Jared Shanker of ESPN reported that Chandler Kincade has decommitted. There are a lot of variables here, notably Paul Chyrst’s nephew, Keller. This could mean one of several things. Most likely, either Kincade has soured on Pitt for one reason or another (like our pursuit of Keller) or the coaches informed Kincade it would be wise for him to look elsewhere because of Keller. All I will say at this point is don’t jump to conclusions. A lot of things happen behind the scenes and recruiting is a goal, not a journey. Commits fall off all of the time, especially early ones. Let’s allow things to settle and then we’ll know more.

Chris Peak has confirmed it as well,  so it’s safe to say with two separate reports, this is true. This development shouldn’t surprise many since Kincade has looked elsewhere and he was originally a Graham verbal who stuck with his commitment after Paul Chryst took over.

Before I go into detail, it was very apparent on my second watch that the defense was consistently playing at about 80%. They were going slow in pass rush, playing off in coverage, and slowing down before a tackle. They were playing to prevent injuries. It was a lot more extreme than you usually see in a spring game and I’m assuming it was by design to play a bit slower.

The best thing to start with is standout players. Who jumped out on tape?

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So Rushel Shell is heading to UCLA. Guess he isn’t bothering with an appeal of Pitt’s transfer restrictions as the Arizona St. AD intimated last week.

That’s fine. He will go there. He can sit out the year, play next year and barring injury will likely turn pro.

He will say all the right things to the media and fans. Hopefully he will grow as much as he claims he has and will. I actually do wish him well, if for no other reason than so he can be in a position to financially take care of the two daughters he is leaving behind to go to UCLA.

The bigger question right now is the status of Deaysean Rippy.

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It’s been a long wait for Jamel Artis. The rumors of his commitment to Pitt have been happening since July. And again, last month. Well, finally it has happened. Artis was able to verbal to Pitt on Friday.

Pitt has long been the favorite school of Jamel Artis. He was just waiting for the right time to pick the Panthers, and that came during his official visit Friday to the Oakland campus.

Artis, a 6-foot-7, 225-pound point forward from Baltimore who plays at Notre Dame Prep in Massachusetts, said he committed to the Panthers after learning that he had academically qualified for freshman eligibility.

“Pitt was my main school,” Artis said. “Everybody else was just recruiting me, saying they loved my game but never really put in the effort. Pitt came to see me a couple times. I felt the love from them.”

The main hang-up after scholarships opened up, seems to have involved getting his academics in order to qualify. That appears to no longer be an issue.

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My friends, I’d like to take a few minutes and let you all know just how much I’ve appreciated both the opportunity to contribute to The PITT Blather as a writer and the interactions we have had when you all commented on those articles.

I posted 154  pieces on here and am proud of every one of them.  I am most proud though of the fantastic readers and commenters on this site and of the truly high level of discourse we have had over the years.  It has been a real blast to be able to travel around representing the Blather, researching issues, trying to get the facts and then letting you all know what I found out and my thoughts and opinions and how I came to them.

As you can see over the last year The PITT Blather has added some new writers.  There will be  an injection of new writing blood with at least two new contributors, one a student-athlete from PITT, weighing in.  Justin is a well grounded and detailed writer and a great read.  That is well and good and I wish them all the best.

With that, I’m going to move onto other things and let the Blather go on without me.  I know, I know – it is no big loss and it probably isn’t.  There is going to be quality stuff on here as there has always been and hopefully just as much good and detailed discussion as we have all had in the past.

I have nothing but gratitude for Chas Rich for the chance he gave me to be part of this blog.  I not sure the readers know this but Chas is about the best possible publisher there is.  In all my time here he changed only one article and that was to make it more readable.  Other than that I was free to write what I wanted and when I wanted with no fear of editing or censorship – and I wrote some pretty controversial things.

Of course I’ll still read The Blather every morning and evening and comment as I have been doing.  There just won’t be many, if any, articles with my name on them any longer.  If anyone is at all interested in what I have to say more formally about PITT football just look around, I’ll still be attending practices, talking with others and writing and posting in other sites.  This really is going to be a fun and interesting second year for Paul Chryst and PITT football with a ton of things to talk about.

My true thanks to all, goodbye and Hail to Pitt!

Reed

My friend Sean and myself headed over to the spring game yesterday not sure what to expect. We’re the odd types who are still optimistic but with spring games it’s really tough to judge things when a team is facing itself. Is something a good play by one or a bad play by another? I went into this with the intention of only looking at things I could say with certainty and the best way to do that is look at individual performances as opposed to overall impressions. Did the offense look better than the defense yesterday? Yes, but there are so many factors that go into that; I’m not willing to say the offense is better. If the offense was running complex plays and the defense was running a more vanilla setup, it makes a big difference.

I’ll start off with the thing everyone cares about the most: QB. I’m going to do 2 entries for the spring game: QBs and everyone else. I’ll start with the QBs today and get everything else done after watching the game on ESPN3 because it’s tough to see OL and DL play live.

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I’m sure it has something to do with Pitt’s academic calendar, but trying to hold a scheduled outside event in Pitsburgh in early- to mid-April is just an invitation for miserable weather.

The annual Blue-Gold Scrimmage seemingly continues the streak of heavy cloud cover, rain and wind. But don’t worry, having at 7pm will make it that much more comfortable.

/pours some bourbon

/sits in front of the computer to watch the feed on ESPN3

/realizes its not even 9am

/shrugs and drinks bourbon

So, good luck to the hearty souls who will go out to Bethel Park tonight. I hope the number of people in the stands outnumbers the combined number of players on the sidelines and people up in the press box.

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A friend of mine, Matt Alkire of Upper Hand Promotions, introduced me to a recent Pitt offer. Matt’s work at Upper Hand Promotions helps student-athletes gain a competitive advantage in the recruiting process. For any parent or athlete who has gone through the process I’m sure that sounds like a godsend. When I saw on twitter that one of his clients is Rasaan Stewart of Perkiomen Valley, I begged for an interview. Thankfully Rasaan was ready and willing. Here’s what the 6’1 athlete had to say about Pitt, his ideal position, and a few off topic subjects.

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I suggested to my wife that for our anniversary, we take off work early, pull the kids from school and take a romantic drive to Bethel Park for the Pitt Spring Game. That went about as well as you would expect. It did, however, make her more amenable to me watching the livefeed on ESPN3 at 7 pm.

The big thing is that Spring Practices are nearly done, and it feels like not a lot has been learned. Yes, there was the drama of Rushel Shell deciding to transfer, but that was more distraction. Not on-the-field, except to give Isaac Bennett and Malcolm Crockett a lot more first team snaps.

Pitt ran its practices almost entirely under cover of the NCAA Tournament. For Paul Chryst that may not have been the plan, but it was definitely a perk.

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Allow myself to introduce…myself. Justin here, I post as NFLGimpy on Panther Lair and twitter. I graduated from Pitt in 2008 and still live in Pittsburgh. I’m a proud football season ticket holder. I’ve been writing about the NFL for several years now, most recently on Scouts Notebook, an NFL/College Football website mostly focusing on the draft. This has led me to looking at a lot of tape and highlights for draft eligible players and I wanted to add a little bit of that to my first post here on Pitt Blather. I reached out to Chas and Reed and after successfully blackmailing demonstrating my worth, they agreed to humor me.

I figured I’d start off with Tom Savage. With Savage as the likely starter at QB for us in 2013, most of what us fans know about him is purely from memory and practice notes. Tape has been difficult to find for him since he was a freshman and most of what I found is purely highlights which are obviously the “good” and not the bad or the Tino Sunseri pocket presence. But you can still learn a lot about a player from the highlights, mostly the “what COULD this guy be?”

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I still haven’t made up my mind who I’m rooting against in this game.

Forget that Big East/ACC solidarity. I’m looking for pain and anguish.

On the one hand, I live in Ohio and seeing Ohio State fans gnash their teeth and try to rationalize how basketball isn’t as important as football — after their run to the Championship game with Oden and their Final Four appearance last year has had them crowing — well, that would just be fun.

On the other hand, the Big Blue Nation that is Kentucky are batshit crazy. To have Louisville and Rick Pitino — in the same year they lose an opening NIT game to Robert Morris — win creates such epic rants and meltdowns all over the internet. It’s just a non-stop festival of insanity.

Obviously, there is no winner for me, without Pitt. But I can take joy in my own way because of who wins.

Number two on my list of concerns, five being the least worrisome and one being the most, is our talent and quality of coaching on the Special Teams.

This area of the team is of particular concern to me because no one has even heard of any names at particular positions nor who will actually be coaching them.  That is a bit disconcerting to me as I truly feel that Special Teams are a full one third of the whole necessary for success.

The only thing we know for sure going into the Spring Game is that our punter for 2013 will be rsSR Matt Yoklic who did a good job for us as a starter in 2013.  From his bio:

In his first season as Pitt’s starting punter, averaged 41.2 yards on 62 punts…season average ranked second in the Big East…had a long of 58 (at Rutgers)…placed 21 punts inside the 20-yard line for the year…over the final six regular-season contests, Yoklic placed 18 punts inside the 20…averaged a career-best 46.8 yards on five punts against Cincinnati…also served as Pitt’s primary holder on placements…named to the Big East All-Academic Football Team for the second consecutive season.

So we have that position set and interestingly enough we’ll have two FR kickers on scholarship with the backup punter FR Ryan Winslow and the new placekicker FR Chris Blewitt who is the only scholarship PK we have now that Kevin Harper has graduated  It’s a pretty safe bet that these two players will be the starting kicker and punter even though we also have Brad Lukasak and Drake Greer on roster also.

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(Note: I expanded the bit about DEs from my Notes From the Front Lines Part 2 and sent it to ChantRant – this is it below)

Number three on my list of concerns, five being the least worrisome and one being the most, is our remaining talent at Defensive End.

PITT has been hit with what might be called “Slow White Guy Syndrome” (SWGS), pronounced “sweeegs”,  at DE over the last year and going into this season.  At a snapshot taken today we are in a world of hurt if rsJR Dave Durham, an ex-fullback transfer from Ohio State and rsSR Jack Lippert, a career fill-in player on both sides of the LOS, see substantial playing time at the DE position.

Lippert was a high school “Prep Star” and “Tom Lemming All-American” DE so back in 2009 when he chose PITT we thought he’d move right into the DE rotation after a redshirt year. What we actually got was a player who the coaching staffs moved around to try to find playing time for him. He played DE, Center, Right Tackle then landed back at DE last season. He is a player who I really looked forward to watching play at PITT based on his HS career but, as with Dorin Dickerson, the staff never really knew what to do with him.  Let’s hope he has a DD-like SR year.

Dave Durham was recruited for the defensive line by OSU, redshirted his FR year and then was switched to Fullback, got some playing time, didn’t like his future there so he slapped Urban Myer repeatedly across the face and then came to PITT

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by Lilburn Nole for ChantRant.com

Three quarters through the 2012 season there probably were very few people that were thinking this would be a question heading into 2013. The surprising decision by Menelik Watson to forgo his senior season and enter the NFL draft after just one full season of highly competitive football has forced that to the #1 spot on the minds of many Seminole fans. It will be very interesting to watch this spring and see what direction the coaches go to find a right tackle replacement.

The easiest option is for some one just to step up at RT. Bobby Hart (Jr.) would be the obvious answer considering he started the last 9 games of the 2012 season, but for whatever reason (a discussion for another time) he fell out of favor in the 2012 season playing in only 8 games with 0 starts. What’s more, when he did find the field it was often at the guard position and not tackle.

The only other player on the roster with some game experience at tackle would be Garrett Faircloth (RS Sr.). The oft-injured Faircloth has good length and technique, but lacks some in the size and strength category. Faircloth only played in 2 games in 2012 but played in 11 games in 2011 making 6 starts, but all of them at guard. Update: Faircloth has been medically disqualified for spring due to a shoulder injury, so scratch him off.

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The LBs / Defense

I tend to concentrate on the offense when I watch practices mainly because I understand that side of the ball’s responsibilities more so that the defenses.  That said – here are some observations, and opinions, on the Defense.

rsJR Eric Williams is going to be a good Safety and I think he will bounce JR Vinopal out of the starting spot opposite Jason Hendricks.  He’s a bit thin at 6’3” and 215 but he closes well and knows how to play that position in regards to seeing how the play will unfold.  He seemed to always be around the football. He might show some real star power back there this year.

rsJR Todd Thomas absolutely laid out SO TE J. P. Holtz on a running play and stood over him screaming “Pancake!” for a while.  Those two scramble it up a bit in practices and Thomas looks to continue his sound progression at that Weak Side LB position.

rsJR Anthony Gonzalez really surprised me out there at Strong Side LB.  He understands how the play will develop, probably the switched QB in him, and just glides to the ball avoiding blocks.  He’s one of those players who looks like he isn’t putting any effort into running but gets there damn quick.  I really didn’t think this was going to be a good move for him but everyone I talked with said he was probably going to start this season.

The other LB position in the Middle has been solidly grabbed by rsFR Mike Caprara.  He’s impressed the watchers and it looks like the staff wouldn’t hesitate to get him starting time should Shane Gordon’s injuries keep him from practicing or playing.  I asked a group of WPIAL HS coaches about Caprara and they went crazy describing how good he was at Woodland Hills.  One coach said they had to game plan around him in his FR year.

Caprara came into the program at around 6’0” and 200 lbs.  He’s at least 6’0 (maybe 6’1”) and probably up to at least 225 now, he’s pretty stocky even if a bit short.  You can hear it when he hits someone though.  I believe he’ll be a good one for us if not this year then he’ll shine the next three seasons.  It may be sooner than later though.

BTW – not one person I spoke with thinks Dan Mason will return to the football program let alone see any playing time this season.  Not sure what the story is there, everyone is very tight mouthed which make me wonder, but it appears this staff is going in a non-Mason direction, at least as far as I understand.

We are in a world of hurt if DEs Durham and Lippert see substantial playing time.  This position will be the Achilles Heel of our defense this season.  True FR Shakir Soto has been in the two deep along with Bryan Murphy.  Murphy and Lippert are returning players who really haven’t done much over their careers at PITT and Durham is an unknown since he played his one college year at FB for OSU.

All the above give 100% out there and made some good plays but it might just be a case of the talent ceiling these kids have. Put it this way; word on the street is that Luke McLean might be forced into a lot of action as a true FR.

(Note: Ex-LB LaQuentin Smith was moved to DE from the interior for Thursday’s practice and it looks like he’ll be kept there.)

The DL looks good with Donald being his own great self hard to tell much with him as the coaches are sitting him out for the bulk of most practices, after all it isn’t like they have to see what he can do..  I’ll say this publicly right now – Tyrique Jarrett is the Next Big Thing on the DL and you can take that to whatever bank you want to.

Say what you will about Aaron Donald being our best defender last year, rsSO Layfaette Pitts gave him a good run for the money in 2012 and hasn’t slacked up a bit.

Misc.

I don’t pay much attention to the actual characters on the OL until the last two weeks of summer training camp so I have nothing of substance to report there… sorry.  Rumor has it that Clemmings is filling space until Dorian Johnson arrives at the Southside facilities on his golden chariot.  Even as a true FR he’ll most probably grab that Right Tackle starting job.

One thing about the OL though, Huebner came out about as pissed off as one could get and just laid into the offensive lineman after each play.  The only time he shut up was when Bisnowaty tried to debate a point with him.  Huebner was so shocked he couldn’t say anything for a while then regained consciousness with “Don’t you f*cking argue with me buddy!!” repeating that phrase more than once.

As a matter of fact I thought the tenor of the whole practice was much more intense than any I saw last year in either the spring or summer sessions.  Whether that was in response to the events that unfolded last week of because they still have to winnow out four scholarship I don’t know – but there wasn’t any  joking around between Staff and players like I’ve seen before.

Edit: My article yesterday about the offense was pretty critical about the two competing QBs so it was nice to read this in Sam Werner’s Redshirt Diaries first this this morning regarding yesterday’s practice.

“Tom Savage looked a lot sharper today.  He seems to have some good timing down on a post route and threw a couple of beautiful corner touchdown passes to Ronald Jones, who has also come on since returning from injury earlier this spring.

“I thought for a while he was holding on to the ball,” Pitt coach Paul Chryst said. “It kind of goes without saying, when a quarterback’s in rhythm, he’s got a better chance and one of the things that cause you to not be in rhythm are the quarterbacks not understanding something, the quarterback getting fooled on a coverage or a receiver off on what he should be doing. I think a couple plays specifically, I think he learned from Tuesday and was able to think a little bit better.”

I’ll follow up with an article about what happens at the Spring Game next Friday, until then HTP!