QB Thomas MacVittie has committed to Pitt per Jerry DiPaola and others. MacVittie is a 6’4″ dual threat QB who’s set to be a first time starter this upcoming season. This would normally be a negative, but he’s coming from Ohio powerhouse Archbishop Moeller (Cincinnati) and his physical skills are elite. 6’4 QBs with strong arms and 4.5 speed aren’t common. MacVittie will likely blow up this season, so hopefully this is a commitment that will stick.

The concern regarding MacVittie’s lack of experience isn’t unfounded. However, Pitt is not going to attract proven QBs with elite talent right now. That leaves the coaches the option of taking less talented players or taking talented players who for some reason haven’t had the opportunity to shine. With Voytik here for two more years along with Adam Bertke and Ben DiNucci, the coaches have options if MacVittie doesn’t pan out. Also at 6’4″ with 4.5 speed, another position is certainly an option. But, if MacVittie puts those physical tools to use, Pitt could have a steal.

Pitt Spring Practice #5  March 24, 2015

Breaking News: DiPaola of the Trib has an article on PITT’s AD search. The ticker-tape news is that four, count them, (4) months after firing the old AD the PITT Chancellor has started looking for a new one!!

One resounding endorsement of the recently hired DHR search firm is that “Both (DHR Reps) were consultants to Colorado State in its recently completed search for a football coach and athletic director. Oh Hell Yes!  If it was good enough for mighty Colorado State with that tough media market they will kick ass for PITT.  Whatever, at least the search committee from PITT members is well represented;  Pitt’s search committee is chaired by acting athletic director Randy Juhl and includes track and field coach Alonzo Webb, women’s basketball coach Suzie McConnell-Serio and football player Artie Rowell.

Why do I have a weird feeling in my gut that at this point PITT might not be the blue-chip directorship position we fans want it to be?  I’m just hoping the really highly qualified candidates across the country have a very short memory when it comes to PITT athletics.  Either way, it will be interesting to see who gets the final nod – let the speculation begin!

DiPaola also has a nice piece about the possible new starters at LB in Grigsby and Bradley.

The position is vital to the necessary improvement of the Pitt defense after last year’s pair, Anthony Gonzalez and Todd Thomas, exhausted their eligibility after leading the team in tackles. Grigsby, a senior, and Bradley, a junior, are brothers — two of 12 siblings in a family that includes Steelers safety Will Allen and former Dayton basketball player Chris Wright. The athletic genes clearly are there. It’s the job of Narduzzi and linebackers coach Rob Harley to help Grigsby and Bradley make big plays.

“Grigsby has been really good so far, really explosive,” Narduzzi said. “We put in a package today, and it looks like he liked it.” Bradley, who is two years younger than his brother, said he has some bad habits that need to be eliminated.

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In-Between Practice Notes #4

Pitt Spring Practice #4, March 21, 2015, Scrimmage Highlights

Video: Saturday scrimmage highlight package

Here some plays, and thoughts on them, that caught my eye as I watched the tape.  Some will be talked about by the coach and players in the interview below. Every time the #1 Offense was out there it was against the #1 Defense.  From watching the short video and listening to the interviews it sounds like Chad Voytik is completing a large amount of his attempts and that OC Jim Cheney has him starting to air out the ball a bit more than the last staff, but that is an inference on my part.

A reverse by Boyd – he was trapped for what looked like a Tackle for Loss (TFL) but worked his way out for a positive gain.

Looks like WR Dontez Ford is making a real play for that open #2 WR position; he had a TD catch in the right corner of the end zone on a 20+ yard pass.

WR Zach Challingsworth was shown with two catches one of which was a longer TD.

WR Chris Wuestner had a couple of big plays – a fade and the 40+ yard reception.

Boyd caught a nicely thrown intermediate pass at the five and went in after beating the defense down the sideline.

DB Terrish Webb intercepted a pass on a tipped ball.

WR Jester Weah had a long TD catch at the end of the scrimmage to put the Offense ahead for the 77-72 win (unknown scoring rules).

 Coach Pat Narduzzi on the scrimmage: Video: Coach Pat Narduzzi

“We talk about game day is game day. You can have a good practice; I’ve seen guys that come out and have great practices and then come into a scrimmage and don’t do so well. I think when it’s game day, you need to prepare. I think our coaches did a great job of getting our guys out there. (We) really prepared for a game. That’s what we tried to do and the kids came out with great emotion.

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Here are the digs from various media reports on Thursday’s practice.

Something that jumped out at me seems a small bit disturbing, but then I jerk myself back to reality by saying there is still months to go before the opener against YSU (better than last year we hope.)   But we have heard from the minute that these players started working out in the weight room and running early morning drills  couple weeks ago that this new staff ‘brought a whole new level of energy” to the table when it comes to interactions with the players.  Yet this is the third practice in a row where I have heard or read about a PITT coach commenting on periods of lack of energy or emotion from the players themselves (see Narduzzi’s interview below.)

After practice #2 – “There was a lack of focus—tempo might have been a little bit faster. 

After practice #3 – “It’s day three. The pads were on today and we started a little slow. The game of football is a game of emotion and you can’t come without that” The Trib’s blog headline: Pitt starts slow on first day with pads, but ends with `emotion’.

Hmmm, let’s hope it doesn’t continue into what the team was experiencing back in the latter part of the 2011 season under HC Beelzebub Graham when the players were  mailing in their effort during the between-game practices.  Of course, that is an exaggeration and these players are on the cusp of practicing under and learning from whole new set of coaches and trying to understand the new coaching philosophies being instituted, but I wanted to get another jab in at Graham… it makes me feel good when I’m down.  Next week it will be different I’m sure, being in pads now will help.  Now the coaches can tie raw meat to the walk-on’s belts and tell the scholarship guys to “Go get ‘em boys!!!”.

Here are the Post-Practice Video Interviews with three coaches and a player.

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Pitt Spring Practice #2 is in the books and here are some links and quotes to get the fan blood running.

One common theme we are hearing from the players is that these practice sessions are more “energetic” than the ones under Paul Chryst…  “As a whole, it’s extremely energetic. The way they approach practice, lifting, is different. Not to say that our last staff didn’t bring energy, this is just a whole different level”.  I think that is great although I am a bit wary of too much ‘pumping up’ of players (or workers or students, etc…) in preparation for something because the more you try to infuse that higher level of energy and attention the more susceptible you are of seeming phony and losing your target’s trust.

Let’s hope that things go as planned and the team plays with some extra spring in their step.  At points last year it looked as if they might have been going thru the motions as we were losing the game.  A fresh start all around in the name of the game this year and with it comes new approaches.

DiPaola of the Trib comes in with a nice article on Chad Voytik and then follows it up with a short piece on his blog with “a couple notes”:

After two practices of a scheduled 15-session spring, Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi has a lot of work to do and decisions to make. Some won’t be finalized until August, and maybe not even then.

But Dontez Ford and Zach Challingsworth are stepping up as the wide receivers lining up opposite Tyler Boyd with the first team. Don’t read too much into it, but it’s worth noting. “Those are the two guys I have to rely on to free me up out of double coverage,” Boyd said.  At least in the spring.

On defense, coordinator Josh Conklin likes what he has seen from safety Reggie Mitchell and cornerbacks Avonte Maddox, Malik Henderson and Phillipie Motley.
Mitchell, a junior, can play both positions. Henderson is an early-enrollee freshman and Motley was redshirted last year during his freshman season.

Conklin said he was impressed with how three-year starting cornerback Lafayette Pitts, a senior, stayed after practice Tuesday to work with some wide receivers on his footwork at the line of scrimmage.

“Those are the things you want to see from that kid,” Conklin said. “He has a lot of experience. We are challenging him every day to come out and be consistent. The corners can’t hide. What we ask them to do, every rep they have to be on.”
What’s interesting to note is that Jordan Whitehead arrives from Central Valley this summer, and will add to the competition at cornerback. Maybe there actually will be some depth in the secondary.

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I’ve started getting the media releases from the PITT media department (they are pretty quick) and will share and discuss those informational nuggets about practices and interviews along with links to the other media sites and what they are talking about this spring.

PITT held its first NCAA sanctioned spring practice on March 15^th in no-pads and a helmet and as all spring practice sessions start off it was acclimation and simple run through drills.  Here are the PITT Program notes:

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The day is upon us.  The day when it becomes plainly clear that PITT is a football school.

PITT’s long awaited Spring Practices begin today and this is the point in the off-season when we can start talking about actualities when it comes to the football team itself.  We have been discussing the football program and the athletic department in depth since ex-Head Coach Paul Chryst left for his alma mater back in December but until now it has been speculations about the new coaching staff and the last recruiting class… both of which statuses we won’t be able to really gauge until the season starts in September.

But now it is the players’ turn to be in the main spotlight and time for us fans to start getting some serious questions answered about what we’ll see on the field this year.   Whether or not individual units; offense, defense, special teams, etc. will do well or not isn’t going to be evident during these 15 practices including the scrimmages and the spring game.  I say start because we won’t know anything for sure until the two deep is set in mid-August. That is what the fall camp is for.

What we’ll see transpire over the next four weeks are basically tryouts run by the staff for both returning personnel and the class of 2015 recruits.  Last year it was pretty much a continuation of what we had in Chryst’s first two year with some new issues; how would our QB play turnout, who would replace Aaron Donald and would James Conner play both ways?  I still can’t believe that that last issue is still being talked about.  It is the stupidest idea ever and if this staff can’t see that, like the last staff eventually did, then we have a big problem.

All these standard springtime questions are magnified when you have a complete coaching staff change because of two things:

One is that the new staff has a different approach to football than the old one did.  That happens even if there are theoretical similarities among the staffs and thus the new staff comes in with their own set of expectations.

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PITT’s Spring Practices are right around the corner and starting on Sunday the 15^th at the university’s Southside facility.  The NCAA permits 15 practices of which three have to be ‘no pads’.  Here is the actual guidance on exactly what a coaching staff can ask of their players:

For days in which institutions schedule a two-a-day practice, live contact practices are only allowed in one practice.  A maximum four (4) live contact practices may occur in a given week, and a maximum of 12 total may occur in preseason.  Only three practices (scrimmages) would allow for live contact in greater than 50 percent of the practice schedule.

In PITT’s case this season the practices will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the two scrimmages being on the Saturdays and the Spring Game played on Saturday, April 18^th at 1:00pm on the field at Highmark Stadium in Pittsburgh’s Station Square area.  Highmark holds 3,500 seats so any photos taken at the game will at least look somewhat crowded.

One real problem, and this is a huge difference and a big negative I think, is that Pat Narduzzi is limiting media access to a designated 30 minute time period.  After that the rest of the practice will be closed to all but staff and admin personnel.  This is an 180 degree change from Paul Chryst’s policies where the practices were fully open.

I’ll be honest here, there is no way I’ll drive 450 miles round trip for a 30 minute look-in at the practices.  Perhaps Chas or Justin will choose to do so but I’ll break my tradition of attending in person every year if the practices remain closed like this.  I have to assume at this point that the scrimmages will be under the same restraints so I’ll get no eyeballs on the kids in the spring or the Fall Camp if policies don’t change by then and, in turn, The Blather won’t get 1st hand reports.

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Pro Day for Pitt seniors. Plenty of snippets on Twitter regarding it.

One of the themes that constantly emerges from the recent spate of articles on Pitt and new football coach Pat Narduzzi is that Pitt is not in for a rebuild or a complete remaking of itself with a new head coach.

In the open workout that the media got to attend on Friday, Strength and Conditioning Coach Dave Andrews echoed that point.

Strength and conditioning coach Dave Andrews said the previous coaching staff put down a solid foundation.

“This is an add-on job for me,” said Andrews, who spent last season as Notre Dame’s assistant strength coach. “This is not a tear-down-and-rebuild. The gentlemen who came before us have done a great job preparing these kids.”

It’s a nice nod to the former coaches, but it is also what the players and fans should hear.

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No PITT fan likes it when a young man, who mutually agreed with PITT to enroll as a student athlete leaves the program. Whether it is on his own, he gets moved on by the staff or can’t handle the disciplinary requirements and are dismissed before they have a chance to complete their full four years toward a degree, it always seems a disappointment to all concerned.  We fans get attached to these players as early as their recruitment and then we’re sometimes surprised and disappointed when players are here one minute and gone the next.  Poof!

Since the recent, not totally surprising, news of rising rsSO DB Titus Howard being dismissed by the Narduzzi for cause, and the departures of rsSR QB Trey Anderson, SO OL Conner Hayes, rsSR DE Devin Cook (transferred to the Richmond Spiders) and rsSR Luke Maclean this may be a good point in time to look at what kind of attrition we have had in the past and what we may see coming out of this year’s spring practices and fall camp.

Addressing the four players above it seems as if at least two of them who played their HS football in Michigan, Conner Hayes and Luke Maclean, may have designs to join their old coach Paul Chryst. That will be an interesting thing to keep an eye on as neither was recruited by Wisconsin or by Narduzzi’s Michigan State before signing with PITT.

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A friend and I attended the PITT LOI Day Event last night at Heinz Field and all I can really say is “Wow, that was short”. The presentations, as they were, lasted 40 minutes total with Bill Hillgrove taking five minutes to open and close the event..

I had been to an earlier one back when DW was the HC and it was more extensive and detail oriented than Wednesday’s was but what the fans and season ticket holders got the other night were very short staff introductions, small (very) bits on the recruits with a joke or two thrown it.  But, to give the staff credit the reason it was short and not super detailed was most probably because every one of those coaches have been travelling around the country for a month busting ass to get the kids to sign on with PITT and that evening was the first time they could completely relax and be with their families in a long time.

To set the scene it was held in the East Club area of Heinz Field with a small stage, hundreds of chairs lined up 12 to a row and HDTVs situated about every 30 feet around the room. PITT got a fantastic turnout with what I’d estimate to be over 600 people there, maybe even a bunch more. So it was very well attended.

Here is a recap from my notes:

Bill Hillgrove came on stage first and without much preamble introduced Pat Narduzzi to a standing ovation, then Narduzzi introduced Chancellor Gallagher and he got one from the attendees also. Narduzzi while energetic and fun to listen to has to be on speed because his mind literally overruns his mouth sometimes. He was so jittery that he couldn’t keep his body still and couldn’t finish some of his sentences because his words were jumbled up and spilling out.  But even with that it was 180 degrees different than Paul Chryst’s public speaking and 100% more enjoyable to watch and listen to.

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This is a long post but since there isn’t a PITT basketball game for a few days it’s something for us to read,listen to and discuss.

At first I wasn’t that excited about listening to the interview but once I realized how in-depth Paul Zeise was getting I re-started the interview and took four full pages of notes. I had to paraphrase some of the info below but these are Paul Zeise’s thoughts (not mine). I added some background and italicized some of the more interesting info.

Linked below is a interesting and detailed interview with the P-G’s Paul Zeise conducted by the Wisconsin Football Blog Buckaround.com which is much like The PITT Blather is to PITT football. The interview is Episode 63 titled “Paul Chryst: PITT Head Coach with Paul Zeise” The podcast is about 50 minutes long and I urge all of us PITT fans to take the time to listen to it.  Zeise doesn’t pull any punches when discussing the recent history of PITT football and has some very  interesting ‘inside info’ .

It is a pretty hard hitting and very insightful discussion by someone who was right in the middle of everything as a PITT beat writer working with PITT’s football program from 2014 on back. With the recent, welcomed changes in the football program and how the administration is unfolding and the fruits of that happening, it is inevitable that when discussing PITT football we’ll cast back to the last three HCs we had before Narduzzi and their impacts on the program.

Something to remember about Paul Zeise is that just because he was taken off the P-G PITT football beat prior last season he still was very involved and privy to the inner-working of the football program, especially with his family’s’ experience with the recruiting process, but he wasn’t writing about it due to a conflict of interest. (more…)

We have been talking a lot about recruiting lately because, well – because that is what is going on right now and we like what we see. I think it’s been made pretty clear that we Blatherites feel what Narduzzi is doing is exciting and really pro-active as seen in the post  “They Hit the Ground Running”. I really do like what I see happening and I think that is echoed through PITT football fandom.

But at the risk of being a contrarian, and that is just what I’m going to do here, all this talk of Chryst not recruiting defensive players is pretty much either hogwash or selective memory. Here is what he did according to Rivals.com (which I think is the stingiest recruit grading website). Note that the 2012 and 2015 recruits listed are the kids who committed while he was the HC. I also included the “ATH” recruits if they ended up on defense:

2012 – seven total recruits – five on defense w/ four 3*s

2013 – 27 total recruits – nine on defense w/ six 3*s

2014 – 23 total recruits – 12 on defense w/ 10 3*s

2015 – nine total recruits – four on defense w/ one 4* and two 3*s

As stated I like what Narduzzi is doing but looking through the burgeoning hype it does look like he’s pretty much in line with what Chryst did while he was here… so far. 2016’s recruiting class will most probably be a whole different story as far as a new HC’s  2^nd year recruiting goes (always better than the 1^st fractured class) and I think we’ll see Narduzzi bring in some top shelf guys, depending on how the ’15 season plays out of course.

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We need a new thread as the last one was getting confusing between basketball, football and bar hopping… or was that the one before the last? At any rate we fans are kicking it with hundreds of comments regarding the changes in PITT football over the last month.

So, of all the issues that have been addressed by Narduzzi and staff what do you think is most important and what do you think will have the most actual impact once the regular season’s games start?  Do you feel we are in a better place (duh!)? Do you see these changes resulting in immediate impact on the field or are we a season or two away from a nice w/L record?

Which one singular thing has Narduzzi done to make you feel better about the future of PITT football?

Looking forward to your thoughts… and discussing any and all issues you want to talk about.

P/S: I’ll be at the PITT LOI Day festivities on Feb 4th. The gate opens at 5:00 pm and the show starts at  6:00 pm. I’ll be the very tall guy with longer brown hair and earring and a moustache (in honor of my idol, Dave Wannstedt). Hope to see you guys there and we can lose all our money at the casino afterward…

P/SS: Since the movie American Sniper came out everyone I meet seems to have been in the Special Forces as a sniper.  I swear to God, three guys said that to me in different places yesterday – two in Vietnam and one in  Iraq.

Now that the football coaching staff is in place, the fans are excited and recruiting is in full bloom let’s take a very early preview of who we may see playing ball out there on the field as starters for us in 2015. Paul Chryst left Pat Narduzzi with a very young roster and a younger but experienced two-deep rotation.  Most of the starters on the 2014 team were FR and SOs and sometimes the lack of experience showed up in pretty dramatic ways.

Here is who we either fielded as starters last season or I assume will fill a starting role in ’15. This is my take on it, we’ll know some more after Spring practices (not too far away) and, of course, it will be firmed up over Fall camp:

OFFENSE

That setup is probably pretty much etched in stone with the exception of the WR2 spot, rsSO Jester Weah could get in there for speed and maybe the OL will mix it up a little. We scored 32 PPG last year so the skill positions will be held fast. Our new OC, Jim Chaney, won’t have a rebuilding task ahead of him, but my fear is that he won’t see what is right in front of his face and try to get fancy when non-fancy did just fine for us on offense.

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