we go. Camp is wrapping up with some light work today and we pretty much know what the status of the two deep, injuries, attitudes (I just threw that one in) etc. are going into the season.

We have nine days until showtime so lets get our thoughts on record.  I’ll throw some questions out and you share your thoughts and why you feel that way.

1.  What will be PITT’s regular season record, what bowl game if any and why will it be this way?

2. What will be Tino Sunseri’s and Ray Graham’s final stats?

3.  Which new “star”, either a new or returning player, will burst onto the scene in a way we didn’t expect?

4.  What will be the most disappointing aspect of the season?

5.  How will PITT fans feel in January of 2013 about the Paul Chryst hiring?

Obviously you guys do what you want to do but feel free to be as detailed as possible.  I’ll throw mine out after the ball starts rolling.

OK.  Camp is just over and we are getting ready for normal game prep practices starting tomorrow.  It has been a very interesting camp with some pretty big stories coming out of it.

On August 6th we posted an article asking the following five questions about this season’s training camp.  Well, let’s look at the answered and at some other eventful things that transpired over the last 16 days.

1.  What will be the overall tenor of the practices and of the post-practice interviews?

Alright.  We pretty much knew what kind of personality Paul Chryst was going into this thing.  He isn’t your verbose, eternally optimistic guy.  His post-practice interviews are, to put it mildly, boring.  He said nothing about any players, even the injured ones, and plays his job close to the vest.  He is what he is, as they say.

The tenor of the practices was a different matter.  In the scrimmages I saw and in reading the numerous practice reports by the local beat writers the overall theme with this camp was teaching the players the staff’s way of preparing for and conducting a football game.  There was a real sense of ‘get down to it and work‘ as evidenced by how many plays were run during the scrimmages – 183 and 129 respectively.  That’s a lot of football in three hours.  Here is a quote that sums up the physicality of the camp:

Pitt coach Paul Chryst knew only one way to conclude the most physically demanding training camp since before the Dave Wannstedt era. He put the team through its fourth live scrimmage Wednesday on the next-to-last day. “What better way than to play some ball?” he asked. Several players have said this is the toughest camp in their time at Pitt, and Chryst makes no apologies. “You try to just make some informed decisions and try to do what’s best for the group,” he said. “I think we have gotten better through the course of it. I wish we had two more months of it, really.”

Another indication of how physical it was is the number of injuries, mostly minor, that were sustained by the hard hitting and long hours.  Chryst said he wanted to see tough kids in the lineup this season and this was how he started down that path.

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Not exactly surprising

Pittsburgh starting running back Ray Graham is “unlikely to play” in the Panthers’ season opener against Youngstown State on Sept. 1, sources told ESPN.

Graham, a senior, is still recovering from a torn ACL in his right knee suffered against Connecticut on Oct. 26 and has been limited in fall drills. Before last year’s injury, he was the nation’s second-leading rusher, averaging 134.1 yards per game.

Still a little disappointing if so. As the article notes, Graham would also be unlikely for the Cinci game that is only 5 days later (Thursday night) as well. But better to keep him out, even for the Cinci game as well for Graham’s own good — as well as Pitt for the rest of the season.

Small factual error in the piece that says Rushel Shell is the back-up to Isaac Bennett. Reality is that Malcolm Crockett is almost certainly the back-up to Bennett.

A week ago Spencer Hall of Every Day Should Be Saturday tweeted out this nugget.

We have officially reached the point in the offseason where everyone believes they will be "better than expected" this year.

— edsbs (@edsbs) August 15, 2012

It took a few more days for Pitt fans to reach that point but after the second scrimmage, it happened.

There’s a feeling that 8 wins is no longer the ceiling, but the floor. That this team, with this coach, with this schedule, in this conference could very well win 8-10 games as opposed to the 5-8 that seemed to be the range dating back to the spring.

Yes there remains serious questions about the O-line. The front five are set, but questions remain in terms of depth, health and overall ability.

The D-line has its own questions. Can Aaron Donald still thrive with more attention (and double-teams)? Will others step up to make teams pay for doubling on Donald? Ezell? Clemmings? Murphy? Smith? Lippert? Can they really be War Daddies?

The linebacker spots all seem to have questions. Whether it is health or simply having stability.

And the QB spot remain a place of angst.

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You can almost feel the trepidation in the words. The hesitation to publish. The dread at what may come from it. Yet it happened and it must be reported: Chad Voytik had a very good practice.

In his best practice since coming to Pitt this summer, the freshman quarterback showed almost all of the tools that drew the reviews of national scouting evaluators, enticed the last coaching staff, made the current staff want to keep him in the recruiting class, and had Pitt fans excited.

On display Monday night was an impressive combination of pocket presence, arm strength, accuracy, speed, downfield awareness while rolling out, and an ability to throw on the run. And the key word there was the adjective:

Impressive.

Oh, god…

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It might be a good and timely idea to review exactly what transpired last season between the OL play and the QB play given that every PITT fan is deathly afraid that we’ll have a repeat of 2011’s 64 sacks allowed, with 422 yards lost by them, debacle.  Hey, I can’t remember anytime in the past where PITT led the nation in sacks given up.  That one issue, perhaps more than any other, was responsible for our offense not being consistent enough to win more games.

It wasn’t just that we lost any old down on those plays.  I’m not going to go through the 2011 season in minute detail but it’s safe to say that the majority of those sacks came on third down passing plays.  You know what that did?  Put us at #109 nationally in 3rd down conversion percentage at 37%.  You can’t score touchdowns if you can’t get 1st downs. Plain and simple.  On top of that each sack moved us backwards 6.6 yards. Playing football while going backwards isn’t the best formula for success as everyone but Todd Graham knows.

In addition, here’s another hidden negative result of those sacks;  Sunseri did very well at running with the football when a play was either called for the QB run or when he exercised the QB option that Todd Graham liked so well.  On the season Sunseri had, excluding sacks, 510 yards on 90 carries for a 5.7 average.  That was on 90 carries folks, not just a scramble here and there like most QBs do but purposefully moving the ball forward using the QB’s legs.  Take away 422 of those yards because of the sacks and that is a big benefit we had washed down the drain.

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Scrimmage #2  is in the books and because PITT won’t have any more formal scrimmages today was the last chance some players had to ‘audition’ under game conditions for a spot on the two deep.  It was evident the kids had this in mind because it was a spirited and intense day.

As opposed to the 183 play run through last week in cloudy and cool conditions, the staff had the team run a split session, 129 play workout today.  The weather got pretty warm after 10:30 and it was the culmination of a solid week of two-a-day practices so prudence was used to avoid any more injuries.

Play began at around 9:15 and wrapped up at 11:30.  It was well attended and actually it looked like there were more people there yesterday than for the Spring Game.  That may have been due to it being “Old Cranky It Was Better In My Day Players” day for football alumni.  That and a lot of parents brought their kids.

Training camps have a rhythm to them and this week we saw the defense rebound from last week when the offense carried the day.  There are a lot of different scrimmage reports that get into the observations and numbers, the new Post Gazette PITT beat writer, Sam Werner, has one out on his Redshirt Diaries Blog.  Steve Finn, who covers PITT for the Panthers 24/7 website has a comprehensive report out also. Pat Bostick did a nice video piece on the Alumni Day and especially interesting is what Johnny Majors has to say about the new staff.

The common themes are that the defense won the day with stifling front four run work and our LBs and DBs provided run support as needed.   Contrary to most of camp when the offense, particularly Isaac Bennett, has been moving the ball steadily and ripping off long gainers there was just no real offensive consistency out there today.

Rushel Shell was on the sidelines again today.  Supposedly he has a back problem but no one is talking.  Regardless of the reason, he’s not getting reps which isn’t helping his pre-scrimmage situation as standing behind Graham, Bennett and Crockett in the RB depth chart.

I don’t think the lack of big running plays today is a great area of worry though.  It may be just the opposite.  I’m not sure the PITT OL and RBs are going to face a defensive front four as quick and aggressive as who we have facing them in practice.  Donald, Clemmings, Ezell and Lippert/Mosley-Smith are quality guys.  We know what Donald brings out there; he has an excellent chance to grab All-American honors if he keeps on with his progression so far in his career.

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Today’s the second scrimmage of training camp. As noted yesterday, plenty of minor injuries. That’s also the theme in both papers today.

The upside, is that players potentially buried on the depth chart get a chance to show what they can do in the 1st team. Some receivers have taken advantage of that.

“Ronald [Jones has] done a heck of a job, stepped up and done really well, and Josh [Brinson] has done some real nice things,” Panthers offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph said. “He now knows multiple spots, which is invaluable, you need guys like that.

“Those guys are taking advantage of their opportunities right now.”

The article notes that Jones seems to be connecting well with Sunseri — which has had him thriving. Brinson, though, might be the one to get the increased playing time when the season starts because of his versatility and size.

Jones is Cam Saddler size, and it makes it unlike he will be out there in multiple receiver sets at the same time as Saddler. Brinson is over six-foot and a bigger target. Being able to play wherever needed simply translates for more chances to be out on the field.

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Yes, Coach Paul Chryst is downplaying the injuries at this point in training camp. Probably with good reason. Most of them are bangs and bruises where it seems there is erring on the side of caution. There are only a handful of serious or concerning injuries or holding players out of practices.

Among the injured players are four potential starters on defense, including safety Jason Hendricks, linebackers Todd Thomas and Shane Gordon, and defensive tackle K.K. Mosley-Smith. Cornerback Lafayette Pitts had a death in his family and was excused from practice. He was replaced by Cullen Christian. Also out is wide receiver Mike Shanahan (hamstring) and backup safety Steve Williams, who had his left arm in a sling.

K.K. Smith and LaQuentin Smith returned yesterday, so there is that.

Hendricks was already coming back from a season ending injury. His struggles to stay healthy, though, could cost him his starting safety position. Pitt has the depth at the spot and at some point he falls too far behind in practice.

Todd Thomas is much more of a concern since he has the potential to be Pitt’s best linebacker this season. Definitely the most athletic. Shane Gordon has not played since the scrimmage when he got knocked out cold. Haven’t seen an actual listing of the injury, but I think it would be safe to say he’s out with a concussion or “concussion-like symptons.”

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As much blame has been (deservedly) heaped upon Tino Sunseri, he was not helped by his wide receivers last year. Plenty of drops on their part, not great effort at points, clear lapses of concentration, and sloppy route running. They generally did little to help. Yes, they were no longer in a pro-style system, and it wasn’t playing to their strengths, and they had to learn a new system. Well, those excuses wore thin with Sunseri, so they should not be allowed to excuse their performance.

Devin Street particularly frustrated me. He seemed to continually not fight for passes if there was any chance the corner was going to be able to battle for the ball. In the second half of the season, he began to show more fight and desire. Showing flashes of the skill to match his natural size, strength and athleticism. Something he is hoping to take into this season.

Pitt will need Street to become that player this season, along with senior wide receivers Mike Shanahan and Cam Saddler. Young pass catchers such as redshirt junior Ed Tinker, redshirt sophomore Brendon Felder and sophomore Ronald Jones also will be in the mix before coaches settle on a rotation at the end of camp.

Street said the new offense under Chryst allows him to diversify his role, line up in the slot or split to the sideline, with several different routes in his playbook.

“Last year, I ran 10-15 routes,” he said, “but this year I can run anywhere.”

His standing as a redshirt junior all but demands more productivity.

“It’s crunch time,” he said “It’s time to turn it up.”

Street is a strider. His long legs allow him  to move swiftly, and pick up speed. But it is not explosive or sudden. And it definitely doesn’t corner well. It builds. Get him the ball heading north or south and he can turn it up. Have him going east or west, or come back for the ball and there aren’t going to be yards after the catch. He definitely will be in a position to have a huge year.

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Pitt has a new commit for the 2013 class. Inside linebacker Matt Galambos has given a verbal.

Galambos has 3-stars from 247 and Scout.com. Rivals.com puts him down for 2-stars and ESPN.com doesn’t have an evaluation on him.

He has offers from Syracuse and Rutgers. There is some interest from PSU, BC and Maryland. Galambos is also holding offers from Harvard and Yale, so he is not an academic risk.

In fact, his academics were a big help in getting an offer from Pitt.

The #Pitt coaches made a lot of decisions in the '12 class based on academics. '13 targets considering Ivy League schools=continuing trend

— Chris Peak (@PantherLair) August 16, 2012

Linebacker is a position of need for the recruiting class.

After the jump is his highlight reel.

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Going into PITT’s 2012 season PITT fans were stating that our running game was going to be the biggest strength of our offense and that there were no worries on that front.  This was partly because we had a returning senior in Ray Graham who is one of the best running backs in the nation and we just landed true freshman Rushel Shell, the all-time leading PA schoolboy rusher.

Great!  On paper fantastic!  However the reality of the situation was, is actually, quite different.  Graham suffered a season ending ACL tear that put him in a long rehab so there’s a real concern regarding when he can get back to full speed and Shell is totally unproven at the college level.  Thus the two best known backs we have are questionable leaving us with two returning and relatively unknown youngsters to fill the bill.  They are Malcolm Crockett, who in redshirting last year hasn’t taken a snap during a game yet, and Isaac Bennett, who got spare playing time late in the season as a true freshman.

But now, on August 16th and only 16 days before PITT’s opener not too many people are worried any longer.  Why you may ask? It’s because one player has stepped up and assuaged the fears.

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I realize Pitt is re-transitioning to a 4-3 defense, from the 3-4, but given that it was only one season. And most of the players were already schooled in the 4-3 principles, I’m not going to be buying too many excuses for struggling based on that move.

On the other hand, the linebackers themselves may be a big concern. Todd Thomas appears to be slower coming back from his ACL injury than hoped. Shane Gordon is out, Ejuan Price is coming back slowly from a spring injury, and several others appear to be dinged up at the moment. Heck, moving to a 4-3 may have been necessary based on the depth chart.

With Thomas out, and linebacker Shane Gordon “day to day,” fifth-year seniors Manny Williams and Joe Trebitz have filled those roles. Wednesday, redshirt freshman Jason Frimpong found himself practicing with the first-team linebackers after Eric Williams went down with an injury.

Trebitz played in 12 games last year, but registered just five tackles. Manny Williams didn’t see meaningful playing time.

Now, Chryst said, is the chance for those guys to prove they deserve playing time once the presumed starters return.

“We’ll find out [about our depth] as you go through in practice,” Chryst said. “Because of the guys that aren’t practicing, other guys have opportunities and we’ll see what they do with that opportunity.”

Lots of questions about how the linebackers will turn out, since there isn’t a lot of experience.

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Okay, football stuff coming later. First a bunch of links to touch on some other topics.

The daily bomb threats on Pitt’s campus last spring should not re-occur. The FBI has their man (sort of). It’s as weird as possible.

A 64-year-old, wheelchair-using Scottish man from Dublin, who already has served a prison sentence for emailing hoax bomb threats, was indicted Wednesday as the person responsible for emailing a series of 40 false bomb threats targeting the University of Pittsburgh during the spring semester.

A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh also charged the suspect, Adam Stuart Busby, with sending emailed bomb threats to federal courthouses in Pittsburgh, Erie and Johnstown and with threatening U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton.

Speaking at a news conference announcing the indictments, Mr. Hickton said Interpol had been alerted to the federal warrant charging Mr. Busby, who currently is in custody in Dublin on a Scottish warrant for similar crimes there. He would not speculate on any timetable for extraditing Mr. Busby from Ireland to face prosecution.

…

According to The Irish Times, Mr. Busby has multiple sclerosis and is a leader of the Scottish National Liberation Army, which seeks independence for his homeland. He recently was released from prison on a 2010 conviction in Ireland for emailing two false bomb threats in 2006 to Heathrow Airport in London. Those threats, which cited specific international flights, claimed to be from the Scottish National Liberation Army, according to the Times.

Since last month Mr. Busby has been held in custody in Dublin on a European Union warrant seeking his extradition to Scotland for additional charges of sending false threats, according to Irish media outlets. He is charged with making hoax threats in 2010, mostly by email to media organizations, that threatened then-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with a noxious substance, and claimed buildings would be bombed and that the English water supply would be contaminated, Irish news media reported.

The FBI wouldn’t give a reason for why he targeted Pitt for the bomb threats (Editor note: I know this is somehow related to you, McClearn).

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