ESPN College Football

It was just a couple of years ago when people wondered if Dave Wannstedt was the right guy to lead Pittsburgh back to prominence. You don't hear that much anymore now that Wannstedt guided Pitt to 19 wins in the past two years, including the school's first 10-win season in more than a quarter century in 2009. Wannstedt and his staff have turned recruiting into a well-oiled machine and could be favored to win the Big East in 2010.

That doesn't mean the team doesn't have question marks going into spring. I addressed some of these with Wannstedt late last week. Here is the first part of my conversation with the sixth-year coach. Check back Tuesday for Part II.

Before we get to looking ahead, let's look back for a second. What are your reflections on the 2009 season, when you won 10 games and came up just short of a Big East title?

Dave Wannstedt: We were [11] points away from being unbeaten and four points and 30 seconds or whatever it was away from being undefeated in the Big East. I think that our guys had a little bit of a meltdown at NC State, but for the rest of the season, our players and coaches did a great job of maintaining their focus and being ready to play each week. Even the two conference games we lost, West Virginia down there and obviously Cincinnati, we were in position to win both games.

Obviously, we've taken our expectations from a talk standpoint to another level. Our players now expect to win and expect to compete for the Big East championship. Three years ago, maybe four years ago as a head coach, you're standing up there trying to convince them of that. Now I don't think anybody needs to be convinced. They understand and they want it. We obviously accomplished a few things last year that we haven't done in a while, but we still have a long way to go and a lot of things to accomplish.

How big of a boost was it when Greg Romeus decided to come back for his senior year?

DW: Greg's a great player, and he and I had a lot of discussions. We did our homework, no different than we did with LeSean McCoy and Darrelle Revis. We went through the NFL evaluation process. I probably called 10 NFL head coaches and general managers and friends of mine around the league. And I think, after getting all the evaluations in and talking with Greg and his parents, he really believes -- and I agree -- that he can better his position. That he's going to have a great senior year, he's going to graduate, receive more recognition on a national level, and I think it's going to help his draft status a year from now.

Let's talk about the quarterback situation, which is always a big deal. Where does that stand going into the spring?

DW: We're better off than we've been in the past for a couple reasons. From a depth standpoint, we have Pat Bostick coming back, and I think the redshirt year has done wonders for him knowledge-wise, from a physical and mental standpoint. And the interesting thing with Tino Sunseri is, if you go back to last spring we opened up the competition between Billy Stull, Pat Bostick and Tino. So all three quarterbacks got equal reps throughout the spring. Then we got to training camp and made the decision to redshirt Pat. And Tino was alternating between first group/second group all through camp with Billy.

So, really we came out of camp where Billy was a little bit ahead of him, but Tino had gotten so much work with the first group on offense, as I look back on it, it was one of the better things we did to help his development. So he's ready to play now. He's a redshirt sophomore. He understands the offense and we've got a good feel for his abilities and what he can do. So we'll see what he can do. It's going to be a competition.

Then we have two really good freshmen coming in, and obviously you're not counting on them. But we like Anthony Gonzalez from Liberty (Penn.) and Mark Myers from (Cleveland) St. Ignatius. Here's kind of an interesting tidbit: They were both picked to play in the Big 33 game; one will be playing for Ohio and one for Pennsylvania. So at some point in the game, both quarterbacks in the Big 33 game could both be going to Pitt. That's probably never happened before.

Will you keep Gonzalez at quarterback? He's a versatile all-around athlete.

DW: We'll see. That's the plan right now and we'll just have to see how it unfolds.

So going into spring, is Sunseri No. 1 on the depth chart, or is it officially even between him and Bostick?

DW: We have a walk-on kid, Andrew Janocko, who's been here three years. All three of them will get work. We'll split the work early with Tino and Bostick, but I think they'll both have to go and show what they can do, and we'll give them each a chance to go out and prove themselves.

Do you anticipate the competition going into fall camp like last year?

DW: I don't think so. I think it will be cleared up pretty good this spring. But you never know. I'm anticipating that it will.

You don't have a ton of question marks heading into 2010, but one of them appears to be cornerback. How is that position shaping up?

DW: We signed a kid out of junior college named Saheed Imoru. He was a qualifier out of high school from Houston and he had an appointment to the Air Force Academy, but he wanted to get an opportunity to play Division I football at a little bit higher level. So he went to junior college and he's been here now since January. I watched him play -- his team went to the national championship game -- and I think this kid has a chance to really be a good player.

We have Ricky Gary coming back from last year. Antwuan Reed is a junior who played as a freshman a little bit and is from the same high school as LaRod Stephens-Howling. He's got a lot of ability. Then we moved Aundre Wright from receiver to corner. Jarred Holley was recruited here to play corner, and we moved him to safety when Andrew Taglianetti got hurt. He ended up being really good at safety. We'll keep him at safety to start off, but we could move him to corner if we had to.

Will Taglianetti be ready for spring?

DW: He'll be back for spring, but he'll be limited. We've got Taglianetti, a redshirt freshman named Jason Hendricks from New Jersey who we really like. Kolby Gray has moved from quarterback to safety. Then we've got Dom DeCicco back, too.

I had a chance to talk to Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt this afternoon as he battled through another snowstorm in the Northeast.

Look for the full conversation with Wannstedt next week in the blog. But to tide you over for the weekend, here's a little of what Wannstedt had to say about probably the most intriguing question facing the 2010 Panthers: Who'll play quarterback?

Wannstedt said it will be a competition this spring between Pat Bostick and Tino Sunseri. Bostick redshirted a year ago, and Wannstedt said he really learned a lot and showed great improvement in practice. Wannstedt also had high praise for Sunseri, the redshirt sophomore who was Bill Stull's backup a year ago.

"He's ready to play now," Wannstedt said. "It's his time. He understands the offense, and we've got a good feel for his abilities and what he can do."

This spring, Wannstedt said, Bostick and Sunseri will split the reps evenly early on in practice, with Andrew Janocko serving as the third-stringer. But unlike last year, Wannstedt doesn't expect the competition to linger into fall camp.

"I think it will be cleared up pretty good this spring," he said. "You never know, but I'm anticipating that it will."

Wannstedt also mentioned Pitt's two highly-regarded quarterback recruits, Anthony Gonzalez and Mark Myers, will get a look this fall. But he said, "obviously, you're not counting on them this year."

In other interesting tidbits, Wannstedt said receiver Aundre Wright has been moved to cornerback to help shore up that position. And as expected, former quarterback recruit Kolby Gray is making the switch to safety this spring.

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

You already know the stars in the Big East. We've talked about some potential emerging stars. Here are some other players who might not have been household names before the spring, but you should remember who they are come the fall:

• Chris Neild, West Virginia: It's not like Neild was a complete unknown going into the spring. He started at nose guard last year and had a nice season. Still, the coaching staff heaped praise on his effort this spring and are predicting a big year for the junior.

• Ed Alcin, South Florida: He had only two catches last year but worked as a starting wide receiver most of the spring. And he's one of the fastest Bulls on the team.

• Aundre Wright, Pitt: Wright made his impact on special teams last year, averaging 21 yards per kickoff return. The speedster could see more time at wideout as a sophomore with T.J. Porter no longer around.

• George Johnson, Rutgers: Overshadowed at times by other big-name players on defense, Johnson had a solid year as a junior at end. Now as a senior, he looks ready to assert himself as one of the team leaders.

• Ryan Nassib, Syracuse: Barely known before spring practice, he was anointed the starting quarterback. Now he'll be the guy who'll try to keep Greg Paulus on the sidelines.

• Twyon Martin and Kendall Reyes, UConn: These two did not get enough attention for their standout work at defensive tackle as freshmen. They could pose problems for opposing offenses for a long time to come.

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

PITTSBURGH -- Some observations from a beautiful spring day spent watching Pitt practice:

• The Panthers turned in a spirited, two-plus hour workout that included lots of 11-on-11 drills. The talent that Dave Wannstedt has assembled through recruiting is obvious, as this is a team chock full of athletes.

The big question mark remains at quarterback, and none of the three contenders had a great day. Part of the blame can be placed on a blustery wind that made long throws an adventure, but the quarterbacks struggled to complete passes even in skeleton drills. Bill Stull got the first-team snaps, with Pat Bostick on the second team and Tino Sunseri running the threes. Sunseri is the best athlete, but he's smaller in person than I expected. He's listed at 6-foot-2 but looks a good couple of inches shorter than Stull and Bostick, who are each listed at 6-3.

• Interesting developments on the offensive line. Alex Karabin, a junior walk-on who played primarily on the kicking unit last year, took the first-team reps at center. Robb Houser started there the first seven games of 2008 before breaking his ankle. Houser was playing on the second team. Sophomore Chris Jacobsen got a lot of run today with the first-string as well.

• Wannstedt told me earlier in the day that he was preparing to use a committee approach at running back this year. But true freshman Dion Lewis, who enrolled in January, got most of the looks with the first team and could very well end up as the starter there. He's explosive and made some nice plays in the passing game. The run of the day, though, came from Shariff Harris, who dashed up the middle almost untouched for a 45-yard touchdown.

• Greg Cross has been moved to receiver and had a long touchdown catch on a busted coverage. The Panthers are deep at wideout, even with T.J. Porter currently suspended. Aundre Wright is lightning quick.

• Watching Aaron Berry and Jonathan Baldwin match up was a lot of fun. Each has a chance to be the best in the Big East at his position this fall.

• Defensive end Greg Romeus isn't going through contact drills right now because of a back problem, and after practice defensive coordinator Phil Bennett was busting his chops for missing so much practice time. "You might end up as a three technique," Bennett joked.

• Basketball coach Jamie Dixon watched practice from the sidelines, less than a week after his team's heartbreaking, last-second loss to Villanova in the Elite Eight.