Last Saturday I wrote a pretty opinionated article on here about our QB play and the way I thought the HC should handle it in the future. Well, nothing I have read so far this week dissuades me from that line of thought. Actually, some public comments from both Sunseri and Graham reinforce what I’d like to see happen. I don’t think Graham is listening to me though…
With what might be the best tongue-in-cheek headline ever, DiPaola over at the Trib wrote this:
PITT PASSER SUNSERI GIVES SELF HIGH MARKS
“Bloodied, but with his head held high, Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri confidently met the media Tuesday, insisting his two-interception, two-fumble (one lost) performance against Iowa constituted his best game of the season.
“I would say it was my greatest game I played yet,” he said. “I was very pleased with all my reads. Even the interceptions were the right reads. I just have to put more air on the ball.”
Sunseri’s passing efficiency rating is 122.0, 73rd among the top 100 quarterbacks in the nation, with four interceptions and three touchdown passes, but he said he has a clearer understanding of the offense. “
That’s like a surgeon saying “Hey, I had the right patient; I just amputated the wrong leg.” Folks, this is why I think that benching Sunseri as a reality check, among other reasons, is in order. But in a weird and unnerving way I understand where he’s coming from with this. When you’ve been coddled by two separate head coaches with zero competition for the starting spot since January of 2009, it must skew your vision as to what actually is supposed to transpire in the competitive arena of sports.
How can he have any real internal benchmark of success when he’s never had to measure any in the off season? His success in “winning” the starter’s job was pre-ordained without even a façade of competition. Maybe there were good reasons for that at the time, but I’ll bet a dollar that neither Wannstedt nor Graham has ever sat Sunseri down, especially during in-season, and told him in no uncertain terms that he must play to a certain standard or he’ll be on the bench. This is why I don’t really blame Sunseri so much for what he does out on the field as I do his coaches. Of course, as we say every week it seems, we’ll know more on Saturday evening but sooner or later a hard decision may have to be made.
Graham isn’t afraid to sit down other non-performers though. From the P-G this morning:
Inside linebacker Shane Gordon was a starter the first two games but did not start — and barely played — Saturday against Iowa. Pitt coach Todd Graham said Gordon was replaced by Tristan Roberts because Roberts simply has played better and understands the defense better.
“[Gordon] was the starter at the beginning of the year and has a lot of potential,” Graham said. “I just think that we have to put the best guys out there that give us the best chance to win, and Max [Gruder] and Tristan are experienced and not making those mistakes and have come into play.
PITT fans, remember what Graham said in this instance please. It strikes to the heart of our QB discussions. If Sunseri falters again, and we see more success from Anderson should he play, we’ll see if what is good for the goose is also good for the gander.
One topic of discussion on here is why Graham doesn’t jettison his new offense for something that our existing players may be more suited for so as to ensure we win the games we are playing this season. But IMO that isn’t his only consideration in 2011. He’s continually stated that the ‘no-huddle, triple – option’ offense is here and it’s here to stay. His critics point to the fact that he could have run more time off the clock in the first quarter if we had gone to a more tradition pacing between plays…
Graham was asked if the Panthers should slow down on offense and milk the clock when they have a lead. His answer was a simple “no.” He said the Panthers play fast, the offense is a rhythm offense, and that’s not going to change when they have a lead because his goal is to keep scoring until the game ends.
“I believe strongly in the system,” Graham said. “As we progress and become more mentally and physically conditioned, then we will get better. I looked at the film, and our mistakes were not made from being too tired or playing too many snaps on defense. “An offense is about running a rhythm and you can’t just change the rhythm and expect to be successful. “Our tempo is not why we lost the game, but because we turned the football over and made too many mental errors.”
The message here, and it’s been repeated over and over by Graham, is that not only does he want to win games but he wants to get his offense (and defense) in place as soon as possible so as to have a head start on 2012 and beyond. I’m not surprised at this at all. That is what he was hired for and what the PITT administration expects.
In the maritime trade we place a bar of zinc anode directly onto the hull of the ship as a “sacrificial waste piece” so that bar will take the corrosion before the hull does. In a real way I believe this season is serving as Graham’s waste piece for the future seasons. Not that he doesn’t want to win in 2011, but that isn’t the end all be all in his plans.
And from our learned friend at State College
“Obviously, at Penn State I’ve been trying since day one to try to get a couple of those schools, one of those schools or some other school in the East, in the Big Ten,” Paterno said. “Because I think there’s a tremendous market for recruiting and football in the area that the schools are moving into.”
“[Or] that we maybe ought to solicit [Big Ten commissioner] Jim Delany and some of the leaders of the Big Ten, ‘Hey, why don’t we go take a good look, and Syracuse and Pitt, now that they’re at it, why don’t we take a look at Rutgers and take a look at somebody that we can bring in from the East so that the Big Ten doesn’t end in State College.
Reminds me of Norm Crosby who made a living out of mangling our language on TV for years. Hey Joe, – you’re from Cowtown, don’t you know you are supposed to close the barn door after the cows are out.
On a final note: former PITT H/C Mike Haywood is looking for that pot ‘o gold at the rainbow’s end in Oakland. If things go his way and they well could, we can always console ourselves that he’ll still have that misdemeanor arrest on his record: Haywood was arrested and later agreed to attend anger management training and do community service. According to the complaint, the mother told the court that Haywood was not a danger to their child. Or maybe not at second glance.
Even if the charges stick it isn’t a bad tradeoff for $4M though. Note: I think Haywood is wearing a PITT polo shirt in that photo.
Note: Even though Chas writes best about the conference issues I thought this point & counter point exchange in the The PITT News is worth a read.
Also, we lost to Oregon St. a VERY far cry from Oregon… As bad as we have all ragging on Tino this year, I have NEVER seen a QB play as badly as Stull did that game.
The players are basically the same from last year. So what changed? Only a few different starters. Could it be that the defensive scheme blows?
Pitt is not going to outscore every opponent. Just is not going to happen. Ever ever ever. June Jones and the University of Hawaii tried the same thing. They went to a big bowl game…got blown the hell out. If it was that easy..Alabama, Auburn, Florida..etc would do the same damn thing with their 5 start players.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the aggressive offensive I am seeing. Keep it up. But this defense will never work in big time college..
If you don’t believe me…just as the University of Michigan what it thinks of the last few years.
I mean damn…my Pitt college roommate and I to this day are great friends, but I sure has hell would not hire him to work at the engineering firm I work at just because I like him.
The offense will be fine in time….The defense will always suck in this scheme.
Our DB’s play too far off the ball and our LB’s are good enough to cover the underneath stuff so we get deaked and dunked to death AND we have WR’s running uncovered in the secondary on obvious passing downs. What gives?
At least offensively, I’ve seen some improvement
so wbb, I think we are in agreement, we just worded it differently
You may remember that most on this site were convinced that should have been benched for the 09 season … based in large part due to that Sun Bowl and that Tino allegedly had a stronger arm.
WEll, obviously most on this site were wrong about that .. (and for that matter, for all of you Tino conspiratists .. then why wasn’t Tino handed the starting role back then?)
As far as the defense vs offense is the problem thing is concerned I have one thing to say : I am not looking forward to seeing Tommy Rees + Michael Floyd vs. the 119th ranked passing defense this weekend.
4 sacks, 3 turnovers, 7 tackles for losse, etc
goals like these totally insult my intelligence … there is one goal, and one goal only!!!!!!
Spot on Reed. And it stinks to high heaven !
Again spot on Reed. I would venture to say if his last name was different he’d be the backup QB right now.
Ok TG, let’s get our best QB OUT THERE AS WELL.
1) Anderson runs this offense way better than present QB and can’t be worse.
2) Myers has a better arm, is more accurate, spins the ball as TD said and since the current QB can’t run the Triple Option anyway, what’s the big deal if Myers can’t either. But is a way more accurate passer.
3) Let’s cut the shit TG and make the change now.
I don’t feel like attending some shit bowl again.
And getting blown out by the Hoopies again.
My problem was that when you circumvent the competitive spirit of the practices and camps it sends a negative message not only to the anointed one but also to every other player on the team who knows he has to bust ass to win a start at his position.
People may know that I was a huge Pat Bostick fan, but it wasn’t so much for his talent or his level of play as much as it was how he comported himself during the 2007 season and beyond. But still, I felt that Sunseri was a better choice to go into the 2010 season. However, I truly hated the fact that we had no other players take 1st string snaps at all, especially since it was an open position due to Stull’s graduation.
I was pretty sure that Sunseri would adapt to this system and do well… in my mind he was the clear choice to go into the opener as the incumbent starter. But I also felt that giving another QB at least some percentage of the 1st team QB snaps in camp would have helped the team also, and as I’ve written I think we are seeing some results of the decision not to do that by Graham.
Now? I feel that all that should be treated as ancient history and each QB measured for playing time due to his abilities and the team’s circumstances.
If Sunseri turns this around I’ll be the first to congratulate him and I’ll do it publicly… if he’s replaced by Anderson I’ll be happy also as long as we’re upgrading, which I think we would be. But IMO we have to see better and more consistent play at that position ASAP or we are in for a tragic year – especially with the defense as spotty as it is.
That was my biggest rub as well. And I believe last years team was effected (or maybe infected)
by that. They knew what was up.
He plays just well enough, to give some people the impression he’ll get better. Having watched thousands of football games over the years and being an ex-QB myself, I’d like to think I can see some nuances of the game, that others do not see.
Nothing against those people, if the police interview 20 different witnesses at a crime scene, they’re lucky to get the same details from 2 different people. Bottom line, people do have different levels of perception. I was asked that one time on Larry King’s show. And of course coming from him, I found that very humorous.
In one of my own football games (a preseason scrimmage) I dropped a tough go-ahead touchdown pass with a few minutes left although I had a few other catches in the game. It was a tough over the shoulder catch where I had to drag my feet. We ended up scoring two plays later and won the game. Still I was pissed at myself and felt that I had let my teammates down- happy that we had won- but mad at myself. (and this was only a preseason scrimmage).
Now I’d like to contrast that with Sunseri’s comments that this was his best game ever. How you can lose and consider it your best game yet? Now I did not hear all of his comments so I hope I’m not taking it out of context. I have begun to question his passing accuracy more and more lately, it’s really sad that now I have to question his competitiveness.
The other thing that upsets me is that I have to watch Tristan Roberts absorb offensive players and get carried for 4 extra yards.
The reason they reached out to Anderson is very clear. After the Spring practices Graham had first hand knowledge on what kind of talents he had to work with. It was obvious that Sunseri was the only QB that had even the semblance of the passing and running skills needed. Although he can run, Gonzalez can’t pass the ball well enough at all. Myers we have talked about many times on here, he doesn’t fit this particular offense either.
The bottom line is that aside from Sunseri the QBs who DW recruited are not going to be able to play in this offense the way Graham desires and demands. That’s just the way it is. Anderson’s skill set complements Graham’s offense better than anyone else on the roster. That’s no guarantee he’ll play better than Sunseri but that he has the combination of passing, running and experience with the offense that no other QB on roster has. That is why he was brought here in July and that is why he moved to number two QB so quickly… Graham knew he didn’t have a viable #2 QB going into camp.
Again, I think you concentrate too much on the individuals scholarship offers and star rankings and easily forget what is of prime importance to Graham. That is to get this no-huddle, triple read option offense instituted and up & running as soon as possible.
He wouldn’t be able to do that with Gonzalez or Myers and he is not going to deviate from that. He has his plan firmly in place and knew of someone who could fit in to help.
But to think that Graham is going to play someone just to justify his decision to bring him onboard is a reach I think.
BTW: Anderson had a 14 yard pass to Carswell.
