Pitt was dealt two major blows to start the season and both happened on the defensive line. Rashad Weaver was set to enter the 2019 season as one of the top pass rushers in the ACC. Keyshon Camp was looking to finally stay healthy and be a force on the interior of the line.

Sometimes things do not go as expected.

Weaver hurt his knee during training camp, and Keyshon Camp went down in the first half against of the season opener against Virginia.

So to lose two guys like that and for Pitt to still have the dominant pass rush it has had through six games is certainly a testament to the other guys stepping up and the depth this program has developed behind Weaver and Camp.

Building depth starts in-house and it takes coaching, practicing, and logging long hours everyday to become better, and according to the guy that coaches the Pitt defensive line - that’s exactly what has been happening.

“We’re trying to teach each other and developing each other,” Charlie Partridge said. “There’s things that happen that may not make the paper and it may not be a quotable deal, but I walk in every morning and I’m having to change my schedule at night so that I’m truly available every morning, because any given morning - I’m talking like 6 o’clock in the morning and there’s 5-6-7 guys in the room with their breakfast waiting to get extra work done and that’s everyday.”

That kind of work takes commitment from both the coach and the players, and for sophomore defensive tackle Jaylen Twyman, he’s appreciate of how his whole position group handles their business.

"We’re just eager and like we try to be hungry and stuff like that,” he said. “We’re always trying to work and get better. Coach Partridge is a really good coach and he helps us and he’s a player’s coach and that’s where a lot of our success comes from. He’s willing to get up early in the morning and adjust his night schedule and stuff like that, or if we’re staying after practice he’s willing to step out of a defensive staff meeting and help us get better.”

While Partridge is helping guys like Twyman get better he recognizes that these guys are making him step up his game as well. Partridge has been in the coaching business since 1996 and has had stops at Pitt, Wisconsin, Arkansas, and then a run as Florida Atlantic’s head coach before returning to Pitt for a second stint.

He wouldn’t be specific about it, but he said there are a few players that have made him elevate himself as a coach.

“In your career you run across a couple of people that make you better as a coach and that challenge you as a coach that bring up things that make you really investigate portions of what you’re teaching and I’ve got a couple of guys in the room that are that and it’s made all of us better, so it’s a credit to really the culmination of the entire group to develop each other and create the depth as well.”

The results are speaking for themselves. Twyman is enjoying a career year with six sacks already. Patrick Jones has 12 quarterback hurries and four sacks to his credit, while both players are impressing, it is guys like Deslin Alexandre and Habakkuk Baldonado with 3.5 sacks each, or getting positive contributions from Devin Danielson that is what is helping this defensive line flourish, and the defense as a whole.

“What defines us is our work ethic and just trying to be brothers,” Twyman said of his fellow defensive linemen. “Like try to mold and play off of each other and stuff like that and working together. Everything that we do, we try to do it together.”

Pardtidge mentioned trying to build a culture in his room, and perhaps part of that is having Weaver and Camp step up and help the team off the field, even if they can’t perform on it.

“The reality is when you have four guys spread across the line of scrimmage I can’t see them all until you’re watching the film, so I’ll take any set of qualified eyes that I can get my hands on and they do a great job,” Partridge said of his injured stars. “There’s been times in games when those two guys have come to me and made really, really good mature suggestions on things that we should look at and talk about and its a credit to how much they’ve paid attention through the course of their recovery and the things they’re working on and a credit to how much they care about our unit and this football team.”

The Pitt defensive line had high expectations heading into this season, but a pair of injuries created some doubt, but the way that unit has responded has been probably one of the bigger developments of Pitt football’s first half.

“But the things is, you’re trying to build a culture where yes obviously I’m coaching, but we’re coaching each other,” Partridge said.