Pat Narduzzi and Phil Jurkovec took a certain kind of tone when talking about Bangally Kamara on Tuesday.

It was part reverence and part fear - for both Pitt’s head coach and the Panthers’ quarterback - as they were each asked about the senior linebacker.

“He’s a disruptor,” Jurkovec said, “so you know he’s going to go make plays, whether it’s attacking the run or in the pass game. He’s out there and it’s hard; you have to watch out for him."

“Bangally, he’s scary,” Narduzzi said. “Like, I’m standing behind the offense and I feel that guy. If there’s a linebacker I felt Saturday, it was number 11.”

That’s high praise from the quarterback and the coach, but it didn’t seem to mean much to Kamara - probably because he heard it all last year, too.

Last spring, Kamara was presented with the Ed Conway Award as the most improved player on defense, and in training camp last August, his teammates and coaches couldn’t heap enough praise on him.

But while he started 11 games as a mainstay of the defense, Kamara didn’t believe his performance matched the hype. So when he hears comments like the ones Jurkovec and Narduzzi made, he’s keeping his focus elsewhere.

“I think last year I was in that same position where I feel like they were saying the same things, and honestly, I don’t feel like I went out on game day and did what I could have done to my best ability,” Kamara said Tuesday. “So now going back around and being in that same position now where I feel like that’s what the coaches and quarterbacks are saying, I’m not looking at it like that anymore. I’m looking at it like, now I just have to get better with my details and show up on game day and do what they taught me.”

If Kamara’s teammates and coaches talked up his game a year ago, it has been even more pronounced through the first four weeks of spring camp. Saturday was Pitt’s most recent scrimmage, and in the 62-second highlight clip released on social media, Kamara showed up multiple times getting into the backfield and forcing a play-ending whistle as he closed in on the quarterback.

To hear Pitt’s coaches and players tell it, that kind of thing has been happening all spring with Kamara. But it hasn’t all been perfect, as the issues with details that led to his inconsistent performance early in 2022 still pop up from time to time.

For Narduzzi, that means separating the big splash plays from the basics that will ensure his success on a play-to-play basis.

“It’s fine and ‘atta boy’ and tap him on the back - I liked it out on the field. Then I watch the tape and I’m going, ‘We’re going to get our butts kicked if he keeps doing this a lot.’”

“You know, Coach Narduzzi is going to be very detail-oriented when it comes to film,” Kamara said. “So he’s always looking for little things, like steps, where your eyes are at, who are you reading at this moment and stuff like that. He’s never one of the coaches that will be like, ‘Oh, you’re making so many plays, oh my God, you’re so great.’ No matter what you do with Coach Narduzzi, he’s always going to have something little that you need to get great at. I think that’s the reason we have so many players going to the NFL now, because everybody’s not all caught up in themselves. Everybody’s trying to get better.

“I’d rather have it like that, honestly. I don’t think I get anything out of everybody praising me. I’d rather everybody criticize me. I think I play better when it’s like that.”

If Kamara plays better, the sky might be the limit. He was Pitt’s fifth-leading tackler in 2022, recording 49 stops, three tackles for loss and one sack in addition to one interception and seven pass breakups. Pro Football Focus also credited him with 25 quarterback pressures, the fifth-most on the team.

Kamara finished strong, too. In the final four games, he had 10 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, 12 pressures and an interception that helped Pitt win the Sun Bowl.

“Throughout the weeks, everything just gradually grew, and I feel like, with how the UCLA game turned out gave me a little more confidence I my play a little bit,” Kamara said. “Now just going into the off-season and tryin got cut out all of those little mistakes. Now, hopefully, starting off the season a hundred times better.”

Kamara entered the 2022 season having played a grand total of 121 defensive snaps over the previous two years. In his first season as a starter, he logged 640 - a huge jump in playing time that provided him with a ton of experience.

Now he’s entering 2023 as a returning starter with all of that experience and production, and with the departures of key defensive figures like SirVocea Dennis, Calijah Kancey, Habakkuk Baldonado, Erick Hallett and Brandon Hill, Pitt will need someone new to take the reigns at the top of the unit.

Kamara is hoping to be that player.

“I think that’s definitely something I want to get out of this season: being more of a leader on the defense, stepping up where a lot of people have left.

“Make plays in big-time moments, you know? Lead the team, make sure nobody gets on each other when something bad happens, make sure everybody’s at the same place. We just stay calm, run the defense and make plays.”