Pat Bostick has been back for a couple of days but his practice has been limited since he can’t go to full pads yet, per NCAA regs.

Bostick will take third-team repetitions behind junior Bill Stull and redshirt freshman Kevan Smith, but he already took some second-team snaps away from Smith yesterday.

“They know it’s a competition, and I don’t think they’re going to get hung up on Pat getting some reps mixed in,” Cavanaugh said. “He would’ve been getting them anyway. … So, they all know they’re competing, and they all trust us as a staff that we’ll do the right thing. And we’ll play the guy that we believe is the best one. So, they’ll let it play out.”

Bostick has been offlimits to the media from the outset. He couldn’t talk at media day because NCAA regulations prohibit incoming recruits to do interviews until they’ve had a practice. Bostick left before practice began, and now Pitt is shielding him for a few days. Wannstedt believed Bostick will be ready to talk after Saturday’s scrimmage.

His teammates have been supportive.

To hear a few of his teammates tell it, Bostick received a warm welcome upon his return.

“He didn’t just leave because he wanted to,” senior offensive tackle Jeff Otah said. “The guy was going through some things. He kind of had to get himself away so he could get himself together. I told him, ‘It’s OK. We’re here for you; we’re family.’ Whatever he wants to talk about, I’m going to be here.”

Senior cornerback Lowell Robinson said he spoke with Bostick on the sideline during Tuesday’s scrimmage.

“He told me he felt good and he just needed that time,” Robinson said. “He said he went home, got his thoughts together, and he’s ready to come back and work hard. Once I heard that, I just left him alone. He didn’t go into detail.”

Both Otah and Robinson were JUCO transfers. New to the program and the situation when they came in, yet expected to be upperclassmen and contribute quickly. Given Bostick’s situation — despite being a true freshman — they probably can relate a lot easier to what he might be going through.

Bill Stull, though, is still the starter and it seems his performance has improved the last couple days.

Perhaps the late arrival of Pat Bostick has lit a fire in the competitive spirit of Stull, as the junior quarterback was at his sharpest yet throwing the ball.

“Billy is continuing to get better every day,” Wannstedt said. “I don’t know what his completion percentage was, but we really weren’t a whole lot different going into today’s practice as we were a year ago at this time, as far as completion percentage with all our quarterbacks. We’ve got a lot of work to do but we do see progress being made.”

Stull’s willingness to play through the pain and come back out on the field quickly after an injury to his thumb gets him more credibility and leading by example on the team.

“Everyone looks up to the quarterback position as the leader,” Stull said. “And you never know, they see you with a little cut on your thumb and they see you sitting out for a week, they might start to second-guess your toughness and start to doubt you. But sitting out was never an option, I wanted to see if I could tape it up and get back out there and be with my team.

“The one practice I had to sit out — to sit there and not do anything, for me personally didn’t work. I just want to be out there practicing 24/7 with the team.”

He’s going to have to be tough. Especially if the O-line doesn’t start coming together.