True, no Pitt football tonight. Not even a Big East team playing (unless you count 1-AA Villanova playing Temple in the Mayor’s Cup). Still, meaningful football starts tonight. No scrimmages. No NFL exhibition games. Real college football, and some good games to boot.

As for Saturday, the Penguins are going to be without a few players. Not sure which ones, but that’s how suspensions at YSU roll.

As if going up against the preseason favorite to win the Big East Conference wasn’t hard enough, Youngstown State will be at an even bigger disadvantage against Pitt after an undisclosed amount of players were suspended for Saturday’s game due to a violation of team rules.

YSU coach Jon Heacock did not divulge the names of the players nor the number.

“It’s a handful of guys,” Heacock said. “It’s a one-week thing, but I always take these things under review. I’m obviously disappointed it has to happen, but we have rules that have to be followed.”

I know I’ll be closely comparing the depth chart to who is on the field.

The Penguins’ head coach has also reassumed his duties as defensive coordinator. Something he hasn’t done since Jim Tressel was still running things in Youngstown.

The game does provide a warm-up in facing a dual threat running/passing QB.

Pitt won’t play another team like Youngstown State this year, but the Panthers may face a quarterback like Brandon Summers again.

The dual-threat senior at Youngstown State – Pitt’s only non-Division I opponent this season – will provide the Panthers a hint of what lies ahead.

“He can throw, and he’s a scrambling threat,” Pitt defensive coordinator Phil Bennett said. “It’s a very good test for us because we are going to see a lot of the things throughout the year.”

Summers and senior Donald Jones, an NFL-caliber wide receiver, will be the focus of Pitt’s heralded defense when YSU visits at 1 p.m. Saturday at Heinz Field for the 2009 opener.

To varying degrees Pitt will face dual threat QBs from Navy, NC State, USF and WVU. Plus there’s alwyas a possibility with Rutgers using Jabu Lovelace (maybe not, but I haven’t had a chance to type in one of the best names in CFB yet this year).

Shariff Harris has been reinstated to the team after his 2-week suspension. He has not transferred. Unlikely he will see any action. No word as to whether he will be changing positions yet.

DC Phil Bennett is trying to reign in the defense’s confidence in light of all the attention and expectations on them.

“We’ve gotten some accolades that are undeserving,” Bennett said. “When we played Oregon State, we were a damn good defense and some of these guys weren’t even on the field. You have to earn respect and, to do that, we’re going to try and be perfectionists and we’re going to coach them hard.

“This is a fun group because we can get there and we know we have a lot of room for improvement. We expect to get better, but it does not happen without hard work.”

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt echoed Bennett’s sentiment and issued a challenge to his defense, saying nothing matters until the games start.

“This time of year, it is all just talk really,” Wannstedt said. “[The media] has to pick top teams, and they have to talk about positions and individuals. But the great thing about this game of football is that you have to go out there and prove yourself, and you are only as good as your last play.”

And very likely we won’t know anything for certain after this week. No matter how it is sliced, this is against a middling 1-AA team. A team that I will mention again has yet to score a TD against 1-A opponents in four games.

Joe Starkey feels like being a downer today.

Bennett’s defense has a chance to be dominant, though a lack of experience at linebacker and a lack of height in the secondary could prove problematic.

Offensively, you never know what you’re getting with freshmen, and Pitt will have two (Dion Lewis, Ray Graham) sharing the tailback duties. The line should be decent. The tight ends and receivers are plenty talented.

Which brings us back to quarterback, where fifth-year senior Bill Stull will start Saturday’s opener against Youngstown State, with redshirt freshman Tino Sunseri as the backup.

If Pitt gets above-average play from that position, look out. Otherwise, I believe we’re looking at 9-4 again.

That would give Pitt back-to-back seasons of nine-or-more wins for the first time since 1981-82, but it would not constitute a return to the glory days.

Wannstedt’s promise would remain unfulfilled.

Not sure what the point of this column is except to point out that obviously Pitt is not where Coach Wannstedt and everyone would love for this team and program to be: a juggernaut akin to the mid-70s into the early-80s.

Frankly, even with the conference the way it is, another 9-4 season (provided one of the wins was a bowl win) would still be a big positive and another step forward.

There just is no way, in my view, for this team to be taking giant leaps as constituted and coached. Frustrating as it frequently is, and as disappointing as it has been at many spots, this is Coach Wannstedt’s team. His construction of them and the way it operates is very much the slow growth. There are plenty of questions about it.

In some ways — building depth, teaching and defense first — this is proper./ In other ways — kids turning pro early, not putting talent on the field and using it best before their eligibility is over, failing to adapt to present  football that encourages offense and some imagination — it has been poorly thought out.

Starting this weekend, we all get to start finding out how reality meets our expectations and perceptions once more.