PITTSBURGH (AP) -It took awhile – much longer than he anticipated – but Dorin Dickerson is finally making an impact for Pittsburgh.
The former Pennsylvania high school player of the year came to the Panthers as a wide receiver. He didn’t stay there long as he was moved to linebacker before finally settling in at tight end.
Now, Dickerson appears to be trying to make up for three all-but-lost seasons in which he had only 14 receptions, 15 tackles and not much impact. After only two games, Dickerson has four touchdown catches – three against Buffalo on Saturday – and eight other receptions for Pitt (2-0).
By contrast, starter Nate Byham, who went into the season considered as one of major college football’s top NFL prospects at tight end, doesn’t have a catch.
Where have you been, Dorin Dickerson?
better know where he’s at all the time.”
Turns out that shuffling positions so often may have given Dickerson, now a senior, a better understanding of the offense than players who remain at one position.
“I just felt like the whole day they couldn’t catch me,” Dickerson said after making eight catches for 71 yards against Buffalo in Pitt’s 54-27 victory. “The pace of the game was slow for me, so I just went out there and made plays.”
If quarterback Bill Stull and Dickerson seem to have found a rhythm, there’s a reason. The two are roommates, and they’ve spent considerable time discussing what each does on a particular play.
“Absolutely, I have to know where Dorin is at all times,” Stull said. “On the second touchdown we scored (at Buffalo), coach said we wanted to be a little more aggressive. We got the exact look that we practiced during the week … He ran a great route, beat the defender and ended up being wide open for a touchdown.”
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SANTONIO’S FAN: Cincinnati receiver and kick returner Mardy Gilyard can’t dodge comparisons to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Santonio Holmes, a college star at Ohio State.
Gilyard scored four touchdowns during a 70-3 win over Southeast Missouri State on Saturday. He became the first Bowl Subdivision player to score on a punt return, a run and a catch in the same game since UCLA’s Maurice Drew did it on Oct. 8, 2005 against California, according to STATS. Drew now goes by the last name Jones-Drew.
Even before his big game, the senior had been getting compared to Holmes, whose tiptoe catch in the back of the end zone won the Super Bowl.
“I get that from everybody,” Gilyard said. “I just love the way he plays. He has those goofy legs, kind of like he’s stumbling all the time, like me. I love his game. I love the way he plays.”
Gilyard emerged as one of the Bearcats’ top receivers last season, helping them win their first Big East title and get to the Orange Bowl, where they lost 20-7 to Virginia Tech. Even there, the comparisons followed.
“My mom and my brothers were watching the Super Bowl game when he caught that corner touchdown and they (compared) it to the Orange Bowl when I caught a sideline ball,” Gilyard said. “It was just kind of funny how they compared the two.
“Anytime he does something, the guys on this team are like: ‘Did you see yourself on TV? That’s your twin, dude. Y’all play just alike.”’
How does Gilyard respond?
“I just kind of giggle,” he said.
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ORANGE OPINION: Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone thinks Orange quarterback Greg Paulus has what it takes to play at the next level.
Although the former Duke point guard has thrown three interceptions in two games, two of those picks were off deflections in a 28-7 loss at Penn State on Saturday. Paulus was 14 for 20 for 105 yards with one touchdown in the game and has completed 64.7 percent of his passes in two games against Big Ten teams.
If not for several drops, the Orange might very well be 1-1, having lost their season-opener 23-20 in overtime to Minnesota. Senior wideout Mike Williams has had the biggest slip-ups – on a critical third-down pass that was right in his midsection against the Golden Gophers and in the end zone against the Nittany Lions, who moved up two spots this week to a tie for No. 5 in the AP Top 25.
“Different games present different problems,” Marrone said. “He (Paulus) hasn’t been around that long. He’s getting better and better every week and we’re excited about the progress. People put a lot on size and speed and arm strength, a lot of things. But it comes down to mentally how you prepare, your skill at quick decision making, especially at that position, and Greg has all those intangibles.”
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SLOPPY MOUNTAINEERS: West Virginia is looking for answers to its special teams follies and other simple mistakes entering the toughest stretch of its nonconference schedule.
a scores. The Mountaineers managed to overcome those gaffes and a 10-point deficit Saturday to beat the Pirates 35-20.
West Virginia (2-0) at least has temporarily fixed its long-standing problem of consistently allowing long kickoff returns. But the punt return problems and 11 penalties for 104 yards stood out with tough tests looming at Auburn next Saturday, followed by an Oct. 1 home game with Colorado.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” said West Virginia coach Bill Stewart. “We’re not close enough to being a good football team, but I’m happier to be where we are today than where we were a year ago (after a 1-1 start). Two games does not a season make.”
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BILLBOARD MATERIAL: It’s not the way Louisville running back Victor Anderson envisioned getting his face on a billboard.
But there the sophomore is, plastered on a sign not far from Cardinal Stadium, his No. 20 getting crushed by a handful of Kentucky defenders as part of the Wildcats’ aggressive advertising campaign in the state’s largest city.
It serves as a painful reminder of Anderson’s first college game last fall as Kentucky whipped the Cardinals 27-2.
“When I first saw it, I was kind of shocked, I ride past it every day to come to the stadium,” Anderson said. “But, you know? I ride past it. It goes right over my head. When I’m riding, it just keeps going. When I first saw it, it kind of bothered me.”
Not anymore. Besides, he knows if the Cardinals can upset the Wildcats on Saturday, he could make a case that the billboards are false advertising.
“Hey, it’s an honor to have another team have you on their billboard, but we’ve got a great team and for them to just have me on the billboard and not a team photo of our team, that’s what bothers me the most because they should respect our whole team,” he said.
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IS THAT REALLY ME? The first 5,000 fans at Cincinnati’s home opener on Saturday received bobbleheads depicting coach Brian Kelly. The figurine shows the third-year coach in a red shirt with a whistle around his neck and a football under his right arm.
That’s not what got Kelly’s attention.
“This is my third bobblehead,” he said. “The problem we’re having is that they’re getting wider and wider. That’s not a good thing, if you’re tracking bobbleheads. I wasn’t exactly on board with the way it came out. In future reference, I think I would pose for my bobblehead.”
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AWARDS: Pat Who? West Virginia quarterback Jarrett Brown put up numbers reminiscent of his record-setting predecessor during the Mountaineers’ 35-20 win over East Carolina last week. Brown threw for 334 yards and four touchdowns and added 73 yards and a touchdown on the ground on his way to being named Big East offensive player of the week.
Pittsburgh linebacker Adam Gunn was named the defensive player of the week after picking up 11 tackles – including three sacks – during the Panthers’ 54-27 win over Buffalo. Gunn, who suffered a broken neck in last year’s season opener, now has five sacks in two games so far this year.
Gilyard’s 53-yard punt return for a score – the first by a Cincinnati player in 12 years – was good enough to earn him the Special Teams Player of the Week.
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AP Sports Writers Joe Kay in Cincinnati, John Kekis in Syracuse, N.Y., Will Graves in Louisville, Ky., and Alan Robinson in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.
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