2023-2024 Pitt Super Panthers Sports Thread

[NAN]

Enjoyed nd and drank enough beer to not feel the sting of the score. Although I’m still hurting today

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Who is “good” on this team right now?


Bartholomew


Devonshire?
Hayes?
Williams?

Anyone else?

[willeyeam]

I think Mumpfield is good

Okunlula or however you spell it is coming on strong as a young buck DE but not ready to say good yet

[Rylan]

This has been a miserable season...

I didnt expect them to be good, but this has been way lower than I expected.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

I think Mumpfield is good

Okunlula or however you spell it is coming on strong as a young buck DE but not ready to say good yet

Yes he looks like he might end up being good. He needs to go to the James Harrison hgh clinic this offseason.

[Dickie Dunn]

Who is “good” on this team right now?


Bartholomew


Devonshire?
Hayes?
Williams?

Anyone else?

They've had plenty of prized recruits come in over rhe last 3 years and they all suck. That's on the coaching staff. Can't identify talent and apparently can't develop it either.

[NAN]

Who is “good” on this team right now?


Bartholomew


Devonshire?
Hayes?
Williams?

Anyone else?

They've had plenty of prized recruits come in over rhe last 3 years and they all suck. That's on the coaching staff. Can't identify talent and apparently can't develop it either.

I don't know. At least on the D side of the ball, they've done a pretty good job IMO. They got a lot of players into the NFL, and they were good college players too. We'll see if this turns into a trend though.

[Dickie Dunn]

Who is “good” on this team right now?


Bartholomew


Devonshire?
Hayes?
Williams?

Anyone else?

They've had plenty of prized recruits come in over rhe last 3 years and they all suck. That's on the coaching staff. Can't identify talent and apparently can't develop it either.

I don't know. At least on the D side of the ball, they've done a pretty good job IMO. They got a lot of players into the NFL, and they were good college players too. We'll see if this turns into a trend though.

Oh they absolutely were doing a good job for a while. They were getting a DB drafted seemingly every year and have had a solid track record with RBs and TEs. They've had some obvious trouble spots over the years (OL, LB, QB other than 2 guys), but you can't expect them to develop dominant NFL players every year. There's been issues where solid early contributors like Brightwell seem to never improve from their freshman year, but some guys just have a ceiling.

I've said this before, but my concern is what is happening since the 2021 recruiting class. There was a lot of solid upperclassmen depth ahead of these guys to give them adequate time to grow and learn, yet the prized trio of Johnson, Donald, and Ford never see the field or do a damn thing if they do. Bartholomew and Hammond are the closest they have to solid contributors out of the class and they don't use either adequately. Maybe McIntyre as well, though the secondary getting torched in a Narduzzi calling card and makes it hard to judge. Regardless, that recruiting class had been around for 2+ years now and the majority of it either doesn't play or looks unprepared when they do. The 2022 class barely exists because of COVID, but has also had little impact. Too early to say anything about 2023, but the main point being that an ACC Championship and extra COVID eligibility gave Pitt the opportunity to build a viable recruiting pipeline and give guys a little longer to mature before being asked to contribute, and now that there's a need for them to contribute none of them can hack it. So now you've got aging upper classmen with no viable replacements and are trying to recruit while having your program fall off a cliff less than two years after reaching the top of the mountain, while the idiot coach bashes his players post-game and now has a track record showing the only way he can manage better than 7-5 and a mediocre bowl game that they'll lose is with a Heisman candidate at QB that he essentially lucked into.

[Stoosh]

On offense, Bart, Mumpfield, and Hammond are legitimately good, impact-caliber players when playing for an OC who understands that the idea is to get your potential impact-caliber players the ball by any means necessary. The way the offensive coaches have all but ignored Hammond and Bart this year is a bigger mystery to me than trying to determine when they felt compelled to stick with Jurkovec beyond the second half at WVU.

I also think that Kenny Johnson and Christian Veilleux are on their way there. I've seen enough from Veilleux to at least think there's potential to build around. Ryan Baer, Terrance Moore, and BJ Williams also look to me like they can become solid linemen, but they really need better coaching.

I think that's where this needs to start. Cignetti can't be back. Enough is enough. I also think it's time to move on from Borbley and Powell. Powell's deployment of the RBs this year is as bad as Cignetti's playcalling.

It's tough to get a real read on this defense because they're out there so much (only Tennessee and Iowa are worse in terms of offensive time of possession among P5 programs). Williams is underrated as a cover corner...I have no "times thrown at" data or whatever to support this, but it looks to me like teams actively avoid throwing at him. I think Devonshire is decent. He's been beaten a few times but I think some of those are a product of just getting picked on more. He's made some big plays. I think McIntyre is good and O'Brien is getting better.

I think Okunlola, Bass, Lovelace, and Biles are potentially on their way there. Bass's natural talent has really shown through in spots these last few games. He needs to play. He's going to make mistakes but it doesn't matter now. Let him play and learn.

To echo Dickie Dunn's points, the really bizarre thing to me is the stalled depth on the DL. They've gotten almost nothing from Elliot Donald, Sean FitzSimmons, and Nahki Johnson. It's probably a little too early to nitpick about FitzSimmons as he's just a redshirt freshman and he was hurt earlier this year, but the stalled development of Donald and Johnson is just strange given their position coach and their pedigree as recruits. There's still time but they're not going to have a choice next year but to step up.

[willeyeam]

Hammond has to be hurt, right?

[Dickie Dunn]

ACC schedule for next year:

BC and Syracuse are Pitt's annual opponents, which is just awful and boring.



Meh. It should theoretically be two conference wins every year, but not much fun.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Can’t wait to book a tee time at pasatiempo

[Stoosh]

Pre-FSU game thoughts...

I guess we'll see what to some degree or another what the apologies for the ND post-game comments were worth. Post-ND, I immediately thought this may have been the first team Narduzzi really may have lost. I'm less inclined to believe that now but I'm still not 100% convinced.

With most Narduzzi Pitt teams, I would say this has definite SuperWeapon potential. I don't think we'll get that here. Team morale aside, I think this is going to be another one of those games where the talent disparity is just going to be too great. I think there are too many guys in the lineup at too many spots who are "JAG" (Just A Guy) types, and too many of the potential impact players aren't far enough along in terms of experience.

I still think everything is made worse by what has been the worst top-to-bottom coaching on the offensive side of the ball in recent Pitt memory. This team doesn't have many impact-caliber players on offense, and the three best ones - Bartholomew, Mumpfield, and Hammond - don't get targeted or involved nearly enough. The handling of Bart and Hammond are honestly at "fireable offense" levels, and I think even Cignetti is seeing the writing on the wall here given that he was all but pleading for his job when he met with the media earlier this week.

I hope they surprise me and I hope they prove me wrong. I can't stand Norvell and I'd love to see them ruin FSU's season. I just think the coaching has buried this team this year, and I have a bad feeling this is going to be an ugly weekend.

[Rylan]

Pitt is going to lose by at least 3 scores. Unless FSU does something stupid, but I dont see that happening. This gonna hurt.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

If he dies, he dies.

[NAN]

This is going to be the first home game I miss in a very long time. Stupid work.

[Dickie Dunn]

I took FSU -21.5. Pitt sucks.

[NAN]

I took FSU -21.5. Pitt sucks.

You are going to be even more angry when Pitt loses by 21.

[willeyeam]

First home game of the year for ulf. H2P

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Good day to tailgate bad game to watch

[willeyeam]

Where's the facemask brah

[Beveridge]

I took FSU -21.5. Pitt sucks.

Pitt covers and lost. That's about right.

[willeyeam]

Where's the facemask brah

Woof

[Dickie Dunn]

**** Al Riveron?

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Is vayer going to be good