The excitement among Pitt's football players was easy to see yesterday at the Panthers annual pre-training camp media day. Players and coaches spoke with confidence about the season ahead. It's the preseason and everyone's undefeated, but the Panthers appear to have good reason to be excited as they have one of the most talented rosters in years.

"If not this year, when?" tight end Nate Byham said when asked about the mood of the team. "There's no more excuses, there is too much talent here, too much talent with experience -- we're hungry, this is our year to blow up. We're expecting big things, even bigger things than people on the outside expect from us. We know we have a lot of work ahead of us, we also know that we're hungrier than we've ever been, we're more talented than we've ever been and we're ready to get started on this thing.

"All of us came to Pitt because we knew that we'd be in this situation, that Pitt was ready to explode and we wanted to be a part of it. This is our year." Offensive guard John Malecki added, "We don't want to hear about youth, no more 'we have too many young guys,' no more of that stuff. This is it, we need to go out and get it done. We're working so hard, we're pushing each other, we want to be good and you look around here and look at all this talent, my goodness, I consider it an honor to line up with this much talent every week. It is our time to shine."

The theme "this is our time" was something that was repeated time and time again yesterday by players and even some coaches. The team is experienced, talented and healthy and, more importantly, it has enough depth to withstand injuries early in the season. As Malecki, Byham and many of their teammates said, there is no reason the Panthers shouldn't be good this season. Even coach Dave Wannstedt, who is usually cautious when talking about expectations, said he's as excited as he has ever been heading into a season, but he knows none of the hype will mean a thing when the team begins camp today.

"Enthusiasm is a good thing, and from a football standpoint, it is legitimate," Wannstedt said yesterday. "But we all understand that the only way you make a season exciting is to take it one step at a time and we need to make sure as we start camp that we approach it from the standpoint of one practice at a time, then focus on having back-to-back practices at a high level as we improve and steadily build toward the season. My response to everyone saying we are going to be this or that -- we have to prove it. We have to go out and prove we are worthy of the excitement and the hype and we have to prove that we are the type of football team that can go win games consistently."

Although there are several questions on the Panthers' offense, the defense should be dominant given the number of returning starters and talented reserves. The defense gave a taste of its potential when it shut down West Virginia's high-powered offense in a season-ending 13-9 upset of the Mountaineers. Cornerback Aaron Berry said the unit still has a long way to go in a short time. "We have four weeks and we have to improve every single day," Berry said. "We were good last year, we need to be great and we can be great if we want it bad enough. There's no rest for us, we can't afford it. We've got too many goals we want to achieve and things we want to get done to rest."

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NOTES -- Wannstedt said all the incoming players have been approved by the NCAA clearinghouse and should be eligible to practice when camp starts today. ... Pitt will again have split practices the first week of camp. The first and fourth teams will go in the morning, the second and third teams will go in the afternoon. ... Linebacker Dan Loheyde (knee) will receive a permanent medical hardship scholarship. ... Receiver Maurice Williams and fullback Shane Brooks were academically ineligible after the spring and have left the team. Williams will likely end up at Edinboro and Brooks is likely headed to IUP. ... Wannstedt said that redshirt freshman Jordan Gibbs will start training camp as the starting left tackle on offense and heralded freshman Lucas Nix will move from tackle to guard and compete for a backup spot. ... Austin Ransom moved from reserve defensive back to receiver.

"If not this year, when? There's no more excuses, there is too much talent here."

Nate Byham, tight end

"I consider it an honor to line up with this much talent every week. It is our time to shine."

John Malecki, offensive guard