It’s late, I’m tired and here’s what we have: the post practice presser, a Q&A from Zeise and Gorman’s blog impressions.

The press conference transcript was on the light side today. Guys coming off of major injuries last year were in the morning practices. The main reason for the freshmen to work in the afternoon was so they could get more information on what not to do. Er, “have a chance to see the film and hear the corrections from the morning practice,” to keep the practice moving faster.

Really not much info from the presser, other than everyone is competing. That and a chance for Coach Wannstedt to complain about no pads allowed yet.

A lot of good stuff in the Paul Zeise Q&A (as Reed K. has his immediate impact) to read. Questions regarding the slimmed down offensive linemen — which was became a widely distributed AP Story — receiver sets, Coach Wannstedt handling the special teams,the impact of Fullback Henry Hynoski moving to 2nd on the depth chart and hopefully the final season of questions regarding Wannstedt’s readjustment to college coaching.

Q: Do you think the Pitt coaches have finally settled in as college coaches and the college game?

ZEISE: Yes — and I think that adjustment period to the college game took a little longer than normal and mostly because Dave Wannstedt had been in the NFL for so long. Perhaps the three biggest signs that the coaching staff — and in particular the head coach and offensive coordinator — have finally adjusted to the college game are (1) the Wildcat offense, an admission that a pure pro-style West Coast offense is a dinosaur in college football, which is why few teams still use it (2) the hiring of Phil Bennett, a college defensive coordinator with experience defending college offenses, as opposed to one of Wannstedt’s NFL cronies and (3) the recruitment of Greg Cross - a multiple-threat quarterback with the skill set to run a variety of spread and option offenses. I think this change from a pure NFL mentality to a college mentality was easy to see at some point during last season and to me it is the biggest reason I expect this team to improve dramatically this year.

Jonathan Baldwin looked good in the afternoon practice according Kevin Gorman.

What I was most impressed with about Baldwin wasn’t his leaping grabs – those who have seen him play football or basketball have come to expect them – but his ability to catch passes with defenders draped on him and balls thrown at his feet.

At best, Baldwin could make the position battle at split end interesting. At worst, he has a chance to develop into a nice complement to veterans Oderick Turner and Cedric McGee.

I’m going to assume he just means for this year in terms of development.

Freshman Cameron Saddler actually struggled with punt returns on day 1. Shariff Harris probably helped himself on the RB depth chart by showing excellent hands in catching the ball as well.

I have to keep this short as I have to run out the door.

Well, that was odd. I get out a post around lunchtime mentioning that if the team has a certain theme this year, it should be one that indicates the desire of the team to go out and win. Not anything that would suggest entitlement. Shortly afterwards, Kevin Gorman blog posts about morning practice, and…

Pitt has chosen “Prove It” as a motto for the season…

I’m good with that. That’s what the team has to do. Prove it deserves darkhorse status to win the Big East. Prove it deserves the hype as a team on the rise. Prove it deserves being ranked 19th in Sports Illustrated’s preseason rankings.

Back to all the goodies in the Gorman post, which I’m sure most of you will go and read in full. Kinder already threw another scare into everyone by slipping and twisting/tweaking his knee a bit in drills.

At about 10 a.m., Kinder slipped on a route over the middle and came up hobbled, limping back and taking a knee.

“I just slipped and twisted my knee slightly,” Kinder said. “I’ll be fine. I was a little nervous at first, but when I got up I was all right. I finished practice, so I was all right.”

Kinder actually caught a pass in stride and ran without any apparent problems, but he realizes that the mental aspect of the injury will be the hardest part to overcome.

Kinder isn’t more talented than a lot of the receivers Pitt has. He does, however, have one of the best work ethics on the team and is a leader. His presence just makes the receiving corps that much stronger.

Kevin Harper, the freshman kicker from Mentor, OH (just down the road from me), is almost certainly going to be redshirted behind Conor Lee. Still he was showing a strong leg.

Being that it was a helmets-only practice, one of the most impressive showings was by freshman kicker Kevin Harper. He blasted a pair of 32-yard field goals so high through the uprights and onto the hovering catwalk, a first from what we’ve seen.

Mick Williams is looking svelte and toned.

Which as a slogan is definitely not as played out as “This is our country.”

The players are excited for this season.

“If not this year, when?” tight end Nate Byham said when asked about the mood of the team. “There’s no more excuses, there is too much talent here, too much talent with experience — we’re hungry, this is our year to blow up. We’re expecting big things, even bigger things than people on the outside expect from us. We know we have a lot of work ahead of us, we also know that we’re hungrier than we’ve ever been, we’re more talented than we’ve ever been and we’re ready to get started on this thing.

“All of us came to Pitt because we knew that we’d be in this situation, that Pitt was ready to explode and we wanted to be a part of it. This is our year.” Offensive guard John Malecki added, “We don’t want to hear about youth, no more ‘we have too many young guys,’ no more of that stuff. This is it, we need to go out and get it done. We’re working so hard, we’re pushing each other, we want to be good and you look around here and look at all this talent, my goodness, I consider it an honor to line up with this much talent every week. It is our time to shine.”

Brief aside. According to the Pitt Media Guide, John Malecki is 6-3 and 280 pounds. Try and picture him saying “my goodness.” Now try not to giggle.

The theme “this is our time” was something that was repeated time and time again yesterday by players and even some coaches. The team is experienced, talented and healthy and, more importantly, it has enough depth to withstand injuries early in the season. As Malecki, Byham and many of their teammates said, there is no reason the Panthers shouldn’t be good this season. Even coach Dave Wannstedt, who is usually cautious when talking about expectations, said he’s as excited as he has ever been heading into a season, but he knows none of the hype will mean a thing when the team begins camp today.

The expectations internally are good. If the players aren’t hungry for success after the last few years, then there’s a real problem. They are right, no more excuses — which would also be a good theme for this season — the players and the coaches have to make things happen this year.

Right, Coach Cavanaugh?

Cavanaugh’s resume hardly suggests a fast-break kind of guy, but that might have been a function of the systems in which he worked. In Baltimore, a don’t-screw-it-up offense won a Super Bowl in 2000 (but only after almost screwing it up by going five consecutive games without a touchdown).

If the line plays reasonably well this season, Cavanaugh should have the opportunity to prove he can, in fact, deliver a prolific offense.

I asked him about the too-conservative rap. He said the talent on hand has always dictated his style of offense.

“Two years ago, when (quarterback) Tyler (Palko) was a senior, I don’t think anyone considered our play-calling conservative,” Cavanaugh said. “We scored the second-most points in Pitt history.”

True, but Pitt only ranked fourth in the Big East in scoring that year in conference games. It racked up its biggest numbers against cupcake non-conference competition.

I hope Cavanaugh is really that way. The issue, though, is even if he is will Coach Wannstedt let him.

…Wannstedt forcefully defended the play-calling, saying, “I said this in my opening press conference: You throw the ball to score points; you run the ball to win.”

Maybe that thinking needs to change to something like this: You score points by any means necessary until somebody tells you to stop.

If that means 35 carries for LeSean “Shady” McCoy, great. If it means staying with a successful passing game — even with a lead — until victory is secured, so be it.

This is the change in football. In both the pros and college. You can’t stop throwing the ball. Even if you have an incredible talent running the ball and an impressive O-line blocking up-front. It’s about making sure that the other team can’t come back. Not just running time off the clock to make it harder.

Pete Carroll got it in college. He was a defensive coach, but he recognized the offense has to go, go, go. He turned his offenses loose. By contrast, Chan Gailey the now ex-GT coach was an offensive coach but never seemed to get it. He never let the offense loose. It was always too tightly controlled, predictable and too often stoppable.

Okay, enough with the downer stuff. Back to the unbridled optimism.

“It’s weird. If I head out to the mall or something, people are coming up to me and asking me about Pitt,” said West Allegheny graduate Dorin Dickerson, who moved from linebacker to tight end during spring practice. “Everywhere we go, it’s been like that. People want to know about Pitt, Pitt, Pitt. That’s all we hear about and it’s a good thing. Now, we have to deliver.”

It’s a position most of Pitt’s players haven’t been in since high school.

“Look at what’s happened here since we beat West Virginia,” Stull said. “You saw the recruiting aspect of it with all the guys who came over here after the win and the guys who decommitted from other places to come here after that. It really sparked something special. But that’s over now and we can control what happens from here.”

The thing to look for come the season will be if the team brings the same effort and intensity in every game. Are they responding each time. Are they ready from the start of the game to the end? That’s going to be part of the challenge for the coaches. Show that they can reach the kids and have the players ready consistently.

The training camp will be about proving who should be starting at spots. Then comes the time to prove it.

”When I have a conversation with someone who’s excited for this upcoming season, my first reaction is, ‘We gotta prove it.”’

Indeed. The Panthers enter this season - Wannstedt’s fourth as Pitt head coach - with very high expectations. Pitt can be found in most college football preseason Top 25 poll. Shady McCoy and Derek Kinder are on the watch list for the Maxwell award (annually presented to the nation’s most-outstanding player) and Scott McKillop is on the preseason list for the Chuck Bednarik Award, which is given each year to the country’s top defensive player.

Those three players give Pitt some of its best big-game talent since Larry Fitzgerald was hauling in TD passes at Heinz Field in 2003. Add in a third-straight nationally ranked recruiting class and this is certainly the most-talented squad of Wannstedt’s tenure with the Panthers.

The more I think about it, the problem I have with “this is our time,” as a theme is that it can be suggestive of some sense of entitlement. That the team is owed a big season after everything the past few years.

I’d like more of a theme to be about “taking it” or “proving things,” or “no more excuses.”

Content loves media day.

I count no fewer than a dozen tabs open in my browser windows from stories out of Pitt’s Media Day. Time to start winnowing things down.

Let’s start with some actual content regarding practices. And everyone’s favorite obsession, the offensive line.

Once again, Pitt’s coaching staff will have split practices to get all the players as much work as possible early on. This plan was instituted after the first year. It is double duty for the coaches, with a morning session for half and an afternoon session for the rest. As a depth chart starts to be more cohesive and scrimmages loom, things revert to more standardized practices with everyone.

Kevin Gorman provides the list of how the squads are broken up.

Group 1 offense – Quarterbacks Bill Stull, Greg Cross, Tino Sunseri; tailbacks LeSean McCoy, Kevin Collier and Chris Burns; fullback Conredge Collins; split ends Cedric McGee and Oderick Turner; flankers Derek Kinder, T.J. Porter and Austin Ransom; tight ends Nate Byham and John Pelusi; left tackles Jordan Gibbs and Chase Clowser; left guards C.J. Davis and Lucas Nix; centers Robb Houser and Jared Martin; right guards John Malecki and Jacobson; and right tackles Joe Thomas and Frank Kochin.

Group 1 defense – Left ends Doug Fulmer and Jabaal Sheard; nose tackles Gus Mustakas and Mick Williams; defensive tackles Rashaad Duncan and Tommie Duhart and right end Greg Romeus; strong-side linebackers Adam Gunn, Greg Williams and Brian Kaiser; middle linebackers Scott McKillop and Steve Dell; weak-side linebackers Shane Murray and Nate Nix; boundary cornerbacks Jovani Chappel and Ronald Hobby; field cornerbacks Aaron Berry and Holley; strong safeties Dom DeCicco and Mike Toerper; and free safeties Eric Thatcher and Andrew Taglianetti.

Group 2 offense – Quarterbacks Pat Bostick, Kevan Smith and Andrew Janocko; tailbacks LaRod Stephens-Howling and Shariff Harris; fullbacks Henry Hynoski and Chris Bova; split ends Aundre Wright, Baldwin and Caleb Wilson; flankers Aaron Smith, Mike Shanahan and Cameron Saddler; tight ends Dorin Dickerson, Mike Cruz and Justin Virbitsky; left tackles Greg Gaskins and Ryan Turnley; left guards Dom Williams and Josh Novotny; centers Alex Karabin and Wayne Jones; right guards John Bachman and John Fieger; and right tackles Jason Pinkston and Dan Matha.

Group 2 defense – Left ends Tony Tucker and Justin Hargrove; nose tackles Myles Caragein and Keith Coleman; defensive tackles Craig Bokor and Chas Alexcih; right ends Tyler Tkach and Scott Corson; strong-side linebackers Brandon Lindsey, Joe Trebitz and Jon Taglianetti; middle linebackers Max Gruder and Shayne Hale; weak-side linebackers Tristan Roberts and Manny Williams; boundary corners Buddy Jackson and Danny Cafaro; field corner Ricky Gary; strong safeties Elijah Fields, Antwuan Reed and Justin Edwards and free safeties Irvan Brown, Scott Shrake and Marco Pecora.

This, of course, is all subject to change on a daily basis.

But those groupings generate some interesting thoughts. For one, a message is being sent to Jason Pinkston that nothing is going to be handed to him.

Another is that Pitt coaches placed players in direct competition for a position in the same groupings, with a few exceptions: Pinkston and Thomas at right tackle, Chappel and Jackson at boundary corner and DeCicco and Fields at strong safety. That Pinkston is competing for the starting job at right tackle (instead of the left side) and working in the afternoon session is either a sign of the coaching staff’s dissatisfaction with his work ethic or that it really likes Gibbs.

Maybe both.

Pinkston was rumored to be involved in an incident over the summer. There was never anything more reported. Not sure if that played into the way Pinkston is being placed in the competition. As an additional message.

The direct competition for several positions is not a surprise. That was a key thing to watch heading into training camp.
The biggest positional battles as just about everyone who follows Pitt football knows will be on the O-line. I mean, outside of Robb Houser at Center, I’m just not sure who will start and where. I’m not the only one as Paul Zeise observes in his intro to this year’s set of daily Q&A’s.

Simple, because the first rule of football is you are only as good as your offensive line and there are so many questions about this offensive line that it makes no sense right now to try and get into the predictions business. The line could be anywhere from great to very mediocre — and not surprisingly when people ask me for my predictions about the team I say the same thing — I could make a case for 5-7 just as easily as 10-2.

That’s why the position battles that matter most — and that you’ll read about most — are all on the offensive line — and mostly at tackle. I think that by the time the season starts, the two starting tackles will be Jason Pinkston and Joe Thomas but Pinkston is clearly going to have earn it as he has started second team on the depth chart behind Jordan Gibbs and Thomas.

Also, Lucas Nix and Chris Jacobson will both try to work their way onto the two-deep at guard, which should be fun to watch given how highly both were regarded as prospects.

An underrated storyline on the O-line depth chart, but one I’ll be banging the drum over, is who will end up being second on the depth chart at center. That just looms as a terrifying issue.

Big hat-tip to Roman down in Atlanta.

On one of the sports talk, they had GT AD Dan Radakovich in for an interview. On the subject of scheduling, he said they were in the final stages of establishing a home-and-home with Pitt.

That means another go-round with Paul Johnson, the former Navy head coach. Makes it a greater shame that Chan Gailey was fired. I would have loved to have seen what Orson at EDSBS would have wrought with that news.

The podcast should be up tomorrow.

There’s what is posted in a media day transcript, then there is the information that gets left out or is supplemented by the athletic department in the form of handouts. Case in point, Maurice Williams is gone from Pitt for good.

Enrolled at Edinboro: Former Strong Vincent High star Maurice Williams is enrolled at Edinboro, coach Scott Browning confirmed Monday.

“He enrolled last week,” said Browning, who declined further comment.

At Pittsburgh’s media day Monday, coach Dave Wannstedt confirmed that Williams is in the process of transferring.

A quarterback in high school, Williams played wide receiver at Pitt as a true freshman in 2007 before becoming academically ineligible for the upcoming 2008 season.

Williams was initially expected to redshirt this season and resume play for the Panthers in 2009. Then Pitt gave Williams permission to talk with Edinboro earlier this summer.

If academically eligible, Williams can play this season. If not, he’ll have to sit out until next season. Edinboro opens practice Thursday.

Well, that’s that. Good luck to Williams. If he really has NFL dreams like his talent suggested, he’s made it that much harder on himself to get there.

Kevin Gorman blogged lots of goodies. Players who are gone besides Williams also include Shane Brooks (academics), Dan Loheyde (medical hardship), Sherod Murdock (suspended indefinitely then left team) and Dustin Walters (quit).

I love when the classic cliches are broken out immediately. Coach Dave Wannstedt’s opening press conference from this afternoon broke out some greats in the opening statement.

“As we get started the enthusiasm and the energy amongst our players and our fans is very evident. I think that’s good and that’s exciting. From a coaching standpoint, it’s excellent to see your players have legitimate enthusiasm. At this time of year, every player and every coach on every level feels their team has a chance to finish near the top. However, when you step back, there is a select group that can truly accomplish that. That said, when we start practice tomorrow, the only way you make it an exciting season, and a very rewarding season is to take it one step at a time. As we install our offense, defense and special teams, we have to make sure that we have solid back-to-back-to-back practices, building as we get ready for the season. When I have a conversation with someone who’s excited for this upcoming season, my first reaction is ‘we gotta prove it.’”

Obviously the “one step at a time” is one one of the all time classics in the sports cliches. A slight variation to “one game at a time.” Still, by my count I see 3 classics. The “everyone feels they have a chance to win” and a very underrated practice/spring training cliche relating to building towards the opener.

For the most part, there isn’t a lot to the press conference and that’s a good thing. No surprises regarding players being suspended or having academic problems. No NCAA Clearinghouse issues at this point.

All of our freshmen are here, they’ve all been attending summer school, and they’ll all be practicing tomorrow. As I stand right here, I’m not counting on any one of the guys to be a necessary performer for us to go out there and win games. Do I think that some of these freshmen will contribute? Yes I do, but I can’t say exactly who that’s going to be. Obviously, you have a need for greater depth at certain positions, so that will definitely play a factor.”

Interesting on responding to the issue of the player he thinks will break out this year on defense.

“The one corner spot has the guy with more talent maybe than anyone, and that’s Buddy Jackson. He’s a redshirt freshman who needs to just mature. If we can get him to a point where we can just trust him, then he could be a guy we’re talking about as a starter. He ran the fastest time on the team in the spring, and with his height and weight, he’s the picture perfect image of how you want a corner to look. If we can just bring him along a little bit, he definitely has the potential to make an impact.”

Maybe he feels Greg Romeus has already broken out in his freshman year, but a lot of people nationally are expecting him to be the next big star for Pitt (he’s mentioned in most of the magazine previews and some other bloggers have contacted me specifically about him).

There’s more about the offensive line being better conditioned, Dorin Dickerson being a perfect fit at TE, Gus Mustakas ready to go and more.

So, Bill Stull is likely the starter. No one is shocked.

I think the conventional wisdom will hold with QB: that Greg Cross will be used to help mix things up as the #2 starter, with Kevan Smith the #3 starter and Pat Bostick taking a redshirt. You know they so wanted Bostick to take last year — especially after the training camp issues — but couldn’t. Give him a year just to keep building arm strength, work some more on his throwing style, keep learning the offensive system, and just make sure he is ready mentally.

Not sure what is about Cavanaugh’s offensive system. It a very traditional West Coast offense, but something about it really messes with QBs who haven’t had time to learn it for at least a year. That’s a big factor that helped Stull last fall win the job; and why he will be the starter this year. He knows it better than anyone on the team. He had two years behind Palko learning it, running it in practices, just getting it all. It doesn’t require Dan Marino level talent.

“We’re the type of offense where we’re not going to throw it 50 times. The guy doesn’t have to be Tom Brady. Our quarterback needs to be efficient, smart and make plays when there are plays to be made.

“We’re going to play defense, run the ball and play good special teams. That’s our trademark.”

The issue — and I’m standing in line to beat it into the ground along with most of the beat writers for training camp — the offensive line. It’s the most unsettled area on Pitt’s team. There are some positional battles at other groups, but not the widespread question marks all over the place that exist on the O-line.

“There’s a lot of loose things that need to be resolved,” Wannstedt said.

Even senior C.J. Davis, who has 30 consecutive starts at left guard, isn’t assured of his job after missing spring drills with a hamstring injury now that redshirt freshman Chris Jacobson, a high school All-American, has recovered from a knee injury.

“C.J.’s our starting left guard right now, but the great thing about hiring a new offensive line coach is Tony Wise doesn’t know C.J. Davis from Greg Gaskins,” Wannstedt said. “Everybody has to prove themselves. I like that. There’s something to that. It makes everybody better.

“Tony’s going to walk in and say, ‘These are our five best guys.’ And he’s not going to be concerned with who started last year, who’s a freshman and who’s a fifth-year senior.”

There’s more depth on the O-line than there was a year ago. Hopefully it won’t be tested like the last two years. Center still terrifies me. Even if Robb Houser is everything expected, there is still no true center backing him up right now. Honestly, if there is one position where I really hope Pitt gets the big recruit for this class, it is Center.

With the sheer volume of season ending injuries, there will be no shortage of stories on players coming back from injuries and ready to take the field for drills and get that first hit out of the way for the psychological portion of knowing they are truly healthy.

Derek Kinder is first up, because he was at the Big East Media Day and what else can you ask a player who missed all of last season.

Big East media day provided an interesting view as to just how much things have changed for Kinder.

When he attended the event last year, he was clearly Pitt’s big star and media darling, the one who attracted the most attention because of how well he played as a junior.

This year, however, he sat quietly, for the most part, between Panthers stars LeSean McCoy and Scott McKillop and watched as they received most of the attention. Kinder wasn’t bothered by that, though, because he’s too focused on the season he plans on having.

“Man, I think the key to me is this — I have been counting down the days to get back on that field once the initial shock of my injury wore off,” he said. “I just want to help my team win, nothing more or less. I am so hungry just to get back after it — I feel like I want to go outside in the parking lot and play right now. And these two guys sitting here with me [McCoy and McKillop] deserve all the attention they are going to get — they are both superstars and both great teammates who work hard.”

Kinder was already one of the best on Pitt’s team at knowing the right things to say. That hasn’t changed.

So inevitably the subject turned to the matter of getting back out there..

Kinder is bracing for the one-year anniversary of his injury — as well as the first day of practice in full pads. He participated in spring drills but only in non-contact work.

While Kinder claims to be 100 percent physically, he has to overcome the apprehension athletes face upon returning from a serious injury.

“I haven’t felt contact, getting hit with pads on, in over a year-and-a-half,” Kinder said. “So when I get hit for the first time and get up and I’m all right, that’s when I know I’ll be good to go.

“I’m definitely looking forward to getting hit on that first day in pads and feeling the ground for the first time in a while.”

The 2008 media guide (PDF) came over the weekend (thanks, E.J.). Fully heralding the beginning of complete immersion into Pitt football. Not just looking for recruiting scraps and the occasional puff pieces.

Now we are on the verge of practice reports, subjective views on how things looked at points in drills or a scrimmage. Puff pieces on the various new coaches. Talk of how the offseason conditioning program has done wonders for players. Optimism, fueled by a lack of context and comparison. Good times.