Lead Up To The Kickoff: Day 6

Well its finally here the last of my preview columns for the upcoming season. DPJ did a great job in describing how ridiculous the bonfire was last night. I had trouble sleeping last night because of how scary Conridge Collins is. Today is the final group the special teams.

The kicker will be the returning Conor Lee. He has been nominated for the Lou Groza Award, for the nations best kicker. Field goal wise Lee is a really solid player but kicking at Heinz Field is such a crap shoot. All the wind blowing off the lake makes kicking a son of a bitch. Lee needs to have another great season.

Punting will be a transfer player from Purdue, Dave Brytus. He is a preseason All Big East selection which shows the promise this kid has. Also he is a huge guy at 6'4 and weighs 230 pounds. Pitt has a replica of Daniel Sepulveda in terms of body, hopefully he can punt like Sepulveda. Brytus will also handle the kickoff duties which has been a problem getting touchbacks.

Returner is a position where the we have a ton of talent. Guys like Aundre Wright, Lowell Robinson, Aaron Berry, and TJ Porter are speed demons who can put the ball in the endzone. Our return teams will be much more dangerous of putting points up than last year. I think Aaron Berry will be the punt returner, while TJ Porter and Lowell Robinson will handle the kickoff duties.

Special teams are a tough thing to predict and I really need to see what we do tommorrow to really evalute what we have. Well there you go my completely biased and optimistic expectations of the entire Panthers. This year is going to be certainl a ride. Our schedule can be anything 5-7 to 9-3. Stick with these guys this team is on the precipe of something great.

My prediction for the season 10-2 with our only losses away to Louisville and West Virginia.

Well I'm just like Aaron Berry and I want to know "Where Da Hoes At".