That’s right spring practice begins in mid-March. March 17 to be exact, and culminates with the Blue-Gold Scrimmage on April 16. As usual, I will bitch about how I wish they would be like some of the other schools and not start the practices until the end of March, and have the Spring game late in April. I really will bitch, if the weather is anything approaching the misery of last spring’s scrimmage.
More in a moment, the bigger news is that Coach Todd Graham (I may not get used to typing that until the end of spring, at the earliest) has made his final hire on the staff.
His name: Randall McCray. He will handle the safeties and special teams.
University of Pittsburgh head football coach Todd Graham announced the final appointment on his coaching staff today with the hiring of Randall McCray as safeties coach and special teams coordinator.
Entering his 21st year in the collegiate coaching ranks, McCray spent the 2010 season at Middle Tennessee State, where he was the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Prior to MTSU, he spent four years at Wisconsin (2006-09) and helped the Badgers to bowl berths each season.
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In his lone season at Middle Tennessee State, McCray helped the Blue Raiders earn a berth in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. His defense ranked 10th nationally in tackles for loss (7.38 TFLs/game) and 17th in quarterback sacks (2.62 sacks/game) while featuring the Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year in end Jamari Lattimore. Among Sun Belt teams, MTSU yielded the lowest yards per rush and ranked second in pass efficiency defense.At Wisconsin, McCray coached the defensive line (2006-07), outside linebackers (2008) and safeties (2009). He was the Badgers’ recruiting coordinator his final two seasons in Madison.
Wisconsin went 38-14 during McCray’s tenure, advancing to four consecutive bowl games. The 2006 Badgers featured one of the country’s elite defenses en route to a 12-1 record and No. 5 ranking in the final USA Today coaches poll. Wisconsin limited opponents to just 12.1 points (second best nationally) and 253.1 yards (fifth best) per game that year. In 2009 the Badgers held every Big Ten opponent to less than 100 yards rushing, an unprecedented achievement in Wisconsin history.
Five of McCray’s Wisconsin players were on NFL rosters this past season, including All-Big Ten defensive lineman Matt Shaughnessy, a member of the Oakland Raiders and 2009 Pro Football Writers’ All-Rookie selection. Additionally, linebacker DeAndre Levy (Detroit Lions), defensive tackle Nick Hayden (Carolina Panthers), linebacker Jonathan Casillas (New Orleans Saints) and safety Chris Maragos (San Francisco 49ers) were in the professional ranks.
Prior to Wisconsin, McCray coached the defensive line and linebackers at Toledo from 2003-05.
That’s right. McCray was on the Toledo coaching staff that beat Pitt in 2003. Other than that, McCray looks like a solid hire. The fact that he was also recruiting coordinator at Wisconsin in 2008 and 09 is a very good sign. Especially when you look at Andy Staples at SI.com’s piece on re-ranking the recruiting classes of 2008, that puts Wisconsin at #7.
2008 Rivals.com rank: 41
2008 Scout.com rank: 26
Record since 2008: 28-11
Conference titles: 1 (shared)2010 starters/major contributors: TE Jake Byrne, LB Kevin Claxton, CB Antonio Fenelus, C Peter Konz, P Brad Nortman, CB Devin Smith, LB Mike Taylor, OG Kevin Zeitler
Analysis: The Badgers signed a solid group of future starters in this class. The list includes Konz, the 300-pound potential NFL center who earned even more respect from me by dropping a reference to the Articles of Confederation in an interview. But the guy who puts this class over the top isn’t a signee. It’s a transfer from Central Michigan who came to Madison as a walk-on. His name? J.J. Watt. We’ll now pause and let Big Ten offensive tackles recover from the traumatic memories of all their unsuccessful attempts to block Watt, the 6-foot-6, 292-pounder who will terrorize NFL quarterbacks next season.
McCray has experience coaching all over the defense and somewhat surprisingly was lured away from a DC position (albeit in the Sun Belt conference) to be a position coach.
In other good football news, Pitt had 17 players earn all-academic Big East honors.
| Name | Class | Pos. | Hometown | Major |
| Pat Bostick ^ | JR* | QB | Lancaster, Pa. | Communications |
| Myles Caragein # | JR* | DL | Pittsburgh, Pa. | Mathematics |
| Pat Costello ^ | SO* | DB | Greensburg, Pa. | Civil Engineering |
| Dom DeCicco | SR | DB | Jefferson Hills, Pa. | Communications |
| Kolby Gray | FR* | DB | Houston, Texas | School of Arts & Sciences |
| Max Gruder ^ | JR* | LB | Charlotte, N.C. | Business Marketing |
| Kevin Harper | SO* | PK | Mentor, Ohio | Business Finance |
| Henry Hynoski # | JR* | FB | Elysburg, Pa. | Marketing |
| Andrew Janocko # | JR* | QB | Clearfield, Pa. | History |
| Chris Mike | SO* | FB | West Haven, Conn. | Media Communications |
| Marco Pecora | SO* | DB | Johnstown, Pa. | History |
| Mike Shanahan ^ | SO* | WR | North Huntingdon, Pa. | History |
| Tino Sunseri | SO* | QB | Pittsburgh, Pa. | Communications |
| Andrew Taglianetti | SO* | DB | Bridgeville, Pa. | Business Marketing |
| Tyler Tkach ^ | SR* | DL | Statington, Pa. | Business Marketing |
| Joe Trebitz | SO* | LB | Boca Raton, Fla. | Business |
| Matt Yoklic | FR* | P | Gibsonia, Pa. | School of Arts & Sciences |
# after name denotes three-time Big East All-Academic selection
^ after name denotes two-time Big East All-Academic selection
* after class denotes redshirt season
As for a Spring Practice preview, this is from Rivals.com.
The buzz: New coach Todd Graham was known for his high-flying spread offenses at Rice and Tulsa. He inherits a group used to playing in Dave Wannstedt’s run-first, pro-style scheme. With RB Dion Lewis, WR Jon Baldwin and LT Jason Pinkston gone, the centerpiece of the offense is Ray Graham, who rushed for 922 yards and eight touchdowns as a backup last season. The secondary will have two new starters and could be troublesome.
“Could be troublesome?” Considering how “troublesome” the secondary was last year, it will be hard to imagine it being noticeably worse.
17 players make the Big East academic honor list and NOT one of them is African American. There is no way to get around this in this day and age.
Something is wrong….VERY WRONG at Pitt in terms of recruiting qualified “Student” athletes. I am willing to bet that behind the scenes Chancellor Nordenberg has probably pulled Graham aside to warn him to be careful. SP is running a program that hopefully will not get Pitt in to trouble with the NCAA.
So maybe the secondary might not be the terrible mess but you never know.
Hafley was a wonderful recruiter but a poor positional coach, has he been given any type of coaching title at Rutgers other than assistant?
Pittsburgh — Chance of competition: medium to high. Sunseri started every game last year and improved during the season, but new coach Todd Graham brings an entirely new offensive system. Don’t be surprised if redshirt freshmen Mark Myers and Anthony Gonzalez get a serious look this spring.
there is also another story saying that D DeCicco is a possible 6th round pick
If you did any sort of research, then you would have found out that Pitt’s graduation rate is 67%, which is the national average.
Like it or not, isnore brought up a fact and not speculation … and yes, while Pitt does a good job about graduating payers, it does seem odd that considering the large number of blacks on the team, that none of them qualified as All-Academic BE.
And hiding your head in the sand or shooting the messaenger does not change the facts.
So go ahead, pick on me now — I can take it
My concern is simply based on the fact that a 3.0 was all that was required to make the Big East Honors roster….surely our African American athletes must have at least 2 or 3 who care enough about academics to reah a B average. I would like to know how strong the performance of minority athletes(football) is at Penn State, Maryland, Syracuse or Wisconsin (schools on the same basic academic level as Pitt). I do not want to see a scandal regarding our athletes.
Whether it’s cultural, administrative, racial or whatever … there is an issue here.
As to whether this constitutes an “issue”, I’m not sure it does, unless you’re suggesting that Pitt professors are discriminating against black students by awarding them lower grades for equal work. Each student earns (or doesn’t earn) his place on the All Academic team through his own efforts and abilities. It’s no more of an issue than the fact that Pitt’s basketball team is all black.
At the high school level, socio-economic (not strictly ethnic) background is the scapegoat according the state and federal governments.
In college, that probably is at the root of the problem as well. The only way this is an institutional problem would be if Pitt faculty, administrators, coaches and support staff are denying the same opportunities and interventions between the races (such as less guidance, study tables, etc.) made available.
Having said that, it is a PR black eye if someone would choose to make it so and the NCAA does monitor such things although their focus is usually on graduation. I’ve never heard of an investigation about All-Academic status. I think most would recognize that as a reward to effort and ability.
