Coach Dave Wannstedt knows the Panthers have made strides this season, particularly the past three weeks, but quantifying it is difficult because it's not showing up in the win column.

"[Progress] is slow, it's not as fast as I would like," he said at his weekly news conference. "It is not as fast as anyone would like, but we're dealing with a great group of kids. The attitude is great. You wouldn't know we are 3-5 if you watched these kids practice and study and get ready to try and win."

In building a program, Wannstedt said, "you go out and get the best players to come in and play, and you hope a few of them are going to be difference makers. If they are difference makers, things will happen a lot faster than if not. If somebody gets hurt, it's not going to happen as fast."

Wannstedt is in his third year as coach of the Panthers (3-5, 1-2 Big East), and the expectations were that, by now, the program would be further along. But he is steadfast in his belief that he has a solid foundation and that his team turned a corner the past few weeks.

With young talent in place at key positions, Wannstedt expects the Panthers to finish strong and carry that momentum into next season. The Panthers will lose only seven starters to graduation, and the players in the much talked about recruiting classes the past two years are starting to contribute.

The Panthers have played well the past two weeks against Cincinnati and Louisville, two of the better teams on their schedule, beating the Bearcats, 24-17, and losing a heartbreaker to the Cardinals, 24-17, after fumbling away a chance to tie the score in the final minute.

And the areas that had been a problem -- the offensive line, the defense as a whole and the quarterback position -- early in the season are showing steady improvement.

"I know we're better on defense [than the first two years] in all phases," Wannstedt said. "I like where we're at on special teams and our offensive line has come on and we can run the football with the best of them."

As for the quarterback position, freshman Pat Bostick is slowly gaining the confidence of the coaching staff with his play after being forced into the lineup by junior starter Bill Stull's injury and redshirt freshman Kevan Smith's ineffectiveness.

"The position we're trying to catch up with, and unfortunately it is the most critical position, is quarterback. There's no easy solution. There is a reason Pitt hasn't lined up with a true freshman at quarterback for 25 years -- it isn't easy."

Bostick helped lead Pitt back from a 14-0 first-half deficit and pulled it into a 17-17 tie with four minutes left in the game. After Louisville scored with 1:54 left, the Panthers marched to the 1 before Bostick and freshman running back LeSean McCoy botched a handoff and Louisville recovered.

"When you are down 14-0 at Louisville and it's their homecoming game, it is easy to fold the tent with a freshman quarterback but our kids didn't do that," Wannstedt said. "I like the attitude of our team. I think we are better conditioned and we are stronger mentally."

Those are signs of a team making progress, but the only measurable sign of that is winning football games, which Wannstedt insists is the focus for the rest of the season.

"It's pretty simple. If your team feels like you're going backward and you're not making progress and you don't have a chance it's one thing, but our guys don't believe that," Wannstedt said.

"Our focus is Syracuse and just going out there and playing better. I still don't think we have played as good as we can, and a lot will have to do with some of those young kids getting better in a hurry."