2009 Record – 10-3, 5-2 Big East
Bowl Game – Car Care Bowl – Beat North Carolina 19-17
Letterman Returning: 49
Stadium – Heinz Field (65,000)
College Location – Pittsburgh
Coach – Dave Wannstedt 35-26 (6th year)
OFFENSE: (5)
Key Returnees – RB Dion Lewis (below), WR Jonathan Baldwin, OT Jason Pinkston, OT Lucas Nix
Key Losses – QB Bill Stull, TE Dorin Dickerson, G John Malecki
-Heading into the 2009 football season a lot of concern surrounded the Pitt offense. Quarterback Bill Stull was coming off a 9-10 touchdown-to-interception season. The team would be without star running back LeSean McCoy, who opted for the NFL Draft. The Pitt team also lacked a big play wide receiver, something the offense had a knack for producing throughout the years. The concern, however, died right around the second game of the season, much in part to the emergence of freshman running back Dion Lewis. Lewis, now a true sophomore, is coming off of a Big East freshman record 1,799 yard season, with 17 touchdowns. Memories of McCoy boasting his stuff down the Pittsburgh field became about as forgetful as a high school algebra class. Lewis, whose only other division-I offers came from Miami Ohio and Tulane, has become the focal point of the Pitt offense. On a 5’8’’ 185 pound frame, Lewis is a nightmare for linebackers trying to locate the speedy running back. At quarterback, Bill Stull, who improved his touchdown-to-interception ratio to 21-8 last season, is gone leaving the competition to sophomore, Tino Sunseri and junior, Pat Bostick. Sunseri won the battle in spring camp and is the favorite to take the job. Bostick has nine starts in his Pitt career, to Sunseri’s zero, and is the much more heralded recruit, but he has failed to live up to the playing field the Pitt offense needs him at. Whoever plays the most impressive throughout August camp should take the starting job into the season. Don’t be surprised however, to see the second place finisher in early season games before a Thursday night matchup with Miami, Sept. 23. The Panthers offense found a gem last season in wideout Jonathan Baldwin, who brought in 57 catches for 1,111 yards and eight scores. The junior had seven 100 yard games last season and at 6’5’’ 225 pounds with a 4.37 forty yard dash, Baldwin brings a physical presence to the game that rivals past Georgia Tech wideout, Calvin Johnson. Wide receivers Mike Shanahan, 6’5’’ 220, and Greg Cross, 6’2’’ 215, round out a Pittsburgh receiving corps that more resembles a basketball backcourt, than a group of wideouts. The offensive line returns just two starters in tackles Jason Pinkston and Lucas Nix. Both are all-conference caliber players, but the interior of the Pitt offensive line, remains a question heading into the season.
DEFENSE: (6)
Key Returnees – DE Greg Romeus (below), DE Jabaal Sheard, OLB Max Gruder, S Dom DeCicco, OLB Greg Williams
Key Losses – CB Aaron Berry, MLB Adam Gunn, CB Jovani Chappel, DT Mick Williams
- Some defenses, more than others, seem to take a larger amount of pride in getting after the quarterback. That was exactly the case of the 2009 Pitt defense, which led the nation with 47 quarterback sacks. The defense returns just six starters, however, two at each area of the defense. Returning to the defensive line are senior ends, 
Greg Romeus and Jabaal Sheard, who wrecked havoc on opposing quarterback’s last season combining for 13 sacks and 22 tackles for a loss. Of the 47 sacks brought in by the defense 37 of them came from the defensive front four. A game last season without the defense having multiple sacks was like a Scorsese movie without a twist, with the panthers bringing in six games of at least four sacks. At linebacker, junior outside starters, Greg Williams and Max Gruder, return. Gruder led the team in tackles last season with 91. Departed is all-conference middle man, Adam Gunn. Filling Gunn’s shoes will be sophomore Dan Mason, who in his first of three starts last season, earned Big East Player of the Week honors for an 11 tackle, two sack, performance. Mason will look to carry on the tradition of Pittsburgh producing an all-conference linebacker, like past greats H.B. Blades, Scott McKillop and Gunn. The Pitt secondary remains the unfinished piece of the puzzle after losing cornerbacks Aaron Berry and Jovani Chappel. Safeties Dom DeCicco and Jarred Holley return, however. Apart from bringing in a three interceptions, Holley wasn’t as impressive as he could have been. DeCicco, on the preseason Thorpe award watch list, has the most upside of anyone on the defense at 6’3’’ 230 and should build on a solid junior campaign. Last season’s Panther defense help opponents to under 70 yards rushing in five games and should continue to stop the run at ease. It’s the passing defense which needs to improve, however, and with a pair of pass rushers like Sheard and Romeus returning, it should do so in 2010.
SCHEDULE:
- Last season’s Pittsburgh team was far and beyond the most successful team head coach Dave Wannstedt has put together. The 10-3 record and 5-1 non-conference record were both career highs. Wannstedt and the Panthers have put together an impressive 10-4 mark against conference opponents as well the last two years, with losses coming against Cincinnati twice and Rutgers and West Virginia in others. The problem for Pittsburgh as of late has been its inability to hang with ranked opponents. In Wannstedt’s tenure as the coach, he is just 3-8 against Top-25 teams. This season a challenging out-of-conference schedule combines with the level playing field of the Big East. A Sept.2 trip to Utah starts things off for the Panthers in what should be a much improved Utes team. After an FCS meeting and a week off, Pitt welcomes Miami (Fla.) in the team’s first meeting with the Hurricanes since the 2004 season. Another Florida team heads to Heinz Field Oct. 2, in FIU. A trip to Notre Dame, Oct. 9, rounds out the Panthers non-conference schedule. Syracuse kicks off Pitt’s Big East run, followed by visits from Rutgers and Louisville. Packed into a crucial part of the Panthers 2010 season are away trips to UConn and USF in consecutive weeks starting Nov.11, along with a home visit from West Virginia Nov.26, in a Friday night matchup. The Mountaineers should be vying for the conference title right along with the Panthers. An away meeting at Cincinnati, Dec. 4, concludes the Panthers season. Pitt has failed to beat the Bearcats the last two seasons.
Schedule rating: B-
Red = Toughest Game. Blue = Pivotal to conference.
Top Incoming Freshman:
1.) T.J. Clemmings, *#6 DE, 6-6 260, Paterson, NJ
It may be hard for Clemmings to find time in 2010 with Romeus and Sheard on the field, but it may be even harder for Pitt not to give the talented freshman a shot.
2.) Anthony Gonzalez (left), #13 QB, 6-3 185, Bethlehem, PA
Gonzalez will most likely redshirt this season with playing time coming not far down the line.
3.) Todd Thomas, *PG WR, 6-2 205, Beaver Falls, PA
Like the present Pitt wideouts, Thomas is a physical wide receiver. A post graduate who spent a year at Milford Prep in New York, Thomas may see the field right away.
4.) Bryan Murphy, #11 DE, 6-3 235, Ramsey, NJ
Murphy, a past member of national power Don Bosco Prep, is a speedy edge rusher that could play outside ‘backer in the future.
5.) Aaron Donald, #25 DT, 6-1 270, Pittsburgh, PA
A local of Penn Hills HS, Donald rounds out the Panthers tremendous defensive front recruiting class.
*Rankings according to scout.com
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