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August 4, 2019

A few days of practices have taken place. It’s hard to be sure about the actual situations. Not simply because pads only came on today.

In this age of high-paranoia from coaches throughout college football, practices are closed other then an early stretching period before-hand. There’s highlights the programs release as they choose. There are the post practice interviews where you hope the coaches and players are not just blowing smoke.

Okay, I’ve gotten my annual bitching about the stupidity of closed practices out of the way. On to what we have.

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January 7, 2019

There Is A Timing Issue

Filed under: Assistants,Coaches,Football,Hire/Fire — Chas @ 4:10 pm

You know, in my relief over Shawn Watson’s dismissal, I forgot to mention one other aspect of the firing. The timing.

In prior years, when staff has turned over, it hasn’t been filled quickly and/or the change happened later.

Obviously with the early signing period, these days that alleviates some of that. Yet, that didn’t seem to matter last year when changes were made to the coaching staff. They came later in the cycle and took a while to fill.

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January 4, 2019

Beautiful Symmetry

Filed under: Assistants,Coaches,Football,Hire/Fire — Chas @ 5:31 pm

I’m not saying this is Nostradamus level stuff, but let me have a little fun.

I guess I am hoping for a little symmetry. Ten years ago, Pitt went to the Sun Bowl. The QB had a bomb of a game and Pitt couldn’t generate enough offense against a Pac-12 (10 at the time) that was missing their top running back and had other injuries. The complete offensive ineptitude forced the defensive-minded coach to make a change at OC. Let’s find out if history repeats.

And in one of Pitt’s briefest press releases that doesn’t announce a player being dismissed from the team…

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January 2, 2019

The loss to Stanford in the Sun Bowl could be something of a microcosm for Pitt this year.

The struggles to move the ball to start the game. There was that solid surge in the second and third quarter where Pitt was moving the ball and looked like the more dominant team. Then that fade to black in the fourth quarter. Where the team couldn’t finish and/or couldn’t make the plays.

It’s one of those things. If you look back on Pitt’s 2018 season, just in terms of wins and losses, the Panthers were right around where they were expected to be. Excepting the UNC game, they lost the games you would have expected them to lose. And they won the games you would have expected them to win, other then Syracuse.

It’s the way they lost those games, though. Oh, is it the way they lost those games.

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September 30, 2018

Burn It All, I Guess

Filed under: Assistants,Coaches,Football,Narduzzi — Chas @ 2:07 pm

Torn between rage and apathy. Very odd sensation. At the moment, I’ve drifted back to rage.

Right now Pitt football is a complete mess. The offense has played 3 good halves in 5 games. The defense is being consistently shredded; and even when it shows moments of competence, it can’t stop stepping on its own dick. Special teams… whatever.

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April 17, 2018

Pitt men’s basketball coach, Jeff Capel, completed his staff last night with the hiring of Milan Brown. Brown had been an assistant at College of Charleston. But before that, he had been the head coach at Holy Cross and Mt. Saint Mary’s for a total of 12 years.

All three of his assistant coaches have head coaching experience. Especially the two lead assistants — O’Toole and Brown.

There is a logic to it. As much as the assumption was that Capel would hire a name, stud recruiter, Capel himself is the name, stud recruiter.

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April 12, 2018

After waiting for something, anything regarding Jeff Capel’s coaching staff; two assistants named at last. Jason Capel and Tim O’Toole.

O’Toole joins Pitt after spending the last two seasons as an associate head coach at University of California, Berkeley. He has also worked as an assistant coach at eight different programs over the last 30 years. Before California, O’Toole was an assistant at Stanford from 2014 to 2016 and spent the 2013-14 season in the same position at Syracuse under Jim Boeheim.

In his only head coaching stint at Fairfield from 1998 to 2006, O’Toole amassed a 112-120 record and made one appearance in the NIT tournament in 2003.

Capel’s brother, Jason, first came to prominence during his college career playing at North Carolina. In his time at Chapel Hill, Capel averaged at least nine points per game in each of his four seasons. He starred for the Tar Heels in his senior season averaging 15.6 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.

After spending time playing professionally overseas, Capel spent time as an assistant coach at Appalachian State during the 2009-2010 season, then as head coach of the program from 2010-2014. He hasn’t held a coaching position since Appalachian State decided not to renew his contract in 2014.

I’m sure the hiring of his younger brother will raise some eyebrows.

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April 9, 2018

The page listing Pitt Men’s Basketball Coaching Staff is still rather sparse. Former player, Chris Jones, is still listed as a Graduate Assistant. Jason Richards remains as Director of Basketball Operations. Garry Christopher remains as the Strength and Conditioning Coach. And that is it.

We know Pitt took it’s time before hiring Jeff Capel as head coach, but that doesn’t mean the hiring of assistants has to remain up in the air this long.

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February 9, 2018

We saw it coming, so it isn’t the biggest surprise. With the second half of signing day passing, Renaldo Hill is heading to the NFL.

Hill, who played defensive back for the Dolphins from 2006 to 2008, has joined Miami’s coaching staff in an unspecified capacity.

He started 38 games during his time in Miami, picking off six passes and recording 152 tackles.

He joins Adam Gase’s revamped coaching staff, which has this offseason had changes at offensive coordinator, the offensive and defensive lines, running back and secondary.

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February 1, 2018

Been quite a bit of stuff for Pitt football with some coaching changes and the final signing day looming. Not going to get to them all, but I’ll touch on yesterday’s news.

Pitt grabbed a new assistant and a grad transfer from MAC schools yesterday. Both seem like good additions.

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January 8, 2018

Last week was a surprisingly active week for Pitt football. Players left the program and it’s time to find a new coordinator.

After the early signing period, Pitt was over the 85 scholarship player. That meant transfers were on the way. It was just a matter of who and when.

That day came on Friday.

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August 29, 2017

Something Will Happen on Offense

Filed under: Assistants,Coaches — Chas @ 7:27 am

With the exception of certain Offensive Coordinators (Scot Loeffler), we really don’t know for sure how things will go. Matt Canada was a decent, but not outstanding OC. He was fired/scapegoated by NC State’s HC Dave Doereen, and seemingly ended up at Pitt because of his ties to HC Pat Narduzzi. Nothing about the hire screamed revolutionary, outstanding. At most it seemed like a decent fit, and wasn’t horrible.

Instead his schemes meshed perfectly with the players. The players took to it, and quite literally ran with it. Pitt’s offense went from slightly above average — with Tyler Boyd — to explosive. All while in a pro-style offense. He parlayed that into one becoming one of the highest paid assistants in college football, and a couple steps closer to becoming a head coach within a few years.

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May 5, 2017

So the  two weeks have been close to positive for Pitt basketball and coach Kevin Stallings. Or at least as good as it’s been since the season ended.

No one else left, a couple coaches hired, a NLI signed and now a transfer. Let’s review.

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April 3, 2017

The first two years for Pitt under Head Coach Pat Narduzzi, have been mostly positive. The defensive-minded coach, though, has had to rely on the offense to be the side doing the heavy lifting.

The lack of depth and overall talent on the defense has been glaring — especially with the type of defense Narduzzi utilizes. Bringing pressure constantly without going all-out blitz. It relies on overall speed, depth to bring fresh bodies, and individual talents. All things missing from the defense.

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March 17, 2017

Media availability was pretty decent after the first practice. Both coordinators were put out there, along with Quarterback Max Browne and Safety Jordan Whitehead. Quadree Henderson, the team’s offensive utility knife and Defensive Tackle Jeremiah Taleni got some media time.

Max Browne had some attention for wearing uniform number 4 — which probably speaks to a lack of topics as much as anything else. It’s always been the uniform number he wore. Nate Peterman also wore it, and I had no idea that was any sort of conflict or problem. Like plenty of QBs in college now, Brett Farve was the idol to many.

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