Pitt camp preview: Five players who need to step up
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The 2016 Pitt team has its fair share of returning starters whose performances will go a long way toward the season’s success. But what will ultimately set the Panthers apart could be the players who use the coming season as an opportunity to step up, whether into new roles as contributors or simply into more effective play than previous years.
The stars will be the stars and the role players will be the role players. But if Pitt can get breakout performances from a handful of players at key spots, the Panthers could match or exceed last year’s win total.
Here are the top five players who need to step up in 2016.
TYRIQUE JARRETT
Jarrett never took a redshirt after coming to Pitt from Allderdice via Milford Academy, but he didn’t contribute much more than an inactive player in his first two seasons with the Panthers. He played in two games as a freshman in 2013, and while he quadrupled that number in 2014, he only recorded eight tackles.
Last year, he played in 12 games and started eight, by far the most playing time of his not-so-young career. His stats improved with the increase in playing time, as Jarrett recorded seven tackles for loss and two sacks (neither number is impressive, but both rank as the most by a defensive tackle on last year’s roster).
Jarrett enters 2016 as the starter at nose tackle, a role he will hold all season. And while no one will expect him to put up Aaron Donald-esque numbers, topping last season’s stats will be key to the defense’s success. Jarrett simply has to get more pressure on the backfield; if he does, the jobs of the defensive ends and linebackers - and, by extension, the secondary - all get easier and, since everything flows together, the defense becomes more effective.
Jarrett is a talented player with impressive athleticism for someone his size. But he’s a senior now, and he needs to capitalize on some of that ability to finish his Pitt career strongly.
BAM BRADLEY
Like Jarrett, Bradley is entering his final season at Pitt. And like Jarrett, he doesn’t have a lot to show for the last three years of active duty with the Panthers. Bradley has played in 37 games over the last three years and recorded 11.5 tackles for loss and three sacks.
Last season, while splitting time with Mike Caprara at Money linebacker, Bradley started five games but put up just five tackles for loss and one sack (by comparison, Caprara recorded 10.5 tackles for loss and five sacks).
Entering 2016, Bradley needs to have his best year yet. He has worked mostly at the Money linebacker spot, but the defensive coaches said he would have gotten some work at the vacant Star linebacker position this spring if he had been healthy. There are a lot of options for that spot, but Bradley will get a look and could have a leg up due to his experience (the other main candidates for that spot have virtually none).
The Star linebacker is something of a hybrid outside linebacker/strong safety, which should be a good fit for Bradley since he was originally recruited as a safety and has good athleticism and speed. Given the need at the position and the “now or never” nature of a senior season, the time is now for Bradley to deliver on some of the talent that made him a top target of a lot of college football programs.
AVONTE MADDOX
Maddox had his ups and downs in 2015, with the downs mostly coming when he faced the likes of Notre Dame’s Will Fuller. But after that rough showing - Fuller caught seven passes for 152 yards and three touchdowns - Pat Narduzzi said that technique, not physical skills, was the reason for Maddox’s issues.
Which is another way of saying, “Maddox didn’t get beat because he’s short.”
Cornerbacks coach Renaldo Hill said this spring that he was generally pleased with the way Maddox played in 2015, but the expectation is now that Maddox will compete better with top opponents - players like Fuller, who went in the first round of the NFL Draft - this season. If the coaches are being sincere that Maddox’s biggest issue is technique and not size, then the onus is on him to improve.
Narduzzi’s defense famously asks a lot of its cornerbacks, and with an opening on one side of the field that will quite possibly be filled by a freshman, then Maddox, a junior with 18 consecutive starts, needs to be rock-solid in his assignments and start winning battles against the ACC’s top receivers.
QADREE OLLISON
The reigning ACC Rookie of the Year needs to step up? For his own good, yes.
Ollison had a breakout season in 2015, leading Pitt in rushing and going for 1,121 yards and 11 touchdowns on 212 carries (5.3 yards per carry). But 207 of those yards came in the opener against Youngstown State, giving him 914 yards for the 12 games against FBS competition (76.2 yards per game). He topped 100 yards in just four of those 12 FBS games and had 13 carries or fewer in six of the other eight contests.
On top of that, the Pitt coaches seem to pine for something more from the running back position in spring camp. Whether it was running backs coach Andre Powell talking about needing to turn four-yard plays into something more or Pat Narduzzi often mentioning that the team needed more explosiveness out of the backfield, they clearly felt like something was missing from Pitt’s rushing attack in 2015 (which likely led to more offensive opportunities for Jordan Whitehead).
The coaches even went so far as to list Ollison third on the preseason depth chart in the media guide. Preseason depth charts are hardly a written-in-stone indication of what the season will bring, but there’s a statement being sent there.
With James Conner and Rachid Ibrahim returning, Darrin Hall one year older and more experienced and Chawntez Moss drawing a lot of praise from the coaching staff, Ollison seems to have his work cut out for him in training camp. The coaches appear to be inclined to make him work for it.
CHRIS BLEWITT
His epic miss against Duke in 2014 notwithstanding, Blewitt hasn’t been bad in his career at Pitt. He is third on Pitt’s all-time scoring list and just one point behind the career kick scoring record set by Carson Long in the 1970’s.
But Blewitt had a rough year in 2015. He converted 15-of-23 field goals for the lowest kick percentage of his career (65.2%), He was 4-of-8 in the 40-49 range and 2-of-4 beyond 50 yards (an area that included his game-winner at Georgia Tech). Blewitt also missed a 34-yard kick in the downpour at Akron and a 29-yard attempt in the bowl loss to Navy.
And for some unknown reason, he has missed one PAT in each season of his career.
For a team that plans to play the way Pitt plans to play - that is to say, with stout defense and a ball-control offense led by the run game - the Panthers will likely be in close games; that was the pattern last year, as eight of the 13 games were one-score affairs. Playing that way requires a kicker who can be perfect inside 30 yards and better than 50% from 40-49 yards. There will likely be at least one or two games this season that are won or lost on a field goal; that means that Blewitt, like Jarrett and Bradley, needs to end his Pitt career on a high note.