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

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

This is fair, but out of the 4 4 star RBs on the roster, one of them has to actually be a difference maker, no? Hall doesn't seem to be that guy.

I definitely dont think hall is a difference maker. Then again, when you look back at the last 20 years of super panther football (or at least going back to the start of the Walt era), there is no real correlation between recruiting rankings and high impact running backs for the super panthers. I dont think anyone could possibly dispute that shady was the best running back of past 20 years, and he was one of the two guys that were truly highly ranked....but the other highly ranked guy was rushel shell.

4 star backs in the Walt—current era: shady, ray graham, shell, chris james, hall, chris burns, Kevin collier, conridge collins. Shady and graham are distinctly better than the rest of those guys. Most of those guys were stiffs. So to the esteemed mr. brown’s question “one of them has to actually be a difference maker, no?” The answe is....no.

[willeyeam]

That's 2 out of 8, aka 1 out of 4. Which is coincidentally what we have so..

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Child please

[willeyeam]

#math ... NEXT

[Nittany Ned]

Seeing as we’re just a month + a week away, can we talk about our coming matchup in peace?

I think Pitt would have a pretty decent chance if it was a QB for PSU making his first career start, instead of one of our best all time QB’s in his senior year, hungry for revenge from 2016.

The other unfavorable matchup for Pitt is our D-line against their O-line. That was favorable for you guys in 2016, but the tables have turned.

Lots of question marks though. I think 2 of the biggest individual player question marks are Miles Sanders our RB and Pickett your QB. PSU and Pitt fans are pretty high on both of these players respectively, and they’re potential difference makers.

Here’s to an injury and suspension free August. No excuses!

[Freddy Rumsen]

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

[NAN]

Did we get another recruit today?

[Freddy Rumsen]

Yes

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

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

so filthy that 0 of those guys are on the preseason all acc teams? how filthy can a group of 7 guys be if they aren't one of the 33 best guys in a league?

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Pitt got another commit from a guy with his next best offer of old dominion. Not that pitt fans need more things to wring their hands about, but plenty of hand wringing about getting reaches like this. I look at it this way: if you want to play for pitt, and you make it all four years, i dont care if you are a stiff or not. I just want guys that will stick around

[Freddy Rumsen]

From what I read one of the reasons why he didn't have many offers is that he is a quarterback in high school who's transitioning to wide receiver.

[willeyeam]

From what I read one of the reasons why he didn't have many offers is that he is a quarterback in high school who's transitioning to wide receiver.

Is his name Mac Tomvittie

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

From what I read one of the reasons why he didn't have many offers is that he is a quarterback in high school who's transitioning to wide receiver.

While i do not care if he has no big time offers, i dont need to hear this kind of ish. Steve breaston played exclusively as a QB high school and somehow managed to get offers from.......everybody.

[Stoosh]

Peak and Batko just reported that OL Justin Morgan left the team. That appears to be the last bit of attrition from the camp roster released the other day.

It sounds Morgan's departure has been in the works for some time, so I'm not sure this was a huge surprise.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

sixth dude from the 2016 class to leave.

[Stoosh]

sixth dude from the 2016 class to leave.

If you go by the initial depth chart that was released In the 2018 media guide, that 2016 class has become an all-or-nothing class.

Nine players are no longer with the program. Two never suited up due to health reasons (Hill and Gilbert). I don't think Zach Williams ever arrived due to academics. Moss was dismissed from the team last year. Miller, Morgan, Pugh, Flowers and MacVittie left the program and transferred.

The remaining 15 players from the class are all listed on the 2018 media guide depth chart as starters or in the immediate "two-deep" rotation.

Starters:
Weaver
Camp
Hamlin
Matthews
Hargrove

2-Deep:
Watts
Reynolds
Campbell
Jones
Coleman
Wheeler
Ffrench
Pine
Garner
B. Ford

I think there's a legitimate question to be raised about how good some of these guys actually are. Weaver, Camp and Watts have all shown flashes that they're capable of being impact-caliber players. Hamlin has been steady since he's been in there. Jones got better as the season went on last year. I'm still intrigued by Pine & Reynolds at LB and Coleman has the frame and speed to be a potential solid player at safety.

This was Narduzzi's first full recruiting class, so this is an important season for this group. These guys are all now three full years into the program and most of them have already seen at least some playing time. This is the year a lot of these names need to take a bigger step forward.

[Stoosh]

Passing along some notes from Chris Peak and Brian Batko, at least based on what they saw...

- Offensive line groups (first, second)
LT - Millin, Houy
LG - Dintino, B. Ford
C - Morrissey, Drexel
RG - Herndon, Chase Brown
RT - Bookser, Hargrove

- Peak commented on the move of Hargrove to RT as something to watch. It may play out that Hargrove eventually wins the RT spot, allowing Bookser to move back inside to guard. Maybe this is a wait-and-see thing with Herndon at guard.

Receiver groups
1st team - Tipton, Matthews at WR, Araujo-Lopes in the slot
2nd team - Shockey, Butler-Jenkins at WR, Ffrench in the slot

- Lots of depth here, but a much of it unproven. These will probably mix quite a bit until they find something that works.

- Batko tweeted that Narduzzi singled Salahuddin out for some praise, so there is your starting RB. I kiiiid, I kiiiid.

- Maybe not.

- True freshman Kaymar Mimes was lining up at TE. Not sure if that will be any sort of permanent position switch.

- One of my favorite things about Wanny's tenure here was that his best defenses had what was basically an 8-man rotation on the defensive line with relatively little drop-off. Pitt may have that again this year. Hendrix and Weaver opened practice at end. Jones and Folston were in the mix. Apparently, true freshman John Morgan turned some heads as well - a bit raw, but certainly looks the part. In the middle were Roy and Twyman, with Watts and Camp running regularly in the rotation at DT as well.

Not much more that I found beyond that.

Football is back. It's a good day.

[slappybrown]

George Aston will score a TD v. ups imo

[Nittany Ned]

There was a thread started on BWI by someone stating Pitt’s long time equipment coach was fired because he refused to clean up after a house party Narduzzi had for the team. Anyone know if this is true?

[Freddy Rumsen]

[NAN]

There was a thread started on BWI by someone stating Pitt’s long time equipment coach was fired because he refused to clean up after a house party Narduzzi had for the team. Anyone know if this is true?

1) That was started by Mark Madden

2) No, it's not true. It was due to a buildup of Narduzzi being hard to work for at times, the kids being premadonna's and just being at one place too long. So he quit.

[Stoosh]

Some camp stuff...

1. O-line has largely remained consistent. From LT to RT, the first unit has been Millin-Dintino-Morrissey-Herndon-Bookser. Second unit has seen Drake jump into the mix at RT. Hargrove has apparently been getting reps at every OL position on the second unit with the exception of center and he's also taken some first-team reps at RT, as expected (Bookser moves to RG).

2. Interesting development on the DL that speaks to some depth. With Twyman working his way into more reps at DT, Keyshon Camp has been getting some looks at DE. Jim Hammett of PL reported that Camp is at about 275 right now, so he's slimmed down a bit. This appears to be an effort to get Twyman, Watts and Camp into the front four at the same time. It also doesn't sound like this has anything to do with Weaver and Hendrix looking underwhelming thus far...this is another look to take advantage of depth.

3. LB rotation has been Zeise-Wirginis-Idowu in the first unit, with Pine getting some work. Second unit has mostly been McKee-Reynolds-Brightwell with Cam Bright working in as well. Narduzzi spoke pretty highly of McKee and Bright at the media sessions today.

4. It sounds like the coaches believe they can rotate more than two full nickel DB units and not really lose much at all. If they started playing tomorrow, it sounds like the starting four in a base 4-3 defense would be Dane Jackson and Jason Pinnock at corner, Damar Hamlin and Phil Campbell at the safety spots. The next rotation would be Paris Ford and Damarii Mathis at corner with Therran Coleman, Dennis Briggs and Jazzee Stocker at safeties. Ford and Coleman appear to the be the leads at the nickel and dime spots. Briggs, Campbell & Stocker are the ones who seem to get most of the reps at that hybrid LB/S role that they're working in with some of the new 3-safety packages.

5. Leaders in the "looks the part" clubhouse appear to be:
- Shocky Jacques-Louis
- Therran Coleman
- Phil Campbell
- John Morgan
- Jason Pinnock
- Dane Jackson
- Jake Kradel
- Mychael Salahuddin

It's still very early, but the coaches and other players absolutely raved about SJL today at the media sessions. Coleman and Campbell in particular look like completely different players, at least based on some of the photos that Peak and the Pitt football Twitter account has been posting.

Maybe this is all a little too optimistic and there are still an awful lot of unknowns on this team. Can Hendrix/Weaver/anyone generate a pass rush? Can the DBs and LBs continue their stronger play from the second half of last year? Can anyone at wideout not named Rafael Araujo-Lopes catch a pass? Can anyone not named Alex Bookser block?

Lots of unknowns but with a good portion of this team, it finally feels like things are trending in the right direction...especially with the defense.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Maybe this is all a little too optimistic and there are still an awful lot of unknowns on this team. Can Hendrix/Weaver/anyone generate a pass rush?

Yes. Weaver and the tackles.

Can the DBs and LBs continue their stronger play from the second half of last year?

There are enough bodies that someone should be able to sack up and play well. I expect dane Jackson to play like a future draft pick.

Can anyone at wideout not named Rafael Araujo-Lopes catch a pass?

No. I want to believe in shocky, but every year this is hype about some freshman receiver that never sees the light of day.

Can anyone not named Alex Bookser block?

No.

[Freddy Rumsen]

I saw a tweet which said Campbell looks unreal, just head and shoulders above where he was even in the spring.

[Stoosh]

I saw a tweet which said Campbell looks unreal, just head and shoulders above where he was even in the spring.

Yep. I've seen some pictures of Campbell and Coleman, and both look like they've gone from "tall high school DB" to "NFL safety" in terms of physique. Both of them had the frame to add a little bit of weight and it appears they did. I forget who said it on Twitter, but Campbell is supposedly playing at around 205-210 right now. Coleman is probably right about there as well; he looks like a beast.

Of most of the opinions I've read from people who have seen the team in practice, the one echoed most often is how much more the defense looks like what you would expect the defense on a contending P5 team to look like, as opposed to what it has been the last couple of years. They're noticeably more athletic-looking, leaner and quicker, especially at LB and DB. I don't know how much stock to put into these sorts of things, but I do remember Paul Zeise writing a piece around this same time - Year Four - of Wannstedt's tenure. There was a point where the efforts to get bigger, faster and stronger through what was said to be an improved strength & conditioning program manifested themselves on the field, first in practice and then in games. I don't think there's a coincidence that Wannstedt's teams started showing marked improvement around that same time.

Like I said, a lot remains to be seen with this group, but these are Narduzzi's guys. If he sought to build a defense in the mold of his MSU defenses, this is going to be the first season that it really should come together and produce results. The guys from his first two classes - the 2015 transitional class and his first full class in 2016 - are now entering their fourth and third years in the program, respectively. Many of them are in the two-deep. I hope this goes to plan because if it does, that defense could be a lot of fun to watch.