Pitt football players look to restore program’s 4 pillars this season
Share this post:
Nailed to the wall at the back of the players’ meeting room are four words coaches and players believe are “pillars” of the Pitt football program.
Attitude. Effort. Toughness. Knowledge.
Two members of the defense said Wednesday those pillars were missing last season, and one of the goals of spring drills is to restore them to the team’s DNA.
“We’re built on those pillars back there,” said rising junior safety Javon McIntyre, one of the leaders of the defense who started all 12 games last season. “I feel like we didn’t have any of those pillars last year. We’re trying to incorporate those pillars to our game, and when we do that, we’re going to have the result we want to have.”
“Toughness, that’s something we lacked last year. But that’s no more,” said senior linebacker Brandon George, who entered the transfer portal at the end of 2023 before changing his mind and returning for his final season.
To say 2024 will be a transition season for Pitt football is an understatement. Not only is the entire concept of offense changing under new coordinator Kade Bell, but the defense believes it has a reputation to fix.
The falloff was not catastrophic, statistically. The defense was 22nd in the nation in yards allowed in 2022 (a 329.9 average) and 49th last year (361.6). But it was unacceptable to George, who has been with the program since 2019 and knows about the defensive reputation it takes pride in trying to uphold.
“Last year was a hiccup,” he said. “I don’t want people to think that’s who we are as a football team because it’s not. At the end of the day, we’re a smash-mouth, blue-collar football team that is going to try to knock your teeth out of the back end. That’s how we’re approaching spring ball.
“We need to get that edge back. You can feel it and see it in the air already.”
Whether that carries over to the fall when attitude and effort really matter is not something that can be predicted in March. But running back Rodney Hammond Jr., a senior who rushed for 1,511 yards and 14 touchdowns over the previous three seasons, said he returned to make things right — personally and in regards to the team.
Hammond said he wants to “dig out” from Pitt’s 3-9 season. In an age when it’s easier than ever for collegiate athletes to transfer when times are bad, he said he wanted to return.
“What happened last year, I have to shape up from that,” he said. “I can’t have that on my name. You can’t go out there 3-9, and when stuff gets tough you leave. I’m not that type of person. I believe everybody else who came back are not that type of people.
“We’re not letting that happen again. I promise you that.”
Tight end Gavin Bartholomew came back for his final season after telling Bell and coach Pat Narduzzi he wants to do more to help the team. Bartholomew, who has shown several flashes of playmaking ability the past three seasons, caught a career-high 27 passes for 317 yards as a freshman backup when Kenny Pickett was throwing him the football. Since then, he has only 39 receptions in 23 games (two seasons). That’s an average of fewer than two per game.
“I expressed how I want to be able to try and help the team out,” Bartholomew said. “Nothing selfish or anything. It’s just that I feel like I can help the team out a little more. Coach Bell said we (tight ends) have a big role in this offense.”
Like Hammond, Bartholomew senses some unfinished business.
“I want to leave my name on a good season, on a good note with a great team,” he said.
If there are doubters, he said, no big deal.
“We know what we can do,” he said. “We have a belief in ourselves and in the team. No one really pays attention to (doubters), and if they do, it’s more like ‘(the heck with) them. We’re better than that.’ ”