A scrimmage on Saturday and for the next two practices, players have been held out of practice.

“We had a couple of guys get banged up in the scrimmage. Henry Hynoski had a mild concussion, so we held him today. Dion Lewis has a touch of the flu, he was sick, so we held him. Ray Graham didn’t practice today. He sprained his knee, so we held him. The only real significant injury is Bryan Murphy. Unfortunately, he got stepped on, and broke a little bone in his foot. He’s going to have surgery tomorrow, and it’ll probably be six weeks before he’s back with us.

It was a good practice today. We’re into it now. We haven’t had a break, we haven’t had a day off and we got better today. I liked what I saw. We had some new guys getting some opportunities today because of the guys that were missing, and they took advantage of it. Today was a good, solid camp practice.”

Murphy was the most noticeable injury. The true freshman DE actually stood a chance of breaking into the depth chart with the way he was playing. He is almost certainly heading for a redshirt year. That means the 4th DE spot on the 2-deep will come down to Nate Nix or Shane Hayle.

The sprained knee for Ray Graham is a bit of a concern to me. Everyone seems to be downplaying it, but given how Greg Romeus missed nearly a week — and it took nearly that long before there was any mention of him having back spasms — I don’t necessarily believe what Pitt is saying about some injuries. It’s a shame, because Graham has been having another solid camp — really pushing Coach Wannstedt to make sure that the load at tailback is shared a bit more with Dion Lewis. This sort of injury and missed time in camp is the sort of excuse that will have Coach Wannstedt stick with overloading one back with all the carries.

Another member of the backfield having a great camp was fullback Henry Hynoski.

That’s why the highlight of today’s practice, at least to me, was the short yardage (third-and-2) and goal line periods.

The first play of was a hand-off to Henry Hynoski and he had a nice hole to run through – which is bad news for the linebackers and secondary because they made the mistake of stepping in and trying to stop him – and he blasted them with the sounds of pads and helmets colliding.

First down.

The second play they handed the ball to Dion Lewis and he got a vicious lead block from Hynoski on Greg Williams (who was sent into the backfield on a run blitz) and Williams seemingly deflated as Hynoski trampled him and Lewis went through the hole.

Hynoski, however, has missed the practices since the scrimmage with a “mild” concussion.

Other players missed practice on Monday, but there was one notable return as well.

“It was very encouraging this morning with Greg [Romeus],” Wannstedt said Monday night before his team took the field for a rare night workout during camp. “He came out and took every snap in full pads, inside run, team, pass rush. He did everything from start to finish and felt good afterward. We’re headed down the right road there.”

While Romeus returned after a long absence, several other players were either limited or did not practice in the morning session. They included defensive lineman Myles Caragein, linebacker Tristan Roberts, safety Dom DeCicco, tight end Andrew Devlin and running backs Dion Lewis, Ray Graham and Henry Hynoski. None of the injuries to those players are considered serious.

Also missing from camp it seems were the regular beat writers. Ray Fittipaldo (b-ball beat writer) was filling in for Paul Zeise on the P-G, while Kevin Gorman reprised his beat role in place of John Grupp for the Trib.

Should also be mentioned that there were a number of defensive players held out of the Saturday scrimmage for minor injuries.

First off, defensive end Greg Romeus (back spasms), Myles Caragein (ankle), weak-side linebacker Tristan Roberts and strong safety Dom DeCicco (hamstring) were held out. Romeus has missed the past six days. DeCicco and Roberts – not sure what his injury is — were banged up during the morning practice.

That meant defensive end Brandon Lindsey, defensive tackle Tyrone Ezell, linebacker Greg Williams and safety Jason Hendricks all started with the first team on Saturday. The lack of depth kept the play-calling a little “vanilla,” according to Wannstedt.

“It really limited in what we could from a nickel package and dime package,” Wannstedt said. “We played a little bit more base than what we anticipated. I thought overall we were solid on defense.”

Wannstedt said the injuries are “no big deal,” and that all four sidelined players would have been available if the Panthers were playing a regular-season game.

The cynic in me wonders if Coach Wannstedt held them out to help the offense — especially the O-line — get a chance to get a little confidence after taking so much abuse in the first week.