12/2/2018 football Edit

Narduzzi and Pitt players show support for Pickett

Chris Peak • Panther-lair

Publisher

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - In Pitt’s biggest game of the season, Kenny Pickett’s numbers were the worst of his career.

That’s not an exaggeration. Even in Pickett’s one-play debut at Syracuse last season, the quarterback from New Jersey had more passing yards with 15 than he produced in a full game of work against Clemson Saturday night in the ACC Championship Game at Bank of America Stadium.

Pickett’s final stat line from Pitt’s 42-10 loss to the Tigers would almost be comically absurd if it hadn’t figured so directly in the outcome of the game. The sophomore attempted 16 passes in the game and completed just four of them, gaining eight yards in the process.

Eight passing yards on four completions. Clemson cornerback A.J. Terrell had more yards on one of Pickett’s incomplete passes when he picked it off late in the second quarter and returned it 31 yards.

In a game where Pitt’s defense battled admirably and the running game found enough traction to flirt with 200 yards, the passing game - or lack thereof - stood out as a major weakness in the Panthers’ chances at an upset.

Unfortunately for Pitt, that’s not a new script. Throughout the season, the passing game has been unable to carry its share of the load, from the 55-yard/1-interception performance in a monsoon against Penn State to the Notre Dame and Miami games, when Pickett threw for a combined total of 256 yards, one interception and no touchdowns.

Through 13 games, Pickett threw for 1,833 yards, 12 touchdowns and six interceptions. He topped 200 passing yards just once; that was when he set new career highs with 316 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Panthers to a Coastal Division-clinching win at Wake Forest three weeks ago.

Since that game, he has thrown for 138 yards and one interception on 18-of-38 passing.

“He’s young,” redshirt senior running back Qadree Ollison said after Saturday night’s loss. “And y’all are going to see: he’s going to be so much better coming in next year, being a junior. He’s experiencing everything that you can experience. He’s experiencing the highs, he’s experiencing the lows, and that experience is very, very valuable. You have to be able to experience the highs, experience the lows, so you can know how to deal with that adversity, deal with those things, know how to come back from it. Because when you’re young and you make a mistake, you feel like you let everyone down, but as you get older, you make that same mistake and you’re able to come back from it, you’ve been there before, it’s happened to you before…

“He’s going to be so much better, man. He’s going to lead this team back here next year. I promise y’all that.”

Ollison isn’t alone in his confidence about Pickett. When pressed to explain his quarterback’s performance in Saturday’s postgame, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi was adamant and defensive.

“Kenny Pickett is our starting quarterback,” Narduzzi said. “You can't criticize him. You can criticize the football team, criticize me. It starts with me, trickles all the way down to the last player that traveled with us in the 85. But it certainly is not on Kenny Pickett's shoulders, period.

"He's a competitor. I love that kid. He's our starting quarterback. You guys can write what you want to write. He brought this team to the ACC championship game, period.”

While the overall numbers aren’t impressive - Pickett is No. 88 nationally in total passing yards despite playing 13 games - Pitt’s first-year starter at quarterback has played an integral role in the offense. He accounted for three touchdowns in Pitt’s win over Duke, including a rushing score and the game-winning touchdown pass to Maurice Ffrench. He kept Virginia Tech’s defense loose by attacking vertically on a day when the rushing attack went wild, and when Wake Forest locked down Pitt’s run game a week later, Pickett responded with the best game of his career.

“It’s a tough game, but at the end of the day, I’m not going to let this game define me,” Pickett said Saturday night. “I’m confident in my abilities, I’m going to put the work in. I’ve got a month to get ready for this bowl game; I’m going to do whatever I can to get 100% prepared for this bowl game and help these seniors go out the right way.”

Senior running back Darrin Hall thinks his quarterback will be able to bounce back from the conference championship game.

“He’ll be fine,” Hall said. “This is hard on him, but he has to be a leader and you’ve got younger guys now, so he definitely has to step up and this is definitely his team. So really, I think this is a learning experience for him and I think he’ll be alright next year.”

While Pitt has one game left this season, the matter of 2019 looms large. The Panthers have three other quarterbacks slated to be on the roster next season, but Narduzzi seemed to double-down on Pickett in his postgame comments. According to Ollison, the locker room is equally committed to the sophomore.

“We have nothing but faith and belief in him,” Ollison said. “He’s our quarterback. He’s our number-one quarterback. He’s the leader of that huddle. He commands that huddle. He commands the entire offense. And as the quarterback, everything falls on your shoulders and that’s just the way football is. That’s just the way it is.

“But this is the ultimate team game, right? We call it the ultimate team game, but yet we’re quick to try to blame one person. It’s never one person. This is the ultimate team game, this is the best team game. There’s 11 people out there on the field, so whatever happens, it’s not all his fault.”