As usual with media days, plenty of articles and stories. So getting to them all takes a little time.
The day of Media Day, Paul Zeise had a solid article. It notes the expectations are there for this team, and of course Coach Wannstedt spoke well of the off-season preparations.
“We’ve had an unbelievable offseason, these guys have worked their tails off and have gotten into shape,” Wannstedt said. “[Second-year strength coach] Buddy Morris and his program have really kicked into high gear.
“Our guys are slimmer, in better shape than since we’ve been here and have gotten so much stronger. Some guys have added 30 or 40 pounds to their bench press and whatnot. It has been impressive.
“I don’t know what is going to happen during the season but I’ll say this — these guys have taken the offseason seriously, they have put in the work and they’ve put themselves in position to be successful and that’s all you can ask.”
And as you can expect with any article talking about Pitt’s chances, the question is still: What about that O-line?
The offensive line, however, is the key to the season and Wannstedt said even though it lacks experience, it is talented and, more importantly, healthy. And like the rest of the team, the players are in great shape and that bodes well for the future.
“We don’t have a guy more than 300 pounds, they are slim and trim,” Wannstedt said, “[Right tackle] Joe Thomas is like 285, [left tackle] Jason Pinkston, same thing. And the injured guys, like Chris Jacobson, are healthy and looking in great shape as well. Our line will hold the key to our season, but it is going to be better than some people think.”
It has to be. Otherwise it will be back to multiple QBs — mainly because they will be carted off the field.
Back to the expectation thing.
Questions need answered in camp. Position battles haven’t been won. Heck, a down needs to be played.
But the expectation season has begun. The numbers have grown since before last season, or two seasons ago.
And they’re heavier.
That’s the sign of a growing program. The Panthers merely need to add more victories to equal those expectations.
Of course, that’s the toughest part of this equation.
The players feel that this is the time to meet the expectations.
Time for something good to happen to the Pitt football team under Dave Wannstedt.
Three straight Top 25 recruiting classes – it’s just time.
“It’s finally time,” wide receiver Derek Kinder said Tuesday at the annual Big East Media Day. “We’ve gotta put it together.”
Of course another conventional portion of talking about Pitt this year is how the team ended the season with WVU. Something that WVU people can’t quite forget.
We have gone over this game in great detail in the past, but always from the West Virginia angle.
Pat White was injured. Play selection was terrible. The team choked. The coach choked.
But here at Big East Media Day, it was finally time to get the other side.
What in the name of LeSean McCoy got into Pitt?
How could the pathetic Panthers pull this off and, in some ways, had the upset altered the direction of the Pitt program as much as it did the West Virginia program, although in the opposite direction.
That’s all great, but I’m with Scott McKillop on this one.
“That victory was very, very important for our team,” said linebacker Scott McKillop. “It was a great stepping stone, but we’re aware that we have a long ways to go. We can’t really stay focused on it though. We can’t keep saying, ‘We beat West Virginia, we beat West Virginia.’ If we do that, they pretty soon we’ll be playing West Virginia again and we’ll be 4-7 again.”
Perhaps it’s the blunt honesty with which McKillop speaks about last season’s watershed victory. Having not made a bowl game for the last three seasons, Pittsburgh could have hung its hat on that win and called it a day. But it didn’t and the more one looks at Pitt, the more one realizes why they’ve been picked to finish so high.
So, as much as there are lots of expectations, Coach Wannstedt wants to keep things in check.
“There is with our fans. There is with our alumni. There is with the media. And there is with our team,” Wannstedt said Tuesday at Big East media day, after Pitt was predicted to finish third in the conference in a media poll. “It’s my job as head coach to make sure we keep our feet on the ground and understand that we’ve got to start working on Tuesday (at) training camp, and it’s going to be tough. We’ve got to go out there and put together a good football team during training camp and not worry about those other things.
“If we do that, good things will happen.”
AD Steve Pederson, as the story points out, has to sell the expectations to get butts in the seat.
“What you want is a program that has expectations. You don’t want unrealistic expectations, but you do want expectations in your program,” Pederson said. “What we want is to continue to see progress in the program. It’s kind of funny. No matter what expectations I have, the coaches and players always have higher expectations. They set their own bar high.”
I’d say fans are expecting at least a +3 increase in the win total.
