Interesting, especially when you consider how it wasn’t reported. After the Pitt loss to Louisville, Palko made some comments about everyone needs to make the effort and put in the work. In fact the context the article put it in was in defending Greg Lee when there were questions about dropped passes. Here’s the part that apparently wasn’t mentioned.
After Pitt’s 42-20 loss Thursday at No. 23 Louisville, Palko said high expectations demand a strong commitment to get better and that some players need to “work harder.” He also pointed out how some players decline to talk to reporters after a poor performance, leaving it to others to answer for them.
That changes a lot of the context. Greg Lee was one of the players who didn’t talk with reporters after the game. H.B. Blades had no problem with what Palko said.
“You have to push people, but some people won’t take it,” Blades said. “I can talk and talk until I can’t talk any more, but if they don’t want to do it then they won’t do it. And those are the people, we all know, who won’t be around.”
Blades and Palko are team captains. They should have a good feel for their teammates. I can’t help but wonder if Palko as a team leader and someone who might have recalled how former Coach Walt Harris made some pointed questions only partially oblique about Lee’s efforts in training camp last year — and how well Lee seemed to respond to the public challenge.
Coach Wannstedt in his press conference today was asked about Palko’s comments.
On Tyler Palko’s comments about the team’s work ethic:
Tyler’s very emotional, and nobody works harder than Tyler. There’s probably nobody on our team, in his mind, that works hard enough. That’s him. That’s what you love about him. He’s constantly not going to challenge guys by what he says, but he’ll challenge them just by example. He works on and off the field in doing all the little things to give himself the best chance to be the best that he can be. I don’t mind that attitude. I think you keep that stuff in-house you know. But I don’t think he was really taking a shot at anybody. I’m sure it was just a little bit of emotion and a little bit of frustration we all had.
Wannstedt wants to keep things from getting out of hand, but this is the second time since the game that there is a story about some players being questioned for their efforts (Does that mean you are backing off your criticisms of Zeise’s piece? Not really, I still think it wasn’t a particularly good effort. Still it is something to cause reconsideration.).
