I think we need a hostage counter or something.

When even guys who don’t really care about college basketball are taking notice and complaining, it’s getting ridiculous.

Well, Kevin Gorman noted nearly a week ago that Stewart Mandel from SI.com was at a training camp practice, so you knew a story was coming from him. The focal point, of course, has to do with LeSean McCoy.

When the backups came in, No. 25 morphed into the team’s loudest, most exuberant cheerleader, waving a towel, letting out a whoop and demonstratively signaling every first down.

No. 25 is LeSean “Shady” McCoy, a preseason All-America tailback whose path to prominence closely mirrors that of the Pitt program for which he’s quickly become the indisputable face.

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Fast forward a year and you can see the pieces starting to fall in place around McCoy and McKillop.

The return of a healthy Stull and Kinder, the presence of talented tight end Nate Byham and veteran receiver Oderick Turner, and, in particular, the arrival of highly touted receiver Jonathan Baldwin should provide for a more balanced offense. The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Baldwin, from longtime Pitt pipeline Aliquippa High, is an incredibly gifted athlete who, in a red-zone drill last week, twice leapt over defenders and artfully kept his body inbounds on touchdown catches in the corner of the end zone. Physically, he resembles former USC standout Dwayne Jarrett. While he’s still learning the intricacies of a college offense, he will undoubtedly become Pitt’s go-to receiver sooner than later.

Defensively, the Panthers’ most important recruit may be their new coordinator, former SMU head coach Phil Bennett, whom Wannstedt lured after Harris holdover Paul Rhoads left for Auburn. Prior to his six-year tenure at SMU, Bennett served as Bill Snyder‘s defensive coordinator at Kansas State from 1999-2001, when the Wildcats never finished lower than fourth nationally in total defense.

Seven starters return from last year’s surprisingly successful unit, and Bennett said he recently told Snyder in a phone conversation that “I think we have the same type of players here that we had [at K-State].” They include not only McKillop but also freshman All-America defensive end Greg Romeus, versatile safety Eric Thatcher, lockdown corner Aaron Berry and physical defensive tackle Mick Williams.

Health and the offensive line. The two question marks.

Bruce Feldman at ESPN.com listed his top-10 impact defensive players. At #6…

Scott McKillop, Pittsburgh, LB: He’s been called a huge overachiever, but that actually takes some credit away from just how instinctive and tough the Panther middle linebacker really is. He led the nation in tackles in 2007, averaging 12.6 tackles per game and sparked the Panthers to be the country’s fifth-ranked defense. The latter point is pretty amazing when you consider the injury-ravaged Panthers (5-7) were the only team among the nation’s top 14 defense to win fewer than nine games in 2007.

This seems like a good time to note that McKillop and McCoy were both put on the watchlist Walter Camp Player of the Year Award. The award goes to the best player in college football. Past Pitt winners include Tony Dorsett, Hugh Green and Larry Fitzgerald.

Here’s the list of the all 35 candidates. Florida, Clemson and Wisconsin also have 2 candidates on the list. Ohio State has 3. From the Big East, George Selvie of USF and Pat White from WVU are also on the list.

The ESPN.com Big East blog (now manned by ex-Louisville beat writer from the Courier Journal, Brian Bennett) has a fairly entertaining Q&A with kicker Conor Lee.

How did you become a kicker?

CL: I played soccer my whole life and just started kicking on my grade school team. I actually quit football, and my freshman year of high school, the kicker for our team tore his ACL. That was the second game of the season and they asked me to come out, and I was playing varsity the third game of the season. It was almost meant to be.

Then I went to Fork Union Military Academy to try to get recruited more. But the recruiting didn’t go like I had hoped and I kind of got sick of it, so I walked on here in January of 2004. I just wanted to go somewhere and try to get the job.

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Do people ever ask you how one brother [Penn State’s Sean Lee] became a linebacker while the other is a kicker?

CL: Yeah, and I would switch sides and be a linebacker if I could, to be honest with you. (Laughs). I was a pretty good football player when I was younger but I was pretty the much same size back then as I am now. The growth stopped for me and kept going for him.

You had two big field goals, including a 48-yarder at the end of the first half, in Pitt’s 13-9 win at West Virginia to end last season. How big was that moment for you?

CL: After that win, a couple days later it kind of sank in how important it was. I used to go to Pitt games when I was a kid, and I remember the game against West Virginia that went to four overtimes and Pitt won, and when we upset Miami at home. But that was quite possibly the biggest win in university history. I mean, I realize there was a national championship here, but what went down that night, how we were 28-point underdogs in their place, they’d never lost a night game under coach Rich Rodriguez and they were going to go to the national championship game and we just ruined it. Being a part of that was amazing.

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You’ve already graduated and are currently working on your MBA. Is that tough to balance with football?

CL: The materials are similar to my undergrad — I was a business and economics major — but the amount of work is doubled. But I have a lot of time. I’m only taking three classes and also, being a kicker, it’s not like I really need to study the opponent as much as a quarterback would.

So anyone really believe it will be anything but Bill Stull as the starter, Kevan Smith and Greg Cross as the back-ups and Pat Bostick getting a redshirt? Neither do I.

Although redshirt junior Bill Stull has taken almost every first-team snap, Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said the Panthers won’t name a starting quarterback until after Wednesday’s scrimmage — the third of training camp.

“Once we finish up on Wednesday, we’ll evaluate the film and then finalize our depth charts at every position,” Wannstedt said.

Bostick getting a redshirt still seems like the likely course of action.

Q: How does Pat Bostick’s mechanics look this year? And how about his arm strength?

ZEISE: Better, much better, but still not where they need to be. He still has that hitch, though it isn’t as pronounced as it was last year, and he has a quicker release and throws the ball with more zip, too. That progress has been a good sign that if he takes a redshirt this season and spends it in the weight room, conditioning with Buddy Morris as well as working with Matt Cavanaugh on his mechanics and footwork, that he’ll come back next year really ready to play at the level he needs to in order to give the Panthers a chance to win big. And that is why he is going to redshirt, because coaches believe he can use some more seasoning.

Bostick has been the second-best QB in the camp, by all accounts. A little more consistency than Kevan Smith. His potential and the actual growth from last year to this year, make it less likely the coaching staff will “waste” a year of his eligibility as a back-up if they can avoid it.

So what about right tackle and Joe Thomas. He’s struggled, in camp and Coach Wannstedt came out and said that Lucas Nix will be seeing time as a freshman.

On Lucas Nix:

“I think he’s going to have to play, and not that I’m dissatisfied with the play of the right tackle, but we have to get more consistent there, Lucas has the ability to deliver and I think the competition between him and Joe Thomas is good.”

Sure enough, on Monday…

One day after Dave Wannstedt sent a message that the right tackle job was up for grabs by raving about freshman Lucas Nix, the Panthers inserted the 6-foot-6, 300-pounder from Thomas Jefferson into the starting lineup.

Nix split first-team repetitions with junior Joe Thomas in today’s second session, and the Pitt coach said it was both a reward for Nix and a warning sign to Thomas that his job isn’t safe.

“Joe Thomas was a little bit inconsistent and we’ve got to make sure that everybody understands that we have to prove ourselves every day we come onto this field,” Wannstedt said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a senior or a freshman or who you are.”

And if that wasn’t enough of a message to Thomas, there was this.

On the offensive line’s progress:

“I thought offensively today might have been the best set of practices we have had. We blocked well, caught well, ran well and threw well today.”

Hint, hint, hint.

That said, Joe Thomas will start the season as the starting right tackle. You know Wannstedt doesn’t like to start freshmen at most positions. Probably more so on the offensive line. I can see Nix taking the job, though. Thomas may have slimmed down, but he is still struggling.

Jonathan Baldwin is a different story with starting.

Q: Do you see Jonathan Baldwin starting any games this year?

ZEISE: An interesting question. The early answer would be not unless there is an injury to someone ahead of him — but only because there are veteran players ahead of him that aren’t likely to lose their starting jobs. Also, for all the talk of his circus catches — and they are amazing, don’t get me wrong — the fact remains that he has a long, long way to go to become a consistent and refined receiver. He still needs to work on his route running, his blocking and all of the little things that separate the good ones from the great ones. There is no question he is the most physically gifted of all of Pitt’s receivers and he will certainly see the field and probably get a lot of playing time, particularly in the red zone. But unless there is an injury I don’t see him moving ahead of any of the current starters.

See, I can see him starting a game later in the season without injuries. I can see him being the #3 receiver very soon. There’s also a cheating way to win this. All it takes is for Pitt to come out in the opening drive with a 4 wide receiver set. You know Baldwin would be in that group as a deep threat. I can see Pitt at least lining up like that… and then handing the ball off to McCoy.