Summer time. Summer camps. Some mornings go better than others to get them moving. No children died today, but emotional scarring may have taken place.

Chris McKillop, the older brother of Scott McKillop and a good player in his own right at Pitt, has been looking at getting into coaching.

The 25-year-old was brought aboard as a graduate assistant to coach the defensive line at Duquesne this year. Last season, he served as a football intern, assisting with linebackers, special teams, strength and conditioning and equipment management at Division II West Virginia Wesleyan.

“At a smaller, Division II school like that, every coach has a bunch of responsibilities,” McKillop said. “It was a good experience. I got to see what it’s like. Now, I see things from a different perspective.”

He’s also taking a graduate program in sports leadership. Something that can aid for the administrative side of things.

Relating to a McKillop, Scott has been in town to help out at some of the  camps Coach Wannstedt has been running this year. He was in for the 7-on-7 passing camps. As was D.J. Dinkins — who despite being a journeyman NFL player making the minimum — continues to work in whatever community he is based to help kids.

Current and former players were also involved with the youth camp, including D.J. Dinkins, backup tight end for the Super Bowl-winning New Orleans Saints and a former Panther.

“I think it’s great that these boys can come out and just run around and have fun,” Dinkins said. “Through all the publicity and hype that football gets, it’s still just a game.”

Scott McKillop, a more recent Pitt alumnus, also made an appearance at the camp. McKillop is now a reserve/special teams linebacker with the San Francisco 49ers.

“I think it’s awesome,” he said of the camp. “Anytime you can start kids at a young age and get them exposed to football, and show them how fun it is, when they get older they’ll be a step ahead of other kids.”

Very, very interesting about these camps.

That’s why the Pitt coaching staff has changed its philosophy on the prospect camps this year. At a time when many college camps are seeing a decline in attendance because of the economy, the Panthers had almost 300 more players attend their June prospect camps this year than last.

The fix was simple. Wannstedt invited 65 to 70 coaches from more than 40 universities — from the Mid-American Conference, Division I-AA, Division II and Division III schools — to work with and scout players at the camp. As a result, more high school players had an opportunity to get recruited.

“We’d get 100 or 200 kids here [in camp] and, really, we might only be interested in four or five and maybe one we’d offer a scholarship,” Wannstedt said. “That just didn’t sit right with me. I thought we could make the experience better for the players and really make the camps something that could help more kids play college football.

“We can only take 15 to 25 kids every year but there are an awful lot of really good football players out there who we’d bring to our camps and I felt like we could do a better job to make the camps something that would be helpful to them and help them get a shot that maybe they wouldn’t get otherwise.”

Now, beyond the cool thing of simply making more kids available to be evaluated to other programs, this is a brilliant goodwill program in the area.

You not only make the camp more than just learning for the kids, and an opportunity to be seen. You have them going back to their high schools talking about it. How Pitt and the coaches gave them opportunities.

Then there is the goodwill with the lower 1-A schools that get to take part. They know Pitt and Coach Wannstedt are helping them, and saving them some vital recruiting budget money. They can get a chance to evaluate and review more possible kids without having to go out as much on the recruiting trail. They can hone in on others. That goodwill can only help Pitt when it comes to getting the non-con games on the schedule later.

Also have to love how Coach Wannstedt puts all the money to the assistants rather than his own pocket.

Finally, congrats to Nate Byham for signing a deal with the 49ers.

The San Francisco 49ers have signed rookie tight end Nate Byham to a four-year deal.

The team announced the deal with its sixth-round pick Monday. Byham is the fourth of San Francisco’s eight draft picks to sign a contract.