When Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt finally is planted 6 feet under 35 or 40 years from now, he's pretty sure what they will engrave on his tombstone:

If Only He Had A Quarterback!

It was a funny line on a gorgeous August morning as Wannstedt sat outside his office overlooking the practice fields at the South Side compound Pitt shares with the Steelers and reflected on the pick of his Panthers as Big East Conference favorites this season. But it wasn't so funny when he coached the Chicago Bears and tried to win with Jim Harbaugh, Peter Tom Willis, Steve Walsh, Erik Kramer, Dave Krieg, Shane Matthews, Steve Stenstrom, Rick Mirer and Moses Moreno. It wasn't funny when he was with the Miami Dolphins and had Jay Fiedler, Damon Huard, Ray Lucas, Brian Griese, A.J. Feeley and Sage Rosenfels. And it definitely wasn't funny Dec. 31 when Pitt's Bill Stull had one of the worst games a quarterback can have in a 3-0 loss against Oregon State in the Sun Bowl.

No, Wannstedt finds none of this humorous. But he is an optimistic man by nature. He says his rotten luck with quarterbacks is about to change. It was hard to tell if he was trying to convince himself or the rest of us, but he said, firmly, "If you're asking about where we're at with Billy Stull, Pat Bostick and Tino Sunseri, I like the position."

That makes one of us, but more on that in a moment.

Wannstedt's history with quarterbacks is worth revisiting briefly.

Sorry, Wannie!

The man really has had some bad luck. Kramer had a huge year for the Bears in 1995 but broke his neck early the next season and was never the same. Fiedler could have been successful in Miami, but he couldn't stay healthy.

Wannstedt has made some poor decisions with his quarterbacks. He was a part of the Chicago management team that traded a No. 1 draft choice to get Mirer, who ended up starting three games for the Bears and finished with no touchdown passes and six interceptions. Awful, just awful.

Wannstedt has had some lousy timing. He took the Miami job in 2000 just as the great Dan Marino was ending his Hall of Fame career. He inherited a young backup named Joe Flacco when he took the Pitt job in 2005 only to see him transfer when he didn't see a future behind Tyler Palko, who had led Pitt to the Fiesta Bowl the year before. He had the capable Palko for two wasted seasons, the first because of a new, vastly different offense installed by then-coordinator Matt Cavanaugh and the second because of a horrid supporting cast.

If only Pitt had a Palko or a Flacco now ...

Wannstedt has stocked significant talent at just about every position. He's done a marvelous job rebuilding the defensive line into a strong and deep unit, maybe as good as any in the country. He's also recruited much-needed team speed, the proof being wins the past two seasons against West Virginia, an opponent that ran circles around Pitt just a few years ago.

But, clearly, Wannstedt hasn't done nearly as well recruiting and developing quarterbacks.

"I've kind of changed my philosophy on that," he said. "I think it's the one position that you have to be willing to recruit nationally."

To that end, Wannstedt had his recruiting guru, Bob Junko, reach out to the country's top 100 quarterback prospects last year. Five responded and one -- Kolby Gray of Texas -- signed. This year, Wannstedt said Pitt is in the hunt for two top quarterbacks, one in-state, the other not. Maybe one of those or Gray will be the program's answer.

Until then Stull, coming off his 7-of-24, 52-yard, one-interception nightmare in the Sun Bowl, is the man with Bostick and Sunseri as backups.

"Against Rutgers [last season], Billy threw for 279 yards before he got hurt [stinger/concussion]," Wannstedt said. "He missed the next game and never came back to where he was. But I think he's going to have a big year ...

"Can we win with those guys? We won nine games last year with 'em and they are a year older and should be a year better. They have the talent to be as good as anyone in our conference. I like the people we have around them. And I like the sense of urgency that [new offensive coordinator] Frank Cignetti has brought to the position."

It might be enough for Pitt to win the Big East, which looks to be very balanced and very mediocre. No conference team made the USA Today coaches' preseason Top 25 poll, not that Pitt will care as long as it wins the title, gets a Bowl Championship Series slot and keeps the program upwardly mobile.

But to be a truly elite college football power, there's no question that Wannstedt has to do better with the game's most important position. He has to recruit better quarterbacks and he and his staff have to do a better job developing them.

Pitt's long-term future is at stake.

Not to mention Wannstedt's epitaph.