Paul Ziese has just made every Panther fan's day by reporting that Shady will be back for his junior year.
You can read the full article here.
I had already set it in my head that Friday would be the last time that I would ever get to see him play a game at home. It wasn't because I had any information about it, I'm just used to being a Pitt fan and typically we tend to be on the negative side of the thought spectrum.
While he could change his mind and end up going pro, it is great that we will have a few days of happiness to know that our superman isn't going any where for one more year.
The man who should be happiest about this is Bill Stull. This just took away almost all of the pressure he would have been seeing next year as teams would have completely changed defenses against us without Shady. Now we can let teams try to stop our running game and let Bill (hopefully) work over the off season and come back next year with a great passing attack.
Hopefully Shady uses the Cincy game as motivation and gets the team fired up for the rest of the season and for next year. I couldn't imagine anything greater than graduating from Pitt the same year we win the Big East.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
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4 comments:
THANK YOU GOD FOR THAT!!!
DPJ,
Looks like I was right on this one, huh? We should have laid some money on this.
For those who say they won't believe it until they see it, I don't necessarily disagree. But remember, that's the same thing people said when Shady signed the checklist at the Pete, and he signed with us on NLI Day. Shady has always been true to his word.
One thing that I think gets overlooked when predicting whether a player will leave early or not is how happy they are in school. Greg Lee and Chris Taft are perfect examples of that. You can argue that they weren't ready to leave, but the fact is that neither wanted to be here. Contrast that with Shady and Blair and even Aaron Gray. Those are guys that love being in college at Pitt. Aaron said that is why he stuck around, and it is the same reason why Shady is sticking around and why I also expect DeJuan to stick around.
Brian,
Nice analysis, and I couldn't agree with you more about your point with players being happy. I also think this works at the other extreme with some of the lesser used players as opposed to just the stars.
Think of how many times you've read that such and such backup QB or running back should transfer to a school like IUP for more playing time. Nowhere in that statement to people consider that the kid may actually be happy as a student-athlete with his network of friends and quality of education.
HTP!
I've always said on this issue is that the running back position in the NFL is completely overrated. The difference between a 1st and 3rd is negligible. Staying in college will give him the preseason hype as a Heisman contender but that won't make a difference at the draft.
As a running back staying in college for 2 years or 40 years won't make a difference with his draft spot. He will go to the combine get measured(height and weight) then get measured on his 40 time. That is all that matters. These two, three, or four years won't matter more than a sub 4.4 forty time.
Having hype as a college running back means absolutely nothing when it comes to getting drafted. If he was a wide receiver with his national profile he would be gone tomorrow but he is a running back. Fantastic college player and perhaps a once in a lifetime player here but not the top 10 lock prospect lock people in Pittsburgh believe he is.
As for Gray he wouldn't have been drafted if he went his junior year. He was told by every NBA scout alive that he was too heavy and wasn't fundamentally sound enough on the defensive end to play.
I'm really excited that Shady is staying but for him this move is almost a nothing move in terms of his draft spot. Sorry for the reality shock before the brawl.
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