OK.  Camp is just over and we are getting ready for normal game prep practices starting tomorrow.  It has been a very interesting camp with some pretty big stories coming out of it.

On August 6th we posted an article asking the following five questions about this season’s training camp.  Well, let’s look at the answered and at some other eventful things that transpired over the last 16 days.

1.  What will be the overall tenor of the practices and of the post-practice interviews?

Alright.  We pretty much knew what kind of personality Paul Chryst was going into this thing.  He isn’t your verbose, eternally optimistic guy.  His post-practice interviews are, to put it mildly, boring.  He said nothing about any players, even the injured ones, and plays his job close to the vest.  He is what he is, as they say.

The tenor of the practices was a different matter.  In the scrimmages I saw and in reading the numerous practice reports by the local beat writers the overall theme with this camp was teaching the players the staff’s way of preparing for and conducting a football game.  There was a real sense of ‘get down to it and work‘ as evidenced by how many plays were run during the scrimmages – 183 and 129 respectively.  That’s a lot of football in three hours.  Here is a quote that sums up the physicality of the camp:

Pitt coach Paul Chryst knew only one way to conclude the most physically demanding training camp since before the Dave Wannstedt era. He put the team through its fourth live scrimmage Wednesday on the next-to-last day. “What better way than to play some ball?” he asked. Several players have said this is the toughest camp in their time at Pitt, and Chryst makes no apologies. “You try to just make some informed decisions and try to do what’s best for the group,” he said. “I think we have gotten better through the course of it. I wish we had two more months of it, really.”

Another indication of how physical it was is the number of injuries, mostly minor, that were sustained by the hard hitting and long hours.  Chryst said he wanted to see tough kids in the lineup this season and this was how he started down that path.

2. Speaking of incoming freshman we’ll keep an eye on two in particular – Shell and Voytik.

The dust hasn’t completely settled with these two true FR yet and might not until the season unfolds.

As it stands now Shell is third or fourth on the RB depth chart, depending on Graham’s availability, behind Graham, Bennett and Crockett.  Shell was sitting out of practices all last week and while that didn’t help him to grab a higher spot in the rotation, it also didn’t drop him any farther down.  I think if Graham can’t go for some time then Shell will be that third guy in if the staff wants to have three RBs share the load.

Shell has been saying that he amenable to a redshirt if the staff wants that to happen.  He wasn’t at first but apparently his teammates explained the benefits and he understands more clearly what it is all about.  Then, this week when Shell could return to taking snaps, he played much more solid ball and worked his way back into the conversation at RB.  We’ll see on Sept 1st where he stands,  it could go either way and he’ll most probably still be 3rd string going into the season .

Chad Voytik has stirred the QB pot with his last week’s level of play and is showing what could either be a glimpse of future seasons at PITT or of the future games in 2012.  No staff or media types have talked about him starting in place of Sunseri as yet, the frustrated and Sunseri-weary PITT fans have been doing enough of that, but the popular consensus seems to be “keep your eye on this situation“.

Voytik really helped his cause by a good formal scrimmage and solid practices in this last week of camp.  He faltered a bit in yesterday’s informal scrimmage but certainly showed the staff enough to understand that he’s a viable college QB down the road.  But, of course, the fans want to know if he is one now.

In that the question Paul Chryst has to answer is pretty simple, who is the best QB to help towards wins at this point and for this season?  So far that has been Tino Sunseri.  Who knows what the answer will be in a month or two?

3.  What is the linebacker depth and Dan Mason’s status?

Linebacker depth has been pretty severely impacted by injuries to Todd Thomas (ACL)  and Ejuan Price (pectoral muscle).  Price will get back on the field sooner than Thomas apparently.  It may be some length of time before Thomas will be suited up in a serious playing time mode.  Right now, if the YSU game was played tomorrow,  the two deep would look like this: Eric Williams,  Shane Gordon, and Nicholas Grigsby as starters in that field order with Manny Williams, Jason Frimpong and Joe Trebitz working multiple positions behind them.

Deaysean Rippy and Bam Bradley were also in the lineup at LB at various times but as true FR I’ll be surprised if we see then in anything other than mop up if they aren’t redshirted.

Dan Mason has been in uniform and out on the field all camp.  He’s been taking mostly 3rd string snaps with some 2nd string mixed in depending on how many LBs are held out of practice that day.  I think that, sad as it is, it is safe to say his days of holding a starting job at PITT are over.  That said, he’s been in on special plays, conversions, PATs, short yardage so he’s contributing out there, just not to the level we all hoped he could get back to.  Of course, he’s a role model on the sidelines also.

4.   Who will win the DE and Safety starting jobs?

DE has been an interesting position to watch this camp.  Tyrone Ezell started off with a bang by showing his speed and power by knocking down passes and dropping ballcarriers in the backfield from the right DE position, which was a new place for him to play.  T. J. Clemmings seemed to have shed his cocoon and is spreading his wings at the other DE position nad was getting nice mentions after the practices bu this close mouthed staff.

Behind those two there was a three way battle for the back up spots with Jack Lippert, Shane Hale and Bryan Murphy competing hard to be in the mix.  Back and forth and rotations by everyone through the two deep and it shook out like this.

Ezell was moved back inside to take the 1st team spot from Mosley-Smith and Lippert was named the other 1st team DE.  That left Shane Hale and Bryan Murphy as 2nd string with true FR Darryl Render getting 2nd team snaps also.  Speaking of Render both he and Terrell Jackson will get playing time this season on the DL as freshman.  LaQuentin Smith  looks like he’ll be on the interior when he comes back from injury.

The safeties will be a mixture of four guys with Holley Tags, Vinopal and Hendricks all playing in combos depending on different situations.  Tags has been very active in camp and has apparently secured the other starting spot opposite Holley if you were playing this week.  Toward the very end of camp, and really due to injuries Anthohy Gonzalez had some decent reps in practice so it looks like he’s there for at least this season.

5.  How well has  Ray Graham rehabbed his knee and how well can he play?

Big Question!  Well, for the fact that he tore it last October and it is usually a full year before a player is able to go full speed he’s ahead of the curve.  Yesterday he took off the no-touch green jersey and ran five times during the first series of the informal scrimmage ending up in the end zone on his last carry. So, he’s showing some prior abilities out there.

Unfortunately, that may be the last we see of him in any real action for some weeks.  Personally, I don’t think he’ll play in the opener.  It remain to be seen if he’ll play the next short week against Cincinnati.   Regardless, I think Rudolph will be calling Bennett’s and Crockett’s numbers a lot more than Ray Graham’s during the first few games.