Aug. 6, 2007

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Dave Wannstedt

Pitt Football Media Day

August 6, 2007

Opening Statement:

Welcome. We appreciate everyone being out here this morning to kick off our football season and our training camp. The support and coverage that you all give us on a daily basis is important to our program and it does not go unnoticed. So once again we appreciate everyone being here. It's a little bit different than it has been in the past, with our incoming freshmen having the opportunity to come in for the last semester of summer school so the kids have really been here about six weeks prior to starting camp. We broke last week and they had about three days to go home and finish up their finals from summer school. They had a break from the off-season program and then we were back obviously starting up last night. So it's not like we haven't seen these guys in a month or so. The guys have been here and that's what makes today so exciting. You get an opportunity to be around your older players, you get an opportunity to get some exposure to your young players and get a little bit of a jump start to your season. This is not the NFL where you are going to have players for 10 years or 15 years from a career standpoint. Players are going to leave and they're going to graduate. Some might even leave early and that's all part of what we deal with today and I think the teams that are able to replace players and fill the voids are the teams that continue to make progress year after year. We are not in a situation any different than any other football team. We want to graduate as many players as we can from Pitt and we want to get as many players from our football team into the National Football League. That's a great reflection on our University. We have 11 seniors going into this year and eight of the 11 seniors will have their degree before we complete the football season. We have a good group, I think, when you look at the identity of our football team. It usually starts with the quarterback because that's the most visible position and in our case the last couple of years, we've had a quarterback and a middle linebacker being all-conference players. Those two positions are the most visible to a football team on offense and defense. Let's not minimize the importance of our 11 (scholarship) seniors coming back--five of which are linemen. We have two starting defensive linemen and we have two, maybe three starting on the offensive line -- (Jeff) Otah, (Mike) McGlynn for sure, and (Chris) Vangas is battling for a spot. We have Joe Clermond and Chris McKillop. That's what you like to see. We'd like to have 25 returning seniors, that would be really great and we'll get there, but right now you have to make sure that your senior class is linemen-heavy because those are the guys that take the most time to mature and come along both physically and mentally. When you have 11 seniors and five of them are potential starters, I like that. Let's not minimize what our starting defensive end or our starting left tackle is to our football team. Our focus for so long has been on the quarterback and on the middle linebacker and it's not going be that way this year. However, I think that it's going to be exciting.

I was talking with (offensive coordinator) Matt Cavanaugh last night and we were saying how exciting it's going to be to see how much the players have matured just from the end of spring practice to now. We came out of spring feeling really satisfied. We felt like we made strides in the areas we need to make strides. Did we solidify a lot of positions? No, but that's what training camp is all about. You'd like to know all 22 positions are solid at this point but that's unlikely and it's not going to happen very often in any given year. With that being said, we do have spots that will have good competition in training camp and that's exciting. If we didn't have players that could play and were capable of stepping up, then I think that is when you stand here as a head coach and you feel concerned. I'm not concerned about that because we have players ready to step up. Whoever our three starting linebackers are, I promise you this, our number four, five and six guys are going to be very close to those starters and that's encouraging. That's encouraging from a standpoint of talent and from a standpoint of depth. A year ago I stood right here and I said I know we have one wide receiver, Derek Kinder. When the year was over, (Marcel) Pestano, (Cedric) McGee, and Oderick Turner made some plays and Kinder had a great year, and that turned out to be a strength for us.

So we don't know how this thing is going to unfold this year, position by position, but I do know that we've had a great off-season. Our kids have done a great job. Some guys have gotten bigger and the guys that needed to get smaller did just that. I do believe that our football team is in great shape. We're ready to go physically and because of some of the training techniques and some of the things that we demanded from our players through our off-season program, I believe that our football team is mentally tougher. That doesn't come from demanding things from players. Mental toughness is also a part of maturity. As our team matures and you keep demanding from your players, they will become mentally tougher as you go through the process. Those things don't always show up. Everyone wants to talk about your off-season program but I think the off-season, the conditioning and the weight room all show up at some point in the season. It may show in game one, it may show up in game 10 where you win a game in the fourth quarter or a player doesn't get injured because of the strength training. You don't know how it's going to affect your team but I do believe that your off-season program can be worth one or two wins to you down the road and we're excited about the progress our players have made in that regard.

The way we're going to set up our practices, they are going to be similar to last year. You're allowed one practice with the players per day these first four days, so we're going to practice twice which puts a little bit of a burden on the coaches from a standpoint that we're going to divide the team up and we're going to have a group that goes in the morning and a group that goes in the afternoon. A lot of the positions will have just one player at that spot so they're going to get a lot of work. It will give us an opportunity to evaluate a little closer and give the younger players a chance to have to learn on the move a little faster than normal. The way we structured it, these newer players that normally come in on the third or fourth string teams are now going to be practicing like a first or second team player. It will put a little bit more pressure on the players but again it will give us a fair way to evaluate our players and ultimately it will get our football team ready so after four days when we start making some decisions and stacking that depth chart, we'll have a real clear picture not on what a kid did in high school, not on what he did in spring practice, but now you're evaluating this player on these last four days of practice and we'll be able to know where they stack up and this is how we're going to start training camp when we put the pads on. That will be the plan for the next few days.

Most of the guys that were hurt for the most part are back. We won't get into a lot of details injury wise, there will be a few guys that will be limited and we'll talk about those as we get going but right now I'm very encouraged on the rehab end of our football team. We had four or five guys that had surgery in the spring and they'll all be back in some capacity and we would hope that most of them will be back pretty close to full speed by the time we kick the season off. With that said, this is where we're at -- everybody is here, everybody is accountable and we're looking forward to getting started.

Is that going to be consistent, the morning and afternoon guys? Will the same guys go in the morning and so on?

Yeah pretty much. It's going to be more of the older guys in the morning, the younger players in the afternoon. We'll have to adjust it a bit as coaches (in terms of) what we'll be able to do because of the newness of the offense and defense with the younger kids. We will flop some guys back and forth, for example, the two tight ends. Nate Byham will stay with the first group all the time and he's our starter but Darrell Strong and John Pelusi will rotate back and forth so there will be a few situations like that where we rotate a few guys but only because we're trying to get them more work and a better opportunity. This is a great way to do it for all the players.

Is it fair to characterize the quarterback competition as wide open or is Bill Stull the leader?

I think that you come out of spring practice (with) Bill being the starter but these next four days will be great for that because Pat Bostick will get an equal amount of reps as will Kevan Smith too. It is open right now but Billy is the guy that they're trying to unseat.

What do you like about Bill Stull and what are his strengths?

He's a gamer. The players believe in him. There's no question about that. He knows our offense. You could go out right now and Billy will run the offense. I think he's one of those guys who seems to perform better when the lights come on as compared to just in practice. If you go out and just watch Billy in practice, he may not be the most impressive guy but he's kind of a gamer. He's thrown a lot of touchdowns in his career. He's also had a very good off-season and he's not taking anything for granted. He wants to win the starting job.

What's it like for you to come into a season where it's your team and a lot of these guys are players that you evaluated in high school?

It's exciting. There's an emotion involved because you want these kids to do good. The commitment is there. You go into the homes of these kids and talk with their parents and tell them that we're going to do everything we can to get your son a degree and everything we can to take his football skills to the next level and we're going to do everything we can to make him a better person four years from now then he is today. You want those things to happen and every situation is not going to work out that way but it's my responsibility and our responsibility because these are our kids. We're going to have some kids get off on the wrong path but we're going to do everything we can to help these kids and try and fulfill that commitment we made to them.

You touched on that mental toughness factor. Is that something that looking back on last season cost you the last five games and is that something you feel like you were lacking?

I think yes. It was really a matter of two things, it was really pretty simple. Number one, we played some of the better teams not just in our conference but in the country down the road. We lost two starting defensive linemen (McKillop and Fulmer) and a starting offensive guard (Simonitis) and we were forced to play true freshmen in each of those situations, so you're replacing three starters with three true freshmen. You'd like to avoid that situation so I think it was a combination of both of those and sure, when you've got some young kids who are in there and unsure of themselves and you hit some tough times and you're playing good competition, every play is critical. You know, `finish' is going to be a big word that you're going to hear me talk about a lot because even in those situations, the players came out of the gate ready to go. I mean the West Virginia game at halftime. The Louisville game at halftime, they're all winnable games at that point and then we have to find a way to make plays and we have to find a way to finish those games. Even the Rutgers game, it was there to be had. We had to make a play. They made a play and we didn't. This year, that's going to be a real focus for our football team. I think it's a combination. It's a combination of having the players from a coaching standpoint in the right position to make the play and it's having the players mature enough physically to get it done and then the mental toughness thing -- the leadership of your team.

You talked about mental toughness and finishing. How do you create that balance of getting your players to know the equation of taking that mental toughness and completing games, especially in the fourth quarter?

You know what, I've been talking to a lot of NFL teams and a lot of my friends in the college ranks and we're going to do more `situations' in training camp then in the past. When I talk about situations I mean, it's fourth and five and the ball is right here and we've got to find a way to make a play. We have the lead and we have the football and we're not going to throw it and were not going to turn the ball over but we have to find a way to be physical enough and run the ball and make a first down so the game is over. I think as a head coach I have to do a better job of creating a situation for our players in training camp before it actually happens in a game and we can do that.

You're trying to get things turned around. What would be the top hurdles that you're trying to overcome?

I just think a consistency thing. If you want to get right to the point we have to run the ball and stop the run. That's the two biggest hurdles we have really. We were okay the last two years in defending the pass and we've gotten our share from an offensive standpoint of passing the ball. We had one of the top quarterbacks, consistently. We have to run the ball. We have to be able to run the ball when they (the opponents) know we're going to run the ball. That's what separates the men from the boys in my opinion and with my experience. Not tricking them.

How do you feel about the true freshmen? Can any make an impact this year?

I don't know. I'm sure at some point they will. If you look at the depth chart, Dom DeCicco is going to be working from day one as a second team safety so he's going to be in position. Some of the players (will get a chance). LeSean McCoy (at tailback). Chris Jacobson will be working as a backup offensive lineman. Because of our depth at certain positions, some players will get an opportunity sooner than others. Who? I don't know. You know, Bostick will get a chance at quarterback to see what he can do.

Have you already looked at where guys are and said that you needed to make position changes since the spring, in particular at safety to try and make up for Elijah (Fields) sitting out?

Yeah, we're going to do that. In fact, Saturday morning I called Coach Paul Rhoads when I was out taking a walk and I was thinking just of that. Right now, Jemeel Brady who is a senior as we all know, good special teams player, we've been grooming him even though he didn't play in the spring to possibly play linebacker. Jovani Chappel, we've been grooming him to possibly move to safety. He's a good tackler, one of our better tacklers on the defense, smart kid. He's kind of our nickel-dime back. So he'll start working some at safety. Jemeel Brady will be at linebacker. Lowell Robinson will be at corner. We have a couple of these young running backs who I'm not sure are going to stay at running back. We may move them to linebacker or safety. Greg Williams, we're going to see him carry the ball. Shariff Harris, we're going to see him run the ball. We know McCoy will be a back, we know Hynoski will be a back but there could be a few more changes.

Right now we have 16 defensive linemen on scholarship so there will be a few of those defensive linemen that probably move over to offense. We're going to give them every chance in the world. We are going to have some defensive linemen that can play and that's how you really make some headway.

Kevan Smith has now that he's been through spring practice. Where would you rate him?

Kevan needs to play. We could not ask more of Kevan from a standpoint of him preparing himself mentally in the classroom. He knows what to do. Preparing himself physically in the weight room and conditioning, he's one of the best at that. He just needs to play. He needs the experience. I think with some of those young kids, the light goes on at different points of their career and all of a sudden they grasp the whole thing. Right now, Kevan, it was one good day, one so-so day during the spring. I think he needs to come out during this camp and show us that he can be consistent. That's the thing with the quarterback -- we're going to have two or three games where the quarterback is going to have to take the team down the field and win the game for you. The rest of the games, you have to be able to manage it and make plays when there's plays to be made and we have to do a good job as coaches to being somewhat quarterback friendly because of the inexperience and we should be able to. When you look at our offense we've got more guys coming back then anybody's really talking about and that's good. That's fine with me.

Update us on Doug Fulmer and where he is from a health standpoint.

Yeah, the two players that are going to be limited are Doug Fulmer who is probably the furthest away but he's doing fantastic and Mike McGlynn right now is on track, he's doing great. He'll be out there tomorrow practicing. He won't be having any contact so he'll be limited and they're probably the two guys that at this point are on track but not where they need to be.

Could McGlynn play center?

We were talking about that and right now I think that Chris Vangas has had a great off-season. He's a senior and I put John Bachman behind him and let those two guys compete at center. At least while McGlynn is out. We'll see what Pinkston does. Dom Williams has done a great job and he's going to be a (junior). We have him lined up behind Joe Thomas. We have Jacobson and John Brown, some guys that have been around here, lined up behind C.J. We'll see what Pinkston does. He had a good spring but he's probably gotten more publicity than what he deserves. I want to see that he picks up. When McGlynn comes back, we're going play the best five guys and from that standpoint, every guy needs to know that they need to go out and prove themselves. By not zeroing in at one position with McGlynn...hey, if Vangas is doing a great job or Bachman comes on and he's our center, we'll move McGlynn to left tackle. I like that mentality and not locking guys in, particularly when they have a lot to improve. I'm really excited about Jeff Otah. Think about it, last year was the fourth year he's played football ever and we stick him in as a starter and he's playing. He's had a good off-season to take a step. He's got a lot of ability and I think he's going to be really good.

Where do you see LeSean McCoy on this team?

Without practicing, he has been good. You see him going through the drills, he's full speed. He's a little over 200 pounds. How he handles things mentally will be somewhat a factor.

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