Quick thing, in reference to my prior posts about the end of the QB controversy — at least as far as the beat writers are concerned. They aren’t going to stop covering the performance of the QBs in camp, and who takes snaps with which groups.
I took their statements to mean, that barring any injuries or something really changing, they are not going to be writing about it through the prism of a QB competition — of whether Stull stays as the starter or whether Sunseri has or should be the starter. And where Bostick is in all this. That is far different from ignoring it.
Beat writing is tricky. Push too hard and be too aggressive and you get accused of having an agenda, being out to get the team/coach/player, or hating the same. Plus you find access and information dries up on you and there is little you can provide beyond official statements.
Go too soft and/or get too close, then you are accused of being nothing but a cheerleader or shill or apologist for the team/coach/player. You may get the access and information but not end up sharing it because you don’t want to hurt someone.
I’ve said it before, I think Pitt fans are lucky to have two newspapers that cover the team with very, very good reporters. Both Paul Zeise and Kevin Gorman do fine jobs. Some things may bother me or be flawed by them, but overall they are very good at their jobs.
Now on to other items.
Almost silly to be written, but a whole piece on AD Steve Pederson saying that the script and old colors aren’t coming back. Duh. Pederson is a good AD, and for both good and bad he is extremely stubborn.
He’s the one that got rid of the old colors and script before. One of the first things he did after returning was quietly pulling the dinocat and restoring his own preferred panther head blob. This is the guy that gave Callahan an extension at Nebraska after only one good season and was fired when he wouldn’t acknowledge his guy wasn’t working out.
An AP article about Pitt’s depth at linebacker. Especially with Adam Gunn’s backstory and Dan Mason surging. While Pitt is strong and stout on the defensive side, if Dan Mason doesn’t see action early that might be a bigger issue to Coach Wannstedt’s inflexibility than the QB.
So far, the 6-foot, 225-pound Mason hasn’t looked like a freshman, and he’s making Pitt deeper in what already is one of its strongest positions. Murray, for example, is a former starter, yet he is currently backing up Max Gruder at weak side linebacker, while sophomore Greg Williams starts at strong side linebacker.
“Physically, Mason is ready to play,” Wannstedt said. “But every day is a new learning experience as we continue to add plays. I will be interested to see him a couple of weeks from now, and after three games. I could see him getting some playing time.”
Wow. That sounds sincere.
Justin Hargrove has apparently found a home at Nose Guard.
The transition to nose guard has been smooth for Hargrove, who also is capable of playing defensive tackle. Gattuso called it a “very pleasant surprise” and credited Hargrove’s combination of flexibility, strength and leverage for his early success in training camp.
“I played nose guard. Trust me, if there’s an easier position in all of sports, I want to see it,” said Gattuso, a starter on Penn State’s 1982 national champion. “Playing nose guard is about as simple as it gets. There’s less thinking; just get off the ball and play. It’s been a good move. I told him the other day, ‘I think you’ve found a home. I think you can compete in here.'”
While he took advantage of his repetitions with the first-team defense in the absence of Gus Mustakas (rest day) and Caragein, Hargrove knows that the real payoff might not come until next season, when the Panthers have to replace starters Williams, Mustakas and reserve Craig Bokor on the depth chart.
One of Pitt’s earlier local commits, Aaron Donald at Penn Hills is looking for a big year, and gets a profile in the P-G.
That would be fine, if they called it a concussion. Instead it has been consistently referred to as a headache. Pitt has actually pioneered a lot of work and research into concussions, including analysis and treatment.
So there is no reason not to call it that if that is the case. If Byham suffers from Migraines, then that could be the explanation. But to keep simply referring to it as “headache” from a hit suffered on Sunday morning comes off as hiding something.
I think we can all agree that he is a big piece of this team and we hope he gets better quickly.
link to post-gazette.com
By all accounts, Stull is being outperformed at every turn. Additionally, he has the lowest upside. The only real defense to play him had been that he doesn’t make a lot of costly mistakes, but based on the reports of the last 10 days, even this has not been the case. Still, I think Sunseri is setting himself up to be the starter by next season, if not sooner. A transfer would cost him yet another year, without any real gain.
If they come out of Saturday’s scrimmage and Stull has still not picked it up, but is still the starter, I will officially be disgusted (for whatever that is worth). I have this vision of Stull putting up impressive numbers against YSU, although his performance may not actually be all that great when you take into account the competition. In each of the past two years, Stull had a game or two early where his numbers looked good, but if you saw the actual passes being completed, you could tell that they would never get through against better defenders. In any case, if Stull starts the season, I would expect his numbers to look good enough that a change will not be made no matter how bad he may stumble down the road. I don’t think a single bad loss will force a change – I suspect it may be closer to 3 bad losses before anything happens.
This team is probably good enough to go 8-4 with Stull at the current level of play. The shame is that they could possibly win the conference, maybe go 10-2, with competent QB play.
That ‘recognizable brand’ bs is laughable. Pitt has had so many versions of the panther, no one can recognize Pitt’s ‘brand.’ I would also argue that just as many 15, 16 and 17 year olds are steeped into the nostalgia of the script Pitt. Nevermind the fact that it should return for no other reason but it should never have been gone in the first place. It’s almost as if Pitt’s marketing goes out of their way to alienate their own fans. There’s such retarded logic behind these product campaigns. This leads me to beg the question, does anyone know anybody who would refuse to buy something with script Pitt on it? This is what I gather from these asinine articles; that they feel there are people who would be somehow insulted by the script Pitt?
HTscriptP
we prob only got another yr with peterson then he will leave for nebreska again!
It just looks better.
