Pitt Spring Practice #9;  April 2, 2015

 Pitt Live Wire Blog

PITT is moving into its final six practices of the spring sessions and starting a five day hiatus to allow the players time off over the Easter vacation weekend. How the rest of the practices break down is they will resume on Tuesday April 7^th and have four straight practices in pads, then one in shorts (of the required three non-pad practices mandated by the NCAA) the end up with the Spring Game on Saturday, April 18^th – see you there!

There has been a surprising level of very positive chatter about rsJR Mike Caprara since the spring drills opened.  We PITT fans know him as the ‘undersized’ Woodland Hills linebacker who broke the school’s record for tackles in a career… no small feat considering the prominence of Woodland Hills in WPIAL football.

This is something of a theme this week as just the other day we were hearing and reading about SO DE Rori Blair being ‘undersized’ for the starting role. Personally, I think that a strong drive for success, a big heart and intelligence can make up for a lot of physical shortcomings.  One way of accommodating situations like these is to put those smaller guys in the right position to succeed, such as Conklin’s moving Caprara from the MLB position and utilizing his speed and quickness on the outside.  Honestly, I have like Caprara since his recruitment and am hyped to see him get some real playing time.  You don’t do what he did in HS without some real talent and desire involved.

On a side note it is interesting that Woodland Hills has pumped out a bunch of major football players in its history.  In 2012 alone they had five alumni on NFL rosters: Rob Gronkowski, Ryan Mundy, Darrin Walls, Shawntae Spencer and Steve Breston.  Not a bad snapshot of talent and to think that Caprara bested all of the past defensive players from that HS.  Aside from Spencer they all made poor college choices of course.

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Pitt Spring Practice #8  March 31, 2015

One of the more interesting developments of Spring Camp is the continuing battle for a starting LB spot between Bradley and Mike Caprara.  Not too many of us fans would have thought that would be a main issue for discussion during these practices.  Again, legit depth chart movement or motivational tool?  It may well be the this defensive minded staff sees what the last staff didn’t, at least as far as the personnel goes.  Let’s hope this is the case and we truly get the best 11 guys on the field.

Also, there is a lot of hair pulling regarding 3* Safety Tony Butler who committed to PITT last week then promptly went on recruiting trips to OSU and Michigan.  From the link:  Pittsburgh commit visiting:  Michigan will host Lakewood (Ohio) St. Edward safety Tony Butler on Thursday. He committed to Pittsburgh recently, but has planned to visit Michigan for several weeks. His former high school coach, Rick Finotti, was recently hired by the Wolverines as director of football operations

Onto the actual practice stuff…

Coach Pat Narduzzi impressions on practice No. 8:

Video: Coach Pat Narduzzi

“Day eight was pretty good. We talked about adversity today, just fighting through adversity. The defense won the scrimmage the other day but it didn’t look like the offense punched back. If I punch you, you get punched back on the field. Today we talked about fighting for what you want. If you lose a period, there’s another period to come back and do it.

I thought our guys did a heck of a job. One of the best practices we’ve had so far where the guys are punching back and not taking it. Sometimes you think they’re beat today and they don’t think they can finish the practice. I’m really excited about what we did today.”

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