Backup quarterback Pat Bostick is no longer eligible to take a redshirt this season after playing the final five minutes of Saturday's 42-21 victory against Navy, but Bostick does not have any qualms about the coaches using him in the game.

"No matter what the circumstances are I have to be ready to play," Bostick said yesterday. "I'm totally supportive of their feelings that I needed to get some reps to get ready to play. The important thing is that I'm not worried about the future right now. The team isn't worried about the future right now. We're worried about the [present]."

Bostick, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound sophomore, was a highly touted prospect coming out of Manheim Township last year. He started the final eight games of last season after starter Bill Stull was injured. He completed 61.5 percent of his passes with eight touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

Stull is a junior this season, so unless Bostick takes a redshirt next season, he will have only one season to be Pitt's starting quarterback. But the decision to play Bostick Saturday brings into question how much he figures into Pitt's future.

"It's natural for people to think about the future," he said. "There can be questions that arise as a result of what happened. My mind-set is, I'm preparing this team to win every week, whatever the circumstances are. That's what I'm here to do and that's what I want to do."

Coach Dave Wannstedt and Bostick had spoken about redshirting this season, but Bostick never pushed for taking one.

"I almost think a redshirt is an afterthought. It's something you get after the season," he said. "It shouldn't even be talked about during the season in my opinion. Whether they tell you you're going to take a redshirt or not, you still have to prepare and help Bill and be positive at practice and help this team win football games. That's the primary focus of any football player. If you're not thinking about that, you don't belong here."

Wannstedt said he must do what's best for the team regardless of how any one player's future is affected.

"It's been made very clear to Pat and our team that he's the backup quarterback," Wannstedt said. "I'm concerned and Pat is concerned about winning as many games as we can this year. To say to a kid that you're the second-team quarterback, but if someone gets hurt you're not going into the game ... I don't know if that's fair to the team and I don't know if that's fair to the kid.

"The third point is these redshirt things work out in different ways. Thank God, Derek Kinder had his redshirt year or his career would have been over [last] August. ... You have to look at it in two ways. What's best for the team? And who knows what's going to happen and what's best for the kid?"

Pitt is finding ways to win games despite its troublesome habit of turning the ball over. The Panthers are seventh in the eight-team Big East in turnover margin, at minus-5 for the season. They have fumbled the ball away seven times, been intercepted five times and have forced only seven opponent turnovers.

Only Connecticut and Louisville (13 turnovers each) have turned it over more among conference foes.

"We understand the turnover thing, and how it controls wins and losses," Stull said. "We've been able to somehow pull away with some big plays when we've had turnovers. And that's a credit to our defense, getting a three-and-out after I've coughed up a turnover or our offense has turned it over.

"Our defense is doing a heck of a job. But we understand as we play bigger defenses and guys who have been known to hurt us in the past that we have to be smarter with the ball and protect it more."

Cornerback Buddy Jackson has a shoulder injury and is being evaluated this week. No other injuries were reported yesterday.

• Game: No. 17 Pitt (5-1) vs. Rutgers (2-5).

• Where: Heinz Field.

• When: 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

• TV: None.

• Of note: LB Scott McKillop is tied with Randy Holloway for 18th on the all-time Pitt tackles list with 268. He is nine shy of Al Chesley for 17th.