Pitt held its first scrimmage on Saturday and several defensive stars sat out due to injury. Among those were Greg Romeus, who has yet to practice with the team this Fall.
Also out were Myles Caragein, Tristan Roberts, Dom DeCicco, and Andrew Taglianetti. But despite all the injuries, Dave Wannstedt said all could have played in a regular season game:
Wannstedt, however, insisted that if the Panthers were lining up to play Utah Saturday, all the players — including Romeus — would have had no problem.
“He would have played today,” Wannstedt said. “Dom would have played, they all would have played.”
The biggest injury on the field came when backup Ray Graham was carted off after colliding with Jared Holley:
“Ray went back into the huddle but we jerked him out and took him in to put ice on it,” Wannstedt said. “I don’t know [how bad it is]. Hopefully it is nothing serious.”
Pat Bostick was the story of the game offensively. After relieving Tino Sunseri (5-11 for 61 yards / 0 TDs), he completed 9-15 passes for 163 yards and three touchdowns. Those numbers came against a severely depleted defense, but Bostick was only working with the second team offense. This scrimmage will hardly open up a full-blown QB competition, but it will be nice if Bostick can get progressively better in case he’s needed during the season.
Freshmen QBs Mark Myers and Anthony Gonzalez also got into the game, combining for three touchdowns and one interception. And on the defensive side of the ball, Dave Wannstedt thinks several freshman could all play roles this season:
“There are some freshmen that I would mention. One, Bryan Murphy, we have to take a look and see if he can help us. Then there’s K’Waun Williams, a cornerback, he’s made plays every day he’s been out here. I like what those two guys are doing. Those two guys on defense have a chance. Aaron Donald possibly too, we just have more depth at the defensive end position.
That should be no surprise to anyone. All three have been regularly mentioned as having excellent camps and Wannstedt may be in the position of using all three this season rather than redshirting them.