Blogs

Perhaps we spoke too soon on the competition at left guard. When Joe Thomas took first-team reps in Thursday’s morning session for the first time since the opening day of training camp, it appeared that the senior had worked his way back into the starting lineup. Especially after Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt had high post-scrimmage [...]

Now that Joe Thomas has moved to first-team left guard, taking reps ahead of Chris Jacobson on Thursday, the Panthers are close to finalizing their starting lineup. Although Bill Stull is splitting reps with Tino Sunseri, Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt has repeatedly said that Stull is the starting quarterback. Wannstedt also said Dion Lewis has [...]

A practice report from the Trib’s John Grupp: · Heavy rainstorms over the South Side forced Wednesday’s afternoon helmet-and-shoulder pads practice inside. The Panthers were shorthanded, with 12 players sidelined with various bumps and bruises. Among the players not in action: defensive end Jabaal Sheard, defensive tackle Mick Williams, tight ends Nate Byham and Dorin [...]

While we here at Sitting Ringside (OK, just me) typically take pride in trying to disprove the conservative offensive philosophy of a certain college football coach (Dave Wannstedt), let us instead play devil’s advocate. Consider, for a moment, that you are the head football coach at the University of Pittsburgh. Your Panthers have been picked [...]

On the seventh day, they rested. Two-a-days tend to takes a toll on players’ bodies. By the seventh day of Pitt’s training camp, the Panthers had their share of walking wounded. Among those missing Monday’s afternoon session were right tackle Lucas Nix (infection), tight ends Nate Byham (headache) and Dorin Dickerson (hamstring), receiver Mike Shanahan [...]

The starting quarterback position was essentially handed to fifth-year senior Bill Stull at the outset of training camp, when Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt named him the starter and downplayed talk of an open competition. That took all the pressure off Stull, who only had to perform at a consistent level to retain the job, and [...]

Some interesting anecdotes from Pitt’s three sets of brothers: Dom and Brock DeCicco, Nate and Lucas Nix and Andrew and Jon Taglianetti, who were featured in today’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: * Andrew Taglianetti, Nate Nix and Dom DeCicco sit side-by-side in Pitt’s locker room, so there is constant conversation among those three, as well as their [...]

I missed Pitt’s first practice in full pads today to attend the pre-school graduation of my 5-year-old son, Kieran, so here are some training camp notes from John Grupp, the Trib’s Pitt men’s basketball writer: · For the second day in a row, redshirt freshman Tino Sunseri took noticeably more reps than junior Pat Bostick [...]

Elijah Fields is still the starting strong safety. Even if Andrew Taglianetti worked with Pitt’s first-team defense much of the fourth day of training camp. Or something like that. After dropping Fields to second team Thursday for “internal issues,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt tried to clear up matters: First: “Elijah is our starter.” Then: “Obviously, [...]

Random observations from Pitt’s Friday afternoon practice by John Grupp, who made his debut appearance at training camp (I’ll add some notes from coach Dave Wannstedt and my own observations later): • Quarterback Bill Stull had an up-and-down practice, with a nice touchdown pass to Jonathan Baldwin coupled with some off-target throws and an ugly [...]