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Pat Narduzzi interview, he is daring teams to load the box against Pitt

Quadree Henderson had the fourth most carries in the ACC last year.

Just saying.
 
Jeffburgh said:
Quadree Henderson had the fourth most carries in the ACC last year.

Just saying.
Click to expand...

-Do you find it a problem that Ollison had

-4 carries total against Iowa, 10 against North Carolina, 10 against Miami, and 8 against Navy?

-Ollison was Pitt's best offensive player last year, he had twice as many TD's as Boyd.

-And does anyone else find it ironic that in all of Pitt's losses, those were the games Ollison carried the ball the fewest times?

-Does anyone else find it ironic that Ollison didnt have any problem beating up Virginia Tech's defense or Louisville's defense when we actually fed him the ball constantly?

-Does anyone else find it a problem that when Pitt had the ball at the Miami 5 yard line, that Jim Chaney was bent on throwing the ball as opposed to let Ollison pound it 4 times in a row into one of the worst rush defenses in the country?

-Yes, I see big changes coming this year. I look forward to multi back sets and the tripple back loading the O-Line and daring teams to stop our run game, starting with Villanova and Penn State.
 
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I like your posts Steel, but you start to lose me when you suggest Ollison was a better player than Boyd last season. I'm not sure I could disagree more with that statement in spite of how well Ollison played.
 
steel_curtain said:
-Do you find it a problem that Ollison had

-4 carries total against Iowa, 10 against North Carolina, 10 against Miami, and 8 against Navy?

-Ollison was Pitt's best offensive player last year, he had twice as many TD's as Boyd.

-And does anyone else find it ironic that in all of Pitt's losses, those were the games Ollison carried the ball the fewest times?

-Does anyone else find it ironic that Ollison didnt have any problem beating up Virginia Tech's defense or Louisville's defense when we actually fed him the ball constantly?

-Does anyone else find it a problem that when Pitt had the ball at the Miami 5 yard line, that Jim Chaney was bent on throwing the ball as opposed to let Ollison pound it 4 times in a row into one of the worst rush defenses in the country?

-Yes, I see big changes coming this year. I look forward to multi back sets and the tripple back loading the O-Line and daring teams to stop our run game, starting with Villanova and Penn State.
Click to expand...
I'm not gonna debate who the better players are. But even during the season last year, I complained that Chaney's chief mission seemed to be his trying to demonstrate how smart that he was, rather than calling a good game.

We all know that there were games when the running game was clicking, yet he was bound and determined to veer away from something that was working just to show that there were other, more diverse plays in the Chaney playbook.

I don't have a clue whether Canada's system will work or not. But there were times when Chaney's mystifying play-calling was maddening.
 
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Panther Parrothead said:
I'm not gonna debate who the better players are. But even during the season last year, I complained that Chaney's chief mission seemed to be his trying to demonstrate how smart that he was, rather than calling a good game.

We all know that there were games when the running game was clicking, yet he was bound and determined to veer away from something that was working just to show that there were other, more diverse plays in the Chaney playbook.

I don't have a clue whether Canada's system will work or not. But there were times when Chaney's mystifying play-calling was maddening.
Click to expand...

-In all of Matt Canada's experience as OC, he runs the ball on 60% of the plays. He was pushing 70% when he was at Wisconsin, the year they won the Big Ten title and scored 70 on Nebraska in the Championship game.

-Its not like Narduzzi or Canada is lying. Watch the play and run sets in this Big Ten Championship game when Canada was OC. There are plays with 9 guys on the offensive line, completing daring the other team to try and stop the run. Nebraska got ran off the field with the stacked box.

 
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steel_curtain said:
-In all of Matt Canada's experience as OC, he runs the ball on 60% of the plays. He was pushing 70% when he was at Wisconsin, the year they won the Big Ten title and scored 70 on Nebraska in the Championship game.

-Its not like Narduzzi or Canada is lying. Watch the play and run sets in this Big Ten Championship game when Canada was OC. There are plays with 9 guys on the offensive line, completing daring the other team to try and stop the run. Nebraska got ran off the field with the stacked box.

View embedded media
Click to expand...
Definitely a great video, and the Badgers totally destroyed Nebraska. That O-line dominated what was supposed to be a respectable Nebraska defense.

That game wasn't exactly Nebraska's finest exhibition of tackling either. They weren't wrapping, and the Wisconsin runners were shoving them aside.
 
Panther Parrothead said:
I'm not gonna debate who the better players are. But even during the season last year, I complained that Chaney's chief mission seemed to be his trying to demonstrate how smart that he was, rather than calling a good game.

We all know that there were games when the running game was clicking, yet he was bound and determined to veer away from something that was working just to show that there were other, more diverse plays in the Chaney playbook.

I don't have a clue whether Canada's system will work or not. But there were times when Chaney's mystifying play-calling was maddening.
Click to expand...
I'm not defending Chaney's pkaycalling, but he was trying for balance. His timing and feel for when to mix certain things in certainly left something to be desired. Part of the problem was also not having the best players to execute what he was trying to do.

As for Steel's initial post, as with most of his posts, he oversimplifies things. In this instance, he doesn't account for the simple fact that when we played teams with better, more physical players along the D line than we had along the O line, we weren't able to run the ball effectively. Football 101. We could have played a backfield of Barry Sanders, Herschel Walker and Eric Dickerson, but if we ran them behind last year's O line against, let's say Alabama's D line, they weren't going anywhere.

We should have a very solid offense this year, but we still won't be able to run the ball down everyone's throat. Most of their throats, but not all. We just don't have that kind of talent.
 
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thebadby2 said:
I'm not defending Chaney's pkaycalling, but he was trying for balance. His timing and feel for when to mix certain things in certainly left something to be desired. Part of the problem was also not having the best players to execute what he was trying to do.

As for Steel's initial post, as with most of his posts, he oversimplifies things. In this instance, he doesn't account for the simple fact that when we played teams with better, more physical players along the D line than we had along the O line, we weren't able to run the ball effectively. Football 101. We could have played a backfield of Barry Sanders, Herschel Walker and Eric Dickerson, but if we ran them behind last year's O line against, let's say Alabama's D line, they weren't going anywhere.

We should have a very solid offense this year, but we still won't be able to run the ball down everyone's throat. Most of their throats, but not all. We just don't have that kind of talent.
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I hear ya....I like a balanced offense, too. But I can recall times when we were pounding the ball on the ground, but then mysteriously he started throwing.

If the other team had figured-out what we were doing and were stopping the run, then sure, throw the ball. But why stop doing what was still successful?
 
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thebadby2 said:
I'm not defending Chaney's pkaycalling, but he was trying for balance. His timing and feel for when to mix certain things in certainly left something to be desired. Part of the problem was also not having the best players to execute what he was trying to do.

As for Steel's initial post, as with most of his posts, he oversimplifies things. In this instance, he doesn't account for the simple fact that when we played teams with better, more physical players along the D line than we had along the O line, we weren't able to run the ball effectively. Football 101. We could have played a backfield of Barry Sanders, Herschel Walker and Eric Dickerson, but if we ran them behind last year's O line against, let's say Alabama's D line, they weren't going anywhere.

We should have a very solid offense this year, but we still won't be able to run the ball down everyone's throat. Most of their throats, but not all. We just don't have that kind of talent.
Click to expand...


Ollison-

Averaged-9.1 yards per carry against Navy, scored a TD
Averaged-5.4 yards per carry against North Carolina, scored a TD
Averaged-4.3 yards per carry against Iowa- And only ran the ball 4 times the whole game

-What do I conclude with this? The better teams couldnt stop him either. We just had an OC that didn't see the light to play him more. 4 carries against Iowa the entire game, really?

-Canada isnt dumb. We'll pound the football this year, and save the experimental balance shit for Chaney.
 
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Swervin27 said:
Good run game does wonders for an inexperienced defense too.
Click to expand...

-And just to cement my point.

In 2014,

James Conner

-240 yards against North Carolina, 4 TD's
-75 yards against Miami, 2 TD's
-155 yards against Iowa, 2 TD's
-85 yards against Virginia Tech, 2 TD's
-270 yards against Duke, 4 TD's
-130 yards against Georgia Tech, 3 TD's

-You guys dont think we are going to plow ACC teams, Penn State, and Oklahoma State (who is completely awful against the run) ?

-You guys should be friggin salivating from the mouth at what Conner and Ollison are going to do this year with a run heavy OC. We are going to PLOW teams, all of them, this year.
 
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steel_curtain said:
-Do you find it a problem that Ollison had

-4 carries total against Iowa, 10 against North Carolina, 10 against Miami, and 8 against Navy?

-Ollison was Pitt's best offensive player last year, he had twice as many TD's as Boyd.

-And does anyone else find it ironic that in all of Pitt's losses, those were the games Ollison carried the ball the fewest times?

-Does anyone else find it ironic that Ollison didnt have any problem beating up Virginia Tech's defense or Louisville's defense when we actually fed him the ball constantly?

-Does anyone else find it a problem that when Pitt had the ball at the Miami 5 yard line, that Jim Chaney was bent on throwing the ball as opposed to let Ollison pound it 4 times in a row into one of the worst rush defenses in the country?

-Yes, I see big changes coming this year. I look forward to multi back sets and the tripple back loading the O-Line and daring teams to stop our run game, starting with Villanova and Penn State.
Click to expand...

All that being said, he still had the fourth most carries in the ACC, which isnt "limited carries."
 
Swervin27 said:
I think his point was, the games he was under used, we lost.
Click to expand...

-That's exactly my point. Are we going to sit James Conner against all the best teams on this years schedule because the games are on the road and they are harder and we need to be balanced and cute on offense? Hell no, we are going to run it right at them and see if they can stop it. Especially since most of the teams, even the better ones, completely suck against stopping the run. We are trading injured Darrin Hall last year for James Conner this year. We'll see Sept 3rd when we run it down Villanova's throat for game 1.
 
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Ollison and james should combine for no less than 35 carries a game. We avg'd 40 carries a game in '14, it needs to be 45 carries per game this year.
 
Swervin27 said:
Ollison and james should combine for no less than 35 carries a game. We avg'd 40 carries a game in '14, it needs to be 45 carries per game this year.
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Agree.
I too vaguely remember games/situations in which Pitt should have run vs. pass. The Miami example cited above was one of those situations.
Almost reminded me of the reverse situation vs. North Carolina in the tire bowl. No passes to Fitz at the goal line. Someday..... This may all even out.
 
Swervin27 said:
Ollison and james should combine for no less than 35 carries a game. We avg'd 40 carries a game in '14, it needs to be 45 carries per game this year.
Click to expand...

-We rushed the ball 610 times during the season in 2014. In 2015 we rushed it 510.

-In 2014 we had Chad Voytik starting at QB, and our #2 rusher was a true freshmen. In 2016 we have Conner and Ollison back along with Hall, Ibrahim, Hill and Moss. Voytik transferred to some no name school.

-In 2014, we had 3300 rush yards and 35 rush TD's. In 2015, those numbers fell to 2400 rush yards and 19 TD's.

-In 2014, Dorian Johnson and Adam Bisnotaway were starting and Jarred Jones Smith also started 4 games in 2014. 5 Players from the 2014 2 deep are still on the Pitt roster 2 deep going into 2016. 3 players that started in 2014 will start in 2016.

-In 2014, Pitt's #1 receiver was a true freshmen, Tyler Boyd. Pitt's #2 WR had 200 yards, for the entire season. In 2016, Pitt's number 1 WR is Ford, who had 550 catch yards last year and enters his senior season.

-How on earth can Pitt's run game not at least match 2014 if not beat its production across the board with a better QB, a better Oline, better RB's, better and more experience everywhere.

-In 2014, Pitt finished 6-7 for the year. That included blowing a 26 point lead in the 2nd half to Houston, blowing a 14 point lead against North Carolina, blowing a 1 TD lead against Iowa in the 4th quarter, and losing in double overtime against Duke. Our defense sucked that year but our Coaching wasn't much better.
 
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One thing that can't be forgotten in how many times Ollison got to carry the ball last year is that the next block Ollison throws on a pass play will probably be his first. It's hard to keep a running back in the game, especially games that you are losing and therefore more likely to be throwing the ball, when that guy couldn't figure out who he was supposed to be blocking most of the time and when he did he couldn't block a reasonably fit grandmother in any event.

If you are a running back who can't pass block then you are either going to get your snaps limited or you are going to get your quarterback killed.

Or both. It could be both.
 
Of the top 5 running backs anyone of them can run for 1200 yds this.year.given the carries to average 4 yds a carry. Whats exciting is using all of them in multiple sets fresh and ready to rumble behind a great line. We are loaded.
 
steel_curtain said:
-We rushed the ball 610 times during the season in 2014. In 2015 we rushed it 510.

-In 2014 we had Chad Voytik starting at QB, and our #2 rusher was a true freshmen. In 2016 we have Conner and Ollison back along with Hall, Ibrahim, Hill and Moss. Voytik transferred to some no name school.

-In 2014, we had 3300 rush yards and 35 rush TD's. In 2015, those numbers fell to 2400 rush yards and 19 TD's.

-In 2014, Dorian Johnson and Adam Bisnotaway were starting and Jarred Jones Smith also started 4 games in 2014. 5 Players from the 2014 2 deep are still on the Pitt roster 2 deep going into 2016. 3 players that started in 2014 will start in 2016.

-In 2014, Pitt's #1 receiver was a true freshmen, Tyler Boyd. Pitt's #2 WR had 200 yards, for the entire season. In 2016, Pitt's number 1 WR is Ford, who had 550 catch yards last year and enters his senior season.

-How on earth can Pitt's run game not at least match 2014 if not beat its production across the board with a better QB, a better Oline, better RB's, better and more experience everywhere.

-In 2014, Pitt finished 6-7 for the year. That included blowing a 26 point lead in the 2nd half to Houston, blowing a 14 point lead against North Carolina, blowing a 1 TD lead against Iowa in the 4th quarter, and losing in double overtime against Duke. Our defense sucked that year but our Coaching wasn't much better.
Click to expand...
And the other obvious advantage to pounding the ball: we'd be keeping the other team's offense off the field.

There's nothing that would make me happier than to get a nice lead on the Nits, then to keep the ball away from them as we take our time driving the ball down the field - as Slick Jimmy watches helplessly while the clock clicks away.
 
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Panther Parrothead said:
I'm not gonna debate who the better players are. But even during the season last year, I complained that Chaney's chief mission seemed to be his trying to demonstrate how smart that he was, rather than calling a good game.

We all know that there were games when the running game was clicking, yet he was bound and determined to veer away from something that was working just to show that there were other, more diverse plays in the Chaney playbook.

I don't have a clue whether Canada's system will work or not. But there were times when Chaney's mystifying play-calling was maddening.
Click to expand...

Cheney is very good, let's not play this game, he left over a promotion , Duzz did not want him to go. The guy he hired is was a castoff, on the pile we picked from. We do have a great ground game, and anyone knows how to call run plays, hope he calls many of them
 
Can't stand when Pitt loses someone PROMOTION, and they attack him, PSU like as a matter of fact.
 
Hyped to watch the run game too. But, UNC's D feasted on turnover and gave up A LOT of yard and Navy's D flat out sucked. Iowa had a very good D but sample size of 4 carries is nonsense.

That said, I expect Ollison to be Pitt's leading rusher this season.
 
Vs NC he had 8 carries in the first half until they were down 20 -3 in the second quarter after a Ford fumble. From that point on they abandoned the run and threw more. From the play by play I am reading, Ollison had two runs on their scoring drive in their second possession in the second half, Chris James had all of the carries after that in the second half. Was Ollison injured? In the first possession of the second half we blocked a punt and had the ball on the UNC 15. James was the back for that series and we ran twice then were sacked on a 3rd and 3.


Vs Iowa, Hall was the starter and was the back in the first two series. Then James came in after that. Ollison did not get into the backfield until the 6th series late in the 2nd quarter. In the second half, Hall started again. Again, not sure of the circumstances as to why Ollison was not in the backfield.


Vs Navy, Ollison had 4 carries before we were down 21-7 and our only points came from a kick return. So I assume Pitt had to change their game plan and throw more. I guess they realized they weren’t going to stop Navy’s offense and decided to throw more.
 
Losing JC & JJS really hurt the ground game last year. If everyone is healthy the ground game will be our rock to build on. Expect screens to the RBs and Orndorff to be a big part of our O.

Nothing more enjoyable than watching your team ground out yards play after play with the running game!
 
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TD_istheman said:
Can't stand when Pitt loses someone PROMOTION, and they attack him, PSU like as a matter of fact.
Click to expand...
FWIW, a lot of us criticized Chaney's play-calling last year - during the season.

So it's not that we started making negative comments only after Chaney departed, promotion or no promotion.

And interestingly, when reading some of the candid comments of the other ACC coaches (in another thread), at least one coach expressed surprise that Canada was made available, given the success that he'd had at his former program.
 
ncyajleel said:
Vs Navy, Ollison had 4 carries before we were down 21-7 and our only points came from a kick return. So I assume Pitt had to change their game plan and throw more. I guess they realized they weren’t going to stop Navy’s offense and decided to throw more.
Click to expand...
Yeah...never mind that a much better way to beat Navy's offense was to keep 'em off the field. :rolleyes:
 
Yes and I pointed JC out earlier in the thread. Very important to note, we lost him the first game of the season. We didn't lose him 6 weeks before the season started. Big difference in planning. That is why I talk about recruiting more than 1 good player per position. This season, we have no idea who is going to step up, who is going to disappoint and how many injuries. It's possible we could have 2 QB's go down or 3 RB's go down. Depth is crucial. You don't recruit one good player per position and stop.

I can absolutely guarantee there will be some questionable calls with Canada. It happened with Cav, Cig, Norvell and Chaney. It will happen. Canada's last boss decide to make a change. We are not going to run the ball down every teams throat. There will be games we have to throw it to win it. And our D has to be better this year.

Some are posting JC's stats from 2 years and 100% automatically assume that is what we're getting this year. With what he has gone through, nobody knows that. Hopefully it happens, but nothing is set in stone.

Last year, Narduzzi had a man crush on Hall. Hopefully this year this doesn't get in the way of taking away carries from JC and Ollison, the two better options.



9nationalchampionships said:
Losing JC & JJS really hurt the ground game last year. If everyone is healthy the ground game will be our rock to build on. Expect screens to the RBs and Orndorff to be a big part of our O.

Nothing more enjoyable than watching your team ground out yards play after play with the running game!
Click to expand...
 
Looking at the play by play it looks as thought Pitt wanted to run the ball and keep Navy's offense off the field. Navy scores touchdown on first possession. Pitt's first offensive series they had 3 runs and two passes then punt, Navy scores touchdown. The second series had 6 runs and 4 passes and ended in a missed field goal, Navy punts. Pitt's third possession is 2 runs and 2 passes one of which is intercepted, Navy scores touchdown.

First half Pitt runs the ball 11 times and passes 11 times, 4 of which were because there was only a minute left in the half and they were trying for a quick score.

Second half, Navy gets the ball and scores a touchdown which puts Pitt down 28-7. So being down they still run the ball more than pass. On their first series 2 runs and 1 pass. Second series they had 5 runs and 5 passes and scored a touchdown, but Navy scores again too. Even down 31-7 they ran more than passed, on their next touchdown they rushed 3 times and passed once, but Navy scores again.

They could just not stop Navy's offense. Defense was the issue in this game, not offense even though Peterson's interceptions and incomplete passes did not help.

You have to mix in a first down pass every now and then but when you do that, it has to be a completion because if it is not you can end up third and long. I was disappointed in the lack of play action on first down pass plays. If you are running the ball well, play action on first and second down can be a great weapon. We have some good tight ends.

Panther Parrothead said:
Yeah...never mind that a much better way to beat Navy's offense was to keep 'em off the field. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
 
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We can all be fans, excited, and I drive a far way to see home games every year, over 4 hours one way, but we can also be honest.

We have an O CORD that wasn't wanted by his last school, and that school is not even a football school. He was looking for a job anywhere, we gave him a life line, hopefully he does well with it.
 
TD_istheman said:
We can all be fans, excited, and I drive a far way to see home games every year, over 4 hours one way, but we can also be honest.

We have an O CORD that wasn't wanted by his last school, and that school is not even a football school. He was looking for a job anywhere, we gave him a life line, hopefully he does well with it.
Click to expand...
Well pretty much everyone in the ACC questioned the stupidity of NC State getting rid of Canada...do some research.....and Narduzzi did not push for Chaney to stay that should tell you all you need to know.......
 
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