As we pour over training camp practice reports, tweets, and any other nugget of info that might grant us further insight into Pitt football and the season that awaits, Pitt basketball has been something akin to an oasis of positive goodness.

Coach Dixon comes in for some more love and answers why he keeps turning down Pac-10 jobs despite being from California.

“I don’t want to downplay loyalty because loyalty is a great thing, and I don’t think there’s any better thing to be called than loyal. But I’m not staying at Pitt out of loyalty,” Dixon told me during a poolside reception this weekend at Dana and David Pump’s annual Collegiate Business Conference. “I’m staying at Pitt because we have everything, and because the administration is second to none. I’m staying because of the fans and the players we have. I’ve got everything I need.”

Translation: Pitt is a great basketball job.

Imagine that.

Or better yet, don’t imagine.

Just keep reading.

“We’ve sold out every game [at the 12,500-seat Peterson Events Center], and we have a waiting list of 5,000 [for season tickets even though] … we’ve raised ticket prices like 600 percent in the past five years,” Dixon said. “It’s a great sports town, and we’ve given them something to get behind.”

That’s the result of eight consecutive NCAA tournaments.

Ben Howland is responsible for the first two.

Jamie Dixon got the next six.

Which is why the 43-year-old married father of two has emerged as one of the nation’s most sought after coaches. He has never not won at least 20 games in a season, never not won at least 10 Big East games in a year, never not made the Field of 65. Career record: 163-45. Career Big East record: 70-30. But a funny thing happened while Dixon was compiling a body of work good enough to produce opportunities to move closer to home; the Pitt administration designated the resources necessary to allow its program to grow with its coach, and suddenly Dixon didn’t have as many reasons to leave as he did reasons to stay.

An excellent point. It isn’t just that Pitt has maintained a comptetive salary for Dixon — though that is important — it is that the athletic department and Pitt administration made the commitment to the basketball program. It can be debated whether the commitment came first and then the right coach, but I think it was a fortuitous timing of both coming at the same time.

Plenty of programs have made the commitment, but hired the wrong coach. Result: failure and nothing changes. Start over, again.

Others have had the right coach but lacked the commitment. Result: coach moves on to another job, program retreats back to obscurity/mediocrity.

Few are the programs that make the commitment and get the right coach. Arizona got that lucky with Lute Olson. Pitt to made the commitment with the right coach and were lucky enough to hire the right guy to follow and truly grow the program. Don’t kid yourself. There is an element of luck and timing involved in all of this.

Dixon could have been hired by Wright State the year before. Would the school have taken a chance on him with only one year of head coaching experience, and no longer the assistant at Pitt after Prosser turned Pitt down?

I also like the article for the candor from Dixon. He has professed his love for Pitt and Pittsburgh, but does not deny there is a natural pull to home and family. After all, so many “Pitt guys” and Pittsburgh natives speak of such, why wouldn’t there be pulls for others.

“There is a natural pull,” Dixon acknowledged. “Anybody who would say differently wouldn’t be telling the truth.”

For Dixon, that pull revolves around the fact that he’s from the Los Angeles area, and that his parents still live in the Los Angeles area. Meantime, his wife is from Hawaii, and her parents still live there. So it would’ve made sense on a lot of levels for Dixon to jump at the chance to coach at California, Arizona or USC. But when he weighed the pros of moving to the Pacific time zone against the cons of leaving Pitt, he simply concluded that it wasn’t a wise career choice to abandon a nationally relevant program to rebuild closer to home.

Thus, he’s still far from home.

Or is he?

“Does home have to be one place?” Dixon asked with a smile. “I don’t know where that was written.”

Hopefully his home will remain in Pittsburgh for a long time.

I like to think Pitt fans on the whole have been doing their best to be relatively open-minded about the QB situation for this season. Some might have their preferences, or “anyone but” feelings, but overall there is a “wait and see” attitude. If for no other reason than simple pragmitism.

— Practices were barely underway and pads only went on over the weekend. There has to be time to see what progress has been made, especially with a new OC.

— Coach Dave Wannstedt has declared that Bill Stull is the starting QB. Whether out of pure faith that Stull is the guy, to forestall a QB cotroversy or try to instill some confidence in Stull to just go out and play without looking over his shoulder.

— It wasn’t going to be freshman Kolby Gray, and that was even clearer now that he will have shoulder surgery and take a medical redshirt.

— It’s not like anyone is absolutely sure what to expect from any of the QBs.

— Wanting to see what new OC Frank Cignetti does with them, and if he has a final (any?) say on the QB situation.

That said, it  did not escape many that both the Trib (Gorman) and P-G (Zeise) beat writers felt the need to note on the blog side of things that Stull is not looking good, while Sunseri is surging and Bostick is at least progressing. Zeise started it with a “don’t panic –yet” post about the overall QB play.

Yes, I know it is early and a lot of time is left in camp but……..it has not been the finest hour for the quarterbacks the last two days since they started playing in shoulder pads and actually faced a little bit of heat from the defense.

I had written after the first two days that the quarterbacks threw the ball well and they did. But I also cautioned they were throwing in 7 v 7’s and without a pass rush. Well, yesterday the defense turned up the heat a little bit and it all came crumbling down.

Starter Bill Stull looked a lot like the player who ended last season and Tino Sunseri looked a lot like a second-year player. And Pat Bostick was the odd-man out yesterday as he barely participated in any of the team stuff as he and Sunseri will be alternating days to get the bulk of the work with the second team.

Again, much like I said a few days ago — don’t over react to a few good days — I’ll say the same thing now, perhaps as camp progresses they will all settle in, get used to the speed of things and figure it out.

And most treated it as such. Pitt’s defense is strong. Everyone who has seen the practices has talked about how dominating and overwhelming the D-line has looked that the QB situation may not be getting a fair shake.

But then both came out and stated things after Sunday practices that really caught Pitt fans’ attention. First Gorman’s view:

Through the first six days of camp, however, Stull has lost his vise-like grip on the starting job. And he has no one to blame but himself. Sure, you have to take into consideration that he’s running the first-team offense against the first-team defense, which has him running for his life at times. And that Tino Sunseri is playing well when given the opportunity.

But that’s not the reason Stull has struggled.

Simply put, Stull isn’t making the throws. He’s missing open receivers. He’s off-target, whether it’s too short, too long or over the wrong shoulder. That’s not the worst of it. On Sunday, the fourth consecutive day Stull has struggled, he threw three interceptions and two touchdowns despite working on gold zone (15 yards in) and red zone (15 yards out) drills.

Unlike Wannstedt, Frank Cignetti Jr., Pitt’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, hasn’t declared one quarterback the unquestioned starter. He’s charting every play, and also knows that Pat Bostick threw four touchdowns and two interceptions, Sunseri one score and no picks.

Then Zeise:

The bottom line is Tino Sunseri has made it fairly clear that while he’s young and inexperienced, he isn’t just going to roll over and accept his role as a back-up as he’s played pretty well. Meanwhile, Bostick hasn’t played poorly or well in recent days because, his opportunities have been limited and Stull, at least the last two days, has struggled.

I know the spin – the defense is so much ahead of the offense it isn’t fair to evaluate. I’ll buy it to a degree and Stull is and should be the starter for now and going into the season. But there is no question this competition is a lot closer now than it was five days ago so it should be fun to watch develop.

And before I even reached other thoughts on this, Zeise has a blog post from this morning’s practice that speaks volumes.

Unless the goal of the quarterback is to make sure his receivers have no chance to catch the ball, I can’t quite figure out why a change hasn’t been made yet.

I know, I know, I know the company line is ‘we can’t use a redshirt freshman at that position he has no experience and well, you have to remember last year was our starters first year as a starter…….” My first reaction to the “it was his first year as a starter” line is this — please remind me how many starts Tony Pike had before last season and how that turned out for Cincinnati. And Darryl Clark, how many times did he start prior to last season and how did that turn out for Penn State? Heck for that matter, USC’s Mark Sanchez had three career starts before last season and well, he did OK I think.

College football teams all across the country use young players at key positions all the time and win with them. It is a fact of life in college football, rosters turn over every year and some years significantly. The idea that you always must have an experienced player at every position to win is ridiculous. Yes, ideally you’d like to but if the best player isn’t a senior, well, you need to look elsewhere.

And frankly, if you have an entire training camp plus the added bonus of three mulligans (to use another golf reference) to start the season (i.e teams you should be able to physically overmatch and thus win while protecting the quarterback and helping him gain confidence and get his feet wet and get used to the flow of the game) – that’s seven weeks of work you could have to get a guy ready before the varsity games start. But the key is getting him as many reps as possible and well, you’ve now wasted an entire week.

Wow. Not good. Or good. Depending on whether you believe Coach Wannstedt will change his views on who is running the 1st team.

It is clear that neither beat writer has seen anything from Stull that makes them believe he can hold on to the job. Zeise appears to be in the corner of Sunseri. Believing he is the best option at QB and will be/should be the starter based on performance in camp. Tha’s some raw frustration coming from an observer.

Cat Basket was already down with letting Sunseri run the first team a little. Eye of a Panther wonders if Wannstedt can break free of his thinking — something Zeise clearly echoes today.

I remember Wannstedt has always stressed he wants the best player on the field, but we all know what kind of premium he puts on experience (i.e., upperclassmen). Sunseri is not even a true freshman, but a redshirt. If he is performing the best of all three QBs, then he at least needs a chance to run the first team.

If the concern is about Stull’s confidence, then it is already too late. He has struggled and if he can’t respond to the challenge of being even temporarily demoted then he isn’t the player/leader the coaches think/need him to be.

I root for Stull. Hell, I root for Bostick as well. I really never gave Sunseri a thought this season, because of Wannstedt’s predilections. So, I really can’t say I was rooting for Sunseri this season, since I figured he had a very small chance of impacting.

Ultimately, though, I root for Pitt and want to see the QB out there that best helps the football team win. If it’s Sunseri let’s find out. If it is the defense just killing the O-line and not giving any QB a chance the coaches need to be sure.

Went the entire weekend without firing up the computer. Not by plan, but because with college football season getting closer there is a lot to do. All the things I can get done now, will create less strife in the household when I spend 12 hour saturdays in front of the TV or traveling to the ‘Burgh for Pitt games.

SI.com predicts a 3-way tie for first in the Big East, with Pitt being third of the three (presumably meaning a belief that Pitt will lose to both Rutgers and WVU).

Family ties to look at when Pitt and Rutgers meet.

[Khaseem] Greene is already thinking about Oct. 16, when Pitt comes to Piscataway, and taking down his brother.

“That’s pretty much a big topic around where we live at,” Greene said. “My dad, my uncles, my whole family talks about that: When that time comes, when we could actually meet up one on one, what’s going to happen.

“As a man and a competitor, I gotta do what I gotta do just like he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do. And that’s how we leave it at the end of the day.”

[Ray] Graham’s speed and low center of gravity (he’s 5-foot-9 to Greene’s 6-1) rattle the nerves of Greene – who admits he couldn’t beat Graham in a running back duel these days.

The likelihood of the too meeting on the field this year are slim. Not only is it unclear if Graham will be seeing action in the game, but Greene is 3d on the Rutgers depth chart at strong safety. In time, though, it can be expected.

One more thing from the Cardinals exhibition visit to play the Steelers. The Johnstown paper ran a story on their local boy, LaRod Stephens-Howling.

Bemusing little piece on Pitt having three sets of brothers on the roster. Given the Taglianetti’s father, there is a bit more in the anecdote department regarding them.

Adam Gunn is eager to go.

Fullback Henry Hynoski gets it.

In fact, gauging Hynoski’s success will likely be done by looking at the team’s overall rushing numbers.

“I don’t get the ball as much,” Hynoski said. “I’m more of a lead blocker than a runner. They will throw me the ball, so I’ll be catching some passes when they dump the ball to me. It’s actually a lot like high school, but I’ll do more blocking.”

It’s a role that he not only likes, but it helped sell him on the Panthers program.

“The coaches that recruited me were honest that it wouldn’t be like high school,” Hynoski said. “I would be doing three things: blocking, running and catching passes. I don’t care about statistics. I’m going to do my role.

“I’d obviously like to make more runs. I will get my share of touchdowns, but I’m playing for a prestigious team. It’s an honor to play for a program like Pitt.”

Cameron Saddler says his knee is at 95%, happy to be playing and trying to win the punt and/or kickoff return duties.

New offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti gets a two-part piece. The first about his return to Western PA, the second and the bigger part most Pitt fans care about is his views on offense and coaching. Not to mention recruiting.

“Think players, not plays,” Cignetti said. “That’s especially true in college football. Identify who your playmakers are and then put them into whatever plays you are going to run against a given defense.

“I wish I had something more philosophical for you but honestly, it all comes down to the guys out there making plays and as a coach, you have to ask yourself, ‘How can I make sure my best players are touching the ball as many times as possible every game?'”

…

“Coach Cignetti has done a great job with our feet and helping me get my rear end into throwing the ball,” Bostick said. “He is a great quarterback coach and a great offensive thinker. It is definitely different [than most coaches] but it keeps you on your toes. Attention to detail is such a big part of his approach. There are so many little things that most people wouldn’t be able to even see it but he is stressing them and pushing us on them every day and on every play.”

Cignetti put it simply: “In this classroom, with the quarterbacks, we have high expectations, we expect them to compete every day and we expect to be successful.”

Beyond his offensive philosophy, Cignetti’s approach to coaching is what really sold Pitt head coach Dave Wannstedt. Wannstedt was looking for a coach who ran a pro-style offense but what he also got in Cignetti was an extremely competitive recruiter and a guy whose energy level and borderline-hyperactivity rivaled Wannstedt’s.

Which has showed up in grabbing kids out of Ohio so far for the 2010 recruiting class.

Linebackers now seem a lot more fluid than it did at the start of training camp.

In the unlikely event Gunn can’t perform, the Panthers will have to try to get senior Steve Dell, who never has started a game, or true freshman Dan Mason (Penn Hills), who has started fast, groomed to be a starter in a hurry.

Murray is the other wild card.

He is listed behind redshirt sophomore Max Gruder at weakside linebacker as he tries to show he has fully recovered from his injury.

Like Gunn, he can play all three positions but first must prove he can withstand full contact.

Redshirt freshman Manny Williams is in the mix at weakside linebacker as is redshirt sophomore Tristan Roberts, who has struggled thus far.

Dan Mason, a true freshman, has really stood out in camp so far.

“I hope I can make a contribution,” Mason said. “They are giving me a lot of reps.”

With camp only five days old, Mason already is pushing Steve Dell for second-team middle linebacker (behind senior Adam Gunn) on a defense that is the reason Pitt is picked to win the Big East title.

Mason, ranked as the nation’s No. 8 middle linebacker out of Penn Hills, is responsible for adjusting the defensive front.

“I have to work harder at the mental part,” he said. “Strength and conditioning, I’m ready. I’m feeling good.”

Not to mention convincing the coaches. All accounts have said he has been a standout in camp. The coaches just have to believe he can make the reads on defense.