University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Meet the Press: Coach Wannstedt Previews Cincinnati
9/5/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 5, 2006
Dave Wannstedt
September 5, 2006
Opening Statement:
Since the game was three days ago, I really don't have anything else to say about
On the team's road struggles last year:
I think you look at every game on an individual situation. You look at that game and say what was the reason that we didn't win? Sometimes it may have been handling the travel. More times than not I've told our team it doesn't matter whether we play Wednesday night or Sunday night, it is still going to come down to blocking and tackling. It is real simple and that is the attitude that we have. I like the routine that we have as far as on the road. We will approach things differently. I think we have good leadership which we talked about all along. Our guys will be focused and ready to play.
When you are in a team meeting everyone is the star pupil, but once you walk out of that room and you're back at the hotel or you're in the room and away from a structured environment, I think the attitude that the older guys set is going to be the example or standard that the younger guys follow. So yes (leadership) is important, but that won't be a problem.
On Clint Session's improvement:
Clint probably has made as much of an impact on our team as any player from a year ago. I think his mind is right. We didn't do anything about his speed or his toughness. He has always been fast and a tough guy. In the position that he is playing, we have him on the edge where he can make plays. He is not involved in a lot of checks, he can line up and play. He can use his talent better. I think that has helped him a bit. Plus he is a senior. He loves Pitt and he wants to have a good year. He wants to go out the right way.
On Conredge Collins:
He will get back in the lineup and get going this week. He missed some time during training camp with a knee injury. Then he had a hamstring injury early. He just got behind a little bit. There was a week and a half during camp where we weren't sure where the whole fullback position was at. We spent a lot of time working on some different things with our tight ends to make sure we were protected. Conredge will be back in the lineup. He is a major part of what we are trying to do on offense.
On Tyler Palko spreading the ball around to different receivers:
I knew we were seven-for-seven completions on the (first) drive but I didn't realize we hit six different receivers. If there is anything that Matt Cavanaugh and myself have said, (Palko) more than anything is "get the ball to the open guy, don't worry about throwing the ball to this one guy." There is no one player on this team that has to carry us. Your job is to manage the game, which he did. Your job is to get everyone lined up, do the quarterback thing with the signal calling and then when it is a pass, get the ball to the open guy regardless of who it is. Let your teammates make plays. Don't look at the scoreboard, don't worry about who is catching the ball. (Palko) went out and executed that beautifully. If you are defending us right now, that puts a lot of pressure on a defense. I don't know how many great weapons we have at this point. It is early in the year. Some of these guys will separate themselves, but I think we have enough guys that are options.
On scouting
They have a 4-3 defense. They will blitz and they will get up there and play aggressive with their corners. They rotated three running backs last weekend, 10 carries apiece. They rotated three tailbacks in there. Everyone knows they split time with their quarterbacks. One played the first and third, while the other played the second and fourth. There really isn't much difference between the two (quarterbacks). One may be a little more athletic, the other one may have a little bit better of an arm. Not enough to make a game plan issue of it. Last year when they came in and ran the option on us, they actually moved the wide receiver to quarterback. So I'm sure they have that package in. Whether we will see it I don't know. Last week
On playing many players in the defensive lineman rotation:
It will benefit us. We won't rotate a guy if someone becomes a real dominant force. With the Dolphins everyone was playing about 30 plays a game except Jason Taylor who only came out of the game because he wanted water. We are not at that point where one guy that has to stay. We played nine defensive linemen Saturday and it worked out pretty good. Malecki had 18 plays, Mick Williams had 22 and Rashaad Duncan had 28. So everyone was within 10 plays. Coach Gattuso keeps track of that and he rotates them. We have little situations where we like to use certain guys more than others, but for the most part we are going to play them all until someone separates themselves.
On Joe Clermond:
Joe played good. I knew Clint (Session) was going to be a player for us. How good of a player we'll see. I told Joe Clermond a year ago that I had moved his name tag to the other side of the board. I didn't think he would be a part of this thing. He has come in and worked. You have to give him credit - he has made plays, got his weight down and had a great offseason. I am happy he is off to a good start.
