Observations from Pitt practice
Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 11:53 am
Went to Pit practice earlier this week. They only let the media watch a portion of it, but a few things were interesting:
• No wonder the Pitt basketball team is good - those guys play wide receiver for the football team during the fall. The Panthers' WRs are ENORMOUS.
Their leading receiver is Devin Street (6-4, 190), who has a team-high 48 catches and 692 yards, and has reached the end zone twice. He looks like what coaches want in a receiver: tall, long arms and very fast. During the portion of practice we were allowed to watch, the QBs sent him downfield on several deep balls, and it looked like they just threw as hard as they could, and he had the speed to get past the DBs and go get the ball.
Their second-leading receiver is Mike Shanahan (apparently no relation to the coach of the same name). He has 35 receptions for 443 yards and a team-leading four touchdown receptions. Shanahan is listed at 6-5 and 225 pounds, but he looks substantially bigger, like a power forward in a helmet. QB Tino Sunseri called Shanahan a "possession receiver" with great hands, and said that if the ball is thrown near him, he catches the ball every single time.
Another receiver who passes the eyeball test is freshman TE Drew Carswell (6-4, 214). Carswell apparently isn't used a lot (11 catches, 117 yards, 1 touchdown reception), but he's another tall target with pretty good wheels, and during the drills I watched, he made several good catches, including a few with just one hand.
• Since the SMU-Pitt matchup was announced, the SMU coaches have talked about how big the Panthers' offensive line is ... and they're right. A lot of these guys are in the 6-5, 6-6, 6-7 range and thick. Pitt always has had physical, mauler-type OLs, and this year's crop seems to fit the description.
One oddity: during stretching portion of the practice, the team split in to groups to jog, lunge, stretch, etc. under the orders of their strength coach. One instruction required the players to hold their hands over their heads, and then kick their feet as high as possible, presumably stretching out hamstrings and glutes. Most players cheated a little, leaning their arms forward toward their feet, but guard/center Lucas Nix, who is in his third season as a starter on the Pitt offensive line, kept his hands directly over his head ... and kicked each one while his other foot remained on the ground. Think about that ridiculous flexibility. I'm not sure our man Thomas Morstead can get his leg that high, and he does that for a living. I also don't have any idea how that translates to anything related to football, but it just defied all logic. No human being should be able to bend like that, especially a dainty 6-foot-6, 310-pounder like Nix.
• One guy who will be interesting to watch will be Pitt DE Aaron Donald, who was named second-team All-Big East and also earned second-team All-America honors from something called FoxSportsNext.com after leading the team with 10 sacks. Pitt DT Myles Caragein talked about Donald's high-revving motor, and that must be the case. He doesn't look that big - I'm not sure his 6-0, 270-pound listing on the roster isn't a little generous - but he obviously gets the job done in a league with some pretty good offensive lines. Donald and the rest of the Pitt defense has not faced a team this year with an offensive line that operates out of a two-point (stand-up) position, like SMU's does, so that will be a matchup worth watching. In that same interview, Caragein said he and the rest of the Pitt defense were particularly impressed by the interior trio of SMU offensive linemen - LG Josh LeRibeus, C Bryce Tennison and RG Kelly Turner - and singled out Turner, in particular. After the camera was off (I was heading over to talk to QB Tino Sunseri), Caragein echoed the same thoughts about the interior of the offensive line to beat reporter who is in town from Pittsburgh, which makes you wonder if Donald and the rest of the Pitt pass rush will focus on the outside in an effort to get to SMU QB J.J. McDermott.
• Sunseri looks like a good overall athlete. He passes seemed to have some zip on them, but he didn't fire off any 100-MPH fastballs, so it's hard to tell just how strong his arm really is. A couple of the Pitt beat reporters said the Panthers' offensive philosophy is to run the ball, first and foremost, and then rely mostly on short and intermediate passes, rather than flipping deep passes downfield. Sunseri isn't likely to make Pitt fans forget this guy, but he is a fairly efficient passer (completing almost 64 percent of his passes) and looks pretty mobile, too. He has just 119 rushing yards, but that includes 372 yards of losses in sacks.
• No wonder the Pitt basketball team is good - those guys play wide receiver for the football team during the fall. The Panthers' WRs are ENORMOUS.
Their leading receiver is Devin Street (6-4, 190), who has a team-high 48 catches and 692 yards, and has reached the end zone twice. He looks like what coaches want in a receiver: tall, long arms and very fast. During the portion of practice we were allowed to watch, the QBs sent him downfield on several deep balls, and it looked like they just threw as hard as they could, and he had the speed to get past the DBs and go get the ball.
Their second-leading receiver is Mike Shanahan (apparently no relation to the coach of the same name). He has 35 receptions for 443 yards and a team-leading four touchdown receptions. Shanahan is listed at 6-5 and 225 pounds, but he looks substantially bigger, like a power forward in a helmet. QB Tino Sunseri called Shanahan a "possession receiver" with great hands, and said that if the ball is thrown near him, he catches the ball every single time.
Another receiver who passes the eyeball test is freshman TE Drew Carswell (6-4, 214). Carswell apparently isn't used a lot (11 catches, 117 yards, 1 touchdown reception), but he's another tall target with pretty good wheels, and during the drills I watched, he made several good catches, including a few with just one hand.
• Since the SMU-Pitt matchup was announced, the SMU coaches have talked about how big the Panthers' offensive line is ... and they're right. A lot of these guys are in the 6-5, 6-6, 6-7 range and thick. Pitt always has had physical, mauler-type OLs, and this year's crop seems to fit the description.
One oddity: during stretching portion of the practice, the team split in to groups to jog, lunge, stretch, etc. under the orders of their strength coach. One instruction required the players to hold their hands over their heads, and then kick their feet as high as possible, presumably stretching out hamstrings and glutes. Most players cheated a little, leaning their arms forward toward their feet, but guard/center Lucas Nix, who is in his third season as a starter on the Pitt offensive line, kept his hands directly over his head ... and kicked each one while his other foot remained on the ground. Think about that ridiculous flexibility. I'm not sure our man Thomas Morstead can get his leg that high, and he does that for a living. I also don't have any idea how that translates to anything related to football, but it just defied all logic. No human being should be able to bend like that, especially a dainty 6-foot-6, 310-pounder like Nix.
• One guy who will be interesting to watch will be Pitt DE Aaron Donald, who was named second-team All-Big East and also earned second-team All-America honors from something called FoxSportsNext.com after leading the team with 10 sacks. Pitt DT Myles Caragein talked about Donald's high-revving motor, and that must be the case. He doesn't look that big - I'm not sure his 6-0, 270-pound listing on the roster isn't a little generous - but he obviously gets the job done in a league with some pretty good offensive lines. Donald and the rest of the Pitt defense has not faced a team this year with an offensive line that operates out of a two-point (stand-up) position, like SMU's does, so that will be a matchup worth watching. In that same interview, Caragein said he and the rest of the Pitt defense were particularly impressed by the interior trio of SMU offensive linemen - LG Josh LeRibeus, C Bryce Tennison and RG Kelly Turner - and singled out Turner, in particular. After the camera was off (I was heading over to talk to QB Tino Sunseri), Caragein echoed the same thoughts about the interior of the offensive line to beat reporter who is in town from Pittsburgh, which makes you wonder if Donald and the rest of the Pitt pass rush will focus on the outside in an effort to get to SMU QB J.J. McDermott.
• Sunseri looks like a good overall athlete. He passes seemed to have some zip on them, but he didn't fire off any 100-MPH fastballs, so it's hard to tell just how strong his arm really is. A couple of the Pitt beat reporters said the Panthers' offensive philosophy is to run the ball, first and foremost, and then rely mostly on short and intermediate passes, rather than flipping deep passes downfield. Sunseri isn't likely to make Pitt fans forget this guy, but he is a fairly efficient passer (completing almost 64 percent of his passes) and looks pretty mobile, too. He has just 119 rushing yards, but that includes 372 yards of losses in sacks.
