Quietly, without much fanfare, Pat Bostick has been allowed to speak to the media. It started after the Navy game when he actually was permitted to speak about the game right afterwards.

Now, while no one is still discussing the reasons for his week long hiatus right as training camp started, he is talking with some comfort to the media.

Bostick is continuing to work through the “personal issues” that caused him to miss the first week of practice, but has found solace on the football field and in the film room since being elevated to the starting lineup late last month.

“I think for the most part, I’ve settled down,” Bostick said Tuesday. “The most difficult thing – which isn’t very difficult – is it’s a challenge to balance everything. I have my priorities straight. I’m here a lot. I’m doing what I have to do to try to help this football team win.

“As far as transitioning, I’m getting there. It’s the middle of this football season. Football-wise, I’m comfortable practicing every day and playing on Saturdays. Football-wise, I feel good. But it’s the middle of football season and everything is going 100 mph. But it will be a little while until I can settle in and put everything toward school. I think that’s the same way for everyone on this team.”

That seems to be the thing. Pat Bostick is most comfortable talking and being around football.

Yesterday, Bostick sat with media members and effortlessly discussed the X’s and O’s of Cincinnati’s defenses, the matchups Pitt hopes to take advantage of Saturday and the reasons the Bearcats have one of the best defenses in the country. He talked at length about the Bearcats’ alignment and how cleverly designed it is to allow them to keep eight-men close to the line of scrimmage without leaving the secondary vulnerable.

But football has always been Bostick’s comfort zone, the one thing in his life that makes sense. Furthermore, it always has been his shoulder to lean on when things off the field get tough. Yet, while football always has made sense — Bostick is known for his film study — the rest of his life has not been so easy to figure out.

That’s part of what college and growing up is supposed to be about. Not all of it. Not immediately. But it helps with the pieces in figuring things out. Hopefully.