We get to see the Panthers 2014 version play their first game tomorrow and I’m sure you guys are excited as I am. Last night I sat in the car while my wife was shopping and I tried to gather all the info I know and all the opinions I have and come out with some sort of handle on what the PITT team will be like this year.
Not an easy thing to do. You guys have read what I’ve observed and thought about the different segments of the football program and the team itself over the last six weeks. You’ll formulated your own opinions and will watch each week unfold to see if PITT was “we were what we thought we were’. That’s what is so much fun about football at this level. Things change so drastically not only season to season but week to week.
So, this morning I wake up and read Jerry DiPaloa’s opinion piece on the team in his Pitt Locker Room Blog and I thought – that’s putting a finger on it. DiPaola is an interesting guy. He’s not a rah-rah PITT booster but has an edge of cynicism to him when discussing the team so when I read his thoughts this morning I was surprised at how optimistic he is.
He included an interesting take on how Chryst approaches player’s attitudes:
Chryst has Pitt pointed in the right direction. He recruits players who love the game, and he doesn’t worry about how many stars recruiting services place next to their names. He demands accountability and respect for the game. He has no sympathy for those players who believe they can get by on talent and don’t work hard enough to nourish it.
“Calling Mr. Shell… Mr. Shell… there is a message at the front desk for you.”
Then following that DiPaola relates a conversation he had with a player who was unhappy with his position coach:
Chryst also loves coaching because of the bond he shares with his players. Most of them genuinely like him. There was a player at Pitt not long ago complaining to me about a member of Chryst’s staff. The player found it necessary to add this: “Not Chryst,” he said. “Coach Chryst is the man.” I found it interesting and instructive that the player spent only one season under Chryst, really didn’t know him all that well.
Then he lays out his prediction on the season’s win total which should make us all smile. Of course, he is banking on a few things to click into place for his predictions to happen but that’s what all of us rely on also. Anyway, read the blog article and feel a bit better this morning about what we may seen unveiled tomorrow at noon.
Speaking of predictions here are three guys from Bleacher Report who also have stars in their eyes, and a very positive view, when it comes to PITT’s season. The writer of the article goes on to give his game by game breakdown and why things will happen the way he thinks they will. I think it is kind of funny that everyone who has commented on the Panthers this preseason has said the same thing (below) but with wildly differing predictions.
The Panthers have had plenty of play-making WRs and RBs over the last decade, but they haven’t had a solid offensive line in a long time and a mobile playmaking QB since Tyler Palko. The fate of Pitt’s season will likely depend on QB play, the O-line, and the ability of the defense to gel together.
All pretty positive stuff for the Friday morning before the opener but let’s face it – you are going to be spending your workday cruising the Internet looking at PITT football stuff anyway and I just wanted to save you a bit of time. I’ll be driving up in the morning and hanging around the Red 7C parking lot tailgates – I’m the weirdly tall guy with a white hat on.
OTHER BITS & PIECES:
– Werner of the P-G’s take on the Delaware QB. The headline is misleading in itself but a nice background piece. Here is Werner’s “Three Things” article from the 26th. It has a nice sidebar going through the 2014 games.
– PITT News has ramped up their reporting over the last few years and I suggest we add that on our daily list of site we look at to satiate our PITT football appetite. Here is a piece on the OL and Clemmings. Also, as if these students are experts at it, here is their take on how to tailgate at Heinz Field on game days. Actually it is well written and informative but the left out the part where it is required for PITT students to leave at the end of the 3rd quarter so they can start getting their drink on in preparation for the Saturday night meat swap.
I love this quote at the end of the article: “Last rule: tailgating isn’t a one-time event. It’s an ongoing commitment.” Of course actually attending and watching the games obviously isn’t but why split hairs right?
– Here is Chris Dokish’s Panther’s Prey blog with his take on the program, staff and football team. It is very in-depth and not as negative as he almost always is. His predictions and grades are there also. Good stuff. I like his writing, don’t agree with it all the time but I tend not to read the comments as much as they tend to degenerate.
– Here is a great video from Pitt Live Wire with Pat Bostick talking about our new MLB Matt Galambos. I’ve read some comments here and elsewhere about Galambos’ “lack of speed” but that isn’t the case. Not only is he quick but he seems to get that great first step which gets him to the ball carrier. BTW – Pitt Live Wire is a great inside view of all things PITT football. One sided of course but a very nice website.
– For those of you who have a Rivals subscription they have a new weekly piece where Pat Bostick contributes his “The Bostick Breakdown” and it is really well done. Holy Hell! Bostick does a great job with his fantastic knowledge of college football’s intricacies to give an extensive and detailed review of our opponent and how PITT should do against them. BTW – he’s a great person to talk with about the team, just an all around great guy and I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets snatched away from this level of broadcasting at some point – he’s that good and that well respected.
I’m not a shill for Rivals so I don’t have a dog in the hunt as they say but if you are a PITT fan who really needs as much good info and opinion on PITT as possible then a Rivals monthly subscription is worth it. Or… you can just read my stuff that I steal from Chris Peak anyway. Just kidding, the only thing I take away from his stuff is his camp practice’s two-deep listing as I’ve no short term memory left. He’s the best in the area I think.
That’s all folks, start getting your game face on and your liver tuned up. Here’s a drinking tip: Imbibe as much as you can without passing out. That way you can say you were at the win even if you don’t remember any of it and, should the worst happen and we get upset, you won’t feel any pain afterward.
Go PITT!!
Dokish is a Pitt fan but … his glass is half empty these days pertaining to Pitt FB, but half full on Pitt BB. (He loves JD)
Much like that player DiPaola wrote about, I am a big fan of HCPC but not so much of a couple of his assistants.
I believe we are around 45,000 for that number, maybe even higher.
I still don’t understand why so few tickets were available on stubhub, seems like a lot less than last year, and major sections of the stadium with no tickets available.
Thanks again for your consolidated summary of coverage, very comprehensive. Reading Dockish’ evaluation gives real concern to QB depth. He really thinks very little of Trey Anderson and believes the most important thing is to keep Chad healthy. Also he is very hard on the defensive backfield. This should be a pretty good test for them with a decent QB and a solid receiver to test them.
There should always be optimism going into the season but tomorrow we face reality. We should learn a lot. I hope it is good.
Tomorrow should be a warm up for the offense, if not, we may have problems. I’m hoping for a dominant performance.
As far as I know it is only being streamed on ESPN3. I spent yesterday getting familiar with connecting to it, had to call DISH to update user name/password and now I get the streaming well. I’m also getting a cable to run from my lap top to the TV so I can view it on the large screen. One thing you can’t control is the video quality, which depends on your wifi speed. Saturdays seem to run slower due to heavy use and the quality may be poor. It seems with IT stuff if anything can go wrong – it does! Good luck and “Let’s Go Pitt”
Poor atmosphere when this happens.
TV money I guess. But wouldn’t they have TV money is the game was played at Ole Miss with 70K fans in attendance or at Boise with 50K???
I mean the game would have still been on TV from either of the home teams places.
Don’t get it.
Temple putting a beat down on Vandy.
Rutgers winning in the end against Wash St.
(was actually a pretty good game as my eyes were coming down.)
Go Pitt!
I read Chris Dokish’s Panther Prey today. He questions why we cannot recruit a “topnotch” QB recruit. Well, maybe Paul Chryst knows more about what he is doing than Mr Dokish. I am guessing that he knows what he wants and has it (Bertke and Hornibrook)–or knows where to look to find him.
Less than 24 hours to go.
H2P
Re: Boyd on special teams – I hope they save him for when they really need him. I don’t see any reason to run him out there in these non-cons if the game isn’t close. But if they are down 4 to Va Tech in the 4th, I wanted Tyler Boyd returning that kick.
Speaking of Blount and Bell, I’d like some of what that guy is smoking from Bleacher Report who has Pitt and 10-2, with one of the losses being Iowa at home.
Kind of tired about hearing how easy Pitt’s schedule is – sure Iowa is the only decent non-con, and there are no elite ACC teams on Pitt’s schedule (i.e FSU or Clemson), but none of these ACC teams are chopped liver. Are ANY of Pitt’s ACC games automatic wins? I don’t think so. I saw Pitt struggle at HOME last year vs. a UVa team that was far worse than this year’s version will be. Nothing will come easy to this team.
And indeed PITT football would have been in a great position to take advantage of the troubles and coaching changes at both Creepy Valley State and WVcc.
Well at least Bostick got something out of it, for not complaining at the time. Cause his football career was really a disservice to the kid.
I am guessing that 15 was a good year for you.
H2P
HTP
Vandy played 3 QB’s none of which were Wade Freebeck. And none of the 3 were very good as Vandy’s lone TD came on a recovered fumble in the endzone by the Temple punter.
Freebeck could have been #3 at Pitt, and if he showed anything in camp maybe #2.
Vandy has 3 freshmen QB and a sophomore who started. Pitt has 1 sophomore and 1 freshman not counting Anderson.
South Carolina had won 18 straight home games, and A & M went thru their defense like a hot knife thru butter.
Very deflating loss, kinda reminded me of our opener in 1984 when PITT was pre-season ranked #3 and BYU came into town and beat us. Not as badly, but it was just as deflating as what happened in Columbia, last evening.
How in the world has Chryst not landed a top flight QB recruit? With his proven track record and a roster that currently includes as many walk-ons a scholarships QBs…
Can it be that hard?
Power 5..check
QB Guru..check
Likely to play early… check
Meant to ask you this, when you were up at camp did you see any formations with Boyd lining up in the backfield ? To either throw him a short pass coming out of the backfield (since we’re told Voytik has accuracy problems with downfield passes) or starting him in a backfield set and then motioning him to either side of the field ?
Or is this something you think they might be working on when the practices are closed and we might not see until the BC game ?
UPitt. Going to Navy./OSU .love Navy also w the points and think they could win.
Pittman..thank you for the espn3 info. I gave up trying to stream to the big screen. As the video quality sucks.
Not to mention they would have Tyler Boyd and Addonis Jennings to throw to.
I mean look what PC did with both tiny and Savage.
(especially tiny) as Savage actually had some tools.
Yea, I don’t get it… I mean kids are smart too.
With at all of the resources and opportunity available at Pitt.. And the just utter lack of competition.
Chryst doesn’t even have to sell anything to these kids… They should see it themselves.
I mean what is the fastest path to the NFL? Goin’ to Pitt and throwing TDs to Boyd, Jennings, Hotlz, and Orndoff… or getting buried on a depth chart at Michigan or Vandy?
He’s not going to play this year at Stanford as they have 2 returning senior QB’s.
And they have a sophomore.
So I’m guessing Keller is 4rth on their depth chart.
If he was as good as they say, he’d be #2 on Pitt’s depth chart immediately and only an injury away from being the starter.
You are welcome. Also, please note that I (pittman4ever) and pittman are 2 different entities. But clearly both of us bleed Pitt blue and gold!!! H2P. Roast the Hens!
And please, you start throwin’ picks and losing Youngstown State and Bowling Green, I don’t care if you the QB for Cal, Texas, or Nortre Dame, you’re gonna get booed off the field and ripped by the media.
Pitt is hardly a pressure cooker environment.
As long as he is not a short Italian kid who can’t throw down field, I don’t think there is anything to worry about! :>)
Guys – Regarding Dokish – the one thing you have to remember about him is that he really is all about rating the recruits personally and should any HC or staff disagree with him he seems to take it personally. I mean really personally. Also, if you read his ‘State of the Program’ piece he talks about how bad things were in 2010 and that he wanted PITT to roll out the bank vault and hire a “big name” HC for immediate results.
But not one word about what was the true driving force between DW’s firing and then Chryst’s hiring which was the state of the program off the field in addition to the mediocre results on the field. Dokish has never wanted to believe that even though we have heard it said time and again that major changes had to be made and a large part of that was a 25% purge of the roster since 2012 and who were mostly DW’s recruits.
Hell – if you listened to Chris Peak and Bostick on that radio link you should have no misconceptions at all of the difference between the end of the 2010 season and this season. They weren’t shy at all stating just what has taken place.
Another example is this main criticism of Chryst’s recruitings:
“Too many kids that Pitt has recruited have gone too long without hearing from the staff, and amazingly a few didn’t even know they had Pitt offers. That is inexcusable, and more than a little surprising considering that support staff like Bob Junko and Chris LaSala are veterans who are great at their jobs. Somehow between them and this staff there has been a disconnect because this is not something that has happened in the past.”
Yet the severity of that has been disabused by the staff, admin and other media reporters but Dokish believes what recruits tell him and factors that in 100%. The way I see it is that he has disagreed with Chryst’s recruiting so much that he has to try to pick apart every detail, plus he’s such a WPA homer that he can’t understand how Chryst might not feel the same way he does about local players.
But the truth is that the players Chryst has recruited and played so far have done well – and IMO we’re much better off now than had they played 2nd or 3rd string behind the deadwood the Chryst moved out of the program. But, some of that deadwood were Dokish’s favored recruits. The fact that in the last two years Chryst went 13-13 with basically untested freshmen and sophomores shows to me that he’s getting kids who can play at this level AND WHO HE WANTS IN THE PROGRAM.
Dokish is really tapped into the HS recruiting scene and I like reading his take on the players because I believe he puts his heart and soul into it. If I believed in his rankings 100% I’d probably look down my nose at Chryst’s recruiting also, but there are just too many factors involved to rely on star systems or numerical rankings. I’ll prefer to wait until these recruits on on the field of play before I say that they were recruiting mistakes and can’t play at this level.
IMO This year we’ll have some eyes widely opened by Chryst’s three years of recruits when the dust settles.
If that is even known by kids today it would be a miracle. And at the game you were referring to, it was a mixed audience loaded with PITT haters.
And back then, there were plenty ! As we were the Top Dog.
Obviously didn’t have any bearing on 5 star Pat Bostick coming to PITT.
Or Alex Van Pelt or Joe Flacco or Rod Rutherford (4 star) or Tyler Palko (4 star) or even someone who would have known, Tiny.
So that is way off base.
Chryst didn’t do anything different with Wilson, didn’t teach him how to throw better or read defenses better, except to give him a starting job right off the bat, then he did with any other QBs – he just put Wilson in the right place to succeed as well as he could..
A much better example is how Chryst got the production out of Sunseri that he did which was a huge amount compared to Sunseri’s first two years as a starter. Suneri had some decent physical attributes for a QB (yes, he really did) and Chryst put Sunseri in the position to maximize those – and he got results.
That’s what I’m seeing with Voytik so far also. He’s taking a run-first QB and teaching him to stay as long as possible in the pocket so as to hit his talented WRs downfield… just like he did with Wilson.
Also – and this torques me off – I DO NOT want Voytik to turn into another Johnny Manziel. There only reason Manziel succeed the way he did was because of the top shelf talent surrounding him, on both offense and defense, that Texas A&M had. Give PITT that sort of talent and yeah – I’ll personally tell Voytik to go out there and play sandlot ball, but he can’t do that with what we have at PITT. Discipline is what Voytik’s game has got to be all about.
His bad 4rth quarter play was always minimized and nobody other than Graham (who was lambasted for it by the media) ever removed him from a game. Which considering the quality of play was well deserved.
Again off base.
Since they’re all returnees and we’re playing an FCS school, they really need to dominate the game tomorrow and we need to rush for at least 200 yards.
It was a plug and play as Wilson was a very good QB for NC State as we all remember from one of our 3 losses in 2009 to the Wolfpack 31-38.
As far as tiny, he couldn’t complete as pass longer than 15 yards and he couldn’t scramble, I will give you he was good at the dink & dunk and hope for YAC. But only thru 3 quarters of a game.
HC Mike McCarthy (greenfield)
QC Alex Van Pelt (PITT)
OC Tommy Clements (Canevin HS, PGH)
OQC Luke Getsy (PITT/Akron/Steel Valley)
DC Dom Capers (Steelers)
DBC Darren Perry (CVS/Steelers)
Quite a little fraternity out there from Western PA, Pgh.
He also coached John Stocco in ’05 (21st QB nationally) ’06 and he was a fine QB, then he coached Donovan Tyler.
Thanks for the link to the grid. Pitt seems highly rated (Admirable + Powerhouse).
But Pitt always seems to find a way to disappoint. Hope it’s not this year.
Penn State is way down at the bottom (Embarrassing).
I have been impressed thus far with what Chryst has done pulling in under the radar talent, but if you want a blue chipper at any position, it has to be QB.
Last year at this time I was saying how surprised I was that Pitt had been unable to recruit any 4-star RBs, and now look, that position is stacked. Maybe we just need to be patient.
10,000 Nits in Dublin today at a pep rally. If that were anybody but Ped St., I’d say good for them. But I know Nit fans – they go blindly and without reason. They could have gone 2-10 last year and still 9,000 would show. Loyal? Maybe. I say lemmings, and Jimmy F. Is the new Pied Piper. No Pitt Koolaid will ever, and I mean……..EVER rival what they drink up in Pedo Valley.
Forecasted high of 93 tomorrow. Glad my seats are in the shade. Lets roll it up early and substitute en masse in the 2nd half. Hail!
Leaving in 30 minutes – Red 7C lot for anyone interested @ around 10:30 or so. Again, tall guy with white ballcap and a flowing yet beautiful moustache.
H2P