**** THIS ARTICLE JUMPED OVER CHAS’ BB PIECE – PLEASE READ AND COMMENT ON THAT FIRST****
Not that the basketball season is almost over, we hope not but as in Pitt Football our BB team isn’t a shoo-in for anything, let’s turn our eye toward some pre-spring practice info and discussion starters.
The P-G has a piece on DE Ejuan Price and his buying a condo at a Senior Living center in Boca Raton, FL. He’s in his 6th year at Pitt and it seems like he’s an old man already… but he plays like a middle aged tornado… with his 11.5 sacks last season. Here is a good video as he describes his past physical problems.
This kills me though:
But even among those hundreds of different pairs, it only takes a split second for Price to tell you his favorites: His Nike Galaxy Foamposite Ones. Put out to a very limited release in 2012, the Galaxy Foams regularly fetch upward of $2,000 on the secondary market. Money that Price, as a college student, obviously didn’t have.
He stayed on the hunt for a few years before he found a friend with an extra pair who was willing to let them go for a more reasonable price. “I wore them for about a week straight,” Price said.
Then he reveals this:
Oddly enough, though, when Price is hanging around the facility, he’s almost always in flip-flops. Not anything from his vast collection of sneakers.
“The funny thing is I have all those shoes and I wear these [sandals] every day,” he said. “Mainly because my mom will tell you, my shoes hurt my feet. She says I’ve got long toes. Even though I like them so much, my shoes hurt my feet.”
Here is Rivals’ Chris Peaks latest football-related podcast. It starts out with BB but if you want to skip that then jump to the FB talk at minute mark 22:50
Some key issues he talks about the open starting positions due to graduation of having left – of course Boyd is mentioed. Peak also thinks that Narduzzi truly has a blank slate mentality once the previous season has ended.
More pre-FB things…
Cardiac Hill has a piece about how many Narduzzi has to trim off the roster before the Villanova game in September (actually the last day of fall camp in August). They are saying this:
That’s because once they reach the Oakland campus, Pitt will have approximately 92 scholarship players on the roster. Per NCAA regulations, that’s a problem since the team must be at 85. When they have to be at 85 scholarships is not known exactly, but it is probably sometime over the summer before camp opens for the season.
Note that is with the recent departure of rsSR OL Gabe Roberts , a 2* Chryst recruit who very limited playing time and mostly on Special Teams, the number is correct above – we have to trim the roster by eight. The deadline for that is the end of fall camp.
I wrote about this exact issue two weeks ago in the article “Possible Roster Moves” as a refresher as to who our rising rsSRs are going into spring practices. For the uninitiated the reason these rsSRs are so closely looked at is because they are ripe to be asked to “move on” in college ball parlance to make room for younger and hopefully more talented, blood.
That is a nice way of saying they get the pink slip. However, shed no tears because they have also had a full four years at Pitt to get a free undergrad degree and in some cases, Bostick for instance, graduate in three years and get a year of post-grad work done under scholarship. Of the players asked to leave most have been non-starters or have been ‘recruited over’ by a successive recruiting class player at the same position.
Here are those rsSRs who are on scholarship: (Players in red have left the team; in blue are the keepers IMO and the ones in black are expendable, again IMO).
4 Bam Bradley 6-2/230 LB RS JR Dayton, Ohio/Trotwood-Madison
4 Nate Peterman 6-2/225 QB RS JR Jacksonville, Fla./Tennessee
61 Pat Quirin 6-1/225 LS RS JR Pittsburgh, Pa./Pittsburgh Central Catholic
69 Adam Bisnowaty 6-6/300 OL RS JR Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel
15 Reggie Mitchell 6-0/190 DB RS JR Pittsburgh, Pa./Shady Side Academy
30 Mike Caprara 6-0/230 LB RS JR Turtle Creek, Pa./Woodland Hills
7 Chris Wuestner 6-2/210 WR RS JR Carlisle, Pa./Carlisle
19 Dontez Ford 6-2/215 WR RS JR McKees Rocks, Pa./Sto-Rox
26 Jevonte Pitts 5-11/200 DB RS JR Forest Hills, Pa./Woodland Hills/Milford Academy
71 Gabe Roberts 6-5/300 OL RS JR New London, Wis./New London
38 Ryan Lewis 6-0/195 DB RS JR Seattle, Wash./Eastlake
62 John Guy 6-7/310 OL RS JR Somerville, Mass./New Hampton School (N.H.)
16 Chad Voytik 6-1/215 QB RS JR Cleveland, Tenn./Cleveland
rsSR OL John guy has never started a game and played in only three last season all on special teams – he can go.
DB Ryan Lewis, even though he has played in 36 games over his last three years with us and has had some tackles and a blocked punt is on the bubble in my thoughts. If superstar in the making true FR Damar Hamlin is as good as advertised and if rsFR Malik Henderson shows well during the spring, and I think he will be very good at cornerback,… then the competition for Lewis will get even stronger and he may be let go.
Oh, and if rsFR Dane Jackson “shows up” as DW used to say about every player he ever had, then the chances are more slim that Ryan Lewis stays.
LS Pat Quirin played well enough to earn a scholarship so he has earned a spot as a starting Special Teams player. But I really don’t know how hard it is to teach an existing younger OL player to have that skill. If Narduzzi wants to have a underclassman have that collateral duty the Quiren may be gone.
I’m not real sure that it would be a good thing to lose Lewis as upperclass players’ experience and leadership is always valuable. But if Narduzzi and Conklin truly want to start with another clean slate then the have to at least consider Lewis as expendable. That will be an interesting matchup to watch over the next month.
On another note I had a conversation with a friend the other day about the D1 academic requirements for football. Well, doing a bit of research here is the NCAA’s official info and it is pretty interesting. note a few things when reading this:
1) These requirements are by the NCAA… and school can require higher standards and many do? The Ivy League schools have policies that student-athletes must meet the admittance standards as any other student but some schools don’t.
2) Every so often a Pitt recruit can’t join the football team until his HS academic record is ‘certified’ by the NCAA Eligibility Center. Here is that subject addressed:
Certification process
All college-bound student-athletes must have an academic and amateurism certification from the NCAA Eligibility Center.
The online registration process that must be completed by all future Division I and II college-bound student-athletes includes a questionnaire relating to the individual’s amateur status. For the staff at the NCAA Eligibility Center to certify amateur status, college-bound student-athletes must answer a questionnaire during registration.
The questionnaire covers the following precollegiate enrollment activities: Contracts with professional teams
- Salary for participating in athletics
- Prize money
- Play with professionals
- Tryouts, practice or competition with a professional team
- Benefits from an agent or prospective agent
- Agreement to be represented by an agent
- Delayed initial full-time collegiate enrollment to participate in organized sports competition
The Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athlete contains more detailed information about initial academic and amateurism eligibility.
Here is Pitt’s student-athlete academic requirements policy.
This is what three years of hard partying in college does to a young man. Bisnowaty now and then…however, and speaking of academics, Bisnowaty was an ACC All-Academic selection.
I don’t disagree with your chosen three to leave. I’m struggling to find four others, but I do have a few on my short list.
Mitchell – back to Wisconsin if he graduates?
Soto – grad transfer to Wisconsin?
OL Reese
Weah – joins the “hands” team at Wisconsin?
Those were all stretches.
Hope the competition is healthy and good for all involved.
HTP!
Somebody will have to. Lot’s of names, spring should answer some questions.
I have so many things going on right now when I put X amount hours in on an FB article, and they are always about FB, then I’m posting it and turning my attention away as soon as I hit the “publish” button.
I told people on here I’d have to cut way back because of those other obligations but there was such a dirge of FB articles (Chas loves BB) that I still try to get two out a week at least… otherwise the readers on here start to pull their hair out.
Another point – the readership for FB articles far outstrips BB articles by a wide margin, almost even in the midst of BB season so there is a true demand for FB ALONG with BB stuff all year around.
In my travels and conversations on here and in person I’d say that ratio of fans who care about FB than BB fans are about 5:1 at least. So…the numbers show.
I started the above article last night actually and when I took it up this again morning Chas’ BB post was nowhere insight. I do try to stay to a 5-hour separation rule but life reared its head again – as in repairing my son’s houses’ basement walls so if I didn’t post it when I did you probably wouldn’t have seen it at all.
All in all, and really in fun Milo, it is a tempest in a teapot and as jrnpitt says above nothing is stopping you from reading both articles and having fun commenting on each in turn instead of lobbing a mild rebuke my way…
All that said, I wanted to get the reader’s appetite up for Spring Practices which start drum roll please…. tomorrow and these four weeks will determine the fate of some players that we know and care about… and we get a glimpse of our new OC in action… along with two QBs who weren’t even in consideration for playing time this coming fall.
Personally I just can’t get excited about Pitt being invited to a 68 game tournament… kind of like kissing your pretty cousin who isn’t drunk enough to take things further.
🙂
Hey I understand Football is king in college sports and if that gets your readership up then I’m all with you.
but, just as you can’t get up for Pitt’s Selection to tourney..I can’t get excited about Spring Practice….I mean ‘We Talkin’ Bout Practice, Not a game, ….how silly is this” 🙂
If it were easy, it would be easy.
But it is very difficult to do it correctly virtually all of the time.
On the defensive side we are thin with experience at the Tackle positions – the new recruits may see immediate playing time.
Reed – will the media access be increased this year?
Also, at last count this post has 9 and Chas’ earlier post has at least 20 so his article is not getting shaded by this one a bit. That said, after I read your first comment I added a disclaimer on top of this article asking people to read and comment on his BB stuff before this FB.
Seriously though, Chas Justine and I are very much aware of who posts when. When either of us do a monster piece – I can put out 3,500 words on here sometime, we send each out emails asking for a full day or just saying “On Wednesday I’ll be putting up a big piece, etc…” just for that reason.
What we really are proud of on here is not only the great content Chas and Justine put up but the fact that the Blather readers usually have at least something new everyday and sometime two nice pieces… I think we blow any competition away for giving the reader his full plate of Pitt athletics.
it’s just for us BB fans fans its one of the best days of the year!
Keep up the good articles on Pitt. I know this is still the first place I go to for Pitt talk and scoops.
MEDIA ADVISORY
From: E.J. Borghetti
Executive Associate Athletic Director/Media Relations
Re: Pitt Pro Timing Day Schedule
Please see below a schedule for Pitt’s Pro Timing Day at the UPMC Sports Performance Complex on Wednesday, March 16.
Media will have access to the weight room session for Pitt’s draft prospects beginning at 10:30 a.m. This includes the 225-pound bench press test.
Following weight room testing, media members can report to the indoor facility at approximately 11:15 a.m. and watch the following stations:
Vertical Jump
Broad Jump
40-Yard Dash
Pro Shuttle
Three-Cone Drill
60-Yard Shuttle
Individual Position Skill Work
Players will be available for interviews only after they complete each of their scheduled testing stations. (It is anticipated interviews will begin in the noon hour.)
Below is a listing of Pitt players who are expected to participate on Wednesday (with updated bio links).
WR Tyler Boyd
LB Nicholas Grigsby
TE J.P. Holtz
DL Khaynin Mosley-Smith
LS David Murphy
DB Lafayette Pitts
DL Darryl Render
OL Artie Rowell
—PITT—
Someone may correct me if I am wrong but I don’t think this was open to the medi last year.
Looking forward to some good camp videos and stories, hopefully about guys stepping up to the next level of football competence.
Like to hear that Hendrix and Edwards are unstoppable, even though they would be beating our tackles. Also like to hear that one of the young guys is tearing it up at linebacker.
Plenty of time to talk both BB & FB this week. Neither is mutually exclusive to the other. In the end we all sing the same alma mater.
Regarding cutting down the FB roster. My 1st cut would be the kid with the healthiest respiratory system on the team, that being Mr. Chris Wuestner. His hands are so bad that for the last four years he hasn’t even been able to catch a cold.
HTP
Looks like we’re in for a day of spin and ignorant jubilation.