Exclusive interview: Paul Chryst

by • News/views •

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Paul Chryst will enter his third year as head coach of Pitt football when his players open training camp Monday on the South Side. Chryst, 48, has overseen seasons of 6-7 and 7-6, qualifying for bowl appearances in each.

Expectations are low for 2014, at least in some circles, with the ACC’s preseason media poll placing Pitt sixth in the seven-team Coastal Division, and that no doubt has plenty to do with the graduation loss of all-universe nose tackle Aaron Donald, a first-round draft pick of the Rams, and quarterback Tom Savage (drafted by Texans) and wide receiver Devin Street (Cowboys).

On the sunnier side, wide receiver Tyler Boyd was named to the Biletnikoff Award watch list, and running back James Conner was named a Doak Walker Award preseason candidate. Those two, plus mobile QB Chad Voytik, offer hope for an offense that could be both tough and dynamic.

On Tuesday afternoon, I interviewed Chryst on an array of topics:

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Tuesday 12 Qs: Pedro, Jarvis, Scuds, more

by • Five Qs at 5 • , , , ,

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Welcome to Tuesday Twenty Qs, a better, fairer format, I think, for the weekly chat. We’ll do it every week at this time, and this time was chosen so that, in football season, it can immediately follow Mike Tomlin’s weekly press conference.

The format is simple: Use the comments below to submit an entry, no more than one per person. Submit them anytime you want. I’ll pick from those to get the thing rolling. I’ll then keep monitoring new entries, even as the session is ongoing, to cover follow-ups or updates.

Again, all I ask is that it’s one entry per person. Most of the complaints I heard in the old format were about the same people getting chosen too often.

As always, all topics are on the table. Really, anything at all.

UPDATE 12:56 p.m.: OK, I guess we’re about to get going … except that I said 20 questions, not the 72 I’m seeing down there right now! Come on!

Milo Hamilton: What have these past three weeks or so been like for you ?

DK: Kind of like this new format, Milo: Bitten off more than I can chew!

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Column: Why Pittsburgh will love Ryan Shazier

by • Columns •

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

LATROBE, Pa. — “I wasn’t surprised at all,” Ryan Shazier insisted to reporters Monday when asked about the almost barbaric punishment being doled out in the Steelers’ annual backs-on-backers drill. “We’re a hard-nosed team. We’re in Pittsburgh, Ohio.”

He caught himself immediately and laughed a bit.

“Pittsburgh, P-A. I’m sorry about that. Went to Ohio State. We’re from Pittsburgh, P-A. We play dirty.”

Caught himself again.

“Not dirty, but hard-nosed.”

Nah, that last one was fine, actually. And the other one wasn’t all bad, either. The way Shazier competed Monday — in backs-and-backers and all that followed on the first day in full pads — I’m guessing no one would care which Pittsburgh he’s from, so long as it’s the only one in the world ending with an H.

I’ll say it yet again, Nation: You will love this kid.

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Column: Let’s see Kapanen’s best shot

by • Columns •

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Photo-illustration — ALEX MESSMER

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

“We’ve been waiting for someone like him to arrive for a while.”

The scene was Sochi’s Bolshoy Ice Dome, site of the recent Olympics, and the speaker was Sami Salo, the well-traveled NHL veteran defenseman. Team Finland had just skated through its first training session, and Salo had just been paired with Olli Maatta, a partner 20 years his younger.

One set of drills was all it took. Salo felt so strongly about the kid that the above quote was his response to my fairly innocuous question about his first impression of the Penguins’ prized rookie.

“He’s that good,” Salo would say.

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Column: Ben smiles through another snub

by • Columns •

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Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers’ coaches talk during drills at Saint Vincent College. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

LATROBE, Pa. — Ben Roethlisberger looks and sounds fantastic, but don’t take my word for it.

“This is the most excited I’ve been about any offense I’ve had,” Todd Haley was telling me as he walked down the winding path to Chuck Noll Field for the Steelers’ first formal practice Saturday at Saint Vincent College. “Seriously, I mean any offense.”

Wow. And what, apart from the standard summer optimism, would prompt that sentiment?

“Have you seen Ben?”

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News/views: Steelers’ reporting day

by • News/views •

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

LATROBE, Pa. — “This team, as far as energy and all the young guys, it feels like ’04-’05.”

That was Ike Taylor, among the handful of veterans who held court with the media on the Steelers’ reporting day at Saint Vincent College on Friday afternoon. And for better or worse, he was making that statement from experience.

I’m not sure if Ike is right. He can’t be sure, either. But I know that his statement seemed to sum up the sentiment of a whole lot of folks up here in the rolling green hills of Westmoreland County. The talk is of speed. Of energy. Of fun.

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Column: From Dri to D, Steelers set camp stage

by • Columns •

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DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

LATROBE, Pa. — The Steelers, who I’ve heard hail from the town with the great football team, have been anything but great of late as they embark on their 82nd season Friday at Saint Vincent College with an 8-8-is-enough mindset.

Ramon Foster put it best at minicamp last month: “That’s enough. Seriously.”

It really is. But before anyone can chase Johnny High Society back to the  nightclubs of Cleveland or Vegas or College Station or wherever TMZ cameras roam, Mike Tomlin, Kevin Colbert, the rest of the staff and all 90 players who will report to Saint Vincent College on Friday come with some compelling concerns.

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Column: What’s not to like about Ike?

by • Columns •

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

The simplest way to dissect these Pirates’ needs leading up to Major League Baseball’s trading deadline is to point to the pitching: If one or both of Francisco Liriano and Gerrit Cole is at peak form, then there’s no need — emphasis on need — to acquire a starter.

To look at Liriano in Wednesday’s 6-1 slapdown of the Los Angeles Dodgers at PNC Park, it’s eminently clear he’s at least close. One run, four hits over seven innings tell part of the tale. Vastly improved fastball command, the result of Ray Searage stressing keeping his shoulder from flying open, tells a lot more of it.

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Column: That’s baseball, man

by • Columns •

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Here’s a story I’ve never told publicly, but hey, if not here, if not now, then when?

It’s about the Pirates and Dodgers, but about a very different group of Pirates in a very different place: It was the first of May, 2010, at Dodger Stadium, and Ramon Ortiz of the Dodgers threw high at Andrew McCutchen. Cutch was a promising player at the time, not yet a star but by far the best of a train-wreck roster well on its way to 105 losses.

See, Cutch had homered in the opening inning, and the Dodgers thought they saw him make some celebratory gesture rounding second base. I was there. No such thing occurred. But perception can be reality, and reality in baseball can be retaliatory. Some Rule 5 scrub named Carlos Monasterios started for L.A. that night, and he went high and tight at Lastings Milledge and Ronny Cedeno in the next inning.

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