With season approaching, Pitt ramps up the optimism
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With no fresh evidence to prove otherwise, streams of positivity flow when Pitt players discuss the upcoming season.
For example:
• Players often mention national championship as a goal.
• Backup offensive lineman Ryan Baer spoke Wednesday of “great coaches, great players. Put those together. Who’s going to stop it?”
• Even defensive line coach Charlie Partridge, a man not prone to offer excess praise, talked of the impressive depth among his group.
“At the end of the day, you have to have four inside (at tackle) and four outside (at end) ready to go,” he said. “We have more than that this year. So, I’m excited to see how that works out. You start to feel like it’s a blitzkrieg from an offensive perspective, right? Guys keep coming.”
The time is coming to convert that optimism into production on the field. The season’s first two games against West Virginia and Tennessee will demonstrate if Pitt’s goals are realistic, but it’s become obvious that players are eager to start hitting people other than their teammates.
“We’re getting a little bit of the itch,” senior defensive tackle Tyler Bentley said of the opener Sept. 1 against West Virgnia.
For the first six years of coach Pat Narduzzi’s tenure, Pitt lost an average of nearly six games per season: a total of 34. The symmetrical sequence of defeats — 5-5-7-7-5-5 — kept Pitt at arm’s length from the nation’s elite.
Bentley was on the team for the last two of those seasons before getting a huge taste of success during the 2021 run to the ACC championship. He liked it and wants to maintain it.
“We have to let (the opponent) know just because we’re Pitt that we aren’t any suckers,” he said. “We’re here to play good football.
“We’re here to acknowledge the football (the Mountaineers) play over there, as well, is hard-nosed football. But we’re here to show them the Pittsburgh way to do it: tough. Guys (defensive linemen, specifically) that play hard, take on double teams, surge in the backfield. Blitzing linebackers, ripping and running.”
Bentley said he is impressed with the look of West Virginia’s offensive line.
“They have pretty big guys. They can hold the pass well, (block for) the run,” he said. “But I truly do believe, I’m confident in our defensive line, that we’ll be able to surge and make plays in the backfield.
“(WVU) running backs are a little bit shifty, but I don’t think that should be a problem for a Pitt defense.”
Of course, Pitt hasn’t been perfect so far this summer.
Narduzzi talked openly Wednesday morning of a Tuesday practice that wasn’t up to his standard.
“I was kind of a little disappointed,” he said. “Just sloppy … not as much detail and focus as I wanted.”
He promised to crank up the intensity Wednesday morning, and practice did seem spirited for the first 30 minutes of the open viewing period.
The hope among Narduzzi and his staff is Tuesday was an anomaly.
“At the end of the day, what they’re doing, we have a big vision,” Partridge said. “You have to have that vision. You have to have the long-term goals. But then it’s a matter of one day at a time.”
Partridge has been a collegiate coach long enough — every season since 1996 — to know that long-term goals are met by taking care of business in the short term. Teams can talk a good game, but they need to back it up on the practice field.
Partridge said that’s what he’s witnessed so far.
“You have to set daily goals,” he said. “I think the kids are doing a great job of being where their feet are.”
Defensive tackle Calijah Kancey, a preseason All-ACC selection who was named to six watch lists for national awards, tries to remain grateful for the recognition but is aware such honors carry little meaning after the season starts.
“I’m blessed to have those accolades, but as a team we’re always hungry,” he said.