Oy.

Aron Nwankwo is out with a torn labrum. Technically it isn’t season ending, but it is probably darn close. That sucks.

Chris Jones will not start. Instead Josh Newkirk will get the start. Maybe switching their places will jump start both of their shooting. Both have been lousy lately. I know, make your own shuffling deck chairs jokes.

This has been a rough season. Everyone’s more than a little salty at this point.

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First off, the semi-official brewery of Pitt Blather is opening a new branch this weekend. Voodoo Brewery is opening another brewpub, Voodoo Homestead.

Voodoo Homestead — not a brewery or brewpub, but an unusual satellite pub selling just Voodoo brews — will open in a big chunk of the first floor of the former Homestead municipal building and fire station on East Ninth Avenue at Amity Street. The more-than-a-century-old, three-story building had been vacant for two decades when the borough approved selling it to Voodoo for $8,500 this past summer.

Since that time, the Voodoo crew has worked non-stop filling containers and containers with refuse, with a lot of that hard, dirty work being performed for free by volunteers, some of whom flew from distant cities to chip in.

Others volunteered to help decorate the decrepit but beautifully-boned building, gracing the vaulted ceiling with fanciful chalk artworks and colorfully painting the interior sides of two massive roll-up doors.

That’s why this weekend’s public opening was proceeded by a party for those volunteers, whose names are written in chalk behind the old-metal-barn-roofing-clad, 24-foot-long concrete-topped bar, right next to the chalked list of the beers that will be available to drink on premises or take home in growlers.

The article also gets into some of the lunacy of Pennsylvania liquor laws with the hoops Voodoo has to jump through for this. I realize every state is insane in their own unique ways with liquor laws, but Pennsylvania is a special kind of crazy.

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The ACC released the 2015 football schedule this morning. While opponents and location have been determined for awhile, the order of ACC games as well as the dates (Thursday vs. Saturday) were not known until today. As I worked through these previews, I realized that several opponents will be better in 2015, notably UNC. The first thing that jumps out to me is that four of the last five games are at home. If Narduzzi and company can get this team playing at a high level, a late season run is possible. (more…)

We have been talking a lot about recruiting lately because, well – because that is what is going on right now and we like what we see. I think it’s been made pretty clear that we Blatherites feel what Narduzzi is doing is exciting and really pro-active as seen in the post  “They Hit the Ground Running”. I really do like what I see happening and I think that is echoed through PITT football fandom.

But at the risk of being a contrarian, and that is just what I’m going to do here, all this talk of Chryst not recruiting defensive players is pretty much either hogwash or selective memory. Here is what he did according to Rivals.com (which I think is the stingiest recruit grading website). Note that the 2012 and 2015 recruits listed are the kids who committed while he was the HC. I also included the “ATH” recruits if they ended up on defense:

2012 – seven total recruits – five on defense w/ four 3*s

2013 – 27 total recruits – nine on defense w/ six 3*s

2014 – 23 total recruits – 12 on defense w/ 10 3*s

2015 – nine total recruits – four on defense w/ one 4* and two 3*s

As stated I like what Narduzzi is doing but looking through the burgeoning hype it does look like he’s pretty much in line with what Chryst did while he was here… so far. 2016’s recruiting class will most probably be a whole different story as far as a new HC’s  2^nd year recruiting goes (always better than the 1^st fractured class) and I think we’ll see Narduzzi bring in some top shelf guys, depending on how the ’15 season plays out of course.

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For us anyways. Buzz Williams made the surprising jump to VT last spring. As well as VT making the surprising financial commitment to him. As tough and miserable as his Marquette teams have made Pitt at times, he will always hold a special place in my heart for pissing off WVU fans by dancing a bit to “Country Roads” after knocking off the Hoopies.

7pm on ESPNU. I’m just getting home in time.

Artis and Young have been relatively consistent offensively. Let’s see if more than one guard can help with the offense tonight.

Sorry about the paucity of posts. Been a bit under the weather for the last week. Not enough to call off sick, but enough to be low on energy and not nearly enough of a clear head for coherent thoughts to make it to a post.

In the meantime, there have been several more verbals, one that will wait until signing day. And a flip away from Pitt.

Guess I’ll get the flip of TE Nick Bowers from Pitt to Penn State. Sucks to lose a talented TE, even more so to PSU. And with the WR corps thinned out a bit, not having additional depth at TE is a bit of a worry. Still, Pitt has good depth at TE/FB, and that’s not a particularly big loss. Only reason it seems bigger is where he flipped to, not that he flipped.

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We need a new thread as the last one was getting confusing between basketball, football and bar hopping… or was that the one before the last? At any rate we fans are kicking it with hundreds of comments regarding the changes in PITT football over the last month.

So, of all the issues that have been addressed by Narduzzi and staff what do you think is most important and what do you think will have the most actual impact once the regular season’s games start?  Do you feel we are in a better place (duh!)? Do you see these changes resulting in immediate impact on the field or are we a season or two away from a nice w/L record?

Which one singular thing has Narduzzi done to make you feel better about the future of PITT football?

Looking forward to your thoughts… and discussing any and all issues you want to talk about.

P/S: I’ll be at the PITT LOI Day festivities on Feb 4th. The gate opens at 5:00 pm and the show starts at  6:00 pm. I’ll be the very tall guy with longer brown hair and earring and a moustache (in honor of my idol, Dave Wannstedt). Hope to see you guys there and we can lose all our money at the casino afterward…

P/SS: Since the movie American Sniper came out everyone I meet seems to have been in the Special Forces as a sniper.  I swear to God, three guys said that to me in different places yesterday – two in Vietnam and one in  Iraq.

CBS on a Sunday at 4pm.

It’s kind of simple. Whichever team can shoot from outside today will win. I hate typing this, but Pitt needs to drain 3s to win this game.

Both teams struggle with scoring. While Louisville has more size inside and guys who can attack the basket, they don’t plain just don’t do it enough. Preferring to jack up shots.

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The links have piled up something fierce. Time to dump some.

First up. Social media. If you are doing the twitter thing, here’s the list of follows for Pitt football. The coaches, the support staff, etc.

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It makes all the sense that the first two “official” verbals are both defensive players. That is the side that is in need of an influx of talent and depth. And, of course, Head Coach Pat Narduzzi is a defensive guy.

The first two verbals from last night are Jay or Jazzee Stocker and Shawn Curtis. The former from Coatsville, PA and the other from Doral Florida.

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Now that the football coaching staff is in place, the fans are excited and recruiting is in full bloom let’s take a very early preview of who we may see playing ball out there on the field as starters for us in 2015. Paul Chryst left Pat Narduzzi with a very young roster and a younger but experienced two-deep rotation.  Most of the starters on the 2014 team were FR and SOs and sometimes the lack of experience showed up in pretty dramatic ways.

Here is who we either fielded as starters last season or I assume will fill a starting role in ’15. This is my take on it, we’ll know some more after Spring practices (not too far away) and, of course, it will be firmed up over Fall camp:

OFFENSE

That setup is probably pretty much etched in stone with the exception of the WR2 spot, rsSO Jester Weah could get in there for speed and maybe the OL will mix it up a little. We scored 32 PPG last year so the skill positions will be held fast. Our new OC, Jim Chaney, won’t have a rebuilding task ahead of him, but my fear is that he won’t see what is right in front of his face and try to get fancy when non-fancy did just fine for us on offense.

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It is easy, oh so easy to pile on every negative from a former coaching staff. It’s a natural tendency. Still our team. Our school. The change brings a renewed sense of optimism. That these guys get it. That the previous group were bozos who were holding everything back.

It’s not necessarily fair or even correct, but it sure is the feelings. Especially in the change from Paul Chryst’s first few weeks on the job to Pat Narduzzi. There’s an energy.  An engagement that is happening, not seen in some time. From the hires made for the staff. To the engagement on twitter coupled with the goofy, yet confident photoshops about Pitt and where the coaches are recruiting. There is an enthusiasm for the program that is coming from the top down.

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First thing’s first: Narduzzi’s coaching staff is finally complete with the addition of WR Coach Kevin Sherman. Sherman is currently the WR coach for Purude and prior to that held the same position at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. Sherman is known to recruit the DMV region, which makes him a valuable addition to compete with the rest of the ACC for east coast targets. Here’s a list of all the commits Sherman earned over the years and you’ll see a few guys currently in the NFL like Kendall Fuller and Jarrett Boykin. (more…)

I want to be optimistic. Really. Just can’t be dishonest about the chances tonight, so I’m going with gallows humor.

Duke is favored by nearly 15 points. It is the start of the brutal gauntlet of ACC games, and Pitt struggled through the easier portion. This is on the road at Cameron. Against a top-10 (15?) team.

Could Pitt pull an upset? Sure. Do I really believe it could happen. Not after watching the way the Blue Devils shut down Louisville on Saturday.7pm start. Big Monday ESPN game. Pitt hasn’t exactly played up to an opponent this year, would love to see this change the script.

The win over FSU was needed. Seeing Aron Philips-Nwankwo be the sparkplug was just plain positive energy. Here’s a flashback to his first mention on this site, nearly 5 years ago.

Today it is Georgia Tech. The Yellowjackets are 0-4 in the ACC, but they are fully capable of making this a miserable game for Pitt. They have all been close losses for GT, but still losses.

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