Coach Dave Wannstedt and Joe Paterno were in the same room together with the media present. Naturally nothing was said of any consequence with relation to Pitt, PSU or Big Something expansion. It was pure Sgt. Schultz.

“There are a lot of rumors out there as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “I don’t have any comment on that. That is for the chancellor [Mark Nordenberg] and the higher ups to discuss.”

Not surprising that there was nothing said. The coaches were there out of pure self-interest to promote spring practices for high school football. Have the kids focus more on the sport that football coaches want them to play and not take notice of other sports. Not to mention put more wear, contact and abuse on their bodies earlier. Just like they do in Texas, Florida, and other states that are football first.

Curious about some of Coach Dave Wannstedt’s perceptions of his time in the NFL? Well, here’s a two-part story on Coach Wannstedt looking back on his time in the NFL. Part One:

OF COURSE, Wannstedt never anticipated being in the NFL to begin with.

He worked for Johnson at Oklahoma State and the University of Miami – interrupted by a stint as defensive line coach at Southern Cal.

He was there when the Hurricanes won a national title under Johnson and remembers a fateful weekend.

“After we won (the national championship),” Wannstedt recalled, “Jimmy called me in and said, ‘Remember that friend of mine from Arkansas, Jerry Jones? Well, what’s weird is,  he’s about to become owner of the Dallas Cowboys. And, you know what’s really weird? I’m going to be the head coach.’”

So started Wannstedt’s NFL career.

Part two is more interesting. It gets into his version of why he resigned in mid-year from the Dolphins, defends his time in Chicago and Miami (hint, it involves the lack of a QB). But things seem to be as much about his closeness with Jimmy Johnson.

The two became friends on the staff of former Pitt coach Jackie Sherrill after Johnny Majors left for Tennessee.

It didn’t take long for Johnson to be offered the head job at Oklahoma State and he asked Wannstedt to come along to Stillwater.

“The easy thing would have been to stay at Pitt,” Wannstedt admitted, :but I thought that, from a career standpoint, if I was going to make a living at this, I needed to get away from Pitt.”

The only time the two separated was when Wannstedt served a three-year stint as defensive line coach at USC.

But they rejoined at the University of Miami when Johnson had an extraordinary run.

“Our relationship was that he knew he could trust me,” Wannstedt said. “It’s very important to have two or three guys on your staff who have an understanding what your philosophy is, think the same way that you do and can put out a lot of fires for you

“We played golf and went to the islands and enjoyed our off-the-field time as much (as coaching).”

At least one of his investments turned out really poorly.

Seems Coach Wannstedt held some stock in Orion Bank in Naples.

There are 405 “holders” of private stock identified on Orion Bancorp’s registration list. Some names are repeated two or three times, with a different number of shares, indicating multiple holdings.

…

The five other directors of Orion Bancorp’s board – Earl Holland of Fort Myers, Brian Schmitt of Marathon, James Torok of Sarasota, Alan Pratt of Vero Beach and James Aultman of Marathon – were big investors in the holding company. In the group, Holland had the most shares – 273,136 – making him the second-largest individual shareholder after Williams.

Dave Wannstedt, a former coach of the Miami Dolphins and head football coach at the University of Pittsburgh, owned 71,008 shares.

The bank was one of the largest privately held bank in Florida.  It got shut down by the FDIC back at the end of September. The shareholder list just surfaced.

Ouch.

But, at least his name isn’t surfacing with failed real estate development deals and some banned booster named “Clegg.”

There really is only so much to say about Coach Wannstedt’s extension. Coach Wannstedt’s value to Pitt is not questioned. At the same time, it is not like he is going anywhere. Wannstedt’s value to Pitt is probably greater than in the open market. Not by much, as he could probably earn near his salary as a defensive coordinator in the NFL. He wouldn’t, however, get to be the head coach at this level of college or the NFL.

Neither side has any desire for that, though. The additional years on the contract are for purposes of refuting any negative recruiting efforts of how long Wannstedt will be at Pitt. To provide tangible evidence of both sides commitment. The bump is salary is to make sure Wannstedt knows Pitt is not taking him for granted. There are no mysteries here.

“The contract extension is really an indication of a mutual commitment to one another,” Pederson said.

He declined to disclose the terms of the agreement or say whether the extension increases Wannstedt’s pay.

“We have always tried to compensate our coaches fairly and make sure that they’re competitive,” Pederson said.

He said this is not “earth-shattering news” — Wannstedt knew the university wanted to extend his contract…

The move, as such didn’t create huge ripples in college football, but it is spring, so the news cycle is a little quieter.

Q. Dave Wannstedt received a contract extension from Pitt. How do you rate the job he has done there?

Hayes: Wannstedt will be the first to say it’s all about winning championships. Pitt is close, and could’ve won the Big East last year if the defense could’ve held a big lead on Cincinnati in the last game of the season. That said, he and his staff have made a significant impact on the program: from recruiting, to player development to winning (20 of the last 27 games).

When he was first hired, Wannstedt talked about how returning to his alma mater was an important step in his professional life. I’m not sure he realized how much he’d grow to enjoy the college game. When a coach is invested like that at a place he truly enjoys, only good things can happen.

Curtis: I’m thinking a solid B. The lack of a Big East championship sticks out, especially in a league that lacks the traditional juggernauts each of the other five BCS automatic qualifier conferences features. Throw in the head-scratching losses, even last season to N.C. State, and Wannstedt can’t rank among the best. Still, he’s brought together a strong staff, and he’s shown he can both recruit and develop players on both sides of the ball. A hair more consistency in the fall, and Wannstedt jumps to another coaching caste.

As Chris Peak points out, this is happily part of a time of coaching stability and success in both football and basketball. A rarity for most programs.

Even in terms of Pitt history, Wannstedt and Dixon have become two of the longest-tenured coaches in their respective sports. Wannstedt’s five years served tie him for the fifth-longest coaching stint in the football program’s 120-year history, and if he serves the full duration of the current contract, he will have been Pitt’s head coach for 10 years, which would rank as the third-longest tenure behind Jock Sutherland (15 seasons from 1924-38) and John Michelosen (11 seasons from 1955-65).

Wannstedt, who has a 35-26 record in five seasons and in 2009 led the program to its first 10-win season since 1981, is also just one of seven head football coaches in Pitt history to serve at least five consecutive seasons. The program has had a total of 34 head coaches in its 120-year history.

The men’s basketball program has had more consistency. Dixon’s seven-year tenure is also tied for the fifth-longest in program history, but the Panthers had just four head coaches – George Flint, Doc Carlson, Robert Timmons, and Charles Ridl – in the 64-year span from 1911 to 1975. Since 1975, only two coaches have led the Panthers for at least seven years: Paul Evans (1986-94) and Dixon.

…

“You can look at the University of Pittsburgh and say, ‘I’ve got pretty good assurance about what’s going to happen next,” Pederson said Wednesday. “I’m going to go there, I’m going to get a great education at a great university, I’m going to play on a great team, I’m going to be coached by outstanding people, and I don’t have to worry every year about what’s happening next. I can go in and I can achieve everything I’m trying to achieve without worrying about all of this other stuff.'”

Good times.

Really not much to say. I don’t have a real problem with it. It seems like the kind of formality to make it clear that he is going to be here a while — on the off chance someone wanted to negative recruit against Pitt that Wannstedt could be on his way out. We all know he isn’t going anywhere.

The extension in terms of years is only two more. He is now under contract until 2014. Presumably there is a bit of a bump in salary to keep him among the upper-part of the conference.

Just caught the second half of the press conference, where Coach Wannstedt was wrapping up talking about his love for Pitt, how the recruiting has improved, depth is much better, that there is stability in the program and kids know Pitt is not a stepping-stone for coaches.

Then the floor was opened to questions including spring practice. Yes, the topic of QBs just happened to be discussed. Coach Wannstedt remains steadfast that this is still a competition.

He said that Bostick is getting just as much work as Sunseri — just to different players. Yes, he said it with a straight face.

When talking about the two, it is clear that he sees much more potential in Sunseri at this point. He used the term “upside.” Mentioned how he can make throws and can move around so well.

Then it was time to say good things about Bostick.”Pat. Well, Pat is Pat.”

Yes that is what he said. I am reasonably certain that is an exact quote. He went on to say that he has confidence that Bostick could step on the field now and get the team in the endzone. If you had any further doubt about the depth chart at QB. This answered it.

Guys at the Cat Basket had been saying from the start, that Tino Sunseri was going to be handed the starting QB job by Coach Wannstedt in the spring. The early indications bore that out as the supposed to be a QB competition alternating the 1st and 2nd team between Pat Bostick and Sunseri went out the window as soon as practice began.

Now Offensive Coordinator Frank Cignetti is saying there is competition — but the description is in name only.

“Right now, there’s competition at every position. Tino’s number one and Pat’s number two, just like Dion Lewis is number one and Ray Graham is number two but there’s great competition. There’s competition at every position,” Cignetti said Thursday.

Cignetti’s analogy is telling: there’s no uncertainty about Lewis’s role in Pitt’s offense, and now there appears to be little uncertainty at the quarterback position as well.

Yeah, not the best comparison to suggest “competition” in the way expected. The thing that seems so odd is that Sunseri has hardly appeared to be running away with things by most accounts.

So far in spring camp, Sunseri has completed roughly 66% of his passes and has been intercepted six times, most coming in a rough outing on Tuesday when he threw four picks. Bostick has completed approximately 73.9% of his passes and has been picked off just twice.

“Some of the interceptions are bad decisions, and those are correctable,” Cignetti said. “Tino and Pat are doing a tremendous job of competing. The first thing we ask those young men to do is come out here and compete. They’re both out here to win a job, and they’re both here to win every snap and every drill. They’ve both done a very nice job running the offense. There are run-game adjustments, there are protection adjustments, and there are obviously decisions to make in the passing game, and I think that Tino and Pat have both made good decisive decisions.”

Yes, there is a big difference between passing against the 1st team defense and the 2nd team defense (especially with such low depth in the secondary). So that has to be taken into account. The fact that the coaching staff hasn’t even tried to switch things up early to pay lip service to competition with Sunseri and Bostick is still surprising. Even if the end result is predictable.

Also predictable. The story of a young player responding well to a new position coach and getting better. Hello, MLB Dan Mason and new Linebacker Coach Bernard Clark.

Mason has a new mentor who should help ease his transition. Bernard Clark took over as linebackers coach this spring after Joe Tumpkin left to become the defensive coordinator at Central Michigan.

Clark won two national championships when he was the starting linebacker for the Miami Hurricanes in 1987 and ’89. He wants to help Mason with his mental approach to the game.

“The best thing about Dan is he has such natural instincts,” Clark said. “The thing about Dan is you have to slow him down. He’s so excited about playing. He’s really hyper when he’s out there on the field. It’s basically pulling the reigns back and letting him know things develop in front of him — let it develop and react that way. He’s so quick to react right now. That’s the biggest thing we’re working with him on right now. His instincts and speed are outstanding.”

How’s it going in learning to handle pass coverage?

Clark said it’s not unusual for a linebacker coming from the high school ranks to be behind in pass coverage skills. Most high school teams do not face sophisticated passing schemes, so when they line up in college and face intricate passing games it is the first time they are exposed to it.

“It’s a situation where he hasn’t played the pass as much, so it’s getting used to it more than anything,” Clark said.

Insert cynical, snarky, outdated comment about going against Pitt’s offense to learn pass coverage.

Now for the silly. Pitt has depth at running back. We all know that. There’s some quality at the spot. So there’s the story of the competition pushing Dion Lewis and the absurd headline to the article. “Pitt rushing game won’t be one-man show.”

“We all know Dion had a lot of success last season. We know he did a great job,” said Pitt running backs coach David Walker. “But Ray Graham’s trying to win a job. Jason Douglas is trying to win the starting tailback job. Chris Burns is trying to win the starting tailback job. So, those guys are working hard, and they’re not going to concede anything to Dion.”

Now to be fair, there is nothing in the story to suggest that Pitt is even pretending that there will be a rotation at running back. Also keep in mind that the story writer is not the guy that writes the headlines for articles.

Take those factors out and it becomes a standard spring practice story on a position that is set. We know that Dion Lewis is the starter. That he is going to be the workhouse back — having already shown he can handle it — and that Coach Wannstedt is a one-back guy.

Just some assorted things relating to football that I’ll lump in a short link-dump.

The rest of Coach Wannstedt’s interview with ESPN.com’s Brian Bennett. Kevin Harper will at least take over kick-off duties it seems. Mike Cruz comes in as the #1 tight end with Devlin #2. Mason to no one’s shock will be MLB.

How about the offensive line? You lost three starters but it seems like you’ve been grooming some young guys to take over.

DW: Center will be the biggest position. Left guard will be fine. Chris Jacobson, he started the bowl game and can play. He’s a big, talented kid. Three years ago, he was the most highly recruited offensive lineman in the state of Pennsylvania. So he’ll be fine. There’s competition at right guard and the same thing at center. So we’ve got to fill two spots, but we’ve got some young guys who’ve been waiting for that opportunity. We’ll see. I’m not sure how it’s going to pan out.

Not even a hint as to who will be competing at the center spot. Meanwhile Robb Houser, who did a fine job in his brief time, is gearing up for Pitt’s pro day to show he can play in the NFL.

A major inspiration for him has been former Pittsburgh teammate C.J. Davis, now a guard in the league with the Carolina Panthers. Davis wasn’t drafted last year and like Houser doesn’t have exceptionally imposing size.

Being from the Pittsburgh system evidently provided quite a lift. Dave Wannstedt, with his 22 years worth of professional experience as a former NFL coach and player, runs the program and has been preparing college players well now for the business.

“C.J. couldn’t believe how simple it was when he had to first study the Carolina play schemes,” Houser said. “They’re very complicated at Pitt, it took me a year and a half to get down. I think that some of the coaches and players at Carolina were amazed how C.J. was able to master that system quickly and I’m not surprised because I know how complex the plays we run (at Pittsburgh) are.”

Former players from the school now in the NFL include New York Jets defensive back Darrelle Rivas, Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy and Carolina Panthers left tackle Jeff Otah. Those three are considered among the league’s best under 25 years of age and were manufactured by Wannstedt during their college careers.

Needless to say, Houser is hoping to join the tradition…

“Manufactured?”

Nate Byham gets discussed among TE prospects at the Patriots site.

“Smash-mouth football, the kind of guy who’s down in the trenches doing the dirty work,” was how Byham described himself and his game Thursday. “Not too many tight ends are known for getting all gritty and moving d-ends and throwing linebackers. That’s why I take pride in being able to get down there and maybe get out in the pass when people least expect it.”

Byham also pointed out that his head coach at Pitt, Dave Wannstedt (a long-time former NFL assistant and head coach) has been instrumental in molding him into a prototypical NFL blocking tight end. Scouts, he said, have told him that they can see how much more developed he is as a blocker than other college players at his position.

This article on Dickerson raising his stock at the combine also provided unintentional insight as to why Coach Wannstedt struggled with figuring out the right place to play him.

Still, it remains to be seen if he improved his draft stock because, at 6 feet 2, 226 pounds, Dickerson will have to add at least 15 pounds to be a flex tight end or H-back in the National Football League. If so, he thinks he can be a tight end on the order of Dallas Clark of the Indianapolis Colts or Vernon Davis of the San Francisco 49ers.

“They’re smaller type tight ends,” Dickerson said. “That’s what I classify myself as, a smaller receiving-type tight end.

“I think they’re going to look at me as a flex tight end. I’m probably going to put on some weight. I’ll be used in the slot and as a wing, all the H-back stuff. I think that’s how I’ll be used. But some teams might want me as a bigger receiver, I don’t know yet.”

Because of his athleticism and unique skills, Dickerson lined up at a number of different positions at Pitt, including wide receiver, H-back and running back. Nate Byham, who also attended the combine, was more of the natural tight end, primarily because he is a better blocker than Dickerson.

They apparently don’t know where to play him or classify him. It really seems to be an issue in the NFL as to body types and “prototypical” sizes. Coach Wannstedt (and to some degree former OC Matt Cavanaugh) with an NFL background struggled to recognize the potential at the TE spot in college until late.

At SI.com, Andy Staples managed to put together a team of top players who were so missed by the recruiting sites that they had 2-stars or less. Dion Lewis didn’t make the cut because even he got 3-stars. The only Pitt player, Greg Romeus.

Romeus played basketball for most of his life and didn’t take up football until his senior year at Coral Glades High in Coral Springs, Fla. The school was playing its first year of varsity football, so it wasn’t a destination for college recruiters. Romeus was set to sign with Central Florida, but Pitt made a late push and snagged a raw athlete who would grow into a fearsome pass rusher.

Former Big East Commish Mike Tranghese got $30,000 for six months consulting work to Memphis for how they can get into a BCS conference. Tranghese did not have to produce a written report, and his informed, measured advice seemed to boil down to: win more football games.

You know, we can pretend that the biggest concern is replacing two starting cornerbacks, the depth at safety, the change at MLB, who the hell is going to be the center.

No. We all know the big question as far as position question is the QB spot. Specifically Tino Sunseri or Pat Bostick. Let’s get it done now. So the fact that ESPN.com’s Big East writer Brian Bennett teased his interview with Coach Dave Wannstedt to end last week has been awaited.

Wannstedt said it will be a competition this spring between Pat Bostick and Tino Sunseri. Bostick redshirted a year ago, and Wannstedt said he really learned a lot and showed great improvement in practice. Wannstedt also had high praise for Sunseri, the redshirt sophomore who was Bill Stull’s backup a year ago.

“He’s ready to play now,” Wannstedt said. “It’s his time. He understands the offense, and we’ve got a good feel for his abilities and what he can do.”

This spring, Wannstedt said, Bostick and Sunseri will split the reps evenly early on in practice, with Andrew Janocko serving as the third-stringer.

Barring multiple, horrific injuries there will be no way incoming freshmen QBs Anthony Gonzalez or Mark Myers are even going to sniff the field this fall. So, by all means, pine for their tantalizing untapped potential. Drool over grainy and choppy YouTube snippets of their performances in high school. Dream of what they might one day do in the Blue and Gold. Just please, do me this small favor. Don’t even suggest that either will have a shot at starting come August. We all know it won’t happen.

So let’s go directly to the questions and quoted answers on the matter:

Let’s talk about the quarterback situation, which is always a big deal. Where does that stand going into the spring?

DW: We’re better off than we’ve been in the past for a couple reasons. From a depth standpoint, we have Pat Bostick coming back, and I think the redshirt year has done wonders for him knowledge-wise, from a physical and mental standpoint. And the interesting thing with Tino Sunseri is, if you go back to last spring we opened up the competition between Billy Stull, Pat Bostick and Tino. So all three quarterbacks got equal reps throughout the spring. Then we got to training camp and made the decision to redshirt Pat. And Tino was alternating between first group/second group all through camp with Billy.

So, really we came out of camp where Billy was a little bit ahead of him, but Tino had gotten so much work with the first group on offense, as I look back on it, it was one of the better things we did to help his development. So he’s ready to play now. He’s a redshirt sophomore. He understands the offense and we’ve got a good feel for his abilities and what he can do. So we’ll see what he can do. It’s going to be a competition.

Then we have two really good freshmen coming in, and obviously you’re not counting on them. But we like Anthony Gonzalez from Liberty (Penn.) and Mark Myers from (Cleveland) St. Ignatius. Here’s kind of an interesting tidbit: They were both picked to play in the Big 33 game; one will be playing for Ohio and one for Pennsylvania. So at some point in the game, both quarterbacks in the Big 33 game could both be going to Pitt. That’s probably never happened before.

Will you keep Gonzalez at quarterback? He’s a versatile all-around athlete.

DW: We’ll see. That’s the plan right now and we’ll just have to see how it unfolds.

So going into spring, is Sunseri No. 1 on the depth chart, or is it officially even between him and Bostick?

DW: We have a walk-on kid, Andrew Janocko, who’s been here three years. All three of them will get work. We’ll split the work early with Tino and Bostick, but I think they’ll both have to go and show what they can do, and we’ll give them each a chance to go out and prove themselves.

Do you anticipate the competition going into fall camp like last year?

DW: I don’t think so. I think it will be cleared up pretty good this spring. But you never know. I’m anticipating that it will.

How do you want to read it? Bennett seems to think that Sunseri goes in designated as the guy at least technically the #1 or 1A on the depth chart. If for no other reason being Sunseri was the #2 last year behind Stull.

I have no clue. Nothing in the answer seems to make it clear to me who is favored. Clearly Wannstedt thinks Sunseri has the opportunity. Does that mean it is his to lose? Does it just mean that he will gets to go out with the first team on the first day of practice?

There is the reality that Bostick had a redshirt available while Sunseri didn’t so there was a logic in that for last year.

We just haven’t seen Bostick in almost a year throw the ball in even a scrimmage situation. Wannstedt was careful to praise both.

Coach Wannstedt wants this settled by the end of spring practices. I’m guessing that fans won’t see it settled until late-August — at the earliest

As has been the case, nothing new. Very quiet and little drama with NLI day a couple days off.

ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. did a look back on the 2006 top-100  kids in the recruiting class (Insider subs.). Pitt had three players in that list and 0 busts– though LeSean McCoy (#50) ended up in prep school for a year before getting to Pitt. Nate Byham (#68) and Dorin Dickerson (#74) both should be considered successes. Even if Byham’s senior year was disappointing compared to his first few, and it really took until his senior year for Dickerson to become the weapon expected.

Brian Bennett looks at others in the Big East’s 2006 recruiting class, and notes that Pitt really had some good hits in this class with Byham, Dickerson, Pinkston and Romeus were all in this group.

As for recruiting this year, Rivals.com’s Jeremy Crabtree puts Pitt in his list of disappointments.

The Pitt Panthers fall into this category for one big reason – they lost out on the biggest names in Western Pennsylvania. Linebacker Mike Hull, quarterback Paul Jones and offensive linemen Thomas Ricketts and Miles Dieffenbach all bolted the western part of the state. What’s worse is that all four committed to in-state rival Penn State with two of them, Ricketts and Dieffenbach, having family ties to Pitt. Pitt did a nice job on some of the lesser names in their area and helped its cause with some talent in New Jersey, but after some nice success the last few years in their neck of the woods, this year was a disappointment.

Comparatively disappointing, but not devastating. All four are 4-stars, but none are can’t-miss, had-to-have prospects. Losing any top WPa talent is annoying. Especially a couple OLs. Maybe because they all committed early, it does not feel that stinging at this point.

Coach Wannstedt has been using the period after the season ended to check in on kids who have verbaled. Not to mention planning for 2011.

“I was hitting four homes a night,” Wannstedt said. “I like to get in the home of every kid who commits to us.

“All our recruits were excited about Pitt in August, but they are really excited about the opportunity to be a part of the program now. If we had 20 commitments in August, and you win four games, now you’re scrambling to hold on to convince guys why that happened. When you have a good year, it reinforces in the recruit’s mind that it was a great decision.”

The last day of official home visits was Friday. Now, the Pitt coaching staff can only wait for letters of intent to spill through the fax machines.

As he waits, Wannstedt is already looking ahead to next year’s recruiting class.

“This gives us an opportunity to put together our junior list,” he said. “As sick as that sounds, we have a junior recruiting day coming up in February. That’s the nature of the business now. You’re trying to finish strong with this year’s class and make sure you prepared for what’s coming up.”

As NLI day looms, there is no shortage of recruiting stories. And the usual hand-wringing over the state of things. This includes decommits and changing minds. The usual stuff, but this piece is worth noting since Pitt verbal commit T.J. Clemmings is featured.

From the moment Clemmings stepped on campus at Pittsburgh, he was enthralled.

The players seemed like old friends. He found the city exciting. The team was coming off yet another strong season under former NFL coach Dave Wannstedt. Everything he looked for in a school was there.

On his way out of town after the weekend-long visit, the 6-6, 260-pound Clemmings called Wannstedt and told him Pitt was where he wanted to play college football.

“He made a hasty decision without consulting anybody,” Paterson Catholic coach Benjie Wimberly said. “It was almost like love at first sight. You meet your first girl and it’s the best thing in the world — I think that’s what happened with TJ.”

One of the most coveted prospects in the country — he runs a 4.7 second 40-yard dash and was pursued by Notre Dame, Penn State and many others — Clemmings’ parents urged him to carefully weigh his options and visit other schools. This was a life-changing decision, they warned him.

Clemmings took an official visit to Rutgers and unofficial trips to Maryland and Penn State. He wanted to see if those schools could offer him anything that Pitt could not.

In the end, Pittsburgh was still the place for Clemmings.

There was a lot of confusion over Clemmings at first. His verbal was known, then his parents and coaches all said, “not so fast.” This led to the usual overreaction by Pitt fans that the coaches and parents were interfering or trying to steer him to some other school.

Since he still is committed to Pitt, it’s easy to look back with more of an open mind. The truth is, regardless, the adults in Clemmings life actually behaved like adults.

Clemmings had an emotional, impulsive reaction. The sort of thing that high school kids of any type are prone to do. His parents and coach made him look a little more carefully to be sure. The decision was still his (and he chose wisely).

So, let’s get the stoylines out of the way:

Teams that are mirror images of each other. Waiting for the full piece.

Defensive struggle expected. Sort of, but expect more.

Both coaches recruiting talent. Check.

Same coaching tree. Check (Complete with 1992 photo on Johnson’s boat, with Johnson wearing shorts that well. Eep.).

Friendship between the coaches. Full story coming

All storylines rolled into one. Right here.

The fundamentals of North Carolina’s defense are similar to those of Pitt: Play an aggressive 4-3 with the emphasis up front, pressure the quarterback and force turnovers.

That’s not a coincidence. North Carolina coach Butch Davis and Pitt’s Dave Wannstedt are close friends who were assistant coaches on Jimmy Johnson’s staff for 11 seasons with Oklahoma State, Miami and the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

Both are defensive specialists, and Wannstedt was Davis’ boss for seven of those 11 years.

“Dave’s an outstanding football coach,” Davis said. “His teams are extraordinarily well-coached. He’s got an excellent assistant coaching staff, guys who have got a lot of experience and have been with him for many years …

“Dave’s fingerprints are all over this football team. They’re very sound in special teams. They play very physical defensively, which is certainly Dave’s background. You can tell just how stingy they are by watching how aggressive their front seven are.”

Sound familiar? That description could just as easily apply to the Tar Heels.

Oh, and both teams managed to lose to NC State in Raleigh. Hopefully they won’t start rolling like Pitt afterwards, since they ended their season there.

History, though, has suggested that Wannstedt struggles against his friends and former coaching subordinates. Or that could just be Greg Schiano.

After nearly a week off for finals the players are back to practice.

“It is great to be back,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said yesterday before the Panthers’ first practice since the Cincinnati loss. “I think it is important we go out and not just practice these three days before we leave but practice with a purpose. These seniors have done so much to bring this program back to national prominence but we have to finish the thing out.

“We had two tough, tough losses to end the season so we have to finish and finish on a positive note. We’re going to enjoy the bowl game but it is business and we need to go down there and understand that. The best thing about this is we have another game to play and that means we have another opportunity to turn disappointment into positive.”

The players no doubt will say all the right things about how they want to end the season with a win, and at least partially wipe the taste of the two losses by a total of 4 points away.

It will still be a question of how they actually do when they get on the field. That’s going to be up to the coaches, especially Coach Wannstedt.

It’s here. Hopefully everyone had a good time with family — or at least faked it.

Let’s hit the links as I still have plenty of family things to get through so I can sit and watch the game tonight without the wife glaring at me too much for doing nothing else.

How about this. Tickets (maybe 800) still remained for the game.

2007. 2007. 2007. It continues. Even in an SI.com feature as the game of the week, it leads with what happened that year. Another “turning point” for Pitt story (along with speculation on how it could have altered the coaching carousel if WVU had won). And there’s the “it hurt so much” to lose in 2007 stuff.

More interfaith stuff — this time within the Pitt Athletic Department.

Pitt isn’t looking past the Backyard Brawl.

Meanwhile WVU looks for their signature win in the Bill Stewart era — apparently that Fiesta Bowl trouncing doesn’t count since Stewart was only the interim head coach. And the Meineke Bowl win last year wasn’t it either.

Well, at least that is also along the lines of what the WVU DC Casteel is telling his players. That they have yet to win the big games. Just looking to close the season strongly.

Puff piece on Coach Wannstedt keeping an eye on the players in the classroom as well. Clearly something he didn’t learn from Jimmy Johhnson when they were at Miami. An interesting little thing in there was that when he was hired, in addition to getting money to hire and retain coordinators he was also able to get 3 more full-time academic advisers to help the players. He just got the Pitt Athletic Department to make more of a financial commitment to the football program.

Another Wannstedt puff piece about building his team.

Then there is the puff pieces on OC Frank Cignetti. Another focusing on the turnaround of Bill Stull and Pitt’s offense. This one from the San Francisco paper is on leaving Cal to go home. The fans of Cal (at the time) may not have been too bothered by his departure since Cal Coach Tedford was an offensive guy who made their system, but clearly the media liked Cignetti.

Bruce Feldman at ESPN.com puts Pitt at #7 on his list of top-10 biggest surprises (Insider subs).

Losing LeSean McCoy and LaRod Stephens-Howling figured to be a couple of big blows to a Panthers team that wasn’t exactly scary. But Coach Dave Wannstedt brought in new offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti, who has sparked major improvement in QB Bill Stull (fourth in the country in pass efficiency), WR Jonathan Baldwin and TE Dorin Dickerson to flow with the arrival of star freshman RB Dion Lewis. Pitt also has been outstanding on defense, leading the nation in sacks and ranking 16th in run defense.

Senior Tight End Nate Byham is still a great teammate. The Hoopies concern, though, is Dorin Dickerson.

Puff piece on how DEs Jabaal Sheard and Greg Romeus have raised their game since the NCState loss.

Which outcome will clarify the Big East bowl slottings for teams? Backyard Brawl or ND-Stanford?

As for the actual game itself, in case you haven’t heard Pitt plays power football. Looks like the computers see a near toss-up with a slight edge to Pitt. In one of those unit-by-unit comparisons, the edge goes to Pitt.

The WVU offensive line is young, but has played together all season. Whether that translates to stronger play after a week off, will go a long way to deciding the game.

It’s a getaway Wednesday. Hours of driving from out here in Cleveland to my family in Lebanon, PA. Not at all looking forward to the trip with the kids in the car on a hideous travel day. Already sent my dad an e-mail alerting him to have a big dollop of his best single malt ready to give me when I get in town.

As such, I have to give a short shrift to all the stuff ahead of the Backyard Brawl.

Ah, the old standby for rivalry game stories. Interfaith marriage.

After his injury last year, and struggles in camp, Robb Houser has been solid at center. Another huge reason for the offensive success and the overall performance of the O-line. John Malecki being a stud hasn’t hurt either. Hey, better to be 20-somethings doing this than guys pushing 40.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt isn’t a fan of his players drawing attention to themselves with their outward appearance — especially before the Backyard Brawl — so he was a bit torn about his starting offensive linemen sporting bleached-blonde Mohawk haircuts this week.

“You better be ready to back it up — that’s what I told them,” said Wannstedt, a left tackle at Pitt in the early 1970s. “The great thing about playing the offensive line is nobody knows who you are except the people in that meeting room and that building. We know how important they are.

“They all did it, and (right guard) John Malecki’s mother (Angela) is a hairdresser, so I’m sure they did it for free. Those two things, that sounds like offensive linemen: they all did it together and they got it for free.”

Adam Gunn story on coming back from that broken neck.

How about Greg Romeus figuring out his future was in football not basketball? Heard it.

The Backyard Brawl is the headline act in the Big East games (duh, you think it is an 11 am Rutgers-Louisville game?).

1. The Backyard Brawl: It’s the oldest and best rivalry in the Big East, and it’s as fierce as ever now that Pitt has gotten back on its feet. The Panthers bring a two-game series winning streak into Morgantown and will try to come out of Friday night’s game with their Top 10 status alive. West Virginia wants to finish strong to help its bowl standing. It should be intense — and a lot of fun to watch.

2. Solving Pitt’s ‘D’: The Mountaineers have scored just 24 total points in the past two games against Pitt, as Dave Wannstedt has found the answer to stopping the West Virginia spread (hint: it helps to have really good players). Bill Stewart’s offense has sputtered to put many points on the board in the past month anyway and now faces a huge test against a very talented defensive line. Noel Devine may or may not be healthy. What wrinkles have Stewart and offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen devised for this game?

3. Welcome to the Brawl, kid: Pitt freshman running back Dion Lewis has nearly wrapped up the league’s offensive player of the year award with his outstanding season to this point. Can he keep it going in his first exposure to the West Virginia rivalry? Last time out, the Mountaineers allowed Cincinnati tailback Isaiah Pead to run for 175 yards on just 18 carries. How will they stop Lewis from carving them up behind the league’s best offensive line?

2007. 2007. 2007. Just might be a theme. As in the demarcation when Pitt started turning things around under Wannstedt. Pitt on a 2-game winning streak in the Brawl.

More “caveman football” oversimplification on Pitt’s offense. Keeping it simple. Go figure, the Hoopie defense wants to stop Dion Lewis.

Meanwhile the WVU offense is trying to solve Pitt’s defense. Jarrett Brown knows the WVU offense like no one else on the team. Yeah, but for those turnovers and injuries he’d be great.

Pitt is just going about its business.

“One thing we rely on ourselves for is internal energy,” Pitt senior quarterback Bill Stull said. “We strive off each other and build off each other and know no one in the stands is going to make a play, sack the quarterback, throw a touchdown, run for a touchdown. Those are obvious things, but we realize we have to rely on ourselves to hold the team up and make the plays you need to make in order to win.”

There’s the whole theme of the Mountaineers trying to spoil Pitt’s dreams the way Pitt did them in 2007. Except that it isn’t so.

That seems to be a strong theme. Even when they aren’t in the story directly. Vindication. Redemption. Anything else you want to call it.

Go figure, since Frank Cignetti’s father was a WVU assistant then had to follow Bobby Bowden when he went to FSU, there might be a little interest in his success.

Also at the time Cignetti was raising a couple of sons, one of whom was Frank Cignetti Jr., who spent 12 years in the town.

“There are a lot of great memories,” Cignetti Jr. said. “I played Little League baseball there, played football, had a lot of friends.”

But it was only a temporary stop, for at heart Cignetti Jr. wasn’t really a Mountaineer.

“Make no mistake, we’re Pittsburgh Panther fans,” he said. “Look at the biographies of my family. My dad was born in western Pennsylvania, his first job was at the University of Pittsburgh for Dan Hart. It just so happened that Dad got a tremendous opportunity to go be Bobby Bowden’s offensive coordinator at West Virginia.”

“Oh, I’ve been a West Virginia fan since I coached there,” Frank Sr. said from his home in Indiana, Pa., where at 72 he is finally able to enjoy retirement. “I watch them when they are on television. I’ve followed them through Coach Nehlen and Rich Rodriguez and now Bill Stewart.”

But it changed when his son home came to Pitt.

But make no mistake, the story emphasizes how Cignetti and Wannstedt have the same offensive philosophies and what they want to do. It’s just that Cignetti is doing things that, you know, use the talent.

“We want to go from good to great,” Cignetti said. “Our players are hungry to get better. It’s fun to see guys feel good about themselves, and it has really been satisfying to see our offensive personnel build confidence through success. There’s a belief that whenever they step onto the field they can put the ball in the end zone.

“It’s our job to put them in a position to be successful. We’ve been able to put Dorin in different positions where he can have some success. (Tight end) Nate Byham and (flanker) Oderick Turner have put the team goals ahead of individual goals, and those guys have provided solid leadership all season.”

Cignetti plays humble quite well. Deflecting credit to the players and even going so far as to say Matt Cavanaugh very well could have had similar success this year as the OC (riiiigggghhhht). But again, it comes back to the players who succeeded after nothing working right for some time. Hence the feature on Dickerson and Stull.

The two have been doing it ever since. Stull has thrown for 18 touchdowns with just four interceptions. Dickerson has 43 catches for 496 yards and those 10 touchdowns.

“I knew I could play here,” Dickerson said. “Not just play, but be a playmaker.”

“All Dorin needed was a chance,” Stull said.

“The biggest turning point in my life came when Coach Cignetti came here,” Dickerson said.

“Dorin’s ability really fit what Coach Cignetti wanted to do,” Stull said. “He’s a freak. He’s 6-2, 235, runs a 4.34 and can jump over 40 inches. There’s just no way a linebacker can cover him.”

Stull laughed as only a quarterback who loves to see such mismatches can.

“It’s stealing,” he said. “That’s what Coach Cignetti calls it. He says we all should go to jail because we’re stealing touchdowns.”

Here’s another piece on Stull succeeding and beating back the critics, while admitting the change in OC’s worried him.

“It was tough for me. Having a system for four years, and knowing it like it was the back of my hand, it was tough. There was some doubt whether I was going to be able to pick it up and feel comfortable with it,” he said.

He knew the system, but did not exactly thrive in it. That was the problem.

As for Coach Wannstedt, he’s in his own redemption and vindication storyline. He’s in a good place winning and succeeding at his alma mater. The success now, comes in no small part to the administration sticking with him.

“Our chancellor stepped up,” Wannstedt said. “I had had two or three years. We talked about the direction of the program. I said, if we were to go forward this or that must happen. He stepped up, made a commitment and extended our program.”

That was a few days before Pitt was to play at West Virginia in 2007, a few days before the upset of the century.

Things took hold from there, and the patience paid off.

Now it’s understandable why people would question Wannstedt at the beginning. College football was going in one direction; he was going in another. The game had evolved into Madden football, spread offenses, speed everywhere, bubble screens, zone blocking.

That wasn’t, however, what Wannstedt believed in.

He liked the pro-set offense, quarterback under center, a fullback, a tight end. He liked to run and run, then throw when he had teams looking for the run.

“We’ll probably be one of the dinosaurs left that are lining up with the fullback and a tailback and trying to pound people and play-action pass,” Wannstedt said. “In all the Super Bowls and national championships that I’ve been associated with, that’s what we did. Football goes in cycles. But you have to do what you believe in and what you understand.”

I won’t pretend I was not one of those who questioned the extension. I was not arguing for his firing, but an extension at that point in year 3 seemed ridiculous. The extension seemed more that the school and particularly the money and powers in the University just like Coach Wannstedt a lot and were satisfied with the fundraising and being able to get along with the coach. Happily, I was wrong.

Of course, down in Morgantown, there’s more than a little pressure on Coach Stewart. So, he looks rather wistfully at what Pitt did. Especially the patience.

“This is five years in the works,” Stewart said. “It is five years of getting better each year and adding to the repertoire.”

Stewart has also spoken in recent weeks about how the Pitt fan base showed patience with Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt, even as Wannstedt went through his first season with five wins, his second with six and third with five

In Stewart’s opinion, that patience has been paramount to Pitt gaining national prominence, and so, too, is a maturation of a roster that Wannstedt recruited and then cultivated.

Nothing self-serving there. Except that Stewart wasn’t radically changing the system being run — on either side of the ball.

Nothing like a strong national win, to change Bruce Feldman’s opinion (Insider subs).

I was skeptical about Pittsburgh. Not anymore. I do think it’s one of the country’s best teams. Dave Wannstedt has built a very solid team in all areas, and the Panthers showed that Saturday night against Notre Dame. They have a much-improved QB in Bill Stull, a great RB in Dion Lewis and two playmaking receivers in Jonathan Baldwin and Dorin Dickerson. Plus they have four excellent D-linemen and a capable secondary. That was a very good offense that they bottled up for much of the evening.

As for the Irish, what more can you say at this point about Charlie Weis? His O-line looked overmatched again, and his defense was shaky.

Baldwin got a haircut before the ND game which provided a hook for a couple stories.

Pitt wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin showed up for Saturday’s win against Notre Dame sporting a Mohawk haircut. It was a new look for the sophomore off the field, but on the field it was the same old Baldwin, making acrobatic catches for touchdowns and helping to keep drives alive.

“I was sitting in the barber’s chair at Damions in Ambridge paging through the haircut book and I liked the Mohawk cut so I went with it,” Baldwin said. “I just wanted to go out in this game and have a good time in helping us win.”

With the talent on ND, and many of them juniors and seniors it’s no surprise that plenty of scouts were there as well as media. So, you know that Baldwin just rocketed up some boards for 2011.

The new ‘do made Baldwin stand out, but it was the epic performance he delivered in a 27-22 victory over Notre Dame on Saturday night that turned heads all over the country.

NFL scouts in the press box must have been drooling when they watched the 6-foot-5, 225-pound Baldwin make two catches that any great receiver this town has seen — Larry Fitzgerald, Lynn Swann, whoever — would have been proud to call his own.

Notre Dame’s star receiver, Golden Tate, was getting all the publicity heading into the game, which led a reporter to wonder if Baldwin was trying to “make a statement.”

“I don’t get much into that stuff,” he said. “I just go out there and make the plays that are there to be made.”

Pitt made the big plays throughout the game. On the ground and air. Something that ND’s defense has allowed to happen all season.

Didn’t we just see this last week?

The Irish defense, one of the worst in the country giving up plays of 20 yards or more, was true to form. The Panther offense had six plays of at least 20 yards.

Weis calls them “explosives.” Saturday they detonated a desperate bid. Later, they may add to the implosion of a regime.

Pitt generated 429 yards of total offense. Stull wasn’t sacked, and the Panthers didn’t have a turnover.

The puzzling over ND’s struggles keeps falling on the coaching since they have the talent.

Recruiting evaluations over the last five years don’t add up to explain the present situations facing the Notre Dame and Pittsburgh programs.

Both have head coaches that took over in 2005. Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis and Dave Wannstedt at Pittsburgh had to do some scrambling to put that first class together.

Since then, the Irish have had talent success that hasn’t necessarily translated onto the field.

That first year was the only year that Rivals.com rated the Panthers (38th in the country) ahead of the Irish (40).

Notre Dame has had its classes ranked in the top 10 three times – 2006 (eighth), 2007 (eighth) and 2008 (second). Those years, Pitt was 21st, 26th and 28th, respectively. Last year, Rivals rated Notre Dame 21st and Pittsburgh 47th.

In those five years, the Irish have signed seven five-star recruits while Pitt has landed just one.

But there is always that decided schematic advantage.

Even as Pitt is on the edge of discussions for the BCS bowls, the team is sticking with the “one-game-at-a-time” position.  It makes them a collectively boring quote.

Q: I see a really positive trend in the maturity of this team Paul. I have noticed in this six game win streak, the team has had less penalties. Aside from the absurd 4 or 5 pass interference calls against them in the Syracuse game has this team matured through this year?

ZEISE: Yes, the maturity factor is key to the success. And while there are a lot of signs of it on the field — the lack of penalties, the composure, the lack of panic, the lack of making key mistakes and turnovers — where it really shows up is during the week. This team is all business. A lot of us media types often say this team is one of the most fun Pitt teams to watch in recent history – but one of the most boring to cover. And by boring, I mean, they are focused, they are serious and they don’t say much of anything during the week. It is just all business with this group. They practice hard, they are focused and a couple of the guys who are seniors have set the tone by making it clear that anything less than a Big East championship will be a failure.

Pitt QBs have endeared themselves to fans when they show toughness. Rutherford won over many when he ran over defenders — particularly in a VT game. Palko for knocking over a BC guy. Not only tough plays, but moments that swung the momentum and energy completely to the Pit side of things. Stull didn’t do it like that against ND with the ball and plowing a guy over. Instead, he threw a key block that was big.

Stull’s numbers — 15 of 27 for 236 yards and a touchdown — were rather ordinary. Yet, Stull’s extraordinary lead block helped pave the way for tailback Ray Graham’s dazzling 52-yard run in the third quarter.

Graham scored from the 2-yard line on the next play to give Pitt a 20-3 lead. The margin was too wide for the Irish and their star quarterback Jimmy Clausen to erase.

While Graham’s touchdown and a 152-yard effort by tailback Dion Lewis enabled the Panthers to stretch their record to 9-1, it was Stull’s block that fueled a Pitt engine that seemingly ran on empty much of the first half.

“That was a highlight reel in one run,” Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said. “I’ll have to wait and see (who missed tackles).”

It wasn’t the missed tackles. Rather, it was Stull’s block of Notre Dame strong safety Sergio Brown — a telling blow that energized his teammates and the Pitt fans.

And luckily he didn’t get concussed doing it.

It seems a little early — what with two games left — to declare the promise fulfilled, but it fits with the whole full circle of the ND game now and in 2005.

That was in 2005, Dave Wannstedt’s first game as Pitt’s head coach, a 42-21 loss to the Irish. After the game he said the Panthers would not be able to compete until he rebuilt their lines. He then preached patience because he said rebuilding lines — as well as changing the mentality of a team — took time.

With that in mind he took to the recruiting trail hard in search of offensive and defensive linemen and made several changes in the next two years that he believed would give the Panthers’ lines a chance to develop into dominant units.

Those included moving Greg Gattuso from tight ends coach to defensive line coach after the 2005 season and hiring Tony Wise as the offensive line coach and Buddy Morris as the strength and conditioning coach after the 2007 season.

Fast forward to Saturday night when those same Irish came to Heinz Field to play the Panthers. By the time that game was halfway over this much was clear — Wannstedt has delivered on his promise of rebuilding the Panthers’ offensive and defensive lines into physical and dominant units.

West Virginia next week will be the continuation of another full circle moment regarding the need to “get faster.”

I thought I had mentioned this at least in passing sometime during the week, or maybe it was just in some e-mail to friends. From a storyline perspective, the oversaturation would be on the issues of the coaches. Whether it was things coming “full circle” with them meeting once more at Heinz Field at night in a prime time game — where both made their debuts as the head coaches at the respective alma maters. The other, which crystallized after the ND loss to Navy, are the programs/coaches heading in opposite directions.

Let’s start with the “full circle” stories. They are in Pittsburgh papers.

Back then, Weis was the hot-shot former NFL assistant poised to return his alma mater to national prominence, while Wannstedt was on his way to going 16-19 in his first three years at Pitt.

“We found out real quick that we had work to do,” Wannstedt said. “We were probably just a little bit ahead of ourselves.”

Both coaches have similar records at their respective schools (Weis 35-24, Wannstedt 33-24), but Weis, coming off a 23-21 loss to Navy, is under fire. Wannstedt is a candidate for numerous national coach of the year awards.

And in South Bend.

When Weis was asked to connect the dots Tuesday back to ND’s 42-21 thrashing of a 23rd-ranked Pitt teams four and a half seasons ago, he politely balked.

“I’m so predictable,” said Weis, 3-11 against the Top 25 since that debut game, including seven straight losses against ranked teams. “You already know what my answer is going to be when you ask that question. But I’m really only worrying about beating Pitt. And I’ll never change.”

Then there is national like Bruce Feldman at ESPN.com.

The Fighting Irish rolled 42-21 as the Weis bandwagon filled up fast. Wannstedt, meanwhile, has struggled to sustain any real momentum almost ever since. But now the Panthers, despite not having beaten any top-20 teams, have climbed to No. 8 in the Associated Press poll, which is the school’s highest November ranking since 1982. A BCS bowl is possible; the Panthers rank 12th in the BCS standings. They are off to their best start (8-1) since that ’82 season, when Dan Marino was their quarterback. Maybe Weis, the now-embattled Irish coach, can salvage some of his reputation that has taken so many hits after last week’s home loss to Navy. Before the season, this matchup didn’t appear to carry such juice for Weis, but now, perhaps it’s a different story.

Feldman’s bit, well, it’s not the most complimentary of Pitt’s season.

Still, Saturday’s game is almost as big for Wannstedt. If the Panthers lose the game, it’ll be just another clunker from a program that few people seem prepared to buy in on. It has inched its way up the rankings much as a non-automatic qualifying school would, as much through the attrition of everyone else as its own success. It feels as though the Panthers are up there by default: “Well, who else will we have in the top 15, three-loss Virginia Tech? Four-loss Oklahoma?!?”

To their credit, the Panthers have been outstanding on defense this season. They lead the nation in sacks (38), and given Notre Dame’s struggles to protect Jimmy Clausen, that’ll be a key matchup.

The next day, Feldman includes Coach Wannstedt in his top-10 list for Coach of the Year. So he does recognize that the coach and team are accomplishing something.

I’m not going to argue about the fact that Pitt’s rise to top-10 this year has as much to do with the volume of teams failing. Considering Pitt started the season unranked, it is the only way it happens. It is still an achievement.

I mean, god help me, I’m turning to Bob Smizik for the counterpoint on the argument of “who has Pitt beaten?”

This is not so much a knock on Cincinnati, Pitt or the Big East. We said the same thing about Penn State the other day and it applies to many, if not most, ranked programs. It’s the shame of college football. Teams, for the most play, play a ridiculously soft non-conference schedule and then amongst themselves. Who knows how good most of them are?

Consider #2 Texas. The Longhorns have only beaten one team that is currently ranked in the top-25 in Oklahoma State. Of course, since they were a preseason top-5 team, no one disputes their validity.

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