I had it planned. I would tune in to the live stream of the Wannstedt opening press conference this morning. (Yes, I broke down at the end of spring practice and paid for the discounted All-Access, but I could rationalize it as a business related expense I can deduct from my taxes when I eventually use something from the All-Access in FanHouse.) Naturally, my kids had other ideas about me being able to listen and take notes. Missed huge gaps, and by the time I had finished listening to the archived version, the transcript was available.

Still, the transcripts aren’t perfect reproductions and I did get to hear the tone of some of the answers to try and divine some of the deeper meanings and how emphatic or not Coach Wannstedt felt in his response.

In the opening remarks from Associate AD E.J. Borghetti it was noted that after the press conference and Q&A it was across the street to the complex to do interviews with the full coaching staff, AD Jeff Long and all the players — except for the 2007 recruiting class as NCAA rules don’t allow them to do interviews until after their first practice which is tomorrow. So, the articles in the coming days will be reflecting that additional interviewing resource for the media.

The personal amusement highlight to watching the video was the scene of Wannstedt taking the podium and saying he was ready to start. Then it was a swarm of media masses rushing the podium to place their digital recorders on the podium.

Some of the things I thought were worth highlighting from Coach Wannstedt’s opening statement about the team and program:

We want to graduate as many players as we can from Pitt and we want to get as many players from our football team into the National Football League. That’s a great reflection on our University. We have 11 seniors going into this year and eight of the 11 seniors will have their degree before we complete the football season.

On a related note, how many noted seeing Rob Pettiti playing for the Saints last night? Hope he sticks. Never quite figured out why the Cowboys cut him last season when he started for them as a rookie the year before.

We came out of spring feeling really satisfied. We felt like we made strides in the areas we need to make strides. Did we solidify a lot of positions? No, but that’s what training camp is all about.

…

With that being said, we do have spots that will have good competition in training camp and that’s exciting. If we didn’t have players that could play and were capable of stepping up, then I think that is when you stand here as a head coach and you feel concerned. I’m not concerned about that because we have players ready to step up.

Whoever our three starting linebackers are, I promise you this, our number four, five and six guys are going to be very close to those starters and that’s encouraging. That’s encouraging from a standpoint of talent and from a standpoint of depth.

Umm, or terrifying.

…but I do know that we’ve had a great off-season. Our kids have done a great job. Some guys have gotten bigger and the guys that needed to get smaller did just that. I do believe that our football team is in great shape. We’re ready to go physically and because of some of the training techniques and some of the things that we demanded from our players through our off-season program, I believe that our football team is mentally tougher.

Hands in the air if you thought a football coach would declare that his team has gotten mentally soft before the first training camp practice. Not to mention declaring that the offseason conditioning was a complete bust. I’m not saying that Wannstedt isn’t correct or that it isn’t true, it’s just, what do you expect a coach to say about those things?

The first week of practice will be the same procedure as last year. Dividing the kids into two groups to practice. The older, more veteran and starting players in the morning will be on these squads and the younger or deeper down the full depth chart players will be in the afternoons. The coaches pull double duty, but all the kids get more opportunity and chances when the first week only allows 1 practice per day.

Coach Wannstedt ended his opening remarks with this:

With that said, this is where we’re at — everybody is here, everybody is accountable and we’re looking forward to getting started.

I think this is where I’m supposed to make a snide comment about DC Paul Rhoads and accountability.

Back later with some of what I thought was interesting from the Q&A.