Well, I hope FanFest was fun for those that attended. I really hope the attendance was solid. Unfortunately, there was no way I was getting down this year. The glare I got from the wife for even suggesting it, well…

Let’s just catch up on pieces about individual players.

Chris Burns showed up at training camp and is making a push to actually get time at tailback as a freshman, despite McCoy, Stephens-Howling and Harris. He’s apparently been impressive.

Q: With Shariff Harris doing well and Chris Burns being as goods as advertised will there really be a place in future line ups for Kevin Collier?

ZEISE: It is going to be tough for Kevin. Heck, the more I see of Burns the more I think it is going to be tough for Shariff Harris as well! Seriously, Chris Burns is so much better than I — and most everyone else, including the coaches — could have imagined that he has been one of the real exciting surprises at camp. So Collier, who has also been slowed by injuries and has fallen behind, has to get back into the mix quickly this year in order to at least stay relevant and then have an incredible spring. I would think that with LaRod Stephens-Howling graduating and LeSean McCoy likely headed for the NFL after this year, the tailback spot will be one of the most exciting position battles of the spring, so it isn’t like Collier won’t have a chance – he just has to stay healthy and continue to improve.

Burns has the coaches and players talking about him.

Burns, a former PIAA long-jump champion, has adjusted to the speed at the new level. Along the way, he has earned Wannstedt’s trust.

“I did not think he would be as far along,” Wannstedt said. “I knew he was a fast guy, a tough guy, but he’s got a good grasp of the offense. He’s going to be a heck of a player for us. He’s having a great camp.

“Hopefully, we don’t have to play him much or at all, but I wouldn’t have any reservations of handing him the football.”

I’m still betting he redshirts, but it looks like Pitt has built up a lot of depth at tailback. The key down the road will be taking advantage of it.

And lest we forget, Pitt has some excellent fullbacks to further provide depth in the backfield. Conredge Collins is biding his time.

The 6-foot, 230-pound bruiser is considered one of the best fullbacks in the nation and, according to ESPN’s Mel Kiper, could be the first player at his position picked in the 2009 NFL Draft.

“I definitely have intentions on being a running back at the next level,” Collins said. “I’m playing my part. Hopefully, at the next level, I can finally start be able to live my dreams a little bit more. But for the time being I will suck it up and keep a good, positive attitude and do my job.”

Collins has played in 29 games with the Panthers and rushed for more than 15 yards only twice. He averages about two carries for eight yards – per game. In his past 19 games, he has one rushing touchdown.

“The coaches try to get me the ball,” he said. “But I’ve come to the understanding. I’m a fullback. Accept the facts. Under my name, it doesn’t say ‘running back.’ It says, ‘Conredge Collins, fullback.’ You’ve got to just do your job.”

I do wonder if, in a few years, he’ll be like Nick Goings. Someone who never got much of a chance and really was thought of as just a blocking back in college. Then in the NFL, turns out to have a lot more versatility and everyone wonders how that was missed back at Pitt.

Even back-ups should get love, and redshirt freshman OL Dan Matha gets a piece in his local paper as they check on his progress.

“He is extremely aggressive, he’s a tough guy and he likes to hit people,” Pitt offensive line coach Tony Wise said. “So the only thing that’s really holding him back is the experience factor.

“He’ll make three or four really good blocks and he may be poor on one or two. He’s giving effort, but there is something for being consistent.”

After redshirting last year and having surgery on both shoulders, Matha is healthy and learning as much as possible to seize the moment when it presents itself to him.

“My opportunity will come; (Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt) says it all the time,” Matha said. “You’ll get your opportunity, you just don’t know when.”
…
Fortunately for him, strength and conditioning coach Buddy Morris pushed Matha back into shape in rehab.

It wasn’t always fun, though.

“Buddy is not a big fan of freshmen,” Matha said. “Everybody knows that. So I was injured and was a freshman so it was a little rough, but behind everything he does, there is a reason for it. He mentally and physically trains us.”

Nate Byham also did a Q&A with the same paper.

Q: OK. Looking at this team this year, one of the first things we talked about when I met you and you (were) in your first year there was you wanted to help Pitt get this turned around. I’m looking at preseason polls and you guys are ranked. For you personally, what has it meant for you to see the program start making its way back up to where you guys want it to be?

A: Personally, it gives me great joy knowing that I’m one of the members of the team who starting to turn this around and get this team back on track where it should be. It makes me happy knowing I can help bring this to the university and the city of Pittsburgh and all the people surrounding it.

Q: OK. As far looking at you individually, obviously you’re always improving. What do you feel like you’ve improved the most over the summer?

A: Definitely my route running and my run blocking. I feel like last year I was a pretty good run blocker. I got a lot of practice at it (laughs). I definitely got strong. Last year, I was more covering up guys. Now I’m knocking them back. Pushing them back. I’ve put on some weight and worked on my releases and everything on my route running my route running has become a whole lot better this year, too.

According to Byham, he’s put on about 13 pounds (all muscle, of course) since last year. He also mentions how quickly his time has been flying by at Pitt and he’s right. It’s hard to believe he is already a junior. Some players it seems like they have been at the school forever. Not with Byham. It really feels like a year has been skipped.

Staying with local papers covering local players, the Buffalo News checks in on Albion, NY native, Derek Kinder (hat tip to Chris R).

Back at full strength, Kinder is ready to reclaim not only his go-to role on an upstart Pitt team, but his place as one of the nation’s top receivers.

“I just want to go back out there and put together a season like my junior year and hopefully everything falls into place,” Kinder said. “It’s been a long time coming, but I feel tremendous.”

And so does a Panthers team that’s created a rare buzz in the Steel City, adding a former All-Big East wideout to an experienced group that memorably shattered West Virginia’s title hopes in last year’s Backyard Brawl.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said he anticipates Kinder being a “major, major player in our offense.”

Kinder has been rounding into form by most accounts. A slow start, with a tweak to the knee during the first week, will do that. Still, he’s coming on, and he’s one of the players the coaches, teammates and fans can believe will be ready on gameday.

The other veteran WR who has been overshadowed in training camp stories by Jonathan Baldwin is Oderick Turner. Turner, though, has been having a very good camp.

Turner also has become a much bigger factor as a downfield blocker while becoming, perhaps, the most consistent receiver on the team.

Such developments are what Pitt receivers coach Bryan Bossard terms the “maturation of a top-flight receiver.” Bossard believes Turner is ready to be the Panthers’ top receiver, a designation that he has had in the past but hasn’t always lived up to.

“Oderick has had a very good camp,” Bossard said. “He dropped two balls that were very critical in a team setting, but came back the next practice and made the plays he was supposed to make.

“That’s what we need from him — that consistency, and he’s shown it and he’s added the ability to run after the catch, and that’s just a recognition of where the defense is and playing with great speed. He’s also become a much more physical blocker.

“We’ve known all along he has the big-play ability, but, to be a great one, you have to be locked in and focused on every snap and make every catch. He has also worked hard on playing stronger and playing against press coverage. The bottom line is he’s got to play well for us to be successful.”

Bossard said Turner’s ability to make big plays is critical to the offense’s success because teams likely will try to stop LeSean McCoy and the Panthers’ running attack — leaving receivers with many one-on-one opportunities.

In the article, Turner spoke with some pride about improving his route-running and blocking and doing everything. To some degree, I read it as him wanting to be more like Derek Kinder.

Not really my preference, but it seems to have gotten the attention of the NCAA in Ben Mauk’s case.

The NCAA agreed on Wednesday to re-hear Mauk’s appeal for a sixth year to complete his four years of eligibility.

If the appeal reaches the Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee, which ruled against Mauk on Aug. 8, Mauk has been assured that he will be given a chance to speak, something that he was not allowed to do the last time.

But Kevin Murphy, Mauk’s attorney, said he hopes the matter never reaches the committee.

“The (NCAA) staff is going to hear it first,” Murphy said. “If the staff agrees with us, he’s back on the field.”

File a lawsuit that would force the NCAA to make its explanation in a court of record and suddenly they want to re-hear the matter. Funny how that works.

Everyone knew it was coming, so to the surprise of no one, Bill Stull was “officially” named the starting QB. The real question is about the back-ups and who gets a redshirt.

On the second and third QBs:

“We don’t have an order, that’s going to be the challenge. We can’t work five quarterbacks but we have got to plan for that. We’ll work through it; the scrimmage today will help us in how we stack the quarterbacks around Billy. We’ll definitely redshirt one, possibly two.”

Kevan Smith has already used his redshirt, so it’s not him. Greg Cross is technically a possibility, but that would waste the whole wildcat package with LeSean McCoy so that would be highly, highly unlikely. That leaves freshman Tino Sunseri and Pat Bostick. Obviously Sunseri is going to be redshirted.

Bostick is still up in the air. I figure the plan is to hope Stull stays healthy, and unofficially have Bostick as the redshirt guy unless Stull were to get hurt and forced to miss at least one game. If Stull gets banged up and has to come out for a series or even a quarter, the coaches would take a chance with Smith and Cross to get the job done.

Again, it’s the conventional wisdom and completely logical. I see nothing that would suggest Coach Wannstedt and OC Cavanaugh are going against it.

There was one injury by the end of training camp that effects the starters.

[Starting Weak-side LB Shane] Murray came out on crutches at Wednesday’s scrimmage — which concluded Pitt’s training camp — and Panthers coach Dave Wannstedt said the redshirt junior is “day-to-day” with a strained right knee.

“We’re going to keep him off it through the weekend and see where he’s at the first of the week,” Wannstedt said of Murray. “Hopefully, the first of the week he’s feeling better and we can get him back with the team. It’s all a matter of whether he gets back to feeling that he can practice.”

If Murray isn’t ready for the season opener against Bowling Green on Aug. 30 at Heinz Field, the Panthers might have to choose between Ransom and Roberts as a replacement. Both, like Murray, are converted safeties.

Long-term, Tristan Roberts is likely going to be a starter at the WILL, but he is only a redshirt freshman and still learning. Ransom is a fifth-year senior with experience all over the field (mainly special teams), and a very smart, tough player. A former walk-on who has moved up the depth chart by doing everything right.

“He’s a very good tackler. He’s aggressive. That was proven by the things he did on special teams,” linebackers coach Joe Tumpkin said. “We’re just looking at the best situation to help our team become better, and we felt that moving him over to the linebacker spot gives us some added depth and makes us a lot better because of the depth. Him being older, him being mature and him having been in game situations is going to help him naturally see things quicker than the other guys.”

Ransom got the attention of defensive coordinator Phil Bennett while playing safety this past spring to provide depth, and his aggressive style and solid tackling technique prompted his move back to defense.

“At the end of spring, I looked at my production chart and he was like one in four: every fourth play he made a play,” Bennett said. “He runs a 4.5, he’s 215 pounds and if you watch him, he’s like a little buzz-saw out there. Wherever the ball is, he’s there. I think it made Tristan better. We’re starting to develop something we didn’t know we had.”

It’s always cool to see former walk-ons become key members of a team. Not just get rewarded with a scholarship, but earning spots on the two-deep because he’s maxing out his effort and potential.

Then there’s the offensive line. I think it’s getting past the point of just sending messages to Joe Thomas. There have just been too many mentions by Coach Wannstedt throughout the camp.

One is that Wannstedt hesitated to name junior Joe Thomas the starter at right tackle, leaving the door open for freshman Lucas Nix. Thomas likely will get the nod, but it’s far from over.

“We’ve got some real healthy competition going on in that offensive line,” Wannstedt said. “Pretty soon here, in the next couple days, by the first of the week, we’re going to have to name a starting group. But Lucas is going to play. Whether he’s a starter or not will be determined. But he’s going to play.”

Nix is a blue-chipper and no question, he was probably going to crack the 2-deep this year regardless of Coach Wannstedt’s most fervent wishes to redshirt. It is frustrating, though, that he already is in contention to start. Thomas has simply not shown much improvement since his freshman year. It makes me wonder whether he really showed flashes then, or it was it another reflection of how much worse the line was a couple years ago.