Improved Linebacker Play

[Parkview57]

Hopefully great coaching combined with athleticism will turn the linebacking corp into a strength.

Link

 

[PhPanther1]

Well, it will be much more athletic that's for sure.

With Brightwell in the middle, does Wirginis move outside to start with Zeise?

Does McKee finally stay healthy and have the light go off?

Pine has the size and speed, does he become more consistent mentally?

Hopefully Idowu goes away and just becomes a special teamer.

 

[ksquared33]

I look for the LB corp. to take on the same progress as what many on this site looked upon the WR corp. last year before the season.
College football allows players to really come into their own from 1 season to the next. The maturity, opportunity to play thru graduation, hard work, etc. all contribute allow this to happen.
Often fan's will look at the previous year & wonder why a player was not able to beat out a player who never excelled to a high degree so they assume the back-up player is no better but that is unfair to these kids because of how much they mature, develop & learn from season to season.
Plus these kid's learn to play together, depend upon one another & build confidence from one another. Someone brought up Scott McKillop's breakout senior year to become a All American.
It's just always been the nature of college football where a single year can manufacture great change & progress from both individual players & entire units from almost the same players from previous season.
We will improve speed wise in a bigger way than how our WR 's did last year. Our athletic quotient will rise dramatically & just the fact that these kids will have had the same system for yet another year which is something Pitt football or our players has not had.

H2 PITT !!!

 

[PantherDave724]

Well, it will be much more athletic that's for sure.

With Brightwell in the middle, does Wirginis move outside to start with Zeise?

Does McKee finally stay healthy and have the light go off?

Pine has the size and speed, does he become more consistent mentally?

Hopefully Idowu goes away and just becomes a special teamer.

When has Pine had trouble being mentally consistent?

 

[PhPanther1]

When has Pine had trouble being mentally consistent?

According to Harley he is.

“You talk about athleticism and that guy is almost 250 and he can run. He’s a big, big athlete that can move. You start thinking about him and using him in the blitz game, taking a gap and someone trying to block him. It is a bear. Right now, he’s just a young player but we’re getting a lot of athleticism and also some youthful mistakes. Sometimes he’s running around chasing the wrong things but if we can get him zeroed in, they’re going to have their hands full trying to block a 248 pound athlete.”

 

[Swervin27]

I was really hoping to see pine win that money position this year but the more I read, the more I believe it's not gonna happen. Probably should expect best case, a reserve role.

No shame in that at all, he is a redshirt freshman and all.

 

[Jeffburgh]

I look for the LB corp. to take on the same progress as what many on this site looked upon the WR corp. last year before the season.
College football allows players to really come into their own from 1 season to the next. The maturity, opportunity to play thru graduation, hard work, etc. all contribute allow this to happen.
Often fan's will look at the previous year & wonder why a player was not able to beat out a player who never excelled to a high degree so they assume the back-up player is no better but that is unfair to these kids because of how much they mature, develop & learn from season to season.
Plus these kid's learn to play together, depend upon one another & build confidence from one another. Someone brought up Scott McKillop's breakout senior year to become a All American.
It's just always been the nature of college football where a single year can manufacture great change & progress from both individual players & entire units from almost the same players from previous season.
We will improve speed wise in a bigger way than how our WR 's did last year. Our athletic quotient will rise dramatically & just the fact that these kids will have had the same system for yet another year which is something Pitt football or our players has not had.

H2 PITT !!!

The WR corps is a good example, I have posted that it is like QB how under recruited the position was.

They had some guys with limited upside in Capara and Galambos who became decent players over the course of their career from hard work and experience.

But, there just was almost literally not talent or depth when Nards took over and we are now going to start to see the depth/talent he has brought in over his first two classes start to work on that transition period where they start to get the experience to be able to put the increase in overall athleticism to use - in that regard like the WRs last year.

We probably are going to see some growing pains as the season progresses with hopefully having them round out by the end of the season.

The depth still is not ideal, which is why they will have a walk on WR convert who sees PT as a reserve. But, they kids they recruited in 2015 will get some salt this year and next year they depth will start to round out.

 

[Delpanther]

WE haven't had a solid LB corps for so long....

 

[Farnox]

I was really hoping to see pine win that money position this year but the more I read, the more I believe it's not gonna happen. Probably should expect best case, a reserve role.

No shame in that at all, he is a redshirt freshman and all.

No shame at all. You really don't want, unless they are exceptional players, your starters to be less than redshirt sophomores. Give them two years to learn the system well and develop physically.

 

[Swervin27]

No shame at all. You really don't want, unless they are exceptional players, your starters to be less than redshirt sophomores. Give them two years to learn the system well and develop physically.

in a vacuum or perfect world yes. we are not there, we have gaping holes in our two deep lb group. without coaching attrition and poor recruiting classes, your point stands but it's not the case.. our star lb competition last year was between a walk on and a converted wr. no coach wants that scenario but that's the hand the Duzzer was dealt.

As far as LBs for '17, I see Wirginis, Brightwell, zeise, pine, idowu, McKee, jalen Williams. I mean that's the names that are in the mix, I don't even know much about Jalen but I added him in there. leaving true freshman out of the mix and not knowing what's going on with Reynolds, that's 7 names for 3 spots. to expect a redshirt freshman, one that was as highly regarded as pine coming out of high school, to compete for legit playing time with that group isn't unrealistic. This isn't exactly the '94 steelers as far as linebacker competition.

 

[ksquared33]

The WR corps is a good example, I have posted that it is like QB how under recruited the position was.

They had some guys with limited upside in Capara and Galambos who became decent players over the course of their career from hard work and experience.

But, there just was almost literally not talent or depth when Nards took over and we are now going to start to see the depth/talent he has brought in over his first two classes start to work on that transition period where they start to get the experience to be able to put the increase in overall athleticism to use - in that regard like the WRs last year.

We probably are going to see some growing pains as the season progresses with hopefully having them round out by the end of the season.

The depth still is not ideal, which is why they will have a walk on WR convert who sees PT as a reserve. But, they kids they recruited in 2015 will get some salt this year and next year they depth will start to round out.

While I agree our LB corp. will make mistakes & experience growing pains but by the same token we are going to see plays being made because of pure God given speed & athletic ability that we very rarely saw last year. The Brightwell play against Clemson being a prime example.
I can live w/ growing pains but it was the challenge of watching play after play being run against us that you could plainly see we lacked the speed to close out the hole or get to the pitch guy or get to the QB. And how many times would we see our LB not able to get off of blocks because they were not able to get to the position fast enough to blow up the play.
Speed alone will allow our D to become so much more aggressive as opposed to always having to play defensive defense.

H2 PITT !!!

 

[9nationalchampionships]

Yep, we are thin a LB! I was hoping we would have added a grad transfer or Juco into the mix. Reynolds may not be on the team?

in a vacuum or perfect world yes. we are not there, we have gaping holes in our two deep lb group. without coaching attrition and poor recruiting classes, your point stands but it's not the case.. our star lb competition last year was between a walk on and a converted wr. no coach wants that scenario but that's the hand the Duzzer was dealt.

As far as LBs for '17, I see Wirginis, Brightwell, zeise, pine, idowu, McKee, jalen Williams. I mean that's the names that are in the mix, I don't even know much about Jalen but I added him in there. leaving true freshman out of the mix and not even being sure that Reynolds is even on the roster, that's 7 names for 3 spots. to expect a redshirt freshman, one that was as highly regarded as pine coming out of high school, to compete for legit playing time with that group isn't unrealistic. This isn't exactly the '94 steelers as far as linebacker competition.

 

[Swervin27]

Yep, we are thin a LB! I was hoping we would have added a grad transfer or Juco into the mix. Reynolds may not be on the team?

@9nationalchampionships no, sorry. just haven't heard his name, I am sure he's still on the team. Chris said awhile ago that he was injured most of last year.. I don't know his injury status currently..

I am sure Reynolds is on team, I was being over-dramatic (go figure). so please don't take that for any inside info.

 

[Farnox]

in a vacuum or perfect world yes. we are not there, we have gaping holes in our two deep lb group. without coaching attrition and poor recruiting classes, your point stands but it's not the case.. our star lb competition last year was between a walk on and a converted wr. no coach wants that scenario but that's the hand the Duzzer was dealt.

As far as LBs for '17, I see Wirginis, Brightwell, zeise, pine, idowu, McKee, jalen Williams. I mean that's the names that are in the mix, I don't even know much about Jalen but I added him in there. leaving true freshman out of the mix and not even being sure that Reynolds is even on the roster, that's 7 names for 3 spots. to expect a redshirt freshman, one that was as highly regarded as pine coming out of high school, to compete for legit playing time with that group isn't unrealistic. This isn't exactly the '94 steelers as far as linebacker competition.

I agree, we have no choice to try an plug in the best possible players regardless as to their development time. I will be years till we get to point on holding some of these kids back more.

 

[LeftCoastPanther]

Pitt needs the MSU transfer linebacker in the worst way. I wonder when that kid will announce a school? How perfect would it be to get a kid who knows Narduzzi, the system and can play immediately.

 

[vegasgreed]

hope i'm wrong but i see another disappointing year with the LB core as a whole.

 

[Swervin27]

hope i'm wrong but i see another disappointing year with the LB core as a whole.

think it's safe to say we are a year or two away from the LBs being an asset and not a liability.. Sounds like brightwell is having a fantastic spring which is great and I saw a quote from CP that McKee has been getting some praise as well. Really need Brightwell, Pine, and McKee all to be players for us, cant miss on any of these if we have hopes of having a strong lb group in '18 and '19..

 

[9nationalchampionships]

I don't much about him but the remarks he said put him in the do not touch category for me. I was hoping Reynolds would behind Wirginis in the middle.

Pitt needs the MSU transfer linebacker in the worst way. I wonder when that kid will announce a school? How perfect would it be to get a kid who knows Narduzzi, the system and can play immediately.

 

[9nationalchampionships]

Is the 210 listed for McKee accurate? He looks so thin for a LB.

 

[Swervin27]

Is the 210 listed for McKee accurate? He looks so thin for a LB.

his weight in the spring roster didn't change but CP did say something to the effect that he does look bigger than last year. I take those little nuggets of info and run with them..