The verbal yesterday was the good stuff. Camp itself had little of major news. And that’s a good thing. When practice is padless, big news is usually bad news. A suspension, a fight, an injury, an arrest.

The biggest stuff out of camp was an apology and confidence.

Rori Blair and Tyler Boyd were allowed to speak to the media. They offered apologies for their separate DUIs.

“A couple of months ago, I made a real dumb mistake,” Boyd said. “We live, we learn. On the field and off the field, we’re always going to make mistakes. One of the things that I strive for and the people around me always keep in my head is just never make the same mistake twice. We’re going to live and learn from this, and I’m going to come back even stronger than I was previously.”

“I just wanted to say I apologize for the mistake that I made,” Blair said. “It was really immature of me. I just want to say sorry to the whole world and sorry for letting the whole University of Pitt down. I just want to make it better.”

Reasonable minds can disagree (which includes Reed and I) over the adequacy/level of punishment given to each player by Head Coach Pat Narduzzi. We will all have to see how it plays out for the players going forward and the team/program over the longer-term.

For the practices, the thing to keep in mind is that information will mostly be cherry-picked and delivered by the program itself. Like under Chryst, practices are closed to the media except for the first 30 minutes — which is mostly stretching and loosening up. After practice, certain players will be made available to the media (and the media does get to at least express their desire for certain players). As will the head coach and some of the coordinators and position coaches.

That means video highlights and information is all controlled and disseminated by Pitt. I realize this is hardly unique among the major conference programs, but I still find it silly, paranoid and overly controlling by the coaches.

Here’s the full, post-practice quote sheet from Pitt.

Narduzzi did not want to talk much about the freshmen at this point since it is only one practice, except to make note of Ben DiNucci at QB and Anthony McKee at LB. Odds of seeing DiNucci on the field this year will hopefully remain very, very slight. McKee, however, could be a factor.

Even with the new coaching staff, there is still plenty of confidence in the offense.  Especially since it isn’t like the system is radically changing.

From QB Chad Voytik.

“I think Coach [Jim] Chaney is really good about getting more perimeter passes on the roll, that kind of stuff, but also keeping it in the pocket. As far as the concepts go, it’s pretty similar. A lot of stuff carried over from our last offense to this one, except for some different terminology and a few different route combinations. It’s been good. I’ve learned a ton from Coach Chaney as far as how protections and the run game goes and schemes. So, all of that has really been beneficial to me.”

Lots of confidence in the offense.

Members of Pitt’s offense are confident in the unit’s potential this season and didn’t mince words when discussing future success.

“I feel like we’re gonna be the top offense in the ACC,” Boyd said. “There’s a lot of talk going around saying ‘Clemson this, Clemson that.’ They’re a high-powered offense. So are we.”

Boyd’s optimism springs from the fact that Pitt returns three dynamic junior playmakers: himself, running back James Conner and quarterback Chad Voytik.

Voytik wasn’t as decisive as the star wideout, but also expressed his excitement for the offense.

“I think we can be the best offense in the ACC,” Voytik said. “That’s our goal. We’re looking to win ACC championships. With that hopefully comes the best offense and the best defense.”

Clemson may end up scoring more points simply because their offense is much faster paced, but I don’t think Boyd is being overconfident about the potential of the offense.

A lot of fun will be in how the offense looks, especially with Artie Rowell back at center and the shuffling on the O-line. Still, the attention I expect most fans and local media will concern themselves with the defense.

[Lafayette] Pitts, meanwhile, said the culture of the defense has changed to be more reliant on the players themselves.

“This defense has more an attitude of us getting on each other, trying to help each other,” Pitts said. “It’s not so much the coaches yelling at us and getting at us. It’s us helping each other and pushing each other with the coaches in there to help us if we need them.”

Jordan Whitehead did indeed start practice with the safeties. Pat Amara did not practice yesterday, but was cleared medically and will began competing with Whitehead at Safety today.