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POV’s Monday Morning QB; Duke Win

Monday-Morning-QBNow that the house guests have cleared out from a busy and hectic weekend I had a chance to watch the Duke win this morning.  A very strange game to say the least – and I understand that I was watching it on TV and not live like some of our POV commenters were.

All I can say is thank goodness for Hall’s two great runs – otherwise we’d be singing a different tune today.

Yesterday a reader sent along his Good, Bad & Ugly thoughts and I’ll incorporate those, along with other commenter’s thought in the listings today.

GOOD:

 

  • Two instances that the line created big holes for Hall to run 79 and 94 yards for TD’s
  • No fumbles
  • Fairly aggressive pass defense in the first half
  • Pitt was capable of making first downs on the third try
  • Weah had two nice receptions and really fought for the ball
  • Ra-Ra Lopes definitely is the most consistent receiver on the field for Pitt
  • Say what people will, DiNucci can launch a long ball too but seldom does

BAD:

  • Duke’s overall speed actually seemed better than Pitt’s
  • Pitt LBers still had problems covering the right person and tackling them
  • Maddox’s injury as he recorded a sack plus played very aggressively
  • No Pickett at all in the game, that was a huge mistake in the third quarter
  • Pitt kept letting Duke eat away at the score and take the lead with long TD passes

UGLY:

  • Maddox’s injury
  • Failure to give Pickett more experience, DiNucci did just mediocre and didn’t screw up

Here are some extra thoughts:

Any win is a good one – especially if your team is sitting at 2-5 more than halfway through the season. That was a win and I’ll take it.  Three more like that (hard as it may be) and then I’ll start thinking about a bowl spot.  Until then I’ll leave that up to the AD whose job it is entails blowing smoke.

What was up with this series by Pitt and the plays called by Blinky Watson?

Davis

We were down 10-7 and only 52 yards from the endzone (30 yards to a FG attempt) when the OC feels like 6’0″ & 205 lb Davis just has to be a better chioce than 6’2″ & 230 lb Ollison to get one (1) yard there?

Our playcalling isn’t just bad in my opinion but sometimes makes no sense whatsoever.  I am all for rolling the dice sometimes but we set Duke up for a shortened field TD there.  If it works then good – if not, and with our overall poor pass defense, it’s a bad call and a 10 point deficit.  Maybe a Winslow punt inside the 20 would have been a better call – 50/50 shot I guess but since we are MMQB’ing…

As to the QB play:  All in all DiNucci hung in there and did make some good completions to put us in scoring position in the 4th quarter. Those two passes for 74 yards and two 1st downs gave us the chance to grab the lead we didn’t give up.

Ahhh, but I have to say this: even though he was behind Center for his first full 60 minute game and is credited with a “win” – Ben Dinucci really isn’t a very good D1 QB.

I had written last year that I felt Dinucci didn’t have D1 talent and, sorry to say, I’ll stick with that assessment.  We can cherry pick his completions and his good throws – he makes some – but the bald fact is that he is below the D1 average in completion percentage at 56% on his 115 attempts and his yards per attempt average is a very poor 6.6 yards.

Any D1 starter is supposed to make normal completions because that is what they are out there for.  It isn’t enough to have one good throw when really needed when you missed on most of your attempts the previous three-quarters.

What we saw of his running skills yesterday doesn’t make up for that either.  One commenter made a good point that on those running plays where he hit the dirt way too early that he might have been cautioned to do so because the #2 QB, Kenny Pickett was under the weather.

I very much wonder if that was the case on Saturday as we have seen him dive too soon in every game he’s played so far. I will say I have no comment on if Pickett should have played or not because watch a game after you already know the score removes all sense of pressure and urgency – so I’ll say that the staff made a good decision to keep him in – but only if indeed Pickett couldn’t play.

So the question is does Narduzzi stick with DiNucci or not? I don’t buy into playing for next season for many reasons – one of which is that too many things change over the offseason to waste a year getting ready for a future season that just might be as bad if not worse.  I say grab wins when you can.  That helps young players as much as an extra series or three.

So I think Narduzzi and OC Shawn Watson will stick with DiNucci until he starts turning the ball over and we’ll see what that brings. This staff,  because of the inept 23.4 ppg offense we have, are deathly afraid of turnovers as we have seen by the ultra-conservative and repetitious  playcalling by Watson.

This is seen by the happiness the staff showed post-game after DiNucci had zero TOs even if he had zero TDs to go along with that.  Apparently anything above the null line is fine with them.  As we said last week – this coaching staff has no ability to face, accept and take risks in their approach to any facet of playing football… hence we will see DiNucci for the lion’s share of the remaining games.

But I want to make one point about Pickett’s play; he is the first Pitt QB since Tom Savage whose passes continually lead the receivers so they can catch and run without breaking stride.  Those passes are not always on the mark yet – but they will be soon.  That is the way he plays QB and it isn’t only a learned skill but really instinctive and involves more risk taking comfort.

DiNucci’s passes tend to get near the receiver a bit slower so that there is a stutter step required or a reach back catch by the target for the completion.

Watch the best of the best QBs and see  how they approached their part in the passing game – they don’t settle for a pitch and catch… they are taking some risk to make it a pitch, catch and run outcome.

NOTE:  I’m sure some fans hang of Sagarin’s every word if you bet money on the games and such but I’ll stick with the NCAA for stats and such.  With that Pitt is shown to have the 29th toughest schedule in D1 after this last weekend’s games.  Here is that listing:

tough2Which bodes well for some Pitt fans if you like the fact that the future opponents have more losses than our past opponents.  Me, I think you play who is in front of you and your won/loss record states how good you were at the end of the year.

 

130 thoughts on “POV’s Monday Morning QB; Duke Win”

  1. Reed, comparing schedule strength only by opponents’ W-Ls is absurd. Pitt has played 3 teams in current rankings, PSU had played none. Nobody in their right mind would think PSU’s SOS would compare to Pitt’s

    Liked by 1 person

    1. absurd: wildly unreasonable, illogical

      Totally agree with you wwb

      B1G conference’s OOC and overall weakness not able to be fully accounted for…

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    2. And rankings don’t matter either and are equally absurd! Michigan was ranked #7 4 weeks ago and now they’re out of the AP and hanging on at 25 in the coaches poll. A month ago ND wasn’t ranked at all and now they’re Top 10!

      Have to add though that PSU pounded Michigan who was ranked #15 in the coaches poll just last week. So not sure what the point really is….

      I believe strength of schedule is fundamentally always based upon relative W-Ls of opponents to their opponents. Some formulas also brings in other factors such home/away/neutral. SoS may be flawed but if it’s an article of faith for Pitt’s season there is bound to be emotion if it doesn’t clearly support their record.

      In the end: ” Me, I think you play who is in front of you and your won/loss record states how good you were at the end of the year.” Perfectly put.

      Pitt’s defense is now:
      #100 in total defense
      #115 in pass defense
      #67 in rushing defense
      #89 in scoring defense
      #95 in sacks

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      1. Michigan was ranked #7 a short while ago because they are Michigan. Notre Dame was ranked 10th in pre-season last year and won 4 games. USC was ranked 4th in pre-season this year but are no longer ranked,

        They are NOT who we thought they are.

        Rankings start to matter about this time which is why the committee doesn’t start until this week.

        and BTW Pitt was 34th in total defense in 2014 … because they played only one team that finished the season ranked. (a team that scored 56 points and gained 612 yards against them)

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  2. First off it’s cherry picking to pick the site to use that best fits your point.

    Secondly and wwb is right you have to look a little harder at who PITT lost to.

    Until NCS tacked on that last TD how did they score 2 TD’s? Long punt return and a Hall like run for 80 some yards. Same scenario as PITT this past week.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. I’m not sure whether it qualifies as cherry picking to go off the NCAA site.

      Okay, let’s look at who Pitt has beaten.

      YSU is 3-4 (FCS)
      Rice is 1-7
      Duke is 4-4

      Pitt has beaten teams with a combined record of 8-15. Pitt has lost to teams with a combined record, I believe, of 27-8. Pitt’s margin in their wins was 7, 32 and 7. Pitt’s margin in their losses was 19, 38, 18, 3 and 18. Pitt is 2-2 at home and 1-3 on the road.

      I won’t argue about the big plays except to note that Pitt wouldn’t have won without those plays (and some road cookin’!) last weekend but NC State still would have beaten Pitt without the big plays. In the end the big plays are part of the game and count in wins, losses and stats. Otherwise we’ll start arguing about what constitutes a big play.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. The Duke QB Jones threw two beautiful TD passes that led the wide open receivers. Beautiful passes.

    On another note, can the Pitt defense play a game without giving up one or two-plus long pass completions, too often for touchdowns? Last game a a tall Duke receiver caught a long pass that Maddox couldn’t stop. Maddox is a very tough player but not tall enough against a good taller receiver. I will be at the VA game. Hope the kids will play tough again.

    I agree with Reed that Pickett throws a much better pass that a receiver can run under. Two tough catches by Weah hit him too late and were underthrown as well, resulting in Weah having to fight for the ball. Weah had beaten his cover man. Oh well.

    Supposed to rain in Pittsburgh on Saturday? Passing by Pitt might be a moot point. Good run blocking on the right side led to those long Hall runs. Maybe it will continue.

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  4. Well, I’m getting tired of looking at Pitt football objectively at this point. So, here’s what’s going to happen for the rest of this year and the next 2:
    1. We will not lose another game for 3 years.
    2. Ben D. will win the Hesiman Trophy next year and turn pro.
    3. All of Duzz’s next two batch of recruits will be 5*.
    4.Duzz will be the Head Coach of the Year and Conklin will win the D.C. Award with Watson runner up OC winner.
    5. Pitt will immediately begin building an on campus stadium.
    6. Pitt will be ACC champions and national champions the next 2 years in a row.
    7. As I write I have unicorns grazing in my backyard with a beautiful rainbow arched in the powder blue sky behind. Everything is beautiful.

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  7. Good—Darrin Hall finally shows why Duzz loves playing him so much.
    Bad—DiNucci, I’m sorry but 8-18 is no way to play d1 qb if you are not at Navy or GT.
    Ugly—Maddox arm, hopefully not as bad as everyone thinks

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Just for the record. I don’t think I have ever said that Dinucci played a good game, I put him into my good category because he played well enough to bring PITT back for a rare come from behind win. …. and yes, no turnovers.

    Also, the time of possession difference in PITT’s favor was a key in the Duke game. << 2 to 1

    There was also the drive that started inside PITT’s 10 yard line later in the game in which BD had some key 3rd down conversions.

    …and it’s not Dinucci that I want to start but he is the logical QB that HAS to start and will. Hopefully Pickett is the future and real soon.. . ….ike

    H2P!

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  9. another note. 8-18 sucks but when you have your tailback go off for 256 yards not mucking that up is paramount.

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  11. Good:

    We finally played a team that had comparable players to ours and we came out on top.
    Our young guys are starting to make plays
    We did not fold under adversity
    Our RB made two great runs and made the winning TD Run
    Weah made some big plays
    Our QB made plays when it counted
    Whitehead finished them off.
    We got some calls or non-calls to go our way

    Bad:

    We are still giving up too many big plays.
    Play calling and execution is inconsistent at best
    No pass rush most of the time

    Ugly

    Fans who can not enjoy a win

    Liked by 2 people

  13. The good: Hall, who ran like a bug on the rug. The bad: we only won by a gnat’s eyelash. Although we had’em all the way. The ugly: this mashup of Bob Princisms and Pitt football. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. – Hobie

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            1. don’t know … it’s hidden. It is defined as the cut or take that a bookie or loan shark gets from a bet. (I never knew this until I looked it up 2 minutes ago)

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  14. Good: Getting the W. Coming from behind to win. Beautiful looking day in NC. Catching Duke on a MLB blitz plus a good block resulting in Hall taking it to the house. Duke’s LBs and Safeties, wary of our screens and sweeps, were cheating away from the middle to the sides partially setting up the Hall runs. Good to capitalize on what they give ya (a couple of times).

    Bad: Not taking more time off the clock during the final Pitt drive that resulted in a field goal. Yes, we took a good bit of time off, but one more first down would have killed the clock. Watson got conservative and predictable the last three play calls (in part to center the ball for a field goal) leaving approximately 1:40 on the clock. This strategy nearly resulted in an OT game. Separately, Duke jumping off sides on several punt snaps (good for us, but bad, unforced errors, for them). Also, needing to blitz to put any kind of real pressure on the QB.

    Ugly: Nothing too ugly that I can think of. Neither team was good, but a win is a win.

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  15. Interesting question about how to rate strength of schedule. So I decided to weight using this week’s CBS 1-130 rankings. And then compare to Penn State and Maryland (the top ranked team according to the analysis Reed used). Three problems with this – how to handle FCS teams. I arbitrarily gave any FCS team a ranking of 131. Two what rating to give Pitt. Inexplicably, it is left off the CBS ranking chart this week. A poster to the site claimed Pitt was supposed to get 78 so I simply used that. Three, both Penn State and U Md have only played seven games to Pitt’s eight. I gave each team the median opponent for the missing game (that is, 65).

    So MD really does have a tough schedule – it includes Ohio State at 5, Wisconsin at 7 and UCF at 12. Its average opponent is 45.625 if I did the math right. Pitt has played four quality opponent and even Syracuse is tough at 53. Its average opponent is ranked 53.75. Penn State has a candy schedule thus far and its average opponent is ranked 71.25.

    This shows the problem with Reed’s table above. It says Pitt and Penn State have roughly analogous opposition and WE KNOW that isn’t true. This analysis shows Pitt’s schedule is much closer to Maryland’s than Penn State. In fact, just looking at Maryland’s opponents, it really could be close to the toughest schedule at least to this point in the season.

    Let’s not kid ourselves. Pitt had two major factors to deal with this year – one, an extremely tough schedule and two, the difficulty of the schedule was weighted to the beginning of the season. For an inexperienced team, that was a real burden to handle…

    Given that we just might have been able to win at Syracuse without dumb penalties and we were pretty competitive with NC State and even GT for at least some parts of the games – we perhaps should give the guys some props for fighting hard. What I’m not sure about is whether these coaches are putting the players in a position to win… We should keep the pressure on them to do better!!

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Hey Jackagain. I could never be pissed at my brother Pittman. No matter how wrong he can be……. 🙂

    PittEngineer correct. Also to be consider is why is Wisconsin rated so high (as an example) and this isn’t picking on Paul? It’s not only who a team loses to but who they played and so on and so on……

    The same goes for the ACC and PITT as well………….. ike

    H2P!

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  17. The Nooch still has 2 years of eligibility left AFTER this season. Again let’s say we do get to 6-6 and are Turd Bowl eligible and go an lose another one. And Pickett for whatever reason, flu, helmet, youth, doesn’t get many or any more experience.

    Do we get another 2 years of the Nooch and the Duzzer and watching this horrid offense throwing dink passes and sitting at 55 yards passing thru 3 quarters.

    The only good thing, the defense knows it’s gotta hold down the opponent scoring, given the offensive stench. (Hall had a once-in-a-lifetime game)

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  19. The Good : 1) A Conference Win
    2) A P5 Win
    3) A road win (since we have little home field advantage)
    4) #22’s Out of the Blue 254 yards (otherwise it’s a L)
    5) Finally heard a tv announcer say Zeise’s name (on a sideline forceout)

    The Bad : 1) The uni’s (again) With Duke wearing white pants Pitt should have their gold pants on. duh
    2) Putrid offense thru 3 quarters. Thankfully Duke was just as inept, in keeping with their last
    4 games
    3) Not giving Pickett any time (apparently he had the flu )
    4) Maddox’s injury

    The Ugly: 1) The white pants
    2) 8 of 18
    3) Pitt is not much of a draw on the road. (smallest crowd of the season for Duke)

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  20. I believe I read that we open as favored over Virginia. Interesting, on the CBS rankings, VA is 50 just slightly better than the 53 Syracuse is accorded. Note we almost beat 53 on their field so this does make some sense. And, for reference, UNC is now down to 98. So two games that if the coaches don’t get in the way, we should be highly competitive in…

    Time to get on the Ike optimism train – LOL…..

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  21. Thinking about next year… The Pitt offense gets to run approximately 75 or so plays per game. We have four games remaining (assuming no bowl game). How many snaps does the average backup/2nd string player need in order to gain a reasonable/useful amount of in-game experience to get ready for next season? 100 plays? 50 plays? 25 plays? I’m thinking about Pickett, Pine, Reynolds and a few others who will need to be ready to compete for a starting role and ready to perform against good opponents early in the season should they win the starting role… The time to get some guys in-game experience, especially if they might be an upgrade, is now (as others have said).

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  22. Good… a win… any win

    Bad… another free runner in our secondary. Heather predicting bowl game in another “look at me” moment ( notice I did not put this
    under ugly so as not offend sensetive POVers)

    Ugly – PSU JV borrowed white pants. Nucci bad porn moustache

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  24. Honor… big on a rug… gnats eyelash… bring back fond memories of the “Gunner” … makes one thirsty…

    Duke- “We had’em all the way!”

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  28. Duke was a beer. My father in law, never met but apparently quite a beer drinker, once hospitalized for dehydration at S Side Hospital for which was located under the Duke beer sign – irony.
    Saw my first Clint spaghetti westerns at age 15 at a Clint film fest in NYC – unicorns were flowing from my arse.

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Never realized the number of scores that Ennio Morricone wrote, over 500 movies and some of my fav movies.
    Here’s another.

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  30. Relax KP time will come. The best thing about Nooch is that he has the confidence of a QB who passed for 4,000 yards leading 16-0 Pine Richland to state title at highest class – tough. Weaknesses are apparent, he is a D1 qB that can beat bad teams up to slightly good teams, after that look out for his weaknesses.. When he plays teams like VT and Miami it will be brutal and you will see KP. Speaking of leading receivers you are right Reed against NCS KP was leading them 5 yards high and 5 yards long but bullets, Needs to adjust, Nard admitted post game that he kept Nooch in because no turnovers AND it was PN fault Nooch was sliding too soon as PN wanted to protect the ball. One thing not considered is that Nooch is in 3rd year and this team is in internal turmoil. PN probably deciding he will lose team if plays FR. Don’t tell me that the team should respond to anyone the coach starts, this is college not the pros. This is a team inexperienced and in disarray, Bold prediction – KP starts opening game next year after getting 100 snaps this year. QB battles are always like this, talent wins in the end.
    HAIL TO PITT AND CONGRATS BOYS.

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  32. Right BigB, a bug on the rug and remember the vacuum sweeper sound he would play when Gene Alley and Billy turn a DP

    The ABC combination. Alley to Billy to Clendendon…………….. Lest we forget the “Green Weenie”

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  33. Geez, Once and for all, Pine Richland did NOT win a state title with DiNucchi, they lost! Second, he has really bd footwork and mechanics and they really breakdown when he is under pressure. He has been EXTREMELY fortunate to not get picked off several times in the past few games. He may or may not be the best answer currently, Ireally haven’t seen enough of Pickett to say definitively, but to think DiNucchis form will hold up just isn’t based in reality. What you gonna believe, what they tell you or your lyin eyes?

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    1. He may not have won a state title but P-R scored enough in that title game to win it … 41 points. DiNucci was 32 for 46, 383 yards … against St Joseph’s Prep (just another Philly school that recruits.)

      But just so you know … 2 other recent Pitt QBs that did win state titles were Tino and that kid Fraud brought up from Texas (forgot his name)

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      1. Trey Anderson. He like The Nooch was not recruited by an P5 schools. Trey’s only offer was from Bryant U.

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  34. So as Monday morning QB’s, what did we learn from this Duke win?

    1st – our Olineman may be better play callers than our OC.
    2nd – our Dlineman and LB-ers are not pressuring the opposing QB.
    3rd – our HC and OC are managing the offense to not turn over the ball. No mention in their plan to manage to score?
    4th – our AD used a four letter word that begins with “B”.
    5th – the TE position is non-existent in OC Watson’s playbook. Reed was exactly right with this prediction at the beginning of this season.
    6th – BC beat UVA with TE passes over the middle and power, smash mouth, run centered football.

    Hmmm…

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  35. DiNucci is definitely a competitor, and athleticism (especially compared to Browne), but his arm strength is definitely lacking. I cringe everytime he throws an out route, the ball seems to be in the air for 10 seconds. I worry a defender with Whitehead like speed is going to jump it and pick it, but I guess we are lucky that not many players have Whitehead speed. From the little I saw of Pickett, he has a cannon arm.

    I know you cannot predict the strength of a program even in the near future, but does our out-of-conference schedule get any easier over the next 4 or 5 years? If not, we should probably stop complaining about it and face it as reality.

    At some point, the coaches are responsible to make sure the defense learns from its mistakes and stops letting running backs run free down the field. I guess the good part is that it hasn’t been the wheel route that has hurt us lately … last week is was a running back going straight up the middle of the field.

    I see that Watson wasn’t afraid to use the jet sweeps, even if they weren’t successful, to try to open the running game between the tackles. However, I still haven’t seen Watson use much pre snap shifting like Canada did so effectively last year.

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  36. IMO, there is no question that Pickett has a much better upside than DiNucci. Ben is in his 3rd year while KP is in his first.

    But having said that …. I have no issue with playing Ben until he needs to be replaced … this year.

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  37. Hidden Vigorish explains the Duke win.

    So the obvious elephant in the room is how much does Pickett play moving forward?

    A two QB system has rarely worked, and Ben has won a game.

    Ken’s redshirt is burned.

    I think if we take a vote most want to see Pickett play.

    The season is pretty much blown, although coaches never see it that way.

    Why not start Pickett this week to find out how accurate he is and how much of the offense he commands?

    Or do you play it safe and bring him in when the game gets out of hand?

    Really tough decision.

    Liked by 1 person

  38. Let’s hope Pickett has a better upside. But if I’m coaching Pitt, I’m trying to find some stud QB’s to come to Pitt and eliminate hoping as much as possible. Pickett didn’t exactly have a laundry list of great offers. Who did we steal him from……Temple ?

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  39. And this is a problem created by Narduzzi. If he played MacVittie instead of Pickett he doesn’t have this dilemma till next year. Quite a dumb move at the time.

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  40. UCF might not be a cupcake. They are undefeated this year and ranked 17 in the coaches poll right now. On the other hand, they finished the 2015 season 0-12, so maybe they’ll be due for a down year.

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    1. Yea that’s why I put…. at Ketchup Bottle. We play UCF next year(2018) at their place. Unless they have a very senior laden team, that is going to be a very difficult game.

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  41. Pitt has 2 QB’s in the NFL presently. Why is it so hard to recruit stud QB’s to Pitt ?

    Home of Dan Marino….I mean come on, this shouldn’t be like pulling teeth.

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  42. My information about Pickett’s upside is Reed’s observation of him and what I heard about him in the spring game. And although I take highschool highlight films with a grain, his arm certainly looks stronger in his reel than Ben’s

    But of course, I’d rather have Jurkovec .. but being Pickett is playing as frosh, he must have something going for him ( maybe HV)

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  43. I certainly concur about the arm strength as opposed to The Nooch’s. I could probably still heave a ball farther down the field than him. His mechanics are horrendous. Granted he does have some …what I would call…’Magic’ to him. And that is worth something.

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    1. Well, if that is magic, I want my money back. Carrick 5th grader magic maybe, haha.
      Ok, so let’s all throw out a Upitt line until he returns…….2018?

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  44. We can’t forget that Pickett has just as much practice time with Watson as Dinucci has had. Of course Watson does use a lot of Canada’s playbook.

    The way the offense has been criticized this year I just have to think Narduzzi and Watson has to be starting the QB they both feel gives PITT the best chance to move the ball and win football games. . . .ike

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  45. But you when think about it, Pitt is basically playing a ‘walk-on’ type QB and his backup was going to Temple, before we offered.

    Who else might be on the graduate transfer list for next year ?

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  46. I think I remember Narduzzi addressing the QB graduate transfer issue recently and said he would like to move away from that practice. ??

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    1. Hudson is a stud, but was never coming to Pitt. The two Duke linebackers looked really great except on the two big Hall runs. When has Pitt had an elite linebacker? McKillop was close.

      Narduzzi has missed on too many WPIAL top guys.

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      1. Wait, Hudson is Michigan, not MSU. You were talking about the transfer guy. Where did he end up?

        By the way, Narduzzi did not need more baggage.

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  49. It always goes back to recruiting, Jurkovec is about as much of a can’t miss prospect as there is but he is going to ND. Great ones are very hard to come by especially at Pitt. Transfers are not the answer, you need a guy that will play for at least two years, three being much better. I also have a feeling that the elite QB’s like Newton, Winston and Lamar get paid really well.

    I would really like to see Pitt get a running QB. It just adds so much, especially on third down. You also don’t need a perfect O-line. One thing that troubles me about DiNucci is that although he can extend a play with his legs his “on the run” throws have been awful.

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  50. Well it’s not really a question that I like going the transfer route or the graduate transfer route. I don’t. They are both born out of necessity.

    If you can’t recruit them out of HS< you gotta get them from someone.

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  51. WLAT had some success with a couple of transfers, David Priestly and the other guy.

    Savage did an adequate job considering the piss poor offensive pass blocking scheme. And Peterman did very well.

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  54. The Wimbush kid at ND is pretty good. And he’ll still have a couple years of eligibility after this year. I think Jurkovec is going to be sitting on the bench for a couple years going to ND.

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    1. I thought the same thing about Jurkovec. Nard has to tell him we don’t have the ND mystique and we play in a half filled stadium, but you start day one… you are the man. Why waste three years like our ACC side line reporter DJ Shockley did at UGA? Also, sell him on the fact that he can play in front of friends and family and will be a local hero that can get a cushy job from an alum after graduation.

      Nard can additionally point to other local guys that went to big schools and they are treated like just another number…at Pitt they would be prized possessions. Look at JJ Cosentino at FSU (no starts in four years), Steve Paszkors from Hampton sat at ND for four years, Andrew Johnson who never played at the U, and Robert Foster who would have been the feature receiver at Pitt for four years but is only a mere side dish as a senior at Alabama. Sometimes being the big fish in the medium sized pond isn’t the worst thing in the world.

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  56. Does anyone know what happened to QB Thomas MacVitte? Last December in the Trib, in talking about the future of Pitt football, HCPN mentioned MacVitte saying “Wait until you get a glimpse of (quarterback) Thomas MacVittie.” http://triblive.com/sports/college/pitt/11706730-74/pitt-narduzzi-northwestern So when all this praise of Prickett started happening I thought HCPN was talking about Prickett until I re-looked at the article.

    MacVitte is also listed as a FR. If Prickett takes over I assume MacVitte transfers since he’d most likely sit for 3 years (assuming Prickett is as good as advertised). I was just wondering if someone heard anything and if Prickett is just that much better then everyone else?

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  57. With four games and approximately 300 offensive snaps remaining (and only two of the four games are winnable, IMO), I would commit to getting several backup players 75 to 100 snaps of experience. This will make next year’s competition, well, more competitive. And it will give the backups something to work on (some film) for next year. Picket is certainly one of those backups that should get some snaps, given the burned red shirt.

    As others have said, perhaps Narduzzi is waiting for a blowout (VaTech/Miami) to get the backups in against the opposition’s 2nd team D…. Va and NC are winnable, but will likely be close games…

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  58. Maybe we can get the
    Wimbash kid when he gets bypassed by Phil. Phil is the best HS qb from this area I have ever seen, and I go back a long way. Yes, in HS better than Marino.

    Liked by 1 person

  60. Phil J has all the tools but PR spreads the field with 4 wide basically every play. Phil, as DiNucci did, gets to throw to wide open receivers most of the time. That doesn’t always translate to college. He should have picked a college team that plays a run and gun spread style.

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  62. At hospital waiting on the birth of my son, wearing old school script shirt, might as well let him know early what he’s dealing with!!

    Liked by 2 people

  63. notrocket..glad Morelli chose PSU and Constantino from Vandergrift ,a Kiski Area kid who transferred to CCatholic, went to FSU..so we wouldn’t have to suffer through that at PITT.

    John..prayers for a safe delivery and healthy babe boy!!!

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  65. Emel:

    I want to say John Turman was a JUCO transfer from California. His sister was an Oakland Raider cheerleader. SO HOT!!

    Priestly was an Ohio St transfer who was 5th string, yes 5th at OSU, and followed Walt here.

    Turman was QB for 12-0 vs Pedo’s.

    I remember a Thursday night game against V Tech at Pitt Stadium that Priestley threw for almost 500 yds. Antonio Bryant and Latef Grim both had over 200 yds receiving.

    Walt went back and forth with the two of them. However they were both good productive college QB’s. as opposed to the crap show we have at QB currently…

    Pap76 – we have a no swearing policy on here but you’re rather new so I just edited this instead of trashing it. Thanks, reed

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  66. Without the two big runs we got beat soundly. Glad we won but geez! The impression I got watching game was that we played horrible but made a few big plays!

    Good: Hall’s two long runs and Damar Hamlin covering for the linebackers on several occasions.

    Bad: Throw the ball to Weah deep more often and mix in a quick slant where his physicality can allow him to take a throw Denucci can easily make and turn it into a score.

    Ugly: Lopez coming off the field……………..where was Matthews?

    How Stats Lie!

    Att Yards Avg TD’s
    2 171 85.50 2
    22 83 3.77 1 Anything Less Than 4.0 yards is a bad average because with 3 carries you aren’t
    getting a first down.

    24 254 10.58 3

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  69. Gents….reliable scuttlebutt is that Maddox will be back this season. Dislocated elbow (which has been reoccurring apparantly). Hoping for NC game but that is best case scenario.

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  70. Reed takes time out of his volunteer day to edit comments. The man is tireless. << Not to say his Prius doesn’t have tires on it.

    Not going to be able to make the game this Saturday, so just a heads up Fran..

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  71. If anybody watched the Monday Night Football game last night in Philly it was like a Penn State Info commercial including an interview with Franklin at half time. Meanwhile, we sit at 3-5 with a pipe dream of winning 3 more games to go to the toilet bowl behind a high school QB. It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee, gentlemen.

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  72. Maddox may be back this year but Narduzzi has named him an either or with Motley this week at CB. Frankly I’m getting pretty sick of Narduzzi handing out the BS each week on the Pitt injury front.

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  73. Did anyone mention the play where Whitehead lined up and took the snap?? If that was Watson getting creative, we are really in trouble. That play was a disaster.

    Which reminds me, with all the sweeps, when are we going to see a reverse???

    Go Pitt.

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    1. After we get some/one to work so that they need to start to over-compensate to defend it…..so looking like never.

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  75. Turman’s sister was an Oakland Raider cheerleader. She married billy Osborne. so for the ahole Panther rants clowns who bashed turman he was a fine college qb.

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