Pitt not sweating the small stuff

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Forget about who Pitt started at quarterback. The Panthers… Click here to view slideshow

Forget about who Pitt started at quarterback. The Panthers could have gone without one Saturday and not many would have noticed.

Why?

Running back LeSean McCoy.

“You see the look in his eyes, you know he’s ready to play,” Pitt quarterback Kevan Smith, who did start at quarterback, said. “LeSean did great today.”

The freshman tailback nicknamed Shady shined early Saturday, bursting, stopping, dashing and darting his way to 107 yards on 19 carries and three scores, pacing Pitt to a 34-10 win over Grambling State at Heinz Field.

“I’m definitely pumped,” McCoy said after the game. “It all happened so fast. Hopefully I’ll get used to it.”

McCoy didn’t start the game but assumed the top running back role when starter LaRod Stephens-Howling left the game early in the first quarter with bruised ribs.

McCoy ran away with the opportunity in the first quarter, scoring each of Pitt’s first three touchdowns, allowing the Panthers to safely grind out another win against another modest opponent.

“We’re 2-0,” Pitt head coach Dave Wannstedt said. “We should be 2-0.”

“I was expecting to do what we did today,” Smith said. “The game pretty much went as planned.”

Nobody planned on Stephens-Howling leaving the game early with bruised ribs, but McCoy fit perfectly. The freshman established himself as a viable running threat, relieving some of the pressure on Smith who replaced the injured Bill Stull.

“The running game was great today,” Smith said. “It definitely took some of the pressure off me.”

Smith played pretty well in his first collegiate start. Aside from a few hiccoughs, he commanded the Pitt offense firmly and tightened his grip as the field general during Stull’s absence.

“Kevan did a good job managing the game,” Wannstedt said.

Smith replaced Stull in the third quarter of Pitt’s 27-3 win over Eastern Michigan last week but wasn’t immediately named the official starter for Saturday until game time, competing with true freshman Pat Bostick for the starting job in practice.

Come game time, though, Smith showed why he earned the top spot, completing 15 of 22 passes for 202 yards and a touchdown – including a 50-yard touchdown pass to sophomore tight end Nate Byham and a 61-yard bomb to receiver Oderick Turner.

As prepared as Smith said he was to start, he didn’t expect to air it out.

“I was a little surprised when [offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh] gave the call,” Smith said of his pass to Turner. “He was wide open.”

Turner beat the Grambling State secondary down the middle of the field, and Smith dropped the ball perfectly into his outstretched hands.

“It was right on the money,” said Turner, who finished with four catches and 71 yards. “He has a real strong arm.”

Smith did show some of his inexperience but not nearly as much as Bostick, who entered the game with eight minutes remaining and threw an interception on his first pass attempt.

“You hate to see anybody start that way,” Wannstedt said. “But he’s got to learn somehow.”

Wannstedt also mentioned the Panthers need to learn how to curb some of the penalties that plagued the offense’s progress.

After a clean performance last week, which Wannstedt praised, the Panthers committed 10 penalties amounting to 91 yards, including a drive during which tackle Jason Pinkston and wide receiver T.J. Porter were flagged for consecutive holding calls.

“We got sloppy in some areas,” Wannstedt said. “We do that next week against Michigan State and we’ll get run out of the stadium.”

The Panthers defense largely kept the Grambling offense from moving the ball. The Tigers got a field goal as a result of Smith’s lone interception, and they got a touchdown off a perfectly thrown fly route from quarterback Brandon Landers to Clyde Edwards, despite cornerback Aaron Berry’s tight coverage.

Overall, the Tigers averaged just more than three yards per offensive play.

“I thought we did some great things defensively,” Wannstedt said.

Still, Grambling is a Division-I-FCS (Division-I-AA) opponent, leaving a rather large competition gap between Saturday’s game and this week’s game at Michigan State.

“Next week is a whole new ball game,” Wannstedt said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Pitt and Michigan State will kick off at noon next Saturday in East Lansing, Mich.

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