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July 9, 2015

Having written for this many years, you do get a feeling for certain things. Recognizing certain signs of the coming season. The media coverage goes from reviewing last season, to focusing on the coaches, to recruiting, to the big picture previews of the coming season. Then in the final month you have the player pieces and watch lists for awards followed by local media previewing the local teams.

I’ve taken to skipping watch list stuff in the last few years simply because they are little more than lines in bios for players and that’s about it. The Rimington Award for best Center — for instance — features a Syracuse player who never started. Alex Officer is on the list and he might not even play center on the O-line for Pitt. You get the idea.

Last week, with more than a month or so from the start of training camp, the player profiles have been increasing.

Reed has been touching on the ones in the past week or so — Wirginis, Ford, Voytik and Peterman.

Today we can add a couple more for James Conner (and we all know there will be more coming). And grad transfer Mark Scarpinato who had the best (and certainly will be oft-quoted) explanation why he took a couple years off from med school to return to football.

“You can’t hit people in med school,” he joked.

It is still unclear what role Scarpinato will play on the D-line. Certainly he adds some much needed depth. He worked his way up at Michigan State to playing every game in the 2013 season. Obviously, he will be more familiar with the system and expectations from head coach Pat Narduzzi. Plus, the grit and toughness that we all want from the scrappy players.

“That’s really the one thing that stood out to you was how tough he was, how he’d jump in line in the 1-on-1s and how he’d take over 1-on-1s,” Narduzzi said. “He was impressive there. We came out of there going, ‘We can’t lose on a big, tough guy.’ ”

For Connor, the first from Bleacher Report (hey, I’m as shocked as you to link to something from the sight; but Adam Kramer is one of their few paid guys — and the writing quality shows).

Finally comfortable in his new digs, [Pitt Running Backs Coach, Andre] Powell oftentimes has company in his work space. It is not unusual for him to swing open his office door and find Conner already cemented in the enclosed room, deeply entrenched in game film.

The two have worked hard not just on watching tape, but studying specific plays and moments. Powell wants Conner to be more of a factor in the passing game, both as a blocker and as a wideout. This offseason has been all about taking that next step.

“In years past, he wasn’t in the game on some passing downs,” Powell said. “We want to change that. He’s got tremendous ball skills out of the backfield, and that was not something they asked him to do a lot last year. But he can do it.”

Conner has embraced the art of consuming film. The allure of the NFL has him.

It’s his ultimate goal to play at the next level, right alongside playing in the championship game he never got to experience in high school. Winning the ACC comes first, then the rest can fall into place.

Big article, and well worth the time. Conner, from the beginning of his ascent at Pitt has been almost preternaturally aware and prepared to deal with more and more media attention and fame. Whether it be simply knowing to say the right things in public, to displaying confidence in his abilities while somehow coming across as humble.

His ability to navigate with seeming ease as one of the primary faces of Pitt football as he started emerging as a freshman. All with a certain openness that shows an ability to laugh at the absurdity of fame that he also embraces.

Fifteen-year-old Luke Haas saw Conner play in that bowl game in Detroit and got a photo with the freshman. He wanted Conner’s signature to go with it, so his stepfather reached out to Mike Gallagher, a friend whom Conner considers a father figure after a lifetime of playing football with Gallagher’s son Sean.

So Conner sat down at the Gallaghers’ kitchen table in Erie, Pennsylvania, and started scribbling. And scribbling. And scribbling some more.

He showed signature after signature to two of Gallagher’s six kids, itching to make this first autograph count. When his cursive finally came together a half-hour later, Conner put pen to picture, punctuating his John Hancock with a “229!” to commemorate his rushing total in the 30-27 win.

Gallagher decided to attach the scrap paper and a note when passing along the finished product.

“‘This will be special: You’ve got the first real one and you’ve got all the practice signatures,'” Gallagher recalled writing. “His signature has actually changed since then; it’s much quicker and it’s more of a ‘JC 24’ than it is his whole name.

“When he first signed [autographs] he was real meticulous and wrote out the name. He gets it now, that there’s not time to do that.”

The reason being in no small part that he has people around him to keep perspective.

With it, of course, comes a certain responsibility to the public — something Bibbs and Gallagher remind Conner of regularly.

After Conner’s rookie season with the Panthers, Gallagher took him to a charity signing to meet former Pitt and pro quarterback Dan Marino, with whom Gallagher went to high school.

Conner and Gallagher watched as the living legend autographed hundreds of items for hometown fans.

The mentor’s words proved prescient for the soon-to-be overnight celebrity: “Take a look,” Gallagher told Conner. “If this happens to you, you better handle it like he does. Don’t show frustration.

“If you’re lucky enough, this becomes your life.”

So far it looks like he is well on his way.





One of my biggest frustrations of living in Pgh is seeing all the Pedo St. merchandise in stores, on cars, on clothing, etc. My disgust finds me actually pulling limited nearby Pitt gear and placing Pitt garb off racks and placing in front of PSU shirts, etc. If Pitt gear is unavailable, I turn Pedo St. gear backwards, place Polo shirts in front of it and so forth. If less people buy their crap, maybe they will offer less. I even do it when the farm school has a regional player on a football magazine and not Pitt. I hide them so no one buys that trash. Just got back from Pgh airport and one store had nothing but PSU neck rolls used on planes….no Pitt version available. We have to change that. Hope PN can give us reason for the local businesses to promote our hometime school merchandise. Our own airport and the school a few miles down the road is not even represented. These pricks root for the Steelers, Bucs and Pens and root against the hometown college team. Makes me want to puke.

Comment by ck 07.12.15 @ 11:41 pm

How can these Pirate games not be recruiting tool? Got these surging Buccos, Crosby, Malkin, no NBA team (so Pitt is it) plus the Steelers …..How could a stud player not want to be around all of this. Guess they need to be a big fish ala all the big state schools. But there is way cool activities in Pitt’s backyard. Guess Franklin’s recruiting does not adhere to such distractions. These kids want to be in a bubble cult and fear sharing the spotlight. Wonder if that mentality plays a role in all the NFL PSU busts. Pitt kids work for everything the get. Pitt kids earn their way. Bubble environment caters and protects their babies from the real world.

Comment by ck 07.12.15 @ 11:56 pm

Pitt scored more in the 4th quarter last year than they did in the third. Seems like they got stronger, not tired.

Comment by notrocketscience 07.13.15 @ 5:33 am

ck, I appreciate your attitude. Off topic, GO BUCS!

Comment by Dr. Tom 07.13.15 @ 5:39 am

Thabeets,

1) LA is so much bigger than Pittsburgh, by sheer numbers alone, it benefits

2) what NFL team does it compete against?

Miami (which has the sole advantage of being in a talent rich state), Boston College, Temple, Pitt and Cincy all play in the east (esp the NE) where pro football is revered. And even though LA looks like it will finally get NFL back, there was no major panic the past 2 decades … and still isn’t .. for having a team there.

But back to your point … the WPIAL does not come close to producing the talent that California and Florida … you are comparing apples to watermelons.

California feeds the entire PAC 12 and Florida feeds much of the SEC and some of the ACC. Yes. Pitt has not been getting the best local players, but there is just a handful.

Comment by wbb 07.13.15 @ 6:54 am

At notrocket. Although you are correct that Pitt scored more in the 4th than the third, that isn’t the full story. By quarter, Pitt scored as follows:83,152,80 and 90. Their second half scoring was pretty bad although they did score more in the 4th and 3rd as you pointed out.

The most telling statistic was that they scored a total of 40 points in the 4th quarters in games they lost, while giving up 91 points in the 4th quarter. For Duke, I used the OT points (10-13). They couldn’t close out games because they were predictable and faced8-9 man fronts…and still tried to run. This is where you need a balanced attack and we just failed with our qb and receivers. We just didn’t get it done. And, our rb was gassed……which is acceptable because he ran so much and so hard to get to that point. Need balance (passing) and more runners to stop it from happening again. I think we do that this year.

Comment by dhuffdaddy 07.13.15 @ 7:33 am

Well, we got Tyler Boyd and Jordan Whitehead, so we are holding our own. Never going to get them all.

Pirates show two things, you need top talent to be competitive and the fans of Pittsburgh love winners, and the big game. Those of us that were at the Cinci game remember the packed stadium and electricity in the air until the final play. Hopefully Narduzzi will get us back that excitement that only great games can produce in this town.

Comment by gc 07.13.15 @ 7:41 am

My recollection of last year is more that the defense couldn’t get a stop when they needed to in the 2nd half of most of the losses – Iowa, Akron, Duke, UNC, Houston, In the last three, Pitt scored enough points to win.

@ck – I have not done the PSU shirt switch, but the thought has crossed my mind. Perfect passive aggression!

Not sure I have ever seen two more exciting baseball finishes in back to back games than what the Buccos did the last two nights. Hopefully we see that in October.

Comment by Iron Duke 07.13.15 @ 7:43 am

Also need to share Conner’s load with our other quality backs. Should have used more James, Bennett and Ibrahim last year. Need to use James, Ibrahim and Ollison this year to keep Conner fresh for the fourth quarter. Also need to mention that our youth and lack of depth contributed to poor second half performance. Both in terms of strength and experience.

Comment by gc 07.13.15 @ 7:46 am

Actually I’m hoping Conner gets less work this season so that we can get other talent on the field sometimes at the RB position.

Ibrahim is already a good pass blocker and does extremely well in the backfield. He had an 8.0 ypc average on 33 carries which is a good amount of running the ball and caught 11 passes out of the backfield.

We know James can carry the ball well and everyone seems really high on Ollison. I just don’t see the need to keep Conner in for three downs all the time – I’d rather we spread some of that work out.

If that hurts his Heisman chances, a long shot anyway unless PITT wins 9+ games, so be it.

Comment by Reed 07.13.15 @ 7:48 am

@ck I appreciate your comments more than you know. I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels that way when I see Pedo gear in the ‘burgh.
I’m going to the Greenbrier this coming weekend for a meeting and Don Nehlen is our keynote speaker for the event. I’m going to ask him to sign my Pitt hat. What would that be worth? lol

Comment by Panther Fan in Hoopieland 07.13.15 @ 8:12 am

wbb: Just got back from weekend and as to your initial posts on the thread I am also looking forward to a pressing defense. I hear you called the Fraud for what he was first – I was wrong I thought he would be 3 and gone – a classless act. I did get a chance to speak to
FDC Keith Patterson who told me that if you give a well-coached D1 QB time to do his hot reads he will eventually tear apart the non-agressive defense. Thanks for being tuned into all the various media outlets, appreciate your efforts. H2P

Comment by rkb 07.13.15 @ 8:23 am

Isn’t it about time for a Pat Signal?

Comment by gc 07.13.15 @ 9:25 am

@ck you are spot on. I am also surprised on the volume of WVU gear at stores, on folks, and on cars in Pittsburgh. It is everywhere, and I see more it than Pitt gear. We fans need to change this. We need to get Pitt out in the forefront locally.

Comment by Griogar 07.13.15 @ 9:46 am

I will predict that in 12 months you will see Pitt gear explode. I think this way because
1) Pitt is going to have a better than expected year on the field
2) this will coinside with the rollout of the new gear
3) Barnes will have his plan together which will finally be a coordinated effort to market our teams.
4) all the younger fans will finally know what a real rivalry is and will finally have a chance to get caught up in big time college football(that’s what a real rivalry game can do!)

Comment by JoeKnew 07.13.15 @ 10:03 am

wbb – please go re-read my original post. You have it all mixed up. I was addressing your three points individually.

I never compared talent between LA and Miami. I said both schools struggle with attendance when not good just like Pitt because they are city schools. Never mentioned talent pools only that even big time city schools struggle with filling seats.

The second point I questioned was mutually exclusive from the city comparison. I think he WPIAL still produces a ton of talent but I never compared it to LA or FL. I would be foolish to do so. I just said that if Pitt goes back to the glory days of cherry picking the best 3-5 talents in the WPIAL every recruiting class they’ll be as good as ever.

Comment by Tossing Thabeets 07.13.15 @ 11:04 am

gc – i think it’s a recruiting dead period for football.

Comment by Tossing Thabeets 07.13.15 @ 11:12 am

Griogar, you hit the nail on the head. The stores will market and display what they sell the best. In fact, up here east of Cleveland at the Painesville BMV license center, they actually have a Steelers’ license plate holder frame on display for sale .. you’d be surprise how many Steelers fans are in this area.

I also suspect all the press that PSU gets in the local papers have to do with the number of ‘hits’ their stories get online .. but not sure.

Comment by wbb 07.13.15 @ 12:25 pm

@ Joeknew 5) and Pitt starts winning all the games that they should plus a few that are up for grabs.

Comment by Dr. Tom 07.13.15 @ 12:52 pm

Agree that WVU merchandise exists way too much in our city as well. In fact, I would probably agee that the hoopies are equally or more represented with merchandise than the Hapless Valley cult’s heroes. If you ever go to Kennywood or local mall — those rednecks are sure to be decked out from head to toe just as they do in airports, on, vehicles …er quads…. You would think they have some sort of badge of honor. I hope there will be a day that we can wear our Pitt garb prideful of the prestige in education as well as sports dominance. God knows the hoopies could care less regarding anything regarding education. Not that they have a lot to brag about relating to athletics on a national level either. You would not know it by how they dress themselves and their tractors.

On a similar disturbing note, I contacted politicians and the two Pgh papers – letters to the editor — regarding the inappropriareness on the attempts to name a beer (of course a Pgh brewing company) and bridge after that egotistical, well-known child rapist enabler named Paterno.

Comment by ck 07.13.15 @ 10:45 pm

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