If Shane Murray is a starter at linebacker next season we are in big trouble !In the second half So. Fla ran every play at Murray, it didn’t matter where he lined up on the field .
Next week the defense can cheat by over playing where ever Murray lines up on the field ! Dickerson can’t grasp the linebacking position based on the coaches chewing him out on the sideline after each of the few plays he saw action on.

I would imagine that a quarterbacks are anatomically separate from other human beings and therefore they are incapable of using weights and exercises to build and tone muscles in their bodies.

Quarterbacks don’t get stronger throwing arms. It’s not like lifting weights. Pitchers either have the speed or they don’t. Quarterbacks either have the hand size and arm strength or they don’t.

Matt is responsible for countless offsides penalties and linemen not knowing what to do or who to block. That is his job. Palko did less uner him than he did under Walt. In fact, Palko’s throws got weaker under Matt and his adjusted throwing motions. No one with common sense thought Bostick should throw down field more. He lacks an arm. Stull was much better and got hurt. But the close formations are predictable and their are former quarterbacks with speed that could do more in the backfield now than the over-used Wildcat formation or the one 10 yard lobs from Bostick.

It’s not Bostick sole problem that he stares down receivers. He has no arm. Since when do you try and start a quarterback as a freshman hoping he will get an arm some day? You either have one or you don’t. The kid played for a team in the middle of nowhere and it shows now. He throws picks because he can’t throw with mustard. Not because he is a freshman. You don’t get recruited because you might get an arm some day. We made a recruiting mistake. Let’s move on. Bostick is playing because we have no other healthy choice and no imagination. He is not anyone’s choice now that we see what he has.

Matt’s teams have jumped offsides 4 times in a row. That falls on Matt and not Dave or Rhoads.

Actually, pitchers can develop more velocity by doing exercises and lifting weights with the proper regimen – it allows pitchers to come back from injuries where the arm speed is down. Bostick will never have a Michael Vick arm where he can flick it 70 yards, but he can develop more velocity, which combined with an accurate throw, could be very useful.

Pat Bostick played for a team in the middle of nowhere – and that explains why he was highly recruited and now sucks. Well, Jeannette is the center of the universe in AA WPIAL playing teams from Westmoreland County all the time…

Who exactly should Pitt play at QB? Rod Rutherford? It is not like we are throwing Bostick out there for shits and giggles. Kevan Smith played and everyone decided he was the worst QB ever. Then Bostick becomes the worst QB ever and Kevan Smith becomes “if the coaches gave him more of a chance…he could be really good”. Maybe Darrell Strong could play QB, or Mo Williams who played at Erie Strong Vincent (middle of nowhere – so he automatically sucks).

I am not sure how Palko put up worse numbers under Cavanaugh than under Walt. Palko never had a great arm but still put up big numbers.

We are on a roll tonight. I can’t wait to hear someone complain how we never go to bowl games anymore, you know, one of the 300 Pitt fans that actually ever traveled to a bowl game.

Bostick just has no experience.

He wasn’t supposed to play this much this early, and he is and it shows.

I’m not “on the ledge” about Bostick yet. It’d be ridiculous to be.

I’m more pissed about our coaching. Yeah, Pittsburgh Dave’s recruited well, but he left us PERILOUSLY thin and inexperienced at QB coming into this year.

As for the game itsef, HOW THE FUCK do we not prepare for a fake punt when they did it twice last year?

And 2nd half adjustments? You’ll find none from Pitt. USF always plays strong in the 2nd half. See they make halftime adjustments when things aren’t going well. Novel approach, I know….

USF really isn’t that impressive. If ANYTHING happens to Grothe, they’re fucked. He IS the USF offense.

Their defense is solid, a tad overrated, but solid. They seem to thrive when they have a decent lead and can force other teams to have to pass on every down. In tighter games where teams can take advantage of their lack of size, they’re pretty average.

All-in-all, and I know this will shock some people, I didn’t see a huge gap in talent between Pitt and USF. The difference was coaching (duh!), and experience on the offensive side of the ball for Pitt.

Seriously, a team with a halfway competant offense that doesn’t shoot itself in the foot every series wins this one by 2 TDs with how well our defense kept us in the game for 3 quarters.

‘It isn’t a surprise that South Florida was able to pull off a fake punt in the first quarter — the Bulls successfully ran two fake punts for first downs a year ago against Pitt.

And South Florida coach Jim Leavitt said that if the Bulls had needed to run another one yesterday, he had no doubt it would have worked because of the way the Panthers line up to defend punts.

“We practiced it all week and we really felt like it would be there. It worked out pretty good,” he said. “We saw it on film. We really thought there was a chance for it. We really felt like we could have run it even after that. It was still there. We just didn’t run it. The guys are probably mad at me for that. It was still there on a fourth-and-1 from our own 20.

“We probably could have got it but we could have had a bad snap. I don’t know if you want to go to the well that many times.”‘ – From the PG

Kevin Smith was never healthy enough to play, that was all crap.

Byham’s knee injury “appeared to be serious” – sounds like he’s done and has 6 months of rehab ahead of him. That sucks – he was one of the guys who actually seemed to give a shit and deserved the ball more. Luckily he’ll be #1 by default next year.

Oh – and Oregon has to use the backup QB instead of Dixon and scores 0 points this week. I guess that position is important. No – wait – the OC sucks – its his fault. Fire the OC!

As for the offsides, I blame the OL coach more than Cav(still blame Cav though). The OL is also very bad so they could just be…ugh, very bad. I do not blame Bostick for trying too much(unless you look stupid). He needs some serious work so the off season could be very good for him. He does however need to understand that the INT’s he threw today were nails on wood. He also needs to learn that defenses like hitting QB’s and you should run away from them really fast.

I think Paul Dunn is a senior, right???? Anyway, the first interception was Darrel Strong’s fault – he never even looked for the ball. The second interception was a phenomenal play by what’s-his-name, the middle linebacker, on a blitz read by Bostick that was the correct read. The third interception Bostick did stare down the receiver, but Turner and Porter were too close together and Turner’s man intercepted the ball to Porter. A wrong route or a bad play call.

Couple this with: Collins dropping an easy pass that would have gone for a touchdown. Porter dropping the perfect pass from McCoy. Turner giving up on a ball that hit him in the hands (he was bailed out by Williams). Etc. Etc. Always one guy screwed up on almost every play. I blame….McGlynn, Turner, Strong, Phillips.

Bostick was aweful, why was smith never put in? I was calling for Smith in the second quarter when it was obvious that pat didnt have it. He looks so slow and awkward out there. Just another game where pitt did not capitalize on all of their chances and the other teams mistakes. The D though continues to get better and that is encouraging.

Jimbo is right. We are talking about a freshman quarterback. You cant judge him yet. Freshmen make mistakes. Bostick seemed sharp in the first half, but that second half he inexperience showed… ALOT. Pitt is easily just as good as that team. We dont throw those interceptions and get that 4th and 2 we win by a td or two. The coaches are the reason we arent pulling these games out. When Pitt gets new coaches they need to not worry about a pitt guy and second they need to get a guy that has been a winner whether he is 1AA or what. They just have to get back to being a winner.
Maybe it looked different on tv, but it seemed Otah did half decent on Selbie. The rest of the line was a joke. Shady got hit as he touched the ball half the time.
i sat by a guy that thinks we should fire cavanaugh and keep rhoads…. My comment to him… WAIT FOR WVU. Rhoads gets destroyed against the spread offense. Leavitt was an idiot, because they did no play action, options, or scrambled Grothe until the last drive in the first half and early in the second half.
Cav had a decent game calling plays. Im not sold on him, but you cant fire him for a fresh qb

Kevin…. ALL 3 INTS were HORRIBLE passes. the first was thrown wayyyy behind strong.

One time Otah looked bad – first carry of the game, Selbie was in the backfield, other than that, Otah held his own. McGlynn and the Right Guard were destroyed….I agree with Adam that the Rhoads defense showed up again when they went to the spread – we got lucky a couple times on all-out blitzes to stop the bleeding. Adam, I’m not saying Bostick played great, just that the interceptins weren’t solely his fault – Strong should at least have looked for the ball and got his hands on it. Maybe not a completion, but not a pick.

Bostick was panicking on the blitzes later in the game, but the OLine sucked big time – a couple times we counted two guys that got to Bostick who had two OLinemen on them and they both got through clean. Paul DUNN must go.

We didn’t play Smith because he was never available – his shoulder was hurt too bad, all that talk during the week was to screw with USF. Our #2 qb was Malichik(sp?).

The ball to Strong *was* thrown in front of him – he just ran a poor route. I guess he half-assed it figured he wasn’t getting the ball on that down. That should have been a pass breakup by the defender, not a pick. The other two balls, he needs to know where coverage is (although our line is terrible and he has no protection) and the third ball was just atrocious.

Where do we find a good Oline coach? I see no chance of that guy sticking around. Even if the players suck, he has to make them at least competent. I saw nothing of that. Not everyone out there has 5* lineman – and their QBs and RBs don’t get hit on every play.

bostick put nothing on that throw. It looked like just a poor pass. Whether Strong could have broken it up or not… I dont know. Regardless it was a really bad pass.
Im optimistic for next year though.
Depth a QB should be good. The problem is there might not be one qb that is above average next year. It is wide open but I expect Bostick or Stull with Smith as the third option.
Shady will be the feature back and LSH will be a second guy. Kevin Collier will be back too. should be interesting to see what pitt does with him.
Recievers should be fine. Mo Will is looking more and more impressive each game and TJ Porter isnt half bad. I wouldnt be surprised if they pass up Oderick Turner.
O-Line has a lot of young/inexperienced talent. Pinkston, Jacobsen, Nix, Matha, Joe Thomas, CJ Davis, and this new guy from purdue. Im looking forward to a lot of depth. They might be too young and inexperienced to be amazing, but shouldnt be bad. Otah is a HUGE loss
dline- seems to be getting better on the rush. Between Malecki, Romeus, Williams, Duhart, and Mustakas being back. Tony Tucker is a guy i hope will start to be beneficial. Sheard grabbed some pt at the end of the game too.
Linebackers doesnt change too too much. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Scott Mckillop. He is a little guy that plays with SO much heart. Dickerson SHOULD be okay after a year of playing in and out there. Dan Loheyde is going to be a good player. Im calling that right now! (not next year though)Nate Nix and Brandon Lindsey are young.. Who knows what you will get with them. Adam Gunn and Shane Murray are both back and had a lot of playing time this year. Both are nothing too special. a little below average players
Dbacks have to get better this year. Aaron Berry is going to be good. Ricky Gary has little experience. Chappel isnt anything wonderful. I hope to see elijah fields back.. (if he hasnt completely left) Thatcher isnt great. Aaron Smith was very athletic out of highschool, but hasnt been too impressive. We have Hobby and Reed coming in, but dont expect anything out of those two yet. Maybe Jared Holley comes in. He would atleast have an outside shot at some pt. This is a position that must get better.
Not too excited about the recruiting class like i have been in the last few years. Nix is very exciting. Chris Burns isnt going to do anything right off the bat. He is playing for a tiny Wilmington school and definitely wont start over shady and LSH.
I really want Baldwin. He is a GREAT talent. Pryor is pretty much out of the question. Cameron saddler might be the new LSH after he is gone. Holley is a good talent. Aj Alexander may come in and be decent. Most likely a db. Shayne Hale seems pretty distant. Ryan Williams is another long shot. Streeter is up in the air. A who knows. These are all guys that would be really nice.
Wow wouldnt it be a dream to have t. pryor though. The qb problems could just disappear right away with a guy like that

I agree that Pryor would be pretty nice to have. Look at good teams and alot of them have really good scrambling qbs that can pass if they need to. Dennis Dixon, Pat White, Tim Teabow.
I feel like Pitt would be such a good fit for Pryor too. Play on a good basketball team and a football team that is so young and with a good qb is in a bowl right now. It is close to home. We PLAY FRESHMAN!

I know that Pryor is the #1 high school prospect in the country in football, but just out of curiousity, where does he rank in hoops?

I seriously think that if he were at that game yesterday he could’ve been convinced that he is the missing piece of the puzzle. Believe it or not, witnessing that loss could have actually HELPED us recruit the kid.

Pryor and Shady COULD BE > White and Slaton.

Probably not gonna happen, but a man can dream right? Ironically, I actually have a real bad feeling that Pryor’s going to join the hoopies and become Pat White pt. 2. Going to Penn State and getting ruined by JoePa would be really dumb of him.

Also, I was reading the other pre-game post about USF’s press clippings. This fellating the Tampa sports media does on all of their sports team is ridiculous. I know you want to give the hometown slant, but I live in Tampa and the media is just ridiculous.

Particulary the part about all the sellouts at RayJay. (I posted this under the other topic but nobody will probably read that one)…

Ummm…. there were TWO sold out games in Raymond James: WVU and UCF. There were less people at the USF v. UNC game (the week before the WVU game) than there were at Pitt’s game this weekend.

That was it.

And you can’t call them “sell outs” due to USF’s Div 1AA-esque practice of giving away about 20,000 tickets (if they can) per game to students.

It just makes me mad that when we’re put in those situations, people in Pittsburgh make it sound like Pitt’s a huge piece of shit.

But USF gets treated with kid gloves down here and praised for it.

I guess it’s just because Pittsburghers are waaaay more cynical than Tamponians.

Pittbballguy –

You forgot Kinder in the list of WRs – he’s a little better than the others you list.

And Chappel is already a better cover corner than Cox will ever be. He just doesn’t seem to be good enough in run support/tackling right now.

I can’t wait until White is gone. At least they’re beatable when their backup is in – right now, they’re just killing everyone. You have to outscore them and pray they make a mistake. There just a really good college football team – they use the fact there is no team with solid defensive players from top to bottom and make it a 7 on 7 game. And it fucking eats me up inside to say it. At least its not PSU.

I cant wait for white to be gone either, but i said the same thing when Rasheed Marshall was there. I thought sheed was the guy that made the team. Then he leaves and Pat White. I wouldnt be at all surprised if its the system and not as much the player. I still would like to see white gone, but i would not be at all surprised if a year or two after he leaves we see the next sheed/white.
Pryor would easily be the missing link. I doubt he will go to PSU. My uncle is RICH grad from PSU and he has talked to Bradley. Bradley says it is really hard to recruit with Paterno, because the players arent sure what he does and how long he will be there. He said Ohio State or Florida. I heard Ohio State wont let him play both sports. Florida has Teabow??? that makes me worried that WVU could be a possibility. Huggins is as criminal as they come and will do whatever to get him there. I once again agree with Jimbo that the USF game would be an eye opener to a team that could be one of the top teams with a good qb. I really think Pitt has such an upside. Not to mention that we really have a good amount of guys in the media that can help get him attention. May sold fitz all the time. This is a place where he has a chance to just stand out. I guess this opinion is bias because my pops played football at pitt and i was graduated from pitt, but i really think that Pitt could be the best fit for Pryor.
im starting to rant now, but here is why:
Media attention: You have May pushing Pitt guys left and right. Ditka, Marino also work as NFL guys.
Playing time: We sure as hell know he can atleast challenge for a starting job
Players surrounding him: we have three top 25 recruiting classes and we play in a conference that is lucky to have one other team have a top 25 recruiting class. He is surrounded by YOUNG talent that is getting experience.
SHADY SHADY SHADY
Much easier to go to a nat’l champ in the big east than some other conferences.

Florida- has teabow. Great football and bball would most likely make him choose football or bball.

Tennessee- Very crappy style offense. Play in the SEC where they cant win the conference. Too many other great teams. goodluck trying to win a championship there. Bball is okay, but the talent will be gone when he gets there

Texas- Colt Mccoy. Far away. They always recruit top guys so he will always be fighting for a starting spot. wont let him play both sports

Ohio State- Wont let him play both sports. I believe junior qb?

WVU- Well it is WVU… Enough said.

Pitt bball has Blair, who he played with, and would atleast let him play both sports. They let Revis do it. He just chose to only play football. I remember for media day Revis was there in a uniform though. ohhhh and we are what the 4th winningest team since 2000.

ps. is baldwin still leaning towards pitt? i see rivals has alot about him and notre dame. someone said that he was going to chose Pitt after his season ended earlier this year

I saw scout/rivals/somebody had Pryor as #5 in the country in hoops.

That’s 1+5 = 6 –> he averages as the 3rd best in the country.

I listened to the game on the radio first 3 qtrs…then watched the 4th qtr…some observations;

1. O line STILL making too many mental errors forcing 3 and long consistently with a true freshman QB….anybody think this constant rain of crap sets up a good situation ?

2. Pitt still unable to get 1 or 2 yards when they need it.

3. I guess we don’t have anybody good enough to spy Grothe…..and keep him bottled up

4. I watched plenty of other games….including the Kansas Mo game…..Kansas was a wasteland of college f ball more so than Pitt…..and look what a spread attack and a competent coaching staff has done with that crew…..the speed, desire, and level of play I saw in that game compared to the the plodding, inept effort by Pitt only underscored how far we got to go…..it’s light years…..

guys we can gripe about the players….and bad luck….but it comes back to the coaches….3 years into this mess…..some aspect of this team should be approaching competence….I see very little right now….

Sad thing…unless the coaching and approach to the game changes….we will still be having this same conversation 365 days from now…I am sure that Wanny is convinced he is doing the right thing….but can Pitt ever coach and develop the players to consistently play the type of game that Wannstadt envisions ?