A big Pitt/Wannstedt puff piece from Yahoo!/Rivals.com to start off the day.
The upset of West Virginia may not have been a fluke, but Wannstedt – ever the cautious coach – warns that it won’t matter when the Panthers open the 2008 season against Bowling Green on August 30.
“That will be the focal point, but it won’t have a darn thing to do with us beating Bowling Green,†he said. “Beating West Virginia reinforced that we could be good and reaffirmed to the kids we were recruiting that you could win at Pitt.â€
There are a lot of reasons to anticipate a successful season for Pitt this fall. Seven starters return from a defense that ranked fifth in the nation last season. The return of Stull and Kinder should boost the passing game, which will benefit McCoy.
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You also need a reliable quarterback. Stull, who has thrown only 30 college passes, doesn’t figure to challenge for All-American honors, but he should be an upgrade at quarterback. His presence is another reason many Pitt fans can’t wait for the season to start.
But Wannstedt can. “I can wait,†he said. “We need to work. The season will get here soon enough.â€
When it arrives, Wannstedt will have a team with eight offensive starters returning. He’ll have a dynamic tailback, an All-American linebacker, a junior quarterback and an all-conference receiver returning from injury. He’ll have a team with one of the best defensive lines in America. He’ll have emerging stars, like strong safety Elijah Fields or defensive end Greg Romeus.
He has a team that lost three games by a touchdown or less last season and is seeking redemption. He has a team coming off that win over West Virginia. There are a lot reasons to like Wannstedt’s team in 2008. And he does, although not for the reasons listed above.
Looks like Pitt is set to be the trendy media favorite “darkhorse” team to “suddenly” jump from losing record to top-25 team at least. This always begs that deep philosophical question of whether a team can truly be considered a sleeper or darkhorse when everyone is picking them to be that team?
Paul Zeise has had a week to watch practices and the P-G beat writer has had daily Q&As. The first one, to the shock of no one was all questions on the O-line. The now annual concerns for the O-line.
Dickerson has looked great at TE by all reports, and that was another major topic for a Q&A. It was also the topic of this story.
“It feels good catching the ball again,” Dickerson said. “I worked real hard in the offseason. I knew this is what I wanted to do, and me and Bill went in there and started throwing every day.”
What has caught Wannstedt’s attention is Dickerson’s willingness and effort to take on defenders with blocks, even though Dickerson likened the difficulty of blocking linebackers to hitting a moving target.
“I was impressed with how he made an attempt to block. That’s usually the biggest transition for these kids,” Wannstedt said. “Catching the ball and running is an easy thing. Everybody wants to do that. Very few guys want to get in there and get their nose bloodied up. Dorin showed that he’s not afraid to do that. If he can keep that attitude, I think he’ll be an asset for us at tight end.”
At least he is willing and working on the blocking. If he can, then he has huge potential to be a key player in the offense.
The latest Q&A addresses Bostick’s wind-up motion –like everyone and their mother, Zeise believes Bostick will be redshirted — and then questions about the linebackers. Especially the young ones: Brandon Lindsey, Tristan Roberts and Greg Williams. And what do you know? A story on the linebacker corps to tie-in to this.
Now, the coaches seem to have found linebackers capable of delivering that speed. That group includes four redshirt freshmen in Max Gruder (middle), Greg Williams, Tristan Roberts and Brandon Lindsey, as well as redshirt sophomore Nate Nix.
Williams, who is 6 feet 3, 220 pounds and runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds, is the most intriguing prospect, mostly because he is physically gifted. He is a converted running back who seems to have picked up his new position well and continues to make plays in every practice.
“The competition we have at linebacker, I really like our young linebackers,” head coach Dave Wannstedt said. “I am really impressed with the progress all of them have made in two weeks. It looks like that will be a good competition and they’ll only continue to improve.”
Of the group, Gruder is the one who likely won’t see the field much this fall, because he is behind McKillop at middle linebacker and also is battling Steve Dell for the backup spot. But Gruder has been a surprise and looks like he might be a fixture at the position when McKillop graduates.
At this point, Shane Murray and Adam Gunn look to remain the starters at the WIL and SAM spots. The rotation, though, should be a little more frequent which means a lot more speed and energy regardless of who is out there.
Finally, there was recap article from Zeise at the start of the week on key obsrvations from spring practices so far. Most of them have already been mentioned in this and previous posts — Dickerson at TE, Stull will be the QB, WR is deep, Defense is strong, O-line [sigh] — but this stood out to me.
Buddy Morris is worth whatever they pay him — Morris was brought in last year as the strength and conditioning coach and he has transformed the program. His grueling schedule has instilled a mental toughness the team seemed to lack in recent years, and more importantly, they are stronger and in better shape this spring then they have been. The Panthers seemed to get stronger as the season wore on last year and played some of their best football down the stretch. That has carried over into the spring, and it is clear his contributions are making a difference.
This is a radical shift from his view on the whole matter in February 2007.
My point? Strength and conditioning is an easy target when things go bad, but I’d be willing to bet most strength and conditioning coaches are roughly the same and their success or failure is almost always commensurate with the talent they have to work with.
I agreed with his viewpoint back then, and I think there is something to be said for the change in players. The majority of the players now, are recruits Wannstedt has brought in. If we agree that the players are better physical, athletic talents, then it stands to reason that they will respond to most strength and conditioning better and probably faster.
Still, that he would change positions like this suggests that what Morris is doing has had a significant and noticeable impact on the players.
Once again, our rival to the east is staying in the news. It looks somewhat like PSU is ready to let JoePa go, and with all the off-field distractions, I wouldn’t blame them.
Think of this possibility. If Dickerson doesn’t win out at H-Back this fall, he’ll be going into his senior year in 2009 having played three positions in three years and developed properly at none. That would be, as the cool kids say, an “epic fail” for the Pitt coaching staff.
I, like every Pitt fan, was stoked that we beat West Virginia. But our staff has some serious personnel management issues.
The kid should have redshirted his freshman year, but he wouldn’t listen. The coaches made a mistake by not going with their instincts and listening to the kid and his parents.
Agreed. I doubt that the garbage time carries that he got his freshman year were worth the hassle. It’s for that same reason that I suggest that Collier getting injured last year was the best thing to happen to him since it forced him to take the redshirt that he otherwise burned.
I have to disagree. He was a five-star, All-American receiver who was ranked fourth nationally at the position in his graduating class. He was 6-4, 205 and ran a 4.5 40. He had a position.
It might appear that he’s a man without a position, but that’s only because he hasn’t been in one place long enough to learn, mature and excel.
I hope for his sake, and Pitt’s recruiting/coaching reputation, that he gets a lot of snaps at H-Back and plays well. Truly, if you can’t squeeze something out of that type of talent, there are some troubling issues that need to be addressed.
My bad…
The problem is, Pitt hasn’t given Dickerson a chance to pan out. Three positions in three years while alternating sides of the ball. Is it any wonder he hasn’t panned out?
Let’s give credit (and blame) where its due, but avoid throwing blanket statements like, “the coaching staff has issues” due to one player not panning out the way we expected him to.
All you have to do is look at some other 5* recruits and you can see how crazy that first paragraph is…. Bostick certainly showed all the right markers in HS to justify his lofty ranking, didn’t he? Derek Williams was the #1 recruit in the country and has just torn up the Big Ten for PSU. Chris Bell, the Benihana Chef who played WR at PSU, was a very highly nationally ranked 5* – wasn’t that crappy how the coaching staff there screwed him over? The list goes on and on……
It’s so easy to sit back and second guess, speculate and criticize Wannstedt for how Dickerson’s first two years went – without knowing 99% of what actually transpired. And assuming DW made a promise that DD wouldn’t redshirt his first season is, unless you have solid info on that score, unreasonable to assume. I could see him promising a player that he would have a real and valid chance to compete for playing time in the camps, but very much doubt he promised any kid he would definitely play his first year.
We’ll see how things go for DD over the next two years – but there has been numerous articles written about him based on first hand information and actual interviews with both Dickerson and Wannstedt – and not once have I read that Dickerson is anything but content with how things have progressed. It’s telling that fans with no actual knowledge or involvement are so much more upset then the principals in this situation.
“Where Wannstedt has said that he wishes Dickerson had taken a redshirt to learn how to play linebacker, Dickerson expressed no dissatisfaction with switching to defense last season even though he made only 15 tackles. “I’m not going to regret playing linebacker,†Dickerson said, “because I wanted to try it out, and (Wannstedt) agreed with it and I agreed with him. It was fun. I do miss it a little bit, but things happen in mysterious ways.
I had that mind-set whenever I was a freshman,” Dickerson said. “I knew what my abilities, knew what I could do. I had to let it pass because everyone goes through adversity. I’ve just got to do what I’ve got to do.â€
Key phrases: ” Because I wanted to try it out” (His choice) “It was fun” (Fun! – Who would have thought that?) & “Everyone goes through adversity” (injuries his freshman year).
We fans get way too wrapped up in how we might feel being in these kid’s places, and overlook how they actually do feel. I’m in the military and realized long ago I’d never make Admiral (akin to wanting to play in the NFL if you would). But, I never felt at any moment that what I did or was doing wasn’t still valuable and – yes – fun.
I’ll trust Dickerson to have a better take on the situation than us outsiders.
That’s usually something a coach says when a player completely whiffs while trying to lay a hit or gets dominated in a blocking drill – certainly not an overtly good sign.