Pitt made a few players available to the media yesterday. Aaron Donald, Todd Thomas and Devin Street talked about the upcoming season.
Donald was the obvious headliner. As the various watchlists start getting tossed out, Donald’s name was on the Bednarik (best defensive player). In the various preseason mags, Donald’s name pops up as one of the top DT’s in the ACC.
So in this three-man media mix, Donald will take the role of the quiet leader.
This season, Pitt needs Donald’s ability to set a good example as much as his muscle.
“He’s definitely not a talker,” junior linebacker Todd Thomas said. “He leads by working hard and just doing what you have to do.”
Donald, 22, admits to his “laid-back” nature, but he said he won’t hesitate to evolve into a vocal leader if necessary. Teammates — and opponents — will be wise not to make him mad.
“They ask me questions; I try to give them feedback,” he said of younger Pitt players. “If they are slacking, I’m going to say something about it.
“If I see that somebody needs help or needs me to say something to them, I’m going to be that person to do that.”
The vocal leader who will call out guys that aren’t putting in the effort, will be played by Street.
He started into the role in spring practices, and seems to have embraced it.
Street, who started assuming a leadership role in the spring, notices when others aren’t accountable.
“Guys are on the right track right now,” he said. “We had some guys off the track and not really with it. I would say we are in a totally different state right now.
“No more excuses for just missing just even a light throw, even 15 minutes. If we want to be great, we have to do all the little things, too.
“Being on time for workouts, not even a minute late, because that stuff carries over. When you are not accountable for actions, you can’t be successful.”
As for Todd Thomas, well he is just happy not to be out with an injury and ready to play.
Beaver Falls graduate Todd Thomas said he’s in the best shape of his Pitt football career heading into his redshirt junior season. “My weight is good, I feel good,” he said. “I got faster.” He’s also healthy. After struggling with knee injuries his whole career, he’s now 100 percent. That’s good for Thomas and good for Pitt’s defense, which returns nine starters this season. “We just got to play together and not let anything slide,” Thomas said of the next step for a group that ranked in the top 25 in total defense last year. “Just focus on what we got to do. Just go all out and just play hard.” Thomas, if he could, would start training camp right now. But he’ll have to wait about a month; the Panthers open their camp on Aug. 6. “I’m ready,” he said. “I’d be the happiest person in the world. I’m ready to get this game and play and show everybody what we got this year.”
The one thing that makes Aaron Donald happy, having the same coach for consecutive seasons.
When Pitt defensive tackle Aaron Donald was asked what it was like to have the same coaching staff in place for two seasons in a row, a giant smile flashed across his face.
“It’s great,” he said. “I can’t explain it, it’s just great.”
Donald didn’t really have to explain it. His smile said it all. With the continuity of a stable staff comes a more accurate idea of what is expected from the coaching staff when players arrive for training camp in August.
Whether the smile is of relief or actually liking the staff. I don’t know, but at least the reality of it makes him happy.
However, while a rookie D Coordinator learns the ropes, it will be like a 16-year old driver with a permit, trying to drive a race car.
When your Coordinator is the biggest question mark things can go very bad, very quickly. PC may regret his slow, methodical, and possibly incorrect approach to replacing Huxtable.
How nice of the great and powerful one!
Hey, having a mental block. Who is the guy, that played without having a bone or something in his foot, and many people said, most people can’t even walk with that injury, but he played?
Who am I thinking of? Just last year.
He had a great start as starting MLB as a soph and thought by most to be a star, but then suffered a devatstating injury on national TV vs Miami .. believe it was the 3rd game of the year. It was thought he was done.
However, he defied all odds last year by coming back and playing, while trainers and physicians were puzzled. Had limitations but contributed and even started vs Temple, wherehe was to suffer another season ending injury.
However, this off-season, he was suspended and will not play again — hope he at least got his degree.
I don’t think that I want FSU to be soiling our new Script uniforms as the kick our buttsa in the first game of the season though. There is enough excitment for this one already. Now, call me a Koolaid drinker if you like, but I see Pitt a legit probable 5-3 going into the Notre Dame game come November. Now THATS the game for the Pitt Script to be dusted off and trotted out for a throwback game IMO. Tony Dorsett running for 303 vs. ND will be a memory I’ll cherish forever!
That was the weakest PITT schedule EVER and those stats were accumulated against the likes of Gardner Del Webb, Temple, YSU (even though they scored 31 points), USF (putrid offense), Buffalo,
Syracuse(pathetic offense but still managed to lose), Uconn (pathetic offense but still managed to lose) and Buttgers (just a pathetic offense).
And then the dismal defensive display against Ole Piss in our annual Compass Bowl game, giving up 38 points. blah
These guys better learn how to motivate themselves as other than playing at South Bend (where any team tries to play inspired), I didn’t see much inspired play nor a coaching staff (other than Huxtable) who held them very accountable.
We shall see what transpires this autumn.
As always we hope for the best and….
….tire of the rest. 🙂
That would have Cornhole thinking that he was admiting that he was wrong back in 1997 when he came up with his Master Plan for all things Pittsburgh. Complete with Groundhog logo.
And remember the architect of getting PITT into the ACC (lol) would never admit to his Master Plan being wrong.
Found in interesting fact, both PITT’s & Syracuse’s All-Time winning % is almost identical.
PITT at .585 and Cuse at .586
We’d be ahead if it wasn’t for ‘you know who’s’ boneheaded plays in the last years disaster loss to Cuse.
Which shows how truly dominating PITT was pre-1940.
I think we were all born in the wrong time era.
One of you genius’s need to event a time machine so we can all go back in time and enjoy ourselves with a truly dominating college football team.
I’ll buy drinks !
pitt has the third most pro football hall of fame inductees.
pitt has the eighth most consensus all americans
and the aleventh most college football hall of famers
and nine national champion ships
i would say that is not to bad i would say that ia very good how abought you?
From what I remember of the VT game last year, VT didn’t have much of a QB either. One of the rare instances the opposition had a worse QB than ours.
@ Frankie
Not’s it not bad at all. However like I posted other than producing NFL HOf’ers, the last 30 years has been hard to live thru for a PITT football person/alum.
Would love to see the U, invest some real money into the program, like they did with hoops and commit to winning in football with integrity.
It can be done ! All it takes is the will.
Me Buccos have been not getting it done lately. The kid Locke pitched a 3 hitter and still lost last nite.
Offensively, we left on base a staggering 20 baserunners. Which is an ongoing concern.
Maybe we should make that trade for Miami’s RF’er, the slugger who can bop some HR’s and drive in some runs.
Beat ’em Bucs !
For example we were:
17th in total defense – 330 ypg
20th in pass defense – 57% / 194 ypg
21st in Pass efficiency defense – opponent’s QB ratings of 113
23rd in scoring defense – 21 ppg
26th in passes intercepted – with 15
31st in rushing defense – 136 ypg
That’s all well and good but it left us with a 6-7 record and embarrassing big scoring losses to YSU (31 points), Cincy (34) , UCONN (24) and Ole Miss (38).
Which is why I feel that the rather poor historical completion percentages of our two would-be starting QBs this season @ 52% and 53% can be a real problem if we can’t keep our defense off the field.
Other than Pa. teams, especially way back, I wonder if we’ve ever played 3 teams from one state before??
Pretty hard to do. Nothing jumps out at me.
Maybe an obvious one I can’t think of.
In the 1950’s, it pretty much dropped to two, Penn. State and Temple whenever that popped up.
Interesting site. All of Pitts historical scores. If you hit “home”, you can get all NCAA scores.
ever one had ringers every one paid players under the table.
every one had what would pass for pros today
before tv and very little radio they moved from town to town changed there name and played for
money in a bowl game once a player said to a pitt player.
you have paid players on your team the pitt player
said you sure has hell dont you gays suck
not the right words but you get the point.
And it wasn’t the ’27 Rose Bowl, it was the late in the 30’s and Pitt declined to go because of it.
Which eventually led to the great Jock Sutherland leaving PITT. Of course the Admin. had a lot to do with this as they were courting the Big 10 for membership at the time, and the Big 10 only wanted PITT if they were not so dominate in football. The Pitt Admin. fell for this, left Sutherland leave and then as Pitt’s football fortunes fell…..the Big 10 suddenly wasn’t that interested. And took Michigan State instead.
We were basically played !!
Might as well set up a circular firing squad !
see my post above concerning why Cornhole Stevie will never bring back the Script .
I feel honored that you replied to my post! You are one of the best on here. And I agree Notre Dame game would be awesome! And for many that say Smiley wont do it cause it will be admitting he is wrong, well it doesn’t have to be that way. Honoring our past with a throwback game once a year is just that. I hope he does it, and it should be done! I mean 1997 is a long time ago, and we have all suffered through this Dinocat long enough. At least he says Pitt now! Progress with this guy is slow. If you do e mail someone like I do, go to EJ! He is quick to respond and actually seems open minded. He even said he really understands cause his first game was in 76! Hail to Pitt! And on to roster and depth chart analysis. Too much script talk will drive one crazy!
That pettiness appeared to be one factor with him and he left two weeks after it happened.
Personally, I still can’t figure out if Sherrill was actually a good gameday coach or not – he was a hell of a recruiter, that’s for sure. I was in Hawaii for most of his time at PITT so I couldn’t follow the program at all really – just got the weekly scores.
Sherrill left for the money. It was only $300k at the time albeit all the tv deals didn’t exist at the time to subsidize.
He was a hell of a recruiter but don’t forget the Golden Panthers. They were very “active” in supporting recruiting efforts. Cash, cars, summer jobs, etc.
Football is such a game of emotion and momentum that without it you’re destined to mediocrity. That has been the calling card of this team for a long time, under achievers. What a pleasant surprise it would be to see them put 8 or 9 wins together out of nowhere by laying it all out there every game like they did against VT. They made it look easy on that Saturday. Our division of the ACC is filled with teams just like VT, there is no reason to expect that we won’t be competitive in the ACC right away.
Guys like PittDan.83, UPittbaseball, UPone and others are calling for inspired play with no more excuses, there is no reason that type of VT performance can’t begin against FSU and continue all season, if the team goes out on the field of play with their heads screwed on with the right attitudes to begin with. Hail to Pitt!
I found an article on Golden Panthers.
Johnny Majors started the group in 1976.
Article is a great read. 1986 article.
I found this amusing.
Johnson, Newkirk and Mostella would seemingly fit well in the up-tempo Atlantic Coast Conference, Pitt’s new home after 31 years in the Big East.
“Coach said he wants to run,” Johnson said. “He’s been talking about getting up and down, so I feel like he will change his style and be more run and gun.”
I highly doubt Dixon said or will permit run and gun. We shall see if the tempo increases. I hope so.
I think we will see a faster pace. Not run and gun. Mostella (sp?), Newkirk, Young, Johnson. time will tell how productive they will be. But those are quicker, more offensive minded players who will be the core for the next couple of years.
You know, I looked for a possible Ohio.
I was thinking, in my mind, did we ever play Ohio St., Cincy, and Ohio in one year. Never found it, ruled out Ohio. Forgot about the Penguins. How could I ever???
See EMEL, hit the nail on the head. It has to be personal with SP and admitting a mistake. There is no other reason. Ya, use both, make everyone happy and make tons of money.
As for the university press or whoever owning the rights??? If even true, non-issue, that could be handled with one phone call.
Would hate to see it all go to waste because of the decision to go with an unproven rookie DC in place of a seasoned veteran the likes of Huxtable.
A couple of keys that might help in this situation.
Get Banks and Caprara plenty of playing time.
Not sure what to expect from him at all, but eager to find out and also really hoping Voytik and Anderson get plenty of work in camp as well — FSU’s gonna bring the hammer and we’ll be needing a spatula for our QBs. Thoughts?
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Jameis “Jaboo” “Jameisman” “Future Heisman Trophy winner” Winston. Those are just a few of the nicknames that have been attached to the redshirt freshman since his dominating, near-statistically perfect two-touchdown effort in FSU’s spring game last month.
Those aren’t the only ones, either. Other monikers for the rising star have made the rounds on social media and on team message boards and blogs in recent weeks, too. One of the more popular ones even compares the young signal-caller to a type of FSU football messiah.
The Orlando Sentinel
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I posted a few weeks ago, House is set up to succeed this season. He’ll basically run the same system as last year. The returning players are comfortable in this system.
If a ‘Big-Name’ DC came in with a new scheme/formations/terminology, I can’t say I’d be as confident in the D as I am going into this season.
2014 and beyond is where we will see how House stacks up as a DC.
There are also some returning long time as starters upperclassmen on the defense in Donald, Thomas and Hendricks so if they can exert the leadership being discussed in the latest rash of feel-good articles put out by the local media we’ll be OK.
If House can get them to play with some consistency that will help also. We don’t have the cards lined up for a great defense IMO but if we have a consistently good one that will go a long way to winning ballgames.
….and I’d be sceaming the same from section 512.
Outside of FSU, we really don’t face any teams with really good offenses. That will really help. I also cannot stress how much of a gift the ACC gave us by scheduling GT right after Navy. We get the 2nd best triple option team before we get the best one. One of the reasons GT is able to beat “superior” talent is because of how different and difficult to prepare for the triple option is.
Wow, I forgot about that. I can still see Rutherford standing there with his hands on his hips, looking to the bench, as the play clock wound down.
because it was every single offensive play!!!
You and I could have called that play immediately after the whistle because Fitz would go and get it.
H2P!
Idiot.
You have Donald anchoring the line, the best array of cornerbacks and safeties Pitt has had in a long time, and experience at starting linebacking.
I really like the talent of the starting LB corp — Gonzalez, Gordon and Thomas — just hope they stay healthy.