A couple verbals that everyone is well aware at this point. Over the lost weekend, Pitt got a verbal from Luke MacLean out of Michigan. He’s a 3-star on all of the recruiting sites. Some sites list him as a weak-side D, and others as an inside linebacker. The answer is: yes.

“It feels great,” MacLean said. “I’m excited about the decision. It feels like the right place and I’m fired up about it.”

MacLean (6-3, 235 lbs) is listed as a three-star on both Rivals and Scout. He also had offers from Cincinnati and Indiana, as well as several MAC schools. MacLean’s high school coach Joe Delaney said he was close to an offer from Michigan State, but that Pitt was always the team to beat.

“All along, he was really fired up about the chance at Pitt that he might have with the new coaches there, so I think that’s eventually what turned the corner for him,” Delaney said.

MacLean said the Pitt coaching staff told him he would be a defensive end/linebacker hybrid. In fact, he said that on his visit, defensive line coach Inoke Breckterfield told him, “I’ll be fighting over you with the linebackers coach when you get here.”

[Emphasis added.]

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Over the past ten years Pitt has had a nice run of really good tight ends. Or at least potentially good tight ends. Not necessarily amazing, high NFL talent tight ends — Kris Wilson excepted — but really, really good college tight ends. Some high-end recruts like Mike Cruz, Brock DeCicco and Andrew Devlin didn’t pan out for various reasons (desire, system change, injury).

Darrell Strong should have been great with his size, strength and speed, but never got out of the doghouse or showed the fire to match the potential. Nate Byham and even Eric Gill were solid all-around players at the position who could block and catch. Dorin Dickerson exploded at the TE/H-back spot.

There has been the potential for something great at that position every year. This year, though, may have Pitt with its best group of TE’s since the Byham and Dickerson tandem. Actually, the potential is even higher when you consider that they may get used much more.

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When I end up taking several days away, the hardest thing is figuring out where to begin on all that was missed. Let’s start with trying to fill out a depth chart

Man, Tom Ricketts going down for the year on the first day of practices with a shoulder injury is a blow. I have no idea how good he really is. But he’s an offensive lineman, and Pitt cannot afford to be even thinner at the position. The O-line has been the eternal concern for Pitt every year to start camp. This year is no different. The lack of depth over the years has manifested in another way.

A big problem is that the backup offensive linemen have played almost no snaps from scrimmage. When right tackle Matt Rotheram hurt his leg Thursday, he was replaced by Zenel Demhasaj, a junior-college transfer who redshirted last year at Pitt. When guard Chris Jacobson took plays off to rest his knee, redshirt sophomores Shane Johnson and Arthur Doakes worked with the first team. “It’s time for them to step up,” Hueber said.

These are all kids who at best were on the second-team in practices now being needed to go up against the first team defense. The only positive is that the D-line looks strong, so they are getting good tests right away.

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Sorry to abruptly disappear for nearly a week. Lot of off-line activity that kept me from finding any time to give the blog some time. Family stuff — nothing bad — that just took all the significant spare time available. It’s done, so all should be back on a normal schedule.

I’m sure many of you have read the post from Paul Zeize that he is leaving the Pitt football beat for a while, as his son now holds an offer from the school and will be going through recruiting. Zeise is the only one who regularly wrote on Pitt football longer than this blog, so this is a significant change. I’ve enjoyed his work over the years. He has been fair in his coverage of Pitt.

Still he had no choice. There would be an appearance and/or perception of bias with his son holding a scholarship offer from Pitt. Heck, whether his son chooses Pitt or elsewhere there will still be someone ready to use it against him the minute he writes or comments on Pitt now and in the future.

Hoping he gets back to the Pitt beat soon, though. (No offense to the new guy, Sam Werner.)

This morning we posted a scrimmage article about the offensive side of the ball, so let’s take a look at what when on with the defensive side.   My first  impression is this, we may not have a lot of experienced depth in the defensive 11 but our starters are going to be very talented.

I’ve had some real doubts about the staff moving Tyrone Ezell’s from DT to DE given his big size.  He’s 6’4” and 300 lbs and I wondered if he’d have the quicks and speed rush a good DE needs to have to get to the passer and set up containment.  Our two star DEs in the past years were much leaner with Greg Romeus being 6’6” and 270 lbs and Jabaal Sheard coming in at 6’4” and 260 lbs.  Those guys could get up and get out very quickly.

Forget about any problems you may think we have with Ezell on this score, he’s as quick as Aaron Donald out there and gets right into the QB’s face very fast.  He knocked down three passes today, two in the first series of the scrimmage and he came around off the backside to tackle RBs  like a flash.  He’s not a fat 300 pounds by any means and with his motor’s governor on overspeed he’s going to be very effective out there.

Our front four did well with Ezell, Donald, Bryan Murphy, who was splitting 1^st team reps with T. J. Clemmings at the other DE spot, and with Jack Lippert, who played well at the second DT spot.  Lippert is battling K. K. Mosley-Smith for that position so Smith has to get healthy (thinner) and get right with the staff ASAP.  (I have to chuckle as I write this because of the strong opinions I expressed in the ‘Scrimmage 1-Offense’ post earlier today.  Hey, I predicted Jack Lippert was going to be our starting Center two years ago).

LaQuentin Smith went out early with an injury so I didn’t get a chance to see how he’d do at one of the DT spots after moving from LB to DE to DT in one year.  He gained 55 pounds since being recruited in 2011 so I supposed the least you could say is that he’s dedicated enough to drastically morph his body in a short time.

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I attended PITT’s first training camp scrimmage today and, while no one told me it would be actually chilly in PGH this morning, I came away with a lot of things to discuss and to share my sometimes strong opinions of what I saw.  Here are some of my first, quick observations:

–        I walked over to the practice field behind Chris Jacobson and Matt Rotheram.  “Lumpy” Jacobson is listed this year at 6’2” and 295.  Rotheram literally made him look small by comparison.  He’s 6’6” and 330 and looks every bit of it.  I made it a point to watch Rotheram carefully at his Right Tackle position and he moves very well for a mid-sized mountain range.

–        Rushel Shell is surprising huge for a RB.  Not overly tall and listed at 6’0” & 215 (more like 225 I think) he’s built like a fullback and he carries a lot of weight below the waist so his legs are like tree trunks.  I was thinking I’d see a stereo-typical RB out there and I saw a tank.  On the other hand Ray Graham, who lists at 5’10 and 190 lbs isn’t anywhere near that weight in my opinion.  He is skin and lean muscle , bones and a hip goatee but don’t be fooled – he’s a small RB.  I wonder if the NFL has any RBs built as slightly as he is especially in the legs.

–        I stood next to Dorian Johnson for part of the scrimmage.  He’s a tall guy but nowhere near the bulk size of the existing PITT lineman.  He did stay for the whole three hour scrimmage and seemed to be having a good time talking with people.  At one point I ended up standing next to him and after a play where a DE knocked down a pass I said “We’ll there’s an open offensive line spot for next season“.

As to the offensive play on the field I felt the kids played well and were engaged in what they were asked to do.  It was a busy day with getting 183 plays done, in part thanks to the cool football weather, and there was no down time from 9:15 until 12:00 but I didn’t see any confusion out there.  The 1^st and 2^nd string kids got a lot of action while the 3^rd team played sparingly today but did get a few series under their belts.

Everyone wants to know which side ‘won’ the scrimmage and usually, at this point in training camp, the defense is ahead of the offense.  It appeared that would be the case after the first few series.  However, the offense more than held their own this morning IMO.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.  Tino Sunseri was accurate on his passes in hitting his receivers on both short and deep throws. Now, he’s been good in practice before so take it with a grain of salt.  I’ll say this though, he and the rest of the offense looked very comfortable out there running a normal huddle-up offense without the confusing bells and whistles we saw last season.  It is going to be a much better paced and more level offense fielded by PITT this season.

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There’s always that moment in the narrative of a football player returning from injury. When he takes that first hit, knows his injured limb/tendon/ligament/muscle can take it. When he clears that mental hurdle. There’s something to be said for that.

Still, with Ray Graham it should be more about being able to plant, cut, spin and move. This really is about knowing the physical possibilities. His replaced ACL in his right knee needs to be able to take the stress of that. Graham, his coaches and teammates need to see it. More than any hit, they need to see that happen.

It happened.

Graham, who participated in every drill today including the team periods, had one play where he planted his foot, made a cut and ran into the open field. As he turned around, he had a huge smile on his face, as if to say “I’m back.”

It was a big step forward from the way he played Monday as he didn’t participate in team drills and was a bit hesitant to make cuts and change direction.

That should be welcome news for Pitt fans as, when healthy, Graham is one of the best running backs in the country, and obviously a very important piece of the Panthers’ offensive puzzle.

After practice, Graham was all smiles and said that he felt a lot better than he did Monday and said he will continue to get stronger and more confident each day.

“I played with more confidence today, I went out there and just didn’t think about things,” Graham said. “The more I stretched, the better I felt and I just went out and played. The first day was a test day, just trying to see how I feel and I feel as though I am progressing as the days go on. And hopefully day three will be even better than day two. I just need to get better.

“I definitely felt a lot better, my knee is going to be sore after practice anyway. But when I made that move, I cut on my leg, it felt good. And I got tripped up earlier and I fell on it but it didn’t hurt at all.

“So this is a confidence thing, it is a mental thing and like I said every time, the more I don’t think about it and just do it, the better I will feel.”

It’s huge. I have no doubt there will be some days in camp where it will seem Graham takes a step back. The knee will hurt more on one day, and worries will flare. He is trying to get back to playing condition. He is trying to shake the rust off to regain the instincts and and knowledge of his body.

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It would be so tempting to be sidetracked. PSU fighting itself and maybe the NCAA. Fraud Graham still spinning. So easy. So much fun. No! There are practices. There is actual sport. Must. Stay. Focused.

Let’s start at the defensive end.  The questions are about the player behind him and the other side. From a star-recruiting ranking perspective it seems loaded with Shayne Hale, T.J. Clemmings and Bryan Murphy. Reality is something else. Hale has never progressed from potential no matter the position. Clemmings seems to have endless questions about his desire. Murphy just has problems getting on the field. So, Tyrone Ezell is moving to the DE spot, while LaQuentin Smith is competing at linebacker. Zeise tips the hand of why Ezell has moved when he puts it in terms of “ moving into the mix has thrown a little bit of fire into this competition.”

Ezell might win the other starting spot simply because he wants and will work harder for it. That’s a little frustrating, but it is taking place early. Chryst and DC Huxtable are wasting no time trying to make sure that even when there are issues of depth there is is a sense of urgency and competition.

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The first day of training camp is in the books and there has been another excellent website set up by PITT’s Sports Information Department to get the info out to us fans.

This years edition is called PITT Live Wire and has videos, visdeo inyterviews, practice notes, etc.  All in all its a nic bit of work but is a bit hard to navigate at first.  Here is the full address if you want to bookmark it:  http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/blog/

Then it looks like there will be a different page added each day – Here is the Day One entry.  In it there is a current Training Camp Notebook.  Nothing really jumps out at me with these notes.

Tyrone Ezell has been moved from the interior of the DL out to defensive end though which is a bit of a surprise considering how thin we are in the interior.  Yesterday I posted that we had four DEs vying for starting jobs; Murphy, Clemmings, Hale and Smith – so now add Ezell.  Somethings got to change there obviously.

Update:  LaQuentin Smith is starting camp at defensive tackle.  I wrote earlier that I figured this would happen sooner or later once this kid packed on 55 pounds over the last 18 months.  This kid is a player and one to keep an eye on.  He’s a true Sophomore this season and can put a few more pounds on his 6’2″ frame.

Chryst was asked about the departure of Myers at QB and he didn’t sound overly concern about the loss – rather blase’ actually:

On Mark Myers transferring:

“It does not really change our situation at quarterback. I think that you have just got to keep going. We wish him well obviously, but we just have to keep going and not miss a beat.”

On whether freshman Chad Voytik will be receiving more meaningful reps due to Myers transferring:

“Absolutely, and we will take advantage of that. It’s certainly easier to rep three quarterbacks than it is to rep four.”

Tom Savage was out there tossing passes around. He’s a walk-on who isn’t eligible this season but figures to be in the mix in 2013.  I just as soon have the guy sat down during camp but as long as he isn’t take any practice reps from the three QBs then no harm I suppose.

If you want to see who PITT’s  ‘next great thing’ at QB is take a look at this short clip of Chad Voytik being interviewed.  That is Paul Zeise of the Post Gazette strolling in at the end and asking Voytik a question that gets cut off by the videographer.  Hmmm, wonder what it was?  Voytik has an NFL jawbone already.

Other than that it was a normal first day of camp with no great news to digest.    Camps are like this, they are required to go without pads for three practice (I think) then once they suit up and go full speed we’ll see things start to shake out.

Note:  Here is a nice video of some of the players moving into Sutherland Hall before camp starts, puts a smile on you face.  

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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Ever since the silliness of Notre Dame associating/aligning themselves with the Big 12 died, there have been intermittent reports of a possible alignment of Notre Dame with the ACC.

The ACC members have been vehemently opposed to partial memberships in the past and have had the attitude of “all in” or “not in” but Swofford said today he’s not sure if that is still the case and of course, he wouldn’t say it but others already have – that subject is indeed being considered with respect to Notre Dame. So don’t be shocked if in the near future Notre Dame is an ACC member in all sports except football and has some sort of scheduling agreement to play X-number of ACC schools in football each year.

Now this one.

Speaking of ND. The Irish and the ACC continue to focus on a deal which would allow ND to play 6 games a year against ACC teams in exchange for getting full membership in the ACC in all other sports.

The sticking point would be in basketball. Putting together a schedule for a 15 team league is much tougher than doing it for a 16 team league. Talks will continue.

I’ll give you reason to panic a bit further down, but for now, take a breath.

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I won’t lie, once I heard Mike Young was back in Pittsburgh to announce his decision, I figured he was picking Pitt. That or he was engaging in LeBron James level trolling.

But Mike Young makes it a point to say that choosing Pitt was not about being back home (Insider subs).

Young, No. 67 overall in the 2013 class, announced his decision at a family gathering in Pittsburgh, one day before leaving to return to St. Benedict’s. Family played a significant role in his decision.

“It was a major factor,” Young said. “I love my family and we’re all very, very close. It was a Pitt decision and they all believed that they would have seen me no matter where I went. Now my mother is only 25 minutes away and my little brother and sister is right here.”

Since the eighth grade, Young’s had a relationship with former Panther and current assistant coach Brandin Knight. Young wasn’t always a Pittsburgh target; Knight was always an outlet for Young. As the relationship progressed, Dixon eventually came aboard and signed off on Young.

“The most memorable thing was Brandin being able to stick with recruiting me from eighth grade until now,” Young said. “He stuck with me even at times when he thought I wasn’t going to be a Pittsburgh player. Now I’m a player that he really wants. Coach Dixon went from calling me here and there to very often and that was the most memorable [part of the process].”

Young is now prepared to turn recruiter for his hometown Panthers. “I think the next big prospect is Jamel Artis (Baltimore/Vermont Academy) and BeeJay Anya (Hyattsville, Md./DeMatha),” Young said. “They really like Josh Hart (Washington/Sidwell Friends). I think the next guy close to committing is Artis. Coach believes in players who can play together.”

Nice.

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Ah, Bates Street. Home to 3 am staggers, stumbles and vomit. That stretch of impoverished student housing and road conditions that necessitated avoidance if at all possible. Perpetually under some form of rebuilding that never seems to finish

What’s that? The City of Pittsburgh did what to it?

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