First Scrimmage Thoughts

So yesterday we got our first chance to look at the team in a live situation. For all the numbers I'm using credit goes to Gorman's blog on the Trib website:

• I'll start with something positive and that is Jonathan Baldwin. Baldwin dominated our cornerbacks and it appears as though Cignetti has made getting him the ball priority number 1. He caught a huge 50 yard plus touchdown pass from Billy Stull. Then he caught another touchdown pass in the endzone. Baldwin is going to be an All Big East 1st team player at the end of the season.
• Stull had a very disappointing day only completing 2/7 passes and throwing a pick. This type of performance would put a normal quarterback in jeopardy of losing his job. Will this performance have any effect on the distribution of snaps this week with the first team for Stull? If it truly is "Billy's job to lose" then he is doing a great job of testing that statement out.
• Dion Lewis is becoming the star of training camp. Lewis got to play with the first team and had a very decent day with 12 carries for 62 yard. I'm very interested to see what Lewis looks like in the Blue-Gold game because the coaching staff is in love with him.
• Lucas Nix is still getting second team reps which doesn't surprise me at all. Gibbs is a guy that Wanny loads up with playing time in spring then forgets about in the fall. Do I think this means Nix will jump into a starting spot in the fall? Of course not, Wanny is keeping left tackle warm for Pinkston and giving Nix less snaps is an easy way to justify not starting him. Right tackle will be Joe Thomas barring injury because of the fact that he is a senior. Jacobson appears to have a good shot at winning the left guard job which is promising.
• Bostick and Sunseri both had a decent scrimmage but neither set the game on fire. Sunseri drew praise from Wanny for making a couple of passes under big pressure. Bostick was extremely efficient with his passing and had a good completion percentage. One of these two is going to have to do something amazing before the end of spring to jump Stull.

Coming up this week keep your eyes on who is playing with the first team. That could give you a decent idea as to what the two-deep will look come summer practice.

Sitting Ringside

Salute To Levance, Tyrell, and Sam

Thanks guys for the 4 years of wonderful basketball and experiences that we will all never forget. Losing sucks but they got us further than anyone thought was possible. Hail to Pitt!

A redshirt for Bostick and Lucas Nix?

In case you haven't heard, Tino Sunseri has recently been getting more reps with the 2nd team offense. To be fair, everyone who has been attending camp has said that Tino has been playing very well and has earned the extra reps.

This just might be a best case scenario as Bostick could get the year to redshirt. This situation reminds me of when Pitt played Luke Getsy over Tyler Palko when Rod Rutherford was suspended for a half for kicking out a girls car window at Philthy McNasty's. It wasn't that Luke was playing better than Tyler, we just wanted to preserve Tyler's redshirt. This year, Tino is playing well enough to give him a chance to be the back up to Bill if needed whiel Pat gets a redshirt.

While Cignetti says "it is an open competition", I'm not buying that because of Wannstedt's comments that "Stull is the guy". I have told friends from the moment the season ended and I'll stick with it now that if I had to place a bet of Stull vs the field, I'd put all of my money on Stull.

Another thing that should be apparent to Pitt fans is that with Pinkston out until August, Jordan Gibbs has been getting almost all of the reps at 1st team left tackle. Over the last couple of days, Joe Thomas has been out with an ankle injury. Most Pitt fans would think this would give Pitt the opportunity to let Nix get his shot with the first team. This has not been the case though as Greg Gaskins has gotten all of the first team reps making the OLine look like: Gibbs, Jacobsen, Houser, Malecki, and Gaskins.

Unless you're getting Gibbs and Gaskins ready for the season so that Nix can redshirt, this just doesn't make sense to me. Nix played for Thomas last year in a couple of series when Thomas went out with injury. While Clowser started at LT during the Sun Bowl, Wannstedt said if the injury would have been sustained earlier that week, Nix would have started. I don't understand the change of heart here.

I believe the starting 5 will be Pinkston, Jacobsen, Houser, Malecki, and Thomas. What I would like to know is what has Gaskins and Gibbs done since January 1 that has put them ahead of Nix this spring? Wannstedt has talked about the importance of Lucas Nix, yet he's not getting the chance this spring to go out and prove himself with the first team.

I'm sure people will say that this is only spring and we can't look too much into it, but a lot of what happens here will be a big factor of what happens this season. When you see Dion Lewis as our second string running back come August, don't be surprised because it was what he did during the spring to move him up ahead of Shariff Harris.

Elite 8

Enjoy it!!!!!!!!!! We have been waiting forever for this.

"It's Billy's Job To Lose"

Today all the stories coming out of camp were about the QB competition. Wanny came out and basically reiterated his belief that Billy Stull is still the starting QB until Bostick or Sunseri wins the job. I'm hoping that everybody isn't surprised by this seeing as Stull is a senior and he has been Wanny's pick for 3 years.  What I wonder about is why Wanny made this declaration so quickly after claiming in the media prior to camp that this is a 3-way QB battle?

I think what the bigger problem in the program currently is the lack of actual "open" position battles. Each year coming into camp we are told that certain positions are open and that a competition will be held for the position. What happens 100% percent of the time is that the upperclassmen or the incumbent at the position wins the job. I'm not about to attack Wanny for always playing the upperclassmen because that is really a moot point now, it is just what he does. What I'm attacking is Wanny's inability to deal with the media and the fanbase in situations like this by just telling people what they want to hear then immediately backtracking on that through who plays and the two deep. He knows who is going to play before one snap is held in camp each year.

This is Stull's job to lose and we knew that before we even got into camp so why did Wanny make such a big deal about the QB competition a week ago then make this comment today. I know that he thinks this is necessary in order to show Stull that he still has his confidence but there was no reason for this yet. Let this spring play out before commenting about the situation so definitively.