Stull shines in scrimmage

BY DALE GRDNIC
The Tribune-Democrat

PITTSBURGH August 19, 2007 12:07 am

— Coach Dave Wannstedt didn’t anoint him as the starting quarterback for the Pitt football team, but junior Bill Stull is a step closer to earning the job after another solid performance in the Panthers’ second intrasquad scrimmage Saturday morning at the UPMC Sports Complex.
“I think it’s Billy’s job today, but I’m not going to name a starter yet,” Wannstedt said. “We’ve got another scrimmage coming up (Wednesday) and a couple more two-a-days, but I’m pleased with the progress that Billy’s making. (So), it’s Billy’s job, and we’ll see what happens.
“I know we can win with Billy Stull, and I have all the confidence in the world in him, as do the coaches and the players on this team. ... So, the better football team that we become over the next few years, the more this competition’s going to be getting better and better.”
Neither of the three Pitt quarterbacks threw for a lot of yardage, but Stull and freshman Pat Bostick were fairly efficient. Stull completed 9 of 15 passes for 58 yards with a touchdown to T.J. Porter from 11 yards out and one badly thrown pass that was intercepted by outside linebacker Shane Murray. Murray easily returned that for a touchdown.
Bostick was even sharper at 10-for-13 for 79 yards and two touchdowns, a long toss of 17 yards and no picks. He played almost exclusively with the third-team players Saturday morning. The media requested to talk to him afterward, but he was not brought out.
“It was good for Pat,” Wannstedt said. “He got about 25 plays, and I think he did great. When you talk about just showing up four days ago and coming in and getting with his teammates and the media and all that’s involved with that, from the start I thought he responded well and got his feet wet.”
When asked if he thought that Bostick still had a shot to compete for the starting job, Wannstedt answered no, but quickly added that “I think we just keep competing.” So, while a starter isn’t likely to be named for at least another week, Stull certainly sounds like a No. 1 quarterback.
“Once again, we started off a little slow, and I’ll take the blame for that,” Stull said. “But once we got going, everything went pretty smooth, especially on the ground. Every time we get down in the red zone we try to put up 6, and we did a good job with that. We had a good percentage down there.
“I need to make better decisions, clean up the pick that I made, and never do it again. Coach says you can only control the things that you do, and if that’s watching more film then that’s what I’ll do until I don’t make any mistakes. And I definitely don’t want to make the same mistakes more than once.”
Redshirt freshman Kevan Smith was the least consistent among the three quarterbacks.
He was 6-for-12 for 34 yards with three interceptions, three sacks and no touchdowns. His long pass was for 15 yards.
The running game was in fine form, as freshman LeSean McCoy worked with the first team several series in and didn’t disappoint. He had a 12-yard burst, making two players miss at the line and added a nifty nine-yard run. But the big play was a 32-yard jaunt around the right end where he made one cutback that ended any chance for Pitt’s defenders to stop him except safety Eric Thatcher who had an angle.