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August 29, 2014

One More Day

Filed under: Coaches,Football,Media,Players — Reed @ 7:55 am

We get to see the Panthers 2014 version play their first game tomorrow and I’m sure you guys are excited as I am.  Last night I sat in the car while my wife was shopping and I tried to gather all the info I know and all the opinions I have and come out with some sort of handle on what the PITT team will be like this year.

Not an easy thing to do.  You guys have read what I’ve observed and thought about the different segments of the football program and the team itself over the last six weeks.  You’ll formulated your own opinions and will watch each week unfold to see if PITT was “we were what we thought we were’.   That’s what is so much fun about football at this level.  Things change so drastically not only season to season but week to week.

So, this morning I wake up and read Jerry DiPaloa’s opinion piece on the team in his  Pitt Locker Room Blog and I thought – that’s putting a finger on it.  DiPaola is an interesting guy.  He’s not a rah-rah PITT booster but has an edge of cynicism to him when discussing the team so when I read his thoughts this morning I was surprised at how optimistic he is.

He included an interesting take on how Chryst approaches player’s attitudes:

Chryst has Pitt pointed in the right direction. He recruits players who love the game, and he doesn’t worry about how many stars recruiting services place next to their names. He demands accountability and respect for the game. He has no sympathy for those players who believe they can get by on talent and don’t work hard enough to nourish it.  

“Calling Mr. Shell…  Mr. Shell…  there is a message at the front desk for you.”

Then following that DiPaola relates a conversation he had with a player who was unhappy with his position coach:

Chryst also loves coaching because of the bond he shares with his players.  Most of them genuinely like him. There was a player at Pitt not long ago complaining to me about a member of Chryst’s staff. The player found it necessary to add this: “Not Chryst,” he said. “Coach Chryst is the man.”  I found it interesting and instructive that the player spent only one season under Chryst, really didn’t know him all that well.

 Then he lays out his prediction on the season’s win total which should make us all smile.  Of course, he is banking on a few things to click into place for his predictions to happen but that’s what all of us rely on also.  Anyway, read the blog article and feel a bit better this morning about what we may seen unveiled tomorrow at noon.

Speaking of predictions here are three guys from Bleacher Report who also have stars in their eyes, and a very positive view, when it comes to PITT’s season.  The writer of the article goes on to give his game by game breakdown and why things will happen the way he thinks they will.  I think it is kind of funny that everyone who has commented on the Panthers this preseason has said the same thing (below) but with wildly differing predictions.

The Panthers have had plenty of play-making WRs and RBs over the last decade, but they haven’t had a solid offensive line in a long time and a mobile playmaking QB since Tyler Palko. The fate of Pitt’s season will likely depend on QB play, the O-line, and the ability of the defense to gel together.

All pretty positive stuff for the Friday morning before the opener but let’s face it – you are going to be spending your workday cruising the Internet looking at PITT football stuff anyway and I just wanted to save you a bit of time.  I’ll be driving up in the morning and hanging around the Red 7C parking lot tailgates – I’m the weirdly tall guy with a white hat on.

OTHER BITS & PIECES:

– Werner of the P-G’s take on the Delaware QB. The headline is misleading in itself but a nice background piece.  Here is Werner’s “Three Things” article from the 26th.  It has a nice sidebar going through the 2014 games.

– PITT News has ramped up their reporting over the last few years and I suggest we add that on our daily list of site we look at to satiate our PITT football appetite.  Here is a piece on the OL and Clemmings.  Also, as if these students are experts at it, here is their take on how to tailgate at Heinz Field on game days.  Actually it is well written and informative but the left out the part where it is required for PITT students to leave at the end of the 3rd quarter so they can start getting their drink on in preparation for the Saturday night meat swap.

I love this quote at the end of the article: “Last rule: tailgating isn’t a one-time event. It’s an ongoing commitment.”   Of course actually attending and watching the games obviously  isn’t but why split hairs right?

– Here is Chris Dokish’s Panther’s Prey blog with his take on the program, staff and football team.  It is very in-depth and not as negative as he almost always is.  His predictions and grades are there also. Good stuff.  I like his writing, don’t agree with it all the time but I tend not to read the comments as much as they tend to degenerate.

– Here is a great video from Pitt Live Wire with Pat Bostick talking about our new MLB Matt Galambos.  I’ve read some comments here and elsewhere about Galambos’ “lack of speed” but that isn’t the case.  Not only is he quick but he seems to get that great first step which gets him to the ball carrier.  BTW – Pitt Live Wire is a great inside view of all things PITT football.  One sided of course but a very nice website.

– For those of you who have a Rivals subscription they have a new weekly piece where Pat Bostick contributes his “The Bostick Breakdown” and it is really well done.  Holy Hell! Bostick does a great job with his fantastic knowledge of college football’s intricacies to give an extensive and detailed review of our opponent and how PITT should do against them. BTW – he’s a great person to talk with about the team, just an all around great guy and I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets snatched away from this level of broadcasting at some point – he’s that good and that well respected.

I’m not a shill for Rivals so I don’t have a dog in the hunt as they say but if you are a PITT fan who really needs as much good info and opinion on PITT as possible then a Rivals monthly subscription is worth it.  Or… you can just read my stuff that I steal from Chris Peak anyway.  Just kidding, the only thing I take away from his stuff is his camp  practice’s two-deep listing as I’ve no short term memory left.  He’s the best in the area I think.

That’s all folks, start getting your game face on and your liver tuned up.  Here’s a drinking tip:  Imbibe as much as you can without passing out.  That way you can say you were at the win even if you don’t remember any of it and, should the worst happen and we get upset, you won’t feel any pain afterward.

Go PITT!!





“Meat swap”? Reed, you are a funny guy. I wish that I could be there tomorrow to say hey in person. And, how tall is “weirdly” tall?

H2P

Comment by pmdH2P 08.29.14 @ 8:01 am

6’6″

Comment by Reed 08.29.14 @ 8:07 am

More good stuff, Reed.

Dokish is a Pitt fan but … his glass is half empty these days pertaining to Pitt FB, but half full on Pitt BB. (He loves JD)

Much like that player DiPaola wrote about, I am a big fan of HCPC but not so much of a couple of his assistants.

Comment by wbb 08.29.14 @ 8:17 am

A note about the PITT season ticket sales. There is an advertisement that shows the student section with the caption “The Panther Pit, 10K and counting”. That refers to the fact that we have sold over 10,000 season tickets to the students, not overall sales.

I believe we are around 45,000 for that number, maybe even higher.

link to scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net

Comment by Reed 08.29.14 @ 8:19 am

Thanks for the clarification on ticket sales. As usual . I was confused. 10,000 students sounds like a great number, hopefully they show up and stay for the 4th qtr.

I still don’t understand why so few tickets were available on stubhub, seems like a lot less than last year, and major sections of the stadium with no tickets available.

Thanks again for your consolidated summary of coverage, very comprehensive. Reading Dockish’ evaluation gives real concern to QB depth. He really thinks very little of Trey Anderson and believes the most important thing is to keep Chad healthy. Also he is very hard on the defensive backfield. This should be a pretty good test for them with a decent QB and a solid receiver to test them.

There should always be optimism going into the season but tomorrow we face reality. We should learn a lot. I hope it is good.

Tomorrow should be a warm up for the offense, if not, we may have problems. I’m hoping for a dominant performance.

Comment by gc 08.29.14 @ 8:46 am

Also it looks like James will get his share of carries tomorrow. Should be very interesting.

Comment by gc 08.29.14 @ 8:47 am

I missed this link – here is Chris Peak’s hour long radio show about PITT sports – this one is about the opener and recruiting. Good listening while you work.

link to filesource.abacast.com

Comment by Reed 08.29.14 @ 9:06 am

Watched MS and Boise last night. Lots of speed and poor officiating in favor of home team MS. Lots of empty seats.

Comment by Frank MD 08.29.14 @ 9:11 am

Anyone know if the game is on any digital sites? Espn u. Say?

Comment by Dan 72 08.29.14 @ 9:23 am

Dan 72
As far as I know it is only being streamed on ESPN3. I spent yesterday getting familiar with connecting to it, had to call DISH to update user name/password and now I get the streaming well. I’m also getting a cable to run from my lap top to the TV so I can view it on the large screen. One thing you can’t control is the video quality, which depends on your wifi speed. Saturdays seem to run slower due to heavy use and the quality may be poor. It seems with IT stuff if anything can go wrong – it does! Good luck and “Let’s Go Pitt”

Comment by pittman4ever 08.29.14 @ 9:35 am

@Frank MD, agreed. Unless there are a couple major players going against each other, these made for tv games are dogs for ticket sales or in close proximity to at least one of the schools.

Poor atmosphere when this happens.

TV money I guess. But wouldn’t they have TV money is the game was played at Ole Miss with 70K fans in attendance or at Boise with 50K???

I mean the game would have still been on TV from either of the home teams places.

Don’t get it.

Comment by Dan 08.29.14 @ 9:41 am

Texas A&M, Johnny who?? Wow.

Temple putting a beat down on Vandy.

Rutgers winning in the end against Wash St.
(was actually a pretty good game as my eyes were coming down.)

Comment by Dan 08.29.14 @ 9:43 am

Right now Conner is our only proven threat (imho) at the RB position, but that said, I must say I’m excited to see young James run & hopefully take some pressure off of Conner.

Comment by 1618mt 08.29.14 @ 9:47 am

They can say all they want about ticket sales. The camera doesnt lie. This is No Florida state so I expect a real number of about 31k fans. Leaving Lauderdale and my entire flight is Florida State Fans. I bet that game gets 90k. I still like Hens + 27 a lot but now lines are not there. What happened???

Comment by Upittbaseball 08.29.14 @ 10:37 am

Remember this! You will see Trey Anderson light it up this season. Whether it is a injury or makes the most of an opportunity I still think he will be our leader.

Comment by Upittbaseball 08.29.14 @ 10:46 am

Upitt – I believe you must be Trey’s dad. If so, I wish your son well, he seems like a great kid.

Comment by 1618mt 08.29.14 @ 10:56 am

The only way Trey lights up anything this year is if he catches a ride with Blount and Bell on his way to a team flight.

Go Pitt!

Comment by notrocketscience 08.29.14 @ 11:05 am

Upitt – you are consistent at least. I’d love to see Anderson come in for a series or two once we get a big lead but if Chryst stays true to form he’ll run Voytik out there all day.

Comment by Reed 08.29.14 @ 11:06 am

As long as Pitt has 8 wins or better this year I don’t care who the QB is.

Comment by notrocketscience 08.29.14 @ 11:06 am

Yes Im Trey’s Dad. I had him at 15. That is the only way that works but I do live in Texas now. LOL

Comment by Upittbaseball 08.29.14 @ 11:16 am

The reason I think we see Trey is because Chad’s play warrants it. I also woukd start Connor on D. We need it and wouldnt play Boyd on Special Teams. He is way to important to our success. If Boyd tore a knee we win 5-6 games. That is how important he is to us.

Comment by Upittbaseball 08.29.14 @ 11:19 am

Lastly, love Navy and the points. And Wisky + points and under

Comment by Upittbaseball 08.29.14 @ 11:21 am

@Reed

I read Chris Dokish’s Panther Prey today. He questions why we cannot recruit a “topnotch” QB recruit. Well, maybe Paul Chryst knows more about what he is doing than Mr Dokish. I am guessing that he knows what he wants and has it (Bertke and Hornibrook)–or knows where to look to find him.

Less than 24 hours to go.

H2P

Comment by pmdH2P 08.29.14 @ 11:27 am

pmd you make a great point. And Doke kind of is talking out of both sides of his mouth because he points out that Chryst took Scott Tolzien (Obviously not a “topnotch” QB recruit) and made him QB of the year. Then he turns around and complains about not getting a topnotch recruit. It’s pretty obvious to me that Chryst is a guy that can take the raw tools and transform them into something pretty well polished. I think it’s also pretty apparent that he knows what to look for in a recruit. Stars or not. Chryst is a smart guy and i love what he’s doing with our team. Can’t wait to see how it looks on the field.

Comment by Atlanta Panther 08.29.14 @ 11:41 am

I actually think there will be a decent crowd tomorrow given the opponent – lots going on in the city tomorrow but with the holiday and great weather, could be 40k range.

Re: Boyd on special teams – I hope they save him for when they really need him. I don’t see any reason to run him out there in these non-cons if the game isn’t close. But if they are down 4 to Va Tech in the 4th, I wanted Tyler Boyd returning that kick.

Speaking of Blount and Bell, I’d like some of what that guy is smoking from Bleacher Report who has Pitt and 10-2, with one of the losses being Iowa at home.

Kind of tired about hearing how easy Pitt’s schedule is – sure Iowa is the only decent non-con, and there are no elite ACC teams on Pitt’s schedule (i.e FSU or Clemson), but none of these ACC teams are chopped liver. Are ANY of Pitt’s ACC games automatic wins? I don’t think so. I saw Pitt struggle at HOME last year vs. a UVa team that was far worse than this year’s version will be. Nothing will come easy to this team.

Comment by Iron Duke 08.29.14 @ 11:43 am

With Pat Bostick’s keen football mind, I still can’t help but believe PITT (who was pre-season ranked) would have opened 2010 with a victory over Utah and that whole season would have played out very differently.

And indeed PITT football would have been in a great position to take advantage of the troubles and coaching changes at both Creepy Valley State and WVcc.

Well at least Bostick got something out of it, for not complaining at the time. Cause his football career was really a disservice to the kid.

Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 12:19 pm

@Upitt

I am guessing that 15 was a good year for you.

H2P

Comment by pmdH2P 08.29.14 @ 12:20 pm

MOST importantly…what uniform combination will we be sporting tomorrow?

HTP

Comment by Pitt IT Is 08.29.14 @ 12:27 pm

Watched some of the Temple/Vandy game which was a Temple rout at Vandy. 37-7

Vandy played 3 QB’s none of which were Wade Freebeck. And none of the 3 were very good as Vandy’s lone TD came on a recovered fumble in the endzone by the Temple punter.

Freebeck could have been #3 at Pitt, and if he showed anything in camp maybe #2.

Vandy has 3 freshmen QB and a sophomore who started. Pitt has 1 sophomore and 1 freshman not counting Anderson.

Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 12:28 pm

Wow, don’t know what to say about Texas A & M’s performance.

South Carolina had won 18 straight home games, and A & M went thru their defense like a hot knife thru butter.

Very deflating loss, kinda reminded me of our opener in 1984 when PITT was pre-season ranked #3 and BYU came into town and beat us. Not as badly, but it was just as deflating as what happened in Columbia, last evening.

link to gogamecocks.com

Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 12:42 pm

The more I think about it…

How in the world has Chryst not landed a top flight QB recruit? With his proven track record and a roster that currently includes as many walk-ons a scholarships QBs…

Can it be that hard?

Power 5..check
QB Guru..check
Likely to play early… check

Comment by BostonsCommon 08.29.14 @ 12:54 pm

Interesting graphic…

link to online.wsj.com

Comment by BostonsCommon 08.29.14 @ 12:58 pm

I actually think Doke’s point about QB recruiting is spot on. You mean to tell me that in 2 classes, when QB has been a need since day 1, that the best a QB guru can do is land Travon Chapman and Adam Bertke? Chryst has missed on nearly every single one of his QB targets. There is no excuse for not landing more, and higher quality, QB recruits. Even this year, Hornibrook was his 3rd choice QB. Bertke and Hornibrook both may turn out to be great, but they arent elite, and neither were Chryst’s top 2 choices.

Comment by PittHW 08.29.14 @ 12:59 pm

@ Reed

Meant to ask you this, when you were up at camp did you see any formations with Boyd lining up in the backfield ? To either throw him a short pass coming out of the backfield (since we’re told Voytik has accuracy problems with downfield passes) or starting him in a backfield set and then motioning him to either side of the field ?

Or is this something you think they might be working on when the practices are closed and we might not see until the BC game ?

Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 1:05 pm

Point spread just out in Vegas has Pitt a 20 PT fave vs Del.
UPitt. Going to Navy./OSU .love Navy also w the points and think they could win.

Pittman..thank you for the espn3 info. I gave up trying to stream to the big screen. As the video quality sucks.

Comment by Dan 72 08.29.14 @ 1:09 pm

Is very strange since PC coached the winning QB in the Super Bowl last year in Russell Wilson who had a phenomenal season in his only year with PC and Wisky.

Not to mention they would have Tyler Boyd and Addonis Jennings to throw to.

Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 1:11 pm

Well hopefully Voytik will live up to his 4 star, Elite 11 QB status and we won’t have to worry about getting an elite QB for a couple years.

I mean look what PC did with both tiny and Savage.
(especially tiny) as Savage actually had some tools.

Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 1:17 pm

@Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 1:11 pm

Yea, I don’t get it… I mean kids are smart too.

With at all of the resources and opportunity available at Pitt.. And the just utter lack of competition.

Chryst doesn’t even have to sell anything to these kids… They should see it themselves.

I mean what is the fastest path to the NFL? Goin’ to Pitt and throwing TDs to Boyd, Jennings, Hotlz, and Orndoff… or getting buried on a depth chart at Michigan or Vandy?

Comment by BostonsCommon 08.29.14 @ 1:23 pm

And I still think what happened with his nephew is curious… I know not many would pick Pitt over Stanford, and his dad was right up the road with the 49ers… But cmon kid, go hang out with your uncle for a few years, and well draft you when you’re done.

Comment by BostonsCommon 08.29.14 @ 1:27 pm

Yea I thought we had more than a good chance to get the nephew, Keller.

He’s not going to play this year at Stanford as they have 2 returning senior QB’s.

And they have a sophomore.

So I’m guessing Keller is 4rth on their depth chart.

If he was as good as they say, he’d be #2 on Pitt’s depth chart immediately and only an injury away from being the starter.

Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 1:35 pm

Blood is thicker than water. (or a scholarship to Stanford)

Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 1:40 pm

It’s hard to imagine why an elite qb wouldn’t want to come to Pitt & get booed off the field, trashed all over the media & internet for doing their best, & continue to be belittled years after they’re gone. That’s a real head scratcher.

Comment by Nick 08.29.14 @ 1:51 pm

Dan72,
You are welcome. Also, please note that I (pittman4ever) and pittman are 2 different entities. But clearly both of us bleed Pitt blue and gold!!! H2P. Roast the Hens!

Comment by Pittman4ever 08.29.14 @ 1:58 pm

Name one ‘elite’ QB that was booed off the field and trashed by the media in the last 30 years…

And please, you start throwin’ picks and losing Youngstown State and Bowling Green, I don’t care if you the QB for Cal, Texas, or Nortre Dame, you’re gonna get booed off the field and ripped by the media.

Pitt is hardly a pressure cooker environment.

Comment by BostonsCommon 08.29.14 @ 1:59 pm

Nick,
As long as he is not a short Italian kid who can’t throw down field, I don’t think there is anything to worry about! :>)

Comment by Pittman4ever 08.29.14 @ 2:11 pm

Emel – I didn’t see that but when the team goes into ‘closed’ practices is when the work on and run the ‘out of the norm’ plays.

Guys – Regarding Dokish – the one thing you have to remember about him is that he really is all about rating the recruits personally and should any HC or staff disagree with him he seems to take it personally. I mean really personally. Also, if you read his ‘State of the Program’ piece he talks about how bad things were in 2010 and that he wanted PITT to roll out the bank vault and hire a “big name” HC for immediate results.

But not one word about what was the true driving force between DW’s firing and then Chryst’s hiring which was the state of the program off the field in addition to the mediocre results on the field. Dokish has never wanted to believe that even though we have heard it said time and again that major changes had to be made and a large part of that was a 25% purge of the roster since 2012 and who were mostly DW’s recruits.

Hell – if you listened to Chris Peak and Bostick on that radio link you should have no misconceptions at all of the difference between the end of the 2010 season and this season. They weren’t shy at all stating just what has taken place.

Another example is this main criticism of Chryst’s recruitings:

“Too many kids that Pitt has recruited have gone too long without hearing from the staff, and amazingly a few didn’t even know they had Pitt offers. That is inexcusable, and more than a little surprising considering that support staff like Bob Junko and Chris LaSala are veterans who are great at their jobs. Somehow between them and this staff there has been a disconnect because this is not something that has happened in the past.”

Yet the severity of that has been disabused by the staff, admin and other media reporters but Dokish believes what recruits tell him and factors that in 100%. The way I see it is that he has disagreed with Chryst’s recruiting so much that he has to try to pick apart every detail, plus he’s such a WPA homer that he can’t understand how Chryst might not feel the same way he does about local players.

But the truth is that the players Chryst has recruited and played so far have done well – and IMO we’re much better off now than had they played 2nd or 3rd string behind the deadwood the Chryst moved out of the program. But, some of that deadwood were Dokish’s favored recruits. The fact that in the last two years Chryst went 13-13 with basically untested freshmen and sophomores shows to me that he’s getting kids who can play at this level AND WHO HE WANTS IN THE PROGRAM.

Dokish is really tapped into the HS recruiting scene and I like reading his take on the players because I believe he puts his heart and soul into it. If I believed in his rankings 100% I’d probably look down my nose at Chryst’s recruiting also, but there are just too many factors involved to rely on star systems or numerical rankings. I’ll prefer to wait until these recruits on on the field of play before I say that they were recruiting mistakes and can’t play at this level.

IMO This year we’ll have some eyes widely opened by Chryst’s three years of recruits when the dust settles.

Comment by Reed 08.29.14 @ 2:15 pm

BTW – Keller Chryst was never going to come to PITT. His ‘interest’ was a bone thrown this way and blown up 100x by the local media. Any other school but Stanford maybe but he’s a California kid through and through.

Comment by Reed 08.29.14 @ 2:20 pm

@ Nick

If that is even known by kids today it would be a miracle. And at the game you were referring to, it was a mixed audience loaded with PITT haters.
And back then, there were plenty ! As we were the Top Dog.

Obviously didn’t have any bearing on 5 star Pat Bostick coming to PITT.

Or Alex Van Pelt or Joe Flacco or Rod Rutherford (4 star) or Tyler Palko (4 star) or even someone who would have known, Tiny.

So that is way off base.

Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 2:35 pm

I chuckle at the inclusion of Russell Wilson when talking about how Chryst ‘develops’ QB. Wilson was a damned good QB to start with and just happened to flourish in the system Chryst had going on at Wisconsin.

Chryst didn’t do anything different with Wilson, didn’t teach him how to throw better or read defenses better, except to give him a starting job right off the bat, then he did with any other QBs – he just put Wilson in the right place to succeed as well as he could..

A much better example is how Chryst got the production out of Sunseri that he did which was a huge amount compared to Sunseri’s first two years as a starter. Suneri had some decent physical attributes for a QB (yes, he really did) and Chryst put Sunseri in the position to maximize those – and he got results.

That’s what I’m seeing with Voytik so far also. He’s taking a run-first QB and teaching him to stay as long as possible in the pocket so as to hit his talented WRs downfield… just like he did with Wilson.

Also – and this torques me off – I DO NOT want Voytik to turn into another Johnny Manziel. There only reason Manziel succeed the way he did was because of the top shelf talent surrounding him, on both offense and defense, that Texas A&M had. Give PITT that sort of talent and yeah – I’ll personally tell Voytik to go out there and play sandlot ball, but he can’t do that with what we have at PITT. Discipline is what Voytik’s game has got to be all about.

Comment by Reed 08.29.14 @ 2:37 pm

Still worried about the offensive line. Please alleviate my worries tomorrow.

Comment by alcofan 08.29.14 @ 2:39 pm

Oh and if you were referring to tiny since you included the internet. I don’t remember any of the print media trashing him. I remember them, especially Zeise, telling us how great he was in practice. And the print media in general were pretty favorable towards him as it was never mentioned that he never led PITT to a come from behind victory at all. And that a lot of players didn’t exactly like him and the fact he was handed the job.

His bad 4rth quarter play was always minimized and nobody other than Graham (who was lambasted for it by the media) ever removed him from a game. Which considering the quality of play was well deserved.

Again off base.

Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 2:46 pm

right alcofan

Since they’re all returnees and we’re playing an FCS school, they really need to dominate the game tomorrow and we need to rush for at least 200 yards.

Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 2:48 pm

@ Reed, you’re right about PC & Wilson.

It was a plug and play as Wilson was a very good QB for NC State as we all remember from one of our 3 losses in 2009 to the Wolfpack 31-38.

As far as tiny, he couldn’t complete as pass longer than 15 yards and he couldn’t scramble, I will give you he was good at the dink & dunk and hope for YAC. But only thru 3 quarters of a game.

Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 2:57 pm

Chryst has been coaching a long time and the only QB’s are are Wilson and Tolzien???? Guys a stud QB molder turns out more studs than that. And wilson played good at NS State he wansnt a bum.

Comment by Upittbaseball 08.29.14 @ 3:04 pm

Tolzien wasn’t/isn’t exactly a stud. He wasn’t drafted and in his 4rst year he’s a 3rd string QB for GReen Bay. Which more probably cause Green Bay is in Wisconsin than anything else. After being waived by the 49’ers last year.

Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 3:13 pm

We got many Pittsburgh connections currently with the Packers.

HC Mike McCarthy (greenfield)
QC Alex Van Pelt (PITT)
OC Tommy Clements (Canevin HS, PGH)
OQC Luke Getsy (PITT/Akron/Steel Valley)
DC Dom Capers (Steelers)
DBC Darren Perry (CVS/Steelers)

Quite a little fraternity out there from Western PA, Pgh.

Comment by Emel 08.29.14 @ 3:21 pm

UPITT – From 2008-2010 Chryst had Scott Tolzien and compiled a 29-11 record with him. Remember also that he was the QB coach at that time.

He also coached John Stocco in ’05 (21st QB nationally) ’06 and he was a fine QB, then he coached Donovan Tyler.

Comment by Reed 08.29.14 @ 4:46 pm

BostonsCommon,

Thanks for the link to the grid. Pitt seems highly rated (Admirable + Powerhouse).

But Pitt always seems to find a way to disappoint. Hope it’s not this year.

Penn State is way down at the bottom (Embarrassing).

Comment by 17YearsatPitt 08.29.14 @ 5:55 pm

Dokish has long depended on Joe Butler for his insights. Nothing wrong with sources. But Pitt simply will never play in that casino table he believes Pitt should. Confidential info told to a relative was Pryor eliminated Pitt financially. Not because of the coach, school, offense or locality. Basically Pitt can’t play in that arena. Don’t think for one second PSU wasn’t playing on that level with Pryor. We Are a cash cow. Success with cash flow.

Comment by chethejet 08.29.14 @ 6:07 pm

Nick, if a QB can’t take the pressure of playing for Pitt, as the 5th most important team in town with a lackluster 30 year history, and a bevy of jaded and fair weather fans, he sure as hell isn’t going to cut it playing for one of the big boys.

I have been impressed thus far with what Chryst has done pulling in under the radar talent, but if you want a blue chipper at any position, it has to be QB.

Last year at this time I was saying how surprised I was that Pitt had been unable to recruit any 4-star RBs, and now look, that position is stacked. Maybe we just need to be patient.

10,000 Nits in Dublin today at a pep rally. If that were anybody but Ped St., I’d say good for them. But I know Nit fans – they go blindly and without reason. They could have gone 2-10 last year and still 9,000 would show. Loyal? Maybe. I say lemmings, and Jimmy F. Is the new Pied Piper. No Pitt Koolaid will ever, and I mean……..EVER rival what they drink up in Pedo Valley.

Forecasted high of 93 tomorrow. Glad my seats are in the shade. Lets roll it up early and substitute en masse in the 2nd half. Hail!

Comment by Iron Duke 08.29.14 @ 6:17 pm

Bertke might be that blue chipper we are talking about. He really opened my eyes when I watched him throw and run the offense this camp.

Leaving in 30 minutes – Red 7C lot for anyone interested @ around 10:30 or so. Again, tall guy with white ballcap and a flowing yet beautiful moustache.

Comment by Reed 08.30.14 @ 3:48 am

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