Pitt officials have announced that Tra’Von Chapman has been dismissed from the program. In essence: he’s gone, never coming back. We can debate endlessly over this decision, but the call came all the way from the top: Chancellor Nordenberg.
Let’s go over just the facts:
Former Kent Roosevelt star quarterback and University of Pittsburgh freshman Tra’Von Chapman pled guilty to a charge of attempted assault on Monday afternoon in Portage County Municipal Court.
Judge Barbara Oswick accepted the plea and ordered Chapman to spend three days in jail, pay a $200 fine, 40 hours of community service and must report to adult probation Aug. 2. Judge also issued a no-contact order, which prohibits Chapman from speaking to the victim or her family.
Chapman was convicted of attempted assault on a woman and spent 3 days in jail, but with 87 days of a suspended sentence, one mistake and he’s back in prison. Typically speaking, punishment is determined by the football program. However, given the circumstances (actual jail time, conviction, gender of victim), the decision was pushed all the way to the top.
I want to elaborate on that. If Chapman stays while guys who were never convicted like Drew Carswell and Eric Williams are kicked off the team, it could appear to be favortism. More important is the gender of the victim. If Chapman was convicted of attempted assault on an 18 year old male, this case looks a lot different.
We fired Haywood for allegedly hitting the mother of his child in an argument. While coaches are held to a higher standard (see Petrino, Bobby) than players, attempted assault involving a woman is too controversial. If Chapman stayed, protests would be inevitable. Given the recent black eyes on the program regarding off field issues, the last thing this university needs is a headline that says “Poster Child for Player Arrests Keeps Convicted Woman Beater on Roster.” Would it be entirely factual? No. Does that matter to the media? Nope.
I agree with this decision. This wasn’t just a football program issue; it was a university issue. It’s very evident that ever since the Sports Illustrated cover that the university will not allow the football program to be a public image issue. Losing games is one thing, but they’d much rather be a .500 program with good student athletes than 10-2 and disrupting the university’s academic mission.
There’s very little fallout for 2013. Chapman was almost guaranteed to get a redshirt. The big issue is 2014. As of right now, the depth chart is Voytik, Trey Anderson, and 2 true freshmen. Not good. Expect a JUCO or a senior who has already graduated to transfer in for next season. I’ll do some digging to see what I can find there, but I highly doubt we go into 2014 with that QB depth chart.
Only with PITT fans could a promising 4* recruit at a desperately needed position get dismissed from the team and somehow the conversation circles around to PITT stadium. 🙂
Great link, really enjoyed reading that !
In 1926 having that stadium built complete with basketball pavilion was a modern marvel with football seating for 70,000.
The building of Pitt Stadium in 1926 layed the groundwork for the greatest ever period of Pitt football. 1926-1938, as the article notes 1926 was the 2nd season the the Jock Sutherland era.
In that period Pitt appeared in 4 Rose Bowl games.
And that great era and the 4 Rose Bowl appearances might not have ever happened unless PITT Stadium was built, as Sutherland was able to use the lure partly of Pitt Stadium as a recruiting tool.
You can learn a lot from history and the lesson here is plain to see !!!
Build a new frickin on campus stadium !
Yea I’ve checked, no more, you know who’s, until you know who…….has kids.
God help the Pitt students of say 2035-2040.
They will be an unsuspecting lot.
Emel. Bucs offense is anemic last few games.
Well one only needs to look at the PITT basketball program since The Pete was built.
That couldn’t have been accomplished playing in old Fitzgerald Field House. Yes we had spurts of greatness(1974, 1987-1990) at the Field House, but never a long sustained period of being relevant nationally every year since 2001.
Another example right in front of our eyes;
Trees Hall when built was one of the better swimming venues in the Northeast and PITT had very good swimming teams back in the mid to late 70’s and 80’s. As the facility became dated and other colleges built newer nicer swimming complexes, their program’s passed PITT.
What all this says is: it takes monetary investment in the form of building new facilities to keep a program relevant which will then allow you to attract better coaches.
PITT made a huge monetary expenditure to make the basketball program relevant on a yearly basis.
And continue to ‘ante up’ every time they extend JD’s contract.
If we want to become relevant in football on a yearly basis, a huge monetary expenditure will more than likely be needed again.
Just like the $2 Million they spent in 1926 to help make PITT, the best team in college football in the Eastern half of the country for over a decade. (of course we all know $2 Million in 1926 might equal $500 Million or more now)
Oh and btw it is a disgrace that tiny Wake Forest with an undergrad enrollment of 4,000 students places higher than PITT in overall sports with an enrollment of 19,000 students.
All the better bowl teams back then gave players ‘stipends’ or spending money when on Bowl trips.
And of course they still do it today !
Pitt & Sutherland were not different than anyone else. Although from my understanding, the few bucks given to the players came out of Jock’s pockets. Because PITT was too cheap !
Yea you figured we had a good chance to sweep this series after FRiday nite with Liriano & Burnett next up.
Only saving grace today, both the Cards & Redlegs lost as well.
Made ex-Buc Vogelsong (a guy with close to a 6.00 ERA) look like Cy Young today. 2 of our 3 hits were by guys who were in AAA last week. Oy Vey !
Speaking of charmed lives……
The solution to football field is build it on top of that shit hole golf course on the hill. Accessible by major highway and imagine the new growth that would move around it. Put some dorms, etc. and have an awesome area to tailgate. Call up Gertrude and say to all alumni we need 700M. Easily they would get that and more. Sell bricks pavers, etc. sell the name and sell the naming rights to a company as well. No chutzpah whatsoever.
There is some correlation to new stadiums and improved performance on the field. Look at the Pirates and Steelers with Three Rivers. I’m a convert. All along I believed it was about good coaching and team effort. All Pitt needs is a new on campus football stadium to become relevant again. Lets do it.
Atlanta has a 21 year old domed stadium and are looking to tear it down to build a billion dollar stadium and the Falcons are building a championship caliber team, again.
The problem with a city school like Pitt, where do you build a stadium with limited space for building and parking?
Pitt got the Quad when Forbes Field was raized.
This is good fodder until the Flordia State game then a new Pitt stadium will be a pipe dream until next year.
And yours truly was at the very first baseball game ever played at 3 Rivers in July of 1970 against the Redlegs. Pirates lost that game but did reach the NL playoffs losing to the Redlegs again but won the WS the following year and in ’79.
Don’t know if that run in the ’70’s would have happened at old Forbes Field. Kind of doubt it as the ’71 World Series had the first EVER World Series night game and the 3 Rivers venue gave the world a view of Pgh’s magnificent 3 rivers and started Pgh’s renaissance.
Of course concurring with the first massive wave of ‘outsourcing’ of Pgh’ers to other parts of the US, when 90% of the Steel industry/and other industries related, were moved oversees.
All of those events were tied into Pgh’s re-emergence into a non-steel city during a decade the Steelers rose to unprecedented prominence.
Ironic eh !
brick layers vs carpenters
However I obviously meant the first professional baseball game.
Still have the beautiful souvenir Game Day Ticket,
btw.
No mention of brick layers vs carpenters, so sorry Joe, you’re wrong again ! haha
No wonder the stadium opening was delayed until July ! lol
New on-campus stadium needed.
New AD needed.
For what it is worth, I do like Paul Chryst and feel he will do great things at his next post. Pederson is handcuffing him and he is playing it like a pro. Well done PC, well done!
No date on the ticket, just ‘Opening Day’ since the workers were playing ball instead of working
Box 220 ….Ticket Cost was $4.15 which included .36 cent City tax and .15 Stadium charge.
Ticket was signed by Pirate President Dan Galbreath.
Enjoy
I guess we’ll have something concrete to talk about in a week and a day.
link to news.google.com
Hail to Pitt!