Some Panthers heal, others drop in summer training camp

Cameron Saddler leaned against his crutches and stared forward, watching the Pitt football team… Cameron Saddler leaned against his crutches and stared forward, watching the Pitt football team run a seven-on-seven practice drill. Dr. Freddie Fu of UPMC’s Center for Sports Medicine quickly approached Saddler from the other side of the field, speaking softly to a man walking on his right. He arrived at Saddler’s side and placed his hand on Saddler’s shoulder, looking down at the knee brace that wrapped around the freshman’s leg. ‘We’ll fix it right up,’ said Fu to Saddler. ‘We’ll look at it tonight and fix it.’ Saddler, who suffered a torn ACL Aug. 12 during a summer practice punt return drill, was just one of the many Pitt football players banged up in summer drills ‘mdash; and the second to see his season come to an end. Redshirt junior Doug Fulmer also tore ligaments in his left knee a few days before, adding to a long list of season-ending injuries and a rough career at Pitt. After starting three of his first four games as a freshman at defensive end, Fulmer went down with a season-ending left ankle injury against The Citadel. He then injured his right knee in the following offseason’s training camp, which caused him to miss the entire 2007 season. A long recovery followed, and Fulmer began participating in drills again in the spring. He said at the end of the spring that he expected to be at full strength by the end of the summer, and defensive line coach Greg Gattuso said he expected Fulmer to compete for a starting role. But Fulmer tore a ligament in his left knee Aug. 11 and again had to go through season-ending surgery. Wannstedt said he was unsure if Fulmer would be eligible for an extra year of playing because of the circumstances, but he expects the defensive line to be just fine ‘mdash; especially after getting defensive tackle Gus Mustakas back. He injured his knee in the beginning of last season. Gattuso said Mustakas has had a long way back to health but worked as hard as anyone he’d ever seen to get back in shape. And Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said that while it’s a shame to see people go down with injuries in camp, it’s something that the team comes to expect during such a long and intense training camp ‘- especially with so many players competing for playing time. He also said Saddler’s knee injury was similar to that of Derek Kinder in last summer’s training camp. ‘It wasn’t as bad, but it was close from the standpoint of almost non-contact. He’s got to rehab, and we’ll get him back in the spring.’ Kinder, who spent all of last season, the spring and the summer recovering from knee surgery, said he’s back again and has been doing drills with the wide receivers. Still, Kinder was favoring his knee slightly at times during camp and wasn’t always working with the receivers during each drill. But Wannstedt said that he’s fine with the way his players have recently recovered from injuries and thinks the team is in solid shape. ‘We are not too bad,’ said Wannstedt of the injuries. ‘I like the attitude our players have. We just need to clean up a few things, that’s all.’ Attitude is something that tight end Nate Byham said is important when recovering from an injury. Byham, who dislocated his patella last year against South Florida, underwent knee surgery and rehabbed all spring and summer to come back to camp at full strength. By the time summer camp began, he was ready. Wannstedt said Byham will be the starting tight end this season, with Dorin Dickerson and John Pelusi splitting time behind him. And as long as no more big names go down unexpectedly, he expects Pitt to get back on the winning side of things once again.