Another piece on Clint Session’s difficult season. Similar story this past week.
A story, ostensibly appearing to be about the overall depth at tight end, really concerns itself with defending Erik Gill’s less than spectacular season.
Gill’s receptions are down — he has only 17 catches in 10 games, which means if the Panthers were to beat West Virginia and get to a bowl game, he’d likely finish with less than the 25 he had from a year ago. But his yards per catch are up — 18.6 this year vs. 17.3 last year — and he accounts for a bigger percentage of the passing offense because the Panthers have thrown less this season.
The Panthers also have two other talented tight ends that he has had to share the ball with.
“Erik has been a real team player for us,” said Pitt tight ends coach Greg Gattuso. “I think there is an unfair perception that he isn’t having a good year because of his catches, but people don’t realize that with Steve [Buches] and Darrell [Strong] both being such good players, we have had to spread it around a little more. If you add the catches that all three have together, the tight ends are actually a much bigger part of it than they have been in a long time.
“To Erik’s credit, he’s never complained or said, ‘This is my senior year.’ He’s just come to work every day and he’s done a fabulous job developing his blocking. That’s the biggest improvement in him — he’s a much better and more complete blocker than he was last year.”
Gill gets very defensive about the issue of dropped passes. No discussion is made of the of fumbles he has had.
A kind of stock article from a WV paper about the unneveness of Pitt’s offense in Coach Wannstedt’s first year.
The problem is that Pitt is trying to run the ball with personnel recruited by former coach Walt Harris to throw it. The results have not been pretty.
While Wannstedt’s defense ranks seventh in the country against the pass and No. 26 overall, the offense is No. 94 in rushing, No. 74 in passing and No. 92 overall.
Call it trying to put a square peg in a round hole. But Wannstedt knows that for the good of the program, that’s what has to be done.
“The only way we’re going to win a championship around here is if we play great defense and special teams, but we also have to run the ball,” Wannstedt said. “I think if you look at the stats right now and ask who the two best teams in our conference are, it’s West Virginia and Louisville. And both of those teams are at the top of every rushing category on offense.
…
So far, the Panthers have tried a mix of tailbacks and still are generating only 116 yards per game. And it’s actually not getting any better. The last two games the Panthers played resulted in two of their lowest rushing outputs of the season — 62 yards in a loss at Louisville and 76 in a win over Connecticut. There has been only one game with over 150 yards rushing and that was against Division I-AA Youngstown State.
Don’t worry, though, Pitt will keep on pounding that ball.
Speaking of coaches, and coaches speaking. Former Pitt Coach, now special assistant to the AD, Johnny Majors is in Little Rock, Arkansas speaking to the Little Rock Touchdown Club today.
