Let me be honest here… I don’t think Penn State is as good a team as they were projected to be in the preseason.  That said Pitt played them straight up defensively holding them to 17 points.  Our offense was a different story though – Pitt fans look at Pickett’s gaudy numbers and say our offense is starting to click.  I look at them and see a whole bunch of passing yardage with nothing to show for it.  That is what happens when you can’t field even a semi-decent run game.  Then you must throw it all the time and Pickett did and we didn’t score even one passing TD. Again.

That yardage total looked great but save the last 28 yard pass and great catch to Mack at the now-National Historic Registered Penn State 1 yard line the Nits DBs kept everything in front of them – hence 0, zero, zilch, zip, nada TD passes thrown by our QB.  Right now he has two TDs in 12 quarters of play with none in any second half going back over the last six games.  We’ve accomplished just three field goals in the last 12 quarters of second half play – makes me sick thinking about it.  So I won’t.

How do you think that resonates going into a game against a University of Central Florida team who not only is scoring at will over the last three seasons but now is also among the national leaders in defense along with another great offense.  And in doing so have won there last 27 regular season games (28-1 overall in the last three seasons)

Take a look at what the Golden Knights have done so far as far as national standings and “Value”.

When I wonder how good a defense is I look directly at Passing Efficiency Defense first – theirs is an outstanding 4th nationally in keeping opposing QBs to a 77.79 rating. For comparison what is considered a ‘good’ QB rating is up in the 150s or higher.  Right now Pickett is sitting at 122.7 which is poor.  But get this – the 130th team in this is Wyoming and they have a QB rating of 79.5.  So UCF holds QBs to even worse that the worst team listed.

Who did UCF play ? Their only P5 opponent so far has been Stanford who they ass-kicked to the tune of 45-27 but that score is a bit misleading – UCF jumped out to a 38-7 lead at halftime then led 45-17 before they put in their 2nd string kids.  Stanford scored on a FG with 1:12 left in the game and then Stanford’s defense ran a fumble in for a TD from the 28 to get to 27 points.

What we need to look at is how many points did the Stanford team score offensively? That would be 20. With that they held Stanford’s passing game to 233 yards and no TDs and one INT on 24/49 (49%) gathering only 4.8 yards per attempt and a 88.7 QB rating which is fantastic defense overall.

Oh, BTW – they are also limiting the opponents to 85.7 yards per game on the ground. Stanford did a bit better at 23 for 116 yards and one TD. So may be can match that – it would be a hell of a lot better that our 0.9 yards per carry against PSU wouldn’t it?  Lets hope.

Now – what does UCF have on offense.  Well, one of the best QBs so far in Dillon Gabriel who stands like this against his peers:

3rd  nationally in yards per completion @ 18.9 per catch…read that again – 18.9 yards per catch.  (Pickett = 95th @ 10.7 yards per catch)

4th nationally in Passing Efficiency @ 206.6  ( Pickett = 91st @ 122.8)

7th nationally in TDs thrown with nine. (Pickett isn’t listed in the Top 85 with his two TDs)

This kid is a freshman and is damn good and he’ll tear up our defensive backs so badly in the 1st and 2nd quarters they will start tackling the UCF WRs as the ball is in the air to get Pass Interference calls to stop more deep receptions.  Here are Gabriel’s season numbers:

Now – Pitt has played pretty well in our Pass Efficiency defense holding opposing QBs to a 114.6 rating and 36th in Passing Yards Allowed at 193 per game…but we haven’t faced a pure passer like UFC’s kid yet.  If we can do that against Gabriel then we may win but I don’t think we can.

I think UCF carries all of this forward to tomorrow’s game playing against Pitt and Pickett.  I expect we may see some more Pitt yards on the ground this week but less passing yards in the air.  We’ll score some points but UCF will go up big time early and crusie to a win at Heinz – where I think there is zero home field advantage for the Panthers.  UCF is currently standing at 19th in Scoring Defense with 13.7 ppg.

Oh – before I go here is one stat we just can’t overlook now that we have Mark ‘The Wizard’ Whipple as our OC – we currently stand at 126th out of 130 in Scoring Offense putting up an average of  only 14.7 ppg. Yes, you read that correctly – 14.7 ppg against teams that really don’t have that great of defenses save VA which is doing pretty well this season.  But 20 against Ohio and only 10 against Penn State sucks and you can quote me on that.

We may win tomorrow – or at least bet the spread which seems to float Pitt fan’s boats and we may win some more games down the road – after all we aren’t going to be 1-11 are we?  No, we are not. At least I don’t think so.  No! We can’t!

But I truly don’t feel we have the type of talent that Narduzzi inherited when hired and who gave him two eight win seasons.  I truly believes that all this comes down to the talent level teams playing against us have and what we have. It’s no secret that I think Narduzzi has been very poor at identifying hidden talent and/or seeing that talent and getting them to commit to Pitt. I’m not just talking about star ratings – but that sucks also – but real honest to God talent.  It is indicative of this when we played FCS Ohio and only beat them by 10 points. Also the fact that we scored only 10 points against PSU.

…and don’t even get me going about 2nd half scoring – if that isn’t indicative of stubborness on PN and the staff’s part what is?  He thinks that whatever he has planned is good enough so why change at halftime?  Good God – at least three victorious opposing HC’s have said almost exactly that in post-win press conferences over the last two years.  Narduzzi is the only one who doesn’t see problems with his overall decision making – everyone else has gotten used to it by now.

Seriously – ask yourself this…were you really that surprised when he went for the FG instead of a TD last week with the game on the line…and then threw out snide remarks when asked about it?

What it comes down to is Narduzzi didn’t trust his Panthers to punch it in from the 1. He noted the anemic run totals for a program that was billing itself as RBU not so long ago: 24 yards on 25 carries. He failed to mention freshman running back Vincent Davis scored on a 3-yard run in the second quarter.

“We can look back at all the calls, guys,” Narduzzi said. “All the armchair quarterbacks, you guys all have those armchair desks, so it’s easy to make those decisions. We were throwing the ball — we threw for over 300 yards — and we felt like we had some plays open.”

No- you were not because we’ve seen this movie before.  OK – prediction time. I think UCF beats the spread scoring a bunch in the first half and doubles our point total – but we actually score a TD in either quarters three or four.

UCF – 42

Pitt – 21

…then a surprisingly close loss will have to do.

I suppose some Pitt fans will have left wherever they watched the game feeling pretty darn happy overall. Not jumping up and down of course like an actual win would get us to do, but content having seen Pitt accomplish what looked like a well played ball game. After all holding Penn State to 17 points isn’t bad at all and I tip my hat to the defense specifically.

On the other hand Pitt scoring only seven points is bad and made worse because of the reasons we scored so few. We have such an unbalanced offense that quality play in the passing game just can’t do it alone hence we are 1-2 on the season.

What jumps out to the Pitt fan again was the yardage numbers Kenny Pickett put up passing in this his second good game. He had tons of yards with his doing this: 35/51 for 68% and 372 yards with 0 TDs and 0 INTs for a QB rating of 129.9.

If you can look past that 372 yards number what the story tells us again is that our offense was on the whole very ineffective. In nine possessions we scored only twice – a FG and a TD. Both in the 1st half of the game (Good God! More on that later).

We pretty much knew going in that our running game was going to do nothing at all and they didn’t disappoint by playing as horrid as they have all year. Against a decent PSU defense today we ran the ball 25 times for 24 yards and that my friends was good for .97 ypc. Not even a single yard per carry but round that up to 1.0 ypc if it makes you feel any better. Why did we figure they would suck? Because in the first two games we averaged only 3.4 ypc and this week we faced a better defense… so ipso facto we fought and clawed our way to 1.0 ypc. With all the fighting and clawing what we didn’t do was actually block for the RBs.

Of course that puts extreme pressure on the other offensive units mainly the QB and the WRs (Oh, don’t forget about the TE – they got two (!) passes today). When you can’t even threaten a defense with your ground game that allows the opponent to cover our passing better and keep the receptions in front of them. By that I mean not give up TDs through the air which the Nitters accomplished.

When I look at how well a QB did in a game I look primarily at four things: his QB Rating; Yards Per Attempt (ypa); Yards Per Completion (ypc) and the TDs to Completion ratio. Those are what makes the difference between fancy numbers up on a scoreboard and how truly effective a QB was.  We can look at that 372 yards and be happy and it is an accomplishment, don’t get me wrong. But when you break down what those 372 yards actually did for the offense today it’s another story altogether especially since he did that on 51 attempts.

That puts things in a different perspective; with his yards per attempt (YPA) at 7.3 and his yards per completion(ypc) at 10.6 which are mundane averages compounded by his not connecting for a TD. In truth Pickett’s numbers and how he played today was the only bright spot of the offense so the light shines stronger on him. But even with Pitt putting out a poor running game I feel he could have and should have been more effective with his passing.

Those are what the players did this afternoon.

What hurts us fans even more was that, yet again, we saw poor in-game decision making by HC Pat Narduzzi which I believe helped to cut our collective nuts off. Of course his one decision late in the last PSU game will be talked about forever and that was choosing to try a Field Goal instead of a TD when we were at the PSU 1 yard line on 4th down. Watching the game and listening to my friends and the announcers it was true that we’d have to get two scores to win the game, we did.

However, what the announcers, fans and all others didn’t seem to grasp about that 4th & goal at the 1 situation was that, yes – it was a two score game to win; but a TD and a successful two point conversion (an attempt from the PSU 2.5 yard line mind you) wins the game also! And if you do miss the conversion then at the very least it sets you up for  needing only a three point FG vice a full 7 point TD to win.

Instead his crap decision making there was going to force us to score another TD for the win – regardless of if a successful FG if made or not.  I know I’ve said this before but he’s not a very good game of football coach and if we ever forget that he reminds us over and over again.

I don’t know about you but I’d much rather have a chance for a 2 pt conversion (with no time running off the clock) then have to march lots of yards downfield with what turned out to be only 1:56 left on the clock for a try at a TD win and only one timeout. He’s really not a good game day coach at all – and that has been proven time and again.

So – moral victory? Or just another loss to our hated rival but only closer in score this time? We played well on defense and that’s a good thing because what this Whipple offense has given us so far is only 14 points per game and a 1-2 record. Our defense is allowing only 19 ppg and that should easily be good enough for a minimum of 2-1 record on the season at this point.

Don’t let this staff throw big numbers at you and bamboozle you into thinking it’s good football. It is not – the effectiveness of our passing game has been average at best and because we can’t run the ball that level of effectiveness isn’t cutting it for wins…and if this holds we’ll see more losses than wins from here on out. There are a lot of smoke and mirrors with this 2019 offense but we need to turn completions into points because no one else is – including the kicker.

I see a tough game down in Florida next week against UCF. Their freshman QB Dillion Gabriel just threw for 347 yards and four (4) TDs in a rout of Stanford – remember them? We didn’t score any 2nd half points against Stanford either. That work by the UCF QB my friends is true effectiveness in the passing game. We’ve seen the yardage but not the points thus far by Pitt’s QB. That has to change and quickly if we will hope to be over six wins when the dust settles on the season.

Note: Here is a look at the last six Pitt QBs that played for any length of time as a Panther. I charted them statistically so we can see comparisons. The bold blue is best and the bold red is worse.

One thing to remember is that even though Pickett has started 20 games he’s apparently taken a turn for the better as a passing QB so these numbers will certainly be different at the end of this season and at the end of his Pitt career – let’s hope they change for the better because to this point, even with the last two games, he’s been the least effective of all six guys.

What really pops out is Pickett’s only 1 TD per 18 completions – by far the worse and actually pretty horrendous as we saw again today and as we’ve seen so far this year with his 47 completions and only two TDs.

Well, hello again!

Chas has been gracious in his allowing me to get back to where it began as far as my writing about Pitt football and I’ll be posting some articles here on The Pitt Blather every so often.  So, here goes…

After a pretty dismal opening loss to ACC opponent Virginia Pitt hosted Mid-Atlantic Conference (MAC) Ohio at Heinz last Saturday. It wasn’t Ohio State mind you but Ohio…who actually isn’t all that bad of a team for a MAC school. Let’s set the stage a bit:

Against Virginia Pitt looked pretty shabby in just about every aspect of play. After VA moved out to a 13-0 lead Pitt had its only two decent drives, both in the 2nd quarter, to go ahead by one point, 14-13 at the half.  After that…nothing at all… while VA scored 17 unanswered points. Fans will have different opinions about how Pitt actually played in that game but regardless of how you break the game down it was a disappointment to those who thought we had a chance to start off the 2019 season on the right foot.

But that foot tripped over its other foot and we started 0-1 in ACC play.

Then last Saturday we seemed to play better. In many aspects we took a big leap ahead, especially in the passing game by our QB Kenny Pickett. What he did against VA was pretty horrid with 21/41 for 185 yards @ 4.5 yards per attempt & an 87.4 passer rating… and watching it unfold felt even worse. But he rebounded against Ohio in a big way by throwing for 26/37 for 321 yards @ 8.6 ypa and a 151.0 rating in a 20-10 victory.

Was that a big step in the direction of what our new OC Mark Whipple thinks we’ll see each week out of the passing game or was that a result of playing a MAC defense that was 99th in Passing Yards Allowed (3300 yards and 24 TDs) in 2018? Who knows, but it was better passing and receiving play and less sacks allowed by our Offensive Line then the week before so that bodes well. Our talented WRs didn’t drop as many passes in Week 2 as in Week 1 and that helped account for the big yardage jump also.

I don’t buy into the belief that we’ll see that same level of passing play we did last week as the norm for the rest of the season save for maybe against Delaware and a poorer ACC team. I certainly believe that our next opponent, Penn State, will put so much defensive pressure on Pickett we’ll see more of a reprise of the VA game then of what we saw in the Ohio match. I’m not taking Pickett’s accomplishment away from him, but hell folks, throwing for 321 yards and yet only one (1!) TD? He has to do better than that if we are to win Saturday and our conference games later in the season.

Regardless of if our passing game was effective or not we have kept up the poor work in the second half of our ball games scoring 0 points against VA and then only 3 points against Ohio.  This trend has been a killer for us – in our last five matches we have scored a total of nine points in the second half.  Nine points in 10 quarters of play.

Here’s how that broke down as far as points scored after the half going back and including the last three games (all losses) of 2018: Miami – 3 points; Clemson – 0; Stanford – 3; VA – 0 and Ohio – 3. Nice pattern but totally crap late and needed offensive play and a scoring difference of 49-9 2nd half points overall.

That is actually horrid and as a result we are 1-4 in those five games with the only win being against a lesser foe. That really bothers me for a variety of reasons but what jumps out most is the continued absence of effective halftime offensive adjustments by Narduzzi and his staff.

Our run game was a bit better against Ohio than it was against VA. In that first game the VA defense held us to 30 carries for 78 yards (2.6 ypc) and 1 TD. Ugh. We rebounded against the Bobcats with a better showing of 37 carries for 160 yards (4.3) and 1 TD also. Still not what we’d like to see against an FCS school, but better.

Looking at this season’s rushing so far at 67-238 @ 3.6 ypc and 2 TDs I very much doubt we’ll see anything like the rushing game we had last season this year – far from it maybe.

Penn State currently sits at 30th nationally in rushing defense giving up only 2.19 ypc and zero TDs. That said the Nitters haven’t played the schedule we have so far with their Idaho (79-7 win) and Buffalo (45-13 win) games.

What jumps out to me is that regardless of who PSU played they outscored their opponents 79-20 in averaging 62 ppg. I think they will score a bunch against us on Saturday also. The question therefore is ‘are we going to be able to keep pace with them?’ I don’t think we can enough to win the ballgame in Happy Valley with 106+ crazy fans screaming their lungs out. It will be our first away game and one that signifies which major PA team gets the last win in what may be a very long time before these two teams play again. Pitt dined out on our  2000 win until 2017 when we lost to the Bad Guys up in Blinders-on, PA.

Look at our record in the last three games against PSU; we are 1-2 and have been outscored 123-62 with a humiliating 51-6 loss last year. And we had a semi-decent team last season – better than the current 2019 version in my opinion, albeit with different approach offensively this go-round.

But Penn State is Penn State and when we won that last match against them we were fielding talent like QB Nate Peterman (3 TD passes), WR Q. Henderson (7 touches for 107 yards @ 15.0 ypt and 1 TD) and RB James Conner (146 yards total at 5.6 ypt and 2 TDs) on offense and an offensive line that was one of the best we have had in ages.

That OL gave us a 28th ranked rushing Offense along with a 3rd ranked Sacks Allowed at only 10 on the whole season. We have no offensives stars of that caliber on this squad – so far at least. Some kids shined against Ohio but we’ll see what they do against better competition.
This year’s version of the OL is a far cry from those of the past when we won 8 games and as such I feel Pickett will be running for his life on most of his drop backs on Saturday. That’s going to make a big difference in his passing stats and effectiveness.

I don’t have a crystal ball but I predicted a 1-3 start on the season by the Panthers and nothing I’ve seen has changed my mind on what will most probably happen in Happy Valley. I think PSU shuts down our run game, disrupts the passing game and scores on deep passes against us.

Penn State is now giving (-)17 points to Pitt according to the latest betting websites. I think that is just about correct but I’ll take even more PSU points so my prediction is:

PSU – 45
Pitt –  17

3:30 Kickoff at Heinz. ACC Coastal Division is on the line. I’m not telling you what TV station it’s on. If you aren’t at the stadium and you don’t have a damn good excuse, which is mostly “I have to take a plane to get there” or “I unfortunately am reading this from beyond the grave,” shame on you. This is maybe the biggest home game for Pitt in a decade or so.

As Chas pointed out earlier this week, Pitt controls its own destiny. It’s a terrifying thought for any Pitt fan who has paid attention for any period of time. A win vs VT and all the fightin’ Narduzzi’s have to do is beat Wake Forest or Miami for a trip to Charlotte and give every Clemson fan a panic attack. There are other scenarios, but win today and the path is crystal clear.

I’m feeling confident, which is always terrifying as Pitt tends to do better when I expect the worst. Is my confidence well-placed or am I drunk?

Two miles.

That’s about the distance from the Cathedral of Learning to the Tree of Life Synagogue. Just hop one of the #61 PAT buses on Forbes Avenue in Oakland and get off at Shady and Forbes in Squirrel Hill maybe 15 minutes later. Walk half-a-mile up Shady Avenue until you hit Wilkins. And there you are.

Two miles.

A very short drive.

That’s how far away I was yesterday morning. That’s roughly how far anyone on campus at Pitt was yesterday morning.

It’s so close, yet as anyone who attended Pitt or grew up in Pittsburgh knows; it’s another place. The winding hills. Carnegie Mellon in between. Schenley Park if you go another way. It’s part of why so many grad students end up getting apartments up there. Safely away from the distractions on Pitt’s campus. A little removed from the campus distractions. Yet, easy to get quickly to the campus.

(more…)

Bit of hyperbole, but this has been quite the holiday weekend.

Friday, Pitt upsets Miami.

Saturday, Pitt basketball beats Lehigh and even showed that it is taking some steps to becoming a team.

Sunday. Oh, Sunday. The coaching carousel went beyond tilt-a-whirl. It went Michael Bay explosions crazy. The damn thing spun off its axis and went ripping through the whole amusement park.

It was the effing Silver Streak ripping through Chicago (for those of you old enough to remember this one).

(more…)

You’ve read all the hot takes this week.  This one you’re about to read:  I’m taking it up another notch.  Because here’s the thing:  We can rant about the NCAA, transfer restrictions on scholarship athletes in primarily basketball and football.  I’m sure there’s transfer issues in other college sports, but who cares?  It doesn’t generate the mouse-clicks, retweets, likes, f***s given, etc.  We can also feel bad about the non-scholarship students who have to take out loans and probably pay them for next 20 years depending on how much they have to defer them because they can’t find a decent enough job to pay them off.  Meanwhile, Joe Athlete is upset because he wants to transfer to play basketball at Kentucky where he’ll still have a free ride despite having to sit out a year.

Cam Johnson has graduated.  He should be free to move on. Actually, he is already is.   He has his degree.   He can go find a job somewhere in North Carolina if he likes.  He wants to continue playing college hoops which unfortunately has a different set of rules given the whole amateur thing.  He can actually play almost anywhere he wants and play right away, except for the ACC.  He wants to play at North Carolina.  He still can, but he has to sit a year.  He will still get a free ride.

Ok so enough of the rambling the same stuff over.  How do we solve this?  It’s pretty simple, the NCAA needs to read the tweets of Jay Bilas and realize they need to get involved.   There’s a lot of outrage over this.   I’m sure this happens at other program, but that’s not the point.   The point is Pitt is letting a player transfer to another ACC school, but has to sit out.   So the NCAA needs to ban Kevin Stallings from college coaching and sanction the Pitt Basketball Programs.

Kevin Stallings has a history of putting restrictions on players.  He’s not first coach to do it, but again we’re only focusing on him.  Plus his behavior doesn’t fit with today’s more sensitive culture.  He yells and curses at his players.  You just can’t do that these days.  Pitt players needed their safe space, which is why almost all them left for other programs.  So get him out of here.   The man is pure evil.

Pitt also needs to be put in check.  They poached Heather Lyke from Eastern Michigan which upset people like Jay Bilas.   We can’t have that.  Sure Pitt needed to hire a new AD because Oregon State took Scott Barnes in barely even a year after Pitt was hired.  Again, that’s not important.  Neither is other Big East schools contacting the ACC for membership when Pitt looked out for its own interests and left.   Same with Joe Paterno’s Eastern Conference.  Sure it was probably doomed to fail, but Pitt should’ve joined it even if benefited Penn State the most.   Instead…again, Pitt looked for its own interests.  Typical Pitt.  Evil Pitt.

The NCAA must make this right.  They need to sanction Pitt basketball to send a message to Pitt and ban Kevin Stallings from coaching college basketball.  Sure other schools and coaches do the same things, but Pitt is just evil.  Now if you don’t mind when this Cam Johnson issue passes, I’ll stop caring and just wait until the similar situation occurs to capitalize to tweets, pages clicks, comments, etc.

By the way…..Screw them all.   HAIL TO PITT!!!!!

Friends and fellow Pitt Blather readers – I’d like to invite you all to my new Pitt football website “The Pitt POV” that I am rolling out this morning.

I know this is short notice – I wanted to get the blog ‘on the air’ on July 5th but a good friend of mine posted on the Pitt Fanatics Facebook group that I had this new blog and linked it – so it went public way before I had wanted it to… I didn’t even get a chance to call Chas and let him know my plans as I wanted it to be more polished before I did so (he’s gotten an email though).

But really it was you all who I wanted to help guide me through the building process because we’re family when it comes to the intent and content of The Pitt POV.

You all know how I write, how much I love to do it and best of all the great and meaningful discussions we have had between myself and the readers and commenters of the articles I have posted (almost 500 BTW) on here.

Please keep that going over on The Pitt POV also guys.  The Blather has amazingly astute readers.  I want the same -the same and more actually – over on my new place.  But of course I’ll always check The Blather and comment as before (and even drop a piece or two in the article bin every so often if Chas still wants that).

I love you guys and since my retirement in 2011 this blog and the readers on here have become a great part of my life. I’m looking forward to seeing you again, just in a different place.  I’ll also be writing some personal essays and non-sports related articles on The Pitt POV that wouldn’t really fit well on the Blather as The Pitt POV will be my personal blog also.

Lastly I want to say thanks to Chas for being the greatest blog ‘owner’ I ever worked with.  Of course that’s a pretty small and select group of people (1), but he’s truly a great Pitt fan who has a solid handle on the university and its dealings.  He’s an all-around good guy.

So – off to new adventures… I have the same media credentials as before so I’ll be going up to camp in the fall and letting the Pitt POV readers what I see and feel about the team.

See you soon –  Reed

P/S: Along with articles I plan on sending out an introductory email and monthly newsletters – so stay tuned for that also

As I say in the podcast below I’d like to change things up a bit and do less writing and more talking on here – so here is the first installment of a series of recurring weekend podcasts.  I touch on a lot of different things and throw some opinions and numbers around… it is 54 minutes long so take a rest and enjoy.

I hope that the benefits of doing this will be two fold; first to get as much info and discussion topics across as we can and then secondly the get you all involved in subjects and issues you want to hear about before the fall camp starts.

Again, not a professional but I think it turned out well…

Here is a nice article about Tony Dorsett coming to play at the University.

Tony Dorsett was born on April 7, 1954 in Rochester, Pennsylvania. He was the sixth of seven children in the family. Dorsett’s father, West, worked in the steel mills for thirty years. Dorsett was very attached to his mother, Myrtle, who ran the household and carted the children to the Methodist church every Sunday. After his older brothers got into trouble for being out late drinking, Dorsett’s parents laid down the law with him, and he avoided much of the trouble so readily available in the neighborhood. Although the family lived in a government-funded project called Plan 11, the housing development was clean and well-kept.

All his siblings were known for their speed, and Dorsett was no exception. His older brothers were track and football stars before him, and they served as Dorsett’s role models and motivators. Upon entering high school Dorsett followed his brothers to Hopewell High School, located in a predominately white neighborhood, where a small number of black kids from the projects were bussed. Dorsett was determined that he would not end up working in the steel mills. Finding a better life was always in his mind.”

 “Pittsburgh Quarterback Danny Marino keeps all of his old game plans inside a red plastic milk crate in his room—to remind himself of the good times. In this same milk crate, which serves as an all-purpose file cabinet, Marino has carefully saved up a substantial wad of notes and letters from his father, Dan Sr.—to remind himself of what’s really important. In one of those World-According-to-the-Old-Man Epistles, Dan Sr. wrote to his son. “You are the best. You are the most dominating player in college football. Remember, nobody does it better.”

Danny looks over the dozen written communiqués from his father, not all borrowed from Carly Simon, and smiles. “He really keeps my confidence up.”

It isn’t as if 20-year-old Marino suffers from any noticeable lack of confidence. As Pitt’s quarterback for 2½ seasons, Marino has led the Panthers to a 33-3 record, the best in the nation, and became Pitt’s all-time leading passer midway through his junior year. Now, as a senior, he’s expected to go that final mile and sprout wings. Which for a college quarterback means producing an undefeated regular season, a bowl victory and, ta da, the national championship.”

Nice piece on OL Matt Rotheram….

Ed Note: PSU was 7-6 last season, not 7-5…. and that was a home game against Miami last season (I didn’t drive up for it).  Voytik is at Arkansas State not Eastern Michigan.

Let me know what you think….

First off let’s talk about the new Unis.

Tomorrow is the Big Day regarding the pomp and circumstance of unveiling the new Pitt Panther uniforms. This doesn’t effect just the football team but will be the standard across the Pitt sports teams’ board.   That will take place tomorrow and I’m sure we will discuss it on here as soon as the Magic Happens.

I’ll bet on this happening – don’t hold your breath for and noticeable color changes. Pitt is most probably going to stick with what we have now or damn close to it (I believe).

I’m OK with that as I like the color combo as it is.  Fans want mustard, Old Gold, yellow, Navy Blue and various combinations thereof but I think we’ll keep it simple.  now, how those colors are used will be a different matter.  Let’s just hope it isn’t a repeat of this failed experiment.

(more…)

The well respected Football Writers of America (FWAA) has come out with their list of the best 11 Sports Information Directors (SIDs) in the nation and Pitt has won it, along with 10 other schools, for 2015.

E. J. Borghetti, who is a great SID and a huge help for us writers on The Blather, is the consummate professional and deserves this honor in spades.

To refresh your memory he is the “Executive Associate Athletic Director – Media Relations” for the Athletic Department and does wonderful work for Pitt and for us fans. (More on that later).

Just for fun let’s look at the criteria the FWAA lays out for candidacy for the awards:

The awards …

In 2009, the Football Writers Association of America introduced its Super 11 Awards, designed to identify and reward the sports information departments and programs that exemplified excellent media relations.

The criteria …

The following ten areas were set forth as the criteria/standards for selection for the awards:

– Players (eligible and playing in varsity games) who are requested should be available to media during Mondays and Tuesdays of game week (minimum).

– Defensive coordinator and offensive coordinator should be available to media once a week during the season (minimum) and once a month during the off-season (minimum).

– Freshmen who play should be available to media.

– If former players and/or boosters are allowed into scrimmages or practices, the media should not be excluded from those same scrimmages or practices. (Whaaaaa??)

Coaches should be available to media on their campuses at least once a week during the season for no less than 30 minutes. They also should be made available after practice each day for updates on the team. Weekly telephonic press conferences do not count toward these times.

– A “no cheering in the press box” statement should be made in the press box before the beginning of each half of play. In addition, SID’s should make every attempt to keep the press box quiet and escort disruptive individuals to the exits.

– Requests for quotes from key players injured in a game should be granted by the home SID and his staff.

– FWAA member(s) should help the each SID with requests for players to be interviewed after a game. Any player who has played (and is not injured) and is not made available for interviews will be so noted by FWAA observers. The FWAA recommends open locker rooms after games, but short of this, any player who plays in a game and is not injured, upon request, should be made available to the media.

– An FWAA pool reporter or a reputable news person should be designated by the home SID before every game in case there is an officiating controversy during the game.

Boosters should not be present at postgame news conferences involving the media, coaches and players. Interruptions or noise will be duly noted by the FWAA observer. Press boxes where non-media are disruptive will also be noted.

The 2015 recipients …

The 2015 winners of Super 11 Awards were the following programs: Clemson, Houston, Kansas State, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi State, Northern Illinois, Pittsburgh (EJ and his staff), Southern California (USC), Utah State and Western Kentucky.

On a personal note I am proud to call young Mr. Borghetti a friend and will say his willingness to answer what questions he can is a breath of fresh air when writing these articles.  His candor

Plus he doesn’t take crap from anyone.  Not PSU fans,as shown when this letter to the editor appeared in the local newspaper:

To: Pitt football fans

Speaking of being stuck in the past: Pitt football fans actually believe the program has tradition. Maybe 30 years ago it did. Its current tradition is a half-full Heinz Field for its games and a new head coach every other year. Maybe Pitt fans annoy me because I’m a Penn Stater, but maybe they do because they don’t live in reality. Do the Pitt sports-information people still claim to have nine national championships in football?

To which EJ replied:

Perhaps the real source of Mr. Garth’s grouchiness is that after 16 long years, his alma mater, Penn State, can no longer avoid Pitt on the football field. The origin of hate is fear, and he undoubtedly sees that Pat Narduzzi is building a tough, tenacious and, yes, blue-collar program primed for championships at Pitt.

Blue-and-white colored glasses cannot shield him from the approaching storm. The program that produced homegrown legends Ditka, Dorsett and Marino (among many others) has reawakened — just in time for Sept. 10, 2016.

He can stay home the day a parade is held to celebrate Coach Narduzzi bringing a 10th national title to Pitt.

… not Todd Graham nor anyone else that I can remember.

It was well deserved promotion when EJ was fleeted-up to the “Executive Associate Athletic Director – Media Relations”

Apparently Chad Voytik wants to be in Arkansas State to play his last year rather than in Eastern Kentucky.

 “I wanna play my last year, with the current situation at Pitt it would have been an uphill battle to get back the starting position,” said Voytik in an interview with WRCB. “For one the offense didn’t fit me. We got a new OC, a lot of pocket passing, not much boot-leg or roll outs. Which is what I like.”

This comment reveals a big reason why Voytik might be interested in playing for the Red Wolves, a team notorious for fielding dual-threat quarterbacks. He likely saw a nice fit with A-State OC Buster Faulkner’s fast paced offense.”

Whatever, it’s starting to become old and tiresome. He backed off a challenge here at Pitt, sold a bill of goods to Eastern Kentucky and now, at least FOR now, he’ll be a Red Wolf.

That quote above does it all for me. “For one the offense didn’t fit me.” Gee, sorry Chad.  Guess you gave old Toddy Graham a call to see if he was still running what you were recruited for?

Folks,  let’s not hear anymore insane and over the top criticism of Tino Sunseri, who stuck it out with Pitt through all the hardships Pitt’s own football program and team went through with the shitstorm that happened from 2010 through 2012, only to be then pilloried by his school’s own damn fans.

All Sunseri did when faced with a new offense that didn’t fit his skill set at all was to buckle down and try his best to make it work… for the team.

Yet somehow and in some strange way Pitt fans look at Chad Voytik -who never won as many games a season for Pitt, had way lesser production than Sunseri did and apparently half the guts – and they think he’s some sort of Golden Boy.  And the even weirder thing is I believe its because he made a few phone calls back in 2011.

As a quick followup to our “Where would Boyd be drafted?” contest two of us picked the Bengals (or Bungles in TX Panther’s case).

I weighed in at 9:28 am on the morning of Round One, before the draft started, with this:

OK – I’m thinking the Bengals take Boyd with their second round pick. I also think Holtz gets in on a surprise 6th or 7th pick tomorrow.  Pitts is left looking around like he never did on the field of play.

Comment by Reed 04.28.16 @ 9:29 am

Then the next day, before Round Two started, Texas Panther posted this:

He will become a Bungel

Comment by TX Panther 04.29.16 @ 7:32 pm

I win!!! I win!!!  Told you I was smart…

I also told you I love Mike Wysocki of The Pittsburgh City Paper and I just figured out why… he writes a lot like I do with tongue-in-cheek views mixed in with irreverence and some plain talking.  He also tends not to sugar coat things.

Since the last big interesting Pitt football issues just happened with Boyd being drafted we are looking a football desert over the next few months so I’m trying to find stuff that is interesting to readers yet pertains to us as Pitt fans also.

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Lets have a small contest to see who thinks what about what draft pick Tyler Boyd will be and what team will grab him.  Also, if you think Pitts and Holtz might get drafted…

Take a look at this website that has info on Boyd plus videos from 13 of his games over the last two years.

Here is just one of many assessments of Boyd:

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