Apparently the usually optimistic Dave Wannstedt has his limits. That was a direct quote from Coach Wannstedt following what was a less than positive practice. While he wouldn’t single out the particular unit that upset him, it was evident to those who watched practice.

Wannstedt did his best impersonation of Steelers coach Bill Cowher on Monday, staring down his offensive line and then shouting at the unit in an on-field meeting.

Pitt’s offensive front struggled in the morning practice and closed the session with a dismal effort that included three straight sacks. And, quarterback Tyler Palko banged the thumb on his left hand – his throwing hand – on a helmet, but finished practice.

“We sure as heck didn’t make any progress today in a couple areas of our football team,” Wannstedt said. “It was pretty evident that certain areas of our team didn’t come out today and compete with the desire to win.

“And we’ve got to make sure that we don’t get ahead of ourselves, and we make sure that we cover first things first, which is to put the guys on the field that are willing to be accountable with the desire to win with every snap. And for whatever reason, we didn’t have enough of them today.”

No indication at this time that the thumb bang is serious.

Dorin Dickerson got positive reviews for his first full-contact practice he was able to participate. Darrelle Revis was held out for one more practice as a precaution but will be back tomorrow. Mike Phillips is still out with a sore ankle.
Kicker Conor Lee still looks like the kicker unless Freshman Dan Hutchins really comes on in the next week (or Lee’s hamstring really gets bad). David Abdul will not be coming back to play football.

On placekicker David Abdul:

David Abdul was not cleared medically. So unfortunately his football career at the University of Pittsburgh is over. He’ll be put on medical [scholarship]. He was a senior and going to finish up anyway. If there was a deserving senior, we could use the scholarship for a year, but nothing has been determined yet. We just got the news on David. Mark Estermyer is a guy that we’re talking about [giving a scholarship to]. He’s been doing a good job snapping for us the last couple of years and we’re looking at a couple of other guys too without giving you their names right now.

Good luck to David. He still has his whole life ahead of him, not to mention a young daughter.

T.J. Porter looks to be making the case that he will be the #3 WR behind Derek Kinder and Oderick Turner. Marcel Pestano has also been looking better in recent practices.

For Pitt in the new century (Insider Subs.), at least.

The easy choice for Pitt coach Jamie Dixon was to take Florida International — a likely win — as a replacement opponent in the Aeropostale Classic New York and call the schedule official.

But Dixon is well aware that he has a Final Four-caliber team capable of playing anyone, anytime, so when South Carolina abruptly pulled out of the Dec. 21 event, leaving the Panthers scrambling for a nonconference game, Dixon didn’t waste time.

He waited about two days as Alabama, Virginia Tech and Mississippi State attempted to move games around to play the Panthers in New York as the undercard to Duke-Gonzaga in Madison Square Garden. Dixon was given a 6 p.m. deadline by the promoter on Friday. Florida International was a possible replacement — and with the Blue Devils-Zags main attraction, no one was too concerned over Pitt’s opponent. The money for the undercard was minimal (a contentious point for the Gamecocks), with the gate expected to be dominated by the Blue Devils and Bulldogs.

Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury actually worked it so he could move a game against the University of New Orleans in Jackson, Miss., but just when Stansbury had the deal worked out, he got word that the Panthers were out of the event.

Where will Pitt go instead? Oklahoma City.

Barring some sort of contractual hangup, Pitt, according to Dixon, will play against Oklahoma State in the All-College Tournament, an event Dixon was once the MVP of when he played at TCU, on Dec. 21. Oklahoma is scheduled to play Tulsa as part of the doubleheader at the Ford Center.

Ostensibly a “neutral court,” this is clearly a road game challenge for Pitt. That means Pitt will play on the road in Oklahoma City, at Auburn and at Wisconsin. In addition there are home games against Washington, FSU, Dayton, UMass, and a neutral court game against Western Michigan. Then there will be home games against Duquesne, Robert Morris and only a couple patsies. Season ticket holders will get their money’s worth this year.

And in Andy Katz’s preview of the top-50 Pitt comes in at #4.

What we like: We’ve heard from quite a few that this is too high for the Panthers. Well, they did get back a monster in the middle in Aaron Gray. He should be immovable at times in the post. The big secret, though, is in the rest of this squad. Big East coaches love Levon Kendall and Sam Young, two players that don’t get a ton of rep.

What concerns us: The heat will be on the perimeter to replace Carl Krauser‘s toughness and moxie. That means Ronald Ramon must be more verbal to ensure the Panthers meet these expectations.

Power-rating push: Coach Jamie Dixon didn’t shy away from big-time games this season, with a trip to Wisconsin, a game with Washington and potential pests UMass and Florida State on the slate.

As for the rest of the Big East and Pitt opponents:

Georgetown, #7

Wisconsin, #8

UConn, #14

Washington, #19

Marquette, #20

Syracuse, #21

Villanova, #23

Oklahoma St., #26

Louisville, #30

DePaul, #37

Florida St., #40

I don’t know off the top of my head if Pitt has played this challenging a non-con in the 20+ years it has been in the Big East.

The House Rock Built is hosting the first blogpoll roundtable of the season. I hate having to think this much. Especially coming out of the weekend.
1. What’s the biggest ripoff in this preseason poll? Either pick a team that’s offensively over or underrated, or you can rag on a particular voter’s bad pick (hey, we’re all adults here, we can handle it).

Florida State is definitely still coasting on its rep the way Nebraska did in the past. What is it about their team or their recent performance that justifies them being any higher than #20?

Honestly, I’m not going to bother ripping on a particular ballot because I just don’t have the energy to look through individual ballots to find egregious bias (other than to point out that 2 of the most self-servingly biased voters were PSU bloggers. Stunning, I know.

2. What shold a preseason poll measure? Specifically, should it be a predictor of end-of-season standing (meaning that a team’s schedule should be taken into account when determining a ranking), or should it merely be a barometer of talent/hype/expectations?

I don’t know. I suspect we kind of mix things to fit our perceptions and justify things when in doubt. I think expectations are the best way to put it since it is sufficiently vague to mix expectations with all the tangible measuring points (schedule strength, talent and such).
3. What is your biggest stretch in your preseason ballot? That is to say, which team has the best chance of making you look like an idiot for overrating them?

That’s easy, since everyone has told me the answer. Oregon at #10.

4. What do you see as the biggest flaw in the polling system (both wire service and blogpolling)? Is polling an integral part of the great game of college football, or is it an outdated system that needs to be replaced? If you say the latter, enlighten us with your new plan.

In the “real” polls it’s the pretending by coaches and writers that they are unbiased and fair. They aren’t there are biases based on the teams and conferences they cover or play within. That’s actually secondary to the lack of transparency. Some sports writers are willing to disclose their votes, but most don’t. Coaches hate even disclosing the final poll. Hell, this sort of stuff has been hashed and re-hashed plenty so I’m not going to go back into it. Ultimately the polls should just be a rough measuring tool. Not the determination for who plays for the national championship.

It depends on what you mean. I like polls. We all do to some extent as an estimation and kind of perception thing — to see which teams people think of as being top teams. Power polls of some form or another are popular and easy shorthand. Even in professional sports you see sports media organizations producing polls to judge which teams are believed to be the best by people.
5. You’re Scott Bakula, and you have the opportunity to “Quantum Leap” back in time and change any single moment in your team’s history. It can be a play on the field, a hiring decision, or your school’s founders deciding to build the campus in Northern Indiana, of all godforsaken places. What do you do?

Hmm. An intriguing wish. Hiring decisions seem the most obvious to me. There are a couple decisions I considered. There was the hiring of Paul Hackett full time as head coach. Something I’m sure USC bloggers might agree whole-heartedly for themselves. I also thought about the hiring of J. Dennis O’Connor as Chancellor in 1991. A man who had no interest in athletics and who’s apathy to that aspect nearly destroyed the football and basketball programs.

Actually, though, and this may surprise some who haven’t read me as long. It was Pitt’s decision to stay in the Big East over helping form an Eastern Athletic Conference with Penn State and Joe Paterno in the early ’80s followed by not advocating on behalf of Penn State to join the Big East after that plan failed. Whether we like it or not, the whole Big East-BCS fears and concerns and stability would not be issues if Penn State was a part of the conference.

Pitt Athletic Department is moving ahead to another part of the fundraising for the “Quest for Excellence.” This part is for self-sufficiency of football scholarships by creating the Pitt Football Endowed Position and Scholarship Program.

The initiative’s goal is to endow the athletic scholarship budget for the Pitt football team. Contributors will have the unique opportunity to attach their name to one of 24 starting positions on the Panthers’ team (11 offense, 11 defense and two specialists).

“To fund the 85 football scholarships permitted by NCAA rules it will cost $2.1 million annually,” Long said. “While that may seem like an ambitious goal, the time to secure the promise of a bright future for our football program is now by focusing on building the Pitt football endowment.”

Coach Wannstedt and his wife are getting out in front on this by donating $250,000 to endow the left offensive tackle spot — his position when he played.

I’m sure plenty of schools do this. It makes sense considering the volume of scholarships the football team swallows every year. It will be interesting to see if some of Pitt’s other high profile football alum step up with their own contributions.

Today it is likely to be determined who will be the the starting left tackle. Jeff Otah was widely expected to take the job — coming in as a JUCO — and while he has not disappointed, John Bachman has shown a lot of growth from last year and fought very hard to keep the gig. Still, it is expected to go to Otah.

A brief preview of Pitt projects 6 or 7 wins.

Pittsburgh opens with Virginia and takes on Michigan State two weeks later. The squad later closes out its regular season with back-to-back games against Big East powers Louisville and West Virginia. Winning any of those games will be tough, although the Panthers figure to be competitive. Palko will put up numbers, but fans of the program are unlikely to see any more than six or seven wins in 2006.

Now here’s another classic PA college football rivalry that will capture the imagination.

Pennsylvania football fans don’t have the enjoyment of watching the Penn State-Pitt rivalry anymore.

But soon we will have Villanova vs. Temple.

Division I-A Temple and Division I-AA Villanova will meet in a four-game series starting in 2009. Temple will be the host for all four games at Lincoln Financial Field.

Villanova leads the all-time series, 15-12-2. The last game was in 2003, when Villanova won 23-20 in double overtime.

Is there any team against whom Temple can claim a winning record?

Big feature “day-in-the-life” type story on the defensive linemen in training camp.

Pitt defensive end Greg Romeus is one of the fastest players on the Pitt football team, but as he walks out of the training facility before practice on this day he’s sluggish. His legs appear heavy as he lumbers toward the field.

He looks like he would rather be anywhere else but practice on this day.

Other Pitt players know how Romeus feels. Most of the team’s defensive linemen are slow to get the motor started in their big bodies. It is hard enough for the big guys to maintain their legs for practice every day. But, after more than a week of practice, mornings are the toughest.

“I can’t think of any part of my body that isn’t sore by this point in camp,” defensive end Chris McKillop said. “Mornings are the roughest, especially on days when we have two practices, because it is like you wake up and next thing you know you are out on the field. At least when we just go in the afternoon you have a few hours for your body to get out of that morning funk.”

McKillop could be the poster child for the warrior-like mentality defensive linemen have to have to get the job done. He appears to be held together by ace bandages and tape and seems to squint in pain every time he makes contact with a sled or during blocking drills. Still, he presses forward and makes it through each day.

“…Held together by ace bandages and tape.” That last paragraph could be the poster child for bad cliche-ridden sportswriting. Sorry, that little paragraph in an otherwise solid piece really made me want to scald my eyeballs with hot coffee.

The thing that makes it tough to read is you can almost envision the use of this story as a soft-focus narrative on ESPN looking at any school’s practice during training camp. (Which may have been what he was going for with the piece.) Media saturation, cynicsm exacerbated.

And almost as if they were working together despite being at competing papers, a couple stories looking at individual young members of the D-line. Freshman John Malecki is forcing his way onto the depth chart.

“Malecki has come in, and he’s making plays in the backfield,” senior linebacker H.B. Blades said. “He does a great job getting off blocks. He’s making a lot of good plays for us. I think he’s going to come through for us this season.”
…

Although Malecki still has a lot to learn, he possesses the one trait Gattuso believes is essential in a defensive lineman: football instincts. Malecki impressed Gattuso Monday on a play to the opposite side of the line, coming under a guard before using his hands to change directions and stop a runner at the line of scrimmage.

“I think he’s a football player,” Gattuso said. “Some kids are technicians, and some are great athletes – and we have both of those – but John’s a football player. He’s not the most athletic kid there, and he doesn’t have the best technique, but he’s making more plays than just about everybody.”

And Redshirt Freshman Doug Fulmer is learning the Defensive End position quickly after being converted from a safety.

“There’s some things Doug Fulmer does better than any of the ends,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “He’s rotating with the first group. In my mind, he’s playing at a starting level.”

Fulmer, a redshirt freshman from Syracuse, N.Y., is learning his new position at warp speed. He approached the switch with an open mind and the intelligence of a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete. Fulmer knows that his best chance of getting on the football field is at defensive end.

“It’s been a fun experience, getting to know a new position,” Fulmer said. “I already knew coming in that I had a chance to play at this position. I had to come in here with the right mind-set.”

Even so, it’s the opposite of everything he knew defensively. Instead of playing 10 yards or more away from the ball, he is stationed on the line of scrimmage. Instead of backpedaling in coverage, he has a hand planted and leans forward to initiate contact with the offense.

“It’s a whole different world,” Partridge said. “The biggest thing is, as a safety, if they take a wrong step, they’ve got time and distance to recover and react and read things.

“At defensive end, there’s no time for that. You have to take perfect steps at the perfect angles, strike your hands in the perfect spot. Of course, they’re moving, not stationary.”

Coach Wannstedt says he’s very happy with how the D-line has developed and envisions using a rotation of eight for the rest of training camp.

Wannstedt said that because there are only a few days of camp left, he plans to expand the rotation to include eight defensive linemen. That is two more than he would like to play. In the past he has used three tackles and three ends.

“We’re going to play eight guys,” Wannstedt said. “I just don’t know if there is anybody that has separated themselves at this point. I think that we will end up playing four tackles and four ends because they are that close. A lot of it will have to do with situations and a lot of it will have to do with opponents and things like that.”

Wannstedt said that sometimes when the competition is close it is a sign that a unit isn’t playing well or lacks talent. He said that’s not the case with this defensive line, and he has been pleased with the progress that group has made.

The rotation at defensive end likely will be Chris McKillop, Charles Sallet, Joe Clermond and Doug Fulmer and the four tackles appear to be Gus Mustakas, Corey Davis, John Malecki and Rashaad Duncan. Vernon Botts is also in the mix at tackle and freshman McKenzie Mathews could push for playing time at end.

Mick Williams is also expected to get into the rotation. Hopefully Coach Wannstedt isn’t just blowing smoke about the close competition not being indicative of progress and how it is playing.