Published: October 10, 2008 11:47 pm            

Reed fits right in for Pitt

PITTSBURGH — Antwuan Reed wasn’t sure what his freshman year would hold at Pitt.

But the Greater Johnstown High School graduate wasn’t about to complain when he got to play in the Panthers’ 26-21 upset of South Florida last week, even if it meant he had to forfeit his redshirt.

Reed got into the game, first on special teams, and then later in Pitt’s nickel defense.

He participated in three plays on defense and recorded his first tackle as a Panther.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt felt he needed to use Reed against South Florida’s potent spread offense.

“We went into the game saying we weren’t going to play him unless we felt like we had to,” Wannstedt said.

Although Reed’s season debut was unexpected, he was ready to go.

“I was prepared to be ready any time the coaches needed me,” Reed said. “I wanted to be ready because I never knew if I was going to play this year or not.

“Maybe Coach had an idea of putting me in earlier. He started in with me on special teams and then he put me in on defense.”

Wannstedt expects Reed to improve now that he knows he won’t be redshirting.

“I thought he did OK,” Wannstedt said. “He’ll get a lot better now that we know we’re going to play him. “

Wannstedt intends to play Reed for the rest of the season on special teams and in various coverage packages.

“He will be on four of the special teams this week so he’ll get a major dose,” said Wannstedt, whose team has a bye today before playing at Navy next week. “We’ll try to get him in some bandit and nickel situations, as well.”

Reed ran for 4,276 yards at Greater Johnstown and scored 55 total touchdowns. His speed made him an intriguing prospect in Pitt’s secondary, but his prowess on defense first caught the eye of the coaching staff.

Now it has earned him playing time in a deep and talented Pitt secondary.

“We have a few young guys that can cover,” Wannstedt said. “We’re going to start playing Antwuan more. He can cover. We have a little bit of depth there. If the matchups are there, we’ll use them.”

In addition to Reed, the Panthers have true freshmen defensive backs Ronald Hobby, Jarred Holley and Andrew Taglianetti, as well as redshirt freshman Buddy Jackson. But Reed’s quickness helped him become the first to see the field on defense, and the fourth true freshman to take off his redshirt this year. The others are Jonathan Baldwin, Lucas Nix and Taglianetti, who has played on special teams.

Reed knows that redshirting as a freshman can be beneficial, but he also understands how much playing this year could mean.

“It’s always good to get game experience. It helps you out to learn,” he said. “But either way it would be good. It’s hard to say one would be better than the other. They both are helpful.”

Reed is one of three true freshmen on Pitt from Johnstown. The other two, Marco Pecora (Richland) and Mike Cruz (Bishop McCort) likely will redshirt this year.

        

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