Huh, maybe those continuing phone calls from other schools to Tom Macvitte are getting answered.  Mike Vukovcan of KDKA reports this:

“**Source tells me that Pat Narduzzi and OC Matt Canada have an in home visit tonight with QB Thomas MacVittie. I think it’s becoming quite clear that MacVittie is a HUGE priority in this recruiting class.

**The offer yesterday to 2017 QB Matt McKay (Raleigh, NC) is an interesting one. McKay is the ultimate dual-threat quarterback as evidenced by his 46 combined touchdowns this past season.

Here are the HUDL highlights of McKay’s JR season in HS.  You can skip the ad after a few seconds.

Vukovcan is full of interesting stuff, here is a bit of speculation on his part:

**Here’s a name to keep your eye on: Derrick Green. He’s a former 5-star running back for Michigan. However, he’s graduating this spring and announced he’s going to be a graduate transfer.

I received a message from Green last night and he told me that he’s interested in looking at Pitt and making a visit. I’m hoping to do an in-depth interview with Green later today.

Green played sparingly last season for first year coach Jim Harbaugh. In 9 games this season, Green rushed for 158 yards on 47 carries and scored 2 touchdowns. For his career, Green has totaled 898 yards on 212 carries and 7 touchdowns.

At 5’11 and 240 pounds he’s be the hammer in the backfield… maybe we bring back the Fullback a bit more?

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While the 2016 basketball season is underway and through the football off season I’ll try to chip in with some historical Pitt football stories once a week, or more if I can, via audio podcasts on The Blather…. hence “BlatherCasts”.  Most will be read from already published books, articles in magazines and yearbooks and old newspapers’ coverage of the football program, team, personnel and the University itself.

Pitt Man and author Sam Sciullo Jr.,  has written four excellent books on Pitt athletics.  His most well know work was in putting together the University of Pittsburgh Football Vault: The History of the Panthers (“The Pitt Vault”) which is a great fun look at just what the title describes.

He also has written Tales from the Pitt Panthers, my favorite of his, which is a compendium of anecdotes about the football and basketball programs.   I truly love how this book is being described in the linked Goodreads page… it starts:

“The Pitt Panthers or the Pittsburgh Panthers? Even their name evokes an argument, a touch of controversy. For anyone who has followed the football and basketball fortunes of the University of Pittsburgh, however, controversy is just one of many facets of Pitt’s programs throughout the institution’s very long history.”

Man, ain’t that the truth and it has just multiplied over the time since the book was published in 2004.  Hey, had he waited 10 years he would have been able to include Wannstedt, Graham and Chryst!

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As Chas wrote earlier Chad Voytik has made up his mind and left Pitt’s football program. He came aboard in 2012 and is leaving almost four years later to seek greener fields… or to get out of an increasingly uncomfortable atmosphere here at Pitt.  It isn’t surprising to me, but it is a bit disappointing, that Chad didn’t stay to try and rise to the occasion to regain his starting position. I thought he had more fight in him, especially after Chaney left.

It was obvious by the quotes he has issued lately that he thought he was behind the eight ball during 2015 but unless he felt Narduzzi didn’t want him as a starter he would have had the opportunity to regain that starting job.  It became apparent that he thought Peterman won the job and played well enough to keep the position,  but it is ironic if he did think so because the exact thing happened with him after his starting year.

“Voytik said he felt like he was given a fair chance this season by offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, who had a prior connection with Peterman after recruiting him to Tennessee in 2012. “I feel like I was given a fair shot, but at times, things might’ve been a little unfair,” said Voytik, who declined to elaborate. “I just think it was the perfect storm of events that worked against me a little bit. That’s life, though.”

If that was indeed a ‘perfect storm’ it is one he had a major hand in brewing.  If Peterman could unseat the incumbent in ’15 why couldn’t Chad do the same for his senior year?  He must not have thought he could do so.  Now he’s apparently looking to move closer to home but the lingering and unspoken feeling is that he didn’t complete what he started out to do at Pitt.

In a more selfish view as a Pitt fan I wanted him to be our competent and experienced relief QB if he didn’t win the back starting job outright and I did believe that could happen. Peterman played like gangbusters in the first seven games of the season but when all the dust settled I truly don’t believe he played so well as to make him untouchable, especially with a new HC coming onboard.

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It is now T-27h 30m until Military Pub Crawl muster and we Blatherites better get serious about where we want to meet on both Sunday and then again on gameday Monday for the guys who aren’t getting to Annapolis until the day of the game.  Here is the weather report as of this writing.

Sunday:  69º/44 º   Cloudy    20% Rain    13 mph wind    89% Humidity

Sunday:  46º/39 º   Cloudy    10% Rain    13 mph wind    62% Humidity

On Sunday I’ll be checking into the O’Gallagher Hotel at around noon and will probably take it easy, have a big lunch and watch the Steelers-Ravens game that afternoon.  That game should end around 4:00 so… I suggest that we Blatherites meet at the Ram’s Head Tavern at 4:00 for the official “Pitt Blather Meet & Greet” and get a bit of a head start on all the other 7000+ Pitt fans who will be crawling in Annapolis that evening also.

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**** Breaking News – ex-Terp WR Juwann Winfree has committed to Pitt this afternoon.****

My friends at Facebook’s Pitt Panther Fanatics asked me to draw up an offensive game plan for the Marine Bowl Pub Crawl on Sunday the 27^th… the pre-game day festivities for our Panthers matchup with the Navy Midshipman.

I live about 30 minutes away from downtown Annapolis and we go there regularly for events and meals and such so here is what I recommend for maximizing the cheap drinks hosted by the listed bars (below) from 4:00-9:00 pm… along with some good food

One thing to note is that Annapolis is on the side of a hill and I’m going to list the places to go from the top of the hill down toward the waterfront and the City Dock.

If you look at a map of the Downtown area you see two large traffic circles and then a smaller one down at the waterfront.  The two larger ones are the “Church Circle” that is the western one and the other is the “State Circle” (State Capitol bldgs) a bit larger and to the east.

We don’t want to mess with the State Circle so we’ll begin our tour at the Rams Head Tavern which is on West Street (MD-450) just before getting to Church Circle. Do not be put off by the road name, MD – 450 is really just a big street.

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Reed’s Take:

The bottom line is that Annapolis is one of the best places to watch college football in the US.  The city itself is an historic treasure and the Naval Academy, it’s alumni and Midshipmen are great hosts to visiting fans.  Below is a ton of info about the Bowl game and associated issues.  There will be a lot to do.  One thing I highly recommend is that you take the opportunity to work in a visit to the Naval Academy itself.  Visiting there is a pretty formalized because so many people do it every day.

Here is the link to the Armel-Leftwich Visitors Center and some more additional info and numbers to call if you plan on getting more info. I will say this – if you go to the Main Chapel (ADM John Paul Jones is buried here)…

Adm John Paul Jones’ Crypt

and to the Naval Museum on campus be prepared for the waterworks to start… at least they always do for me.  The Naval Cemetery is impressive as hell also.

I plan on visiting in late morning on Sunday and because I am a retired Coastie can park on the Academy grounds at the Visitors Center – I can take three guests with me if anyone is interested – you just have to have valid photo IDs.

Our favorite restaurant/pub in Annapolis is the Irish pub Galway Bay but there are a ton of good and interesting places to eat and drink.  Sometimes the weather in late December isn’t all that bad so don’t hesitate to go down Main Street and walk around the dock harbor.   You’ll see that statue of Alex Haley, author of “Roots” and who was on active duty with the US Coast Guard when he wrote that book (way before my time you jagoffs). Also  check out this small museum, the Waterfront Warehouse, for in-depth history of Annapolis and immediate region.

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My Fellow Pitt Fans – I’m going to try to post up one of these “look back” articles, with an embedded audio recording  of a dramatic reading of some articles and other media bits, on a weekly basis.  If you have ever heard of, or read, the really good coffee table book “The Pitt Football Vault” then you know that is is just full of every detail imaginable pertaining to our football history and traditions.  It was written by the Post-Gazette’s Sam Sciullo Jr and covers from the 1890s through the 2007 season.

What I’ll try to do is start at the beginning of our program’s history and do one or two pieces on each decade, interspersed with other biographical pieces on some of our superstar players…. like Tino Sunseri.  These take only a small bit of time and effort so I’ll try to be regular with them.

We’ll see how it goes.  Forgive the small mistakes, I’m getting better as time goes by.

Here is an audio recording of Sport’s Illustrated  article on the 42-14 win over FSU to get to 5-0 on the 1981 season.  I like this piece because of the similarities between the defense then under Sherrill and Foge Fazio and our current defense under Narduzzi and Josh Conklin. We aren’t as successful statistically but the pressure concept is quite alike.

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I figured you guys would get a kick out of this since you are bored as hell waiting for liquor, football and turkey – in that order.

So, I did up a look-back at a great time in Pitt football’s history… Pop Warner’s first year as the Pitt Panthers head coach.

^^^ That is the lead-in.

Here is the rest of the reading. It is six minutes long and my first one so please forgive the stumbles and mistakes.  I’ll get better as I go along.

Enjoy!!

Happy Thanksgiving and be safe,

Reed

Here are the Louisville Highlights:

Pat Narduzzi Press Conference 

Miami Week

 Opening Statement:

“Good to see you today. Another short week here. We’re getting used to this. We had a really crisp, mental practice this morning, trying to keep our guys fresh. We put to rest the Louisville game yesterday that probably looked better on tape than you saw in the second half at least. Our kids played hard, with great effort, and it seems like our kids continue to execute better week in and week out. So if we continue to get the great execution down going into Friday, it’ll be exciting stuff.”

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PITT (8-3, 6-1 ACC) vs. MIAMI (7-4, 4-3)

November 27, 2015 • Noon, ET
Heinz Field (68,400/Natural Grass) • Pittsburgh, Pa.

ESPN2 • Pitt IMG Sports Radio Network

PittsburghPanthers.com • @GoPittFootball • #MIAvsPITT

LINK (PDF): Pitt Game Notes (vs. Miami)
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I keep beating this point into the ground, so I apologize if you are sick of me writing it. What Pitt has done this year has been amazing in light of the consistent treading of water for the last 5 years. At the same time, Pitt has done exactly what they should. Win games they should win.

They haven’t gone out and shocked the world. The Panthers haven’t staged huge upsets. They may have been slight underdogs in some games  — GT, VT and even Louisville — but they weren’t shockers.

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Here is this last evening and this morning’s media recap for the day:

8-3 sounds damn good doesn’t it, especially after I predicted that we’d be 9-3 at the end of the regular season.  I’m lying!!  I predicted 6-6 with a chance at 7-5 “if the ball bounced our way a few times“.  Glad to be wrong with that one and with this 45-34 win behind us we have an excellent chance to end the regular season at 9-3.

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Here is this morning’s media recap for the day:

Post-Gazette:

Freshman Ollison at “The Wall“.

Pitt sees upside in Southside renovations:

“Specifically, Barnes pointed to the hydrotherapy area, used by both teams, as being a part of the expansion. He also added that a common lobby space, as opposed to the current setup of two separate entrances, will make things more comfortable for the Pitt football players, who often eat their meals at the Steelers’ cafeteria.

“Just the little nuance of how our student-athletes won’t have to go outside to get into the cafeteria (Heaven forbid),” Barnes said. “They get to stay inside in the wintertime. Those are things we’ve been communicating and planning together here over the last couple of months plus.”

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Later than I wanted, but time has been limited during daylight.

Pitt planned for a sleepwalk of a game after traveling back from Okinawa, and they delivered. The Pumas of St. Joe’s College (somehow, apparel and shoe company Puma does not sponsor them) were the big patsy on Tuesday. A subpar D-II team that came for a beating and delivered on their end.

The first half was extremely sloppy and you could see the lack of energy from Pitt. They missed a lot of shots from outside. Struggled at times with defense. Yet still led by 14 at the half.

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Test 3

PITT (7-3, 5-1 ACC) vs. LOUISVILLE (6-4, 5-2)

November 21, 2015 • 3:45 p.m., ET
Heinz Field (68,400/Natural Grass) • Pittsburgh, Pa.

ESPNews • Pitt IMG Sports Radio Network

PittsburghPanthers.com • @GoPittFootball • #LOUvsPITT

LINK (PDF): Pitt Game Notes (vs. UL)

Morning Media Compendium:

Post Gazette:

One Mission Accomplished by Narduzzi

Game is at 3:45

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