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September 3, 2014

Coastal Division

Filed under: ACC,Conference,Football — Justin @ 1:57 pm

Most will agree that Pitt’s upside this season would be ACC Coastal Division Champion and a good bowl game. If you have delusions of grandeur and think Pitt could beat Florida State in the ACC Championship game, maybe you should stop partying with Wes Welker. But, Pitt was given a nice start Monday night when Miami fell to Louisville, thus giving them one loss in the ACC already.

Why is that game relevant to this week? Louisville was Miami’s crossover opponent in ACC play. The way the ACC schedule works is you play everyone in your division, a rival in the other division (Pitt’s rival is the ARCHRIVAL ORANGE), and a crossover opponent. For Pitt, this crossover is Boston College. Even better, Miami’s rival game is Florida State, a near certain loss. A win over Boston College gives Pitt a very nice advantage over Miami in the division.

As Fox Sports’ Lauren Brownlow noted, it’s hard to envision a scenario where the Coastal champion has a better record than 5-3 in the ACC. A win against Boston College would mean Pitt would only have to win four games against the division and Syracuse to be in the hunt for the division crown. A 5-2 record would all but guarantee at least a tie for first place. I don’t see Duke, VT, or UNC going 7-1 in ACC play.

I’m not going to go game by game and predict wins and losses yet, I need to at least see this team against Iowa before I can do that. But, a win against Boston College Friday night will start this team on the path towards a division crown. It’s crazy to think the youngest team in FBS Football could be one of only eight BCS conference teams to play in a conference championship game (the Big 12 doesn’t have one).

Various thoughts:

-I posted some thoughts on twitter the other night and I’ll repeat them here. Upon some tape review, it was obvious that Dorian Johnson was the worst OL on Saturday. That’s not to say he was bad, but the noticeable mistakes were mostly his. It makes sense though given that he’s far and away the least experienced OL of the initial starting five.

-Jaryd Jones-Smith, the 6th OL, jumped out on tape. I noted on twitter that he has the Eagles LT Jason Peters as his twitter background and it makes sense. I saw JJS pull on a running play and end up getting in the way of three Delaware players, thus taking them out of the play. It was an impressive show of athleticism for the 6’7” OT. The scouting report on Jones-Smith coming out of high school is that he was a raw athlete who needed a lot of work; he only played high school football for two years. If he can continue his rapid rate of improvement, the sky is the limit. Shoot him a birthday wish on twitter if you follow him, it’s his 19th birthday.

-A player who unexpectedly jumped out was freshman Rori Blair. He showed an impressive burst on several occasions and appears to be recovered from the stroke that nearly ended his life and football career. It’s noteworthy that Blair played more with the first team than RS freshman Luke Maclean.

-There wasn’t much to ascertain from Voytik’s performance on a second look. He was rarely rushed but did display very good accuracy on short and intermediate throws. I only recall one pass that really missed the mark. I did notice that Voytik was mostly looking outside the hashes and not inside. That may be a product of his height or it could’ve just been the way the plays were called. It’s something I’ll take note of in the future. I do wish he would’ve gone deep once or twice, but I think Chryst tried to hide as much of the playbook as possible because there was no attempt to do much other than power running and quick passes.





Justin,

Good recap. Watching the game it appeared Chad locked on to one receiver and did not go through progressions–which is common among young QBs…your thoughts, having seen ithe tape?

Thanks!

Hail to PITT!
-al-

Comment by Oregon_Panther 09.03.14 @ 2:39 pm

good subject to write about as Pitt is to play in its first league game this year. Little doubt that the 3 best teams in the ACC are in the other division and if Pitt takes care of business and wins the close games and the games it should, reaching the ACC final can be done. Just hope the players aren’t thinking ahead like we are.

Comment by wbb 09.03.14 @ 2:41 pm

It’s My Son’s 19th Birthday too. He is a freshman
at PITT.
Please team just focus on what you can control like
beating BC.
H2P

Comment by Tackle made by Hugh 09.03.14 @ 2:53 pm

I am a nervous wreck for Friday night. It has been quite awhile since I seen a Pitt team so prepared and look so good in all phases for a whole game. I know it only Delaware. It would be so Pitt, to come out an lay an egg on Friday.

I was most impressed with the D because Delaware was supposed to be decent on offense. I still have concerns moving forward. On offense my biggest is probably until Voytik becomes a patient pocket passer I think that will really hurt the vertical passing game, which in turn limits Tyler Boyd a bit.

On D still concerned about a very young secondary and whether or not the D line will be able to generate consistent pressure on QB’s.

Anyway, can’t wait til Friday…

Hail to Pitt!!!!

Comment by Pap76 09.03.14 @ 3:19 pm

Almost forgot…Great get on OL Rob Dowdy. Keep them big boys coming. Between our recent OL recruits and quality RB’s here and on the way, this team looks poised to line up and run the ball down teams throats for the next few years.

I keep saying it however, with next years class close to being wrapped up I would love to see us end it with a couple stud recruits on D. Jordan Whitehead????

Still, could not say no thanks to the last 2 commits, a consensus 4 star RB and depending what service a 3 OR 4 star OL.

Is it Friday yet?

Comment by Pap76 09.03.14 @ 3:33 pm

Pap76 – Boyd is great on deep routes of course and he’ll get some chances at that this season but this year I think he’ll be a big yards after the catch guy.

He was a very good RB in HS and we’ll see some short passes to him almost like handoffs…

Comment by Reed 09.03.14 @ 3:35 pm

Justin – are you doing a Game Preview for BC?

Comment by Reed 09.03.14 @ 3:36 pm

Seems Dorian Johnson still might find himself the Odd Man out.

From Sam Werner… Post Gazette.

********
Jaryd Jones-Smith came into the game at left tackle, with Adam Bisnowaty shifting in to left guard and Dorian Johnson coming off the field. They stuck with this unit through most of the second quarter and into the third, before putting Johnson back out there at left guard and moving Bisnowaty back to left tackle. Chryst said this is something Pitt will likely continue to do moving forward…
********

Still, what a luxury to have so many QUALITY Linemen to choose from?

Comment by PittofDreams 09.03.14 @ 3:37 pm

Dorian Johnson is playing like a regular recruit and no like a 5* one – but that’s OK as he’s starting for now. I will not be surprised at all to see him sat down for J J-S. Truthfully it may happen that he gets, or already has been, recruited over unless he really steps up his play.

Comment by Reed 09.03.14 @ 3:38 pm

Reed, your at practices what is DJ’S actual size. He still looks thin and undersized compared to the other guys.

Comment by pd 09.03.14 @ 3:44 pm

Reed, not sure if I’ll have time to do a preview.

Comment by Justin 09.03.14 @ 3:57 pm

@Reed

I agree Boyd will be a big yac guy this year and Chryst and Rudolph will see he gets touches. I don’t think we’ll see as many home run balls this year, so I can see Boyd’s yardage and TD numbers drop a bit this year to no fault of his own. Savage had his faults but sure threw a pretty deep ball.

Comment by Pap76 09.03.14 @ 4:04 pm

@@@@@

Dorian should have redshirted. Very few
olineman are prepared physically to
play as true frosh.

Trying to maintain a level head until
the BC game. Delaware game was
terrible. We should not play FCS schools.
A win Friday will be the start of something
big.

Comment by JR 09.03.14 @ 4:52 pm

In fairness to DJ, he should have had the year to redshirt and focus on learning the position and beefing up last year. If JJS was actually already better than DJ, he’d be starting. Chryst doesn’t care how many stars a kid had coming in, the best player plays, period. Especially on the his beloved O-line. JJS is getting minutes because odds are, one of the 5 is gonna go down for at least a game and he’s the next man up. DJ will be a star when he’s an upperclassman, he weighs over 300 pounds and looks skinny, just wait until he puts on those last 15/20 pounds of muscle. Though I will admit, I love the idea of him moving to Center.

Comment by PittHW 09.03.14 @ 5:08 pm

I had the exact same thoughts about the BC game’s implications for the Coastal race and Miami’s loss. It’s a major gift that we get BC and SU from the Atlantic, not that we can’t lose both games. If we can win these though, it’s a big leg up.

UNC plays NC State and Clemson, but VT and Duke have it even better than us, BC and WAKE for VT and Syracuse and Wake for Duke.

Comment by PittHW 09.03.14 @ 5:16 pm

It was really hot today in Savannah, so I found myself consuming a lot of kool-aid today. In that light of clouded kool-aid judgement, here is my prediction for Friday night’s game. I think we see a totally different Pitt offense on Friday, the wide receivers make a big impact, the tight ends even getting more involved, and I’m waiting to see a double reverse with everybody going after Boyd on the initial handoff while Ronald Jones comes back around from the other side for an end around for a big gainer.

This will be a result of BCs defense challenging Pitt with 8 in the box to stop the run. They’ll be pretty good at stopping the run too, but the Panthers are going to make them pay for that success through the air. We win by 14.

Comment by Dr. Tom 09.03.14 @ 5:25 pm

Whitehead is visiting Ohio st this weekend & plans on visiting psu & UVA. He said he will commit on October 3rd & will enroll at his chosen school for the spring semester. At least we’ll know early & not have to wait til February.

Comment by Nick 09.03.14 @ 5:26 pm

Just saw that BC’s top 3 wr’s are 6’4″ 220, 6′ 4″ 230, & 6’5″ 237. Tackling will be very important this week.

Comment by Nick 09.03.14 @ 5:42 pm

may be a challenge for 5’9 Maddox

Comment by wbb 09.03.14 @ 5:48 pm

Dr. Tom you are spot on! I am watching the BC replay right now, and I was just going to say the same thing – we’re gonna win this game through the air.

BCs DBs are not very good, at all. Voytik will be able to make throws against these guys, especially if they’re foolish enough to go man to man. Even on short routes these DBs are struggled. They’re slow and really don’t look impressive even against UMass’s WRs.

BCs wide receivers are big, as you note Nick, but they’re slow and can’t catch. They’re really all, slightly-too-small TEs, not big WRs.

Which brings me to my third point, BC uses their WR/TEs in motion to seal the edge and block. Almost everything they did goes to the outside. Controlling the edge is gonna be critical. We have to remain disciplined. Big test for our young DEs.

Fourth, Murphy likes to run a kind of read option-like running attack -it looks a lot like UNM’s QB last season, to me. But, he really can’t throw under even nominal pressure. He’s very fast, but if we can remain disciplined on the edge and make good reads in the run, he’s not gonna be able to beat us with his arm.

Comment by PittHW 09.03.14 @ 6:14 pm

BCs DE’s are huge though, like 6’9″ (seriously) and are gonna cause some problems. They are struggling to stop the run up the middle though, which is exactly what you don’t want when facing James Conner.

Comment by PittHW 09.03.14 @ 6:18 pm

Monday morning I said we should be rooting for Louisville for exactly the reason Justin cites in his post. A loss for Miami and a win for Pitt on Friday and we are a game up on another Coastal contender ( and who ISN’T a Coastal contender?) who we have to face on the road. And I think the Coastal champ will be 6-2.

Re: Voytik, I did not think he locked in on his receivers on Saturday at all. Rather, he appeared hesitant to throw the ball downfield to the deeper routes. He saw them, he just didn’t cut loose; and there were guys open.

Here’s the thing: if he a) shows a tendency to leave the pocket early and roll (typically right) thereby eliminating 1/2 the field, and then b) is unwilling to look at the deep receiver, the other team only has to defend 1/4 of the field. He’ll have to improve in both aspects to be effective vs. better teams. I think he’ll improve, it is just going to take time and may cost us a game.

Fridays game will be won by Pitt’s defense. I look for our offense to struggle a little. I feel a lot more confident than I did 5 days ago that our D can actually win a game for us.

I am unfortunately going to be in an airplane during the game. Needless to say I am pretty bummed about that circumstance.

Comment by Iron Duke 09.03.14 @ 10:08 pm

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