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.

Graham has another post game video (upper right corner of the screen) .  Again, fun to watch and getting more informative as the spring session goes on.  This one is a little different than the others in that the defensive coach, Patterson, speaks very candidly about the disappointments they had on the defensive side of the ball on Saturday.  But if you like offense there is a lot to be looking forward to and it’s fun hearing Graham amd Magee talk about thier successes.

They had 29 (!) “Explosive Plays” on Saturday… those are plays of over 25 yards from scrimmage.  My friends, the staff must have rolled out some new wrinkles after they kicked the media out because I didn’t see that many.  Still, that has to gladden the hearts of the fans who have wanted a more ‘college’ style offense.  Coach Magee specifically made the point to mention that we had some WRs ‘going up for the ball’ well on deep passes. Hmmm.

Graham stated that he thought “the offense was 10% of the way there”.  OK, either that’s lowballing or we better buckle our seat belts. If he really believes that then I think we’ll find that we actually will be scoring in bunches in 2011.  One thing that jumps out at me with this offense is that it really seems to highlight the individual skill player’s talents.  We’ll see Ray Graham get a lot of receptions out of the back field in addition to carrying the ball and we’ll more than one WR getting the bulk of the important receptions…. I believe the TEs will be incorporated in third down situations also.  There is going to be a lot of pre-snap movement and a lot of distributing the ball out to playmakers.

That said; here are some links to articles that were written yesterday.

Odds and Ends:

Graham’s Quotes are posted also.  In it is a pretty honest and telling point,

Our inside people – Myles Caragein, Alecxih and Donald, they are hard to handle. Khaynin Mosley-Smith has to get in shape – he plays about three plays, then takes a couple off – we have to get them in shape. These guys aren’t trained to do what we’re doing so there is a fatigue factor. For the first time today, I told them that ‘the first fatigue is mental, you can fight through it. The second fatigue is mental, you can fight through it. I will let you know when you’re fatigued – fight through it.’ They’re starting to do that. The idea is to get to the point where we don’t get fatigued.

Which, quite frankly, goes to show the difference between being a coach out on the field and a fan on the sidelines.  My impression was that the team was responding well to the tempo, but obviously Graham sees it differently.  Shows how much I know, right? But I was on the offensive side of the field and those kids didn’t look worn out at all – they were active on the sidelines, talking and joking around.

Bostick has his sixth article on the team, this one details the OL and what to look for as the camps unfold.  His take on what will be the solid nucleus of the OL, and the leaders on the field:

Nix and Jacobson are really cut out of the same cloth. They’re Pittsburgh guys that play hard and with intensity and passion.  They come off the field battered and bruised, and they are just good football players, plain and simple.  Jordan Gibbs is the third part of this trio of returning starters and he is entering his fifth year in the blue and gold. Gibbs is a towering man, standing taller than 6-6 and features unbelievably quick feet.

Bostick goes on to talk about the other OL who are vying for a starting job, notably Gaskins, Turnley and Demhasaj and then onto the younger kids.  But here’s the scary part – those three returning starters are all seniors this season… let’s hope what they well do rubs off on the others.

I asked this 20^th century author for his comments on how PITT looks so far:  He’s not as optimistic as I am obviously  It’s kind of raw but hey, I didn’t write it.  Who is it?

“I saw the best players of my generation destroyed by the no-huddle, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the Southside streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,

helmeted athletes burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the dynamo offense in the machinery of practice,

who bared their brains to PITT across Panther Hollow and saw soot covered freshman angels staggering on dormitory roofs illuminated,

who passed through university with radiant eyes hallucinating Harris’s and Wannstedt’s-light tragedy among the traditions of PITT,

who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes on the windows of the Dirty O and on plate glass doors

who cowered unshaven in lockers rooms in underwear because of missed assignments and listening to the coaches’ frenzy through the wall,

and incomparable fields of shuddering cloud and lightning in the mind leaping towards the end zones of Fifth and Forbes, illuminating all the motionless world of Football… frozen.”

Next practice: Tuesday, April 5th