That oft-mocked Wannstedt comment from the halftime of the 2005 edition of the Backyard Brawl was not actually incorrect. Pitt needed more speed. They needed faster players. Better athletes. The speed was needed to make plays on both sides of the ball.

Now, with just a few weeks to the debut of the High Octane era, “get faster” has a different meaning. National writers have noticed: it’s about the pace.

The way he figures it, if Pitt gets 80 offensive snaps a game, it should have no trouble scoring 35 points, a number the team only occasionally hit under Wannstedt.

It’s a style of play that’s a marked departure from the pro-style offense the Panthers used with effectiveness under Wannstedt. It will require Sunseri to make good decisions, and Ray Graham to follow in the footsteps of predecessors like Dion Lewis and LeSean McCoy.

“We’ve got to play fast,” Ray Graham said. “That’s what he wants. He wants us to play fast, fast, fast. Those are his three things.”

That means all the time.

“We run everywhere,” he said. “There’s no walking. We run to every drill. No breaks.”

It’s part of a relentless ethos the coach is preaching. Caragein points out it’s not just the offense that will be no-huddle this fall, but the defense, too.

The expectations of 80+ plays on offense each game would be — and this is a very obvious understatement — something of an increase.

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It could have been easy for Coach Graham, Anthony Gonzalez and Pitt to bury this. To put the whole negative story out of sight.

We all know the drill. Player under suspension is declared off-limits to the media for the duration. It’s couched in a way to argue that he should not be a distraction to the team and what they are trying to do. To make it into an example of the team coming first. Then after Gonzalez serves his two game suspension, lift the restriction. By then, however, the season is underway. So is the Steelers season. So how much interest is there in talking to the 2nd or 3d string QB about an arrest from back in June that will eventually be expunged? Even if the story does happen, it is such old-news that it is mostly ignored. It’s a time-honored PR tactic to delay and bury a negative story.

That didn’t happen. On the very first day of practice. With all the local media on-hand, Anthony Gonzalez did interviews and talked about his mistake.

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Sorry for the lack of writing but family circumstances are taking up almost all my time.  When I can I’ll try to get something out every few days…

In addressing of the more glaring weaknesses of the 2011 PITT squad Zeise of the P-G interviews Tony Gibson regarding the stable of cornerbacks we have.  The coach is happy with K’Wuan Williams, Antwuan Reed and, perhaps surprisingly, Buddy Jackson…

He said Jackson has made the most improvement, but that is mostly because he took most of the snaps in the spring while Reed recovered from a concussion.

Gibson said. “I think, looking back, the fact that Antwuan was out in the spring is the best thing that happened for us, because it gave Buddy a real opportunity to take all of the reps and to gain some confidence and really get himself to the point where he is ready to play.  “We know what Antwuan can do, there is plenty of film on him, but Buddy needed to have a spring like he did to really get on his way.”   And from Jackson himself we hear a pretty standard response:  “This is my redshirt senior year, this is it. I’m going to take it all in, be coachable and try to compete every single day.”

Well, his laughing in the Head Coach’s face on the sideline when getting yelled at for blowing a play may lead to this next quote…

Gibson said he had heard — and read — a lot about Jackson’s work-ethic and toughness issues. He also said did not know what to expect from Jackson but has been pleasantly surprised and does not expect that to change.

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