Lovelace starting to make surprise impact as true freshman

Braylan Lovelace may not have been one of the most heralded recruits in Pitt’s 2023 recruiting class, but early on he has made a bigger impact than most of his fellow freshmen. Lovelace, an outside linebacker, is coming off a game in which he recorded a career-high eight tackles against Virginia Tech. He also had one tackle for loss and had a splash play by picking up a fumble and running it into the end zone for a touchdown.

Lovelace’s third quarter touchdown in Blacksburg happened in front of 65,632 people at a sold-out Lane Stadium. That is pretty big stuff to a kid from Leechburg, Pennsylvania. The small school in Armstrong County is not typically known for producing Division-1 football players. In fact, it’s not known for its football program at all.

From 1991 to 2020, the program did not achieve one winning record. Lovelace’s junior year in 2021 broke that losing season streak and he followed with another playoff appearance as a senior. He tallied over 3,700 rushing yards in his career with 47 touchdowns. Lovelace made the jump from playing Single-A football exactly one year ago to scoring touchdowns in sell-out crowds in the ACC.

“It definitely is a big jump from little old Leechburg, but it’s an experience that I can’t even fathom about,” Lovelace told reporters after practice on Tuesday. “It’s just like, ‘Wow, I’m here’. From Leechburg to here is just kind of a wow moment.”

Lovelace has now appeared in five games this season, meaning he is expected to play down the stretch of the final seven games this year. He can no longer take a redshirt, but he also seems ready for this kind of workload in college and has had a good approach about not overloading his own expectations.

“I came in with confidence that I could do it, but at the end of the day that’s up to the coaches,” Lovelace explained. “I give all the effort I can, but at the end of the day I just have to have confidence that I can do it.”

Lovelace got onto the field initially by playing special teams, which he admits has helped his development on defense. In the Panthers’ game against Virginia Tech, Lovelace was a regular member of the linebacker rotation and it looks like his role will continue to grow.

“When I first got here I was missing open field tackles and things like that,” he said about his special teams play. “Special teams has taught me with the guys that are fast. They put returners that are supposed to be the most agile and fastest out there. It definitely helps me a lot with tracking the hip and making the open-field tackle.”

The ability to react to his own mistakes and grow from them is what has caught the coaching staff’s attention.

“Braylan has continued to get better every week,” Pitt defensive coordinator Randy Bates said. “He’s just got to keep working. The problem with a guy his age, which is a true freshman, is that you’re going to make some mistakes. The critical thing that he’s gotten better at is, he’s learned from those mistakes and gotten better because of it.”

Lovelace has totaled 15 tackles through the first five games of his career. The individual growth has been key, but now he is getting a chance to learn about what it takes for the whole team to improve each week. Pitt is off to a disappointing 1-4 start and the Panthers have been reeling to say the least with four consecutive losses. Pitt struggled with missed tackles in its last game against Virginia Tech and it’s an area they focused on during the off week.

“We’ve just got to get there,” Lovelace said of the tackling issues. "We were laying out for a lot of tackles when we could have put our chest on them.”

Lovelace noted that tackling has been emphasized by the coaches in just about every drill from the past week. The bye week also helped the team reset mentally in a sense, as they prepare for a big challenge this weekend when No. 14 Louisville comes to Acrisure Stadium.

“It gives us a chance to not forget about it, but move on and look at the film and then get started with Louisville so we can come into this week with confidence that we can win,” Lovelace said.