Sep 2, 2016 5 min read

PITTSBURGH – The jitters will be there. After what Pittsburgh running back James Conner has been through over the last 12 months, how could they not?

So forgive the 2014 ACC Player of the Year if he takes a moment before running out of the tunnel and onto the Heinz Field turf Saturday when the Panthers host Villanova in the 2016 opener. A knee injury that derailed his junior season and a cancer diagnosis that threatened to derail his promising career has a way of putting things in perspective.

“I’m just going to embrace it all,” Conner said. “I know we will have a great audience. It will be a memorable day. My doctor will be in the building, along with some of the nurses. My family and friends will be there, along with my friends from Erie, so it’s just going to be a great day.”

Yet, Conner also understands the jitters will fade. They always do. Once he takes a handoff from Nate Peterman it will back to business as usual: trying to help the Panthers take another step forward one punishing yard at a time.

“I’m excited to make my return,” he said. “I take every game the same. There’s a job that needs to be done.”

One Pitt and second-year coach Pat Narduzzi believe is far from finished even after a promising 8-5 season in 2015, one the Panthers gamely soldiered through even with Conner watching from the sideline for all but the first two quarters of the opener against Youngstown State.

Narduzzi has a better feel for the program now, one that is trying to embrace its history while forging ahead at the same time. The Pitt script logo – a symbol of the Panthers’ glory years four decades go – is back in full effect, joined by a variety of uniform options that seem to be de rigueur in college football these days.

Of course, the plan is to have plenty of substance to go with all that style, with Conner leading the way. Some things to look for as the Panthers begin a season with lofty expectations, against a team hoping to make a statement of its own.

Nyeem Wartman-White knows how quickly promise can disintegrate into heartbreak.

Nearly one year to the day that a torn left ACL robbed him of all but three series of his junior season, the Penn State linebacker will return to the lineup when Kent State visits Beaver Stadium today.

He’ll do so with a whole new outlook.

“I had selfish thoughts,” Wartman-White said of last season’s opener against Temple. “I remember in that game going over to a teammate and saying, ‘Yo, it’s going to be a good year.’ I had high expectations but I felt like that was very eye-opening because after I said that, it probably happened right there.”

Wartman-White began that game on a tear with two tackles and a third-down pass breakup in his first action as the team’s middle linebacker. It appeared the defense was in good hands with Wartman-White as its de facto captain.

It all ended moments later when he crumpled to the Lincoln Financial Field grass in agony. As he sat in the locker room, all he could think about is how badly he had wanted to put on a show in his hometown. Now, personal glory means little to him.

“This year, it’s all about winning,” Wartman-White said. “If I have one tackle per game but we win the Big Ten championship and I can put that ring on my finger and keep it for the rest of my life, that matters more to me than getting 140 tackles.”

Barry Odom didn’t want to abandon the system that Gary Pinkel used at Missouri to produce two Southeastern Conference East Division titles in the past three seasons.

So when Odom takes the field for the first time Saturday as the Tigers’ head coach at West Virginia, Pinkel’s influence will still be felt.

“It would be foolish to not stick with a lot of the things that coach has built a foundation here on,” said Odom, who served on Pinkel’s staff for 10 years, including the 2015 season as defensive coordinator.

Behind sophomore quarterback Drew Lock, Missouri is trying to rebound from a 5-7 season a year ago. Lock completed just 49 percent of his passes with eight interceptions in eight games.

Missouri started with three straight wins. But starting quarterback Maty Mauk was suspended before the fifth game and eventually booted from the team.

On-campus protests over the administration’s handling of racial and student welfare issues led to Missouri players threatening to boycott a game in November, the same month Pinkel announced he would retire after the season to fight non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

While Odom is making his debut, Dana Holgorsen starts his sixth season at West Virginia hoping it won’t be his last.

West Virginia reached eight wins a year ago for the first time since 2011, when the Mountaineers went 10-3 in Holgorsen’s first season. But he has gone 26-25 since, including 15-21 since joining the Big 12 in 2012.

He’s entering the fifth year of a six-year contract and fans want production now.

Holgorsen hasn’t publicly discussed his job security. He said what keeps him up at night is preparing for this year’s opening opponent based on watching film from last season.

“There’s only so much time in the day that you can have to be able to figure out what they do,” Holgorsen said.

It marks the first time since 1996 that Missouri starts the season on the road.