Movement coming at cornerback?
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The fifth, and presumably last, member of Pitt’s freshman class to see the field this season made arguably the most eagerly-awaited debut last Thursday when former Central Catholic standout and four-star cornerback recruit Damar Hamlin finally left the sidelines.
Hamlin’s debut came in the fourth quarter of Pitt’s 39-36 loss to Virginia Tech at Heinz Field, and while he played a little more than a dozen snaps in the game, Pat Narduzzi liked what he saw.
“Damar went out there, he wanted to go out there and, overall, for his first game, I saw some good things,” Narduzzi said at his weekly press conference. “I saw a lot of things we have to clean up, too, but he’ll only get better, like he has through this season.
“He missed a lot of double (practices), he missed a lot of this season being hurt, and since he came back full-go, he has gone [up] every week. So I think he’ll continue to do that through the rest of the season.”
Hamlin’s appearance in that game was precipitated by injuries to Avonte Maddox, who was hurt against Georgia Tech and missed the Virginia and Virginia Tech games, as well as Phillipie Motley, who started in place of Maddox until he was hurt against the Hokies.
But while the injuries led the discussions Narduzzi and company had at halftime Thursday night about whether to use Hamlin, the ultimate decision came down to the possibility that Hamlin could help Pitt’s defense - not just fill in for an injured player.
“I’m not one of those guys that’s going to say, ‘You gotta play;’ I’d rather him help us out,” Narduzzi said. “So we kind of batted it around at halftime and I was like, ‘Do we want to do that to him? I’d like to have him for a long time now, not use a year for half a season.’ That was not something I wanted to do. But when you see corners going down…it was just something where I said, ‘I think he can help us down the road. What are we doing here? I think he can help us eventually make some plays on the edge there.’
“Who knows what we have? We’ll find out in the next few weeks. Really, in the next four weeks, we’ll know where he is and where he needs to improve in the offseason, which is a bonus.
“He’s going to play. He’s going to.”
Narduzzi’s certainty about using Hamlin in the final four games of the regular will make for some interesting personnel decisions. Motley will probably be out for an extended period of time, but Maddox could return to action this week at Miami; Narduzzi said the junior wasn’t 100% against Virginia Tech but could have played in a pinch.
The most likely scenario for Saturday’s game against Hurricanes is that Pitt will have Maddox, Hamlin, redshirt senior Ryan Lewis and redshirt freshman Dane Jackson all in the mix for playing time. Narduzzi has said in the past that he prefers not to rotate cornerbacks, but an exception seems to be looming on the horizon.
“We’re going to rotate them a little bit,” Narduzzi said. “We’re going to have to. I want to.”
So the starting lineup on Saturday could include any combination of those four players. Lewis has started every game this season, but he was the corner who came off the field Thursday night when Hamlin came on. Jackson replaced Motley against Virginia Tech, but both of those players would probably be behind Maddox if/when he is healthy enough to play. And the coaches just might be inclined to give Hamlin a high percentage of snaps, since they see him having a lot of upside that could benefit from more experience.