Welp, Pitt didn’t get Dravon Henry. The 4-star defensive back opted for West Virginia.
Everyone knows it was down to those two for Henry. He was quite torn on the decision. Tears and all when he announced.
As noted, this doesn’t help defensive coordinator Matt House’s status with Pitt fans when he can’t reel in the best defensive player in the state. Losing him to WVU and a defense that will give up a ton of points and yardage simply because the offense leaves it all on them.
Neither does this.
Mrs. Henry, on Pitt, "I talked to a lot of the players on defense, and they didn't like the way things were set up."
— Panther Digest (@PantherDigest) December 9, 2013
The only thing I’ll say with regards to Henry to wish him well, and note that it is still two months to signing day. A lot can still change with his decision.
on csnbbs aac conference talk east carolina is bitching becuse they have to play a mac school
they think it is beneath them to have to play a mac school in there bowl.
hell if they think that and they are nobody should we not fell the same way becuse we are pitt.
that is the point we think it is ok to play a mac school in a bowl and be under dogs at that how far the mighty pitt football has falling and it is worse when her fans think it is ok how low can we go.
I’m only a fan of stability when it leads to wins. Seriously the Wanny days look better as time flys by. Even Fraud brought a better offense than this turd given to us by Barry.
He needs his hand held. His assistants aren’t strong enough. His coaching flaws are exposed. Why does Pitt give coaches the chance to learn on the job. Make your damn mistakes at a MAC school.
i myself do not attack chryst becuse i know he will be here for 2 more years weather i want him to or not.
but i do think the asst coachs should be fired at least most of them not all of them.
EMel has not been on for days it is not like him to miss this kind of stuff.
if you are out there just post something so we know you are ok.
Thanks Nordy for building a medical empire but Pitt still lags Penn State in everything but men’s basketball. Still looking up to Penn State in academics. Still behind Pedo State in brand value even after the scandal. Does Pitt have a plan?
I want to hear from the new leader how we plan on surpassing Penn State, how we plan to improve the overall quality of our athletic program and how we plan to fund it, how we plan to increase our brand equity, how we plan to compete for ACC championships, how we plan to be a well balanced university, how we plan to improve the quality of life and overall student experience, how we plan to increase our endowment and keep costs down.
No easy answers but I’m glad the door is closing on this administration. We need new vision, energy and commitment. We’ve grown too complacent.
Beat Bowling Green and Hail to Pitt!
I’m not even sure the D is the biggest problem. I was just looking at NCAA team ranks: Total Offense 102, Passing Offense 61, Rushing Offense 112, Scoring Offense 85. Those are pretty bad numbers for a team coached by an offense guy.
Cutcliffe took several years to get his players comfortable in his system. Pitt would be wise to let Chryst have his time to develop the program. Doomsdayers need to stay away for you know not what you say.
Further, Henry may not be the end all. If you follow twitter accounts, the Shell’s and the Henry’s accounts are covered with the “N” word. There is no need for this and the associated friendships in any Pitt locker room and it is not the type of young man you want in your program. Leave that to the WVU’s, OSU’s. Tell me it is everywhere in today’s society and I will take you to task. Class is taught by Paul Chryst, not Holgorsen, Meyer, etc. Meyer may have crossed himself up after the MSU game. Rumor has it that he disrespected the Carmen Ohio tradition at the end of the game because he was pouting.
Gibson and Holgorsen will be gone next year if they go anything less than 6-6. AD Luck has already inferred that recently. Actually, Luck almost left first for the Texas AD job which would have been bad for Pitt. Why< because the AD at Oregon is a hillbilly and wanted to go back to WV if Luck left.
UPitt, we agree only that our current AD is terrible. A laughingstock amongst his peers, but laughing at the fan base because of the cash we pay him for repeated failure. Ease off on the negativity or they will start calling you Joe Jr.
Finally, let's stop all this bs about Pitt being this great academic institution. We are good to slightly above average. The rankings are manipulated constantly. I know this as I study the ranking mechanisms and how to manipulate the results. As an example, many universities hire recent graduates for a two year stint post graduation to boost employment percentages post graduation. Some universities hire many non-tenured faculty prior to survey completion so the student teacher ratio is lower, thus receiving hire scores. There are about twenty other manipulations that occur, so unless you know all the assumptions behind the rankings and what they really mean, the rankings are inaccurate. Sorry Pitt Dad. That is just how it works.
In closing, my recommendation is to back off the head coach. He isn't going anywhere. I do wish PC would take a hint from Obrien at psu and fire a couple of assistants that aren't performing, only if there are better replacements. All the players that pick Pitt, welcome. All those that go elsewhere seeking greener pastures, good luck. Recent memory suggests that the locals should remain local for the family support they need. Didn't Gibson coach at Pitt for awhile? If it was so bad, why did he work here? It was good enough for him, but not anyone he is recruiting. Sounds backwards to me, but people who don't know better (typically parents) get caught up in the emotion. My hope is that once the dust settles, better choices will be made.
Haven’t seen you on here before. We all know Upitt and we know he’s mostly glass-half-empty. He’s a good guy, though. I’ve made the mistake of getting personal and it’s the wrong move. Just sayin’.
Do you think he MIGHT have landed Mr.Henry IF he was one of the assistants recruting Western PA?
Don’t like the Tom Savage bashing. The O line was terrible and gave him little time to throw….especially the deep ball.
Savage wasn’t perfect but gave us his best effort and I for one
enjoyed watching him play.
Voytik is mobile and has a strong arm. Did anyone watch the Spring Game? Voytik will be ready and the early non conference games will give him an opportunity to get oriented.
Hopefully the O-line will improve get the running game going, taking the pressure off Voytik.
Donald is going to get another award tonight, hopefully. Tomorrow is the Big Kauna though, the Outland Trophy has always been viewed as the linemen’s Heisman and Donald is the best choice for that one too. He’ll be in rare company if he receives it, with only one other Pitt guy ever being awarded the Outland, Coach Holtz’s main anticognist, Mark May.
Merry Christmas, let’s put this belated Christmas gift on all of our lists for a dominant win over a very solid Bowling Green team. That would be the appropriate way to end our season if, in fact, Pitt is trending upward.
Keep reading Upitt, that should be your New Year’s resolution, a more optimistic outlook on Pitt athletics! BTW, your heart is half the size of the Ginch, not Scrooge.
Kids buy what coaches sell. The plan to maximize the gifts of an athlete so he can get to the next level; an opportunity for early playing time and an opportunity to play for championships. For Pitt, the opportunity to play for a championship is better in the ACC, than all of our local competitors except for OSU in the Big11.
I used Duke as an example because they won 10 games in the ACC with 2 and 3 star players. The roadmap can work if given time. Cutcliffe was well under 500 since 2008. Don’t worry about me and Upitt. We get along just fine and as pointed out agree on many things. He double dosed the negative this week, that’s all.
Undeniable fact Pitt cannot be come
relevant by depending on WPIAL
players. Given the shortage of local
talent and the fact not all of the players
want to attend Pitt the staff must expand
the recruiting boundaries. Also factor in the
annual needs of the team; losing Henry
is painful however most assuredly the staff
has a plan B.
Losing to a MAC team, or a Sun Belt team is still a stigma, to any of the 5 BCS conferences.
It may happen more than it did 20 years ago, but it is still not an everyday Saturday event.
My embarrassment is not losing to Bowling Green, you are correct about that, we’ll be lucky to stay on the field with them.
My embarrassment is how far the Pitt football program has fallen.
Think about it. We’re gonna be in a dog fight, with………..Bowling Green.
If I did, poor word choice.
Let’s say, it saddens me, to see what we’ve become.
My hope is that with Pitt upgrading to the ACC that the coaching staff takes full advantage of that geographic footprint to enhance the scope of their successful recruiting efforts into the deep South. There is no way to deny the fact that they grow fast, talented football players down there in Florida and such. We need our share of that crop of recruits ANNUALLY if we are expected to eventually compete for ACC Championships. This incoming QB from Florida is a start, but only a start. We need about another half dozen of them fast, skilled Florida guys to fill out our 2015 recruiting class.
It’s not “terrible”, it’s just the perpetual mediocrity.
I hope HCPC’s plan can pull us out of it.
I’ve stated before, and I believe many if not most of us, do not have delusions of 1976 and National Championships.
Would just like to be a perennial top 25 team or so.
I can even give you a visualization of my thoughts in say, any given 10 year period.
#21
#18
Not ranked
#13
#17
Not ranked
Not ranked
#22
#15
#16
Perhaps this is asking too much from the admistration. Seems like a lot of academic institutions these days are striving for excellence in the classroom, along with excellence in sports.
I don’t think my above 10 year little thing, is asking for the moon.
Maybe it is.
Gotta get better a.coaches…and a recrutiing coordinator that CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE down there.
If not..the program is doomed to be 2nd tier in the ACC for a lonnnnnnnnnnnnng time.
Comment by Upittbaseball 12.10.13 @ 8:25 pm”
Clawson is a gem. He was my undergrad alma mater’s (Richmond) head coach and loaded up the roster before leaving to become Tenn’s OC under Fulmer.
Watch out for Wake…he will do good things for that program.
And we can all thank Gene DeFilippo for vetoing UConn. What a stroke of luck for us…
But a fairer assessment of SP is that without the improved facilities for BB, baseball, soccer, etc – that he oversaw – the ACC doesn’t call us after that veto.
I just hope that we’re not further embarrassed by getting our a$$es kicked by the MAC Champs the day after Christmas. They ground up NIU into little pieces and spit them out in their championship game against them!
I like this match up alot. This is a good team but very beatable by Pitt if we come prepared to play. As I’ve said previously, this is a must win game for Pitt. There should be little need for the coaching staff to have to light a fire under the Panthers to get them motivated for the Fighting Falcons. Think about it, how many bowls involve a conference Champion in them as one of the participants? The MAC plays big boy football IMO, and they should be a stern test for the Panthers, and apparently their QB, Johnson has an axe to grind with a previous Pitt coaching staff, for not being heavily recruited by the Panthers.
I could give a $hit who we beat, as long as we beat them to go 7-6 to end the season.
Going into LOI signing day with a bowl win and a winning season sure will feel a lot better than another 6-7 season and a loss to a MAC team to end it, even if they are the MAC Champs.
No disrespect to Bowling Green Panther either. BGU does have a very good team this year.
Don’t mean to contradict myself either. When I spoke of BGU being in a BCS conference and doing as well, I really meant having the long, long year, and playing a tough game every week.
On any given Saturday, they could probably beat anyone. We’ve seen it before with Boise St., TCU, NIU this year.
They do beat teams, I was really talking about having to go through a power conference schedule.
So, absolutely no disrespect to BGU.
Hell, I fear them as a Pitt fan. Scares the crap out of me with what’s going to happen at that bowl game.
Perhaps that is what Mrs. Henry was talking about. Maybe she was talking color schemes of uniforms with Gibson and defensive schemes with House which led to confusion. I like Ms. Henry and wish her a belated birthday. I don’t care for the family decision but as I looked closer, Pitt is actually progressing, while the other program is in decline, moving to irrelevant. I am not sure they can win 6 games next year and if they don’t the partying coach will be dismissed. WVU has malcontents from other programs that Pitt wouldn’t let back in. Shell will gain big yards at wvu. The backs always do in the holgorsen system. The problem is the holgorsen run defense is terrible. WVU will be a 5-7 team next year and Holgorsen will be gone as will Gibson.
If Gibson was good, Rich Rod would have kept him at Michigan who still hasn’t recovered from the defensive back train wreck. If he was good, Todd Graham would have taken him to Arizona. There is a common thread. He doesn’t last long and he hasn’t progressed upward to defensive coordinator and won’t. Looking at his resume’, he is either a head coach killer or is on a magnificently long stretch of bad luck. The Henry family gets to decide who they are hitching there wagon too over the next month and a half. Now that the pressure is off, the family can actually sit down and think it through correctly.
Which is why he *won’t* be signing with Pitt. Another wasted 90K on an assistant who is worthless.
I don’t doubt some kids look at uniforms and I respect your opinion.
However, Oregon is one of the few, to go with those futuristic, non traditional college football uniforms. No doubt, they won, they got away with it.
You’d be hard pressed though, to find anyone else successful that has done that.
(now, I’m not talking about a once a year uniform, or a one game throwback, talking about teams that changed their whole look).
By the way, Oregon had already started their comeback without those uni’s. They were in the 94 Rose Bowl, traditional green and gold.
Think about the big boys. Alabama, Auburn, FSU, Clemson, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Michigan, Ohio State, USC, ND, PSU, Iowa, Michigan State, Texas, LSU, Georgia.
Seems like most of the top teams, have not changed, and granted, they don’t need to.
Most of the uniforms look ridiculous, and are gimmicks at best, to sell a few shirts.
By the way, I looked it up, I don’t have the link right now, but I’ll get it, changing uniforms has not meant enormous profits. The first year, they sell a few, then mostly down the tubes.
Winning, is what sells jerseys.
Besides, if a player’s decision, is on the uniforms, I’m not sure he’s the kind of kid we want.
In all fairness, I just thought of Baylor and Oklahoma State. Seen them play lately though?? Look like garbage.
Maybe HCPC will succeed, we’ll see in the next couple of years.
If he doesn’t, the uniforms will have nothing to do with it, or recruiting.
The chancellor and the a.d., and the amount they pay or don’t pay for a coach, assistant coaches, and recruiting budgets, will determine whether Pitt ever gets back to be a top 25 team.
IMHO