Thumbs up for Stull as Pitt starter

By Darrell Laurant  |   Thursday, August 21, 2008  |  Comments( 1 )

Pittsburgh Panthers
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Let's see, now -- where was he?

When last seen on a football field, Bill Stull was going 14-of-20 through the air for 177 yards and leading his Pitt Panthers to a season-opening victory over Eastern Michigan.

Then, in the third quarter, the 6-foot-3, 220-pounder broke the thumb on his throwing hand. It doesn't sound like that big a deal, but it never healed well enough for Stull to grip a football hard enough to throw it with any velocity. He never played again in 2007.

In his wake, freshmen Pat Bostick and Kevan Smith took turns as the quarterback starter. During the offseason, the Panthers brought in junior college transfer Greg Cross and signed local hero Tino Sunseri of Pittsburgh Catholic.

When fall practice began, Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt pointedly did not pick a starter under center for the Aug. 30 opener with Bowling Green. Wednesday, he did -- it's Shull.

"The guy has played smart and made good decisions," Wannstedt said, "and he's thrown the football accurately. He has also shown great leadership."

Stull said he was "just glad I was able to prove to my coaches, myself and my teammates" that he deserved to be back at the controls of the Pitt offense.

At Seton-LaSalle high School in Pittsburgh, Stull became the first WPIAL player ever to throw for over 3,000 yards, including a 332-yard, five-touchdown outburst against perennial power Aliquippa.

Despite all that yardage, however, he still had to fight the perception that he couldn't throw the deep ball. Recent scrimmages went a long way toward dispelling that notion, however, most notably a 40-yard strike from Stull to Derek Kinder.

Bostick, Smith, Cross and Sunseri are lined up behind Stull, not necessarily in that order. At least one (Sunseri, no doubt) and possibly two of that group will be redshirted, Wannstedt said.
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