21 Pitt

H.B. Blades wants to set the record straight: He does not throw punches at the bottom of the pile. He does admit to, among other things, digging elbows into rib cages, gouging eyes and picking noses (opponents', not his), acts he laughs off as "harmless stuff." The junior linebacker and scion of the football-playing Blades family--his dad, Bennie, and uncles Brian and Al first were notorious yappers at Miami , then in the NFL --could win the Heisman if it were awarded for trash talk. "Against Boston College last year I was in their players' ears the whole time," he says. "They got so mad, they went to the refs."

All of this comes from a guy who off the field draws as much attention as a sleeping cat and eschews campus parties to spend time with his eight-month-old twin girls, Aalyah and Takaia. "I can't explain this Dr. Jekyll--Mr. Hyde thing," Blades says. "Maybe it's pent-up aggression from every-day life. Everybody just thinks I'm an angry kid."

Whatever is driving Blades will be valuable to a Pitt team in transition. New coach Dave Wannstedt , a Pittsburgh native who played offensive line for the Panthers from 1970 through '73, has already hammered his imprint on last year's co-- Big East champ and Fiesta Bowl participant. In the spring he ordered every player to shed pounds before the start of August practice. He scrapped former coach Walt Harris 's West Coast offense and installed a physical, run-first attack. ( Pitt ranked 105th in the nation in rushing last year, with 97.8 yards per game.) And in searching for more speed on defense, Wannstedt has been turning ends into tackles, linebackers into ends, corners into safeties.

Wannstedt, who spent the last 16 seasons as an NFL coach or assistant, hesitated to take the Pitt job, weighing the notion of staying in the pros in some capacity after resigning as Miami Dolphins coach last November. Then he picked the brains of former NFL mentor Jimmy Johnson , USC 's Pete Carroll , Alabama 's Mike Shula and Georgia Tech 's Chan Gailey --all of whom have coached in the pros and college--and was convinced that the right move was to return home. "This has been very, very energizing for me," he says.

At the center of Wannstedt's defensive changes is Blades, who moves from strongside linebacker to the middle. Blades compensates for a relative lack of size (6 feet, 245) with quickness and a nose--his, this time--for the ball. Last season he led the Panthers with 108 tackles. "I'm not a hey-look-at-me, finesse-type linebacker," he says. "I'm in your face, and I'm going to talk [trash] to you. I'm a mean, dirty, physical player."

We get the message. --G.M.