Pitt coach wants focus

PITTSBURGH — If there is one thing that Pittsburgh football coach Dave Wannstedt is certain about, it’s that his Panthers will not be looking past their matchup with Youngstown State.

This will be the second meeting between the Panthers and Penguins. The first, in 2005, ended with a 41-0 Pittsburgh victory before some 43,000 fans at Heinz Field.

“This is something that we’ve talked about a lot,” said Wannstedt at his weekly press conference Monday in Pittsburgh. “I don’t think it’s a matter of taking anybody lightly. It’s a matter of going out there and being focused and playing as good as you can play.

“We lost to Bowling Green last season because be turned the football over and we didn’t tackle well,” he added. “We’ve got to go out there and protect the football and we need to tackle. If you do those things well you’re going to have a chance to win every week, whether it’s Youngstown State or West Virginia.”

Wannstedt said the Panthers are itching to see a team in different colors.

“We’re excited to get this season underway,” Wannstedt added. “We’ve had a good camp.”

The Panthers’ film study was against Youngstown State’s recent games with FBS opponents.

“The first tape that we put on was them against Ohio State and they played Penn State and we played them a couple of years ago,” he said. “They are a regional team that obviously is nationally recognized.

“Some of the players on their team, we were actually recruiting,” he said. “One starting guard, Eric Rodemoyer, we offered a scholarship and he ended up going to West Virginia. Taylor Hill, one of their starting linebackers and I remember going to his school Cardinal Mooney, we offered him also and he ended up going to Michigan and they both transferred back to YSU.

“There’s a familiarity to some degree,” he said. “Some of our players know some of their players, because of location.”

Wannstedt is impressed with the Penguins that he’s seen on tape.

“They’ve got a very athletic quarterback [Brandon Summers],” he said. “They are more of a spread team and they’ll get into some two backs and run the football. They are a spread team, but they aren’t crazy throwing the ball spread. They run screens, boots and waggles. They run the ball and will run it as much as anybody.

“They are very similar to West Virginia and they’ve got a wide receiver [Donald Jones] that the NFL people are talking about. He’s going to be drafted. He’s a big kid that can run fast and has good size. We have to know where he is at all times.”

Wannstedt says that while the YSU offense concerns him, he has concerns also about the YSU defense.

“Defensively they have good players and from a defensive standpoint you’re trying to prepare for everything,” he added. “They will blitz. I don’t think they are going to blitz every down, but they may. They are a high percentage pressure team. You have to be concerned about that and be able to handle that.

“You really have to be concerned about your opponent, what they are going to do, but you really have to focus on your football team. You need to go out there and not commit penalties and not turn the ball over and tackle well. The rest will take care of itself.”

Wannstedt will start senior Bill Stull at quarterback. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Stull completed 188 of 330 passes for 2,356 yards and nine touchdowns last season, but he was intercepted 10 times.

Freshman Dion Lewis (5-8, 195) will start at tailback, while redshirt freshman Chris Burns of New Wilmington, Pa., is expected to see action in the backfield, although Wannstedt said that Lewis will get most of the reps on Saturday.

The Panthers have seven freshmen listed on their two-deep roster.

“We have three freshmen that I know will play for sure. The others we would like to redshirt, but it’s too early to make any decisions,” said Wannstedt.

mollica@vindy.com