A friend and I attended the PITT LOI Day Event last night at Heinz Field and all I can really say is “Wow, that was short”. The presentations, as they were, lasted 40 minutes total with Bill Hillgrove taking five minutes to open and close the event..
I had been to an earlier one back when DW was the HC and it was more extensive and detail oriented than Wednesday’s was but what the fans and season ticket holders got the other night were very short staff introductions, small (very) bits on the recruits with a joke or two thrown it. But, to give the staff credit the reason it was short and not super detailed was most probably because every one of those coaches have been travelling around the country for a month busting ass to get the kids to sign on with PITT and that evening was the first time they could completely relax and be with their families in a long time.
To set the scene it was held in the East Club area of Heinz Field with a small stage, hundreds of chairs lined up 12 to a row and HDTVs situated about every 30 feet around the room. PITT got a fantastic turnout with what I’d estimate to be over 600 people there, maybe even a bunch more. So it was very well attended.
Here is a recap from my notes:
Bill Hillgrove came on stage first and without much preamble introduced Pat Narduzzi to a standing ovation, then Narduzzi introduced Chancellor Gallagher and he got one from the attendees also. Narduzzi while energetic and fun to listen to has to be on speed because his mind literally overruns his mouth sometimes. He was so jittery that he couldn’t keep his body still and couldn’t finish some of his sentences because his words were jumbled up and spilling out. But even with that it was 180 degrees different than Paul Chryst’s public speaking and 100% more enjoyable to watch and listen to.
Still, it was plainly and nicely obvious that he wants to be the HC at PITT. Narduzzi told a funny story about getting trapped in the Cathedral of Learning’s elevator with some recruits and their parents then started talking about the 2015 recruiting class. After a few minutes he said “So, any other questions?”
First off he was honest about the fact that losing those three recruits late in the game hurt and I appreciated that he spoke that way about what was a bad situation. Then he talked about the fact that they signed 15 recruits (very small class) with an average of only 20 recruiting days per coach. He said he was “lucky to have been at the bowl game” (Huh, OK Coach) and went onto state that when he got here the recruiting was ‘all over the place’ and the first thing he did was to plan out certain geographical areas to individual coaches so they could do a more concentrated recruiting.
He thinks that, like us fans, his next recruiting class will be better because he and his staff will have a full 14 months to meet the HS players and their families and to try to get the kids to come to PITT. Then he brought up Jim Chaney as the OC and QB coach to discuss Peterman and Dinucci. He didn’t go in to any real detail, none of the coaches did actually, but he did mention that Peterman was brought in for depth at the position and to provide some more competition for Voytik.
Next up was Andre Powell the RB and Special Teams coach and he talked about the fact that every single time he called Darrin Hall on the phone Hall was working out and that they might look at Hall gaining 20-30 pounds to move to FB in the future.
He was followed by Kevin Sherman the WRs coach who said Tre Tipton was so excited about being at PITT “It was like he was recruiting me” He mentioned that Gentry Ivey was from Texas and the Quadree Henderson was ‘explosive and electric’ and that his father owns a barbershop so they got to hang around there.
OL Coach John Peterson spoke about how he was “Loud and Proud” on Twitter and that when he mentioned to offer to be a staff coach at PITT his family ‘jumped at the chance‘ to move there and that in the past Bob Junko’s daughter had babysat his kids. Regarding recruit Tony Pilato Anderson stated that his mom loves to cook and that Pilato was chosen for the Big 33 game. On Alex Paulina; he could play either Center or Guard, keeps his pad level low and “likes to move defensive guys around the field”.
PITT alumni and DL coach Tom Sims was excited to be back at PITT and always wanted to work here. When he recruited DE Allen Edwards to PITT up in Massachusetts they got stuck in a huge snowstorm.. BTW, Narduzzi made it a point in other interviews that evening that going JUCO isn’t something they like to do but it was a position of need.
Sims introduced Rob Harley as a part-time supermodel and LB coach (and sportscaster). Harley talked about Salem Brightwell by saying “forget about his size” (Brightwell is small at 6’0” and 195 pounds) because he hunts the ball. On LB Anthony McKee Harley says that he loves McKee’s footwork and the ability to “pull the trigger and make plays in space”
DC Josh Conklin, a young guy who switched jobs with Matt House, said that when he was visiting the defensive recruits he was ‘real with them‘ and told them it wasn’t going to be easy at PITT but that they would get a great degree (first person to mention academics) and a productive life after college. He said DB Jay Stocker was a physical kid whose brothers also play college ball.
DB coach Renaldo Hill said that his last LOI Day event at Wyoming at ‘maybe five people total’. Said Malik Henderson only played two years of HS ball and when Hill asked why he went out for the team he said “Because I was bored”. Henderson runs like a deer and gets in a WR’s face.
Speaking of ex-QB now DB Dane Jackson Hill said that he visited Jackson and attended Jackson’s basketball game where they were some hecklers in the stands giving Jackson a hard time… and Jackson ended up with 51 points.
On a personal note I had a chance to have a quick conversation with Coach Narduzzi, introduce myself and talk about his taking the job – not a special conversation as he was schmoozing with a lot of attendees, met some of his new football admin staff and talked with a couple of his staff coaches (along with a few other fans talking with them also) before the festivities started. Of course everyone was pretty jazzed about the changes and the upcoming practices.
Spoke a bit with Pat Bostick, who is excited about doing the radio play by play and shows with Hillgrove again but covering Narduzzi this time and also EJ Borghetti, who is the guy who makes the clocks tick over there in the AD department. I didn’t ask EJ about the ongoing AD search as I’ve a strong feeling he threw his hat in the arena for that job. I don’t know for certain that’s true but I’d bet he did and good for him.
Speaking of Borghetti one of my favorite all time PITT football quotes was from him when he was questioned about what Todd Graham was saying about PITT after he bolted for Arizona:
Asked to respond, Pitt senior associate athletic director/media relations E.J. Borghetti said: “Todd Graham’s credibility problems are well documented. Further comment on that subject would be simply piling on.”
A lot of The PITT Blather readers and commenters attended but I didn’t recognize many from their screen names and not too surprisingly a lot of readers don’t comment so I told them to jump in and get involved. I met two older couples at different turnpike rest stops who were in full PITT gear and both the husbands read our stuff but didn’t comment. We sure do seem to have a bunch of new readers/commenters on here since the Narduzzi hire so I was kind of surprised that people knew I contributed to the Blather but then I realized I had described myself before going to the event.
Here is Coach Narduzzi’s formal press conference held the afternoon before the evenings festivities. As far as my getting up to PGH to actually see the new staff and players in action that will be after March 15th when Spring Practices start. Here is a link to the photos of the PITT LOI Day event. If anyone wants to estimate the crowd the seats were ten chairs each side – so 20 in a row and the room was packed to the back… someone else can try to count the rows.
