Can a linebacker lead Pitt in TFLs?

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It has been almost a decade since a linebacker led Pitt in tackles for loss. Can 2017 be the year that finally breaks the defensive line’s control of that stat category?

Scott McKillop was the last non-lineman to lead the Panthers in tackles for loss. He put up 17.5 in 2008, but since then, it has been all players from the front four.

Mick Williams won the title with 17 tackles for loss as a defensive tackle in 2009, and the next year Brandon Lindsey moved from linebacker to end and recorded a team-high 17.5. The 2011 season saw the start of Aaron Donald’s dominance, as the future first-round draft pick led Pitt in tackles for loss in three consecutive seasons (he had 16, 18.5 and 28.5 in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively, for 63 over a three-year span).

Darryl Render led the team in 2014 with six, and then Ejuan Price took the mantle for the last two seasons, recording 19.5 in 2015 and 23 last year.

Along the way, linebackers have been pretty far off the pace set by their teammates up front. After McKillop had 17.5 in 2008, another linebacker didn’t reach double digits in tackles for loss until 2015 when Mike Caprara had 10.5 (Lindsey made 11 tackles for loss in 2011 playing as a hybrid outside linebacker/rush end in Todd Graham’s 3-4 defense).

2015 was the first year of Pat Narduzzi’s defensive system at Pitt, and that year two linebackers put up good numbers, as Caprara had 10.5 and Matt Galambos had 10.

“It’s very linebacker-driven,” linebackers coach Rob Harley said during training camp. “It’s very linebacker-driven. And it’s designed for us to play fast, play as aggressive as possible. We react to the pass. I mean, we are destroying the run, and you would like to think someone in my room would lead [in tackles for loss], but it is about plays being run against you.”

And that’s a key factor, as some of the offenses Pitt faces in the ACC aren’t necessarily of the sort that lends itself to linebackers making plays in the backfield. Of the top 10 leaders in tackles for loss in the conference last season, just two were linebackers: Wake Forest middle linebacker Marquel Lee, who had 20 tackles for loss, and Virginia Tech outside linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, who had 18.5.

Pitt’s 2008 schedule looked a bit different from what the Panthers will see this year. For example, McKillop had 2.5 tackles for loss in an early-season win over Iowa - a relevant game for a comparison Harley makes when considering the TFL stat category.

“In the Big Ten, you’re definitely having one of my guys in the room leading the team, just based on run game and stuff,” he said. “So we’ll see. We’ll see. But you’d like to think we’d have all of our three guys in the top five. You’d like to think that.”

At the very least, Harley thinks two of his linebacker positions - the Money and the middle, which both play more in the box than the Star, which is on the wide side of the field and has more pass coverage responsibilities - should be among the top five on the team.

In 2016, cornerback Avonte Maddox was actually second on the team in tackles for loss with 8.5. Two linebackers were in the rest of the top five behind Maddox and Price; Bam Bradley had 5.5 and Caprara had 5.0.

That team had Price, though, who was one of the most productive pass-rushers in the conference and the nation. This year’s team doesn’t have Price; instead, defensive line coach Charlie Partridge will be relying on a group of linemen who collectively have recorded 4.5 tackles for loss in their careers at Pitt. Could that lead to a different position leading the way in that stat?

“It depends on what [offenses] do,” Partridge said. “It really depends on what offense we’re facing; on any given week, it could be a different guy. We’re set up in terms of numbers to stop the run first, obviously, and that puts some stress on those DB’s at times, because they’re going to have some one-on-one coverage. But then we vary it based on what team we’re playing and give those guys some help as necessary. So you couldn’t say, at the end of the year, this position group should or this position group could, because it’s going to vary week to week.”

Redshirt senior Allen Edwards is one of the leading candidates to step into Price’s role and attempt to replace some of that lost production. But while he’ll be trying to get as many stats of his own as possible, he thinks the guys lining up behind him can do it as well.

“The type of defense we’re in, I feel like anybody can make those type of plays,” Edwards said earlier in camp. “Especially a linebacker like Seun Idowu, he’s very fast. Elijah Zeise, very fast. Quintin Wirginis, he comes down with bad intentions. I feel like all of them are really capable of leading the team in tackles for loss.”