Larger text
Smaller text
Print
E-mail
Panthers must get tougher to get better
The state of Pitt's offensive line may make it difficult, indeed, to get a read of whether Palko or Getsy is positioned as Rod Rutherford's heir apparent.
The state of Pitt's offensive line is such that quarterback is the least of Pitt's worries right about now.
The Panthers remain a team in a state of flux as they make the transition from 2003's disappointing, 8-5, Continental Tire Bowl-losing campaign to the 2004 opener Sept. 4 at South Florida.
Rutherford set records and positioned himself for an invitation to an NFL training camp this summer, either as a second-day draft pick in late April or a rookie free agent. But what Rutherford did mostly was drop back and chuck it deep for Larry Fitzgerald. When that wasn't happening, Rutherford had an annoying habit of tensing up in the clutch.
He'll always have the Virginia Tech game, but Rutherford is replaceable.
Fitzgerald is gone, too. After a season worthy of Heisman Trophy consideration and a near miss in New York City, Larry Fitz has taken his game to the next level, where NFL teams anxiously await his arrival.
He was one in a million, but Pitt had elite receivers before Larry Fitz and will again. If nothing else, Walt Harris will see to that, as he always has.
So Fitzgerald, too, can be replaced.
At running back, Pitt will miss Brandon Miree, as it will fullback Lousaka Polite. But the cupboard isn't bare at either position.
Life goes on.
Miree is replaceable.
Polite is, too.
The same can be said for anyone that left a defense that never came close to meeting expectations in 2003. It's nothing short of remarkable that Shawntae Spencer is apparently suddenly on the verge of becoming a first-round draft pick. Still, it's not as if the Panthers have just lost a Tim Lewis or a Ramon Walker from the secondary.
And Claude Harriott underachieved a season ago as much as anyone on the team.
So when you get right down to it, the problem that must be solved sometime before Pitt takes the field at Raymond James Stadium in September is not replacing whatever it is that's been lost, but getting much more out of all that Pitt has coming back.
The Panthers weren't physical enough on either side of the ball a season ago.
They didn't block.
They didn't tackle.
They didn't dictate tempo to or inflict their will upon opponents.
That has to change before any real progress can be made.
If it doesn't, it won't matter if Palko quickly makes everyone forget Rutherford, if Jawan Walker picks up where Miree left off, if Kris Wilson's production can somehow be duplicated elsewhere, or if a Princell Brockenbrough or Greg Lee can ease the pain of Fitzgerald's absence.
Pitt found out the hard way against the likes of Notre Dame, West Virginia and Miami, Fla., that skill people can only do so much against a team that hits much harder much more often.
It takes painstaking sacrifice and preparation to play that type of game, in the weight room as well as the film room.
It takes a mindset, an attitude that Pitt lost somewhere along the way a season ago and never recovered.
If that happens again it won't matter who's throwing passes or catching them.
