With the sheer volume of season ending injuries, there will be no shortage of stories on players coming back from injuries and ready to take the field for drills and get that first hit out of the way for the psychological portion of knowing they are truly healthy.

Derek Kinder is first up, because he was at the Big East Media Day and what else can you ask a player who missed all of last season.

Big East media day provided an interesting view as to just how much things have changed for Kinder.

When he attended the event last year, he was clearly Pitt’s big star and media darling, the one who attracted the most attention because of how well he played as a junior.

This year, however, he sat quietly, for the most part, between Panthers stars LeSean McCoy and Scott McKillop and watched as they received most of the attention. Kinder wasn’t bothered by that, though, because he’s too focused on the season he plans on having.

“Man, I think the key to me is this — I have been counting down the days to get back on that field once the initial shock of my injury wore off,” he said. “I just want to help my team win, nothing more or less. I am so hungry just to get back after it — I feel like I want to go outside in the parking lot and play right now. And these two guys sitting here with me [McCoy and McKillop] deserve all the attention they are going to get — they are both superstars and both great teammates who work hard.”

Kinder was already one of the best on Pitt’s team at knowing the right things to say. That hasn’t changed.

So inevitably the subject turned to the matter of getting back out there..

Kinder is bracing for the one-year anniversary of his injury — as well as the first day of practice in full pads. He participated in spring drills but only in non-contact work.

While Kinder claims to be 100 percent physically, he has to overcome the apprehension athletes face upon returning from a serious injury.

“I haven’t felt contact, getting hit with pads on, in over a year-and-a-half,” Kinder said. “So when I get hit for the first time and get up and I’m all right, that’s when I know I’ll be good to go.

“I’m definitely looking forward to getting hit on that first day in pads and feeling the ground for the first time in a while.”

The 2008 media guide (PDF) came over the weekend (thanks, E.J.). Fully heralding the beginning of complete immersion into Pitt football. Not just looking for recruiting scraps and the occasional puff pieces.

Now we are on the verge of practice reports, subjective views on how things looked at points in drills or a scrimmage. Puff pieces on the various new coaches. Talk of how the offseason conditioning program has done wonders for players. Optimism, fueled by a lack of context and comparison. Good times.

I think I’ve been consistent in saying Coach Dave Wannstedt is not going to be fired if Pitt were to disappoint this year. In that respect, he is not on the hot seat. I do think, however, that this is a big year for the Wannstedt reign. The big excuses — year 1, new system; year 2, defense stunk so blame recruiting; year 3, injuries and officiating — are done. A losing or .500 record and it will be hard to say that Wannstedt is the guy to even get this team to the level Walt Harris had it.

The article on the faith in Wannstedt by the administration is nothing not already known. Coach Wannstedt is on great terms with the key folks — Nordenberg and Pederson. Everyone knows it. There is no question that support has been a benefit to Pitt on  the recruiting side.

“One of the reasons we had the No. 1 recruiting classes in the Big East the past three years is I’m not looking to try to get another college or NFL job,” Wannstedt said. “I’ve done those things. I’m here to finish my career at Pitt.

“It’s one thing for me to say it, but when the administration does the same thing, it’s definitely reassuring to recruits and their parents.”

So, rare is the day I find myself nodding with a Smizik column, but I do agree with his point(s) here.

Wannstedt knows how to run a football program. He knows how to recruit. He knows how to glad-hand the alumni. He is expert at dealing with the media. He’s very good with the general public. He’s the guy any school would want as the face of its program — except for those bothersome game days. On those Saturdays and the occasional Thursday and Friday night, too often things that should not go wrong do go wrong.

On game day, Wannstedt’s Pitt teams have failed to live up to, if not expectations, the level of the team’s talent.

…

That’s where Wannstedt’s teams have fallen. They have not been ready to play up to expectations every week.

I, along with most of you, can point to a couple of games in the first 3 seasons that still absolutely boggle. Ohio and Nebraska; Rutgers and UConn; Navy and Michigan State. Games that Pitt lost that were so winnable.

Oddly enough, Smizik is actually optimistic in this column. He believes.

This is the year Wannstedt gets it. He is too good a coach to continue to stumble against inferior opposition. He has done too much good recruiting to continue to head a losing program.

Pitt can win nine games this year, maybe 10. It can win the Big East and go to a major bowl game. It can place itself as one of the elite teams in the conference. The work Wannstedt has done on those six other days has put the Panthers in a position to do all this.

“This season, it seems like everything is in the right place,”‘ said All-American linebacker Scott McKillop. “Our defense is coming back. We have a great running back [McCoy], who is a special player.”

This is the year Wannstedt becomes a seven-day-a-week coach.

In a rarity for all us, here’s hoping Smizik is right.

Tony Greco of Pantherlair.com (Pitt’s Rivals.com site) performed an exercise this past week in fun prognostications. Going over all 12 of Pitt’s games in a series of posts — Games 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12.

Take this sort of thing with the amusement it should be. There are no wins and losses predicted, just a light and breezy breakdown. It’s a good way to focus on some of the key players from each opponent. Plus, as befitting a recruiting site, they highlight some of the recruits that Pitt and the opponent of the week were in the running to get.

If this sort of thing doesn’t get you juiced for the season and start of training camp, well then you just don’t obsess in the offseason.

Maybe Running Back. Maybe Safety. Maybe Outside Linebacker. Your guess is as good as mine. Okay, running back seems unlikely considering the talent already backing-up behind McCoy.

So, welcome the presumable sleeper recruit in Kevin Adams. A kid who seems to have talent but no one position.  A 2- to 3- star recruit from New Jersey. A kid who plays both sides of the ball and probably could stand to be kept at one position.

It’s a 6-man group of college presidents — 3 from football schools and 3 from basketball schools. The co-chairs are Georgetown President John J. DeGioia and Pitt President Mark Nordenberg. The other 4 presidents are from USF, Rutgers, Marquette and Notre Dame.

[Time for a tangent. Notre-frickin’-Dame was put on the search committee? Are you kidding me? How can either side be supportive of that? On the basketball side, you put a president from a school where football rules — albeit remaining independent of the Big East — and they are a big budget athletic department. They may have interests that are aligned with the basketball schools, but it is not the same thing. Most of the basketball only schools have modest athletic department budgets and so costs are a major concern for them.

As for the football schools, you are talking a school that is so clearly a flight/flirt risk from the conference when it suits them. Every school has their own interests, but Notre Dame’s is very obvious and very much opposite of the football schools. The football schools have an ongoing issue of needing at least a 9th member. To help with stability, scheduling and costs. Notre Dame is the big remaining prize among independents and non-BCS conference schools. Now I don’t believe ND would join the BE in full, but to give ND the position to help directly influence the hiring of the commissioner makes it more likely they would look to make the hire someone who wouldn’t push them or force the issue.]

Outgoing Commissioner Mike Tranghese of course is saying that the search will be fine and that there is full cooperation.

“The good thing is I don’t sense any turf (wars) in this thing. They want a good person who can handle this whole thing with an appreciation for what we are and how we’ve gotten here,” Tranghese said.

Tranghese is clearly a proponent of seeing an administrator with Big East roots succeed him. A leading candidate could be the Big East’s senior associate commissioner, ex-Providence College athletic director John Marinatto, or perhaps a key athletic director like UConn’s Jeff Hathaway or Louisville’s Tom Jurich. Asked if it might be better for a person to be hired from outside the league, Tranghese said, “That person is going to have to convince our presidents of that.”

That Tranghese would like to hire from within the conference ranks is not a shock. That’s how he got the job. There are plenty of Providence College tied  candidates in the BE office. I would also expect that the basketball schools are interested in keeping it from within the Big East offices.

I like the idea of Jurich or Hathaway, or to look outside the conference at people in the other BCS Conference offices. Obviously, the basketball schools would be wary of someone from say the SEC or Big 12 as football is such an important component. I really like Jurich, because he has shown to be a strong leader for Louisville and aggressive in making things happen. He’s not afraid to shake things up.

Nordenberg isn’t giving anything away right now.

He called it a “critical hire” because of all the hard work Tranghese had done to position the Big East among the B.C.S. conferences after the defections to the A.C.C. Nordenberg played down the notion of whether the candidate would be a football or basketball guy; the league has eight football-playing members and 16 in basketball.

“In terms of the general functioning of the conference today, I don’t really sense that tension as a constant part of life,” Nordenberg said. “Clearly both sports are very important to us. It would be hard to imagine that we would recommend someone not committed to both and a capable leader in terms of pushing both sports forward.”

Football is generally given priority in college sports because it generates more television and ticket revenue.

Nordenberg didn’t give a whole lot of hints as to what type of candidate the Big East would be looking for.

I expect that there won’t be anything close to a decision until at least April.