Pitt offensive line coach Dave Borbely is not one to mince words. In a day and age of ‘coachspeak’ with generic and predictable answers, he actually likes to to tell it like it is whether it is addressing the media or in the locker room with his players. That quality is something his offensive linemen are appreciate of about him.

Carter Warren is a 6’5” and 320-pound sophomore that started his first game on Saturday night against Virginia. He has the distinction of playing the ever-important position of left tackle, as he is expected to protect the ‘blind side’ of the quarterback.

During Tuesday’s press briefing with Borbely, he was quick to remember certain plays and missed assignments off the top of his head from Pitt’s 73 offensive plays on Saturday and Warren’s name came up a few times.

By the sounds of it, Warren is well aware of those plays his coach is talking about. “I love it,” Warren said of watching film with Borbely. “He literally breaks down everything for you. He makes it real simple for you so that’s what I really like about it.”

“I make it very crystal clear to them,” Borbely said of his film sessions. “I can guarantee you that, they know exactly.”

Warren described what it’s like being in the room with the Panthers' offensive line coach. “Just sitting in a room going over everything and he asks us a few times, “Do you understand?” He wants his OK, that’s basically it,” the sophomore from New Jersey said.

Back to the game itself. It was Warren’s first career start. His name started to emerge this spring as the team’s starting left tackle, and he held onto the job during fall camp. After waiting his turn for a few years, he was excited to finally get a taste of the action.

“So first game, it was exciting getting into it overall,” he said. “Looking back at the tape I feel like there are some things I need to work on. Overall I felt like as a unit we played a good fight, we just got to keep working.”

During Saturday’s contest, the Pitt offensive line and Borbely noted that his group was directly responsible for one of the four sacks by the Virginia defense. That doesn’t sound so bad. Virginia was, however, credited for seven quarterback hurries, while Borbely said he had the Cavaliers down for closer to 14 pressures, a number he wants to cut down on in the future.

“To me pressures, if you have too many pressures it’s worse than really getting a sack because it causes the ball to be hurried, it causes bad throws, it causes bad decisions and that’s a huge piece of it we have to correct,” Borbely noted.

On Saturday, Pitt started four new offensive linemen. In addition to Warren, Bryce Hargrove started at left guard, Gabe Houy lined up at right guard, and Michigan graduate transfer Nolan Ulizio manned right tackle. Junior center Jimmy Morrissey was the lone returning starter.

Despite that, both Ulizio and Hargrove have started college games before and Houy even notched one start a year ago. Even so, Pitt was still relatively inexperienced overall heading into the 2019 season. Both Warren and Borbely were quick to downplay that as an issue.

“I felt comfortable,” Warren said. “Everyone was telling me it was going to be a different atmosphere and I felt that overall, but I felt pretty comfortable out there.”

Added Borbely, “I’ve got to be honest with you, I don’t really think that inexperience really factored in,” he said. “On a couple of twists that they hit us on it was just No. 11 (Charles Snowden) being really fast and again it’s really just speed of the game and you don’t know what that speed is until you really experience it, so check that box and now we’re good hopefully.”

Pitt’s attention is now solely on Ohio. The Bobcats run a four-three defensive front, which is more common than Virginia’s 3-4 look from a week ago. The Pitt offense sees a four-man front when it goes up against the Panthers’ own defense in practice.

“The four man front is something we’re used to with our defense, so I feel like this game is going to be much better for us and the three-down, it was a little different and I feel like this upcoming game is going to be pretty smooth, I’m excited for it.”

Added Borbely, “Well we’ve got about 50 practices under are belt against 4-3 if we’re counting spring and camp, so yea we’re a little more familiar with it no doubt.”

After a few days of watching film and looking to correct mistakes, Borbely is optimistic about his group moving forward.

“I’m excited about their attitude, I’m excited about the resolve that they showed during the game and again as I said I think it’s a great stepping-off point for us and a great learning experience.”