Are we really expecting lots of information after the first day of practice? Real clues? In non-contact, padless practice? Don’t we know better?

Sure we do. It’s just that it has been an eternity since any semblance of actual sport. After the off-the-field police blotter stuff. Recruiting obsessions. Parsing every puff interview. It doesn’t matter. Give us the crumbs!

First practice in the books. No questions really answered. No depth chart issues resolved. From that, the only reasonable conclusion one can make is that Chryst is not the answer. A real coach would have everything resolved and set in stone. He would know exactly what players will be starters and where based on their unsupervised off-season conditioning program. It is time to move on to another coach.

The most noticeable thing from the first day of practice was that Todd Thomas was not playing with the first team defense at weakside linebacker (WLB). Instead, Mike Caprara was moved over from middle linebacker (MLB). There was no subtlety to the move and Coach Paul Chryst and Todd Thomas didn’t hide from its meaning:

“I did (need motivation), a little bit, little extra,” Thomas said after practice. “I am going to keep working hard and see how it unfolds. … That’s how the cookie crumbles. I have to go out and earn a spot.”

Chryst downplayed the existence of first and second teams in practice, even though there is a clear division during drills.

“Right now, everyone has to prove they can provide a role that you can rely on and play with,” he said. “Then, you find out how many of those guys you can use.”

Thomas said he used the demotion as motivation while knocking away three passes. He practiced with an attitude, getting physical in coverage with tight end J.P. Holtz and running back Rachid Ibrahim.

“The motivation worked, definitely,” Thomas said.

Chryst said before practice that Thomas can make an impact.

“I think he can give us some stuff, but he can play at a higher level than what he’s been, need him to. That’s not negative.”

He added, however: “I think he thinks a lot of himself, you know, and match it.”

Told after practice that Thomas used the demotion as motivation, Chryst said, “I would hope so.”

“You love the energy he brings. You love the competitiveness he brings. If you look around, a lot of players respond to Todd. That’s all good stuff.”

When Thomas is healthy, he is one of the best players on the defense. The problem has been staying uninjured. It has to be hard to want to bring it in practice when you were injured during practice as a freshman. Then njured again in 2011 which was slow to fully heal and delayed a return last year. So the temporary demotion right at the start of practice was a good way to get his attention.

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My questions concerns and thoughts on Pitt as the first day of camp begins and it is less than 28 days to FSU-Pitt.

Part 1 is here. Part 2, here.

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.

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Part one of  is here. Just a list of some of the issues — and where they rank to me.

4. Offensive Line. You can’t talk concerns about Pitt for the last 10+ years without putting the O-line on the list. The fact that I have it all the way down here should be encouraging or terrifying. It either means there’s a lot of reasons for optimism or that there are so many other issues this one actually gets dropped this low.

Freshman Dorian Johnson will get the opportunity to seize the right tackle starting job from T.J. Clemmings and/or (fresh from his own one-year suspension) Juantez Hollins, but Coach Chryst is doing his best to hedge on that.

“None of us feel comfortable (with starting a freshman),” he said.

Chryst pointed out that Joe Thomas didn’t start as a freshman at Wisconsin, but he became an NFL first-round draft choice.

“On all true freshmen, you have to make sure that they’re ready, that it won’t hurt them and hurt their development.”

On the rest of the line, it looks surprisingly stable. Technically there is a battle at the center spot between Gabe Roberts and Artie Rowell, but Roberts was clearly the guy from the spring at center. Despite converting from a tackle spot.

I’m going with optimism. I like the job O-line Coach Jim Hueber is doing, and I feel confident that Coach Chryst and OC Joe Rudolph does more than simply say that they need the O-line to do well.

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Questions on the field. Questions off the field. Questions about the coaches. They are all there. Some will get sorted out in the next few weeks. Some will only be put to rest once the season begins.

Here are my top issues as camp begins. Actually, this list kind of got long, so I’m splitting it into a few posts.

1. Quarterback. Natch. Covered this yesterday so I won’t repeat it.

2. Defensive Coordinator Matt House. The defense is expected/needed to be the strength of this squad. The man in charge of the defense is a first time DC. A man with a total of 4 years of position coaching experience. Outside of new Defensive Ends & Linebackers Coach John Palmero the rest of the position coaches on the defense have 4 years or less of experience coaching at the college level.

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Fire up the outrage. Suspensions are announced and unresolved.

Ronald Jones:Suspended for entire season for “violation of team rules.”

K.K. Mosley-Smith:Suspended for entire season following the happenings at his shared apartment.

Tra’von Chapman:Still indefinitely suspended as no decision has been made.

I expect Chapman will also be suspended for the full season. Perhaps without being allowed to practice with the team.

Camp opens tomorrow for Pitt football. Today is generally a minor media day.

So, why not start with the position everyone will be watching intently: quarterback.

There are plenty of questions at various positions. God, are there questions. There can be a case made for the importance of various other spots, but in modern football it is foolish (or Wannstedtian) to pretend that the QB spot isn’t the most important position.

It’s the center of the offense. He helps to dictate the pace of offense, which in turn influences how long the defense is on the sideline resting. It’s not that you can win without good skill players, strong lines and all the other parts. But any one of those can be papered over a little more than if you don’t have a good QB.

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Yeah, yeah. Football is just about upon us. I’m sure many of you slogged through at least a quarter of exhibition NFL football last night. Simply because: FOOTBALL!

Still there is the unresolved Sheldon Jeter saga. When last we left our hero, his appeal for release from Vanderbilt to go to Pitt was denied by Vanderbilt. Since then, nothing.

There have been no words on his plans. Will he enroll at another Pittsburgh school? Robert Morris? Duquesne? Will he go somewhere in Ohio West Virginia, where he can get home in under 3 hours? Kent St.? Marshall?

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[Ed. Note: Hosting company had network problems today. I tried to publish this just as it went down.]

As we all know, one of the way Penn State did their best not to play Pitt was to claim they simply could not “afford” to lock into a home-and-home series. They needed at least a 3-for-2 deal or some other arrangement to make it clear that they were the alpha dog get enough home games. Pitt never flinched in holding firm against that. Not Pederson. Not Long. Wasn’t going to happen.

Now WVU works to find non-con games. They are looking to set up regional games (cheaper travel and games their fans might actually care to see) and neutral site games.

Holgorsen speaks excitedly and openly about other possibilities he’d like to make realities to fit his vision and to position his team for a spot in the playoff.

“I’d be in favor of us and Pitt playing once in Pittsburgh (at Heinz Field) because it’s a big venue and because we’d have more people than they would,” Holgorsen said. “Us and Penn State in Philadelphia. If you can do a home-and-home, great. If you can’t, then do one game in a bigger venue. The home-and-home with (Virginia) Tech was already announced. A home-and-home with Virginia, or a neutral-site game with Virginia in (Washington, D.C.)?”

[Emphasis added.]

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You know the basketball team can actually start light team practices next month? Another tweak to the rules. Meanwhile the court of the Petersen Event Center has had a touch-up.

To break up all of the Chapman discussion, I posted a comment to see if anyone had any ideas for some different talking points and it kind of evolved into a Q&A session about a cornucopia of topics. If I missed your question, sorry, once I got close to 1500 words I had to edit so I could get back to my day job. If you see any glaring errors, my apologies.

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