My questions concerns and thoughts on Pitt as the first day of camp begins and it is less than 28 days to FSU-Pitt.
8. Who is going to kick field goals? This is the one question that has the potential, at the end of the year to look back at and wonder why there wasn’t more concern over this issue. Kevin Harper is gone. He never quite got that consistency to match the leg strength, but now what? Does freshman Chris Blewitt come in and beat everyone? There are two walk-ons in Brad Lukasak and Drake Greer battling with him. Pitt was 0-7 in games decided by 5 points or less the last 3 years.
9. Can the D-line dominate? As much as Pitt intends to rely on the defense, it really is about how the four guys up-front perform. All the optimism on defense stems from the D-line. Aaron Donald is going to face regular double teams. Tryone Ezell and Tyrique Jarrett absolutely have to take advantage of that to help create the pressure on the opposing offenses and take the pressure off Donald.
On the outside, David Durham — the Ohio State transfer — is expected to start and make the line stronger on the edge. This is the make-or-break year for Bryan Murphy who has been dogged by injuries and academic struggles. He’s now a redshirt junior and freshman Shakir Soto enrolled early and already made the depth chart.
10. What about Chryst? Coach Chryst is now in year two. His first year was a bit rocky at times. As much as the suspensions just before the start of the YSU game may have hurt the team, the way they came out and played in both the YSU and Cinci was a wreck. Emotionally flat. Unprepared and simply unsure. That starts at the top.
Now the good news was that the team and Chryst improved as the season continued. There were still moments of shakiness — the team failing to show up for the first three quarters at UConn after the heartbreaker at ND. Game management at the end of the first half against Louisville. The Syracuse game.
Chryst has to improve on making sure the team is emotionally ready at the start of games. The VT and ND games were big games and everyone was ready and fired up to play. But those are easy games to get up for. There were too many where the team simply wasn’t ready to play.
Agree that both the big recruits at DE out of New Jersey a few years back have been……less than stellar…shall we say.
And 0-7 in last 2 years in games decided by 5 points or less, says it all. But I wouldn’t blame that ALL on the FG kicker. haha
Difference of winning a few of them meant not having gone to the lovely confines of Legion Field in January in an obscure soon to be defunct bowl game.
And yes your thoughts about PC’s motivational skills is right on target. Perhaps PC is recruiting the type of kids who can motivate themselves. Nobody ever had to motivate me to play a football or a basketball or a baseball game.
So maybe that is the key to PC’s recruiting.
He wants self-motivated kids, not kids who think they’re entitled ! Yes/No
The answers to your three questions follow, Yes, Yes and Nope! Not this year. We are going to have to be happy with those intangibles that result in wins down the road this year, unfortunately.
Be happy when we stay in games until the final wistle blows. Take solice in the fact that the team will play hard this season and have more heart than we’ve seen in the recent past. Be aware that the young players are going to make mistakes, and learn from them, hopefully. Playing RS Freshman now makes for experienced upperclassmen down the road. That which doesn’t kill you just makes you stronger.
I’m just hoping that we don’t get KILLED vs FSU. If we stay in that game and don’t embarrass ourselves on national TV, ONCE AGAIN, we WILL get better as the season progresses as long as we can keep the injury bug at bay.
A ragingly successful season this year looks like 7-5 with an invite to a minor bowl. That is what they call growing pains my friend.
On another note, isn’t this a great time of year to be a Pitt Fan? No losses yet, no muffed FG’s.
Just hope and dreams, just like when we were young and that first issue of the College Football Magazine came out.
On offense, due to lack of quality WR’s, I expect double TE sets. Can power football work in ACC? Don’t know. But Pitt’s TE’s can catch the ball and will be mismatch against LB’s. The TE’s are the strength of the team. I like Bennet at RB or RB by committee is not a problem. The O-line will be fine with combo of experience and depth. Also, I’m quite comfortable with the coaches on the O-side of the ball.
Defense… where do I start. Weak coaching. DE’s that are lightweight as they are converted LB’s therefore playing out of position. LB’s are not a strength as Gonzo never played that position until spring and to outplay others is concerning regarding quality of depth. The DB’s will not have ACC speed and will get burned.
Emel.. regarding motivation. Part of a coaches job is to motivate or pumpup players. Some of the best alltime coaches new how to do it. Lombardi ring a bell. Chryst doesn’t know how to motivate. Did you ever see snippets of pregame or halftime. smh
what I’m saying is maybe PC recognizes his own liabilities and is seeking kids to recruit who are self-motivators.
Which would jive with kids with high GPA’s, as you have to be self-motivated to study and earn high grades.
As opposed to Lombardi, on the opposite end of the spectrum, does Chuck Noll ring a bell.
Tom Landry would also fit that bill..ding ding.
but if we lose 52 to 10 or 42 to 14 i will be pissed
in outher words as long as we dont get blown out.
or maybe we win that would be nice.
but if we have no D I WILL SCREAM and get drunk.
as i said under the 2nd edition of this topic, if ray vinopal starts at safety we are in trouble back there. unless he got considerably faster over this off season, he has no business starting at safety. he is very small and doesnt have the speed to overcome that. hopefully he has improved.. a lot.
they moved caprara to outside backer because they really really like true freshman matt galambos. they dont want to stack two good players so chryst wants to spread the talent out. side note, it interests me that the two backers they love ie caprara and galambos had crap offer sheets……
i watched the post practice intgerview and looked at the photo gallery and james conner is huge. he is physically ready to play. whether he can get ready mentally by this season is the question.
ejuan price is playing de this camp because of his rushing skills. i think he is terribly undersized to have a hand on the ground but rushing is his specialty so if his size isnt a factor then he can be effective in that role.
Blewitt, remember that name, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!
Know what you mean buddy.
I think FSU laid over 50 points on their first 3 victims (er opponents) last year.
I just don’t want to be embarrassed on National TV in our very 1rst game in the ACC.
Maybe Monk Bonasorte will show pity on his brother’s alma mater. Is Chuckie’s place still on Forbes ?
Pitt has ‘inexperienced’ coaching on D. There is a lack of data on the group to determine the coaching weak.
All of the BS of the off season is over, Are you ready for some football? Fill the stadium!
Hail to Pitt!
Hell I hope he’s the 2nd coming of Jerry Olsavski.
(Scott McKillop for you younger guys)
Your are indeed on target PK, on the crap offer sheets. (Yale, Harvard, Rutgers, Cuse & Temple)
Bet ya the kid is the self-motivated type though. With offers from Yale & Haaaavard. haha
Interesting article about Matt Galambos, who carried a weighted 4.1 GPA at a tough academic HS.
Just got done reading the REd Shirt blog, thanks for me reminding me bro, cause I despise the PG.
Couple things I noticed, no mention of Nick Grigsby or Bam Bradley.
And not a single mention of the QB spot, would have been nice to know if Savage & Voytik were in shape and maybe throwing on target. Spinning the ball nice, something, anything.
Not another year of Sam (on the job training) Werner.
What ever happened to that guy who wrote dissertations concerning the attributes of one….
Mark Myers.
Not to be confused with one….Michael Myers.
Well you know.
thanks for asking.
if he had not missed a game he would have made 3000
Pitts and Williams do have have those speeds.
I know Pitts never went to a combine. Can you provide a link to their combines?
Any athlete can put whatever time they want on their rivals/scout profile without verification.
For instance, Shai McKenzie was touting 4.32 but when he went to Oregon in June for an elite camp, he was measured at 4.58.
it is ok but if we get blown out and the d stinks
i am not ok with it.
like i said i could live with a 21 to 10 loss or something like that .
Nurse Ratched has your meds!!
link to nfldraftscout.com
williams
link to nfldraftscout.com
neither pitts nor williams got beat by simply being slower than a receiver last year.. not once.. not against notre dame nor virginia tech who have superior overall team talent to pitt. other than fsu and clemson, theres not a team in the acc who have receivers that could simply outrun those tw and even then the difference between a 4.4 and a 4.43 isnt very noticeable.. i dont need combines to know that.
Maybe it’s because I attended Pitt in the late 80s, but I’d rather see Pitt pushed around as lesser talent than see Pitt play a competitive game but make idiotic mistakes and lose, looking like poorly coached, clueless morons. Getting whupped by a better team is fine. Looking like you don’t deserve to be in the stadium is intolerable. I’m tired of Pitt looking like a high school team. I hope Pitt plays like they know what they are doing. I understand that this is the first time in several years that we’ll have the same head coach, but that does not explain the last 3 decades. We’re supposed to a school for smart people. Let’s show it on the football field.
H2P
Thank you…well spoken….AMEN!
Another feature article about our boys in blue & gold and ….wait…..block PITT .
Here we go:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/panthers-eager-life-acc-underway-214516251–ncaaf.html
maybe…….just maybe……….
…….We shock the World !!!
Hey I can dream right. Hope is eternal with Pitt ppl who went to school in the latest glory days !!
I raise my glass in tribute….sir !
…….on a walkoff HomeRun by Josh Harrison.
We are now 68-44, which is the best mark we’ve had since 1972 at this stage of the season.
Roberto’s final season……..:-(
JJ – I give Street credit for stepping up in a leadership role but the reality is that he has to to remain attractive to NFL scouts after punching that student and getting arrested with Pitts and Graham. He surely is a case of one’s learning from a mistake. I think he’ll have a very solid year this season, maybe not as many yards because we won’t have as many completed passes but he’ll probably score more TDs.
Chryst has been talking about Bradley in the last few days – very positive also. Both Grigsby and Bradly are still on the team and IMO will be so this season.
EMel – I was just thinking about that Myers loving poster also. I thought he was great on here and he and I had competing dissertations on Myers’ merits. Frank – 3000 yards at John Carroll means nothing when you are talking about a QB being able to compete at a BCS level school. He’s doing well and having fun without any real pressure on him which is what he always wanted.
There was a solid reason he dropped from PITT to John Carroll’s level – now for him its back to football being a fun game to play with his teammates instead of a burden of unreasonable expectations as it was at PITT. I think the last thing he wanted was to be at a D1 or even a D2 level school school. Good for him.
pk – I’d like to see Caprara replace Gonzalez and move Gonzalez back to Safety to take over Vinopal’s spot. A starting lineup of Thomas, Gordon and Caprara would be fine with me. Lets remember that Caprara is now 6’0″ and 225 lbs – he put on 35 pounds since starting his SR in HS. Plus, Caprara played four years of LB at a good football school and beat the total tackling record there.
I don’t think Gonzalez played any LB in HS at all – he was a QB and a Safety. BTW – another 4* QB who wasn’t actually as good as the recruit rankings, and PITT fans, thought he was.
I’m pumped for football to be starting and equally excited for the Labor Day game. Each year the hype builds and we all get let down early and often. Some year it has to change doesn’t it?? Some year we actually have to exceed expectations and excel…don’t we? We’re due, right?