Pitt has a big basketball game tomorrow at Washington, yet I am still writing about recruiting stuff. That’s messed up.
USA Today had a story on Pitt recruiting after the WVU win among other things.
During the West Virginia game, Wannstedt, who recently had surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles’ tendon, pitched his crutches in frustration. His annoyance peaked with two horrendous penalties against Pitt in the second half that could have reversed the outcome on the road.
“I ended up breaking one of them,” he said. “The next day I was in the training room with the players. I set myself back a week, but it was worth it.”
My wife was glaring at me for most of the week for leaving her with the sick kids while I went to the game. It was worth it.
Getting the right players is paramount. Wannstedt recalled what USC’s Pete Carroll told him when he considered the job at his alma mater: “Get a good offensive and defensive coordinator. And you better have seven guys who can recruit.”
Today, he will host 14 recruits at the school. Two days ago, one of the top recruits in western Pennsylvania, Cameron Saddler, verbally committed to the Panthers in the wake of their upset of the Mountaineers after he appeared to be a lock to attend Virginia, or possibly WVU.
“We’ve been talking about turning the corner with this program with recruiting good players and getting Pitt back to where it was in the ’70s,” Wannstedt said. “The win over West Virginia really gave us a big shot in the arm. That was a big recruiting game for all the local kids. We’ll see when it’s all said and done in February how many we actually end up with.”
Wannstedt does say he’s planning to review the assistant coaches and players — as would be standard at this point — to see what can improve. No surprise the biggest concern is the O-line.
The area hit hardest by graduation is the offensive line, and it will be an area of concern yet again for the Panthers with left tackle Jeff Otah, center Chris Vangas and right tackle Mike McGlynn moving on. Jason Pinkston, who will be a redshirt sophomore after shoulder surgery this season, could move from right to left tackle. A junior-college center will attempt to be signed as well, so a tackle must emerge. Wannstedt did not rule out moving some defensive linemen to offense, but he wouldn’t confirm anything.
“We’ve got to bring the offensive line together,†Wannstedt said. “We’ve got to determine the five starters, and then we’ve got to get them playing together as fast as we can. … That’s our top priority in the spring.â€
Getting that JUCO Center to verbal this weekend would be huge for Pitt. Not only is Vangas gone, there wasn’t much behind him (which was why he kept the job).
Brief aside, anyone else just a little concerned that even at this point Wannstedt refers to Elijah Fields as “week to week?” I can’t help but worry he will never make it back when the structure of the regular season — even if he was suspended for the season — is not in place.
…i still can’t believe we were in that position…
Dammit though we still need a clutch FT shooter… 2/10ths from losing….
But it is a huge win, something UCLA and 30 other teams haven’t done the last couple years…
Blair …a man child!!
Need to work on stopping that three or the Dukies will have us for breakfast!!!
Wow, I wonder if the Washington fans will pull a “Seahawk” and cry about this one?
But it was obvious that the clock was at 0.0 when he got rid of it.
I guess the Huskies would’ve won that one if College Basketball games were 40:00.2 long!
Thank god they shot that a tenth too late…that’s the ONLY thing that went our way today…
Louisville lost to Dayton. Dayton apparently isn’t anything to scoff at, and we have to go there in a few weeks.
And the Dookies kicked the crap out of Michigan. Our non-con schedule this year is shaping up to be the toughest in…. well I can’t remember when!
Refs were a complete joke…
We still continue to suck against full court pressure..
Im a little worried against a guy like hibbert… There big men arent that good and we didnt look extremely comfortable against them. Not horrible, but these big men are not roy hibbert
At least the officials got the big call right.
I feel realy good about what I saw from Blair, Fields and the rest of the team today. Slow start, away game, against a talented team on the west coast while the refs make horrendous calls and yet we still pull out a strong win…GO PITT!
I understand the concern regarding his lack of offers. I think Adams point was that he only got offers his senior season because it was the first time he has played as a started. I highly doubt many schools would offer a back-up but I’m not a expert.
Comment by dan 12.08.07 @ 1:16 pm”
My reply:
1. There is reason to think the QB’s already on the roster aren’t good or the staff wouldn’t be getting three more.
2. I said many times that Cross will start next year and I think he is going ot be good.
3. I never said Stoudt wouldn’t be good down the road. What I said was that it’s ludicrous that a First Team Big School QB in Ohio was somehow under the radar and that colleges stopped offering people for the last four months.
I wouldnt agree with the fact that you hate all qb’s and you have reason to be critical of them mark.
Im just saying that i really do believe that the reason he didnt get the big time offers had to do with the fact that teams didnt really start giving him close looks until a few months ago.
Stoudt is nothing Amazing, but he is a good three star qb. He is a guy that could go either way. It is so difficult to measure a qb, because it is a position that mental toughness must factor in to.
I really still like Tino more. and he said if his parents feel comfortable he will commit monday. He said his mom met with DW and he talked with Louisville the other day.
Easy on mark guys. Its not hard to understand why he would be critical on our qb’s.
Im in complete agreement with you on Cross- he looks like a huge upgrade over anything we have now. Frankly, I understand your concerns over Stoudt and agree with you on Stull and Smith- they have very limited potential.
Nothing wrong with MAC teams either. Roethisberger played there. So did Charlie Batch. The Panthers need depth and promise at the QB slot. Stoudt offers both. So will hopefully Sunseri and Cross.
Me: Huge expletive with kids in the room, nearly tear my hat in half. I keep ranting about crappy refs as I immediately go straight upstairs without looking back at the TV to grab a shower (going straight out to dinner).
A few minutes later, my wife opens the bathroom door, me in the shower with shampoo in my hair, still fuming big time.
Wife: “Hey, the shot didn’t count.”
Me: “What?”
Wife: “The shot didn’t count.”
Me: “He didn’t get it off in time?”
Wife: “Yeah.”
Me: “[Bleepin’] yeah! We deserved after those mother [bleepin’] calls!”
Seriously, I’ll admit we played terribly in the first half. But the second half that was a great performance. The refs were atrocious! Missed travels, that missed foul on the oop to Blair, that ticky-tacks on our guys, including that one on Young when he’s just freaking standing there with his arms up. Should he turn and run away next time, ref? And UW was freaking out of their heads from behind the arc.
Yes, Levance missed that last front end, but he nailed those two FTs the possession before, which was huge. He was clutch all second half. As was Sam and Blair. That’s one of the best halves of Pitt hoops I’ve seen in several years.
Great freakin’ win.
I’m glad i’m not the only one that thought that reffing was down right awful…it was making me sick watching it…you’d hear a whistle, start to clap, and then realize we were getting hammered with a terrible call….unbelieveable…
go pitt.
“DW treated me badly,” wah wah wah. You quit on the guy and screwed him. Seems like it’s going to work out for you just fine. You did well in a lower division and got some attention. You’ll get that tuition you had to pay back times 100,000. Had you gotten the ‘fair shake’ I’m sure you think you didn’t get at Pitt, you might have become the next John Ryan. If you were lucky.
Same with freakin’ Luke Getsy. These kids act like they had no clue there would be competition at the position. They committed to a program with a guy seen as the biggest recruit at Pitt since Dan Marino, so I’m sure they figured they were 8-balled (or 3-balled as it were) — but (1) given Palko’s status, what did they expect? and (2) even given the situation, coaches aren’t dumb enough to sit you if you’re THAT much better. Notice that Dorin Dickerson sits more than he plays in favor of kids that were afterthought recruits at multiple positions. I saw each of those guys play in Blue/Gold games, and they simply didn’t outplay Palko. But of course, the press treats them like Pitt gave them the Austin Scott date treatment. I wish them no ill will but in my eyes, they are just two kids who quit on my favorite program, so I ain’t feeling bad for them.
he threw mostly deep routes. That is why he was picked off. They had him throwing a lot of jumpballs because he had such a cannon of an arm. Dont expect a great player by any means. I would say his passing will be a little worse than rod rutherford was, so nothing amazing, but an average guy. He should be a nice scrambler though.
This kid is challenging for a starting spot and if he isnt good enough just giving depth incase something like this year happens again.
everyone is so down on stull… Im really not sure why..
stull hasnt had the opportunity to do anything yet.
Some guys are saying just based on the fact that he had to compete with kevan smith and bostick for a starting spot that he sucks, but you never know guys. some kids are gamers, and i just dont think its fair to judge bill YET…
Kevan Smith and Bostick will improve in the offseason. The problem is with all their improvement they should still be below average qbs for next year. Stull and Cross i think will battle for the starting job, and Stoudt (and tino if he commits) will redshirt.
The word is that Stoudt committed with a soft verbal… Alot of guys think that he felt the pressure from Tino and thought he would lose his only BCS conference scholarship, so he committed really fast. Alot of recruiting analysts think schools that dont get the qb they are holding out on are going to pursue him late and he may decommit from Pitt. I Think that is why Dave is still really pursuing Tino.
its going to get real interesting here. We have alot of guys that want to play Qb and Wr for us…
Note – this is not to be construed as me giving up on Bostick – i still think the kid has a foundation, he just needs to practice for a year or so…
Geez, Carmen, as long as you’re sure that you’re sure, there couldn’t be a problem; in the broad scheme of things, it shouldn’t matter to anyone in particular if you’re a girl but not a guy, or a guy but not a girl, or something btw — albeit let’s consider for a second that people are, in fact, sorta particular nonetheless, and that particularities are hard not to come by in folks’.
So that given-taken, if I read comments regularly and, even if for fault of memory, recall those authored by “Carmen,” how does-should one differentiate comments from “Carmen” at this here site from others linked to, … well
As for his stats, he was the MVP in the best JC conference in the country and turned a team that lost 18 straight before his arrival into one of the best JC teams in the country. What more proof do you need of his talent?
p.s. Honestly, has anyone actually seen him play?
They know he has the talent to be better than any other qb. Like i said before he throws deep routes which equal interceptions. He played in a good juco conference.
but yeah, you never know how a qb especially will turn out. I do love his scrambling though. his arm is absolutely unbelievable… The thing is though, like i said before rutherford had a cannon and he never was that impressive
