Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Open Competition?



Now that football season is right around the corner, the Pitt Panther Sports Blot is back. We realized during basketball that the enormous amount of games was too much to keep up on for posting, but now that football season is here again we can commit to posting.
And what else would the first topic be about......the QB's!

Please first watch the following video interview: Tino Sunseri post scrimmage

There are several encouraging things about the video:
1. When asked if he could pressure Bill to take the starting job, Tino says that Coach Cignetti approaches the situation as an open competition. This is the way it should be considering there is no star at the position. I understand wanting to prepare someone for the season, but competition breeds success. When you have someone battle tested in competition you know you can trust them in the game. Every position that is not occupied by a star should be an open competition. Want to know why USC is so good? Each week, Pete Carroll says that every position is up for grabs. The practices are extremely competitive as each guy claws for his chance to be on the field. The intensity of USC warm ups aren't matched by some college practices. And then they win, a lot. So hopefully Cig is the one with the say in this matter and it is an open competition. Not because I'm rooting for any one QB (I just want the best on the field) but competition helps breed the best and helps to find the best kid at each spot.
2. Sunseri finished 6-7 for 60 yards and 1 TD, no INT's. If you watch the interview they discuss a TD catch by Baldwin that was ruled incomplete. Tino says he thinks it popped out when he hit the ground. This means that Tino would have been 7-7 with 2 TD's and no picks (unless the TD throw he had was on the same series as this). That's an impressive day for someone who only ran 3 of the team's drives. After the scrimmage, DW reiterated Billy is our guy, and that no one was spectacular. I'm not sure what you can do besides hitting 100% of receivers but with Sunseri taking more 1st team reps it seems Wanny is noticing him. Perhaps DW thought naming a starter early would kill all the media attention on the position and let the players develop and compete. If that's the case, it didn't work so let's open it up publicly.
3. Tino just sounds like a leader and professional in the interview. He said the right thing each time. I don't know if he'll win the competition and if there will be one, but I sure hope they at least open it up.