It's no secret by now that new Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi runs a pretty tight ship, so today's scrimmage - the Panthers' first of the spring - was not open to the media. We were allowed to hang around for the first half hour or so, when the team did little more than its usual position drills and special teams work.
We were hardly the only ones there, though. There wasn't just a plethora of recruits and their families, both high-level targets as well as some local players the staff will probably keep an eye on, but also a number of high school coaches from the WPIAL and elsewhere.
While most recruits usually just sort of mill about along the sidelines as the team practices, casually watching or maybe chatting with one another, one player specifically seemed pretty engaged.
Chris had an article last week on Central Catholic defensive lineman Rashad Wheeler, who won't be the first commit of the 2016 class after Tony Butler made the call after the scrimmage Saturday (Butler was also in attendance on the South Side). But while Pitt's defensive linemen went through their position drills Saturday at the start of the workout before the scrimmage, Wheeler stood right there watching, getting an up-close look. He also seemed to be one of the last recruits to leave the building after spending some time with defensive line coach Tom Sims.
So while it remains to be seen what happens with Wheeler and the rest of Pitt's recruiting targets for 2016, on to what took place on the field Saturday (or so we're told):
* By all accounts, one of the first plays of the scrimmage was a long touchdown run by James Conner - or, as how seemingly everyone simply refers to him now, the ACC player of the year. Narduzzi said it was about a 65-yard run and it was well-blocked, but not defended very well, though all it would take is "a little adjustment" to stop it from happening.
"I blame that on us as coaches," Narduzzi said of the big play by the offense. "It was probably more us than the kids. Overcoached."
* At least one player was willing to put the blame on himself and his teammates, though.
"[The offense] has the ACC player of the year, but that's no excuse for us. He's pretty good but at the same time, we should be able to stop him," said middle linebacker Matt Galambos.
* Galambos said he felt the defense settled in after that, which Narduzzi confirmed by saying the offense pulled out a narrow victory in the scrimmage, 77-71. Obviously that requires some creative scoring for the defense, but still, Narduzzi made it sound like things were closer than one might expect.
* In fact, it took a touchdown pass on the final play to lift the offense to the win. Chad Voytik was up to the task, leading a two-minute drill and then tossing the score to receiver Jester Weah, who supposedly made a nice catch in the back of the end zone to clinch it for the offense.
From the sounds of it, this came after the offense tied things up with another nice play by Dontez Ford on a grab from Voytik.
"I feel like we scored, we moved the ball, we got first downs, and we were in backed-up situations where we got away from our own end zone," said Voytik, adding that he connected on a fade route with Christ Wuestner to help the offense kickstart one drive after being deep in its own territory.
* Naturally, Tyler Boyd made Tyler Boyd-esque plays, as well. Narduzzi even got a bit confused and referred to Boyd as the ACC player of the year, too, when talking about one play in particular Saturday where he evaded a likely tackle for loss by making about three guys miss.
* On the defensive side, Narduzzi said the unit made its fair share of big plays, too. For his part, Galambos gave some praise to the guys in front of him.
"Definitely our D-line, I've been saying all week, but they just get huge penetration to get through. Especially in this defense, if you can change the line of scrimmage and put it back a yard it makes it easier for us, which makes it easier for the D-backs," Galambos said.
* As for his fellow linebackers, Chris went into great detail on that position group in Thursday's practice report, and Galambos just shed some further light on that situation. He said that at this point, it looks like Nicholas Grigsby and Bam Bradley will be the outside linebackers starting alongside him, but "each day is a different day."
By that, Galambos meant there is no shortage of competition at every spot. He said the players have their production graded by the coaching staff every day and that those grades could determine who starts each practice.
* Lastly, there were some other notable visitors to practice in addition to all the recruits: 2015 signees Jordan Whitehead, Tre Tipton and Ben DiNucci. Those three guys really carried a certain presence when they walked in, with lots of eyes and whispers gravitating toward them from those on the sideline. Just another reminder that it can never hurt to have some local stars in the fold and around the program even before they're officially part of the team.
We were hardly the only ones there, though. There wasn't just a plethora of recruits and their families, both high-level targets as well as some local players the staff will probably keep an eye on, but also a number of high school coaches from the WPIAL and elsewhere.
While most recruits usually just sort of mill about along the sidelines as the team practices, casually watching or maybe chatting with one another, one player specifically seemed pretty engaged.
Chris had an article last week on Central Catholic defensive lineman Rashad Wheeler, who won't be the first commit of the 2016 class after Tony Butler made the call after the scrimmage Saturday (Butler was also in attendance on the South Side). But while Pitt's defensive linemen went through their position drills Saturday at the start of the workout before the scrimmage, Wheeler stood right there watching, getting an up-close look. He also seemed to be one of the last recruits to leave the building after spending some time with defensive line coach Tom Sims.
So while it remains to be seen what happens with Wheeler and the rest of Pitt's recruiting targets for 2016, on to what took place on the field Saturday (or so we're told):
* By all accounts, one of the first plays of the scrimmage was a long touchdown run by James Conner - or, as how seemingly everyone simply refers to him now, the ACC player of the year. Narduzzi said it was about a 65-yard run and it was well-blocked, but not defended very well, though all it would take is "a little adjustment" to stop it from happening.
"I blame that on us as coaches," Narduzzi said of the big play by the offense. "It was probably more us than the kids. Overcoached."
* At least one player was willing to put the blame on himself and his teammates, though.
"[The offense] has the ACC player of the year, but that's no excuse for us. He's pretty good but at the same time, we should be able to stop him," said middle linebacker Matt Galambos.
* Galambos said he felt the defense settled in after that, which Narduzzi confirmed by saying the offense pulled out a narrow victory in the scrimmage, 77-71. Obviously that requires some creative scoring for the defense, but still, Narduzzi made it sound like things were closer than one might expect.
* In fact, it took a touchdown pass on the final play to lift the offense to the win. Chad Voytik was up to the task, leading a two-minute drill and then tossing the score to receiver Jester Weah, who supposedly made a nice catch in the back of the end zone to clinch it for the offense.
From the sounds of it, this came after the offense tied things up with another nice play by Dontez Ford on a grab from Voytik.
"I feel like we scored, we moved the ball, we got first downs, and we were in backed-up situations where we got away from our own end zone," said Voytik, adding that he connected on a fade route with Christ Wuestner to help the offense kickstart one drive after being deep in its own territory.
* Naturally, Tyler Boyd made Tyler Boyd-esque plays, as well. Narduzzi even got a bit confused and referred to Boyd as the ACC player of the year, too, when talking about one play in particular Saturday where he evaded a likely tackle for loss by making about three guys miss.
* On the defensive side, Narduzzi said the unit made its fair share of big plays, too. For his part, Galambos gave some praise to the guys in front of him.
"Definitely our D-line, I've been saying all week, but they just get huge penetration to get through. Especially in this defense, if you can change the line of scrimmage and put it back a yard it makes it easier for us, which makes it easier for the D-backs," Galambos said.
* As for his fellow linebackers, Chris went into great detail on that position group in Thursday's practice report, and Galambos just shed some further light on that situation. He said that at this point, it looks like Nicholas Grigsby and Bam Bradley will be the outside linebackers starting alongside him, but "each day is a different day."
By that, Galambos meant there is no shortage of competition at every spot. He said the players have their production graded by the coaching staff every day and that those grades could determine who starts each practice.
* Lastly, there were some other notable visitors to practice in addition to all the recruits: 2015 signees Jordan Whitehead, Tre Tipton and Ben DiNucci. Those three guys really carried a certain presence when they walked in, with lots of eyes and whispers gravitating toward them from those on the sideline. Just another reminder that it can never hurt to have some local stars in the fold and around the program even before they're officially part of the team.
