Welcome back to In The Pitt, PantherLair.com’s weekly discourse featuring a roundup of everything that’s happened in the past week, with insight and inside information thrown in for good measure.
November 7, 2008
Top of The Pitt
Well, that was exciting.
In my three and a half years of covering this football team, I think it’s safe to say that Pitt’s quadruple - that word is still difficult to type - overtime win in South Bend was among the most exciting, most interesting, and most bizarre games I’ve seen.
While those three qualities each are appropriate, let’s take a moment here at the start to reflect on the last: the bizarre. This was a game that featured a brief quarterback rotation, fluke receptions by both teams, a failed attempt at a receiver pass, Notre Dame calling back-to-back timeouts on offense, Pitt running the same fade pass three times at the goalline, and, of course, those sprinklers in overtime.
And that doesn’t even include the fact that Saturday’s game saw four full overtime periods played without either team scoring a touchdown.
Of course, while the game went out like a gangbuster, it started off like a dog. Remember, the halftime score was 17-3 in favor of Notre Dame, and it only reached that level of potency thanks to a Pat Bostick interception with about 30 seconds to go in the second quarter. Overall, the first half saw 11 total drives, with 6 punts, 2 field goals, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception.
The third quarter was more of the same. Pitt opened the second half with a touchdown drive to pull within 7 points, but the next five drives went like this:
Notre Dame - punt
Pitt - interception
Notre Dame - turnover on downs
Pitt - punt
Notre Dame - punt
Then the fourth-quarter fireworks started, and things really got interesting. Pitt scored to close out a drive that started in the third quarter, tying the score at 17, but Notre Dame answered right back with a 12-play/75-yard drive to reclaim the lead. Pitt stepped up to answer again, with a 37-yard pass from Bostick to TJ Porter and an 18-yard run from LeSean McCoy setting up the offense at the 10, and it was there that the likely-to-be-infamous trio of fade passes took place. On the third one, Bostick took a little off the throw and connected with Jonathan Baldwin to tie the score at 24.
I suppose the exploits of the overtime periods don’t need to be recounted here, so we’ll move on to the next question:
Keeping in mind that, in terms of the Big East race, this game meant nothing, where does it rank among the wins in the Dave Wannstedt Era?
I figure there are four big wins in the Wannstedt Era:
1. Cincinnati 2007
2. West Virginia 2007
3. South Florida 2008
4. Notre Dame 2008
While Cincinnati was Wannstedt’s first win over a ranked opponent and secured Wannstedt’s third-straight win in the River City Rivalry, that game probably checks in at No. 4, leaving WVU, USF, and Notre Dame.
After the USF win earlier this season, I made the case that that win was bigger than the WVU win, since the latter came at the end of a 5-7 season and meant next-to-nothing for Pitt outside of bragging rights and the right to remind WVU fans that the Panthers were responsible for the Mountaineers missing a shot at the BCS title. The USF win, on the other hand, gave Pitt a 2-0 record in the Big East and a win over a then-Top 10 conference opponent on the road.
Then there’s the Notre Dame win, irrelevant in terms of the Big East race, although it did give the Panthers the semi-bowl eligibility of six wins.
I’m going to cop out here. I think these things are best evaluated in hindsight with an eye toward historical impact. But I will say this:
Perhaps the greatest thing about the win on Saturday was the game itself - or at least the final quarter and the overtimes - was what made it special. It didn’t matter that the game was played in South Bend. It could have been played in Syracuse or some other God-forsaken place, and it still would have been a great game. That it happened against Notre Dame was almost inconsequential, save for the fact that it happened in a hostile environment on the road against a pretty good team.
And once again, we saw this Pitt team come back from a second-half deficit. The Panthers have six wins this season, and they have had to overcome a second-half deficit in 4 of those 6 (Navy and Buffalo being the two exceptions). This is a resilient bunch.
Who’s the man?
If any one player should get the bulk of the credit for the resiliency, it’s LeSean McCoy. You’ve all heard the numbers: 1,004 yards, 15 touchdowns, 140-plus in the past five games, 125.5 rushing yards per game, 154.1 all-purpose yards per game. It’s all ridiculous. But time and again, Pitt’s sophomore running back has come up big when the Panthers needed it. That’s the real connection between the Notre Dame win and the West Virginia win from a year ago:
As Pitt’s offense struggled with Pat Bostick under center, McCoy put the team on his shoulders. Against Notre Dame, he was clearly banged up after appearing to injure his ankle in the first half, but he still ran like the big-time player that he is.
McCoy has gotten better and better each week, and it’s getting to the point where you can see him building momentum in any given game. As he starts breaking off runs, a certain swagger or confidence emanates from him, and it seems like opposing defenses can see it as well.
Every time Pitt needed a big run against Notre Dame - just like against WVU and USF and every other win of consequence - McCoy did it, up to and including an 18-yard run from the 24 to the 6 in the fourth overtime to set up Lee’s 22-yard game-winner.
We’ve all known that the kid is something special, but it’s getting to the point where this question has to be asked:
Where does he rank among the all-time great Pitt players?
Perhaps that’s too broad, so let’s leave out the Goldberg’s and Schmidt’s and Marino’s and Dorsett’s and Ditka’s and Green’s and Fralic’s and Covert’s, etc., and just focus on the recent past. In that vein, there are two names that come to mind:
Larry Fitzgerald and Darrelle Revis.
I suppose in comparison to Fitzgerald and McCoy, Revis’ impact was fairly limited. But that leaves, in my mind, a very difficult decision: Fitzgerald or McCoy.
I don’t know the answer to this one, so I’ll leave it up to you.
Who’s the man?
Game wrapup
Before we get away from Notre Dame stuff, I want to make sure you get a chance to check out some of PantherLair.com’s post-game coverage.
Game story
Box score
Post-game notebook
Series-by-series: Pitt’s offense
Series-by-series: Pitt’s defense
Video of Wannstedt’s post-game press conference
Photos from the game
If there’s any one thing I would point out, it’s the photos. Pete Madia has stepped his game up for us this year, and the Notre Dame collection (45 shots from the game) is really top-notch. We’ll be working on a few end-of-season collections from this year’s photos, but I highly recommend that you take some time today to check them out. Even if you looked at the photos earlier this week, you should take another glance; I think you’ll be glad you did.
Official visits
Earlier this week the question of official visits came up again, so I thought I’d take a moment and discuss that topic.
If you look at our list of scheduled official visits, you’d probably be pretty disappointed because there aren’t any names on it. Fact of the matter is, this staff has been pretty set on not bringing in any official visitors during the season for several reasons.
For starters, the official visits are a chance for the coaches and current players to spend as much time as possible with the recruits, showing them exactly what they want the Pitt experience to be. If a prospect comes in during a game weekend, then the attentions of the coaches and players are diverted, what with meetings and gameplanning and the game itself.
Additionally, the fall is not generally a practical time for high school players to take weekend trips, since most play every Friday night or Saturday afternoon. For awhile, our official visit database showed a visit for Naples (FL) running back an interview we did with Pratt when he said that his “plan is to go to Pittsburgh for the Pitt-WVU game.” That game is scheduled for Friday, November 28th. According to the Florida High School Athletic Association website, Class 3A - of which Naples is one of the top teams - will be holding its regional tournament semifinals that night at 7:30, rendering an official visit to Pitt for the noon Backyard Brawl virtually impossible.
In fact, if Pratt wants to take an official visit to Pitt, he might have to wait until after Christmas. Naples is the defending Class 3A state champion and looking very much like a contender for the title again. The Florida state semifinals will be held on Friday, December 12, and the Class 3A state championship game is scheduled for December 19th. So if Naples makes it back to the Citrus Bowl in Orlando - where the state title games are played - then it’s unlikely Pratt will be taking an official visit to Pitt anytime soon.
For the Pitt staff, this method of scheduling official visits isn’t a new trend. According to our 42 listed official visits, only nine took place during the season.
So if a prospect is insistent on taking an early official visit, the staff will oblige. But the coaches would prefer to hold off on the visits until after the season. In the case of last year’s class, the wait paid off, as Pitt’s staff was able to capitalize on the WVU win once it started hosting the official visits.
It’s also worth noting that the operations of official visits have been a learning process for the Pitt staff. In the fall of 2005, when Wannstedt was working to put together his first full recruiting class, the coaches hosted 40 total prospects; 12 of those visits were during the season. Every year the number of visits (12 in 2005; 9 in 2006; 2 in 2007) and the percentage of total visits (30% in 2006; 21% in 2007; 7% in 2008) have declined as the staff has perfected the art of official visits.
And make no mistake about it: this staff has perfected the art of the official visit. Just as Jamie Dixon is a master of manipulating the RPI through scheduling, the football coaching staff is a masterful group of official visit planners.
New 2010 offers
A couple new offers went out to junior prospects in the class of 2010 this week: Manheim Central defensive end Joe Boisture.
It seems like the general feeling about Royer is that he’s a Penn State lean, and he talked about how much he likes PSU when Tony interviewed him yesterday.
Meanwhile, Boisture is a big kid - 6’6” 205 - and a glimpse at his highlight video shows a quarterback who can move well enough on his feet to roll the pocket and can put some air under the ball. He’s also got some zip on his passes and he gets the ball there quickly.
Pitt’s chances with Boisture are, well, unknown at this point. It’s tough to gauge what most 2010 prospects are thinking at this point, let alone one who lives in Michigan.
With Royer and Boisture getting offers, Pitt’s list of offered 2010 prospects is now at 10:
QB Paul Jones
QB Joe Boisture
RB/CB Corey Brown
WR Andrew Carswell
WR Kevin Weatherspoon
TE Kyle Baublitz
OL Miles Dieffenbach
DE Dakota Royer
LB Nick Forbes
LB Mike Hull
Hull and Royer are likely headed to Penn State, and rumors have been rampant recently that Jones is on a similar path. At the same time, Dieffenbach and Weatherspoon are probably Pitt’s to lose, so that leaves five offered juniors who are, at least for now, somewhat up in the air.
Hoops
Due to the trip to South Bend last weekend, I missed the basketball team’s first exhibition game on Sunday, so I’m going to reserve some thoughts on the hoopsters until after this weekend (actually, I’m going to reserve most of my judgment for awhile, since Seton Hill and La Roche College are hardly worthy proving grounds). But I will offer a few thoughts based on Tony’s game report and the always astute observations of our basketball posters.
First and foremost, I’m not sold on Sam Young as the small forward. I’m not saying that Young can’t play the three - I’m sure he can and he’ll need to be able to play the position if he wants to be a pro - but I just think that Pitt’s best lineup has Young at power forward. For my money, he’s so much more of a matchup problem for opponents when he’s playing against presumably slower or less athletic power forwards.
Young was at his best last season when he could draw the opposing power forward out to the perimeter and then either hit a jump shot or use the shot-fake to get around the defender. If he’s playing on the wing as a small forward, he’ll be facing more athletic defenders. To me, that’s not playing to his strengths.
The other side of Young playing small forward is the impact that move has on power forward. So far, the plan seems to be using senior Tyrell Biggs at that position, and I have to be honest:
I just don’t see it.
Now, I’m not the type to write off college players and anyone can make great strides as a senior, but based on the past three years, I’m not sure that Biggs is worthy of significant minutes. I hope that the young man finds his game and emerges as an impact player for the Panthers this season, but to me - and quite a few others, I presume - that potential hasn’t been shown the past three years.
Like I said, though, there’s only been one exhibition game. Chances are we won’t really know much about this team until Pitt takes on Texas Tech November 28th, at the earliest.
Recruiting roundup
Probably the most intriguing recruiting story to come out of the past few weeks was the continued interest of Woodbridge (VA) running back Williams put Pitt in his top four last week, along with Alabama, West Virginia, and Maryland. Williams is on pace to become the all-time leading rusher in Virginia Class AAA (the largest classification in the state), and he’s got over 20 offers.
We’ve said for awhile that Pitt will probably take three running backs in this class. They’ve already got commitments from New Jersey backs Dion Lewis. For some time it looked like Pratt was the most likely candidate to fill the third spot, but word of Williams’ interest has opened things up a bit. Maybe it’s better that Pratt’s official visit might not come until mid-December.
- Hackensack (NJ) tight end Bush was looking around, and we think Pitt is among his favorites.
- Bush’s interest in Pitt probably means that Pennsbury tight end Brock DeCicco is already on board, and Bush could make two. If the staff feels like it will miss on Bush, then they might look to Marck, but that might depend on Bush making a commitment elsewhere.
- Mike Farrell checked in with New Jersey offensive lineman not jumping into the recruiting process yet.
- Delaware’s Merrell twins - “they’re still looking at Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Maryland, West Virginia, Iowa, and Syracuse”. The head coach added that he expects Dave Wannstedt to visit Hodgson Vo-Tech in December.
- Pitt lost a prospective recruit when Weston (FL) Cypress Bay linebacker committed to Duke.
- Franklin Regional junior offensive lineman visited Notre Dame for the Irish-Panthers game.
- 2010 Lancaster Catholic quarterback making the long drive from Pennsylvania to Indiana for the Pitt-Notre Dame game. Smith attended a Pitt home game earlier this season, and he’s one of the junior quarterbacks the staff is evaluating.
- On the hoops side, four-star New York (NY) Rice shooting guard Pitt, Connecticut, and Miami. Popular opinion has him ending up down south, but we’re still waiting for his decision.
- 2010 Plainfield (NJ) point guard he enjoyed the trip.
The Pitt Dow
As is the case every Wednesday, we released a new version of The Pitt Dow. Basically the idea is a Pitt stock market, with players trending up or down based on their overall performances as well has how they’ve done recently. It’s probably pretty obvious that McCoy has a firm grip on the No. 1 spot, but I thought that Conor Lee deserved the bump to No. 2 this week. Odds are very good that Scott McKillop will be back in that spot - although Jonathan Baldwin held it a week ago and could reclaim it - but for this week, I felt like Lee earned it with five fields goals, including the game-winner in overtime.
After a game like the one in South Bend, it was fairly difficult to update the Dow. A few players dropped down - or even out, in the case of John Malecki - even though they didn’t really do anything to merit the move. But it just didn’t seem right to leave Lee at the bottom of the list, and that led to a number of adjustments.
One player who held steady from last week was TJ Porter, and if he improves on his two-week surge, he could be looking at a move up in next week’s Dow.
The distant horizon
We’ve all been hearing about Hopewell’s super-freshman running back Rusel Shell. Rivals.com has been hearing about him, too, so they sent a video crew out to Hopewell’s playoff game against Greensburg Salem last week. Shell did not disappoint, rushing 27 times for 238 yards and 2 touchdowns, eclipsing 200 yards for the third-straight game.
Here’s the link to the video from the game. Scroll down to the Friday Night Stars section and find the Hopewell game.
Hopewell gets Thomas Jefferson in a playoff game tonight. Shell is very good - and only figures to get better - but I don’t know if he’s good enough to topple the T-J machine.
PantherLair.com to hit the airwaves
Around here we’re pretty excited about the next wave of PantherLair.com: on Saturday, December 13th, the PantherLair.com Pitt radio show will debut on Fox Sports 970 AM in Pittsburgh. The show will be a weekly one-hour program airing Saturday mornings at either 11 AM or 12 PM. I’ll be hosting, and the plan is to make the show caller-focused, with a mix of interviews and guests thrown in for good measure.
Here’s the key: this show is all Pitt. No Steelers. No Pirates. No Penguins. Just Pitt. If you’ve been looking for a sports talk radio show that talks nothing but Pitt, then this is the show for you. But I’m going to need your help. This show won’t work without callers and opinions, so get ready to be a big part of this site’s first venture into radio.
I’ll have more details as the date gets closer (such as whether or not the show will be streamed online); for now, start thinking about the things that you - the Pitt fans - want to talk about on the all-Pitt show.
Prediction time
I won’t spend too much time on the rationale behind my pick, but I will say a few things.
1. McCoy should have another strong outing against Louisville, and it wouldn’t surprise me if LaRod Stephens-Howling put up some decent numbers, too.
2. I think the defensive line is primed for a big showing, and I also think there could be a few “splash” plays to come out of the line.
3. Wannstedt has never beaten Louisville. Wannstedt has never won a game at home when Pitt was ranked. I do not think that those two statements will be applicable after this Saturday.
Pitt 31
Louisville 13
Add your prediction to the bottom of this thread.
Thanks for joining this week’s edition of In The Pitt. As always, feel free to e-mail chrispeak1@comcast.net with any suggestions, feedback, or other input.
November 7, 2008
Top of The Pitt
Well, that was exciting.
In my three and a half years of covering this football team, I think it’s safe to say that Pitt’s quadruple - that word is still difficult to type - overtime win in South Bend was among the most exciting, most interesting, and most bizarre games I’ve seen.
While those three qualities each are appropriate, let’s take a moment here at the start to reflect on the last: the bizarre. This was a game that featured a brief quarterback rotation, fluke receptions by both teams, a failed attempt at a receiver pass, Notre Dame calling back-to-back timeouts on offense, Pitt running the same fade pass three times at the goalline, and, of course, those sprinklers in overtime.
And that doesn’t even include the fact that Saturday’s game saw four full overtime periods played without either team scoring a touchdown.
Of course, while the game went out like a gangbuster, it started off like a dog. Remember, the halftime score was 17-3 in favor of Notre Dame, and it only reached that level of potency thanks to a Pat Bostick interception with about 30 seconds to go in the second quarter. Overall, the first half saw 11 total drives, with 6 punts, 2 field goals, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception.
The third quarter was more of the same. Pitt opened the second half with a touchdown drive to pull within 7 points, but the next five drives went like this:
Notre Dame - punt
Pitt - interception
Notre Dame - turnover on downs
Pitt - punt
Notre Dame - punt
Then the fourth-quarter fireworks started, and things really got interesting. Pitt scored to close out a drive that started in the third quarter, tying the score at 17, but Notre Dame answered right back with a 12-play/75-yard drive to reclaim the lead. Pitt stepped up to answer again, with a 37-yard pass from Bostick to TJ Porter and an 18-yard run from LeSean McCoy setting up the offense at the 10, and it was there that the likely-to-be-infamous trio of fade passes took place. On the third one, Bostick took a little off the throw and connected with Jonathan Baldwin to tie the score at 24.
I suppose the exploits of the overtime periods don’t need to be recounted here, so we’ll move on to the next question:
Keeping in mind that, in terms of the Big East race, this game meant nothing, where does it rank among the wins in the Dave Wannstedt Era?
I figure there are four big wins in the Wannstedt Era:
1. Cincinnati 2007
2. West Virginia 2007
3. South Florida 2008
4. Notre Dame 2008
While Cincinnati was Wannstedt’s first win over a ranked opponent and secured Wannstedt’s third-straight win in the River City Rivalry, that game probably checks in at No. 4, leaving WVU, USF, and Notre Dame.
After the USF win earlier this season, I made the case that that win was bigger than the WVU win, since the latter came at the end of a 5-7 season and meant next-to-nothing for Pitt outside of bragging rights and the right to remind WVU fans that the Panthers were responsible for the Mountaineers missing a shot at the BCS title. The USF win, on the other hand, gave Pitt a 2-0 record in the Big East and a win over a then-Top 10 conference opponent on the road.
Then there’s the Notre Dame win, irrelevant in terms of the Big East race, although it did give the Panthers the semi-bowl eligibility of six wins.
I’m going to cop out here. I think these things are best evaluated in hindsight with an eye toward historical impact. But I will say this:
Perhaps the greatest thing about the win on Saturday was the game itself - or at least the final quarter and the overtimes - was what made it special. It didn’t matter that the game was played in South Bend. It could have been played in Syracuse or some other God-forsaken place, and it still would have been a great game. That it happened against Notre Dame was almost inconsequential, save for the fact that it happened in a hostile environment on the road against a pretty good team.
And once again, we saw this Pitt team come back from a second-half deficit. The Panthers have six wins this season, and they have had to overcome a second-half deficit in 4 of those 6 (Navy and Buffalo being the two exceptions). This is a resilient bunch.
Who’s the man?
If any one player should get the bulk of the credit for the resiliency, it’s LeSean McCoy. You’ve all heard the numbers: 1,004 yards, 15 touchdowns, 140-plus in the past five games, 125.5 rushing yards per game, 154.1 all-purpose yards per game. It’s all ridiculous. But time and again, Pitt’s sophomore running back has come up big when the Panthers needed it. That’s the real connection between the Notre Dame win and the West Virginia win from a year ago:
As Pitt’s offense struggled with Pat Bostick under center, McCoy put the team on his shoulders. Against Notre Dame, he was clearly banged up after appearing to injure his ankle in the first half, but he still ran like the big-time player that he is.
McCoy has gotten better and better each week, and it’s getting to the point where you can see him building momentum in any given game. As he starts breaking off runs, a certain swagger or confidence emanates from him, and it seems like opposing defenses can see it as well.
Every time Pitt needed a big run against Notre Dame - just like against WVU and USF and every other win of consequence - McCoy did it, up to and including an 18-yard run from the 24 to the 6 in the fourth overtime to set up Lee’s 22-yard game-winner.
We’ve all known that the kid is something special, but it’s getting to the point where this question has to be asked:
Where does he rank among the all-time great Pitt players?
Perhaps that’s too broad, so let’s leave out the Goldberg’s and Schmidt’s and Marino’s and Dorsett’s and Ditka’s and Green’s and Fralic’s and Covert’s, etc., and just focus on the recent past. In that vein, there are two names that come to mind:
Larry Fitzgerald and Darrelle Revis.
I suppose in comparison to Fitzgerald and McCoy, Revis’ impact was fairly limited. But that leaves, in my mind, a very difficult decision: Fitzgerald or McCoy.
I don’t know the answer to this one, so I’ll leave it up to you.
Who’s the man?
Game wrapup
Before we get away from Notre Dame stuff, I want to make sure you get a chance to check out some of PantherLair.com’s post-game coverage.
Game story
Box score
Post-game notebook
Series-by-series: Pitt’s offense
Series-by-series: Pitt’s defense
Video of Wannstedt’s post-game press conference
Photos from the game
If there’s any one thing I would point out, it’s the photos. Pete Madia has stepped his game up for us this year, and the Notre Dame collection (45 shots from the game) is really top-notch. We’ll be working on a few end-of-season collections from this year’s photos, but I highly recommend that you take some time today to check them out. Even if you looked at the photos earlier this week, you should take another glance; I think you’ll be glad you did.
Official visits
Earlier this week the question of official visits came up again, so I thought I’d take a moment and discuss that topic.
If you look at our list of scheduled official visits, you’d probably be pretty disappointed because there aren’t any names on it. Fact of the matter is, this staff has been pretty set on not bringing in any official visitors during the season for several reasons.
For starters, the official visits are a chance for the coaches and current players to spend as much time as possible with the recruits, showing them exactly what they want the Pitt experience to be. If a prospect comes in during a game weekend, then the attentions of the coaches and players are diverted, what with meetings and gameplanning and the game itself.
Additionally, the fall is not generally a practical time for high school players to take weekend trips, since most play every Friday night or Saturday afternoon. For awhile, our official visit database showed a visit for Naples (FL) running back an interview we did with Pratt when he said that his “plan is to go to Pittsburgh for the Pitt-WVU game.” That game is scheduled for Friday, November 28th. According to the Florida High School Athletic Association website, Class 3A - of which Naples is one of the top teams - will be holding its regional tournament semifinals that night at 7:30, rendering an official visit to Pitt for the noon Backyard Brawl virtually impossible.
In fact, if Pratt wants to take an official visit to Pitt, he might have to wait until after Christmas. Naples is the defending Class 3A state champion and looking very much like a contender for the title again. The Florida state semifinals will be held on Friday, December 12, and the Class 3A state championship game is scheduled for December 19th. So if Naples makes it back to the Citrus Bowl in Orlando - where the state title games are played - then it’s unlikely Pratt will be taking an official visit to Pitt anytime soon.
For the Pitt staff, this method of scheduling official visits isn’t a new trend. According to our 42 listed official visits, only nine took place during the season.
So if a prospect is insistent on taking an early official visit, the staff will oblige. But the coaches would prefer to hold off on the visits until after the season. In the case of last year’s class, the wait paid off, as Pitt’s staff was able to capitalize on the WVU win once it started hosting the official visits.
It’s also worth noting that the operations of official visits have been a learning process for the Pitt staff. In the fall of 2005, when Wannstedt was working to put together his first full recruiting class, the coaches hosted 40 total prospects; 12 of those visits were during the season. Every year the number of visits (12 in 2005; 9 in 2006; 2 in 2007) and the percentage of total visits (30% in 2006; 21% in 2007; 7% in 2008) have declined as the staff has perfected the art of official visits.
And make no mistake about it: this staff has perfected the art of the official visit. Just as Jamie Dixon is a master of manipulating the RPI through scheduling, the football coaching staff is a masterful group of official visit planners.
New 2010 offers
A couple new offers went out to junior prospects in the class of 2010 this week: Manheim Central defensive end Joe Boisture.
It seems like the general feeling about Royer is that he’s a Penn State lean, and he talked about how much he likes PSU when Tony interviewed him yesterday.
Meanwhile, Boisture is a big kid - 6’6” 205 - and a glimpse at his highlight video shows a quarterback who can move well enough on his feet to roll the pocket and can put some air under the ball. He’s also got some zip on his passes and he gets the ball there quickly.
Pitt’s chances with Boisture are, well, unknown at this point. It’s tough to gauge what most 2010 prospects are thinking at this point, let alone one who lives in Michigan.
With Royer and Boisture getting offers, Pitt’s list of offered 2010 prospects is now at 10:
QB Paul Jones
QB Joe Boisture
RB/CB Corey Brown
WR Andrew Carswell
WR Kevin Weatherspoon
TE Kyle Baublitz
OL Miles Dieffenbach
DE Dakota Royer
LB Nick Forbes
LB Mike Hull
Hull and Royer are likely headed to Penn State, and rumors have been rampant recently that Jones is on a similar path. At the same time, Dieffenbach and Weatherspoon are probably Pitt’s to lose, so that leaves five offered juniors who are, at least for now, somewhat up in the air.
Hoops
Due to the trip to South Bend last weekend, I missed the basketball team’s first exhibition game on Sunday, so I’m going to reserve some thoughts on the hoopsters until after this weekend (actually, I’m going to reserve most of my judgment for awhile, since Seton Hill and La Roche College are hardly worthy proving grounds). But I will offer a few thoughts based on Tony’s game report and the always astute observations of our basketball posters.
First and foremost, I’m not sold on Sam Young as the small forward. I’m not saying that Young can’t play the three - I’m sure he can and he’ll need to be able to play the position if he wants to be a pro - but I just think that Pitt’s best lineup has Young at power forward. For my money, he’s so much more of a matchup problem for opponents when he’s playing against presumably slower or less athletic power forwards.
Young was at his best last season when he could draw the opposing power forward out to the perimeter and then either hit a jump shot or use the shot-fake to get around the defender. If he’s playing on the wing as a small forward, he’ll be facing more athletic defenders. To me, that’s not playing to his strengths.
The other side of Young playing small forward is the impact that move has on power forward. So far, the plan seems to be using senior Tyrell Biggs at that position, and I have to be honest:
I just don’t see it.
Now, I’m not the type to write off college players and anyone can make great strides as a senior, but based on the past three years, I’m not sure that Biggs is worthy of significant minutes. I hope that the young man finds his game and emerges as an impact player for the Panthers this season, but to me - and quite a few others, I presume - that potential hasn’t been shown the past three years.
Like I said, though, there’s only been one exhibition game. Chances are we won’t really know much about this team until Pitt takes on Texas Tech November 28th, at the earliest.
Recruiting roundup
Probably the most intriguing recruiting story to come out of the past few weeks was the continued interest of Woodbridge (VA) running back Williams put Pitt in his top four last week, along with Alabama, West Virginia, and Maryland. Williams is on pace to become the all-time leading rusher in Virginia Class AAA (the largest classification in the state), and he’s got over 20 offers.
We’ve said for awhile that Pitt will probably take three running backs in this class. They’ve already got commitments from New Jersey backs Dion Lewis. For some time it looked like Pratt was the most likely candidate to fill the third spot, but word of Williams’ interest has opened things up a bit. Maybe it’s better that Pratt’s official visit might not come until mid-December.
- Hackensack (NJ) tight end Bush was looking around, and we think Pitt is among his favorites.
- Bush’s interest in Pitt probably means that Pennsbury tight end Brock DeCicco is already on board, and Bush could make two. If the staff feels like it will miss on Bush, then they might look to Marck, but that might depend on Bush making a commitment elsewhere.
- Mike Farrell checked in with New Jersey offensive lineman not jumping into the recruiting process yet.
- Delaware’s Merrell twins - “they’re still looking at Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Maryland, West Virginia, Iowa, and Syracuse”. The head coach added that he expects Dave Wannstedt to visit Hodgson Vo-Tech in December.
- Pitt lost a prospective recruit when Weston (FL) Cypress Bay linebacker committed to Duke.
- Franklin Regional junior offensive lineman visited Notre Dame for the Irish-Panthers game.
- 2010 Lancaster Catholic quarterback making the long drive from Pennsylvania to Indiana for the Pitt-Notre Dame game. Smith attended a Pitt home game earlier this season, and he’s one of the junior quarterbacks the staff is evaluating.
- On the hoops side, four-star New York (NY) Rice shooting guard Pitt, Connecticut, and Miami. Popular opinion has him ending up down south, but we’re still waiting for his decision.
- 2010 Plainfield (NJ) point guard he enjoyed the trip.
The Pitt Dow
As is the case every Wednesday, we released a new version of The Pitt Dow. Basically the idea is a Pitt stock market, with players trending up or down based on their overall performances as well has how they’ve done recently. It’s probably pretty obvious that McCoy has a firm grip on the No. 1 spot, but I thought that Conor Lee deserved the bump to No. 2 this week. Odds are very good that Scott McKillop will be back in that spot - although Jonathan Baldwin held it a week ago and could reclaim it - but for this week, I felt like Lee earned it with five fields goals, including the game-winner in overtime.
After a game like the one in South Bend, it was fairly difficult to update the Dow. A few players dropped down - or even out, in the case of John Malecki - even though they didn’t really do anything to merit the move. But it just didn’t seem right to leave Lee at the bottom of the list, and that led to a number of adjustments.
One player who held steady from last week was TJ Porter, and if he improves on his two-week surge, he could be looking at a move up in next week’s Dow.
The distant horizon
We’ve all been hearing about Hopewell’s super-freshman running back Rusel Shell. Rivals.com has been hearing about him, too, so they sent a video crew out to Hopewell’s playoff game against Greensburg Salem last week. Shell did not disappoint, rushing 27 times for 238 yards and 2 touchdowns, eclipsing 200 yards for the third-straight game.
Here’s the link to the video from the game. Scroll down to the Friday Night Stars section and find the Hopewell game.
Hopewell gets Thomas Jefferson in a playoff game tonight. Shell is very good - and only figures to get better - but I don’t know if he’s good enough to topple the T-J machine.
PantherLair.com to hit the airwaves
Around here we’re pretty excited about the next wave of PantherLair.com: on Saturday, December 13th, the PantherLair.com Pitt radio show will debut on Fox Sports 970 AM in Pittsburgh. The show will be a weekly one-hour program airing Saturday mornings at either 11 AM or 12 PM. I’ll be hosting, and the plan is to make the show caller-focused, with a mix of interviews and guests thrown in for good measure.
Here’s the key: this show is all Pitt. No Steelers. No Pirates. No Penguins. Just Pitt. If you’ve been looking for a sports talk radio show that talks nothing but Pitt, then this is the show for you. But I’m going to need your help. This show won’t work without callers and opinions, so get ready to be a big part of this site’s first venture into radio.
I’ll have more details as the date gets closer (such as whether or not the show will be streamed online); for now, start thinking about the things that you - the Pitt fans - want to talk about on the all-Pitt show.
Prediction time
I won’t spend too much time on the rationale behind my pick, but I will say a few things.
1. McCoy should have another strong outing against Louisville, and it wouldn’t surprise me if LaRod Stephens-Howling put up some decent numbers, too.
2. I think the defensive line is primed for a big showing, and I also think there could be a few “splash” plays to come out of the line.
3. Wannstedt has never beaten Louisville. Wannstedt has never won a game at home when Pitt was ranked. I do not think that those two statements will be applicable after this Saturday.
Pitt 31
Louisville 13
Add your prediction to the bottom of this thread.
Thanks for joining this week’s edition of In The Pitt. As always, feel free to e-mail chrispeak1@comcast.net with any suggestions, feedback, or other input.
