Full pads, but scrimmages won’t be until tomorrow. Coach Wannstedt seemed happier, though, to have everyone fully covered. Interestingly, Wannstedt seems to almost indicate that going with more of a committee approach at running back might make more sense at this point.

On his observations of the running backs thus far:
We may have to have plays specifically for each guy. We kind of have a group of guys. Tim Murphy and Rashad Jennings do things right and Conredge Collins did a couple things right, Raymond Kirkley had a nice run. It’s going to be tough. I wouldn’t want to pick it (starters) after today. I mean, I could if I had to but we need a little bit more time and fortunately we have it. It’s only a week

Yes, way too early. This is just my own bias. I’ve always been more of a fan of adapting the plan to the players rather than the other way around. I’m not sure at this point (okay, I doubt it) if Pitt has a single back capable of dominating; but I think Pitt has a group of backs who can really mess up the opposition with various styles, fresh legs and power. I like the idea of taking advantage of that.

Okay folks, barring an absolute stud 4-5 star guy saying so, I think Pitt is done offering for quarterbacks for the 2006 class. Dexter Davidson appears to have made a verbal. Not totally shocking, since Dan Marino was giving him tips, but welcome nonetheless.

UPDATE: Here’s some more on the Davidson commit:

“He committed to Pittsburgh yesterday,” said North Broward Head Coach Maurice Dixon. “We called Coach Dave Wannstedt yesterday and gave him the official word. Dexter is a big Dan Marino fan, and he wanted to follow in his footsteps and go to Pittsburgh.. That was one of the big reasons. He likes what Coach Wannstedt has said about getting up to campus and getting on the field early and competing for playing time.”

According to Dixon, Wannstedt’s ties to the NFL have helped to play a big role.

“He knows what it takes to get his players prepared and get them ready for the next level.”

Davidson chose Pittsburgh after heavy consideration of Kentucky and Louisville; any chance those teams get back in the mix?

Dexter is only going to take one visit. He’ll go to Pittsburgh for the Notre Dame game and that’s it.”

Pittsburgh continues to be one of the biggest surprises and hottest teams in the country for the 2006 recruiting season.

My feeling is that to close the deal on a lot of these great verbals, Pitt needs to win early. Call it extra paranoia if you will, but winning just makes things easier.

I’m testing new, less pejorative terms than “puff,” to describe the individual pieces on players and coaches. I’ll probably end up sticking with “puff” and derivatives because it really is the most accurate descriptor.

Offensive Coordinator Matt Cavanaugh comes in for a big puff piece. I’m actually shocked it has taken this long to get to one on him.

In 1997-98, Cavanaugh served as offensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears. The head coach at the time was another Pitt alum, Dave Wannstedt.

Last winter, Cavanaugh and Wannstedt connected again. After Walt Harris left for Stanford, they were among the finalists to become the Panthers’ next coach.

A few days after Wannstedt took the job, he dialed up Cavanaugh’s number.

“Even though I went out and interviewed three offensive coordinators, Matt knew all along that it was his job,” Wannstedt said.

“It was a pretty easy sell,” Cavanaugh said. “I had gotten so excited about the opportunity to be the head coach and coming back to this school, that I was already halfway sold.”

Cavanaugh said that among the other assistants Wannstedt hired were two — he won’t reveal their names — who Cavanaugh would have placed on his staff had he gotten the head-coaching job.

Even though only one of them was able to fulfill his ambition at Pitt, there is no friction in the meeting room between Wannstedt and Cavanaugh.

“No, because I was the guy who recommended him for the head coaching job,” Wannstedt said. “Matt and I are good enough friends and we have enough respect for each other that there was no ulterior motive or anything like that.”

Their shared history in the NFL makes things easier. Sometimes, as they map out schedules or strategies, Wannstedt will turn to Cavanaugh and say, “Remember how we did that in Chicago?”

Um, uh, given what happened in Chicago that year, I hope that sort of question is followed by one of them saying, “Let’s not do that again.”

Redshirt Freshman Defensive Tackle Craig Bokor gets his own minor focus article. He’s been backing up Thomas Smith at Left Defensive Tackle, but is hoping to pass Seniors Phil Tilman and Ron Idoko for the Right Defensive Tackle starting spot.

Mike Phillips gets his own piece concerning his shift to Strong Safety from Cornerback.

“Corner is my favorite position, it always has been,” he said. “But, when people told me they thought I’d be a better safety, I guess it was a compliment because I am a pretty physical player and safeties are the ones who are usually associated with hitting.

“So that’s all that is — I am a physical player and I play aggressively like most safeties, but I can play anywhere they want me to. I just love to play.”

Although Phillips began his Pitt career at cornerback and he is a corner at heart, he is now a safety. It is more than just a state of mind.

Phillips was asked by coaches in the spring to move to strong safety because the corner position is set with Darrelle Revis and Josh Lay.

The move was a natural one for Phillips, and it was a move designed to solidify the Panthers’ secondary, which, perhaps, might be the best in the Big East Conference.

Phillips and Sam Bryant create great depth at the Strong Safety position. Phillips familiarity as a CB also gives Pitt more flexibility. With a more aggressive, physical, and faster secondary; last year’s weakness should be a strength. The trade-off will be more pass interference penalties.

A puff piece on Pitt commit Dorin Dickerson and his goals for his senior year of high school. He is not only a top player in the country, but he has a very solid family nucleus to assist him along the way.

Final puff piece is on a high school junior, Steve Paskorz.

But Paskorz already is known. He has a scholarship offer from West Virginia, with offers from Pitt, Penn State and Michigan most likely coming soon.

“A lot of schools have said they’re going to offer,” Paskorz said.

“The college coaches who have come to our school and watched film on him, there hasn’t been one who’s not interested in him,” Mihalik said.

“By the time he’s a senior, he’s going to have quite a selection of colleges to choose from.”

Paskorz already has visited Michigan on his own, but said Pitt and Penn State are two schools at the top of his list.

“I don’t really want to go too far from home,” he said.
…
Mihalik, and most college coaches, project Paskorz as a defensive player. He would be on the order of Upper St. Clair’s Sean Lee, a running back-linebacker in high school who’s a freshman linebacker at Penn State.

“Steve is a kid you could probably put anywhere,” Mihalik said. “But if I had to pick a position, he would probably be an outside linebacker-type of kid.”

Still feels creepy talking about the college commit future of a high school junior.

Well, it obviously didn’t make it into Coach Wannstedt’s press conference yesterday, but there was some extra activity.

Yesterday, things came to a head when the offense squared off against the defense and got in a brouhaha. The two sides had to be separated.

The hit that set things in motion came when linebacker J.J. Horne laid out running back Rashad Jennings after Jennings caught a short pass over the middle. Offensive tackle Mike McGlynn protested the hit and was shouted down by members of the defense.

The next play, wide receiver Joe DelSardo caught a pass and was hammered by safety Sam Bryant. DelSardo was on the ground for a few minutes, but he got up and walked off on his own.

Before DelSardo hit the ground, quarterback Tyler Palko led the charge of offensive players into the pile in protest of the hits in what was supposed to be a two-minute drill. No punches were thrown, but there was plenty of shoving and trash talking. Cooler heads prevailed and practice quickly resumed at an even higher intensity level.

DelSardo himself, was the one after practice, downplaying it as no big thing. Clearly the Junior is doing what he can to assume a leadership role on the team. It is a bit of a natural role for DelSardo. He earned his teammates respect last year when the former walk-on was given a scholarship and stepped up to be a solid #2 receiver for Pitt.

The major issue is, of course, who will earn the starting running back position.

Since the Pitt Panthers added shoulder pads to their practice uniforms Saturday, the running backs appeared to get a little more work than they did the first couple days, and now players can begin to separate from a huge pack of candidates.

Pitt has a baker’s dozen players listed as either running back or fullback on its roster, and freshman Irvan Brown already moved to cornerback after a couple practice days.

Freshman Rashad Jennings, an early enrollee, ended the spring as the No. 1 tailback, but senior Tim Murphy did not practice after having off-season surgery. And frosh LaRod Stephens-Howling had not yet enrolled in school.

“Right now, Murphy is working at fullback and tailback,” Wannstedt said. “I think we’ve got to give him a day or two of full pad work, tackling work, when we’re doing live inside drills. And then we’ll make a determination about whether we’ll leave him at fullback or not.

“Rashad Jennings has really picked up where he left off in the spring. There’s nothing negative there, but it’s just the addition of Murphy and LaRod Stephens has changed the picture of that position a little bit.

“And (freshman) Conredge Collins probably is in a similar boat to Murphy,” Wannstedt added. “We have to determine if he has a better chance to play and help the team at tailback or is it at fullback.”

(Now, if you are like me, you might have been distracted by the question of “where the hell did the Stephens-Howling hyphenated last name come from?” Or maybe you just glossed over it. As far as I can tell, Stephens is his mother’s maiden/kept name. His father is Rodney Howling. As a guess, I’d say there has been something of a reconciliation, resulting in him hyphenating his last name to honor both as of late. But I digress.)

The one hope, of course, is that injuries don’t determine the job. The logjam at RB is interesting, because, despite my hope of seeing Stephens-Howling (we’ll see how long that lasts) as a good change of pace back, Wannstedt and Cavanaugh have a noticeable history of favoring just one back for the entire season. Whether Pitt has a back that can handle that kind of load remains to be seen. My personal view is that it would be a mistake. It may require more work and expecting a lot more out of the offensive line, but the idea of using at least 2 backs right now that offer such different running styles seems more appealing and likely to cause more problems for defenses. Not to mention, reducing dissatisfaction among the corps and transfers.

Conredge Collins is doing his best to earn the starting role. Seems to be missing chances to see the fair city. The piece, though, is one of the few to indicate that Furman and Kirkley are getting more than a fair chance to get the starter’s role.

Okay, I know everyone wants to read about camp and recruits and such, and believe me there are plenty of articles this morning. I’ll get to them. First, some basketball info, because it is quick and I have a 3-year old insisting on watching the Sports Reporters with me.

Canada lost its game against Greece. It wasn’t even close. Kendall only played 25 minutes because of a knee strain. The Canadians have a final game against Australia for 3rd place. Kendall in his time out there had 8 points on 2-10 shooting (4-4 on Free Throws), 7 rebounds (to lead the team), 3 assists, 1 turnover, 1 steal and 1 blocked shot.

His coach was still feeling hyperbolic about Kendall.

“If Levon gets to play in college, plays for Canada and does what he is really capable of doing, he is an NBA player. Period,” wrote Rautins.

Those are a lot of “ifs.”

A notebook piece on very early Pitt commit, Herb Pope’s rising stock among high school juniors.