I will be completely honest here. When I first hear of CatBasket friend E.J. Borghetti announcing that Mo Williams had some academic issues, I did not think it was serious enough to have him miss an entire season. Usually when you hear of some academic issues, a couple of summer courses can fix that problem right away. The NCAA rules state that a player must complete 12 credits per year (6 a semester) and meet specific GPA's (1.8 for freshmen I believe). For those of you who never attended Pitt, the University requires a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or else you will be placed on academic probation. Jason Jones and I usually joke that if Pitt really wants you, they will find a way to make you eligible. Unfortunately this will not be the case for Mo Williams. I'm sure you are all tired of reading about rules and regulations, so here are some of my OPINIONS of how this will impact the team.
Firstly, we are lucky to be deep at WR. Kinder, Turner, Porter, McGee, Wright and Jonathan Baldwin are all capable players. I was really hoping that Kinder/Williams would be the starting wr's as I feel that Turner lacks concentration and isn't the most motivated of receivers. Despite my feelings on that, Turner has shown that when the effort is there, he can be an effective player. I believe that Oderick is the type of player that needs some type of inspiration to get the full potential from him. His freshman year he had to earn his playing time and he did well. Last year after the Kinder injury, I believe that he felt his job was safe and he did not try as hard as he did before. I am also aware that being the #1 receiver on the team meant he had to face the opponents #1 cornerback, but when you have responsibility like he had last year, you need to show up.
Since Williams is now in this situation I think this will also teach him a valuable lesson that just because you have earned a scholarship does not mean that you are untouchable. I think it would be easy for a college freshman to get wrapped up in the hype of the college sports experience and let it go to his or her head that academics are second. After a good freshman year, Pitt women's player Jania Sims missed time due to academic issues. Hopefully he can continue taking courses this summer and use the fall and spring to boost the GPA. I also hope that Wanny uses this to motivate the players and let them know that performance on and off the field counts. As much as we love our football team, Pitt is an outstanding academic institution. Just having a degree from here is more valuable than 95% of all other colleges.
Having this redshirt year will also help Mo improve. It will give him an extra year to develop, an extra year in the system, and an extra year to improve his rapport with the quarterbacks of the future Pat Bostick and Tino Sunseri. I don't think anyone expect Mo to be a guy who left early, and now he can use his last 3 years to earn a spot next to Jonathan Baldwin and hopefully make up the most dangerous WR duo in the Big East.
Jonathan Baldwin. The biggest outcome of this whole debacle may just be that Jonathan Baldwin can raise himself up from what I felt would have been a redshirt season into a significant contributor. Lets face it folks, Wanny does not play freshmen unless he HAS to. Bostick, Joe Thomas, and Shady all saw their playing time because of issues at their respective positions. I do not believe for one second that despite his amazing talent, that Baldwin would have ever gotten above 5th on the overall WR depth chart. With Kinder's post-injury ability unknown, Turner's struggles last season, and not knowing McGee and Wright's true ability, Jonathan Baldwin could force himself into the game based upon his amazing potential alone.
This is a big loss for Pitt, don't look at it any other way. Before you get too down about it though just remember that while it does hurt that we are losing him, Pitt is doing the right thing. We're not going to make exceptions, we're not bending the rules, we have and will continue to run a respectable program and one that we should all feel proud to be associated with.
Mo, I can't wait to see you on the field in 2009, but take this year and get everything set straight.
Showing posts with label Mo Williams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mo Williams. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Heinz Field Gameday Atmosphere
One thing we've grown accustomed to at Pitt games is a lack of atmosphere. We all get it, the tailgating situation sucks, the fans can be apathetic most of the time, and overall there seems to be just a general lack of interest. Now this isn't a problem just for the football team, when the Zoo isn't making noise, the entire arena seems dead. Luckily it is easy for 1200 students to make noise in a 12,000 seat arena. In football we have to deal with a student section that is not always filled, an open ended stadium, and a team that has struggled in the past. All of those factors mean that the noise level isn't the same. Before you think I'm just ranting about the fans keep reading.
I was at a meeting with Steve Pederson and Dave Wannstedt where they challenged myself as well as other student leaders to improve the gameday atmosphere. While others were arguing that free t-shirts and hotdogs were the only way to get people to come, I argued that making the in game experience better was the real key for improving attendance (other than winning of course). Some people on SGB and other organizations felt I was crazy. Luckily Dr. Kathy Humphrey, Chris Ferris, and some other fellow student leaders agreed.
During the conclusion of the meeting, I along with our SGB president and Program Council Lecture Director was placed in charge of trying to figure out ways to make the in game experience better. One thing we all agreed upon was that there doesn't seem to be anything engaging the fans to make them feel more included in the game. Sure we want to have a beach ball in the student section and to incorporate other ideas to make the entire stadium seem like one cohesive unit. However, we felt that there was one big thing that Pitt hasn't used to our advantage yet. We have that massive jumbotron that usually is one big advertisement the entire game. Have you ever notice how excited people get when the Heinz ketchup flows??? That is why we decided that one of the most effective ways to improve the atmosphere is to use the jumbotron to get the crowd involved. Have you ever been to a Pens game and seen how they use a small outdated jumbotron to get the crowd fired up? Well, why can't we use our state of the art equipment to get our fans fired up?
During my last week of vacation before the summer semester starts, I am working to create video's and such to get the crowd involved. Things like showing a blue alarm going off with an airhorn signaling Code Blue (yes I know it is the code for death but just roll with it) for when the crowd needs to get pumped up on a big play. Also bring back the Panther growling on big third downs to let the team know we need noise (remember when we did that during the WaHa years?). Little things like player highlight packages such as when a player gets the ball, so a little highlight of him after the play (Heinz Field becoming overcast a.k.a. Shady, or Mo "Money in the Bank" Williams"). Also since we don't have the worlds most educated fans, we can use the jumbotron to get the fans to shut up when we are on offense.
There are endless possibilities here, and I hope that we can use this to our advantage. That is why I am encouraging all Cat Basket readers to email, post, or discuss any ideas that you might have to improve our in game atmosphere to: 1. help our team and 2. improve the atmosphere so that people will come to the game even when the team isn't performing as well as we would like.
So please, if you have any ideas let us know. I understand if you don't want to post since our fan base loves to turn on each other, but if you do, don't be afraid to email us: TheCatbasket@gmail.com or dpj731@gmail.com.
Hopefully we can use this to help make the gameday experience better and to keep Heinz Field packed.
I was at a meeting with Steve Pederson and Dave Wannstedt where they challenged myself as well as other student leaders to improve the gameday atmosphere. While others were arguing that free t-shirts and hotdogs were the only way to get people to come, I argued that making the in game experience better was the real key for improving attendance (other than winning of course). Some people on SGB and other organizations felt I was crazy. Luckily Dr. Kathy Humphrey, Chris Ferris, and some other fellow student leaders agreed.
During the conclusion of the meeting, I along with our SGB president and Program Council Lecture Director was placed in charge of trying to figure out ways to make the in game experience better. One thing we all agreed upon was that there doesn't seem to be anything engaging the fans to make them feel more included in the game. Sure we want to have a beach ball in the student section and to incorporate other ideas to make the entire stadium seem like one cohesive unit. However, we felt that there was one big thing that Pitt hasn't used to our advantage yet. We have that massive jumbotron that usually is one big advertisement the entire game. Have you ever notice how excited people get when the Heinz ketchup flows??? That is why we decided that one of the most effective ways to improve the atmosphere is to use the jumbotron to get the crowd involved. Have you ever been to a Pens game and seen how they use a small outdated jumbotron to get the crowd fired up? Well, why can't we use our state of the art equipment to get our fans fired up?
During my last week of vacation before the summer semester starts, I am working to create video's and such to get the crowd involved. Things like showing a blue alarm going off with an airhorn signaling Code Blue (yes I know it is the code for death but just roll with it) for when the crowd needs to get pumped up on a big play. Also bring back the Panther growling on big third downs to let the team know we need noise (remember when we did that during the WaHa years?). Little things like player highlight packages such as when a player gets the ball, so a little highlight of him after the play (Heinz Field becoming overcast a.k.a. Shady, or Mo "Money in the Bank" Williams"). Also since we don't have the worlds most educated fans, we can use the jumbotron to get the fans to shut up when we are on offense.
There are endless possibilities here, and I hope that we can use this to our advantage. That is why I am encouraging all Cat Basket readers to email, post, or discuss any ideas that you might have to improve our in game atmosphere to: 1. help our team and 2. improve the atmosphere so that people will come to the game even when the team isn't performing as well as we would like.
So please, if you have any ideas let us know. I understand if you don't want to post since our fan base loves to turn on each other, but if you do, don't be afraid to email us: TheCatbasket@gmail.com or dpj731@gmail.com.
Hopefully we can use this to help make the gameday experience better and to keep Heinz Field packed.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Pointing the finger
Well, I promised Jason Jones, myself, and the Cat Basket faithful that I will not post directly after a loss to ensure that I don't come off too angry. This also gives some time to collect my thoughts. So here's what I think after a great weekend.
First off, Michigan State has the nicest fans in the nation. They were very courteous, they treated us with respect, and I can only hope that one day Pitt fans can become more like Spartan Fans. Also, thanks to the MSU Kappa Sig fraternity for letting us hang out with you friday night.
I will write more about the game tomorrow, but I feel certain things should be mentioned right now. Pitt should have won Saturday's game, but specific mistakes and players prevented that from happening. Pitt had control of the game and should have been able to put more points on the board, but here is what stopped us.
Kevan Smith. All he needed to do was let the running game carry him and make a few passes to sustain drives. Instead he under-threw and over-threw passes to the intended receivers. His over-throw on the screen pass led to a pick 6. Without that over throw, Pitt wins the game. We did not convert any 3rd downs. When you can't move the chains, you don't win games. Smith was so bad that we had to let Shady take snaps in order to get the offense going. I will give credit to smith on one play. He had Oderick Turner wide open and got the ball to him in the end zone however,
Oderick Turner - The big drop in the endzone killed us. If he catches that ball, we would have won the game. I understand that he isn't Bryant, Lee, Fitzgerald, or Kinder but that ball needed to be caught. Don't worry though Oderick, you weren't the only receiver who messed up.
TJ Porter - ..........Momentum gone....... We have MSU stopped on 4th and short and then one play later a fumble kills us. We may not have scored on that drive but needing a field goal instead of a touchdown is huge. On our last drive we were very close to being in field goal range but we needed 6, not 3. Turnovers killed us this game and that fumble pretty much took away our momentum and any chance for a comeback.
Chris Vangas - I was at the game so I didn't see if you actually grabbed the facemask. BUT, you're an offensive lineman. Your hands should not be near the helmet at any time. When you're learning how to block you get low and hit the chest. That 15 yard penalty ended any chance we had for a TD. That TD would have been able to tie the game.
Mike Phillips - Please hold on to that interception. We needed that and I believe it would have turned the tables.
Basically what we have figured out is that Shady is incredible, Jason Pinkston is much more valuable than McGlynn at tackle, the DLine is playing solid. We also learned that WE NEED STULL BACK NOW! If we can't have Stull and you are so against playing Bostick, why not put Mo Williams in there? That wildcat option would be much more efficient with Williams in there instead of Smith. Guess what? Mo can throw too. How can a team defend against that? They can't!
I really hope we see someone new under center. I hope Pinkston is ok. I hope that the receivers show up for the next game.
First off, Michigan State has the nicest fans in the nation. They were very courteous, they treated us with respect, and I can only hope that one day Pitt fans can become more like Spartan Fans. Also, thanks to the MSU Kappa Sig fraternity for letting us hang out with you friday night.
I will write more about the game tomorrow, but I feel certain things should be mentioned right now. Pitt should have won Saturday's game, but specific mistakes and players prevented that from happening. Pitt had control of the game and should have been able to put more points on the board, but here is what stopped us.
Kevan Smith. All he needed to do was let the running game carry him and make a few passes to sustain drives. Instead he under-threw and over-threw passes to the intended receivers. His over-throw on the screen pass led to a pick 6. Without that over throw, Pitt wins the game. We did not convert any 3rd downs. When you can't move the chains, you don't win games. Smith was so bad that we had to let Shady take snaps in order to get the offense going. I will give credit to smith on one play. He had Oderick Turner wide open and got the ball to him in the end zone however,
Oderick Turner - The big drop in the endzone killed us. If he catches that ball, we would have won the game. I understand that he isn't Bryant, Lee, Fitzgerald, or Kinder but that ball needed to be caught. Don't worry though Oderick, you weren't the only receiver who messed up.
TJ Porter - ..........Momentum gone....... We have MSU stopped on 4th and short and then one play later a fumble kills us. We may not have scored on that drive but needing a field goal instead of a touchdown is huge. On our last drive we were very close to being in field goal range but we needed 6, not 3. Turnovers killed us this game and that fumble pretty much took away our momentum and any chance for a comeback.
Chris Vangas - I was at the game so I didn't see if you actually grabbed the facemask. BUT, you're an offensive lineman. Your hands should not be near the helmet at any time. When you're learning how to block you get low and hit the chest. That 15 yard penalty ended any chance we had for a TD. That TD would have been able to tie the game.
Mike Phillips - Please hold on to that interception. We needed that and I believe it would have turned the tables.
Basically what we have figured out is that Shady is incredible, Jason Pinkston is much more valuable than McGlynn at tackle, the DLine is playing solid. We also learned that WE NEED STULL BACK NOW! If we can't have Stull and you are so against playing Bostick, why not put Mo Williams in there? That wildcat option would be much more efficient with Williams in there instead of Smith. Guess what? Mo can throw too. How can a team defend against that? They can't!
I really hope we see someone new under center. I hope Pinkston is ok. I hope that the receivers show up for the next game.
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