May 18, 2012

Tag » JOE BUTLER

SCOUTING NUTTING

JOE BUTLER METRO INDEX

 

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

 

Hope to Hear From You

Where have you gone Mr. Bob Nutting? Everything was peachy on the day when the Pittsburgh Pirates were 51 and 44 and in first place. Since that great day in July, the Pirates have gone into a non-recoverable swoon. On September 20, their record is 68 and 86. That means the once popular Buccos have gone 17 and 42 since that wonderful day in July. This is just a shade over .250 baseball. Mr Nutting, you went into hibernation way too early. A multitude of Pittsburgh Pirate baseball fans would like to get an explanation of what has happened the last 70 days. Maybe from Coach Clint Hurdle and his staff, maybe from G.M. Neal Huntington, and probably from you Mr. Nutting. I remember seeing an interview with Bob Nutting when the Buccos were playing well in early July and telling everyone that the organization is looking good and how positive the atmosphere was at PNC Park but now Mr. Bob Nutting has pulled a David Copperfield on the Pirate fans and disappeared. I think the fans of Pittsburgh need some sort of explanation of what has occurred. The Pirate team batting average is a weak .242, just the same as the bad 2010 season. They are getting crushed in game recently by scores of 15 to 1 and 14 to 3. It looks to me like the team wants the season to end in a hurry. They are lucky to get 70 wins. As a the old slogan goes “Hope to hear from You!”

 

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SCOUTING NFL INJURIES

JOE BUTLER METRO INDEX

 

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

 

Injuries, Injuries, and more Injuries

What is the National Football League to do with all of these injuries? I mean season ending injuries to some top players in only the first 2 weeks. Steelers OT Willie Colon out for the season with torn Tricep. K.C. Chiefs safety Eric Berry out for the year with an ACL tear, Green Bay Safety Nick Collins out for the season with a neck injury, K.C. Chiefs star running back Jamal Charles out for the year with an ACL tear, and this is just to name a few. Big Ben Roethlisberger had a scare in the Seattle game when DE Raheen Brock rolled up his right leg. Tom Brady has a scare in the San Diego game when someone rolled up his leg. Football is a collision sport and these collisions are high level by players that play fast, are strong, and very powerful. And there are 14 regular season games remaining. The all important remedy is that each team needs quality depth on their rosters. Are the rosters big enough at 53 and a common question that continually arises is: should the rosters be expanded. With all these injuries, is an 18 game season way out of line. Are 4 pre season games too many? Each team is going to play 20 games, whether it be 4 pre season and 16 regular season or 2 pre season or 18 regular season. There is the human element here also and that is the body can only take so much punishment. Is there an answer to all of these injuries. I don’t think so. When you have a 350 pound Defensive Tackle like Ravens Haloti Hgata chasing down speedy running backs, the only answer I can think of is hopefully no one gets hurt badly.

 

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SCOUTING SCHTICK

JOE BUTLER METRO INDEX

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

 

High School Promoter

This guy was a local Sports fixture on Channel 11 for a multitude of years. This guy is a sportcaster for Local TV station WPXI, which is Channel 11 after changing its call name from WIIC in 1981. This guy is Sportscaster John Fedko. A little more than a decade ago, Pittsburgh Magazine voted him Pittsburgh’s most favorite Sportscaster. John Fedko did receive much criticism for his “goofy, self aggrandizing routine” and many felt it was annoying to watch him on his Sports Broadcasts. But not me. I think John Fedko is entertainment. His enthusiasm doing the WPXI High School football SkyLights is unmatched. Fedko mixes in well with the fans and cheerleaders at every game he attends, and in a unique manner, Fedko is an excellent promoter of Western Pennsylvania high school football. His skits include coming up with nicknames for players along similar lines but at a different level referring to ESPN’s Chris Berman’s great example”Andre Bad Moon a Rison.” Fedko orchestrates songs combined with a high school players’ nickname creating a unique verse when watching the individual players high-lights. I do not think John Fedko gets enough credit for what he does especially for his promotion of high school sports in this region. Keep it rolling John Fedko.

 

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SCOUTING STUFF

JOE BUTLER METRO INDEX

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2011

 

This and That

Sixty Six and Seventy Nine(66 and 79), here we go for another losing season(19th in a row for the Pittsburgh Pirates). The young people under 20 years old from this area have never seen a winning season from the Pirates. The Pirates record since the All Star break is 19 and 36, a dismal .345 winning percentage…….The Irish of Notre Dame off to a rough start at 0 and 2 with the Michigan State Spartans coming to South Bend this weekend and then the Irish traveling to Pitt on September 24th for a rare noon game time start for the Irish……Hopewell running back Rushel Shell just surpassed 7000 yards rushing for his career. Barring injury, Shell should break the WPIAL rushing record here soon. If you have not seen Rushel Shell play, he reminds me of a former U of Alabama running back who is now with the New Orleans Saints, Mark Ingram…..It would be nice to see the Mylan Golf Classic at Southpointe become a bigger venue. It attracted some decent younger players and 2 veterans in John Daly and Rocco Mediate. The payoff is low but if more revenue was inserted into this Classic, it would attract more good tour players. The Mylan Classic has lots of upside……The Boys in Vegas are projecting the Pittsburgh Steelers to win 11 games. I think the Steelers are very capable of winning more than Eleven regular season games. Today vs the Ravens will be a good test and a great season opener.

 

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SCOUTING WPIAL PLAYERS IN THE NFL

JOE BUTLER METRO INDEX

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

 

WPIAL Players

Twenty Five players from the W.P.I.A.L. in the National Football League. There are close to 16000 high schools in this great country of ours that play football and 134 of those are WPIAL schools. There are 1696 players in the NFL on active rosters and 25 are from the WPIAL and 7 are from Woodland Hills HS, probably the most from one high school in the NFL. This is a tribute to what type of high school football that is played not only in this region but across the state of Pennsylvania. Western Pennsylvania has been famous for quarterbacks and there are 3 now in the league in West Allegheny’s(Pitt)Tyler Palko with the KC Chiefs, Seton LaSalle’s (Toledo)Bruce Gradkowski with the Cincinnati Bengals, and Steel Valley’s(Eastern Michigan)Charlie Batch for our Pittsburgh Steelers, but wait there would have been a 4th but his family moved away because of a job transfer. This is Matt Schaub who was ticketed to go to Pittsburgh Central Catholic but played at West Chester, PA East(Virginia)and now with the Houston Texans. This small area of America is really pumping out the football players and a lot of the credit not only has to go to the players who work hard and love the game but to the coaches in this region who are preparing these high school players for college and beyond.

 

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SCOUTING CALIFORNIA (PA.)

JOE BUTLER METRO INDEX

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Not One, Not Two, Not Three, but 4

How about California University of PA. having not one, not two, not three, but Four, I mean 4 former players make active rosters this 2011 season in the National Football League. Cal U is the shortened name for California U. of PA, 40 miles South of Pittsburgh right on the Monongahela River for those of you who do not know where it is. It is halfway between Charleroi and Brownsville. The football program has really taken off recently under the tutelage of veteran Coach John Luckhardt, who came to Cal U from Washington and Jefferson University in Washington, PA. after taking a short hiatus. These Four players are QB Josh Portis, who was an undrafted free agent signed by the Seattle Seahawks, Defensive Back Tommie Campbell who was drafted in the 7th round back in April by the Tennessee Titans, Corner Terrence Johnson, first year NFL player who signed with the Indianapolis Colts after a short stint with the Patriots, and special teams guru/wide out Dominique Curry who plays for the St. Louis Rams. Tommie Campbell was the first player drafted from Cal U since the 1950′s. Cal U has more active players in the NFL than a good number of Division 1 programs. Hats off to Coach John Luckhardt and his staff for recruiting and coaching these players.

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SCOUTING PA

JOE BUTLER METRO INDEX


TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2011

ScoutingPA

What is ScoutingPA.com? It is a web site that I have partnered up with. ScoutingPA is an addition to the original web site ScoutingOhio.com. Scouting Ohio is based in the Youngstown OH area and football scout Mark Porter covers Ohio doing a great job. I have partnered up with him and now run ScoutingPA.com. Recruiting fans can look at the web site and see first hand on film what some of the Pitt and Penn State recruits look like. Take for example, recent Pitt recruit, DT Tyrique Jarrett from Pittsburgh Allderdice, footage is on there and it has gotten 200 views since he committed to Pitt last week. Penn Hills WR Cory Jones committed over the weekend and his highlights are on there. Just call him up on the search name area. Penn State double linebacker commitments are on the site. they are Shaler’s JP Holtz and Archbald Valley View’s Nyeem Wartman. It is Free. Fans will enjoy watching these players’ highlights and can keep track of the commitments on players from Pennsylvania only. Remember, these are highlights from the players’ Junior season. Let me know what you think.

http://www.scoutingpa.com

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