Spring Game draft observations

[Sean Miller Fan]

I love the new format of the Spring Game. Not many teams do it this way but its fun for the players and as a fan, I enjoy a real football game more than the weird scoring system of offense bs defense.

I also love to see the draft results because it gives you a pretty clear idea of players' abilities relative to their peers. I think we all agree that players are pretty good judges of their teammates talent (but not as good of talent evaluators as message board posters of course).

Some observations

- Brian O'Neill goes #1 overall. This guy may be a 1st Rounder again next year.....but in another kind of draft. I think we need prepared for that

- Besides O'Neill, Gold wound up with 3 of the other 4 probable OL starters. They were assigned Officer at RG, drafted Jimmy Morrissey over Connor Dintino at C and Morrissey is looking like the starter. Also, surprisingly, Blue took Justin Morgan over Alex Bookser. So Gold pretty much has 4 OL starters plus Jerry Drake who the staff has been very high on.

- Gold also has Weah, Matthews, Henderson, and Ollison.

- Dinucci will basically be quarterbacking Pitt's 1st string offense so it will be interesting to see how Max Browne does with mostly backups.

- It was also interesting to see Kenny Pickett get drafted over Thomas MacVittie. MacVittie may be a talented QB, but he's pretty clearly #4 right now.

- The DT round went

Taleni - assigned
1. Watts
2. Herndon
3. Camp
4. Roy
5. Desire
6. Wheeler

This is not a good look for Wheeler

Gold will start Taleni and Watts. Blue will start Herndon and Camp.

- DE
Edwards and Blair (assigned)
1. Folston
2. Weaver
3. Jones
4. Pugh
5. Alexandre
6. Cuono

Gold will start Blair and Weaver. Blue will start Edwards and Folston

- Gold also wound up with the 1st Pick in both the Star LB and Money LB draft rounds. I get the 2 positions mixed up but Idowu was drafted over highly recruited Anthony McKee. And with Zeise not playing, Brightwell was the first pick in the other. Wirginis was assigned to Blue and Pine to Gold.

For the CBs, it went:

Maddox (assigned)
1. Motley
2. Jackson
3. Coleman
4. Boatright

Maddox drafted Motley but they wouldn't let them keep the 2 starting CBs so they put Motley on Blue so Blue will have Motley, Jackson, and Ffrench and Gold will have Maddox and Coleman

- Nothing terribly surprising about the safeties other than Whitehead is at FS now. SS is Briggs, Campell, and Miller. Can Ford beat those guys out?

- Blue seems to be badly undermanned but they did go with George Aston with their 1st pick which tells you what the team thinks of him. Its difficult to imagine a better FB in the nation and it leads to the question of who is the best FB in the last 20 years: Polite, Hynoski, or Aston.

- Blue also has some individual talent like Browne, Ffrench, Moss, Whitehead, and Wirginis but the OL of Pilato, Ford, Dintino, Morgan, and JJS seems shaky.

Gold seems to be a big favorite but I'm going with Max Browne and Blue.

 

[ksquared33]

When speaking of our FB's I think people need to still keep Jaymar Parrish in mind even though Aston beat him out as Canada brought in a different offensive scheme.
Jaymar Parrish will compete in someone's NFL camp (and yes I believe Jaymar will find his way into some one's NFL camp) as he was a beast of a blocker & special teams player in his own right thru out his time at Pitt.
I would not be shocked or surprised if he made someone's roster as he provides a very versatile & competent ball player.
He's exactly the type of team 1st ball player NFL covet when getting down to those last few roster spots.

H2 PITT !!!

 

[PhPanther1]

I like the format, but not reading too much into when people were drafted. People are just drafting friends, not overly concerned with drafting the "best team".

These guys still have 4+ months to develop when fall camp starts. You'll still have players changing positions, injuries and guys like Ford coming in and taking their place in the lineup.

 

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

I love the new format of the Spring Game. Not many teams do it this way but its fun for the players and as a fan, I enjoy a real football game more than the weird scoring system of offense bs defense.

I also love to see the draft results because it gives you a pretty clear idea of players' abilities relative to their peers. I think we all agree that players are pretty good judges of their teammates talent (but not as good of talent evaluators as message board posters of course).

Some observations

- Brian O'Neill goes #1 overall. This guy may be a 1st Rounder again next year.....but in another kind of draft. I think we need prepared for that

- Besides O'Neill, Gold wound up with 3 of the other 4 probable OL starters. They were assigned Officer at RG, drafted Jimmy Morrissey over Connor Dintino at C and Morrissey is looking like the starter. Also, surprisingly, Blue took Justin Morgan over Alex Bookser. So Gold pretty much has 4 OL starters plus Jerry Drake who the staff has been very high on.

- Gold also has Weah, Matthews, Henderson, and Ollison.

- Dinucci will basically be quarterbacking Pitt's 1st string offense so it will be interesting to see how Max Browne does with mostly backups.

- It was also interesting to see Kenny Pickett get drafted over Thomas MacVittie. MacVittie may be a talented QB, but he's pretty clearly #4 right now.

- The DT round went

Taleni - assigned
1. Watts
2. Herndon
3. Camp
4. Roy
5. Desire
6. Wheeler

This is not a good look for Wheeler

Gold will start Taleni and Watts. Blue will start Herndon and Camp.

- DE
Edwards and Blair (assigned)
1. Folston
2. Weaver
3. Jones
4. Pugh
5. Alexandre
6. Cuono

Gold will start Blair and Weaver. Blue will start Edwards and Folston

- Gold also wound up with the 1st Pick in both the Star LB and Money LB draft rounds. I get the 2 positions mixed up but Idowu was drafted over highly recruited Anthony McKee. And with Zeise not playing, Brightwell was the first pick in the other. Wirginis was assigned to Blue and Pine to Gold.

For the CBs, it went:

Maddox (assigned)
1. Motley
2. Jackson
3. Coleman
4. Boatright

Maddox drafted Motley but they wouldn't let them keep the 2 starting CBs so they put Motley on Blue so Blue will have Motley, Jackson, and Ffrench and Gold will have Maddox and Coleman

- Nothing terribly surprising about the safeties other than Whitehead is at FS now. SS is Briggs, Campell, and Miller. Can Ford beat those guys out?

- Blue seems to be badly undermanned but they did go with George Aston with their 1st pick which tells you what the team thinks of him. Its difficult to imagine a better FB in the nation and it leads to the question of who is the best FB in the last 20 years: Polite, Hynoski, or Aston.

- Blue also has some individual talent like Browne, Ffrench, Moss, Whitehead, and Wirginis but the OL of Pilato, Ford, Dintino, Morgan, and JJS seems shaky.

Gold seems to be a big favorite but I'm going with Max Browne and Blue.

Nice post and thank you, good analysis too!

 

[sappycrease]

The lack of love for TMAC this spring has been pretty discouraging for myself. Hopefully brown is all he's been cracked up to be this year and we can find a suitable replacement for him beyond 2017.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

The lack of love for TMAC this spring has been pretty discouraging for myself. Hopefully brown is all he's been cracked up to be this year and we can find a suitable replacement for him beyond 2017.

Pickett looked very good today. I think its either Pickett or DiNucci or a grad transfer for next year.

 

[Tony Zimmermans Dennys Adversary]

Pickett looked very good today. I think its either Pickett or DiNucci or a grad transfer for next year.

Browne looked real bad early on. Pickett was definitely the most impressive QB. Henderson obviously is a star. I was real impressed with Moss. I'd love to see him start this season.

 

[new2pa]

I thought Pickett also played well, but I'd rate them DiNucci, then Browne, then Pickett, and then MacVittie. DiNucci looked like he was back in high school. Not many attempts, but cool in the pocket and on target. Didn't look in over his head.

Wouldn't think that Picket would play unless he really comes on in summer and fall. Redshirt him with DiNucci/Browne 1/2 in some order. If Brown wins job, DiNucci and Pickett compete next spring. If DiNucci wins it, Picket is RS then backup and ends up starting two years. MacVittie still has a little hitch in his giddyup. Needs some work.

 

[runshadyrun]

Didn't see ashton get a touch today. After the year he had, that was certainly a surprise.

 

[Tony Zimmermans Dennys Adversary]

One great thing was I didn't noticed any bad injuries.

How many people do you guys think were there? 2.5K?

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

One great thing was I didn't noticed any bad injuries.

How many people do you guys think were there? 2.5K?

2.5K?

That 1 sideline was at least 80% full. I thought it was the largest Spring Game crowd I could remember. I'd estimate 8000.

 

[Tony Zimmermans Dennys Adversary]

2.5K?

That 1 sideline was at least 80% full. I thought it was the largest Spring Game crowd I could remember. I'd estimate 8000.

Maybe you are right. I'd go somewhere in the middle of our 2 numbers. I may be a very bad crowd estimator. Haha

It was a great event. The autographs for the kids after game was a great idea. Saw so many smiling faces. The team was having a lot of fun out there today.

 

[Panthergrowl13]

2.5K?

That 1 sideline was at least 80% full. I thought it was the largest Spring Game crowd I could remember. I'd estimate 8000.

7076 fan attendance as reported in Today's PPG.

HAIL TO PITT!!!!

 

[CaptainSidneyReilly]

7076 fan attendance as reported in Today's PPG.
HAIL TO PITT!!!!

Not bad for Pitt in Narduzzi's 3rd year and Easter Weekend at an Urban University!!!

Johnny Major used to say, one learns to crawl, then walk, then run. Pitt is Rebuilding a Program and still has a long way to go, but that is a good sign and Heather will work to improve it. Narduzzi is just focused on Football Winning the ACC Coastal First and Foremost right now as he said in a Press Conference, as it should be for him.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

2.5K?

That 1 sideline was at least 80% full. I thought it was the largest Spring Game crowd I could remember. I'd estimate 8000.

7076 fan attendance as reported in Today's PPG.

HAIL TO PITT!!!!

There were no turnstiles so that is a made-up number though that seemed about right.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

I'm not sure how

I think we all agree that players are pretty good judges of their teammates talent

squares with

Blue seems to be badly undermanned but they did go with George Aston with their 1st pick which tells you what the team thinks of him.

What it says that Aston went with the Blue team's first pick is that whomever picked him for the blue team has no idea what it is that wins football games. I mean Aston is great at what he does, no doubt about it. I'm glad he's on our team. But he's closer to the 11th most important starter on offense than the is the most important starter, and it's not even all that close.

Also, if the players are such good judges of talent then how in the world did most of the best players end up on one team, to the point where the coaches had to change the teams to try to even things out a little? I think what the draft actually showed you is that some players really aren't all that good a judge of their teammates talents, or perhaps more likely that they don't really care all that much for an event like this.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I'm not sure how

I think we all agree that players are pretty good judges of their teammates talent

squares with

Blue seems to be badly undermanned but they did go with George Aston with their 1st pick which tells you what the team thinks of him.

What it says that Aston went with the Blue team's first pick is that whomever picked him for the blue team has no idea what it is that wins football games. I mean Aston is great at what he does, no doubt about it. I'm glad he's on our team. But he's closer to the 11th most important starter on offense than the is the most important starter, and it's not even all that close.

Also, if the players are such good judges of talent then how in the world did most of the best players end up on one team, to the point where the coaches had to change the teams to try to even things out a little? I think what the draft actually showed you is that some players really aren't all that good a judge of their teammates talents, or perhaps more likely that they don't really care all that much for an event like this.

I agree 100% on your thoughts about Aston. Aston may be the "best football player" on the team but that is way different than the "most important player." There may be 12-15 players more important than Aston based on the position he plays. How Henderson wasn't there first pick or 2nd pick (went with Maurice Ffrench) is the reason they got hot dogs and beans.

But I was really referring to their knowledge of players relative to othet players in that position group.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

But I was really referring to their knowledge of players relative to othet players in that position group.

I think for certain players that is the case. For instance the offensive linemen probably have a pretty good feel for how the offensive linemen stack up with each other, especially at their own position, and they probably have at least some decent knowledge about which defensive linemen might be giving them a lot of trouble and so are generally playing well. But which offensive lineman knows anything about which cornerbacks are playing the best, or which safeties? Which defensive back has any idea which offensive linemen (or even defensive linemen for that matter) is doing better than which other linemen?