This is a second chance for Elijah Fields -- and almost certainly a last chance.

He understands as much.

The Pitt free safety was suspended all of last season for an unspecified violation of team rules. But now, after that suspension has been lifted, Fields seems like a different person.

From a maturation standpoint, he is eons beyond where he was in August, when his suspension was issued.

Yesterday, just after the redshirt sophomore was one of the shining rays of coach Dave Wannstedt's second spring practice, he decided to answer questions from media members.

It would have been perfectly understandable -- and to some, expected ---- if Fields would have declined, choosing instead not to speak, not to open up and relive the past.

But he didn't reject, he stood and fielded questions with impressive candor.

When last year's transgressions were brought up, Fields looked reporters squarely in the eye and said, "It won't happen again. Trust me."

Fields didn't want to get into the events that led to his suspension, and they likely will never be made public. But to the Pitt staff, players and, perhaps most important, Fields, the past isn't the important part. Instead, the future of the 6-foot-2, 217-pound defensive back from Duquesne is what is paramount.

"I've been down most of my life," Fields said. "I had to learn how to always work my way back up. ... I know I am playing for a lot of people. I feel I let my community down, my family down, my teammates down, my coaches down, and it is time to do the right thing."

The buzz around camp is that Fields is doing the right thing. There also is a feeling that if he wasn't, he would not have been asked back to the program after the suspension.

"He needs to be accountable, and we [as a coaching staff] need to be able to trust him and his teammates need to be able to trust him, and he now knows that," Pitt secondary coach Jeff Hafley said. "With not being able to play last year, that sure opened up his eyes. He knows the most important thing is to look at the future and do the right things every single day that will keep him going in a positive direction."

If yesterday's practice inside the UPMC Sports Performance Complex was a true barometer, Fields is definitely headed in the right direction on the field, as he is locked in a position battle with Eric Thatcher and Dom DeCicco.

On one play, Fields batted down a crossing route.

Just a few snaps later, he came up, snuffing out an inside handoff.

On yet another, he got fooled initially, only to briskly make up for his mistake, cover 18 yards in a little more than a blink of an eye to meet the ballcarrier after just a 4-yard gain.

It is that kind of athletic ability that has had people talking that he could be the one who makes it big as a professional athlete.

"Part of the problem with him is that you see a great athlete when he is 15 or 16 years old and everybody starts talking about how he is going to be in the NFL someday and that wears on a kid, and maybe that kid starts thinking he doesn't need to work as hard," Hafley said. "I think now he realizes if you don't do the right things, people are going to pass you by.

"He is one of the most athletic kids we have. But the key is he has to be able to be trusted by his teammates and his coaches. He's doing that right now."

He's also doing something else -- showing everyone that he learned from his past mistakes.