PITT’S WHITEHEAD NAMED SPORTING NEWS FRESHMAN ALL-AMERICAN

    PITTSBURGH—Pitt safety Jordan Whitehead added another prestigious postseason honor today when he was named to the Sporting News Freshman All-America Team.

This is the latest recognition for Whitehead, a product of Aliquippa, Pa., and Central Valley High School. His additional postseason honors include:

USA TODAY Freshman All-America Team

Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year (media)

Atlantic Coast Conference Co-Rookie of the Year (coaches; shared with Pitt tailback Qadree Ollison)

Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Rookie of the Year (coaches and media)

All-ACC (third team selection; coaches and media)

The Panthers’ leading tackler this season, Whitehead has compiled 99 stops. His average of 8.2 tackles per game ranks ninth in the ACC and he is the only freshman among the league’s top 20 tacklers.

Whitehead’s 99 tackles are the most by a Pitt true freshman in 28 years, dating back to defensive lineman Marc Spindler in 1987. Spindler had 106 tackles during the ‘87 season and is the only Pitt true freshman to compile 100 stops.     The last time a true or redshirt freshman led Pitt in tackles for the season was in 1999 when free safety Ramon Walker, a redshirt frosh, had 131 stops.

In the final month of the regular season, Whitehead began taking snaps on offense and is averaging 7.9 yards per rush (79 yards on 10 carries) with two touchdowns. He also has two receptions.

Whitehead and the Panthers (8-4) will face No. 21/22 Navy (10-2) in the Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman on December 28 in Annapolis, Md. The game will be televised by ESPN and kick off at 2:30 p.m.

Here is Jerry DiPaola’s blog article on who may be our next recruit verbal.  Also – here is a podcast I didn’t know was being broadcast – it is with DiPaola and guys from WVU and PSU.  Worth a listen while at work at least.

The P-G’s Werner chips in with an article about Pitt’s three early enrollees:

“Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi welcomed to the team tight end Chris Clark, defensive end Patrick Jones and running back Chawntez Moss via a series of tweets.  All three will enroll at Pitt in January and be able to participate in the Panthers’ spring practices in March.”

Here is a weird article from the Pitt News that re-casts the movie “Space Jams” with Pitt football coaches. I didn’t see the movie and don’t get this article but some of you will like it I’m sure.  They also have an old but interesting piece on the Military Bowl.

This is interesting also, it looks like E. J. Borghetti and his co-workers are getting inventive with articles to put out via the Internets (which is not a series of tubes on the back of a truck  or try this one…).  Anyway these are fun to relive.

December 16, 2015 – #Top15of15: No. 11 – Steinbeck’s PBU on Fake Field Goal at Duke
December 15, 2015 – #Top15of15: No. 12 – Two Minute Drill at Akron
December 14, 2015 – #Top15of15: No. 13 – Ollison’s Record Setting Debut
December 13, 2015 – #Top15of15: No. 14 – Caprara’s Safety vs. Virginia
December 12, 2015 – #Top15of15: No 15 – Narduzzi’s First Coaching Victory

Note: We talk about “Branding Pitt” a lot on here.  I got a wild hair so I looked up if there were any formal guidelines and lo and behold… here it is!  Pretty damned comprehensive also.

What is Pitt’s Brand? –  Read pgs 100-101 specifically about the athletic and alumni logos… that will be changed next edition I’m sure.

Finally – check this out.  Just had it done so it will sharpen up a bit more as time passes: