The way the football season started, Virginia would not have been surprised by the thought of a true freshman starting at quarterback in the fourth week.

When the Cavaliers entertain Pittsburgh tonight at 7, a true freshman quarterback will be making his starting debut, the Panthers’ Pat Bostick.

“We’ve got a freshman quarterback of our own who we think pretty highly of,” Virginia coach Al Groh said earlier this week. “If there’s any team that’s aware of the fact that a player can step in these circumstances, it would be our team.”

Virginia (3-1) has played two quarterbacks in each game, including true freshman Peter Lalich, who has completed 62.8 percent of his attempts (27-of-43).

However, sophomore Jameel Sewell has started every game and received the majority of the playing time.

That hasn’t been the case for Pitt (2-2). Junior Bill Stull started the opening game against Eastern Michigan but sustained a thumb injury that required a thumb surgery; redshirt freshman Kevan Smith started the next three games but injured an elbow last week in a 34-14 loss to Connecticut.

Third-year coach Dave Wannstedt laughed when the first caller to a Big East Conference teleconference asked about the Panthers’ kick coverage.

“That wouldn’t be in the top five of my list of concerns right now,” Wannstedt said.

So, what issues would rank ahead of the Pitt coverage teams?

“Nos. 1, 2 and 3 would be the quarterbacks and the offense,” Wannstedt said. “I don’t like [Bostick’s] first start coming on the road, but we need to do it to try to win this game.”

The Cavaliers are happy they won’t be seeing Tyler Palko, who completed 17 of 22 passes for 283 yards and three touchdowns against Virginia last year, when the Panthers pulverized UVa 38-13 in the season’s opener.

Pittsburgh returned two interceptions for touchdowns in that game, but this season has been another story. Pittsburgh ranks among the top 20 teams in Division I-A in seven defensive categories and the Panthers outgained Connecticut 349-289, but they were victimized by six turnovers.

One week earlier, all of Michigan State’s scoring resulted from three Pittsburgh turnovers in a 17-13 victory at East Lansing, Mich.

The Panthers rank ahead of Virginia in most offensive categories and, in tailback LeSean McCoy, boast one of the most coveted recruits in the class of 2006.

McCoy originally signed with Miami after being pursued by Virginia Tech and Virginia, among others, but required a postseason year at Milford (N.Y.) Academy.

McCoy has rushed for an average of more than 100 yards per game, but he has nothing on Virginia junior Cedric Peerman, who is enjoying a breakout season with three consecutive games of 137 rushing yards or more.

After a shaky start, Sewell has played better each week and has not been intercepted in the past three games, one reason that Virginia has been able to overcome a potentially devastating 23-3 loss at Wyoming in the opener.

It could be argued that the Wyoming loss served as a wake-up call, but Groh “certainly didn’t feel that way,” he said.

“Whatever type of shock was there, we got plenty of that in ’06. I don’t think we needed any more of that to get our attention. You can overanalyze a lot of things. We just didn’t play well.”

Now, the Cavaliers find themselves at 3-0 in ACC play, while none of their five Coastal Division colleagues has as much as one conference victory. Virginia is a seven-point favorite for tonight’s game and is likely to be the favorite in two subsequent non-conference games, at Middle Tennessee State and against Connecticut in Charlottesville.

“People say, 'You’re in a three-game stretch of non-conference games,’ “ Groh said. “We’ve got a one-game stretch with Pittsburgh. That’s all we’ve got. If you ask me what time the game is the week after that, I’d be guessing or I’d be lying because I don’t even know what time the next one is. That’s the truth.”