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Last year's team

TheWerewolfFromTwilight

TheWerewolfFromTwilight

Head Coach
Oct 25, 2021
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Quarterback aside, and it's a big aside, that might be about as good as it gets in this NIL/portal era.

Corners were good.

Safeties were okay to good.

Linebackers were so so.

DL was unspectacular, but we see the premium these guys are fetching. Think we'll do better than Jules, Danielson, Hayes, a young Okunlola, Green, Bentley, etc.?

OL was meh.

Running backs were so so.

Receivers and tight ends were decent, contrary to what some might think.

QB sucked.

Three draft picks.

Won 3; probably win 6 or 7 with average QB play. Plus we only had one free win instead of two.

I'm afraid that might actually be about as good as it gets from now on. Might win more games and/or be better off overall due to having a better QB, but I don't know if we'll have a much better team most seasons. Roster will be a mixture of younger guys who flash but don't play to their potential (they'll be bought away before they do) and older guys whose level of play is something between 3.5/10 and 6.5/10.

Our OOC schedule in non ND years, for the sake of fan morality, sincerely does need to be WVU, FCS, scourge of the G5 x2.
 
TheWerewolfFromTwilight said:
Quarterback aside, and it's a big aside, that might be about as good as it gets in this NIL/portal era.

Corners were good.

Safeties were okay to good.

Linebackers were so so.

DL was unspectacular, but we see the premium these guys are fetching. Think we'll do better than Jules, Danielson, Hayes, a young Okunlola, Green, Bentley, etc.?

OL was meh.

Running backs were so so.

Receivers and tight ends were decent, contrary to what some might think.

QB sucked.

Three draft picks.

Won 3; probably win 6 or 7 with average QB play. Plus we only had one free win instead of two.

I'm afraid that might actually be about as good as it gets from now on. Might win more games and/or be better off overall due to having a better QB, but I don't know if we'll have a much better team most seasons. Roster will be a mixture of younger guys who flash but don't play to their potential (they'll be bought away before they do) and older guys whose level of play is something between 3.5/10 and 6.5/10.

Our OOC schedule in non ND years, for the sake of fan morality, sincerely does need to be WVU, FCS, scourge of the G5 x2.
Click to expand...

It would also be a good idea in the non-con to schedule a home and home with a much much better program with our home game being played in Ireland.
 
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I can see this thread will be filled with doom-sayers.

I really don't know why such people are here calling themselves fans,
 
Was trying to think how this team can be pretty good. I think it all comes down to Nate Yarnell becoming like a Tom Savage or Nate Peterman type....a fairly high level college QB. Our WRs arent real good but if Yarnell is good, he can make up for that.

If Yarnell is just average, I have no idea how we are going to outscore our opponents 6 times. This is the worst roster we've had going into a season since Majors 2. On the flipside, basketball might have the best roster going into a season since 2010-11.
 
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TheWerewolfFromTwilight said:
Quarterback aside, and it's a big aside, that might be about as good as it gets in this NIL/portal era.

Corners were good.

Safeties were okay to good.

Linebackers were so so.

DL was unspectacular, but we see the premium these guys are fetching. Think we'll do better than Jules, Danielson, Hayes, a young Okunlola, Green, Bentley, etc.?

OL was meh.

Running backs were so so.

Receivers and tight ends were decent, contrary to what some might think.

QB sucked.

Three draft picks.

Won 3; probably win 6 or 7 with average QB play. Plus we only had one free win instead of two.

I'm afraid that might actually be about as good as it gets from now on. Might win more games and/or be better off overall due to having a better QB, but I don't know if we'll have a much better team most seasons. Roster will be a mixture of younger guys who flash but don't play to their potential (they'll be bought away before they do) and older guys whose level of play is something between 3.5/10 and 6.5/10.

Our OOC schedule in non ND years, for the sake of fan morality, sincerely does need to be WVU, FCS, scourge of the G5 x2.
Click to expand...
The thing I wonder is how many more wins would you give this team next year if we didn’t have any portal defections?

Losing basically our starting defensive line is probably 1-2 more losses?
 
Sean Miller Fan said:
Was trying to think how this team can be pretty good. I think it all comes down to Nate Yarnell becoming like a Tom Savage or Nate Peterman type....a fairly high level college QB. Our WRs arent real good but if Yarnell is good, he can make up for that.

If Yarnell is just average, I have no idea how we are going to outscore our opponents 6 times. This is the worst roster we've had going into a season since Majors 2. On the flipside, basketball might have the best roster going into a season since 2010-11.
Click to expand...

Receivers and d line are bad. O line might only be marginally better. Not a big Yarnell guy at all. Gonna be a rough season, most likely.

But I'll leave some wiggle room for the unexpected. Yarnell being way better than I think he'll be; true freshman stepping up on the d line somehow; etc. Tough to rely on that stuff, though. But we might also be playing some teams who have tight ends at QB at the end of the season.
 
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TheWerewolfFromTwilight said:
Receivers and d line are bad. O line might only be marginally better. Not a big Yarnell guy at all. Gonna be a rough season, most likely.

But I'll leave some wiggle room for the unexpected. Yarnell being way better than I think he'll be; true freshman stepping up on the d line somehow; etc. Tough to rely on that stuff, though. But we might also be playing some teams who have tight ends at QB at the end of the season.
Click to expand...

Yarnell confuses me because Cignetti (and also Narduzzi since he didnt step in) felt Jurkovec and CV were better. And even if Yarnell is better, how much better than them could he be if he couldn't get on the field?
 
TheWerewolfFromTwilight said:
Receivers and d line are bad. O line might only be marginally better. Not a big Yarnell guy at all. Gonna be a rough season, most likely.

But I'll leave some wiggle room for the unexpected. Yarnell being way better than I think he'll be; true freshman stepping up on the d line somehow; etc. Tough to rely on that stuff, though. But we might also be playing some teams who have tight ends at QB at the end of the season.
Click to expand...

OL will be helped by a system change.
FCJ’s system puts a lot on the OL, which just exposed too much of the weaknesses.

I’m not going to say the OL is going to be good because a system can only go so far before talent has to be there. But Bell’s system should help to mitigate some of the weaknesses more than FCJ’s did, which just highlighted them.
 
Sean Miller Fan said:
We can still add guys from the portal. You just cant enter it now.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but you can't add who isn't in there.

Also, look at the prices some of these guys are fetching in the 11th hour because of desperation. I guarantee kids will pick up on this and there will be much more Spring portal activity next season. I've heard WVU offered $150K to the McKeesport kid who had like 11 career tackles at Youngstown State.
 
cashisking884 said:
OL will be helped by a system change.
FCJ’s system puts a lot on the OL, which just exposed too much of the weaknesses.

I’m not going to say the OL is going to be good because a system can only go so far before talent has to be there. But Bell’s system should help to mitigate some of the weaknesses more than FCJ’s did, which just highlighted them.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we'll see. I'm to the point with the O-line where I need to see it first. Our interior was getting mauled last season, so I'm not sure what that says for the guys who were behind them.

Hopefully Taylor and Baer can hold it down at tackle. An injury, which has not been uncommon for us at the tackle position lately, could sting.

Jacoby gets talked about as some savior at LG, but I'm going to need to see that first.

I don't mind Moore at center.

Williams needs to, and should, get better at RG. Obviously he was young last season (hence why I'm not optimistic about the d line even if many of them do pan out in subsequent seasons).

Behind these guys, though? And the odds of all five staying healthy all season are quite slim.
 
TheWerewolfFromTwilight said:
Yeah, but you can't add who isn't in there.

Also, look at the prices some of these guys are fetching in the 11th hour because of desperation. I guarantee kids will pick up on this and there will be much more Spring portal activity next season. I've heard WVU offered $150K to the McKeesport kid who had like 11 career tackles at Youngstown State.
Click to expand...

150K kid for a bad FCS player is hard to believe but they may be going all in thinking this is their CFP year. I say that because they arent paying much to the bball team
 
Sean Miller Fan said:
150K kid for a bad FCS player is hard to believe but they may be going all in thinking this is their CFP year. I say that because they arent paying much to the bball team
Click to expand...

Jules and Kamara got a couple hundred thou to likely be backups. It's game over when that happens.

We'll continue to trot out some young guys with potential. But as soon as they flash, they're gone. So we'll never get their best seasons. The rest of the team, save for a few guys who we're able to pay and who are willing to take the hometown discount, is mostly going to be underwhelming filler guys with few better options.
 
WillyDavis33 said:
I still can't get past the part of the coaches watching PJ throw in practice and thinking " He is our starter "
Click to expand...

He looked competent for the first half of the UNC game. If he looked that way throughout the entire Spring and Summer I could see it. However, I put the odds of that having been the case at about 0.00000%.
 
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TheWerewolfFromTwilight said:
He looked competent for the first half of the UNC game. If he looked that way throughout the entire Spring and Summer I could see it. However, I put the odds of that having been the case at about 0.00000%.
Click to expand...
We all should have known what was coming when the off season hype videos starter coming out. The "highlights" for Phil were all ducks. Several posters on here brought it up but were shouted down by the pom pom wavers.
 
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TheWerewolfFromTwilight said:
Yeah, but you can't add who isn't in there.

Also, look at the prices some of these guys are fetching in the 11th hour because of desperation. I guarantee kids will pick up on this and there will be much more Spring portal activity next season. I've heard WVU offered $150K to the McKeesport kid who had like 11 career tackles at Youngstown State.
Click to expand...
Thats not alot of money these days in NIL
 
h2p_5150 said:
We all should have known what was coming when the off season hype videos starter coming out. The "highlights" for Phil were all ducks. Several posters on here brought it up but were shouted down by the pom pom wavers.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was one of them. I admit I had hoped it was related to that hand injury. It wasn't.
 
TheWerewolfFromTwilight said:
Yeah, I was one of them. I admit I had hoped it was related to that hand injury. It wasn't.
Click to expand...

I still think a healthy Phil, coming to Pitt right out of high school and playing for Canada or Whipple would have been interesting. ND kind of broke his spirit, and the injury didn't help. But all in all we were better off with Pickett.
 
HailToPitt725 said:
Agreed. Should’ve beat Cincinnati, WVU, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest; heck, we should’ve won the last one regardless of QB!
Click to expand...

Cinci & Wake were very bad losses. As was Syracuse (losing to a team with no QB and firing their coach at the end of season is never good). Those three were definite wins. WVU a toss-up but it was winnable. VT probably also a win. So no reason that wasn't a 7-5 team. Poor coaching, bad breaks, some questionable officiating (never a good reason but I still take issue with the Wake game) led to this disaster.

Narduzzi has earned the right to survive a season like that. But another one this year and I'm not so sure.
 
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TheWerewolfFromTwilight said:
Receivers and d line are bad. O line might only be marginally better. Not a big Yarnell guy at all. Gonna be a rough season, most likely.

But I'll leave some wiggle room for the unexpected. Yarnell being way better than I think he'll be; true freshman stepping up on the d line somehow; etc. Tough to rely on that stuff, though. But we might also be playing some teams who have tight ends at QB at the end of the season.
Click to expand...
Problem is that in 2023 Pitt started the season with a TE playing QB.
 
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TheWerewolfFromTwilight said:
He looked competent for the first half of the UNC game. If he looked that way throughout the entire Spring and Summer I could see it. However, I put the odds of that having been the case at about 0.00000%.
Click to expand...
He was our Greg Brady "Johnny Bravo" because he looked good even though he could not throw a freakin football
 
TheWerewolfFromTwilight said:
Because being realistic/critical is part of the fan experience. Bragging about not going to games or donating a single penny (your idea of being a fan) is not.
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I don't brag. I just state facts.

Your reality is your fantasy world since a single game has yet to be played and you have no clue what the results will be. Yet you choose to be full of doom. You must be a joy to be around with your negativity.
 
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