Pitt’s fall training camp starts today with the player’s reporting in from their time off-campus where they were tasked with finding a spot for the next new Pitt Stadium.  Serious on-field stuff won’t begin until tomorrow however when the staff and team can get on the field and start getting familiar with the new crop of players and reacquainted with the physical side of actual football.

Just as a point of info here is how the practice days will be conducted in general. A typical single practice day will go like this:

Coach Narduzzi Briefing: 9:25 a.m.

Practice Viewing/Photography Window: 9:55-10:25 a.m.

Closed practice from 10:25 until 12:15

Interviews: 12:15 p.m. (select players and assistants)

This is what we’ll see when Tuesday’s Media Day rolls around and  I’ll be up there for those sessions (more on that later):

Practice Viewing/Photography Window: 9:55-10:25 a.m.

Coach Narduzzi Press Conference: 1:30 p.m. (second floor team room)

Team Interview and Photo Session: 2:45-4 p.m. 

Some interesting things to note is that in all of the allowed two-a-day practices the evening practice is completely closed to the media.  That makes sense as no real news will be generated between 2:30 or so until they start up again in the evening. So that is the logistics behind the next three weeks of camp.

Now, one of the most exciting things about Pitt’s training camps is the newly acquired players we’ll see in action for the first time.  This year, with a new head coach in Pat Narduzzi, we see that his approach to filling in skill gaps in the two-deep lineup has partially been addressed by transfers from either another D1 school or from a Junior College (JUCO).

Most HCs will look first  to other existing players on the roster to complete the new season’s two deep.  But HCs who are new to a university’s football program are different with that because:

1) They didn’t recruit any of those players and

2) Their philosophical approach to football may be such that they see immediate needs that can’t be adequately filled by roster players.

Such is the case with Coach Narduzzi this season, especially on defense it seems.  To address those issues he’s been active in the transfer game getting four players who can make an immediate impact starting with this fall camp.  His emphasis with this  has been on getting quality defensive players  who can immediately have impact on the team as that is the side of the ball he cut his teeth on earlier in his coaching career.

Let’s take a look at the Top Eight new players who could make a difference for Pitt this season.  They are listed in terms of what we think will be the order of immediate contribution.

1.  FR S Jordan Whitehead. 4* recruit Whitehead is a local kid from Central Valley HS in Monaca, PA,- 34 miles to the NW of Pitt’s campus. He was nationally recruited by 15 football programs, including such strong programs such as; Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame and Ohio State to name a few. One glaring exception was Wisconsin. His resume’ of HS play and awards earned is very impressive.

The fact that he’s a defensive back and most likely can be on the two-deep, or even start this season, is exactly what our broken defense needs.  Most likely, at least according to the fan base’s beliefs, Whitehead will be an immediate starter and may contribute on both sides of the ball.  We hear that about many ‘star’ recruits and the majority do not make an immediate impact on the team.  But in this case he seems to be the right player at the right time for being a contributor sooner rather than later.

2.  JR DE Allen Edwards; transferred in from Dean, MA JUCO. He is an immediate injection of talent into the most pressing need on the DL. We are bereft of experience and talent at the DE position.  Right now we are looking at this as our DE two-deep.

JR Shakir Soto who has played but not stood out on any real way.  He had 31 tackles and 1 Tackle For Loss (TFL). His play was extraordinarily inconsistent and he was manhandled by more than one TE over the course of the season last year.   (Replaceable.)

rsSR Ejuan Price who missed all of the ’14 season with injury.  Price started his career at Pitt in the OLB slot where as a true FR he tallied 27 tackles, 6.5 TFLs and four sacks. Since then however he has suffered back, pectoral and chest muscle injuries that limited him to playing time in only six games since his first year.  (Unreliable and inexperienced at DE.)

SO Rori Blair was a true FR DE last season when he led the team in sacks with 5.5.  He did this in a lot of mop-up play but shows some real talent and flash when he’s at DE.  However, as we Pitt fans well know, Blair comes with a pretty serious set of baggage that he has to drag around this year.  He’s been suspended for the opening game against YSU at least.  It could well be that he’ll see more punitive measures down the road, at least according to the HC.  His offenses were serious charges that won’t begin to be legally addressed until his preliminary hearing on August 25^th has happened.  (Stupid and immature).

One thing to watch with Blair is if Narduzzi and DC Josh Conklin allow him to fully partake in the training camp competition for that starting DE position.  He’s been allowed to attend training camp but Narduzzi has said other sanctions will be awarded and that could be one of them.  We’ll keep an eye on that situation and see what transpires.

3.  SO WR Rafael Araujo-Lopes; transferred in from Reedley, CA JUCO. He’s listed because he’s coming in at a true position of need to be the WR opposite of Tyler Boyd.  As it stands now we have a very inexperienced WR corps with Dontez Ford, who had only three starts last year, due to Gardner’s injury at the end of the season, with three receptions and one TD.

Coincidentally Ford is himself a transfer who came to us from Syracuse and had to sit out the 2014 season.  We have no knowledge of how well Ford can play in a starting role and he may well be surpassed on the depth chart by Araujo-lopes.  The fact that Tyler Boyd is suspended for one game is a help to whoever wants to be the WR to fill a two-deep position.

4 . rsSR DL  Mark Scarpinato; transferred in from Michigan State University.  Having played with Narduzzi at MSU Scarpinato is familiar with the HC and the HC is familiar with him.   Another transfer in at a position of need and one has to assume Narduzzi reached out so quickly to Scarpinato because he wants him on the field in some short order.

On the other hand Scarpinato has been nothing above a journeyman player during his college career.  He redshirted his FR year, saw no playing time at all as a rsFR then had two unmemorable starts as a rsSO. He bagged out of a year of eligibility for other pursuits.  I don’t see the big attraction with this player but Narduzzi makes the calls.  He’s one to watch in camp to see if he’s got something he hasn’t yet shown on the field of play that will set him apart from the returning defensive lineman.  Let’s hope that’s the case.

5.  rsJR QB Nate Peterman; transferred in from the University of Tennessee. Peterman will be the QB2 coming out of camp. He’s a guy who was the 8^th nationally rated recruited QB in his SR year in HS. He has two roles now that he’s here; one in-camp and one in-season.

His training camp role will be to push the incumbent starter into trying to keep his place on the first team.  Our starting QB Chad Voytik didn’t really have that pressure last year from Trey Anderson.  It was obvious that Chryst was going to go with Voytik, as it should have been, and thus he had no external pressure to excel.  Not so this season.  While the short odds are that Voytik regains his starting spot Peterman is talented enough to light that fire and put some heat on Voytik.

During the season Peterman will have to be ready in case the Voytik gets injured or falters on the field.  But I don’t think we’ll see Peterman play past Voytik unless Voytik starts turning the ball over too often… which he didn’t really do last season.

6.  FR WR Tre Tipton; a 3* recruit from local Apollo-Ridge HS located a short 43 miles NE of Pitt.  Tipton is an interesting recruit because he originally had Narduzzi’s old school, MSU, at the top of his list of places to play his college ball. BTW – here is a depressing quote from that linked article:

“Michigan State has signed some outstanding players from western Pennsylvania in recent years, including Demetrious Cox, Delton Williams, Damion Terry and Montae Nicholson. Like with those players, the Spartans likely will have to beat out some top local teams for Tipton. In addition to Michigan State, Tipton is hearing from Pitt, Penn State, Northwestern, Nebraska, Tennessee and Rutgers.”

Tipton will be in competition with Ford and Araujo-lopes for that WR2 position but his HS career was such that he’s not on to be counted out to see some two-deep time as a true FR.

For the 7^th and 8^th newcomers I’m going to lump two true FR linebackers together:

7.a.  FR LB Saleem Brightwell; a 3* recruit out of New Jersey and

7.b.  FR LB Anthony McKee; a 3* recruit from Ohio.

These two have somehow become fan favorites to crack into the LBs two-deep as rookie college players.  These recruits do look talented and had great HS careers.  Brightwell came out of a very good HS program at Paramus Catholic in NJ and had 16 D1 offers with Miami and Nebraska wanting him. McKee was also highly sought after with 17 offers from D1 schools including Oklahoma.  Both these guys were solid producers and look to be solid college players… given time, experience, and many, many hours in the weight room.

The main thing that stops me in my tracks when saying these two FR can contribute this season is their sizes.  They are both way too small to play at their current weights. Brightwell is 6’0” and 195 lbs and McKee weighs in at 6’2” and 200 lbs. Both players are too light to be in the two-deep in a major college program at this time.  The existing Pitt LBs average around  230 lbs. Hell, even Mike Caprara is up to 230 as a rsJR.

That said, one of our prospective starting OLBs, rsSR Nick Grigsby is listed at 6’1” and 220 lbs.  So there is an outside chance that McKee and Brightwell could open eyes and sneak into the 2^nd string but I doubt we will see it happen this season.

They are both solid recruits though and I’d say with a year at Pitt eating and lifting they could be very good candidates to follow SRs Grigsby and Bam Bradley after those two graduate at the end of this year.

OK – that’s my take, what is yours for newly acquired impact players?

Note: I’ll be part of the media types interviewing Narduzzi and his staff and players on Tuesday so if you have any ‘not run of the mill’ questions you would like answered, by either the coaches and/or the players, now is the time to list them for me.

BTW – Tuesday night I’ll be staying at The Priory Hotel on the north side after the practices end around 5:00pm or so.  If anyone wants to buy me a drink, or have one on me, and talk Pitt football just let me know and I’ll contact you by email.  I’ve had some interesting conversations about the subject lately.  Don’t hesitate as I don’t have anything firmly planned for that evening and I’d really like to meet more of you guys.