Sorry for the lack of posts again this week I have been insanely busy but I'm back and ready to get thinking about the home stretch of the season. Joe Starkey today in the Trib wrote an article about Shady's amazing start to his career comparing his young career to that of Tony Dorsett. I'll link to the article at the bottom but I'm going to come at the idea of where Shady stands in a different way.
This season Shady McCoy is performing to his potential in the hardest situation he could be in. When looking at his numbers remember that he didn't get the job as the "starting" running back until the Michigan St. game. So thats one obstacle for him to overcome winning a starting job from an established starter who was certainly a favorite of the coaching staff.
After getting the starting job through injury Shady went to Michigan St. and recorded 172 yards off of 25 carries. Then the team goes on the game losing streak where two of the games Shady didn't get over 100 yards. The play-calling during those games was very basic while the coaching staff kept the handcuffs tight on Bostick. All of these things have kept Shady from having even more gaudy stats and as a result a diminished presence for him in the national media. Imagine the hype around him by EPSN if we were 7-2 instead of 4-5.
Another thing that Shady has had to deal with is having the hopes of an entire program on his back. The team while getting better has played poorly much of this season but Shady hasn't at all. Expectations from everyone are extremely high and perhaps unfair. Our offensive line has been ravaged by injuries and inexperience to say the least (a distinct lack of talent on one side to say the worst). No vertical passing game, no offensive line, no problem; Shady still goes out and makes big plays.
I don't think Shady at this point is better than Tony Dorsett but I think he is right there with him. Now can Shady come through the next year or two he will be at this university and play at the same level is unknown. If this team improves just a little bit Shady is going to become unstoppable.
A little something to think about before I finish this column. What happens if Kevin Collier stays healthy? That would have been another player on the depth chart in front of Shady in the camp; Shady was definitely listed at 3rd in all the reports I saw. It makes my head explode trying to think of the ways that Wannstedt would have botched this situation, remember it took about 4 weeks for them to figure out how to use LSH and Shady in the same series.
Wow I was trying to write a positive column about Shady and now I'm angry about the hoops he had to jump through this season just to play.
Pitt's McCoy deserves 'Tony' Award
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Zoo Reminder
Hey all you Panther faithful. We just wanted to remind you that tomorrow is the Oakland Zoo's pre-season student event. Make sure you check it out. This year will probably be the best one yet so make sure you check it out.
Also, I will be back shortly with a post regarding our Panthers and the NFL. This week has been pretty hectic for both Jones and myself but we are here to get you through the bye week.
~ DPJ ~
Also, I will be back shortly with a post regarding our Panthers and the NFL. This week has been pretty hectic for both Jones and myself but we are here to get you through the bye week.
~ DPJ ~
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Talent and Talent alone won this game.
While Jason Jones is on his hiatus, I thought I would say a few things about the game and about our future.
We'll start with the most current item, our 3 point win over perennial powerhouse Syracuse. Looking at 'Cuse, they are a lot like us in terms of coaching. On the field however, we are light years ahead of them in terms of talent. If you were at the game or watched the game on TV, i'm sure you agree that the game was a very boring one. Two similiar pro-style offenses with defenses that play to lose rather than playing to impact the game. The result of that was a big pile of garbage with one bad team with bad play calling philosophies losing to a team with above average talent and terrible play calling philosophies.
Shady didn't have any overly impressive game for his standards, but how nice is it to know that in every game he should be able to give you at least 100 yards and 1 td despite the fact that our OLine is awful. Speaking of which, I am glad Wannstedt chose to run the ball on 4th down both times. What I do not like is having Shady line up 7 yards deep. In a goal line/short yardage set, you need to get the ball to your player as soon as possible. You can not wait too long because the line will most likely break down. The second problem I have is running the ball to the right side on those plays. Why would you run the ball behind Bachman and McGlynn when you have NFL caliber Jeff Otah, and Pitt's second best offensive lineman C.J. Davis on the left side who can blow people off of the ball. Thirdly, I thought for sure we would see Bostick sneak the ball on one of those plays. It was such a short yardage play Vangas just needed to fall forward and let Bostick fall on top of him. Either way, it didn't pan out for us and hopefully (but not likely) a lesson learned.
The defensive line played great. Our down linemen where creating pressure and getting to the quarterback quite easily. However, late in the game when it mattered the most, we went into prevent style defense. If you're unaware of what a prevent defense does.........well, all it does is prevent you from winning.
Following this win many people believe we can take out a faltering USF team as well as a weaker than expected Rutgers team. I am not yet on board with that. One common theme for our Panthers is that we really play to the level of our competition. If we would have played Cuse the way we played Cincy we would have won by 3 touchdowns. Instead we played to the much lower level of Cuse. If you look at other examples, our loss to Ohio we played down, at MSU we played at higher level and going back even farther last year against Louisville and WVU we played to their level (until the 2nd half started). This team needs to create a new mentality if they want to be come a top tier program. They should expect to execute their game plan without any flaws and to expect that they will win every game by a significant margin.
So, is there hope? Sure there is. Rutgers is looking very average and we are going to get USF at the perfect time. The Bulls are not the same team that looked so impressive a few weeks ago against WVU. They are more like the Bulls that started off hot in 2004 but thanks to a hurricane pushed our game back to december when they started their slide allowing us to seal the deal on the Fiesta Bowl. That game was in Tampa, this time it will be in Pittsburgh on a cold November night. Because it is a home game against a struggling team, I think we have our greatest shot at our next win against USF. Rutgers still has a strong running game and the game is in Jersey which will make it tougher. Against WVU...........well, it will take a miracle but hopefully the team gets up for this rivalry game and brings us home a win.
This team will most likely end up 4-8 which is much better than the 2-10 we all thought might happen after the UConn and UVa games. If the play calling does not change we will not win the remaining games. We have the talent, we just don't have the coaching. I still hope that Rhoads and Cavanaugh are gone after this season. We need two guys to come in and tell Wanny that we are going to base our game designs on exploiting weaknesses and playing to our strengths. We can't have a cookie cutter nfl offense and defense in the college level. Spread the field, you may have let Bostick throw 30 times but 20 of those passes seemed like they were bubble screens and quick outs. That will also push the defense back allowing Shady to run. Greg Romeus is a best but as more people find out about him he's going to get double teamed. Williams, Duhart, and Clermond make great additions to that line. If we show some pressure like we did earlier in the game, we can have a solid rushing defense that gets a ton of pressure on the quarterback. We need to be more gutsy, but do it in the right situations. Don't do it just for the sake of doing it. Be strong, be confident, but in the end, be smart.
~ The One and Only ~
We'll start with the most current item, our 3 point win over perennial powerhouse Syracuse. Looking at 'Cuse, they are a lot like us in terms of coaching. On the field however, we are light years ahead of them in terms of talent. If you were at the game or watched the game on TV, i'm sure you agree that the game was a very boring one. Two similiar pro-style offenses with defenses that play to lose rather than playing to impact the game. The result of that was a big pile of garbage with one bad team with bad play calling philosophies losing to a team with above average talent and terrible play calling philosophies.
Shady didn't have any overly impressive game for his standards, but how nice is it to know that in every game he should be able to give you at least 100 yards and 1 td despite the fact that our OLine is awful. Speaking of which, I am glad Wannstedt chose to run the ball on 4th down both times. What I do not like is having Shady line up 7 yards deep. In a goal line/short yardage set, you need to get the ball to your player as soon as possible. You can not wait too long because the line will most likely break down. The second problem I have is running the ball to the right side on those plays. Why would you run the ball behind Bachman and McGlynn when you have NFL caliber Jeff Otah, and Pitt's second best offensive lineman C.J. Davis on the left side who can blow people off of the ball. Thirdly, I thought for sure we would see Bostick sneak the ball on one of those plays. It was such a short yardage play Vangas just needed to fall forward and let Bostick fall on top of him. Either way, it didn't pan out for us and hopefully (but not likely) a lesson learned.
The defensive line played great. Our down linemen where creating pressure and getting to the quarterback quite easily. However, late in the game when it mattered the most, we went into prevent style defense. If you're unaware of what a prevent defense does.........well, all it does is prevent you from winning.
Following this win many people believe we can take out a faltering USF team as well as a weaker than expected Rutgers team. I am not yet on board with that. One common theme for our Panthers is that we really play to the level of our competition. If we would have played Cuse the way we played Cincy we would have won by 3 touchdowns. Instead we played to the much lower level of Cuse. If you look at other examples, our loss to Ohio we played down, at MSU we played at higher level and going back even farther last year against Louisville and WVU we played to their level (until the 2nd half started). This team needs to create a new mentality if they want to be come a top tier program. They should expect to execute their game plan without any flaws and to expect that they will win every game by a significant margin.
So, is there hope? Sure there is. Rutgers is looking very average and we are going to get USF at the perfect time. The Bulls are not the same team that looked so impressive a few weeks ago against WVU. They are more like the Bulls that started off hot in 2004 but thanks to a hurricane pushed our game back to december when they started their slide allowing us to seal the deal on the Fiesta Bowl. That game was in Tampa, this time it will be in Pittsburgh on a cold November night. Because it is a home game against a struggling team, I think we have our greatest shot at our next win against USF. Rutgers still has a strong running game and the game is in Jersey which will make it tougher. Against WVU...........well, it will take a miracle but hopefully the team gets up for this rivalry game and brings us home a win.
This team will most likely end up 4-8 which is much better than the 2-10 we all thought might happen after the UConn and UVa games. If the play calling does not change we will not win the remaining games. We have the talent, we just don't have the coaching. I still hope that Rhoads and Cavanaugh are gone after this season. We need two guys to come in and tell Wanny that we are going to base our game designs on exploiting weaknesses and playing to our strengths. We can't have a cookie cutter nfl offense and defense in the college level. Spread the field, you may have let Bostick throw 30 times but 20 of those passes seemed like they were bubble screens and quick outs. That will also push the defense back allowing Shady to run. Greg Romeus is a best but as more people find out about him he's going to get double teamed. Williams, Duhart, and Clermond make great additions to that line. If we show some pressure like we did earlier in the game, we can have a solid rushing defense that gets a ton of pressure on the quarterback. We need to be more gutsy, but do it in the right situations. Don't do it just for the sake of doing it. Be strong, be confident, but in the end, be smart.
~ The One and Only ~
Friday, November 2, 2007
Legends of the Athletics Department
Well folks, it's time for another installment.
I planned on going in a different direction with this, but after reading the men's and women's media guide, there is only one choice for our next focus.
Ladies and Gentlemen, please give a loud round of applause for Greg Hotchkiss.
In case you do not know about Greg, here is his bio from pittsburghpanthers.com
I first met Greg a few years ago when I had the opportunity to become a leader of the Zoo. It is very easy to see who are the passionate workers in the athletics department and folks let me tell you, Greg Hotchkiss cares. Greg can talk to you about all of our sports and I guarantee you that he knows 10 times as much about you in any Pitt sport.
Greg was also in charge of creating the media guides for the men's and women's basketball teams. In case you have not seen them, invest the small amount of money. They are very informative and complete. I am a proud owner of both the men's and women's basketball media guides. Greg may be the best at his job compared to anyone else in the athletics department.
This sounds like a very kiss ass column, but it is supposed to be one. Greg really is one of the guys that is over-looked in this department because he is not the face off the program, he doesn't get a ton of phone calls. He just goes in to work every day doing what he is supposed to do and he does it well.
Greg, we here at the Cat Basket love you. We hope you are here for a very long time and we look forward to working (and drinking) with you well in to the future.
Keep up the great work and I hope we can continue to have this great working relationship.
~ The One and Only ~
I planned on going in a different direction with this, but after reading the men's and women's media guide, there is only one choice for our next focus.
Ladies and Gentlemen, please give a loud round of applause for Greg Hotchkiss.
In case you do not know about Greg, here is his bio from pittsburghpanthers.com
"Greg Hotchkiss begins his sixth year at the University of Pittsburgh as its associate athletic media relations director and men's basketball contact. During that period, the Pitt men's basketball team has compiled a 133-35 record, earned national rankings in 90 of the 97 polls, appeared on television an average of 27 times per season (135 total and 71 national TV games) and opened the brand new sold-out Petersen Events Center.
Hotchkiss owns 11 years of athletic media relations experience including stints at the University of Florida (2000-02), Duke University (1999-00) and Texas Tech University (1997-99). Prior to Pittsburgh, Hotchkiss worked two years at Florida as an assistant SID where he served as contact for the nationally ranked Gator baseball team, assisted with publicity for the Gator football team and oversaw aspects of the office including UF's SID internship program. At Duke, he assisted with publicity for the No. 1 ranked and eventual 2001 national champion Blue Devil men's basketball team and handled SID duties for 10 sports and 250 student-athletes. At Texas Tech, Hotchkiss was responsible for the publicity and promotion of the nationally ranked baseball and volleyball teams and assisted with publicity for the Red Raider football team.
A Franklin College (Ind.) graduate, Hotchkiss worked the 1996-97 year in the Florida SID Office where he worked closely with the 1996 national champion/SEC champion Florida football squad and assisted in the day-to-day publicity of 1996 Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel. As an undergrad, he lettered four years in soccer, earned a National Pulliam Journalism Scholarship and completed internships with the Indianapolis Colts, Indiana Pacers and at the University of Michigan.
Hotchkiss has earned a total of 15 national publication awards at four different schools and has managed and hosted a variety of NCAA championship events."
I first met Greg a few years ago when I had the opportunity to become a leader of the Zoo. It is very easy to see who are the passionate workers in the athletics department and folks let me tell you, Greg Hotchkiss cares. Greg can talk to you about all of our sports and I guarantee you that he knows 10 times as much about you in any Pitt sport.
Greg was also in charge of creating the media guides for the men's and women's basketball teams. In case you have not seen them, invest the small amount of money. They are very informative and complete. I am a proud owner of both the men's and women's basketball media guides. Greg may be the best at his job compared to anyone else in the athletics department.
This sounds like a very kiss ass column, but it is supposed to be one. Greg really is one of the guys that is over-looked in this department because he is not the face off the program, he doesn't get a ton of phone calls. He just goes in to work every day doing what he is supposed to do and he does it well.
Greg, we here at the Cat Basket love you. We hope you are here for a very long time and we look forward to working (and drinking) with you well in to the future.
Keep up the great work and I hope we can continue to have this great working relationship.
~ The One and Only ~
Both teams are focused.
Both teams are focused and that is the important thing because lets face it, this game means nothing. The two bottom feeders of the Big East square off in what should becalled the Insight.com Irrelevant Bowl. Sorry to start this off on such a negative note, but despite all of this "improvement" we have seen from the team (the players, not coaches), we still have to face the fact that the team will not make a bowl game for the 3rd consecutive year. Before I break this thing down, ask yourself a question. If you died and went to hell and your job was to give interviews for an eternity, who would you rather give them to, Wannstedt or Syracuse Head Coach Greg Robinson?
On to the game! Gone are the days of our favorite Cuse player, Diamond Ferry. The man who singlehandedly got Pitt to the fiesta bowl isn't around to help Pitt anymore. Instead we have to rely upon ourselves which has gotten us to a solid 3-5 record. Don't think it's all that bad folks. Powerhouse Syracuse is 2-6 this year.
Looking at our team, you basically know who needs to be where and who needs to do what. However, the coaching staff won't let that happen. Cuse will put 8-9 guys in the box, and instead of lining up 4 wides to counteract that, we will see Shady and Hot-Rod running dives up the middle for a solid 1-2 yards. Nate Byham should be seeing the ball, instead he'll be picking up blitzing linebackers.
On defense, Ricky Gary should be starting over Kennard Cox, Dom DiCicco should be replacing Mike Phillips, and Greg Romeus should be in on every play. We know this won't happen because Wanny and Rhoads are trying to sabotage our chances of winning by not playing our best players and not calling effective defensive game plays.
The big thing about Syracuse is, they just don't have that WOW factor in any part of their game. We have a solid D-Line and Shady, but what does Cuse have? Otto the Orange? Syracuse's starting running back, Doug Hogue, is the backup for their currently injured starter, Curtis Brinkley. Hogue holds an impressive resume. He's a guy that was barely recruited. His best day ever in college was 24 carries for 84 yards. All of this leads me to believe that he is most likely the next inductee into the Paul Rhoads "Still Running Club". Now that's not really fair since we do still play USF, but WVU and Rutgers still have 2 current members in the "Still Running Club", so Hogue, get ready, tomorrow is your chance to shine.
Their defense is piss poor. They shut out the mighty Buffalo Bulls of the MAC. They held Louisville under 30 points, but other than that, they have nothing notable to talk about. Shady should be able to put up 150 and 2 tds easily. Bostick SHOULD be able to have a 300 yard passing day with 3 td's but won't since the coaches won't let him throw and mix in the fact his two starting receivers will be Turner and Pestano. Tell ya what Cavanaugh, we'll play a game. Let Bostick throw the ball down field (no screens included in this 20) but let Porter, Williams, Strong, Byham, and Shady be his targets. I know for a fact on those 20 passes he would get at least 200 yards passing and 2 tds. Realistically, Bostick will have about 10 passes in the first half and 8 of them will be screens/shovel passes to the running backs. I just don't see why we wouldn't take advantage of throwing against Donovan a.k.a. Joe Fields McNabb in the secondary.
I really can't see how this team can lost tomorrow based upon talent alone. You could let the players call the plays tomorrow and we would still win. Shady is your offensive MVP tomorrow, Bostick will be criticized for having poor mobility, we will scream about how Nate didn't get the ball enough, and our fans will say we still stand a chance since we beat Syracuse. I say, enjoy the game, this is our last win of the season. Pitt 31 (should be about 60) - Syracuse 10.
~ The One and Only ~
On to the game! Gone are the days of our favorite Cuse player, Diamond Ferry. The man who singlehandedly got Pitt to the fiesta bowl isn't around to help Pitt anymore. Instead we have to rely upon ourselves which has gotten us to a solid 3-5 record. Don't think it's all that bad folks. Powerhouse Syracuse is 2-6 this year.
Looking at our team, you basically know who needs to be where and who needs to do what. However, the coaching staff won't let that happen. Cuse will put 8-9 guys in the box, and instead of lining up 4 wides to counteract that, we will see Shady and Hot-Rod running dives up the middle for a solid 1-2 yards. Nate Byham should be seeing the ball, instead he'll be picking up blitzing linebackers.
On defense, Ricky Gary should be starting over Kennard Cox, Dom DiCicco should be replacing Mike Phillips, and Greg Romeus should be in on every play. We know this won't happen because Wanny and Rhoads are trying to sabotage our chances of winning by not playing our best players and not calling effective defensive game plays.
The big thing about Syracuse is, they just don't have that WOW factor in any part of their game. We have a solid D-Line and Shady, but what does Cuse have? Otto the Orange? Syracuse's starting running back, Doug Hogue, is the backup for their currently injured starter, Curtis Brinkley. Hogue holds an impressive resume. He's a guy that was barely recruited. His best day ever in college was 24 carries for 84 yards. All of this leads me to believe that he is most likely the next inductee into the Paul Rhoads "Still Running Club". Now that's not really fair since we do still play USF, but WVU and Rutgers still have 2 current members in the "Still Running Club", so Hogue, get ready, tomorrow is your chance to shine.
Their defense is piss poor. They shut out the mighty Buffalo Bulls of the MAC. They held Louisville under 30 points, but other than that, they have nothing notable to talk about. Shady should be able to put up 150 and 2 tds easily. Bostick SHOULD be able to have a 300 yard passing day with 3 td's but won't since the coaches won't let him throw and mix in the fact his two starting receivers will be Turner and Pestano. Tell ya what Cavanaugh, we'll play a game. Let Bostick throw the ball down field (no screens included in this 20) but let Porter, Williams, Strong, Byham, and Shady be his targets. I know for a fact on those 20 passes he would get at least 200 yards passing and 2 tds. Realistically, Bostick will have about 10 passes in the first half and 8 of them will be screens/shovel passes to the running backs. I just don't see why we wouldn't take advantage of throwing against Donovan a.k.a. Joe Fields McNabb in the secondary.
I really can't see how this team can lost tomorrow based upon talent alone. You could let the players call the plays tomorrow and we would still win. Shady is your offensive MVP tomorrow, Bostick will be criticized for having poor mobility, we will scream about how Nate didn't get the ball enough, and our fans will say we still stand a chance since we beat Syracuse. I say, enjoy the game, this is our last win of the season. Pitt 31 (should be about 60) - Syracuse 10.
~ The One and Only ~
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)