uh, not like that at all...wins total and point spreads/point total are not equal partners in fandom...I am not rooting for Pitt to lose in your scenario...
Happen to have a more realistic analogy?
Pitt Linebackers
- Thread starter WiseAndGlorious
- Start date
uh, not like that at all...wins total and point spreads/point total are not equal partners in fandom...I am not rooting for Pitt to lose in your scenario...
Happen to have a more realistic analogy?
I think the LBs will be fine. I'd probably put them as one of the few units I don't have concerns about or don't consider an unknown. Do I think they are going to be elite? No. But I do think they are going to lose us games? No.
But they are in terms of actually having to "root against" the team to whatever degree. You're saying the degree isn't the same, and that's fine.
If somebody was willing to bet me a million dollars right now that Pitt was going to win the college football playoffs, I'd take that bet. Your fandom wouldn't. Okay. I'll think of you when I'm cashing the check.
I believe we lost 2 guys from last year’s 2-Deep on defense (Whitehead and Maddox). If we don’t have a good defense this year, then that is a red flag.
Well RB is a known strength. No world beaters, but I'd imagine most coaches would take the experience in Ollison, Hall plus Sibley, Davis and Salahuddin.
Everything else is either promising, but unproven (QB, secondary, DL) or areas of concern from last season that don't show reasons for improvement (OL, WR/TE, LB).
Somehow we keep getting our points crossed.
What I'm saying is this:
QB: ?
RB: ?ish
WR: ?
OL: ?
DL: ?
LB: Okay
CB: ?ish
S: ?
If you did that for every other team in the ACC Coastal, you wouldn't see so many ?s next to the units.
You keep wanting to argue that we are expecting there not to be any ?s next to units, and that just isn't the point.
you go on GT or Duke's boards and there fans are worried about multiple units on their teams as well and they probably over estimate everyone else in the ACC, just like you guys do..
A question mark or assured weakness? Yes. I doubt we will have units that will be very good. I'd say DB has the potential to be good. QB could be the same if Pickett is healthy (otherwise we will be absolutely terrible) the entire year, but that is certainly an enormous question mark when the kid has, literally, 1 career TD pass. WR looks to be an almost assured weakness. The same is true at TE. LB talent is very limited and doubtful they can be "very good" but I see them being solid, if unspectacular. DL was terrible last year, but has talent that I hope improves, but there is no doubt it is a question mark. OL is most definitely a question mark with some guys who looked average to bad when they have played and one of our most important guys a G5 transfer up.
You keep saying "across" or "22 starters". We don't have a single position group that is "proven, good, experienced". We don't have a single unit that more than 1/2 of our opponents would swap theirs for. In year 4 of a HC, I most definitely expect to have at least a couple of those units.
Like here is what I would put at Duke:
QB: Good.
RB: Good.
WR: ?ish
OL: ?
DL: Fine
LB: Elite
CB: Good to Very good
S: ?ish
They are just a middle of the road P5 program, but there aren't so many ?s across their units.
QB: Good.
RB: Good.
WR: ?ish
OL: ?
DL: Fine
LB: Elite
CB: Good to Very good
S: ?ish
They are just a middle of the road P5 program, but there aren't so many ?s across their units.
I'm sure there is. You keep saying this as if we keep arguing most teams don't have multiple units with ?s.
As I keep saying, that isn't the point we are making. It's that we basically don't have any units that aren't ?s.
Do you see that distinction?
RB is ok, but a "known strength"? Our leading returning rusher barely has 1000 career yards. Everyone has 3 and 4 star backup RBs. Ours didn't get carries last year when we absolutely were struggling to run the ball. If you go by YPC Darrin Hall (I assume the real basis for saying it is a known strength) was the 139th best RB in the country and only top 18 in the ACC last year. That is straight up pedestrian, but I guess it is at least pretty well known and certainly one of the units we should have the least amount of concern with.
It's hard to argue with that. I didn't realize those were the only guys from the 2 deep that aren't back.
I choose to have some optimism to start the season.
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yeah, hate to agree with JRip here but our RB unit is about as big a question mark as there is. Proven sure, proved that they are inadequate by any and all measures.. Give me an unknown over proven inadequate any day, at least there is hope with the young guys who haven't played yet. We know what hall brings to the table.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
I have no idea where the optimism for the program is coming from coming off of last season. I think the mentality that "Pitt was much better towards the end of the season and, well...PICKETT!!!" seems to be overwhelming the board.
A "strong unit" will be consistently good. There wasn't a single unit that could claim that unless you want to start viewing the season in a bubble of two or three games here and there. As far as the LB's are concerned, Idowu was much improved and Zeise still looked lost at times (but that happens when you're a WR learning to play LB). If they put it together, it could be a good unit. But you could say that about every unit on the team.
A "strong unit" will be consistently good. There wasn't a single unit that could claim that unless you want to start viewing the season in a bubble of two or three games here and there. As far as the LB's are concerned, Idowu was much improved and Zeise still looked lost at times (but that happens when you're a WR learning to play LB). If they put it together, it could be a good unit. But you could say that about every unit on the team.
Having two reliable players returning with experience (Ollison had 1,000 yards as a freshman) along with three 4 star players in the group, it is a strength. Saying everyone has 4 star backups is hyperbole. Aside from Miami, I doubt anyone else in the Coastal has three 4 star backs off the bench.
You are entitled to your opinion but Zeise is not a strait up bad player.
optimism for this program? Dear Lord, are you reading this thread? If you call this optimism, I'd be scared what you would consider pessimism. We got posters saying every unit we have sucks. This is doom and gloom my man, not sure where you are seeing this so-called optimism.
Im reading this thread and thinking about throwing away my pitt script gear and following a different sport..
you and I are saying the same thing, just coming from different angles. I am saying, most units in college football, with programs like pitt, will usually be ?s. for every unit where we have talented, experienced, proven players returning, there will be 3 units where we are starting over or reliant on younger, unproven players. this is college football, that's the norm.
we are basically both arguing the same point..
Zeise is a straight up bad player??? Not even close, did you even watch the second half of the season last year?
you guys are flipping out and crying about "unit uncertainty" and question marks for '18, i'll be scared to see you next year when we are looking for 4 new OL, 2 new RBs, a new DE, 3 new LBs. you guys might be downright suicidal.
I will bet you any amount of money that Pitt wins greater than or equal to as many ACC games as Duke
Sounds about right. S&P+ projects Duke to 40, Pitt to 45. Duke to 6 wins, us to 5. So basically the exact same team in terms of projection. If there's a gambler out there that would bet that two similar teams, aren't going to finish similarly, I'm not that gambler.
I merely found the idea that it's "normal" to be very odd. It's not typical of a college football team.
Whether that is something to flip out about, I'll leave that to others to decide.
So you're telling me Pitt and Duke are about even? sounds about right. But it's funny because when you were grading the positions, you had Duke being good with RB, QB, CB, and Elite at LB. But for Pitt you had them literally good at nothing. Yet you still think Pitt and Duke will have similar ACC records. Sounds to me by your logic, Duke should be winning 6-7 and Pitt should be winning 2-3.
Face it. It’s a defense predicated on an opponents QB being at worst wildly inaccurate and at best middling. How many ACC wins does that give you on any given year? 4?
That's because you're taking me not writing "good," as me thereby saying "bad." But that's not what I said. Or I would have written "bad." Instead I wrote "?," meaning it's not established right now.
Like if I did FSU's team right now, there would probably be a ton of "?" all over their units. But you understand that isn't me saying I think FSU will be bad this year, right? I actually think they are going to return to elite status this year.
It's amazing that Pitt's ragtag units keep beating them. Talk about getting lucky.
Yes. Every single game and some of them more than once. Did you?
He sure has been. Maybe that changes this year and he is a lot better. I wouldn't bet on it.
We have two. Sibley was not a 4 star and, frankly, was very, very lightly recruited. Most teams in P5 have multiple 4 star RBs. Neither (even include Sibley, if you want) of ours have done anything. The guys who have played have been "reliable" in the fact that they have been pedestrian P5 RBs.
You are wrong about Sibley. He was rated highly and has big offers listed on the recruiting sites. ESPN and 247 had him as a Top 300 player in the country.
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247 had him rated as the #447 player in the country. and he did not have big offers. He listed OSU and Michigan offers because they "offered" him before his JR year, but he never received official offers and even when he was committed to OSU they weren't going to give him a true scholarship, but would honor a greyshirt. However, they made it clear they had no interest and stopped recruiting him. Then, they took another RB and were recruiting others right to the end. Sibley had offers from us, Kentucky, and Akron. That was it. Michigan State never even offered after he visited.
Sibley was ranked 273 and 4* recruit on 247's composite. I wouldn't put much stock in the offers because he's an Ohio kid who committed to tO$U early; no-one is going to waste their time in that scenario. Then he quickly decided on Pitt after finding out tO$U wasn't going to workout.
247 had him rated as the #447 player in the country. 247 did not "have him as a top 300 player in the country."
247 had him rated as the #447 player in the country. 247 did not "have him as a top 300 player in the country."
You wouldn't put much stock in the offers? Everyone knew about it. It was made public in April and he visited other schools (who did not offer) from then until mid June when he "decommitted" and committed to Pitt. They had essentially shut down his recruiting months before and were offering and hosting other RBs, including taking one just before the greyshirt issue was made public. He wasn't missing out on offers because he was "an Ohio kid who committed to OSU early." We offered him. He visited Michigan State and they passed before he even visited us. He may end up being a great player for us, but he wasn't even close to being a guy with "big offers."
That poster goes out of his way to argue. God bless his wife if he is married.
You are not looking at the his composite ranking.
He was offered by tO$U and Michigan as a sophomore- how much bigger can it get for a Midwest kid?
Kentucky also offered when he was sophomore.
I wouldn't put much stock into offers because he committed to his hometown team as a sophomore and shutdown his recruiting.
He was offered by tO$U and Michigan as a sophomore- how much bigger can it get for a Midwest kid?
Kentucky also offered when he was sophomore.
I wouldn't put much stock into offers because he committed to his hometown team as a sophomore and shutdown his recruiting.
Something like 15 posts in this thread...who's cleaning up all of that gooey brain matter?
Sibley platued. He seemed like he was heading for elite status after his soph season. But he didn’t get any bigger or faster and was seen to have peaked. The bigger schools stopped recruiting him as hard and OSU processed him.
All that said, a tough between the tackles guy with decent vision can br effective in the rotation. I think he can find a niche and give productive reps.
All that said, a tough between the tackles guy with decent vision can br effective in the rotation. I think he can find a niche and give productive reps.
Nah. There were people complaining about McKillop getting the starting job, and people would would have complained about us landing Green as well because he didn’t have many offers.
