After getting two more recruits; 4* WR Ruben Flowers and unranked as yet ATH Marcus Ffrench, we have had a lot of follow up discussions about past and present recruiting on here. Well, here are another couple of thoughts about recruiting we can chew on over the weekend.
I think we all agree that Paul Chryst had some pretty specific strengths and weaknesses when it came to his recruiting. He seemed to have been right on target with his offensive scouting and then getting commitments from kids who have helped us move the ball and score points over the last two years:
RBs Conner, James, Ollison, Hall and Parrish at FB; WRs Boyd, Jennings (good get, too bad) and Zeise along with Holtz and Orndoff at TE. His recruiting what looks to be like the complete OL two deep this season is a great job also (fingers crossed).
So, on that side of the ball he’s leaving Pat Narduzzi with a well stocked cupboard with good players he and his staff recruited.
Where the weakness has been, or where we perceive it to have been (more on that in a second), is in his lack of ability to recruitment of talented defensive players and, given the way the defense faltered in key moments last year, that sure seems to be the case.
But wait a second! Let’s discuss the age-old football question of “Do you win ballgame with Xs & Os or Jimmies & Joes?”
I think that at the point we are in right now in the off-season and transitioning to the new coaching staff and the circumstances surrounding what they brings as to PITT as points of strength, examining this question is timely and sets up some very interesting things to watch for as the fall camp and the 2015 season begins.
For some background on all that for newbies, Narduzzi was hired as our HC after a very successful stint as the Defensive Coordinator at MSU. There really is no doubt about his pedigree in this area and thus we all expect him to directly and positively influence PITT’s defense by lended his oversight and expertise to our new DC Josh Conklin. That has already started.
Because of Narduzzi’s strength with defense expect PITT’s defense to play better than it did last season and to afford us a shot to win the close games which we lost last season. I don’t think any PITT fan feels that is unreasonable to expect considering Narduzzi’s background and abilities. We all hope that happens because there is nothing more frustrating watching PITT blow what should have been comfortable wins.
What a difference that would be considering what PITT went through the last few years with Paul Chryst, who was as much an offensive success in his last job as was Narduzzi on defense in his, not able or wanting to engage his staff, and in turn the players, on the defensive side of the ball. His biggest mistake was promoting questionable competence from within and not following through in taking actions when it faltered.
Which left us with the same players Narduzzi has now playing under staff leadership that was either incompetent in putting the kids in position to be successful on the field, or, those players were just not talented enough to play well at this level?
…And isn’t that the measure of recruiting success? Getting players who will be able to learn and grow from good coaching and have the physical talents to take those lessons and bring their football intelligence and ability to bear successful play on the field?
So that brings us the original question. Are Narduzzi and staff going to be able to take the defensive players extant on the roster and get them ‘coached-up’ to play up to what his coaching staff needs to have for a successful defense? Remember, these are same the ‘not-so-good’ recruits Chryst got to come to PITT so are they even physically and mentally talented enough to play well under either coach?
This question won’t truly be answered until we see the state of the player’s success or lack thereof during actual games, but let’s conjecture a bit. Last year we fielded these starters on defense:
DE | 92 | Blair, Rori SO/1 | 87 | Green, Reggie R-SO | 93 | Roy, Shane R-FR | |||||
DT | 91 | Render, Darryl SR/3 | 94 | Taleni, Jeremiah R-SO/1 | |||||||
NT | 95 | Mosley-Smith, Khaynin R-SR/3 | 54 | Jarrett, Tyrique JR/1 | |||||||
DE | 5 | Price, Ejuan R-SR/3 | 52 | Soto, Shakir JR/2 | |||||||
STAR | 3 | Grigsby, Nicholas R-SR/3 | 22 | Poteat, Jameel R-SR | |||||||
MIKE | 47 | Galambos, Matt JR/2 | 58 | Wirginis, Quintin SO/1 | |||||||
MONEY | 4 | Bradley, Bam R-JR/2 | 30 | Caprara, Mike R-JR/2 | |||||||
F-CB | 6 | Pitts, Lafayette R-SR/3 | 20 | Briggs, Dennis R-FR | |||||||
B-CB | 14 | Maddox, Avonte SO/1 | 38 | Lewis, Ryan R-JR/2 | |||||||
B-SAF | 25 | Amara, Patrick SO/1 | 26 | Pitts, Jevonte R-JR/2 | |||||||
FS | 15 | Mitchell, Reggie R-JR/1 | 2 | Webb, Terrish JR/2 |
Out of those players above who were recruited by the last regime I believe some will break out in stardom or play better than we expected given their prior contributions, if any. So with Narduzzi in town here are my picks to make us look back and say “Hey, that kid wasn’t such a bad recruit after all”… maybe.
Here is a good explanation of what HCPN uses as his basic defenses and why he says that …
…“Rather than trying to call the right defense and maybe being right or maybe being wrong, Dantonio and Narduzzi have responded to this challenge by building a responsive defense that mutates into the right alignment depending on what the offense does.
Against four vertical receivers, Michigan State wants four man-to-man defenders who can carry the receivers all the way upfield; against crisscrossing underneath receivers, the Spartans want to be in a zone coverage that lets their defenders break hard on the ball and on those receivers, rather than forcing them to chase in man-to-man; and against the run, the Spartans want as many as nine defenders in the box.”
Here is a small treat. Click on this link and watch the sample video of Pat Narduzzi explaining his base defenses, then keep that in mind when reading the list below.
DE Rori Blair – this kid did extremely well in a limited role last season and ended up with 14 tackles and 5.0 sacks. He has already impressed the staff so much they they jumped him up over Shakir Soto who had started the last two years.
LB Bam Bradley – he sat behind Thomas and Gonzalez his first three years but he is talented as Hell, quick and strong and if Conklin turns him loose he will be very effective.
LB Matt Galambos – Some think him slow but Narduzzi needs someone who is sharp and has experience at the position. In the defense Narduzzi wants to play there is a need for a field general to read the offense and help his fellow players to ‘mutate’ into the correct defense.
Galambos is going to be good at that and it will help with the hesitations we saw from him in the past when the ‘called’ defense was not correct for the offensive formation.
NT Tyrique Jarrett – Narduzzi is going to look at Jarrett’s quickness and strength during the real camp and find it hard to keep him off the field. The incumbent starter KK Smith has been an average nose tackle at best and doesn’t have the athleticism that Jarrett does. Same with…
DT Jeremiah Taleni – this kid may be the strongest player we have on defense and I think it is telling that after three weeks in the spring Narduzzi and Conklin moved him up to 2nd string as a SO. I keep saying that Taleni wasn’t just a bone thrown to Coach Breckterfield to get a fellow Islander on roster. Hawai’i has excellent HS football and the players who come out of the league Taleni played in are big, tough and faster than they look.
S Avonte Maddox & CB Pat Amara – Chryst was forced to play these two true FR in the defensive backfield last season and as with any new starters they had their ups and downs. But the fact that they were also in their first year of college ball makes what they played over all pretty damn impressive. At safety Maddox had 32 tackles and show great closing speed. As one of two starting DBs Amara only played in 10 games but showed real promise in the position.
So there are seven kids on defense who I think will really benefit from being in Narduzzi’s and Conklin’s defense which is predicated on action and speed.
“Our front is an attacking front and the press corner fits the mentality of the defense’. That is the basis for what we will see this year. That attacking front has to have more quickness than it did last year.”
Hence we see Blair, Taleni and Jarrett in the two deep. But here is the main reason I think we’ll look at those same players we thought were poor recruits and have a different opinion of them when the bowl game is over…
“Of course, many defenses that look great on paper have failed on the field, and for Michigan State’s adaptable Quarters scheme to succeed, every defender needs to make the same reads. And that’s precisely why the Spartans don’t run myriad defenses, instead preferring to master one highly sophisticated, flexible approach.
“I believe one defense can stop everything; I believe we could play an entire football game in our base defense,” Narduzzi said at the clinic. “I believe that if everyone lines up exactly right, reads their keys, and does all the fundamentals involved with the defense, it is enough to win.”
That is exactly the opposite of the bumbling Matt House trying to change defensive schemes three seconds before the ball was snapped. When he did that he handicapped the kids so badly they couldn’t show their real talent because it was being hidden by the poor decision making and coaching on game day.
How many times did we here defensive players say last season that they had “no idea what we were supposed to be doing out there.” We heard that on the sidelines in the 4th quarter of the Houston game and numerous defensive players said the same thing in interviews during and after spring practices.
The Chicken or the Egg is a great question here. I contend that we’ll see much better play from our defensive players with a more competent, knowledgeable and confident coaching staff. That last point is perhaps the most important.
Our kids are going to feel that confidence the HC and his staff has and they are going to play with it themselves. We’ll look at some of our defensive players, see just how good they can be and indeed will think they are better than recruits than we thought they were.
So, The other question “Do you win ballgame with Xs and Os or Jimmies and Joes?” will be answered like this; with PITT you have to have the good Xs and Os to get the best of the Jimmies and Joes to have a winning season.
That first half against Nebraska he could barely throw a pass that within 10 yards on the receiver.
I think we all know (or should know) what went down there, as Bob Palko was HC at WA and we were recruiting Dorin Dickerson down the road from there and the father, coach thing certainly played into it as well.
But then again so did Ray Vinopal.
Go to love those Dematha pipelines.
Myers to a lesser extent certainly, but who knows how things play out for him at this point.
Mel Kiper certainly liked him.
NFL coaches, scouts, and execs just love lazy QB prospects that don’t put in the time or effort required to become a DI starter… They see a kid with jacked up priorities that couldn’t hack at a middling program and just start to drool…
So much so that according to this source, he hasn’t even gotten an invite to try out..
Chevy Troutman (29 and 17) singlehandedly schooled a front line of Danny Villueneva, Josh Boone and Rudy Gay. All 3 made the NBA, Gay and Villeueuva may still be playing, and the only pro tryout Chevy got was as a tight end.
Jerome Lane was a terrific college player and was the last person in the NCAA 6’6 and under to lead the country in rebounding, yet just didn’t fit in the NBA style of player.
Johnny Manziel, Ryan Leaf, JaMarcus Russell were all 1st round QB picks. Courtney Brown was the 1st pick in the entire NFL draft of 2000.
Hugh Green kind of broke his leg, so of course Ricky Jackson had a better career….in the nfl.
Flacco probably wouldn’t have been a bomber at Pitt. We just haven’t thrown the ball deep consistently since…Alex Van Pelt?
@ Dark Knight…I’mean with you regarding Flacco vs the beloved T Palko!
Whether it was Flacco or Palko Matt Cavanaugh was still the OC. Not exactly an innovative coordinator…
I’m a bit biased, I was a huge Walt Harris fan
Enjoyed Trib article on Palko and Flacco. Having read it I think DW screwed Bostick big time with Tino. In the article DW says difficult to unseat Palko, you do the fair thing, until Palko did something to show us he wasn’t the starter he was going to start. With DW saying that how did Tino get the starting QB job for the opener that year in Utah ? Bostick lead Pitt to DW’s biggest wins against ND and WVU (the 28 1/2 point upset victory). Why did Tino start before Bostick had a chance to show he wasn’t the starter ? Those actions led Bostick to passing up his last year of eligibility and stuck us with watching fetal position Tino longer.
TT, thanks for the Trib article. Sometimes get frustrated at the revisionism that takes place here. No one’s fault really, just human nature to forget how things really were after the passing of many years.
Reed, also enjoyed learning that Pitt stadium was never in any long range plans. Helps make sense of everything that happened.
I often think reading the off-season posts and comments can be more fun than seeing everyone vent over coaching or play calling after a FB or BB game.
As most of you know, I am a Tino supporter … but even I was amazed when there was no QB competition in the spring of 2010. Bostick actually had more game experience but was redshirted in 09, while TS backed up Stull. I thought TS would have the lead but there at least still would be competition.
That is comical. Best decision PC made. Kid was being a punk. Never hurt recruiting.
I blame Cav. Cav should have known what a good college QB looks like.
Go Pitt.
Hail to Pitt!
Carlos Beshman from Roanoke, Virginia. He is actually announcing Monday 6 PM.
He is 6’4 only 215lbs. One site has him projected to Cincy. More than skill set, I’d be happy just to get him so we continue to put a recruiting footprint in ACC country
Pitt started out 6-1, looked poised to maybe win 10 games that year… after a 52-7 thrashing of Central Florida. Thru the first 7 games Pitt was avg’g a torrid 37.6 ppg.
The next 2 games against Butgers we only scored 10 points and then only 12 against USF. And then the infamous 1 point loss at Uconn on a 2 pt conversion.
And that was that for that season.
Jeff Otah (#1 round pick), CJ Davis(been on several NFL rosters), Mike McGlynn (4rth rd. pick who is still in the league with the N.O. Saints), John Simonitis (who got injured in Game 5), and Joe Thomas.
So he has put together a pretty nice NFL career with over 60 starts at for NFL teams.
Cudo’s Mike !
Pitt90 – the revisionist drive me mad. The reality of the situation is no one cared when Flacco left until he blew up with the Hens.
Emel – Matt Cavanaugh is the QB killer. Can’t hold anything against anyone who played in his system. Just look what Frank Cignetti did with the same troops a year after Cav was fired. Cavanaugh coached QB’s have a crazy history of worst years under his tutelage.
@tossing
Said something to same effect about Cavanaugh. I really would have loved to see what kind of career Palko had if it was played all under Harris
Five weeks until Fall camp starts.
I’m ready…
I fact checked myself…
My uncle has that Sports Illustrated cover framed, I asked him once to leave it to me when he dies he told me it’s going in the ground with him. I hope he reconsiders.
I will alway respect Cavanaugh as a Pitt great. As a college offensive coordinator I thought his play calling left a lot to be desired. Sorry…
Let’s wait and see how Shell turns out before you permanently dam him to hell.
No question Shell and Connor on the same team would have been a plus.
Flacco better suited for professional football x’s and o’s. He fell into a great situation at Baltimore. He has done quite well. Not sure that happens for him if he stayed here. Luke Getsy even got into the league for a couple of years if I recall.
The 6-5, 210-pounder has narrowed his focus to Notre Dame, Penn State, USC, North Carolina and Pittsburgh.
Mr. Brown would look good in HCPN’s defense and PITT script. I would make sure he is told about #99 Hugh Green – show him the SI cover and the highlight films – and when the moment is right, introduce Mr. Brown to Mr. Green.
Colorful world, isn’t it?
Time to close some deals – I’m off to work with my thermos of Kool-aid – busy day before the holiday weekend.
HTP!
THe fact is that in Palko’s 1st year as a starter, one the leading receivers was a 5’8 walk-on (forgot his name) believe he was the 2nd leading receiver … which shows you how void the team was i that position.
link to totalfootballstats.com
Incidentally, this was Flacco’s lats year … he left after spring practice in 05.
He thinks he has a shot at playing in the NFL if he maximizes his opportunity that he has been given here at Pitt. The guy is a grinder. He has built himself up to about 250 and a pic of his on Instagram was right out of a Mr. America competition pose. Solid as a rock and nothing but lean and mean muscle on top of muscle. He looks the part of a DE.
Now regarding his attitude, the guy is mature and has already committed to putting in the work necessary to prepare for the next level while finishing up at Dean College. Edwards has two years under his belt already at the JUCO level and that shows in his mindset. He is looking at this Pitt gig as simply going to work and has even commented on how some kids have come in talkin the talk but are clueless as to what it takes in a daily basis to prepare for the game come fall.
Considering that we are looking for troops at the DE position, Allen fully comprehends the chance that he has to impress the coaches right now and earn some significant playing time immediately, if not earn a starting role come September.
The guy strikes me as our next Jeff Otah. A player who comes in ready to contribute right out of the gate, has his head screwed on right and has a dream to fulfill in his mind. Once a goal like that is established and the focus is there to obtain it, look out cause that results in one motivated football player.
I’m very interested in seeing how his skill level compared to our other DEs already on board who have game experience. If nothing more, I see Edwards pushing Soto for playing time, and as we all realize, competition is always good for bringing out the best in a good player.
Don’t know how we stop GT without the ends making a lot of tackles.
Regarding Shell, I am pretty sure OPG is in a group of one on that one.
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO ALL BLATHERITES.