The 2017 Pitt football team obviously ended the year on a high note with its monumental upset over No. 2 and undefeated Miami.

Part of that late-season surge was on the strength of some strong play by a young defense that will bring a lot of experience into the 2018 campaign.

Among those young players was Phil Campbell. He played sparingly throughout the season, but a light clicked in the season’s final two games. He recorded a season-high seven tackles against Virginia Tech, and that performance led to his first career start against Miami.

Campbell hopes he and his teammates can build from 2017's late push into the 2018 season.

“It was great; I’ll remember that for the rest of my life,” Campebll said of the upset win over Miami. “I just want to be part of big games like that all the time, and I think that this year we’re going to do great things.”

So what led to that late-season surge? Campbell credits the cerebral side of his game.

“I think I just came on mentally,” Campbell said. "I just knew what was going on, I knew all the different parts, so that just made me a better player.”

First year safeties coach Cory Sanders agreed.

“He’s been good. He’s been very good. You just notice after practice five, what you really notice is how he’s continued to develop with the playbook," Sanders said.

“He’s been good from a mental standpoint, he’s really done well there and he really brings that physicality, too. He brings great physicality, which is what you would want out of a boundary safety - a guy that can come downhill and hit. He’s really shown that in these last three padded practices.”

Campbell noted that he is up to 205 pounds these days.

“I feel like I can bring a physical part to the defense,” the Panthers’ safety added.

Even with everything clicking for him at the end of the season up through the first few days of camp, Campbell still has a job to win. Pitt returns team captain and fifth-year senior Dennis Briggs for one more season, and head coach Pat Narduzzi has yet to determine who will take on the starting spot at boundary safety.

“Phil [Campbell] has had a great camp so far,” the Panthers’ head coach said. "He is playing well, but so is Dennis Briggs, Captain Briggs from last year. He has had a great camp, so that is a good battle there, and we love battles. We can win a lot of games with Phil Campbell, and we can win a lot of games with Dennis Briggs.”

Sanders echoed those same sentiments about battle that is going on between the two players.

“There’s competition all over. You’ve got Dennis Briggs, you’ve got Phil Campbell, and you’ve got (Jazzee) Stocker as well," Sanders said. “These guys are pushing each other every single day, on and off the field."

Although it is a new relationship between Campbell and Sanders, the sophomore safety likes what he has been hearing from his new coach and the new cornerbacks coach as well, Archie Collins.

“Coach Sanders, he’s always on me for every little detail from my alignment, my first step. Coach Collins is doing great work with the corners, and I think corners and safeties are on one string this year and I think we’re making great strides.”