Fifth Avenue Forum

Narddog is out here talking sht on penn state’s offense. I love it. He’s a jagoff but he’s our jagoff

The best

Pitt just landed a 4 star too 200 running back

According to Chris Peak he had a commitable offer from Alabama (who was also in his top 3 along with Rutgers and Pitt)

Alabama, pitt, Rutgers. What a range of programs… lol

Weird to see Rutgers grouped with blue chip programs like that. Good for them to be in the conversation

I love Pat...

Some really big off-field news for football announced today.

The same Chris Bickell who made Pat Narduzzi's official title the "Chris Bickell '97 Head Football Coach" about a year or so ago also heads up Alliance412, which is a group of donors that has become Pitt's NIL collective.

Today, Alliance412 announced that they've signed the football team to a team-wide NIL deal. I don't think the exact numbers are being disclosed but from what's being discussed, it's believed to be a seven-figure sum for the entire scholarship roster. This would be a five-figure number for each scholarship player, and from what I've read, players would have opportunities to grow their "brand" through the Alliance412/Oakland Originals partnership that was also recently announced.

We joked around about Bickell when the Head Coach thing was announced but Alliance412 is really something for Pitt. Fans who want to donate can do so at some pretty reasonable monthly payment levels. Getting each scholarship player on the roster guaranteed money is big for a program like this. That's especially the case when competing on recruiting trails with other blueblood programs that are most certainly doing this, even more so when you consider what's going on with conference realignment and the long-term effects of these TV rights deals.

Chris Bickell has too much money

H2P

Chris Bickell has too much money

Also agree.

Any word from camp on the hot spot positions? Wr/lb/rb??

Any word from camp on the hot spot positions? Wr/lb/rb??

LB
In a report he posted yesterday, Peak said this may be the most athletic group of LBs that he remembers at Pitt. So far, it looks like this will probably be the depth chart:

Money LB - Deshields, Henningham
MLB - Simon, George
Star LB - Kamara, Kyle Louis

Deshields and Kamara seem most primed to make the same type of jump that Voss made when he became a full-on starter. In fact, Deshields reminds me a lot of Dennis in terms of build, athleticism, etc. I'll throw Kamara out there as this year's winner of the Patrick Jones Looks The Part Award. He's noticeably bigger than he was last year but it doesn't sound like it's hurt his speed or agility. He struggled last year with reads and over-pursuit, so hopefully he improves there.

Also, I wouldn't discount seeing any of the three true freshmen - Jordan Bass, Rasheem Biles, and Braylan Lovelace. There were a couple of former walk-ons - Bennett and Lapi - getting reps earlier in camp, but it sounds like Bass, Biles, and Lovelace are moving quickly up the depth chart. Bass was expected to play this year anyway, and Narduzzi even broke his standard protocol with true freshmen by allowing him to talk to the media after practice earlier this week. Biles is reportedly very physical (ex. HB Blades/Clint Session comparisons), and Lovelace drew some pretty high praise during spring ball. The thing I keep hearing with Lovelace is stuff like "high football IQ", so we'll see.

RB
Hammond is RB1 as he should be. Doesn't have Izzy's Breakaway Speed (TM), but he gets through the line, breaks tackles, and he's good out of the backfield. Flemister should be fine as a backup. Derrick Davis is an unknown at RB but he DOES have that Breakaway Speed (TM) so that may help get/keep him on the field. And for the fourth (fifth?) year in a row, I think Daniel Carter finally gets into the regular rotation this year. He's down 10 lbs. and has been taking reps at TB. I think he's most suited to spell Hammond in some of those short-yardage situations.

I think it's a good group, but a lot depends on Hammond staying healthy and maybe Davis tapping into that 5-star recruit pedigree and finally finding his place.

Wofford - W
Cincinnati - W
@ WVU - W
UNC - W
@ VT - W
Louisville - W
@ Wake - W
@ ND - W
FSU - L
@ Cuse - W
BC - W
Duke - W

If Jurkovec is good they will have a very good season imo

phil jurkovec? hes still in college?

Bought tix for the Wofford game. Ribfest and a Pitt game sounds like a fun day to me haha.

Some stuff as camp is winding down...

INJURIES
Narduzzi made mention the other day of a season-ending injury. That's expected to be DB Rashad Battle. I forget the timeline, but he was injured early on or about halfway through the 2022 season and ended up missing the year. Apparently in one of the more recent videos sent out on social media, you can see him in the background with his knee up on a scooter. I'm not sure if this is a setback from the injury last year or some other procedure he had to have done.

D-LINE
It sounds an awful lot like all of the returning upperclassmen at both DT and DE are going to start the season on the two-deep. DT will likely be some combination of Bentley, Danielson, Green, and Jules. It sounds like DE is going to be Dayon Hayes on one side and Nate Temple on the other.

From reports on PL, Fitzsimmons, Donald, and true freshman Isaiah Neal are all in the mix at DT and will see playing time as well. It also doesn't sound like this a big knock on those three, but more a testament to Green & DeAndre Jules in particular elevating their play during camp.

At DE, I expected either Nahki Johnson, Jimmy Scott, or Sam Okunola to hopefully win the spot opposite Hayes. And like with the younger DTs, the expectation is that there will be a rotation there (Bam Brima in the mix as well), so they should play.

It will be interesting to see how things evolve and if anyone has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the position development, it's Partridge. I just hope to see more of the younger players as the season goes on. If Jules and Temple translate camp performance to games, it's a nice problem to have.

WIDEOUTS
We know Mumpfield and Means will be two of the starters. While neither conjured up thoughts of Addison or Boyd last year, I also think both were impacted significantly by a QB that struggled all season to get receivers the ball with any shred of consistency.

I think Mumpfield is pretty good. He catches the ball well. His ability to get open got better as the season went on, and I thought he worked the sidelines well. He caught at least 5 passes in 7 of 12 games last year. Two of his "off" games came against WMU - when Yarnell only threw the ball 12 times (Mumpfield caught a TD) - and Miami, when they spent the second half killing the clock and throwing to Jared Wayne.

Means is big, fast, and physical, but his struggles to catch the ball last year were very real. Reports out of camp were really encouraging but it has to translate to in-game action.

Daejon Reynolds arrived as a transfer from Florida. He's also big (6'2", 210) but he's a relative unknown; almost all of his production last year came against Eastern Washington and Vandy. Camp reports were...mixed. The only other receivers of note that aren't true freshmen are Che Nwabuko and Jake McConnachie. Nwabuko runs track & posted a 4.3 forty earlier this summer. If he can catch, he may be Dietrich Jells v. 2.0. McConnachie is a walk-on who is about 6'6", so maybe he factors in as well.

The general expectation is that at least two of the top six wideout spots will be filled by the four scholarship true freshmen - Kenny Johnson, Israel Polk, Zion Fowler-El, and Lamar Seymour. Johnson has been really impressive through the duration of camp. Polk also turned heads in the spring and started off really strong in the summer, but he was apparently dealing with some minor injury issues later on. Fowler-El also came on the latter half of camp. He had a really bizarre recruitment (committed fairly early, then de-committed, then re-committed). For whatever it's worth, Jordan Addison supposedly pushed the Pitt coaches to recruit him.

The one other guy that may be worth watching is Devin Whitlock. He's a freshman preferred walk-on from Belle Vernon. He's small but he's one of those players who kind of did everything in high school and drew some comparisons to DJ Turner/Quadree Henderson in camp.

Lots of unknowns, but they may have found something with these freshmen wideouts, so we'll see. The passing game absolutely cost them the Louisville and GT games last year, so I'm hoping the changes at QB will translate into some consistency this year.

I really wish Jared Wayne came back for another season instead of inevitably getting cut by the Texans.

I think it is pretty funny that Dior johnson left the hoops team and no one commented on it

Supposedly he was never actually cleared to play and the university decided he was expelled

I know this sounds provincial but I’d really like to see this year be a breakout season for all of the WPIAL players. Im hoping Fitzsimmons is a four year stalwart on the DL, Hayes takes a step forward to a true force to be reckoned with, and Davis/the dude from peters find roles to play.

Chris peak is still on the “Kamara is the next great one” train this year. I thought he was below the line last season but hope springs eternal

I thought Kamara looked very stiff last year. That's not an easy fix regardless of what he did in the offseason.

Regarding Dior, it sounds like the new university leadership made the decision, not Capel or the athletic department, and expelled him from school after he participated in the preseason trip to Spain and had no other issues. Not a great way to go about things, especially given his presence on the roster likely made it impossible to attract a good veteran PG, now all of whom are likely gone from the portal.

Sounds like he was never officially 100% back in. He appealed and was playing during appeal, and the appeal just got denied. So nothing new happened really. My only complaint is that's pretty shitty timing to have that happen, right as classes are starting around the country. Not to mention the bind for your team and coach trying to find a replacement this time of year

I know this sounds provincial but I’d really like to see this year be a breakout season for all of the WPIAL players. Im hoping Fitzsimmons is a four year stalwart on the DL, Hayes takes a step forward to a true force to be reckoned with, and Davis/the dude from peters find roles to play.

Chris peak is still on the “Kamara is the next great one” train this year. I thought he was below the line last season but hope springs eternal

Peak mentioned earlier in camp as the depth chart started to shape up that depending on how some things shake out, Pitt could field a nearly all-WPIAL defense this fall:

DT - David Green, Devin Danielson, Elliot Donald, Sean FitzSimmons
DE - Dayon Hayes, Nahki Johnson
LB - Braylan Lovelace
CB - MJ Devonshire, Cruce Brookins
S - Donovan McMillon, Stephon Hall

From what I've read at PL, all of those players are expected to land on the two-deep or at least factor into playing time this year. Lovelace, Brookins, and Hall were all less heralded recruits who appear to be on the Voss/Dane Jackson track. Lovelace, in particular, sounds like he had an absolutely outstanding spring and fall camp.

We have a depth chart for Wofford: