Chick, in all seriousness, how can we believe you’re a Pitt fan when after less than a week of recruiting and two recruits, you criticize the new staff by making the broad statement “I don’t see a whole lot of difference between this staff and the last at least in recruiting.”

Obviously, you’ve been in the bushes just waiting to pounce.

Quick thought regarding defensive depth on the original post, but I saw on Twitter over the weekend that DE Devin Cook transferred to William & Mary. It flew under the radar a bit, given his status as a backup and with all the recruiting stuff going on. Injuries kind of derailed some things for him here. Best of luck to him.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see some more attrition like this in the coming weeks, especially with the number of offers this coaching staff is throwing around.

The two players we just got won’t ever see
the field??

The one, Stocker, turned down Georgia Tech, PSU, Maryland WVU and Illinois, amongst many other Power 5
schools.

The other, Curtis, turned down
Mississippi State and Wisconsin.

They’ll never see the field??

Leaving scholarships vacant?? For what? Why??

You fill the roster, attrition will happen all over the place every year, at every school.

Leave the scholarships vacant?????

If they have some fantastic recruits next year that want to come to Pitt, believe me, a numbers game will not mean a thing.

If they want to come, and we want them, they will be here.

while we’re piling on … Chick wrote “I don’t see a whole lot of difference between this staff and the last at least in recruiting”

He apparently didn’t you notice that the two recruits were on the defensive side …… MAJOR difference.

Change of subject, how many underclassmen have had a major impact on Pitt Basketball? I can only think of one, DeJuan Blair. Jamie has always relied on seniors and juniors. I do think Julius Page was pretty good as a sophomore, but my memory is not that good. I do agree that Billy Knight was the best all around player ever at Pitt. Too young to have seen Don Hennon.

Big game this Sunday, an upset would be huge in showing that the team is getting better. Not holding my breath.

Not too many but Jerome Lane who left before his senior year would certainly be one. And Bill Knight in his junior year was really good, but he and the team were excellent in sr year.

Hey gc, I would think that Sean Miller would be included as an impact underclassman. If I recall correctly, he was well respected by the older team members at the time.

I was thinking Freshmen and sophomores as underclassmen. I think of juniors as upperclassmen. Miller was pretty good and played a big role.

wbb, From what they’ve shown us, so far, this is a completely different culture. They are aggressive, enthusiastic and comfortable with the media these kids use. To me this group is a refreshing and exciting group of coaches, that we out on the road representing Pitt football and the university.

Chick,

Comparing PSU’s 2015 class to what Pitt’s 2015 isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison.

Franklin was hired on January 11, 2014, so he was in the same spot with their 2014 class that Narduzzi is in now with Pitt’s 2015 class.

The current 2015 commitments for Penn State started rolling in during mid-February of 2014, about a month after Franklin was hired and a week or so after the ribbon was tied on their 2014 class.

If you want to judge Narduzzi on the same standard, either:

– compare this Pitt 2015 class (Chryst-Narduzzi) back to Franklin’s 2014 class (O’Brien-Frankin), or

– wait until we see what Narduzzi brings in with the 2016 class and compare it to this 2015 Penn State class, which was Franklin’s first exclusive class.

What made me think of this was that Duke started three freshmen. One a superstar. Not a level playing field when you can do that. Jamie has always relied on upperclassmen, last year two fifth year seniors. Pretty much why we are struggling right now.

gc, Miller was on the Big East All Rookie team as a freshman. Impressive considering the talent in the Big East bag in those days.

Let’s all have a nice scotch on the rocks to celebrate 3 years ago today joe pa passed away.

tedsptman, that is harsh. i couldn’t stand joepa and his supporters, but i won’t drink to his death. i’ll do a nice scotch on the rocks and cheer for Pitt though!

Just read a Jerry DiPaola Pitt Locker Room blog article from last week where he was talking with Pat Narduzzi. So Jerry throws out a bait question to Nard Dog asking for his response to The self serving boast that he and ped state will “dominate the state” of PA in football.

Narduzzi’s response, quickly off the cuff was not only quick and to the point, but was backed up by his body of work at MSU, unlike Franklin’s spin, which was simply false bravado.

Nard Dog’s paraphrased reply, well I was in a state where another school thought they owned, they THOUGHT. Classic! For some reason, I don’t think xHCPC could have answered that question quite so well.

Katz, right on. Competition is a good thing. Every recruiting class should have at LEAST one QB, preferably 2. You never know what will happen. With the current situation at Pitt, QB needs to be top priority.

Chryst’s failure to attract a top QB recruit in 3 years is one of my sore spots with him. Don’t understand how a guy with his rep for working with QBs couldn’t recruit them.

gc, in his soph year, Lane led the nation in rebounds at 13.5 per … 1st time in 30 years for a 6’6 (or less) player

wbb…good call on Lane leading nation in rebounds. I didn’t remember that.

Pitt is making waves at ESPN due to their social media practices -> link to espn.go.com

Love these guys!

H2P!

Has this been posted yet? Damon recruiting Diallo hard core.

link to triblive.com

And another one ->

link to espn.go.com

@tedsptman

I am no PSU fan. But, your comment about celebrating Paterno’s death is neither funny nor appropriate.

H2P

The verdict is still out on Franklin, but he really never beat anyone in the SEC.

He finally got them over the hump of beating
other cupcakes and any FBS teams they played.

He beat the other patsy’s in the SEC.

Never beat anyone of importance in the conference, wasn’t like they were vying
for championships or titles.

that article posted by katzpanther contains a link to another article … both points out how the old in-state rivalry is again heating up, and bring back memories of yesteryear.

Pitt didn’t hold up its share for the decade of the 90s, but the 15 years before that was a whole lot of fun. No reason why it can’t be repeated.

BigB – I don’t think PITT is the only school who does this and as I said, I’m not sure that will be the policy in place for the new Chancellor, AD and HC but I hope it is something similar.

Thanks for the lineup Reed. I don’t share your fear concerning Cheney however, although we scored 32 a game, our offense went in the tank at key times too often. Furthermore, Voytek was called on to run the ball too much. Injury at the QB position could take the wheels off of this offense real fast. I am hoping Cheney will get our passing game producing to a point where our balance leads to more consistent success and takes the pressure to run off of the QB position.

Concerning underclassmen basketballers who were great at Pitt, Mel Bennett leads the list. He turned pro after his freshman year, sharing that distinction with Steven Adams who did it 30 years later.

Stoosh. I’ll say again today what I said yesterday Narduzzi and this staff is the best thing to happen to Pitt Football in 25 years. So far we have 21 offers to ESPN 300 recruits for 2016. Of the 85 scholarship players on the current roster most are Freshman and Sophomores so we are limited by numbers for this year and. next. Unfortunately all you need to do is mention Penn State and the morons come out of the woodwork

Cheney is as accomplished as Chryst and has actually influenced the game more with his basketball on grass spread he created at Purdue.

He’s certainly more established than Rudolph. He’ll be fine. He likes to pass though guys. Get ready for ball to be slung. It won’t be as heavy run as last year … you’ll see much more balance.

I just want to warn anyone expecting a similar offense to least year. It will be different and less one dimensional.

I believe Sam Clancy was putting up a double-double avg early on, right?

@ tedsptman, Most here had a strong distaste for Joe Paterno. That doesn’t mean we are crude enough to celebrate a mans death and I find your post repugnant. Only a total moron enjoys kicking the dead. Certainly a bright guy like you can do better.

@Jim, He was never a huge scorer because he was a 6’6″ center but he was the best rebounder on the court in every game he ever played.

Penn State doesn’t strike me as a program headed in the right direction under Franklin. I’m quite sure he will probably recruit as well as Pitt going forward – maybe even better, although that’s not necessarily a given with how hard-working, aggressive and tenacious this Pitt already seems to be. But, by no means do I expect PSU teams to be as well coached as Pitt under the Narduzzi staff. Franklin may already wish he could walk back the “dominate the state” predictions now that sleepy Chryst is not at the Pitt helm any more. It’s a new day.

@tedsptman.
I think it is tasteless to drink to a man’s death but I would consider pissing on his grave after drinking the drink. Just kidding guys, lighten up. Once again just kidding.

Agree, Spirit, about Sam’s offense. But, I thought he averaged a double-double at least 3 years, maybe 4. But, I was pretty young and maybe I’m misremembering.

@Dan, I think your post is dead on target. Franklin’s recruiting resume certainly out shines his coaching accomplishments. His rep is paper thin when it comes to beating anyone significant though he did win the games he was supposed to win with some consistency.

@Jim, I would guess 6 to 8 pts. a game as a freshman. He didn’t have much of a shot and never got to face the basket in 4 years at Pitt. The only player I ever saw that could out rebound Clancy was Chamberlain and Wilt was 7′ tall. The brut strength and desire that Clancy demonstrated in grabbing boards was amazing. I remember the newspaper calling him Superman in shorts. He intimidated much bigger players with his physical aggressiveness. In 4 years I never saw him out muscled once. He did that playing center at barely 6’6″ tall.

Tossing Thabeets, I think we’ll be OK with more passing. Initially the reason I wanted an offensive coordinator with pro-style offense, is because of the skill sets that Pitt has. Chaney has experience with a lot of different offensive styles. I’m sure he will use the talent he has effectively. I really don’t care if runs the single wing. Just win baby.

Patsignal just got posted on twitter. Can’t wait to see which recruit it is for!

Another Pat Signal from PN.

I love the Pat Signal, got me so fired up I am pounding out PowerPoint presentations like a MoFo!!!

@Jim, Clancy averaged 14 pts a game as a freshman , 16 as a senior, but only 11.8 as a junior. He was pretty much the same player all 4 years.
You might recall that he went to the NBA developmental league where he got in a fight. I heard he almost killed the guy who was dumb enough to take him on. He was thrown out of the league so he came back to Pitt and tried out for football as a 5th year senior. He couldn’t beat out Ricky Jackson or Hugh Green so he quit and went and played 10 years in the NFL instead.
He was always listed as 6’7″ or even 8″ but was barely 6’6.” His tenacity jumping ability and strength were of a superhuman nature. If he had been 6’9″ tall he would be in the NBA hall of fame. DuJuan Blair at his best was an imitation Clancy.

If you follow the ESPN link about twitter, you’ll see some sparring going on between the PSU coaches and the Pitt coaches…should liven the rivalry up even more. It would be great to play them as the last game or the next to last game of the season versus early on.

@Markp, I don’t care when we play them as long as we win. If Nardo can beat Penn State consistently there is no way Franklin can dominate Pa. recruiting. He can make that jerk eat those words.

A moron is someone who compares recruiting
success of someone that has
3 years, to someone that has had 3 weeks!!

LOL 😉

Katz thanks for sharing the ESPN links. The best part about Narduzzi’s use of social media is that it isn’t by accident. The man has a plan and its working. Give me proactive over reactive any day.

Clancy in no way was better than Blair, especially offensively. Blair got us to the elite eight in his junior year. Clancy played in the NFL where he belonged. No doubt a physical specimen, but we played in a lower level of basketball then, hardly the Big East where you faced high level competition every game.

Narduzzi gets that you need to fire up the fans. Saw it at the Pete and see it on Social media,

He is making the whole process fun.

One thing that has impressed me by this coaching staff is that although they studied the obvious and formed the team needs assessment they went beyond to research Pitt football history, University culture, etc. They have been getting a handle on anything and everything Pitt. We may be drinking the Kool-aid, but HCPN and CO. are chugging it.

The rubber hits the road come this fall, but until then the ride on the bandwagon will be enjoyable.

Is the pat signal for the local qb?

Just announce it already dudes…….LOL

GC, I saw and loved watching both play and I disagree. It was a different era and there were half the teams in the NBA there are today. Clancy just wasn’t tall enough. The tougher the opponent the better Clancy got. I remember seeing Maryland with 3 kids up front over 6’10. They were a top ACC team and the game was played at the Arena because Lefty Driesell new better than to come to Fitzgerald. The game came down to the last minute and with the game tied Maryland launched a shot. All 3 Maryland big men went after the rebound. Then all you saw was a big black arm a foot above them reach out of the melee and cover and tear the ball out of the sky one handed. It looked like King Kong palming a coconut after a 3 week starvation diet. It is still the most amazing rebound I ever saw. We won the game on the ensuing play.
I don’t mean to take anything away from Blair. He will always be among my favorite Pitt players but Clancy did superhuman things on the court. Blair was great but Clancy stands alone in my book. Some of his rebounds were so emphatic that it scared the opponents who often were 5 or 6 inches taller. Clancy couldn’t have tossed Thabeets because Thabeets wouldn’t have been dumb enough to try him on. He was Superman in shorts.

SoS, no doubt they were both beasts, but Blair had the quickest move to the hoop I have ever seen. The ball was already through the hoop before the defender tried to block it.

Too bad we don’t have one of them now.

Blair also had the advantage of playing with Fields and Young. Sam might well have been able to develop a face up game if he wasn’t forced to play center all 4 years. Blair was a smarter player and probably more complete but Sam could do the superhuman stuff that legends are made of. We aren’t likely to ever see the likes of either at Pitt again. They should have retired Clancy’s jersey a long time ago.

Underclassmen who impacted Pitt basketball in a large way:

1) Brian Shorter-So (led team in scoring 20ppg)
2) Charles Smith -Fr (led team in scoring 15 ppg)
3) Clyde Vaughn – So (led team in scoring 18 ppg)
4) Sam Clancy -Fr (2nd in scoring 14 ppg)
5) Larry Harris – So ( led team in scoring 22 ppg)
6) Billy Knight – So (led team in scoring 21 ppg)
7) Demetreus Gore – So (led team in scoring 16ppg)
8) Jerome Lane – So (2nd in scoring 16ppg, led nation in rebounding 13.5 rpg)
9) Sean Miller – Fr (9.6 ppg, leading asst man)
10) Jason Matthews- So (2nd in scoring 17 ppg)
11) Bobby Martin- So (12 ppg & 7.5 rpg)
12) Chris McNeil- So (led team in scoring 15 ppg)
13) Jerry McCullough- So (led team in scoring 15ppg)
14) Vonteego Cumming- So (led team in scoring 16ppg)
15) Issac Hawkins -So (2nd in scoring 14ppg)
16) Ricardo Greer- Fr (3rd at 12 ppg)
17) Julius Page – So( 2nd in scoring 12 ppg)
18) Chevy Troutman- So (3rd at 11 ppg)
19) Carl Krauser- So (led team in scoring 15ppg)
20) Chris Taft- Fr (2nd in scoring 11 ppg, led team in rebounding 7.5 rpg)
21) Chris Taft- So ( 13 ppg & 7.5 rpg)
22) Sam Young -Fr ( 8 ppg & 5 rpg)
23) Sam Young- So (7.5 pgg & 4 rep)
24) LeVance Fields- So (9 ppg & 5 apg)
25) DeJuan Blair- Fr ( 12 ppg & 9 rpg)
26) DeJuan Blair- So (2nd in scoring,16 rpg & 12 rpg)
27) Ashton Gibbs- So (led team in scoring 16 ppg)
29) Lamar Patterson -So( 10 ppg & 5 rpg)
30) Steven Adams- Fr ( 7 pgg, led team in rebounding 6.3 rpg)

There were other underclassmen who impacted Pitt basketball as well, I just listed the ones who either led the team in scoring & rebounding that year or ones that scored around 10 ppg or in the case of Sam Young, could come into a game as a Freshman and totally change the outcome of the game in Pitt’s favor.

So you can see there were quite a few who just met the first criteria.

The PSU troll is so typical of the fan/student attitude up there.It might well be said of the valley.Altoona Pa. TV last night 2 more sex cases in the valley , one student rape(heterosexual), two a local forcing sex by threat and intimidation with a knife. Re,. Jopa he ran too tight a ship and no one challenged him but from all I know he tried to keep the train from going too far off the tracks.My father was a golfer who got around this region and played with Joe once or twice and said he seemed like what you saw in public,understated low key and straightforward. That could never be said of the PS following.The Proof is in the pudding in football and that starts with recruiting and ends on the field we all have to remember that so lets look forward to more good Pat Signs and a great spring camp.

Reed, I know I’m late to the party, but I loved that list. I think Jones-Smith starts instead of Officer, I suspect he’ll be Rowell’s back up if he’s healthy.

As for WR, I am going to stake my claim that we will see big things from Elijah Ziese this year. I’ll also say that if Chaney adds a QB that Davidson doesn’t move to QB after all and he’ll do well too.

One more guy to look out for: WR commit Quadree Henderson. He defines speed. He can be a big time burner if used correctly.

link to hudl.com

Clancy was a pleasure to watch. For his size you was as quick as anyone I ever had the poor unity to see. Charles Smith was probably the most complete player to pass through, I think he was a touch better than Knight, but not much.
Would love to see anyone of them now, this current group will not be having uniforms retired.

Emel thanks for the exhaustive list of the MBB underclass who had an impact. My first thought was to Brian Shorter when the question was thrown out!
@wbb- that’s all I can do is speak for myself, and sometimes I don’t fare too well because I see things thru alum colored glasses! But my evaluation proposition was not posed that Coach Ben would clean house. Just that Haughton, Jeter, D. Johnson, Jones, Luther, Robinson, Uchebo and Nix need to be revaluated. Keep whoever deemed a contributor but are you really confident that Uchebo’s knees are going to get better, that DJ can stay away from the herb, that Haughton and Nix are even Div. 1, Power 5 players. Keep JR, love the kid’s heart but he has hit his head so hard on his personal ceiling that it hurts my head!
I know one thing for sure that way to many scholarships have been wasted recently on the Jon Johnson, Trey Zeigler, Isaiah Epps, Malcolm Gilberts and JJ Moores. Hail to Pitt and the football positive vibe! UPone

UPone, you speak well … just know that when you float something out on this site, not everyone will agree. I’m probably the master f being disagreed with here … hey, I’m the one who maintained that Conner move to DE this past season, even at mid-year when it was evident that he was tearing it up at RB. (I’m a defensive guy)

Luke Maclean has left the team.

SFPitt – transferring to where?