5AF's 2018-19 Premier Pittsburgh Super Panthers Football Thread (and Basketball)

slappybrown
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5AF's 2018-19 Premier Pittsburgh Super Panthers Football Thread (and Basketball)

Postby slappybrown » Mon Oct 01, 2018 12:40 pm

Almost halfway there. Here's some grades:

Coaching - F. From every perspective from the HC to the coordinators: media handling; strategy and scheme; lineup management; hires (seems like Josh Conklin was not the problem); playcalling; player devlopment, etc etc. No indication that they have any idea of how to turn this around.

QB - D+/C-. He has 6 starts under his belt, and it sure looks like it. Still has the zip and accuracy on short and intermediate balls, but has to get better on the deep balls; he's overthrown a couple that would have been six. Definitely happy feet in the pocket and too quick to run. But that is tough to blame him given:

OL - Pass blocking is an F, Run blocking is a B. The only possible explanation for a passing game that is oriented 100% around roll outs is that the staff's only accurate analysis is they cannot block a four man rush with five guys on a straight drop-back. They generally can run the ball.

RB - B+. Ollison has been very good, and Hall has chipped in.

WR - C-. Mack can play. Ffrench has been explosive, though most of that isn't because he's running traditional receiver routes. RAL has basically disappeared the last two weeks in terms of the passing game.

TE - D. I guess they deserve credit for the run blocking, but zero passing production.

DL - D-. Nowhere near good enough for this defense. Weaver has provided some production, but Hendrix is a black hole. This week was the same thing for him, 0 tackles, 0 TFL, 0 sacks. What's the point of him?

LB - D. Not really great at stopping the run. Being asked to do way too much in the passing game, which is the staff's fault.

Secondary - D-. I don't even want to talk about this.

Kicker/Punter - F. Kessiman has missed key FGs, and Christolodou is atrocious.

Return Teams - B. Two TD returns from Ffrench and RAL. The Ffrench fumble on his return in the UNC game was brutal.

5AF Cliq - A+.

Overall - D minus.

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Postby Freddy Rumsen » Mon Oct 01, 2018 1:02 pm

10/10 would read again

Stoosh
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Postby Stoosh » Mon Oct 01, 2018 1:26 pm

Changes to the #Pitt depth chart for Syracuse:

Elias Reynolds is No. 2 at MLB. Had been an OR with Chase Pine. Pine is now listed as No. 3.

Freshman QB Nick Patti has been removed as the No. 3 QB. Jeff George, Jr. slides up a spot. Patti did not travel to UCF.
https://twitter.com/ASaunders_PGH/statu ... 8565374976
So the guy who they moved to DE for the scrimmage against Albany because they just ABSOLUTE NEED TO GET THIS GUY ON THE FIELD, is now never going to see the field. I know that beating out Hendrix and Folston seems like an improbable feat, but I would have just left Pine at DE and ya know, actually played him a bit.
Through five games:
Dewayne Henridx: 12 tackles, 0.5 sacks, 3 QB huries
Patrick Jones: 6 tackles, 1 sack, 2 QB hurries
James Folston: 3 tackles, 0 sacks, 1 QB hurry

Rashad Weaver is mostly exempt from this discussion because he has 22 tackles (3rd on the team), but he still only has one QB sack.

Those are the roster defensive ends that have gotten the lions' share of the snaps at DE. If we really want to be generous here, we can throw in the 2 sacks by Keyshon Camp since he does occasionally line up at DE.

As a group, you almost have to try to be that bad through five games, and one of which was against an FCS team. Yes, one of them was also against GT, but Albany, UPS, UNC and USF threw the ball an average of about 31-32 times against Pitt.

Let's restate:
In roughly 140 drop-backs by opposing quarterbacks this year, Pitt's rostered defensive ends have sacked those QBs 2.5 times.

Yet Chase Pine can't get on the field ahead of this? John Morgan - another Narduzzi Camp Darling - can't get on the field ahead of this?

I don't care if they don't know the defense. Dewayne Hendrix is f'ing starting as a fifth year senior and he's barely averaging two tackles per game. TWO. Given the way UPS & GT run their offenses, he should have had four tackles in each game just because a QB or RB would run into him by f'ing accident. James Folston has probably played at least 2 games worth of snaps and the best he can do is three f'ing tackles?

This is ridiculous.

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Postby Stoosh » Tue Oct 02, 2018 1:26 pm

More good news...we have our first official de-commitment of the 2019 class.

Ventura CC TE Travis Koontz announced via Twitter that he's re-opening his recruitment. Speaketh the Koontz:

"I've been thinking a lot over the last couple weeks and I'm deciding to open my recruitment back up, I'd like to thank Pittsburghs staff for recruiting me, it's nothing against them they're a great program, I just need to make sure this decision is the BEST one for me."

Crazy Vuk writes on his site that he exchanged texts with Koontz and the de-commitment was mostly due to the way Pitt has been using (or not using) their TEs this year, but he hasn't ruled out re-committing (newsflash: he has).

As a group, Pitt's TEs have 5 catches on the year for 30 yards so for the life of me I can't figure out why Koontz would be re-thinking this. I mean, who wouldn't love to come here and possibly average 1 catch for 6 yards every game, especially when you have offers from schools like LSU, Michigan State, UCLA and Boise State?

Bang-up job, Duzz and Watson. Outstanding.

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Postby shafnutz05 » Tue Oct 02, 2018 1:32 pm

As a group, Pitt's TEs have 5 catches on the year for 30 yards
:shock:

Good lord, that's a real stat?

I went here:

https://www.cbssports.com/collegefootba ... t/NCAAF/TE

You have to go down to the fourth page before you even get to the individual TEs with less than 30 yards.

Dickie Dunn
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Postby Dickie Dunn » Tue Oct 02, 2018 1:37 pm

I'm convinced that Charles Reeves' saw how the TEs were being used in camp and said "**** this, I'm going home".

slappybrown
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Postby slappybrown » Tue Oct 02, 2018 1:45 pm

As a group, Pitt's TEs have 5 catches on the year for 30 yards
:shock:

Good lord, that's a real stat?

I went here:

https://www.cbssports.com/collegefootba ... t/NCAAF/TE

You have to go down to the fourth page before you even get to the individual TEs with less than 30 yards.
Through games 1-4, they had one catch for 3 yards. They "exploded" in game #5 for 4 catches for 27 yards.

Shaun Watson is a gd idiot.

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Postby Stoosh » Tue Oct 02, 2018 2:31 pm

Paraphrasing Peak on the PL paysite board: Basically, Koontz is dealing with the same lack of usage issues at Ventura. He apparently feels as though their coaches misled him about how they planned on using him. He sees the same sort of thing happening at Pitt through the first half-season and doesn't want to make the same mistake. He wants to be used as a receiving threat, not an additional offensive tackle.

I don't blame him. Maybe this changes over the remainder of the year and Pitt manages to reel him back in, but I think he's gone. I just don't see anything from Watson that leads me to believe that he plans on getting the TE involved the way Orndoff and Holtz were used.

I don't expect them to fire Narduzzi at season's end unless mayhem ensues and he loses the current team, but I honestly think changes should and hopefully will be made at OC. I don't give a crap about continuity at the coordinator position; this program needs to be catapulted into the 21st century. At this point, no offensive skill player is going to want to come here to play in this system.

I've said before that I didn't mind them losing games this year as long as they were competitive. I've come to terms with the fact that Narduzzi likely won't change his defensive scheme so if I have to watch this team give up 40-50 points a game, at least let me see an offense that is capable of and trying to do the same thing.

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Postby MrKennethTKangaroo » Tue Oct 02, 2018 7:31 pm


What is the point of him?
I lol’ed hard enough that the dog, who was previously asleep on the couch, woke up and started to sniff the air becuase she was confused by all the random laughter and was trying to figure out what was going on. Anyways, Hendrix has finally beat out brian Murphy for the title of “defensive lineman that was there but not really there.” for those of you who dont remember (and who could blame you), Murphy was a 4 star end from New Jersey and played during the Wanny, graham, and chryst regimes. Murphy was so useless he couldn’t even pick up Aaron donald’s sloppy seconds.

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Postby MrKennethTKangaroo » Tue Oct 02, 2018 7:37 pm

Also, while we are talking tight ends, after the UNC game i starated to wonder who or what will Gragg was. I mean, i knew he was an eligible transfer from Arkansas and what not, but I couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t getting playing time considering how invisible the tight ends were. So i actually went onto pitt’s Website to figure out if maybe Gragg was a white guy and i was just getting him mixed up with the useless white tight ends. Well, he is black. And at least he cought a few balls in this last game.

Hopefully if i get nominated for the Supreme Court no one reads this post and decides I’m unfit to serve

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Postby MrKennethTKangaroo » Tue Oct 02, 2018 7:46 pm



I've said before that I didn't mind them losing games this year as long as they were competitive. I've come to terms with the fact that Narduzzi likely won't change his defensive scheme so if I have to watch this team give up 40-50 points a game, at least let me see an offense that is capable of and trying to do the same thing.
Regarding the first sectence: I hung through last year hoping to find some nugget that may convince me that pitt could be a good time. Kenneth Shane Pickett played well and it was enough for me to be optimistic. Sprinkle in a DL with experience, youth, and potential, and it was enough to get excited about. Obviously that was misguided.

Regarding the second sentence: Anyone remember reading about how in wanny’s first year, during his first bye week, he sat down on that Saturday and watched as many games as possible and took notes? At the time, it was an indication that wanny was woefully unprepared for the college game. Looking back on it though, it was kind of a savvy move and at least a brief bit of frankness. Fast forward 10 years, and we have a head coach that clearly hasn’t gotten the effing memo. Pitt’s QB just threw for 163 yards and 58 of them came on a shovel pass. This is 2018. Everyone throws the ball all over the place. How hard is it to design an offense that gets guys open? Everyone else does it, why cant these nimrods do it? Why are we the only shtbird throwing for 163 yards ?

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Postby Stoosh » Wed Oct 03, 2018 9:50 am

Checked the stats this morning. Barf.

112th overall in total offense at 343 yards per game. Of P5 teams, only Stanford, Kansas State, UCLA, Louisville, Iowa State and Rutgers are worse.

What's especially damning is that Pitt right now is 54th overall in rushing with 191.6 yards per game, which is probably an incredible number given that teams are absolutely keying on the run because, well...

The passing offense is 119th overall at 151.6 yards per game. In terms of P5 teams, we are barely ahead of Rutgers (151.0), Maryland (141.3) and Georgia Tech (114.0). That's it. That's the list. Amongst his P5 peers, Shawn Watson has this offense clicking just ahead of:
- one of the absolute worst P5 teams in the last 20-25 years,
- a 3-1 Maryland team being run by our former OC and whose QB has only thrown the ball more than 20 times in a game once this year, and
- a GT team that runs the f'ing triple option.

We are barely better than Rutgers. Barely. Better. Than. Rutgers.

I give Watson the next two games because after the ND game, they have a bye week. If it's just more of same against Syracuse and ND, get rid of him, make Salem the interim OC. That gives Salem two weeks to get ready for Duke and the final stretch of the schedule. Salem's done it before - he's been an OC at the FBS level three separate times and had a really solid three-year string when he was UCF's offensive coordinator from 2005-2007 (had RB Kevin Smith, WR Brandon Marshall for most of that). The worst Salem can really be at this point is just as bad as Watson.

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Postby Dickie Dunn » Wed Oct 03, 2018 10:05 am

Looks like they're busting out the throwbacks this weekend in an attempt to make people give a ****.

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Postby Morkle » Wed Oct 03, 2018 10:21 am

I tell you what, I want to go see Pitt get stomped by Syracuse, just because of the throwbacks. It'll be special.

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Postby MrKennethTKangaroo » Wed Oct 03, 2018 10:44 am

the throwbacks are gr8

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Postby Stoosh » Wed Oct 03, 2018 11:28 am

I'm incredibly frustrated with this team and I think this is the quickest I've ever gone from almost entirely supportive of a coach to not giving a damn if he gets fired. I think I even gave Todd Graham most of his first season, probably because it WAS just his first season.

That said, I still want to see how this team responds through the remainder of the year and I'm holding out hope that they put something together. I've lost a lot of faith in Narduzzi but I'd still ultimately like to see this team succeed with him as coach. I think he's stubborn and that may be his downfall, but it genuinely seems like he wants to be here, like he wants to build something here and the same couldn't be said for the previous two coaches.

On its face, that's probably a low bar to hit, but I'm looking at a program like Kentucky as proof of what could come with that. Stoops made his name as a defensive coordinator. He's built that program on defense. His recruiting classes are very similar to what Narduzzi has pulled in at Pitt. He's in his sixth year and to this point his high water marks were 7-6 seasons in Years Four and Five. This year, though, they're 5-0 with a reasonable chance to win 10 because their toughest remaining games are at A&M this weekend and then when they host Georgia in a month.

Maybe UK is taking advantage of Florida and Tennessee programs that are starting over and a Missouri program that's kind of spinning its wheels, but they shouldn't apologize for that. They're beating the teams that are on their schedule.

Syracuse is a tough matchup and it's one I think Pitt will probably lose. That said, I did like that some of the younger players started getting into the lineup against UCF even before that game got completely out of hand AND that Narduzzi actually did try the 4-2-5 alignment. It didn't work well, but that may have simply been due to UCF's talent and execution. I hope he shows a willingness to use it again.

Blowouts aside, there is still talent here. I thought Campbell & Stocker played pretty good games against UCF; they made some mistakes, but that offense is going to force at least a few mistakes every game. I thought Camp and Weaver played pretty well. I do want to see if they continue to see if the defense evolves, from schemes down to personnel. I know what I'm mostly expecting to see through the next two games, but I'm hoping they surprise me.

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Postby MrKennethTKangaroo » Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:45 pm

Interesting insight from an opposing ACC coach on Pitt:

"They're going to be very good on defense this year. That front seven is filthy. They look a lot like those Michigan State defenses he had that were the foundation of that program becoming elite"
https://twitter.com/CraigMeyerPG/status ... 1096508416
From August 1

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Postby robbiestoupe » Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:49 pm

Must have been the GT coach

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Postby slappybrown » Wed Oct 03, 2018 8:02 pm

Can someone explain what happened to Saleem Brightwell

Stoosh
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Postby Stoosh » Wed Oct 03, 2018 8:57 pm

Can someone explain what happened to Saleem Brightwell
Peak said on the PL board that he’s basically been splitting snaps with Zeise evenly this year. Not sure what the exact breakdown is, but it must be close.

He has 17 tackles (10 solo, 7 assisted) and 0.5 tackles for a loss. That isn’t great but it’s not bad. He’s actually produced just a bit better than Zeise, who has 16 tackles (9, 7) & no TFLs. I’ve tended to notice Brightwell more when he’s been out there, for whatever that’s worth. He hasn’t made any real splash plays, but it seems like I see 9 around the ball more than I see 25.

I’d actually love to see the snap splits between Zeise, Idowu, Brightwell, Cam Bright and Anthony McKee the last two games. I’m not sure about McKee, but Brightwell & Bright seemed to be out there an awful lot against UCF. Maybe that was due to the heat. It also seemed like Reynolds was splitting about 40/60 with Wirginis.

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Postby Dickie Dunn » Thu Oct 04, 2018 8:16 pm

Kenny Pickett is averaging 9.78 yards/completion this season - 114th nationally and nearly 2 yards/completion less than Pitt averaged last season as a team.
This seems bad.

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Postby MrKennethTKangaroo » Fri Oct 05, 2018 8:34 am

i think he can throw down field

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Postby MrKennethTKangaroo » Fri Oct 05, 2018 8:37 am

also, pitt plays tomorrow. they are 3.5 point homedogs to the cuse. discuss.

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Postby Troy Loney » Fri Oct 05, 2018 8:42 am

I'm glad, that as a Pitt Alumni, I still developed little rooting interest in their football team.

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Postby MrKennethTKangaroo » Fri Oct 05, 2018 8:44 am

probably the wisest decision of your life.

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