The Trib weighs in with a couple of things – first is this short video of Narduzzi’s post practice interview:

 The second is Jerry D’s article about the next star on offense Donte’ Ford (my opinion not his).  Ford’s contributions far exceed the chalk boundaries of the football field:

There were days early this spring when Sto-Rox baseball and softball players were forced to share gloves to get through a practice  When the sports returned to the school district after a two-year hiatus due to lack of funds, athletic director Ryan Kacsur thought the girls might have to wear mismatched uniforms.

An even sadder reality: Some players may not get enough to eat before and after games.  “It breaks my heart seeing that,” Kacsur said.

Then, one day, Pitt wide receiver/Sto-Rox graduate Dontez Ford and classmates Jim Fanning and Craig Bittner showed up in his office.  They wanted to help.

For a project in their Advertising and Social Media class, the seniors, with free-of-charge production from professional videographers Ben Petchel and Adam Kunes, decided to create a video and promote it with the aim of raising money and awareness for the baseball and softball teams.

Their initial goal was $4,000 to be split equally between the teams. Some thought they set their sights too high.  “Even our professor was kind of wary,” Fanning said.

But less than week after the video was released Feb. 24 on Facebook, they reached their goal and money kept coming in from 92 donors. So far, they have raised $5,800, Ford said. Two donors gave $500. Donations are still being accepted on the GoFundMe page on Facebook.com/BringitbackPGH.

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Here are a couple of podcasts to listen to while working.  First is Jerry DiPaola being interviewed by WTAE’s Junker and the other Guy about the Spring Game… and talks about the closed practices.  He makes a good point (again!) about being able to watch only the calisthenics, then the kicker and the punter punting.  He hates it, every media person hates it, I hate it and some at Pitt even dislike it.

DiPaola’s Guy and Junker Interview 4/11/16

He also talks about how the offense looks unbalanced at this point because of the dearth of receivers with any game experience at all.  Challingsworth and Ford are the only two WRs on the roster who caught passes last season.  He quotes Nate Peterman as saying “Wait and see which WRs we can count on.”

DiPaola reiterates that Stocker is slowly cementing the QB2 position.  Stocker is a big QB and is also a good runner – DiPaola mentions “Wildcat” a few times.  The subject of bringing in a FBS transfer QB in (Schneider) and how that signals that the staff isn’t happy with our current #3 and #4 QBs.

What is shaping up is a competition for the 2017 starting job between Schneider and MacVitte.

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Here are the scrimmage stats from yesterday.

Bertke was 3-3 for 52 yards but Stocker seems to be holding onto the #2 QB slot.

The Trib has a few pieces today.

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Well, it isn’t just The Pitt Blather talking about Manny Stocker rise through the ranks.  The Post-Gazette’s Craig Myer has a nice article on him also.  Check this part closely:

 After an experiment at wide receiver in 2015, his first with the Panthers, Stocker once again is playing quarterback, the position he has played virtually his entire career. He also has been reunited with offensive coordinator Matt Canada, with whom he spent one season at North Carolina State in 2013.

It’s a strange return to normalcy in some ways, but there’s also a certain solace for Stocker as he works to make an impact in a quarterbacks group that, outside of starter Nate Peterman, largely lacks experience.

The reason I clipped that quote is that we have seen Pat Narduzzi not hesitate to look at his roster and make decisions based on the talent at hand.  It is one thing when a phenom like Jordan Whitehead, a highly rated and sought after recruit, walks into camp and claims a starting job.  Many other coaches do that in allowing true FR to start playing right away. But Narduzzi sat down an established starting QB in his first year in a HC position.

Showing of course that every position on the team is truly up for grabs.

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Some movement on Kevin Stallings coaching staff. The only sure things were that Stallings was bringing his longtime assistant Tom Richardson with him. And that none of the old Pitt assistants would be on the staff. There is now some debate on the nature of what Brandin Knight was offered to be an assistant.

Stallings said discussions with longtime Panthers assistant and former player Brandin Knight included a “sizeable pay raise” and touched on changing his title to associate head coach, but Knight declined to pursue other options.

Prior to Stallings statement, it was assumed that Richardson was going to be associate head coach (top assistant) as he was at Vandy.

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It was closed. Nothing to see here.

(Calm down guys – Just kidding & still updating). 

The news outlets did have some football stories up though…

The Trib has an article on the OL.

After nine days of spring ball, Pitt’s offensive line is unsettled, with only the left side set. All-ACC seniors Adam Bisnowaty and Dorian Johnson man the left tackle and guard spots, respectively, and both have been starters since 2013 (30 starts for Bisnowaty, 27 in a row for Johnson).

But when former starters Alex Officer (left foot) and Jaryd Jones-Smith (knee) return, the offensive line will look different than it did Saturday when Pitt scrimmaged at Heinz Field.

With all the questions concerning the Pitt hiring process and the square dance that Barnes did with that Search Firm John Harris’ article in the Trib on the subject is timely:

Universities’ reliance on a third party has made search firms power brokers in college athletics. And that has raised questions about sports departments’ and coaches’ relationships with those firms.

“It used to be sort of be the old boys’ network,” said Chris Hunt, president and cofounder of Hunt Scanlon Media, which tracks the talent management industry. “This athletic director knew another one. The people (behind) them might be brought up through the ranks to replace them. That’s changed.”

In this instance, Barnes didn’t enlist the services of just any firm. He reached out to a friend. Barnes selected Collegiate Sports Associates, which has conducted searches for high-profile head coaching and athletic director vacancies.

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DiPaola’s Blog from the Trib has some interesting stuff today:

Make room in the outside linebacker competition for North Allegheny graduate Seun Idowu.
He is one of three players who came to Pitt at other positions, but have been moved to linebacker to help fill a big hole in the defense left by graduating senior Nicholas Grigsby.

At practice Thursday, Idowu caught everyone’s eye when he recognized a jet sweep by wide receiver Quadree Henderson and made the tackle.
“He was like a jet,” senior middle linebacker Matt Galambos said.
Idowu, who came to Pitt as a walkon, said he remembered the play from previous film study. Earlier in the day, he didn’t make the tackle on a similar play, but he refused to be fooled twice.

“It’s a great feeling to recognize something you saw in the film room,” he said.
Idowu said it takes time for walkons to attract attention.

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Let’s get back to football for a while and turn off the “noises” we fans have been spewing about BB that upset King Scott so much.

Here is the latest video of the practices out of the Southside.  We are at the halfway point as we just finished our seventh out of 15 practices allowed which includes the Spring Game – the NCAA counts that as a practice just like the others. That scrimmage BTW will be at Heinz Field on April 16th.

Take a close look at #85 making some nice plays and harder catches.  That’s rsJR Jester Weah and the guy who we Pitt fans, and the staffs over the last three years, having been hoping to come around. Would be nice… especially if our new OC wants to open up the passing game with more deep balls.

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[Still on vacation in Houston, so this took a little time to get done.]

So are we reaching the acceptance phase? Seems that the media is at least getting there. Probably easier to get there with this then Jack’s now being called, “Jim’s.”

For how ever long Pitt leaves it up, you can peruse the press conference at your leisure. If you view the press conference in two pieces, you can say that one was very good at handling things and the other was a bit of a struggle.

Kevin Stallings seemed to do a good job up there with his prepared remarks and answering questions. He got a bit choked up talking about leaving Vandy and of his former players. He gave respect to Jamie Dixon and the standards he set that he needs to meet and surpass. (more…)

Don’t hold back now… tell us what you really think.  Predictions for the presser, running comments as it is being held and the final review and Lessons Learned after the parade has left the building with Stallings sitting triumphantly on Gallagher and Barnes’s shoulders.

NEW BLATHER CONTEST

Speaking of our no longer a virgin AD Scott Barnes and the words “Final Four”,  I will buy many beers for the Blather reader who is closest in guessing the time elapsed from when the presser starts until Barnes says these exact and wonderful words – “Final Four”.

“Final Four” = 3:44 into the presser.

I’ll start by saying it will be 98 seconds.  The first minute of the presser will be his looking around for the list of reasons “Why This is a Good thing” that he left on his office desk.

Plus: I’ll buy every one of you beers at the first home game if Barnes drops the glorious “Next Level” bomb.

“Next Level” = 27s into the presser! 

Wayyyy sooner then I figured and to me that is a death knell right there.  Wannstedt got it in his presser; Graham got it in his and so did Paul Chryst.  Interestingly enough Narduzzi didn’t.

Post your guesses below and have fun – it is a fantastic day to be a Pitt fan.

Presser link

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Very grateful that my father and brother-in-law keep stocked bars with some truly excellent bourbons and scotch. Though, I’m pretty sure I’d be drinking any rotgut when Saturday night went to hell.

I don’t know what to say. I was keeping my expectations low, simply because looking at the landscape of college basketball and the coaches out there. I just didn’t see any homerun hires. Solid ones? Sure. Medium risk, high reward? Even that. But this? Never saw it coming.

As usual Pitt kept a tight lid on things until the very end. And oh, what an end.

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(Chas is on vacation without wireless or you know he’d be all over this.)

I’m going to post this quickly – I’ve been away from a computer all morning – and will add content as the day goes along.  So here’s your chance to be heard again, and again, and again….

Oh and HAPPY EASTER!!!

OK, here’s what happened in a nutshell. Pitt hired the first head coach in any sport in its history to have a chin that goes directly to his chest bypassing his neck.

Here is how this happened.

In Scott Barnes first, and actually only big decision so far, he has pissed of the Pitt fans so badly there has been an internet suicide watch put into effect. He couldn’t keep our all time winningest BB coach onboard – although that truly wasn’t for lack of trying I believe.  After all he stated that he spent the whole day talking with Dixon before Dixon made his final decision.  That die was cast.

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Well, here is a subject whose time has obviously come to be ‘talked about’… and that is the horrible back up QB situation we have at Pitt this spring and maybe, if our bad luck holds, will have going into fall camp.  As readers of the Blather well know I have been harping on this almost continually since Chad Voytik departed.

As a matter of fact just this morning I posted an article on here that in no small measure addressed this subject yet again.

In conversations with other Pitt fans I find it interesting that there was so much blowback on Peterman transferring in to usurp Voytik … but there has been virtually no fan noise made about the fact that we’ll drop in quality rather surprisingly if we have to replace Peterman for any length of time.

Many fans have stated ‘Well, this is a normal thing to have the QB2 be a kid with no real game time experience.’ and I will beg to strongly differ.  Almost always a D1 head coach will get his back up QBs at least a few snaps to get somewhat acclimated to true game conditions.  But that didn’t happen last season because we had the Nate Peterman / Chad Voytik tandem… so the assumption at the time was that going into 2016 we’d have the same level of talent at both the QB1 and QB2 spots.

Obviously that can’t happen and Narduzzi has been caught with their personnel planning coming up short in that area.  Matt Canada is inheriting this situation and can’t be all that happy about it.

Again, fans counter with ‘Hey, we have no idea if Bertke and DiNucci can play in a game pressure and neither do you.’ And that is true also.  But there is a twist with those guys.  Because of the two senior guys at QB neither Bertke nor DiNucci has ever taken any QB2 snaps in any practices and certainly not during game weeks when the practices revolve around the offensive game planning.

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It looks like we may see a true FR step into the starting role at CB given our shortness of talented depth there due to Lafayette Pitts’s graduation.   Of course the first name that springs to mind is Damar Hamlin, the highly rated and coveted DB from Pgh’s Central Catholic will be joining the Panthers in the fall.

DiPaola has this:

Actually, Coach Pat Narduzzi’s defense puts heat on all its cornerbacks, often locking them up in one-on-one confrontations with wide receivers. That might be the reason he recruited three in this year’s freshman class: Central Catholic’s Damar Hamlin, Brashear’s Therran Coleman and Henry Miller of Kissimmee, Fla.

If those players are ready, Narduzzi and Hill are willing to give them the opportunity to win a job. At least, that has been said repeatedly through the first five days of spring drills.

But that may not sit all that well with the kids who have been waiting in the wings for a chance to shine.

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Programming note. I am traveling early tomorrow. Heading to Texas. Coincidence. I swear.

Not the Metroplex, but Houston to see family and take a bit of a vacation for a week. If you want to impute the selfish reason of not wanting Dixon to leave because I wanted a bit of peace on the vacation. Well, you probably are not completely wrong.

Now, I have to remain somewhat plugged in, and will post a little.

Okay, onto more stuff about potential candidates.

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