First day of practice, and the first Walt Harris press conference (PDF version). As expected, no answers on the starting QB position, other than Harris hopes to have a starter named a week or so before the USF game on September 6. No new injuries to report, but there are casualties — starting from the end of Harris’ opening statement:
“…We have a few things that we need to clean up. First of all, we had some young men that didn’t make it. We had Craig Bokor- he’ll be attending prep school. We have two other guys that were in the process; they’re in the clearing house right now, and our challenge will be to try and figure out their eligibility. We have Jawan Walker, who didn’t practice, and was not there today. He’s working on his eligibility and Josh Lay still has some academic work. He did not practice today. Any questions?”
Q: What does Jawan Walker need to do to become eligible?
A: “He just has some academic work to do… I’m not able to tell you exactly what he has to do. He’s got academic work to finish.”Q: Do you expect Walker and Lay to eventually be eligible?
A: “I don’t know. That’s up in the air.”
With Jawan Walker now even questionable to be on the team this year, it looks like Kirkley at RB by default. At a minimum it is his job to lose. Marcus Furman will be his main competition.
The loss of Lay at the cornerback position will be huge if he doesn’t get qualified in time. He was the most experienced returning corner (even if he was a bit inconsistent) depth is looking like a big, big issue right now.
Bokor is a defensive lineman. Again, it is a depth thing.
There was also this howler of coachspeak:
Q: Is it fair to label this a rebuilding year for Pitt?
A: “We don’t think that we rebuild, we’re all about reloading. We do have some guys, like I mentioned, that graduated, but that’s the fun of it. We’ve got guys that have played in a backup role and now’s there a chance for them to play.”
I dream of the day when I hear pundits say “Pitt doesn’t rebuild, it reloads.” I mean, with a straight face.
