There was a scrimmage today. The View From the Zoo has the all important rundown on 2009 recruits that attended. Nice work on the actual information gathered, guys.

Glad to know that I’m not the only one who isn’t sure what year Doug Fulmer actually is.

Doug Fulmer isn’t sure what to make of his class designation — officially, he is a redshirt junior — but after missing the majority of the past two seasons with injuries, the Pitt defensive end isn’t worrying about it.

“I consider myself a ballplayer,” said Fulmer, in the process of appealing for a sixth year of eligibility. “I don’t even pay attention to it. I couldn’t wait to get back out here. It’s been too long.”

Fulmer recovered from a broken left ankle suffered against The Citadel in September 2006 only to tear the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during spring drills last March 22. Now, a year later, he’s finally back on the football field and trying to reclaim his spot in the starting lineup.

He is fighting for the starting left DE position with sophomore Jabaal Sheard. Sheard has the raw athleticism (and a much healthier body), but Fulmer still has more experience and at this point a more physically mature player.

Moving to the receiving corps. Walt Harris made this a prestige position and spot of strength at Pitt. It’s been something of a surprise that despite Coach Wannstedt’s well known preference for running the ball, that the receiver position is still a big position of strength and depth.

The backbone of the group is formed by returning junior starters Oderick Turner and T.J. Porter and key reserves Cedric McGee, a junior, and Maurice Williams, a sophomore. Those four would constitute an excellent receiving corps, but the addition of two talented redshirt freshmen, Aaron Smith and Aundre Wright, pushes it into a higher category.

And that doesn’t take into account the return of fifth-year senior Derek Kinder, a first-team all-Big East as a junior in 2006 who missed the 2007 season with a torn ACL. Kinder is limited as to what he can do in the spring, but he will be pushing for a starting job in preseason camp.

Kinder said he is taking his rehabilitation slowly, but admits it is tough to watch the younger players make big plays because he knows it means he’ll have a much more difficult time breaking into the lineup.

“I get stronger every day, it feels better every day, but I’m not going to rush it,” Kinder said. “You have to be smart but the competitor in me wants to be out there because I know nothing is going to be handed to me.”

Which is yet another reason why the QB position is of such vital importance and the focus of every Pitt fan. We know that there are a bunch of talented receivers — especially some speedy deep threats. It does little good, though, if there is no chance to hook up with them.

So, that’s when observations come into play. Kevin Gorman’s observations from yesterday’s practice suggest that Bill Stull is still the leading guy to get the starting job. I hesitate to say reclaim the spot, since he was injured in the first game and the whole situation at QB is so different from last spring or even last summer.

The Panthers went without pads Friday for the third time during spring drills, fulfilling NCAA rules that mandate three of the 15 practices are without contact. Tomorrow, they will have a live – or full-contact – scrimmage with Big East Conference officials.

Ever the defensive-minded coach, Wannstedt said the quarterbacks will not wear green jerseys, which protect them from contact. But …

“They’ll be live on my whistle, and I’ll have a quick whistle” Wannstedt said, noting that it will be mostly for the benefit of Pitt’s “bread-and-butter,” the defensive line. “They’ll all get hit a little bit. … When they get a hold of them, I’ll control the whistle.”

Such tactics will put to the test the pocket presence of quarterbacks Pat Bostick, Greg Cross, Kevan Smith and Bill Stull, who are playing behind an inexperienced defensive line but are surrounded by talented skill players.

Stull showed some ability to escape pressure (and gets a high mark for creativity) during the two-minute drill. Flushed to his right, he wheeled back left and used Wannstedt as a screen before throwing a touchdown pass to Dorin Dickerson in the end zone.

I am hoping Wannstedt and Cavanaugh are not so wedded to only one QB type system. It just seems that Pitt has two pairs of QBs that can help change things up. The opportunity to mix things up with Stull and/or Bostick sharing time with Cross and/or Smith doesn’t mean going to a straight spread. It does mean keeping teams off-guard and allowing more variety and dictate things from the offense.

A couple other things from Gorman’s post that I feel like commenting. He notes that Dorin Dickerson looks tremendous at the TE position.

Now, I’m starting to think he’s a natural at H-back. He made a few catches today that raised eyebrows.

Two came during red-zone drills. On the first, he beat corner Aaron Berry and safety Dom DeCicco in the upper right corner of the end zone to catch a Stull pass for a touchdown. Then he got a step on safety Elijah Fields on a crossing pattern and leapt to pull down a Bostick pass in front of McKillop for another score.

Later, in 11-on-11 drills, Dickerson made a spectacular one-handed grab with safety Eric Thatcher in coverage. Not only does Dickerson bring size and speed to the tight end position, but he’s a legitimate downfield threat.

If it was all about catching the ball, Darrell Strong would have never had a battle. The issue — especially in the Cavanaugh/Wannstedt offense — will be his blocking skills. That’s something that remains to be seen with scrimmages and especially come summer practices. I’m optimistic, though.

The other is his observations on Wannstedt being effusive in his praise of Dom DeCicco’s performance at safety.

“Dom’s doing a heck of a job,” Wannstedt said. “We’ve got some good players – you’ve got (Eric) Thatcher with the experience and Elijah (Fields), as talented a player as we have on the team – but Dom DeCicco has probably made as many plays this past week as any defender we have. You trust him back there. It’s a good situation for our football team right now. I wish we had that kind of talent and depth at a few other spots.”

I’m not disputing any of that. I also think that Wannstedt is going to do everything he can to keep Fields from thinking he’s earned anything at this point. It’s probably safest to make sure Fields believes that he needs to keep working — on and more importantly, off the field — to see significant playing time.