In the past week, as Pitt fans have continued to angst over not being in the NCAA Tournament after the first weekend. As Khem Birch shined in the McDonald’s All-American Game. There’s been a lot of questioning regarding Coach Jamie Dixon.

Some of it, is understandable. One area I don’t quite get has been conflating Coach Dixon with former football coach Dave Wannstedt when it comes to starting experience over talent. So before Birch even gets to campus. Before summer league even starts. People are making complete declarations and speaking in absolutes about Pitt’s future and whether guys like Khem Birch and J.J. Moore will and/or should be installed as starters. Making it practically a referendum on Dixon as Pitt’s coach and what to expect.

The case seems to boil down to Chris Taft not starting immediately as a freshman. John DeGroat getting token minutes to start every game as a senior. Sam Young not starting over Levon Kendall. And the playing time for J.J. Moore and Talib Zanna this past season.

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Here are some thoughts and links that I took my time getting to.  Commenters to previous posts have asked specific questions and here are some answers, hopefully.

I didn’t see Sunseri throw many deep balls at all, in either the practice or the scrimmage.  However he was hitting the deep out routes well when I watched.

The Center position seems to becoming fixed with Chris Jacobson at that spot.  The staff is talking him up at every turn and forgiving his poor snaps at this point in the preseason.  If he keeps doing it in summer training camp they’ll take a different view I’m sure.

As far as the TEs go that’s a hard question; both Hubie Graham and Brock DeCicco have been wearing green jerseys (injured) so haven’t been scrimmaging and didn’t on Saturday.  Yesterday I wrote about Brendan Carozzoni who made some good plays – one being a beautiful catch and long run down the sidelines for a TD.  So the jury is out I think as far as how the TEs will do in this offense.  I did get into a conversation with someone that knows more than I and he though the TE position could account for as many as 60 catches in this offense.  We’ll see, but that would be a huge change for us.

Paul Zeise has a couple articles on the Saturday scrimmage, one on the new defense and what to expect and also his weekly Scrimmage Notes in his Redshirt diary:

A five-letter word to summarize the biggest difference between Pitt’s defensive philosophy the past six years under Dave Wannstedt and what it will be under Todd Graham — blitz. The Panthers will likely blitz more in the first half of their opener than Wannstedt’s teams did in six seasons. That might be a bit of a stretch but not by much. After talking to players and coaches, Graham’s defensive philosophy mirrors his offensive philosophy: “When in doubt, attack.”

That may be music to PITT fan’s ears, at least until the first long TD that comes off a blitz.

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Well, damn.

Pittsburgh assistant Pat Skerry has been hired at Towson.

Sources told FOXSports.com that a news conference is scheduled for Tuesday.

Skerry, 41, replaces Pat Kennedy — who parted ways after a 4-26 campaign this past season.

Skerry is regarded as a relentless recruiter. He helped Providence land its backcourt of Gerard Coleman and Vincent Council and also was responsible for getting Jamie Dixon his highest-ranked player in Pittsburgh school history with the commitment of Canadian big man Khem Birch.

Good luck to Pat Skerry at Towson. But, damn. Would have like to have him stick around for another year. Towson will be a tough place for Skerry to build his head coaching resume.

Looks like Coach Dixon will be looking at options again for a new assistant. I’m extremely curious who is hired (or promoted and someone else hired below). One area I don’t think anyone can argue has been Coach Dixon’s track record with hiring assistants.

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