Sharing safeties

Entering the season, sophomores Dom DeCicco and Elijah Fields were engaged in a heated… Entering the season, sophomores Dom DeCicco and Elijah Fields were engaged in a heated positional battle. DeCicco won the job after camp but played poorly against Bowling Green and Buffalo to start the season, and Fields took over as the starter against Iowa. However, Fields didn’t wow the coaches as the starter, and against South Florida DeCicco was once again the starter. But both players were on the field together most of the game as Pitt played a lot of nickel defense to combat South Florida’s prolific spread offense, and both players performed well. ‘We went from three weeks ago, being uncertain if either guy could get it done when he had to, to now being confident that we have two guys back there that we feel comfortable playing, and we kind of look at both of them as starters,’ said Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt. It’d be safe to assume that there’s some contention between DeCicco and Fields, but actually, it’s the polar opposite. ‘We really are best friends. I’m with him every day,’ said DeCicco. ‘We never talk about us playing. We know me and him could be playing together for a while and that’s what we’re looking forward to, and we’re just trying to help each other out until then.’ McCoy on being No. 1 in the Big East Being at the top feels so much better than being at the bottom ‘mdash; as long as it’s not the summit, at least according to sophomore running back LeSean McCoy. ‘It’s kind of cool. Everything is working in your favor because you control your destiny,’ said McCoy. ‘But I would rather be second. I don’t want to be at the top. I don’t want guys to get big heads ‘mdash; I want to keep working every game. I think that loss we had to Bowling Green helped us out and made us more focused. If I could change things, I’d rather be number two and work our way up.’ Wannstedt on Jonathan Baldwin ‘He’s so much further along than he was two weeks ago, so much more confident. If we didn’t have the depth at wide receiver that we do, you’d just stick him in there and say ‘go.’ ‘When he’s on the field, everybody knows it. He’s not hiding from anybody. No secrets.’