Narduzzi completes offensive overhaul with three more coaching changes
Two of Pat Narduzzi’s longest-tenured assistants are no longer part of the staff, as Pitt announced on Friday that three of the Panthers’ coaches won’t be returning in 2024.
Running backs coach Andre Powell and tight ends coach Tim Salem were on Narduzzi’s first staff when he arrived as Pitt’s head coach in 2015, but both were let go on Friday. Offensive line coach Dave Borbely was also let go.
“I want to express my gratitude to Dave, Andre and Tim for their work and commitment throughout their tenures with Pitt football,” Narduzzi said in a press release. “On behalf of our entire program, I wish them and their families the very best personally and professionally.”
Powell, Salem and Borbely join former offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti, who was fired after Pitt’s season-ending loss at Duke, making for a near-total overhaul on the offensive side of the ball this offseason. Only receivers coach Tiquan Underwood was retained from the 2023 staff.
Powell has coached Pitt’s running backs and special teams for the last nine seasons, a period that saw James Conner, Qadree Ollison, Darrin Hall and Israel Abanikanda post 1,000-yard rushing performances.
In 2015, Ollison stepped in after Conner suffered a season-ending injury and rushed for 1,121 yards and 11 touchdowns as a redshirt freshman. In 2016, Conner returned and rushed for 1,092 yards and 16 touchdowns. In 2018, Ollison and Hall each topped the 1,000-yard rushing mark - the first time in Pitt history that two players rushed for 1,000 yards in the same season.
In 2022, Abanikanda rushed for 1,431 yards and 20 touchdowns in 11 games, leading the nation in rushing touchdowns and setting a Pitt single-game rushing record with 320 yards and six touchdowns in a win over Virginia Tech.
On the special teams front, Quadree Henderson was an All-American in 2016 when he scored four return touchdowns (three on kickoffs and one on a punt).
As Pitt’s primary recruiter for Maryland and Washington, D.C., Powell was instrumental in landing more than a dozen players over the last nine years, including defensive tackles Jaylen Twyman, DeAndre Jules and Isaiah Neal.
Salem’s position group was a bit less successful than Powell’s. His early years at Pitt were successful with inherited players JP Holtz and Scott Orndoff. But once those two were out of eligibility (Holtz after the 2015 season; Orndoff after 2016), the Panthers’ tight ends were a mishmash of transfers as the team relied on Matt Flanagan, Chris Clark, Will Gragg, Nakia Griffin-Stewart and JUCO transfer Daniel Moraga.
In 2021, the tight ends hit big, as transfer Lucas Krull and freshman Gavin Bartholomew combined to catch 65 passes for 768 yards and 10 touchdowns on Pitt’s ACC Championship team. But in the last two seasons, the production fell again, as Bartholomew caught a total of 39 passes for 609 yards and three touchdowns.
On the recruiting front, Salem excelled, as his list of prospects signed included Phil Campbell, Maurice Ffrench, Owen Drexel, Jason Pinnock, Kenny Pickett, Nick Patti, SirVocea Dennis, Matt Goncalves, Jason Collier, Solomon DeShields, Israel Abanikanda, Jimmy Scott, Kyle Louis and Samuel Okunlola.
But Salem’s own position lagged in that department. Pitt didn’t sign any high school tight end prospects in the classes of 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 or 2024, and of the three signings in the 2017, one in 2019 and three in 2021, the only one who panned out was Bartholomew.
Borbely joined Pitt’s staff in 2018 and produced immediate results with the two-headed rushing attack of Ollison and Hall. He also seemed to be positioned to benefit from multiple players returning for extra eligibility in the wake of the 2020 Covid season. But while the offensive line helped Abanikanda to his record-setting performance in 2022, the group never seemed to develop any consistency.
Borbely also came to Pitt after starting his coaching career in 1981, and his six years with the Panthers were longer than the time he spent at any of his previous 14 jobs.