Pickett gets started with his newest coordinator
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Kenny Pickett says he likes “learning from different people.” If that’s truly the case, then Pitt has been the perfect place for the junior quarterback from New Jersey.
Since he committed in June of 2016, Pickett has seen the Panthers go through three offensive coordinators. Matt Canada was calling plays when Pickett committed, but he left for the same job at LSU a few weeks before Pickett was set to enroll at Pitt in January 2017.
To replace Canada, Pat Narduzzi hired Shawn Watson, who held the position for two seasons before he was fired this January after the Panthers’ passing game never took flight.
Coordinator No. 3 arrived less than two months ago in the person of Mark Whipple, a long-time coach with experience as a coordinator and a head coach. In terms of resume, Whipple fit what Pickett was hoping Narduzzi would find for the open position.
“Really intelligent guy, lot of experience,” Pickett said Wednesday after Pitt’s first practice of spring camp. “I have two years left of college ball and I just want to learn as much as I can from him because he’s got - in the short amount of time that we’ve had just meeting and being out on the field, he has a ton of knowledge that I want to learn from and just use it to help my game.”
Whipple’s task with Pickett and the Pitt offense is a simple one to put it into words:
Maintain the strong running game and improve the moribund passing game. Whipple thinks he’s got the right quarterback to help in that regard.
“He’s awesome,” Whipple said Wednesday. “He’s a good player, got a chance to be a great player. His attitude, you know, I probably got to get him to loosen up a little bit; I can be tough on those guys some. He loves to play, he competes, he’s worked at it, studies a lot, asks questions and he’s great. I think he’s got a really bright future.”
Of course, that’s not the first time Pickett’s bright future has been projected. Those sentiments were uttered after Pitt beat then-undefeated Miami in the regular-season finale at Heinz Field two years ago, an upset win that turned the perception of an otherwise-mediocre 5-7 record into one of promise.
Pickett was a pillar of that promise, but he didn’t deliver. For whatever reason - and there were a few - his play suffered in 2018. Aside from an impressive outburst in the penultimate regular-season game at Wake Forest when Pickett threw for 316 yards and three touchdowns, he didn’t top 200 yards in a single game.
Pickett had more games with zero passing touchdowns (six) than he had games with multiple passing touchdowns (four). On five occasions, he had less than 10 completed passes in a game. He failed to top 2,000 yards on the season despite playing 14 games.
And then, of course, there was the ACC Championship Game, when Pickett went 4-for-16 with all of eight passing yards.
When Pitt suffered a 14-13 loss to Stanford in the Sun Bowl behind 136 passing yards and 11 completed passes, Narduzzi had seen enough. He fired Watson and brought in Whipple.
Now Pickett gets to work with Whipple. It’s the third offensive coordinator he has known at Pitt and the second one he has worked with, and he’s anxious to see what Whipple can do for him.
“I just like learning from different people; three quarterback coaches and I got to hear from different people and their opinions on how to read things and what’s the best way to do things. They all have different ways, but at the end of the day, they all work so it’s kind of figuring out which is the best way that you feel fits your game and how you can mold it to make the offense better.”