I want to start this off clean.  I’m in sales.  And if you are in sales and you’ve been around for a while you tend to have an inherent distrust of marketers and “brand” people.  Sales is where the rubber meets the road.  If you’ve got a good product it sells, marketing be damned.  I you’ve got a bad product (or it’s overpriced), no amount of marketing (now called “activation”), and no amount of branding (No matter how clever or authentic it is) is going to make that pig move.

So forgive me if I am a little skeptical going into this, even if, yes, on the surface I get the concept of Pitt Football hiring a brand consultant to help it’s young men develop a coherent personal brand strategy.

The good news is that a number of Pitt players do have a good product.  Jaylen Twyman is an All-American.  Good product.  Pitt’s defensive line combined to be top-10 in sacks.  Good product.  Patrick Jones is poised to be a first round draft pick if he lives up to his potential this year.  Good product.  Paris Ford and Damar Hamlin are arguably the best safety tandem in the country.  Good product.  Jimmy Morrissey is a former walk-on turned all-conference player.  Good product.

So yea, there is some talent to work with, but the question, remains, is this Darlow guy legit?  The world is full of fly-by-night marketers who ride on in and take your money without actually adding value.

And so, as a 20 year veteran of corporate america, who currently holds a position in a fortune 500 company that is roughly the same in responsibility as Darlow’s Director-level corporate credential, I’m going to give you my assessment. Continue reading “Who the F*** is Jeremy Dar-Low?” →

Pitt secured yet another verbal from Virginia today, near-four-star running back Malik Newton.  That’s four commits from Virginia this year for Beatty, and more than 20% off the 2021 recruiting class.

Newton is a coveted 5.7 – three star, which is just a tenth of a point less than a four-star ranking.  He joins OL Terrence Enos and DE Nahki Johnson as one of the three 5.7+’s in Pitt’s 2021 class.  He’s the 8th ranked prospect in Virginia and the 18th ranked running back in the country.  Not a bad pickup for an offense that loves to pass the ball (although you have to admit Pitt didn’t exactly have any bell-cow types in the running back room last year).

Continue reading “Pay Chris Beatty Whatever the Heck he Wants” →

By Reed Kohberger

To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them.

-Hamlet, William Shakespeare

You POV’ers have had some great discussions going on about Pitt football and most recently, about whether football could, or should, be played in the 2020 season. That last part is creating some strange and almost unbelievable stances being taken on the subject across this nation of ours.

Let me throw my two cents in if you will. Continue reading “To Play or Not to Play” →

This podcast:

https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-6d3cr-dd53cb

It’s Chris Peak’s interview with Curtis Martin, and it’s perhaps the best former-Pitt-player interview I’ve heard, ever.  Just extremely authentic, eye opening, and informative.  Martin is a guy who played during some down years at Pitt, but went on to a very successful career in the NFL (and when I say very successful…the man is in The NFL Hall of Fame).  The things he has to say about his time at Pitt, and pre-Pitt are really, really interesting. Continue reading “Listen to this Podcast” →

It’s nigh time for a new post to get your minds off of whatever it is you have been commenting about.  To lockdown or not to lockdown?  Ask a hundred people and you’ll get one of three opinions:  Yes.  No.  No but wear a mask and don’t be an idiot because, you know, germs spread disease and somebody you care about might be susceptible.  All are valid for different reasons, and all have their pros and cons.  Nobody will be swayed to your point of view no matter how hard you argue.  So thanks for playing, I’m shutting down the COVID chatter.

And now that we’ve gotten that out of our systems, lets get back to talking football.

Two months ago I started alternating positional reviews/previews with Richard Hefner’s opponent previews.  While I only got through a couple of positions (maybe three…) I got through a lot of the Hef’s work.  There are three left and two of them happen to belong to the State of Florida.  We’ll have Miami at Miami of course, and we will rotate into Florida State, at Florida State.  And even though we have a better record than both of them over the last three years, Mr. Reaper pictured above represents our chance of beating them.  (Or if you’re an optimist, maybe it represents what our defense is going to do to them…)   Here’s a snapshot of the talent on each team.   Enjoy. Continue reading “Yes There Will Be a Season and we Will be Playing in Florida” →