Well, Josh Marks had his second visit to Pitt’s practice this morning.

Josh Marks, the former Southern Columbia star who left the Penn State team last week, watched practice from the sidelines for the second time in a week. He has been released from his scholarship at Penn State and appears set to transfer to Pitt, although nothing is official.

I’ve heard through the grapevine that Marks was making nice progress but apparently couldn’t get out of Joe Paterno’s doghouse despite being on the second-team at right guard (behind Central Catholic graduate Stefen Wisniewski) as a redshirt freshman.

By this afternoon there was something official.

Former Penn State offensive lineman Josh Marks has enrolled at Pitt and will join the Panthers next week when classes begin as a walk-on.

He will be able to play for Pitt next season since he is enrolled at Pitt for the fall, but begin practicing next week.

The controversy at Penn State was over his conditioning. There is little dispute he was overweight. With a year of only practicing and Buddy Morris working with him, we’ll find out whether it was the something more that was bothering him at Penn State.

I’m cautiously optimistic about this. At the very least, this is a low-risk gamble. Marks was a top OL recruit, that Pitt really wanted. His work ethic had never been questioned before. Again, the reports — even before his departure — were that he had struggled with conditioning from the spring onward.

If it was a short term slump on his part he will get over it and Pitt greatly benefits. If it really is his attitude, then the team will probably figure it out before the end of this year.

Damn.

Cameron Saddler didn’t just twist his knee in practice the other day. It’s an ACL tear in the left knee. It was a non-contact injury.

Saddler, was expected to be assuming punt and/or kick return duties in his freshman season. Instead it will be a redshirt and lots of rehab.

The charismatic and talkative Saddler was (cripes, I’m writing like he’s dead or something) one of the big December commits following Pitt’s win over WVU. Not only that, he may have been the most vital since he became a one-man recruiting force for Pitt.

Here’s hoping for a full and rapid recovery.

I think the attention Jonathan Baldwin has gotten along with Dorin DIckerson playing at tight end has led to something of a fascination in the media with Pitt’s receiving corps. For an offense that at best will have a slight tilt to the running game as far as play-calling, the WRs and TEs seem to be getting a lot of pixels.

[Wide Receivers Coach Bryan] Bossard isn’t worried yet because there are still three weeks before the season and he believes Kinder and Porter will be healthy by then. And he also has some talented freshmen — Aundre Wright and Jonathan Baldwin in particular — who are making a strong case for playing time as they take advantage of their increased reps.

“I feel very good with the older four guys,” Bossard said. “They’ve been in battles and played in games. Right now I am trying to get Derek back into it, he is getting smoother and we’re just trying to be smart with him. But beyond that — Aundre has stepped his game up. He’s playing faster now and he’s been impressive. And Jonathan Baldwin is a talent. He is big, fast and strong, he’s got great upside, but he has a lot to learn and that’s my job, to teach him.”

..

With those two in the group and a healthy Porter and Kinder, the Panthers would have a six-man rotation with a good mix of speed (Wright), physical toughness (Kinder, McGee), size (Baldwin, Turner) and athleticism.

Plus the tight ends are looking for the ball.

“Dorin is becoming a good blocker,” Angelichio said. “He’s in there, battling. He can definitely do it. He works as hard as anybody.”

Angelichio said the Panthers probably won’t run a lot of two-tight ends sets this season – there are too many other talented skill players in the offense.

But the group gives quarterback Bill Stull a reliable target over the middle. Last season, Pitt tight ends combined to catch 49 passes for 584 yards and four touchdowns.

“I think we are going to be a major role in this offense,” Byham said. “We are having the tight ends do a lot of things. A lot of moving around. They are really putting us into the offense. We’re really getting some love this year.”

And Byham got a little love this week in a Pitt press puffing release.

You think Coach Wannstedt felt beleagured offensive tackle Joe Thomas needed some encouragement? His play has been considered weak, and there’s a lot of suspicion he’ll be losing any starting job within the first few weeks of the season to a freshman. On top of that, he helped get the starting QB a bunch of bruised ribs. So, it’s time to throw a little positive reinforcement his way.

On the offense line progress:

“The biggest issue is still bringing the offensive line together. I will recognize (Jason) Pinkston and (Joe) Thomas — both played well in the scrimmage. Offensive line is an area where we have to be good to have success on offense.”

Injuries don’t seem to be piling up the same way as last year. And certainly it isn’t as bad as what Florida is facing at the moment. Still, there are a number of injuries that have an effect on who is practicing.

What the Panthers appear to need most is to avoid injuries. Tight end John Pelusi has missed two days of practice with a sore shoulder, and weak-side linebacker Shane Murray and tight ends Nate Byham and John Pelusi both left practice yesterday wearing ice wraps around their shoulders.

While the injuries have yet to test Wannstedt’s patience, they are challenging the Panthers’ depth. Dorin Dickerson, who played outside linebacker last season, was suddenly taking first-team reps at tight end with only a pair of freshmen, Mike Cruz and Justin Virbitsky, behind him.

That doesn’t even count Saddler, who was competing for a job on kick and punt returns before twisting his knee in a special teams drill prior to the scrimmage.

Saddler is having an MRI and was on crutches yesterday. Not good signs.

Ultimately the depth chart gets affected.

Kevin Collier also left practice during individual drills with an unknown injury, and is in jeopardy of being bypassed on the depth chart by not only redshirt freshman Shariff Harris but [Chris] Burns.

The same could be said for redshirt freshman cornerback Buddy Jackson, who has been out with groin/hamstring troubles. Expected to compete with Jovani Chappel for the starting boundary corner job, Jackson instead has lost out to Ricky Gary as the third corner and could be losing ground to freshmen Ronald Hobby, Jarred Holley and Antwuan Reed, who are splitting second- and third-team reps.

Andrew Taglienetti is seeing more action behind Eric Thatcher at free safety as Irv Brown has been out with an injury. Collier has been struggling to crack the depth chart the last couple years and the injuries sure have not helped.

Coach Wannstedt is stuck in that area of trying to figure out which players are legitimately not able to or just should not be pushing through the pain and those who he thinks may need to be prodded.

On the mental aspect of the game being just as tough as the physical part:

“Everyone is hurt and beat up right now. If you let your mind control your body you have a tendency to be soft and think that you can’t go on and when you have that mind frame you can’t get better. As coaches this is when you build that mental toughness and you push them to develop that chemistry of a football team.”

That or break their spirits, leaving them disheartened shells of their former selves with the disturbing self-awareness that they are weak-hearted. Shambling through the rest of their miserable lives just trying to find moments of happiness or perhaps just oblivion from the aching pain in their soul.