PITT’s first training camp practice,  three hours with no pads, commences at 2:45 this afternoon so hopefully we’ll get some actual PITT football news to talk about on here beginning this evening.  This will be an interesting training camp and an interesting season given that we have, again, a new Head Coach and a new offensive style of play.

Chas wrote a nice piece this morning about Paul Chryst’s peer’s opinions of who is is and what his strong points are.  Obviously we have a completely different type of HC this season than we did last season and I think we PITT fans can all agree that we’re ready for something different than we had in 2011.  We’ll begin to see that difference in earnest starting today.

So – here are some off the top of the head questions about what we may see in training camp this August…

1.  What will be the overall tenor of the practices and of the post-practice interviews?  We already know that Paul Chryst is pretty much going to stick to talking about things he’s already talked about as far as this year’s team’s prospects for a winning season so that won’t change.

But how will he sound when talking about individual players, especially the injured ones, and the incoming freshman who may get playing time?  In the spring the big difference I noted in practices between this staff and last year’s was that Chryst’s staff was much more quiet and in the teaching mode whereas Graham’s staff were screamers and cheerleaders.  I think we need the former way more than we need the latter.  If he starts showing some emotion when discussing the players themselves I think that bodes well for his projection of how the team can play this season.

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Another year of training camp. Five head coaches and two interim coaches later it is the ninth year of I am posting about it. Hard to believe.

Here’s a good run down of what the situation is at each unit. And by “good run down,” I mean absolutely terrifying with regards to depth.

Let’s start with our annual area of fear and concern. The O-line.

Unfamiliar blocking schemes doomed Pitt last year, but many of its linemen were trained and recruited for a style similar to Chryst’s. That could lead to improvement, but the return to health of senior left guard Chris Jacobson (knee), a leader in the locker room, will be equally important.

Senior center Ryan Turnley played last season with plantar fasciitis in his foot and sets a good example. Left tackle is a mess after the season-long suspension of Juantez Hollins, but redshirt junior Cory King may get the first shot at settling things down.

Massive redshirt sophomore Matt Rotheram — he’s 6-foot-6 and 335 pounds — will play right tackle, and redshirt junior Ryan Schlieper will start camp at right guard.

Lack of depth on the line may be Pitt’s biggest problem.

“May be Pitt’s biggest problem?” Didn’t even know that was debatable.

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I know the drill. It’s one we probably all know. We’ve seen it at Pitt. We’ve seen it at other schools. New coach comes in. He’s not just a promising coach. He’s a special guy. He gets “it.”

This AP story by Will Graves is decent enough. Doesn’t go over the top about Chryst. Plays up the humble, doesn’t like to talk about himself aspect.

When asked what a “Paul Chryst Team” is going to look like, the man tasked with providing a meandering program with stability just lets out a small sigh.

“Number one, it’s not my team,” he said. “I’m not the only coach, but our staff believes and I really respect and enjoy the game and playing it the right way. To me that’s the thing you’re shooting for, you know, all the clichés.”

It’s not that Chryst is intentionally trying to sound boring. It’s just that he’s not a big talker or self-promoter. Maybe that’s why the 46-year-old had to wait so long to get his first head coaching gig despite being considered one of the top offensive minds in college football for a decade.

Chryst hardly cares. He’s here now, trying to provide a sense of calmness to a program that’s spent two seasons in transition, from coach to coach to coach and conference to conference.

The whole anti-Graham theme is strong in any story about Chryst. To be fair it is hard not to draw a very huge distinction between the two.

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