The raw feed is always the best place to start so here’s the transcript from Coach Wannstedt’s post-practices press conference.
On the opening day of practice:
Splitting the team up like this and having almost two [practices], it’s almost like an NFL practice from the standpoint that we’ve got about 50 guys in the morning and 50 in the afternoon. It did accomplish what we had hoped from the standpoint that every kid out here got a lot of work. No one’s going back to their dorm room tonight and making the case of “Boy I wish I would have had more of an opportunity.”
I liked what we did today. We mixed the ball around good. We’ve got a better feel for what we can do running-wise. We have to run the football. There’s a lot of different ways to do it. We’re looking at some options there as we go through camp.
The usual Coach Wannstedt positive view. He’s already in mid-season form, I’m happy to report on his cliches.
On the athleticism and speed of Pitt’s young defensive linemen:
We’re a little bit faster than we were. McKenzie Mathews and those guys all can run. We’ve got some athletes over there. It’s just a shame we’re pressuring them so much as freshmen, but it is what it is. We are what we are.
On the difference in the players’ acclimation to the system this year as opposed to 2005:
Last year was last year. Let’s just focus in on today and moving forward. The guys came out here today and worked. It was the first day. Obviously there were too many balls on the ground. As we got tired this morning with a few of the older guys, a couple of guys jumped offside and some of those sloppy things that as we get more conditioned, as we get a little more tougher mentally, we’ll eliminate those things.
[Emphasis added.]
Coach Wannstedt’s first action in training camp was to switch positions for a couple players. Freshman Elijah Fields moved from WR to S (widely expected) and JUCO Lowell Robinson moved from S to WR. The Fields move was expected the Robinson move seemed more about the numbers.
“I looked at Elijah and said, ‘Is it tomorrow; is it next year?'” Wannstedt said. “He’s going to be a great player for us. Where can we put Elijah where we feel he’s going to be a two-, three-, who knows, four-year starter for us? I think at safety there’s a greater opportunity for him.”
…
The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Fields, however, was just as tenacious on defense. He had 11 interceptions as a senior, and Wannstedt has been enamored with the idea of Fields at safety since the Big 33 Football Classic in June.
“Elijah is going to be a heck of a player,” Wannstedt said of Fields, who was named the Associated Press Class A Player of the Year, as well as the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Male Athlete of the Year. “It’s just going to be a matter of getting him some work.”
To compensate for Fields’ move, the Panthers also switched junior-college transfer Lowell Robinson from safety to receiver.
Robinson was an All-American last season at Erie (N.Y.) Community College, where he had seven interceptions and returned three for touchdowns. The 6-foot, 195-pounder also averaged 19.9 yards on punt returns, and Wannstedt hopes the 21-year-old Robinson will add maturity to a young receiving corps looking for playmakers.
“He has a great chance to be a punt and kickoff return guy,” Wannstedt said. “The more times he handles the football in practice, it will give him more confidence in that respect.”
I assume that means he will be back there to return punts with Darrelle Revis. Revis is considered to be the best punt returners in the Big East. It was thought that Revis might also be returning kick-offs, but maybe Robinson might do that.
Coach Wannstedt and the other coaches must really be enamored with Fields at Strong Safety. It was believed that Robinson would immediately challenge there. Especially as a JUCO, but both players apparently looked good in no-pads practice.
I guess it’s a good sign of some early intensity from some of the upperclassmen.
he first camp scuffle was between center Joe Villani and defensive tackle Vernon Botts during one-on-one drills in the morning session. They exchanged words and clung to each other’s jerseys, but it wasn’t broken up until Botts slapped Villani upside the helmet.
Presumably with an open hand.
