Stick it out: Frosh QB Bostick back

The question on everyone’s mind for the upcoming Pitt football season: Who will replace… The question on everyone’s mind for the upcoming Pitt football season: Who will replace Tyler Palko?

The three-year starting quarterback and captain is seemingly irreplaceable, especially since only Bill Stull saw time at quarterback during Palko’s career.

Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Matt Cavanaugh says that the ultimate question will be answered at camp before the season starts.

“Hopefully it decides itself,” he said. “We’ll see how the summer plays out for us. We’ve got six guys in camp, and Bill Stull and Kevan Smith both had real good springs.”

Cavanaugh knows talent when he sees it – he’s earned three Super Bowl rings in his career, two as a player and one as a coach, and was the quarterback for the Panthers in 1976 when they won the national championship.

Palko, who now is a free-agent player for the New Orleans Saints, made 35 consecutive starts and earned 8,429 yards, 66 passing touchdowns and 8,343 passing yards in his Pitt career.

This season, Stull and Smith are in the running for the sought-after position, along with freshman Pat Bostick, whose future was uncertain when left training camp before the first day of practice for personal reasons.

Bostick, 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, was the 2006 Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year and is fifth in state history with 7,259 passing yards. As a senior in high school, Bostick passed for 2,172 yards and 20 touchdowns. The year before, he threw for 2,810 yards, a school record, and had 34 touchdowns. He held his school record with 82 touchdowns, 543 completions and 903 attempts. His personal single-game records include 392 passing yards, 30 completions and seven touchdown passes.

Cavanaugh, who was voted the top offensive coordinator in the Big East last year by The Sporting News, said that nothing’s set in stone, and a lot rides on how the players perform in camp.

“Stull didn’t do anything in the spring to lose the job,” Cavanaugh said. “But he’ll go out this summer knowing he needs to go out and perform.”

Stull, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound junior, completed seven out of 10 career passes for the Panthers and played in four games last season. He completed six out of eight games, throwing for 69 yards and one touchdown.

“Two years [playing] behind Tyler and two years with Coach Cavanaugh, and I’m learning from the best,” Stull said. “Coach Cavanaugh’s been in the NFL for years, Tyler’s in the NFL now, and I think I’m learning from the best people.

“I’m excited. There’s a new look on our team right now, and I’m sure if you ask any player they’ll tell you it’s a good team. I’ve been waiting a while for this, and I’m very excited.”

In high school, Stull was the first player in WPIAL history to earn 3,000 passing yards in one season. He completed 62 percent of his passes and had 40 touchdowns his senior year.

“He’s a gamer. The players believe in him,” head coach Dave Wannstedt said of Stull. “He knows our offense. You could go out right now, and Billy will run the offense.

“I think he’s one of those guys who seems to perform better when the lights come on as compared to just in practice. If you go out and just watch Billy in practice, he may not be the most impressive guy but he’s kind of a gamer.

“He’s also had a very good off-season, and he’s not taking anything for granted. He wants to win the starting job.”

Another guy trying to win the starting job is Smith (6-3, 225). Smith redshirted last year and won Pitt’s Offensive Prep Player of the Year Award. In high school, he passed for 1,538 yards and eight touchdowns his senior year. He also threw for 2,100 yards during his final two seasons, despite a broken non-throwing wrist.

“I think [Smith] needs to come out during this camp and show us that he can be consistent,” Wannstedt said. “That’s the thing with the quarterback – we’re going to have two or three games where the quarterback is going to have to take the team down the field and win the game for you. The rest of the games, you have to be able to manage it and make plays when there’s plays to be made.”

Dexter Davidson was redshirted as freshman. Davidson, 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, was recovering from surgery on both knees in the spring but had a stellar high school career. He threw 6,011 yards, had 78 touchdowns, 329 completions and 537 attempts all for career records in Broward County where he was a two-time All-Florida Class 2B quarterback.