University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Pitt Holds Second Day of Football Training Camp
8/9/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 9, 2006
Dave Wannstedt
Training
August 9, 2006
On Bob Junko's taking leave of daily coaching duties and the addition of Charlie Taaffe:
It was really something that came up in the last two weeks really. I think the statement says it all in relation to Coach Junko's health being a priority. Because it happened so fast, as we work through this thing, Coach Taaffe's responsibilities will be more defined as we work through it. He'll be obviously working with offense. That's where he'll be. That's where his, obviously, expertise is. We'll just take it one day at a time and go from there.
I've known Charlie for several years. We worked some camps together, and we basically started coaching together about 25-30 years ago. Although, he's a lot older than I am. (laughs)
On the first practice for Aaron Smith and Jason Pinkston:
To get Aaron Smith out here today and Jason Pinkston, that was good because they've been anxious to get out here with their teammates and go to work. By bringing both of those guys out, it gave us an opportunity to get them the ball and to practice a little bit more and start evaluating them and stacking them up with the rest of the guys.
On today's practice standouts:
Tyler Palko probably threw the ball as good today as he has. When I say throwing good, I'm not talking about not throwing interceptions. I'm talking about he was very accurate today. He made good decisions today. That was good to see. I was very pleased with the way he responded. If we were going to give a game ball for summer camp practice, Mike Phillips had a phenomenal day. He caused two fumbles today. He came close to getting two interceptions. I think today was a big confidence builder for him coming off an injury.
On Dan Loheyde's injury:
It's a shame, particularly when you don't even have pads on. It's bad enough when it happens in a game and bad enough when it happens in a scrimmage. But Dan Loheyde yesterday, working through some punt drills, twisted his knee. He had an MRI this morning and he'll be in surgery as early as next week. We're going to wait until after the surgery to see the extent of it, and then we'll sit down and talk with Dan and his parents and come up with what's the best decision and the best thing for him. It's a ligament tear. That's what they anticipated seeing in the MRI.
On Aaron Berry:
Aaron Berry continues to make progress. It's probably not compared to the rest of the players because we do the press conference after the afternoon (freshman) practice and that's what's on everybody's mind. But Aaron Berry and Nate Byham both really showed up in the afternoon practice as did [
On Jeff Otah:
You can see his athletic ability. That will show up without pads. With shoulder pads on tomorrow for the first time, there will be guys that I have not even thought about that we'll be talking about tomorrow. There probably will be guys that we've wasted a lot of ink on. I'll never mention their name again when they put the pads on. (laughs) But, no, I'm being a little bit funny about that but pads have a tendency to change things real quick.
He's (Otah) like an upperclassman physically, but he's a freshman mentally because of the system and his background. I promise you he wasn't playing pee-wee football when he was six years old. I don't know when he played his first year of football, but that whole developmental process, it's all in front of him.
