PITTSBURGH — Dorin Dickerson, a freshman who was considered Pitt's top position player recruit, was moved from wide receiver to running back on Thursday.

Dickerson's move spurred redshirt sophomore tailback Brandon Mason to take a leave of absence and return home to Phillipsburg, N.J. His future with the team is unknown.

Earlier this summer, coach Dave Wannstedt said the Panthers had to find a way to get the ball to the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Dickerson, last year's Associated Press Pennsylvania Class AAA player of the year at West Allegheny High near Pittsburgh. Dickerson ran for 1,429 yards and 30 touchdowns as a high school senior.

"I would say, right now, he's a guy that can handle the ball," running backs coach Dave Walker said Thursday. "He's had some work at receiver, and we have him working a little bit at running back. But we'll know if that's going to be his career move in a couple of days."

Dickerson dropped on the depth chart at receiver after he missed nearly a week of training camp with a left ankle sprain. Also, he is a bit overweight and out of shape since he partially tore a ligament in his right knee and fractured his right ankle during practice for the Big 33 all-star game in mid-June.

"The best thing is that Dorin is a good enough athlete and a smart enough kid to handle both if that's what his role ends up being," Walker said of Dickerson possibly playing both positions.

Dickerson seemed pleased with the move.

"I'll play anywhere. It doesn't matter to me," Dickerson said. "The bigger I get, maybe, eventually, this will be the full-time position for me."

Neither Dickerson nor Walker doubts that the freshman can be a running back in major college football.

"It'll be a lot easier once I get a few reps, and we'll see how I fit in," Dickerson said. "Everybody has their own style, but I'm more comfortable playing at running back right now because I played it a lot in high school."

Walker thinks it will be an easy transition for Dickerson.

"I think it's going to be like riding a bike," Walker said. "He hasn't ridden it for two weeks, but he'll jump back on it and just go. So that's going to be a real small learning curve for him now."