Jennings gets starting nod

So, you could pick the freshman who dominated your spring Blue-Gold scrimmage. Or do you… So, you could pick the freshman who dominated your spring Blue-Gold scrimmage. Or do you surprise all and pick the dark horse who, while smaller than most, can slip past a secondary in the blink of an eye?

Don’t forget, you could also play it safe and pick one of two seasoned veterans on your roster, both of whom saw significant time in the backfield last year and are as reliable as any player on your roster,

And, as if your decision wasn’t hard enough, time is not on your side, what with Notre Dame, one of college football’s biggest names and one of your most bitter rivals, looming on your schedule in Saturday’s national home opener.

These were the scenarios and options put in front of Pitt’s first-year head coach Dave Wannstedt as training camp unfolded and ended last week. Nevertheless, he ended months of speculation by naming freshman Rashad Jennings the starting tailback for the opener at his weekly press conference Monday.

“Rashad, in all of the scrimmages we’ve had, he’s been very consistent,” Wannstedt says of his 6-foot-1, 235-pound freshman. “He makes good reads. He can catch the ball. He protects the ball well. Where we’re at today, that’s the situation. And he’s had a lot of inside runs.”

But he did point out that any given day’s depth chart could change come Saturday.

“[The depth chart] is as of today,” he said. “Don’t hold me to it if there’s some changes come Saturday. Things happen on a day-to-day basis, whether it be performance or whether it be health reasons that might force you to make an adjustment. But as of right now, we’ve pretty much got it laid out the way we will start things off.”

Jennings got the nod over a myriad of backs vying for a chance to anchor Wannstedt’s new offense, primarily due to a strong showing at spring practices and a 100-yard showing in the Blue-Gold game. His early success comes after a 2,000-yard senior season at Lynchburg Christian Academy in 2003.

One of the other lead candidates, Tim Murphy, will fill the fullback slot as his senior year gets under way, while the others will try to fill in the gaps as Wannstedt tries to revive a rushing attack that was 105th in the nation a year ago.

Last year’s opening-day starter, Ray Kirkley, helped himself with a strong camp, one that, while ultimately not enough to unseat Jennings as the starter, pleased Wannstedt.

“Kirkley had a real good camp and so has Murphy,” he said. “I feel a lot better about our running back position as a whole today than I did at the end of the spring. I think Kirkley’s come back and had a very good camp, better than he finished the spring.”

One of the surprises of training camp was the development of speedy LaRod Stephens, whose dimensions (5-foot-7, 165 pounds) are offset by speed so blinding that Wannstedt gets “excited every time we hand the ball off to him.” Stephens is listed as one of the Panthers’ kickoff returners for Saturday.

With so many different options to fill his backfield, Wannstedt made it clear that more than one back will be used Saturday, likely somewhere in the neighborhood of three running backs. Which back and in what situation, however, was still up in the air.

“Do we have one guy that we say, ‘Hey, you’re the guy. You’re going to carry the ball 25-30 times’? Maybe,” he said. “But we’ll have to see how that plays out.”