Reminder Pitt on the Prowl alumni events kick off this Thursday in Cleveland (hope to see some people there) and then to Chicago on May 23 and NYC on May 25. Coaches Pat Narduzzi, Kevin Stallings and Suzie McConnell-Serio will be at all the events.
Script unveiling is tomorrow. At least May has been somewhat active.
ACC meetings from last week didn’t reveal anything earth-shattering.
We did an article about this last year but here is a follow-up piece by Sam Werner of the Post-Gazette addressing Pitt’s new athletic logo that is to be unveiled on Wednesday (no big surprise that it is the Script PITT from the 1980s) and how it does NOT represent the University as a whole… a visual reminder here:
From Werner’s article:
“If the athletic department is the front porch, then the Pitt script logo, set to be re-introduced as the school’s primary athletic mark at a Petersen Events Center unveiling Wednesday, is a sign on the front of the house.
Often times, though, that sign may not represent every room in the house.
Like Pitt, many universities across the country have developed distinct university logos separate from their athletic marks, as they try to strike a balance between the visibility athletics can provide and the academic pursuits of the greater institution.
“Most of the time, the rationale is that, look, we have two different products here,” said Antonio Williams, a sport and fitness brand researcher and assistant professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. “We don’t necessarily want to take away the academic rigor and prestige from the university side by associating with athletics. There may be certain liabilities by associating yourself with athletics.”
Not to make a shabby pun but the issue of concussions in football has reared its ugly head again.
There was an initial and prompt backlash toward Pat Narduzzi for what seemed to be a cavalier attitude towards the enormous problem of the effects of concussions on football players.
However, there was also the correct rollback by the media once the actual quotes, and Narduzzi’s intent, became clear. There are a lot of media pieces about this but I think Craig Meyer (Werner’s sub) in his P-G Red Shirt Diaries lays it out the best. Maybe that is because he was the reporter who asked Narduzzi the actual questions about the meeting’s discussions about the subject:
From Meyer: “I followed up by asking what the concussion discussion centered around and what kind of things they talked about. Were they talking about how to handle concussed players? Or how to possibly spot and diagnose whether a player has one?
Narduzzi’s response at that question was at first worrisome – mostly because readers and the pundits didn’t take the time to really cipher what he actual said. Here is the quote:
“Hopefully coaches aren’t doing that. We’ve got a major problem in college football if coaches are diagnosing. There was a neurosurgeon who came in and explained some of the data and how they need to get more data so they can make decisions. I think when you look at all the results and all the talk, I think it’s media hyped. They’re talking about how they need to get more data and feedback on really what it is that’s causing these injuries.”
ACC meetings started yesterday and the big topic that the media (and fans) wanted addressed: ACC Network. Still as clear as ever, which is not even a little.
But to the surprise of no one tracking this saga, ACC commissioner John Swofford plans no public enlightenment during this week’s league gathering at Amelia Island, Fla.
Swofford told the ACC Digital Network’s Jeff Fischel that he remains “very focused” on a sustainable television path for the conference. This he did without mentioning over-the-top (OTT) outlets such as Netflix and Hulu, and partner ESPN’s bleeding of traditional cable subscribers and subsequent personnel cuts.
“We think we’re in a really good position for the long-term,” Swofford told Fischel. “We’ve just got to make the right decisions and time things appropriately.”
“I don’t know that there will be public clarity,” Swofford said of this week. “I think we will move further down the trail of where we’re headed, without question. … We’re really just not going to have a whole lot more to say until we reach a point of saying something definitive. It takes some patience with that, but we’ll get to a good place, I’m confident.”
That was some well phrased nothing.
Even if nothing comes of it, the late-spring/summer brings talk of conference realignment/expansion/chaos. These days, most of that is emanating from the Big XII.
Conference meetings have been happening. The ACC has theirs this week. The Big XII had a preliminary meeting last week, but don’t have their real meetings until after Memorial Day.
It always boils down to money, but the Big XII is wrapping this one up primarily in the matter of the College Football Playoff. How a more members and an unbalanced schedule is actually a plus for getting teams into the CFB playoff.
Sorry to have to do this on a Friday morning when you are looking forward to the weekend but it never ends with these guys, does it?
Like the non-believers in the OJ Simpson case and Holocaust deniers, the only people who believe in Paterno’s innocence is a constricting circle whose members may be less in number every year but become more crazy at every issuance of more damning evidence. Sadly today that might not be the most troubling news out of Happy Valley.
The Penn Live newspaper’s website has a ‘bombshell’ (!!) story on the fact that newly released court papers show that Joe Paterno was told, by a young boy in a face to face conversation, that the boy had been abused by Jerry Sandusky… back in 1976. This came to light of day because of an ongoing court battle between the insurance company that covered PSU’s liability issues (We ain’t paying you jack shit!”) and PSU.
“The civil case is, initially filed in November 2013, is still grinding toward trial in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas.
And in preliminary work on that case, Judge Gary Glazer this week filed a ruling that attempted to clear the decks of some of the issues that could be resolved based on the pleadings to date.
What was unexpected Thursday, was Glazer’s reference to four cases between 1976 and 1988 in which PMA Insurance attorneys have presented allegations that “PSU agents allegedly learned of Sandusky’s abusive acts.”
One of the PMA allegations was that “in 1976, a child allegedly reported to PSU’s Head Football Coach Joseph Paterno that he (the child) was sexually molested by Sandusky.”
The Cardiac Hill blog is running a “Bracket of Pitt” series that has ‘all things Pitt” subjects listed much like we see during the college basketball NCAA tournaments. Here is how they describe what they are going to do:
“The Cardiac Hill Podcast has a new segment; the Bracket of Pitt. It’s a 64-item bracket of everything Pitt. People, places, things, etc., basically if it has anything to do with the University of Pittsburgh, it’s in. I’ll be hosting the tournament primarily with Jim Hammett of Cardiac Hill. We’ll post the first episode here (and on SoundCloud) tomorrow with me & Jim discussing the bracket and you can vote for the matchups @CoreyECohen on Twitter; one vote per person. Each week we’ll put out a new episode discussing your results and advance the bracket accordingly! Let’s make some May Madness here at Cardiac Hill, we can’t wait to debut the #BracketOfPitt!”
This sounds like an original and fun idea and will fill up some of the Pitt sports dead time from now until the football Fall Camp opens up in early August. Here is what the bracket looks like as a snapshot but click on this link to see the details.
Guess The Pitt Blather didn’t make the cut.
Well, last night went about the way it was expected to for Tyler Boyd:
Tyler Boyd wasn’t selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, but he went to sleep Thursday comfortable and confident his NFL career will get started Friday.
Boyd was joined by family, friends and teammates in a crowded suite at the Omni William Penn, Downtown. Among those seated with him while he watched the draft was former Clairton coach Tom Nola, ex-Pitt teammates Terrish Webb and Titus Howard, and Pitt running back James Conner.
When Boyd’s name wasn’t called among the 31 picks in the first round, he took the disappointment with a quiet shrug.
“It doesn’t matter what team picks me or what round I go,” he said. “I just know I’m going to take full advantage of the opportunity. I just want the opportunity to see my name come across that screen.
“I’m just trying to stay as calm as possible. I have anxiety in me, believe it or not. If not today, I’m going to do the same thing (Friday).”
No, nothing about Laremy Tunsil’s moment of honesty — before a PR (or assistant agent) hurriedly hustled him out of his press conference. Good times coming to Ole Miss.
The satellite camps are still allowed. This has been one of the sillier controversies of the spring.
The SEC and ACC pushed for a complete ban — and got one — on the camps because of paranoia and wanting to protect their natural recruiting areas. They can dress it up however they want, but it was only about protecting their own self-interests. And yes, Coach Pat Narduzzi was fully in support of such a ban, but I still don’t get it.
As we have been stating on here for sometime it looks like it is shaping up for Manny Stocker to be the QB2 going into fall camp… no, actually that’s a done deal now.
Still, one of Narduzzi’s goals this off-season is to find a backup quarterback to replace Chad Voytik, who is transferring.
Voytik, a starter in 2014, would have been a nice safety net to in case of an injury to starting quarterback Nate Peterman. Instead, senior walk-on Manny Stocker has taken the early lead over sophomore Adam Bertke and redshirt freshman Ben DiNucci.
“Right now, I’d say he’s the guy,” Narduzzi said of Stocker, “but we’ve still got a lot of football to play. We still have all summer for those guys to go out and throw together.”
Here’s some not so good news for the listening audience… Billy Osborne back in the radio booth:
Bill Osborn, who served as the color analyst for Pitt football radio broadcasts from 1995-2003, is returning to the booth this season.
He will replace Pat Bostick, whose duties as director of development in the Panther Club are expanding. Bostick, a former Pitt quarterback, has been the analyst since 2011.
Osborn was a three-sport athlete at Pitt from 1985-88, including a three-year stint as a starting wide receiver. He also played basketball and baseball, becoming the first Pitt athlete to letter in three sports since Mike Ditka.
Longtime play-by-play veteran Bill Hillgrove will remain in the booth for the 47th consecutive season, 43 of them spent doing play-by-play. Larry Richert will return as the sideline reporter.
I’ll state this publicly now and get it out of the way so that you can say you heard it here first – Pat Bostick, Jr. is being groomed for big things at Pitt and I personally wouldn’t be surprised to see him as a Pitt Athletic Director within 10-15 years.
Well, this is a surprise. Pat Bostick won’t be filling the analyst role on the Pitt football radio broadcasts this year. He’s going to focus on his other job as the Director of Development for the Panther Club. More with the fundraising aspect.
Coming back to the booth is Billy Osborn.
Osborn has been highly active in broadcasting over the past dozen years. He called college football games for the Comcast Network and also did color for the Arena Football League’s Philadelphia Soul. Osborn is co-host of the “OZZIE and KRAUSEY SHOW,” which can be heard on ESPN 610 AM Sports Radio in the Philadelphia/South Jersey area.
A four-year football letterman at Pitt (1985-88), Osborn was a quarterback and defensive back before settling in as a three-year starting wide receiver. He finished his collegiate career with 77 receptions for 1,104 yards (14.3 avg.) and nine touchdowns. In addition to football, he also lettered in baseball and basketball, becoming the first Pitt student-athlete to letter in three varsity sports since Mike Ditka.
Osborn previously served as the analyst for Pitt football from 1995-2003.
More from Pat Bostick.
Bostick, the former Pitt quarterback, served as color analyst the past five seasons. He joined the Panther Club staff in 2011 and has continued to assume elevated roles for Pitt’s official athletics fundraising office.
“It has been an honor to call Pitt football games alongside the legendary Bill Hillgrove,” Bostick said. “I will forever owe a debt a gratitude to Bill for his friendship, professionalism and introducing me to broadcasting. While I’ll miss being in the booth, I’m very excited about taking the next step in my professional journey. I want to welcome Billy Osborn back to the broadcast team and thank our athletic director Scott Barnes and the entire Pitt family for giving me the opportunity to continue serving the great University of Pittsburgh.”
Bostick did a fantastic job in the booth. A little disappointed that he won’t keep doing it.
The Trib weighs in with a couple of things – first is this short video of Narduzzi’s post practice interview:
The second is Jerry D’s article about the next star on offense Donte’ Ford (my opinion not his). Ford’s contributions far exceed the chalk boundaries of the football field:
There were days early this spring when Sto-Rox baseball and softball players were forced to share gloves to get through a practice When the sports returned to the school district after a two-year hiatus due to lack of funds, athletic director Ryan Kacsur thought the girls might have to wear mismatched uniforms.
An even sadder reality: Some players may not get enough to eat before and after games. “It breaks my heart seeing that,” Kacsur said.
Then, one day, Pitt wide receiver/Sto-Rox graduate Dontez Ford and classmates Jim Fanning and Craig Bittner showed up in his office. They wanted to help.
For a project in their Advertising and Social Media class, the seniors, with free-of-charge production from professional videographers Ben Petchel and Adam Kunes, decided to create a video and promote it with the aim of raising money and awareness for the baseball and softball teams.
Their initial goal was $4,000 to be split equally between the teams. Some thought they set their sights too high. “Even our professor was kind of wary,” Fanning said.
But less than week after the video was released Feb. 24 on Facebook, they reached their goal and money kept coming in from 92 donors. So far, they have raised $5,800, Ford said. Two donors gave $500. Donations are still being accepted on the GoFundMe page on Facebook.com/BringitbackPGH.
Here are a couple of podcasts to listen to while working. First is Jerry DiPaola being interviewed by WTAE’s Junker and the other Guy about the Spring Game… and talks about the closed practices. He makes a good point (again!) about being able to watch only the calisthenics, then the kicker and the punter punting. He hates it, every media person hates it, I hate it and some at Pitt even dislike it.
DiPaola’s Guy and Junker Interview 4/11/16
He also talks about how the offense looks unbalanced at this point because of the dearth of receivers with any game experience at all. Challingsworth and Ford are the only two WRs on the roster who caught passes last season. He quotes Nate Peterman as saying “Wait and see which WRs we can count on.”
DiPaola reiterates that Stocker is slowly cementing the QB2 position. Stocker is a big QB and is also a good runner – DiPaola mentions “Wildcat” a few times. The subject of bringing in a FBS transfer QB in (Schneider) and how that signals that the staff isn’t happy with our current #3 and #4 QBs.
What is shaping up is a competition for the 2017 starting job between Schneider and MacVitte.
Here are the scrimmage stats from yesterday.
Bertke was 3-3 for 52 yards but Stocker seems to be holding onto the #2 QB slot.
Before we get into this next video let’s review which numbers our five QBs are wearing:
#3 – Ben DiNucci; #4 – Nate Peterman; #7 – Adam Bertke; #8 – Manny Stocker; and #15- Ryan Adzima. That’s our Murder’s Row going coming out of spring practices in a week. I post those because Pitt has a nice 2+ minute video highlighting our new OC Matt Canada working with the QBs and WRs.
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