For good and bad. Puff pieces and overcoming hardships. The individual players have some stories to tell. There have been several over the last couple days so let’s put them in one post.
Senior tight end Nate Byham has a very compelling personal backstory. It’s one that was first told a couple years ago. It is worth re-telling as Byham starts his final year at Pitt and has really beaten the odds with a lot of things in his family history.
Nate lived with his grandfather from the time he was born until kindergarten, when he moved in with his mother and aunt in Franklin. He moved back in with his grandfather for the fifth and sixth grade, but went back to Franklin to live in the seventh grade because the sports programs were better there. By the time he was in high school, Nate was sleeping at the homes of his friends because the situation at his mother’s was not good, and another move back to his grandfather’s would have meant changing schools again.
Even when Nate was not living under his roof, Ron kept close tabs on him. Nate remembers a time shortly after moving back in with his mother when he started to make some bad decisions. He said he doesn’t know what would have happened if his grandfather did not intervene.
“It’s really hard to think about because there was a stretch early in middle school when I started to follow the wrong path,” Nate said. “I started messing around with the wrong crowd. I wasn’t doing horrible things, but the kids around me were drinking and smoking weed. This was in the seventh grade. I was in that crowd. I started getting into some trouble.
“That’s when my grandfather talked to me and straightened me out. He made me look down the road and see my future. I could look at mom and other people around me. I really didn’t want to end up like that.”
As much as it is a credit to his grandfather for helping Nate Byham down the right path and raising him, it is a credit to Byham for having the maturity and focus to actually see the paths. A 13 or 14-year old finding the maturity and strength to ignore the temptations and easy ways of his social group and within his own family.
Senior defensive tackle Mick Williams has remained strong against his own personal and athletic problems.
“Mick is a lot more focused on what is at the end of the tunnel,” Junko said. “He can see the light. Some guys never see the light.”
No one would have blamed Williams if he lost his way in darkness. His father, Ernest, died of a heart attack when Mick was 6. His mother, Robin Stover, has struggled to raise six children. Williams spent the week before camp helping his family move from West Mifflin back to Monessen after they lost their house to foreclosure.
Even so, he doesn’t complain about misfortunes.
“Everybody has a problem,” Williams said. “I’m blessed we’ve got a new home, that we’re not homeless.”
No one would have blamed Williams if he would have quit Pitt football. A series of shoulder injuries and concussions left him sidelined his first two seasons. His grandfather, Donald Stover — as strong of a father figure as Williams has had — died in the spring of his redshirt freshman year. So did two of his mother’s sisters, Sheryl Graham and Valerie Stover, and Graham’s husband, Larry Detwiler. A cousin who lost both parents was jailed when he turned to dealing drugs, and Williams was tempted to do the same.
If Pitt has a big season, you can just visualize the soft-focus features being run on College GameDay.
For on the field overcoming injuries and maturity, Jason Pinkston is key to the O-line.
Now Pinkston is, perhaps, the most irreplaceable player on Pitt’s front five as the left tackle who protects the quarterback’s blind side. The difficulty of doing so was abundantly clear in his absence in the bowl game, and the Panthers don’t have an experienced backup.
“It makes me feel comfortable when I have a guy like that who’s protecting my blind side,” fifth-year senior quarterback Bill Stull said. “It’s a big help having him healthy.”
What Pinkston, a 6-foot-4, 312-pound redshirt junior from Baldwin, has to prove now is that he can live up to the potential that matches his enormous frame and the high expectations set by his demanding position coach. Tony Wise sees the talent in Pinkston and believes, with better technique and steadier performance, that he can become a physical force for the Panthers.
I’m not saying panic in the streets if Pinkston goes down to injury this year, but it won’t be a good feeling.
Shane Murray is Pitt’s jack-of-all-linebackers and coming back from an ACL tear.
Pitt coaches asked Murray to learn all three linebacker positions, and the 6-foot-2, 230-pound, fifth-year senior from Hazelwood is considered the Panthers’ top backup at both outside linebacker spots and a starter on all four special-teams units. Not bad for someone 10 months removed from surgery.
“The last two days, he’s made some headway,” defensive coordinator Phil Bennett said. “We haven’t pushed him to the extent of some of them because we need him. I think he knows his role. We expect him to play about 20 plays a game. We’re not asking him to be an every-down player.”
A player not counted on to be a star, but to be an important component of the team and hopefully overall success.
