Our QB Room is Awful
- Thread starter TheWerewolfFromTwilight
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Grayson McCall is going to put on a show at NC State. They are my favorite to win the ACC. They interviewed several of their coaches and they said the ball barely hit the ground all spring with him running the offense.
I watched a few spring games so far and McCall put on a show. As for the ACC. Ward, Drones, McCall, King, Castalones sp? All looked much improved. Plus, you know the QB at Louisville will be pretty good under Brohm whoever that will be.
McCall and Ward are going to make national noise
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Ward was already a big time college QB, which is why he was rated so high in the portal.
McCall I’d have to see it. There’s a legit argument that injuries derailed him, and when healthy he’ll go back to his early form.
But I’m not prepared to 100% buy the injury excuse. And I’d need to actually see him stay healthy.
Drones just needs to get better throwing downfield. Sometimes that comes as you get older and more comfortable. While some guys just aren’t going throwing the ball downfield. So far he’s been horrible doing it.
King is good and would start for most ACC teams.
It’s weird as he made up that handle just to probably support the OP or others with similar opinions. People do some weird stuff in here to support themselves!
I heard that he's dealing with a hamstring injury. That could certainly impact his throwing.
Having said that, he didn't impress me. A few of his throws were to an empty spot. Was it on him or the receiver? I don't know that answer.
I thought Yarnell looked okay. Remember that he's really inexperienced. However, I'm holding out hope that Yarnell can be good, and Eli can be a capable backup with decent upside.
Villeaux was disappointing. The younger guys might have potential in this offense. I doubt that we'll still have 5 QB's when fall rolls around.
Anyway, I am eager for the season to start. I want to see what this team looks like when coach opens the playbook and has the QB behind a solid O-line.
Remember Trever Jackson, the QB we were going after last year? Look at his Elite 11 write-up and eventual ascent to becoming a 4-star. Well, Ole Miss dropped him and everyone else stopped recruiting him during his senior year of high school. He became a walk-on.
Again, the Alabama coaching staff - after having him in their program for a year - wanted to make him a tight end. Does that not carry for weight with you than his Elite 11 day in shorts?
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Total rebuild
2023: 3-9
2024: 5-7
2025: 6-6 or 7-5
2026: can we challenge for 8-4 or 9-3?
Definitely the goal. Problem is it's a lot more difficult to convince guys to stay when you suck now. There's already been some drama with true freshmen after Partridge left.
Strong rumors that both Veilleux and Dieffenbach hit the portal this week. Hoping the latter stays as he seems like he has the tools...but a newbie in Holstein came in and passed him up so he likely wants to go somewhere to start earlier in his career.
At least one will transfer. Would be shocked if they didnt. I didnt think Holstein looked bad. So we have a RS Jr QB1, a RA FR QB2 and Dugger, who will RS at QB3. That's about the class breakdown you'd expect. You cant really expect to roster 5 scholarship QBs in this day and age. A few will transfer.
Its unprecedented how this program tanked after winning an ACC Championship and we managed to do it ourselves without sanctions. Its almost like some of the pro teams who win a championship with guys in their last year of a contract and then decide to let them go and rebuild after. Its going to take 4 years just to get back to Narduzzi Year 1-2 level if we ever get there. Which is why I say eff it and make sure the basketball team is paid competitively.
Don't know if I would take it quite that far because the season after that was Narduzzi's second best on paper, and we would have won at least ten regular season games with a competent OC.
But yeah - the recruiting went downhill after that. Few on here wanted to acknowledge it, because everything was sunshine and rainbows at the time. But those of us who are a little more objective in our fan hood pointed out this was going to be a problem a few years down the line. Well, we're in the middle of that now.
And then some of it was bad timing. It was bad timing to have a great culture that 6th year players wanted to keep returning to. We were shaving numbers off our recruiting classes just to allow guys back who weren't that good.
There is an exception for everything. Citing 1 example is an absolute meaningless and stupid thing to do.
Where did you see the Alabama TE thing? I could find nothing on Google. Everything I read about him at Alabam had him as a QB.
Dieff looked by far the worst to me out of the 4 guys that played more. The Canadian was second worst. He might throw a nice ball, but he's terribly inaccurate.
Holstein looked ok at times and horrible at others. Yarnell struggled too, so new offense with backup OL has to be considered. Yarnell is the clear #1.
I think Veilleux is surely gone, and Dief won't ever play here so he might as well go.
They will most certainly add one through the portal.
Better up your alliance412 contribution from $0 if you want something better
My monthly contribution is not 0. And I've also done the whole "one time donation" thing when we've received good news (e.g. someone announces they are coming back).
I view a modest A412 donation as the price of following the sport nowadays. I wish they could add a required donation to season ticket packages. As I understand it, some of the big donors are getting a little tired of footing the bill when so few regular fans are committing even 20 bucks/month.
I'll DM you instructions on where to send an edible arrangement with a little apology note for saying my contribution is 0, though. Please tell them to go a little light on the kiwi; I have trouble with the seeds.
No it’s not.
Maybe the “run” wasn’t as long as some others.
But that’s life for a 3* recruiting program. You aren’t going to hit all the time. And when you miss, it kills you because you can’t just go out and add instant impact studs to make up for the misses in the previous cycles.
Look at Michigan State. In 2015 they went to the playoffs.
The next year they went 3-9.
Won 9 regular season games the next year. So a nice bounce back.
Then went 7-6. 7-6. 2-5.
What happened to MSU?
Some of it was a refusal to innovate on offense and make changes. Dantonio not firing anybody on offense after 2018, but instead shuffling every coach, stands out for sure.
Some of it was going after character risk kids in order to get more talent after they saw how easily Bama handled them in the playoffs without even trying.
But the talent also just dried up. They missed with some 3* players. The old saying for 3* type programs is “never be young.” Because you don’t have the ability to land a bunch of studs whose talent makes up for their lack of experience. And so you need to have molded the next wave of upperclassman by the time it’s their turn. When you miss on those guys, the bottom falls out quickly.
Narduzzi's recruiting has been puzzling. He seemed like such a breath of fresh air after the Chryst style (take all your visits to make sure you are comfortable) of recruiting. Signed Hamlin and was pretty close to getting Sanders to flip. Then Paris Ford signed very early and things looked good. Crashed shortly after that though with that local class of 2017 all going elsewhere (I think Jeter stunned him the most, thought that one was in the bag and he had a massive heel turn).
So not sure if that 2017 season soured him on recruiting, but it has been pretty consistently average throughout. And now there is a resurgence in the WPIAL with the next 3 classes being very strong and I'm not sure if any of them were at the spring game?
My three biggest problems with his recruiting have been:
1) The local recruiting of the higher prospects is about as bad as it's ever been. He's managed to alienate way too many locals, which will forever be our best path to landing highly-touted talent. I mean, it doesn't even seem like most of them are even considering Pitt as an option.
2) Quarterback recruiting has been abysmal. It's obviously the most important position on the field, and we've now signed seven classes since Kenny Pickett was recruited. As of now, he was our last big "get" at the position, and you can even include the portal acquisitions in that.
3) Numbers. Some of the classes were just too small. But I don't entirely fault him for this, because I get it: Taking guys like Danielson, Bentley, Green, Drexel, Kradel, Zubovic, Houy, etc. back for that 6th year was enticing. We had some momentum and he wanted to keep it going. Kind of surprised he didn't learn from that, though, and we still took guys like Temple, Collier, George, etc. back. Not saying they're bad players or anything, but I do question how motivated some of them were in that 6th season.
I'm glad that you mentioned Diffenbach. In the film that I saw, he had a nice combination of athleticism and arm strength. It seems that has a decent set of tools.
I've yet to watch Holstein, but I do remember seeing Pat Bostick at a spring game many years ago and immediately being discouraged by his hitch, slow delivery, and slow feet. I could not believe that anybody would rate him as a five-star recruit, and I thought that he would never amount to a good college QB. I had a similar reaction to Davis Beville. It's just immediately evident that he plays too slow, and it's hard to understand what people with a lot more football knowledge than me saw in his game.
I also remember QBs like Matt Lytle and Kevan Smith who had great arm strength, but no touch or situational awareness. Just pure gun slingers.
To me, the key to being successful is making quick reads, being relatively accurate, and being able to create when the reads are covered. Guys like Stull and Sunseri were more than competent at doing so; Pickett to a much higher degree. Yarnall has shown ability to make those reads. Villeux not so much. I haven't seen Holstein, but hate hearing about a hitch. Bell's system will reward speed of play and quick delivery.
People knock local talent and while some are overrated, its our only chance of ever getting to 10-2 or better UNLESS we luck into a 1st Round QB. So you have 2 chances to have a 2 or fewer loss season:
1. 1st Round QB
2. Get 4 stars and high 3 stars locally
You arent going to get enough of those kids from DMV, Florida, Eastern PA, etc.
That is correct. And it's a shame that the year we did well with local recruiting, the guys were just completely misevaluated (perhaps due at least somewhat to the pandemic).
I mean, we'll obviously get guys who turn into really good players elsewhere, but we're not getting can't-miss national recruits with legit big boy offer sheets elsewhere.
Did you just try to use Edible Arrangements as a burn?
I’ll tell you what, I’ll just donate to the A412 so you don’t have chronic diarrhea on my watch. Sound good?
Not sure if it'd be considered a hitch or a weird cock-back or whatever, but it's definitely a funky delivery. He also has some happy feet in the pocket.
yeah not sure what the problem is. Is it the gym teacher coach who holds a grudge we didn't offer 5'10"", 210 pound lineman Stan Yinzerski but won't let us get near his 6'3" stud linebacker?
Combo of things probably. Perception that the ACC doesn't measure up to the B10 hurts. Local media and their continued poor treatment. Lack of a great recruiter on staff. Seems Narduzzi is now content getting the 3*'s and hitting the portal and letting the chips fall where they may.
I'm honestly not sure. Multiple WPIAL coaches/affiliates have frequented this board over the years and alluded to various things going down between Narduzzi and various staffs. But it certainly doesn't help that the ACC is in a precarious position, as you mentioned, and Penn State, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Ohio State are all performing at a high/highish level right now. Not so much Ohio State, but those other schools have had some pretty lean years in the past few decades. It's not been the case lately as much. They'll have a meh season here or there, but they're all winning for the most part.
Still doesn't explain losing two guys to Kentucky, three guys to WVU, etc. I have nothing to back it up, but it seems like guys from all over are leaving home more than ever before (maybe because everyone is so plugged in now with social media, and maybe because they know they can transfer back if they need a mulligan). But I can't completely say this is beyond Narduzzi's control. either. He could be doing better, in my opinion.
Pitt's only chance at an ACC title, 10+ win season is if they have a great QB. That is the only way. We just can't have enough talent on the field, especially now, to beat 10 out of 12 teams. So it has to be a great QB. The issue now becomes, if a QB ever becomes great here, unless it is during his SR year, most likely another team will poach him.
I'd say more so the depth than talent. We've had some decent lines, ect, that matched up well but over the course of the season and guys get hurt we just don't have the depth like other programs to say next man up. It can be a real drop off to the next guy
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