Entering the 2024 Pitt football season, there were few parts of this team that could be considered a sure thing. In the Panthers’ energetic 3-0 start to the year, a number of pleasant surprises have boosted the team.
Desmond Reid looks like a legitimate playmaker at running back. Eli Holstein is flashing superstar potential at quarterback. Both developments, while a little unexpected, have been immeasurable to the team’s early season success, but other areas of the roster have contributed in big ways as well.
Donovan McMillon probably was one of those few sure things entering the year. This team had a million worries or question marks surrounding it all offseason, but certainly not at safety. Not with the 6-foot-2 tackling machine from Peters Township back there protecting the back end.
Through three games, McMillon is proving to be that dependable last line of defense that everyone expected him to be. He leads Pitt in tackles with 32 stops, which also ranks him third in the conference. McMillon is just one of 19 players nationally with 30 or more tackles on the season.
Is it ideal for a safety to lead the team in tackles? In some cases, no, but as McMillon points out, Pitt’s defenses encourages it, which allows him to flourish.
“I think in our defensive scheme, the safety's the free hitter at all times,” the senior said of his role. “It's not like any normal defense you would think about. It's not like I'm going down and making 20-yard down the field tackles. I'm making them at the line of scrimmage, which is a good thing at the end of the day.”
McMillon made a bunch of them in Pitt’s comeback 38-34 victory over West Virginia last Saturday. He did not quite reach the 18 tackles he made in last year’s Backyard Brawl, but finished with 13 and also ended up on the winning side this time.
“Oh, it meant a lot to me,” McMillon said on beating West Virginia. “Obviously, I was thinking of taking one game at a time, but whenever it came to the West Virginia game, there was a lot riding on that.”
Pitt’s offense will be remembered for driving that comeback, but McMillon and the defense played a hand in it as well. The Panthers forced two West Virginia stops late in the game, to allow for Holstein’s heroics.
“Hopefully we're not in that position anymore, but he did his job and we all did our job, so it worked out,” McMillon said of Pitt’s second major comeback in as many weeks.
The Panthers hope to not be in that position today. Pitt plays host to Youngstown State of the FCS for a 3:30 kickoff at Acrisure Stadium. The Penguins are just 1-2 on the season, after losing to Duquesne last week.
Right now, the goal for McMillon and the whole defense is simply to improve. The Panthers’ defense has had its fair share of lapses in the first three weeks, but have also delivered in crunch time, which is something McMillon feels they can build on as the season unfolds.
“As the weeks go on, we’re going to get better as it goes,” said the Pitt senior. “Every day we say we want to be 3% better. I don't even think we're close to it right now. But we're working to become the best defense and the best team we could possibly be at the end of the day.”
