After a season-ending neck injury in last year's opening game, Pitt linebacker Adam Gunn knew something extraordinary would have to happen to get another year of eligibility as a sixth-year senior.

"Every single person I talked to said I wasn't going to get it," said Gunn, a Kiski Area High School graduate. "Me personally, I just tried to stay as optimistic and positive as possible. It was out of my hands."

Then three weeks ago, Dave Wannstedt called with the news from the NCAA review board.

"I was sitting at home doing homework. Coach Wannstedt called me and said, 'Hey, Adam, guess what?' As soon as he said that, we both just started laughing in disbelief. I just started running around the house, basically," Gunn said.

Yesterday, on the opening day of Pitt's spring football drills when the team practiced in helmets but without pads, Gunn's smile was nearly as bright as the sun. He has been cleared to participate in all drills except for full-speed contact until July 1.

"I'm probably the happiest man in the world right now. I couldn't be more thankful. It's just a perfect situation," Gunn said. "Now it's kind of my responsibility as a sixth-year senior and leader of this team to help coach Wannstedt develop high-character guys.

"I could be cleared to go full right now. Just for precautionary reasons, we held it off until July 1. I'm basically going to be doing everything but full-speed contact until July 1, and we'll go from there."

In the opening game against Bowling Green, Gunn broke his neck and was carried off the field on a backboard after a helmet-to-helmet collision with teammate Scott McKillop. Several weeks later, he had surgery that fused the fourth and fifth vertebrae of his cervical spine with a titanium plate held together by four screws, but there was no spinal cord damage.

Gunn stuck to a rehabilitation program and was preparing to work out for pro scouts this week before he got the call on his extra year of eligibility. He was a strongside linebacker who was third on the team in tackles in 2007, and now he's in the mix to replace McKillop in the middle.

"You trust your doctors. Particularly with an injury like that, they're going to be overly cautious," Wannstedt said. "He's done a great job on his rehab, and everybody's confident that he's fine. We'll see. Of all the positions on the team, that's where you like to have somebody who has played before."

Gunn, who will turn 23 in June, was hustling off the practice field for an evening class as part of his studies to earn a master's degree in public administration, but he didn't mind answering questions.

"I'm loving it," he said.

Putting on a football helmet for the first time in more than six months was a big step, but there is another test tomorrow when the Panthers practice in pads and do some heavier hitting.

"The adrenaline overcame everything. The excitement to be out there. I forgot my neck was broke," Gunn said.

Any nerves about tomorrow?

"I'm not trying to be nervous about it, but in the back of my mind I probably am," he said.

"That first hit's going to be different. But once I get it and it feels good, I feel bad for everybody else."

NOTES --Frank Cignetti Jr., Pitt's new offensive coordinator, had been working with the quarterbacks in classroom sessions but was on the field with them and the offense for the first time. "The journey begins. Before you know it, Youngstown State's going to be here," he said with a smile. ... Rod Rutherford, a star at Perry Traditional Academy and later at Pitt, was back on the field as an assistant coach. He had stints with the Steelers and Carolina Panthers before coaching defensive backs last year at Saint Vincent College. "Rod wants to coach big-time football. He came back and got his degree, and now he's working on his masters. You talk about a guy this university should be proud of," Wannstedt said. "I'm glad to have him on the staff."