Touted freshmen willing to wait if necessary

The Pitt football team missed out on a post-season bowl game last year, so the Panthers had… The Pitt football team missed out on a post-season bowl game last year, so the Panthers had to wait a long off-season before training camp began in August.

The wait was even longer for freshman wide receiver Dorin Dickerson.

“It’s been a long process since I committed [to play for Pitt], so it feels good to get the uniform on,” Dickerson said.

The process was a little over a year, actually. Dickerson gave Pitt a verbal commitment in late June 2005, which meant one of the top 100 high school football players in the country left a lot of time for the Pitt community to talk about him.

But what happened in the ensuing months helped to ease the pressure on Dickerson, then still a West Allegheny student, even though the talk itself increased.

When all was said and done, Pitt had signed 26 more recruits to consummate its best class in more than a decade. The hype escalated further, and found itself spread onto the rest of Pitt’s talented freshmen, who had yet to suit up in blue and gold.

Aaron Berry was one of them.

“There definitely are high expectations and we’re trying to live up to it,” said Berry, an All-Pennsylvania cornerback at Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg last year. “It’s going to take hard work and dedication, but I think we can live up to it and in the next couple of years we’re going to be real tough.”

Tough is exactly how head coach Dave Wannstedt wants the Panthers, old and new, to play. To make sure that is so, he had to make it a little tougher on himself this year. Instead of coaching one team practice a day, Wannstedt and his staff must coach two, one for upperclassmen and one for underclassmen to ensure the more inexperienced players get more time to practice, and more time to learn.

“Split practices help out a lot because we get a lot more reps,” freshman tight end Nate Byham, a 2005 U.S. Army All-American, said. “It’s actually running the plays that helps us learn better.”

“We’re definitely getting more reps,” Berry said. “I’m just trying to work hard and get better every day. Learning from Darelle Revis, one of the best cornerbacks in the nation, is definitely helping me out a lot.”

Berry has learned, and it’s shown. Since arriving at Pitt, Berry has steadily moved up the depth chart, which means Wannstedt’s plan to accurately separate the cream from the rest of the crop is working.

So, it is not inconceivable to see at least two or three true freshmen on the field for Pitt’s season opener against Virginia at Heinz Field on Sept. 2. In fact, early playing time is something each of the freshmen considered highly when choosing Pitt.

“I felt like I had a good chance at playing here and that’s what every freshman felt like,” Dickerson said. “Early playing time was a big factor.”

“I wanted to play early and Coach [Paul] Rhodes is one of the best defensive coordinators in the country,” Berry said. “He seems to put a defensive back in the NFL every year, and I want to make it to the next level — everybody does.”

Per NFL rule, Berry and the rest of the freshmen will have to wait three more years before they can make the jump to the pros. However, that leaves them just enough time to turn Pitt into a national contender once again.

“I definitely want to have an impact,” Byham said. “By our junior and senior year we’ll definitely have the program up.”

“I just wanted to make the program better,” Berry said. “Everybody had [scholarship offers from] big schools like Miami, Florida, USC, but we just talked and everybody wanted to turn this program around and be tough to beat in the next couple years.”

A year or two is what the freshmen are willing to wait. None of them expect to come in and be handed a starting spot right away, but instead to work as hard as possible and raise the level of the Pitt program.

“I’m not going to say that all the freshmen are going to come in and take over the program,” Byham said. “I don’t expect to come in and start. I just want to have a chance to play.”

Byham and the rest of the freshmen are getting their chance. Whatever they choose to do with that chance, well, Pitt fans will just have to wait and see.

“We’re just out here trying to do the best that we can and it’s going to take time,” Dickerson said. “Who knows what’s going to happen. It’ll be good to see, though.”