Pitt releases first official two-deep

Pitt released its first official depth chart of the 2011 season on Monday, and the listing included a number of relative surprises.

Chief among the developments was at Spur linebacker, where redshirt junior Andrew Taglianetti is listed as a co-starter with redshirt freshman Todd Thomas. Thomas was competing with redshirt senior Greg Williams for the starting job at Spur, but after an injury sidelined Williams, it looked like Thomas had secured the spot.

Taglianetti entered training camp at backup free safety, and he spent all of camp there. But Todd Graham did say in the last week that Taglianetti could see time at Spur linebacker. At the time, it seemed that Graham was considering Taglianetti as a Spur linebacker for situational work.

Elsewhere in the secondary, freshman cornerbacks Lafayette Pitts and Lloyd Carrington are listed as backup Bandit safeties on this week's two-deep. Pitts worked as the fourth corner throughout training camp and Carrington was right behind the Woodland Hills native. But the coaching staff likes to use cornerbacks as the extra defensive backs in sub-packages, so the presence of Pitts and Carrington at backup safety could be more indicative of situational preference than actual position moves.

The three-way battle at inside linebacker is likely continuing, but the coaching staff made an interesting decision to list the redshirt seniors - Max Gruder and Tristan Roberts - as co-starters. Gruder and Shane Gordon ran first-team for most of camp, but the coaches have said they considered all three starters.

Likewise, Aaron Donald and Justin Hargrove are listed as co-starters at defensive end, although Hargrove took almost all of the first-team snaps in training camp.

There weren't many surprises on offense, aside from listing starters and backups at 13 positions. The offensive line remained the same as it was at the end of last week, with Juantez Hollins (left tackle), Chris Jacobson (left guard), Ryan Turnley (center), Lucas Nix (right guard), and Jordan Gibbs (right tackle) as the starters.

Pitt also listed redshirt senior transfer Zach Brown and all three freshman running backs - Corey Davis, Isaac Bennett, and Malcolm Crockett - as co-backups behind Ray Graham.

And at quarterback, walk-on freshman Trey Anderson and redshirt freshman Mark Myers are listed as co-backups behind Tino Sunseri. Anderson was one of the surprises in training camp, arriving on campus days before the start of camp and moving into the backup role by the second week.