Panther Talk: Spring Football Review 2019 and Looking Forward: Part 1

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age

of foolishness…. Charles Dickens may have been writing about the French Revolution,

but he also could have been talking about the 2018 Pitt Panthers football team (with the

foolishness being Shawn Watson’s play calling). Pitt had a thrilling season winning the ACC

Coastal division for the first time, but also had some big lows losing the last three games to

finish 7-7. Nevertheless, we still love our Panthers and we are looking forward to the 2019

season with a lot of intrigue. Pitt went into spring practice losing starters at OL (4- Bookser,

Milin, Dintino,Herndon), RB (3- Ollison, Hall, Aston), WR (1-RaRa), DL (2- Hendrix and Roy),

LB (3- Wirginis, Idowu, Zeise), and CB/S (1-Briggs). To say Pitt has a lot to replace is an

understatement, but they are in a pretty good place at most positions where players can step up
with experience and talent.

What questions going into the season were answered during spring ball? What questions do we still have going into fall camp? Let’s take a nose dive into those questions!

Questions that were answered

1. Is Kenny Pickett still QB1?

After listening to the coaches during spring practice and watching the spring game, it is without
a doubt that Kenny Pickett is far and above QB1. A lot of Pitt fans are skeptical about Kenny
coming into this season due to his 8 passing yards during the ACC Championship Game
against Clemson, but we should have some fun debates because TGYK does not blame Kenny
for that poor performance. During the spring game, Kenny looked sharp in limited play and
showed he is the clear cut number one guy. Kenny’s biggest flaw going forward is he has
trouble when under pressure (Reference: ACC Championship Game), but if you give him a
pocket…. *Warning hot take incoming*… he may be the second best qb in the ACC
(Behind Clemson’s pretty boy Trevor Lawrence). Kenny had a lackluster QB coach
his first 2 seasons, but that leads us to...

2. Will the passing game be improved?

In 2018, Pitt’s passing game, to say the least, was very underwhelming and sometimes
non-existent. The potential for a good passing game was shown at times with big plays from
Maurice Ffrench and Taysir Mack, but there was way too much inconsistency. The two
biggest issues with the passing game were the offensive line and Shawn Watson’s play calling, and

luckily for Pitt fans, most of these ailments are gone.

Starting with the latter of why Pitt’s passing game will be better is that Shawn Watson (*deepest of sighs*) is gone, or as these Pitt fans will now refer to him as - “He who must not be named.” During the spring game, we saw a brief glimpse of Mark Whipple’s new offense, and boy are we excited for it. Pitt may have had more passes to TEs (!) and to the middle of the field (!) than they did all of last season in just one scrimmage. Players have expressed how they love the new offense and Whipple’s desire to get the ball in playmakers’ hands.

Not only does Pitt now have a pass oriented offensive coordinator, but they have a receiving corp that can be one of the best in the ACC. Headlined by Maurice Ffrench and Taysir Mack, this corp has the potential to make a lot of big plays. Alongside them, Tre Tipton was one of the stars of the spring game and showed the potential that he has when he is not injured; if he can finally stay healthy, he can play a large role in the offense. Shocky Jacques-Louis showed off his speed we have all heard about during the spring game and he is one of our favorites for a breakout player for this season. Throw in guys like Aaron Matthews, Dontavius Butler-Jenkins, and Michael Smith, and Pitt has itself a very talented and complete corp.

The bigger questions lies here - four out of five starters on the offensive line are gone. This normally would be a cause for concern, but we believe the passing game will be better for it. The 2018 offensive line was amazing at run blocking, but lacked the athleticism and skill for pass blocking. Furthermore, Alex Bookser was forced to play out of position, making him a liability in pass situations. The incoming O-Line replacements are much more athletic and should have improved pass protection, but who will the 5 be? Stay tuned as we will dive into this later.

Overall, after watching the spring game and following Pitt’s spring practices, we can answer every fan’s question with a YES that Pitt will pass for more than 8 yards a game this season (Insert eye rolling emoji here).

3. Who will play safety next to Damar Hamlin?

Welp, Coach Narduzzi said what all Paris Ford fans have been waiting to hear for two years now, “right now Paris Ford’s the starter at boundary safety coming out of spring ball, period,” in his Blue-Gold game post-game press conference. Thank you, next…

But in all seriousness, Ford has always been an extremely talented player but for all we’ve been told he can bring to the field, it seemed to be his mental make-up that made this decision a little longer in the tooth. It’s well documented that DiddyBop (Paris Ford’s twitter nam) has, and can be, impulsive and eccentric, going so far as to declare on Twitter, “I will be an All-American after this upcoming season.” Not to mention an off-the-field incident here and there over the years.

All that aside what we saw, half-drunk, in the spring game gave us a glimpse of #12’s potential and we’re very excited to see if Paris can develop into a key cog in Pitt’s no-fly-zone secondary this fall. And if you ever hear the obnoxious bunch yelling “DIDDY BOP!” from the stands, then you found us.

4. Can we replace all three starting LBs?

This is a heavy question, especially considering who the starters were; Elijah Zeise (a consistent performer after learning to defend the wheel route), Sean Idowu (a walk-on star, anchor of the defense), and Quintin Wirginis (who seemingly made big plays everytime one was needed and if not for another injury we contend a Day 3 draft pick). Experience is gone but talent is present:

• RS Jr Elias Reynolds turned into a solid starter to the point where it didn’t seem like much was missing when stepping in for Wirginis.
• RS Sr Saleem Brightwell, at times, played better than Zeise, who was ahead of him on the depth chart, and has proven to be very flexible moving inside and outside over the seasons. For a professional analysis we reached out to Deshaun Watson for comment but at the time of publishing he hasn’t had time to respond to all his DM’s. Yet…
• RS Jr Chase Pine is another guy who’s been moved around having been listed as a LB and DE at times last season. To our recollection he took the majority, if not all, of his snaps at LB and at times showed some real potential.  
• Looking towards the youth RS So Cam Bright impressed us a lot in 2018 and we fully expect to see him in heavy doses come UVA. Classmate Kyle Nunn has the size of a classic hard-nosed MLB hasn’t received too much attention but no news can sometimes be good news. Last up, Wendell Davis who this spring received quite a bit of praise from Narduzzi and staff. Don’t be surprised if he carries the momentum into August with plenty of chances impress us in September.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Pitt Football Spring Review later this week as we will dive into questions still remaining going into fall camp. Thank you for reading and feel free to comment below and join the conversation! H2P!

- Ryan and Aaron, TGYK