Here are some thoughts on a Sunday morning –

Statistics and the fun you can have with them… All-Time Pitt players and why we think they way we do about them… All-ACC members and why we’ll miss them… How our four ‘best’ players in 2017 let us down… Why I’m right and Ike is wrong… and having to see Dorsett play to believe the stories we old-timers tell about him.

Here is my Aunt’s abbreviated obit – my mistake – her grad degree was from Carnegie Tech and she was a LCDR in the Navy (obit is wrong)…but this photo was taken last year when she was 101…

And here is some Veteran’s Benefits info…

smalldrc

If your service-connected condition has gotten worse and you’re planning to file an increased disability claim for that condition, there’s a better way to file. Get the fastest decision on your claim for an increase by filing it as a Decision Ready Claim (DRC). Filing as a DRC means you can get a decision within 30 days after your claim is submitted.

Work with an accredited Veterans Service Organization (VSO) or other accredited representative to determine if the DRC program is right for you and your claim for an increase. Your VSO can then help you gather and submit all relevant and required evidence so your claim is ready for VA to make a decision when you submit it.

Don’t need to file a claim for an increase? You can also file these other types of compensation claims through the DRC program:

  • Direct Service Connection Claims
  • Presumptive Service Connection Claims
  • Secondary Service Connection Claims
  • Dependency and Indemnity Compensation for surviving spouses

Learn more about the DRC program, including eligibility requirements, what medical evidence you need to submit, and how to find an accredited VSO at www.benefits.va.gov/drc.

Thank you for your service!

Veterans Benefits Administration 

Michaelangelo holds a degree in Travel Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. He was a former staff writer for InPittsburgh Newsweekly, and currently resides near Atlanta, Georgia. He has been a Pitt fan since 1997 after he witnessed Pitt upset #22 Miami on Thursday night at Pitt Stadium.

111 thoughts on “POV’s View From the Endzone Podcast: 4/22/18”

  1. As I noted on last post, Chuckie Bonasarte was the Kamikazie Kid.

    As far as TD, it was just amazing to watch him. Shady and the rest are nice players, but TD was a generational talent. As good as some think Shavuot Barkley is, you never saw TD have 0 yds on 9 carries at half, nor did you see all the tackles for loss. About the only thin I don’t remember him doing was catching the ball out of the backfield, but all you had to do was hand it off. He should have won the Heisman his junior year also.

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  2. 1970’s, Notre Dame game at Pitt Stadium. 200 yards rushing. 100 yards receiving and down went the Irish. He caught passes that day in brilliant sunshine. Over 300 yards total offense for TD. One short pass he caught and then ran through the entire ND defense for a score. It was beautiful. My ND fans from Cleveland expected an Irish blowout of Pitt instead of the other way around. They were amazed and bewildered at a kid like that who could run like that. And I was there. Yes, he was Pitt’s greatest back. Ever.

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  4. Again Reed, I get the fact that taking out one or two plays or a game here and there would most likes give us all a better perspective of reality. I question in your case why it always seems to be positive plays and not the negative plays or games. I once posted on the POV, that realist’s are virtually nonexistent in totality due to the fact that in some way in their lives they are bias to some degree. It also states realist’s are in general slanted towards pessimistic folk. Thus the removal of positive plays to make a point. Why not be like the cheating Olympic judges and take out the highs and the lows? << Not just the positive plays.

    Again, take out the 31 sacks PITT had last year and the crazy amount of yards rushing lost and we would see a much different rushing ypg and ypr attempt average. Sack yardage losses are subtracted onto the passing yards lost in the NFL which it well should be. imo

    The real point is, statistics are great and certainly facts. I like to have fun with you about them. They most certainly are good indicators and pointers to the truth. << generally speaking.

    Enough of the statistics chatter. I get their importance in bar room Blog,message board and water cooler talk.

    One last time to break your balls Reed. Why are you always taking positive stats away to make PITT players look worse instead of taking negative plays away to make them look better? Your great buddy ike 🙂

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    1. Because no one loses 160 yards on two carries Ike? Or rarely throw 4 INTs in a single game…

      For Hall we’ll take out his two best plays and his two worse plays – let’s say two runs where he lost 5 yards. That gives us 124 carries for 502 yards and moves his ypc up .1 yard from 3.9 to 4.0 ypc – still very subpar.

      And I’m not making them look “worse”. I paint a more truthful picture as to what Hall did on 97.5% of his carries. It is called “outliers”

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  5. Also Justin, I think we had some snow flurries that day. Seem to remember grey and overcast with blowing flurries, but it was the 70s.

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  6. Dr Tom is correct. TD had 303 rushing yards on the ground.
    I was also there in my season seats 2 rows in front of Lastrowsection4!!!!

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  9. Nate Peterman threw 5 interceptions out of 7 attempts in 2017. He, and the Bills have hopefully forgotten that performance.

    Take away that awful stretch and he threw 2 td’s and 1 interception for the bills in 2017. Not bad. A couple of those picks were not his fault and he had a couple drops. Regardless, if you went strictly by stats, he would have been cut last year. Hopefully he gets it turned around before the 2018 competition comes in.

    My bball coach was from ND at the time of the 303 yard performance and was not happy as i mocked him about the game. I ran suicides for the first 15 minutes of practice as a result of running my trap about it. Lesson learned but thankful to TD for that performance!

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  10. Reed, here’s are two reasons you don’t take away Hall’s 92 yard run

    1) it was the longest TD run in Pitt history (look it up)

    2) if it was Ollison carrying, the ball on that play, not only does he not score .. he likely doesn’t even get to the Duke 40 yard line. Dial up the replay and look how the safety on the opposite side seems to have an angle and yet he just can’t seem to catch up with Hall.

    That is the difference … Ollison hits doubles .. Hall hit 2 HRs that day (and you have the gall to take it away from him). you have a lot of guts; but it’s your blog and you seem to do whatever you want

    wwb

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  11. ^^ That’s why you give the ball to Hall 12 times knowing the 13th time he can break a long one. Barring an injury, Hall has a very good season this year.

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  13. Stats can be misleading. They only tell part of the story. But the point Reed was making is valid and it’s important to take things like ‘remove this play or that’ when making a case.
    We can all do that if we need to show something from a certain perspective. As long as it’s not done deceptively, I see nothing wrong with making a point by stating what you are adding or removing from the statistics.
    Just my two cents.

    Didn’t notre dame grow some extra grass one year to slow down td and it failed badly?

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      1. And add another yard for the Henderson fall and we are 7 & 5. Then we win the bowl game and we are 8 and 5.

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    2. Yes. I have seen a video summary of that game on Youtube. It was one of Pitt’s wins in 1976, the perfect season.

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  14. Last year I predicted PITT’s offensive line would be good, certainly better than they played. I admit I was wrong… I also thought Max would have played much better. << wrong there as well. I don’t find it hard to admit when I’m wrong.

    bj, weren’t you one of the big jokers about Heather being on vacation when she hired HCJC? It’s not hard to admit when we are wrong… ike

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  15. Just for the record. I get Reed’s stats and where he is coming from. I know full well that they have a certain meaning. Reed’s does acknowledge he’s trying to drive home an opinion based on the facts presented. A realist doesn’t take away two runs or a good game against a bad team. Wasn’t it my friend Reed who said you play the teams on your schedule?

    A little subtle so read between the lines… ike

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  16. Bottom line is who cares about stats at this point. Based on the performance last year, what I’ve seen and read this year, Pitt has no elite back and its line is below average. Better hope Kenny is the second coming of Dan Marino (one that can scramble for his life). And our D can hold teams under 20. It looks like it will be a long year. I’m telling you Pitt’s basketball team will win more ACC games than the football team.

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  17. Just an analogy, take away your 3 best sexual conquests back in your younger days, now, how does that dilute your memories of your wild & crazy days? Pretty pedestrian right?

    That’s what an obsession with statistics produces, a lot of mediocre memories with no highlights to reflect on in your old age.

    Thanks, but I chose to remember the good times.

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  19. If you take away my best 3, I am in the negatives.

    I had no passing game, but was always a deep threat!

    If you run the ball 20 times for 350 yards against wofford at&t, and then run 20 times a game for 650 more in your final 11 games, the total is somewhat tainted. That’s not a great year. The stats will show a respectable 1000 yards at 4.1 per carry, but in reality, you had 220 carries for 650 yards or 2.95 per carry.

    The point is that you count the season in totality, but don’t get all crazy excited that the rb got 1000 yards. Always look at the totality of the circumstances. This is where stats in sports can be misguided. The main stat is wins and losses for that season, not comparable to any other due to strength of opponent, player turnover on both teams, yadda yadda yadda.

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  20. Hall has got good speed and is fairly strong but has very little change of direction in him and as a result is an average back at best. You need a back that can run effectively off tackle as well as being a threat to take it wide if the hole is not there. I’m not sure Pitt will have a back like that in house for next season. maybe the freshman coming in or AJ can give us that kind of escapability for the 2018 season. At least I’m hoping for someone to give us a little of TD for Pitt this year.

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  21. That kind of mercurical back that can zig zag for those extra yards, just might be Pickett himself. The issue could be though that such runs may occur out of desperation to avoid being sacked, which is definitely no way to run an offensive game plan & not a good way to keep your QB healthy.

    If this new OL fails in providing solid pass protection though, Pickett has the wheels to turn such a negative into a positive.

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  22. Hall and Ollison are average. Why can’t PN get a back that actually can make people miss or be a bull like JC was? One of the young guys better step up.

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  23. Ollison breaks more tackles; Hall has more speed. Both can be productive but neither are in the class of the great backs we have seen at Pitt (recently, Conner, Lewis, Shady, and Graham before the injury).

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  24. Wbb, exxagerate much? What I do with that is use it in a contextual discussion, not for his playing history.

    You know that I’m not erasing his 92-yard run from memory and that is ridiculous to even state. How many times have I written that those were wonderful runs and that he won that Duke game for us?

    But my whole point with this is to show his overall effectivness on the 97.5% of his carries. If that % of carries number weren’t so high I wouldn’t mention it. Really, if we were talking about 20 or 30 carries that would be one thing but we are discussing 126 of 128 carries.

    So my whole point , and I think it’s a valid one, is that on 97.5% of his runs he wasn’t a 4.9 yard rusher. And what that means, and what that showed, was that our running game was not very effective last year save, I guess, for 2 solid runs.

    Tell me, are you comfortable with Hall again being the #1 RB going into a season where it is entirely possible our OL may be worse, and maybe much worse, than last season’s? He was the 140th rusher in D1 last season so I’m really hoping Davis, Silby or Salahuddin will break out.

    You know – you go overboard a lot.

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    1. c’mon Reed, Ollison breaks tackles, Hall has speed. You do not take away someone’s biggest asset when you make an analysis. Again, Ollison doesn’t score on that 92 yard run .. which easily was the TURNING POINT in that game. Think about it … Pitt just fell behind 17-7 and on had the ball on its own 8 yard with just seconds left in the 3rd quarter. After that play, Pitt pretty much dominated the 4th quarter.

      And until you acknowledge just how damned hard of a schedule Pitt has played since Narduzzi’s arrival, and how it affects the W-L, I will continue my criticism of your anti-Narduzzi bias.

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  25. Here is something interesting also. If you look at what our season’s leading ball carriers did on short yardage (1-3 yards) 3rd down carries…

    In 2017 that was Hall with 12 conversion on 17 attempts or 70%

    In 2016 that was Conner with 11 conversion on 15 attempts or 73%

    In 2015 that was Ollison with 18 conversion on 20 attempts or 90%

    In 2014 that was Conner with 21 conversion on 30 attempts or 70%

    In 2013 that was Conner with 4 conversion on 9 attempts or 44%

    Over their careers that would be Ollison as leader with 85% total (22/26) then Hall at 74% (17/27) and Conner with 64% (35/55).. and then George Aston at 100% on 3/3 tries.

    Fun with numbers but the coaching staffs have guys on them that do nothing but crunch stats on their team’s play and players

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  26. Substitute Barkley for these backs and see what you have. Take,away,that one long run and I wonder if he averages 2 upc? Anti-Nitter bias aside, will Barkley really be all that in the pros, or just another in a long line of over hyped under performing Nitter backs? Just wondering.

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    2. Barkley appears to have a strong work ethic. Work ethic goes a long way when combined with some talent. He’s a solid pass catcher as well, so that increases his value, IMO.

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  28. Statistics aside, don’t forget the psychological impact of having a game breaker on offense, either a RB or WR. This can change the entire complexion of the apposing defense. The threat of having a player who can take it to the house from anywhere on the field causes a defense to play back a little more and maybe adjust away from the interior of the line. I wonder how many RB yards off tackle can be credited to Henderson and the threat of his sweeps? My point is that statistics are good to evaluate and can tell us certain things, but especially football is a game of overall strengths, weaknesses and match ups.

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  29. Reed,
    I thoroughly enjoyed your podcast! Listened to it late last night. I DEEPLY appreciate the amount of hard work you put into the POV and I can certainly understand why you at times have to back off of it, especially because of the continual non stopping, petty complaints day in and day out you have to deal with.
    It’s interesting to me that the same guys who supposedly are so “positive and upbeat” in everyday life are in reality the exact same highly critical negative nannies you have to deal with 24/7.
    You present well thought out articles for all of us to enjoy. I for one, most certainly do!!!!!
    Thank you!

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  30. Gee Jim, it seems to me that you may be pointing in my direction with your latest comment? I’m not trying to be negative towards Reed in general I just don’t believe you should fiddle around with stats to suit strengthen your stance on a particular topic. I’ve said it before and I say it again. Way back when my business math professor once lectured to the classroom, that if you tickle or torture a statistic it will confess.

    I completely understand Hall’s two long runs fudged his numbers. At the same time, I keep re reading about Ollison’s great freshmen year. He had long runs against a couple really crappy teams early that year but no one is running to subtract those yards. ike

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      1. Good question, Ollison’s story is strange indeed. Narduzzi’s tight lipped policies certainly makes finding the answer to Q’s lack of carries difficult to figure out. I look for him to have a good season this year as well. Despite not carrying the ball he’s the games for many snaps.

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  32. Hall has above average speed but can’t remember him running outside sweeps. Maybe he has trouble catching a pitch out . He doesn’t seem to catch many swing passes, maybe a one trick pony.

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    1. the last time I remember pitch sweeps at Pitt was 2015 when Chaney ran Ollison wide on a large handful of occasions (never made sense to me). Of course, there was the shovel pitches to Henderson the past 2 years that went wide, but that was from the slot

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  33. After listening to Reed’s podcast, I think the discussion on Max Browne is a good example of how statistics can be deceiving. Reed, you talk about statistics, and then selectively decide which performances are important and which are not. The Rice statistics are selectively eliminated from the discussion, because well. they were produced against Rice. But doesn’t every P5 team have a “Rice” on their schedule? Someone once said that the ultimate statistic is wins vs. losses, and this may apply in the NFL. But what about those fat Nitter win-loss records in the 70s and 80s? Many of us complained about the ridiculously soft schedules Pedo played back then that ran up JoePa’s win/loss record. So statistics in college football should be weighed in addition to other intangible factors. Dan Marino showed what a good QB he was in the NFL, but the college statistics may not be so kind (Sr. year under Foge and ’83 Cotton Bowl loss to SMU).

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  34. I’m averaging about one post per day that never makes the blog. A little discouraging –

    Let’s calm down about the RB’s for now. Many criticize coach Duzz for his lack of 4* recruiting yet his stable of RB’s is loaded with 4* talent –

    Hall – RS SR 4* Rivals
    AJ Davis – SO 4* Rivals
    Mychael S… – FR 4* Rivals
    Sibley – RS FR 4* others & high 3* Rivals
    Q.Ollison – RS SR – 1,000+ rusher in the ACC as a FR – high 3* Rivals and the nitters were fighting hard for him in recruiting.

    And then there is the walk-on legend – George “The Animal” Aston – 10 TD’s as a SO – now a SR with an eye on the next level.

    Oh, on May 12th Stefan Milan will graduate from Kent State and become a grad transfer at LT for Pitt. Go onto YouTube and watch his play vs clemscum last season. He will be good at Pitt – his line mates at Kent State were the reason for the poor line rankings that have been reported.

    H2P!

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  35. As far as the dairy high school and its proclivity towards developing nfl rb busts, alot can be attributed to an above average offensive line against an inferior opponent. Reminds me of john cappeletti and archie griffin who won heismans behind great collegiate lines and couldn’t do squat in the nfl. Pitt’s rb drafts shows that the rb position has been strong.

    A great RB can make his o-line look better than they actually were. Conversely, an average o-line can make a highly skilled rb, look mediocre. I am in the camp that our ol has been mediocre and our rb’s are slightly above average. I said this from day one on Hall. He is fast. He does not have the field vision to make the great cuts. When you look at TD, Shady, Ray Allen, Dion Lewis, they all had great vision and great quickness. Hall to me is just fast.

    I like our true sophomore RB Davis, who has been used in short yardage situations and gained short yardage. Our line has been a problem and there is no evidence to suggest they will be a strength this coming year…yet.. No road graders lately. I like Bookser and after that, I am at a loss for someone that is tough, talented and inspirational.

    Recent history suggests Bizno was not a road grader. He was soft to me and is why he struggled so far in the nfl. He didn’t play mean. He used his big body to his advantage in college, but finds it to be inadequate for the speed and strength of the nfl game.

    DJ was solid too. Not dominant, solid.

    Just saw that JJ (hamburger)Jones-Smith was mock draft picked by the raiders in the 5th round on cbs sports. They also have A Maddox in the 5th round I think. That would be awesome. Point being, the nfl scouts and draft will tell us who had talent and who didn’t. If we start putting 4 and 5 players in the league each year, than you can look at coaching for associated W’s and L’s versus a lack of recruiting expertise.

    So what’s the number of drafted player’s each year that would prove the coach to be a great evaluator of talent in the recruiting ranks?

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  36. Great question Huff. I feel that if a team has 3 players drafted from the same side of the ball, that they had good talent on that side of the ball.

    Im not sure what the actual gauge for being a good recruiter should be, but that’s my guess. Again, great question.

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  37. The thing about alias Smith & Jones is: he wasn’t very good last year for Pitt. But yet he might get drafted in the 5th round. Actually I thought he should have stayed on the Left side and O’Neal on the right, as when they switched both their play seem to deteriorate. Perhaps a bonehead move by the departed Peterson.

    Hard to know for sure since apparently both these guys have struggled thru various injuries. So were than more effected by that or by the shuffle from one end of the line to the other. Large people and people in general sometimes go better in one direction or the other.

    One thing for sure the line almost got Mini Max killed and certainly ended his season and The Nooch ran for his life plenty too !

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  38. Btw Mini Max threw for more yards (410 yards) 28 of 32, had the highest YPA 15.3 and highest QB rating 236.4 of any QB who played against Rice last season.

    Here are the others:

    Keller Chryst – Stanford 14 of 24 – 253 yards, 10.5 YPA 174 rating
    Ryan Metz – UTEP 18 of 33 – 203 yards, 6.3 YPA 116 rating
    Kyle Allen – Houston 31 of 33 – 309 yards, 9.4 YPA 193 rating
    Alex McGough – FIU 17 of 28 – 172 yds, 6.1 YPA 117 rating
    Ahmad Bradshaw – Army 0 of 2 – 0 yds. 0.0 YPA -100 rating (threw a pick)
    Dalton Sturm – UTSA 12 of 21 – 134 yds. 6.4 YPA 126 rating
    Jmar Smith – La Tech 21 of 32 – 237 yards, 7.4 YPA 138 rating
    A J Erdley – UAB 20 of 21- 197 yds, 9.4 YPA 221 rating
    Kwadra Griggs – Southern Miss 22 of 31 – 331 yds, 10.7 YPA 192 rating
    Steve Williams – ODU 20 of 29 – 188 yds, 6.5 YPA 123 rating
    Mason Fine – North Texas 18 of 25 – 195 yds, 7.8 YPA 143 rating

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  39. again the question begs what in hell did Browne do against the other five teams he played against?

    You just do not gauge any player on one game or two runs but how they contributed overall.

    Hall did well in three games and we went 2-1 over that stretch…he really did a great job there.

    However Browne contributed almost nothing in his 5 games other than Rice save an OT pass against YSU.

    I firmly believe constantly producing over 12 games is way more important than one big game.

    wbb, you truly get too emotional and personal on here. Perhaps you need another sandbox to play in.

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  40. Thanks for the Rice Owls pass defense statistics Emel. During a 3 game stretch last year Rice held their opponents to 306 yards, that’s 102 yards per game average. << Man sounds like Browne made the Rice pass defense worse than they really were? 🙂

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  41. Maybe Rice should throw out their game against PITT last year and don’t count it… Just kidding Reed..

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    1. You know what? I keep hearing that we are 1.5 yards a or a fumble away from a win…. or if could have just done this or that we’d have 6, 7 or 8 wins as if we play the games In a vacuum.

      I’m going to go back and see what plays our opponents who lost to us would point to to make losses wins…

      Like the YSU team saying “If we could have just stopped Pitt on that 4th and 1 at our 4 yard line in the first half we would have won that game!!”

      Or Duke saying “If we just didn’t throw that INT at the Pitt 22 we would have tied the game and probably won!!”

      So right there we’d be 3-9 just as we’d have 6 or 7 wins going the other way. But the games played out the way they did.

      Every team every year can play that “what if…” game.

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      1. But then again I hate Nardu**i so much I can’t even bring myself to write his name correctly.

        Narpuzzi, Nepduzzi, Nutcassy, N&d%zz*…see? Can’t do it because tears of hatred have clouded my vision.

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      2. I totally agree … this is the point we’re trying to make. It’s the same as taking away Hall’s 2 longest runs

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        1. You are incorrect again. One shows an argument of production and consistency and the other is just ‘what ifing’ with no basis for discussion.

          Again, do you think Hall was consistently anywhere near 4.9 ypc on his 126 carries (other than those two runs)? He wasn’t. He was a full yard below and that is a big amount.

          My whole usage of that is in context to the discussion of is Darren Hall a consistently good running back or is he not?

          We are talking about this at this point in time because there’s a good chance he’s going to be behind an even worse offensive line than last year and I believe that you need somebody that is consistently better at gaining yards then his 3.9 yards per carry on his other 126 carries.

          If you do fine and good for you. I do not and feel we need more constant 4.5+ypc at least.work from someone.

          Truly the proof of this was our poor offense and running game last year…it led to 5 wins – the least we have had since 2007.

          But I don’t dislike Hall; I just want a good RB to give us a better chance to win more than 5 games.

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  43. That was for the I can’t ever spell his name right post. Ya, if you say we coulda, then it’s only fair to say they coulda. We are what we are.

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  44. I wish Hall was more elusive, but on the positive side, he really runs hard. I remember back when he’d only get a few carries a game, he always gained a couple yards after contact – I think that caught my eye because he did it despite not being a big bruiser of a back…

    The sustained speed he showed in the Duke runs was really impressive.

    So I think Hall will have a decent senior season — but I still wish this coaching staff could identify and recruit a back with instant change of direction…

    Go Pitt.

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  45. A point about Hall’s yards per carry — I think it was negatively affected big-time by Two decisions that Coach Duzz made. Those decisions were to have Watson stay with Canada’s offense (which made sense given the success), and to bring in and play Max B. (which made no sense if you were going to stay with Canada’s offense).

    Since our QB MB was no threat to run, the QB-run-option plays that Pitt used put Hall at a big disadvantage since the defense had no reason to respect any threat from the QB keeping the ball…

    Watson will be free of the Canadian influence this season and the offense will be better for it, IMHO…

    Go Pitt.

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    1. Wait wait wait…..Hall gained the majority of his yards post-Max. Big Q was the starting RB in the first 2 games and then hardly anyone carried the ball in the Okie State since it was a rout at halftime.

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      1. Plus Max only played the 4th Quarter at GT, and against Rice we didn’t need to run. And then he got knocked out at Syracuse. So Hall wasn’t at a disadvantage because of Mini-Max…..The Nooch was the QB when Hall played predominately. Poor Mini Max, everyone likes to blame him 🙂

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  46. In 2015 take away Ollison’s two biggest runs (71 & 45) and that leaves 210 carries for 1005 yards at a 4.8 ypc clip… That My friends is pretty damn good.

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    1. No no, I think Ollison had a great season. Didn’t mean to give you a homework assignment but isn’t it interesting that Ollie ran for 71 yards. I believe that run was straight up the middle as well..

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  48. Only 2 teams threw more times against Rice than we did, so of course he would have more yards.

    Reed – I can’t believe you missed the most glaring stat of all stats. ARMY threw the ball THREE times against Rice for the entire game. Because of that, the Rice average yards per game given up is way better than it really should have been!

    Jeepers creepers, who can’t see that! I would throw out that game as it is meaningless, but you surely can’t use that stat to lower the average yards per game result, can you? Want to improve your pass against statistics, schedule, Army, Navy every year. The statistics would say you have a real good pass defense.

    Army Passing
    C/ATT YDS AVG TD INT QBR
    Kelvin Hopkins Jr. 1/1 9 9.0 0 0 71.4
    Ahmad Bradshaw 0/2 0 0.0 0 1 44.1
    TEAM 1/3 9 3.0 0 1 –

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  49. Thank you Huff, that was my point exactly. It also lends to the fact that a teams schedule could have a dramatic effect on a teams statistical numbers including their won/loss record.

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  50. Ike and Huff +1.
    if your going to use stats as an argument, use all the stats available. Don’t pick and choose the one’s that help your argument.

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  51. Hey Jim..the top rows of section 4 were indeed the place to be back in the day. Haha.

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  52. Again,I agree with you Reed. Stats are important for teams to use so the can gauge progress or the lack of it. On blogs and message boards it’s even more fun to use numbers to try and support one’s point. The bottom line is the final won/loss record. How the record came about is for all of us to toss around, discuss, and debate. Part of following your favorite team are blogs like the POV to keep us all engaged when there is barely a football game in the foreseeable future. ike

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  53. the only stats that matter at the end of the year are wins and losses. and yes – the schedule does matter.

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  54. When it is 4th and one on the two yard line to win the game, do stats count then or does the heart take over? Teams win games with players who have character, who don’t quit and who are counted in the 4th quarter when everyone is wasted and the game is on the line.

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  55. Last Row Fran,
    Yes, the famous men’s room(s)with the “”pee wall”and bottom ceramic horse trough was behind us on top of the stadium not far from us section 4 fans!
    Concessions also if I remember correctly.
    Great times!!!!!

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  57. Jim, I believe ceramic but my old brain plays tricks on me. What I remember for sure is the Nacho stand right behind us. Haha.

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  59. Maybe playing some fullback last year toughened Ollison up. He does not always run in beast mode as JC would say. Thus his time on the bench. Some games he never breaks a tackle and looks soft.

    Hall has some speed and ….. uhm, well, nothing else.

    If the OL doesn’t gel it will not matter.

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    1. I’d take that kid in a heartbeat but again you miss the point. Naduzzi swung and missed on another quality local kid is a position of greatest need on the team.

      This is problem folks.

      And please not let’s use the “He had his heart set on ND. ” line here. Good recruiters turn those kids around especially if they are sitting in your backyard for three years.

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  61. I know Rivals is the endorsed site of POV but I can’t find a Top PA ranking for 2019 in Rivals. Here is 247 and it lists only one 4-star in the entire state (interestingly, Joey Porter Jr)
    https://247sports.com/Article/247Sports-Top-25-class-of-2019-football-players-in-Pennsylvania-117522900

    I did find in Rivals the list of 4-stars for 2019, and there were 322 nationwide … and only 4 were from PA, the only local was MJDevonshire from Aliquippa; the other 3 were from the east. Porter Jr was not listed.

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  62. Pitt baseball took another series win as they beat Miami 2 out of 3. No mention of the baseball team when it wins…only when it loses. No one should be surprised by that…

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  63. Again guys, you are taking my pulling two runs or one game out of context because you are still thinking only in terms of the high points of Hall and Browne’s season.

    I’m talking about consistency and production when needed over the course of the season.

    I do not discount that those Hall runs and Browne’s Rice game werre vitally important to get us those two wins. They were and thnks to them we didn’t go 3-9 which we may have without them.

    But when looking at either players whole 2017 seasons those are the outliers and skew their stats and perceptions upward.

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  64. Not only is the Duzz swinging and missing, he is doing so at the highest rated players in the area. We may not expect to land 4*s from all over, but to be successful we must get the best of the locals. Even when it’s a down year, we should, and need to lock these kids up. The fence around WPa is a sieve, and that’s a problem. I haven’t been that high on a lot of locals lately, but we, as the local school still need to secure these commitments. Is there a problem with the staffs relationship with the local schools?

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  65. Also, what Reed and others are talking about is lineal and non linear regression analysis. If I remembered any of it I’d plot the outliers and give a legit statistical analysis, but that ship sailed many years ago!

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  66. Comparing running back statistics from two different seasons is a useless exercise. The quality of the o line play has a very direct relationship to the YPC of each runner, as does the effectiveness of the passing game. Pretty simple concept: if the other team knows that you can’t pass (or maybe can’t pass downfield), they load up against the run. Hence comparing Hall and Ollison based on stats alone is silly. Sit at the game and watch. Neither is a difference maker. Neither could hold a candle to Shady, Dion or Graham, our most recent trio of good backs. Conner was a different animal altogether.

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  67. wow, let’s give credit where credit is due, excellent find WWB. Obviously, there are quite a few “3 star players” (and even 2) that are better than “4 and 5 star” players, so part of the recruiting process should involve doing a better evaluating job then the rivals & Espns of the world. Chryst did a nice job of that especially on the OL, his recruits in that area were better than their star ratings, generally speaking.

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  68. JoeKnew, I’ve written this before …. if you look at the 4- stars who committed to Narduzzi, you will find that all of them committed late in the recruiting season, and had not visited Pitt during the FB season, not having been at a game at Heinz. The only exceptions were Whitehead (who originally pledged to Chryst) and Ford … both of them seemed to committed to stay at home no matter what.

    Kristofic, whose dad played at Pitt, had Clemson, OSU and Michigan as finalists before choosing ND. These local suburban players are not even giving Pitt a 2nd thought …. and why should they, given the instability of the program and the large amount of yellow seats. And face it, they are probably not that enthralled with the urban campus also.

    Back in April 2013, when Troy Apke from Mt Lebanon committed to PSU … this should have rang a big alarm. Not only were both of his parents Pitt athletes, his HS school coach was the LB coach at Pitt.

    Put yourself in their place … they go to visit sold-out stadiums with avid fanbases on spacious campuses with great facilities. This is just another reason why I think the expectations of the FB program is way too high.

    And it also is a reason why Pitt is focusing on the southeast, especially FL when it comes to recruiting .. there are just so many more quality recruits there. Especially when considering that there were only two Rivals 4-stars this past year in the WPIAL/City and this coming year, there may be only one.

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  69. How many top recruits does OSU get out of Columbus? How many does UCLA get out of LA? There are different factors at play for local recruits. Some may not have had that ideal experience growing up and just want to get away from the area. Others may have become too enmeshed in the ongoing controversies surrounding local sports, and may not be aware of the almost certain scandals that exist in other programs (except for the Nitters, of course). These decisions could also involve experiences at local or distant football camps over the years. When there aren’t the numbers of top recruits locally, it is magnified when Pitt doesn’t grab the good local kids. Kristotif didn’t include Pitt on his final list, which tells me that he made a decision to go away long ago. If there are only 322 4 stars nationally, as wwb suggests, then Pitt better be offering every single one of them.

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  70. Three things hurt, the first is obvious and that is the decline in numbers in the WPIAL.

    Second is that today’s kids are much more worldly in that they have traveled, especially kids from the upper class suburbs. They are not afraid to leave mom and dad or their girlfriends. They are more connected through social media and know that it is a smaller world.

    Pitt’s overall status in the Sports World has dropped dramatically over time with many epic fails over their lifetimes.

    The top kids just want to go to the top schools in their sports, it is not rocket science.

    Academically would a kid chose a scholarship at Pitt vs Princeton, CMU or Stanford?

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  72. I also get Reed’s point in dropping the two big runs. They are outliers or anomalies.
    The mean is a more precise measurement than the average, if you are trying to predict future outcomes.

    Especially since he got both in one game. What other player would be first string if he was only effective in one game a year.

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  73. TD elevated the Pitt program in 76 and Pickett has the chance to do the same in 18. Sometimes a STAR especially at a key position can make a big difference. Now I’m not as of yet crowning Pickett as our TD clone at the QB position. But I am saying most of you downbeats are not recognizing what a star at a key position can mean for any team and in our case Pitt’s no exception to that rule.

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  74. The perception of Pitt in the high schools is that we will go 7-5 or 8-5 each year. This is the other reason you make the schedule easier. When freshman start seeing Pitt in the top25, they will want to be a part of the program. Kids want to be included in something special. It is how they view life now. When Pitt starts to win 9 games per year, the recruiting pitch becomes “you can make the difference between 9-3 and 11-1.

    When we get to 11-1, we will make the playoffs. It is a simple strategy. The Dairy High School has been doing it for years. 3-1 at worse in ooc and 4-0 ooc in most years, gets you where you need to be in my scenario. Michigan just canceled a series against Vtech because they didn’t want an ooc schedule with vtech and washington on it.

    Wake up athletic department. Make a strategy and then execute it.

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    1. I agree , but getting to nine wins is difficult when you don’t get the 4 stars and you schedule a difficult OOC.

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  75. While I agree that a star can do that, lets wait till half way through the season to anoint him.
    Calling people names because you don’t agree with their positions is rather childish.

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      1. So you consider categorizing someone as a downbeat calling them names? How about if I called someone an upbeat on Pitt FB program. Is there really a distinction from your view on the downbeat and upbeat assessments terms as it relates to name calling?

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  76. Heather is caught between needing big names to put fannies in the seats, and easy wins to get the win total higher. People won’t come to Heinz Field to see Pitt play the Little Sisters of the Poor. Perhaps Pitt should play the easy teams away, and just play the ACC games at home. It would mean fewer home games, but the fewer games might be better attended.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It hurts attendance that Florida State or Clemson do not visit Heinz Field every other year. When Pitt joined the ACC, I was hoping they would and so far just one FSU visit. It might mean a likely loss, but would provide a much needed attractive big-name conference opponent to improve attendance. Tie that in with one quality OOC opponent, Notre Dame, Penn State, WVU, etc. and now it’s a much better schedule. VT and Miami can be good but lately do not equal FSU or Clemson and they aren’t new to Pitt fans.

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  77. OOC SOS is only going to get more important with regard to playoff spots.

    Also, it is more difficult to sell season tickets with a crap OOC slate.

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  78. Yeah Voice, I hear ya. To me, Pitt attendance stays pretty even during ACC games, and except for a big ooc game here and there, the long term benefit is worth the short term extra 20k fannies.

    We will get more fannies in subsequent years when the fan base believes we can actually do something with the season.

    As an example, so many complained that we had poor attendance after the great Clemson upset two years ago. In reality, our record was not good enough for the next game to actually matter. People want to see more wins. Recruits definitely want to be the difference maker too. Another case in point to manipulate the schedule. The same number of fans came out to the post clempson game, than did all of our other games in the acc.

    If you don’t think the recruits want to make a difference and build something, just review how the dairy high school sold the entire “rebuilding of a program that was not their fault” mentality. They had the kids feel like they were part of righting the wrong against a storied program…..not a coach, but a program. The kids wanted to make the change and committed to doing so. In response, the Athletic Department softened the schedule so that a perfect storm formula could occur ……… and poof, we are now stuck with even more arrogance from the dairy! Their athletic department pulled the wool over the entire nation.

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  79. News flash: Rumors that Capel has landed his first recruit, Trey McGowens a pg who is #75 in the country. This is HUGE!

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    1. Holy Fast Track Batman!!!

      Dis is Huge….HUGE!!!! Took HCJC about 10 days to turn McGowens from a near certain 2019 Clemson Tiger into a 2018 Roaring Panther!!!

      H2P…and Hail to Coach Capel for putting Pitt back on the right track.

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