Football: Sunseri ready to start at quarterback this season

Tino Sunseri doesn’t have much game experience at the college level. In fact, he appeared in only five games for the Pitt football team last season. Tino Sunseri doesn’t have much game experience at the college level. In fact, he appeared in only five games for the Pitt football team last season.

But the redshirt sophomore is making it clear that he’s ready to step in as the starting quarterback and lead the Panther offense into the highly anticipated 2010 season.

“I don’t need baby steps,” he said. “I don’t think leaders are made overnight. I think it’s something that you have to be ready for whenever you’re young and you kind of just step into it.”

That’s a good thing, too, since the Panthers won’t have the chance to ease into the season. Pitt’s first game comes at No. 24 Utah and the team faces Miami on Sept. 23. Sunseri isn’t shying away from the high level of competition in the early season, saying that every quarterback “has to start somewhere.”

For Sunseri, his career started behind departed senior Bill Stull, who Sunseri will replace under center this season. Stull’s senior season won’t be an easy act to follow, as he led the Panthers to a 10-3 record, their best season since 1981, and earned a spot on the All-Big East First Team.

Sunseri said he took advantage of the opportunity to learn from Stull’s junior season when he struggled to his standout senior year.

“Bill was one of those guys you could learn a ton from, because he’s been from the lows to the highs,” Sunseri said. “I was always right there in the meetings and made sure I was the first person he talked to whenever he came off [the field]. There was a guy that was doing it and I wasn’t actually doing it, but I was the closest thing to it.”

Pitt offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti, Jr. said that Sunseri’s opportunity to watch and learn from Stull is the kind of experience that helps a quarterback at any level.

“When you have a chance to sit back and see somebody do it well and what it looks like, it really helps you when it’s your turn, because you got a chance to sit back and analyze it and see how it’s done, rather than being forced into a situation and not knowing what it looks like,” Cignetti said.

Last season, Sunseri got the chance to observe an offense full of high-powered weapons, such as Heisman hopeful Dion Lewis and All-American candidate Jonathan Baldwin. Sunseri said it’s comforting knowing those players, among others, return to the field this season.

“We understand the weapons that we have,” Sunseri said. “There are athletes all across the board and I just have to be able to give them the ball and be able to move and score points.”

Baldwin said he’s confident in Sunseri’s ability to do exactly that.

“I can tell from the spring, Tino’s done a great job getting the huddle orchestrated, picking guys up, telling guys when they made a mistake and getting on guys if they make a mistake,” Baldwin said.

He added that it’s important to have a strong leader at quarterback.

“You always want to have somebody if you mess up to get on you, not if you mess up just ‘It’s okay.’” Baldwin said. “Most guys like a tougher guy at quarterback. Bill [Stull] was a tough guy and Tino’s a tough guy as well.”

Cignetti said that two of Sunseri’s greatest strengths as a player are his capability as a leader and his competitiveness, so he’s not concerned about Sunseri’s ability to perform in crucial situations. In fact, he said the new quarterback would thrive under pressure.

“You’d always like your quarterback to be a leader,” Cignetti said “Fortunately, our quarterback is a leader. Competitors and leaders like Tino, they thrive on adversity. They can’t wait to be put in that position and be successful.”

Sunseri agreed, saying he feels ready to lead the team on crucial scoring drives, like Stull did last season when the Panthers scored the final 18 points of the game after trailing Connecticut 21-6 with less than four minutes remaining in the third quarter.

“Everyone keeps saying that I’m going to be a manager,” he said. “I don’t think I’m going to be a manager. I think I’m ready to take that role where if it’s a pressure situation and we need to score points, that I can do that.”

Despite the faith in Sunseri heading into the season, coach Dave Wannstedt said that Sunseri will still need some time to build up his confidence as the starting quarterback. He said that although Sunseri has the belief of the team and the coaches, real confidence in himself only comes with game experience and playing time in training camp.

Most of the talk heading into training camp centers around Sunseri’s strong arm, but Wannstedt and Cignetti said that’s not the only ability Sunseri brings to the quarterback position.

“He understands play design,” Cignetti said. “He understands exactly what’s expected of him when he gets that play call. He’s a good athlete, he can play within the pocket, he can play outside the pocket. He is tough. It’s going to be exciting to watch him grow and develop.”

Wannstedt echoed Cignetti’s statements, saying that at this time a year ago, Sunseri was splitting first team reps with Stull. He added that Sunseri not only has the arm to make all the throws, but he’s intelligent and athletic.

During the off-season, Sunseri said he mostly concentrated on making sure he knew the playbook, so that he could answer any questions posed in the huddle. He also worked on footwork and fundamentals, because he said it’s important not to get away from those skills.

As the team enters training camp, Sunseri said he’ll use those skills to focus on the first opponent he’ll face: the Pitt Panthers defense.

“We just have to get ready for those guys and then we have to get ready for Utah. We just have to take it one game at a time.”