Not a lot being reported from spring practice for the last couple days. In fact, the only recent news is that LB Ejuan Price is out for the rest of the spring with a torn Pectoral Muscle. He’s having surgery and is expected back by training camp. Price plays MLB and should be competing with Dan Mason for the starting job.

Of course, I can’t think of pectoral surgery without thinking of this episode of Ren & Stimpy.

Even though Ray Graham has been on the sidelines recovering from his torn ACL and Rushel Shell won’t be here until the fall, the beat writers have really liked what they have seen from Isaac Bennett.

It’s too early for declarations, but Bennett may be the best player on offense.

He is bigger and stronger than a year ago – and unafraid of when Ray Graham returns from a knee injury and high school All-American running back Rushel Shell arrives on campus.

“I’m looking forward to playing beside everybody,” he said. “It’s not competition, but I say teamwork. Everybody will fit in somewhere.”

The ever-smiling son of a Tulsa, Okla., preacher, Bennett was unfazed when the team was abandoned by former coach Todd Graham, who was the only BCS coach to offer him a scholarship.

It’s a good thing, because no one seems too impressed with the QBs performances.

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If you missed it over the weekend, four years of trying to fix TCU basketball was enough for Jim Christian. He is returning the MAC to take the Ohio University job. (Prior to taking the TCU job, Christian was head coach of Kent State.)

Just as TCU would be moving up to the Big 12 — and a higher profile — Christian would rather take a pay cut and step down in prestige. He wasn’t on the hot seat, by most accounts. The team finished 7-7 in the MWC, 18-15 overall.  And when you consider how bad TCU was, that Christian only went 38-58 in the first 3 seasons, he was making progress.

Well, this post from a Dallas paper details the reasons. Low pay scale for coaches and assistants, outdated facilities with no clear timeline for when they would be upgraded, no real commitment to improving facilities without improvement on the court (which is a chicken or egg situation), and simply not being committed to being a legit basketball program.

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There has been a lot of discussion about the quality of PITT’s QB play so far in spring ball and at this point it could help to fine tune the background info a bit.  Paul Zeise of the Post-Gazette has this to say about our two leading QBs:

The quarterback competition has been tough to follow because neither Mark Myers or Tino Sunseri has really distinguished himself in such a way that there is no contest. I thought by now we would see this happen but it has not. Both have shown flashes but Myers inexperience is easy to see as his decision making is not where it is supposed to be and Sunseri’s physical limitations have been well documented over the past two years and they aren’t going to change. I do think this offense will protect the quarterbacks much better than the last offense – which exposed them – so if either player can develop consistency they should be able to have some success.

That may be a bit more negative than I am and there is a contest regardless of the respective quality, but his observations aren’t far off.  I’m not giving up on anyone though, either Sunseri or Myers at this point…

Going back to last season some PITT fans stated that Myers was being “over-hyped” and had not fulfilled expectations; that is all on the fan’s shoulders IMO.  His national QB rating by the three major scouting services was, off the top of my head, #11, #32 and #103.  They were all over the map with him because he only started one year of HS ball and because scouts saw different strengths and weaknesses in his game.

If you look at what ESPN.com said of him you’ll understand more about what we now realize he was like coming out of HS…

ESPN.com (insider sub) wrote this:

Myers is tall, strong pro-style quarterback prospect who has some good physical tools to develop at the college level. The lefty is bit raw and may be a late bloomer on the recruiting trail. Has very good size for a pocket-passer and better than adequate arm-strength. Big, strong kid who … 

Scout.com saw him a bit differently:

“Has good size and understanding of the game. Makes sound decisions and takes care of the football. Has good accuracy and hits his receivers in stride. Displays good touch and placement on his passes. Footwork and mechanics can be tweaked, which will help him generate more velocity. Has excellent poise and intangibles.”

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Pitt Blather began back in 2003. You know the one consistent thing on this blog in relation to the football team? The one thing that has carried over regardless of who was the coach?

Being worried about the O-line. Even in years where the O-line was pretty good, there were always major questions going into the season. Some things never change, no matter how much we wish otherwise.

The makeup of the offensive line remains constant — tackles Juantez Hollins and Matt Rotheram, guards Cory King and Ryan Schlieper and center Ryan Turnley — but progress is slow.

“It’s nowhere close to where we want to be,” coach Paul Chryst said. “At any of these practices, you can pick out clips and say we’re starting to get it and then others where you can say, ‘Boy, guys, this isn’t very good.’ That is kind of typical of this time of year.”

Chryst said sixth-year senior guard Chris Jacobson is progressing well in his rehabilitation from knee surgery and could return to practice this summer.

“Certainly we will be a better team with him,” Chryst said.

And when the QB position is this shaky, it just makes it hard to be sure any style of offense will be productive at the moment.

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As a follow up for the last piece I wrote about the current camp, here is an anthology of media clips which can give you some background, with sights and sounds, to the 2012 PITT spring practice experience.

Because there is so much info about PITT football floating around I thought it might be helpful to use PITT’s  ‘one stop shop’ to see and hear the latest on how the spring practice is progressing.

As they did last season, the PITT SID department has produced some professional quality shows and video clips as advertising for the program and the upcoming season.  They offer them under the umbrella of their spring practice website – Spring Camp Insider.  It is a compendium of new releases, local media articles, radio interviews, video clips and the Pitt Spring Football Insider Shows. 

These shows are between 19 minutes and 28 minutes long and provide a mixture of players and coaches interviews, practice film clips and commentary by Jon Burton and Pat Bostick.  Content is added to this site every day and I suggest you bookmark it to check for new stuff.  The shows and films are shot in HD with great audio and, as stated above, are expertly done.

In additions to the excerpts below the Spring Camp Insider site list many staff interviews which I think helps to give us fans an idea of who the coaches are and what they are like.

So, here is a list of what I found most beneficial to a PITT fan to get up to speed about how the camp is going so far.  I’ve included hyperlinks and some personal notes on things I think can enlighten us fans in our discussions.  I’ll list them from latest to oldest…

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I had a chance to watch the Panthers practice today.  This is a long report on what I saw and heard so I’m going to split it into two different articles.  In this one I’ll talk about the practice in general, the offense and the offensive players.

First off, let’s talk about the general atmosphere at the Southside facilities…

I got down there about 45 minutes earlier than scheduled and had a chance to stand around in the parking lot and watch the players file past on their way into the indoor practice field.  The OLs were first out of the gate and they are big guys, Lumpy Jacobson actually looks to be the smallest of all of them.  The players were joking around and looked ready to get it underway.  8:00 a.m. and they were bouncing around and grab-assing.  I did get a lot of strange looks as I was unfamiliar to the football staff but as soon as I whipped out my PITT Blather credentials everyone backed off in fear.

The practice atmosphere is really night and day from last year. We visitors had free rein of the sidelines to move as the drills and scrimmage plays progressed up and down the field.  Last year visitors had to stand in a blocked off corner way down by the entry doors and we couldn’t see down field at all. Chryst has thrown the visitation wide open and hasn’t put any restrictions on the SID regarding who or how many may visit.  E. J. Borghetti is pleased in many ways, big time.

In the past, Todd Graham had the media and any visitors stay for only the first 45 minutes of each practice then he closed it off.  Chryst does the exact opposite and allows people stay for the whole practice session so the media doesn’t have to sit around for two hours waiting until they can do interviews after the practice is over.  Today’s session was scheduled for 2 hours and 15 minutes and went to almost three hours, open all the time

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I had a chance to watch the Panthers practice today.  This is a long report on what I saw and heard so I’m going to split it into two different articles. In this one I’ll talk about the defense and the defensive players…

DLs – Both Clemmings and Murphy looked ready to go, played hard and according to some observers who are watching practice every day they think Clemmings should get the Ed Conway Award as most improved player from last season. He’s had “great” spring camp and should show up when the games start.  Murphy is fast as hell for someone his size and is aggressive in his play.  He made a nice strip that caused a fumble on Bennett.  KK Smith has put on weight, a bunch of weight, but was still moving well. Hard to tell about Lippert and Hale – there was so much going on it was hard for a non-football guy to follow everything.  The coaches said that Hale was doing well so far but I couldn’t really tell.

LBs – What everyone wants to know:  Dan Mason was in on every drill and scrimmage play with the 1^st team.  He would start if the opener is tomorrow.  He looks a bit slower to me and not as explosive, but I’m no expert. It was weird to see a player run where there is no up and down movement of their foot. The “foot drop” brace he has on immobilizes the right foot so that it doesn’t drag when moving his leg forward and I think it affects his play.  There were some passes caught on crossing patterns where he was a step behind the receiver. But he also got into the back field on some plays so I think he’ll be somewhat different physically able when summer camp rolls around but his current ability is going to be a factor.  At least I think so.  Some others feel more optimistic.

The starting three LBs going into summer camp will probably be Mason in the middle with Todd Thomas and Shane Gordon on the outside.  Thomas is held out of practices for now and Ejuan Price isn’t getting the reps we thought he would.  Price’s publicly stating that he wants to play MLB rather than the other LB positions probably didn’t help his cause much with this new staff.

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I’ve waited until spring practice is a third finished before chipping in an article because now we have something of substance to talk about as far as playing actual football goes.  There seems to be a different attitude around the Southside these days.  Gone is the jumping up and down and swearing things are going to fantastic, dammit!!

This version is business, business and more business.  There doesn’t seem to be much false bravado by either the players or the staff.  It feels like that all know that there is a long road to hoe to get back to what a good, solid program is and they want to do it the right way.

Paul Zeise reports hard hitting and fundamental football… “Pitt is playing football again, at least football the way people here in Western Pennsylvania want to see it played.”  That and the OL is shaping up to be the ‘smash mouth’ run blocking unit that PITT and Pittsburghers love to watch.

Our new OL coach, Jim Hueber will take no crap this year judging from his first interview.  You have to laugh just a little when a new coach states that “we have some kids who may not want to be here”.  This coming after we just had a whole coaching staff who ‘didn’t want to be here’.  Perfect!

Now, about that pesky pass blocking…

That said, the reports out of camp are pretty typical interviews and post-practice press conferences – that is if you can actually sit and listen to one of Chryst’s from start to finish.  I really like Paul Chryst and think he’ll be just what we need but it is tough to watch him answer the questions thrown at him when you can tell he really doesn’t want to be there anyway.

PITT is again putting out a nice spring practice website this year with a slew of articles and interviews after each practice.  Here is the March 20^th version.

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Chas has been doing great articles on the spring practices so far so I wanted to add a little something to Chas’ article yesterday about our first verbal.

Chryst just landed TE Scott Orndoff as his first verbal of the 2013 class.  He’s a good one ranked as the #13 TE nationally and a kid who had great offers to choose from.  He would have racked up more as his SR year went on.

Orndoff had verballed to Chryst and Joe Rudolph last summer but with those two leaving Wisconsin he opened his recruitment back up again.  An interesting point in his decision making is that he made his final decision in the car with his father on the drive back from an official visit to Michigan… not too shabby at that, eh?  At that age I would have been asleep or drunk during a five hour road trip.

Here is a good highlight film of Orndoff’s JR season at Seton-LaSalle HS.  He had 20 catches for 385 yards and four TDs last season.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get another star if he plays up to potential this year.  One thing about this highlight film though – Orndoff is split wide on every play.

Makes you wonder how good of a blocker the kid is but he’s quick and agile after the catch.  Perhaps the staff is looking at J. P. Holtz as the Nate Byham Memorial blocking TE and Orndoff will fill the anti-Byham role by actually being thrown to.  History with the Wisconsin approach is that the TEs will see some real offensive action during the year.

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Between the new coaches, position swithces and the eligible transfers, there’s a lot to re-learn.

Spring practice is already finished for the morning.  Bobby Engram in Pitt gear has happened.

Yesterday, Coach Paul Chryst did the pre-Spring Practice press conference. He sort of said every position was open — and not really.

 On if any jobs are wide open:

“Eleven on offense and 11 of defense. The great thing about sports and in football is that in every game you have to prove yourself and every year you have to prove yourself. We can all make a pretty good bet on some spots and who should start. The great thing is they still have to go out and do it. There is nothing more important than this team and Pitt football and I talked to the group about that. If you’re true to that then your best 11 players shouldn’t sit out. Your best linemen will play, your best skill guys will play and your best defensive backs will play so I think they really are all open.”

Read into or don’t read anything into that.
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I think one thing I find frustrating after this season is the use of the word embarrassing to describe this team. I get why the players say it. They were the ones doing the losing. They were the ones being beat. I struggle with we, as fans, using it to describe theteam. Especially when it carries to such a level to be personal.

Embarrassing teams to me are the ones that do something more than merely lose games. Ones that quit on the coach or the season (Illinois). The ones that get embroiled in off-the-field or -court messes. Or have so many other distractions that the program looks to be in complete disarray (UCLA). Then I get it. It is a feeling that their actions reflect badly on our school and what we feel it represents. But just for losing games?

Not to say there aren’t plenty of other ways to describe this team. Disappointing. Frustrating. Inconsistent. Underachieving. Sloppy.

When seasons like this happen, no one wants excuses. Heck, reasons are barely tolerable. We just want it fixed. No one cares that it happens to other teams — because it is other teams.

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Hell of a damning piece on Ben Howland and the turmoil at UCLA. No real scandal. No recruiting violations. Nothing really that I would consider outrageous behavior by the players — outside of Reeves Nelson — to suggest an institutional issue. And the defense from former players is underway. Nonetheless, it is a piece that makes Ben Howland look really, really bad. A piece that those UCLA fans who want Howland out are citing as evidence.

The first thing to note from a Pitt perspective, none of this touches Pitt. The issues surrounding UCLA and Howland are only for the last few years. It is pointed out that there were no problems at UCLA in the first several years under Howland. It has only been recently. What it suggests more than anything else is that Howland was too hands-off about what the players were doing, expecting them to all be self-starters who kept things in check. Go figure, not all kids — especially high-major talent — might be less disciplined.

The group he had at first was much like what he had at Pitt.

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UPDATE (1:20): Pitt made the announcement along with a RB Coach. Details at the bottom.

No word yet from Pitt on this hardly kept secret, but Brooks Bollinger says it has has happened.

“I think it was an extremely difficult decision for me, but also a great opportunity,” Bollinger said today. “I am excited for the opportunity at Pitt. Also, it is so hard to leave Hill-Murray. It was a special place to me while I was there. They are great people and is a great place. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have been there.”

So there’s that. And it seems that Chryst really wanted Bollinger on the staff.

Reliable source told me Bollinger was offered the job by Chryst in December but turned it down. This time, Chryst upped the offer.

Take that for what it’s worth, but I really hope that isn’t true. That Chryst had to up the offer to “lure” Bollinger from a high school job he’s been doing for one year.

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I’m not all the way back in the swing, but I have to say that I need to post if for no other reason but to take my mind off some of the other crap. Thanks everyone for well-wishes and some suggestions regarding the vehicle search. I’ve got some things narrowed down. A new car is completely impractical right now. Couple that with two kids under the age of ten, and I could see my annoyance levels shooting through the roof as they do what kids do over time in the back seat of cars. Wait, that came out wrong.

Reed gave you the reassuring POV on Coach Paul Chryst and his approach. I don’t totally disagree. It is something a little different, and if it works then great.

Now onto the reported coaching hire. Still no word officially on a new running back coach. Honestly, I’m not that stressed about the speed at which a position assistant is hired. It would be nice to have someone in place with more than a couple weeks before spring practices start, but the running back spot is not a source of concern.

Then there is the apparent move to fill the other open position on the coaching staff with a QB Coach. The name that is being leaked as likely is Brooks Bollinger.

I’ve been mulling it over for a couple days. Giving it a bit of thought. And I just keep coming back to the same place.

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   Hmmm, not quite as an effective turn of phrase as the Bible’s “Jesus wept.” but it will do.

   Paul Chryst held his first post-hire formal press conference yesterday with the local media types.  It was pretty informative in some ways but, and I think we can expect this as long as Chryst is HC, there was nothing earth shattering divulged.

Some of his conversation was about issues that all PITT fans are interested in and some were insights into his personal approach into how he’ll conduct his business.  Here are some of the key points he talked about.

   In a refrain that we heard in his initial press conference he again attempted to quell the PITT fan’s post-Graham fears by reiterating that his approach to fielding his systems will be markedly different than his predecessor’s. The P-G reported him saying  “You never want the system to be the thing that prevents you from playing well,” Chryst said in a meeting with the media on Tuesday. “If you want to learn it, you can learn it absolutely in a fairly short time. I believe that, and I do believe that we can teach it.”  Meaning in essence that he’ll adapt to player’s strengths.

Chryst also said that many of the concepts he uses carry over between systems, but there will be new terminology for the players to master. “You are learning a new foreign language,” he said. “That’s our job, to teach it. It’s also our job to make sure we aren’t doing too much and that guys know what they’re doing.”

This last part we’ve heard before at this time last year and IMO was one of the reasons we faltered on offense as it was too much too soon for the players.  Let’s hope that Chryst’s philosophy in this matter is realistic and more simplified than Graham’s was.

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