Need to get to the Utah game and some more basketball stuff, but too many tabs related to the expansiopocolypse that need clearing.

While the college sporting world waits on the decision of Mizzou, Boston College’s AD Gene DeFilippo felt like popping off a bit about how influential he was in the ACC realignment committee. The comments that got all the attention were the ones pertaining to how he and BC were the reason UConn didn’t get an invite, but Pitt did along with Syracuse.

While Syracuse presented no problem, UConn did — to BC, which was still fuming over what it perceived to be vitriolic comments made when BC was finally invited to join the ACC and started competing in 2005. UConn and Pittsburgh filed a lawsuit against BC, and Calhoun made comments about never playing BC again.

DeFilippo does not deny that BC opposed the inclusion of UConn.

“We didn’t want them in,’’ he said. “It was a matter of turf. We wanted to be the New England team.’’

The other was the role of a certain Mouse Monopoly in the decision on who to invite for expansion.

BC athletic director Gene DeFilippo, who was part of the 12-member ACC expansion committee, adamantly denied that the move was dictated by basketball interests, but he did concede that the effects of it may boost that sport more than football.

“It had nothing to do with basketball,’’ said DeFilippo. “It was football money which drove expansion. It was football money and securing our future.’’

…

The overwhelming force behind the move, DeFilippo insisted, was television money.

The ACC just signed a new deal with ESPN that will increase the revenue for each school to approximately $13 million. With the addition of Pittsburgh and Syracuse, said DeFilippo, another significant increase will come.

“We always keep our television partners close to us,’’ he said. “You don’t get extra money for basketball. It’s 85 percent football money. TV – ESPN – is the one who told us what to do. This was football; it had nothing to do with basketball.’’

The UNC blog, Carolina March points out this creates a conflict in the narrative of the actual story. The story starts with a premise that the ACC expansion move was dictated in no small part because of basketball driven jealousy of all the attention the Big East gets. That, of course, would favor UConn over Pitt. Especially when you factor in the women’s basketball side of things as well.

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I’ve railed for a little while about the horror of the Pitt-Rutgers game landing on Yom Kippur. Especially with the USF-Pitt game on Rosh Hashana. Not nearly as upset as On the Banks may be, but I have been relatively peeved about having to be fasting and booze free for the game.

Apparently my resolve and faith were not being tested enough. Calling the 3:30 game on ESPNU will be the unbearable duo of Pam Ward and Dan Hawkins.

Sunset is at 6:57. I will try to make it.

Time to go off-topic to a media criticism.

In July, Bruce Feldman was a cause for the college blogosphere. A symbol of ESPN tyranny. Of the ongoing injustice of a college football landscape without Mike Leach on a sideline. Of the continued bad judgment of allowing Craig James anywhere near a microphone and camera.

ESPN denied that Feldman was suspended, and within a few days, the Poynter Review Project — ESPN’s indedpendent ombudsman thingy — put together a story that was not well-received.

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   Last Saturday I wrote a pretty opinionated article on here about our QB play and the way I thought the HC should handle it in the future.  Well, nothing I have read so far this week dissuades me from that line of thought.  Actually, some public comments from both Sunseri and Graham reinforce what I’d like to see happen.  I don’t think Graham is listening to me though…

With what might be the best tongue-in-cheek headline ever, DiPaola over at the Trib wrote this:

PITT PASSER SUNSERI GIVES SELF HIGH MARKS

“Bloodied, but with his head held high, Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri confidently met the media Tuesday, insisting his two-interception, two-fumble (one lost) performance against Iowa constituted his best game of the season.

 “I would say it was my greatest game I played yet,” he said. “I was very pleased with all my reads. Even the interceptions were the right reads. I just have to put more air on the ball.”

Sunseri’s passing efficiency rating is 122.0, 73^rd among the top 100 quarterbacks in the nation, with four interceptions and three touchdown passes, but he said he has a clearer understanding of the offense. “

That’s like a surgeon saying “Hey, I had the right patient; I just amputated the wrong leg.”  Folks, this is why I think that benching Sunseri as a reality check, among other reasons, is in order.  But in a weird and unnerving way I understand where he’s coming from with this.  When you’ve been coddled by two separate head coaches with zero competition for the starting spot since January of 2009, it must skew your vision as to what actually is supposed to transpire in the competitive arena of sports.

How can he have any real internal benchmark of success when he’s never had to measure any in the off season?  His success in “winning” the starter’s job was pre-ordained without even a façade of competition.  Maybe there were good reasons for that at the time, but I’ll bet a dollar that neither Wannstedt nor Graham has ever sat Sunseri down, especially during in-season, and told him in no uncertain terms that he must play to a certain standard or he’ll be on the bench.  This is why I don’t really blame Sunseri so much for what he does out on the field as I do his coaches.  Of course, as we say every week it seems, we’ll know more on Saturday evening but sooner or later a hard decision may have to be made. (more…)

No, I haven’t forgotten about Iowa this weekend. In fact, head over to Iowa site, Black Heart, Gold Pants where I participated in a podcast Adam and Patrick about Pitt football, no more Wanny, our AD, expansiopocolypse and the upcoming game. Not recommended for the very depressed as they are still coping with losing to Iowa State and I’m worried about so many aspects of the team at the moment.

Later today, I’ll be on WPTS to talk about the blog and Pitt athletics. That one should be live around 4 pm.

con·tro·ver·sy

1. a prolonged public dispute, debate, or contention; disputation concerning a matter of opinion.

2.  contention, strife, or argument.

   First off, let’s make something clear.  Todd Graham, and the media who have quoted him, have it all wrong when they say there is “no QB controversy”.  Why? Because it really doesn’t matter what Graham said.  He may be truthful in stating that in his mind the decision is already made to stick with Sunseri, but by definition there’s a controversy if a ”prolonged public dispute” ensues… and there sure as hell is one now. There may not be a question in Graham’s mind about his course of action, there may not be debate in the Staff’s offices on this issue, but every blog, every message board, every newspaper article and thousands of PITT fans were, and are, talking about little else following the game yesterday.

   Blather readers who have read my stuff on here may have noticed two things about my opinions on our QB’s.  First, I’ve said that I thought Tino Sunseri would be a success in this new offensive system.  I based that on his physical skills and the assumption that he’d progress as a gameday quarterback from year one to year two as a starter.  I’ll say now that, at this point, I was mistaken. If anything he’s regressed in what is perhaps the most important aspects of successful QB play, his confidence, the ability to remain cool under pressure and to effect correct decision making.

Second, since Trey Anderson was recruited to PITT and signed up as a walk-on, I have championed him as a player where the common preconceived notions that a true freshman walk-on QB couldn’t be ready to play at the Div I BCS level didn’t apply.  Especially now, after seeing him play yesterday, I’ve strengthened that opinion.  I do understand fan’s concerns in this area but feel that a lot of the pushback is because they really don’t know what kind of a player, and person, Anderson is.

   If you really want to understand, and be able to logically discuss, what we have in our #2 QB then you have to watch this video detailing Anderson’s play over the course of his 16-0 Texas state championship senior season.  Remember as you watch it that Pearland plays in the biggest (“five star”) HS football conference in that state.  It wouldn’t be too much of a reach to say that it is the highest quality of HS football in the U.S.  Please, take some time and watch it as we’ll be talking about this issue all season.

  All that said; circumstances have combined to create a controversy.  Mostly this is the result of Sunseri’s play last season and his poor play in the 1^st half of the Buffalo game, good play in the second and very uneven play throughout the Maine game.  He has lacked consistency in six out of eight quarters of play so far this year.  His decision making is, at best, head scratching.  Aside from the blatantly obvious interceptions he threw, two examples of this in the Maine game come to mind.

In the 3^rd quarter Sunseri was forced to rollout.  He didn’t see that Shanahan had noticed and broken off his route to come back to help.  The DB was five yards downfield from the WR when Sunseri missed Shanahan’s action and purposely threw the ball into the sidelines right in front of the receiver.  Later on in the game Sunseri had defensive pressure, held the ball too long and ran out of bounds for a two yard loss as opposed to getting rid of the ball to save the lost yards.  Both of these plays should never be done by a second year QB.

   After Sunseri’s second INT Graham called Anderson’s number and was rewarded with 5 of 7 passing over the next two series. The first series resulted in an 11-play, 52-yard scoring drive.  Both times Anderson moved the team crisply down the field and positioned us for scores; the second being a shot at a makeable 33 yard FG.  You could see just how comfortable Anderson was in the shotgun and running this offense; his experience in this system showed through.  Plus, it was pretty evident in seeing that the offensive players were re-energized when he went in.

   Regarding the substitution Zeise of the P-G wrote:  … the timing of the change raised a few eyebrows because it came right after Sunseri threw his second interception of the game.  Graham had this to say:

“We planned on putting Trey in anyway, it wasn’t that I pulled Tino, it was a planned deal, we were going to play [Anderson] anyway. I still have 100 percent belief in Tino and like I told you at the beginning of the year, he has a very difficult job, he has a lot on his plate and we’ve got to execute better at that position.    OK coach, sure.

   I do feel the HC will stick with Sunseri as the starter until we actually lose a game based on Sunseri’s play.  However, I don’t believe that it was just a coincidence that Anderson was put in directly after Sunseri’s 4^th quarter INT from Maine’s 30 yard line just as we were holding onto a 13 point lead.  Maybe Graham was sending a strong message to Sunseri with that move, at least I hope so.  But I also feel that Graham has all the confidence in the world that Anderson can be successful running this offense.

   We saw what Anderson could do in his first action and it was very impressive, especially considering we haven’t seen what may be his strongest attribute yet; the ability to run with the ball. Let’s hope the HC won’t hesitate with the hook if needed because he doesn’t want to hurt Sunseri’s confidence.  Sunseri’s a big boy, or should be, and must take it in stride if it happens.

   One last point; spare the “but a true freshman going into a crazed Iowa stadium on the road is putting too much pressure on him!!!” refrain.  I heard that over and over from Colin Dunlap on 93.7’s post-game show and I’ll counter with this; the kid took a huge underdog Pearland team into the Texas state championship game in front of  43, 321 people, completed 17 of 23 passes and came out with a win… I’d say he already knows what pressure is and so can handle it at this level.

   Where to start? There are many areas to be critical of what we saw yesterday and to go into each one would fill volumes.  Let’s just say this about the most glaring, the pass defense needs no discussion in my opinion because it is so bad there may not be any resolution to its faults.  It’s due to either totally ineffective coaching or our talent level in the linebacker and defensive backfield corps is so bad that there are no alternatives.   Either way, I can’t come up with any solutions that are even worthy of discussion.

Graham’s take on this?  “I am not going to sit here and make excuses about a new system,” he said. “It’s new assignments, it’s new alignments, but you still have to tackle. Football is football.  Let me add that you also still have to cover a receiver once in a while.

   Our offensive line play is left wanting also.  I’m not about to panic over the seven sacks though as Sunseri was directly responsible for, at my count, five of them because of his indecision and lack of good judgment under fire.

On this subject the Trib’s Jerry DiPaola wrote:  “Coach Todd Graham said his junior quarterback needs to quicken his decisions in the Panthers’ new up-tempo offense.

“He’s holding the ball like he did in last year’s system,” Graham said. “Our system is not one that holds the football. It’s 1-2-3, ball’s out. We’re trying to get that across.”

The offensive line had its faults. Sunseri was sacked on back-to-back plays in the third quarter, the latter coming after center Ryan Turnley snapped the ball early and Sunseri and the rest of the offensive line was caught off-guard.

Saddest thing of all about the sacks?  This… “We studied a lot of film and saw their (Pitt’s) feet weren’t the greatest,” said sophomore defensive end Michael Cole, who had 2.5 sacks. “We were told to fly off the ball.”

But the best quote though may be from Sunseri himself:  “Mistakes happen in the heat of battle.  When you’re out there you have to make fast decisions and sometimes you make improper decisions.”  Perhaps he can add that last bit as a tattoo written backwards across his chest so when he’s flexing in the mirror it can serve as a motivational tool. (more…)

Of course, FDR never had to watch the “High-Octane” offense, did he?  Everybody and their uncles have strong opinions about yesterday’s game against Buffalo. Disappointed, angry, felt lied to, frustrated…  Those are all valid thoughts after watching the new era of PITT football, Graham style, roll into Heinz Field, or should we say limped in.

While some fans, most fans, well let’s be honest,  every fan was let down, not every fan should think that’s the caliber of football we are going to see for the rest of the season.  At least I don’t think so.   I believe that the offense we saw in the second half will be the norm.  Not to say we’ll score 28 points in every half, we can but dream, but we’ll see strong running and better passing from Sunseri like we did in the second half compared to the first.

There is a lot to work on to make that happen though.  Here’s what jumps out to me:

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I have been following the Texas A&M hissy fit over the Longhorn Network with some amusement. It’s like they spent the last 11 months pretending it was not really going to happen, and then as it draws within a month of actually debuting, the Aggies as a whole looked around and said, “Oh, f**k. This is the last straw.”

And last week, the unsourced rumors started that Texas A&M was ready to go to the SEC, and the SEC would take them. No substantiation seemed to be coming. Just non-denials and everyone basically saying that they have heard the rumors but don’t know much beyond that.

Then tonight came and there was this:

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It’s finally returning. ESPN College GameDay returns to the Pete.

ESPN has announced it’s Saturday night/College GameDay schedule for the 2012 season.

The second College GameDay of the season will be Louisville at Pitt on January 21.

It is one of two Big East College GameDay sites this year. The other will be Syracuse at UConn on February 25. Last year, Pitt was at ‘Nova’s College GameDay. This will be Pitt’s fifth time playing at a GameDay site. Pitt is 3-1 on these nights. Pitt hasn’t hosted a College GameDay since the Georgetown game in 2007 — that Pitt won.

Bostick wrote a short article on the fact that PITT has four state championship QBs on the roster.  Does that make anyone more comfortable about the QBs and the new offense?  It’s a neat fact though but all we need is to have one who is a true BE champion QB this season.

From a blog in the Trib-Review we have another new recruit from the 2011 class – Juan Price.  He replaces Ejuan Price.  Like another PITT player who wanted his name…Dorsett… pronounced differently Price has asked for the change.  Apparently he’s quicker and bigger also:

“Let me tell you, if you’re a quarterback, that ball better get out quick. He is lightning.”  Plus, Price weighs 250 pounds, according to Patterson, even though he is listed at 235 in the Pitt media guide.  “People don’t realize that,” Patterson said. “He is packed together.

Graham met with the team for 15 minutes after practice and then addressed the media.  Referencing his already high expectations he says this: “Today we were somewhere around that 80% mark, which will get you about eight wins. The most important thing is what you get done on a daily basis.”

For the Tino Sunseri crowd Graham notices a difference:  “The one thing that I have been very impressed with is just how much stronger Coach Griswold has gotten Tino Sunseri. Tino has actually done work but he has been getting stronger and has put a lot more velocity on his ball. The walk-on, Trey Anderson, has also been sticking out with me and I have been very impressed with him. He can make some throws and does a really good job.”  Remember Trey Anderson was being recruited by Tulsa, and Todd Graham, last year so the staff is very familiar with him.

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That oft-mocked Wannstedt comment from the halftime of the 2005 edition of the Backyard Brawl was not actually incorrect. Pitt needed more speed. They needed faster players. Better athletes. The speed was needed to make plays on both sides of the ball.

Now, with just a few weeks to the debut of the High Octane era, “get faster” has a different meaning. National writers have noticed: it’s about the pace.

The way he figures it, if Pitt gets 80 offensive snaps a game, it should have no trouble scoring 35 points, a number the team only occasionally hit under Wannstedt.

It’s a style of play that’s a marked departure from the pro-style offense the Panthers used with effectiveness under Wannstedt. It will require Sunseri to make good decisions, and Ray Graham to follow in the footsteps of predecessors like Dion Lewis and LeSean McCoy.

“We’ve got to play fast,” Ray Graham said. “That’s what he wants. He wants us to play fast, fast, fast. Those are his three things.”

That means all the time.

“We run everywhere,” he said. “There’s no walking. We run to every drill. No breaks.”

It’s part of a relentless ethos the coach is preaching. Caragein points out it’s not just the offense that will be no-huddle this fall, but the defense, too.

The expectations of 80+ plays on offense each game would be — and this is a very obvious understatement — something of an increase.

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Sorry for the lack of writing but family circumstances are taking up almost all my time.  When I can I’ll try to get something out every few days…

In addressing of the more glaring weaknesses of the 2011 PITT squad Zeise of the P-G interviews Tony Gibson regarding the stable of cornerbacks we have.  The coach is happy with K’Wuan Williams, Antwuan Reed and, perhaps surprisingly, Buddy Jackson…

He said Jackson has made the most improvement, but that is mostly because he took most of the snaps in the spring while Reed recovered from a concussion.

Gibson said. “I think, looking back, the fact that Antwuan was out in the spring is the best thing that happened for us, because it gave Buddy a real opportunity to take all of the reps and to gain some confidence and really get himself to the point where he is ready to play.  “We know what Antwuan can do, there is plenty of film on him, but Buddy needed to have a spring like he did to really get on his way.”   And from Jackson himself we hear a pretty standard response:  “This is my redshirt senior year, this is it. I’m going to take it all in, be coachable and try to compete every single day.”

Well, his laughing in the Head Coach’s face on the sideline when getting yelled at for blowing a play may lead to this next quote…

Gibson said he had heard — and read — a lot about Jackson’s work-ethic and toughness issues. He also said did not know what to expect from Jackson but has been pleasantly surprised and does not expect that to change.

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Well, technically two weeks and a day, but close enough. When the Big East gets a little attention and the media wax rhapsodic over the lobster and clam bakes.

Generally, I have not subjected which players represent Pitt at BE Media Day to much attention. Mainly because under Coach Wannstedt it was senior-oriented with the star players.

You look at Pitt’s roster, and who has been put on the preseason watch lists, and everything else. I would have expected the possible 3 or 4 players heading to Rhode Island would include Brandon Lindsey, Ray Graham, Tino Sunseri, Lucas Nix and Mike Shanahan.

Not so much.

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There was some disappointment when Pat Bostick decided that he was done with being a member of the Pitt football team. You hate to lose a good leader and a veteran back-up QB at any level. At the same time, Bostick has his own life and wanted to get on with it.

The good news, he’s staying a very active part of Pitt football.

Former quarterback Pat Bostick, who was under center for some of the Panthers’ most stirring victories in recent years, will join Bill Hillgrove in the booth to form Pitt’s new radio duo for the 2011 season.

Bostick was a three-year letterman for Pitt (2007-08, 2010) and quarterbacked the Panthers to such memorable victories as their 13-9 upset of West Virginia in 2007 and 36-33 quadruple-overtime win at Notre Dame in 2008. An honors graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, he earned his bachelor’s degree in just three years and is currently pursuing his master’s degree in Pitt’s School of Education.

In addition, Bostick will have a regular appearance on 93.7 to talk Pitt football. Reed can also breathe easy with the knowledge that Bostick will continue to write articles for Pitt’s website and the Pitt Athletic Department’s newspaper.

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