PITT’s Spring Practices are right around the corner and starting on Sunday the 15^th at the university’s Southside facility.  The NCAA permits 15 practices of which three have to be ‘no pads’.  Here is the actual guidance on exactly what a coaching staff can ask of their players:

For days in which institutions schedule a two-a-day practice, live contact practices are only allowed in one practice.  A maximum four (4) live contact practices may occur in a given week, and a maximum of 12 total may occur in preseason.  Only three practices (scrimmages) would allow for live contact in greater than 50 percent of the practice schedule.

In PITT’s case this season the practices will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the two scrimmages being on the Saturdays and the Spring Game played on Saturday, April 18^th at 1:00pm on the field at Highmark Stadium in Pittsburgh’s Station Square area.  Highmark holds 3,500 seats so any photos taken at the game will at least look somewhat crowded.

One real problem, and this is a huge difference and a big negative I think, is that Pat Narduzzi is limiting media access to a designated 30 minute time period.  After that the rest of the practice will be closed to all but staff and admin personnel.  This is an 180 degree change from Paul Chryst’s policies where the practices were fully open.

I’ll be honest here, there is no way I’ll drive 450 miles round trip for a 30 minute look-in at the practices.  Perhaps Chas or Justin will choose to do so but I’ll break my tradition of attending in person every year if the practices remain closed like this.  I have to assume at this point that the scrimmages will be under the same restraints so I’ll get no eyeballs on the kids in the spring or the Fall Camp if policies don’t change by then and, in turn, The Blather won’t get 1st hand reports.

That is just damned disappointing and truth be told after all that has gone on in the recent past with the football program you would think the staff would want more media coverage with the new changes we’ve had, not less.

Here is a link to the PITT Spring Prospectus itself.  Remember that none of the 2015 recruiting class will be listed in anything as they are not enrolled in PITT yet except for one freshman who enrolled in January.

Here are some thoughts by other media site writers regarding what to look for this spring.

The Trib’s Jerry DiPaola has a short blurb today regarding his thoughts upon reading the prospectus and Chris Peak of Rivals.com speaks about spring practice (Football is discussed at the 25:00 mark of Peak’s podcast):

Rising senior tight end J.P. Holtz has played in every game in his first three seasons at Pitt. (He’s a senior, already?) As reliable as the sunrise, Holtz has 57 receptions for 581 yards and seven touchdowns in an offense that never went out of its way to highlight the tight ends.

Jaryd Jones-Smith, a left tackle last season, will get first crack at replacing T.J. Clemmings at right tackle. Adam Bisnowaty stays at left tackle.

Mt. Lebanon’s Alex Bookser and Bethel Park’s Mike Grimm will tangle at right guard… (OL discussed below).

Former linebacker Zach Poker will move to defensive end to try to alleviate a manpower shortage there. Don’t forget about defensive end Ejuan Price, who can be productive if he remains healthy.

Outside linebackers will be labeled Star and Money under Narduzzi’s system, with Nicholas Grigsby at Star and Bam Bradley and redshirt freshman Jamal Davis at Money.

Chris Peak brings up an excellent issue (and a good one for the team to have) in his discussing our offensive line going into the 2015 season. Basically it is this; even with the departure of our two superb senior starters of last season, Matt Rotheram (2^nd string All-ACC) and T.J. Clemmings (2^nd team All-American and 1^st team All-ACC) we are still returning, in essence, five OL players who have started multiple games for PITT before this season.

That happens because Paul Chryst broke the traditional ‘offensive line coaching mentality’ by rotating in underclassmen during the actual playing season so as to get them experience for the future.  rsSO Jaryd Jones-Smith benefited as did rsSR Gabe Roberts and rsSO Carson Achai Baker who is the only PITT player with a mother who has her own graphic novel written about her..

That, along with rsSO Alex Officer starting at Center in place of injured rsSR Artie Rowell, gives PITT a solid set of 10 OL players who will legitimately compete for starting roles.  That is more actual game day experience we have had in a long time and sets the two-deep in the best position possible.

Some other spring news to note:

rsFR Mike Herndon, who was recruited for  defense from the state of Virginia as a schoolboy, has been moved from Defensive Tackle to the offensive line.  This is a bit of a head scratcher as we have a rather clear need for depth on the interior of the defense.  Herndon clocks in at 320lbs and perhaps Narduzzi felt that was too big for defense but just right for offense.  However, if you look at Herndon’s HS accolades you then wonder why Chryst & Co. wanted him on defense at all:

“…selected first team 2A All-State by the Virginia High School Coaches Association (VHSCA) and VirginiaPreps.com; VirginiaPreps.com 2A Offensive Player of the Year; VHSCA Group 2A East Offensive Player of the Year and Offensive Lineman of the Year.

There aren’t a lot of hidden storylines going into this spring.  What questions we have are big and bright and out there in real time. First is how does this staff, with all its energy and self-publicity via social media and such actually relate to the existing kids on PITT’s roster?  That is a big question mark regardless of how much PITT fans like these hires. Speculating that things will go smoothly isn’t the same as having them do that.

Second is how will this staff take whatever talent we have on the 2014 roster and mold it into an effective unit?  If you look at the PITT defense only by statistically you’d be fooled into thinking they did an at least average job last year.  That truly was not the case.

As you can see we weren’t terrible in any one category, we just crapped out as a whole and especially in the second half of the games.

Thirdly, can this staff keep what is good with the offense intact without screwing it up to much by pissing their scent all over everything?  New staffs love to, and have a right to, make their mark on a team and program as soon as possible.  Of course they want to do so in the most productive way.  We fans wouldn’t care one bit if Narduzzi dropped a ton of ACME explosives onto the Southside practice facility and blew the existing defense to hell and gone. Good riddance!

However, we feel just about the opposite when it comes to our most productive offense in almost ten years. I hope we see a hands-off approach to the running game – let the big dogs out to play – and small tinkering with Voytik. We’ll see though…

I’ll have another article later, my heart isn’t really into this after I found out about the 30 minute media deal. I’ll be better tomorrow and write some more.

ON ANOTHER NOTE:

James Conner with the “Small Hands, Big Heart” award from the National Kidney Foundation.  While we are on this subject here is a story on our local article on National Public Radio’s website on a feature they did about the place where I volunteer three times a week. It is the “Route 1 Day Center” and serves our homeless and low income people and sometimes their children. Every little bit helps others my friends, if James Conner can carve out the time while being a hands-full student-athlete then so can we.