I drove up and attended Tyler Boyd’s charitable Football Camp for Kids yesterday morning. It was held at the Clariton Education Center field (not where the Clariton Bears play ball) and was truly well attended.
I’d estimate that around 120 kids from 6th to 9th grade were there along with about 100 or so parents and friends.The youngsters all got T-shirts in Clairton’s colors then went right into six groups for different drills.
I have to say I figured there would be a lot of goofing off and joking around but it was all business and the young men – didn’t see any girls out there – were deadly serious, as well as Boyd’s Pitt teammates who were coaches for the day.
In addition to Boyd there was Pitt alumni Tyrique Jarrett of the Denver Broncos;
Terrish Webb of the Steelers; Titus Howard ex-Pitt and Slippery Rock who got a chance with the Chiefs; and current Pitt players Avonte Maddox and Aaron Mathews (more on him later).
I had a nice conversation with Tyler Boyd’s grandfather along with a bunch of parents who had their kids in the camp.
I I also met two sets of parents who have young student/athletes of their own for us to keep an eye on. First is Antonio Epps, the son of Vada and Rachael Epps, a rising freshman running back/defensive back at South Allegheny HS. Watching him in the drills he was 100% focused and his footwork was pretty amazing – considering they were really working these kids out there.
I also talked extensively with Bo Kinds and his wife Carrie about their son Dante who will be playing for Ringgold HS next year.
I’ll have a longer article up tomorrow with as many photos that I took as I can actually retrieve from my phone.
Below is a sound file of my last minute interview with Tyler Boyd – the background noise was about 50 kids hanging around until Boyd left the playground.
Basically I asked three questions; first how was the difference in offense between Chryst/Rudolph… then If there was anyone on the Pitt roster who may break his records as a receiver and then I asked about Voytik vs Peterman’s arms.
Here is an excellent article from the Cincinnati Bengals website about Boyd’s family and his times growing up in Clairton.
Other notes: Richman, his friend and I had a blast last afternoon in Oakland. We sat around and talked for about two and a half hours drinking beer and wine. We both agreed that we are the two smartest Pitt fans ever.
Here are some Trib Stories to fill your Pitt jones…
Here is a genuine Tyler Boyd autographed photo of him as a Bengal… I’ll make this a prize for something later this week.
pittpov.com 
It’s true, I have only 1 friend. Hangin with Reed is always fun and interesting. I highly recommend it.
I did love the venue, the Porch is a great location to watch co-ed,…er,…I mean, people watch.
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Reed, don’t mean to nitpick, but Boyd’s HS is Clairton, not Clariton. Sorry I couldn’t make the dinner last night!
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Fixed – thanks
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Way to give back TB! H2P!
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Upitt will be bidding on that autograph. 🙂
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Well, rkb…..upitt will not bid on that until the 5th round. LOL!!! Laughing with upitt not at him. Now i am sure I won’t get invited to the Estonia fest. Still waiting on the picture of the mother in law.
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Seems that Tyler is proud of his roots with Clairton and Pitt. Great to see him include Pitt players and alumni as the coaches helping to run his camp.
Great reporting Mr. Kohberger.
HTP!
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Reed this article was great and it shows the class the Pitt players have it’s great to see the young men giving back to the community First class. Thanks for driving up and passing on the information H2P BEAT PENN STATE
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The kids will remember Boyd (Great Job Giving Back) but also remember their first camps with Pitt Players. That may influence future decisions and the reason our guys should be doing this as often as possible!
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The mother in law is single and is 64.She looks great if any of you guys are interested. She speaks 4 languages as well. Haha. She looks 45.
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^^^ @Reed THAT’S how you do an interview lol. It actually sounds like it was 10X as loud on the field with all those kids, than a packed LAX — so the kids musta loved it that’s awesome.
If Tyler Boyd can stay healthy (we’re all rooting for him!) he’s gonna have a he*l of a career, and make a ton of $$.
Not soon-to-be Aaron Donald money (that Von Miller / JJ Watt money lol) but still Boyd if he stays healthy til his second contract, and keeps getting better each year, will do exceptionally well and every NFL team will be after him. With the way he plays, avoiding big hits and playing oh-so-smooth Boyd should have a 10+ year career.
#HailToPitt!!! — @Reed only one issue is I wanted you to get a loud (from the diaphragm) HAIL TO PITT!* from Young Mr. Boyd lol.
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http://www.nfl.com/player/tylerboyd/2555466/profile
54 catches for over 600 yards and an 11.2 average as a rookie is nothing to scoff at. And although he just got 1 TD, at least he got that first one he can keep for his trophy case last season.
You just never know how a College Player will be in the NFL ever — multiple 1st round Wide Receivers that last 2 years who were “All Hype Team” haven’t even hardly played while Tyler Boyd has immediately shown (awesomely) that he is MEANT for the NFL level, and he fully looks like a solid NFL receiver on game days even at his young stage.
Many big-time NFL fans agree with me that Tyler Boyd is very similar to receiver Michael Crabtree (Boyd is 6’2”, 195 now while Crabtree is shorter and thicker at 6’1” , 215) both had identical stats as rookies.
Boyd hopefully keeps lifting and takes good care of himself, and gets himself to solid 200 pounds for his playing career (remember when he first came to Pitt?? He might’ve been a skinny 175 back then so he’s gotten bigger over time!).
Pitt Is It! 🙂
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Love to see all the Pitt Panthers repping themselves and Pitt with CLASS ‘n PINACHE out in the NFL!
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Do they wear babushkas in Estonia? Huff do you remember my neighbors “grandma”? Look to the future Upitt. LOL Much happiness to both the groom and bride.
Seriously it is good that past and present players were there. Tip of the hat to all of them and our cub reporter. This is indeed the type of thing that kids remember..
HAIL TO PITT
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Awwww, Julca, right? Of course I do. She had the babushka power!! OMG was she a hoot!! I really liked that family a lot. Yours too, rkb. Quality people. Hope you and the family are well. Hopefully, we can connect this year at a tailgate or golf outing. I would appreciate that!
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Darkie – Jon Ross was drafted. Should tell you what you need to know.
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No Babushka. Very modern and advanced group and heavy Texh there. Whole country has wifi. I miss Babushkas
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Do I show my youth wondering what in the world a babushka is? Asking for a friend.
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A scarf the studdabubba’s wear to keep from messing up their hair when they go outside.
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Tyler Boyd proving that he wasn’t a bust to be taken so high in the draft by Cincy. Correct me if I’m mistaken but these are pretty good stats for a rookie WR in the NFL, are they not? Your comments, Upitt?
(Edited for clarity)
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Man those stats didn’t paste correctly.
Boyd’s stats:
Receiving: 54 rec for 603 yds, 11.2 yards/rec Avg.
Rushing: 4 Rushes for 58 yards, 14.5 yards/rush Avg.
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And NO, he wasn’t selected for the Pro Bowl or 1st team All-Pro. Just a screwed up copy and paste.
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The Bengals’ team stats shown on the link below show that Tyler was 3rd in receiving last year trailing veterans AJ Green and Brandon Lafell. … and there is a major dropoff after Tyler.
Not only has Green (who has been among the top WRs for a while now) and LaFall been around for 7 seasons, Green missed the final month of last season with an injury. The Bengals use 3 receiver sets as much as anyone … so logic says that another speedster like Jon Ross would fit in nicely since the 2 starters are starting to get long in the tooth in NFL age.
Barring injury, Tyler will fit into the slot receiver position nicely for the foreseeable future
http://www.espn.com/nfl/team/stats/_/name/cin/cincinnati-bengals
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Dark – Boyd is a pretty thin guy all around for an NFL player He’s surprising that way and I doubt he’ll put on more weight as he gets older.
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I’m not a big wrestling fan, but couldn’t help but notice that another great local kid has returned home to the Pitt wrestling program. This kid has fantastic credentials, and Pitt wrestling seems to be on the rise. I’m looking for similar things in FB and BB if somehow Heather’s hand is in this. This compliments what Duzz is doing in FB with the number of graduate recruits he is getting. Pitt BB still has one scholarship remaining. I wonder if anyone sees another last minute graduate transfer coming in.
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Tom – AJ didn’t olay last 6-7 games.
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Which is probably a big reason why the Bengals went after another WR in the draft. This past season, the Bengals passed for > 4000 yards and ran for 1769 …. 3 receiver sets have become the norm for the NFL ….. and starters Green and Lafell are both nearing 30
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So glad Boyd came to Pitt. He is doing all the right things.
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I dunno if he will end up breaking Boyd’s records but I’m very excited to see what Aaron Matthews does in the next 2-3 seasons. He played hard every down he was on the field and was well above average on special teams and blocking as a true freshman. This is the year to get him more catches, a lot more catches hopefully.
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Picked to finish 4 in ACC Coastal by media is kind of a shock.. Talk about sneaking up from the bushes is an understatement of sorts.
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Not too much of a shock when you consider how inexperienced we are especially on the defense doc.
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Reed, have you heard from Chas Rich, just wonder if he is finished with Pitt Blather?
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Coastal 4th is about right to start the season IMO.
Here’s the thing about the local media that follows Pitt football. They don’t ever write articles or connect links to anything that isn’t positive about Pitt football. That’s how they make their living… they don’t want to write articles or refer to articles that aren’t rosie and totally upbeat because that’s what they believe the fans want to read.
I think it’s funny that this blog tries to provide a more balanced, and I do mean balanced, point of view.
Although it is my opinions, and my opinions as Dr. Tom pointed out very clearly in comments two days ago , that I am neutral on stuff and maybe even a bit pessimistic until I see the people that are going to be filling the spots we have empty playing actual football.
But there are a lot of question marks on this year’s team and if we feel or believe that every single one of those departed Pitt players are going to be matched or bettered by kids coming up through the ranks, or new recruits, or transfers then I think we have to better think again because that’s going to be impossible to do.
Now… if Brown, Hendrix and Zeiss all play star level ball – like Peterman or Price star level, then we’ll be back up again where we were. But we have a lot of shoes to fill and none of the other media outlets are going to do this… they’re not going to honestly write or connect to predictions that show Pitt in anything less than a glowing light.
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I was listening to XM College Sports 84 and there was a lot of talk about the ACC, especially since it had its media on Thursday and Friday ….. and Pitt was barely mentioned. When the Coastal was talked about, it was mainly about Miami and VT
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It looks like if we get good enough, Miami, VT and UNC will become our football rivals.
I would add Clark, Carter and a middle linebacker to Reed’s list. Especially the middle linebacker whoever it is. They need to play at a high level for this team to excel.
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No other media outlet that I can find either in Pittsburgh or in Cincinnati covered Tyler Boyd’s football camp after the fact.
They all had something saying that there was going to be a camp… of course I had that information two days before the newspapers did and I published it. But they didn’t have anything after the camp like we had with that report and that I wrote yesterday. That was 9 hours driving… plus having to drink a couple hours with Richman, and I hope that gave you a flavor of what that camp was all about.
I’m just kind of shocked that everyone in the local media talks such a big game about Tyler Boyd being from Clairton and Pitt and nobody was following up on that at all. I think the only other media there was a nice kid from Pitt’s student radio station.
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I see. Penn state got five commitments this weekend most are 4 stars rivals has them ranked #2 in country now. I haven’t seen much on our recruiting lately. As mentioned before it’s a tough road for Pitt to run with big boys. H2P BEAT PENN STATE
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Reed, if it doesn’t involve scandal or a house burning down, local media rarely covers it.
Now if Tyler was a Steeler….
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good point. However, I didn’t expect any of the newspapers to cover the camp (even though they give it PR), however, thought that maybe PSN or Cardiac Hill might be there.
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The media is typically lazy and it just isn’t in Pittsburgh. From my dealings with them (and it hasn’t been daily or weekly, more like monthly), if you want them to cover a topic well, you need to write a press release for them with facts and send it along with some photo’s that they can use without giving you credit for them. LAZY!
This is why Reed’s work is impressive, because he works hard at his new craft. That will trump his competitors and those that don’t necessarily compete with him, but follow the clicks. I think the commenters/writer’s on here work hard too, which makes this site more complete and meaningful, at least to me. Thanks to all the regulars for sure! And a welcome to the non-regulars that should be.
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Plus he always offers to buy the first round of drinks …. looking forward to moving back to Pgh next summer just for that fact alone
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Reed sounded like Billy Hillgrove on there. So TB preferred CV to NP? Hmmm. Goood job Reed, and thanks.
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Didn’t Boyd room with Voytik? It was either him or Challngsworth .. if memory serves (and if often doesn’t these days)
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Good job Reed. Its ridiculous that this event isnt being covered by real media. In the age of fake news, you’re as real as it gets.
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I do think Boyd was Voytick’s room mate. i was just having fun with Reed by TB preference friendswise. NP was light years better as a traditional QB than CV would ever have been. CV was brought in by Fraud for his offense then Fraud left him high and dry.
The comment that struck me most was that TB gave the impression that Narduzzi was much tougher and more demanding, I presume in practice and workouts. Of course TB was only there for one year of Narduzzi who had to show he was boss from the get go. We have all gone over recruiting ad nauseum but two things strick me on the positive side of Narduzzi – he is demanding and holds players responsible for their conduct. Also he genuinely cares about his players – something Fraud would never be accused of.
ps there are other positives I see in Narduzzi but that is for another day. Huff my old friend, I never laugh at people always with them or humor becomes cruel. In fact the only person I laugh at is myself and I get to do that quite often. I went in for a sonogram on my abdomen including my live where I have polycystic liver disease – not serious. The sonogram operator said so many times not to be concerned if I was called back for a CT scan that I am now convinced my problem is more than excessive alcohol and food storage. LOL. Looking forward to the YSU POV tailgate. Bring on camp.
HAIL TO PITT
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We all were displeased when PN remained DC for MS through the bowl game. He knew he was giving away valuable recruiting time but he weighed that against his responsibility to his then current players and it paid off big time when his defense blanked Baylor in the 4th quarter for an historic win. To my mind PN’s decision told us a lot about who he is and I have seen nothing yet to contradict that. We are very fortunate to have him.
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Appreciate the report Reed.
IMHO, This is the type of local community engagement that Pitt needs to do throughout western Pa… This kind of event can start the process of making these kids and their parents into Pitt fans…
Go Pitt.
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^^ Sorry @Reed I just noticed you didn’t post this up yet — from a couple days ago.
Pat Narduzzi gets low-key Pi$$ed-Off at this Syracuse reporter, when he reminds him of Syracuse scoring 60 and what Pitt needs to do to fix the defense….Narduzzi basically gets really serious outta-nowhere and (between-the-lines haha) says, “GET OUTTA HERE WITH STUPID QUESTIONS BRO, WE WON THAT GAME YOU LOST.” 🙂 haha Pat Narduzzi always has FIRE, gotta love the passion!
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Thanks Darkie… Was busy when that was going on…
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rkb… we need to get Emel on here with his CV highlight film.. to refresh our memories.. CV and TB had some chemistry in their year together under HCPC
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The above didn’t come out right … maybe this will
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it did
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Good grief! I just read in the Tribune online that Pitt’s tuition/fees are now $18,200 per year! I guess that makes a Pitt football scholarship worth almost $100K for 4 yrs when you add in room & board.
I recall I (i.e. my parents) paid $1,400 for year 1 at Pitt in 1965-66, then it dropped to $450/yr when it became state-affiliated the next year. Was able to get a degree with no loan debt back then aided by a part-time job at the student union. These days, it creates a serious financial challenge to have your kid(s) follow your footsteps and attend Pitt, especially if you’re now living out-of-state!
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Concerning the ACC presser posted above:
Duzz and his players represented our Panthers extremely well IMHO. Very proud of them! #H2P
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@NOLA, it cost more to attend Central Catholic in1968 than my freshman year at Pitt…I had a small partial scholarship and lived at home. Still, that was crazy.
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Speaking of Central Catholic, does anyone know how to get in touch with Dan Marino?
My newphew, a huge Pitt fan, is starting high school there in the fall. He’s projected to be the starting freshman qb.
Since Dan went there too, I’d like to see if he’d be willing to show up at a practice in the fall and talk to the kids for a few minutes at his alma-mater.
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I see now that our BBall program has hit rock bottom, PSU is willing to play us again. Why did we agree?
Aaron Mathews looks like he can be a real physical player, maybe he will be one of the many needed break-out players.
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The Pitt-PSU bball matchup is one of those faux tournaments. Pitt probably didn’t know the specific pairing, or perhaps even that PSU was also entered, when they entered.
The truly remarkable thing is that the game will air on ESPN3. That should tell you exactly what ESPN thinks of the two teams entering the season.
Agree with you on Mathews too.
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Note that Pitt BB will also host WVU in December .. not sure about the TV coverage. I would think we are in for a spanking at the Pete but you never know.
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come to think of it … Pitt may be underdogs to Duquesne at PPG Paints on 12/1.
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Here is Pitt BB pre-season schedule. Note that Pitt/PSU on 11/20 is on both ESPN2 and ESPN3. The opener vs Navy is on CBS Sports cable …. but everything else is TBD. I would expect most games to be just on ESPN3 which may be a good thing.
http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/schedule.aspx?path=mbball
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