I’ve thought long and hard how I can best present information and opinions to the fine fans of Pitt football, and I decided it should be this — random tidbits. Here ya go.
— My first thought is about Phil Jurkovec. Yes, he’s been up and down and injury prone and his national stock has fallen far because of it, but he’s a gamer. Kedon Slovis is as well, and I respect him greatly as a class kid. But, Frank Cignetti Jr. will have more success with Jurkovec than he did with Slovis. Why? Familiarity. Slovis came in and had to learn a new system and struggled at times with comfort and familiarity. Jurkovec won’t as he knows what Cignetti Jr. wants very clearly. Trust me when I tell you, this is a good fit regardless of what you feel about Cignetti Jr. or Jurkovec.
— And speaking of Cignetti Jr. I’ll admit I’m not a fan. His offense is too run heavy and too predictable and it’s a frustration I’ve seen from fan bases dating back to a 3-9 UNC team in 2006. And it makes it hard to recruit skill position players and quarterbacks as we’ve seen. It will open up a bit more with Jurkovec, but it’s frustrating for any fan base to watch.
— Pitt isn’t totally narrowed down to Christian Veilleux from Penn State as their second QB in the portal. While I’m hearing there is mutual interest both sides are still shopping around. But I hear Veilleux is visiting this weekend and could shut it down there. The hope is to add Jurkovec, Veilleux and Ty Dieffenbach (committed Monday) as the three hardest to spell names in any QB room. Experience, upside and a project. It’s not great but it’s the best that can be expected now. A long way from the Kenny Pickett momentum, huh?
— And speaking of Dieffenbach I’d certainly have him as a 3-star based on film evaluation. His ball can float which is part of why he has 9 picks, and he needs to add strength to his lower body which will help his delivery and power in his throws but he’s tall, has a great frame, has solid throwing mechanics and he’s fast for his size. Sneaky fast. I always felt Kenny Minchey was a low 4 star and could be a high 3 star from my rankings days and there is a big difference in polish, but I like this take as a project.
Michigan and UGA are pretty heavy run oriented and play-action with RPO. Seems to be going well there. Utah runs a bit similar offense too with the 12 package all in a phone booth. It works or it doesn’t.
It would be interesting to increase the play rate instead of trying to win the time of possession. I thought we under used our depth this year in this regard.
If you have the talent like they do .. you can run the wing t and win
Those teams recruit every year in the Top 10-15. Pitt is in the 60’s this year. The SPREAD is the great equalizer in college football. That should be obvious to anyone that watches college football.
Slovis is a “gamer”?
This column lost at credibility at that statement.
Yes, I looked twice at that sentence. Tbh, he got hit a lot..I expected a little more from that very experienced o line this year.
Veilleux is intriguing. Hasn’t played in years, not sure why he would come to Pitt to sit another year when other programs need QB’s and he would be given a legit chance to start.
I think pitt starting to value QB 🧐
Cignetti is here because Narduzzi wants a run heavy offense. Period.
It was an easy hire. Cignetti’s shelf life at any given gig over the last 20 years is 1 to 2 years. He had reached his expiration date at BC and was available. Instead of having to go look, find, interview and then decide….this guy just fell into Duzzi’s lap. Easy dezzi for Duzzi