There’s a rhythm to training camp media coverage. The first few days is about how the players look, what the coaches are saying, and just general optimism. The players are without pads, and just doing drills.

Then the pads go on and the hitting starts. The reports are about what is happening on the practice field. Injuries, who looks good, bad, moving up the depth chart. How the units are looking.

As always, there are individual stories spaced in there. But at the end of camp. That’s when the individual stories dominate. It is all that is left for a while. There isn’t much more to write about practices. Depth charts are mostly set. It is really about counting down to the first kickoff.

That means most of the stories start focusing on individual players and the soft-focus puff pieces. Let’s hit them quickly.

There’s the hometown paper stories.

Hello, Johnstown. Time to laud Mike Cruz’s work ethic.

“Nothing’s really set in stone right now,”?he said. “You just have to go into training camp with a clear mind and be ready to work. That’s what I’m doing.”

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt has seen that work ethic from Cruz.

“Mike Cruz is working hard at becoming a complete tight end,”?Wannstedt said. “As a freshman, he couldn’t have had two better role models than Nate Byham and Dorin Dickerson, two players who are in the NFL now. Mike has always had reliable hands as a receiver, and he’s had some of our best catches in training camp. His focus has been being an asset in both the run and pass games, and his development has been encouraging.”

So which of Pitt’s two star tight ends from last year does Cruz’s game resemble more?

“I’m not quite sure,”?he said with a laugh.?“I just try to go out and play and leave that up to the coaches and the fans to decide that.”

Staying in metro-Johnstown, and Antwuan Reed nailing down a starting CB spot.

“I feel like it’s my time,” he said. “I’ve been working hard and listening to coaching. This offseason, this whole summer, really helped me out, just getting better, catching more film all summer. That really helped me out.”

Reed received the Ed Conway Award in the spring as the team’s most improved defensive player. He said there was no secret to his improvement, just hard work.

“Just working my technique, and more film. Just taking in what the coaches are telling me, every day,” he said. “It’s just a maturity thing. As you get older, you understand the game more. More and more film helps you out a lot.”

Reed had one forced fumble and an interception last year, but he also struggled after getting thrust into action against Notre Dame last year. But Reed sees the benefit of those growing pains.

“It’s definitely a learning experience,” he said. “You have to take in everything and learn from game situations.”

And starting at the other corner spot is Ricky Gary. Finally seeing the light.

“This is the player we all had been waiting for,” Pitt defensive backs coach Jeff Hafley said. “Ricky has really committed himself and he isn’t making excuses, he isn’t letting things bother him, he is just playing hard and fighting and competing. He’s really done a great job of taking the bull by the horns and attacking that position and showing us that he’s really serious about becoming the best player he can be.

“Sometimes it takes until the senior year for the light to go on so to speak, but I think in Ricky’s case it clearly has and he is clearly a much different player than he was even last year.”

Gary, a fifth-year senior from Pahokee, Fla., said that although being in his last year has increased his sense of urgency, it isn’t the reason that he is so focused and playing at such a high level.

He said it goes back to last season, when he gave up a couple of long passes and realized that he wasn’t nearly as good as he should be.

“I got beat a few times and I was embarrassed, but I also got mad because I know I’m a better player than I showed,” he said. “I think the thing with a team is, all of us have to carry our weight and I didn’t want to be the one to let the team down. So, I worked really hard with Buddy Morris in the offseason, he challenged me, he pushed me, he really made me tougher.

“I just knew going into this season, I didn’t want to be the weak link, I wanted to be a guy who helps the team win every game. Buddy really pushed me in the offseason and that is where I am at now.”

With long-snapper John Fieger suspended until the end of camp, the duties are falling to free safety/special teams guy Marco Pecora.

Pecora, who is a free safety with the Panthers, has been working with the first-team punting unit as a long snapper.

The 5-foot-11, 205-pound redshirt sophomore doesn’t seem like the typical long snapper, but he said a change in philosophy gave him a chance.

“Last year at camp we changed our punt formation to a spread punt,”?he said. “That allows the center to be in more space.?Instead of your typical 280-pound long snapper, they were looking for smaller, more athletic guys.”

Pecora fit the bill, and while he wasn’t ready to win the job last year,  he has become much more comfortable snapping to punter Dan Hutchins.

The biggest puff piece recipient, is a well-deserved double-down for Alex Karabin. Both papers give him the praise and puffery. He’s earned it. From walk-on to starting center in his senior year and getting a scholarship for his final season. It’s a fine story that gets a happy ending before the season even begins.

After a long odyssey in which he spent one year at a prep school and four years as a walk-on at Pitt, Karabin will make the first start of his college career in the Panthers’ season opener against Utah 11 days from now.

“It’s satisfying,” said Karabin, who beat out redshirt freshman Jack Lippert for the starting center job in training camp. “Coach [Dave] Wannstedt always says those who stay will play. If you can tough it out and do what you’re supposed to do, you’ll get your shot. And it’s true.”

Karabin’s story is one of perseverance and overcoming the odds. After graduating from high school, he attended Air Force Prep with the idea of moving on to the Academy the following year. But after a year he realized that military life was not for him, and he decided to return home to walk on at Pitt.

Since arriving in 2005, Karabin has watched three other centers start in front of him, but the redshirt senior never gave up hope.

While it seems like a fine ending. The real stuff will just begin.

As part of the tradition at Pitt, senior offensive linemen are carried off the field by younger linemen on the last day of training camp.

Center Alex Karabin’s ride was more satisfying than most.

Karabin, a first-year starter, was hoisted moments after learning he had earned an athletic scholarship following four years as a walk-on.

“I guess I was expecting it, but I’m still a little bit surprised,” Karabin said. “It’s nice to see it actually come through. It means a lot.”

Another former walk-on, earned a scholarship last year and is now starting on the D-line. Chas (swell name) Alecxih is part of the new interior for the defense.

“I had a lot of confidence in him last year,” Gattuso said. “I trust him. I think he’s a good football player right now”

Alecxih isn’t a prototypical interior lineman – he’s taller than most recent defensive tackles in Pitt’s system – but he uses an unorthodox style to beat offensive linemen and get into the backfield. He wiggles and strains and bends, all with the sole intent of finding the guy with the ball.

“I like to think I have a feel for where the ball is going to be and I’ve always had a natural knack for pass rushing,” Alecxih said. “But I had to work on stopping the run. I’m still trying to improve that.”

Gattuso said Alecxih’s strength, size and contortions make him difficult to block.

“He’s kind of slippery,” Gattuso said. “He’s not a classic technician. He’s an instinctive player.”

And the other, Myles Caragein, is one Pitt fans have been waiting to see as a starter since coming as a big recruit.

Why, then, is there almost no talk about replacing Mick Williams, who was a dominant and disruptive nose tackle? Mostly because Pitt has a highly capable player waiting in the wings.

Junior Myles Caragein was the third tackle last season and was nearly as productive as Williams in less snaps. He had the same number of sacks (five) as Williams and only seven fewer tackles, though he had only half the tackles for loss (8.5) that Williams piled up (17). Pitt’s coaches are confident there won’t be a dropoff this year, though Caragein knows that’s not guaranteed.

“Those are big shoes to fill,” he said. “It’s not pressure, but I have a lot to live up to. I can’t just go out there and be average. I have to live up to expectations and perform to the level that Mick did.”

Not a lot of worries about Caragein in the starting spot. Sticking on the defensive side, Justin Hargrove in the words of Coach Wannstedt, “came out of nowhere.”

Hargrove’s depth-chart ascension was a welcomed success for a snake-bitten former Baldwin High School star whose first two seasons at Pitt were plagued by injuries and setbacks. He is turning into another playmaker on a Panthers defensive line already considered among the best in the nation

“I just let loose this year,” Hargrove said. “I didn’t think that much. I just worked as hard as I can every day.”

The 6-foot-4, 270-pound Hargrove has seen more live reps due to injuries to All-America senior end Greg Romeus (back spasms), who has missed virtually all of training camp, and redshirt sophomore end Shayne Hale, who has been hobbled with a sprained ankle.

But Hargrove has made the most of his opportunities, working with the second unit in last week’s scrimmage and all of Sunday afternoon’s practice.

Hargrove switched from defensive tackle during spring drills, and after playing some third-team tackle for the first week of training camp, he moved to left defensive end to stay.

“I was fifth tackle,” Hargrove said. “It was going OK. When I moved back out to end, it felt more natural. I knew what I was doing, exploding off the ball.”

I honestly never thought Hargrove would play, and that it might not be a bad thing. Hargrove had a scary injury before he even finished his senior year of high school (brain contusion). He couldn’t stay healthy at Pitt. Another guy, kind of forgotten despite being a heralded recruit.

Still not done with the defense, as it is good to have Andrew Taglianetti out on the defense and special teams once more.

Taglianetti, a redshirt sophomore who missed most of last season with a knee injury, has recovered so well that he is one of Pitt’s most valuable and versatile players. He may be one of its best special teams players, and he is first-team safety in the nickel and dime defenses. Plus, he can play both safety positions in the base formation.

“If he comes back this year and has a big year, which I believe he will,” coach Dave Wannstedt said, “he will be as good as anyone in the country at (special teams).”

It’s probably a sign of how much further the defense is ahead of the offense that the majority of the player pieces are about defensive players. So let’s end this long list with someone from the offense.

While Shanahan is bracing for more throws his way as the starting split end opposite All-Big East flanker Jon Baldwin, the redshirt sophomore is concentrating more on avoiding hits this fall than absorbing them.

“I try not to think about it,” Shanahan said. “One of my goals this year is to be more patient when I catch the ball across the middle. Last year, I was catching the ball and tucking for cover because I knew somebody was coming. This year, whenever I make the catches, I need to turn around and make the first guy miss and get some yards after the catch.”

Shanahan had 15 receptions for 211 yards last season, a respectable average of 14.1, but was more known for making first downs than touchdowns. He developed a reputation as the Panthers’ top possession receiver after 12 catches moved the chains, including eight on third downs.

“I think he’s one of our most reliable guys,” Pitt offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. said. “You get good effort every day, every play. There’s consistency in his work, there’s consistency in his routes.”