in Alumni, Defense, Discipline, Fall Camp, Media, Offense, Pat Narduzzi, Pitt Football, Pitt POV, Players, POV Events, Predictions 265 Words

POV Sunday Podcast; April 23rd

Because I felt left out and had to hold down the Quicksilver bar all by myself when others were out having fun golfing, I went out yesterday and bought myself a complete set (used of course) of Jack Nicklaus’ Golden Bear Tranzition clubs.

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So, after this podcast I’m off to a driving range to see if my lower back will actually explode  if I hit a bucket or two.  Get this – I bought them used at a local Play It Again store and they asked $90 as is.  The bag was crappy and the club’s grips were in bad shape also.  I told them I’d come back last evening to pick them up.  They re-gripped all the clubs and gave me a very nice new (used) bag… and gave me 20% off for a military discount.

My daughter had said she’d pay half as a small present and so Ta Da! – These clubs cost me $39 total.

Pitt BB:

Not even a transfer; Aaron Thomas is refusing to board the sinking ship.

Stallings Fault.png

 

Here is the competition RB Dion Lewis faced in his freshman year at Pitt.  If you remember LeSean McCoy had declared early for the NFL draft after only two years at Pitt (2007-08) so he was gone by Lewis and Graham’s first year.

Dion Lewis

Not a whole lot to worry about there but the other, more highly ranked, Ray Graham.  Lewis was a 3*, Graham was a 4* and returning RB Chris Burns was a 4* also.  Lewis blew their socks off that year.

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52 thoughts on “POV Sunday Podcast; April 23rd”

  1. Before listening to my new favorite Sunday morning activity. Dion Lewis was an early January enroll-ie. I sat next to Jeff Halfey’s father the first game. Lewis was running all over the place and the Mr Halfey bent over and told me in my ear. Wait to you see the other running back. BTW, Graham’s mother and family were sitting right behind us.

    Now onto the podcast.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Ray Graham was a very formidable back for Pitt. It’s too bad a knee injury most likely cost him his pro-career. I’m not saying he was as good as Lewis but let’s not dismiss him either.

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  3. I just enjoy the schitt out of the podcasts.Great job Reed.

    Can’t believe your family wants you out of the house more? I was thinking you’re always on the move and all? This could be your sign??

    Listen, about the clubs and not to be a Debbie downer. Just remember, golf is like painting, you can only be as good as your instruments.

    Stalling trying to be fired? This is hyperbole. Sometimes haters think too much. I’m with you Reed.

    Again, Watson is known as a offensive coach that doesn’t rely much on the tight ends. Now this can all change but I’m not concern all that much on the TE subject and BTW, there a 5 star player probably starting. Plus a 5 star veteran player starting at QB.

    Edwards didn’t play much special teams if any at all. He played a lot at defensive end.

    Great point about PITT and PITT fans counting on players that are really unknown. There are plenty of unknowns surrounding this team going into next season. I’ll take the glass that is half filled thank you.

    Having said that, I really caution against thinking this is Narduzzi’s year and Narduzzi’s players. 2nd and 3rd year players are not normally counted on when considering an experienced team. A 3rd year player at PITT and all the powerhouses are probably RS sophomores. It’s ok to expect an evolving cohesiveness and chemistry though.

    Truth be told, I think this years schedule sets up well for PITT. 132 days to go, but whatever you do. Don’t wish away any day between now and then. Cherish them. ike

    We All We Got
    We All We Need
    H2P!

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  4. I actually thought Graham would be a higher pick and a better pro than Graham … even though he was not a good receiver …. had it not been for the injury

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  5. Dion always fascinated me the way he’d hit the hole quickly, and if it wasn’t there, he’d bounce (literally) to the outside and pick up 8-10 yards before the D knew what hit ’em.

    Graham did the same, but I never thought he got outside as fast or as often as Dion.

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  7. Apparently that photograph of the Peterson Event Center script floor was proprietary to rivals.com and I shouldn’t have tried to post it here. Learn from your mistakes.

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  8. Reed – It’s a cool, rainy day in the upstate of South Carolina. I’ve been spending my time reading SBNation’s – Football Study Hall site. I posted another link sometime between my above post @ 4:oo pm & your above post. I tried twice. It was an article on the PITT – WVU 1982 game. Could your photograph caused a problrm?

    Or was it me spelling your name wrong. (My grandma maiden name was Reid.)

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  9. Reed, again with the Aaron Reese? Thought we agreed he graduated and moved on with his life’s work? Mitchell is long gone as well.

    Mr COCKS, if we worry about beating Youngstown State then I’m out altogether with PITT football. Not saying they can’t lose but worry about it??

    As for the round-table discussions. How bout some of you hibernating, camera shy, I’m busy on Tuesday night guys show up and get lit up with PITT talk?

    These excuses won’t fly anymore, my turn to walk our dog night, I’m draining my socket, It’s are honeymoon night (really?), I’m volunteering at the church? I don’t have a computer, I don’t have a phone, I don’t have a life, I do have a life, I have a headache, The Rush Limbaugh life story is on, I’m constipated, I’m incontinent, I’m pussywhipped. OK, you’ll be excused for that one. (but do grow some balls)

    STOP IT. See you Tuesday night at 7:30 ish.. You guys think of some good and tough questions. Be there are you will be considered pussywhipped.

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  10. Here’s a cool video I found over at the PSN, this wasn’t copied there but on the internet. I hope the hell it works.

    Made to really piss off Upitt even more than ususal.

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  11. Enjoyable podcast. It is still early and I will be spit roasted over an open fire but I see a possible 6-6 campaign. Why? During the year a local announcer asked Nard if 4 recruiting years were necessary to turn Pitt into a top flight football team. His answer was “more like 5”. Only he knows what he meant by that. It got me to wondering about he and Dantoni at Michigan State. In the third year they were there MSU went 6-7 followed by consecutive 11-2 seasons.Only offering that as food for thought. When you recruit 3 stars it takes a while to develop them, longer than we want. Maybe the BB mess just has me feeling down. Losing one of your own commits, who was a team mate of another that left? Yikes.
    HAIL TO PITT!

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    1. Reed, you know I ride your ass. The fact you freewheel is what makes the podcasts.

      Are you doing a round-table Tuesday night? We need all comers. New and old.

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  14. I expect another ass whoop against the Dukes. They will be City Champions for as long as KS is coach. I really think Pitt has a chance to become worse than BC. Can the ACC kick a school out for sucking so bad? Pitt would find a way to be the first.

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  16. Always good to beat the Hoopies. I like Pitt’s retro unis far better than the ones in this game. And I like old Pitt Stadium over Heinz for the on campus memories. But that bowl was a &(_ hole. The new 50k Pitt OCS will be more modern sans ketchup and Rooney cheapness. Remember the feasibility study by Populous is due out this summer.

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  18. rkb, I agree with you about when you are a midd-len football program like PITT recruiting mostly 3 star players, it will take time for a new coach to set his own players in position. I do think Narduzzi’s 3 stars are a notch above the former 3 star players recruited to PITT.

    That said, Chyrst did leave PITT with players that should/could speed up this transition.

    Reed, what did you just say? I can’t remember. 🙂

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  19. If PITT were to ever go back to the 1982 uniforms and colors, they could never produce enough to keep them in stock with the demand. I mean across the country.

    Keith Jackson, what an icon. Gives me the shivers to watch that game again.

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  20. To give everyone some idea of the uphill climb that Pat Narduzzi faces on the recruiting front…. we drew 7,000 fans to our spring game on a beautiful 78 degree day. The Dairy College drew 70,000 to theirs, 55 and cloudy. Tough to sell kids on the idea that they will play in front of 40,000 fans regularly, unless the opponent is a) The Dairy College, b) The Hoopies, c) the Irish, or d) a team ranked in the top 10.

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    1. Pirates were playing the Yankess.

      Lots of good shows downtown.

      Lots more competition for the entertainment time…

      Only other thing to watch at “happy” valley is cows.

      Just sayin

      H2P

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      1. Pirates weren’t in town for the weekend of Pitt’s spring game. Yankees were in town this past weekend. Pitt spring game was two weeks ago.

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  21. I live in Northeast Pennsylvania, where coverage of the Dairy College is non stop. It’s nauseating. And a kid like Shakir Soto has a fine career at Pitt, and in four years there is one article and no news stories.

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  22. The play I remember from Ray Graham the most was when he made the entire South Florida defense miss him… I think it was out in the flat and he broke some ankles with a spin move. That might have been during Fraud Graham’s reign, but my memory may not serve me.

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    1. Always really enjoyed Graham’s vision. I know exactly what play you are talking about. Very fun RB…. Put Graham’s vision with Dion’s decision making and you’d have a serious ball player there

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  23. @rkb Devil lurks in the DETAILS — From here-on-out the talent is solid accross the board at Pitt — What determines the degree-of-success from now on from 6-7 / 7-5 versus really solid + 9+ wins seasons is All About Quarterback play, Period. —->

    Whay you’re describing is not really accurate at all for how it went for Narduzzi at Michigan State, and he’s certainly learned from his 6-6 year — *A La why he ran Chad Voytik ASAP, and brought in a 5 star, top-5 former recruit Max Browne with zero hesitation.** —>

    ‘Duzz at Michigan State went: 10-3, 11-2 (NFL Big-Money Starter Kirk Cousins at Quarterback) / then 6-6 (With Scrub RS Senior QB Andrew Maxwell) / then 13-1 , 11-2 his last two years with NFL QB Conner Cook.

    Interesting fact: Both Kirk Cousins and Connor Cook were 2 star rated QB’s outta small towns in Michigan and Ohio, respectively, who’s only offers were from MSU. ‘Duzz personally found, and recruited Connor Cook himself.

    All about QB play — I truly believe from now on especially with the new recruiting the defense is going to be Stout — and the future at QB is very bright with Thomas MacVittie, Kenny Pickett, and new QB’s the staff recruits. But a whole lot depends on what Max Browne brings to the table this season.

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  25. Recruits do chose a school based on the experience. If they get hero worshiped, can take fake classes, have a path to the pros, and can showcase on TV. Thats some kids. The stupid and vane ones.

    Most schools are lucky to draw 10k to these scrimmages. Cult schools draw more. I didnt see many at Bamas game.

    Its irrelevant.

    What is relevant is the game day experience. Now Heather says she wants to sell out 70k Heinz. Well thats a tough sell when real fannies in the seats have averaged 35k over the past decade.

    We just play in too large of a venue. In Pitt’s heyday, Pitt stadium could barely average 50k in a 50k stadium.

    Heather should be more concerned about creating a memorable and fun experience that leads to future donations from students, alumni and fans. The attendance number is an insignificant marker if it doesnt lead to donations and increased brand equity.

    We get too hung up on these attendance figures. Pitt is a relatively small semi-private school thats competing against the entertainment dollar in a cosmopolitan city with 3 sports teams and other activities/events.

    Do what Minnesota did.

    And the only thing that counts when discussing State Penn is if we beat Pedo State on the field and this year Pitt has beaten them in all 3 major sports – football, basketball and baseball. Take that yunz Nitters in Creepy Valley.

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  26. @ TX Panther: I agree that it’s been satisfying to beat PSU in Football, Baseball and Basketball this year. I was at both the football and basketball games. Lots of fun for me as I live surrounded by Nitters up here in Northeastern PA. But I don’t buy the excuses for the low attendance numbers for the spring game, thIs year in particular. It was a perfect day. We are coming off an exciting season where we beat both Penn State and the eventual National Champion, Clemson. Nobody expects us to draw the numbers that the Cult draws. But c’mon, we have 28,000 students (undergrads and graduate students) on campus in Pittsburgh. Our alumni base is pretty large. We can do better than 7000. It’s just a scrimmage, I get it. But it was free. Kids could go on the field for autographs afterward. Beautiful day. New Quarterback. Lots of reasons to attend. I enjoyed it.

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    1. I live in NEPA also and agree with the constant coverage of dairy farm. Soto had a few articles in the Leader and some mention in the voice but not like other locals that attended the other school.

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  28. Minnesota built a stadium. Not renting a dog’s taint of a stadium off Rooney’s teet.

    Heather is a trained puppet. You won’t see any action from here except compliance garbage 101. She is not a rain maker which is what we needed. Gallagher is wearing thin on my nerves. Stallings and that disaster is an embarrassment. Ask Painting Storage Guy for 5 more and tell Pappy to go retire and cut his gross cesar wig.

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    1. See UPitt, you get criticize me for getting on your case but this is the exact reason why I do … and the reason John Ramella wrote what he did (and I understand why.) You rarely have a good thing to say and you pre-judge everything. “Heather is a trained puppet”

      For whatever reason, many PittPovers seem to enjoy your incessant rants, name-calling, ridiculing etc about everything Pitt … and I think they were amusing myself up to a point. But post after post after post after post ….

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  29. Off topic: check out Pittsburgh Craigslist, where Scott Barnes appears to be offering his Pitt Script Pool Table for sale for $2300. It’s actually pretty sweet. I’m 4 hours away from Pittsburgh, otherwise I’d consider scooping it up.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. MissingWlat – are you serious about it having been Barnes’ pool table?
      I know, naive, but I am thinking about making the drive for it.

      Maybe some of his genius will be left with the table and rub off on me…:-), my God that would be awesome.

      Ok, forgot we have this reply option…still need the EDIT option even more. I know Reed, saw your note on it messing up WordPress account access…are you sure about that?

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      1. Look at the photo of the pool table and look in the background. Appears to be something hung on the wall from Washington. Also, the phone number to call is a Utah area code.

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  30. Re Attendance, I’d love to see a lot smaller yellow swaths–maybe pay some high school kids to “crowd cast” until the paying customers show.

    But, if you check out our national championship season of ’76, announced attendance was 35-40K for the first 3 home games, and only 50K for the PSU clincher at (3 rivers.) By contrast, last year’s first 3 home games (not counting PSU) drew an announced 45-50K.

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  31. Reed, enjoy your podcasts immensely. Will send you a photo of my panther painting to your email account if that’s ok. Regarding your golf clubs…don’t be surprised if you need longer shafts on them if they are stock. Bending over too far screws with your spine angle and hence your swing. Would love to golf with you sometime and will travel to Maryland…probably not the only one willing to travel.

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  33. Five-star DE Micah Parsons decommitted from Penn State … 71k and all. Of course, he may be going to 74k Bama or 80k OSU (whose 1st team played touch FB at the the spring game — not making that up.)

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  34. Bottom line is Duzz is going to have to do more with less for the time being. He is getting out recruited by James Franklin. It’s not his fault. The fact that we drew the same types of crowds back in the late 70s and eighties only goes to shows that winning alone may not solve our attendance issues. If you look at the last few years, we lag behind Penn State in recruiting. But, as someone pointed out, all that matters is what happens on the field. We’re holding onto 42-39 at least until September.

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    1. Back in the 70s, Western PA was probably the best area for high school FB. Nowadays, Eastern PA, NJ and Ohio all have many more D1 prospects … and they lag compared to the Southeast, Texas and Cal. This is why the staff is making a major effort in recruiting FL … 3-stars from there has been very good to Pitt last decade. (then Stevie decides to cut the recruiting budget which IMO was the genesis for all of the turmoil of early this decade.)

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    1. You may note that almost all of the schools listed run pro-style offenses and/or defenses. I believe the one thing that Wanny had going for him recruiting-wise is that he put a lot of players in the NFL. And this year’s draft will hopefully give a boost to HCPN.

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  36. MissingWlat – are you serious about it having been Barnes’ pool table?
    I know, naive, but I am thinking about making the drive for it.

    Maybe some of his genius will be left with the table and rub off on me…:-), my God that would be awesome.

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  37. The lack of an ACC network also hurts. SEC and B1G broadcast all of their spring games. This is a big plus for their fans and for recruiting. We have fans all over the country that would have enjoyed the game.

    Enjoyed the talk about Deon Lewis and Ray Graham, what a great group of running backs we have witnessed at Pitt. Those guys were followed by Howlings and the Great Shady and Conner. Then you have guys like Dorsett, Heyward, Martin that made their mark in the pros, plus many others that were very tough, going back to Marshall Goldberg.

    It was a shame that Graham blew out a knee, was certainly more flashy than Lewis, but less productive.

    The stadium has little to do with anything, it is the quality of the team and the commitment of the fans that count.

    There will never be a stadium in Oakland again and an offsite Pitt Stadium would be smaller with few amenities, doubtful that it ever happens. Pitt just needs a way to fill the lower bowl first, and use the upper decks when needed. A few more signature wins would help the most. PSU was a great start. Heinz Field was a great venue that day.

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  38. Having Heinz Field is a major financial advantage for Pitt. Pitt really has a sweetheart deal and spends much less on facilities than other schools. Pitt can also sell tickets to 20-30,000 of the opposing teams fans. So we have them helping to pay the bills. Not ideal on game day unless we win, but what other team makes as much money from the opposition. PSU, WVU, ND, FLST, Clemson, all bring substantial crowds.

    Maybe that is the new strategy at the Pete, it sure seemed that way at the UNC game.

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  39. yes it is his…. Look at the Utah number and UW stuff in background. Guy was a con artist. Gallagher should of seen through that garbage.

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  40. My source is very high up in the Pitt community. He is not a fan of Gallaher at all.
    N.B he is not a sports guy either.
    That, to me, seems like a big problem.

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  41. Last night I dreamed I was a sports guy.
    Today I wonder if I and a sports guy dreaming Im a professor.

    I don’t want a sports guy messing with my university–just someone who knows how much sports and do for us professors,, and someone who can get us professors to shut up and appreciate sports.

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