The day is upon us.  The day when it becomes plainly clear that PITT is a football school.

PITT’s long awaited Spring Practices begin today and this is the point in the off-season when we can start talking about actualities when it comes to the football team itself.  We have been discussing the football program and the athletic department in depth since ex-Head Coach Paul Chryst left for his alma mater back in December but until now it has been speculations about the new coaching staff and the last recruiting class… both of which statuses we won’t be able to really gauge until the season starts in September.

But now it is the players’ turn to be in the main spotlight and time for us fans to start getting some serious questions answered about what we’ll see on the field this year.   Whether or not individual units; offense, defense, special teams, etc. will do well or not isn’t going to be evident during these 15 practices including the scrimmages and the spring game.  I say start because we won’t know anything for sure until the two deep is set in mid-August. That is what the fall camp is for.

What we’ll see transpire over the next four weeks are basically tryouts run by the staff for both returning personnel and the class of 2015 recruits.  Last year it was pretty much a continuation of what we had in Chryst’s first two year with some new issues; how would our QB play turnout, who would replace Aaron Donald and would James Conner play both ways?  I still can’t believe that that last issue is still being talked about.  It is the stupidest idea ever and if this staff can’t see that, like the last staff eventually did, then we have a big problem.

All these standard springtime questions are magnified when you have a complete coaching staff change because of two things:

One is that the new staff has a different approach to football than the old one did.  That happens even if there are theoretical similarities among the staffs and thus the new staff comes in with their own set of expectations.

Second is that the new coaches aren’t beholden to any of the individual players on the roster or to any type or style of play.  There are no prior promises of playing time to honor and no sense of having to keep someone on the roster because they were good soldiers throughout their previous years at PITT.  Where you see this happen most is with 5^th year seniors who have had their four years of education toward a degree.

We have discussed the 5^th year guys in detail in other articles so no real need to go over it again right now, suffice to say that we’ll be discussing a lot of personnel roster moves from the time spring practices ends until the beginning of fall camp in early August.  If a player is asked to ‘move on’ or has been told that his chances of being a starter, or even getting much playing time, or even if he doesn’t feel comfortable with his new coach(s) then the months of May, June and July are the times he’s looking around for a new home in time to enroll for classes and, hopefully, attend that school’s fall camp (if transferring below D1).

This attrition happens every year and with every coach so that issue will be something to shelve for now but to pay attention to after the spring practices close.

Some things to remember about spring practice, especially this year’s: We won’t see any of the 2015 recruiting class on the field with the exception of DB Malik Henderson who enrolled in February and is eligible to practice.  Henderson was recruiting by our new OC Jim Cheney while Chaney was at Arkansas and obviously wanted to join them as soon as possible which is a positive thing in my mind. So recruits Whitehead, Hall, Brightwell and company will have to wait until later to show their stuff.  This is important to keep in mind as we start talking about ‘who’s doing well and who is setting themselves up to start the games’ because things can change pretty drastically before the first game as we saw happen in Chryst’s first two years when he went with  a solid youth movement.

That youth movement that Chryst instituted will be beneficial to Narduzzi as it leaves a firm foundation of players for him to work with:  47 Lettermen Returning with 17 Starters Returning;  22 Letterman on Offense (8 starters);  21 Letterman on Defense (7 starters) and 4 Specialists (2 starters).  As we have said earlier the offense had some pretty visible talent and was well coached throughout the 2014 season so, hopefully, the new staff won’t worry too much about it.

However, the defense is full of talent question marks and the staff will use these spring practices to winnow out returning defensive personnel, even returning starters, who they feel won’t fully contribute to what most certainly be a new defensive unit.

In essence what Spring Practice is held for is to get new terminology in place, new basic schemes, and for the staff to start putting names and positions together in preparation for the Fall Camp when the rubber starts hitting the road for players hoping to hold onto starting jobs and those hoping to break into real playing time themselves.  Those are answers we won’t see coming out of spring practice.

That said, what are the main questions that need to be addressed going into this staff’s first formal practices with their new team?  Here are a few and they might seem redundant if you have read other media stuff on the team because, well… because they are obvious issues to be addressed.

Here is my Top Two for today:

Who will be the #2 wide receiver opposite Tyler Boyd this season?  We lost our most obvious choice when Adonis Jennings took his ball and went over to the other side of Pennsylvania to play with the Temple Owls. He was a recruit that every PITT fans had high expectations for but a pretty serious injury in camp led to his debut being delayed for a returning receiver who had been able to attend more practices and, in this case, had more experience in Manasseh Garner.  Garner and Weatherspoon graduated and two kids who would be returning left; Jennings as mentioned and rsSR Ronald Jones.

Honestly, those losses are not crippling as Garner and Weatherspoon were workman-like average players and Jones and Jennings were all speculation about what they might be able to do as starters. But it does leave a host of pretty inexperience pass catchers vying to catch WR Coach Kevin Williams’ eye for that starting role.

Some WR names to follow in practice are rsJR Dontez Ford, a local star at Sto-Rox HS who transferred in from Syracuse. Ford didn’t get any action until the ninth game of the season and only had three catches but he’s quick and fast and will compete in the fall.  The only other WR to have any catches in a PITT uniform is rsJR Chris Wuestner who stated one game and has two career receptions.  rsSO Zach Challingsworth, a WPA kid, rsSO Jester Weah and rsFR Elijah Ziese are the only other scholarship WRs going into the spring practices. Challingsworth and Weah are returning “Letterman” though so that makes me wonder what exactly is PITT’s criteria for awarding football letters?  It can’t be playing time and they have almost none. (If anyone knows please chip in.)

We also have a slew of walk-on WRs to choose from but there is a glaring lack of experience at this position and odds are that the staff will want a new start with all the WRs save Tyler Boyd.

What will be the main skill set targeted for Narduzzi’s defense?  We will have to wait until fall camp to see what the real nuts and bolts of Narduzzi and DC Josh Conklin’s defense will be going into the first game but we may be able to get an inkling of what type of player they are looking for to execute that defense. (The link above is a great overview of what Narduzzi did at MSU).

Right now we appear to have some big holes to fill on defense. Part of this issue though goes back to PITT’s “Chicken or the Egg” question of ‘is the defense talent fielded over the course of last season the reason it played so poorly or was there talent and it was badly misused by the dearly departed Matt House’?  In reality this question may hold the ultimate key to PITT’s success in 2015 because if the talent wasn’t there it could well mean that whatever the defensive staff tries to do won’t succeed because they don’t have the quality of resources to put on the field to meet their goals.

We can’t answer that now or even during fall camp, but what we fans can do is watch is who is getting more reps on defense than the other kids this spring.  Is rsJR Bam Bradley seeing a ton of time in the OLB slot?  He was a 3* Safety coming out of HS who ran the 40 in 4.5 seconds so maybe his speed is what the staff is looking at. At that middle linebacker position, which may be really up for grabs with the new staff, is SO Quentin Wirginis, a guy who was a starting Special Teams kick coverage rocket as a true FR, or rsFR Jamal Davis seeing time before others there.

Both those youngsters are fast, 4.6 in the 40, defenders who impressed in fall camp last season   If those three guys above, and other speed burners, are getting major consideration this spring it will signal that this staff wants as much defensive speed on the field as possible.  BTW – don’t sleep on Wirginis or be swayed by his 2* recruit rating.  He missed all of his SR year at Fox Chapel due to a bad foot injury and was way under the radar of the recruiting sites.  He is a diamond in the rough, was the defensive hit of fall camp last year and could really break out under this staff.

I used speed as the subject for defense because that is the direction I think this staff will go in 2015. It was brutally obvious that our LBs and DBs didn’t have the across-the-board closing speed necessary to stop the deeper pass completions that ended up winning games for our opponents.  I also think there is a glaring need for more speed at the MLB position.  JR Matt Galambos is a heady kid who can tackle on contact but he was slow on the draw and missed way too many ball carriers by his lack of foot speed.  Galambos’ 5.1 sec 40 speed just can’t cut it in major college football without some other superstar traits to compensate.  In other words, it was OK for MLB Scott McKillop to look like he was running through mud because every other little thing he did was perfect and he made tackles. (Enjoy the video; it never gets old and  note that on all those late 4^th quarter WVU  incompletions were caused by McKillop’s pressure up the middle).

So, we’ll get media info staring this afternoon on how the 1^st practice, shirts shorts and helmet only today and next practice, and we’ll start looking at the practices as they unfold.  I’ve decided to get up for at least one or two practice/scrimmage sessions so start passing the hat for my William Penn Hotel costs.  Two nights in the Presidential Suite should set you guys back too much – just remember to ask for the 10% Military discount.  Not that I haven’t stayed in the suite before mind you.

Damn, sorry Chas – didn’t see your NIT article until I posted this.  Guys – please read and comment on both but pay more attention to mine because PITT is really a FB school this year.