Pitt Holds First Practice in Full Pads Saturday Afternoon

Aug. 12, 2006

Dave Wannstedt

Training Camp Day 5

August 12, 2006

On the first day in full pads:

Not bad. Always good and bad. I thought that we ran the ball better today for our first time and made some strides there. We have a lot of work to do with our run defense. Right now that's an area that if we're going to be an improved team, we need to obviously run the ball better and stop the run. I was not pleased with that today. We're working a lot of different people to still try to get the right mix. I'm not sure who that is right now. We'll have a little bit of a scrimmage tomorrow, a controlled scrimmage. We'll actually have three controlled scrimmages between now and next Saturday. That's kind of a timetable to be able to put players in situations enough where it's full speed and we will be able to evaluate exactly where they're at and where we're at.

On the running backs:

I was pleased with all of them. LaRod (Stephens-Howling) has been outstanding, Brandon Mason had a very good day today, Shane Brooks had a very good day, Kevin Collier had a good day. So I'm pleased with the running backs. Brandon is bigger and I think he's in a lot better shape. He's actually slimmed down a little bit, he did a very good job in the weight room. He's stronger.

On the day's standouts:

Oderick Turner made some plays today, him and (Derek) Kinder were the two receivers. Right now in my mind we have two receivers. (Joe) DelSardo was hurt, he didn't practice. Everybody else is a ways (away). I was very pleased with Oderick. Tyler (Palko) hit him once, a deep ball, which we didn't do nearly enough of last year.

On the cornerback competition:

We're rotating (Kennard Cox) and Reggie (Carter). We need to get Aaron Berry in there some. I think Aaron deserves to play a little bit more with the big boys.

On injuries and players who were not present today:

Mick Williams got sick out there today, headaches, I don't know what it was, if he just got sick or whatever. Darrell Strong was excused for a funeral today, so Nate Byham ran with the second team like he has been here for five years. Nate will be in the mix as of today. McKenzie Mathews was excused for personal reasons, I can't say any more than that right now. His brother was here today and we've had several conversations with his mom. I think he just needs a little bit of time then we'll see where that goes. Hopefully DelSardo will be back tomorrow. He had a good camp up until yesterday.

On the offensive line's improvement:

John Simonitis, ever since the spring, he had an excellent spring and he's off to a great start here. (Joe) Villani is better, C.J. (Davis) has a year of experience and (John) Bachman had a good day. (Mike) McGlynn has lost weight and he's playing well. I like our group. Joe Thomas is running with the second team. I'm very happy with Joe. We have Jeff Otah in there competing for a starting job, so we've got a good group there of six or seven guys and hopefully that will give us a little bit of depth.