FIRST OFF – HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
As most teams do every year now is the time to sit down with some of the roster players and discuss their and the staff’s plans for the team and the program. This season’s NCAA’s Letter of Intent (LOI) Day calendar is as follows:
Football (Midyear JC Transfer)
December 16, 2015 – January 15, 2016
Football (Regular Period)
February 3, 2016 – April 1, 2016
What that actually means to Pitt is that there are a pile of pinks slips on one side of Pat Narduzzi’s desk and a few thank you notes on the other. Because this is Narduzzi’s first recruiting class and now that he’s had a full season of play under his belt he and his staff most probably have a firm idea of who they want to make sure stays on the roster and who is expendable.
All this has to happen, for the most part, before LOI Day so that Pitt can get the maximum number of recruits. In a normal year, that is when there hasn’t been a coaching change, we don’t usually see a bunch of players being asked to “move on with there life’s work” but who really knows what this staff sees happening before the start of Spring Drills first and then before the start of Fall Camp second.
That clearing out the deadwood of the roster is accomplished in three ways: by asking 5th year seniors to leave, forcing other players on the roster out by helping them transfer (Mark Myers for example) or just by cutting them loose (Elijah Fields) and by the player themselves looking at his personal situation with the staff and deciding to leave the program (James, Amara and Voytik this year). This is usually by transfer, quitting or declaring early for the NFL draft (which we’ll see this season with Boyd).
For some background into Pitt’s more recent history in this issue lets look back at the last ten years and how our HCs handled their rosters. From 2005 until the end of the 2010 season Dave Wannstedt was Pitt’s head coach. He, and the university itself, had a strong but informal policy of ensuring that each player we recruited would have the opportunity to have a full four years to get their undergraduate degree at Pitt.
If a player finished his undergrad studies earlier than four years Pitt felt it was appropriate to move the kid along if he didn’t figure into the future team plans.
The only reasons Wannstedt and Pitt forced players off the roster were if the player couldn’t keep up on the academic side, if the players got into criminal or failed drug test trouble and if the player had an injury that precluded him from playing football any longer. That last case usually resulted in Pitt offering the player a non-athletic scholarship to finish his degree work.
Wannstedt was adamant that his players get this opportunity that was promised to them during the recruiting process. You all know that I’m not a big Dave Wannstedt fan but I have always very much respected him for protecting his players like that… and the university went along with his desires. He also worked very hard for the players in using his connections and positional power to get them the best transfer schools they could.
Todd Graham came on the scene and pretty much was in a holding pattern until he left. However a HC’s departure can also be a catalyst for players to look at the future under a new staff. Sometimes it happens soon after the current HC leaves as did after Graham slunk out of town and sometimes a year after the new HC is in place and the player realizes he’s suddenly become expendable.
We saw that between the DW to TG to PC transitions with players such as DaySean Rippy, brothers Demetrius and Chris Davis, Corey Davis, Brendan Carozzoni, Bryan Murphy and Mark Giubilato when they chose to leave the program.
Not too long ago the Blather had a recruiting article that listed some of our more recent 4* and 5* recruits. Just to show how this attrition works let’s look at who, of the blue-chip players, either left on their own or were forced out before their eligibility ran out (in bold):
| YEAR | 5* | 4* |
| 2005 | Collins | |
| 2006 | Berry, Dickerson, AA Smith, Malecki, Byham, Collier, Otah | |
| 2007 | Bostick, Wright, Jacobsen, Duhart, McCoy, Tucker | |
| 2008 | Baldwin | Saddler, Chris Burns, Hale, Holley, Nix |
| 2009 | Thomas, Graham, Mason, Lippert | |
| 2010 | Clemmings, Murphy, Myers | |
| 2011 | Mosley-Smith, Grigsby | |
| 2012 | Bisnowaty, Voytik, Shell, Rippy | |
| 2013 | Johnson | Chapman, Boyd |
| 2014 | Bookser, James, Jennings, Grimm | |
| 2015 | Whitehead, Hall | |
| Totals | ||
| (Past) | 1/2 | 19/40 |
So in just that small sample we lost 48% of those recruits before they expended their eligibility… and from my research that number holds with just about every full recruiting class.
Now, on the other hand and looking at the change in Pitt’s informal policy of honoring the full four years on scholarship for our recruits, we see what Paul Chryst did (and was told to do) in purging the roster of a lot of Wannstedt and Graham recruits who either didn’t fit into his plans or were deemed troublemakers (were just too hard to handle and they had a negative effect in the clubhouse) and forced out.
For example, I just looked at the 2011 roster’s players who would have been on Pitt’s 2013 roster (FR to rsSO) and compared that to the 2013 roster going into Paul Chryst’s second season. That is a one year snapshot only remember and 23 players were missing from the 2013 roster who still had eligibility left. Most of those were kids who had been on the roster for a year or two and some who saw playing time. As I said that doesn’t take into account any other years’ rosters that he might have purged either.
The running count reported in the media was that in Chryst’s first two years at HC he got rid of 38 players before their time. In other words he got rid of those players who hadn’t graduated or expended all four years of eligibility yet. That is a ton of players especially when you add that to two years of regular roster attrition.
OK – so what does all that have to do with the upcoming 2016 offseason, recruiting and LOI Day? A lot if what happens is what I think is going to happen.
That is that Pat Narduzzi isn’t going to put a heavy emphasis on scholarship loyalty and/or hesitate to jettison players who he feels can be upgraded upon in the upcoming recruiting and transfer arrivals. That isn’t to say he’s going to be a prick… it means that I believe his personality and persuasions are such that every player on the roster better start thinking about Plan B. We have seen that he’ll sit starters down already and with an eight win season to reinforce the success of that action he’ll probably keep doing it.
Narduzzi didn’t rock the boat much in this area in his 1st year and there are a couple of reasons for that. First off as a new HC he probably didn’t want to be seen in a negative light before any football games even started, and secondly Paul Chryst left a roster full of players who were fully vetted during the recruiting process and were well behaved in the main…. much different than in Chryst’s first year.
There still was a lot of attrition on the roster; 22 kids didn’t make it from 2014 to 2015 but a lot of those were walk-ons although 10 of them had seen playing time before Narduzzi was hired. Again, all that is separate from the normal attrition of rsSRs and SRs who had used four years of eligibility.
So where does the rubber meet the road for Narduzzi to open up scholarships for the future based on his players who are eligible to play in 2016?
Well, we know of three transfers as noted above: Voytik, Amara and James. Throw in Boyd leaving for the NFL – it will most probably happen and there are four slots right there. Then we have these guys who will be rsSRs next season.:
| Bam Bradley | LB | RS JR |
| Nate Peterman | QB | RS JR |
| Manny Stocker | WR | RS JR |
| Pat Quirin | LS | RS JR |
| Adam Bisnowaty | OL | RS JR |
| Reggie Mitchell | DB | RS JR |
| Mike Caprara | LB | RS JR |
| Chris Wuestner | WR | RS JR |
| Dontez Ford | WR | RS JR |
| Anthony Rippole | FB | RS JR |
| Jevonte Pitts | DB | RS JR |
| Gabe Roberts | OL | RS JR |
| Ryan Lewis | DB | RS JR |
| John Guy | OL | RS JR |
The guys listed in black text I think are going to be closely looked at by this staff and may be asked to move on. So there are nine players (including transfers) who may not return. That’s nine extra scholarships we can use for last ditch recruits, remember a player actually has until April 1st to sign a LOI.
In addition to that there are a lot of walk-on players and younger kids who haven’t had much playing time left who Narduzzi may want to recruit over. If he takes advantage of that the 2016 roster may look a whole lot different then the 2015 one would have progressed to.
At any time up until the first game Pitt can award scholarships to new walk-ons and transfers who the staff might bring in to fill gaps in the roster.
A case in point there would be QB Andrew Ford who is a JUCO who would have two years to play at Pitt starting next season. For those fans who want a legit QB competition next season that’s a name to remember as I think that would be that only player who would be in the running to really fight for the starting job.
OK – that’s some background and some number crunching (I may be off a digit or two in places) that sets us up for looking toward the last big push in the staff’s hunting down and capturing kids they want to be Panthers next year. I don’t get wrapped around the screw about recruiting but it is interesting to see the last minute additions and defections that happen in January of every year.
Good luck Chryst. Lol.
…. this is Football and if he can’t take a HC getting hot after stupid mistakes he is definitely in the wrong business….
… Chaney should go get a job where people always use their “inside voices” and 100% PC vocabulary…
given the delegation of O to Chaney makes sense too that Duzz said check with him for the heads cratcher play calling
Chaney did us a favor by leaving because otherwise he would have been here for another yr at least…
Can’t expect a new HC to get 100% right on coaching hires… best to move on fast and correct the mistake… so next hire is Key.
/////////LSU: Wisconsin defensive coordinator Dave Aranda will join the LSU staff as defensive coordinator, according to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg. The Badgers were No. 2 in scoring defense this year at 13.7 points per game. LSU and Wisconsin open the 2016 season against each other in Green Bay.
All he does is PICK Pitt WINS… almost near 100 Percent.
How many others remember in 1977-82 looking ahead to see if Pitt’s schedule was strong enough that if we won em all we would be champs??
On another note I see Mel Kiper has Tyler Boyd rated #5 as a receiver. Keep in mind that Kiper actively works for the Ravens.
Agree with you 100%.
H2P!
As I once was told by a nun, God judges us by what we do with what we are given. No different with football coaches. Chaney was given much on offense so much was expected whereas there was no improvement while Conklin (following House) was given so little on defense but made the most out of it that he could.
I’m sure we all would. What are you actually asking? Do you really think Shawn knows what Coach Duzz’s plans are? You and PoD really get each other going, don’t you? I think PoD earlier said “Upitt, you complete me”, but I could be mistaken.
H2P!
For the folks that observed Urb getting involved in the offensive play calling, that is expected. He is an offensive guy and they lost their OC to Houston. The reason osu did not make the playoffs was because of their offensive play calling.
Houston committed to football with the building of an ocs. They were not a middling 6-6 team for years, like Pitt. They have had a lot of success in the last 5 years and this season was good for them. They played against a 3rd string qb which was a central catholic qb yesterday. Their goal is to get in the big8 although the sentiment is that there are too many Texas teams already.
I hope he finds a mentor and coach who will help him to learn to run routes properly and expand his quickness and straight line speed. He has gifted hands.
H2P!
I’d say Hugh landed some big time recruits who turned into big time players.
Jack – Pitt should be afraid of no one (team). We can beat everyone on our schedule next year (Clemson may be a stretch with their line play on both sides of the ball). The problem that has developed at Pitt is a falloff on offensive production. With first half averages of less than 3 points, Pitt will have a hard time beating Nova.
HCPN will fix that with a good OC hire. I hear Matt House is available – let’s hope Paul Chryst grabs him first to fill the Wisky DC vacancy. BA won’t allow that –
Either way, we know first hand how difficult it can be to motivate players when their HC leaves the program.
Go Bulldogs – Beat pedo state!
First off, Richt hasn’t left yet. He is coaching the Bulldogs in their bowl game today. Second, the players love the guy! Seeing this as their last game playing for Richt, I would expect a game dedicated to sending him off a winner, there should be some inspired play by Georgia therefore. Third, Richt is leaving on pretty good terms since the Georgia is honoring a four million dollar buyout to his contract extension negotiated back a year ago.
Right got shafted IMO, simply because Georgia demands championships and Richt has failed to do that. He has won a lot of games for the Bulldogs, just not the “right” ones.
October sealed Richt’s fate. In that month he lost to Alabama, Tennessee and Florida. Losing to Florida without scoring a TD on Halloween was frightful and the natives were not happy in Bulldog Country from then on, even though the Bulldogs never lost another game this season after that.
Being that the Tax Slayer Bowl is right over the border being played in Jacksonville, the stadium should be a sea of red today. Georgia fans travel extremely well. They also are extremely obnoxious. They remind me of West Virginia fans, but with teeth.
So tell me why Franklin can’t screw the pooch on this one? I don’t get it. I expect a pretty rough day for penn state. Georgia has one hellava strong defense and I think Sackenberg is going to be on his back many times this afternoon.
For today, Georgia is my second favorite football team.
HOW BOUT DEM DAWGS!!??
Now if Mark Richt and the Bulldogs can beat the pedos, I’ll enjoy the rest of the evening as well.
Too cold to golf today.
Just got done reading this mornings Post Gazette article about penn state’s current situation and I found Franklin’s quotes to be intriguing to say the least. The guy has the knack of decorating up a pile of $hit with whip cream and a cherry on top to make it look attractive. However something still doesn’t smell just right?
If you read the article, do it before eating breakfast or you may find it difficult keeping your omelette down. The guy is so full of BS that I’m no longer convinced that he is really black, might just be a white guy that can’t keep his BS from leaching to the surface.
gc – when I said ‘checked out’ for Chaney I didn’t mean he quit doing his job, I meant that I think he had an eye on the door and wasn’t invested in the future of Pitt football. Employees who want to be considered attractive hires don’t let themselves do poor jobs because they need to remain valuable.
Personally, I don’t think the emotional drive was there on offense as much as the first half of the season. Hell, Having a QB throw four TD passes in the 2nd quarter at Louisville excites the team all on its own. We went 3-3 over those last games and in each loss we slept walked through the 1st half on offense… and started off pretty slowly in the 1st half of the SYR game also.
That to me is a sign that the the ‘player’ preparation had broken down somewhere before the game started. We can point to Narduzzi for that but the OC and DC are the guys who spends almost all the prep time during game week with the players. It is the OC’s job to get the kids excited and confident in their ability to execute a gameplan the understand and trust.
If, for instance, the OC has Nate Peterman throwing passes more than he should be and Ollison isn’t getting the ball even though he has a hot hand… the players aren’t stupid and feel that adjustments aren’t being made. If there is no real scoring until the game is pretty much out of reach – we know that opponents in that winning position substitute liberally and let up a bit.
I don’t really believe that all 11 players come out of the clubhouse and play poor football all on their own. One or two players – Peterman against Miami and Navy for example – do that at times and because they are so integral to success it tends to make us think the whole offense played poorly. But for the most part it isn’t they all played poorly – it is that they don’t have the deep confidence that things will turn out well if a few things go wrong early.
Then lethargy sets in especially if the OC can’t rally the kids by force of his personality. I think we saw that in the latter season losses writ large when nothing really happen on offense in those losses until late in the game and the score was almost insurmountable, especially against ND, Miami and Navy:
NC – 23-6 mid-3rd Q
ND – 35-7 start 4th Q
MIA – 29-10 mid-4th Q
USN – 38-21 start 4th Q
It is way too much to ask this season’s non-explosive offense to overcome those big late game deficits and that is why coming out of the gate strong against those teams was so important. Chaney couldn’t or didn’t get that done. We can point to the good UL and Duke games but inconsistency like that comes from the staff and not the players themselves. At least not like our GT game of last season with the five early fumbles – that was all on the players.
I believe that at age 53 the clock is loudly ticking for Chaney to get a head coaching job and a resume’ for that position reads much better if he is being hired from a SEC school like Georgia, or a better program elsewhere, than from Pitt.
As a matter of fact I can’t remember any staff coach going from Pitt to a HC job in D1… has anyone?
Kiper said Boyd is the 5th best receiver. McShay says second round. Granted, they have been wrong many times before.
I doubt it enters into his status purely as a receiver, but the other skills that Tyler Boyd brings is that he can throw, return punts, and run sweeps. While he was justifiably relieved of punt return duties this year, he did throw some very athletic passes and made substantial gains on the ground through traffic. He can be very elusive.
@Upitt Boyd has dropped some easy passes, but he has also made some unbelievable catches. Even Larry Fitzgerald drops passes.
I think it hurt Dan 72 to write that backhanded compliment to Boyd.
Anybody else think that Upitt, PoD and Dan 72 are part of a troll cabal?
@Upitt, you might want to check your own spelling, syntax and grammar in this very thread before scolding another.
EDIT: Might want to add Reed to that “troll Cabal” because sometimes I’m as skeptical as the rest of them.
While there are plenty of coaches who were GAs or Assistants at Pitt who eventually became HCs (John Fox), I don’t recall anyone being hired to D1 HC directly since the late 70s.
There are 3 reasons for this:
1. on average, Pitt HCs don’t stay around long enough to establish credibility
2. usually, Pitt doesn’t pay its assistants enough to attract the top caliber
3. success breeds success …
H2P
Re: Boyd, he is an excellent route runner. Where does the idea that he is not come from? His issues at the next level with be learning to get release from the line in bump coverage (which is why he will be a slot guy) and not having great quickness. He is a classic tweener – not big on one hand, not ultra-quick on the other.
Boyd running sweeps in the NFL? You are being serious? NFL DE’s run faster than him. The NFL is not the ACC. I wish him the best but I am realistic. 4th or later.
People bitchin’, guys just got his first full year in makes me howl! `Hilarious!!
I don’t even acknowledge that type of crap.
After year 3 or 4, then we’ll see, then we can talk!!
Hail to Pitt!! Hope everyone has a great 2016!
Didn’t comment during pre-season because every year we go 11-2, 10-1, 12-3, doesn’t mean a thing.
Conference play is where we can tell if the train is back on the tracks.
Looks like it might be. Was actually fun watching that game.
Would suggest that he starts training now for combine. If he can knock off a .2 to a .4 with technique improvement, he will be just fine. Add potential of about 10-15 pounds of muscle mass in a professional locker room and we definitely have a2cnd rounder. I’d take him on those two potential items alone….of course with hs othr skills slightly improving too.
Have not heard about Zeise. Anybody?
A DT an ILB would certainly make me feel better about the future. Probably OK with Jarrett, Taleni, Dintino, Galambos and Wirginis, for next year. Certainly not championship material, but what about the future? No depth at all.
As for his emotional investment into Pitt, I would imagine any perceived let down would be leaked and his value would be drastically reduced.
Still, the offense underperformed, and that is on him. And, the defense was no better.
All the koolaid drinkers are thinking we will be primed next year, but if you look at our last six games, we have taken steps backwards.
“We have a solid 2nd round grade on Tyler Boyd. He’s a fluid athlete and a precise route-runner with good hands who projects nicely (especially in the slot) at receiver in the NFL”, said Rang.
“The 2016 draft isn’t loaded at receiver as recent years with Mississippi’s Laquon Treadwell, Baylor’s Corey Coleman, Ohio State’s Michael Thomas—and potentially Boyd— all topping some scout’s boards at the position. All four are juniors”, said Rang.
“With 3 productive, healthy seasons, scouts have plenty of tape on Boyd. He isn’t likely to boost his grade significantly by returning for a senior season”, said Rang.
———————————–
This is what Boyd based his decision on.
I can understand why Zeise would leave if he wants to play football. Three freshmen coming in. Ford, Challingsworth, Henderson, and Tipton coming back.
My guess is some other underclassmen may see the writing on the wall as well. More fun to star at Indiana or Edinboro than to never leave the bench in D-1.
Iowa finally got exposed for what they were all season during the last couple of games, which was a solid team but no big shakes with a very easy schedule in the big10 Creampuff Division. That is the one game that I thought we lost, but should have won. In retrospect, it is the only game that I feel we should have won, that we didn’t. All the others for me, was a lack of talent and speed…except for Navy. That was a lack of heart, not coaching.
A final Navy note. I cannot for the life of me figure out Nard saying that Navy did some things he hadn’t seen before. He was covering for his guys. You can only do a couple of things off the triple option, so let’s not go there. Now, if he wants to say that the play calling sequence was a little different, that I will agree with. So it s written!
Reed @ 7:54. I like you discussion of our late losses. I would add that I think we are pretty easy to defend. 1.) We won’t run till you stop us; 2.)we don’t throw long; and C.) we don’t have secondary receivers who reliably get open/or we don’t see open secondary receivers.
In addition to your point, all this may contribute to a poor 1st half.
I saw a post suggesting he was looking. That is his prerogative, but he should look first in the mirror. I think he is capable of more.
However, Fitz and even Antonio Bryant were just a cut above Boyd.
I recall Fitz rarely ever dropping the ball and he always caught it when the team absolutely needed it.
Bryant made you sit on the end of seat when he got the ball in his hands.
I cannot say the same thing of Boyd.
I wish Boyd the best and he will be nice third down possession receiver in the pros that team we wiling to pick up in later round.
