Excluding Dan Marino
- Thread starter TFBaum
- Start date
Darnell Dickerson was a pretty good athlete at QB in 87 and 88. Right there with Lytle and Rutherford in terms of athleticism.
Who knows how much better he could have become had he played in his junior and senior seasons.
He lacked consistency as a thrower but he was tough, confident and a leader on the field. I believe he was the equivalent of a 4 star recruit when he signed with Pitt in February 1987 for Mike Gottfried.
I can't say I feel strongly that DD was a top 5 qb post-Marino era but should be considered.
Who knows how much better he could have become had he played in his junior and senior seasons.
He lacked consistency as a thrower but he was tough, confident and a leader on the field. I believe he was the equivalent of a 4 star recruit when he signed with Pitt in February 1987 for Mike Gottfried.
I can't say I feel strongly that DD was a top 5 qb post-Marino era but should be considered.
I did it differently. Tried to think outside the box and put together the 5 most important tools of 5 different QBs to create one QB who could be a match for Marino:
Arm Strength: Rod Rutherford
Arm Accuracy: Alex Van Pelt
Legs: Fred Mazurek
Head: Matt Cavanaugh
Intangibles: Tyler Palko
Put them all together, and they still aren’t as good as the kid who grew up on Parkview.
Arm Strength: Rod Rutherford
Arm Accuracy: Alex Van Pelt
Legs: Fred Mazurek
Head: Matt Cavanaugh
Intangibles: Tyler Palko
Put them all together, and they still aren’t as good as the kid who grew up on Parkview.
Always liked...
- John Congemi
- Rick Trocano
- Rod Rutherford
- Tyler Palko
- Tino Sunseri
I like the categories
For me
Arm Strength - tie - Lytle or Savage
Arm Accuracy - Gonzo
Legs - Dickerson
Head - Morelli
Intangibles - Palko
Toughness - Lytle was incredibly tough as was Palko and Rutherford. But, I still to this day have no clue how Lytle made it through the PSU game in 1998.
Actually the greatest Pitt QB of all time is the congressman from Youngstown Jim Trafficant. I am not sure how you spell his last name.
If you are looking at modern passing statistics-my guys are out-but,Fred Mazurek,Corney Salvaterra,and Bobby Haygood were all good leaders. I got a kick from reading this question years ago on the PSU board,and they all picked guys like Collins.In fact the best they ever has was Richie Lucas.
Traficant had a great arm but was a little bit less than mediocre on accuracy. He hated to run and would try to force the ball into impossible situations. Corney Salvaterra was a runner first. He was the QB when I first started following Pitt football.
Fred Mazurek was the QB on the 9-1 1963 team. From Redstone HS. He was the QB Pitt got when Namath decided to go to Alabama. Great runner and accurate passer but couldn’t throw deep. Good enough athlete to be drafted by the Redskins as a Safety and to be selected in the MLB draft. He originally came to Pitt because he wanted to go to medical school, but I believe he decided that medical school was too tough to handle part-time while playing in the NFL and he either went to law school or dental school.
The 1963 game between Pitt and Miami was one of the greatest ever QB duals: Mazurek and Miami’s George Mira in the Orange Bowl. It was ironic because the game was scheduled to be played in September but was postponed because of a hurricane, and was rescheduled at the end of the season. That was one of the reasons the Orange Bowl passed on Pitt: the selection was before that game and the committee was worried that if the game was a stinker, attendance would be bad for the Orange Bowl. As it turned out, it was a terrific game and after it all of the Miami sports columnists lashed the committee for not choosing Pitt.
Jim Murray, the famous LA Times columnist, started a campaign to have Pitt play in the Rose Bowl as the PAC 8 representative. He argued that Pitt had beaten UCLA, Washington and Cal, and at 3-0 had the best record in the conference.
Fred Mazurek was the QB on the 9-1 1963 team. From Redstone HS. He was the QB Pitt got when Namath decided to go to Alabama. Great runner and accurate passer but couldn’t throw deep. Good enough athlete to be drafted by the Redskins as a Safety and to be selected in the MLB draft. He originally came to Pitt because he wanted to go to medical school, but I believe he decided that medical school was too tough to handle part-time while playing in the NFL and he either went to law school or dental school.
The 1963 game between Pitt and Miami was one of the greatest ever QB duals: Mazurek and Miami’s George Mira in the Orange Bowl. It was ironic because the game was scheduled to be played in September but was postponed because of a hurricane, and was rescheduled at the end of the season. That was one of the reasons the Orange Bowl passed on Pitt: the selection was before that game and the committee was worried that if the game was a stinker, attendance would be bad for the Orange Bowl. As it turned out, it was a terrific game and after it all of the Miami sports columnists lashed the committee for not choosing Pitt.
Jim Murray, the famous LA Times columnist, started a campaign to have Pitt play in the Rose Bowl as the PAC 8 representative. He argued that Pitt had beaten UCLA, Washington and Cal, and at 3-0 had the best record in the conference.
Marino threw an awful lot of picks in college. He also played on an elite team. If our next qB threw 46 INTs in 2 years while having top 5 talent this board would melt down. And yeah it was tougher to throw then but that’s a lot of picks for not throwing all that much.
So controversial question: do we overrate Danny as a college QB because he was such an elite pro? Is there a conversation to be had that another QB had a better college career.
The answer is probably no...but the question is not as far fetched as it may seem
So controversial question: do we overrate Danny as a college QB because he was such an elite pro? Is there a conversation to be had that another QB had a better college career.
The answer is probably no...but the question is not as far fetched as it may seem
Also in ‘63,Pitt lost their only game to Navy(who went to the Cotton Bowl to play Texas).Another reason that the Orange Bowl passed on Pitt was the fact that John Kennedy had been murdered,and the Penn State game was postponed until after the bowl selection date. Bowls were afraid that Pitt would lose to PSU-thus having a 2 loss team. That almost happened-but then the players decided that they did not want to play in a second tier bowl. Interesting point-Fred Mazurik was the son in law of he’d coach John Michelolson(sp).
