It looks like Pat Bostick Jr is going to do a meet & greet at the Golf Outing on Friday in the latter afternoon. I’ll be with my wife and daughter for the weekend so may have to truncate the spring game watching – we’ll see.
Thanks to Dr. Tom for his good article yesterday – I rebutted some points and agreed with some but as always value his input.
Nice video, huh?
Speaking of $$$ on college football here is an interesting website abut that issue:
Regular article tomorrow…
pittpov.com 
Interesting that the acc is third in total money but last in money per school among the p5.
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By the way guys… better get used to me saying Kevin Brown instead of Max Brown because I went to high school with a kid named Kevin Brown and was good friends with him. I’ll try to remember but you know who I’m talking about.
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here is a nice story on Max (not Kevin) Brown
http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/usc-trojans-pitt-max-browne-sam-darnold-spring-practice-bruce-feldman-040917
Also, Dr T, look at the story immediately below it
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Great article wwb, let’s hope Browne outplays Peterman numbers this coming season.
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I’ll be working Friday, so I’ll miss the golf outing festivities. I will have holiday family issues on Saturday but I might have to squeeze some time in for the POV tailgate/Dr. Tom / Upitt Cage match on Saturday !
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Please thank Pat for the 13-9 and the good job he’s doing for Pitt. He may just be our future AD!!!
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A bunch of things:
Guess it’s time to wish all you guys a great time next Friday. I’m bummed out I won’t be there. Reed, if you would, can you make me a name tag even though I cannot be there?
It would be great if Pat Bostick could make it. Always liked him as he’s a fine young man. Hope he sets you guys straight on some things.
Pretty sure Kirk (I thought his name was Kris) Christodoulou is eligible this year but probably won’t play.
About Clemson. Kinda of sure they were always getting big crowds before they became the football giants they have become. I thought you had to win first??
Sherrill was a great coach and more than a bit paranoid. He also walked that fine line of doing what was necessary to to win football games without getting caught. Take that for what it’s worth…
Forget that dam bowl game already. PITT lost BUT will still be in the preseason top 25. ..and please tell me why? They lost a lot of really good to great players. Because Narduzzi is the new sheriff in town.
I agree with the lighting in a bottle theory. Could have happened last year but there was no lighting, just thunder.
Strange thing about the 18 play drive thoughts. The Steelers have done this for years making teams take all day to score while they actually, at one time, tried to do the same thing on offense. It’s the old bend but do not break defense.
Maybe just my imagination but it seems to me many PITT fans treat Narduzzi like he’s been at PITT coaching for 4 or 5 years?? The cry going into this season was, he doesn’t have that signature win. After only one year??
PITT beats psu, that’s not a signature win. Then PITT goes on to beat Clemson on the road. OK, Narduzzi gets that signature win. but what about the bowl games??
Navy was way better than PITT that season. NW is another story but it’s only 2 games. That is not a trend by any means. Calm down and have some dip.. ike
We All We Got
We All We Need
H2P
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Amen ike
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I Like Ike!
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Ike told you so!
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@PittPT, maybe we should trash the outing and just do the UPITT / Dr.. Tom cage match a la Shells Wonderful World of Golf from the 1960’s…we could be the gallery and Reed could do a podcast.
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I ain’t fighting Upitt, he’s too young and strong. Plus he tries to pull your hair and I’m losing mine fast enough
already without any help.
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from the alleged ‘must-read’ DiPaola blog: The Pittsburgh Chapter of the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame topped off a busy sports weekend in the city Sunday with its 31st annual banquet at the Westin William Penn.
Some of the inductees of note were (my words):
— E.J. Borghetti (Dominic T. Roppa Award), who is in his 20th year as executive associate athletic director/media relations at Pitt where he has promoted 10 first-team All-Americans. No one loves his school like E.J. loves his school.
— Dr. Richard Saladino (Medical Professional), Professor of Pediatrics at Pitt’s School of Medicine.
— Bo Pelini (Sportsman of the Year), the head football coach at Youngstown State.
Pelini, who lost to Pitt in Pat Narduzzi’s first game as a head coach in 2015, paid tribute to Narduzzi’s father, Bill, a former YSU head coach and a posthumous NIASHF Hall of Fame inductee two years ago. Pitt’s coach was seated in the audience with his wife, Donna.
“Bill Narduzzi was YSU football,” Pelini said. “I could coach for the rest of my career and never do for YSU what Bill Narduzzi did.”
Read more: http://blog.triblive.com/college-locker-room/2017/04/10/italian-american-hall-of-fame-inducts-its-2017-class/#ixzz4dqZxTvXW
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wwb – is EJ’s school wvcc or Pitt? Maybe both?
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Wait a second. .. What about having high expectations for the Pitt team and program?
All I heard about for years is that Pitt fans expect average teams and that was what we got. Now when we were in the position to have legit higher expectations you all are telling me to lower the bar?
Honestly that smacks of SOP big time. Happy because we may be in the pre-season Top 25 but its OK that we blew a chance at a post-season Top 15??
Funny that with all the talk about me “not liking” Narduzzi I have greater expectations for him than you guys do.
Fans need to adjust their thinking to what their team can accomplish from game to game then be honest about the season when it is over.
We all know what killed a shot at that lighting in a bottle season last year with our pass defense being so horrible…yet I hear nothing but excuses from you guys regarding Conklin.
Conklin’s defense lost at least three games for us last year… OK State, B.C. and NW -the first two when we scored 38 & 36 points respectively. Still we just love Narduzzi’s boy at DC.
Sooner or later Pitt is going to have to take risks to get to that rarefied air that Dr. Tom talked about and maybe changing the DC over the off-season should have been the first bold move to take a chance at a great season.
Instead we’ll try to outscored our opponent with an offense that won’t be able to replicate 2016’s.
Its you guys who seem to be happy with same old, same old just because you love Narduzzi.
Face it,jumping up and down because we won 8 games is pretty much saying that’s what we are happy with.
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Here’s my take on Coach Conklin. I think he is simply Coach Duzz’s surrogate as teacher of the defense and defensive coordinator. Coach Duzz needed someone to teach/implement HIS defense; not some big-name defensive coordinator to come in with their own system and install their defense on Coach Duzz’s team.
Now this hasn’t worked out as well as any of us, including Coach Duzz, had wanted. But this explains why Coach Conklin has been given a long leash. Both Coach Conklin and the players are going thru the growing pains of getting to where Coach Duzz wants HIS defense to be.
As far as defensive adjustments, or lack their of, or defensive players switching positions, do you really think these calls are being made by Coach Conklin? The man behind the curtain pulling the strings on the Pitt defense is Coach Duzz.
My .02.
Go Pitt.
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No Reed, it’s not the same at all. Some people choose to look out the front windshield as Dr Tom put it. I don’t think many are happy with 8 wins and who could be happy with last years bowl loss. The point is, many see the past two, eight win seasons as a sign of better things to come. It’s called 20-20 optimistic vision. …. ike
We All We Got
We All We Need
H2P!
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Seems like Conklin has done a good job recruiting Florida. He is installing Narduzzi’s defense and has not had the personnel to execute it effectively. Time will tell if Partridge was brought in to take over as DC. This upcoming season will determine who the DC is for 2018.
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Only time will tell if it was the X’s and the O’s .. or the … Jimmy’s and the Joe’s
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and again. Some like to think Narduzzi is mired in some sort of stationary patter-en. Two short years does not constitute a trend imo.
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Last year was the culmination of Chryst’s great offensive recruiting plus Peterman and Henderson.
It was also the culmination of his woeful defensive recruiting, Price was here before Chryst.
I would say it had much more to do with the Jimmy’s and Joe’s than the X and O’s
This is the transition year, half Chryst’s and half Narduzzi’s.
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Reed, I think you meant UNC and not BC. But I would say that our defense contributed to all of our losses.
I also think our offense could have overcome our defensive deficiencies in the OK ST, UNC, and NW games.
Our offense won’t be nearly as prolific this year so our defense must play better to win eight or more games.
So much of the results will be determined by how well Brown plays. That is the biggest unknown.
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One thing I will add and I really believe this is, I keep reading and hearing people say. “Finally Narduzzi has his guys in place” Not so fast my friends. Narduzzi having RS sophomores and younger is not having his guys in place. I would add a caution flag to that 20′ POV flag pole this year.
PITT had a good year in 2016 mostly due to Chyrst players who had an enormous amount of experience. There would have to be elite 5 star type of players taking their place to overcome all the losses.
Wait a minute, PITT has a couple of those guys but they come with little experience. I will roll into next season with high hopes but my fingers crossed. I will fully expect much more come 2018 and beyond. When Narduzzi will then have his players in place.
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Like most arguments, I believe the answer to be somewhere in the middle .. although, in this case, I believe it is pretty much slanted towards the Jimmys and Joes. As gc pointed out above, the defensive recruiting suffered in the 2012 and 2013 classes.
I would like Reed to defend PC’s hiring of his staff. Chryst was already known as an offensive guru, yet his offensive staff included a great deal of experience. Yet, not only did PC hire a very inexperienced DC after Rudolph bolted, the defensive staff included a DL coach with one year experience, an LB coach with only high school experience, and a grad assistant who was the CB coach.
And if you don’t think that competitor recruiters didn’t point this out to potential commits, I have a good price for you on the Liberty Bridge. Again, I invite all to look at the recruiting classes that would have comprised the upperclass of the recent Pitt squad, and note the disparity of the offense vs defense in both quality and quantity.
On the other hand, I believe you will find a much better balance on the 2 most recent classes.
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Correction to above … after ‘Huxtable’ bolted (not after Rudolph bolted)
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Here was Pitt’s coaching staff after Huxtable left:
Coaching Staff
Paul Chryst – Head Coach
Joe Rudolph – Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends
Matt House – Defensive Coordinator/Secondary
Brooks Bollinger – Quarterbacks
Inoke Breckterfield – Defensive Line
Bobby Engram – Wide Receivers
Chris Haering – Linebackers
John Palermo – Linebackers/Defensive Ends
Jim Hueber – Offensive Line
Desmond Robinson – Running Backs
6 of the of the 10 are offense, and the only defensive coach with any real experience was Palermo, was brought in after being retired.
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Let’s face it. The one problem we can put our finger on concerning the PITT football program the past couple of decades has been with the assistant coaches PITT has employed. Some may point directly at money but I think some miscues were just bad judgement and hires. However money seems to be the big and real culprit here.
As Reed pointed out (i think it was Reed) The asst coaches back in the mid 70’s through early eighties and beyond is really impressive. I still believe that Narduzzi will get the money if he ever can lure in a big name asst coach. Which they kind of did with Partridge and at least on the surface, Canada. We will see…
Reed, I hope you don’t mind if I talk for a second about the POV round-table tomorrow night.
Reed puts so much time into the POV alone I sometimes wonder what a wonderful wife he must have to allow him so much time away. That’s why when he ask me for help with the round-table I was more than happy to help. You know he also has to pay a monthly fee for the service.
For the record, callers do not pay or even download one thing. It as safe as being on the POV. It’s simple, easy and fun. No one will steal your bank roll fellows.
Reed has had on PittPT, Pittman4ever, Dr Tom, MissingWlat, and Tx_Panther, albeit briefly. << You guys are always welcome with more than open arms. Reed needs you guys to show up because he knows he can rely on you guys..
I realize I have, maybe, I a little more time on my hands than some of you BUT, some of you have expressed interest in joining so why not? Here are some needs to know.
No downloading of any kind
Camera’s are an option, turn it off if you would like
You can call in by phone
No fees of any kind
You can just listen in
Leave at any time
Wear a funny disguise
Use your imagination
It would be so much fun to hear from some of you other guys and let Reed and all of us know something about you. Reed plans on having a round-table tomorrow night so make plans. There is all kinds of room for many callers so don’t be shy. You can jump on and just listen or chime in at appropriate times.
Don’t forget you regulars, see you tomorrow night.
C’mon on guys… As they say at the PITT games BE THERE!!
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The staffs were impressive in the late ’80s and into the early ’90s. The biggest problem was the administration first then Hackett second once he took over.
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Ike is on to something. Am I happy with 8-4 regular season last year, yes. Did we miss an opportunity to be 9-4, yes, maybe. When mired in multiple 6-6 years, 8-4 is a solid improvement. 56 out of 128 teams achieved 8 or more victories, including bowl games and conference championship games. That’s 43.75%. In P5 conferences 32 of 64 or 50% achieved 8 victories. When you have a few years at 8-4, the next progression is 9-3. Only 33% of all teams won 9 games. It’s building a program, not building a season. The idea is not to slip back to mediocrity and that is why it is so critical to keep building off of the improvement.
When we get to 9 wins, and we will, that is when lightning can hit and the ball can bounce your way and you end up 11-1. That is doable. To try and say that with a 8-4 team, there are just too many areas of struggle. As an example, yes we scored a lot, but when we needed first downs to ice games, we couldn’t get em. Ball didn’t go our way.
What is great to watch is that we are achieving this despite a casual commitment from the Administration. This is where our Administration fails. Pitt football is on the cusp of building and maintaining a solid program that will benefit in future giving. What would happen if they went all in????
We didn’t “WILL” ourselves to any victory, although Clempson was close. I don’t want to see you all at the 10th Annual POV Golf Outing and celebrate how we went 9-3 one year. I want to celebrate being 9-3 for the last five years and how we made it to a playoff because we got some breaks and some nice calls in critical situations. My worry is that the Administration doesn’t get it at all which is typical.
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Read the Fox Sports article on Max Browne. I found it strange that Max even got any attention from this writer for such a national publication. Who cares, considering at this point that he is an “also ran” QB that is going to play for a team without any national hype coming into the 2017 season.
There is no doubt in my mind that Browne’s attitude is that he is going to do whatever it takes to be Pitt’s starting QB come September 3rd. He knows what his potential is, he knows that it basically has been squandered for his entire college career up to this point and this will be his last gasp for fame and glory if his aspirations to play in the NFL are going to pan out. As he stated himself, this is his last chance and he going into this year with the attitude that he has nothing to lose, which I think is a good thing for him, allowing him to play without any enormous amount of self imposed pressure being placed on how he performs.
Obviously the guy has the smarts, graduated early and had over half of his masters work completed prior to transferring from USC. so he should have the playbook down just fine come the season. My question is how his confidence holds up when he has to go into Beaver Stadium early on and play against a team that will want to rip his head off and spit down into his neck stump all game long? Those bastards are really going to want their revenge come Sept.10th!
The good thing about that game though, Max will also have the same feeling as the rest of the Panthers, that being, knowing what it feels like to beat the Lions, since the Trojans accomplished that too just like Pitt did in the Rose Bowl.
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What’s with the stagnant infrastructure in Oakland? All these years and it hasn’t occurred to anyone that Bates street is archaic. A neighborhood of that size with all the employees is ridiculous to have a basic two way street coming in and out of Oakland.
I know PITT tried to shut down Bigelow Blvd to no avail but why? Why doesn’t the administration at PITT insist for respect?
Sometimes I do feel like I’m beating my head against the wall with PITT. There is practically zero vision and the regions hospital’s are taking a beating as well. Get off the pot PITT.
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Ike – I took my Estonian Lady Friend to see our campus quickly and get a Primantis Sandwich. We sat on Bates for 45 minutes before I ran a few side roads and went home 51 vs. 885. It was an embarrassment. That place is a trainwreck. I’d honestly move the whole damn college to 35 mins out of the city and start over. It is honestly embarrassing as it gets slummier and slummier and dirtier anywhere 10 feet off campus. Love it but I never remember traffic and the south oakland housing looking so bad.
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and people still want an On-Campus Stadium …. go figure!
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I love the cathedral… Maybe we can load it lie they do double wides and head to a 1000 acrea farm in Washington County and start over.
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In more important National news. Bruce Jenner decided to remove his Man Parts. The stuff the media discusses is disgusting. Then you have ESPN who is run by morons give him a courage award. Although cutting off your Captain America does probably take some courage. LOL
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Upittbaseball, now that is exactly the kind of commitment that I want the hear about being undertaken by Jenner
prior to me casting my vote for that transgender as “Woman of the Year”!
I was flabbergasted at that one last year. Can you imagine all of the actual “I was born this way” women out there that deserved to be recognized for their achievements in 2016 only to be supplanted by a still wet behind ears newly christened girlie girl garnering all of that notoriety. That’s the equivalent of a walk-on fourth stringer from YSU’s football team being awarded the Heisman Trophy during fall camp of his Freshman year! That was a sublime WTF moment there!
Plus, could you imagine Donald Trump’s surprise if he had snuck up on Caitlyn for a congratulatory grab only to end up with a handful of man parts that hadn’t undergone the required interior redecorating down there yet?
At least now Caitlyn has pushed all of her chips on the table into the pot. She’s all in now baby!
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