in Pitt Football 968 Words

Pre-2023 Spring Game Thoughts…

Here is an interesting take by the Pitt News regarding our current QB situation going into the Spring Game. It was written by Brian Sherry, the Pitt News Assistant Sports Editor and I tend to agree with him. 

Although on one hand I do believe in coaching and training up the underclassmen to get a shot at being three or four year starters.  On the other hand with the craziness of the Transfer Portal changes, and with now not have to sit out a season after transfer, then who knows if that underclassman will ever be an upperclassman at the same school?

It is well written and should generate interesting comments…   

“Last offseason, Pitt football found itself in the midst of a quarterback battle.

Senior Kedon Slovis, who transferred to Pitt from USC, was the clear favorite and was a near-lock to gain the starting job. But redshirt senior Nick Patti, who played with the Panthers since 2018, did everything to prove himself capable of the role. The Panthers ultimately picked Slovis, which, at the time, seemed like the right move.

But everyone knows how that panned out.

Slovis was mediocre at best, throwing for 2,397 yards and 10 touchdowns. Meanwhile, Patti bided his time, working in the background for his moment to shine. At the end of the regular season, Slovis entered the transfer portal, allowing Patti to take the reins for the Sun Bowl. In the bowl game, Patti stepped up, leading Pitt to a 37-35 victory over UCLA and becoming a hero in the process.

It’s clear that Patti deserved the starting spot last year, as the writing was on the wall for months leading up to the 2022 season. Patti outplayed Slovis in the 2022 Spring Game and looked solid throughout summer practices. Phil Jurkovec

Now, nearly a year later, Pitt finds itself in another quarterback battle. Former Boston College redshirt senior quarterback Phil Jurkovec transferred to Pitt this offseason as the presumed starter for 2023. Christian VeilleuxBut there is another transfer quarterback that is turning heads in Pitt’s spring practices — former Penn State redshirt sophomore Christian Veilleux. To make matters even more complicated, Pitt also has returning redshirt sophomore Nate Yarnell competing for the starting job as well.

Jurkovec is the clear favorite to earn the starting job, as head coach Pat Narduzzi has recently hinted that the former Boston College student is at the top of the depth chart. But just because Jurkovec is the favorite does not mean he deserves to take the field in 2023.

Instead, the Panthers should go with Veilleux or Yarnell to lead the team next season.

Both are young and capable of leading the team for years to come. Jurkovec, on the other hand, only has one year of eligibility remaining. In college football, stability is at a premium, as rosters change on a yearly basis. By choosing Veilleux or Yarnell over Jurkovec, the program can build around their young quarterback and possibly have success for years to come.

And don’t think that Veilleux and Yarnell have not proven themselves capable of leading a team. Veilleux has a proven resume of performing well in a starting role. The former Penn State quarterback helped lead the Nittany Lions to a 28-0 route against Rutgers in his first collegiate game back in 2021. In the game, Veilleux threw for 235 yards and three touchdowns.

Veilleux saw limited playing time with the Nittany Lions in 2022, but made the most of his opportunities when they came up. In a game against Ohio, Veilleux went 6-7 on pass attempts and threw for 37 yards.

Penn State transfer quarterbacks also have a proven record of success with other teams. Former Kentucky quarterback Will Levis transferred from Penn State in 2021 and is now one of the top quarterbacks in the 2023 draft class. There is no telling whether Veilleux will end up like Levis, but the comparison is there.

Nate YarnellWith all the talk of Jurkovec and Veilleux taking the starting job, it’s easy to forget that Yarnell is still an option. The redshirt sophomore is completely capable of leading the Panthers to success in 2023. Last season, after Slovis and Patti were both injured, Yarnell stepped up against Western Michigan, throwing for 179 yards in one touchdown in a 34-13 beatdown of the Broncos.

Yarnell is also the only quarterback on Pitt’s roster returning from 2022. Jurkovec and Veilleux, who are both new transfers, will need to build rapport with teammates and adjust to campus. Yarnell, on the other hand, is already well accustomed to Pitt and will look to build on his experiences in 2022.

In all likelihood, the Panthers will select Jurkovec as their starting quarterback in 2023. The former Boston College quarterback came to Pitt as the presumed starter in 2023 and is showing no signs of losing his front-runner status. With Jurkovec’s skill and experience, he will probably do well in the Blue and Gold.

But, if Jurkovec slips up — either in the offseason or during the regular season — the Panthers should not hesitate to replace him with one of their younger options. It’s time that Pitt stops looking for transfer quarterbacks every offseason instead of developing a starter over the years.”

Editors Note: I’ll be attending the Spring Game on the 15th and hope to see a bunch of POVers before, during and after the scrimmage. Can’t wait especially because I need some to tell me who in Hell is on our team!

BTW all Pitt athletics fans should get the Pitt news delivered to their email in-box so as to see a side of the sports issues without any of the financial considerations that exist in the professional writings.  Just go to this link then see the gray box on the right side where you enter your email then click “submit”.  It is mailed out three times a week.

HTP!

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97 thoughts on “Pre-2023 Spring Game Thoughts…”

  3. Thanks, Commander Reed! And glad to hear you will be attending the spring game.

    Interesting article. I heard a local reporter on the radio yesterday (Noah somebody) and he was raving about Christian V.’s arm. Said his passes have a lot of life, or something to that effect. Did not rave about Phil’s arm. Note that my understanding is that the reporters get to see a bit of the QBs early practice work, so maybe Phil takes longer to get that old arm warmed up…🙂

    BTW, seeing PJ interview video, and it’s none of my business, but I’d like to see PJ lose 10 pounds from his mid-section over the summer…. (It just bothers me a bit when players graduate and then show up at their Pro-Day looking way more chiseled than they were while playing in college…)

    Go Pitt.

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    1. The L’s will be there in force… LizL, ChrisL and JoeL along with Big Al.
      Excited as always to see friends and take a peek at the future.

      Regarding the QB situation… I thought Nate Yarnell showed a lot of poise last year in the WMU game. Forget about how good (or bad) WMU may have been – it was a critical game for Pitt and his first start. He showed that he has a good arm and has great touch…

      My only concern would be if the coaches were too loyal to Jurkovec should he not come out of the gate fast. IMO they erred with Slovis in that regard last year.

      Liked by 4 people

      1. I don’t believe you are alone in that opinion Joe. I’d net tens of thousands of Pitt fans felt the same way. Sometimes Pat’s (normally admirable) loyalty gets in the way.

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  4. I’ve never been that impressed with Jurkovec at BC. No way he could be worse that Slovis though!

    Whoever wins at QB, I hope Duzz and Co find a way to get all three minutes. A huge weakness for Pitt in the past.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Not to beat an old dead horse but Slovis was bad in the spring game, clearly outperformed by others and looked much the same throughout the season and blind loyalty never replaced him while potentially better options sat. History could be repeating here. My limited view of QB video that has been released shows CV and others with better arms, touch and tighter spirals. PJ’s balls appear to float a bit and wobble to the target.

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  5. Phil J should definitely have a short leash come fall. Hopefully Yarnell put on about 30 lbs. He won’t last being a stick.
    The QBs won’t matter if Frank doesn’t open up the offense and spread the field some. My God it was boring last year.

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  6. Slovis’s best year at USC blows PJ’s best year away so I’ll just compare ACC years. PJ’s stats are not exciting. The kid is hurt a lot. I hope he has a career year and gets drafted, but I don’t see it happening. Fingers crossed.

                    Class   Pos G   CmpAtt  Pct        Yds         TD   Int.   Rating

    PJ ACC SO QB 10 205 336 61.0 2558 17 5 138.7

    KS ACC SR QB 11 184 315 58.4 2397 10 9 127.1

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  7. Nothing irritates me more than to see Pitt or any team fail to play the back up QB when ahead by a significant amount. No other position benefits as much from game experience as the QB position. There is also much to lose when a projected starter transfers out and the back up is totally inexperienced.

    Liked by 3 people

  8. Voice ….
    My biggest pet peeve in over the years starting with QB Wayne Adams vs
    Notre Dame in the opener maybe 1975 when our starting QB went down. . Wayne couldn’t even take a snap from center and it cost Pitt who was the better team to lose.
    Year after year coach after coach….failed Pitt many times in the season by not giving the backup QB snaps. Slovis the most egregious cost Pitt at least two games.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. I don’t get it, Dan. Maybe they are just trying to fatten the starter’s stats. But winning games is most important.

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  11. When listening to the offensive players talk about how much better they understand the offense this spring versus last spring, I have to wonder how much of Slovis’ problems were due to the receivers playing tentatively and downright running poor/wrong routes…

    Even Coach Cig said how different it is this spring when they are not having to do “methodical installations…”. I think a huge part of the blame for last year’s poor offense during the first half of the season goes to Coach Cig and Coach Duzz…

    And Pitt rarely gets into a position where they are leading “comfortably” enough in a game to be in a position to put the backup QB in. Even when us fans want or expect to see the backup, the coaches hold off – fearing that, well, this is Pitt, and disaster will strike…

    Go Pitt.

    Liked by 7 people

  12. I don’t agree that Patti deserved to start at all. Slovis definitely had more upside. I highly doubt Pitt’s season is much different with Patti at the helm. People’s love of backup QB’s baffles me. He was a backup for a reason.

    Everyone points to the bowl game but he was 20/41 for 225 yards and 1 TD to 1 INT. He had a nice game winning drive but he did not look like a season changing QB.

    Slovis has 2400 yards, 58% completion percentage, and 10/9 TD:INT ratio. Patti with a clear advantage rushing the ball and maybe that’s the differentiator in an individual comparison … but Patti was not going to elevate Pitt to another tier of football rankings. Sorry. That wasn’t happening. And, that’s why Slovis kept the job.

    Patti basically played to the mean of what Slovis did all season.

    Great story. I probably would have liked Patti to start if I had a preference … especially with hindsight … but I also have zero confidence that the season would have been better.

    Plus, the coaches also have to factor in optics and how benching Slovis for Patti affects their future ability to land transfer QB’s. That alone makes Slovis the better option when all things are considered.

    … and … lo and behold … Pitt lands to excellent portal prospects setting us up well for the next 3-4 years.

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Define clearly? Because that implies that Patti would have gotten us there and he does not have that type of track record to say that.

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  13. There is also the issue that a back up QB will transfer if he believes he is not valued by the coaching staff. What goes through his mind when the team is ahead by 3 touchdowns yet he doesn’t even sniff the field? Is he really in their future plans? A Senior backup may stick around but a Sophomore could hit the portal..

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Stop. Getting the backup QB playing time is not valuable at all. Mop up duty does not give you needed game experience. Practice will be much better for that and number 2′ get reps. 3’s don’t. Paul Zeiss used to write some great articles regarding fans wanting the the backup to get reps. They were great. Plus, if the backup QB is in for mop up duty the competition is obviously not great. And 3 TD’s isn’t much in this era.

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  14. Rumors are pointing to Tory Verdi to be re-united with HL at Pitt as women’s BB Coach…

    Go Pitt.

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  16. Lance White, who served as the Panthers’ head coach for five seasons, before athletic director Heather Lyke fired him for accruing a record of 42-99, the worst five year stretch of any head coach in Panthers history was hired by the current AD.

    Heather has a similar bad hire situation with the current softball coach, a former MAC HC who has lost a lot more than she has won at Pitt.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. So regarding the article, I also disagree that Patti would have been a better choice to start last year. First off Patti while Patti’s legs were an asset, he was knocked out of his first major opportunity in the precious bowl game. Second he got hurt in the Tennessee game, his second opportunity although he did make a game effort in that one, but was unable to go in what would have been his third opportunity. We don’t know when he would have been ready after that.

    Slovis was also hampered by the concussion and was not the same after for some time.

    Besides that the defense and kicker contributed to the losses just as much as the QB’s.

    Patti played one remarkable game vs. UCLA as did the defense, maybe more so, but one fine game doesn’t necessarily translate to a season.

    Slovis lead the team to seven wins which is certainly not a bad thing in recent Pitt history.
    Who knows what might have happened if he does not get concussed, the same way as who knows what might have happened if Patti was named the starter?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. As far as this year’s QB, unless Vellieux or Yarnell dramatically outplays Jurkovec in practice, his experience is much more valuable than than the other guys potential.

      While it won’t happen I like the idea of giving the second string guy a series in each half rather than mop up duty when nothing is on the line. This gives the guy real experience.
      You do this at every other position, so why not at QB?

      It also keeps the second string much more prepared if the other guy goes down.

      Liked by 5 people

  19. Thanks, Reed, for the reprint.

    Do yourself a favor, and subscribe to the Pitt News. Doesn’t cost anything. The writing, etc., across the board is top-notch.

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  20. A huge factor in last years boring average at best offense was Cignetti. Narduzzi continues to hire pro style offensive coordinators who can’t teach their offense in one spring and summer camp. This isn’t the NFL. It shouldn’t take a year for a team to be comfortable in the offense. Whipple had the same issue and stated as much.
    I hear Pitt will pass more this year. I’ll believe it when I see it. Cignetti has no history of having an above average offense.

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  22. As I previously posted about Jurkovec, Pitt was simply not good enough for him the first time around. How ironic it will be to see how the “Wayward QB” now finds himself not good enough for Pitt?

    There are a couple of reasons why this just might be the case.

    No one here with one exception was even mentioning Yarnell as a contender one year ago. All of a sudden, guess what?

    Then there is Veilleux. Great arm. But can he play Quarterback?

    Any way you look at it, a MUCH better situation than putting all of your chips on a quarterback who was so obviously “Slow-vis.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. He was a lifelong ND fan. He asked to come to Pitt when he left ND but Pitt had committed to Pickett. I don’t get what his initial decision has to do with anything. Who cares if he chose a different path? I’ve interviewed people who said no initially but later decided to join the team. No hard feelings over business decisions. Can’t let emotion get in the way of stuff like that. Narduzzi is as emotional as they come and he got past it.

      Liked by 4 people

  23. I have no special interest in Jurkovec, however, he has big game experience and knows the Cignetti system (whatever that is theses days). Jurkovec did not see the field at South Bend and played QB with some very mediocre BC teams…the jury is still out. When I think of our newly soon to be annointed QB one word pops up repeatedly…INJURY…INJURY. We are looong overdue as a program from having a top quality QB….will this be the year?

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      1. Joel. You are 100% correct…my statement needed my morning coffee. Pickett had one very exceptional year with an amazing receiver in Addison. When you look at KP’s body of work he was not headed to the NFL and he knew that he needed another year post Covid to prove his ability.

        Pitt has had many outstanding players drafted into the NFL…not QBs. DiNucci was a nothing burger and I think he might be playing in the XFL. Pitt is not QB U. I hope that we are finally on the road to developing a high-quality QB room. Way overdue!!

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        1. Can’t be QB U with a below average offense. You need an explosive offensive scheme to attract top QBs.

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        2. I believe that Kenny was projected as 5th or 6th rounder.
          Amazing what happened to his draft stock when Pitt TEs actually caught balls or WRs ran all the way to the end zone. Think he was the reason they lost 17-10 in Happy Valley when Duzz went for the FG… or was it the OL, which had been a problem each and every year he played.

          He had pretty good stats all things considered and had some great wins against top competition….UCF at Heinz (go back and re-watch that winning drive), the Miami game as a fgreshman and so one. It was all there… he just needed to have some players around him.

          Can you tell Im a fan?

          Liked by 1 person

          1. “he just needed to have some players around him”……A BIG YES! I think KP is a much better than average QB, probably never will be a SUPERSTAR, but he will have a long and successful career. The Stillers (yinzspeak) are a work in progress and without going through the entire offense including the coordinator, I believe that we will see his statistics improve if the team has a good draft and pays some Rooney bucks to improve weak positions.

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  24. The biggest factor that affected Slovis’ production last year was the loss of Addison and having no real deep threat. Secondly was the poor protection early on. Also the defense did not give him many short fields early in the season.

    The quality and depth of receivers will also be huge factor this year. A quality late portal addition could really help, as would another productive tight end. It is unfortunate that Pitt lost the Penn Hills kid to PSU.

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  25. I expect the run game to be good and am excited to see Ryan Baer at LT…. if he isn’t starting or getting significant reps by mid-season, something is wrong.

    The question for me is the growth and development of Means and Mumpfield…and their timing with Jurkovec.

    Anyone have thoughts on either incoming or returning RS WRs to look for?

    If those two guys improve, combined with what I expect to be better play at QB, I would expect the offense to be effective.

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    1. Baer was working at left guard the other day. Taylor should stay at left tackle and if Ryan can play guard, that is a heck of a left side to run smash mouth behind.

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  29. The three guys that left the WPIAL to play at elite football schools coming home should be an eye opener for all local kids. Their having great success individually and collectively would go even further to prove Pitt is It.

    Liked by 1 person

  30. Heather hires her bud from EMichigan Toni Verdi as Women’s Basketball Coach. MEH!

    He appears to be the reincarnation of Lance White! Good floor coach with little recruiting ability.

    Many coaches (especially women) refused to even interview for this job. Heather just ran out of time. The stigma of Pitt Woman’s Basketball remains!
    Almost no one things Pitt will ever have success in Women’s Basketball!

    Count me in on that!!….. Now

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    1. Unfortunately Coach Verdi may have been her third choice. Will be interesting to see if the “better” players on the roster, and there are a few, stay or portal…
      Plus what happens with the already signed recruits…

      The ACC had 6 or 7 teams ranked last season – so the task, just to go from last place to the middle of the pack, is daunting no matter who the coach is…

      Go Pitt.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Heather liked his personal attributes and how he deals with people more than his ability to recruit and coach BB. A typical Pitt hire…

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    3. Not excited about the hire at all (really wanted a young-ish woman coach — think that would help with recruiting) but will be patient as Verdi had some solid seasons recently at UMass, also not an easy place to win. As for whether Pitt women’s basketball can be a successful program, we’re doing big things in soccer these days and dominating traditional powers in volleyball, so there’s no intrinsic reason Pitt can’t become at least competitive in women’s basketball. It’s a matter of commitment and execution.

      Liked by 1 person

  31. Heather is hitting way less than 50% on her coaching hires. Her home runs (or at least triples) so far, Kevin Gavin and Randy Waldrum, were no brainers and easy hires. Both wanted to come to Pitt and everything about them seemed to project their future success.

    Her long single is Jeff Capel and the jury is still out on him. Next year will tell if things are truly turning around. Jeff Capel also pursued the job at Pitt.

    Bad hires in her first batch were Lance White, women’s basketball; and Samantha Snider, women’s gymnastics. Both of these she had to let go.

    She was unable to keep Samantha Snider from leaving Pitt to go to Louisville. This was just after Pitt won its first Coastal division title in softball. Snider has not exactly been a world beater at Louisville. Her replacement at Pitt, Jodi Hermanek, also has not been very successful.

    Heather has been able to retain Dan Fisher, Jay Vidovich, and Pat Narduzzi. These three have been the most successful of Pitt’s coaches.

    I agree with most everyone that has commented, this latest women’s basketball hire of Toni Verdi seems to be a dud. It seems Heather did not have anyone lined up for the job prior to firing White. We will probably have to go through this entire process again in another 4-5 years in the women’s basketball program.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tory_Verdi

      I refuse to believe that a school in the ACC which was paying $600,000+ to Lance White was unable to find a better than average coach for women’s basketball. Verdi’s record can be described as BLAH!! Heather bailed on this one and we can only hope that he manages to somehow elevate the Lady Panthers out of the basement…..it would nice to be just MEDIOCRE instead of ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE…..onward and upward to mediocrity!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Verdi’s prior two jobs he inherited terrible situations, which is what he walking into at Pitt. I’m sure an upper echelon coach would want nothing to do with this job, especially with the area not producing the kind of talented players it once did.

        Zero tradition hurts.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. That’s outstanding for a Pitt AD! It’s usually no better than 10% based on past hires across the board.

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  32. In case you didn’t see Pitt is #22 in the current Director’s Cup standing … She’s doing okay. New facilities that she just got approved will help with a lot of the issues you have above. She inherited one of the worst athletic departments in the P5. Bottom 5. Maybe bottom 3.

    Liked by 5 people

    1. I completely agree that Heather has done a great job elevating Pitt sports programs overall. No argument there. The Victory Heights will be a great step up over the Fitz for both women’s volleyball, wrestling, and women’s gymnastics. We still need to do something about an outdoor track facility!! Victory Heights is a small step for that sport. Perhaps something can be worked out with Carnegie Mellon University there. Pitt will pay for upgrades to their facility, and we share it.

      I do have a problem with this hire. She should have had someone lined up and ready to go before pulling the trigger. Pitt’s basketball facilities are pretty darn good with the Pete! I cannot believe she could have done better than we got.

      Perhaps Heather should have let the gymnastic coach slide another year and concentrated more on the women’s basketball program coaching change.

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  33. TT you are 100% correct, however, once the upward trend has started why slow it down by not doing the extra work needed to continue hiring top quality coaches. White was clearly a loser and Heather had to see that way in advance of the end of the season….but, she went bask to EMU (not the stupid commercial) and hired a friend. Smesko was also a questionable possibility and he supposedly turned the job offer down to stay in a low pressure…low level job. Hmmm.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I can’t provide an educated opinion on women’s basketball coaches. Purposely avoiding commenting on this hire because I do not watch or follow the sport. If Pitt does well, it would probably peak my interest a little but I’m a men’s basketball and football guy. The other sports are ancillary. While I will root and tune in occasionally, it will not be as a die hard fan.

      As an AD, however, Heather is winning on a lot of fronts. She doesn’t have to get an A in everything. Pitt’s not in that class athletically … at least not yet. She has the program trending that direction though … and rapidly.

      Victory Heights is going to be huge for Pitt’s Olympic sports … if that’s successful, and Duzz can keep football moving forward … then, she may have a case for building the much desired on-campus football stadium …

      The Pete was a huge success. If Victory Heights has the same affect on the corresponding sports that would be two wins for the sports complex crowd and give a lot of momentum to the missing link.

      My guess is the new woman’s basketball coach is going to get some resources not available at UMASS.

      Heather has earned my trust. I also do not expect or believe in instant gratification. I expect this to be a process. As we’ve seen with volleyball, soccer, Duzz and Capel, it takes time to program build.

      And … I know the jury is still out on Capel (me included) … but this season certainly looked like he cracked the code.

      Liked by 1 person

  34. Looks like HL has used up all the good will from the AD of the Year Award.

    Can anyone think of underwhelming coaching choices that eventually succeeded?

    I know in Phila the media and fans were very skeptical of the Nick Sariani hire

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  35. Of course, it’s ok to have your own opinions as long as you all remember the rough time Narduzzi received before he even stepped on the campus as the head football coach of PITT. Then remember all the other times we heard the criticisms of almost every hire PAT made since. Why don’t we wait to see if this hire is any good before the perceived failures.

    Anyone remember Marcus Carr? I once had a (forgiven) bet with a POVer who bet that no one on PITTs roster that year (with Carr) would still be playing D-1 basketball in two years back then. Carr not only played D-1, he became an All American

    Liked by 5 people

      1. Instead of saying the Pitt women’s team will always play hard “coachspeak 101” why not say “I’m going to search high and low for the most talented women’s basketball players on earth and bring them to Pitt!!”

        Not off to a good start. “Waiting. By the phone for Heathers call??

        Really?? A lot of Stallings speak!!

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  39. Where is the guy from Texas who told us HL was incompetent for years on this blog?

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    1. PSU 6 of top PA 15 hs football recruits for 2024. 5 star recruit from Bell Vernon commits to PSU. Pitt has 1 top 15 pa recruit. Please tell me again about PN being a great recruiter.

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      1. It’s hard recruiting to a half empty stadium versus one that’s packed each Saturday. Pitt’s recruiting on defense is improving IMO based on the number of DL and CB’s drafted by the NFL and with Partridge as our assistant head coach and DL coach. However Cignetti’s offense in 22 was so dismal I’m not sure anyone would want to play under that system going forward. Now one positive for the O however was their play in the bowl game which looked much more wide open with Patti at QB(with the QB run option now available) than with Slovis back there.

        Liked by 1 person

  41. On Coach Verdi’s press conference, I thought he sounded okay. But what matters most is whether he can bring in good players and a star or two.

    I hope he can hire an effective staff. Even with Pitt being a cellar dweller, he will have more resources than he’s ever had….

    Hope he has a good eye for the portal – lots of roster spots to fill…

    Go Pitt.

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    1. Did you catch the part in the press conference when Verdi took a shot at his wife by saying Heather Lyke said more good things in the introduction than he’s heard in the last 25 years of marriage?

      Really???

      Both HC Verdi and AD Lyke emphasized that they would promote a family atmosphere – if that was meant to be a joke, that was really poor in my book.

      On to baseball: anyone planning to watch ND’s 1st year HC today as he goes for the sweep of the hapless Panther baseball team who has team ERA of 8.75?

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  42. Pitt Baseball 4-8 in ACC. Lyke should plan on replacing another of her hires but since no one cares about Baseball she won’t. I’m not going to pretend to know or care about woman’s hoops but that hire seems weak at best. Act like you atleast care to make a good hire.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I see they’ve used my Harford County MD guy Zach Oswald sparingly. He’s a lefty, throws in the mid 90s has a great slurve.
      6 3 210 lefty and he can bring it.
      The team sucks is 4-8. The pitching sucks most of all. Please start Zack a few times instead of throwing him in with the bases loaded and no outs! I know he’s a sophomore but he can’t be any worse. Again, I thought this guy was a pitching coach???

      Ps. I hated pitching coaches!!

      Liked by 1 person

  43. C’Bo Flemister press conference upon being tabbed one of those being counted on to carry the ball come fall… color me IMPRESSED.

    Not sure about his forty time. But sounds a lot like a future coach.

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  45. Women’s basketball is the worst sport to watch. 💤. Volleyball, softball, soccer, cornhole, anything is more entertaining, LOL.

    I didn’t realize Pitt fired the last guy.

    Back to football.

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  46. Verdi is Stallings all over again.
    I wonder exactly how many people she interviewed who said no thank you.
    Or how many people she reached out to who said not interested in even talking.
    This smacks of a desperate situation and she was stuck with just the one choice.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Verdi rebuilt two programs that were terrible just by looking at records. I don’t follow WBB but this guy clearly has more credentials than the last two coaches.

      Who knows what he can do recruiting to The Pete.

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  47. No surprise guys linked to Pitt early are chasing the bigger NIL bag elsewhere.

    Joe Girard likely heading to LSU and the FSU guard quickly commits to Memphis.

    Any job at Pitt is tough due to the lack of money.

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  48. @natebailey4 … yeah, same impression at face value. It looks like he knows how to turn programs around. Pitt’s not a quick fix so IMO that’s a good hire … again, at face value.

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  49. Joe Girard is 6’1″ … maybe (unlikely) … yes, his shooting would be nice but he offers zero defense, especially strictly playing zone at Cuse.

    Not even a little bit of a loss if he doesn’t go to Pitt.

    We need athletes. Lack of athleticism was our downfall this season.

    Liked by 1 person

  50. Isn’t it great that we are lamenting Women’s basketball and Baseball and not Football or Men’s basketball. I call that progress. LOL

    Liked by 5 people

    1. Expecting Pitt to have a good baseball team is a bit crazy in any year. And in a year when they brought in 24 new players, it’s just off the rails.

      Bringing in 24 new players on a college baseball team, especially a northern baseball team, should tell you all you need to know…

      Go Pitt.

      Liked by 1 person

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