Pitt, PSU, WVU training camp news
The official opening weekend of the college football season is only 10 days away, and the three area teams are gearing up for their respective openers.
Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi officially named Kenny Pickett as the starting quarterback on Tuesday, although every single Pitt fan already knew this.
For me, I am more curious to see how Pitt breaks down the snaps at the tailback position.
A pair of seniors, Darrin Hall and Qadree Ollison, are the front-runners for playing time and time will tell if the team goes with the duo splitting time evenly or if one will pull away from the other.
Three Penn State players announced last week that they were ending their playing careers for health reasons.
The trio, defensive ends Ryan Buchholz and Torrence Brown and cornerback Jordan Miner, join offensive lineman Nana Asiedu and quarterback Jake Zembiec, who had previously announced their decisions.
Brown, Buchholz and Zembiec cited chronic issues, while Asiedu and Miner, both true freshmen, were diagnosed with heart conditions.
Hopes are high for the Mountaineers in Morgantown, and understandably so. But, national rankings for the Mountaineers are all over the place at the start of the season.
West Virginia is ranked 10th by 缅北禁地 Illustrated, 16th in the Sporting News, 17th in the AP poll and 20th in the CBS 缅北禁地 poll, but reputable college football expert Phil Steele doesn鈥檛 even have them ranked.
The play of Will Grier behind the offensive line, which returns four starters, should be stellar as I expect him to be drafted in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft.
Power 5 Twitter followers
Last week, a piece was released about the 65 Power 5 football programs and how many Twitter followers each had.
Penn State (@PennStateFball) is ranked 12th nationally out of the 65 schools and has 352,000 followers.
WVU (@WVUFootball) is ranked 26th and has 196,000 followers. Pitt (@Pitt_FB) is ranked 49th with 69,600 followers.
Georgia (@FootballUGA) is the top dog, or in its case the top Dawgs, with 905,000 followers.
RMU鈥檚 cool move
I showed up with my 11-year old niece Abbey Zuraw to Kennywood last Wednesday to have some fun as the school year nears.
As we were walking toward the gate, I told her to look at the high school football team that was getting off of a bus and I mentioned how cool it was for their coaching staff to bring them to Kennywood.
A few moments later, I realized the players were too big to be high school players and it was the Robert Morris University football team.
I spoke to several coaches throughout the day, including Donnie Militzer, the former Charleroi head coach who is in his first year with the Colonials.
鈥淚t is a cool way to break camp for the team, the players are working really hard,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e aren鈥檛 technically done with camp yet, but this is a fun way to build team camaraderie.鈥�
Local duo give verbal commitments
Speaking of Robert Morris, the Colonials recently received a verbal from Charleroi quarterback Geno Pellegrini.
Headed into his fourth year as the signal caller for the Cougars, Pellegrini has already broken every Charleroi quarterback record and is a solid get for Robert Morris.
Also giving a verbal recently was Yough pitcher Jarett Bach.
A standout ace on the mound, Bach verbally committed to Pitt and will join his sister Hannah on campus as she is a freshman on the softball team.
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