A little more from Justin Morgan on his flip from Rutgers to Pitt.
“My family, you know, they had a big impact,” Morgan, the 6-7, 340-pound senior told NJ.com. “They helped change my mind a lot about my decision.”
Morgan says his decision was based on the comfort he felt throughout the weekend.
“I don’t know, I mean, I feel comfortable,” said Morgan. “I feel like that’s family. Like when I went there, everybody just jelled, right. Everyone got along with one another. Everybody showed love.”
Damn hippies.
It also helped that he got along real well with fellow Jerseyite Phil Campbell, who flipped first.
Did Pat Narduzzi’s better than average debut at Pitt, help reopen the chance for defensive coordinators to move up to head coaching gigs this year? At the very least it didn’t hurt.
But defense-oriented coaches can help themselves and their colleagues in the future by making the most of these opportunities. Pitt’s Narduzzi did just that, going 8-4 in his first season and earning a contract extension.
More than that, the pool of coaching talent available kind of skewed more to the defense this year.
The available coaches may have had something to do with it as well.
Several of the innovative offensive minds already have been hired elsewhere or weren’t interested in moving. NFL coaches Chip Kelly and Bill O’Brien were frequently mentioned as dream candidates for jobs such as USC and Maryland but stayed put in the pros. Several teams tried to lure Houston’s Tom Herman away after he posted a 12-1 record in his first year, but he decided to sign an extension with the Cougars. Chad Morris has spent only one year at SMU. Oklahoma offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley won the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach, but he’s only 32 and in his first year calling plays for a Power 5 team. South Carolina reportedly made failed overtures to Herman and Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez before turning to Muschamp.
“I think it’s just dependent on the candidate pool,” McGarity said. “I think it’s just this year, and that it just happened to be this way.”
Offensive coordinators have been picked over a bit in recent years, so the present crop is probably a little young or untested to move up to being a head coach at this point.
You won’t find Pitt’s (or Penn State or Temple) assistant coaches salaries in the annual USA Today database (stupid bleeping loophole in the PA Sunshine laws), but it is always interesting to scan through it to see what others are making. At least to get a rough estimate of things. Joe Rudolph makes more as the OC at Wisconsin than their DC, Dave Aranda? That makes no sense.
Pitt’s 2015 season grades out to a “B” which seems about right. Might be able to boost that with extra-credit by beating Navy in less than 2 weeks.
A very good read, even if it relates to WVU on programs struggling to adjust when they move to the major conferences.
Teams entering the ACC in 2004 or 2005 (Miami, Virginia Tech, Boston College) sure had it sweet. Florida State was captained by a rapidly declining Bobby Bowden, and Clemson did not have its act together. While Miami made some questionable coaching hires, this further allowed Virginia Tech (.792) and Boston College (.650) to flourish at what now seem like unsustainable clips.
Pitt, which joined a stronger ACC, seems to be a notable exception to all of the above. Yes, the Panthers have seen their conference winning percentage fall, but it’s a slight fall, and can largely be attributed to the fact that Pitt’s coaching situation was a mess from 2010-12, during which it had four head coaches.
It’s over a year old, but you can also see how the coaching instability completely sapped Pitt in recruiting. It also dispels any notion that there is a major bump in recruiting talent simply by changing to a better conference. At best it is a small help, but stability and a good recruiting coach (Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M) make a bigger difference.
Playing opposite Boyd has helped. Challingsworth called the Clairton graduate a “great friend” and “mentor” who inspires all the Pitt receivers with his effort.
“He’s a great player, and he is going to play on Sundays,” Challingsworth said. “Some of the things he does in practice — and especially in the games — you just see it and you’re just like, ‘Wow. He just did that, and he made it look effortless.’
Read more: link to triblive.com
He won’t go later than the 3rd. At least he high points the ball and catches with his hands away from his body.
Amazing how many NFL receivers don’t go up aggressively for the football, they just wait for it to fall from the sky and the DB slaps it away.
Moorehead’s team put up those numbers in the freaking Patriot League. Playing teams like Lehigh and Bucknell. He may be a great head coach, but it is rolling the dice thinking his coaching and system translate to a P5 conference.
Like I said, if Pitt hires their OC from some school like Chattanooga, which slapped Fordham around I will be seriously pissed.
Pitt needs to hire a proven OC that has coached at a high level.
I have seen enough football to know that Boyd will have a solid NFL career barring injury.
Guys don’t set records at Pitt and then flop in the NFL.
I have also seen enough of Jamie Dixon to know he is a great basketball coach but a poor recruiter. He has won more games with less talent than anyone in the NCAA’s. He has beaten many teams, many times with NBA talent when he has none. Even Blair and Sam Young are no better than bench players in the NBA and they almost won it all.
His OOC is no better or worse than anyone else.
He has put together a team that will surprise some people this year. Even last year with one of his least talented teams, he beat UNC, Syracuse, and Notre Dame. He still has only two potential NBA players, Young and possibly Wilson, but he is a long way off at this point.
How many do Duke, UNC, Louisville, Syracuse, and Virginia, have on their squads year in year out? How many others are sprinkled throughout the league? How many did UConn, Georgetown, and Villanova have when Jamie beat them?
We don’t really know what Narduzzi and Staff’s approach to recruiting is yet. I do remember earlier this year a recruit visited another school after verballing with Pitt and Narduzzi didn’t do anything about it… what that means who knows?
This “hard sell” recruiting stance only works on two conditions anyway. The first is that Pitt is the best offer the kid has – if he loses out on Pitt he drops in quality of school to attend.
Second it only if Pitt is good enough and strong enough position as a team and a program to extort an early verbal from a recruit. Unfortunately we are not that now and haven’t been for at least five years. Telling a decent 3* or a four* player “Make up your mind or we are pulling your offer – which is the exact definition of ‘hard sell’ means you’ll see the back of him before you see him in a Pitt uniform.
I say this a lot but I truly think that some Pitt fans think Pitt football is a bigger and better program than it really is. When we are recruiting against established winning programs we are pretty small potatoes at this point.
A few years of solid success and we’ll be able to leverage a scholarship for immediate actions… but until then that isn’t going to happen much if at all. DW did it in his last three years but that was when he was pulling in a lot of 5* and 4* kids anyway.
These kids want to play anyhow!!!!!
Jesting, jesting.
Amazing how quickly the year goes by, wasn’t it just opening weekend?
