in Pitt Football 267 Words

Pitt’s 2017 LOI Day Signing Event

Every year Pitt puts on a great show regarding the signed recruits we snagged for that year’s recruiting class.  This year, for the 2017 class, we are doing it again and I urge fans who haven’t attended one yet to show up and not only have a good time but show your support for the team and the coaching staff.

This year it is being held on Feb. 1st at Heinz Field.  They take over the club area there and put on a nice 60-120 minute gig.  The doors open at 5:00 pm for a social hour then the show starts at 6:00 pm.

The first part is a meet and greet with the coaching staff – that is a great way to get face time with the coaches. Then there is a talk with audio/visuals where the position coaches talk about the individual recruits they will be working with.  Here is the advertisement and the website link to RSVP for the event:

PITT LOI DAY EVENT

2017-loi-day-2

So go to the website and reserve a spot ASAP – it gets filled up pretty quickly if I remember.  If anyone wants we can go a bit early and meet at Bettis’ for some libations before walking over at 5:00 pm.  I’ll be at the bar about 4:00 or so.

Here is the Pitt LiveWire video done for LOI Day last season – fun to watch but a long one…

Part of that group coming in are the kids who are already on campus getting ready for Spring Practices.  Here is some info on them.

See you there…. Reed

86 thoughts on “Pitt’s 2017 LOI Day Signing Event”

  2. Reed, based on what you are hearing from the folks on the inside, which members of this class of recruits is causing the most excitement?

    H2P

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  3. Not Reed but…..for what it’s worth.

    Paris Ford is the big fish. Highly thought of before this season but has blown up this year and went off the charts at the high school all star game. He could be the best recruit in a few years.

    Jerry Drake who enrolled early from Fla who is 6’7″ 311lbs is a good one as well

    Sibley the running back from Ohio who was once committed to Ohio State is a 4 star who could play early

    Charles Reeves a 6’6″ 240lbs TE from Ohio looks like a nice pickup

    My sleeper pick of the bunch so far is Owen Drexel 6’2 and a half inch natural center that had a surprise year this past season. I’ve always been one to think the center position is the most important along the OL. When you can get a young man who’s done this (play the center position) most of his life all the better.

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  4. The most important day of the year for Pitt Football. This is when gets better, stays the same or gets worse. But you don’t know till 3 or four years later.

    From the last thread, I really appreciate Reed and the way he puts himself out there and is willing to discuss issues with us and defend his positions. I think this interaction makes this the absolute best Pitt Football Blog. His prolific entries keep the discussion fresh. I appreciate his efforts to keep our discussions, debate, and arguments on a higher plain. We all want to defend our positions, but keeping it civil is important because we are family.

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  5. As of this morning PITT has 18 verbals. They break down like:

    Alabama—–1
    Fla————-5
    Ohio———–4
    NJ————–3
    Pa————–1
    WPIAL———4

    As you can see, Narduzzi is not relying heavy on the local guys as some coaches have done in the past. If they don’t want to be at PITT, Narduzzi is already implementing a different recruiting strategy. As a matter of fact in the next 3 weekends PITT will be hosting 13 players in all. Not one of them are from the state of Pa.

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  6. The other question I had from the last thread was which was the bigger win for the program, 13-9 or the thriller in Death Valley? Which was more unexpected? The WV victory ended up with a great recruiting class. I personally think it saved Wanny’s job, things were not looking very good at the time. But it was a rivalry game where strange things can happen. To me the Clemson game was the most amazing, considering the weakness of our defense, the three INT’s and the great final stand, which had not happened all year, plays by Taleni who had rode the bench for most of the year. I think the Clemson game was much more of an upset, although they went on to win the NC.

    But even more fun than knocking WV out of their NC chance was knocking PSU out of the playoff this year.

    A really special year.

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  7. Ike, I still believe it is important to get our share of the local guys. Obviously it is important to get good players no matter where they come from. But it is more important to be highly thought of in your own backyard. We need local kids to dream of playing for Pitt if we want local fans to come to Pitt games.

    Each local kid brings a following on game day, a following that can continue for years. Letting the best go elsewhere is a big loss. Hopefully this is not the start of a trend, but just a bad year.

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  9. Reed – thanks very much for your response in the last post. I’ve had that said to me privately in a similar manner. A good AD will get him to adjust his style to meet the full demands of a HC. Unfortunately for the program, we’ve had AD turnover and the HC feels he has a direct link to the Chancellor. So, the new AD will have his work cut out for him. Sorry to highjack the current thread.

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  10. PITT did hit WPA really hard this year and will no doubt keep recruiting the local players but he’s not putting all his eggs in the WPIAL basket. That said,I think he got the best player from WPA this year in Ford.

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  11. Ike, that is interesting about none of the kids visiting being locals. But, I thought that I saw a list that included an official visit by Paris Ford. Maybe not. In any case, I am really happy to see us actively going after recruits outside of western PA.

    H2P

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  12. I have always wanted to attend this shindig, but the timing is always awful for me workwise.
    If you don’t have a Twitter account, LOI Day is worth getting one to follow the the recruits faxes coming in.

    Erie – you remind me of Ted Koppel in the early days of Nightline. Day 33 of the hostage situation…

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  13. FWIW, my sleeper is LB Cam Bright from Alabama (originally from Ohio). 2nd team All-state in 6A, and had great, consistent tackle numbers leading his team to state finals

    From Hudl, what is most impressive is his explosiveness as he gets to the ball carrier At 6’1 210 lbs, he would not be the 4 star prospect that would appeal to the likes of Bama or OSU. May not contribute immediately like Paris Ford but IMO a can’t miss.

    I agree that the staff went very hard after a few WPIAL studs but whiffed. In the end, not sure we had a realistic chance. For example, Donovan Jeter made it quite clear before committing to Mich that he wanted to go to a big time college program / atmosphere.

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  14. The local recruiting would have been a great deal larger if Notre Dame, Michigan and PSU were not in the picture.—-Right now I’m just hoping we have an offensive coordinator in place prior to the start of spring practice.

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  16. Seriously…what the hel happened on the last thread???* my goodness.

    Literally @Dr. Tom said it was no fun for him to post because he was irriated by the negativity? —> no bueno.

    Anyways lol —-> ay-yay-yay

    Which was better: WVU in 2007 or Clemson 2016?? Beating a one-loss Big East team that woulda snuck into the National Championship vs who even remembers in the irrelevant BCS days……or RIGHT NOW beating the team in the new-age Playoffs that shut-out Urban Meyer’s Ohio State and then beat Straight-Up what MANY were calling the best team in College Football History?? — just……even that a question like that would be posed in anything but total Irony is…….

    Reed I think at this point you’re like the guy in an old 80’s High School movie, wearing the Letterman Jacket who a bunch of posters seem to be Feeding Off of right now….you’re being Hyper Cynical and Negative and even Upittbaseball seems to be backing-off lol.

    Dayinnnng SO negative????

    lol Pitt Football was Horrible in the $hity A$$ Big East for a Super Long Time* —- and now that Everything is Exponentially Trending Upwards in the #1 Power 5 Conference with a win vs the National Champion ….. where are some of your Heads At???* lol dunno

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  18. Wow let’s do the MATH HERE :

    🙂 Cool Beans. Also, Pitt isn’t some 4-8 team with one sole-upset. They lost to some really, really solid teams. Northwestern truly treated the Bowl game as their Superbowl. Pitt was a Growing, BUILDING team this year where ALL OF THE ACTUAL-TALENT WAS YOUNG 🙂

    The team this actually solid Pitt team BEAT later on:

    Jeez @Reed what the …..FUDGE…. do you not understand that Manny Stocker is a 5th year senior and was GONE…and Ben DiNucci was the ONLY RETURNING QB on the roster who could play without Burning Thomas MacVittie’s redshirt????? —— being straight-up OBTUSE and other posters just following along what the heck??? 😦 😦 lol

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  19. Thanks wwb for the inclusive list, mine did not include players who had already verbal-ed to PITT. Ford is indeed visiting this weekend. I have also heard he may have a visit set up with Miami next week. The story behind that is when he played in the high school all-star game a few weeks ago the committed players from Fla were so impressed by him that ask him to come down with them for a visit.

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  20. ^^^ By-the-way Pitt beat Clemson with all of their Top-Tier talent and Captains playing healthy and starting.

    Pitt didn’t squeak-by Clemson because any of their top-talent was out. Clemson was at 100% full strength, and yet for Pitt Jordan Whitehead broke his arm, Tyrique Jarret was out and Taleni was in, etc., while every single Clemson Stud played at full health and Pitt won.

    That exact same Clemson team just beat Nick Saban’s strongest Alabama team ever that Ran through the whole SEC with Ease and Crushed Washington like they were a JV team.

    Pitt lost to: #11 Okie State, #16 Va Tech, #20 Miami and very-unfortunately in that bad loss to North Carolina in the regular season —- Pitt is Trending ^^^^^^^ with 25 more Hand-Chosen Pat Narduzzi recruits coming in so….. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 c’mon lol

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  21. DK posted “eez @Reed what the …..FUDGE…. do you not understand that Manny Stocker is a 5th year senior and was GONE…and Ben DiNucci was the ONLY RETURNING QB on the roster who could play without Burning Thomas MacVittie’s redshirt”

    You get it Darkie, my point all along. + DiNucci is probably better than Stocker this late in the season.

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  22. Guess some poster named….Snoopy??? made a video that got taken down?? 😦 😦 no bueno lol

    How bout a video that instead of being negative to Pitt fans, says, Fudge penn state!!!

    Beat them next year and #PittIsMostDefinitelyIt!!!!! 🙂 🙂

    LOL —- #pennstateSoSad 😦 😦 hahaha

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  26. Reed, this is really cool you will be back in the Burgh for LOI day. I know you’ll come prepared with many questions and thoughts. The following article should be interesting considering PITT should have their new OC on staff.

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  27. Alabama: Offensive analyst Mike Locksley is expected to be promoted to an on-field role, according to ESPN’s Brett McMurphy. Locksley has been at Alabama for one year and was previously the offensive coordinator at Maryland from 2012-15.

    Oregon: Alabama offensive tackles / tight ends coach Mario Cristobal will join the Oregon staff as co-offensive coordinator, according to 247Sports and multiple reports. Cristobal has been at Alabama since 2013 and was previously the head coach at FIU from 2007-12. ESPN’s Brett McMurphy adds that assistant David Reaves will be the other co-offensive coordinator.

    If Pitt was waiting for an Alabama coach it must be Billy Napier…

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  28. DK… I say what I think and try to make it readable, I suggest you follow suit.

    My only real concern for HCPN’s recruiting is with OL players. It is just a gut thing but I think we’ll see a decline there.

    Of the current recruits I’m really hoping that Todd Sibly lives to hype because I ‘m not sold on either Moss or Hall at this point at all.

    Matter of fact if Ollison transfers I think we are in real trouble there.

    What may happen over the next two years is that we will see a real decline in the offense and see the defense get better. That all ties in with a lesser talented OL.

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  29. Legit concerns but too early to make any real judgments especially on OL which seems to take longer to develop than skill players (except for QB)

    I thought Moss looked pretty good for a natural freshman until he got injured

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  30. I fully expect a drop off in OL recruiting as well. No Yoda-like coach such as Huber to help draw them in and while Chryst had a disdain for recruiting, he always has said it starts with the big palookas up front.

    The turnstile that is the OC position doesn’t help at all either.

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  31. If Pitt is able to land most of the top recruits they are in on, Pitt will finish in the top 30 and maybe 25 as to final ranking in recruiting. In any event, here’s hoping they close strong.

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  33. I had a 90+ minute long beer conversation with Brandon Ford’s parents, mostly his dad – it seems we drank all the beer available almost – great guy and very open and honest about his Pitt experiences so far, in the hotel bar the evening before the recent bowl game.

    He told me that under no uncertain terms it was all Joe Hueber who got them and his son to Pitt in last year’s recruiting class. He also said that having Huber approach his family and asking Brandon to go to Pitt was like “a football god” asking them.

    Here is Hueber’s Bio:

    http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/jim_hueber_794957.html

    Huber targeted Ford in between Ford’s SO-JR year in HS. When Huber left they took a step back but decided to stick with Pitt even though Penn State made a strong run in Ford’s SR HS year.

    Huber is that well know and respected in college football. The problem is that we have no one of that stature on the staff now – not even close.

    Now, at the risk of sounding negative again, I’m not impressed with the staff coaches Narduzzi has brought in with the exception of Canada. It seems as if he and Pitt are targeting ‘up and comers” who they can get on the cheap rather than looking at older established position coaches who may be out of a job at the moment or in a lower division even.

    How much would we like to have someone like Greg Gattuso back at Pitt as the DC? We had very good defenses when he was the DL coach here and he’s gotten tons of experience since then including HC experience – give him the DC position and make him an Asst Head Coach and see how well our defense responds and how well our local recruiting takes off…

    http://www.ualbanysports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=209335267

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  34. Reed, I agree on O-linemen. WPIAL top O-Linemen, Lugg, Thorpe, Hinish, Houy and Hainsey IMG from Gateway. We got one out of five. Possibly the weakest one, at least on paper.

    Over the years we have gotten many great O-linemen from the WPIAL.

    Games are won in the trenches.

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  36. Reed,
    You are “right on” in naming guys like Gattuso and Hueber. Can you imagine our D and O Line with these guys in charge. Comparing Gattuso to Conklin is like comparing a Cadillac to a Ford Pinto. It would be nice to upgrade with experienced guys like these.

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  37. Gattuso’ staff at Albany includes Jim Sweeney (OL), Nate Byham (TE) and Bernard Clarke (DC/LB) … any of those names ring a bell?

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  38. Have to give some respect to Powell too IMO. Good energy and ST and RBs have been solid

    I used to hold my breath on kick return coverage…. And of course, punt returns… Cincy… (Tears up)

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  39. Would Gattuso play the Narduzzi defensive scheme? If not he would not be considered for the job. Narduzzi is not going to change his style for anyone. We just have to hope that he can recruit some elite DB’s and LB’s with some size and speed needed to play that style of D. Conklin is still here because I guess he recruits well and will stay exactly true to form with the Narduzzi style of D.—By the way multiple years of this consistent defense futility may become Narduzzi’s undoing at Pitt IMO. Let’s hope that doesn’t end up being the case.

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  40. Been to most all the LOI events. Early one at the Field House they gave out cookies. Recent event PGT trucking bought beer. Fun events. Hope to see some of you at Bettis Grille. I usually tailgate these. Bettis will be an upgrade for me.

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  41. i have not been overly impressed with the OL and its coach but we dont know the insides. i tried to find out where Hueber is now and can find nothing. Did he retire after Pitt?

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  42. Pitt’s OL won’t miss a beat next season unless we get hit with a couple injuries. Wait until you see how Justin Morgan comes into his own this year.

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  44. Thanks for the bio link wwb, I had no idea Peterson was so well qualified. By the way, how many times was Peterman sacked this season? I think it was only about 10 times all season.

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  45. There is little doubt that Narduzzi’s team will morph into more of his own beliefs and strategies. What PITT may lose in some areas I’m confident they will gain in others. Until finally PITT will be a strong contender not only for the Coastal division but the ACC championship year in and year out.

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  46. and about Peterson, he gets credit for the O-Line this past year with all the shifts and movements as well as Canada. The line was impressive as heck this year with the discipline and execution. Next year will be equally good. imo

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  47. Agreed ike. As fans is to talk a lot more about failures than success, so not much has really been said about the entire offense’s pre-snap discipline this past season. With all the shifts and motion, I would have expected man more false starts illegal shifts, etc. They really did well as a unit.

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  49. This years offensive line was one of the best since the days of Fralic, Covert and Grimm. Hopefully Bisno and Johnson go on to have the same kind of professional success.

    Still hoping that Reuben Brown gets into the pro HOF, but since the Bills lost their 4 Superbowls, who knows.

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  50. MacKenzie, another example of guys that leave home that don’t make it. Don’t see much room for him here now.

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  51. It was the easiest job in the world to coach a OL that had 96 starts already under their belt. Shifts and different formations are only icing on the cake. The real learning comes earlier and that’s what I’m wondering about with the new recruits. and existing OL underclassman.

    Those 2016 OL guys were taught by the best in the business when they needed it most – the two years directly after high school. Personally I don’t see a lot of depth there even going into this season… but that may be because we haven’t seen them in action much.

    Here is the starting lineup going into the bowl game:

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  52. Oh my Reed?? I’ll just take the high road here. It’s as plain as the nose on your face. (head shaking emogy)

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  54. I’m staying out of this and holding back. It’s your comment about the coaches. They just can’t seem to do any right in your eyes.

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  58. I just said that Canada did a great job as the OC. I have been saying that Narduzzi deserves credit for his two 8 win seasons. I think the special teams coach did well also.
    ‘However I’ll stick to my comment that when you have an OL who has almost 100 starts between them and everyone a returning starter the OL coach doesn’t have a hell of a lot to do with their success.

    Last year at the Navy game we had these kids as starters:

    Bisnowaty, Johnson, Rowell, Officer and O’Neill; the only difference this season was that Bookser took over Officer’s spot when Officer moved to Center – but Bookser had a lot of PT in both his FR and SO years including starts.

    Sorry Ike – Peterson will make his mark and impress me, or not, with the new OL players coming into their own in ’17 and beyond. I just don’t believe he had much positive influence with the all-star cast he already had this last season.

    BTW – you are looking for every little thing to disagree with here – even going so far as assuming I think things that I haven’t ever written or said.

    I give each and every commenter on here the benefit of the doubt when they comment on something and I read your and others comments with an open mind – if I think they are inferring something then I ask for clarification. I don’t condescend to commenters and I don’t assume they mean something they don’t say. I’ll ask for the same consideration from you.

    If you disagree with my thoughts then say so and tell me why – but give me reasons why you think so. However, writing “SMH” is akin to saying absolutely nothing and is insulting to boot, and thinking I can’t give credit to any staff coaches is ridiculous.

    Some did well… Canada, Rob Harley (with the talent he had to work with), Sims had a tough job this year and his kids produced and Kevin Sherman did wonders with Weah. I talked with those guys at some length at the Fall Camp Media day and they were honest in their assesments of their roster and what they had to work with – and i think they did a good job getting the best they could out of some pretty inexperienced players.

    But I also believe that some should coaches have been fired in mid-season and the HC taken more of a role in that job.I wouldn’t have blinked an eye if Narduzzi cut Conklin loose at mid-season when it looked like his defense was dragging us down.

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  59. This waiting for Pitt to hire an OC is trying my patience. I keep checking Pittsburgh Sports Now and Pitt POV for any updates. Then I play free cell solitaire awhile and check back later. I know, I need a life! I just hope the wait will be worth it. H2P

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  60. I don’t think we’ll see an OC right away. The recruits we’ll get we’ll get regardless of if that position is filled or not.

    I’d rather they take their time and get someone solid – but $$$ maybe an issue because Dr. Juhle may not want to spend a lot for a business decision he is not familiar with.

    I just had a conversation with EJ and he said what we fans are reading is what is known so far. In other words don’t hold your breath.

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  61. Meanwhile, Mario Cristobal (remember him?) is expected to become the new OC & Run Game Coordinator at Oregon.

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  62. It is much too early to make any judgement about the recent OL recruits or the current coach. All we know is so far, so good. Only time will tell.

    ^^^Bingo!

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  63. @ jrnpitt, I have mentioned this before and I have very few people who currently back me up on this thought but fear not about Narduzzi’s defense going forward. Next season, there will be upgrades installed at the LB, CB & safety positions. The only guy we will truly miss will be Mr. Price is Right. This year’s defense will play better than last year’s, which won’t be hard to do, and in 2018 it’s a top 20 defense across the board. (Please mark my words Reed)

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  65. gpm, I’m like you. I obsess about each game, then the bowl game, now the OC hire..when that’s announced I’ll move on to recruits , then LOI day, etc. I am not much of a multi tasker, and I guess I need more of a life, lol.

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  66. I think giving Canada credit but not giving Peterson credit is odd. If Peterman had experience players, didn’t Canada have the same advantage?

    Now as far as recruiting, Canada brought in zero. Will Peterman be as good a recruiter as Hueber? They are big shoes to fill.

    But just like Canada Peterson did a great job with what he had to work with. Hopefully he can recruit, guys should want to play for him based on what he did this year.

    I still think we missed big on the local talented O-linemen, but with Chaney and Canada leaving in consecutive years, maybe not much of a surprise.

    Also Chryst was an O-linemen’s coach and that is what he recruited best, so, a tough act to follow.

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  67. Reed, disagree with your assessment of declining recruiting on the offensive side of the ball. It seems that your associating PN with PC, Chryst did recruit extensively and well on the offensive side of the ball, but not on the defensive side, it seemed that’s all he cared about. PN being a defensive guy found the cupboard empty on the defensive side and thus a strong effort there. However, unlike PC he’s not neglecting the offensive. So far on OL: Justin Morgan, Zack Williams, Brandon Ford, Jerry Drake, Carter Warren, and Gabe Houy so far. As for skill guys: Aaron Mathews, Ruben Flowers, Maurice Ffrench, Chawtez Moss, Charles Reeves, Grant Carrigan, Tyler Sear, Todd Sibley, Thomas MacVittie, Kenny Pickett, Darian Street and hopefully AJ Davis.

    Point being is PN is not neglecting the offensive side as PC did with the defensive side, but at the same time a balancing act with the defensive side being neglected for a long period of time.

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  68. Dr. Tom, I agree 2017 will bring a much better defense primarily due to LB play. Led by Wirginis, “the Gateway Clipper”

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  69. Devastator Double Bock from Wasatch. Try it. If only Pitt could be so good.
    I have hope though.
    Pitt will catch ‘beer’ in a bottle one day.

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  71. West Virginia: Cal offensive coordinator Jake Spavital will be the new offensive coordinator at WVU and Joe Wickline will now serve as offensive line coach sources tell FootballScoop. Bruce Feldman first shared the news.

    Reinhardt (NAIA – GA): Offensive line coach James Miller has been promoted to offensive coordinator.

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  72. @reed or anyone else

    Does It feel sometimes that we are on a need to know basis with the current Pitt administration?

    The Pitt administration has always taken the easy way out or the least expensive way, I really don’t see a change but I’m old or maybe paranoid.

    I see the OC as a ‘cheap hire’ tell me I’m wrong I can accept criticism.

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  73. IMHO, the longer this OC hire drags on, the higher the risk will be with the eventual hire…Same holds true for the AD position.

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  75. Wait til up it finds out that cristobal is going to Orgon as their OC! He is going to flip his lid. Obviously a strong recruiter in the southeast. Not sure of his offensive play calling skills.

    If we keep signing Flurrrrida kids, we should buy time on the sunshine network and televise the LOI extravaganza in Fla. It would have been a good.year to televise game replays there too.

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  78. gc – What Canada did with the offense this season was use kids that were already on the roster but had little playing time this season and put them in different roles.

    He did that by using the WRs in the run game. If you tally up all the non-traditional yardage (RB through the OL) in rushing for us this year you get this:

    Henderson – 631 yards
    Ffrench – 122
    Tipton – 61
    Lopes – 32 and
    Neill – 29

    That is a total of 875 that came on those end sweeps and other tricky plays. The RBs had a normal 2,051. We totaled 2,926 on the ground this last season.

    In 2015 the only WR to touch the ball – Tyler Boyd – had 349 yards rushing all on Jet Sweeps. The rest of the RBs had 2031 – only 20 yards less than this season.

    So Canada inherited an OL who had run those sweeps and end at least 40+ times last year.

    But isn’t that stat interesting. When we lined up and ran the normal “RB through the line” running game we only gained 20 more yards than we did last season.

    So that why I think Peterson didn’t really have to do anything new or any real teaching with this very experienced OL. They had seen and run all the plays before.

    BTW – I’ve never said Peterson wasn’t a decent OL coach and as wbb said maybe he’ll prove to be a good one – I’m saying I can’t tell anything from his first two years because he was working with inherited excellent talent who had been coached by the best in the business and who had a ton of starts already.

    (Expect a small article about this)

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  79. Reed – good insight on the OL. I like the young talent we have on the roster for the OL – like you point out, are they being developed by the coaches.

    Time will tell.

    While I’m sipping my coffee before work, I came up with a 412 defense for Conklin to consider (if he is still D.C. In 2017) –

    Start with the DB’s – we’ll play 5 in this scheme:

    S – Whitehead and P.Ford
    CB – Hamlin and Coleman
    Nickel – B.Garner

    For the LB’s corp, I’m going to play 4 with one always on the line of scrimmage to stop the run or rush the QB:

    OLB – Zeise and Idowu
    ILB or Rush End – Pugh and Wirginis

    NOTE: 4 LB’s is necessary unless Duzz flips D.Jeter from Michigan on LOI day (very possible).

    The DLine will have 2, but at least 1 LB will be on the line every play:

    DE – R.Blair
    DT – R.Wheeler

    Against good rushing teams, you bring Whitehead up to the box for 7, with both Wirginis and Pugh in the DE spots and Blair sliding inside.

    Most of our opponents have high powered passing attacks, so a standard Nickel package makes sense.

    The back-ups would be tremendous and plentiful in numbers:

    Hendrix, Folston, Edwards (twins), Watts, Camp, Jones, Herndon, Roy, Weaver etc. on the DLine.
    Brightwell, Pine, McKee, C.Bright, Williams, Reynolds, Popp (love the name for a LB) etc.
    Miller, Jackson, Maddox, Briggs, Campbell, Stocker, Motley etc.

    Next year’s D will be young, but the depth is being built.

    HTP!

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  81. With all due respect of course.

    Please dont say we trust Narduzzi. I trust nothing of him or his “128th ranked defense.” His assistant does do his twitter good. And someone in admin please burn his pleated khakis for goodness sake. He looks like a a guy selling washingmachine parts in the back of sears.

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  82. EE – good post, but have to disagree on a couple things. Not impressed at all with Idowu. Too small and slow and only played due to injuries and lack of talent. Not a D1 LB at all. I’m rooting for Zeise but we really don’t know if he can play. Honestly, we need both of them to be beaten out for starting positions this spring if we are going to get better – but I will be rooting for Zeise due to his speed if he can stay healthy and get a little bigger.

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  84. Think Brightwell will be one of the starters. But there should be real battles for all jobs this year. I don’t see Taleni mentioned, he should be a star next year. He was maybe the star of the game vs Clemson.

    Reed, I agree on the sweeps and trick plays, but again, those don’t work without excellent O-line blocking.

    Taking advantage of Henderson’s abilities was brilliant. We saw the beginning of that the previous year with Boyd and Whitehead. Henderson just much faster and elusive. Also had Conner for defenses to focus on.

    Canada gets credit for all of the shifts and motions, but Peterson’s lines made them work and were masterful in avoiding penalties. Agree that could only be done with experienced, quality guys.

    Still a little disappointed in how long it took to get the downfield passing game to work. Pass blocking was pretty great when they did.

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  85. In any case, games are won in the trenches so we need to recruit big, strong fast, smart guys on both sides of the ball. Back-ups for the O-line are somewhat suspect because they have not been needed or played yet. Pretty much everyone stayed healthy this year.

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