It would seem Dorin Dickerson is quite bothered that Pitt has not played him yet. And yet, there are no actual words from him.
As Pitt players headed to the tunnel at Heinz Field after Saturday’s victory over The Citadel, the body language of one told an entirely different story.Dorin Dickerson couldn’t hide the disappointment, bordering on disgust, that he didn’t play against an overmatched Division I-AA opponent.
The former West Allegheny High School star was one of the Panthers’ more heralded recruits, but he has yet to play a down in their first four games. That makes him a candidate to take a redshirt and preserve a year of eligibility.
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“I was in Dorin’s shoes before, and things didn’t work out the way I wanted them to for the first two years here,” said Pitt fifth-year senior quarterback Tyler Palko, a fellow West Allegheny graduate who redshirted as a sophomore. “This is only the fourth game of his career here. He’s going to have a lot of football ahead of him.”
Dickerson is smart enough not to actually say anything, though his body language is apparently betraying him. Dickerson also has an uncle who is a former head coach at the college level. Sure it was Temple, but Ron Dickerson is probably giving him some good counsel.
I’m a bit torn at this point on playing Dickerson. It’s a third of the way through the season and it just doesn’t seem worth it to play him. The prudent thing might be to preserve his full eligibility and give the coaching staff more time to figure out how and where to play him. Something I suspect is a little more problematic than they admit. Playing him without any clear idea of what to do with him seems just as stupid.
On the other hand, there is the curiosity to see what he can do. He is a top recruited prospect and in this day and age, it just seems madness to sit him like this. Plus, if he is as good as everyone thinks he will be, then there is no guarantee he will stay for his full eligibility. Redshirting him would just mean only 2 years of Dickerson playing. He could leave after his redshirt sophomore season. The idea of leaving that kind of weapon just sitting on the pine all season for the sake of his full eligibility would be the kind of thing that makes you question whether Coach Wannstedt even understood what kind of player he had.
I agree with Chas, it could end up that he would succeed well enough to leave early – or, conversely, decide he’s not getting the playing time he deserves and would want to transfer (as seems to be an option for more than one player lately).
On the other hand it seems that he may be frustrated by not playing and I am concerned that this will lead to him wanting to leave or becoming disgruntled. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Also, I believe one of the reasons DW has recruited so well is that he has alluded to the fact that these highly recruited kids can get on the field quickly at PITT – we’ve seen some freshmen play already, but I’d hate for other HS seniors to see this and think – “well, there’s a year of my life gone without playing if I decide to go there.”
I don’t know the inside details of what goes on in redshirting decisions, but my gut says get the talent on the field – it seems that the coaching staff is too worried about someone making a mistake by being put in too early (which I can understand in the case of DBs & SSs).
DW put him in and it didn’t have much impact on the season.(granted, Collins is no Dickorson) However, I’m confident Pitt’s trio of RB’s can handle the load right now. No need to toss another guy into the mix 5 games into the season.
