Former Pitt head coach Jackie Sherrill is in town for the football alumni weekend (complete with a golf outing at the Montour Country Club) and paid a visit to practice yesterday.
The Panthers watched the telecast of the 1982 Sugar Bowl, when Dan Marino threw a scoring pass to John Brown in the final seconds of the 24-20 victory over Georgia.
“It was pretty amazing,” Sherrill said. “I never watched the game on TV. They had us written off because they were scrawling all the credits and saying how good Georgia was. All of a sudden, they had to change the story real quick.”
Back when ESPN Classic actually showed classic games in full, this game often was shown. Not as often as the BC-Miami Flutie hail mary game, but good frequency.
Freshman Aaron Smith’s separated shoulder does require surgery. He’s likely headed for a redshirt. Back-up QB Bill Stull had the pins removed from his finger a couple days early and was actually able to take some snaps under center. Darrelle Revis’ hamstring kept him out of practice for a second straight day. Hopefully it is just the team being extra cautious with the All-American CB.
Words you don’t like to see in the same sentence: Safety Mike Phillips, ankle, hurt. Phillips turned his left ankle during practice and was held out for the rest of the session.
More than a couple hits in practice sent helmets flying, literally.
Freshman defensive tackle John Malecki knocked the helmet off sophomore guard Dom Williams on a Shane Murray interception return. On the next play, redshirt freshman John Brown replaced Williams and knocked the helmet off freshman corner Jovani Chappel.
I hate reading that sort of thing. The risk of concussion is scary.
