in Pitt Football 348 Words

POV Roundtable Call-In; April 18, 2017

Bernie (BigB) and Jim (Pittman4ever) and I had some real fun last night with an hour long conversation about the ups and downs and ins and outs of Pitt football.  Here it is for you all to enjoy… and to get you ready to participate next Tuesday evening.

One thing I’d like to make clear – BigB and I were talking about recruiting against PSU before the video call started then I rushed him into the same topic on the recording- and he stated that African-American HS players wanted the bright lights and huge crowds… when just a moment before that he said that all the HS players wanted those things in a college.  So forgive me for not editing that part properly.  Believe me, BigB meant no negative aspect of his answer whatsoever.

BTW – I just heard Jon Gruden say that if he had to pick one QB out of the 2017 QB draft class to start a NFL game in three months it would be “Nate Peterman out of Pitt” because of his football smarts and his “quick ” decision making…

He also said that Peterman ‘could’ be the 4th QB drafted in the 1st round.  He really loves Peterman and talked about him way more than any of the others and those include Watson from Clemson and Trubisky.

Later on he said that any NFL HC with an big offensive playbook should take Peterman because he knew Pitt’s by heart and that Peterman had an extensive amount of football knowledge.

He also said that Peterman was exactly like Andy Dalton – and he mentioned that twice.

Gruden spent time with Terrell Pryor also and said he was a freak athlete and really smart.

Also – for all the Pitt fans who are saying we won’t be facing some those great QBs that we did last season – remember that NC’s Trubisky never started a game before his SR year and he threw for 453 yards and five TDs against us. 

Stardom and great play can come from anywhere.

74 thoughts on “POV Roundtable Call-In; April 18, 2017”

  2. Tribusky was a big time recruit out of Ohio and always expected to be a star. He just got unlucky that Marquis Williams blew up and was ahead of him. Browne encountered the same thing with Kessler at USC.

    It’s just the way recruiting goes sometimes. You have to wait for your chances. Kudos to Tribusky for sticking it out.

    It’s why MacVittie not starting until he’s a redshirt Jr, and the same goes for Pickett, are good things for the program. It’s better for the program if MacVittie can win QB1 so Pickett isn’t starting as a redshirt freshman.

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    1. TT, I think Pickett passes MacVittie in the QB horse race and he may pass DiNucci and Browne before too long. We have seen plenty of freshman QB’s excel in the college ranks over the years. The guy up at Syracuse stepped right in and was very effective until his running got him into the concussion cycle. And talking about making a “gut call” when the USC coach pulled Browne for the freshman, he also pulled the captain of the team off the field in doing so.

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  3. I have to make sure the callers don’t use both a mic and have their computer’s mic on at the same time – that is why we got the echo from Pittman4ever…

    Still good stuff from those guys though.

    Another thing Gruden said was that any NFL HC who has an ‘extensive’ offensive playbook should take Peterman because he knew all of ours last season by heart and knows ‘an extensive amount of football’. He said he was ‘smitten’ with Peterman because he’s the “total real deal”.

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  4. “It is better to remain quiet and being thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt.” I apologize ahead of time if my remark offends anyone..that being said it was a great hour with Reed and Pittman..had a great day even down-loading my first link and down-loading a couple of celebratory Manhattens’s

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  5. LOL BigB you were fantastic as were Jim and Reed as always.

    I had to laugh though when Reed gets all tongue tied on Dinucci’s name. He called him Narducci and Dinuzzi but he didn’t call him Inoke. 🙂 .. jus kidding Reed. Really enjoyed the show. More thoughts coming.

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  6. Gruden is a good TV personality, but is no QB guru. He never drafted and developed a quarterback as coach in the NFL. A lot like the noted offensive genius, Brian Billick, and both won Super Bowls with strong defenses.

    Heck, Belichick drafted and put Brady in a system to flourish in. He also won 11 games with Matt Cassel in 2008. Bill B. is more of a QB guru than Gruden. Peterman just got the kiss of death endorsement.

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  8. Love that round-table, the concept is truly unique.

    Reed if you don’t mind a suggestion. You really came up with some great questions last night that were thought provoking. If you can post up questions a day or two ahead of time so it gives the guys some time to mull their thoughts over. Not saying everyone did give great answers but they were good and tough questions.

    Post them up on Sunday and it may inspire even more callers to chime in with their opinions. What I see in the very near future is something like a live show (that is still taped) when POVers peek in just to listen. That’s what bluejeans is made for. Nothing to do on Tuesday night. Let’s listen to Reed’s round-table and possibly offer up some of your own personal thoughts.

    Loved Jim and BigB’s antidotes. The story of street football brings back many memories, brings a whole new meaning to the stop and go route!

    OK, I’m not worried about Browne’s abilities to scramble. The O-Line should be good enough to protect him and he’s more of a timing passer. Marino and Namath couldn’t run to save their lives but they still made it out alive. + We have scramblers waiting in the wings if needed.

    The D-Line will also be fine. Lots of raving concerning Weaver. PITT has Folston, Camp, Watts, Edwards, Roy as backups to Blair, Carter, Taleni and Hendrix. Here’s a name for down the road… Deslin Alexandre. He’s an early enroll-e who could play early in his PITT career.

    About Henderson being more active in the passing game? He will. Perfect fit for Browne and what he likes to do. (I read a lot about him)

    I don’t think Rory Blair has red-shirt yet. Look for a big year from him with Hendrix on the other side and pressure up the middle.

    My 3 big surprises at years end?

    Browne. PITT needs game manger this year and he will do the trick
    The DB’s. The players and coaching staff are totally embarrassed and won’t that fiasco happen again
    Wirginis. Shame on the coaches for not getting this young man on the field more sooner.

    We All We Got
    We All We Need
    H2P1 .. ….ike

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    1. So Ike, I have one question about the DB fiasco. That fiasco was on full display all season long don’t you agree? So just why do you think the fiasco wasn’t addressed at all of last season? They had plenty of time during the season to do so don’t you think? I guess I had more than one question.

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  9. That is a great idea and I will add them to the list of questions that I post. But to be honest that thing about the end of the season 3 Big Ideas, or Revelations I should say, just came to me right in the middle of the broadcast.

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  10. jrn: I think it was mostly the coaches (head coach) being stubborn. We even disagree as fans, if the opponents receivers were running wild and unguarded in the secondary or were closely covered but just didn’t make the plays. Even the fans can’t agree on this it seems.

    I think or hope, given the time to step back, that a consensus was made with everyone involved to do more to to stop the hike and heave play. It was the killer for sure.

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    1. Ike, stubborn or not, the problem was clearly on display all season long. They even had a bye week in there were some serious time should have been devoted to addressing the issue. The end result being the Syracuse 3rd string QB had an ALL PRO performance against us at seasons end.

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  11. Ike,
    Appreciate your mentioning the street football also!!!
    There was nothing like having a huddle in the middle of the street where the kid playing QB would say “you go straight down the street until you get to the end of the blue Dodge Dart – then cut left between the Dart and the red Desoto.” The really neat thing is the parked cars only had 1 foot of space between them and the defender couldn’t fit between the cars!!! We’d play street football everyday in the summer. Great memories Ike!

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  12. Hey Pittman, I did play plenty of street football. What we did even more was play basketball/tennis court football. We would run the option like we were playing on astro turf. Trust me, there were plenty obstacles with that as well. Monkey bars, telephone poles, poles for the tennis nets and basketball hoop poles. (no buicks or stop signs) The imaginations we had back then??

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  13. We played speed-ball – pitching those baseball sized pink rubber balls against a rectangle strike zone chalked on a wall where a batter was.

    Also, kick the can until about 11:00 pm on the summer nights.

    jrn – you are preaching to the choir – I wrote many times last season that we could afford to have Whitehead move to the passing safety because his run support just wasn’t as nearly effective as it was the year before…and it was so obvious something had to be done after the PSU/OSU/NC defensive fiascoes. So what happens but after that crap year they do it over the off season.

    This is why I’m not sold as Narduzzi being a great X&Os HC at all. He made zero adjustments to try to mitigate the horrid pass defense – when in at least two losses, and one other loss that would have been a tie, one less passing TD would have given us the win (or a tie).

    But Pitt fans think he walks on water when I think with that offensive talent he had last year we should have won 10-11 games with any sort of a decent defense t all.

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  14. You people act liked the D played only one defense and one set of players all year. The fact is that while man-to-man was the primary defense …. PSU picked a key 4th &17 late in the 4th quarter against a zone; two key 4th down pick-ups in UNC’s final drive was against the zone, and the last TD given up which turned out to be the deciding points was when Northwestern’s TE did a crossing pattern and was not picked up by the senior OLB, and ended up wide open.

    Fact is that was one of the few wide open situations …most of the time big gains were picked up when our DBs were right with the WRs but didn’t make the plays, or our LBs didn’t make the tackle. Coaches can only put the players in position … the players make the plays.

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      1. Last one …… I’m certainly not giving the coaching staff an A for the defense …. but I don’t see Urban Myer or Nick Saban selecting 2-stars who were otherwise offered by the MAC, and coaching them up

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  15. jrnpitt – you don’t want someone that inexperienced leading your team if you want to win Coastal championships. He may jump them but that’s not necessarily the best thing for Pitt.

    Barvo – that article on Stallings, while interesting, was hardly an endorsement. The following comment basically says we can’t get out of the contract … both of these statements paint him as an outsider.

    “My biggest question was really finding out what he’s about, why he wants to be at Pitt and what’s his vision for building this program. After my conversations with him, I know he wants to be here, I know he’s committed to being here. I’m very confident in his ability to start to build it.”

    “He’s got a ways to go, but we need to support him, we need to be behind him and we all need to get to know him a little bit better,” she said. “That’s what I’m doing right now — spending time to get to know him and figuring out what are the greatest ways we can support him and get him connected with all of you so you get to know him as well.”

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  18. Asking the Estonian to marry me tonight here in Boca Raton boys! Cross your fingers POV Family!

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    2. Best Wishes.

      But Reed could have had a coup if you had popped the question during a POV podcast!!

      Go UPitt.

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  25. wwb – you know your football, but I never realized you were a Marriage Counselor, too!

    Lmao!

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  26. UPitt – did your dizziness go away? Best wishes with your proposal tonight – cheers!

    Pulled this off topic BB post from PSN –

    Baylor grad transfer Al Freeman, who was considering Pitt, told Jon Rothstein that he’s committed to NC State.

    Another loss to NC State – what is up with that?

    You know, we play them in FB this season as our other crossover game?

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  28. Ok, I get my off-topic basketball and baseball posts out of the way.

    Back on topic with FB –

    What is the injury update for future NFL-er Brian O’Neil? That is one guy we need to be healthy…

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  29. She said yes!

    Had her at Rockports!

    Torn labrium. Same thing I had. Pitt for knees. Not shoulders. Go to my good buddy Dr. Andrews in Birmingham. He will be 75% in 5 months. It was my throwing shoulder. .

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    2. If UPitt knows shoulders, like I think he might, the left tackle position needs the “next man up”. Anyone know who that might be?

      My prediction is Bookser slides over to LT, Dintino moves to RG and walk-on Morrissey slides into C.

      Either that or the tFR Drake or RS FR Morgan play LT.

      Pitt now has three very good Olineman to replace in 2017. Johnson, Biz and now O’Neil.

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  33. Doc Andrews is the man. He was an old Pitt guy and made it big in Birmingham. Met with him on a couple consults in the 90’s. Was there with Canseco, Tomlin and others. There was another guy in LA who was the other guru, but his name escapes me.

    Glad she said yes, upitt. If she would have said no, i can only imagine all the skunkhaired, shoe salesman laced profanities that would have followed. Happy for you brother! I am amazed that she believed you when you said that you don’t fart in your underwear, you whisper in them!

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  35. Thanks everybody I appreciate you. Huff he is a stud I was there rehab in with Andy Benes the picture and his office was just covered in major-league players in NFL guys.

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  36. Depends what kind of labrum injury it is. Recovery time for athletes anywhere between 2-4 months. I don’t know strength percentage but he’s not a pitcher or QB …

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  37. UPitt — re: shoulder surgeries — don’t have to go to Alabama these days. Dr. Vyas at UPMC did my very serious shoulder surgery five months ago. He’s the Penguins surgeon, and operates out of (sorry about that!) UPMC Sports Medicine offices on the SouthSide (Dr. Fu’s domain) and in Cranberry (Lemieux).

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  39. If there was no spring game, he wouldn’t have been injured … but on the other hand, he could have been as easily injured in a practice scrimmage. This is the game of football

    I just wish it wasn’t always our best players … in the past year alone:

    Hamlin and Hill — our 2 highest rated 2016 commits in a position of great need
    Maddox and Whitehead — our 2 best DBs both 4 games
    Conner, Peterman and Johnson — in bowl game, all 3 likely to be drafted next weekend .. in addition to Whitehead who didn’t play at all, and maybe Jarrett, who played only 1 series

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  40. Congratulations UPitt, best wishes. Didn’t know you could speak Estonian, me thinks you will be in big trouble when she learns more English. (just kidding, sort of)

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  41. Congrats UPitt! Does this mean you will be nothing but positive from this point on?

    Heather towing the company line on Stallings. She was given no choice. Great win over PSU in baseball. Next win Sept 9th!!

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    1. As you see, both the bride and groom wear dresses. The groom traditionally wears the red dress. Will look good on Upitt.

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  43. What is it with our best players getting injured? O-line could go from our biggest strength to a problem with one more injury.Agree that it is not as problematic as a pitcher or QB throwing shoulder, but still a real bummer.

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  44. UPitt, thought your hero was telling you to buy American. Just Kidding, best wishes for wedded bliss. Happy wife, happy life.

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  45. Reed, I have to laugh when you say you can’t pick PITT to win their next bowl game because they haven’t won either of the two they played under Narduzzi. Now I really respect that if you mean it but the criteria you are using seems flawed a bit. 2 games is not a trend in my opinion my friend. See, there you go looking out that rear view mirror again.

    BTW, I put down my predictions in the last “More golf outing stuff” article, I don’t know if you caught that. I’m sure it’s 100% correct.

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  46. Ike – Just like you think Ollison can’t top 650 yards gained by Moss even though he already had a 1,121 yard season with a 5.3 ypg average.

    Majormajors – I did scoop every single media site with those remarks said about Peterman by Gruden – I posted them seconds or minutes after he said them as I was on here when the teleconference was happening.

    BTW – I was next in line for questions when they stopped, but I RSVP’ed just that morning. Next time I’ll do it as soon as the notice comes out and get into the queue earlier.

    BTW – can someone verify that shoulder injury of O’Neil? I can’t find any verification of it anywhere.

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    1. I can’t fund anything either … but Chas in his recent Blather posting petty much hints at it .. ” Brian O’Neill is apparently hurt and will be spending his summer vacation getting healthy. He should be ready for the start of the season, but still.”

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      1. I can’t find nor fund anything regarding O’Neil’s shoulder injury/surgery.

        That is a BIG deal and would be a good discussion topic, if true.

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  47. Touche there Reed, My explanation since you asked so nicely. Running back by committee. I think Ollison will gain 649 yards while Hall, Davis and possibly Sibley combine for another 800 yards or so. I just think Moss will have the most yards out of that group. I may have been a little light on the yardage there.

    So I take it you did find my predictions.

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  48. I hope it wasn’t O’neill’s throwing shoulder. That would so limit our offense going forward if he can’t chuck it. If it is his shoulder, his position will change to protect it as best as possible to the inside. Hoping it was just a fingernail. We need to get some students on here and send them out as investigative reporters on these types of issues. Mingle with their peeps and get some real scoop!

    UPitt- The other ortho that i couldn’t think of last night was Dr. Jobe in LA. He was the other doc that we would go see, but I mainly went with players to Doc Andrews. I got to actually watch a few of his surgeries and nearly passed out as he removed bone chips after chiseling them down to fit through the scope hole. Gross!

    Did we just lose touch with Frankcan or did he expire? I hope it’s the former. There was another guy on here regularly and I think his name was Father Tom from Columbus. What happened to him? This is why it is important to continue having golf outings. We need to keep interacting personally so we just don’t lose track of people.

    Okay, I will sit down now.

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  49. Pete – that sounds better for sure. Fu did my left knee after I came back from shoulder. At that point you learn to hang them up.

    Wwb – Haha. Im Happy she looks better than that chick. She has been in US for 16 years. Not like she is off the Russian Brides website. Haha.

    I cpuld of played football 3 months later especially if I was an oline man. Throwing was big difference.

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