Spring camp is almost over for the Pitt football team, as Tuesday was the Panthers' final full-pads practice of spring, with only Saturday's Blue-Gold Game remaining as a full-contact day for the players. The NCAA stipulates that each team must practice without pads for three of the 15 spring practices; the first two practices of spring have to be conducted without pads, and the third is at the discretion of the coaches.
Pat Narduzzi opted to hold the third non-pad practice on Thursday. Even without pads, Thursday's practice should be interesting, as it will be the first with the team practicing as a split-squad. The draft for the spring game will be held Wednesday, and the coaches will split the players into the Blue and Gold teams for Thursday's practice.
As to the draft, Narduzzi said the coaches were "drafted" Tuesday morning - Jim Chaney and Josh Conklin will be the head coaches of the Gold and Blue teams, respectively, and they drafted the assistants - and the resulting staffs drafted the seniors. The seniors will then draft the rest of the team on Wednesday afternoon; the draft is scheduled to start at 4 p.m., and we'll be live to cover it. This should be interesting.
While the spring game should be pretty competitive, Narduzzi cautioned that it will be very "vanilla" in terms of what the offense and defense do; that's pretty typical. But it should still be an interesting affair, particularly since Pitt will be splitting the fans into Blue and Gold teams by giving out "Team AD" and "Team Fitz" t-shirts (so emblazoned for honorary coaches Aaron Donald and Larry Fitzgerald).
- As for Tuesday's practice, there were a few notables worth mentioning. For starters, the Money (weak-side) linebacker position is more of a rotation than a set piece, according to linebackers coach Rob Harley. That's the spot that Bam Bradley inhabited early in camp before falling behind Mike Caprara.
And sure enough, during early-practice walk-throughs, Bradley was working with the first team while Caprara worked with the second group. For the better part of the last three weeks, that was flipped, and Caprara was one of the stories of spring: a player seemingly forgotten by the last staff - he played in just four games last season - who had worked his way up to the first team.
To hear Harley tell it, Caprara and Bradley are very much in competition for the starting job, largely because neither has performed at a high level consistently enough to seize it. Harley said one of the players would have an outstanding practice or two or three, but neither could do it over a longer term. The coaches feel like they are getting solid play out of the Money linebacker position, but they want more, and until one guy shows he can do that on a consistent basis, they'll keep rotating the players, even into the season.
- Really, according to Harley, that goes for all three linebacker positions: they want the middle linebacker to get everyone lined up and they want the outside linebackers to make plays. And they want all three to perform at a high level consistently. Until that happens, they'll keep rotating and looking for the best options, and that can include incoming freshmen Anthony McKee and Saleem Brightwell.
Of course, the Money linebacker has seen more rotation than the Star or the middle, so while Nicholas Grigsby and Matt Galambos may not be doing it as consistently as the coaches want, they're still seemingly doing it better than the backups.
- Speaking of backups, for at least one practice, Reggie Green was no longer a backup linebacker. On Tuesday, the redshirt sophomore had his hand on the ground as he worked at defensive end. We saw the Pitt coaches give Justin Moody a day at defensive end before moving him back to defensive tackle, and it looks like Green is getting a shot as well.
Green is tall and has the frame to add some weight, which could make end a viable option for him. The staff clearly feels like it needs some depth; right now they have Shakir Soto, Rori Blair and Ejuan Price. Zach Poker could be in the rotation when he gets healthy, and Shane Roy gets snaps on the second team, but there's just not a whole lot there. So it's probably not a bad policy to basically find anyone on the second team who is even close to being physically capable of playing the position and giving them a shot.
If you're scoring at home, Green has now gone from quarterback (in high school) to receiver to linebacker to defensive end.
- Speaking of linebackers, Pitt worked on some onside kick recovery schemes Tuesday, and I counted no fewer than five linebackers on the return team. They were even lined up next to each other, with Bradley, Grigsby, Quintin Wirginis, Caprara and Galambos standing on one half of the front line.
But here's the key: they weren't there to catch the ball. They were there to block for Tyler Boyd, who was lined up behind them. It was Boyd's job to recover the ball; it was the job of the linebackers in front of him to block so that he could recover the ball cleanly.
I don't think it Andre Powell was trolling Pitt fans by putting the linebackers out there; I think he believes that's a good personnel to use on the hands team. The key is in the scheme and technique, rather than the personnel, and getting the linebackers to block properly with the best receiver in the conference going for the recovery seems like a sound strategy.
- One note I had been meaning to mention throughout the spring was the split of the team in individual drills, particularly the fullbacks. In the last three years, the fullbacks practiced with the tight ends. That offense had similar roles for those two positions, and while they weren't exactly the same, there was enough overlap in responsibility that they practiced together.
So it was a bit of a change to see this staff have the fullbacks practice with the running backs, which seems to make a little more sense (depending on how you use the fullbacks).
With that in mind, it was notable to see Jaymar Parrish on Tuesday, since he was practicing with the tight ends. I don't think Parrish is being moved to tight end - he looked like the odd man out in that group - but it could be that the coaches are looking to expand his role a bit.
The rest of the fullbacks - all walk-ons - continued to practice with the running backs on Tuesday, but in the individual drills that we saw during the open media window, Parrish was with the tight ends. It will be interesting to see what his role is this season.
- We've got lots more coverage coming heading into the spring game and beyond, with more videos, photos and spring camp wrap-up on the way. Plus, be sure to check out this week's Panther-Lair Show for a great interview with Rob Harley. Really interesting stuff about the linebackers, the defense, Pat Narduzzi and why a guy would quit ESPN, sell his car and become a volunteer coach. Really worth listening to.
Pat Narduzzi opted to hold the third non-pad practice on Thursday. Even without pads, Thursday's practice should be interesting, as it will be the first with the team practicing as a split-squad. The draft for the spring game will be held Wednesday, and the coaches will split the players into the Blue and Gold teams for Thursday's practice.
As to the draft, Narduzzi said the coaches were "drafted" Tuesday morning - Jim Chaney and Josh Conklin will be the head coaches of the Gold and Blue teams, respectively, and they drafted the assistants - and the resulting staffs drafted the seniors. The seniors will then draft the rest of the team on Wednesday afternoon; the draft is scheduled to start at 4 p.m., and we'll be live to cover it. This should be interesting.
While the spring game should be pretty competitive, Narduzzi cautioned that it will be very "vanilla" in terms of what the offense and defense do; that's pretty typical. But it should still be an interesting affair, particularly since Pitt will be splitting the fans into Blue and Gold teams by giving out "Team AD" and "Team Fitz" t-shirts (so emblazoned for honorary coaches Aaron Donald and Larry Fitzgerald).
- As for Tuesday's practice, there were a few notables worth mentioning. For starters, the Money (weak-side) linebacker position is more of a rotation than a set piece, according to linebackers coach Rob Harley. That's the spot that Bam Bradley inhabited early in camp before falling behind Mike Caprara.
And sure enough, during early-practice walk-throughs, Bradley was working with the first team while Caprara worked with the second group. For the better part of the last three weeks, that was flipped, and Caprara was one of the stories of spring: a player seemingly forgotten by the last staff - he played in just four games last season - who had worked his way up to the first team.
To hear Harley tell it, Caprara and Bradley are very much in competition for the starting job, largely because neither has performed at a high level consistently enough to seize it. Harley said one of the players would have an outstanding practice or two or three, but neither could do it over a longer term. The coaches feel like they are getting solid play out of the Money linebacker position, but they want more, and until one guy shows he can do that on a consistent basis, they'll keep rotating the players, even into the season.
- Really, according to Harley, that goes for all three linebacker positions: they want the middle linebacker to get everyone lined up and they want the outside linebackers to make plays. And they want all three to perform at a high level consistently. Until that happens, they'll keep rotating and looking for the best options, and that can include incoming freshmen Anthony McKee and Saleem Brightwell.
Of course, the Money linebacker has seen more rotation than the Star or the middle, so while Nicholas Grigsby and Matt Galambos may not be doing it as consistently as the coaches want, they're still seemingly doing it better than the backups.
- Speaking of backups, for at least one practice, Reggie Green was no longer a backup linebacker. On Tuesday, the redshirt sophomore had his hand on the ground as he worked at defensive end. We saw the Pitt coaches give Justin Moody a day at defensive end before moving him back to defensive tackle, and it looks like Green is getting a shot as well.
Green is tall and has the frame to add some weight, which could make end a viable option for him. The staff clearly feels like it needs some depth; right now they have Shakir Soto, Rori Blair and Ejuan Price. Zach Poker could be in the rotation when he gets healthy, and Shane Roy gets snaps on the second team, but there's just not a whole lot there. So it's probably not a bad policy to basically find anyone on the second team who is even close to being physically capable of playing the position and giving them a shot.
If you're scoring at home, Green has now gone from quarterback (in high school) to receiver to linebacker to defensive end.
- Speaking of linebackers, Pitt worked on some onside kick recovery schemes Tuesday, and I counted no fewer than five linebackers on the return team. They were even lined up next to each other, with Bradley, Grigsby, Quintin Wirginis, Caprara and Galambos standing on one half of the front line.
But here's the key: they weren't there to catch the ball. They were there to block for Tyler Boyd, who was lined up behind them. It was Boyd's job to recover the ball; it was the job of the linebackers in front of him to block so that he could recover the ball cleanly.
I don't think it Andre Powell was trolling Pitt fans by putting the linebackers out there; I think he believes that's a good personnel to use on the hands team. The key is in the scheme and technique, rather than the personnel, and getting the linebackers to block properly with the best receiver in the conference going for the recovery seems like a sound strategy.
- One note I had been meaning to mention throughout the spring was the split of the team in individual drills, particularly the fullbacks. In the last three years, the fullbacks practiced with the tight ends. That offense had similar roles for those two positions, and while they weren't exactly the same, there was enough overlap in responsibility that they practiced together.
So it was a bit of a change to see this staff have the fullbacks practice with the running backs, which seems to make a little more sense (depending on how you use the fullbacks).
With that in mind, it was notable to see Jaymar Parrish on Tuesday, since he was practicing with the tight ends. I don't think Parrish is being moved to tight end - he looked like the odd man out in that group - but it could be that the coaches are looking to expand his role a bit.
The rest of the fullbacks - all walk-ons - continued to practice with the running backs on Tuesday, but in the individual drills that we saw during the open media window, Parrish was with the tight ends. It will be interesting to see what his role is this season.
- We've got lots more coverage coming heading into the spring game and beyond, with more videos, photos and spring camp wrap-up on the way. Plus, be sure to check out this week's Panther-Lair Show for a great interview with Rob Harley. Really interesting stuff about the linebackers, the defense, Pat Narduzzi and why a guy would quit ESPN, sell his car and become a volunteer coach. Really worth listening to.
